The Wisconsin River is a tributary of the Mississippi River in the U.S. state of Wisconsin . At approximately 430 miles (692 km) long, it is the state's longest river. The river's name was first recorded in 1673 by Jacques Marquette as "Meskousing" from his Indian guides - most likely Miami for "river running through a red place."
128-420: Before roads into Wisconsin, the river was canoed, hunted and fished by Indians. Loggers used the upper reaches of the river and its tributaries to drive logs to their sawmills and the lower reaches to float rafts of sawn boards to markets as near as Portage and as far as St. Louis . Today dams along the river generate hydroelectric power and people fish, boat, water-ski and sight-see on the river. The Wisconsin
256-659: A 93-mile (150 km) stretch of the Wisconsin between its mouth and the Prairie du Sac Dam is free of any dams or barriers and is relatively free-flowing. In the late 1980s, this portion of the river was designated as a state riverway, and development alongside the river has been limited to preserve its scenic integrity. The Wisconsin River is a "navigable river of the United States." This designation primarily means that
384-704: A bus stopping in each direction daily at the Portage station . Portage Municipal Airport (C47) serves the city and surrounding communities. Driftless Area 43°30′N 91°00′W / 43.5°N 91°W / 43.5; -91 The Driftless Area , also known as Bluff Country and the Paleozoic Plateau , is a topographical and cultural region in the Midwestern United States that comprises southwestern Wisconsin , southeastern Minnesota , northeastern Iowa , and
512-697: A campus located in Portage. The Portage scheme of support for children with special educational needs was developed in the city. Wisconsin Department of Corrections operates the Columbia Correctional Institution . Three interstate highways, Interstate 94 , Interstate 90 , and Interstate 39 , run past Portage, giving the city a 30-minute commute to Madison and 15-minute commute to Wisconsin Dells . The city also lies only
640-551: A contentious political battleground region of Wisconsin in the past decade. Divided almost evenly between Republicans and Democrats, the area has bucked national trends by remaining relatively liberal despite a widespread shift in rural areas toward the Republican Party. But Republicans have steadily made gains in the area, with Trump winning the area in both the 2016 and 2020 presidential elections. Democrats have won some House, gubernatorial, and State Supreme Court races in
768-402: A dam or rapids, they would tie the rafts to the bank and the pilot and two to eight men would try taking a rapids-piece raft through. Dams were built then with a slide for rafts - a gap about 50 feet wide leading to a ramp of logs descending to the water below. A spectator described a raft going over a dam: The moment the bow entered the slide it was literally jerked down, and disappeared beneath
896-825: A few hours from Milwaukee , Chicago , and Minneapolis / Saint Paul, Minnesota . Portage station provides Amtrak service via the Empire Builder between Chicago and Seattle or Portland, with a train stopping in each direction daily. Freight railroad service is provided by the Canadian Pacific Railway which does business in the American Midwest as the Soo Line Railroad . Portage is served by intercity bus from Milwaukee via Madison and to Wisconsin Rapids via Stevens Point, with
1024-673: A gorge across bedrock cuestas , thereby forming the modern incised upper Mississippi River valley. The region has elevations ranging from 603 to 1,719 feet (184 to 524 m) at Blue Mound State Park , and together with the Driftless-like region, covers 24,000 square miles (62,200 km ). Retreating glaciers leave behind material called drift composed of silt, clay, sand, gravel, and boulders. Glacial drift includes unsorted material called till and layers deposited by meltwater streams called outwash . While drift from early ( pre-Illinoian ) glaciations has been found in some parts of
1152-679: A hill that overlooks the Portage Canal . The buildings now in the city's downtown were once part of a bustling, urban commercial center serving a large region across north central Wisconsin. The building of the city paralleled its commercial prominence between the end of the American Civil War and the second decade of the 20th century. Portage lies in the Wisconsin River valley. The city is surrounded by prairies and grasslands. Approximately three miles (5 km) west of
1280-554: A large scale" - before the Wolf and the Chippewa . The lumber industry in the Wisconsin River valley was heavily dependent on the river system until the coming of railroads in the 1870s. In winter, logging camps out in the forests felled trees, cut them into logs typically 16 feet long, and sledded them over icy trails to streambanks where they stacked them in "rollways." In spring, when melting snow raised water levels, lumberjacks rolled
1408-509: A male householder with no wife present, and 42.1% were non-families. 34.8% of all households were made up of individuals, and 14.1% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.27 and the average family size was 2.9. The median age in the city was 37.2 years. 22.1% of residents were under the age of 18; 8.6% were between the ages of 18 and 24; 30.6% were from 25 to 44; 24.8% were from 45 to 64; and 13.9% were 65 years of age or older. The gender makeup of
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#17327653872291536-475: A more suburban streetscape with a lower housing density. The city has two commercial areas. One is the downtown historic district, which features several small boutique shops and restaurants; the other is the Northridge commercial area that features big box stores. In the summer of 2007, the Portage Canal was cleaned up and now features a bike path that runs alongside part of it. In the summer of 2008,
1664-437: A place where even a pond can naturally form. There are also very few dams in that the valley walls and floors are very often fissured or crumbly, or very porous, providing very poor anchors for a dam or making it difficult to keep any kind of reservoir appropriately filled. There are no real waterfalls , but some very strong springs bear the name. A modern, man-made characteristic is the comparatively twisty nature of highways in
1792-629: A presence at Fort McCoy in Monroe County between Sparta and Tomah , immediately south of the Black River State Forest . The property is used mainly for military training exercises, although troops have also been based there for deployments overseas. The Coulee Region portion of the Driftless Area comprises much of Wisconsin's Western Upland geographical region. The most rugged part of Wisconsin's Driftless area
1920-466: A race down a narrow, quarter-mile gorge. Lumbermen tried to reduce the hazards on the river, building timber slides over rapids and dams, dynamiting troublesome points of rock, and building wing dams to focus the current. These improvements were initially made by individual companies, along with splash dams and lumber booms, but it became clear that these investments affected everyone and the burden should be shared and coordinated. To address these concerns,
