Part 85 (1/2)
”There are several exposures of trap rock along these streaood quality for building purposes, being easily worked
”Can Lake St Croix, at Stillwater, be connected with Lake Superior by canal and slackwater navigation? Yes This question has been definitely settled by the recent exaineers, under the direction of Maj Chas J Allen, of the sources of the St Croix river, with reference to the construction of reservoirs to iation of that river and the Mississippi
”By constructing a dam one mile above the ht to raise the water 25 feet, cutting a canal 75 feet wide, 12 feet deep, 1-1/2a dah enough to raise the water to the saht as the dam on the St Croix, and you construct a lake over thirty ation across the summit for that distance, and utilize the waters of the St Croix and its branches and the Brule, and by the capacity before given the ah locks 75 feet wide, 300 feet long, 12-1/2 feet lift, at the rate of 3 per hour, or 73 in 24 hours, at the dryest season of the year This settles the question of practicability
”The whole i the lowest dam and lock at Prescott so as to always hold Lake St
Croix at the high water ation connecting the Mississippi river with Lake Superior, accoe size and deep draft, propelled by steae cost per mile, 40,000
”It would accoation on the Mississippi river by a system of reservoirs on its tributaries would beone or two feet of extra head upon each of the thirteen da freshets vastly more water than can be held in the small reservoirs on the tributaries of the St Croix There are no very large natural reservoirs in the Upper St Croix valley
”Hold a three foot head on the lake as a reserve fro freshets and you have stored up 34,073,000 cubic yards of water to be used in the dry season in August and September Continue this plan to the source and you have in the St Croix valley a continuous reservoir one hundred and fiftyConnect the two syste the cheapest transportation that can be had and at the sae reservoirs to iation of the Mississippi river
”This is one of the improvements that the Northwest needs for its present, future and ures are given, after a series of exah a period of over twenty-five years, for the purpose of calling out investigation”
THE WATERWAYS CONVENTION OF 1885
Public discussions of the islature and in conventions were not entirely in vain Public attention was aroused and interest awakened in the great question of inland navigation In 1885 the great ays convention convened in St Paul, at the call of Gov
Hubbard, of Minnesota This convention was attended by over 1,000 delegates from the states of Florida, Louisiana, Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska, Illinois, Iowa, Wisconsin, and Minnesota, and from the territories of Dakota and Montana Ex-Gov Bross, of Illinois, acted as teanization elected Maj Wm
Warren, of Kansas City, president, Gen G W Jones, of Iowa, vice president, and Platt B Walker, of Minnesota, secretary
Various scheht before the convention and ably advocated, but each in the interest of a particular section The members from Florida wanted a shi+p canal for that State Illinois and Eastern Iowa advocated the Hennepin canal scheme Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska, Western Iowa, Dakota, and Montana demanded the improvement of the Missouri river Wisconsin and Northern Iowa the completion of the Fox and Wisconsin canal Minnesota and Wisconsin agreed with all for the improvement of the Mississippi from the falls of St Anthony to the Balize, for the improvement of the Sault Ste Marie canal, and for the internal ienerally in the states and territories represented
The result was the passage of a series of resolutions reco a liberal policy in the distribution of i every meritorious project for the increase of facilities for water transportation, but reco as a subject of paramount importance the immediate and permanent improveable tributaries It was recommended that the depth of the Mississippi be increased to six feet between Cario and the falls of St Anthony The Hennepin canal was strongly indorsed, as was also the iation of Wisconsin and Fox rivers, of the Red River of the North, and of the Chippewa, St Croix and Minnesota rivers The convention unanimously recommended as a sum proper for these improvements the appropriation of 25,000,000
Some of the papers presented were elaborately prepared, and deserve to be placed on permanent record The memorial of Mr E W Durant, of Stillwater, containsa statement of the resources and commerce of the valleys of the Mississippi and St Croix:
”The Northwestern States have not had the recognition that is due to the agricultural and commercial requireranaries and fields not only feed the millions of this continent, but whose annual export constitutes a n nations During the past decade the general government has expended 3,000,000 on the ays of the Upper Mississippi The i ation warrants the belief that still more extensive improvements should be made It is an error to suppose that the pal on western rivers has passed In demonstration of this take the quantity of lumber sent down the Mississippi There was shi+pped fro the year 1884 to various distributing points along the Mississippi river 250,000,000 feet of lules, 2,000,000 of pickets; fro the same period, 883,000,000 feet of lules and 102,000,000 of lath and pickets; fro the same period was shi+pped 250,000,000 feet of lules, and 32,000,000 lath and pickets, aggregating 1,383,000,000 feet of lules and 176,000,000 of lath The tonnage of this product alone foots up over 3,000,000 tons The luoes annually floated to market on the Mississippi will not vary far from 20,000,000 The capital invested in stea purposes is 1,250,000; while the saw mills, timber plants and other investments incidental to the prosecution of this branch of industry will foot up fully 500,000; while the labor and their dependences engaged in this pursuit alone will equal the population of one of our largest western states There are sixteen bridges spanning the river between St Paul and St Louis, and it is iuards be thrown around these bridges to afford greater safety to river coeneral cry for so on the Northern Mississippi and tributaries were over; but he thinks it will be forcibly shown in the co convention that, if they are, the only cause for it is the extre frolected and filled up channels If the channels can be iood running each year, he thinks they will prove to be one of the most important means of transportation in the Upper Mississippi valley They will then be used for the transportation up and down streahts in preference to railroads, on account of cheapness It would prove a new and the greatest era in upper river stea
It appears fro the year 1884 there were 175 stea on the Mississippi from St
Louis to points above Two thousand seven hundred rafts froe, and the total nus and lumber floated down the Mississippi from the St
Croix, Chippewa and Black rivers was 1,366,000,000 The total passages of steae for 1887 was 4,492 On the St Croix, above Lake St Croix, during the season of 1887 there were 3 steaer traffic only The steamers made 141 round trips between Stillwater and Taylor's Falls, 75 round trips between Marine and St Paul, and 20 round trips between Franconia and St Paul
The following is a showing of the lu business on the St Croix during 1887: There were 51 steas and lumber out of the St Croix and down the Mississippi, the total nu 250,000,000, board s (board h the St Croix boom in 1887 was 325,000,000 The lu that year was valued at 2,393,323
RESOLUTION INTRODUCED AT THE WATERWAYS CONVENTION HELD IN ST PAUL, SEPTEMBER, 1885
WHEREAS, The North Areat water systeinate upon the tablelands of Minnesota, one the Mississippi river and its tributaries, reaching southward froreatest body of fertile land on the globe,--the future seat of ereat lakes flowing eastwardly and constituting with the St Lawrence river a great water causeway in the direct line of the flow of the world's commerce from the heart of the continent to the Atlantic; and
WHEREAS, Between the navigable waters of these continental dividing systeap of ninety miles in width from Taylor's Falls on the St Croix, to Duluth on Lake Superior, through a region of easily worked drift formation, with a rise of but five hundred and sixty feet to overcohest point of the water-shed; therefore,
_Resolved_ That we deress the construction of a canal fro the Upper St Croix and the St
Louis rivers as far as the saable, the said canal to be forever free of toll or charge, and to ree of the productions of the Mississippi valley and the valley of the great lakes; and should the railway interests of the country prove powerful enough to prevent congressional action to this end, we call upon the states of the Northwest to unite and build, at their own cost, such a canal, believing that the increased value of the productions of the country would speedily repay the entire outlay