Allen County, Indiana Genealogy

1914 - Government Experts Mapping Out Routes For The Lake To Lake Canal

Article from May 24, 1914 The Fort Wayne Journal Gazette (Fort Wayne, Indiana) 1914, Fort wayne, Canal

1914 - Government Experts Mapping Out Routes For The Lake To Lake Canal The Fort Wayne Journal Gazette, Fort Wayne, Indiana, Sunday, May 24, 1914, Page 35.

STILL NEED TO CLEAN UP THIS OCR TRANSCRIPT

GOVERNMENT EXPERTS MAPPING OUT ROUTES FOR THE LAKE TO LAKE CANAL GLASGON PLANE AND % TABLE.- A MEN NON AT WORK WA R.R KNEPPER. BOK"IS ENGINEERS MARRING A POD.F N THIS DAY and age of progress- / ive industrialism, when new ideas are each day creeping into the human mind, there are very few impossible things and very few problems which cannot be solved. n The Toledo, Fort Wayne Chibarge canal, otherwise known as cago the Erie-Michigan deep waterway, is not an unsolvable problem; neither is it an impossibility. The United States government can do anything It attempts and when attempts are made they are most generally carried to completion. No space given to the barge canal has ever been thrown away. The money spent for printers' ink has been well spent and who have donated their time and money have nothing to regret. But this canal proposition seemed at one time to be an unsolved problem. The brains and ingenuity of big men, however, have been the key which has unlocked the encyclopedia of possibilIty and turned theory into practice. Those of us in northern Indiana who have been watching the waterway's progress from the time the movement was first started can see nothing but success ahead. The red danger light has never made its appearance before us and no stumbling block has yet been too large that it couldn't be rolled away when the right men took hold of the task. Fort Wayne and northern Indiana, though, are not the only places where the gospel of waterways must be preached. It must be preached on the Atlantic coast, in the New England states, in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana and Illinois. Associations which guide the destinies of the metropolitan cities of the east and of the west must be *made to see that dreams have been transformed into realities, and that this great project must go through. Why Must It Be Built? Just why must this Eriedeep waterway be built? A hundred answers could be given to this question and all of them are Alled with logic. But the greatest reason why it should be built is because of the fact that the west must have better facilities for transporting its producta to the markets of the east and to the markets of the world. The eastern markets and the markets of the world must have better facilities for Shipping their products to America. It A waterway - is now being proposed in the canal is not built there is a posalbility that New York will lose her prestige as an ocean harbor. Why? Canada along the Georgian bay, through some of the lakes, to Quebec and out to the sea, making it possible for boats to load at Liverpool and London, cross the Atiantic ocean, enter the | FIRST OATS La SNYDER-FIRST LADY HERE ZWAYNE SELL AND THE PLANE build this canal from Toledo to Chicago and the most of the work must be done west of Fort Wayne. The Water problem, is not a serious one between Fort Wayne and Toledo, but the engineers here say that this is the one big problem which must be considered and considered carefully in making the survey and preparing for the final report between Fort Wayne and Chicago. The Maumee river can and probably will be used from here to Toledo, but there are no Maumee rivers between Fort Wayne and Chicago on either the northern or southern route, With a sufficient water supply, there 18 no question about the canal's construction if interest is not allowed to lag. It will cost money to build this canal, and the government has the money, Congress must be made to see the wisdom of expending this enormous amount of cash which it will require to build the waterway and the people must show the national body the whys and wherefores before it will act. Resuming the Survey. Getting down to the local part of this story, the government men have resumed the survey after an absence of week or more during which time the men were all ordered to work on gauging the streams during high water time. Last Wednesday morning, Surveyor L. B. Glasgow, and his assistanta, W. Cheek and Wayne E.. Bell, left Fort Wayne for a -transit trip, using for the fret in Fort Wayne what the engineers term a plane table. The plane table is the newest and most improved surveying instrument used in the government service; it saves labor, time and expense. By Its the surveyor draws his maps Wednesday morning when the party first started out. Their Route. They started at the junction of St. Mary's avenue and the Gosh in rond, walked north to the frat bridge, where they Bet their instrument. At this point previous parties had