Chippewa Falls

History

For thousands of years the Chippewa River was a water highway through a wilderness of forests and swamps, travelled by Ojibwe people, Dakota and others. More recently, Native Americans guided European explorers up the river and around the Falls. Pierre LeSueur "discovered" the Chippewa Spring in 1700 when this area was part of New France. Jonathan Carver traveled up the river with his party in 1768 when the area was claimed by Britain. The Chippewa River's watershed held a huge amount of valuable timber — more than the Wisconsin River - and before railroad and roads, the only way to transport much of it out was down the river, through what would become Chippewa Falls. When the 1837 Treaty of St. Peters opened this part of northern Wisconsin to logging, Jean Brunett led a team up the Chippewa River to build a sawmill at the Falls. With great effort and expense, they managed to build the first mill there. It survived until June 1846, when a storm flooded the river and destroyed most of the millworks. The mill was rebuilt quickly and sawing resumed. Railroads also arrived in the 1870s. In 1870, the West Wisconsin Railway had built a line from St. Paul, Minnesota, to Milwaukee, running ten miles to the south through Eau Claire. In 1875 the Eau Claire and Chippewa Falls Railway connected that line from Eau Claire to Chippewa Falls. In 1880, the CF&W was joined by the Wisconsin and Minnesota Railway pushing its way west from Abbotsford. This was followed in 1881 by the Chippewa Falls & Northern Railroad, which built a line north from Chippewa Falls to Bloomer, eventually extending it to Superior. Lumber-making had its ups and downs. Chippewa Falls was dominated by one big sawmill owned by one big lumber company, unlike Eau Claire, which had many. As mentioned above,…

Geography

Chippewa Falls is located along the north bank of the Chippewa River approximately three miles west of Lake Wissota. According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of , of which is land and is water.

Race & ethnicity

Most-observed species

• American Crow

  Corvus brachyrhynchos C.L.Brehm, 1822 · Aves
  5,785
• Black-capped Chickadee

  Poecile atricapillus (Linnaeus, 1766) · Aves
  5,406
• Northern Cardinal

  Cardinalis cardinalis (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  4,925
• Blue Jay

  Cyanocitta cristata (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  4,736
• American Robin

  Turdus migratorius Linnaeus, 1766 · Aves
  4,158
• American Goldfinch

  Spinus tristis (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  3,972
• White-breasted Nuthatch

  Sitta carolinensis Latham, 1790 · Aves
  3,959
• Mourning Dove

  Zenaida macroura (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  3,910

Largest nearby schools

• Chippewa Falls High
  High · Chippewa Falls · 1,458 students · 15.7:1 ratio
• Chippewa Falls Middle
  Middle · Chippewa Falls · 1,064 students · 15.4:1 ratio
• Parkview Elementary
  Elementary · Chippewa Falls · 392 students · 12.6:1 ratio
• Halmstad Elementary
  Elementary · Chippewa Falls · 379 students · 13.1:1 ratio
• Hillcrest Elementary
  Elementary · Chippewa Falls · 374 students · 15.6:1 ratio
• Korger-Chestnut
  Other · Chippewa Falls · 346 students · 28.8:1 ratio
• Stillson Elementary
  Elementary · Chippewa Falls · 334 students · 15.2:1 ratio
• Southview Elementary
  Elementary · Chippewa Falls · 310 students · 12.9:1 ratio