The Namekagon River (pronounced NAM-uh-KAH-gun ) is a tributary of the St. Croix River . It is 101 miles (163 km) long and is located in northwestern Wisconsin in the United States . Its course is protected as part of the St. Croix National Scenic Riverway .
63-819: According to the Geographic Names Information System , the river's name has also been spelled Namakagon , Namekagan , and Namekagun ; the United States Board on Geographic Names issued a decision setting "Namekagon" as the river's spelling in 1933. Its name is derived from the Ojibwe language Namekaagong-ziibi , meaning "river at the place abundant with sturgeons ." The Namekagon River issues from Lake Namakagon in southeastern Bayfield County and flows southwestwardly through Sawyer and Washburn counties, past Hayward , and northwestwardly into Burnett County, where it joins
126-495: A "Concise" subset of the NGNDB that listed "major features", and a "Historical" subset that included the features that no longer exist. There is no differentiation amongst different types of populated places. In the words of the aforementioned 1986 USACE report, "[a] subdivision having one inhabitant is as significant as a major metropolitan center such as New York City ". In comparing GNIS populated place records with data from
189-588: A 1962 replacement of the "Nigger" racial pejorative for African Americans with "Negro" and a 1974 replacement of the "Jap" racial pejorative for Japanese Americans with "Japanese". In 2015, a cross-reference of the GNIS database against the Racial Slur Database had found 1441 racial slur placenames, every state of the United States having them, with California having 159 and the state with
252-694: A 2008 book on ethnic slurs in U.S. placenames Mark Monmonier of Syracuse University discovered "Niger Hill" in Potter County, Pennsylvania , an erroneous transcription of "Nigger Hill" from a 1938 map, and persuaded the USBGN to change it to "Negro Hill". In November 2021, the United States Secretary of the Interior issued an order instructing that "Squaw" be removed from usage by the U.S. federal government. Prior efforts had included
315-460: A 50 cm (20 in) walleye will weigh about 1.5 kg (3.3 lb), while a 60 cm (24 in) walleye will likely weigh about 2.5 kg (5.5 lb). The Garrison Dam National Fish Hatchery at Garrison Dam, North Dakota , is the largest walleye hatchery in the world. Although they are in high demand for fishing and consumption in North Dakota, elsewhere they are considered
378-422: A later phase). Generic designations were given after specific names, so (for examples) Mount Saint Helens was recorded as "Saint Helens, Mount", although cities named Mount Olive , not actually being mountains, would not take "Mount" to be a generic part and would retain their order "Mount Olive". The primary geographic coordinates of features which occupy an area, rather than being a single point feature, were
441-634: A nuisance. For that reason GDNFH is also researching hormonal population control to provide control options to other areas. In most of the species' range, male walleyes mature sexually between three and four years of age. Females normally mature about a year later. Adults migrate to tributary streams in late winter or early spring to lay eggs over gravel and rock, although open-water reef or shoal-spawning strains are seen, as well. Some populations are known to spawn on sand or vegetation. Spawning occurs at water temperatures of 6 to 10 °C (43 to 50 °F). A large female can lay up to 500,000 eggs, and no care
504-399: A permanent, unique feature record identifier, sometimes called the GNIS identifier. The database never removes an entry, "except in cases of obvious duplication." The GNIS was originally designed for four major purposes: to eliminate duplication of effort at various other levels of government that were already compiling geographic data, to provide standardized datasets of geographic data for
567-465: A range of rock sizes from small pebbles to large boulders that sat in the middle of the river. Before the construction of the state road in 1877, the Namekagon River was a primary means of transportation. Early logging in the area was accomplished by selecting the trees closest to the river bank, and floating them down the river to the saw mill. The arrival of the railway saw an opportunity for
630-412: A second Alaska file) data from the 1:100000 and 1:250000 scale USGS maps. Map names were recorded exactly as on the maps themselves, with the exceptions for diacritics as with the NGNDB. Unlike the NGNDB, locations were the geographic coördinates of the south-east corner of the given map, except for American Samoa and Guam maps where they were of the north-east cornder. The TMNDB was later renamed
