St. Croix River

“ Eventually, on the 25th of October, 1798, the Commissioners, who had discharged their duties with conspicuous fairness and ability, gave their award. They identified the Scoodic The St. Croix river determined in 1798. river, as it was then called, with the St. Croix of Champlain; they selected the Eastern or Northern branch of the river as the boundary line in preference to the South-Western, thereby including in American territory a considerable area which the English had claimed; they marked beyond further dispute the point which was thereafter to be held [330] to be the source of the St. ”

“ The improvements inaugurated by the general government in removing many of the serious impediments to navigation warrants the belief that still more extensive improvements should be made. It is an error to suppose that the palmy days of steamboating on western rivers has passed. In demonstration of this take the quantity of lumber sent down the Mississippi. There was shipped from the St. Croix river during the year 1884 [Pg 684] to various distributing points along the Mississippi river 250,000,000 feet of lumber, 40,000,000 of lath, 37,000,000 of shingles, 2,000,000 of pickets ”

“ Croix, a good league distant from the Isle of Orleans, in which, at low tide, there is only half a fathom of water. It is very dangerous for vessels at its mouth, there being a large number of spurs; that is, rocks scattered here and there. It is accordingly necessary to place buoys in order to enter, there being, as I have stated, three fathoms of water at ordinary tides, and four fathoms, or four and a half generally, at the great tides at full flood. It is only fifteen hundred paces from our habitation, which is higher up the river ”

“ Towards the heads of the River Saint Croix, rice grows in great plenty, and there is abundance of copper. Though the Falls of Saint Anthony are situated at the south-east corner of this division, yet that impediment will not totally obstruct the navigation, as the River Saint Croix, which runs through a great part of the southern side of it, enters the Mississippi just below the Falls, and flows with so gentle a current that it affords a convenient navigation for boats. ”

“ Average cost per mile, $40,000.
"It would accomplish another object. The improvement of navigation on the Mississippi river by a system of reservoirs on its tributaries would be most effectually accomplished by holding [Pg 682] one or two feet of extra head upon each of the thirteen dams proposed, thus storing up during the spring freshets vastly more water than can be held in the small reservoirs on the tributaries of the St. Croix. There are no very large natural reservoirs in the Upper St. Croix valley. ”

“ East by a line to be drawn along the middle of the river St Croix, from its mouth in the Bay of Fundy to its source; and from its source directly north to the aforesaid highlands, which divide the rivers that fall into the Atlantic ocean from those which fall into the river St Lawrence; comprehending all islands within twenty leagues of any part of the shores of the United States ”

“ Pike was sadly misinformed on this point. No place on the river is better known than St. Croix falls, above Osceola Mills, Polk Co., Wis., and Franconia, Chisago Co., Minn., where the descent is quoted at 5 feet in 300 yards. Higher up, the river has many rapids—toward its head so many that Nicollet's map legends "Succession of Rapids" ”

“ The Brule river discharges about 5.805 cubic feet of water per minute in the north part of township 46, range 10. The distance from Taylor's Falls to Lake Superior by the valley of the St. Croix and the valley of the Brule river is nearly 150 miles.
"There are several exposures of trap rock along these streams and an abundance of brown sandstone of good quality for building purposes, being easily worked.
"Can Lake St. Croix, at Stillwater, be connected with Lake Superior by canal and slackwater navigation? Yes. ”

“ The Namakagon, its southern branch of it, is connected with the Maskigo, [98] or Mauvais River of La Pointe, Lake Superior. Immediately above its point of entrance into the Mississippi the St. Croix expands into a beautiful lake, which is some twelve miles long, and about two in width. The borders of the Mississippi about this point assume an increased height, and more imposing aspect. In many places, as the voyager descends from this spot to Lake Pepin, he observes the calcareous cliffs to terminate in pyramids; the crest of the hills frequently resemble the crumbling ruins of antique towers. ”

