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Friends of the St. Croix Headwaters

Copyright © 2004-2009 Friends of the St. Croix Headwaters, Inc.

Conservation is about people taking care of the places they love.

We are a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization.  All donations are tax deductible.

 

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Online donations to help us preserve and celebrate the upper St. Croix River and its watershed can be made using your credit card (enter the Amount and click the Donate button).  We are a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization and all donations are tax deductible.
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Saturday, July 4, 1:30 to 2:30 p.m.

Frogs Along the Riverway, Gordon Dam County Park

Join a National Park Ranger to learn why frogs like to make their homes on the Riverway. Through games and interactive fun, learn how to identify frogs by their calls. How far can you jump compared to a bullfrog?  Join the ranger in making origami frogs and in a jumping contest at the end of the program. For information, call (715) 635-8346.

 

Canoes on Wheels Program - We need your help!

 

 

We are offering the use of canoe equipment on a no-cost basis to local schools and youth groups.  We are also providing educator workshops on a no-cost basis to instruct teachers how to manage canoe outings, and how to integrate these outings into their schools' curriculums.  Our goal is that every graduating high school student will have at least one opportunity for an adult-supervised paddling experience on our local rivers and lakes.

 

Here's the deal.....We need your help to pay for the program's operational expenses including on-going educator workshops.

 

Please consider sending a donation to FOTSCH, Canoes on Wheels Program, PO Box 276, Gordon, WI  54838.  All donations are fully tax-deductible and a written acknowledgement will be provided.

 

Thank you River Alliance of Wisconsin for a grant to fund the canoe trailer.

 

Thank you Douglas County Environmental Reserve Fund for a grant to help purchase canoe-related gear.

 

Thank you Murphy Oil Class Acts! for a grant to help purchase canoe-related gear.

 

Thank you Superior Optimist Club for our COW Companion Fund donation.

 

Thank you Dave Miller at Northwest Outlet in Superior.  We're buying all of our canoes and gear at your store.  You've been a terrific partner!

 

Thank you canoe donors:

Organizations already participating in the COW program:

  •  Douglas-Washburn County 4-H Camp (Leisure Lake)

  •  Grantsburg High School Advanced-Biology Class

  •  Northwood School

  •  Solon Springs School

  •  WITC-Ashland Continuing Education

News & Events

Unique Image of St. Croix River Headwaters

Upper St. Croix Lake's Crownhart Island in foreground, source of St. Croix River at top

Photo by Guy Little (aerial view facing south)

 

Thanks for participating in our "St. Croix Riverfest" Celebration on June 13-14, 2008

 

Local conservation, arts, hiking, and historical society groups hosted a two-day celebration of our watershed on June 13-14, 2008. 

 

The St. Croix Riverfest 2008 theme was Meet the waters, Meet the People, Celebrate our Nature.

 

The celebration included a watershed conference, Patagonia Wild & Scenic Environmental Film Festival, Festival of the Arts, and a watershed-wide community-events celebration including water trail paddle, canoe rides, underwater video program, pontoon classroom, youth events, local tours, and much more.

 

 

 

 

        Thanks for Participating in our    

       

        St. Croix Water Trail Inaugural Paddle

 

       on Saturday, June, 14, 2008

 

       

     

 

       More Water Trail information here.

 

 

 

 

 

Upper St. Croix - Eau Claire Rivers Watershed

 

Want to learn more about our watershed?  We have a special website at http://www.uscwa.org/ to tell you everything you would like to know.  Click on the Library page to review current and historic study information, and to take a look at our maps.  Watershed Stakeholders are listed here.

 

US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) Joins Headwaters Watershed Project

 

The Corps will join the Headwaters Watershed Study Project by providing technical and financial resources in the following study areas: 1) analysis of watershed surface- and ground-water including the development of a detailed nutrient budget; 2) development of a comprehensive plan to improve riparian lakeshore habitat within the watershed; 3) development of a plan to manage aquatic invasive species within the watershed; 4) development of a process that will outline long-term management decision-making for St. Croix flowages; 5) development of a comprehensive plan for fish passages within the watershed; 6) assisting in the development of wetland conservation and land-use management planning; 7) assisting with recreational and social resource planning; 8) providing an independent technical review of the study; 9) initiating the development of a study report; and 10) promoting public involvement in the study.

The U.S. Army Corps will work closely with USCWA members and stakeholders. The National Park Service and U.S. Geological Survey will assist with data gathering.
 

FOTSCH Receives Approval for Two-year DNR-funded Headwaters Watershed Grant

 

We have received funding approval for a DNR Lake (Watershed) Protection grant submitted in partnership with the Upper St. Croix Watershed Alliance.  FOTSCH will manage this project.

