Namekagon River

The Namekagon was used by the Ojibwe tribe as a source of food and transportation. Every May the Ojibwe used a fish dam to fish the sturgeon that took residence in the river. Large rocks blocked the sturgeon passing on either side so they would swim through the center, where fisherman would spear the fish as they swam into large baskets. The river was also used as a primary source of transportation for the Ojibwe as discovered by European explorers and fur traders. They noted there were heavily used portages between the large bodies of water. Pictographs were drawn on trees that provided information of different species of the area. On the upper portion of the river sat an Ojibwe village off of Lake Pacwawong, where the Native Americans grew wild rice on the river, as well as blueberries, pumpkins, corn, potatoes, and beans.[9]

Henry Schoolcraft, an explorer who lived among Native American tribes, led two different expeditions along the Namekagon. Schoolcraft described the river at northern portage near Cable, Wisconsin as being seventy-five feet wide and eighteen inches at the deepest part. The river banks were rich with large pines, hardwood and spruce. Brook Trout was in abundance along the river, and was used as a primary food source by the explorers at the time. A few years after Schoolcraft's expedition, the United States government enlisted geologists to describe the riverbed floor. The geologists found that the river bed was a mixture of thin sandy silt with gravelly riverbanks and contained a range of rock sizes from small pebbles to large boulders that sat in the middle of the river.[9]

Before the construction of the state road in 1877, the Namekagon River was a primary means of transportation. Early logging in the area was accomplished by selecting the trees closest to the river bank, and floating them down the river to the saw mill. The arrival of the railway saw an opportunity for the Lumber companies to expand the marketplaces across state lines to larger markets. In 1855, Anthony Hayward was given permission from the Wisconsin Legislature to build, operate and maintain dam sites along the Namekagon.[9]