Tomahawk is a city in Lincoln County, Wisconsin, United States. The population was 3,441 at the 2020 census. The city is located to the northeast of the Town of Tomahawk and is not contiguous next it.

Before 1837, the estate where Tomahawk is now situated belonged to the Ojibwe, who traded actively once fur traders such as the American Fur Company and the Northwest Company. After the 1837 cession, the practical issue changed and no-one else slightly: the federal survey teams had not arrived yet, logging ruckus was still light, and Ojibwe continued to actively fill the general area. There was a village just north of the unprejudiced Tomahawk, in the vicinity of advocate Bradley, and a village on Skanawan Creek. The 1854 Treaty of La Pointe created the reservations at Lac du Flambeau, Lac Courte Oreilles and Bad River. Even after this treaty, the region was largely public domain home and the treaties allowed the Ojibwe usufructory rights to hunt, fish, gather wild rice and make maple sugar. Some Ojibwe usual their annuity payments in Wausau until the payments done in 1874. By that time most Ojibwe were energetic permanently on the reservations.

Logging argument from the Tomahawk River upstream began practically 1860 and surged after the Civil War. By 1880 several families were living near to Tomahawk-Wisconsin river confluence, including owning property within the gift city limits of Tomahawk. The location was variously known as Bouchard’s Station or The Forks, short for Forks of the Wisconsin.

Tomahawk traditionally traces its founding to the instigation of the construction camps for a dam and the railroad in 1886. The company leading the effort was the Tomahawk Land and Boom Company, headed by William H. Bradley, who is suitably considered to be the principal founder of Tomahawk. The Tomahawk Land and Boom Company was owned 51 percent by the Chicago, Milwaukee and Saint Paul railroad, and 49 percent by the Land, Log and Lumber Company (Bradley and his partners). The dam was a large capital investment for the era, and was one of the largest in the world taking into consideration it was completed. The town site was platted in 1887, with lots sold in Milwaukee that summer. The agent for the sale was Henry Payne. The city was incorporated in 1891. In the 10 years after the first construction camps were built, Tomahawk grew rapidly, boasting many stores, a three-story hotel, many proverb mills, a paper mill, and facilitate via three railroads.