“ Croix river. It is timbered with hardwood, has good soil, chiefly a black clay loam, with clay subsoil, and is well watered by Rush river and Rock creek and tributaries. Wild meadows and marshes are intermingled with the timber. The town was organized in 1858, with George B. Folsom, Robert Newell and Timothy Ward as supervisors. A post office was established in 1859, in section 14, George B. Folsom, postmaster. George B. Folsom was the first settler, raising the first crops in the town in 1855. The St. Paul & Duluth railroad traverses the town from south to north. ”

“ Croix out of the tail race entirely it would not help. The water falling from the Willow must go somewhere, and the head may be preserved only by having the St. Croix channel serve as a run-off for the tail waters. The run-off of claimant's water may be said to be obstructed by the presence of an increased level of Government-impounded water at the end of claimant's discharge pipes. The resulting damage may be passed on to the Government only if the riparian owner's interest in 'having the water flow away' unobstructed above the high-water line is a legally protected one. ”

“ Snake River is an important tributary of the St. Croix. It constitutes an established post of trade, for which licences are granted by the Indian department. Its Indian population is reported at three hundred and one souls. Persons of the mixed cast, thirty-eight. This river is connected, by an easy portage, with Rum River, a route much used by Indians going to the133 Mille Lac and Sandy Lake borders. Masses of native copper have been brought out of its bed by the Indians, who report the existence of further indications of its presence. ”

“ They say there are more than two kinds of color at that river, or at least used to be.” According to Clark (Indian Sign Language, page 99) the oldest traditions of the Cheyenne locate their former home on the headwaters of the Mississippi in Minnesota, about where Saint Paul now is. Other facts corroborate this testimony, and the traditional “Turtle river” would seem to be identical with the Saint Croix, which is thus described by Coxe in 1741:
A little higher up is the river Chabadeda, above which the Meschacebe makes a fine lake twenty miles long and eight or ten broad. ”

“ Schoolcraft's marks about a dozen; Lieut. Allen, when abandoned by Mr. Schoolcraft, encountered "almost interminable rapids"; La Salle cited Du Luth for "forty leagues of rapids," in his letter from Fort Frontenac, Aug. 22d, 1682; and Hennepin called the St. Croix "a river full of rapids." They are most numerous and most nearly continuous above Yellow and Namakagon rivers, two of the principal branches of the Upper St. Croix, both of which drain from the region about the Ottawa lakes and others in Sawyer and Washburn cos., Wis. Pike's Burnt r. is supposed to be the same as Carver's Goddard r. ”

“ Croix; and again in 1700; both these rivers are noted in the treatise of Nicolas Perrot, and before 1700 the river of St. Pierre had been so named. (2) Charlevoix's account, Hist. N. Fr., Paris, 1744, IV. pp. 165, 166, is in substance: In 1700 Lesueur, sent by D'Iberville to establish himself in the Sioux country and take possession of a copper-mine que le Sueur y avait découverte, had already discovered there, some time before; ascended St. Peter 40 leagues to Rivière Verte (now Blue Earth r.) which comes in on the left hand as you go up; ascended this Green r. 1 league ”

“ Le Croisic is almost surrounded by the sea, low, and without shelter, which renders it cold, damp, and exposed to the winds; turf is almost the only fuel used.
It is much frequented as a watering-place, and has an Etablissement. It is also a sea-port, with a rocky entrance to the harbour, and the dangerous rock with its lighthouse, called Le Four, extending for a league in front. The inhabitants of Le Croisic [pg 245] are principally engaged in the sardine fishery, and the curing of these fish consumes much of the salt of the marshes. ”

“ We think of the swamps, the forests, the leagues of sand and the swift rivers which will hinder our progress."
"I hardly imagine," she murmured softly, "that Captain de Croix is guilty of wasting precious time in reflection upon aught so trivial this morning. He has been conversing with me upon the proper cut of his waistcoat, and I am sure he is too deeply engrossed in that subject to give heed to other things." ”

“ The whole lower part of the dam was out, and through it, in the night, had rushed the deluge of water so vital to the Croix d’Or. Small trees that had grown up since the dam had been built were uprooted in the bed of the cañon, and 202 great bowlders pulled from their sockets and sent resistlessly downward. ”