established atatione-and bench marks and it is they AFTER COUNTRY OINNER. POL. MARKING FREES. United States and travel direct west to Duluth, Minnesota, without ever touching New York or Chicago. If this canal is built, New could not only lose its prestige as a seaport, but Chicago could lose hers as well. Duluth, Minn., is just as important a shipping center as Chicago is and Du• luth cond and probably would get the biggest percentage this coastwise transportation if the Georgian bay caHat in ever built. That project is now in its fret stages and the Canadian government is saideto be seriously considering the proposition to push It through. You may look upon the map yourself and see that this plan is feas• ible and what it would do to New York and Chicago if it should happen to be built. United States engineers who are now in Fort Wayne superintendIng the survey for the barge canal have said that one way to head this off is to build the Erio-Michigan deep waterway, connect Toledo with Chicago by means of a canal and make. shipping possible between Liverpool and Chicago. This sounds like a mighty big proposition, and it is, but bigger propositions than this have been solved after this big government of ours has taken hold of them with 8 determination to get results. The canal spoken of here would pass through Lake Michigan, Lake Huron and Georgian bay. It might connect with Chicago and it might not. While no definite information has been gleaned that this proposed waterway would connect Duluth with the east, yet that 1s a feasible matter and no one in this country, especially in the cities attected cares to take any chances. New York Willing. This 18 just the reason New York state wants the gap Alled between Toledo and Chicago. The New Yorkere realize that by this means they will be able to have more and better transportation to Chicago and the west and they are as enthusiastic, if not more 80 there, than the people are in northern Indiana. Chief Engineer P. M. Churchill, who has been in Fort Wayne for several weeks preparing and starting the survey, said the other day that, if the lake-to-lake waterway is built, it might possibly head off the construetion of the Georgian bay canal, thereby adding to the wealth of Chicago, New York, and every other shipping center in the United States. A Big Problem. The canal problem is much bigger than great many people imagine. And a handful of men cannot do it all. That is the reason every man in every town through which the canal might pass owes it to himself, his posterity and to this country to contribute his might and get the Toledo, Fort Wayne and Chicago barge canal built. It only requires 240 miles of construction for| intention of the plane table force to follow. the transit force all the way the northern route. When the enover gineers finally wind up they will be in South Bend, but it will be some monthe ¡before they reach that far. Glasgow as the photograph will show, handles the instrument. Cheek is a survey man and Bell is a rodman. At the point where the government men were working Wednesday there are many points which must be taken into consideration. Each mark must be perfectly made and mistakes must not creep in. If they do it is necessary to draw the map over. Near Spy Run Creek. Spy Run creek, which the engineers struck west of the Leo road, runs to within a few hundred yards of the stream where the men resumed their work Wednesday morning. The turn was made at the junction of the two (streams and from here the engineers will work east to South Whitley. In the Photos. One photograph showe the plane table party starting on the trip. They set their instruments in front of a farm home near the bridge crossing the stream and began to label the rode. Here the Journal -Gazette's camera man caught the party, Glasgow 18 séen in another party gauging his distance, while Bell held the rod yards away from the instrument. Another picture shows the bridge, the Goshen road and the men at their work. The stream here 16 small and not very deep, but all of the small creeks and ditches must be observed and the data com-. piled with the larger streams. The Best Picture. The plane table party, of course, likes to 806 the picture showing them on the lawn of n farm home just after they had finished a big dinner of country ham and everything that goes to trim it up. The farm 18 owned by John Corson, In making this survey, the engineers cannot return to Fort Wayne each tully carry a These night and they cannot very success- arrange with the farmers along the route for the board and lodging and the boys are getting fat. Center picture shows Miss A. F. Snyder, stenographer, to the government men.. Some• Canal Facts. While the men are working on the northern route, it might be well to brief description of the terrigive a tory and a few facts in connection with the towns along the line. The first town west from Fort Wayne