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Wisconsin · Northwoods · Wisconsin River · Hodag Country
Oneida County, Wisconsin
The Hodag's haunted Northwoods and Rhinelander's timber heritage — from the legendary Hodag (a fictional beast invented by lumberjack Gene Shepard in 1893 and now Rhinelander's beloved civic mascot) to the Wisconsin River's headwaters flowing through 1,000+ lakes, the Northwoods Pines golf trails, and a classic Northwoods county where logging history, lake culture, and the Hodag Festival define an authentic Wisconsin character.
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Office: Oneida County Division of Emergency Management (Sheriff’s Office) – 2000 East Winnebago Street, Rhinelander, WI 54501 | (715) 361-5167 | Director: Ken Kortenhof
Services: Coordinates hazard mitigation, preparedness, response, and recovery; maintains a HAZMAT team and works with 19 fire stations across the county (Rhinelander Fire Department is the only paid full-time department; the rest rely on volunteers, with three municipalities using contracted fire service)
Roads & Utilities
ROADS & TRANSPORTATION
Roads: US-8 and WI-17 serve Rhinelander, at the confluence of the Wisconsin and Pelican Rivers; Rhinelander-Oneida County Airport (KRHI) offers scheduled commercial jet service alongside general aviation
Transit: No dedicated fixed-route county transit identified; confirm current regional options directly with the county
Business & Permits
BUILDING & PERMITS
Office: Oneida County Planning & Zoning – Rhinelander, WI | [email protected] | (715) 369-6130
Services: Administers the Zoning & Shoreland Protection Ordinance, Private Onsite Wastewater Treatment Systems Ordinance, Subdivision Control Ordinance, Floodplain Ordinance, and Nonmetallic Mining Reclamation Ordinance; permit applications and land records available via the county’s Ascent Permit Management portal
Notes: Confirm whether your property falls under county or a specific municipal jurisdiction.
Veterans Services
VETERANS SERVICES
County VSO: Oneida County Veterans Service Office – 1 S Oneida Ave., Rhinelander, WI 54501
Libraries
LIBRARIES
System: Rhinelander District Library – 106 N. Stevens Street, Rhinelander, WI 54501 | (715) 365-1070 | Director: Virginia Roberts | Hours: Mon 9 AM–8 PM, Tue–Fri 9 AM–6 PM, Sat 9 AM–1 PM (closed Sun)
Services: Serves roughly 22,000+ residents with 70,000+ print volumes and over 165,000 ebooks; offers a “Books on the Go” outreach program for older adults; currently pursuing a $7 million Capital Campaign for a building expansion and renovation project
Related: Additional county libraries include Minocqua Public Library and the Edward U. Demmer Memorial Library (Three Lakes)
Parks & Recreation
PARKS & RECREATION
Key Assets: Oneida County’s seat, RHINELANDER, is genuinely and affectionately known as the “Home of the Hodag” – one of American folklore’s most delightful and well-documented hoaxes, born in 1893 when local logger and prankster Eugene Shepard reported capturing (and supposedly dynamiting) a fearsome spiked, horned creature in the North Woods; three years later, in 1896, Shepard claimed to have captured a SECOND Hodag alive, displaying it at the very first Oneida County Fair using a wooden puppet rigged with wires operated by his sons – the sensation grew so large that P.T. Barnum reportedly traveled to Rhinelander hoping to buy the creature, and scientists from the Smithsonian Institution announced plans to travel and investigate, at which point Shepard finally admitted the hoax; the Hodag has since become genuinely beloved as the enduring mascot of Rhinelander – appearing as the Rhinelander High School mascot, on city vehicles, in a Rhinelander church’s stained-glass window, and even referenced in J.K. Rowling’s “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them”; a miniature Hodag was reportedly given to then-Senator John F. Kennedy during a 1960 visit; the Pioneer Park Historical Complex preserves this legacy alongside genuine logging-era artifacts, including the “Five Spot,” the last narrow-gauge locomotive (1925) to work Wisconsin’s North Woods; Rhinelander is also informally known as the “Ice Fishing Capital of the World” given the dense concentration of lakes surrounding the city; the 1908-1910 Oneida County Courthouse, designed by architect Christ H. Tegen in the Neoclassical style with a distinctive copper dome, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places
Notes: The Hodag legend’s genuine, well-documented origin as one of America’s most successful and charming media hoaxes – and its lasting, wholehearted embrace as Rhinelander’s civic identity – is a distinctive and verifiable piece of Wisconsin folklore.
