Note VII-12 — Chapter VII · GEOGRAPHY OF THE MISSISSIPPI.[VII-1]

Pike was sadly misinformed on this point. No place on the river is better known than St. Croix falls, above Osceola Mills, Polk Co., Wis., and Franconia, Chisago Co., Minn., where the descent is quoted at 5 feet in 300 yards. Higher up, the river has many rapids—toward its head so many that Nicollet's map legends "Succession of Rapids"; Schoolcraft's marks about a dozen; Lieut. Allen, when abandoned by Mr. Schoolcraft, encountered "almost interminable rapids"; La Salle cited Du Luth for "forty leagues of rapids," in his letter from Fort Frontenac, Aug. 22d, 1682; and Hennepin called the St. Croix "a river full of rapids." They are most numerous and most nearly continuous above Yellow and Namakagon rivers, two of the principal branches of the Upper St. Croix, both of which drain from the region about the Ottawa lakes and others in Sawyer and Washburn cos., Wis. Pike's Burnt r. is supposed to be the same as Carver's Goddard r.; it is also called Burnt Wood r., from the F. Bois Brûlé, and the latter name is still in use. Burnt r. is called by Nicollet Wissakude and by others Misacoda—a name no doubt the same as Nimissakouat, Nemitsakouat, Nissipikouet, etc., de l'ancien régime; on Franquelin's map, 1688, it stands Neouoasicoton. This last is a specially notable case, as Franquelin marks "Fort St. Croix" and "Portage" near the head of his river at a certain "Lac de la Providence" in which he heads his "R. de la Magdelaine"; for these are the Upper St. Croix l. and the St. Croix r. (This post was probably established by Du Luth before 1684 or 1685; he had been in Paris in 1683; at Montreal, Quebec, etc., 1682 and 1681; and in June, 1680, made the Bois Brûlé-St. Croix trip from Lake Superior to the Mississippi.) Franquelin's early map, 1683-84, is said to be the first to delineate the Bois Brûlé-St. Croix route: this shows R. de la Magdelaine connecting by Lac de la Providence with R. Neouaisicoton, but no Fort St. Croix is there marked. This river is said well enough to head in this lake; but more precisely, its sources are in the feeders of this lake. One of these, which is situated on a pine ridge a couple of miles off, offers the always interesting, though not very rare case of a sheet of water running two ways; for this small Source l., as it is called, discharges one way into the St. Croix stream, hence into the Gulf of Mexico, and the other way into Burnt r., which takes water to Lake Superior and finally to the Gulf of St. Lawrence. The Burnt is navigable, though much obstructed with shoals, rapids, and falls; it runs in the main northward, near the E. border of Douglas Co. (named for Stephen A. Douglas), and falls into the Kichi Gummi, Sea of the North, West Sea, Grand Lac (Champlain's Voy., 1632, map), Lac de Condé, Lac de Tracy, Lac Supérieur, Lacus Superior (De Creux, 1664, map), Lake Algona, etc. There were Chippewa villages along nearly the whole line of both the rivers at various points, including one on an island in the Upper St. Croix l. Islands and peninsulas in lakes were always favorite sites, for in such cases these Indians enjoyed some additional immunity from the Sioux in what we may style their "moated granges." On the St. Croix r., low down, was the Chippewa-Sioux boundary line, marked for some years by cedar trees which stood there a few miles below St. Croix falls: see note17, p. 101.