The Wisconsin River starts as a small stream near the Michigan border and flows south, then west for 430 miles before joining the Mississippi near Prairie du Chien. Many other smaller rivers and creeks join it along the way and make it a major American River. With 26 hydropower dams along its course it is called “The hardest working river in America.” This is an extremely quiet part of the river featuring a series of huge, wooded islands. DNR wildlife areas run along the left shore all the way, and beautiful, rounded bluffs hover over the water much of the time. The trip begins and ends in charming, historic cities. Muscoda was once a fur-trading post and then an important supply center after the railroad came through and Boscobel began as a logging town, but also owed its growth to the coming of the railroad.