Turning Points
in Wisconsin History
Great Lakes Steamships and Canals
In 1834, the federal government opened land offices in Mineral Point and Green Bay, greatly speeding up the settlement of Wisconsin. Steamboats on the Mississippi River connected Wisconsin to the Gulf of Mexico, while immigrants and goods from the East came into the territory on Great Lakes steamships. Bordering these two great waterways, Wisconsin residents faced the problem of how to connect the two transportation systems. With the economic success of the Erie Canal, opened in 1825, the answer for many in Wisconsin seemed to be canals.
The increase in the number of settlements only added to the existing demands... more...
Original Documents and Other Primary Sources
 | Recollections of Old Superior |
| The Fate of the Fox and Wisconsin Rivers Improvement Company |
| A woman's memoir of the founding of Sheboygan |
 | A Boston feminist visits the village of Milwaukee in 1843. |
| Steamboating days, 1854-1863, are recalled by a Wisconsin pilot. |
| Milwaukee developers try to dig a water route to the Lead Region in the 1830s. |
| The first steamboat trip on the Upper Mississippi, in 1823. |
| Folklore and folktales collected by Charles E. Brown |
| Descriptions of Wisconsin disasters and catastrophes, 1848-1948 |
| A Mississippi Riverboat pilot looks back on his career, 1845-1883 |
 | An 1832 drawing of a Great Lakes steamboat |
| Pictures of steamboats on Wisconsin waters, 1832-1931 |
| An Austrian painter depicts Wisconsin in the 1850s |
| Increase Lapham examining a meteorite, ca. 1868 |
 | A government official compares rail and steamboat routes to Wisconsin, 1853. |
| An Austrian painter describes sketches made while traveling Wisconsin, 1856-1860 |
| Papers of a Manitowoc shipbuilder, 1857-1912 |
 | The route of the proposed Milwaukee and Rock River Canal, 1838. |
| Developers try to cut a canal around the worst rapids in the Fox River. |
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