Copyright © 2004-2008 Friends of the St. Croix Headwaters, Inc.
We are a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. All donations are tax deductible.
Donate using Google Checkout
Online donations to help us preserve and celebrate the upper St. Croix River and its watershed can be made using your credit card (click the Donate button). We are a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization and all donations are tax deductible.
Join us at our "St. Croix Riverfest" Celebration on June 13-14, 2008
Local conservation, arts, hiking, and historical society groups are hosting a two-day celebration of our watershed on June 13-14, 2008.
The St. Croix Riverfest theme is Meet the waters, Meet the People, Celebrate our Nature.
The celebration includes 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.
Watch for our ad in the May/June edition of Wisconsin Trails magazine (inside back cover).
Friday, June 13, 2008
7:00 to 10:00 pm
Solon Springs Community Center
Hosted by Friends of the St. Croix Headwaters
$5 tickets at door.
Saturday, June, 14, 2008
Inaugural Paddle
St. Croix Water Trail
9:30am put-in at Solon Springs
FOTSCH Receives Approval for Two-year DNR 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.
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FOTSCH receives approval for watershed funding during 2008-10 period.
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FOTSCH receives planning grant approval for Sustainable Tourism conference.
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The St. Croix River headwaters segment received "ORW" protective classification.
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FOTSCH receives funding to monitor pesticides on St. Croix River near Gordon
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FOTSCH receives 2006 Wisconsin Environmental Education Fund grant funding for the development of Water Quality Index (WQI) reporting
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FOTSCH receives 2006 C. D. Besadny grant funding for Purple Loosestrife Control Project in partnership with the Upper St. Croix Lake Association
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Upper St. Croix Watershed Management
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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)
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Detailed St. Croix 8-mile headwaters segment (caution - large file)
Maps courtesy of the National Park Service
A Short Story From History
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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.