Editing Wisconsin Rapids, Wisconsin (section)

===Establishment===
The [[Menominee]] claimed the big rapids in the forest prior to European settlement, with [[Ojibwe]] and [[Ho-Chunk]] lands nearby.<ref>{{cite web|title=Tribal Lands Map|url=https://wisconsinfirstnations.org/map/|publisher=Wisconsin First Nations|access-date=June 20, 2024}}</ref> They called the place "Ah-dah-wah-gam" meaning "Two-sided Rapids" because the rapids were split by a large chunk of rock.<ref name=Jones>{{cite book|last=Jones|first=George O.|title=History of Wood CountyWisconsin|year=1923|publisher=H. C. Cooper Jr. & Co.|location=Minneapolis – Winona|url=http://content.wisconsinhistory.org/cdm4/document.php?CISOROOT=/wch&CISOPTR=39243&REC=2|author2=Norman S. McVean|display-authors=etal}}</ref>{{rp|page=126}} In 1836, the Menominee ceded this land, along with more land to the east, to the U.S. in the [[Treaty of the Cedars]].<ref>{{cite journal|last=Kellogg|first=Louise Phelps|title=The Menominee Treaty at the Cedars, 1836|journal=Transactions of the Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts and Letters|date=1931|volume=XXVI|url=https://search.library.wisc.edu/digital/A2XKL2FBIYE2W28E/pages/AMMYLVROU2BXT686?view=one|access-date=June 20, 2024}}</ref> This particular land cession was a strip spanning three miles on either side of the Wisconsin River, starting at [[Point Basse]] and reaching {{convert|48|mi}} upstream to Big Bull Falls – the future site of [[Wausau, Wisconsin|Wausau]]. The U.S. negotiators pressed the Menominee for this strip before the surrounding lands because it held prime pine timber and was within easy reach of the river.<ref>{{cite book|last=Smith|first=Alice|title=The History of Wisconsin - From Exploration to Statehood|date=1985|publisher=State Historical Society of Wisconsin|location=Madison|isbn=0-87020-122-0|page=145}}</ref> 

In 1832, [[Daniel Whitney (entrepreneur)|Daniel Whitney]] had built a sawmill {{convert|10|mi}} downstream, across from modern [[Nekoosa, Wisconsin|Nekoosa]].<ref name=Pioneers>{{cite book|last=Rosholt|first=Malcolm|title=Pioneers of the Pinery|date=1979|publisher=Rosholt House|url=https://content.mpl.org/digital/collection/mcml/id/4863/rec/4|access-date=June 21, 2024}}</ref>{{rp|pages=14-15}} Whitney's operation demonstrated the feasibility of rafting lumber to markets downstream. When the treaty of 1836 made the strip along the Wisconsin River available, lumbermen rushed in exploring for mill sites,<ref name=Jones/>{{rp|page=56}} and by 1839 (when Wisconsin was still a [[Wisconsin Territory|territory]]) two water-powered sawmills were running at the future Wisconsin Rapids, when a surveyor described the site as a "succession of rapids & chutes called the Grand Rapids", with two "extensive lumbering establishments thereon owned by Bloomer, Chamberlain, Adams, Strong, Hill & others, now in operation."<ref name=Pioneers/>{{rp|page=32}}

The first house in Rapids was a small log cabin built by H. McCutcheon, a cook for Strong and Bloomer's mill. The second came soon after when Nelson Strong built a frame house for himself with boards sawed at his mill - the first frame house in Rapids, built in 1838. Rapids' first church services were conducted by visiting Catholic priests in 1837. In 1842 a Methodist missionary J.S. Hurlburt began ministering too, visiting homes by foot or horseback.<ref name=Jones/>{{rp|page=127}} He also started a primary school in a log cabin in the early 1840s.<ref name=Jones/>{{rp|page=159}} The first hotel came in 1843 and the first blacksmith shop in 1844. A post office named Grand Rapids opened in 1845, with mail carried in once a week.<ref name=Jones/>{{rp|page=127}} Pioneer J.L. Cotey later wrote an account of the early sawmill town as it stood in 1846. He described a community of "130 males and 17 females," with businesses along a slough crossed by a temporary slab bridge, frame homes and log houses and barns, picturesque pine trees, a sawmill with two up-and-down saws, boarding houses and saloons for the workers at the mills, and a stopping place for loggers headed upstream. Across the river on the west side was another sawmill, three frame houses for the men who worked in the sawmill, two shingle shanties, and a block house. At that time supplies were hauled overland to Rapids by ox and wagon from [[Galena, Illinois|Galena]], which took three weeks.<ref name=Jones/>{{rp|pages=128-131}} (The Jones reference gives Cotey's full account.)

