Ripon

Ripon is a town in Fond du Lac County, Wisconsin, United States.

Ripon is a town steeped in history. It is the official birthplace of the Republican Party in the United States, and was a hotbed of idealistic thought in the 19th Century. The nearby settlement of Ceresco was a communal experiment that ultimately failed, leading to Ceresco being absorbed by the town of Ripon in 1851. Unsurprisingly, Ripon was a strongly abolitionist enclave.

These days, Ripon hosts Ripon College and the Little White Schoolhouse, the latter of which is the place where the Republican Party was created.

Get in

By car

Ripon is quite close to the cities of Oshkosh and Fond du Lac. You can take US 41 North or South to reach Oshkosh or Fond du Lac, and then take either WI 23 or WI 44 to Ripon.

See

• 1 The Little White Schoolhouse, 305 Blackburn St, ☏ +1 920 748-6764, birthplace@ripon-wi.com. Open 10AM-4PM every day from Memorial Day through Labor Day; weekends in September and October. Over 150 years old, this small building is where the Republican Party was formed in March 1854. The volume of the visitors it has seen in the century and a half since then, and the fact that it has been moved at least six times, has created some wear-and-tear on the facility. It costs $1 for adults to enter the building; children 12 and under are free.  

Sleep

• Ripon Welcome Inn, 240 E Fond Du Lac Street, ☏ +1 920-896-0413. 
• Mapes Hotel, 300 Watson St, ☏ +1-844-940-0940, riponmapeshotel@gmail.com. $100. (updated Apr 2020)

Go next

Routes through Ripon

Wisconsin Dells ← Green Lake ←

W  E

→ Fond du Lac → Sheboygan