Developers try to cut a canal around the worst rapids in the Fox River.

Map of a Route for a Canal to Avoid the Principle Rapids of the Neenah (or Fox) River Between Lake Winnebago and Green Bay


This map ("surveyed under the direction of Capt. Cram T. E. by J.L. Woodside, Assistant")details one of the many canal projects proposed to improve internal transportation in Wisconsin in the 1830s. Suggested by a group in Green Bay, the Fox River Improvement Company sought to construct an efficient waterway between Green Bay and Mississippi River, including the portage between the Fox and Wisconsin rivers. This map shows how they intended to get around the worst rapids in the Fox River valley. Applications for state and federal funding for canals and river improvements such as this were a central political issue in the decades before the Civil War. Some were funded, few were built, and fewer still were effective before railroads made them unnecessary. Click "Zoom & Pan" for a closer look.

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Related Topics: Immigration and Settlement
Great Lakes Steamships and Canals
Creator: Cram, Thomas Jefferson, 1807?-1883.
Pub Data: In: Report from the Secretary of War transmitting... copies of reports, plans, and estimates, for the improvement of the Neenah, Wiskonsin, and Rock Rivers... 26th Congress, 1st Session, Senate Doc. 318, Serial Set vol. 359 (Washington: Blair and Rives, 1840); this copy from the Wisconsin Historical Society map collection (GX 902 1839CR)
Citation: Cram, Thomas J. "Map of a Route for a Canal to Avoid the Principle Rapids of the Neenah (or Fox) River Between Lake Winnebago and Green Bay." In: Report of the Secretary of War... (Sen Doc. 318, U.S. Serial Set vol. 359; Washington, 1840). Online facsimile at:  http://wisconsinhistory.org/turningpoints/search.asp?id=133; Visited on: 4/19/2024