Some of the earliest European Americans to walk the six mile square that would become McKinley were the U.S. government's surveyors.

[3][4] When done, the deputy surveyor filed this general description: This Township contains several Swamps and some of considerable extent.

This Township is heavily timbered and is chiefly composed of Hemlock, Yellow Birch, Balsam and White Pine.

The River Enters the Township near the SE corner of Section 12 and flows a West SouthWesterly course, with a Rapid current and is from 2 too 4 feet deep, and is adapted to the forming of a good motive power for mills.

[5]The federal government granted the first land patents in McKinley in 1860, giving four 160-acre parcels along the Jump River in sections 30 and 29 (around the modern Geise/Winger neighborhood) to Belinda Bonesteel and Harrison Hobart.

These grants were payment to descendants of Ah-Pashe-Aien, Ke-Woi-Tch-Ke-Tas-Shew, Ky-Sha-Shek and Ky-Ny-Wack-Um, who had served in the Black Hawk War in Captain Augustin Grignon's Menominee Volunteers thirty years before.

Most were in private hands, with the largest landowners being Cornell University, Chippewa Lumber and Boom, J. Paul and M.W.

A timetable from 1906 indicates that the train from Stanley steamed through the township around 10:30am every day except Sunday, then chugged up from the river and headed back south around noon.

He had the town platted and managed to establish a post office named Field and perhaps some sort of hotel, some homes, and a sawmill.

[9]: 24–25 [10] The 1911 plat map shows the SM&P again, but now with a further rail segment north of the river heading toward Walrath.

This is in contrast to down by Gilman, which the same plat book shows was filling in, and over by Medford where the Wisconsin Central had been operating for almost forty years, where some townships were nearly completely settled by this time.

South of the river the land is mostly gently rolling glacial till, interrupted by patches of hills, with heavier soil in the low spots.