693-425: A third phase was considered, which would have handled name changes where local usages differed from maps, it was never begun. The database is part of a system that includes topographic map names and bibliographic references. The names of books and historic maps that confirm the feature or place name are cited. Variant names, alternatives to official federal names for a feature, are also recorded. Each feature receives
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#1732779745180756-548: A variety of wildlife. Most prominent wildlife are the Brook Trout. In addition, there is also walleye , bass, muskellunge , northern pike and panfish. 46°05′16″N 92°10′51″W / 46.08772°N 92.18075°W / 46.08772; -92.18075 Geographic Names Information System The Geographic Names Information System ( GNIS ) is a database of name and location information about more than two million physical and cultural features throughout
819-647: Is a culturally significant food in the Upper Midwest . Walleye is popular in Minnesota; the Minnesota Legislature declared walleye the official state fish in 1965. Three towns— Garrison, Minnesota , Baudette, Minnesota , and Garrison, North Dakota —each claim to be the "Walleye Capital of the World" and a large statue of the fish is erected in each town. Walleye pike was declared
882-629: Is a term used by walleye anglers for rough water typically with winds of 10 to 25 km/h (6 to 16 mph), and is one of the indicators for good walleye fishing due to the walleyes' increased feeding activity during such conditions. In addition to fishing this chop, night fishing with live bait can be very effective. The current all-tackle world record for a walleye is held by Mabry Harper, who caught an 11.34-kg (25-lb) walleye in Old Hickory Lake in Tennessee on 2 August 1960. Walleye
945-478: Is also the provincial fish of Saskatchewan , which declared the species its official fish in 2015 after it won a fish emblem contest. Walleye is the most popular fish for sport fishing in Saskatchewan, and can be caught in many rivers, reservoirs, and lakes. The International Underwater Spearfishing Association record for largest spearfishing -caught walleye is held by a 13.3-pound walleye caught in 2014 on
1008-416: Is also used for various other species . Walleyes show a fair amount of variation across watersheds. In general, fish within a watershed are quite similar and are genetically distinct from those of nearby watersheds. The species has been artificially propagated for over a century and has been planted on top of existing populations or introduced into waters naturally devoid of the species, sometimes reducing
1071-758: Is given by the parents to the eggs or fry. The eggs are slightly adhesive and fall into spaces between rocks. The incubation period for the embryos is temperature-dependent, but generally lasts from 12 to 30 days. After hatching, the free-swimming embryos spend about a week absorbing a relatively small amount of yolk . Once the yolk has been fully absorbed, the young walleyes begin to feed on invertebrates , such as fly larvæ and zooplankton . After 40 to 60 days, juvenile walleyes become piscivorous . Thenceforth, both juvenile and adult walleyes eat fish almost exclusively, frequently yellow perch or ciscoes , moving onto bars and shoals at night to feed. Walleye also feed heavily on crayfish, minnows, and leeches. The walleye
1134-602: Is on the order of 30 to 50 cm (12 to 20 in), substantially below their potential size. As walleye grow longer, they increase in weight. The relationship between total length ( L ) and total weight ( W ) for nearly all species of fish can be expressed by an equation of the form Invariably, b is close to 3.0 for all species, and c is a constant that varies among species. For walleye, b = 3.180 and c = 0.000228 (with units in inches and pounds) or b = 3.180 and c = 0.000005337 (with units in cm and kg). This relationship suggests
1197-443: Is or was human activity" not covered by a more specific feature class), "populated place" (a "place or area with clustered or scattered buildings"), "spring" (a spring ), "lava" (a lava flow , kepula , or other such feature), and "well" (a well ). Mountain features would fall into "ridge", "range", or "summit" classes. A feature class "tank" was sometimes used for lakes, which was problematic in several ways. This feature class
1260-530: Is part of the North American clade within the genus Sander , alongside the sauger ( S. canadensis ). Hubbs described a taxon called the blue walleye ( S. glaucus ) from the Great Lakes but subsequent taxonomic work showed no consistent differences between this form and the "yellow" walleye and the blue walleye is now considered to be a synonym and color variant of the walleye. The walleye
1323-528: Is regulated by most natural resource agencies. Management may include the use of quotas and length limits to ensure that populations are not overexploited . For example, in Michigan , walleyes shorter than 15 in (38 cm) may not be legally kept. Since walleyes have excellent visual acuity under low illumination levels, they tend to feed more extensively at dawn and dusk, on cloudy or overcast days, and under choppy conditions when light penetration into
