Winona County, Minnesota - Roads, 1883

One of the most vital needs of the young city - a need felt for some time prior to her incorporation as well as for years afterward - was that of better roads leading into the surroimding country, from which her local trade was to come. This want of good highways - a want in some degree common to all new settlements - was doubly felt in the case of Winona, owing to her peculiar topographical position. The long narrow stretch of low bottom land forming Wabasha prairie, and upon the lower end of which the city is built, is inclosed in a regular pocket by the Mississippi river bluffs, which back of the city are nearly two miles from the river bank. These bluffs, rising from 300 to 500 feet in height, gradually encroach upon the bottom lands above and below the city until they abut directly upon the river, thus forming the termini of Wabasha prairie. This entire tract of bottom land was at no distant day covered by the waters of the river, great portions of it at the present being subject to overflow dufing times of exceptionTilly high water. The whole river face of the prairie is seamed and indented by little creeks and bays wherever the low lands lie, and in these localities the sandy soil of the higher levels is displaced by a marshy, boggy soil which affords very insecure footing for man or beast. The springs which ooze out of the ground at the foot of the limestone bluffs in the rear of the city, together with those forming up the valleys, which are the natural outlets through the bluffs to the high table lands above and running down them to the river, are collected in a natural reservoir just within the city limits on the south. This reservoir or basin, usually called Winona lake, is a shallow sheet of water nearly 500 rods in length and about eighty rods wide, with extensive tracts of low marshy land at either extremity, particularly at the outlet on the east, where the marsh is fully a mile in width. At all times of high water these marshy lands have been subject to overflow, and at even the lowest stage of the river the approach to the city from the east and southeast was through a slough only rendered at all passable by the dense growth of bottom grass, which served as a mat to prevent teams from being hopelessly mired. The approacli from the southwest was much more favorable, but by no means sucli as heavily loaded teams would care to attempt. The road to the west and north along the tongue of higher land leadini:; to Minnesota City was the only desirable road leading out of town, and in fact the only one ])Ossible during seasons of moderately high water. But even this road was frequently impassable, as was the case in 1852, and on occasions since that date, when Winona was actually an island, cut off from all communication by land with the surrounding country and approachable only by boat in any direction. This Minnesota City road, or the road to the Rolling Stone settlement, as it was then called, was the first highway for which any survey was made in this whole region of country ; and with this crude survey, made without special regard to anything save a practical wagon road to the Rolling Stone plateau, and reported to the county commissioners of Fillmore county without maps or field notes to accompany it, this crude survey marked the beginning of all attempts to improve the highways within the limits of the present Winona county. Settlement in the county was made rapidly in the late summer and fall of 1855, and the mouths of Burns and Gillmore valleys opened to receive the settlers that, passing through these gateways of the Winona bluffs, sought the level prairie lands lying back from the river. To connect these valleys with the little town on the river, and open up such roadways as would permit loaded teams to pass and repass from the river to the farms just being opened, became every week more and more a necessity. As early as 1855 a narrow trail, called by courtesy a road, with bunches of prairie grass and here and there a few poles, and in exceptionally difficult places a plank had been extended across the slough between the lower end of town and Sugar- Loaf bluff, or Glen-Mary as it soon afterward began to be called. In 1856, the year in which Winona made such rapid strides in population and in all material growth, a movement was made to construct a permanent road waj^ across this slough. E. S. Smith, then living at the foot of Sugar-Loaf bluff, headed a subscription for that purpose with a pledge of $500. Others followed until the subscription amounted to about $3,000, when the contract was awarded to Van Gorder & Mallory to grade the slough and put in a bridge. The contract price was $3,500, and the stipulation was for a roadbed twenty-six feet wide on the bottom, twenty-four feet wide on the top, the embankment to be raised three feet above the slough level, and a bridge 150 feet long to be built above high-water mark. The embankment reached from the solid ground on the south side of the slough almost at the foot of Sugar-Loaf bluff to the solid ground, which was reached a few rods south of the present track of the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul railroad. The extreme length of this embankment was not far from 1,500 yards, and the work was completed as per contract very much to the gratific;ation of those who were compelled to find an entrance to the city in that quarter or make the entire circuit of the lake to find a poor road at best at the western extremity of the city. The work so satisfactorily" begun by private subscription was continually improved under the street commissioner of the city un- til 1873, when, under instruction of the council's committee on streets and alleys, street commissioner O'Day raised the embankment to an average height of five feet above the level of the slough, laid up the sides of the embankment with a good stone wall sloping one foot inward for each three feet of its height, and carried the embankment to about seven feet in height at the bridge. This work was prosecuted to the city limits on the south from a point a few rods south of Mark street, a total distance of about 100 rods. Near Mark street it reached the grade of the macadamized road constructed by James Burke for the city, down Fiftli street and Mankato avenue toward Sugar-Loaf bluff as far as the north margin of the slough. This combined work afforded a good solid roadbed through the deep sand at the east end of town, as well as over the slough to the city limits on the south. From tins point the county commissioners took charge of the embankment and raised it from the city limits to the foot of Sugar-Loaf bluff to correspond with the grade made by the city. The length of the embankment thus raised by the county authorities was nearly three-eighths of a mile, and the total cost of the work done hy them there at various times has aggregated about $7,500.