The business of this ramshackle wilderness outpost was lumber. In the 6-mile strip along the river, lumberjacks working from winter logging camps felled the prized pine trees. They limbed the trees and cut them into 12 to 18-foot logs, then skidded the logs with oxen and horses to rivers and stream banks where they were stored until spring. During spring floods the [[Log driving|logs were driven]] downstream,<ref name=Jones/>{{rp|page=47-48}} and, if all went well, captured in [[Log boom|booms]] of the sawmills at Grand Rapids. The sawmills pulled the logs in and sawed them into boards.<ref>{{cite web|last=Cleveland|first=A.J.|title=Bird's Eye View of the City of Grand Rapids, Wood Co. Wis 1874|url=https://www.mcmillanlibrary.org/birds-eye-view-city-grand-rapids-wood-co-wis-1874|website=McMillan Public Library|access-date=June 23, 2024|date=1874}}</ref> Some of the boards went into drying piles for local use, but the majority were destined for distant markets like [[Portage, Wisconsin|Portage]], [[Dubuque]], and [[St. Louis]]. These were stacked along the river, then bound into 16 by 16-foot "cribs" of boards. When the river was running well (generally spring) six or seven of these cribs were joined into a "rapids piece" - a 100-foot long, flexible raft suited to running the rocky rapids of the upper Wisconsin River. Of those rapids, Grand Rapids was one of the most dangerous. Before today's placid, flat reservoir, the river surged through a series of rapids a mile long, and rafts had to run when the water was high. In early years that passage was aided by [[wing dam]]s to focus the current; in later years dams across the river provided chutes for the rafts to plunge down, with spectators watching from the bank. The rafts that succeeded in passing the rapids regrouped at Point Basse and joined three of the rapids-piece rafts side by side into a "Wisconsin raft" for the rest of the Wisconsin River, which was less turbulent. Then at the Mississippi the Wisconsin rafts were joined into huge "Mississippi rafts" for the final leg to Dubuque or St. Louis.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Glover|first=W.H.|title=Lumber Rafting on the Wisconsin River|journal=Wisconsin Magazine of History|date=December 1941|volume=25|issue=2|pages=155–170|url=https://content.wisconsinhistory.org/digital/collection/wmh/id/13224/rec/331|access-date=June 22, 2024}}</ref>

In 1848 another treaty with Indians opened most of northern Wisconsin to loggers and settlers, which allowed access to much more timber outside the three-mile strip along the river.<ref name=Jones/>{{rp|page=56}}  In 1856 Grand Rapids became the county seat of the new Wood County when it was split out of [[Portage County, Wisconsin|Portage County]].<ref name=Jones/>{{rp|page=133}} The town was growing. A promotional booklet in 1857 reported Grand Rapids' population at about 1,000. It reported eight sawmills from Grand Rapids down to Point Basse, plus six steam-powered mills - all producing 19 million board feet of lumber per year, plus around 42 million shingles. Rapids consisted of 187 buildings including homes and a Catholic church, two public schools, a drug store, five general stores, six variety stores, five taverns (probably meaning inns), two saloons, two lawyers, three blacksmiths, two carpenter shops, two shoe shops, a wagonmakers' shop, two tailors, a cabinet maker, a bakery, two lawyers and two doctors.<ref name=Engel>{{cite book|last=Engel|first=Dave|title=River City Memoirs|date=1985|publisher=South Wood County Historical Society|url=http://www.swch-museum.com/publications/works-by-dave-engel/river-city-memoirs-1983/|access-date=June 24, 2024}}</ref>{{rp|page=15}} In 1857 the first newspaper began publication - the ''Wood County Reporter''.<ref name=Jones/>{{rp|page=149}} Mrs. Clarice Arpin later gave her impression of the town when she arrived about 1859: "a rough lumbering town, filled with lumberjacks who engaged in many drunken brawls, and Indians, who when they had an over-supply of firewater yelled and danced in the middle of the streets."<ref name=Jones/>{{rp|page=136}}

The first plat of part of the Rapids had been made in 1847, with others following.<ref name=Jones/>{{rp|pages=132-133}} Growth slowed during the [[American Civil War]], when some of the workers left to fight in the [[Union Army]]. A bad flood in 1864 and a fire in the business district in 1865 were other setbacks.<ref name=Jones/>{{rp|page=134,141}} In 1869 Grand Rapids incorporated as a city. Its first order of business was to require a license to sell liquor. Shortly after, city officials were elected, including Dr. G.F. Witter to "doctor city poor for the sum of $75 per year." A ban on selling liquor on Sunday was passed, and a ban on running hogs loose in the city.<ref name=Engel/>{{rp|page=16}}

Centralia, a somewhat separate community on the west side of the river, had been developing too. George Kline Sr. had built a sawmill there around 1839. By 1855 Centralia had two sawmills, a [[gristmill]], a general store, a tavern, and houses and shacks.<ref name=Jones/>{{rp|page=138}} In the 1850s a ferry carried people across the river between Centralia and Grand Rapids. In the 1860s a wooden bridge was added across the river.<ref name=Jones/>{{rp|pages=137,143}} A "town of Centralia" was formalized in 1856, perhaps to avoid annexation by Grand Rapids. In 1874 Centralia was incorporated as a city.<ref name=Jones/>{{rp|page=140}}