Neillsville is the county seat of Clark County, a town of about 2,400 people where US 10 crosses the Black River in central Wisconsin. Most of the things to do in Neillsville sit in three clusters: a walkable downtown with the courthouse, the 1897 jail and a giant cow that talks; a stretch of US 10 west of town with a veterans memorial park and a 1930s ballroom; and the Clark County Forest to the southwest, where a ski hill runs in winter and sandstone singletrack draws riders the rest of the year.
None of it takes long to find. The harder part is timing, because a lot of what is good here keeps short hours or runs on a season, and the details below are about that as much as about what to see.
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How the town is laid out
Downtown Neillsville runs along Hewett Street and the numbered streets that cross it (5th, 6th and 7th), a few blocks from O'Neill Creek. East Division Street is US 10 heading east past Schuster Park, the golf course and the Wisconsin Pavilion. Heading west, the same highway carries the name Vietnam War Veterans Memorial Highway and leads to the Highground, the Silver Dome and, further out, the county forest.
The town grew up around a sawmill. James O'Neill's party came up the Black River in the 1840s looking for a mill site, the settlement was known as O'Neill's Mill, and it was made the county seat in 1854. O'Neill Creek still runs through the middle of town to the river, and the courthouse is still in town.
If you have one afternoon, stay in town and on US 10. If you have a weekend, give a half day to the forest. The mounds are 9 to 12 miles southwest of downtown in a straight line, and the roads out there are county letters, not highways.
Chatty Belle and the Wisconsin Pavilion
That shop is Pavilion Cheese and Gifts, and it is worth more than the souvenir stop it looks like from the road. The cheese case leans on Wisconsin makers, with 12-year aged white cheddar and Romayna Modra among the house picks, and there is a small collection of World's Fair memorabilia to look at while someone else decides. Buy the cheese here, not at the gas station.
The Highground veterans memorial
Plan on an hour at minimum and longer if you walk the trails. From the plaza you look out over a wide spread of woodland and glacial moraine, and the tributes are lit after dark, which is worth seeing if you are staying nearby. If the Highground is the reason for the trip, give it a morning: the tributes and trails at the Highground reward a slow walk far more than a drive-by.
Downtown history: the 1897 jail and the courthouse block
The 1897 Clark County Jail, at 215 East Fifth Street, looks more like a small castle than a lockup. It is a Romanesque Revival building in stone and brick that held the jail block and the sheriff's family home under one roof, and it is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The county leased it to the Clark County Historical Society in 1978, and it has been a museum since 1980.
The jail museum is volunteer-run and does not keep daily hours. In recent summers it has opened on selected Sunday afternoons between June and Labor Day, plus extra hours during Heritage Days and tours by appointment. Call 715-743-2150 before you plan around it.
The Reed School, a restored one-room country schoolhouse run by the Wisconsin Historical Society east of town, is the other historic site people ask about. When we checked in October 2026 its Google listing showed it closed until spring 2027, so treat it as a next-year visit.
The Silver Dome Ballroom
Food on show nights comes from next door. The Speakeasy Saloon and Grill shares the stretch of US 10 with the ballroom, is known for broasted chicken, and runs an outdoor bar from Thursday to Sunday in warm weather.
Parks along the Black River
For children, Schuster Park on East Division Street is the town's main park: big pavilions, a playground with a tiger slide and an elephant slide, and a 19-hole disc golf course.
Golf and bowling
When the weather turns, Strike Time Lanes on South Grand Avenue has 12 bowling lanes, bumpers and a ball ramp for small kids, an arcade, and a kitchen doing burgers, pizza and prime rib. It opens at 4 from Tuesday to Friday and at 11 on Saturdays.
Clark County Forest: Levis Mound, ATV trails and Bruce Mound
Southwest of town the farmland gives way to the Clark County Forest, around 135,000 acres of county-owned woods. This is where the outdoor side of Neillsville lives, and it splits neatly by season and by engine.
The sandstone singletrack at Levis Mound is the reason most visiting riders make the drive, and with camping at the trailhead it works as a weekend. Hikers, cross-country skiers and fat-bikers use the same system in other seasons.
Engines have their own corner of the forest. Knobby Ridge is 8.2 miles of looped trail for off-road motorcycles only, with a youth loop and a motocross track, and Snyder County Park puts every campsite on the county ATV and UTV trail network.
In winter the action moves 3 miles further southwest to Bruce Mound Winter Sports Area, the county-run ski hill with ten tubing runs and lights for night skiing. Skiing and tubing at Bruce Mound is cheap, close and very much a family hill.
Lake Arbutus and Rustic Road 76
Two more reasons to drive into the forest. Lake Arbutus, a dammed stretch of the Black River about 11 miles south-southwest of town, has county parks with campgrounds and beaches around its shore, most of them reached through the Hatfield area. And Rustic Road 76 is a quiet loop of county roads through the forest that the state has designated as a scenic route. Deer, sandhill cranes and wild turkeys are regular sights, an old trestle bridge over Wedges Creek on Middle Road now carries a trail, and on Fisher Road a lone grave marker is all that is left of Columbia, a settlement that dates to the 1880s.
The calendar: fair, horse sales and Heritage Days
Several of the year's other set pieces are worth timing a trip around:
The Central Wisconsin Horse Sale fills the fairgrounds for four days each April and September. It is a working auction of draft horses, mules and driving horses, plus tack, harness, horse-drawn machinery, buggies, sleighs and antiques, and it is worth a walk-through whether or not you plan to bid. Out-of-state horses need health certificates, so sellers should read the rules first.
Heritage Days in July is the town's main summer festival, and the jail museum adds extra hours for it. The June Dairy Breakfast, run by the chamber and the FFA alumni on a local farm, is pancakes, cheese curds and ice cream at 7 in the morning. The Winter Carnival lands in late February.
Specific dates go up on the town's Events tab as they are announced.
A day in Neillsville, start to finish
A summer Saturday that works: breakfast downtown, then Chatty Belle and the cheese counter at the Pavilion while it is still quiet. Walk the Listeman loop before it gets hot, and drive west to the Highground late in the morning when the museum is open. Eat lunch at a tavern on the way back, or pack it from the deli counter at Hansen’s on West 5th Street.
Spend the afternoon on the forest trails or a round of golf, have dinner at a supper club on US 10, and if there is a band on at the Silver Dome, finish there. If not, drive back past the Highground after dark, when the tributes are lit.
In winter, swap the trails for an afternoon on the tubing runs at Bruce Mound and see the Highground in daylight, since the museum and gift shop close at 4 in winter.
Where to eat and sleep between stops
Downtown covers breakfast, Chinese, burgers and a handful of taverns, and the supper clubs sit out on US 10 and County B. Neillsville restaurants and supper clubs keep short hours by city standards: most downtown kitchens close by 8, and the Wildcat only opens Thursday to Saturday.
For a bed, the Super 8 on East Division is a budget hotel with an indoor pool, and the Moraine Motel is a small, quiet motel about a quarter mile east of the Highground.
Getting to Neillsville means leaving the interstate: I-94 is about 29 miles away, at Osseo to the west or Black River Falls to the southeast.
Weather shapes every plan here. Neillsville weather by month swings from July afternoons around 80 degrees to January nights near 5 above zero, with about 44 inches of snow a year.
Frequently asked questions
Published October 5, 2026
