Elkhorn City

Walworth County, Wisconsin

Elkhorn City Hall is located at 311 Seymour Court, Elkhorn, WI 53121.
Phone: 262‑723‑2219.

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Photo: Joseph P. Webster House, circa 1836, located at 9 East Rockwell Street. Originally erected as the local land office on Elkhorn public square; moved years later. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1972. Photographed by Sa magnuson33 (own work), 2015, [cc-by-3.0], via Wikimedia Commons, accessed August, 2021.

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Neighborhoods

The town took its name from the prairie which had previously been named Elkhorn because of the abundance of Elk found there.

The honor of naming the prairie is given to Colonel Samuel F. Phoenix, the founder of Delavan, who, in his journal, states that on a journey from Swan Lake (Delavan) in the early part of July, 1836, on coming out upon the prairie, where the army trail crossed it, about a mile or mile and a half east of the village of Elkhorn, as he lay down to rest under a huge burr-oak, he saw in the forks of the tree the antlers of an elk, which some passer-by had hung there, which suggested to him the name.

The original town of Elkhorn was one of five organized by act of the Territorial Legislature in 1838. The first town meeting was held in the house of Asa Blood. The town was further divided in 1840 creating Whitewater and Richmond. In 1843 another division created the town of La Grange. Elkhorn was incorporated in 1846.

In the fall of 1838, by a vote of the citizens of the county, the center, at the center of the town of Elkhorn, was selected as the county seat by a majority of the votes over the competitors which were: Spring Prairie, Geneva and Delavan.

1. Western Historical Company, History of Walworth County Wisconsin, Chicago, 1882.

Nearby Towns: Williams Bay Vlg •