The road as now built, though not absolutely above high-water mark, having been completely submerged by the flood of 18S0, is nevertheless practically fit for travel at all seasons of the year, and affords free access to the city for the residents in Pleasant valley, Gilmore valley, upper and lower Burns valleys, and the roads to Homer and the southeast quarter of the county in general.

In 1857 some imjDrovement was made in the approach to town from the west, and about $800 expended in grading and in building a bridge 150 feet long over the slough on the Stockton road. This work, embankment and bridge, was carried out by the high water of 1858, and in 1859 the county, acting in concert with the city, contracted with S. D. Van Gorder to put in a pile bridge 200 feet long and cast up an enbankment about 600 yards long across the slough between town and the Stockton bluffs. The contract price for this work was $3,500, of which sum the city paid $3,000, the funds being raised as heretofore, by subscription. In the meantime the city's trade with that section of the county lying over and beyond the Stockton hills had so increased that the city deemed it advisable to ]>re|»are the way for its coming. The proposed route was over the Stockton bluffs, by which a saving of several miles would be effected, as also travel through the deep sand of the Minnesota city road along which the trade from the west was necessitated to enter Winona Two contracts for grading the bluffs and making a winding roadway perfectly practicable for loaded teams were awarded One to John Keator for constructing the road on the eastern slope, the other on the west, to Van Gorder & Mallory, the stipulated price in each case being $4,000. Gullies were to be bridged, immense bowlders removed, the face of solid limestone cliffs blasted away, timber cut and stumps and roots grubbed out, the roadway carried for rods upon supporting walls of stone built up from some 'favoring ledge below, or shored up" from the bluff sides, and such a grade established as would make the road practicable as a regular thoroughfare for loaded teams in either direction, ihe work was laid out bv civil engineer N. J. Hilbert, and its difhculties can onlv be known and its magnitude appreciated by those who have the pleasure of a trip over it. It is a roadway fully four miles long winding up one side of the bluff and down the other, from the level bottom lands of the Wabasha prairie to the fertile valley of the Stockton, or conversely from the quiet Stockton vales to the busthng activity of the commercial center of soutliern Minnesota^ ihe $8 000 for the prosecution of this work was also raised m Winona by' private personal subscription. To this amount the county has subsequently added the sum of $10,000 in improving the road at various times, the outlay to date being, as nearly as can be ascertained, about $18,000 to $18,500. The result is a pleasant, safe and thoroughly picturesque road, affording a really delightful drive for any lover of nature, as during it some charming ghmpses of wood and water are obtained, valley, bluff and river scenery affernating the view. The road over the bluffs, just east of Woodlawn cemetery on the south side of lake Winona, was not built without the aid of Winona citizens, who contributed about $500 to that work, ihe roadways at the upper and lower ends of town, and the Stockton bluff work, was all done as early as 1861, the funds provided by private subscription of Winona citizens, their contributions for these several improvements aggregating not less than $16,000 io this should be added the expense of macadamizing the east end of iiltn street, and commissioner O'Day's work on the Sugar-Loaf road as these improvements were in the interest of public highways leading into the city. This would give a grand total of $23,000 expended by the city' in the single matter of highways leading out of the city on tlie Minnesota side of the river. Creditable