Part 84 (2/2)
As early as 1858, when the writer was a meress for the improvement of the St Croix river, and of the Mississippi at Beef Slough bar, below Lake Pepin This was the first islatures continued to ress, but it enty years of continuous pleading before any attention was paid to the subject In 1878 Thaddeus C Pound, representing the St Croix valley in Congress, secured the first appropriation Mr Pound also secured the first appropriation for the Mississippi reservoirs
The following appropriations were made from time to time: 1878, 8,000; 1879, 10,000; 1880, 8,000; 1881, 10,000; 1882, 30,000; 1883, 7,500
This money has been expended under the supervision of Maj Farquier and Charles J Allen of the United States engineering corps, with headquarters at St Paul The is and all i sandbars, thus deepening the channel, building wing da the shores The work has been well done, and the expenditure is a most judicious one
INLAND NAVIGATION
As the prosperity of a country depends, next to its natural resources, upon the avenues of communication with other countries, the people of the Northwest naturally took a great interest in the i the Mississippi and its tributaries found by these streaeous southern outlet for their produce But ation by clearing away obstructions, deepening the channels, and affording facilities for crossing rapids As the settlereat lakes, it becareatly enhanced by comable streams this coation of the upper portion of these strea their source near the lakes and their connection by canals with the lakes or their tributaries By this ht a better route to the Atlantic and to the Eastern States would be afforded for grain and other products than that afforded by the Mississippi In the Minnesota state legislature of 1875 a bill was introducedan appropriation of 10,000 for a survey of the route connecting the waters of Lake Superior with those of the St Croix This bill met withbeen reduced by amendment to 3,000 Lucas R Stannard and Robert B Davis were appointed core a the route As the author of the bill, I insert here, as a matter of history, and as a sufficient explanation of my own views and those of the friends of the u the measure:
”The route from Duluth via the lakes and St Lawrence, and the Atlantic to England, according to correct computation, is about six hundred o and New York The northern route is being overnment on the Welland canal and Lachine rapids, and by the iovernment on the St Clair flats and the Sault Ste Marie canal, by which a depth of water is obtained sufficient to float vessels drawing twenty feet This route to Europe will be traversed in much less time than the New York route Vessels will be constructed for this inland A frorain that teeks before aving in the sunlight on northwestern prairies, will pass direct to Europe without breaking of bulk or reshi+pping, while the southern route requires reshi+pures can scarcely do justice to the vast business that will be transacted on this open route as the northern part of the United States and the adjacent British possessions are settled
”The opening of this route will tend to create new treaty stipulations and unlooked for interpretations of the old with the Doovernment, and establish commercial confidence and secure trade not realized to-day Cheap transportation is the dee, and this route will afford to the hundreds of millions of bushels of wheat and the commerce of Central North America the desired outlet to the best markets of the world To many these ideas ress of the country and the development of her commerce in the not distant future will justify thearded as fanciful will be fulfilled to the letter
”Minnesota as a state is just in the age of develop to power and influence Much depends upon our legislature, islature of New York when, actuated by good counsels it connected the waters of the Hudson with those of Lake Erie by the 'Clinton Ditch,' so called in derision by the enemies of the inator of that fareat West at least a quarter of a century
”Minnesota in her location holds the key that will unlock the largest body of fresh water on the globe, and open to it one of thedistricts on the continent, a country that will soon vie with the country around the Black sea in the quantity and quality of its grain production
”Shall we stand idly by whilst our neighboring states areto secure cheaper communications with the seaboard states? Cheap transportation, the lever that ress, and men and means have been provided to ascertain the most feasible routes on which to bestow her aid for the transferring of the surplus products of the country to the markets of the East
