For a small community, just west of I-90 between Madison and Janesville, Edgerton has more than enough activities all year to rival a city three times its size! With Rock River and Lake Koshkonong just minutes away, two huge city parks, (one with lighted baseball/softball diamonds, the other with a swimming pool complex), two museums, (Sterling North and Albion), a Carnegie Library (recently renovated and enlarged), and several festivals during the warm months, not too many people wonder what there is to do. Add to these the choral, band and drama presentations at the school’s acclaimed Performing Arts Center, and you have yet another dimension to year-round entertainment for all ages.

About a century and half ago, a determined group of landowners persuaded a railroad to lay its tracks through what is now Edgerton, instead of a few miles further south. This land deal resulted in the seedlings of a community which, watered and fertilized by a series of successful tobacco crops and the ability to ship this crop by rail, grew into the city once nicknamed "The Tobacco Capital of the World". Over 55 tobacco warehouses , both frame and brick, lined the main streets and railroad tracks. The town boasted several fine hotels which were full to overflowing when tobacco buyers from all over the country and Europe conducted business with the local dealers and growers. Sadly, no hotels remain, but several yellow brick warehouses are a testimony to our city’s hey-day.

Other industries that helped Edgerton grow were Willson-Monarch Laboratories, manufacturing and selling pharmaceutical and home care products throughout the mid-west door-to-door; Highway Trailer which began as a wagon-works and ended up with a wide-line of heavy and light equipment; and Nunn-Bush Shoe, constructed in the midst of the 1930s by those who needed jobs, and which would, subsequently, become life-long makers of quality shoes. These industries, too, are gone.

Ironically, the first "industry" in the Edgerton area is the only one that has survived….tobacco. And the heritage of this crop, unique to the upper Mid-west, and those who work long and back-breaking hours growing it, are honored each July. As are the other agriculture of the area – including cash crops such as corn and beans , and, of course, dairy farms and milk production. 

Edgerton has surely changed over the past 150 years! Industries rose to prominence and faded or moved, but other businesses have taken their places as major players in our economy – the hospital, lumber yard, Green-Tek (plastics), IKI (aerosol filling), Sav-a-lot (distribution), AM Mailing. The west-side Industrial Park is full; the new north-side Business Park continues to grow.

What was once the main shopping area for day-to-day necessities (groceries, banking, hardware, floral shop, pharmacy, medical clinics) has slid around the corner onto North Main St. where it reaches to the north city limits. "Front Street" (West Fulton) now boasts attractive antique shops, arts, crafts and boutiques, and a pottery, restaurants and pubs, and is gradually undergoing an historic face-lift. The jewel of downtown, which has been designated as an historic "Warehouse District", is the recently renovated century old-railroad depot.  It now serves as offices of the Edgerton Area Chamber of Commerce and tourism information center, as well as the Pauline Pottery Museum and Edgerton Area History Museum.  The depot itself was named to the National Historic Register in 1997. (Information on museums may be obtained by contacting the chamber office at 608-884-4408)