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#17327797451801386-489: Is the operculum . Walleyes are distinguished from their close relative the sauger by the white coloration on the lower lobe of the caudal fin, which is absent on the sauger. In addition, the two dorsals and the caudal fin of the sauger are marked with distinctive rows of black dots which are absent from or indistinct on the same fins of walleyes. Walleyes grow to about 80 cm (31 in) in length, and weigh up to about 9 kg (20 lb). The maximum recorded size for
1449-428: Is when major feeding efforts occur. The fish's eyes also allow them to see well in turbid waters (stained or rough, breaking waters), which gives them an advantage over their prey. Thus, walleye anglers commonly look for locations where a good "walleye chop" (i.e., rough water) occurs. Their vision also allows the fish to populate the deeper regions in a lake, and they can often be found in deeper water, particularly during
1512-561: The Geographic Cell Names database (GCNDB hereafter) in the 1990s. The Generic database was in essence a machine-readable glossary of terms and abbreviations taken from the map sources, with their definitions, grouped into collections of related terms. The National Atlas database was an abridged version of the NGNDB that contained only those entries that were in the index to the USGS National Atlas of
1575-714: The Thematic Mapper of the Landsat program , researchers from the University of Connecticut in 2001 discovered that "a significant number" of populated places in Connecticut had no identifiable human settlement in the land use data and were at road intersections. They found that such populated places with no actual settlement often had "Corner" in their names, and hypothesized that either these were historical records or were "cartographic locators". In surveying in
1638-633: The United States and its territories; the associated states of the Marshall Islands , Federated States of Micronesia , and Palau ; and Antarctica . It is a type of gazetteer . It was developed by the United States Geological Survey (USGS) in cooperation with the United States Board on Geographic Names (BGN) to promote the standardization of feature names. Data were collected in two phases. Although
1701-520: The 1970s and 1980s, when the fishing tournament circuit promoted the fish and operated walleye fishing contests in the state. The walleye is the official provincial fish of Manitoba . Winnipeg , Manitoba, considers the walleye (referred to locally as "pickerel") its most important local fish. Icelandic fishermen in Lake Winnipeg traditionally supplied the Winnipeg market. The walleye
1764-548: The 1990s (still including tape and paper) to floppy disc , over FTP , and on CD-ROM . The CD-ROM edition only included the NGNDB, the AGNDB, the GCNDB, and a bibliographic reference database (RDB); but came with database search software that ran on PC DOS (or compatible) version 3.0 or later. The FTP site included extra topical databases: a subset of the NGNDB that only included the records with feature classes for populated places,
1827-560: The Canadian waters of the Great Lakes , and fried walleye is considered a staple of Canadian cuisine . In Minnesota , the walleye is often fished for in the late afternoon on windy days (known as a "walleye chop") or at night. Often served as a sandwich in Minnesota's pubs where the fish is very popular, deep fried walleye on a stick is a Minnesota State Fair food. Because walleyes are popular with anglers, fishing for walleyes
1890-477: The European zander , also known as the pikeperch. The walleye is sometimes called the yellow walleye to distinguish it from the blue walleye , which is a color morph that was once found in the southern Ontario and Quebec regions, but is now presumed extinct. However, recent genetic analysis of a preserved (frozen) 'blue walleye' sample suggests that the blue and yellow walleye were simply phenotypes within
1953-572: The GNIS web site and can review the justifications and supporters of the proposals. The usual sources of name change requests are an individual state's board on geographic names, or a county board of governors. This does not always succeed, the State Library of Montana having submitted three large sets of name changes that have not been incorporated into the GNIS database. Conversely, a group of middle school students in Alaska succeeded, with
Namekagon River - Misplaced Pages Continue