GIS & Maps
GIS & MAPS
GIS Portal: Oneida County GIS – accessible via oneidacountywi.gov
Parcel Search: Oneida County Land Records
Addressing/911: Coordinated through Oneida County Emergency Management
Animal Services
ANIMAL SERVICES
Facility: Oneida County Humane Society (OCHS) – 1852 N Stevens St, Rhinelander, WI 54501 | (715) 362-5992 | Email: [email protected] | Open 5 days a week, on-call 24 hours for after-hours pickups
Services: A private nonprofit with OVER 100 YEARS of history caring for stray, abandoned, and abused animals across Oneida County; currently manages the former Rhinelander Animal Shelter facility and provides animal control services to the county; serves roughly 800-1,000+ animals annually, with nearly 100 animals in care at any given time; offers free transportation to low-cost spay/neuter clinics; adoption fees: puppies $275, kittens $100, adult dogs $175, adult cats $0-$30
Notes: A well-established, long-running organization with genuine deep community roots.
Notes: Contact Oneida County directly for current refuse collection and recycling program details.
NOTES
Oneida County’s Rhinelander is genuinely and delightfully known as the “Home of the Hodag” – a real, well-documented 1890s hoax that grew into one of Wisconsin’s most beloved and enduring pieces of local folklore, embraced fully as the city’s civic mascot to this day. All contact information above was sourced from official county, city, library, and shelter pages as of this writing; phone numbers and hours should be reconfirmed directly with the relevant office before a visit.
About Oneida County
Heritage | Rhinelander anchors Oneida County within Wisconsin’s Northwoods, home to the legendary Hodag, a mythical fearsome creature invented as a hoax by a local lumberjack in 1893 that has since become the beloved mascot and symbol of the entire region, giving this north-central Wisconsin lake-country city a distinctive folklore identity Outdoors | The county’s hundreds of pristine lakes offer extraordinary boating, fishing, and swimming, drawing significant summer resort tourism, while the surrounding Northern Highland-American Legion State Forest provides extensive additional hiking and camping Notable | The legendary Hodag remains one of the most beloved pieces of American folklore, giving Rhinelander and Oneida County a distinctive and whimsical regional identity celebrated throughout the Northwoods Library | Rhinelander District Library serves the county’s Hodag-heritage seat city and surrounding lake-country resort communities
All Services
Browse every category and topic available for this county.
Wisconsin assessments at the municipal level. The Oneida County Treasurer at 1 Courthouse Square, Room 106, Rhinelander, WI 54501, phone 715-369-6140, coordinates tax billing. Appeal to your local Board of Review. No WI estate or inheritance tax.
Courts & Legal
Oneida County Probate Court at 1 Courthouse Square, Rhinelander, WI 54501, phone 715-369-6170, handles probate.
Marriage & Vital Records
Marriage licenses, divorce records, and birth & death certificates are handled by the following office(s):
COUNTY CLERK
1 S Oneida Ave, Rhinelander, WI 54501
(715) 369-6150
Genealogy
County-level record sources
Oneida County Register in Probate, Rhinelander (probate/estate case files – see Probate section above).
Local societies
No dedicated Oneida County genealogical society was confirmed in available directories.
Probate & Estate
Losing someone and having to deal with courts and paperwork at the same time is hard. This section won’t make that easier, but it should tell you what to expect, what it costs, and where to go – so at least you’re not walking in blind.
