If you continued downstream from yesterday’s picture, you would find the Big Manitou Falls, the highest waterfall in Wisconsin. And without any references to scale, it might not seem very tall. There is a person wearing a white shirt standing near the level of the top of the waterfall on the left side about a third of the way into the photo. The person looks like a little white dot.
Big Manitou Falls in Summer
A warm summer Saturday may have some people venturing to water to cool off. And while this water looks inviting to wade in, you don’t want to wade too far downstream as the water drops 165 feet as Wisconsin’s tallest waterfall.
Top of Big Manitou Falls
On a hot summer day, feeling the cold mist from this waterfall would feel good. And it was giving off mist as I wasn’t able to keep my camera lens free from water spots when I tried to take photos at a different viewing location even though it only falls 30 feet instead of the next drop of 165 farther downstream.
Viewing Little Manitou Falls
There was some water running across the driveway, one sign that there is some snow melting but there wasn’t a lot of melt off yet and I fell in the deep snow today. But a slow melt helps prevent flooding and the water is not rushing like this river.
Rapid Flow
By the time I finished clearing the snow which fell overnight, the sun peeked out for a few minutes before it turned dark as it started to snow heavily again. It wasn’t what I wanted to see and I would prefer seeing falling water in a different format on a warmer day.
Water Falling
This weekend, the state of Wisconsin is offering free entry to state parks and forests, so many maybe enjoying hiking and exploring the various parks like Pattison State Park.
Crossing the Manitou River
On a hot summer Saturday, I am sure the beach will be filled with people cooling off at Interfalls Lake in Pattison State Park. The twenty-three acre lake, containing several small islands, is downstream from the Little Manitou Falls. And the sound of the small dam and the roar of the Big Manitou Falls can be heard directly behind this spot. In a span of a short distance, the waters of the Black River makes a 30 foot drop before flowing into a calm lake briefly before it goes over the dam and then the big plunge of 165 feet until it makes its way to Lake Superior.
Interfalls Lake
Upstream from the tallest waterfall in Wisconsin, a smaller or little 30 foot waterfall can be found. But the waters of the Black River puts on a show at the scenic Little Manitou Falls before flowing into the Interfalls Lake and falling 165 feet downstream.
Little Manitou Falls
View a short video of the falls as you listen to the roar of the falling waters.
A picture just doesn’t do justice to the 165 foot Big Manitou Falls waterfall, the tallest waterfall in Wisconsin and the fourth tallest east of the Rockies. It is only two feet shorter than Niagara Falls, but it is a lot ‘skinnier’ although it still rumbles as the water plunges to the bottom.
Both the Big Manitou Falls and Little Manitou Falls are on the Black River located in Pattison State Park. In the tumbling waters of Big Manitou Falls, the Ojibwa believed they heard the voice of the Great Spirit within the roaring of the falls and gave it the name “Gitchee Manitou”.
If it wasn’t for a lumberjack and miner from Michigan, I might have never had the chance to see this waterfall since there was plans to build a hydroelectric dam on the river which would’ve destroyed the waterfall. Martin Pattison blocked the development by secretly purchased 660 acres along the river from a number of landowners and became a state park in 1920.
Big Manitou Falls
