Mineral Point, WI

MINERAL POINT, P. V., county seat of Iowa county, contains about 2,500 inhabitants and is rapidly increasing. It has 5 churches, 4 smelting furnaces in operation, and the value of mineral raised in crude state is $500,000 per annum; 11 dry good stores, 5 groceries, 3 drug stores, and 1 book store. Inhabitants are mostly miners. It is surrounded by a rich farming country; is the terminus of the Mineral Point railroad from the Illinois state line to Mineral Point, a distance of 31-1/2 miles, where it intersects the central railroad. A branch of the Peckatonnica runs near the village, affording water power.  (John Warren Hunt, Wisconsin Gazetteer..., Madison, 1853)

Note: Dodgeville, Wisconsin became the county seat a few years later.