Jump River

The Jump River is a small rocky river in north-central Wisconsin. In the late 19th century it was used to drive logs down to the Chippewa River. Today it is recreational, rambling through woods and farmlands, used mostly by fishermen and paddlers.

The Jump is formed at the confluence of the North Fork Jump River and the South Fork Jump River in southwestern Price County, Wisconsin. From there it flows approximately 25 miles (40 km) through Rusk, Taylor and Chippewa counties, emptying into the Holcombe Flowage and joining the Chippewa River, and eventually the Mississippi.

Communities along the river are Sheldon, Jump River, and Prentice.

The origin of the river's name is the source of minor local controversy. Some say that the name comes from the jumping water in the many rapids which mark nearly the upper half of its course. Others maintain that the river was so-named because a 19th-century forest fire jumped the river. Still others suggest that log drivers named it for the way the water level "jumps" up and down rapidly after rains and thaws. Its name in Ojibwe does not shed light on its present name either, since the Ojibwa call this stream Manidoons-ziibi ("Little Spirit River").

Indians lived along the Jump in the early years, growing little plots of crops on the river bottoms.

Jump River Falls (Big Falls) was once thought the likely rapids where Father René Menard disappeared in 1661 while trying to reach a band of refugee Hurons near Lake Chelsea. Current thought is that he more likely disappeared at the dells of the Big Rib River, in the southeast corner of Taylor county.

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