Abandoned Towns

Living community · Grant County, Wisconsin

Potosi

A lead-mining village of the 1830s in a long hollow above the Mississippi, made from three older hamlets and still lived in.

42°41′22″N 90°42′44″W
Living community

Potosi is a living village of 646 people (2020 census), not a ghost town. Its brewery, rebuilt as a brewpub and the National Brewery Museum in 2008, held its 18th annual Brewfest in the village on August 22, 2026.

The label

Why Potosi is called a ghost town

Potosi is in our index because an earlier import of Wikipedia's ghost town records carried it, but neither Wikipedia's list of ghost towns in Wisconsin nor its ghost towns category names it today, and we found no book, newspaper or ghost town directory that calls it one. There are reasons someone might. Potosi began as a lead-mining settlement. It swallowed three older hamlets, Head of the Hollow, Van Buren and Lafayette, and in 1839 a city called Osceola was platted on the riverbank beside them and never sold a single lot, as Wikipedia's Potosi article notes. And the brewery that made the village's name was closed from 1972 to 2008. None of that makes the village itself a ghost town.

History

Potosi then

Potosi lies where Wisconsin's lead ore belt meets the Mississippi. Miners worked the hollow in the 1830s, and three villages grew along it: Head of the Hollow, Van Buren and Lafayette. In 1839 James P. Cox platted a city called Osceola on the river bank southeast of Lafayette, but no lots were sold. On February 19, 1841 the three villages merged as Potosi. The name may come from the Spanish word for lead, from a settler's wife's Native American name, or from Potosi, Missouri, where some of the miners came from.

Early miners slept in badger huts, dugouts in the hillside; the Potosi Badger Huts Site is on the National Register and reached by a trail. The Potosi Brewery opened in 1852 and ran until 1972. Restored, it reopened in 2008 as a brewpub with the National Brewery Museum and Library, and the company opened a new production plant in the village in 2015. The census has counted between 434 and 736 people here in every count listed since 1880. Road signs call Main Street the longest main street in the world, a claim a newspaper traced to a 1950s Ripley's item that said only that it was the longest without a cross street.

1830s. Lead miners settle Head of the Hollow, Van Buren and Lafayette.

1839. James P. Cox plats Osceola on the river bank; no lots are sold.

Feb 19, 1841. The three villages merge as Potosi.

1852. The Potosi Brewery opens.

1880. Census: 466.

1972. The brewery closes.

1980. Census: 736, the highest count.

2008. The restored brewery reopens with the National Brewery Museum.

2015. Potosi Brewing opens a new production facility in the village.

2020. Census: 646.

Aug 22, 2026. The 18th annual Potosi Brewfest is held in the village.

Today

What is there now

Potosi from the air, June 2024: WI 133 runs through the wooded hollow with the village's buildings along it
Potosi from the air, June 2024: WI 133 runs through the wooded hollow with the village's buildings along it · Photo: Wikideas1, Wikimedia Commons, CC0

Potosi is an incorporated village in the Town of Potosi, with 646 people at the 2020 census. WI 133 runs the length of the hollow as Main Street, lined with houses and businesses, as an aerial photo of June 2024 shows. The Potosi Brewing Company runs the brewpub and the National Brewery Museum in the old brewery, and it listed its 18th annual Brewfest for August 22, 2026 at the Holiday Gardens Event Center on Brewery Hollow Road. Wikipedia says the village holds a Catfish Festival and Fireman's Fish Fry, usually on the second weekend of August; we found no 2026 dates.

Visitors can see the brewery and museum, the Main Street and the Badger Huts Site trail. Homes are private. The old maps show the same shape: the 1957 USGS Potosi sheet draws houses all along the road in the hollow, St. Thomas Cemetery at the head, mine dumps on the slopes and the name Van Buren still at the lower end.

Historic maps

Potosi on USGS maps, 1900–1957

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 Potosi, 1900
Lancaster sheet, 1900, 1:125,000 · U.S. Geological Survey, public domain · catalog record

Map & directions

Getting there

Potosi is on WI 133 just off US 61 and WI 35, the Great River Road. From Lancaster, the county seat, US 61 runs south and County Road U drops into the village. From Dubuque, US 61/151 crosses the Mississippi into Wisconsin.

USGS topographic map from Lancaster south to Potosi and Dubuque, 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 Lancaster12.5 miabout 20 min
  1. From downtown Lancaster, follow North Madison Street (US 61/WI 35) south.0.8 mi
  2. Continue on US 61/WI 35, straight through the roundabout.10.5 mi
  3. Turn right onto North Main Street (County Road U) into Potosi.1.1 mi
Google Maps directionsApple MapsOpenStreetMap

Road and visiting notes

  • Both routes are on US and state highways.
  • Homes along Main Street are private.

Photos

Potosi in photos

Questions

Common questions

Is Potosi, Wisconsin a ghost town?

No. Potosi is an incorporated village of 646 people (2020 census), with a working brewery, museum and yearly festivals. It began as three lead-mining hamlets of the 1830s that merged in 1841.

What is there to see in Potosi?

The Potosi Brewery, with its brewpub and the National Brewery Museum, the long Main Street through the hollow, and the Potosi Badger Huts Site, the remains of early miners' dugouts, reached by a trail.

Is there a ghost town near Potosi?

Osceola, platted on the river bank beside Potosi in 1839, never sold a lot, so it was a town only on paper.

Nearby

Ghost towns and sites near Potosi

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

Sources

Sources and credits

  1. Wikipedia, "Potosi, Wisconsin", retrieved October 2026: the 2020 population of 646 and the census series from 1880, the three villages and the 1841 merger, Osceola in 1839 (citing Castello N. Holford, History of Grant County, 1900), the name's possible origins, the brewery dates, the 2015 plant, the Catfish Festival, the National Brewery Museum, the Main Street claim, the Badger Huts Site.
  2. Wikipedia, "List of ghost towns in Wisconsin" and Category: Ghost towns in Wisconsin, checked October 29, 2026: neither lists Potosi.
  3. Potosi Brewing Company, "Potosi Brewfest", read October 2026: the 18th annual Brewfest on Saturday, August 22, 2026, at the Holiday Gardens Event Center, 101 Brewery Hollow Road, Potosi.
  4. Wikideas1, "Potosi, Wisconsin", Wikimedia Commons, taken June 7, 2024: the village along WI 133.
  5. Tony Webster, St. John Mine building, Wikimedia Commons, January 26, 2016: the former visitor center of the National Register-listed St. John Mine, now a house.
  6. Historic maps: USGS Lancaster 1:125,000 (1900) and Potosi 1:24,000 (1957) sheets.
  7. Elevation: USGS 3D Elevation Program point query. Routes: OSRM on OpenStreetMap data, October 2026.

Photo and map credits