Originally Bad Ax County Renamed Vernon in 1862
Established: 1851
County Seat: Viroqua
Parent: Richland & Crawford Counties

Birth, Death, & Marriage Records:
Earliest Registration Dates*:
Births 1863
Deaths 1878
Marriages 1855

Vernon Register of Deeds
400 Court House Square St., P.O. Box 46
Viroqua, WI 54665-1555
Telephone: (608) 637-3568

BAD AX.--Population 4,823.

From: Handbook of Wisconsin by S. Silas, 1855

pg. 48-48

This county is one of the Mississippi River Counties, is new, but sparsely settled, and has not yet attracted the attention of immigrants as much as it deserves. It is watered by the Kickapoo, Raccoon, and Bad Ax Rivers, and their numerous branches. These have many excellent water powers, and the great resources of this county remain yet to be developed. There are few counties in the State which should tempt the settler more than this, and notwithstanding its bad name it is a good country. It is to be hoped that in the future naming of the Counties of Wisconsin such unmeaning and uncouth names shall give place to more euphonious, either Indian, English or French, and that Bad Ax and Deaths Door may be the last of their kind.

Excellent Pine is found on the Kickapoo River, and sufficient hard timber for use, is interspersed with prairie throughout the County.

Viroqua, the County seat is in a grove of heavy timber; Springville, and Towerville have excellent flouring mills, and the whole County has taken a new start within a year past.