| For more than 150 years, visitors have taken boat excursions on the Wisconsin River for up-close views of the craggy cliffs that are the signature of Wisconsin Dells. The first entrepreneur to bring sightseers closer to the natural beauty of the Dells was lumber rafter Leroy Gates. In 1856, Gates declared that he had purchased a pleasure boat to take visitors through the “caves of the Dells.” Following Gates’ lead, individual guides took small group of tourists in the 1850s and ‘60s through the Dells in wooden rowboats. These rowboat tours were the only way for visitors to see the Dells from the water.
In 1873, boat tours of the Dells changed forever with the long-awaited arrival of the first steamboat, the Modocawanda. As the popularity of the boat tours grew, railroad companies began to organize river excursions from nearby Portage. Throughout the 1870s and ‘80s, rowboats remained the vehicle most often used for tours, while steamboats grew in popularity.
The Dells saw its first gasoline-powered tour boat in 1894, bringing an end to the rowboat tour era. In 1901 came the introduction of smaller, propeller-driven boats.
The year 1908 brought dramatic changes to the Dells. A new dam and hydroelectric power plant were built splitting the Wisconsin river into two sections, the Upper Dells and Lower Dells. This caused the water level to rise 17 feet on the Upper Dells, resulting in the loss of some sights such as Diamond Grotto and Giant’s Hand. Witches Gulch and Stand Rock, however, became more accessible.
In 1946, the first double-decker touring boat made of steel arrived in the Dells. By the late 1950s, wooden tour boats had been replaced by steel ones.
As the years went by, the smaller companies stopped giving tours and only three major companies remained - Olson Boat Company, Riverview Boat Line and Dells Boat Company. Eventually the three merged to become Dells Boat Tours, which today is the only tour operator authorized to offer shorelandings at Witches Gulch and Stand Rock.
|
