Editing Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin (section)

==History==
For thousands of years the Chippewa River was a water highway through a wilderness of forests and swamps, travelled by [[Ojibwe people]], [[Lakota people|Lakota]] and others.<ref>{{cite web|last1=Bokern|first1=James K.|title=The History and Primary Canoe Routes of the Six Chippewa Bands from the Lac Du Flambeau District|url=https://www.mwhistory.org/james-bokern-thesis-1987/|publisher=Manitowish Waters Historical Society|access-date=2022-08-16|date=1987}}</ref> More recently, Native Americans guided European explorers up the river and around the Falls. [[Pierre-Charles Le Sueur|Pierre LeSueur]] "discovered" the Chippewa Spring in 1700 when this area was part of [[New France]].<ref name=Spring>{{cite web|title=Chippewa Springs|url=https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=42326|website=The Historical Marker Database|publisher=Chippewa County Historical Society|access-date=2022-08-16}}</ref> [[Jonathan Carver]] traveled up the river with his party in 1768 when the area was claimed by Britain.<ref name=Forrester/>{{rp|page=31}}

White settlement of the Chippewa Falls area began in 1838, when Lyman Warren and his mostly-[[Ojibwe|Chippewa]] wife started a farm and [[blacksmith]] shop five miles above the Falls. As agreed at the [[First Treaty of Prairie du Chien|1825 treaty of Prairie du Chien]], Warren was to act as a sub-agent for the U.S. government to the Chippewas. Intertwined with that, Warren's farm served as a trading post for the [[American Fur Company]].<ref name=Forrester>{{cite book|last1=Forrester|first1=George|title=Historical and Biographical Album of the Chippewa Valley Wisconsin|date=1892|publisher=A. Warner|location=Chicago, Ill.|url=https://content.wisconsinhistory.org/digital/collection/wch/id/13643/rec/1}}</ref>{{rp|page=75}}<ref>{{cite web|title=Chippewa City #7|url=https://gochippewacounty.com/listings/chippewa-city-7/|website=Go Chippewa County|publisher=Chippewa Falls Chamber of Commerce|access-date=2022-08-15}}</ref>

The Chippewa River's watershed held a huge amount of valuable timber - more than the [[Wisconsin River]],<ref name=Vogel>{{cite journal|last=Vogel|first=John N.|title=The Round Lake Logging Dam: A Survivor of Wisconsin's Log-driving Days|journal=Wisconsin Magazine of History|date=Spring 1983|volume=66|issue=3|pages=170–191|url=http://content.wisconsinhistory.org/cdm4/document.php?CISOROOT=/wmh&CISOPTR=32773&CISOSHOW=32692|access-date=2011-09-21}}</ref> and before railroad and roads, the only way to transport much of it out was down the river, through what would become Chippewa Falls. When the [[Treaty of St. Peters#1837 Treaty of St. Peters|1837 Treaty of St. Peters]] opened this part of northern Wisconsin to logging, Jean Brunett led a team up the Chippewa River to build a sawmill at the Falls. With great effort and expense, they managed to build the first mill there. It survived until June 1846, when a storm flooded the river and destroyed most of the millworks. The mill was rebuilt quickly and sawing resumed.<ref name=Forrester/>{{rp|pages=76–77}}

A settlement grew around the sawmill at the Falls, and in 1854 Chippewa Falls was chosen to be the seat of Chippewa County. A school, a post office, a mercantile store, the first churches, and the first newspaper had all opened by 1857. The city incorporated in 1869 with about 2,500 people. In the 1870s boardwalks were added along Bridge Street, gas streetlights were installed, and a telephone line was run up from Eau Claire.<ref name=nrhp_nom>{{cite web|url=https://www.chippewafalls-wi.gov/home/showpublisheddocument/16668/637413896579070000|title=NRHP Inventory/Nomination: West Hill Residential Historic District|publisher=[[National Park Service]]|author=Justin Miller|date=2020-01-31|access-date=2022-08-16}}</ref>{{rp|pages=41–42}}

Railroads also arrived in the 1870s. In 1870, the [[West Wisconsin Railway]] had built a line from [[St. Paul, Minnesota]], to [[Milwaukee, WI|Milwaukee]], running ten miles to the south through Eau Claire. In 1875 the Eau Claire and Chippewa Falls Railway connected that line from Eau Claire to Chippewa Falls. In 1880, the CF&W was joined by the Wisconsin and Minnesota Railway pushing its way west from [[Abbotsford, Wisconsin|Abbotsford]]. This was followed in 1881 by the Chippewa Falls & Northern Railroad, which built a line north from Chippewa Falls to [[Bloomer, Wisconsin|Bloomer]], eventually extending it to [[Superior, Wisconsin|Superior]].

Lumbering continued to grow. By the 1880s the Chippewa valley held the best stand of [[Pinus strobus|white pine]] left in the Midwest. The sawmill at Chippewa Falls was run by the Chippewa Lumber and Boom Company, and the company's logging crews cut trees on their lands upstream in winter and [[Log driving|drove logs]] down to the sawmill at the Falls each spring. The company employed 400 people and the mill at Chippewa was said to be "the largest sawmill under one roof in the world."<ref name=nrhp_nom/>

[[File:2009-0620-ChippewaFalls-Spring.jpg|thumb|The original Spring House.]]
The Chippewa Spring gained renewed attention in 1887 when politician [[Thaddeus C. Pound]] founded the Chippewa Springs Health Club, and at one point oversaw the company that bottled the spring water for sale. A Spring House was built over the original spring in 1893. It remains today, across from the modern water bottling plant on Park Ave.<ref name=Spring/>

Other industries started in the 1880s and 1890s: flour mills, a brewery, a woolen mill, cigar factories, a shoe factory, and a broom factory. By 1902 it had become clear that the pineries were not as inexhaustible as many had thought, and a group of business leaders began to promote more diverse industries. They succeeded in starting more shoe factories, a [[sugar beet]] factory, and a glove factory. The big sawmill closed in 1911, but the other industries kept the community going. By 1920 the city had fifty manufacturers who employed 3,000 workers.<ref name=nrhp_nom/>{{rp|pages=41–42}}