Nation's First Cooperative Generating Station WI222
On Sunday, May 2, 1937, the Wisconsin Power Cooperative was organized by an assembly of farmers for the purpose of developing a generating and transmission facility to provide low-cost electric service for the rural areas of Buffalo, Chippewa, Clark, Dunn, Pierce, St. Croix, Taylor, and Trempealeau counties. Loans from the Rural Electrification Administration financed construction of the original station and transmission lines. Ground was broken on November 8, 1937, and on March 12, 1938, the nation's first cooperative generating station was ready for service. Transmission of electric energy into Buffalo and Trempealeau counties began on March 14, 1938, and into the remaining six counties by the end of that year. Additional generating units were added by late 1941, providing capacity to serve rural membership in Barron, Burnett, Eau Claire, Jackson, Polk, Rusk, and Sawyer counties. On December 16, 1941, Wisconsin Power Cooperative was merged with the Tri-State Power Cooperative of Genoa to form the Dairyland Power Cooperative of La Crosse. This historic plant was retired from service and dismantled during 1975.

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The Cobban Bridge WI278
The Cobban Bridge, constructed in 1908 by the Modern Steel Structural Company of Waukesha, is a two-span Pennsylvania overhead truss type bridge and is the oldest of its kind in Wisconsin. Originally it crossed the Chippewa River just upstream from its junction with the Yellow River. The bridge was dismantled during the construction of the Wissota Dam in 1916, and through the efforts of Oscar Anderson, a Cobban store owner, the bridge was acquired to be placed on land donated by S.c.F. Cobban. During the winters of 1916 and 1917, the disassembled bridge was hauled here by horse and sled, with the movers receiving one dollar per ton for the fifteen mile trip. Footings were placed by the LG. Arnold Company and reconstruction was done by Cromby and Thailacker of Milwaukee in 1918-19. The ferry that had provided a crossing to Cobban was discontinued, replaced by the Cobban Bridge, which soon was nicknamed the "Little Wagon Bridge." See Chippewa County Tourism

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Northern Wisconsin Center for the Developmentally Disabled WI330
Before the 19th-century social reform movement, developmentally disabled people were relegated to almshouses and county poor farms where the "indigent, insane, epileptic and idiotic" were housed together without regard to individual condition. Reformists advocated more humane treatment of the socially-dependent, and by the mid-19th century had demonstrated the educability of the "mentally deficient" and opened homes for their care and training. In 1895, Wisconsin allocated $100,000 for the establishment of its first institution for the developmentally disabled. Located in Chippewa Falls on 600 acres of land offered by the city, the "Wisconsin Home for the Feebleminded" opened June 17, 1897. The home, renamed the "Northern Wisconsin Colony and Training School" in 1923, provided care for children and adults and taught skills in self-care, farming, housekeeping, arts and crafts, and academics. In the 1970s, a new emphasis was placed on community care of the developmentally disabled, and the Northern Wisconsin Center for the Developmentally Disabled, renamed in 1976, began providing outreach services to individuals and communities. See Chippewa County Tourism

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Point Basse WI130
Five rapids covering a distance of about three miles in this area were referred to as Nekoosa (swift water) by the Chippewa Indians, who made their campground on high Swallow Rock overlooking these rapids. At the lower end of the rapids, Wakeley's Tavern served as rendezvous and resting place for the river traveler and lumber rafts men. Wakeley's was the nucleus for the development of a settlement named Point Basse (low point). The name was later changed to Nekoosa. The settlement became a key town during the colorful era when lumber was rafted down the river from the pineries of the North to the Mississippi River markets. Daniel Whitney built the first sawmill on the Wisconsin River here at Whitney's Rapids in 1831, making Nekoosa the birthplace of Wood County. From this first harnessing of the river's power developed scores of power facilities, making the Wisconsin River the hardest - worked river in the world.

