Observation deck completed at Gurney waterfall

GURNEY, Wis. - With the construction of a new boardwalk and viewing platform, visitors are once again able to easily take in the Lower Potato River Falls.

The previous platform and cliff supporting it were washed away during the rain and flooding that hit northern Iron County during the same July 11, 2016 storm that destroyed Saxon Harbor.

While reconstruction of the harbor remains in the planning stages, the Iron County Forestry Department's staff began work on the new observation platform in July.

The new 10-by-10 platform - located at the end of the 150-foot boardwalk - had to be built in a different location due to the amount of erosion during the storm.

"The old (overlook) was on top of the hill, and it eroded away. The estimated cost to replace that one was $95,000," Iron County Forestry and Parks Administrator Eric Peterson said in July. "So we came up with this different alternative."

The Federal Emergency Management Agency is covering $14,400 of the project's approximately $19,211 price tag, with Iron County and the state of Wisconsin splitting the remaining balance.

The new platform's location is somewhat less convenient to access - at the bottom of 197 stairs rather than directly accessible from the parking lot - but Peterson said nature left the county with few viable alternatives.

The new platform should only increase the falls' popularity, which Peterson said were consistently visited even while the platform was washed out.

"The guys were actually talking about it last week. Early in the week, when they hauled materials down there, there were 15 to 18 people that went by them that day," Peterson said in July. "And that was like Tuesday of last week. So it wasn't because of the holiday, it wasn't the weekend, it was just some random day in the middle of the week. There's a lot of people that go there."