Independence is a city in Trempealeau County, Wisconsin, United States.

Unless otherwise noted, the history below is taken from a local historical album published for the city's centennial in 1976.

[5] Independence is in the Town of Burnside, which corresponds with one of the townships created under the Land Ordinance of 1785.

Shortly after the naming of Burnside in 1863, settlers from Europe and the Eastern United States began arriving in significant numbers.

The city of Independence owes its existence to a railroad and a man named David M. Kelly.

Running almost parallel to the Trempealeau River is the Green Bay and Western Railroad, which is part of a line originally intended to run from Green Bay, Wisconsin to Wabasha, Minnesota.

Kelly was an enthusiastic promoter of building a depot for the new line in Burnside.

After much disagreement and dispute over its location, Green Bay and Lake Pepin (as the company was then known) agreed to build a depot if $5,000 could be raised by the residents to finance construction.

The line began at Green Bay but eventually reached Winona, Minnesota instead of Wabasha.

Under the inexorable pressure of the automobile, passenger service ended in 1949, but freight trains still use the line today.

Just upstream from the intersection between Elk Creek and the Trempealeau is the dam impounding Bugle Lake.