Grand Rapids is a stretch of rapids on the Wabash River at the Illinois–Indiana state line, in Wabash County, Illinois, at the site of a former lock and dam.
The falls
The rapids cross a rock bar roughly 5,000 feet long in the river channel, with a small island and the rapids visible at low water. Remnants of the Grand Rapids Dam remain in the channel.
When to go
The rapids and the old dam remnants show best at low water.
On site
A broad bedrock obstruction and the dam's remnants sit in the channel. Current put-in, take-out and hazard information for paddlers has not been documented.
History and name
Grand Rapids was historically the most serious natural obstruction to navigation on the Wabash River, and federal engineers later built a lock and dam at the site to get around it. A wooden dam built in 1847 failed in 1879; concrete and sandstone remnants of the later federal dam are still in the river. An early U.S. Army engineering report recorded about 4 feet 4 inches of low-stage fall across the rock bar.
Nearby
Kellys Ripple is about 3.3 miles away, across the state line in Indiana, and Grand Chain Rapids about 31.9 miles away.
Distances are straight-line.