Ripon, WI Road Trips
Plan drives from Ripon, WI with practical route pages for distance, drive time, fuel cost, road character, and places to stop along the way.
Photo: Tom Fisk
Trip Routes
1
Longest Drive
132.7 mi
North La Crosse, WI
Quickest Drive
2h 52m
North La Crosse, WI
Plan Around Ripon, WI
Popular Incoming Routes
Useful if Ripon, WI is the arrival point and you want the strongest routes into the city first.
Ripon, WI by the Numbers
Recent demographic snapshot from the US Census Bureau's American Community Survey.
Population
7,803
Median Income
$59,063
Median Home Value
$161,500
Median Age
43.3
Source: US Census Bureau ACS 5-year (public domain). See our methodology for details.
Ripon, WI at a Glance
Founded
1849
Elevation
3,058 ft
Area
5 mi²
Notable People from Ripon, WI
A sampling of people born in Ripon, WI.
Carrie Chapman Catt
1859–1947
American social reformer, suffragist (1859-1947)
Harry Gordon Selfridge
1858–1947
American born English businessman (1858–1947)
Winifred Edgerton Merrill
1862–1951
American mathematician (1862–1951)
Otto Julius Zobel
1887–1970
American electrical engineer (1887–1970)
City data from Wikidata (Q1025333), available under CC0. Photos from Wikimedia Commons under their respective licenses. See our methodology for details.
Traveler Guide to Ripon, WI
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.
1 The Little White Schoolhouse, 305 Blackburn St, ☏ +1 920 748-6764, [email protected]. 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. Free. (updated Jan 2026)
Ripon Welcome Inn, 240 E Fond Du Lac Street, ☏ +1 920-896-0413. Mapes Hotel, 300 Watson St, ☏ +1-844-940-0940, [email protected]. $100. (updated Apr 2020)
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.
Travel tips adapted from Ripon (Wisconsin) on Wikivoyage, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Content summarized; visit the source for the full article. See our methodology for how we use it.
Trips to Ripon, WI
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