In February 2000, the city annexed a portion of land from the Town of Spring Valley in Rock County.

Just south of town is a historic marker for the Half-Way Tree, a bur oak supposedly identified by Native Americans as the halfway point on a foot trail between Lake Michigan and the Mississippi River.

The railroad track that runs east and west through town features a small museum with a train and army tank on display, adjacent to the park and bandstand pavilion.

The town was named in honor of the chief engineer of the Milwaukee and Mississippi Railroad, Edward Hallock Brodhead (1809–1890), who was among the earliest promoters of the railway depot.

The initial street names of the town were platted after the surnames of the landowners, eventually changed to numerical titles to reflect practical purposes.

A nearby raceway was dredged off of a branch of the Sugar River that diverted a long canal to a hydroelectric generator that supplied electricity to the town.

[8] According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 1.84 square miles (4.77 km2), all of it land.