Pepin, village in Pepin County, Wisconsin
Pepin is a small village in western Wisconsin, sitting on the eastern shore of Lake Pepin, a wide section of the Mississippi River. Streets run from a harbor where sailboats and motorboats tie up, up a gentle hill toward Highway 35, lined with modest homes and small local shops.
French traders passed through the area in the mid-1600s and held a land grant from the French crown. The village was laid out in 1855, lost its status for a time, and was re-established in 1882, with the railroad arriving in 1886 and pulling businesses toward the tracks.
The name of the village traces back to two French traders, Pierre and Jean Pepin, who explored this region in the late 1600s. A small local museum and a yearly festival keep alive the memory of Laura Ingalls Wilder, who spent her early childhood near here and later wrote about life on the frontier.
The village is easy to get around on foot once you arrive by car, as the harbor and main street are close together. Summer draws visitors to the water, September brings a popular annual festival, and winter offers ice fishing on the lake when conditions allow.
Laura Ingalls Wilder, the author behind the Little House book series, was born near this village, and the replica of her birth cabin stands about 7 miles (11 km) north of town. The original cabin site has long since disappeared, but the replica was built using descriptions from her own writings.
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