Crandon was the dream of Samuel Shaw, an entrepreneur and capitalist who acquired property
here in the 1880's. His vision was a city built between the two hills and around the four lakes
that are within or touching the city limits. The area was then part of Oconto County, and Shaw,
with help from Major Frank P. Crandon, the tax commissioner of the Chicago and Northwestern
Railroad, successfully lobbied the legislature for the creation of the a new county. Forest
County was created in 1887, and Crandon was named the county seat. Crandon did not expand as
fast as other communities in Forest County because they lacked rail service. Freight and
passengers got to Crandon by riding the train to either Pelican Lake or Argonne (North Crandon
back then), and then walking or riding the stage to town.
In 1891, the Page and Landeck Lumber Company bought a huge tract of hardwood timberlands near Crandon, but they were unable to utilize the resource until the C & NW Railroad built a spur line from Pelican Lake. By 1902, a huge sawmill owned by Page and Landeck (the name was later changed to the Keith & Hiles Lumber Company, and that is how many people refer to the early mill) was sawing lumber on Clear Lake on Crandon's north side. Logging camps were built, a company train hauled logs to the mill, the C & NW hauled lumber to market, and a host of other industries that utilized hardwood lumber grew in Crandon. At one time, wooden fruit boxes were built here, wagon hubs, broom handles, shoe lasts, and plain mills to shape the raw lumber, just to name a few. The population of the town grew from 800 to over 2400 in just a few years.
In 1909, a new courthouse was started in the square set aside in the center of town, a new high school was built, and Crandon was incorporated into a city. Many of the attractive brick buildings in town were built during that time frame. The outlook was good for Crandon, until the timber started to play out. In 1921, the big mill on Clear Lake, now owned by the Fish Lumber Company, burned down and was never rebuilt. In 1923, Forrest Himes bought the company and built a smaller mill south of the old mill. He grew to be Crandon's largest employer and built retail lumber sheds in many of the surrounding communities.
Crandon still boasts a good many logging companies that work on the Nicolet National Forest, has a healthy tourist industry, and is currently enjoying a growth in light industry.
An interesting fact of Crandon's history is the migration of settlers and loggers who came to Crandon in the first part of the century. This was due, in part, to the availability of cheap cut over land available for farming, and in part to the fact that the Page and Landeck sawmill was moved to Crandon from Glasgow, Kentucky. Many of the employees followed the mill to its new home. The so-called Crandon "Kentuck" is known about statewide and is the source of much of the rich cultural history in Crandon.