2016-625: The Great South Bend of the Namekagon was a natural camp-site, home of a band of Chippewa Indians and long used by explorers, missionaries, and fur-traders traveling the Namekagon route between the St. Croix and Chippewa rivers. In 1767 Jonathan Carver passed this way, downstream on his way from Prairie du Chien to Lake Superior via the Namekagon, St. Croix and Brule rivers. Henry Schoolcraft passed here in 1831 en route from Lake Superior to
2079-538: The Lumber companies to expand the marketplaces across state lines to larger markets. In 1855, Anthony Hayward was given permission from the Wisconsin Legislature to build, operate and maintain dam sites along the Namekagon. The Namekagon is a site of many recreational activities such as recreational tubing, kayaking, canoeing, fishing, hiking, snowshoeing, and other activities. The Namekagon River offers
2142-470: The St. Croix, 45 miles (72 km) south of the city of Superior . Near its mouth it collects the Totagatic River . The Namekagon River was an integral part in the transportation of lumber during the timber boom of the 1800's. Before the lumber boom, the river was used as a primary form of transportation by fur-traders, explorers and missionaries. In Trego , a sign stands which says, Here on
2205-464: The St. Croix. During the 1870's, ox teams hauled logging supplies on the tote road from Stillwater to Veazie Settlement, located two miles up river where the great Veazie Dam impounded water for log drives down the Namekagon to Stillwater. The Namekagon was used by the Ojibwe tribe as a source of food and transportation. Every May the Ojibwe used a fish dam to fish the sturgeon that took residence in
2268-466: The United States , with the coördinates published in the latter substituted for the coördinates from the former. The Board on Geographic Names database was a record of investigative work of the USGS Board on Geographic Names ' Domestic Names Committee, and decisions that it had made from 1890 onwards, as well as names that were enshrined by Acts of Congress . Elevation and location data followed
2331-905: The United States, a "Corner" is a corner of the surveyed polygon enclosing an area of land, whose location is, or was (since corners can become "lost" or "obliterated" ), marked in various ways including with trees known as "bearing trees" ("witness trees" in older terminology ) or "corner monuments". From analysing Native American names in the database in order to compile a dictionary, professor William Bright of UCLA observed in 2004 that some GNIS entries are "erroneous; or refer to long-vanished railroad sidings where no one ever lived". Such false classifications have propagated to other geographical information sources, such as incorrectly classified train stations appearing as towns or neighborhoods on Google Maps. The GNIS accepts proposals for new or changed names for U.S. geographical features through The National Map Corps . The general public can make proposals at
2394-529: The area. On the upper portion of the river sat an Ojibwe village off of Lake Pacwawong, where the Native Americans grew wild rice on the river, as well as blueberries, pumpkins, corn, potatoes, and beans. Henry Schoolcraft , an explorer who lived among Native American tribes, led two different expeditions along the Namekagon. Schoolcraft described the river at northern portage near Cable, Wisconsin as being seventy-five feet wide and eighteen inches at
2457-574: The broadcasting masts for radio and television stations, civil divisions, regional and historic names, individual buildings, roads, and triangulation station names. The databases were initially available on paper (2 to 3 spiral-bound volumes per state), on microfiche , and on magnetic tape encoded (unless otherwise requested) in EBCDIC with 248-byte fixed-length records in 4960-byte blocks . The feature classes for association with each name included (for examples) "locale" (a "place at which there
2520-426: The coordinates were taken to be those of a primary civic feature such as the city hall or town hall , main public library , main highway intersection, main post office, or central business district regardless of changes over time; these coordinates are called the "primary point". Secondary coordinates were only an aid to locating which topographic map(s) the feature extended across, and were "simply anywhere on
2583-435: The deepest part. The river banks were rich with large pines, hardwood and spruce. Brook Trout was in abundance along the river, and was used as a primary food source by the explorers at the time. A few years after Schoolcraft's expedition, the United States government enlisted geologists to describe the riverbed floor. The geologists found that the river bed was a mixture of thin sandy silt with gravelly riverbanks and contained
Namekagon River - Misplaced Pages Continue
2646-424: The entire United States and that were abridged versions of the data in the other 57: one for the 50,000 most well known populated places and features, and one for most of the populated places. The files were compiled from all of the names to be found on USGS topographic maps, plus data from various state map sources. In phase 1, elevations were recorded in feet only, with no conversion to metric, and only if there
