Our history...

Knapp, Stout, & Company mill. On June 22, 1855, Ebenezer Thompson began a mill here,  cutting a short ditch across a bend in the Red Cedar River to form a  mill race. In a short time high water enlarged the ditch until it became  a main channel. On February 24, 1858, Mr. Thompson deeded the interest  to Capt. B. B. Downs who made such improvements as the dam, and  enlarging the operation. The town grew up almost solely around the  sawmill and was consequently named after Captain Downs. At sometime  between 1858 and 1883 the mill was sold to Knapp, Stout, & Company,  the date of sale not being recorded, but the Dunn County history does  mention that after a big flood of 1883, Knapp, Stout, & Company  asked Capt. Downs to return to town and see if he could rebuild the dam for them, which he did.

"It was the greatest lumber corporation in the world: that in 1873 on the Red Cedar and Chippewa Rivers owned 115,000 acres of pine lands and had in its employ 1,200 men." -- writer of Wisconsin Historical Society Collections.