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Little Falls, Wisconsin
Little Falls on the Willow River in Wisconsin.
Open in BirdTrout45.016887, -92.706427 · St. Croix County · NID WI00053. Tap the map to open this water in the live app.
What the runs do here
Willow River carries no anadromous run on our corridor map, so this page makes no claim about salmon or steelhead at this dam. What it sits on is coldwater — resident trout water — and the section below says which classification says so.
The structure
- Owner
- Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources State
- Purpose
- Recreation
- Completed
- 1895 · modified 1920O
- Type
- Gravity
- Height
- 30 ft
- Length
- 370 ft
- Spillway
- Controlled
- Storage
- 1,700 acre-ft · 172 acre pool
- Drainage
- 171 sq mi
- Condition
- Fair · High hazard potential
From the National Inventory of Dams (USACE). Hazard potential is a downstream-consequence classification, not a statement about the structure's condition.
The water above and below
- Willow River 0.03 mi from the dam · Class II · wild supplemented (WDNR) · typed Cold
Coldwater designation is the state's own classification. A dam sits on one river and this list is every designated reach within a mile and a half of it, so a tributary mouth shows up here too.
Water right now
| Gauge | Distance | Temp | Flow |
|---|---|---|---|
| St. Croix River at Stillwater, MN | 5.4 mi | 63.7 °F | 1,960 cfs |
| Willow River @ Willow R State Park Nr Burkhardt,wi | 0.4 mi | 60.3 °F | — |
| St. Croix River at Afton, MN | 8.8 mi | — | — |
Live from USGS. A gauge miles away is a gauge miles away — the distance column is there so you can discount it. A hydro dam's releases move the flow below it on a schedule the gauge sees and this page does not. 2 of the gauges above are not sending water temperature at all — a stopped gauge still answers with the last value it ever sent and nothing to say so, so those rows carry a modelled figure where one can be fitted, marked as modelled, and a dash where it cannot.
Getting to it
The dam sits on or beside public land, SDNR.
- Little Falls Flowage 0.5 mi · boat launch · Little Falls Lake
- Homestead Parklands Boat Launch 2.4 mi · boat launch · Perch Lake
- Lake Mallalieu Boat Ramp 3.2 mi · boat launch · Lake Mallallieu
- St. Croix River, Bayport Public Water Access Site 3.3 mi · boat launch
- Lakefront Park Boat Ramp 4.0 mi · boat launch · Saint Croix River
- St. Croix River, St. Croix Crossing Public Water Access 4.2 mi · boat launch
Public access sites near the dam, straight-line distance. A dam itself is private property unless its owner says otherwise; these are the places the state lists as open.
Fly shops nearby
- Walleye Willy's Bait & Tackle 5.5 mi
- Bob Mitchell's Fly Shop 8.5 mi · Lake Elmo
- Lund's Fly Shop 11.5 mi · River Falls
- Great Waters Fly Fishing 19.4 mi · Saint Paul
- Flying Pig Thrift 22.8 mi · Saint Paul · +1-651-646-9697