St. Croix River (Wisconsin-Minnesota)

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The St. Croix River, looking downstream toward Stillwater, Minnesota

The St. Croix River is a tributary of the Mississippi River, approximately 164 mi (264 km) long, in the U.S. states of Wisconsin and Minnesota. The lower 125 mi (201 km) of the river forms the state line between Wisconsin and Minnesota. The river is a National Scenic Riverway under the protection of the National Park Service. A hydroelectric plant at St. Croix Falls supplies power to the Minneapolis-St. Paul metropolitan area.

1 Course
2 History
3 The River Today
- 3.1 Popular Sites
- 3.2 Fishing on the St. Croix River
4 Photos
5 Cities and towns along the St. Croix River
6 Parks and public lands along the St. Croix River
7 External links

[edit] Course

Known as Manoominikeshinh-ziibi (Ricing-Rail River) in the Ojibwe language, the St. Croix River rises in the northwestern corner of Wisconsin, out of Upper St. Croix Lake in Douglas County, near Solon Springs, approximately 20 mi (32 km) south of Lake Superior. It flows south to Gordon, then southwest. It is joined by the Namekagon River in northern Burnett County, becoming significantly wider, which the Ojibwe renames the river as Gichi-ziibi (big river), then encounters and forms the boundary between Minnesota and Wisconsin, flowing generally south, past St. Croix Falls, Wisconsin and Stillwater, Minnesota, the oldest settlement in Minnesota. It joins the Mississippi River at Prescott, Wisconsin, approximately 20 mi (32 km) southeast of St. Paul, Minnesota.

The upper reaches of the river in Wisconsin below the St. Croix Flowage, 15 mi (24 km) downstream from its source, as well as the Namekagon River, are protected as the St. Croix National Scenic Riverway.

The lower 27 mi (43 km) of both sides of the river along the Minnesota-Wisconsin border, from St. Croix Falls / Taylors Falls to Prescott, are protected as part of the Lower St. Croix National Scenic Riverway. The protected area includes the Dalles of the St. Croix River, a scenic gorge, located near Interstate Park, south of St. Croix Falls.

[edit] History

The river valley and the surrounding area was originally occupied by the semi-nomadic Ojibwe, Dakota and nine other American Indian tribes. The Indians mainly lived on wild rice, fish, and game. At the time of European settlement of the valley, the tribes were engaged in a long and deadly war with each other. Consequently, the portion of the river below the confluence with Trade River is called Jiibayaatig-ziibi (Grave-marker River) in the Ojibwe language, which in turn was translated into French as "Rivière Tombeaux", which in turn was translated into English under its current name.

The first Europeans arrived in the area in 1804, around the same time as the Lewis and Clark Expedition. These first arrivals were mostly fur traders seeking to purchase beaver pelts from the Indians.

In 1837 a treaty with the Ojibwe was signed at Fort Snelling which ceded all lands in the triangle between the St. Croix and the Mississippi River up to the 46th Parallel to the United States government. This opened the region to logging and the river was important to the transportation of lumber dowstream. In the peak year of 1890, the St. Croix River Valley produced 450 million board feet (1,100,000 m³) of lumber and logs (source). The lumber industry continued until the last major log drive in 1912 marked the end of the rich forests of the area.

It was along the banks of the St. Croix, in the milltown of Stillwater, Minnesota, that the state of Minnesota was first proposed in 1848.

[edit] The River Today

The St. Croix is a popular recreational river. Common uses include boating, fishing, camping and canoeing. Highways along both sides of the river offer scenic drives punctuated by small towns offering restaurants, shopping (especially antiques, books and gifts), bed and breakfasts, historical tours and other common tourist activities.

[edit] Popular Sites

In addition to parks and public lands, other sites of interest include:

The Stillwater Bridge - a working lift bridge built in 1931, in Stillwater

[edit] Fishing on the St. Croix River

Fishing on the St. Croix in the 1950’s was an excellent sport with an abundance of large northern pike, walleyes, bass, crappies and other fish, including the rarer paddlefish and sturgeon.

Arnold Walfred Lindall, Terrance Lindall and Arnold Lindall Sr. with norhern pikes from the St. Croix at Afton, Minnesota, 1956

Dr Arnold Walfred Lindall, one of the founding members of the conservation organization Muskies inc., has written a manuscript on fishing in the St. Croix River. In it he notes the deterioration of the fishing habitat over the years since the 1950's. He says: “Unfortunately, many of the places that were good fish habitat in the past have been destroyed by construction of marinas. This loss is particularly bad for the lower St. Croix since it generally lacks good weed beds and rocky shallows. Two cases in point are in Afton where construction of the south harbor at Windmill Marina closed off the entrance to a small pond in back of the town that was flushed by current all year and during floods was a good area for walleyed pike, bass and northern pike. Further north the construction of Afton Marina destroyed part of a large shallow bay into which a cold creek flows. Whoever determines such things should not have let these depredations happen. In fact since I wrote these words the river habitat has deteriorated further and as a result the fishing is but a shadow of its former excellence. “ The manuscript has not, as of yet, been published.