Ladysmith news-budget. [volume] (Ladysmith, Rusk County, Wis.) 1907-1927, 1915-06-25

sea. while the west branch rises in
country that is 1884 feet above the
sea. Where it empties into the Missls-
sippi the elevation is but 664 feet
above the sea. These figures indicate
that the waters of the Chippewa River,
IS they gather volume and force, fall
a distance of 845 feet between their
sources and their final outlet into the
Mississippi
1t is the forces of these immense
quantities of falling water, used to
actuate water wheels of various forms
and types, some efficient and some not.
which in turn are used to operate 9TH
er machinery, that have in the past
been the motive powers for grist mills,
wooden mills and great saw mills and
paper factories, and that will in the
future be harnessed to turbines and
made to produce electric energy, that
constitute the water-power wealth Of
the Chippewa Valley.
This wealth is crude wealth as yet,
as much raw material as was the
standing pine or as is the iron ore, but
wealth all the same. When there are
combined with this crude wealth the
necessary capital and engineering
nomically, the full value of this great
natural resource will become apparent.
Naturally, these combinations of the
raw water powers with the necessary
capital and engineering works are nat
possible in small units of power. The
very organization necessary to create
such works in their perfection calls
for great units to spread itself over.
else the mere organization cost alone
would put the powers out of competi-
ton.
The product of this drainage system
falls, as has been said, matter of
over 800 feet in it's course from its
| northern sources to the mouth of the
Chippewa at the foot of Lake Pepin.
Between Eau Claire and the Missis-
sippi River, which is 481a miles by the
river, there is 100 feet of this fall,
| the remainder being distributed over
the portions of the river upstream
| from Eau Claire For instance, there
! is a 10 foot fall at the Dells paper
mills. There is a natural fall Of 30
| feet at Chippewa Falls. At Paint Creek
there is a natural fall of 1912 feet. ~:
! O'Neill's Creek there is fall enough for
25-fOOt dam. At Eagle Rapids is a
| location where a 20 foot dam is pos
sible. These large water falls are only
capable of utilization by the erection
of dams which will back the water in
the river, and it's creeks far enough to
take advantage, at a single point, of
all the fall in some distance of the
rivers length.
Practically all these falls were at
some time or other in the past utilized
by the lumbSe men, who constructed
small dams, of no great height, for the
purpose Of impOuTding the water so
! that it might be let out with force
when the logs and RATS of sawed tim
Der were to be sent down stream. Even
with it's tremendous water fall the
Chippewa had and has bars and shoals
upon which the logs and sawed timber
would have grounded and damned were
it not for the excess water provided
by the letting of the waters through
the dams. Most Of these works have
ceased to be of any practical value.
The advent Of the railroads and the
clearing Of the timber from the mar
gins of the streams made log-running
by river a more cumbersome and dam
gerous operation than the Transports
ton Of the forest products by rail.
The dams were interesting PROPOSE.
tons, however, involving DO small
amount Of mechanical skill in their
construction and deal Of crude en-
gineering in their designs The making
of many of them is connected with
interesting passages in local history
and in the careers Of the men who
have spent their lives in industry upon
the Chippewa river. None of them
were serious developers of power, anc
only a few were brought to such
height as to be utilized for the opera
ton of large industries. Yet the ex
ceptiOns to this rule, as for example
the great power OF the Chippewa Falls
Lumber and Boom Company, are such
notable examples of directly applied
water powers as to be considered re
markable.
The original occupancy of sites OF
the Wisconsin rivers for damming anC
power purposes was by consent Of the
legislature. These grants run away
back to territorial days. Naturally
there was very many of them, AND
naturally, too, a considerable portion
Of the very many were on the Chippe
wa River A later resume of the
grants for water power dams for mill
ing and log driving purposes, and O.
the names of early citizens connected
with them, will no doubt prove o.
interest not only to those Of the gen
Grafton that was contemporary with
the dam-builders, but to its successor
as we'll, to whom the dams and timber
operations with which they were con
nected are fast becoming memories.