2709-423: The feature and on the topographic map with which it is associated". River sources were determined by the shortest drain, subject to the proximities of other features that were clearly related to the river by their names. The USGS Topographic Map Names database (TMNDB hereafter) was also 57 computer files containing the names of maps: 56 for 1:24000 scale USGS maps as with the NGNDB, the 57th being (rather than
2772-503: The fish is 107 cm (42 in) in length and 13 kilograms (29 lb) in weight. The rate depends partly on where in their range they occur, with southern populations often growing faster and larger. In general, females grow larger than males. Walleyes may live for decades; the maximum recorded age is 29 years. In heavily fished populations, however, few walleye older than five or six years of age are encountered. In North America, where they are highly prized, their typical size when caught
2835-439: The government and others, to index all of the names found on official U.S. government federal and state maps, and to ensure uniform geographic names for the federal government. Phase 1 lasted from 1978 to 1981, with a precursor pilot project run over the states of Kansas and Colorado in 1976, and produced 5 databases. It excluded several classes of feature because they were better documented in non-USGS maps, including airports,
2898-585: The help of their teachers, a professor of linguistics, and a man who had been conducting a years-long project to collect Native American placenames in the area, in changing the names of several places that they had spotted in class one day and challenged for being racist, including renaming "Negrohead Creek" to an Athabascan name Lochenyatth Creek and "Negrohead Mountain" to Tl'oo Khanishyah Mountain, both of which translate to "grassy tussocks" in Lower Tanana and Gwichʼin respectively. Likewise, in researching
2961-425: The location of the feature's mouth, or of the approximate center of the area of the feature. Such approximate centers were "eye-balled" estimates by the people performing the digitization, subject to the constraint that centers of areal features were not placed within other features that are inside them. alluvial fans and river deltas counted as mouths for this purpose. For cities and other large populated places,
3024-717: The most such names being Arizona. One of the two standard reference works for placenames in Arizona is Byrd Howell Granger's 1983 book Arizona's Names: X Marks the Place , which contains many additional names with racial slurs not in the GNIS database. Despite "Nigger" having been removed from federal government use by Stewart Udall , its replacement "Negro" still remained in GNIS names in 2015, as did " Pickaninny ", " Uncle Tom ", and " Jim Crow " and 33 places named "Niggerhead". There were 828 names containing "squaw", including 11 variations on "Squaw Tit" and "Squaw Teat", contrasting with
3087-472: The murkier, higher oxygenated water at around six feet deep. On calm spring days, walleyes are more often located at the deep side of the shoreline drop-off and around shore slopes around or deeper than 10 feet. As a result of their widespread presence in Canada and the northern United States, walleyes are frequently caught while ice fishing , a popular winter pastime throughout those regions. "Walleye chop"
3150-524: The official "state warm water fish" of Vermont in 2012. (Vermont's official "state cold water fish" is the brook trout , Salvelinus fontinalis .) South Dakota designated the walleye as its official state fish in 1982. Although the fish is native to South Dakota, living in Missouri River reservoirs and eastern glacial lakes of the state, it only became a popular food in South Dakota in
3213-440: The overall genetic distinctiveness of populations. The name "walleye" comes from its pearlescent eyes caused by the reflective tapetum lucidum which, in addition to allowing the fish to see well in low-light conditions, gives its eyes an opaque appearance. Their vision affects their behavior. They avoid bright light and feed in low light on fish that cannot see as well as they do. Many anglers look for walleyes at night since this
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#17327797451803276-604: The point where a dam is thought to be". The National Geographic Names database (NGNDB hereafter) was originally 57 computer files, one for each state and territory of the United States (except Alaska which got two) plus one for the District of Columbia. The second Alaska file was an earlier database, the Dictionary of Alaska Place Names that had been compiled by the USGS in 1967. A further two files were later added, covering
