1914 Plat maps. The Town of Pigeon was created January 1875. Pigeon was split off from the Town of Lincoln. The action was divisive so it was put to vote and the Town of Pigeon was formerly created. Pigeon was one of the last areas to be settled as it lacked timber and marsh hay. It was a long way to any trading centers so it was not until 1867 when the first Norwegian settler came to the valley of Pigeon Creek–Erick Larson. According to the 1917 ‘History of Trempealeau County’ ” These early settlers ( P Pederson, Mikkel Hagen, Mathias Tuv and others ) settled mostly on land claimed by the Wisconsin Western Railroad Company but this land had not come into market on account of its distance from the tracks it was thought the railroad company could not hold it and that the land would revert to the government and become homestead land. The settlers selected their claims and sat on them awaiting the outcome.” By 1871 more Scandinavian settlers had arrived-most notably Peder Ekern, JD Olds, Geo Olds, and HA Fremstad. JD Olds left the following account in the ‘History of Trempealeau County’–” I kept my place at McGilvray’s Ferry and in the month of May 1864, Benjamin Oliver and I went north to look for land to homestead. We found a few settlers in Trempealeau Valley near the mouth of Pigeon Creek. The settlement was called Whitehall. From there we went up Pigeon Creek about six miles. There we found Hely Fitch, his mother and sister, who told us that they ahd settled there the year before and that Mr Fitch froze to death in the winter of the deep snow: the old man had to go up into the cooley about three miles to cut and stack hay to winter his oxen on and the snow got so deep he could not driver the oxen there after hay, and to keep them alive he would go on his snowshoes every day and bring a bundle of hay on his back. The weather turned very cold and he went for a bundle and came back about half way and fell with his hay, where they found him next day froze solid.” The first school was built in 1865 and Mary Nott was hired as the teacher. Pigeon Creek was named by two hunters in 1848 who camped on the bank of the creek. That night a huge flock of Passenger pigeons came in and perched in the trees nearby. Some of the branches were so heavily loaded with birds, the pigeons cascaded towards the ground and thus the name Pigeon Falls . A Norwegian immigrant, Peder Ekern was instrumental in establishing the trading center of Pigeon Falls. He platted Pigeon Falls and built a store, hotel, creamery, rebuilt a large mill and purchased and sold tracts of land. When Ekern arrived in the village in 1872 there was a mill owned by Cyrus Hines and a store kept by Johnson & Olson. Ekern eventually owned several large acreages of farmland and he died a very prosperous man in 1899. His daughter Minnie married Ben Sletteland who took over the Peder Ekern Company and went on to also become the postmaster and a trustee of Gale College.. Another small trading center, Coral City lies south of Pigeon Falls. At one time it had a large mill pond and mill. Coral City received its name when an early settler thought he had found a chunk of coral after plowing his field. Rural School districts were Coral City, Dagget, Fitch Coulee, Fly Creek, Fuller Coulee, Sunshine, Thorson and Pigeon Falls.
