Located in the northwest region of Wisconsin, is the Town of Barnes. My Home.
As I watch everybody's vacation posts, it dawned on me that I'm fortunate enough to live in Wisconsin's premier vacation destination. I will be sharing a piece of Wisconsin history that is one of our biggest attractions, and a great swimming spot!
I grew up in this gorgeous area, always took it for granted until I moved away for a couple years. When I returned, I was at peace again. My family owns a bar/restaurant in the area, and we love seeing new tourists, always excited to meet with them and explain the history of our town. I will do a blog on our family business a little later.
My personal favorite spot to just hang out is at the lock and dam on the Eau Claire Chain of Lakes. It's a great little swimming hole that thousands visit every year. In my younger years we would just hang out all night, sip a couple beers and laugh til the sun came up. Now as I'm older, I bring my kids down to play and hide behind the waterfall.
The Lock and Dam-A brief history.
In the late 19th century, logging was the main business in northern Wisconsin. In those days, there wasn't select cutting like today, they took every tree possible. In order to move the trees from our area, they would float them down the Eau Claire (meaning clear water) river. The first few logs they would cut, ended up being placed as a dam. When the water raised and the loggers filled the surface with logs, they would release the dam and wash the logs downstream. These logs would float to a loading area where they
were loaded onto trains and shipped to mills.
After all the trees were taken, the waters would recede to normal levels. This is what was left.
In the early 1900's, a family moved to one of the headwaters of the river and put in another small log dam creating Upper Eau Claire Lake and a few satellite lakes. In the 1930's, the federal government, realizing the potential for tourism in the area, built the lock and dam further downstream which created a few more satellite lakes. Giving boaters access to the whole chain which now consist of 11 beautiful pristine clear water lakes.
Here is a link to the Town of Barnes website with a brief description of each of the lakes on the chain, and a map below.
http://www.barnes-wi.com/page.cfm/33
Business Starts Expanding!
After the lakes had been "created", they were all stocked heavily with fish to help boost tourism. Walleyes and Musky soon became a popular game fish, and business boomed! Bars, restaurants, meat markets all were built surrounding the old resorts to help keep tourists thirst quenched and belly's full. Many generational families have kept businesses running throughout the years.
Alas all good things come to an end. The property value boom from the 1990's to early 2000's caused a shortage in resorts. Many of the families who ran these resorts sold their property off to private owners for a large profit. Completely understandable. Now only a handful of resorts remain on the chain, but a couple smaller hotels have been erected so people have places to stay.
Our water is not the only attraction anymore, atv trails and snowmobile trails have exploded in our area increasing tourism once again. We are also surrounded by thousands of acres of public hunting grounds, where many a young boy got to spend their first trip at deer camp with dad and his cohorts.
Hard to believe it all started by putting a little dam in a river.
A few Pics of the Lock and Dam
This is the south view of the river below dam from the road above. Above Lower Eau Claire, the last lake in the chain. Peaceful isn't it. This is also the main spawning grounds for fish in the spring. Walleye and Musky come up by the thousands to lay eggs in the rapids below the dam. You can walk to the edge of the water and it is not uncommon to have a 50 inch musky sitting at your feet.
The view from the bottom of the steps.
The Locks were just retrofitted with new hardware for smoother operation and railing. The concrete around it was all reinforced and patched to ensure another generation of enjoyment.
The locks are on the east side and allow fourteen foot fishing boats through fairly easy. There's days where people put their boat through just to say that they used the locks, I even have. Once you get through the locks, you can reach all 10 other lakes by canoe/kayak, and 3 other by motor boat.
There is stairs with railings on the north and south side of the road for easy access, which I even admit after a few beers with friends its nice to have something to hang on too on your way back up!
And this is the final view of the river looking north upstream from the locks, again, it's just relaxing.
Here is a link to a video that shows the channel between Middle Eau Claire and Lower Eau Claire with a good shot of the locks.
Thanks for reading and FOLLOW me for more posts of our area, I have so much to share!