2048-630: A stream to its confluence with the main-stem Mississippi can reach well past 650 feet (200 m) in only a few miles. The Waukon Municipal Airport is reliably established as being 1,281 feet (390 m) above sea level. The Army Corps of Engineers maintains a river level in Pool 9 of about 619 feet (189 m) above sea level, which covers Lansing . Maps and signs issued by the Iowa Department of Transportation indicate Waukon and Lansing are 17 miles (27 km) apart on Iowa Highway 9 . This
2176-613: A substantial diversion of water from the Great Lakes Basin and the Saint Lawrence River, reducing the inflow of fresh water into the North Atlantic with possible impacts to ocean currents and climate . The Mississippi River trench is one of the few places in the Driftless Area where the bedrock is very deep below the surface, and is overlaid by large amounts of sediment. As home to the formation of
2304-595: A substantial portion of the gorge of the Upper Mississippi, this enormous quantity of sediment goes down at least 300 feet (91 m) under the present riverbottom at the confluence of the Wisconsin River . In contrast, as the Mississippi exits the Driftless Area "between Fulton and Muscatine , [... ( Pool 13 )], it flows over or near bedrock." "The course of the upper Mississippi River along
2432-529: A trading post on the portage from the Wisconsin River to the Fox, at modern Portage. In 1828 the U.S. Army bought LeRoi's building and built Fort Winnebago at his strategic site - the army's third fort in what would become Wisconsin. To build the new fort, one of the officers from the fort led a party up the Wisconsin River, then up its tributary the Yellow to cut pine logs. In the spring of 1829 he and his men floated
2560-400: A variety of fish species. Recreational opportunities on the lower Wisconsin River range from fishing and canoeing to tubing and camping. Canoe camping is particularly popular because of the abundance of suitable sandbars along the riverway and because no permits are required. On summer weekends, naturists can be found on Mazo Beach which is north of the village of Mazomanie . According to
2688-513: Is Richard J. Dorer Memorial Hardwood State Forest , which contains some state-owned land, but is mostly private, controlled by state conservation easements. Around 85% of the Driftless Area lies within Wisconsin, comprising much of the southwestern quarter of the state. The border is defined by the catchment of the Chippewa River on the north, and somewhat west (or east, depending on if the southwestern portion of Wisconsin's Central Plain
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#17327653872292816-606: Is 13 feet but was recorded as high as 23 feet during the 2018 flood which was declared a statewide emergency. Many community members were rescued by boats sent by the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources . Days later, when two dams in Ontario, Wisconsin broke, it produced flood water downstream in Readstown, Wisconsin , Soldiers Grove, Wisconsin , and Gays Mills, Wisconsin . The history of this portion of
2944-476: Is a drop of more than 660 feet (200 m) in less than 20 miles (32 km) (and this along a very minor tributary of the Mississippi). "The role of isostatic rebound on the process of stream incision in the area is not clearly understood." There are many small towns in the Driftless Area, especially in river valleys, at or upstream from the Mississippi. Small towns in a deep steep valley going down to
3072-454: Is a multi-agency cooperative effort to restore the landscape. The main issues are water pollution from agricultural and animal runoff, and erosion. Many farmers in the region utilize contour plowing , strip cropping , and other agricultural practices to reduce soil erosion due to the hilly terrain. Water pollution is critical in karsted regions such as this, in that it can degrade or destroy prime cold water fish habitat. Soil erosion presents
3200-451: Is a state-funded project designed to protect the southern portion of the Wisconsin River. It extends 93 miles (150 km) from Sauk City to the point where the Wisconsin River empties into the Mississippi, about 3 miles (4.8 km) south of the city of Prairie du Chien . The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources manages protected lands of over 75,000 acres (300 km), including the river itself, islands, and some lands adjacent to
3328-469: Is also called the Ocooch Mountains . Largely rural in character, land cover is forest, farmland, and grassland/pasture; modest wetlands are found in river valleys, and along the Mississippi. Row crop farming is less encountered than elsewhere in the state. Away from the Mississippi, Wisconsin, and other major rivers, much of the terrain is gently rolling, supporting dairy farms. In other areas,
3456-548: Is also interested. The Driftless Area contains more than half of the world's algific talus slopes , a type of small, isolated ecosystem. These refugia create cool summer and fall microclimates which host species usually found further north. They contain at least one endangered species , the Iowa Pleistocene Snail , and a threatened plant, the Northern monkshood . The Driftless Area National Wildlife Refuge
3584-490: Is characterized "by the absence of glacial drift deposits, the sculpted topography, and the presence of the ancient limestone immediately beneath the soil and in cliff outcroppings." The Minnesota Driftless Area did not reach the Twin Cities or any areas to the north or west of them; rather, the Twin Cities marked the edge of glaciation, with substantial terminal moraines overlying the region. The largest protected area
3712-514: Is flatter than the Blufflands. The Coulee Region is the southwestern part of the Driftless Area in Wisconsin. It is named for its numerous ravines. Never covered by ice during the last ice age , the area lacks the characteristic glacial deposits known as drift . Its landscape is characterized by steep hills, forested ridges, deeply carved river valleys, and karst geology with spring-fed waterfalls and cold-water trout streams. Ecologically,
3840-536: Is included) of the north-south line of the Wisconsin River . Where the Wisconsin River turns west to join the Mississippi, the area to the south, including the whole of Grant County as well as most of Lafayette County , are part of the Driftless Area. The rugged terrain comprising most of the Driftless Area is distinct from the rest of Wisconsin, and is known locally as the Coulee Region. The steep ridges, numerous rock outcroppings, and deep, narrow valleys in
3968-583: Is made from unpasteurized milk. Organic dairy generally fits best with a grass-based milk production system. The bioregion's economic and cultural characteristics were federally recognized with the granting of the Upper Mississippi River Valley (UMRV) viticultural area, the largest designated winemaking region in the country, by the Treasury Division's Tax and Trade Bureau in 2009. The petition for designation maintains
Wisconsin River - Misplaced Pages Continue
