Indians, traders and names Indians traveled up and down the Flambeau before there were roads through the forests of northern Wisconsin, hunting and fishing along it. An archeological dig at Deadman Slough shows that
Paleo-Indians camped along the North Fork shortly after the
last glacier receded, about 11,000 years ago.
Ojibwe dominated the area when white fur traders arrived in the 1600s, until the US forced them to cede most of their land rights in the
White Pine Treaty of 1837. The name
flambeau means "torch" in French. Many place names in Wisconsin have French origins due to the early
French explorers, trappers and traders in the region in the colonial era. A common interpretation is that early explorers saw the local Ojibwe (Chippewa) people fishing at night by torchlight. In
Ojibwe the North Fork of the Flambeau River is called
Waaswaagani-ziibi (Torch-light River), as it flows from
Lac du Flambeau, known in Ojibwe as ''Waaswaagani-zaaga'igan
(Lake of the Torch Light). The South Fork is known in Ojibwe as the Omashkoozo-ziibi
(Elk River or "he that runs in a waddling type of way" River) . After the North Fork and the South Fork join, the river is known in Ojibwe as Manidoowiish-ziibi'' (Little Spirit [small animals] River).
Early logging Large-scale logging operations began on the Flambeau around the 1860s. About 1864 the Daniel Shaw Company of Eau Claire built a permanent staging area called
Flambeau Farm where the Flambeau meets the Chippewa above modern Holcombe. Crews toiled from there up the river to cut out logging camps in the wilderness - sometimes poling supplies up in keelboats - sometimes carting them on a tote-road that followed the river. Then, mostly in winter, lumberjacks living in the camps walked out into nearby forests and chopped down pine trees, sawed them into logs generally 16-feet long, and sledded them to the banks of any river or stream large enough to float logs. There they were stacked until spring. When the water rose, they rolled the logs into the river and log-driving crews followed them down with the current, racing to break up log jams before they grew. At the end of the drive, the logs were generally caught in
booms near sawmills. As mentioned above, many of the logging operations were supplied via Flambeau Farm at the mouth of the Flambeau. That outpost provided sleeping quarters for the Shaw company's own men, a hotel for river travelers, a wanigan where necessities could be bought, and a mixed community of whites and Indians who did the work. From there a ferry crossed the Chippewa to a tote road heading up the west bank - the Flambeau Road. In 1872 a new logging camp was built 20 miles above Vinette's at Hackett's Farm, on the Flambeau's South Fork. In 1901 Menasha Wooden Ware built a dam at Ladysmith to generate electricity for their mill. Menasha Paper built a pulp and paper mill there shortly after. The Big Falls hydro dam was built above Ladysmith in 1922 and the Dairyland dam in 1950, both generating electricity and creating flowages, but also submerging beautiful stretches of the river. In his
A Sand County Almanac,
Aldo Leopold mourned the loss of a scenic section of the Flambeau to the Dairyland Power Dam above Ladysmith. He feared that the state legislature's approval had set a precedent which would sacrifice much of the wild Flambeau for hydro-electric dams, but much of the wild river remains.
Flambeau River State Forest In the 1920s, after the virgin forest was cut and farming the northern cutover was proving difficult, a group led by Judge A.K. Owens of
Phillips pushed to preserve wild land along the Flambeau River. In 1929 the
Wisconsin Conservation Department bought 3,112 acres, and more in the years that followed. In 1930 it was named
Flambeau River State Forest. Canoe campsites and a headquarters were developed in the early years; then in the 1950s and 1960s larger campgrounds Lake of the Pines and Connors Lake and a larger headquarters were added. Today the forest totals 90,000 acres. ==Modern recreation==