Wisconsin Stories: Camp Co-Op

Westby calls itself "A Little City with a Big Velkommen."

Situated in the hills of north-central Vernon County, Westby sits on a ridge between the Mississippi River's Coulee Region and the Kickapoo River Valley.

Before European settlement, the area was home to the Sac, Fox and especially the Winnebago tribes. The Winnebago population started to decrease in the area after the Black Hawk War of 1832. On November 1, 1837, the Winnebago ceded all land east of the Mississippi to the United States.

Norwegian immigrants settled in the area in 1848. In 1867, Ole T. Westby built a general store there. When the Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul Railroad completed its line from Sparta to Viroqua, it made Westby a station and named it after Ole T. Westby.Ý

The village was incorporated in 1896 and became a city in 1920. The current population of Westby is still mostly Norwegian.

Westby has a long tradition of cooperative businesses, and one of the best-known is the Westby Cooperative Creamery, founded in 1903 and featured in Wisconsin Stories' "Camp Co-op" episode. View the first photograph>>