11 Dunn & Eau Claire Counties

<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0><tr> <td valign="top" colspan=2 height=47 style=" border-bottom: 3px solid #FF9900;" BGCOLOR="#FFFF33" TEXT="#080000"> <div> <B>11 Dunn & Eau Claire Counties</B></div> <div> </div> </td> </tr><tr> <td valign="top" width=162 style="border-right: 3px solid #FF9900;" BGCOLOR="#FFFF33" TEXT="#080000"> <div> <A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="The Yellowstone Trail"><B><IMG SRC="30164140.png" border=0 width="100" height="20" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></B></A></div> <div> <A HREF="wisguide0.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Wis Guide Home"><B>Wis Guide Home</B></A></div> <div> <A HREF="guidewis00.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="How to use the guide/ legend."><B>How to and legend</B></A></div> <bR> <div> <B>By county:</B></div> <div> <A HREF="guidewis12.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="12 St Croix County "><B>12 St Croix</B></A></div> <div> <A HREF="guidewis11.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="11 Dunn Eau Claire Counties"><B>11 Dunn & Eau Claire</B></A></div> <div> <A HREF="guidewis10.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="10 Chippewa County"><B>10 Chippewa</B></A></div> <div> <A HREF="guidewis09.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="09 Clark Marathon Counties"><B>09 Clark & Marathon</B></A></div> <div> <A HREF="guidewis08.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="08 Wood County"><B>08 Wood</B></A></div> <div> <A HREF="guidewis07.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="07 Portage County"><B>07 Portage</B></A></div> <div> <A HREF="guidewis06.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="06 Waupaca County"><B>06 Waupaca </B></A></div> <div> <A HREF="guidewis05.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="05 Winnebago Outagamie Counties"><B>05-Winnebago & Outagamie</B></A></div> <div> <A HREF="guidewis04.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="04 Fond du Lac DodgeCounties"><B>04-Fond du Lac & Dodge</B></A></div> <div> <A HREF="guidewis03.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="03 Washington Waukesha Counties"><B>03 Washington/</B></A></div> <div> <A HREF="guidewis03.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="03 Washington Waukesha Counties"><B>Waukesha</B></A></div> <div> <A HREF="guidewis02.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="02MilwaukeeCounty"><B>02-Milwaukee</B></A></div> <div> <A HREF="guidewis01.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="01 Kenosha Racine Counties"><B>01 Kenosha & Racine</B></A></div> </td> <td valign="top" height=433 width="100%" BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#080000" bgproperties="fixed" background="06100c00egerdp.jpg"> <div>   <FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#FF0033" FACE="Arial" ><B>Please scroll down for draft text. </B></FONT></div> <div> <IMG SRC="34563b60.jpg" border=0 width="1123" height="1462" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <bR> <bR> <div> Dunn & Eau Claire Counties - Rivers and Timber</div> <bR> <div> <B>M34.5</B> St. Croix/Dunn Co. line.</div> <div> <B>M37.4 Knapp</B>   <I>Good garage and country hotel. Free camp space on highway.</I></div> <div> The Wisconsin Highway Commission, in 1923, reported: <I>The traveled route of state trunk highway 12 through the Village of Knapp, Dunn County, contains four right angle turns, and there is an abrupt turn in the road which it is desirable to eliminate. Two relocations have been recommended.</I> The reason for those angles was that that area in Knapp was a swampy lake. Those sharp angles remained until 1930 when a new US 12 was built straight through Knapp and the “swampy lake.”</div> <bR> <div> <B>M48.0</B> Area of Brickyard</div> <div> Menomonie had at least one brickyard on Brickyard Rd near part of the Yellowstone Trail. Millions of bricks were once manufactured in Menomonie by seven companies using the outstanding nearby clay. Brickmaking was summer work, which suited those who worked in the lumber camps in the winter.  In 1968 the last brick company closed, a victim of more modern plants. To this day there are hundreds of bricks lying about.</div> <bR> <div> <B>M48.8 Menomonie</B>     <I>A prosperous little town, supported by flour mills, brickyards, a piano factory and the successful dairy farmers of the territory.  