Black River Valley Historical Marker
N 44° 14.856 W 090° 44.214
15T E 680687 N 4901864
Black River Valley Historical Marker at the Bell Mound Scenic Overlook at Rest Area 54 off westbound lane I-94 6 miles west of Millston
Waymark Code: WM1K5V
Location: Wisconsin, United States
Date Posted: 05/24/2007
Views: 35
“White pine trees were growing here when Columbus made his voyage to America. In 1819, the first attempts to saw lumber were unsuccessful, but in 1839 Jacob Spaulding founded Black River Falls by erecting the first permanent sawmill and settlement on the Black River.
This valley contained the largest pine trees, some of them up to six feet across at the ground level, and the most pine trees per township in the state.
Before the logging ended in 1905, more than fifty sawmills had been in operation in Jackson County. Accurate records kept over a period of forty years reveal that enough lumber was sawed to have built a plank road nine feet wide and four inches thick around the world.
Iron ore was smelted at Black River Falls in 1856 and again in 1886, but the old process proved too expensive and was abandoned. The Jackson County iron Company, a subsidiary of Inland Steel, built a modern processing plant in 1969 that ships 2800 tons of taconite pellets every day of the year to its blast furnaces in Indiana. The mine buildings and open pit mine are visible from the overlook on top of this scenic Bell Mound.
Erected 1976”
County: Jackson
Location: Wayside
MarkerID: 228
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Visit Instructions:
- A picture of the marker with your GPSr or you holding your GPSr.