Williams—The Passing of An Historic Waterway. 135 
Upper Fox to 3 y 2 feet; and providing for locks 160 feet long, by 35 
feet wide. The work was begun and carried on vigorously by the 
company until the panic of 1857. From this time on the com¬ 
pany encountered many difficulties and in the summer of 1866, be¬ 
cause it had failed to fully perform its agreement with the state, 
the trustees sold the improvements, lands, and franchises at public 
sale. The purchasing company was the “ Green Bay and Missis¬ 
sippi Canal Company.” 19 A short time before this the national 
government took a renewed interest in the waterway and during 
the third session of the 37th Congress a resolution was passed 
that a “committee on naval affairs be appointed to inquire into 
and report upon the practicability and the probable cost and 
time required to improve the Wisconsin and Fox Rivers, so as to 
give an uninterrupted navigation from the Mississippi River to 
Lake Michigan for vessels of war 200 feet in length, 34 feet beam, 
and drawing not less than 6 feet of water. ’ J2 ° The committee which 
reported in 1863 estimated the cost at $2,387,000 and suggested 
that the Lower Fox be improved to a 12 foot draught with the 
further suggestion that Lake Winnebago might become a naval 
station provided this could be done under the “treaty of 1817.” 
The full committee decided against the naval station proposal, 
however, and closed the report with the following: “The true 
ground as the committee think, upon which to place the propriety 
of yielding assistance to this Wisconsin enterprise, is its great 
natural importance in making cheaper and easier the intercourse 
between the grain-regions of the Northwest and the manufacturing 
and commercial states of the East. The expenditure of twenty 
millions in the completion of this work and that of Illinois with a 
corresponding enlargement of the means of conveyance in the East, 
would be many times repaid in the increased general prosperity 
which would result from it. Whenever some systematic and well- 
matured plan shall be laid before Congress, which shall compass 
this result, it is to be hoped that it may be adopted.” 21 
In 1870 the waterway was taken over by the United States Gov¬ 
ernment, but it did not take over the land grants or water power 
franchises of the Green Bay and Mississippi Canal Company. This 
company is still in existence and maintains the right of control over 
19 Warren, p. 47. 
^Warren, p. 46. 
21 Ibid, p. 47. 
