Chili is an unincorporated

census-designated place A census-designated place (CDP) is a Place (United States Census Bureau), concentration of population defined by the United States Census Bureau for statistical purposes only. CDPs have been used in each decennial census since 1980 as the counte ...

in the Town of Fremont in

Clark County Clark County may refer to: *Clark County, Arkansas *Clark County, Idaho *Clark County, Illinois *Clark County, Indiana *Clark County, Kansas *Clark County, Kentucky *Clark County, Missouri *Clark County, Nevada, containing Las Vegas *Clark County, ...

Wisconsin Wisconsin ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest of the United States. It borders Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake Michigan to the east, Michig ...

, United States. Chili is west-southwest of Marshfield. Chili has a

post office A post office is a public facility and a retailer that provides mail services, such as accepting letter (message), letters and parcel (package), parcels, providing post office boxes, and selling postage stamps, packaging, and stationery. Post o ...

with ZIP code 54420. As of the 2010 census, its population was 226.

History

Around the year 1880 the

Chicago and North Western Railway The Chicago and North Western was a Railroad classes#Class I, Class I railroad in the Midwestern United States. It was also known as the "North Western". The railroad operated more than of track at the turn of the 20th century, and over of t ...

built through this area in south-east Clark County to take care of local sawmills. There was a sawmill about a mile east of where the railroad had put in a siding called Cedarhurst. Another such sawmill was built at the present-day CDP of Chili, and grew to be a rather extensive operation. One blistering, cold day during the winter of 1881, the railroad officials came here for the purpose of choosing a name for the then-hamlet. It was so wintry cold they did not want to step out of the train, it was then that one of them is supposed to have said, "Let's call this stop Chili because it is really chilly here." On another account, the community is also said to be named after the country

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in western South America. It is the southernmost country in the world and the closest to Antarctica, stretching along a narrow strip of land between the Andes, Andes Mountains and the Paci ...

, in South America. A post office called Chili has been in operation since 1892.

References

Census-designated places in Clark County, Wisconsin Census-designated places in Wisconsin {{ClarkCountyWI-geo-stub