“ Croix, twenty-four miles above its outlet. The lake is navigable at all times to Stillwater and to Taylor's Falls at the Dalles. The Mississippi comes in from the northwest, and is navigable to St. Paul, a distance of thirty miles. The two channels at the junction are each about 1,000 feet wide, with an average depth of fifteen feet, and the banks slope to the water's edge, or stand in some places in vertical ledges, thus forming a natural quay along the entire front of the city. ”

“ Croix, the towns in township 27 were stricken off, and the territory has since been reduced until comprised in township 28, range 18. It is a wealthy agricultural township. Its surface is agreeably diversified with undulating prairies and high hills. The Kinnikinic, a beautiful and clear winding stream, drains it from the northeast. The famous Monument Rock, an outlying sandstone formation, is in the centre of this township. From the summit a magnificent view may be obtained of this fine farming region. The farmers have fine dwellings and barns, and the town has numerous school houses ”

“ The valley last mentioned is separated from the Crooked River by Caribou Ridge, a broad, flat-topped elevation, three hundred and fifty feet high, dotted by small lakes, which fill almost every appreciable depression in the rock.
The general course to the Crooked River is northeast; at the point where the portage reaches it the stream is fifty yards wide and very shallow; flowing over a bed of coarse drift, which obstructs the river, forming a series of small lake expansions with rapids at the outlet of each. ”

“ Croix are fractional. Much of the soil of the county is a sandy loam admirably suited to cereals and vegetables. Some townships in the southeast are first class wheat lands. The timber is mostly a thicket-like growth of small pines, constituting what is called pine barrens. The southeast portion of the county is timbered with hardwoods. It is drained by the St. Croix, Trade, Wood, Clam, Yellow, and Namakagon rivers, with their tributaries, and with the Wood lakes (Big and Little) , Mud Hen, Trade, Yellow, Spirit, and numerous other lakes. There are besides many thousand acres of marsh land. ”

“ This kind of thing is not really angling, and a Duffer is as good at it as an expert.
Real difficulties and sufferings begin when you reach the Cruach-na-spiel-bo, which sounds like Gaelic, and will serve us as a name for the river. It is, of course, extremely probable that you pay a large rent for the right to gaze at a series of red and raging floods, or at a pale and attenuated trickle of water, murmuring peevishly through a drought. ”

“ Le Croix himself descended without this moral support, but, being as sure-footed as a chamois, it mattered little.
Pretty well exhausted by their exertions, they now found themselves at the summit of a precipice so perpendicular and unbroken, that a single glance sufficed to convince them of the utter impossibility of further descent in that quarter. The ledge on which they stood was not more than three feet broad. Below them the glacier appeared in the fading light to be as far off as ever. Above, the cliffs frowned like inaccessible battlements. ”

“ What we must try to do is to give the cut-throats a lesson that they and their children and their children's children will remember as long as the sun makes the days. I therefore propose that we ride down Crooked Creek into Upon-the-Other-Side Bear River, right into the stream bed, and follow it to the edge of the big grove. ”

“ Croix; and to those who reside at Sandy Lake, Leech Lake, Rainy Lake, Red Lake, and the heads of the rivers Rouge, Mississippi, and De Corbeau. They are divided, like the Sioux, into many bands, the names of only seven of which I am acquainted with.
[1st.] I shall begin with those who reside on the south side of Lake Superior, and on Lakes De Sable and Sang Sue, with the adjacent country. They are generally denominated by the traders by the name of Sauteuxs, but those of the headwaters of the Chipeway and St. 351 Croix rivers are called Fols Avoin Sauteurs. ”

“ Four miles below Redstone the Crystal River runs through a district that contains several hot mineral springs that have medicinal value comparable to any in the United States.
Soon the canyon widens, sometimes on one side, sometimes on the other, into fertile meadows especially adapted to raising strawberries, raspberries, cherries, and apples. A little farther on there are large ranches bordering it. These raise potatoes, oats, alfalfa, and hay; they all depend on the never failing Crystal River for irrigation. ”