Sawyer County, Wisconsin

Sawyer County is a county in Wisconsin, United States, in the state’s lake-and-forest
northwest, about 70 miles southeast of Duluth-Superior. It had a population of 18,074 at the 2020
census, an estimated 18,846 by 2025, and covers 1,350 square miles (3,500 km2) centred near
45°54′N 91°08′W.

Hayward is the county seat and the county’s only incorporated city; its postal code is 54843.
The county holds 1 city, 4 incorporated villages and 20 smaller communities across 16 towns, and
it runs on Central Time. Its FIPS code is 55113.

Towns & Villages in Sawyer County

Sawyer County has 25 named places on record: 1 incorporated city, 4 incorporated villages, 5
census-designated places (CDPs) and 15 unincorporated communities with no local government of
their own. CDP stands for census designated place; Unincorp. covers crossroads and rural
communities with no formal boundary.

Several names on this list repeat by design, not error. Wisconsin often names a civil town
after its own principal hamlet, so Draper, Edgewater, Ojibwa and Weirgor each label both a
16-square-mile town and the small unincorporated place inside it — the population figure in
the Townships table below belongs to the whole town, not the hamlet alone. Stone Lake’s
census-designated place straddles the Sawyer–Washburn county line; only its eastern edge falls
inside Sawyer County, so no separate population is broken out here.

Townships

Wisconsin calls its rural civil divisions “towns,” distinct from incorporated cities and
villages. Sawyer County has 16 of them, covering every acre outside Hayward and the four
villages.

ZIP Codes

• 54843 — Hayward (the county’s most populous ZIP by far)
• 54828 — Couderay
• 54835 — Exeland
• 54862 — Ojibwa
• 54867 — Radisson
• 54876 — Stone Lake (post office sits just over the line in Washburn County)
• 54896 — Winter

Draper, Edgewater, Loretta, Oxbo, Wooddale, Yarnell, Meteor, Weirgor, Phipps, Seeley, Hauer,
Hay Stack Corner, Northwoods Beach and the CDPs of Chief Lake, New Post and Reserve have no ZIP
code of their own; mail there is delivered under one of the seven codes above by rural route,
not by town line.

Geography

Sawyer County sits in Wisconsin’s Northwoods, a glaciated belt of pine and hardwood forest
pocked with kettle lakes. Of its 1,350 square miles, 1,257 are land and 93 are water — about
6.9 percent, high for the region and driven by the Chippewa Flowage, a 15,300-acre reservoir
formed in 1923 that is one of Wisconsin’s largest man-made lakes. The county also holds Lac
Courte Oreilles, Grindstone Lake and Round Lake, and the Namekagon and Chippewa rivers both run
through it; the Namekagon is part of the federally protected St. Croix National Scenic
Riverway.

Bayfield County lies to the north, Ashland County to the northeast, Price County to the east,
Rusk County to the south, Barron County to the southwest, Washburn County to the west and
Douglas County touches the northwest corner. Bayfield County,
Ashland County, Price County,
Rusk County, Barron County,
Washburn County and
Douglas County all border Sawyer
directly.

Demographics

Sawyer County had a population of 18,074 at the 2020 census, up modestly from the prior
decade, and the latest estimate puts the county near 18,846 residents. Hayward, the only city, is
the largest named place at 2,533 people; Little Round Lake, an unincorporated lake community in
the town of Bass Lake, is the second-largest named place at 1,242. Median household income runs
about $60,801, well below Wisconsin’s statewide figure of $74,631 (2023 ACS). Population
density works out to roughly 14.4 people per square mile of land, thin even by rural Wisconsin
standards, reflecting the county’s heavy share of forest and lake acreage. The Lac Courte
Oreilles Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Indians reservation overlaps much of the county’s
southeast, and American Indian residents make up roughly one in six county residents, one of the
higher shares of any Wisconsin county.

Economy & Local Life

Health care and social assistance employs the most workers in the county, about 1,364 people,
followed by retail trade at 1,119 and manufacturing at 753, out of roughly 7,782 total jobs.
Tourism drives much of the rest of the economy — fishing, hunting, boating, snowmobiling and
cross-country skiing draw visitors well beyond the county’s own population. The Lac Courte
Oreilles Band operates Sevenwinds Casino near Hayward, among the county’s largest employers, and
runs Lac Courte Oreilles Ojibwe University, a tribal college. Hayward is also home to the National
Fresh Water Fishing Hall of Fame, built around a 143-foot fiberglass muskellunge that visitors can
climb inside. The county’s biggest annual event is the American Birkebeiner, North America’s
largest cross-country ski marathon, held each February and drawing more than 13,000 skiers to
Hayward and the Birkie Trail.

History

The Wisconsin legislature split Sawyer County from parts of Chippewa and Ashland counties in
1883 and organized it in 1885, naming it for Philetus Sawyer, a Wisconsin lumberman who served in
the U.S. House and Senate. Hayward was platted the same year the county was created, after
lumberman Anthony Judson Hayward and partner Robert Laird McCormick dammed the Namekagon River
and built a sawmill known locally as the Big Mill; it burned in 1922 and was not rebuilt.

The 1854 Treaty of La Pointe established the Lac Courte Oreilles Ojibwe reservation within the
county’s boundaries, but lumber companies logged most of the reservation’s timber between 1884
and 1888 under terms that paid the Ojibwe a small fraction of the profits. In 1923 a power-company
dam on the Chippewa River flooded roughly 6,000 acres upstream, much of it reservation land,
destroying wild-rice beds, cemeteries and villages to create what is now the Chippewa Flowage.

Getting There

No interstate highway crosses Sawyer County. U.S. Highway 63 runs north-south through Hayward,
and Wisconsin Highways 27, 40, 48, 70 and 77 cross the county in various directions.

• Rice Lake — about 35 miles southwest
• Ashland — about 50 miles northeast
• Duluth-Superior — about 70 miles northwest
• Eau Claire — about 85 miles south

Duluth International Airport, roughly 70 miles northwest of Hayward, is the nearest airport
with scheduled commercial service. Sawyer County Airport, just south of Hayward, handles general
aviation only. No Amtrak line reaches the county; the Canadian National and Wisconsin Great
Northern railroads carry freight through the area but no passengers.

Frequently Asked Questions

Where is Sawyer County located?
It sits in Wisconsin’s Northwoods lake country, about 70 miles southeast of Duluth-Superior,
bordered by Bayfield, Ashland, Price, Rusk, Barron, Washburn and Douglas counties.

What is the population of Sawyer County?
18,074 at the 2020 census, with a 2025 estimate near 18,846.

How big is Sawyer County?
1,350 square miles (3,500 km2), of which 1,257 square miles are land and 93 are water.

What is the county seat of Sawyer County?
Hayward, platted in 1883, is the county seat and its only incorporated city.

How many towns and villages are in Sawyer County?
One city (Hayward), four incorporated villages — Couderay, Exeland, Radisson and Winter —
16 civil towns, five census-designated places and 15 smaller unincorporated communities.

What ZIP codes does Sawyer County use?
54843 for Hayward, 54828 for Couderay, 54835 for Exeland, 54862 for Ojibwa, 54867 for Radisson,
54876 for Stone Lake and 54896 for Winter.

What is Sawyer County known for?
The American Birkebeiner ski marathon, the Lac Courte Oreilles Ojibwe reservation and the
Chippewa Flowage, and the National Fresh Water Fishing Hall of Fame in Hayward.

More counties in this state: Towns and villages in Wisconsin.