Galloway Creek Part 2 of 2

The Galloway Creek watershed begins in the marshy valley just southeast of the city of Menomonie. The lower bluffs of the area provide run-off and ground compression enough to create a fairly deep, continuous ravine with running water year-round. The 2.6 miles of waterway have been worthy of note throughout the history of the area. From the farmland drained by the watershed, the houses, parks, businesses, bridges, scenic falls and overlook of the Red Cedar River at the brewery picnic grounds, Galloway Creek has seen the growth of Menomonie.

In 1853, James Galloway, his wife Mary and the two surviving of four children (George and William) left England for the United States. They stayed two months in Ohio, then to Michigan, then to Dubuque, Iowa where James happened to meet Henry Stout. Mr. Stout convinced James to come to Menomonie as a place to settle. James arrived on July 2, 1854, and started working for the Knapp, Stout and Company mills for $1.50 a day. He later recalled the difficulties of feeding and housing a family of four on such wages. Despite the hardships, within two years James Galloway purchased a piece of wild land on the creek which now bears his name.

James built up a good farm and was active as an early advocate of the agriculture interests of the county. James and Mary raised their two sons to serve and prosper in the community as well. The eldest, George operated the first dray line in Menomonie, city alderman, owned and operated a furniture store, was an undertaker, coroner, helped manage the County Fairs, established Galloway’s Addition to Menomonie, oversaw the moving of the bridge from Main Street to the Galloway Creek on the ’road to Downsville’, and served as the 12th Mayor of Menomonie from 1896-1897. William Galloway found his calling as a Methodist minister serving much of the rural communities of Dunn County.

Galloway Creek once saw the Menomonie City Poor House, showed promise to be the neighbor of the first hospital here. Johnson’s Planing Mill stood on its banks until a fire destroyed the operation along with 50,000 board feet of lumber in 1884. A machine shop run by Mr. T. Neyes on 12th Ave drew some power from the waters of Galloway. Menomonie had a Driving Park which surrounded the creek on its western side where picnics were held, baseball games were played out and later, where the National Guard trained for duty. The hill just south of the present-day High School was the backdrop for artillery and rifle practice.

The westernmost edge of Menomonie proper is the culmination of Galloway’s meander through the city. It is here where the creek drops rapidly some seventy feet to join the Red Cedar. In the earlier days of Menomonie, Galloway’s waterfalls and small pools were host to a beer garden, bands and picnic goers in the cool shade of the wooded hillside there. At the bottom of the hillside, just below the Fuss Brewery sixty feet above it, sat the one and only known brewery cave in Menomonie. A huge cavern carved out to keep the brewed beer cold while it finished fermenting. The other side of the creek became a small sandstone quarry where the WPA men cut stone out of the hillside to build the changing rooms on Boy Scout Island. Riverside Park across the river can see the final meeting of the two waterways giving the park a vista of the wooded hillside and wilderness below the High School.

For all its history, for all the creek has been host to, the farms, houses, businesses, life, death, historic bridges and viaducts. For all it has played out as a central figure of this city, Galloway Creek has become a Thesaurus of neglect. Time and again some group or another comes together and strives hard to make this creek come back to life. These are ongoing labors of understanding, care, need, love and concern in Menomonie. From past experiences, it is a quiet, often personal community effort both from within and from afar. It is done every decade or so and it quietly passes away with the thanks and gratitude of those nearby the area but mostly those who reap what benefits it bestows never knowing the hard work and expense each time. I will admit to being one of those latter named who benefit without doing the labor or contributing when I could have and that makes me part of the problem. These are not judgmental words to shame the past, they are a statement of facts and a look at our Menomonie of yesteryear. Clocks do not run backwards but a window to the past can help make certain that the clock keeps running on time. The gifts of labor and concern mentioned above shine ever brighter because they show what can be done, not what dreams have been dashed. This is a story of hope and progress and respecting the past that got us here along Galloway Creek.

This writing is a brief history of Galloway Creek and where it got its name from. The impetus behind it was the efforts currently underway and the extraordinary improvements being made once again. A small, quiet effort many are not aware of but should be. There is so much to be done and as a community, as a city responsible for its resources and what it may pass downstream through neglect, Menomonie needs to make an ongoing commitment to this work. Not occasionally, but a concerted effort with a plan to end the scourge this resource has suffered. What volunteers have done is commendable to say the least but what they have done despite the neglect of generations is incredible. There have been and continue to be city government support and approval for these projects. It seems it might be time for a full-fledged resource recovery plan and timeline to make it a community commitment to the future.

Through her Facebook page and continued commitment to the ecology and city of Menomonie, Lynn Dickmann inspired this look into our history through the eyes of Galloway Creek. The rants are mine alone, I am solely responsible for all but the history and the inspiration to discover it. Thank you, Lynn!

Patrick Thibado