4096-808: Is the longest river in the state, arising at the Michigan border in the northeast and emptying into the Mississippi River far to the southwest near Prairie du Chien. It originates in the forests of the North Woods Lake District in Lac Vieux Desert on the border with the Upper Peninsula of Michigan . It flows south across the glacial plain of central Wisconsin, passing through Wausau , Stevens Point , and Wisconsin Rapids . In southern Wisconsin, it encounters
4224-439: Is the rising of fishflies , a kind of mayfly endemic to the Mississippi valley in the region. These are aquatic insects attracted to light, which rise by the millions as adults to mate, only to die within hours. Wildlife is abundant with opportunities for hunting whitetail deer and wild turkey . Fishing, particularly for brown trout , brook trout , and rainbow trout in tributaries, and species such as channel catfish in
4352-584: The Army Corps of Engineers with a problem that requires them to dredge the Mississippi River shipping channels to keep them open. Trout Unlimited is part of this effort, if only because of the superb cold-water streams the region supports. A symposium was held in October 2007 in Decorah, Iowa , "to share the results of research, management and monitoring work in the Driftless Area." The Nature Conservancy
4480-477: The Boaz mastodon , a composite skeleton of two separate mastodons found in the 1890s in southwestern Wisconsin . Although evidence exists that mastodons inhabited mostly coniferous spruce forests associated with the taiga biome , it is likely that most or all of the Driftless Area was at times covered by tundra and permafrost during periods of glacial maximums . The Midwest Driftless Area Restoration Effort
4608-605: The Door Peninsula . The hypothesis posits that the flow of the ancient Wyalusing River was ultimately captured by the ancestral Mississippi River to the south when that river eroded through the Military Ridge near Wyalusing State Park , possibly as a result of an ancient ice sheet in a previous continental glaciation blocking the Wyalusing River to the east. The resulting proglacial lake would have filled
4736-574: The Erie Canal , completed in 1825, revived old ideas of how the Fox River and Wisconsin River, which Marquette and Joliet and their Indian guides had traversed 150 years before, could provide a shortcut between the Mississippi valley and the Great Lakes . In 1839 some preliminary surveying was done to assess possibilities and cost. In the 1840s and 50s Congress approved land grants to finance
4864-482: The Fox-Wisconsin Waterway , formed a major transportation route between the Great Lakes and the Mississippi River. When Marquette's company entered the Wisconsin River in their two canoes, he wrote: The river on which we embarked is called Meskousing . It is very wide; it has a sandy bottom, which forms various shoals that rend its navigation very difficult. This is the first recorded mention of
4992-595: The Helena shot tower on the lower Wisconsin around the same time. A few years later in 1836 the Menominee ceded some of their land to the US government. Most of this land was in northeast Wisconsin, but the U.S. negotiator pressed them to also cede a six-mile-wide strip along the Wisconsin River from the future site of Nekoosa up to Big Bull Falls ( Wausau ). He pressed for this land because its pine stood within easy reach of
5120-630: The Tomahawk River , and the Pelican River . The river borders Adams, Juneau, Columbia, Sauk, Dane, Iowa, Richland, Grant, and Crawford Counties. The modern Wisconsin River was formed in several stages. Most recent was the northernmost segment of the river, from the source to around modern Merrill . During the last ice age an ice sheet crept down from Canada, and a section called the Wisconsin Valley Lobe bulged down
5248-596: The University of Wisconsin-Madison Center for Integrated Agricultural Systems, is a coalition of sustainable-agriculture farmers, processors, distributors, chefs, planning commissions, and other participants. The project seeks to define the culinary identity of the region and further direct the development of agritourism . Fine-grained silica sand is typical of the Driftless and is mined for use primarily in hydraulic fracturing , commonly known as "fracking". Due to
Wisconsin River - Misplaced Pages Continue
5376-553: The Upper Mississippi River dates back to an origin "as an ice-marginal stream during what had been referred to as the ' Nebraskan glaciation .'" This is an outdated and abandoned period in the Pre-Illinoian Stage . The level of erosion often exposes Cambrian limestone of about 510 million years of age. Evidence from soil borings and recent lidar imagery in the lower Wisconsin River valley in
5504-885: The Wisconsin Glaciation involved several major lobes of the Laurentide Ice Sheet: the Des Moines lobe, which flowed down toward Des Moines on the west; the Superior lobe and its sublobes on the north; and the Green Bay lobe and Lake Michigan lobes on the east. The northern and eastern lobes were in part diverted around the area by the Watersmeet Dome, an ancient uplifted area of Cambrian rock underlain by basalt in northern Wisconsin and western upper Michigan . The southward movement of
5632-603: The terminal moraine formed during the last ice age , where it flows through the Dells of the Wisconsin River . North of Madison at Portage the river turns to the west, flowing through Wisconsin's hilly Western Upland and joining the Mississippi approximately 3 miles (4.8 km) south of Prairie du Chien . Before the Grandfather Falls dam was built in Lincoln County , that series of rapids constituted
5760-515: The "banked" logs into the river and log driving crews rode them downstream, breaking up log jams and retrieving those that got tangled in sloughs. In 1879 logs jammed the river near Wausau, backing up for four miles. The logging companies built special splash dams to raise water levels when the natural spring floods weren't enough. As driven logs reached the sawmills, log booms in the river were used to capture floating logs and sort them to their appropriate owners. Sawmills were more scattered along
5888-548: The 2020s. Corresponding to the southeast geological region of Minnesota , the colloquial "Driftless Area" (though the whole region was glaciated) begins at about Fort Snelling . Starting as a narrow sliver against the Mississippi, it widens to the west as one goes south. The western boundary is the Bemis-Altamont moraine. Another more easily located reference to the western boundary is the approximate line of Minnesota State Highway 56 . The upland plateau lies west of
6016-622: The Driftless Area are in marked contrast with the rest of the state, where glaciers have modified the landscape. The hilly unglaciated landscape is well represented in Wisconsin's Coulee Experimental State Forest , Wildcat Mountain State Park , Governor Dodge State Park , Perrot State Park , and the Kickapoo Valley Reserve. Karst topography is most prominent in Wisconsin. Eagle Cave in Blue River, WI and Cave of
6144-481: The Driftless Area's flora and fauna are more closely related to those of the Great Lakes region and New England than those of the broader Midwest and central Plains regions. The steep riverine landscape of both the Driftless Area proper and the surrounding Driftless-like region is the result of early glacial advances that forced preglacial rivers that flowed into the Great Lakes southward, causing them to carve
