Town of the Week

Eau Claire, Wisconsin
December 16, 2000

Head over to Eau Claire, Wisconsin; just listen in.

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When the first Europeans traveled the Chippewa River in northwest Wisconsin in 1767, the waters were stained brown from decaying leaves and pine needles. One tributary had clear water, so they gave it a French name, Eau Claire. Sixty years later, settlers began moving into the Chippewa Valley, cutting down the largest stand of white pine in the country. Eau Claire became the name of the community that grew up around the sawmills.

It has grown to become one of the top 10 retail markets in the country for grocery stores, restaurants and hardware stores.. Lumbering ended by 1920, and this area was transformed into wheat and dairy farming, and machine manufacturing. You can still see glimpses of The past at the Chippewa Valley Museum and Paul Bunyan logging camp at Carson Park in Eau Claire. You can also revisit the old days by taking an audiotape guided tour of the valley's historic attractions. 84 years ago, the state normal school opened as a teachers college, and is now the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire.

In the last 30 years, the city's population has grown by 25 percent to 61 thousand people. In addition to the thousands of jobs in hospitals and schools, Eau Claire is the home of a major home improvement chain, Menards. For recreation, there are at least 250 lakes in the immediate area, and two major hiking and biking trails, the Chippewa River State Trail and the Red Cedar State Trail. An interesting museum on the UW-Eau Claire campus is the James Newman Clark Bird Museum with more than 530 bird specimens collected by Clark a century ago. Often called the gateway to northwest Wisconsin, it's our Town of the Week, Eau Claire, Wisconsin.