Little Falls Dam, on the Chippewa River, Wisconsin 



mental dam and reservoir, and a fur- 

 ther appropriation of $150,000 March 

 3, 1881, and again $300,000 August 2, 

 1882, to prosecute the work on the 

 dams and reservoirs in the State of 

 Minnesota, and to begin work on the 

 Chippewa River and tributaries in the 

 State of Wisconsin, upon which sites 

 for thirteen dams had been selected and 

 the Government lands required with- 

 drawn from sale. Subsequent appro- 

 priations have been made for continu- 

 ing work on the sources of the Mis- 

 sissippi in Minnesota, resulting in the 

 completion of five dams and reservoirs, 

 about completing the system in that 

 state. As a consequence, good naviga- 

 tion is established from Brainerd to 

 Grand Rapids, a distance of eighty-two 

 miles, this being above Minneapolis, 

 while the benefit to navigation below 

 St Paul is of great value. Floods are 

 restrained and water-powers benefited, 

 although some dissatisfaction has been 

 expressed by owners of water-powers 

 relative to the management and opera- 

 tion of the works. 



Tt is to be regretted that this great 

 work has not been prosecuted as con- 

 680 



templated on the Wisconsin tributaries, 

 which contribute to the Mississippi 

 River a volume of water greater than 

 that flowing in the main river at St. 

 Paul. Provision had been made for be- 

 ginning the work upon the Chippewa 

 River in 1882, but was defeated for the 

 reason that lumbermen and loggers de- 

 clined to comply with the requirements 

 of the Government to safeguard against 

 claims for damage growing out of 

 charters granted by the state for dams 

 and other privileges. In consequence 

 the river has since been at the sole ser- 

 vice of lumbermen for log driving and 

 storage, and its navigation for steam- 

 boats from its mouth to Eau Claire and 

 Chippewa Falls, a distance of sixty 

 miles, suspended^ — a use it had served 

 from the earliest settlement of the 

 Chippewa Valley. 



Conditions are now radically changed. 

 Log driving below Chippewa Falls has 

 ceased, and the dams and reservoirs for 

 flooding and driving logs are about to 

 be abandoned. Conditions are now 

 most favorable for the Government to 

 begin the work abandoned in 1882, re- 

 store and improve navigation for steam- 



