Grandfather Falls is the highest waterfall on the Wisconsin River. The total drop is 89 feet, spread out in a series of cascades over about one mile. The upper third of the falls and most of the flow, except in the spring, is diverted through a canal and a series of penstocks to feed hydroelectric generators. Grandfather Falls dam and power generating facility is owned and operated by Wisconsin Public Service Corporation.
The cascade has been known historically as Grandfather Bull Falls and as Boileaux Rapids. Other phonetic variations on Boileaux such as Beauleaux and Brearbeaux are also sometimes seen in older accounts and maps. The Ojibwe name for the cascade was "Konajewun" which means "long falls".
Many of the falls and rapids on the Wisconsin River had the word "Bull" inserted in the name, such as Big Bull Falls at what is now Wausau and Jenny Bull Falls at what is now Merrill. These derive from voyageurs working for John Baptiste DuBay, who ran a trading post for John Jacob Astor's American Fur Company near Fort Winnebago, and built a pioneering trading post and homestead near Knowlton. While traveling up stream, a party of these voyageurs encountered the rapids at Mosinee and named it Taureau, French for "bull." When they encountered the rapids at Wausau, which were bigger, they named them Gros Taureau — "Big Bull." When they encountered the much larger rapids 40 miles further up stream, they named them Taureau Grand-père. This began a tradition for naming all the falls on the upper Wisconsin.
Geologic history
Several hundred million years ago, the northern highlands of Wisconsin were an alpine mountain range. Beneath this range, igneous rock formed which now is called pre-Cambrian bedrock, the top layers of the mountains having been worn down by erosion. In more recent geologic time, glaciers scoured the surface exposing this pre-Cambrian rock in many areas, leaving irregular drainage throughout the north woods with many rapids and falls as features of the streams. Grandfather Falls lies in this pre-Cambrian rock bed, and is thus a remnant of the physical geography of this ancient mountain range.
Early river navigation
Trade route and portage
Although there are no precise records of when and to what degree trade started on the upper Wisconsin, it was known to be a significant route by around the turn of the nineteenth century. Lac du Flambeau was a large Ojibwe town within which Montreal fur traders built semi-permanent trading posts, including by more than one company simultaneously. These traders sent employees on excursions down river to trade with Ojibwe towns and camps which existed as far south as the Yellow River. When traveling to the satellite Ojibwe villages downstream, it was necessary to portage the Falls. By the time US federal surveyors arrived to take their data in 1851, the portage road was well-established.
A story extant from the period describes what was probably the first and only canoe trip down the falls:
In 1849, these falls were navigated, in a bark canoe, for the first and last time by two Indians — the Black Nail and the Crow. At the head of the falls before starting, Crow held the canoe by a rock projecting from the shore, while Black Nail made a prayer and an offering to the spirit of the falls. The offering consisted of two yards of scarlet broad cloth, and a brass kettle ... [After saying the] prayer, he threw the offering overboard, and grappled his paddle, and the canoe went bounding over the billows, and ran the falls in safety.
As Jenny (Merrill) developed in the 1870s, it became a point of departure for suppliers to the logging camps:
[I]n the summer months canoes were the common means of conveyance. From 1,000 to 1,200 pounds could be loaded on a canoe and the trip from Jenny to Grandfather made in a day, and as many as 25 or 30 canoes were often seen on the water, each with three men bound for Grandfather. It required four days to make the trip to Eagle River by this means and two to return downstream.