Tainter Lake (Dunn County, Wisconsin)
| Tainter Lake | |
|---|---|
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| Location | Dunn County, Wisconsin |
| Coordinates | 44°56′06″N 91°53′19″W / 44.93500°N 91.88861°WCoordinates: 44°56′06″N 91°53′19″W / 44.93500°N 91.88861°W |
| Type | Reservoir |
| Primary inflows | Red Cedar River, Hay River |
| Primary outflows | Red Cedar River |
| Basin countries | United States |
| Surface area | 1,752 acres (7.1 km2) |
| Max. depth | 37 ft (11 m) |
| Shore length1 | 25.7 mi (41.4 km) |
| Surface elevation | 872 ft (266 m) |
| Settlements | Cedar Falls |
| 1 Shore length is not a well-defined measure. | |
Tainter Lake is a small reservoir in north central Dunn County, Wisconsin, on the Red Cedar River at its confluence with the Hay River. The lake was created by a hydroelectric dam (about 3 miles (5 km) downstream on the Red Cedar at Cedar Falls. The lake, a popular resort and fishing spot, has a surface area of approximately 2 square miles (5 km2).
Tainter Lake is located in northern Dunn County, Wisconsin. A small channel divides the lake into North and South regions. the channel creates some of the narrowest parts of the lake (50 ft) and also contains the deepest part of the lake (35 ft). The average depth of the lake is 20 feet (6.1 m).
A few very small resorts are situated on the shores, although the lake is not known for its large fish populations. North Tainter is better known for its fishing than the southern part. This is because the north has multiple fish cribs that were planted over the last 20 years, is significantly shallower than the southern part of the lake, and has many species of fish that spawn in the shallow slow moving water.
North Tainter Lake is fed primarily by the Red Cedar River, but also by the Hay River. Both rivers drain the farm fields north of Lake Tainter. The TMLIA (Tainter Menomin Lake Improvement Association) has been diligently working on an algae problem for the last several years. With their increased participation; hopefully the lake will continue to see some improvement. The Red Cedar River south of the Cedar Falls dam creates flows for about three miles (5 km) until it reaches Lake Menomin, which was also created by a dam on the Red Cedar. Because the Lake Menomin dam is the last one on the Red Cedar River before the Mississippi, it is legal to fish that part of the river out of season.
Before the installation of the dam at Cedar Falls (Kakabika Falls), Tainter Lake did not exist. The decision to build the mill and dam came from Andrew Tainter (1823 - 1899), a wealthy lumber baron who was a partner in Knapp, Stout and Company, the largest lumber mill in the country during the 1870s. It was reported that they owned 115,000 acres (470 km2) of pine land and employed 1,200 men. By that time the company had logging camps on nearly every stream leading to the Red Cedar and controlled almost all of the Red Cedar River and its tributaries. The company's largest mill operation was on the Menomonee River (what the Red Cedar was commonly called) where the lumber settlement became known as the "mills of Menomonie" or "Menomonie Mills" and finally Menomonie, now the county seat of Dunn. The firm continued to log until 1899 when the forests were exhausted and competition keen. The mill at Cedar Falls closed in 1901.
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