EAU CLAIRE (o' klar'), a city of north-western Wisconsin, U.S.A., 75m. E. of Saint Paul, on the Chippewa river at the mouth of the Eau Claire ; the county seat of Eau Claire county. It is on Federal highways Io, 12 and 53, and is served by the Chicago and North Western, the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific and the Soo Line railways. The population was 20,906 in 192o, and was 26,287 in 193o by Federal census. There is abundant water power, and the city has large and diversified manufacturing enter prises, with an aggregate output in 1927 valued at It is the principal jobbing centre for the prosperous Chippewa valley. Since the city has operated under a commission form of government. It is the seat of a State teachers' college, a county rural normal school, a county tuberculosis hospital and a county hospital for the insane. There are six musical organizations and a municipal auditorium seating 2,000. A State fish hatchery as sures good fishing in the vicinity. Eau Claire was settled about 1847; chartered as a city in 1872; and grew rapidly with the de velopment of the north-western lumber trade in the decade 187o 80. A serious strike in 188 i necessitated the calling out of the State militia.