72 
PARK AND CEMETERY. 
the outer drive with the shore. 
This drive is to be 200 feet wide and 
will be beautified with trees and 
shrubs, according to the plan fol- 
lowed in Jackson and other parks. 
There will be two capes of consider- 
able size extending into the lake, and 
several islands. Reefs exist at these 
points, so the work will be made 
easier. 
It is the intention to elevate Mich- 
igan avenue from Washington street 
north, reaching the proper level at 
Randolph street. There will be a 
large plaza on each bank of the river, 
with a double-deck, jack-knife bridge 
spanning the water. At Pine street 
this drive will connect with the North 
Side boulevard, with a turn at Indi- 
ana street. Heavy traffic will not be 
interfered with, as this will cross the 
river at its customary level. 
Another outer connection, a con- 
I.ake and recommending a legislative 
investigation of the proposal as it af- 
fects the Dells. The report recom- 
mends that a region which includes 
Devil’s Lake, the lake itself, the cliffs 
bordering on three sides, the land 
which is not arable on their crests, 
the watersheds at the northwest and 
southwest corners, so much of the 
valley at the southeast corner as is 
necessary for the comfort and conven- 
ience of visitors and access to the 
west bluff, be put under the protec- 
tion of the state and that as much of 
this land as can now be acquired at 
a reasonable price be bought as soon 
as possible. In connection with a 
bill, which will give the exact boun- 
daries of the proposed reservation, 
the friends of the movement will pre- 
sent a map showing its boundaries, its 
general features and the holdings of 
each owner. They will also present 
proceedings for twice the assessed value^ 
Eastern capitalists have commenced tO' 
ruin the face of the east cliff by quarrying 
and crushing stone torn from it. After 
viewing the lake and seeing the results of 
the work started by their agents and learn- 
ing the feeling of interested citizens they 
voluntarily offered to transfer their plant 
to a less convenient station one-half mile 
from the lake, at considerable expense, and 
relinquish their land on the east bluff at 
cost. A costly sidetrack is being made 
at the new site to make this removal pos- 
sible. To these owners the thanks of the 
state are due, not only for their volun- 
tary assumption of large expenses, but for 
the courtesy with which they complied 
with the requests of this commission and 
the large minded way in which they met 
the whole problem. 
We offer as a suggestion that some of 
the arable land included in the tract might 
be used as an experiment station for the 
college of agriculture, and especially for 
the department of horticulture, as this re- 
gion is noted for the quality of its fruits 
and especially of its grapes. 
In all the states of the middle west 
there is no region giving so much of river 
and rock beauty in similar compass as the 
dells of the Wisconsin. Here sandstone 
cliffs have been cut by rushing waters till 
AJX7VZ MICMIOAX A-Yg-WVg.' 
n 
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PROPOSED ELEVATED BOULEVARD CROSSING CHICAGO RIVER 
siderable distance east of Rush street, 
also is talked of. The completion of 
the new drives will give a boulevard 
entirely encircling the main portion of 
the city and more than thirty miles in 
length. A large portion will be along 
the shore, with several miles built out 
into the lake. 
Work on the drive in the lake prob- 
ably will begin July 1. Haste is nec- 
essary, as the filling in of Grant Park 
will be completed about that date and 
the promoters of the plan want to 
have the dirt excavated from the 
downtown tunnel system dumped 
where it will be put to use in further- 
ing their ideas. No accurate estimate 
of the probable cost of the new con- 
necting link has been made, but it is 
believed the expense will be about $2,- 
500,000. 
Report on Devil’s Lake State Park 
The commission appointed by the 
Legislature of Wisconsin to investi- 
gate a plan of establishing state parks 
at Devil’s Lake and the Dells of the 
Wisconsin, has made a report to the 
governor, favoring a park at Devil’s 
a table giving the assessed valuation 
of each parcel of land in 1906. The 
commission adds that any law giving 
authority to purchase any of these 
tracts should forbid the representa- 
tives of the state from paying more 
than twice the average assessed value 
of any tract for the years 1904, 1905 
and 1906. unless such tract or tracts is 
acquired through condemnation pro- 
ceedings. 
We quote as follows from the re- 
port: 
Wisconsin has now an opportunity to ac- 
quire at a relatively low cost a magnificent 
park or forest reserve, which in future 
from the sale of mature timber should be- 
come more than self-supporting. The tract 
which ought to be set apart at the pres- 
ent time for the park reservation includes 
parts of tw'elve sections, a total area of 
about 5,500 acres exclusive of the lake, 
which covers about 600. This tract in- 
cludes the valleys adjoining the ake, the 
watersheds at. the northeast and south- 
west corners, the wooded crests, and the 
faces of the three bluffs which border it. 
The assessed valuation of the entire area 
is $82,0-85. Of this amount $31,000 is 
owned by the proprietors of hotels and 
cottages who do not wish to sell, holding 
1,000 acres. This leaves about 4,500 acres 
to be purchased soon and the assessed 
valuation is $51,085.. It is our judgment 
that the 4,500 acres can be purchased by 
direct purchase or through condemnation 
the river now surges in a channel from 10 
to 100 and more feet lower than the crests 
of the banks. The charm does not lie so 
much in the height of the clifflike bor- 
ders, though every foot of height adds dig- 
nity and power, but in the curious, fan- 
tastic and often grotesque shapes which 
have been carved by generations of floods; 
caves, grottoes, overhanging crags, and 
tributary glens, the last cool and shadowy 
in the brightest days, lined with rare 
forms of flowers, ferns, mosses and lichens, 
making a series of marvellous and unique 
views which have delighted hundreds of 
thousands of people. 
Unfortunately, like the egret, its danger 
has lain in its charms. The pines have 
been felled because of their value in 
money, and the state has given the use 
of its river to capitalists to transform the 
blind might of the current to power for 
every day uses. The Southern Wisconsin 
Power Company is now building a dam at 
Kilbourn and has acquired the property of 
the Dells Improvement Company on the 
east side of the river, about 330 acres in 
all, which includes many of the greater 
attractions, and places a value upon their 
holding which the legislature would un- 
doubtedly consider prohibitive. The gen- 
eral sentiment of the business men and 
property owners at Kilbourn is undoubted- 
ly in favor of the building of the dam on 
account of its value for commercial pur- 
poses. 
If this- remarkable natural wonder can 
be secured for all the people for all time 
by any reasonable and just methods its 
loss or serious impairment would be a just 
reproach to the commonwealth and a na- 
tional misfortune. 
