Why is it called Big Bull Falls?

In the 1600s, French voyageurs at this site, and later people who arrived with George Stevens in 1838, would have encountered large rapids churning and bubbling in the shallower undammed river as it swirled and crashed over large rocks. Voyageurs may have called the place "Grand Bulle Chute," meaning "Big Bubbling Falls," and the word "bulle" may have carried into English as the name "Big Bull Falls." Native people living here were probably the first to call the place "Wausau," a name that in several native languages means "far away place" or "place from which one can see far away," while a similar Cree word means "thundering sound." The area was tribal territory until the 1830s, and Walter McIndoe is believed to have made the name "Wausau" official in 1850.

Wausau, Wisconsin · United States