The Willow River is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline data
The National Map
accessed October 5, 2012 river in St. Croix County,

Wisconsin Wisconsin () is a state in the upper Midwestern United States. Wisconsin is the 25th-largest state by total area and the 20th-most populous. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake M ...

, United States, and a

tributary A tributary, or affluent, is a stream or river that flows into a larger stream or main stem (or parent) river or a lake. A tributary does not flow directly into a sea or ocean. Tributaries and the main stem river drain the surrounding drainage ...

of the St. Croix River. Its

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is in southern

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east of the village of Clear Lake. The river at one time flowed unobstructed into the lower St. Croix River between

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and North Hudson (). However a dam was built to block off its mouth, a narrow channel was cut above the dam to the St. Croix River, the channel was dammed, and a mill was built to exploit the head of water that the two dams created.See United States v. Willow River Power Co. Subsequently, the Willow River Power Company built a hydroelectric facility to utilize the same head of water, but the head was substantially decreased when the United States built the Red Wing Dam downstream on the

Mississippi River The Mississippi River is the second-longest river and chief river of the second-largest drainage system in North America, second only to the Hudson Bay drainage system. From its traditional source of Lake Itasca in northern Minnesota, it f ...

. The river winds back and forth with a slow flowage. In its upper reaches it flows through the Cylon Marsh State Wildlife Area. It passes south of Deer Park by about one mile. It then passes through New Richmond, Boardman, and Burkhardt. Near Burkhardt it enters Willow River State Park. The river can be navigated north of the unincorporated community of Burkhardt. River access is available at New Richmond's Nature Center. Each spring rainbow and

brook trout The brook trout (''Salvelinus fontinalis'') is a species of freshwater fish in the char genus ''Salvelinus'' of the salmon family Salmonidae. It is native to Eastern North America in the United States and Canada, but has been introduced elsewhere ...

are stocked at various locations along the river. The status of the Willow River as a non-navigable stream figured in constitutional litigation over whether a head of water to which it contributed was a property interest for purposes of the Fifth Amendment, in '' United States v. Willow River Power Co.''.

References

{{authority control Rivers of St. Croix County, Wisconsin Rivers of Wisconsin Tributaries of the St. Croix River (Wisconsin–Minnesota)