6272-470: The Driftless area suggests that the river in the valley once flowed eastward, rather than its existing westerly course toward its confluence with the Mississippi River. This has led to the hypothesis that the ancient Upper Mississippi River (also named the Wyalusing River) at one time flowed east through the Wisconsin River valley and into the Great Lakes / Saint Laurence River system somewhere near
6400-644: The Driftless area was covered by or bordered by Glacial Lake Wisconsin during the Wisconsin glaciation . The steep-sided rocky bluffs present in Roche-a-Cri State Park and Mill Bluff State Park are Cambrian outliers of the Franconia cuesta to the southwest and were once islands or sea stacks in the ancient lake. The flat plain in which these bluffs lie is located in the southwest portion of Wisconsin's Central Plain geographic region, and
6528-401: The Fox River, nearly to its headwaters. From there, they were told to portage their canoes a distance of slightly less than two miles through marsh and oak plains to the Wisconsin River. Later, French fur traders described the place as "le portage", which eventually lent itself to the name of the community. As a portage, this community developed as a center of commerce and trade; later, a canal
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#17327653872296656-573: The Little Bull Falls Boom Company was formed in 1852. In 1856 a larger Wisconsin River Boom Company was formed. When the rafts reached Point Basse below Wisconsin Rapids, they entered a tamer sand-bottomed part of the river. The crews joined three rapids-piece rafts side-by-side into larger rafts 48 feet wide and 100 feet long, called "Wisconsin rafts." From this point, the pilot led a string of rafts slowly down
6784-543: The Miami language, argued that Meskousing is a rendering of "river running through a red place" in the language of the two Miami guides who spoke to Marquette. They were probably referring to the reddish sandstone along the river, like at the Dells. The fur trade reached up the Wisconsin and its tributaries, with traders like John Baptiste Du Bay and Amable Grignon establishing posts along the river where they traded goods like knives and beads with Indians for furs. Franci LeRoi ran
6912-691: The Mississippi are at risk every 50 to 100 years or so of a major flood, as with the wreck of Gays Mills, Wisconsin , in August 2007, or the holding of the levee in Houston, Minnesota , (on the South Fork Root River ) at the same time. Metropolitan areas have flood walls ( See 2007 Midwest flooding ). In August 2018, the region yet again experienced record-breaking flooding in valley towns such as Coon Valley, Wisconsin , La Farge, Wisconsin and Viola, Wisconsin . The Kickapoo River flood stage
7040-400: The Mississippi is available, with ice fishing in winter. The Driftless Area is part of the Mississippi Flyway . Many birds fly over the river in large flocks, going north in spring and south in autumn. There are very few natural lakes in the region, these being found in adjoining areas of glacial till, drift, and in moraines; the region is extraordinarily well drained, and there is rarely
7168-399: The Mounds , near Blue Mounds, WI , are better known examples. The Driftless Area is located in all or part of Pierce , Pepin , Eau Claire , Buffalo , Trempealeau , Jackson , La Crosse , Monroe , Juneau , Vernon , Richland , Sauk , Crawford , Iowa , Dane , Green , Grant , and Lafayette counties. If the less restrictive definition of the Driftless Area is used (which includes
7296-442: The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, two thirds of river users can be found on the stretch between Prairie du Sac and Spring Green . Portage, Wisconsin Portage is a city in and the county seat of Columbia County, Wisconsin , United States. The population was 10,581 at the 2020 census, making it the largest city in Columbia County. The city is part of the Madison Metropolitan Statistical Area . Portage
7424-404: The Wisconsin River is the hardest working river in the nation. Twenty-five hydroelectric power plants operate on the upper part of the river, above Prairie du Sac. In total, these power plants use 645 feet of the river's drop to generate nearly one billion kilowatt-hours of renewable electricity a year — enough energy to power the homes of over 300,000 people - with minimal pollution. Despite this,
7552-517: The Wisconsin River, which drained Glacial Lake Wisconsin , and Glacial River Warren (whose bed is occupied by the Minnesota River ), which drained the colossal Glacial Lake Agassiz . There was ample water to dig a very deep, hundreds-of-miles-long gash into the North American bedrock where the Upper Mississippi River now flows. The climate is humid continental , displaying both the cool summer and warm summer subtypes as one travels from north to south. The United States Department of Agriculture has
7680-403: The Wisconsin river until its bottom had been fully lathed and plastered." And railroads finally finished the canal scheme, criss-crossing much of the state by the 1860s and providing a means of hauling freight that ran in winter when the rivers were frozen and in summer when they were low. In the mid-1800s the northern half of the Wisconsin watershed held large stands of virgin pine forest. Far to
7808-414: The Wisconsin than other rivers because the Wisconsin presented more challenges to driving logs. That is, on other major rivers the sawmills were concentrated at Oshkosh , La Crosse , Chippewa Falls and Eau Claire , and Stillwater ; but on the Wisconsin, mills were strung out from Wisconsin Rapids up through Merrill, so that the logs wouldn't have to be driven so far. The earliest sawmills were powered by
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#17327653872297936-402: The Wisconsin. This was soon shut down by the army because Whitney didn't have proper permission to harvest timber from Indian lands. At that point, northern Wisconsin was still owned by several Indian nations. After obtaining better permissions, entrepreneur Whitney moved on to build the first sawmill on the Wisconsin River in 1831 or 1832 10 miles (16 km) downstream from Wisconsin Rapids, and
8064-406: The Wyalusing River valley until it overtopped the Military Ridge, ultimately carving through the ridge and draining the lake. This resulted in the ancient Upper Mississippi River changing course and flowing south toward the Gulf of Mexico , instead of east into the Saint Lawrence River and the North Atlantic Ocean . The stream capture hypothesis for the Upper Mississippi River would have produced
8192-459: The area, as it was the outlet for Glacial Lake Duluth , forerunner to Lake Superior , when the eastern outlet was blocked by the continental ice sheet. All major rivers in and adjacent to the Driftless Area have deep, dramatic canyons giving testimony to the immense quantity of water which once surged through them as a result of the nearby melting Glaciers associated with the miles-high Ice sheets during recurring Ice ages . Other examples include
