Pepin Map
Pepin is a village in Pepin County, Wisconsin, United States. The population was 878 at the 2000 census. The village is located within the Town of Pepin.
By the mid-17th century, the French had begun to send expeditions into Wisconsin via the Great Lakes and Saint Lawrence River. King Louis XIII of France is believed to have granted a huge piece of land in the Upper Mississippi River Valley to two brothers, Etiene Pepin de la Fond and Guillaume dit Tranchemontagne. Two of Guillaume’s sons, Pierre Pepin and Jean Pepin du Cardonnets, later explored and traded in this area, and their surname became attached to the lake, and ultimately to the village and the county.
The author Laura Ingalls Wilder was born in the Pepin area, near Lund, Wisconsin, where her family lived. The village celebrates this every September with traditional music, craft demonstrations, a "Laura look-alike" contest, a spelling bee, and other events. The Little House Wayside is located seven miles northwest of the village, in the Town of Pepin.
Nearby cities include Frontenac, Maiden Rock, Kellogg, Plum City, Alma.