Tainter Lake

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).

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.