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The economic life of the area has grown beyond the lumber industries and trading posts that used to dot the Wisconsin Shore. Today, major employers within Stevens Point include: Sentry Insurance, UW-Stevens Point, Stora Enso North America, Sunrise Medical CCG, Associated Bank, Copps Corporation, Donaldson Company, Kimberly Clark Corporation, Canadian National RR and Worzalla Publishing. The Village of Plover, located in the
heart of Wisconsin's "Golden Sands," has become one of the nation's
most important agricultural suppliers of potatoes and other vegetables. Okray
Produce has been in business in the area since 1905, with one-third of its crop
potatoes and the rest canning crops such as green beans and corn. Okray and
other large producers, including Paragon Farms, have brought national food
producers such as Basic American Foods, Del Monte Corporation, Golden County
Foods and McCain Foods to the area. With these industries combined together with
the dairy, beef, forest products and cranberry production, give the Stevens
Point area the most diversified economy in the state of Wisconsin.
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Mike Burns, CRS, GRI, REALTOR®
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The Stevens Point area owes its namesake
to George Stevens. Stevens had founded Stevens Point by signing a pact with the
Menominee Indians allowing logging and saw milling along the Wisconsin River. By
1844 the first land entry was made for Stevens Point, becoming an established
town by 1847, and by 1850 the logging community boasted a population of 200.
Today a marker stands at the west end of Main Street in downtown Stevens Point
along the banks of the Wisconsin River commemorating its founder, George
Stevens. In addition to the timber industry, the area owes much of its
development to the Old Wisconsin Central Railroad (Soo Line). The railroad
linked Central Wisconsin to the rest of the country. 
