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The Northern Lights Conference is a high school athletic conference located in northwestern Wisconsin. Originally founded as the Bayfield County Athletic League in 1936, the conference's name was changed to its current moniker in 2023, and its members are affiliated with the Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association.
History
1936-1970
Location of Indianhead Conference Members (1948-1964)
The Bayfield County Athletic League was founded in 1936 by six small high schools in far northwestern Wisconsin: Bayfield, Drummond, Iron River, Ondossagon, Port Wing (later South Shore) and Washburn. Cable were also announced as members but did not participate in the conference's first basketball season. Former Upper Wisconsin Conference members admitted to the conference 1937, which along with Cable's entry into competition increased membership to eight schools. Along with Saxon's entry into the conference came a new name: the Indianhead Conference. The Indianhead moniker refers to a group of counties in northwestern Wisconsin that resemble the side profile of a Native American. Drummond and Port Wing dropped out of the conference for the 1938 season, and membership stood at six with Cable's addition. In 1940, Mellen joined the conference and Drummond made their return, offsetting the loss of Cable as members. The return of Port Wing in 1943 and Cable in 1948 brought membership up to nine schools by the end of the decade. The Indianhead Conference's roster remained stable at nine schools for sixteen years before rural school district consolidation whittled away at the group. Saxon was the first to leave the conference, consolidating with Hurley of the Michigan-Wisconsin Conference in 1964. Three years later, Iron River was folded into another M-W Conference school (Northwestern High School in Maple). Former independent Solon Springs entered the Indianhead Conference in 1968, offsetting some of the losses suffered in previous seasons. In 1969, Cable was merged into Drummond, bringing membership back down to seven schools. The Indianhead Conference gained four new members in 1970, two from the disbanded Flambeau League (Butternut and Glidden), one from the Michigan-based Porcupine Mountain Conference (Mercer) and a former independent (Northwood).
1970-2023
The Indianhead Conference operated as an eleven-member circuit for ten years before Northwood left to become members of the Lakeland Conference in 1980. Hurley joined the conference in 1986 after competing in the Michigan-based Gogebic Range Conference for the past six years. A year later, the Indianhead Conference briefly began sponsorship of football a few years after the former affiliation of its three football-playing members (the Top of Wisconsin Conference) ceased operations. In 1990, Ondossagon closed its doors and its district was split up among other area districts, decreasing the ledger to ten members. The Indianhead Conference operated at ten schools for nineteen years, including two years where Butternut and Glidden ran a cooperative athletic program from 2007 to 2009. This arrangement ended in 2009 when Glidden was merged with Park Falls of the Marawood Conference to form the new Chequamegon High School, and the new school inherited Park Falls' conference affiliation. Luther L. Wright High School in Ironwood crossed the Michigan-Wisconsin border to join the Indianhead Conference from the Michigan-based Western Peninsula Conference in 2010. Three years later, the Indianhead Conference acquired another cross-border member from Michigan: the Gogebic Miners (a cooperative between Bessemer Johnston and Wakefield-Marenisco). A twelfth school was added to the Indianhead Conference when Lac Courte Oreilles Ojibwe School in Hayward became members in 2021. After the exit of Gogebic and Ironwood Wright in 2022, the Indianhead Conference assumed its current lineup of ten schools.
2023-present
Citing the pejorative nature of the Indianhead name, the conference changed its name to the Northern Lights Conference in 2023. The new name was suggested by students at Butternut and Washburn and beat out four other options considered (Great Divide, Great Lakes, Northland and Snowbelt).
