The 1856 redistricting, which expanded the Senate to 30 seats, reiterated the existing boundaries for the 17th district, but noted the addition of the city of Janesville, which was incorporated in 1853.

[8] The district boundaries remained unchanged until 1892, when a controversial redistricting act was passed just days before the 1892 election.

The new boundaries of the 17th district were defined as "The county of Green and the towns of Union, Porter, Magnolia, Center, Spring Valley, Plymouth, Avon, Newark, Beloit and the Third and Fourth wards of the city of Beloit, in the county of Rock, and the towns of Cottage Grove, Deerfield, Pleasant Springs, Dunkirk, Dunn, Rutland, Christiana, Albion and the city of Stoughton, in the county of Dane".

The 1892 act was quickly superseded by an 1896 act, which redefined the 17th Senate district as "Green and Lafayette counties, and the towns of Avon, Beloit, Clinton, Newark, Plymouth, Spring Valley, Turtle, and the village of Clinton, and the city of Beloit, in the county of Rock."

[10] In 1951, after several decades without redistricting, the Wisconsin Legislature passed the so-called Rosenberry plan, named for retired Wisconsin Supreme Court justice Marvin B. Rosenberry, who chaired the redistricting commission which drafted the plan.

The Wisconsin Supreme Court, therefore, enforced its own plan for legislative districts in a filing in State ex rel.

In the court-ordered plan, the 17th Senate district added Richland County to Grant, Green, Iowa, and Lafayette.

The subsequent 2002 and 2011 maps vary in boundaries, but keep roughly this configuration, stretching from Grant to Juneau, with parts of Richland, Sauk, Iowa, and Lafayette counties.

Previous politicians of a specific numbered district have represented different geographic areas, due to redistricting.