Hotel Marian; splendid new hotel. Best meals. Sgl. $1.25, dbl. with bath, $4. The C & O Garage is best. Labor $1.Tourist camp, 25¢, level and in a nice grove. MH; Camp maintained by City. 6 blks west. 10 acres. AAA</I> </div> <div> The whole of Main St. has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places with buildings dating from the 1880s and 1890s. It remains much as it was when travelers of the YT passed by in 1915.  The<B> Mable Tainter Memorial Theater, </B>at 205 Main Street, is worth a stop. Built in 1889, it is a beautiful 120-year-old Victorian theater which presents performing and cultural arts. </div> <div> University of Wisconsin-Stout began as the Stout Manual Training School in 1891 by James Stout, wealthy lumberman and state senator. Knapp Stout Co. was the largest corporation in the world in 1873. Stout was a philanthropist and forward thinker about roads.</div> <div> <B>M50.0–M50.5</B>  In 1898, James Stout financed and built a half -mile section of the “road of the future” to demonstrate new road-building design and methods that would use local materials. He personally oversaw the construction of a “seedling” half mile of a model multi-lane road that included two earth roads, a stone road, a walking path and a bicycle path. It has been over-lain by the modern road along Stout Road from 17th St to a half mile east. </div> <bR> <div> <B>M64.7 Elk Creek Lake</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>M65.0</B> Dunn/Eau Claire County Line</div> <div> <B>M~67.0</B> Fred and Flora Rossow farmed along here at the turn of the 20th century. They said, <I>All the telephone poles were marked with a band of yellow and went clear out west, and they called this the Yellowstone Trail. About this time of year (summer) day after day people would stop here and ask if they could pitch their tents and get water from us. We always let them.</I></div> <div> M----<B>Madison St. Bridge Area</B></div> <bR> <div> Phoenix Park on the east side of the Chippewa River at Madison Street is a pleasant new park to view the river and contemplate Yellowstone Trail traffic crossing here on a wooden bridge. It burned down in 1924 and was replaced by a concrete arch bridge, used until the present bridge was built in 1974. You might hear one of the summer concerts or experience the farmers’ market.</div> <bR> <div> Across the street from the park is Stella Blues Restaurant in a renovated historic building, and The Livery Restaurant, 316 Wisconsin St., one block south of Madison Ave. The Livery is a new country music bar and restaurant located in an 1893 stable. The stable now stands saved, intact, and renovated with ceiling beams exposed, antiques throughout, and a working old elevator which was used to haul buggies and autos (and horses!?) up to the second floor.</div> <bR> <div> The Oleson brothers built this brick livery stable, replacing its wooden predecessor which had burned down. Not everyone owned a horse and buggy, necessitating a livery stable and its rent-a-horse business. The number of livery stables fell from 13 at this time to four in 1920 when this stable became associated with automobile enterprises.</div> <bR> <div> <B>M72.6 Eau Claire</B>    <I>An important manufacturing and jobbing center. Beautiful residence district.  The Eau Claire Hotel (sgl $2, dbl. with bath $4.50-$8.00) coffee shop. Union Auto Service Co. Never closed. At Barstow and Gray Sts.   Tourist Camp, on Birch St., about one and a half miles from the center of town, 25¢. MH; Camp maintained by City. 12 acres.  Accommodations for 30 cars, 150 people. AAA </I></div> <bR> <div> <B>M72.7</B>  For 126 years the Amber Inn Bar & Grill, 840 E. Madison St., has been a place of refreshment for the locals, the last 28 years in the same family. </div> <bR> <div> Keep an eye open for Yellowstone Trail signs as you go through this area.</div> <bR> <div> <B>M73.7 </B>Along Omaha St. is the Sacred Heart Cemetery with a seldom noticed, but easily seen small, ornate chapel built in the 1800's and now listed on a Register of Historic Places.</div> <div> <B>M76.4 </B>Chippewa/Eau Claire County Line (The City of Eau Claire extends a way into Chippewa Co.)</div> <bR> <bR> <div> Menomonie Wayside</div> <bR> <div> <FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#B07050" FACE="Arial" ><B>Code 1</B></FONT><B>  Wilson Place Mansion</B>. 