 

 

FOTSCH Honored With 2007 River Champion Award

 

At the River Alliance 2007 Spring Confluence get-together in Madison on March 10th, the Friends of the St. Croix Headwaters received the River Champion award for excellence in river stewardship.

 

River Champion Awards presented to Jean Clausen, long-time river advocate, and FOTSCH represented by Scott Peterson.
 

FOTSCH Initiatives

  •  Upper St. Croix Watershed Management

  •  Sustainable Tourism

 

St. Croix Headwaters

This website celebrates the history and natural beauty of the St. Croix headwaters area, which is located in Solon Springs and Gordon townships in southeastern Douglas County, Wisconsin. 

Upper St. Croix Lake is the source of the St. Croix River.  An 8-mile segment of the St. Croix River (which flows to the south) connects this lake with the St. Croix Flowage at Gordon (Gordon Flowage).  This 8-mile reach is ranked 5th among 1,494 stream segments in 20 northern Wisconsin counties by the DNR's Northern Rivers Initiative.  Tributaries flowing into this segment are Lower Ox Creek and the Eau Claire River.

The outlet dam of the 1,900 acre St. Croix Flowage at Gordon is the origin point of the St. Croix National Scenic Riverway.

While the river upstream from the Gordon dam is not part of the national scenic riverway, it is classified as "ORW" (Outstanding Resource Waters) by the Wisconsin DNR.  The ORW protective classification includes Upper St. Croix Lake, the St. Croix Flowage at Gordon, and the 8-mile St. Croix River headwater segment connecting these two water bodies.

Maps

Click for download (requires Acrobat Reader)

Maps courtesy of the National Park Service

 

A Short Story From History

Lt. Allen's Map (click to enlarge)

Introduction

Second Lieutenant James Allen was ordered by the U.S. Army to provide a military escort for the Schoolcraft expedition, and to keep a detailed journal and construct maps of his route.  Historically speaking, the detail and accuracy of his maps of Minnesota and Wisconsin were very significant in adding to the geographical knowledge of the area.

For a variety of reasons, Lt. Allen’s group had much more trouble in navigating and traversing the rivers and streams than did Henry Schoolcraft. His men were much less familiar and proficient with canoes, and he was not as successful in communicating with local residents and in securing guides. As the trip progressed Lt. Allen got more and more frustrated with the difficulties he encountered (including abandonment by Schoolcraft), and fell behind the progress of the main expedition.

The extract below is Lt. Allen’s journal entry of August 4, 1832 as he reached the St. Croix Flowage at Gordon. He is now several days behind Schoolcraft, whom he was ordered to accompany.  Note: the St. Croix Flowage at Gordon was historically called Whitefish Lake and Lower Ox Creek was called Ox River.

August 4, 1832. Passed a long expansion of the river [Whitefish Lake], grown over with wild rice, on the east side of which is an Indian village, of seven or eight lodges, with gardens of potatoes, squashes, and corn, adjacent. This is Keppemeppas permanent village; but all the Indians were now absent, hunting or fishing. Twelve or fifteen miles above this village, we came to another expansion, or narrow rice lake, five or six miles long, the upper end of which receives the Ox river; the St. Croix coming in below the Ox river, on the west side. From my ignorance of the route, I was near getting lost at this place, by following up the wrong river. A broad, plain channel, with a current all the way, leads up, through the rice, to the mouth of Ox river; but the St. Croix, which is here the smaller of the two rivers, comes in, as it were, on one side of the rice pond, and has its mouth, in a measure, concealed by the grass growing in it. Each canoe passed in succession to the mouth of the former river, without noticing the latter; but I had remarked, as I passed, an opening in the woods, as though a stream came in; and after entering the mouth of the wrong river, I went back, to be satisfied as to this appearance, and found the stream; but, from its being smaller than the other, I was still in doubt which to take, till I had followed it up a short distance, to a rapid, where I observed, on a rock in the bottom, a little red spot, which, on examination, proved to be red lead paint rubbed from Mr. S.’s canoe, which had touched the rock. This little circumstance determined this to be the proper route, and save me from the error of taking the other; which, if I had done, might have led to further error, and been attended with serious consequences: for, if I had been lost for many days in this poor country, till my provisions were exhausted, starvation would have been almost inevitable.

From here the St. Croix, now very small, crooked a few miles through a tamarack and cedar swamp, and brought us to its source, in a beautiful, clear, deep lake, (Upper Lake St. Croix,) twelve miles long, and from one to three miles wide, with a pretty little island near its southern end, on which were two Indian lodges, but no Indians.