8320-406: The average family size was 2.96. In the city, the population was spread out, with 23.3% under the age of 18, 10.6% from 18 to 24, 31.7% from 25 to 44, 19.3% from 45 to 64, and 15.2% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 36 years. For every 100 females, there were 106.1 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 108.7 males. The median income for a household in the city
8448-435: The bedrock beneath is pre-Cambrian igneous and metamorphic rock - hard-to-erode stuff that produces frequent rapids. The next segment, from Wisconsin Rapids to the Baraboo Hills , flows through a sand plain. Though the last ice sheet stopped around Merrill, another lobe of the ice sheet to the east reached far to the south, butting up against the east end of the Baraboo Hills. With drainage blocked, water backed up north of
8576-439: The city are the Baraboo bluffs. According to the United States Census Bureau , the city has a total area of 9.62 square miles (24.92 km ), of which, 8.82 square miles (22.84 km ) is land and 0.8 square miles (2.07 km ) is water. The location of the town at the split of the Wisconsin and Fox river is what gives it the name "Portage", which means carrying a boat and its cargo between two navigable waters. In addition to
8704-588: The city was 53.7% male and 46.3% female. As of the census of 2000, there were 9,728 people, 3,770 households, and 2,228 families living in the city. The population density was 1,172.9 people per square mile (453.1/km ). There were 3,970 housing units at an average density of 478.7 per square mile (184.9/km ). The racial makeup of the city was 92.76% European-American , 3.90% African American , 0.51% Native American , 0.71% Asian , 0.05% Pacific Islander , 0.85% from other races , and 1.21% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino people of any race were 3.39% of
8832-423: The city was 90.9% White , 5% African American , 0.9% Native American , 0.8% Asian , 0.7% from other races , and 1.6% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino people of any race were 4.0% of the population. There were 4,060 households, of which 31% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 40.5% were married couples living together, 11.9% had a female householder with no husband present, 5.4% had
8960-517: The continental glacier was also hindered by the great depths of the Lake Superior basin and the adjacent highlands of the Bayfield Peninsula , Gogebic Range , Porcupine Mountains , Keweenaw Peninsula , and the Huron Mountains along the north rim of the Superior Upland bordering Lake Superior. The Green Bay and Lake Michigan lobes were also partially blocked by the bedrock of the Door Peninsula , which presently separates Green Bay from Lake Michigan . Another factor that may have contributed to
9088-402: The current, when a sudden breeze made a raft miss a slide, or by a poorly designed slide. It was reported that forty raftsmen drowned in 1872. The most notorious rapids were Big Bull Falls (future Wausau), Conant's Rapids (Stevens Point), and Grand Rapids (future Wisconsin Rapids), but many thought Little Bull Falls (future Mosinee) was the most dangerous, with a 16-foot ledge in the river starting
9216-536: The deposition of loess. The sedimentary rocks of the valley walls date to the Paleozoic Era and are often covered with colluvium or loess. Bedrock , where not directly exposed, is very near the surface and is composed of "primarily Ordovician dolomite , limestone , and sandstone in Minnesota, with Cambrian sandstone, shale , and dolomite exposed along the valley walls of the Mississippi River." In
9344-445: The earth through fractured bedrock or a sinkhole, either joining an aquifer , or becoming an underground stream. Blind valleys are formed by disappearing streams and lack an outlet to any other stream. Sinkholes result from the collapse of a cave's roof, and surface water can flow directly into them. Disappearing streams can re-emerge as large, cold springs. Cold streams with cold springs as their sources are superb trout habitat. Due to
9472-634: The east, the Baraboo Range , an ancient, profoundly eroded monadnock in south central Wisconsin , consists primarily of Precambrian quartzite and rhyolite . The area has not undergone much tectonic action, as all the visible layers of sedimentary rock are approximately horizontal. Karst topography is found throughout the Driftless area. This is characterized by caves and cave systems, disappearing streams , blind valleys , underground streams , sinkholes , springs , and cold streams. Disappearing streams occur where surface waters sink down into
9600-596: The extreme northwestern corner of Illinois . The Driftless Area is a USDA Level III Ecoregion: Ecoregion 52 . The Driftless Area takes up a large portion of the Upper Midwest forest–savanna transition . The eastern section of the Driftless Area in Minnesota is called the Blufflands , due to the steep bluffs and cliffs around the river valleys. The western half is known as the Rochester Plateau, which
9728-669: The federal government has jurisdiction for dams on the river. Dams that include hydropower facilities are regulated by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission . Courts have ruled that despite the fact that the river lies entirely in one state, it nevertheless historically carried goods to markets in other states and therefore is subject to the commerce clause of the United States Constitution . Courts have also ruled that raw logs, even if merely carried via log drives to mills within
9856-617: The gap and poured through, carving the Wisconsin Dells and cutting the start of the river's channel through the sand plain. Subsequent erosion has further cut that channel through the flat plain. The lower, westward-flowing portion of the river, between the Baraboo Hills and the Mississippi, is probably the oldest section. Passing through the Driftless Area , it was never covered by a glacier. The western, lower end of
9984-492: The headwaters of the Fox River - modern-day Portage. From there, they portaged their two canoes slightly less than two miles through marsh and oak plains to the Wisconsin River. They then continued downstream 200 miles (320 km) to the Wisconsin's mouth, entering the Mississippi on June 17. Other explorers and traders would follow the same route, and for the next 150 years the Wisconsin and Fox rivers, collectively known as
10112-404: The hills, forming Glacial Lake Wisconsin , which reached from modern Baraboo north to Wisconsin Rapids. As the ice sheet receded, meltwater carried sand and silt ground by the glacier into the lake, where the water slowed and its sediment settled to form a fairly flat lake bed. When warming began to melt back the ice against the Baraboo Hills, about 18,000 years ago, the flowing water quickly opened
10240-510: The ice, starting in January. (Rafts on other rivers like the Chippewa and St. Croix were built lighter and less flexible, since those rivers were less demanding than the rapids and dams of the upper Wisconsin.) When the ice was out and the river's water level was high enough, a fleet of twenty or forty of these 100-foot-long rafts would set out under the direction of a pilot. When they came to
