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The History Behind The Falls - River Falls In the summer of 1848, Joel Foster, a Mexican War veteran from Illinois, heard about the beautiful area of the Kinnickinnic River with the cascade falls while he was visiting in St. Croix Country near Hudson. At the same time, St. Croix County was comprised of the present counties of Polk, St. Croix, and Pierce. The population of the area in 1849 was less than 2,000. The next day Foster set about exploring the region. Hunting and fishing along the way, he moved up the river until they reached the falls at the junction of the South Fork and the Kinnickinnic. Foster wrote about the two American Indian tribes inhabiting the region - the Sioux and the Chippewa. He noted that both placed such value on the St. Croix Valley that neither claimed it for themselves. Foster returned to St. Louis but soon decided to spend the winter in River Falls before some other explorer staked a claim. Along with his 20-year-old black indentured servant, Dick Foster, returned to the St. Croix Valley. They spent the winter under a rock shelf along the banks of the Kinnickinnic River, about a half mile south of the falls. Using split logs, they dug a pit into the floor, put down a carpet of grass, fastened hooks to hold their rifles and started a fire at the entrance. They heated water to make mud so they could finish the cabin and chimney, but the structure was not completed that first winter. They got supplies in Hudson every 10 days or so. The winter of 1848-1849 became the first official year of the settlement of River Falls. The next spring, Foster and Dick completed the log structure and added a root cellar. They called it "Fort Foster." Two brothers, Nathaniel N. and Oliver Stanley Powell, also claimed land in 1849. They built the first commercial structure in 1852. Two years later the building was converted into a store known as Pioneer Store. It was located at the corner of main and Maple streets and rapidly developed into a hotel, post office, and community headquarters. Stock for the store was unloaded at Prescott and hauled in by horse and wagon. In 1854, the Powell brothers laid out and platted the first section in the village - 60 acres on the east side of town they named the Village of Kinnickinnic. They were later said to be instrumental in convincing state officials to establish the 4th state normal school in River Falls. Foster built a sawmill in 1854. It was later expanded to include a feed store and was located on the south blank of the Kinnickinnic River. G.R. Griffin set up a blacksmith shop. A hotel was constructed in 1855 by G.W. Cairns, who was also a surveyor, contractor, and justice of the peace. It was called the Greewood House and W.H. Winchester was proprietor. Four flour mills were established. The first was built in 1855 by C.B. Cox, who later built another mill known as the Prairie Mill, located on the west side of North Main Street. S.D. Dodge opened a tin and sheet iron shop, located on the northeast corner of Main and Elm Street in 1855. The River Falls Journal, the city's first newspaper, was founded in 1857 by Lute A. and Horace A. Taylor. Later that year, the first of Crossman and Hart constructed a brickyard on the southern edge of the growing community. River Falls reached the epitome of its early industrial growth between 1872 - 1885. The beginning of the railroad insured its continued existence, although the city was not on a main line of the railroad. Growth was curtailed only by the decline of the wheat market in 1882 and the city's location, which was not along a navigable river. The River that started it all - The Kinnickinnic River River Falls is named after the falls of the Kinnickinnic River. The "Kinni" is a renowned trout stream originating twelve miles northeast of the city. The word "Kinnickinnic" refers to the Potawatomi Indian word for the ceremonial tobacco from toasted willow or sumac bark. The setting for the Kinnickinnic River has long been appreciated: "It looks as though the Almighty had made this portion of country first and made it on a perfect system, piling the rocks up in beautiful mounds, spreading over them sufficient soil to dress and beautify and make pasture land of them, spreading out the farmland between the mounds, with pure streams of water and beautiful falls, giving abundant water power and timber convenient..." from first settler Joel Foster's journal of 1848. |
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