Norwegian immigrants first settled the area that is now the City of Blair in the 1850s. This settlement was originally known as Porterville but in 1873 the community name was changed to Blair. The name Blair came from a railroad entrepreneur by the name of John Insley Blair. John Blair was a major stockholder of the Green Bay and Minnesota Railroad (more recently the Green Bay and Western, and currently called the Wisconsin Central). The City was incorporated on May 11, 1949, and has experienced steady growth. The City’s population in 2007 was 1,273, according to the US Census Bureau. The City serves as an agribusiness center for the surrounding farms.
The City is strategically located at the intersection of U.S. Highway 53 and State Highway 95 in TrempealeauCounty. The damming of the TrempealeauRiver by the City in the early 1900s created Lake Henry, which led to the creation of a city park and recreation facilities. The City is less than 30 miles from La Crosse, WI, east of Winona, MN, and less than 45 miles south of Eau Claire, WI.