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Old Abe, the War Eagle WI14
This wayside is part of the old McCann farm, childhood home of Old Abe, the War eagle. In the Spring of 1861 a band of hungry Chippewa came to the McCann farm and traded a young eagle for corn. The eagle became a family pet. When Company C. Eighth Wisconsin was organized at Eau Claire for Civil War Duty, the crippled Dan McCann offered his eagle's services as mascot, feeling that "someone from the family ought to go." On October 12, 1861, the eagle Regiment started for the front. In action Old Abe spread his wings screamed encouragement to his men. The louder the noise of battle, the fiercer were his screams. The eagle served with the regiment In 42 skirmishes and battles and lost only a few feathers. After three years service, Old Abe was formally presented to the State of Wisconsin September 26, 1864. A room was equipped for him in the Capitol and a man employed to care for him. His last public appearance occurred at the National Encampment of the G.A.R. in Milwaukee in 1880, were he and General U.S. Grant were honored guests. After a brief illness, Old Abe died March 28, 1881.

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Cornell Pulpwood Stacker WI429
In 1912, after a permanent dam was built across the Chippewa River near this location, the Cornell Wood Products Company, a large paper milling operation, begun production here. The company manufactured paper products, cardboard and wallboard. The original complex consisted of a log pond, slasher building, stacker, stacker pit building, sluice locker/tool building, office and garage. Although the operations ceased here in 1972 the 175 foot tall Cornell Pulpwood Stacker remains as an impressive reminder of the great logging industry that dominates this part of Wisconsin. The structure was designed by the Joor Engineering Company of England, manufactured by the Minneapolis Tool and Machinery Company and assembled here. Counter weights were used to erect the stacker. The Pulpwood Stacker moved large quantities of pulpwood logs into massive woodpiles. An important technological innovation, the Pulpwood Stacker is the only known example of this type of papermill machinery remaining in the United States, The Cornell Pulpwood Stacker was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1993.

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Kansas Indian Reservations KS2
When the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock, many different Indian nations occupied what is now the United States . European settlement gradually resulted in many of these native peoples being pushed to the west.

In 1825 the U.S. government resolved to move tribes remaining in eastern states to lands west of the Missouri River . Treaties were made and 30 tribes were assigned reservations on what is now eastern Kansas . Historically, these tribes are referred to as "emigrant Indians" because they were ask to give up their homelands and "emigrate" to new lands.

This marker stands on land once assigned to the Delawares . The Wyandots lived to the east. South were the lands of the Shawnees , Potawatomis, Ottawas , Miamis , and Chippewas. North were the Kickapoos. The tribes were assured that "so long as the sun shines and water runs down hill", this land would remain theirs. This was not to be. Two generations later, land-hungry settlers forced new treaties causing Native Americans once again to be displaced, this time to present-day Oklahoma . Northeastern Kansas remains home to four Indian reservations inhabited by members of the Potawatomi, Kickapoo, Sac and Fox, and Iowa tribes.

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Charles Albert Chief Bender PA276
One of baseball’s great pitchers. Bender played for the Philadelphia Athletics from 1903-14, helping them to win 5 pennants and 3 world championships. After winning 212 games over 16 seasons and becoming one of the first World Series stars, he was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1954. His mother was one-half Chippewa, and he attended Carlisle Indian Industrial School on this site from 1898-1901.

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Historic Fifield WI494
At this site on the South Fork of the Flambeau River was a sorting pond where logs were separated by logging company brand marks. By unleashing a wall of water 20 miles upstream at the Round Lake Logging Dam, loggers flushed millions of logs to mills here and along the Chippewa and Mississippi rivers. Fifield, established in 1876 and named after Lt. Governor Fifield, was the social, business, and religious center of Price County. Its influence dwindled after an 1893 fire destroyed Fifield's business district. Homesteaders settled the nearly cutover, fire-scarred lands, but were generally unsuccessful at farming due to the poor soil, short growing season, and the distance to markets. Taxes mostly went unpaid, adn the return of these lands to the government, sparked the creation of the Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest in 1933. These lands now contain vast forests, scenic areas, lakes, and rivers. Today, Fifield's economy depends upon natural resources and tourism.

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