Longville started around 1906 as a logging town in what is now Cass County. Fishing was very popular in early Longville, and this form of recreation is still highly prevalent today. Tourism later grew as a service industry. In the twentieth century, people from urban areas came to more rural areas for recreation associated with lakes, fishing, hunting and water sports. All of the roads in and around Longville were dirt before the 1920s. Much of the downtown was rebuilt during the mid-20th century. Many of the cabins in the surrounding landscape were built in the late 1960s and 1970s. By the 1980s the Longville area was almost fully developed. The town changed little since 1990, keeping its quaint personality and not suffering from the overdevelopment plaguing other Cass County towns.