This shows the location of Turtleville in the 1873 Rock County Atlas
Today, only a few landmarks remain to tell the story of the once-thriving village of Turtleville — the quiet cemetery and the historic Turtleville Iron Bridge, the last surviving steel truss bridge in Rock County. Beneath its weathered iron beams lies the story of a vanished frontier settlement shaped by Native American history, early industry, ambition, and the powerful waters of Turtle Creek.
Long before settlers arrived, the valley surrounding Turtle Creek was an important place for the Ho-Chunk Nation, also historically known as the Winnebago. At Turtleville and nearby Shopiere, Turtle Creek winds through a striking valley lined with steep bluffs and rich natural resources that made it an ideal location for camps and settlement. Early historians noted extensive evidence of Native occupation on the gently sloping south bank east of the bridge, where artifacts including arrowheads, spearpoints, axes, rubbing stones, stone balls, and fragments of gorgets were found in large numbers. Burned fireplace stones still marked the site long after the village itself had disappeared.
When the first settlers arrived, a small Native American community was still living near Turtleville, and Indian corn fields stretched east of the settlement. The land along Turtle Creek had already sustained generations of people before the arrival of mills, roads, and bridges.
In the early nineteenth century, Turtle Creek powered the community’s first sawmill and helped establish Turtleville as an important frontier settlement in the Beloit area. A store, blacksmith shop, stone schoolhouse, and the region’s first Baptist Church Society soon followed, creating a thriving village along the creek. Though little known today, Turtleville was once a place of opportunity where settlers built businesses, raised families, and carved out lives on the Wisconsin frontier.
Hodson’s home on Turtle Creek
One of the most influential figures in Turtleville’s history was William Hodson, an ambitious entrepreneur who transformed the village into a bustling industrial center. By 1850, Hodson had established a large flouring mill and distillery that employed many local residents and brought prosperity to the community. His success was reflected in the grand Greek Revival mansion he built overlooking Turtle Creek at the northeast corner of present-day Lathers and Shopiere Roads.
The impressive home became one of the grandest residences in the region. It featured 17 rooms, soaring 12-foot ceilings, multiple fireplaces, and arched cellar vaults specifically designed to store whiskey produced at the distillery below. For generations, the mansion stood as a symbol of wealth and enterprise along Turtle Creek before it was ultimately demolished in 1979.
But Hodson’s story took a dramatic turn during the Civil War. Sympathetic to the South, he refused to place the required U.S. government tax stamps on the whiskey produced at his distillery. According to local accounts, barrels of liquor were secretly hidden beneath wagonloads of potatoes before being shipped out to avoid federal detection. His operation continued until one of his own workers was revealed to be a government agent.
Federal authorities moved swiftly. When Hodson failed to pay nearly $98,000 in taxes — an enormous amount for the era — the government seized everything he owned. His mills, land, distillery, and mansion were transferred to the United States government and ultimately auctioned on the courthouse steps in Janesville on June 30, 1876, for the astonishingly low sum of just $3,000. What had once been one of the region’s most successful enterprises collapsed almost overnight.
Over time, Turtleville itself faded away. The mills disappeared, businesses closed, homes vanished, and the once-thriving village slowly dissolved into the landscape. Today, only the cemetery and the historic 1887 iron truss bridge remain as visible reminders of the community that once flourished along Turtle Creek.
The historic Turtleville bridge. Photo credit: Jeff Dean
Built by the Milwaukee Bridge and Iron Company in 1887, the Turtleville Bridge is more than simply a crossing over the creek. It is a rare surviving example of nineteenth-century engineering and the final physical connection to the people who built and shaped this lost community. Every rivet and steel beam carries the memory of the Native families, farmers, mill workers, merchants, churchgoers, and children who once crossed it.
If the bridge is lost, Rock County will lose more than a historic structure — it will lose the final visible link to the story of Turtleville itself. Preserving the bridge means preserving one of the county’s last authentic reminders of its Native American, rural, and industrial past. Future generations deserve the chance to stand on this bridge, look out over Turtle Creek, and experience a place where history still feels tangible and real.
The last steel truss bridge in Rock County is not simply an old bridge. It is the final chapter of a disappearing story — and its future now depends on whether the community chooses to save it.
