Setting the Baraboo River Free
Near Baraboo, Wisconsin
The river running through the heart of Baraboo tells a quiet story of renewal. For more than a century the Baraboo River was chopped into segments by dams built to power mills, including the great linen mill that once dominated the town. Those dams warmed and stilled the water, blocked the fish from moving, and, in some places, grew dangerous with age.
Beginning in the nineteen nineties, conservation groups and the community set to work removing the dams one by one, and when the last barrier came down in the year two thousand one, the results were remarkable. The Baraboo became, at the time, one of the longest stretches of restored, free-flowing river in the country, running unbroken for many miles. Fish returned, including species that had not been able to swim these reaches in generations.
Paddlers discovered a lively river for kayaking and canoeing right through the middle of town. What was once seen as an old industrial ditch is now a source of recreation, wildlife, and civic pride, proof that sometimes the boldest thing a community can do for a river is simply to set it free.
