The St. Croix headwaters area has a vibrant history, as it is part of the famous Bois Brule - St. Croix waterway connection between Lake Superior and the Mississippi River.

Several eras can be defined:

• Mississippian Indians - Before 1000 A.D.

Scholars believe the prehistoric Native people of the Americas are the descendants of hunters from Siberia and northern Asia who followed game across the frozen Bering Strait 5,000 to 10,000 years ago.  Once across this ice bridge, these people spread out across the Americas. 

The ancient ones, sometimes called "mound builders" who were the first to inhabit areas around Lake Superior were probably part of the "Old Copper" culture of the Archaic period (3000-1000 BC).

Later, members of the "woodland" culture are thought to have established themselves along waterways in this area by 1000 A.D., and sustained themselves by hunting, fishing and gathering of wild foods.  They disappeared rather suddenly around 1200 AD for reasons that have been debated among archaeologists. 

Little remains of these early civilizations.

• Santee Dakota - By 1500 A.D.

The Dakota (aka Dakotah, Sioux) lived in the area around Lake Superior, where they gathered wild rice and beans, hunted deer, buffalo, and speared fish from canoes.  Most likely they came from the plains in the west, through Minnesota, then north into northern Minnesota and Wisconsin.

• Ojibwe - By 1500 A.D.

The Ojibwe (aka Anishinabe, Chippewa, Saulteur) came westward, most likely from the valley of the St. Lawrence River,  across lower Canada, along the shores of Lake Superior (including settlements on the Apostle Islands), and then expanded southward along the rivers, including villages at Upper St. Croix Lake and the Gordon Flowage.

• French Explorers - 1680

Daniel Greysolon, Sieur de Du Lhut (aka Daniel Greysolon Du Luth) is the first European acknowledged to have traveled down the Bois Brule and St. Croix Rivers.

• English Explorers - 1767

This area was transferred to British rule by the treaty of Paris in 1763 at the conclusion of the French and Indian War. It was explored by Capt. Johnathon Carver in 1767.

• American Explorers - 1831

This area came under the flag of the United States government under terms of the 1783 Treaty of Peace.  Henry Schoolcraft was one of the first American Explorers in 1832.

• Lumbering - 1850

White settlers began to pour into the region to cut timber and prospect for minerals.

• Modern - 1935

In 1935, the government-funded Works Progress Administration (WPA) began construction of the present Gordon Flowage dam structure, which was completed and dedicated in an impressive ceremony during the summer of 1937.