101 Wilson Circle. Built in 1859, it was the home of Captain Wilson, a founder of the Knapp, Stout Company. Open Memorial Day through Labor Day and at Christmas time when multiple Christmas trees fill the gorgeous rooms. Each tree has an antique decoration theme.</div> <div> <FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#B07050" FACE="Arial" ><B>Code 2 </B></FONT><B> Rassbach Heritage Museum</B>.  South from I-94 Exit #41 onto Wis. 25. East on Pine Ave., left on Game Park Dr., left on Wakanda St. Local history and occasionally they have large displays such as antique auto shows.</div> <div> <FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#B07050" FACE="Arial" ><B>Code 1</B></FONT><B>  Sanna Park</B> (called Menomonie Tourist Park in the 1920s).</div> <div> About 1923 Emma Hathaway built a Pure Oil station at 932 Broadway, on the later Yellowstone Trail, hwy 12 north.  She noticed that many of her customers carried camping gear or pulled trailers. She convinced city officials to establish a city park. The Menomonie Improvement Association created the Menomonie Tourist Park to accommodate the many seasonal tourists/campers who followed the popular Yellowstone Trail.  It was across the street from Emma.</div> <div> In 1924 the park had water facilities, a cook shack, tables, boating, pavilions for dancing, rest rooms and a caretaker. There is no camping today. The only original features are two stone pillars at the entrance. On the site of that gas station now stands Skoog’s Restaurant (open in the evenings). Some of the original brick walls from that 1923 gas station may be seen in the bar.  EC Leader-Telegram 12/10/2006</div> <div> <FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#B07050" FACE="Arial" ><B>Code 2</B></FONT><B> Empire in Pine Lumber Museum</B>, is located six miles south of Menomonie on Wis.25, then turn on County C at Downsville.   Displays depicting operations of the Knapp, Stout  Company, once the largest white pinery in the world. Caddie Woodlawn artifacts, a one-cell village jail, an 1865 post office, early farm machinery and much more. New quarry exhibit.   Call 715-232-8685.</div> <bR> <div> <B>Code 1</B><FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#0080FF" FACE="Arial" ><B>  Menomonie Historic Note</B></FONT></div> <div> In the 1920s the YT in the town of Spring Brook (<B>M56.6</B> to <B>M65.0</B>) was marked by <I> little yellow signs.</I> It was also claimed that<I> a man named Weston passed through, walking the distance on that road.</I> It might well have been W. Warwick who was employed by the Yellowstone Trail Association to<B> </B>put up <B>Yellowstone Trail markers</B> along the Trail nation-wide.</div> <bR> <div> <B>Code 3</B><FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#0080FF" FACE="Arial" ><B>  Menomonie Historic Note</B></FONT></div> <div> <B>Invented in Menomonie</B>: Jeremiah Tainter invented the <B>Tainter Gate</B>, a rocker shaped device to raise and lower water levels  for controlling water in a spillway. This 1886 invention is still used today in dams around the world.</div> <bR> <div> Code 2<FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" > </FONT><FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#0080FF" FACE="Arial" >Menomonie Historic Note</FONT></div> <div> <B>Invented in Menomonie</B>: Harry Miller designed the first <B>outboard boat motor</B> (electric in 1900 and gasoline in 1906), inboard speedboats, and auto racing engines. He began his career in 1897 by mounting a one cylinder engine on his bicycle because he was tired of pedaling up hill after his daily job.</div> <div> His “Miller Special” racers dominated the major auto races for three decades, winning almost all of the major races throughout the 1920s.  Barney Oldfield commissioned Miller to design the first streamlined racer in 1916. His innovations are still found in the cars of today.</div> <bR> <bR> <div> Eau Claire Wayside</div> <div> <FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#B07050" FACE="Arial" ><B>Code 1</B></FONT><B>  Chippewa Valley Museum.</B> <FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#0000FF" FACE="Arial" ><A HREF="http://www.cvmuseum.com." TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://www.cvmuseum.com."><U>http://www.cvmuseum.com.