"[6] The root word Ma-na-to (or manitou) was often mistranslated as "devil" by early white settlers,[7] which is why the river carries the name it does today.

[8] The river flows through agricultural land that drops a gentle 22.7 feet (6.9 m) per 1 mile (1.6 km).

[9] In 1840, U.S. Army Captain Thomas Jefferson Cram surveyed much of the area, and successfully proposed construction of a military road from Fort Dearborn (now the city of Chicago) to Fort Howard (now the city of Green Bay, Wisconsin).

[9][14] In 1847, investor Pliney Pierce built Rock Mill on the Devils River, a site now listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

[9] The Water Authority also proposed cutting a trench across the river in order to lay the pipeline beneath the riverbed.

[9] The pipeline had to be built because water supplies needed by heavy residential development in the county were heavily depleted and highly contaminated.