Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
valuable ecosystem. The tribe has had a lumber operation since 1908, one of the first and
largest Native-owned in the United States; they had been trading lumber with the Winne-
bago long before European contact. Their high-tech present-day plant is the largest and
most modern in the region. More than two billion board feet have been removed from the
forest—more than twice the entire yield. Yet the Menominee have been lauded by interna-
tional environmentalists for instituting a radical sustainable ecosystem model, now being
examined by Indian bands from the Atlantic Coast to the Nuu-chah-nulth group of tribes
from Vancouver Island. Forestry experts from as far away as Cambodia and Indonesia have
come to the tribe's new forestry institute.
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Wolf River
Meandering through the reservation from its headwaters in Lily to the north is the nascent
Wolf River, a part of the Fox River system, which includes the Fox and Wolf Rivers head-
waters,thelowerFoxRiver,andLakeWinnebago.Quietatitssource,itpicksupsteamasit
crossesthroughLanglade,andbythetimeithitsthereservation,it'sgotabitofadanderup.
This stretch of the state-designated Outstanding Water Resource and federally-designated
wild river is perhaps the most spectacular. It drops almost 1,000 feet as it crosses the reser-
vation,fromthemultihuedjuttingsandwhitewaterofSmokeyFallstotheeeriecanyonsof
the Wolf River Dells. Water conditions range from placid—below Post Lake—to hair-rais-
ing in sections near Smokey Falls.
The colorful toponymy describes it well: Little Slough Gundy, Sherry Rapids, Horse
Race Rapids, Twenty Day Rips, and more. The stretch of river between Gilmore's Mistake
and Smokey Falls—the lower terminus for most rafters—can be rife with midrange rapids,
some up to eight feet.
