Chippewa County, Wisconsin

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 1,041 square miles (2,700 km²), of which 1,008 square miles (2,610 km²) is land and 33 square miles (85 km²) (3.2%) is water.^[7]

The most visible natural features of Chippewa County are the Flambeau Ridge west of Holcombe - highest point in the county - and the Chippewa River which bends around that promontory, flows through the Holcombe Flowage, flows south and west through the middle of the county to Lake Wissota, and exits the county between Chippewa Falls and Eau Claire. Tributary streams include O'Neil and Duncan Creeks from the west and the Jump, Fisher and Yellow Rivers from the east. A band of choppy hills and small lakes arcs from Taylor county and the Otter Lake area in the east, south of Cornell, through Long Lake in the northwest, and into Rusk County. Above that, east of Holcombe is a fairly flat area. South of the choppy band, much of the county is big hills with streams and rivers cutting through, with fertile plains along the streams and rivers.^[8]: 3

The geological story of the county begins with the ancient bedrock exposed by the rivers and streams, especially below dams like at Jim Falls. This bedrock consists mostly of felsic gneiss and amphibolite laid down over 2,500 million years ago, then metamorphosed and folded, with granite injected into its cracks during a collision of plates about 1,850 million years ago. For hundreds of millions of years after, the area was covered by seas in which various layers of sand were laid down and compressed into sandstone. The canyon at Irvine Park in Chippewa Falls exposes both Precambrian metamorphic rock below and sandstone above. The bottom/oldest layer of sandstone is Mount Simon sandstone - found as far away as Kentucky, but named for its outcrop in the Eau Claire park. The core of the Flambeau Ridge is a deposit of conglomerate quartzite that developed in the Mount Simon sandstone layer. For hundreds of millions of years after, other layers of sandstone were laid on top, up to 550 feet (168 m) thick, and then eroded away in places. Harder than the surrounding sandstone, Flambeau Ridge survived, standing above its surroundings.^{[8]: 7–10}

Much of Chippewa County's now-visible terrain was shaped by glaciers. Over the last two million years, ice sheets have advanced into the area from Canada and retreated several times. The last advance reached its maximum extent about 18,000 years ago, covering the north half of the county, then retreated. This sheet was probably several hundred feet thick at its leading edge,^{[9]: 21–23} and it acted like a bulldozer, grinding and pushing soil and boulders along with it. When it melted back out of this country, it left a terminal moraine across the county - the band of choppy hills that runs from Otter Lake to Long Lake, which the Ice Age Trail follows. Elsewhere the glaciers left 50 to 100 feet of glacial till (sediment) on top of the bedrock. East of Holcombe this till plain is fairly flat. The southern half of the county is mostly a rolling till plain from some earlier ice sheet which pushed even farther south. As the glacier melted back, huge amounts of water and material flowed out of it, repeatedly filling the river valleys with sediment, producing fertile plains like the one north of Chippewa Falls, and then recutting the river channels. At some point ice blocked the Chippewa near Holcombe, making the Jump River and possibly the Chippewa itself flow east of Holcombe through the wide channel where the Fisher River now flows.^{[8]: 3, 5, 36–37}

The county's terrain includes textbook examples of many glacial landforms: the drumlins south of Cadott and Stanley, the kettle lakes left by buried blocks of ice near the Ice Age Interpretive Center east of New Auburn, the eskers along Otter Lake, the tunnel channel that Otter Lake lies in, and ice-walled lake plains like those north of Plummer Lake.^{[8]: 27–35} The Ice Age Trail threads through some of this country, providing close-up foot access to many of these unusual features.^[10]

The largest employers in Chippewa County are:^[33]

The University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire's Special Collections and Archives, located on the fifth floor of McIntyre Library, houses an extensive collection of public records, books and collections relating to Chippewa County. In addition to vital records (birth and marriage) dating to 1907, there are also naturalization records, census records, and civil and circuit court records. These resources are very popular with local genealogists.

Within the local history collection, there are books about immigration to the region, logging, church and cemetery records, reminiscences by local residents, and a number of histories and biographies compiled by local historians.

Special Collections and Archives also houses numerous archives files which relate to Chippewa County. There are many collections which pertain to logging, the railway industry and agriculture.

The University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire's Special Collections and Archives also includes information for Buffalo, Clark, Eau Claire, Rusk and Taylor counties.

At the presidential level, Chippewa County leans Republican; however, Barack Obama won the county in 2008. In 2024, Donald Trump received 60.8 percent of the vote, the best result for a Republican in the county since Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1952.

• National Register of Historic Places listings in Chippewa County, Wisconsin