Grandfather Falls

Grandfather Falls is the highest waterfall on the Wisconsin River. The total drop is 89 feet, spread out in a series of cascades over about one mile. The upper third of the falls and most of the flow, except in the spring, is diverted through a canal and a series of penstocks to feed hydroelectric generators. Grandfather Falls dam and power generating facility is owned and operated by Wisconsin Public Service Corporation.The cascade has been known historically as Grandfather Bull Fallsand as Boileaux Rapids.Other phonetic variations on Boileaux such as Beauleauxand Brearbeauxare also sometimes seen in older accounts and maps. The Ojibwe name for the cascade was Konajewun which means "long falls."Many of the falls and rapids on the Wisconsin River had the word "Bull" inserted in the name, such as Big Bull Falls at what is now Wausau and Jenny Bull Falls at what is now Merrill. These derive from voyageurs working for John Baptiste DuBay, who ran a trading post for the John Jacob Astor's American Fur Company near Fort Winnebago, and built a pioneering trading post and homestead near Knowlton. While traveling up stream, a party of these voyageurs encountered the rapids at Mosinee and named it Taureau, French for "bull." When they encountered the rapids at Wausau, which were bigger, they named them Gros Taureau — "Big Bull." When they encountered the much larger rapids 40 miles further up stream, they named them Taureau Grand-père. This began a tradition for naming all the falls on the upper Wisconsin.