Hillpoint

Located in the east central part of Washington Township, Sauk County, on State Highway 154, the village of Hillpoint served as a focal point for farmers who brought their grain to be milled, picked up groceries at the general store, wet their whistles at the local saloon, and had their teams shod at the blacksmith shop. The area was settled in the mid-1850's by Gilbert Wheller, David Boland and Mr. Lummney. The unincorporated village came into being around 1866 when Boland built a sawmill on Narrow’s Creek and began turning out hop-slats during the great hop boom. The mill closed in 1869 after the hop boom went bust.

A post office was established there in 1920 and exists today.

The Hillpoint Cooperative, organized in 1904, began as a small milk skimming creamery. The co-op continued to grow and expand, purchasing the Nestle condensery in Reedsburg in 1946. The creamery in Hillpoint was closed during the 1950's, along with other small operations in the county. The cooperative became the tenth largest dairy co-op in Wisconsin by 1954. In 1967, the Hillpoint Dairies merged with Wisconsin Dairies.

Henry W. Kruse established the Hill Point Auto and Milling Company in the village in 1916, and provided the community with automobile repair and milling of grain.

Also that same year, Ted Pfaff opened a blacksmith shop in the village which is still operated by family members today.

The VFW organized a chapter in the village in 1982 and currently has 29 members.

Today Hillpoint has two churches, a feed mill, two bars, a blacksmith shop, a fire department along with a first responders crew.

One final point: is it Hillpoint or Hill Point? The U.S. Postal Service recognizes the village as "Hillpoint", however, the signs on the village outskirts denote the little hamlet as "Hill Point." Cole’s 1918 history of Sauk County calls it Hill Point. As with many small towns and villages, their names were often modified or changed over the decades.