View source for Bad Axe River

{{Short description|River in Wisconsin, United States of America}}
{{Use American English|date=February 2025}}
{{Infobox river
| name               = Bad Axe River
| name_native        = 
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| image              = northforkbadaxe.jpg
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| image_caption      = The North Fork of the Bad Axe River
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| subdivision_type1  = Country
| subdivision_name1  = [[United States]]
| subdivision_type2  = State
| subdivision_name2  = [[Wisconsin]]
| subdivision_type3  = County
| subdivision_name3  = [[Vernon County, Wisconsin|Vernon]]
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<!---------------------- BASIN -->
| source1_location   = [[Genoa (town), Wisconsin|Genoa]]
| source1_coordinates= {{coord|43|31|40|N|91|09|51|W}}
| source1_elevation  = 
| mouth_location     = [[Mississippi River]]
| mouth_coordinates  = {{coord|43|31|12.91|N|91|13|40.28|W|display=inline,title}}
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<!---------------------- PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS -->
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The '''Bad Axe River''' is a {{convert|4.2|mi|km|adj=mid|-long}}<ref name=NHD>U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline data. [http://viewer.nationalmap.gov/viewer/ The National Map] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120329155652/http://viewer.nationalmap.gov/viewer/ |date=2012-03-29 }}, accessed May 13, 2011</ref> [[tributary]] of the [[Mississippi River]] in southwestern [[Wisconsin]] in the [[United States]].  "Bad axe" is a translation from the [[French language|French]], "la mauvaise hache", but the origin of the name is unknown.<ref>Kellogg, Louise Phelps. "Derivation of County Names" in ''Proceedings of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin for 1909'', pages 219-231.</ref><ref>Butterfield, ''History of Vernon County'' (Springfield, 1884), p. 132.</ref> The river's mouth at the Mississippi was the site of the [[Battle of Bad Axe]], an 1832 [[U.S. Army]] massacre of [[Sauk people|Sauk]] and [[Meskwaki]] people at the end of the [[Black Hawk War]].

==Course==
The Bad Axe River flows for its entire length in western [[Vernon County, Wisconsin|Vernon County]], and for most of its length as two streams, the '''North Fork Bad Axe River''' and the '''South Fork Bad Axe River'''.  The North Fork rises at the town of [[Westby, Wisconsin|Westby]] and flows generally southwestwardly for {{convert|31|mi}}.<ref name=NHD/>  The South Fork rises about {{convert|3|mi|0}} south of [[Viroqua, Wisconsin|Viroqua]] and flows westwardly for {{convert|16|mi}}.<ref name=NHD/>  The main stem of the Bad Axe flows for less than {{convert|5|mi|0}} westward from the convergence of the two forks to its confluence with the Mississippi, about {{convert|6|mi|0}} south of [[Genoa, Wisconsin|Genoa]].
[[File:North fork Bad Axe River under Wis-56.jpg|thumb|center|North fork Bad Axe River under [[Wisconsin Highway 56|Wis-56]]]]

== References ==
{{reflist}}

==See also==
*[[List of Wisconsin rivers]]

{{Black Hawk War (1832)}}

{{authority control}}

[[Category:Rivers of Wisconsin]]
[[Category:Tributaries of the Mississippi River]]
[[Category:Rivers of Vernon County, Wisconsin]]