[1] The forest that would become Shawano County had been developed for logging ever since 1843, when Charles Wescott and Samuel Farnsworth paddled up the Wolf River.

In 1879, Frederick Rhinelander's Milwaukee Lakeshore & Western Railroad reached the site on the Embarrass River that would become Tigerton.

The town was platted, mills opened to process the wood coming from the surrounding forest, and the community grew.

[2] In 1887 Herman Swanke and some partners built a sawmill two and a half miles west of Tigerton on the Embarrass River.

Charles Wojahn, a member of the site selection committee, offered to sell the town one lot.

[2] The building is two stories, with a low-pitched hip roof topped with a broad square bell tower in one corner.

[2] In 2003 Tigerton Main Street bought the building, put a new roof on it, rebuilt the bell tower, and restored the arch above the truck door.