”The reports made thus far by the national coateway to the East by Lake Superior, nor to the improvement of the Sault Ste Marie canal The committee dwelt so the Mississippi with the lakes by means of a canal between the waters of Wisconsin and Fox rivers, neither of theable streams No authorized survey has ever commended this as a cheap route Only one plan can be adopted by which a thoroughfare can be overnment and to the Northwest over this route, and that is to construct a shi+p canal along the Wisconsin river froovernment can be prevailed upon to open up this route no one will deny that it will be of incalculable benefit to the people of Wisconsin, and to those further up the valley of the Mississippi Let its friends do all they can to push forward the great movement
”To Minnesotians I would say, let Wisconsin have much of our aid I trust it will not take thirty-five years of the future to open up what thirty-five years of the past has projected Wisconsin alone and unassisted ought to have accoo, if the work could have been accomplished as cheaply as it has been represented
”Let Minnesota look nearer home The headwaters of the St Croix are nearer to Lake Superior than those of any other navigable streae Mississippi boats, whenever occasion has demanded, have made their way to the Dalles of the St Croix The falls and rapids above this point for a distance of four miles have a fall of but seventy-four feet, an elevation that could be overco dareat cost, the river could be on This river, though put down as a tributary, is in reality the on lake, which is but thirty miles froon bay, or with White river, a distance of only a few miles
”If we pass up the St Croix froon river, we shall find no serious obstructions to navigation till we reach the great dam built by the lumbermen twenty miles below Upper Lake St
Croix The conformation here is of such a character that an inexhaustible supply of water can be held--more than three times what is held in the celebrated Su the waters of the Ohio and Lake Erie It is but a mile from the former lake to the source of Brule river, an affluent of Lake Superior, but as the waters of the Brule are rapid and the channel rocky, and its outlet is on a bleak and unhospitable stretch of lake shore, destitute of any harbor, we prefer the route from the Upper St
Croix lake to the bay of Superior, a distance of about thirty miles, a route well supplied by reservoirs of water, and with no difficult or insurmountable hills to overcome
”Hon H M Rice, as one of the commissioners to survey the St
Marie's canal, pronounces this the most feasible and direct route for our contemplated canal
”Other routes have been proposed, as from the St Croix to the Nemadji and St Louis rivers, but of the feasibility of these I aentlemen of the senate, that you are in full accord with reat Northwest de our natural resources, but the assistance of the general government, I recoress by our senators and representatives until our prayers are granted for the improveislature of 1876 I again introduced afor an appropriation of 10,000 to overnment survey of the St Croix and Lake Superior routes
George R Stuntz, the veteran explorer, surveyor and civil engineer, who accompanied the United States reservoir commission to the Upper St Croix waters, and who had made previous scientific exa a correct idea of the contour of the su north and south, and of the practicability of constructing reservoirs, and of the cost of connecting the Lake Superior and St Croix waters,report, which is valuable for the reliable data given:
”There are evidences that in the glacial period this was the channel through which flowed a river of ice, and that subsequently for a long period a vast voluh this channel from Lake Superior to and down the Mississippi The valley is everywhere of great width in proportion to the present volureat velocity fifty feet above the high water marks of the present time These ancient banks of the river are co the in north of Lake Superior This valley extends across the height of land in townshi+p 45, in range 11 west, and in the northern part of it the Brule river rises and flows north into Lake Superior
”At the copper range in townshi+p 48, range 10 west, section 23, a ledge of trap rock stands in the valley In the eddy of this rock and extending to the southward or up the present strearavel showing that the glacial river ran south To the north of this point the Brule river h sandy red clay deposits peculiar to that region
”In this ancient valley the lowest point on the summit at the headwaters of these two streams is about 460 feet above Lake Superior [Lake St Croix, at Stillwater, is 117 feet higher than Lake Superior]
and 346 feet above Lake St Croix Upper Lake St Croix is 12 feet below this summit The St Croix river one mile above the mouth of Moose river is 25 feet below this sues 15360 cubic feet of water per es about 5805 cubic feet of water per e 10 The distance from Taylor's Falls to Lake Superior by the valley of the St Croix and the valley of the Brule river is nearly 150 miles