Williams—The Passing of An Historic Waterway. 133 
gation very difficult.” * 5 Another writer says “that the general 
depth of the river is, at the ordinary height of the water, from four 
to five feet, but the sand-bars often extend entirely across the river 
and have not more than eight or ten inches of water; the sands, 
however, are quick and oppose but little resistance.” 6 The other 
extreme, high water stage, is shown by the fact that in 1828 the 
fifth regiment of U. S. Infantry came in barges from St. Louis up 
the Mississippi and Wisconsin Rivers and down the Fox to Fort 
Howard without unloading. 7 
As time went on and the success of other canals became apparent, 
the agitation for improvement increased. The government early 
inaugurated a movement to improve the Fox River for navigation 
purposes. In 1836 the war department had A. J. Center make a 
survey from Fort Howard, at Green Bay, to Tail Point, a distance 
of six miles. 8 In 1837 a hurried survey was made of a consider 
able portion of the river. 9 In 1838 the improvement of the route 
was recommended by the Secretary of War for the purpose of facil¬ 
itating troop and munition transportation. 10 In 1839 a preliminary 
survey of the Fox River was made by Captain Cram under the di¬ 
rection of the Secretary of War. 11 In 1846, Morgan L. Martin, 
territorial delegate from Green Bay, introduced a bill in Congress 
for the improvement of the Fox and Wisconsin rivers. This bill 
which was favored by President Polk, passed in that year, and con¬ 
tained a provision that a large amount of public land in the Terri¬ 
tory of Wisconsin be granted by Congress and the funds from the 
sale of this land to be used for the purpose of making a water way 
navigable from the mouth of the Wisconsin River to Green Bay, as 
soon as Wisconsin became a state. 12 Land equal to one-half of three 
sections in width on each side of the Fox River and of the lakes 
through which it passes was to be sold, the proceeds to pay for the 
6 Thwaites, Reuben Gold, Down Historic Waterways, 2nd edition Chicago 1907, 
p. 239, quoting from Marquette’s Journal. 
6 Warren, Major G. K., Report on the Transportation Route along the Wis¬ 
consin and Fox Rivers, Executive Document. No. 28, 44th Cong., 1st session. 
Government Printing Office, 1876. 
7 Durrie, Daniel S., Early Outposts of Wisconsin, Green Bay for ZOO years; 
1639-1839. A paper read before the Wisconsin Historical Society, 1872, p. 10. 
8 Warren, p. 25. 
9 Ibid, p. 25. 
10 Art Publishing Co. (no author) The Valley of the Lower Fox: Historical, 
Descriptive, Picturesque, 1887. 
11 Ibid. 
12 McLenegan, Annie Susan, Pioneer Life in the Fox River Valley, Proc. Wis. 
Hist. Soc. 1905, p. 279. 
