According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of 34.2 square miles (88.6 km2), all of it land.

In the mid-summer of 1847, a crew working for the U.S. government surveyed a six-mile (10 km) square which approximates the current boundaries of Aurora.

In December 1854, another crew marked all the section corners in the township, walking through the woods and swamps, measuring them with a chain and a compass.

[3][4] When done, the deputy surveyor filed this general description: This Township contains a few swamps some of considerable extent they are all unfit for cultivation.

[5]An 1880 map of the area shows a "winter road" entering what would become Aurora from Chippewa County and loosely paralleling the Yellow River on the north side.

[9][10] In 1902 and 1903 the Stanley, Merrill and Phillips Railway built its road up the east side of what would become Aurora, creating a station at Gilman.

Owen Company built a line for the Wisconsin Central heading northwest across the town for Ladysmith and Superior - now the Canadian National.

The cluster of settlers in the SW corner has expanded somewhat, and a schoolhouse is marked where Polley Lane and River Road meet.

A few small chunks are held by Nye Lusk & Hudson, the local mill in Polley.