10368-529: The improvement of the rivers. Work proceeded slowly, done by the government and a succession of private canal companies. In 1854, the first steamship, the Aquila came up from the Mississippi, crossed the canal at Portage, and descended the locks of the Fox to Green Bay. But the upper Fox was shallow and winding. Even less fixable was the lower Wisconsin, with its shallow, shifting sandbars. A railroad executive observed wryly that "navigation could never be secured upon
10496-576: The incised tributaries to the Mississippi. The historic vegetation was mixed woodland, with occasional goat prairies on southwesterly facing slopes. In the western section is "an old plateau covered by loess [...] along the eastern border and pre-Wisconsin age glacial till in the central and western parts. The western portion is a gently rolling glacial till plain that is covered by loess in places." The counties involved include all or part of Dakota , Goodhue , Rice , Wabasha , Winona , Olmsted , Dodge , Houston , Fillmore , and Mower . Aside from
10624-439: The joints as it went over a rapids or dam - a bit like a string of roller-coaster cars 16 feet wide and 100 feet long, with heavy bumper logs across the front and back, and "spring poles" along each side to tip the front crib up a bit. A long steering oar was mounted on the front of the raft and another on the back, each 36 to 50 feet long. Then the top of the raft was loaded with lath and shingles. Sometimes these rafts were built on
10752-480: The lack of glaciation of the Driftless area is the fractured, permeable bedrock within the Paleozoic Plateau underlying it, which would have promoted below-ground drainage of subglacial water that would otherwise have lubricated the underside of the glacial ice sheet. The dewatering of the underside of the ice sheet would have inhibited forward movement of the glacier into the Driftless Area, especially from
10880-401: The landscape. Prairies also occurred on steep slopes with south or southwest aspect ( see goat prairie ). Natural fire, which has long been vigorously suppressed, was essential for the regeneration of such prairies. Evidence of ancient extinct ice age animals that once inhabited the Driftless Area has been discovered over the years. An example of extinct Pleistocene megafauna in the area is
11008-1060: The largest drop in a short distance on the river. Over the course of a mile and a half, the river dropped 89.5 feet. Major tributaries of the Wisconsin are the following, working upstream from the Mississippi: the Kickapoo River , the Pine River, the Baraboo River , the Lemonweir River , the Yellow River , the Little Eau Pleine River the Big Eau Pleine River , the Eau Claire River , the Big Rib River ,
11136-675: The logs down to Portage to use in building the fort. That officer was Lt. Jefferson Davis - future president of the Confederacy during the Civil War. Indian territories shifted over time, but just prior to European settlement, the Ojibwe dominated the upper section above modern Wausau, the Menominee the middle section from Wausau to Portage, and the Ho-Chunk the lower section from Portage to Prairie du Chien. The economic success of
11264-625: The lowlands between the Fox and Wisconsin Rivers as a natural " portage ". This is reflected in indigenous names for the town, such as the Menominee name Kahkāmohnakaneh , which means "at the short cut". In May 1673, Jacques Marquette joined the expedition of Louis Jolliet , a French-Canadian explorer, to find the Mississippi River . They departed from St. Ignace on May 17, with two canoes and five voyageurs of French-Indian ancestry ( Métis ). They followed Lake Michigan to Green Bay and up
11392-646: The main downtown street was redone. Historical landmarks of the city include the Museum at the Portage, the Indian Agency house , and the Surgeons Quarters . As of the census of 2010, there were 10,324 people, 4,060 households, and 2,349 families living in the city. The population density was 1,170.5 inhabitants per square mile (451.9/km ). There were 4,493 housing units at an average density of 509.4 per square mile (196.7/km ). The racial makeup of
11520-490: The margin of the Driftless Area of southeastern Minnesota is believed to have been established during pre-Wisconsin time, when a glacial advance from the west displaced the river eastward from central Iowa to its present position." Other rivers affected by this geologic process are: Although lying just to the north of the Driftless Area, the Saint Croix in Wisconsin and Minnesota is another important river that affected
11648-488: The name that evolved into "Wisconsin," which the state ended up taking. Sieur de La Salle misread Marquette's elaborate 'M' as "Ou" and wrote the name as "Ouisconsin." In the 1800s Americans anglicized the spelling to "Wisconsin." Antiquarians have long sought the meaning of Meskousing/Wisconsin. Indians and early French residents offered meanings ranging from "stream of a thousand isles" to "gathering of waters" to "muskrat house." In 2003 Michael McCafferty, who specializes in
11776-436: The paleozoic plateau, following the original drainage patterns. Overall, the region is characterized by an eroded plateau , with bedrock overlain by varying thicknesses of loess . Most characteristically, the branching river valleys are deeply dissected. The bluffs lining this reach of the Mississippi River climb to nearly 600 feet (180 m). In Minnesota, pre-Illinoian-age till was probably removed by natural means prior to
11904-408: The population. There were 3,770 households, out of which 30.1% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 44.5% were married couples living together, 10.7% had a female householder with no husband present, and 40.9% were non-families. 34.5% of all households were made up of individuals, and 14.4% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.3 and
12032-466: The position that the region is a cohesive whole for marketing wine, and is now used to market other products. In addition to wine-grape production and wine-making, the region, especially in southeast Minnesota, is known for apple, maple syrup, and honey production. Tobacco was also once a key crop of the Driftless, as its topography and sandy, nutrient-rich soil are suitable for its growth. The Driftless Region Food and Farm Project, in partnership with
12160-402: The presence of sandstone bedrock at or near the surface, sand mining is an industrial activity in the Driftless, with Wisconsin at the forefront of the industry. The sandstone contains quartz (silica) sand grains of the ideal hardness, shape, and size, which make it optimal for use in hydraulic fracturing by the petroleum and natural gas industries. The mining activity involves quarrying
12288-517: The prominence of industry has raised concerns about impacts on water quality, air pollution caused by silica dust, noise and light pollution , heavy truck traffic, and the destruction of hills and ridges for which the region is known. Recently , industry changes have caused companies such as Hi-Crush, Covia , Superior Silica Sands— all with operations in Wisconsin—to liquidate their frac sand mines and declare bankruptcy. The Driftless Area has become