is South Whitley. From here the survey goes to Packerton, in Kosciusko county. Warsaw is the next city of any importance, the county seat of Kosciusko county, and forty miles west of Fort Wayne, 106 miles from Chicago. It 18 about seven miles by the Tippecanoe river from where it leaves Tippecanoe lake to where it enters the city limits of Warsaw on the northeast side of the town. The water level in the Tippecanoe river, which is the important stream in that territory, le said to be 813 feet above tidewater, From Warsaw the route goes straight north to Leesburg, which is six miles from Warsaw and still in Kosciusko county. The next town which the canal will strike is Milford, six miles north of Leesburg. Present plans show that the canal will pass the western edge of the little town, which, by the way is in Kosciusko county, following Turkey creek, which has its source to Lake Wawasee,, five miles east of Milford. In Kosciusko county, where the canal crosses the northeastern part of the county, the business men of Milford one time Joined the business men of Warsaw and provided for the expense of carrying on a preliminary survey across the county. Francis Neff, member of the firm of Neft Brothers, and William T. Harris, who later compiled a -lot of data for the canal, started the work of taking levels and securing data which would show its relation to the county, its utilities, streams and lakes. Charles Sellers, of Warsaw, then prepared R map and profiles resulting from the work. The water da Turkey crocio at/ the point where the canal was origin- are scarce here. The Elkhart and St. ally supposed to have gone is 819 feet Joseph's rivers and Rock run are the above tidewater. Kosciusko county is principal streams. The river almost full of lakes. It has the most lakes cuts the town in two and Rock run is and the largest bodies of water in the within n stone's throw of courtstate of Indiana. Near Milford is the house (for an extraordinary good Wabee lake. This runs into Dewart thrower). The Lake Shore and Big lake, and the latter forms a chain. of Four steam roads pass through here. lakes connecting all parts of the coun- No tidewater data could be procured ty. It 18 possible to enter one lake in turther north than New Paris. Kosciusko county and travel through most all of them. The largest body of and Elkhart South Bend. water in the county and the state is Elkhart is ten miles northwest from Wawasee lake at Syracuse. Another Goshen. in Elkhart county. Between. body of water at Syraçuse is the Syr- Elkhart and Goshen the Elkhart acuse lake, upon whose banks the lit- meanders very much. In other words tie town is built. it is crooked, and will necessarily have Going Up North. to straightened. Mishawaka we Traveling on north and still keeping reach. next, but as we are now 80 close in Kosciusko county, we came to Mil- to South Bend we will not tarry long ford Junction, a mile north of Milford, in Mishawaka, because it la a suburb and at this junction of the Winona of that big city anyway. The St. Jointerurban and Big Four and B. & 0. seph's river is the principal stream railroads. The railroads are found to here. be 833 feet above tidewater. The next Population of Towns. town we strike on this route, is New Paris, six miles north of Milford, and Population of towns and cities (apthree miles south of the Elkhart river, proximately) through which the canal the principal stream in this territory, will pass if built on the northern route has said that the Elk- la as follows: Frank Scholes hart river has kept him busy. Turkey creek, the stream which South Whitley 1,000 passes around the east, south and west Packertown . . . . .. . . . 76 sides of Milford, empties into the Elk- Warsaw 4,000 hart river between Milford and New Leesburg .600 Paris about three miles west of the Milford 900 two towns. The Wabash and Big Four Milford Junction . . .50 railroad tracks at New Paris Junction, New Paris . .400 half a mile north of New Paris, are Wabash Junction, no town there. 817 feet above tidewater at New York. Goshen 8,000 Another stream enters the Elkhart Elkhart .20,000 river one and u half miles north of Osceola .1,000 . . . the Wabash railway, where the water Mishawaka 8,000 is held up by the Goshen dam. South Bend level This 50,000 . . . is Cedar creek. There dam the is mill The above 18 the territory you will up Elkhart river near New miles. cover and a part of the things you will Entering see when you take a trip with the govGoshen, ernment men over the northern or So far we have enjoyed a few days South Bend route. with the canal engineers and we now The construction of reach Goshen. Goshen is twenty-five the Erie-Michimiles north of gan waterway means possibiliWarsaw, sixty-five miles ties for these towns by rail from Fort Wayne, It is the all of them will cities and if seat of Mikharp-county. Dukes fear of result, there will be no help county. 

Back to top