Where to go
Oneida County Register in Probate 1 South Oneida Avenue, PO Box 400, Rhinelander, WI 54501 (715) 369-6159
Oneida County is in North Central Wisconsin’s Northwoods lakes region, county seat Rhinelander. Wisconsin has NOT adopted the Uniform Probate Code and has NO separate probate court – probate is handled by the CIRCUIT COURT (Probate Division) for the county where the decedent lived, administered day-to-day by that county’s REGISTER IN PROBATE. Wisconsin runs two main tracks: FORMAL administration, supervised directly by a circuit court judge, and INFORMAL administration, supervised by the Register in Probate without continuous judicial oversight. Informal administration is the default path for most straightforward estates.
Step 1: figure out which path applies
Wisconsin Statutes Chapters 851 through 882 govern probate. Wisconsin is also a MARITAL PROPERTY state (similar to community property) – under the Wisconsin Marital Property Act, most assets acquired during marriage are co-owned by both spouses, so a surviving spouse may already own half of all marital property outright; only the decedent’s half passes through the estate.
Transfer by Affidavit (Wis. Stat. §867.03) – available when the decedent’s ENTIRE probate estate (personal property only; real estate is not covered by this shortcut) has a gross value of $50,000 or less. Available 30 days after death to an heir, a trustee of a revocable trust, a beneficiary named in the will, or a guardian of the decedent.
Summary Settlement (Wis. Stat. §867.01) – geared toward estates of $50,000 or less where there is a surviving spouse, domestic partner, or minor children, or where the estate would otherwise be absorbed by allowances and expenses.
Summary Assignment – another shortcut for estates too small to pay debts in full.
Formal or Informal Administration – required for larger or more complex estates. Begins with a Petition for Administration (Form PR-1801) filed with the county Register in Probate to admit the will (if any) and appoint a personal representative.
Step 2: filing for administration
File a Petition for Administration (Form PR-1801) with the Oneida County Register in Probate.
Mail notice of the hearing to all heirs, beneficiaries, and interested parties at least 20 days before the hearing; publish notice in a newspaper of general circulation in the county for three successive weeks.
Once appointed, the personal representative inventories assets, and the court (for formal administration) or Register in Probate (for informal) sets a creditor claims deadline – generally 3 to 4 months from the date of the court’s order, with first publication of that notice required within 15 days of the order.
The personal representative pays valid debts and expenses, then distributes remaining assets to heirs/beneficiaries.
File a final accounting with the Circuit Court (Probate) showing all assets received, debts paid, and distributions made; once approved, the estate is closed.
Wisconsin Circuit Courts require attorneys to e-file; pro se (self-represented) filers are encouraged to use the Wisconsin Circuit Court eFiling system as well.
What it costs
Personal representative compensation: presumptive statutory rate of 2% of inventory value (Wis. Stat. §857.05), though the will or the parties can agree to a different amount.
Filing fees, publication costs, and (for real estate transfers under the small-estate process) an Affidavit of Heirship and Affidavit of Service, notarized and filed with the court.
Typical timeline: simple estates 6-12 months; complex or contested estates 18 months or longer.
Wisconsin does NOT impose a state estate tax or inheritance tax. Only the federal estate tax may apply, with a $15,000,000 per-person exemption for 2026 – meaning the vast majority of Wisconsin estates owe nothing.
Probate filings, estate administration, and guardianship matters are handled by the following office(s):
Public Safety & Arrests
Arrest records, inmate search, and law enforcement services are handled by the following office(s):
SHERIFF
1926 Cottage Grove St, Rhinelander, WI 54501
(715) 369-6224
Elections & Voting
Voter registration, polling locations, and elections information are handled by the following office(s):
ELECTIONS
(715) 369-6150
Health & Human Services
Offices & Contacts
Health services, social services, and assistance programs are handled by the following office(s):
Health Department
Oneida County Health Department, 1400 Kemp St, Rhinelander, WI 54501
(715) 369-6111
Social Services
Oneida County Department of Social Services, 1400 Kemp St, Rhinelander, WI 54501
(715) 369-6170
Public Health Information
PUBLIC HEALTH
Office: Oneida County Health Department – Rhinelander, WI
Services: Immunizations, WIC, environmental health, vital records
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Last verified June 2026
County Facts
County Seat: Rhinelander
Population: 36,500
Area: 1,115 mi²
Tier: 3
Public Records
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