The Wood River is a
[U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline data]
The National Map
accessed October 5, 2012 tributary of the
St. Croix River in western
Burnett County, Wisconsin
Burnett County is a county located in the U.S. state of Wisconsin. As of the 2020 census, the population was 16,526. Its county seat is Siren, with the majority of county governmental services located at the Burnett County Government Center. T ...
, United States.
It follows a meandering course in a generally westward direction. Its banks are mostly low and marshy, though there are high sandbanks in places. Although it flows through a few communities, for most of its course it flows through relatively natural settings.
Its source can be traced to Wood Creek which drains wetlands near the village of
Frederic, Wisconsin
Frederic is a village in Polk County, Wisconsin, Polk County, Wisconsin, United States. The population was 1,137 at the 2010 United States Census, 2010 census.
Geography
Frederic is located at (45.658797, -92.466921).
According to the United St ...
in
Polk County Polk County is the name of twelve counties in the United States, all except two named after president of the United States James Knox Polk:
* Polk County, Arkansas
* Polk County, Florida
* Polk County, Georgia
* Polk County, Iowa
* Polk Count ...
. Wood Creek runs through the unincorporated settlement of Falun, located in the town of Daniels, Burnett County, and eventually empties into Little Wood Lake. Little Wood Lake is drained by the Little Wood River which flows a few miles westward to Big Wood Lake, located in the town of Wood River.
The Wood River proper begins at the north end of Big Wood Lake. It flows north several miles before it arcs back through the village of
Grantsburg and on to the St. Croix River, several miles south of
State Highway 70.
In the
Ojibwe language
Ojibwe , also known as Ojibwa , Ojibway, Otchipwe,R. R. Bishop Baraga, 1878''A Theoretical and Practical Grammar of the Otchipwe Language''/ref> Ojibwemowin, or Anishinaabemowin, is an indigenous language of North America of the Algonquian lan ...
, this river was called ''Wiigobimizh-ziibi'' (
Basswood
''Tilia americana'' is a species of tree in the family Malvaceae, native to eastern North America, from southeast Manitoba east to New Brunswick, southwest to northeast Oklahoma, southeast to South Carolina, and west along the Niobrara River to ...
River) because of the abundance of this tree, from which strips of softened inner bark were used as lashings or cording called ''wiigob''. Because of the wetland complex through which the Wood River flows, the
Ojibwe
The Ojibwe, Ojibwa, Chippewa, or Saulteaux are an Anishinaabe people in what is currently southern Canada, the northern Midwestern United States, and Northern Plains.
According to the U.S. census, in the United States Ojibwe people are one of ...
called the vicinity of the village of Grantsburg ''Gichi-Mashkiigiminakaaning'' (at the great place full of low-bush
cranberries
Cranberries are a group of evergreen dwarf shrubs or trailing vines in the subgenus ''Oxycoccus'' of the genus ''Vaccinium''. In Britain, cranberry may refer to the native species ''Vaccinium oxycoccos'', while in North America, cranberry m ...
).
References
Rivers of Wisconsin
Rivers of Burnett County, Wisconsin
Rivers of Polk County, Wisconsin
Tributaries of the St. Croix River (Wisconsin–Minnesota)
{{Wisconsin-river-stub