According to one account, Edward Wilson noticed strings of puffed corn oozing from flaking machines in the mid 1930s at the Flakall Corporation of Beloit, Wisconsin, a producer of flaked, partially cooked animal feed.

[1] Clarence J. Schwebke applied for an improved extruder patent in 1939[2] and the product, named Korn Kurls, was commercialized in 1946 by the Adams Corporation, formed by one of the founders of Flakall and his sons.

The sales manager Morel M. Elmer Sr. held a contest to name the new product "CheeWees".

The trademark was lost when the candy company was sold in 1963, but the family's Elmer's Fine Foods continued to make the snack and repurchased the name in 1993.

A fictitious brand of cheese puffs called "Cheesy Poofs" has appeared periodically in the animated television series South Park.