With the aide of Major Frank P. Crandon, tax commissioner with the Chicago and North Western Transportation Company, he successfully lobbied the Wisconsin Legislature for the creation of Forest County, which was established in 1887.

In 1891, Page and Landeck Lumber Company purchased a tract of hardwood timberlands near Crandon, and by 1902, the company built a huge sawmill (later named the Keith & Hiles Lumber Mill) near Clear Lake on Crandon's north side.

With the rail line's presence, settlers and loggers from Kentucky were recruited for the bustling timber industry of northern Wisconsin.

The company's sawmill eventually was moved to Crandon from Glasgow, Kentucky.

Modern culture lore reflects the early "Kentuck" ancestors.

Though timber has diminished as a prominent industry in the north-central United States, logging companies still operate in the nearby Nicolet National Forest.

From the 1980s to 2003, Crandon was the center of an environmental debate to construct a mining operation at the proposed Crandon mine, a rich copper deposit discovered by the Exxon Coal and Minerals Company.

The heated discussion led to a Wisconsin Legislature mining moratorium act in 1998.

Eventually, the proposed company and mine site lands were purchased by the opposed Mole Lake Sakaogon Chippewa and Forest County Potawatomi tribes, whose reservations sat near the site.

[5][6] On October 7, 2007, Crandon drew the attention of national and world media when Tyler Peterson, an employee of the Forest County Sheriff's Department and a part-time officer for the Crandon Police Department, shot seven people, wounding one and killing six in the town.

[7][8][9][10] On July 29, 2014, Crandon voters recalled their mayor by roughly a 2–1 margin.

The recreation and camping industry also includes the home of the World Championship Off-Road Races (see Sports in Wisconsin).

The downtown contains typical restaurants, retail and services of a small city serving nearly 2000 residents.

The annual Kentuck Days Festival celebrates the area's ancestral Kentucky heritage.