Autumn Colors - Amnicon Falls

This is a photo series – posting a number of parks and waterfalls – exploring the Autumn colors this year. These are all beyond the watershed of the Gardens at Waters East – but in close driving distance. Lake Superior is the watershed area of these many locations.

This first in the series is --- Amnicon Falls in northern  Wisconsin.

The name is derived from the Ojibway words – “where fish spawn”.  The area has one of the most beautiful series of waterfalls and cascades in all the Midwest.  Here is found the only muskellunge populations in Northwestern Wisconsin. The “root beer” color comes from the river moving through swamps and bogs of its headwaters picking up decaying vegetation and tannic acid.

The first to live in this area were the nomadic hunters following the retreating glaciers hunting mastodons 9000 years ago. Then Old Copper Culture Native Americans some 5000 years ago followed by Woodland Native Americans 500 years ago who hunted the forest and fished the rivers. Now it is the hikers and nature lovers who come here to take in the beauty of this special place.