3339-466: The river. Large rocks blocked the sturgeon passing on either side so they would swim through the center, where fisherman would spear the fish as they swam into large baskets. The river was also used as a primary source of transportation for the Ojibwe as discovered by European explorers and fur traders. They noted there were heavily used portages between the large bodies of water. Pictographs were drawn on trees that provided information of different species of
3402-412: The same rules as for the NGNDB. So too did names with diacritic characters. Phase 2 was broader in scope than phase 1, extending the scope to a much larger set of data sources. It ran from the end of phase 1 and had managed to completely process data from 42 states by 2003, with 4 still underway and the remaining 4 (Alaska, Kentucky, Michigan, and New York) awaiting the initial systematic compilation of
3465-617: The same species and do not merit separate taxonomic classification. In parts of its range in English-speaking Canada, the walleye is known as a pickerel , though the fish is not related to the true pickerels , which are members of the family Esocidae . It is also sometimes called a dory in British English (and its common name in French is the similar doré —meaning golden or gilded ), although this name
3528-455: The sources to use. Many more feature classes were included, including abandoned Native American settlements, ghost towns , railway stations on railway lines that no longer existed, housing developments , shopping centers , and highway rest areas . The actual compilation was outsourced by the U.S. government, state by state, to private entities such as university researchers. The Antarctica Geographic Names database (AGNDB hereafter)
3591-485: The use of "Nipple" in names with non- Native American allusions such as "Susies Nipple". Walleye The walleye ( Sander vitreus , synonym Stizostedion vitreum ), also called the walleyed pike , yellow pike , yellow pikeperch or yellow pickerel , is a freshwater perciform fish native to most of Canada and to the Northern United States . It is a North American close relative of
3654-465: The warmest part of the summer and at night. Walleyes are largely olive and gold in color (hence the French common name: doré —golden). The dorsal side of a walleye is olive, grading into a golden hue on the flanks. The olive/gold pattern is broken up by five darker saddles that extend to the upper sides. The color shades to white on the belly. The mouth of a walleye is large and is armed with many sharp teeth. The first dorsal and anal fins are spinous, as
3717-456: The water column is disrupted. Although anglers interpret this as light avoidance, it is merely an expression of the walleyes' competitive advantage over their prey under those conditions. Similarly, in darkly stained or turbid waters, walleyes tend to feed throughout the day. In the spring and fall, walleyes are located near the shallower areas due to the spawning grounds, and they are most often located in shallower areas during higher winds due to
3780-757: Was added in the 1990s and comprised records for BGN-approved names in Antarctica and various off-lying islands such as the South Orkney Islands , the South Shetland Islands , the Balleny Islands , Heard Island , South Georgia , and the South Sandwich Islands . It only contained records for natural features, not for scientific outposts. The media on which one could obtain the databases were extended in
3843-449: Was an actual elevation recorded for the map feature. They were of either the lowest or highest point of the feature, as appropriate. Interpolated elevations, calculated by interpolation between contour lines , were added in phase 2. Names were the official name, except where the name contained diacritic characters that the computer file encodings of the time could not handle (which were in phase 1 marked with an asterisk for update in
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#17327797451803906-550: Was first formally described by the American naturalist Samuel Latham Mitchill (1764–1831) with the type locality given as Cayuga Lake near Ithaca, New York . The walleye is considered to be a quite palatable freshwater fish, and consequently, is fished recreationally and commercially for food. Because of its nocturnal feeding habits, it is most easily caught at night using live minnows or lures that mimic small fish. Most commercial fisheries for walleye are situated in
3969-568: Was undocumented, and it was (in the words of a 1986 report from the Engineer Topographic Laboratories of the United States Army Corps of Engineers ) "an unreasonable determination", with the likes of Cayuga Lake being labelled a "tank". The USACE report assumed that "tank" meant "reservoir", and observed that often the coordinates of "tanks" were outside of their boundaries and were "possibly at
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