</U></A></FONT>This professionally run museum in Carson Park in the center of Eau Claire contains large permanent displays of farm life, Native Americans and wildlife as well as changing, thematic Eau Claire historical displays. Open all year. Closed Mondays. $4  <FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#0000FF" FACE="Arial" ><A HREF="http://www.cvmuseum.com." TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://www.cvmuseum.com."><U>www.cvmuseum.com</U></A></FONT></div> <bR> <div> <FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#B07050" FACE="Arial" ><B>Code 1</B></FONT><B>  Paul Bunyan Logging Camp</B>, in Carson Park next door to the Chippewa Valley Museum is a recreated northwoods lumber camp. Open May 1 thru Labor Day. $4</div> <bR> <div> Code 1<FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#0080FF" FACE="Arial" >  Eau Claire Historic note:</FONT></div> <div> Standing at the corner of Madison and Putnam St. corner watching for the car in the 1916 Yellowstone Trail Association auto relay race against time (coast to coast) was as exciting as it was for the 1915 race (Chicago to Seattle).  On the evening of Sept. 13, 1916, as Dr. Cunningham was racing from Chippewa Falls to Eau Claire, he apparently got confused about the turn at this corner. He turned sharply and totalled his Oakland Six by wrapping a wheel around a telephone pole. He came through unscathed. Fortunately, his was only the  backup or “trailer” car. The lead car, driven from Stanley by JW Galbraith, continued to speed toward the corner of East Madison and North Barstow St. where he passed the war message on to Allan Redmond who sped west to Baldwin. The point of the race was to cross the continent in 120 hours to show the War Department that the Yellowstone Trail could be named a military road if we would enter WWI.<FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#FF0000" FACE="Arial" > </FONT>It took 121 hours to drive 3600 miles. The Trail was named a military road when the US entered WWI.</div> <bR> <div> Code 1<FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#0080FF" FACE="Arial" > Eau Claire Historic Note</FONT><FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" >:</FONT></div> <div> There are references to two campsites in Eau Claire, both on the Trail, although neither site is a camp or park today. One occupied almost a whole square block between the streets of Omaha, Spring, Birch and McDonough. A later campground was in a park closer to the junction of Birch St. and Hastings Way, perhaps “at the foot of Mt. Tom.”</div> <bR> <div> See Chippewa County for notes about the Eau Claire trolley that ran north of town. </div> <bR> <div> <U>Driving Notes</U></div> <div> During the years of the YT, 1915-1930, the route through these counties was subject to significant change in three areas:  (A) M40.0 - M48.8 (just west of Menomonie), (B) M53.7 - M72.0 just west of Eau Claire), and (C) M72.8 - M83.5 (in and north of Eau Claire).</div> <div> For the area west of Menomonie (A) the route was changed to the north route in the middle 1920s when Wis 12 (now US 12) was rebuilt. </div> <div> For the change west of Eau Claire, (B) (the Truax route) an area historian reported that the right of way was purchased in 1925 and the concrete highway opened Nov 1926. With the building of North Crossing the route of the YT was lost at the intersection of Wis 312 (North Crossing), Co T, Clairemont Av., and US 12. As a work around, if you are going east on Wis 312 follow US 12 (Clairemont) for a block south then turn east on Truax Blvd.  If going west on Truax from downtown Eau Claire, turn north on US 12 and then west of Wis 312.</div> <div> In the area of Eau Claire and north into Chippewa Falls (C) the route was changed in 1921 when a good concrete road was built along and east of the railroad and trolley line.                                        </div> <div> Also the map shows two routes within Eau Claire over the Chippewa River. The Madison Street route is unambiguously the route after about 1921 – and it probably was from the beginning. However, the early Automobile Blue Books clearly route the traveler on a more circuitous route through downtown <U>probably</U> because the writers routed all routes through a central point in order to make connections with other routes.  The chances are good that the YT Association did not designate that somewhat longer route.</div> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> </td> </tr></table></body>