12416-520: The rapid movement of underground water through regions with karst topography, groundwater contamination is a major concern in the Driftless area. The Mississippi River passes through the Driftless Area between and including Pool 2 and Pool 13 . As rivers and streams approach their confluence with the Mississippi, their canyons grow progressively steeper and deeper, particularly in the last 25 miles (40 km) in their journey to their mouths. The change in elevation above sea level from ridgetops lining
12544-422: The region falling mainly in zone 5a , with the northern fringe being 4b. A few patches in Wisconsin are 4a. Prior to European settlement in the 19th century, the vegetation consisted of tallgrass prairie and bur oak savanna on ridgetops and dry upper slopes, sugar maple - basswood - oak forest on moister slopes, sugar maple-basswood forests in protected valleys and on north-facing slopes, wet prairies along
12672-466: The region has generated much public interest in the organic and artisanal food market. Organic dairy and beef production is of particular economic significance to the Driftless. Organic Valley , the largest organic dairy cooperative in the United States, was founded and is headquartered in La Farge, Wisconsin. The region's cheese production boasts specialty cheeses such as raw-milk artisan cheese, which
12800-514: The region, much of the incised Paleozoic Plateau of Wisconsin and northwestern Illinois has no evidence of glaciation. Numerous glacial advances throughout the world occurred during the most recent Quaternary glaciation (also known as the Pleistocene glaciation). The Upper Midwest and Great Lakes region of North America was repeatedly covered by advancing and retreating glaciers throughout this period. The Driftless Area escaped much of
12928-601: The region, such as in Kentucky , in contrast to the usually rigid east-west/north-south alignment elsewhere in the Midwest. Here, the roads switchback up stream valleys or travel over ridge tops. The route of U.S. Highway 20 through the Driftless, and particularly in Illinois, is a good example. The natural characteristics of the Driftless Area provide good conditions for growing crops and grazing livestock. In recent years,
13056-502: The river didn't flow. Nevertheless, rafting remained cheaper transport than railroads, and continued for some years. The last lumber rafts went down the Wisconsin River in 1888, from the sawmill at Biron , heading for St. Louis. Later, in the first half of the 20th century, more dams were constructed to provide for flood control and hydroelectricity . The dams also spurred tourism, creating reservoirs such as Lake Wisconsin that are popular areas for recreational boating and fishing. Today,
13184-546: The river is narrower than its upstream valley, leading to the suggestion that an ancestor river once flowed east through this segment. Native Americans had long used the Wisconsin as a highway through the forests, canoeing and fishing it, living along its banks and burying their dead there. At times they fought, but they also met to trade, and several tribes could share the same hunting grounds. In 1673, French missionary Jacques Marquette , French-Canadian explorer Louis Joliet , five voyageurs , and two Miami guides arrived near
13312-409: The river via waterwheels and turbines at dams. After being sawed, most of the lumber was rafted to markets down the river. For example, after a Wausau sawmill sawed a 16-foot log into 16-foot boards, the boards were bound into 16 by 16-foot "cribs" twelve to twenty inches deep - floating packets of boards. Six or seven of these cribs were connected into a long, narrow "rapids piece", which could flex at
13440-406: The river, and the river flowed toward parts of Wisconsin (and beyond) that needed lumber. Once the treaty was signed, lumbermen rushed in looking for good mill sites. They found many, because the river had plenty of fall over the hard bedrock in this section. By 1839, all the sites were taken as far north as Big Bull Falls. Of the state's river drainages, the Wisconsin was the first "to be exploited on
13568-488: The river. In 2020 the riverway was designated as a protected Ramsar site . There are no dams or man-made obstructions to the natural flow of water between the hydroelectric dam just north of Sauk City and the confluence of the Wisconsin and the Mississippi. This long stretch of free-flowing river provides important natural habitats for a variety of wildlife, including white-tail deer , North American river otters , beavers , turtles , sandhill cranes , eagles , hawks , and
13696-460: The rivers, and some mesic prairie on the floodplain farther back from the river. There were probably also oak forests that contained no sugar maple. Marsh and floodplain forests were also common on river flood plains. Prairie was restricted primarily to the broader ridge tops, which were unfavorable sites for trees due to thin soils and shallow bedrock, rapid drainage, and desiccating winds; all these conditions were also good for carrying fires across
13824-422: The rivers, the city has access to Swan Lake and Silver Lake. When Portage was first established, the streets were laid out on a traditional grid system. Today, the streets of the outlying city are contorted as a result of the many marshes and lowlands that run through much of Columbia County. The northern side of the city thus looks different from the central city, with the organized grid street system giving way to
13952-401: The rugged nature of the topography in the region is not conducive to farming, except on ridge tops and in river valleys. The sides of the ridges are often too steep for farming, and are usually forested. The Coulee Experimental State Forest near La Crosse was created in part to test soil conservation practices to prevent soil erosion in the hilly Driftless Area. The northeastern portion of
14080-432: The sandstone bedrock by blasting with dynamite , crushing the rock, washing, drying, and grading the resulting sand, and transporting the sand out of the region via barge or train. In 2017, there were 73 frac sand mines in operation in Wisconsin alone, and there are currently five operating industrial sand mines in Minnesota; the proliferation of sand mines in the region created new jobs and generated economic activity. But
14208-541: The scouring and depositional action by the continental glaciers that occurred during the last ice age, which produced significant differences in the topography and drainage patterns within the unglaciated area compared to adjacent glaciated regions. The region has been subjected to large floods from the melting Laurentide Ice Sheet and subsequent catastrophic discharges from its proglacial lakes , such as Glacial Lake Wisconsin , Glacial Lake Agassiz , Glacial Lake Grantsburg , and Glacial Lake Duluth . The last phases of
14336-476: The south on the savannas of southern Wisconsin and the treeless prairies of Iowa, Illinois and Missouri, settlers needed lumber to build their barns and houses. In that era before trucks or even roads, the Wisconsin River offered a way to move lumber from the forests to markets downstream - an efficient way! In 1827-28 Daniel Whitney started a shingle-making operation near where the Yellow River flowed into