as this expenditure is to the liberal ])ublic spirit of the citizens of Winona, the expenditures of the corporation for a like purpose on the Wisconsin side of the river have been considerably greater. The country lying just across the Mississippi river in Wisconsin, and naturally tributary to Winona, only needed some means of communication with her markets to contribute its quota to the trade of the city rising on the Minnesota shore. Charters to establish ferries at this point had been granted in 1855 and in 1857, but nothing resulted from the grants in either case and the privileges expired by limitation. With the close of the war, and with active preparations for increased business, interest in the ferry project revived, and in 1865, A. DeGrafF, under contract with the city of Winona - which had been authorized by legislative act to expend moneys in Wisconsin for that purpose - agreed to build a road from the Wisconsin shore of the river, opposite the Winona levee, across the bottom lands of Buffalo townshi]> in Buffalo county, Wisconsin, to the higher lands near the foot of the Wisconsin bluffs. The contract price of the work was $5,500, but before it was completed the city had paid nearly double that amount. This road was always subject to overflow. The bottom lands were literally seamed with creeks and bayous, so that the undertaking was one of no light character. For some reason the result was not satisfactory. The high water of 1870 took out the bridges and cut into the embankment, rendering the road unfit for travel. In the meantime the state fair was to be held that season at Winona, and means of communication across the Buffalo bottoms became more and more urgent. S. D. Van Gorder, who owned and operated the Winona ferrj^ contracted to repair the embankment and rebuild the bridges. The sum of |400 was raised by subscription ; the work was done at a total cost of |775. Some portions of the $400 subscription remained unpaid and the balance came out of Mr. Van Gorder's pocket, who, during the ten years that he operated his ferry, paid out not less than $1,500 in repairing the roads across the Wisconsin bottoms.

In the fall of 1 882, the city having taken the management and operation of the ferry into its own hands, in order to reduce expenses of crossing, and if practicable to make the ferry rates merely nominal, if not to abolish them entirely, concluded to make a permanent imprf)vement in the approach to the ferry. The contract was let to S. D. Van Gorder, and its stipulations called for a roadway thirty- eiffht feet wide at the bottom, eighteen feet wide on the top, an average till across the bottom to the high land of seven feet above the slough level, the streams to be bridged as indicated m the specifications, the embankment to be substantially riprapped on both slopes and the top of the roadbed covered with macadam to the depth of one foot. The contract with Van Gorder was tor $9 500 and only included earthwork and bridging. The contract for stoke and stonework was awarded to H. J. Willis for $10,252. The road, as now constructed under these contracts, is about 4,000 feet long, there are five bridges having an aggregate length of 1,200 feet, and in these are 1,160 feet of piling. The surface of the roadbed, as now standing, is one and a-half feet below the high water mark of 1880. To meet this expense in the Wisconsm bottoms, the city issued her bonds for $30,000, payable in twenty years, and negotiated the most of them at five per cent interest per annum.

Thus it appears that the people and corporation of Wmona, m order to improve the roadways leading to the city upon both sides ot the river, have expended the sum of nearly $55,000, and of this amount nearly one-half has been raised by private subscription. The city's expenditures in other directions have been no less liberal, as will' appear in the history of matters more directly connected with the proceedings of her common council.