In the early 1880s, the Chicago, St. Paul, Minneapolis & Omaha Railway (CStPM&O) built a new line connecting the Chequamegon Bay area to the larger railway network serving the Upper Midwest.  John Alexander Humbird was instrumental in bringing the CStPM&O Railway to northern Wisconsin, an area that had traditionally served as hunting and fishing territory for the native Ojibwe people.  The area around Mason was rich with white pine and Humbird built a saw mill on the banks of the White River and founded Mason in 1882.  A post office was established and has remained in operation since 1883.   Along with his son, Thomas (TJ) Humbird, John A. Humbird ran the White River Lumber Company (and the town of Mason) until 1904.  The White River Lumber Company was sold to the Edward Hines Company which ran the mill until 1914, when it was closed due to most of the trees in the area having already been cut down and processed through the mill. 

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While the mill was in operation, Mason was home to nearly 2,000 residents and numerous businesses, including boarding houses, stores, a hotel, lumber yard, feed mill, bank and more.  At one time, there was even a bowling alley and movie theater.  A school was built in 1904.  After the mill closed, the population of the area decreased as the area transformed from a logging to farming community (thanks to all the freshly cleared land available). The more centralized portion of Mason, where the mill, businesses and school were located, were incorporated in 1925, establishing the Village of Mason.

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Today, the Village of Mason is a small, quiet community of just over 100 residents surrounded by farmland, forests and rivers. The last full weekend of June, the Village and surrounding communities host Mason Days which is held on the Mason Depot grounds.  It is a weekend of events, music, food, vendors and more!