14464-762: The southeastern suburban sprawl of the Twin Cities , Rochester is the main urban area. Additional communities include Red Wing , Lake City , Winona , La Crescent , Chatfield , Lanesboro , Rushford , Houston , and Caledonia . Glacial River Warren , in whose bed the Minnesota River now flows, entered the "Driftless Area" just downriver from present-day Minneapolis-Saint Paul , at Fort Snelling , over River Warren Falls , "an impressive 2700 feet (823 m) across and 175 feet (53 m) tall, over 10 times as wide as Niagara falls" (this has since receded to become Saint Anthony Falls ). The region
14592-474: The state, constitute commerce. On the basis of these judgments, the Wisconsin River is considered a navigable waterway throughout its entire length. This designation does not generally have bearing on recreational use of the river. Boat registrations and fishing licenses are obtained through the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources , for example. The Lower Wisconsin River State Riverway
14720-484: The unglaciated southwestern portion of Wisconsin's Central Plain ), then Adams and portions of southern Wood and Portage counties are also included. La Crosse is the principal urban area wholly within the Driftless Area, while the larger Madison 's far western suburbs are located on the edges of the area. Small cities and towns are scattered throughout the region. Numerous Amish settlements are also located within Wisconsin's Driftless Area. The U.S. Army maintains
14848-407: The valley that would become the Wisconsin River to near Merrill . As the climate warmed and that ice sheet receded about 14,000 years ago, meltwater drained down the valley, eventually cutting a course similar to the modern river. The next segment, from Merrill to around Wisconsin Rapids, was probably formed as earlier glaciers retreated, hundreds of thousands of years ago. Like the northern segment,
14976-429: The west. In the adjacent glaciated regions, the glacial retreat left behind drift, which buried all former topographical features. Surface water was forced to carve out new stream beds. This process was absent in the Driftless Area, where the original drainage systems persisted during and after the ice age. Water erosion continued carving the existing gullies , ravines , stream beds, and river valleys ever deeper into
15104-450: The wild waters. [Pilot Jack Hawn's] men were lifted off their feet, thrown back upon the raft. Hawn for a moment was overboard, but was caught and pulled aboard - all came out right, the men thoroughly soaked, yet saved the raft. Later in the same day Hawn and Jas. Mowe saved by their daring and skillful handling of a skiff the life of a poor fellow clinging to one of the new piers. Many rafts were wrecked and men drowned when someone misjudged
15232-564: The winding river, trying to avoid shifting sandbars. The Dells still presented hazards, and some rafts were smashed there, but nothing like on the upper Wisconsin. Below the Dells, railroad bridges were a hazard, along with sandbars. When the rafts reached the Mississippi, they were all joined together into a huge "Mississippi raft," and proceeded downriver. Most of them went to St. Louis, where they were disassembled and sold to lumber yards. The whole trip from central Wisconsin to St. Louis took from three weeks to all summer, depending on how much water
15360-417: Was $ 35,815, and the median income for a family was $ 44,804. Males had a median income of $ 33,158 versus $ 23,478 for females. The per capita income for the city was $ 18,039. About 4.6% of families and 7.2% of the population were below the poverty line , including 7.5% of those under age 18 and 7.8% of those age 65 or over. Portage Community School District serves Portage. Portage High School (Wisconsin)
15488-506: Was constructed to facilitate this trade. When the railroads came through, the community continued in this role. Portage emerged at this place because of its unique position along the one and a half mile strip of marshy floodplain between the Fox and Wisconsin Rivers. By the end of the 17th century, the Fox-Wisconsin waterway, linked at the Portage, served as the major fur trade thoroughfare between Green Bay and Prairie du Chien . It
15616-470: Was flowing and the skill of the raftsmen. The lumber output of the Wisconsin River valley grew from 6.25 million board feet in 1840 to 19.5 million board feet in 1847 to about 100 million board feet in 1854 to about 200 million board feet per year around 1872. This was a huge output, but other river valleys in Wisconsin produced huge amounts too. Around 1871 the Wisconsin side of the Menominee River
15744-413: Was formed in part by sediments falling to the bottom of Glacial Lake Wisconsin . This flat plain consists of sandy deposits and contains many bogs that were left over from Glacial Lake Wisconsin. Many of these bogs have been converted into cranberry marshes, helping to make Wisconsin a leader in cranberry production. The remainder of the sand plain consists of forest and irrigated farmland. The Dells of
15872-520: Was named for the Fox-Wisconsin Waterway , a portage between the Fox River and the Wisconsin River , which was recognized by Jacques Marquette and Louis Joliet during their discovery of a route to the Mississippi River in 1673. The city's slogan is "Where the North Begins." The Native American tribes that once lived here, and later the European traders and settlers, took advantage of
16000-513: Was not until the 1780s and 1790s that traders built their posts and warehouses at each end of the Portage. In the early 19th century Portage was primarily populated by Métis . In 1828, the federal government recognized the strategic economic importance of The Portage and built Fort Winnebago at the Fox River end. After 15 years of controversy, Winnebago settlement (now Portage) won the county seat in 1851. The community incorporated as Portage City in 1854. The Portage business district lies along
16128-530: Was primarily carved out of the Upper Mississippi River National Wildlife and Fish Refuge in order to protect these species and their associated ecosystems. Isolated relic stands of pines and associated northern vegetation are found in some locations where algific talus slopes exist. These trees survive in the cooler microclimate produced at these locations outside of their range further north. A noteworthy annual event
16256-567: Was recently upgraded to a larger building, with the older high school building now housing the Wayne E. Bartels Middle School. Portage has two elementary schools: John Muir and Woodridge. Three rural elementary schools serve three of the towns in Columbia County: Lewiston, Fort Winnebago, and Caledonia. There are also two private schools: St. John's Lutheran and St. Mary's Catholic Schools. Madison Area Technical College also has
16384-649: Was said to produce about 300 million board feet, the Wolf River valley about 180 million board feet, the Black River valley 300 million board feet, the Chippewa River valley over 400 million feet, and the Wisconsin side of the St. Croix over 100 million board feet. With the railroad boom of the 1870s came an alternate means of transporting lumber which didn't depend on spring floods, and went direct to places that
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