If you were a french voyageur in the 1600s or arrived with George Stevens in 1838, you would have heard and seen large rapids churning and bubbling here in front of you. Without dams, the river was much shallower than it is now. It swirled and crashed over large rocks.

Voyageurs may have called it "Grand Bulle Chute," which in English is "Big Bubbling Falls." Possibly, "bulle" stuck in the English translation, thus "Big Bull Falls."

[photo captions]
← Earliest know photograph of Big Bull Falls, circa 1856.
Courtesy of Marathon County Historical Society, Wausau, Wisconsin.

How did Big Bull Falls become Wausau?
Native people living here were probably the very first to call this place "Wausau." In several native languages, "wau-sau" means "far away place" or "place from which one can see far away." Also, a similar Cree word means "thundering sound."

Walter McIndoe, one of the most influential settlers here, is believed to have made the name "Wausau" official in 1850.
Courtesy of Marathon County Historical Society, Wausau, Wisconsin.

Big Bull Falls was tribal territory until the 1830s.
Courtesy of Marathon County Historical Society, Wausau, Wisconsin.

[logos of] River Edge Parkway · Welcome Home Wausau

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Big Bull Falls · Birthplace of Wausau
Big Bull Falls
Business Boomed at Big Bull Falls
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Third Marathon County Courthouse
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World War I Guardian Angel Monument
Cutler Post Monument

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