Icons: Dam brings stability on Lake Holcombe in 1950

It’s hard to imagine that Lake Holcombe, one of the premiere recreational spots in Chippewa County, has only been around in its current form since 1950. With the Holcombe Flowage 3,600 acres, and 120 miles of shoreline, the area draws fisherman, water skiers and other people who just want to kick back at the lake.

A much smaller man-made lake itself actually made its debut in 1872, when Holcombe was known as Little Falls.

According to the website, www.lakeholcombe.org:

The Union Lumbering Company installed the dam to release water in floating logs downstream. The dam was taken over in 1880 by the Chippewa Lumber and Boom Co., owners of the world’s largest sawmill, operating in Chippewa Falls.

In 1905, a river boat carrying 11 men working on the annual log drive capsized, and the men drown. Five years later, the lumber boom was over, and Chippewa Lumber and Boom Co. closed its Chippewa Falls sawmill and the Little Falls dam.

The Wisconsin-Minnesota Light and Power Company bought the dam in 1914. That utility was later called Northern States Power Company, and is now Xcel Energy.

That utility in 1950 completed a hydroelectric dam to create the Holcombe Flowage.

One of the lake’s icons is the Holcombe Indian, a wooden statue by Luke Lyons, who worked for Chippewa Lumber. The statute was dislodged from its spot on the lake by an 1881 flood and was swept down the river to Jim Falls. Today the statute is on dry land, in the Holcombe Town Hall Park.