Abandoned Towns

Former town · nothing left · Portage County, Wisconsin

Lake Emily

A name on a 1957 map beside the railroad west of Amherst Junction, filed by the federal gazetteer as a vanished populated place.

44°28′40″N 89°20′05″W
Nothing left

Nothing marks a place called Lake Emily today, and we found no source that describes a town there. The name appears on the 1957 USGS Amherst map beside the railroad northwest of the lake, by two gravel pits, and is gone from the 1969 map. The spot is now a four-lane stretch of US 10, the railroad and farm fields.

The label

Why Lake Emily is called a ghost town

Lake Emily is on Wikipedia's list of ghost towns in Wisconsin, and its own Wikipedia article calls it a ghost town in the Town of Amherst. Both rest on one record: the federal Geographic Names Information System lists "Lake Emily (historical)" as a populated place that no longer exists, at a point northwest of the lake. That is a fair reason for the label, and the 1957 USGS sheet does print the name there. What we could not find is any town behind the name: no plat, no post office, no school or store, and no account in the county histories we could read. The article itself says little beyond the county park on the lake.

History

Lake Emily then

The lake was named for Emily Cole, the wife of a pioneer settler, according to Malcolm Rosholt's 1959 Portage County history as Wikipedia cites it. The Town of Amherst was settled by Yankees and English-speaking Canadians, and after 1860 by many Norwegians, the Portage County Historical Society writes; it describes Lake Emily as the largest of the town's few lakes, with a public park and cottages on its shores.

The 1957 USGS Amherst map prints "Lake Emily" in the open ground north of the lake, beside the Minneapolis, St. Paul and Sault Ste. Marie railroad and the highway that ran next to it, with two gravel pits just south and a park on the lakeshore. Amherst Junction, a railroad junction, is about a mile to the southeast. Most likely the name marked a stop or a scatter of buildings by the tracks, but no source we found says so. The 1969 USGS sheet drops the name and shows the same ground with a few buildings, gravel pits and a wider highway, and a row of cottages along the north shore of the lake.

1851. The Town of Amherst is established.

1957. The USGS Amherst sheet prints the name Lake Emily beside the railroad northwest of the lake.

1969. The USGS Amherst sheet no longer shows the name.

Today

What is there now

The map point falls on US 10 itself, a divided four-lane highway on current aerial imagery, with the railroad running alongside and farm fields to the north. A few houses and sheds stand along Old Highway 18 to the south. Nothing marks a former town, and there is nowhere to stop on the highway at the point.

The public place nearby is Lake Emily Park, a 143-acre Portage County park on the 96-acre lake at 3968 Park Drive, just west of Amherst Junction. The county lists picnic areas, two lodges, a boat ramp, a swimming beach, a nature trail, a ball field and two campgrounds, with camping reserved online at least seven days ahead. Homes and cottages around the lake are private.

Historic maps

Lake Emily on USGS maps, 1957–1969

Crops from the USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection, centered on the map point. Each sheet shows what surveyors mapped that year; compare them with today's topo and aerial on this page.

USGS topographic map around Lake Emily, 1957
Amherst sheet, 1957, 1:48,000 · U.S. Geological Survey, public domain · catalog record

Map & directions

Getting there

US 10 runs past the point on its way between Stevens Point and Amherst Junction. The routes end on the highway at the map point, where there is nothing to see and no place to stop; for a look around, turn off at Amherst Junction for Lake Emily Park.

USGS topographic map from Stevens Point east to Lake Emily and Amherst Junction, with the drive routes

Base map: USGS The National Map (public domain). Routes: OSRM on © OpenStreetMap contributors data (ODbL). Times assume dry roads.

From downtown Stevens Point12.9 miabout 19 min
  1. From Division Street (Business US 51), turn left.0.1 mi
  2. Turn left onto Clark Street (WI 66).1.0 mi
  3. Continue on Main Street (WI 66).2.8 mi
  4. Continue east on US 10 to the map point.9.0 mi
Google Maps directionsApple MapsOpenStreetMap

Road and visiting notes

  • The map point is on US 10. Don't stop on the highway; there is nothing to see there.
  • Lake Emily Park is reached from Amherst Junction; see the county's park page for camping rules.

Questions

Common questions

Is Lake Emily, Wisconsin a ghost town?

Not one you can visit. The federal gazetteer lists a vanished populated place called Lake Emily, and the 1957 USGS map prints the name beside the railroad northwest of the lake, but no source we found describes a town there, and nothing is left. The spot is now US 10, the railroad and fields.

What is at Lake Emily today?

The lake and Lake Emily Park, a 143-acre Portage County park with picnic areas, a beach, a boat ramp and two campgrounds, just west of Amherst Junction. Lake homes and cottages are private.

Where was Lake Emily?

In the Town of Amherst, Portage County, about a mile northwest of Amherst Junction, at the gazetteer's point on today's US 10.

Nearby

Ghost towns and sites near Lake Emily

Straight-line distance to other mapped sites in our Wisconsin index.

Sources

Sources and credits

  1. Wikipedia, "Lake Emily, Wisconsin", retrieved October 2026: the ghost town label, the Town of Amherst, coordinates and GNIS 1851499 ("Lake Emily, Wisconsin (historical)"), Lake Emily Park. The article is in Wikipedia's ghost towns in Wisconsin category and on its list of ghost towns in Wisconsin.
  2. Wikipedia, "Lake Emily (Portage County, Wisconsin)", retrieved October 2026: the name from Emily Cole, citing Malcolm Rosholt, Our County, Our Story (1959), pages 240 to 241.
  3. Wikipedia, "Amherst (town), Wisconsin", retrieved October 2026: the town established in 1851, the ghost town of Lake Emily located in it.
  4. HometownLocator, GNIS feature 1851499, read October 2026: "Lake Emily (historical)" as a populated place at 44.4777511, -89.3348363, a feature no longer visible.
  5. Portage County Historical Society, "Town of Amherst", read October 2026: Lake Emily as the town's largest lake with a public park and cottages, the Yankee, Canadian and Norwegian settlers.
  6. Portage County, "Lake Emily Park", read October 2026: the address, the 143-acre park and 96-acre lake, its facilities and the seven-day camping reservation rule.
  7. USGS Amherst topographic sheets of 1957 (1:48,000) and 1969 (1:24,000): the name Lake Emily beside the railroad and gravel pits in 1957, and its absence in 1969. USGS The National Map aerial imagery: the divided highway, railroad and fields at the point today.
  8. Elevation: USGS 3D Elevation Program point query. Routes: OSRM on OpenStreetMap data, October 2026.

Photo and map credits