Door County, Wisconsin - Chapter 17: The Sturgeon Bay Canal, 1917

Chapter 17: The Sturgeon Bay Canal

Many years ago Sturgeon was an open strait connecting Green Bay and Lake Michigan, and Northern Door County was an island. Lake Michigan, however, is a restless worker, incessantly and indiscriminately smoothing out its shore line, scraping away headlands, filling in bays and inlets and demolishing islands. In the brief space of time since Door County was surveyed Lake Michigan has already made great changes along the sandy eastern shore of the county. In the vicinity of Rowleys Bay, Mud Bay, North Bay and other points, it has destroyed hundreds of acres of land- - taking the land of one owner to build up the acreage of another. At the Lake Michigan end of Sturgeon Bay this work of constructive destruction is perhaps most noticeable. Here the waves and the wind working together filled up the ancient strait and piled a ridge of sand thirty feet high, where in ancient times the water covered the land for miles.

'That this ridge of sand is of recent origin is borne out by the fact that when the excavation for the canal through this neck of land was under way a cedar tree fourteen inches in diameter at the butt was found buried under forty-three feet of earth. It seems evident that this tree had been covered up by the drifting sand two or three centuries ago.

When the first settlers came this ridge of sand was almost two miles wide at its narrowest point and covered with a heavy growth of pine. The Indians had a well trodden trail over it, over which they portaged their canoes. Because of this barrier, so heedlessly thrown up by old Lake Michigan, the vessels plying between Green Bay and Chicago had an extra distance of 100 miles through the dangerous Death's Door passage, where so many of them came to grief.

To most people it seemed that, seeing this ridge of sand was there, it must always stay there. To cut a path through that rolling forest of timber so that ships could sail where then the wild deer bounded, seemed an impossible task. One man among Sturgeon Bay's pio- neers was not daunted by a freak of nature, but believed a passage could be cut through the ridge. He saw that if this were done Sturgeon Bay would become a lake port as well as a Green Bay port, an ever increasing tonnage would flow past its doors and Sturgeon Bay would become a city instead of a postoffice. This man was Joseph Harris, Sr.

About 1860 he began to urge the formation of a company of stockholders who would dig the canal. He preached it early and late to his neighbors and to every chance visitor he met. His townspeople, however, were men of small means and little insight and Mr. Harris was laughed at as a dreamer. However, in the neighboring Village of Little Sturgeon there was a big business man by the name of F. B. Gardner who saw the great significance of the scheme, and through him Mr. Harris was able to interest many other men of large resources and influence.

In 1864, he was elected to the State Senate and while there drew up a charter of incorporation which was suffered to pass as a harmless though useless act. The list of incorporators, however, was more significant. They were William B. Ogden, president of the Chicago & Northwestern Ry. Co., Chicago's first mayor and the largest lumber operator in Northern Wisconsin; F. B. Gardner, Thomas H. Beebe, Jesse Spalding and A. E. Goodrich, of Chicago; Alexander Mitchell, Anson Eldred and Daniel Wells, of Milwaukee; Joseph Harris and George Bennett, of Sturgeon Bay; A. P. Lyman, of Sheboygan; Charles D. Robinson, Henry S. Baird, George Strong, Andrew E. Elmore, H. F. Waring, James S. Baker and F. S. Schettler, of Green Bay; Andrew Reed, of De Pere; William M. Whitcomb and Uri Balcom, of Oconto; Edwin C. French, of Peshtigo; Richard S. Fay, of Boston; George P. Smith, of Philadelphia; Elisha Riggs, of Washington, D. C.; J. S. Speirgelberg and David Magie, of New York; Elias Gill, of Hartford, Conn.; and William G. McMaster, of Lockport, N. Y. The widely extended territory indicated by the localities mentioned above but faintly illustrates the arduous labors performed by Mr. Harris from the conception of the canal in 1860 to its feeble birth in 1864.

'The next year he went to Washington to fight for a land grant. He asked for 200,000 acres. The Wisconsin members of the lower house thought his request was too large and gave no help. Senators Howe and Doolittle assisted him in drawing up a bill which passed the Senate. He then left Washington to attend to his duties as state senator in Madison and while there learned that his land grant bill had failed to pass the House of Representatives by two votes. In 1866 Mr. Harris returned to Washington to devote his entire time to pushing the land grant. He secured memorials from influential commercial bodies, such as the Chicago Board of Trade and others, addressed to Congress, asking that the land grant to the canal company be given. This time he was successful. The bill passed and under authority from Governor Fairchild he located the lands May 15, 1866. The lands selected were all the odd numbered sections, lying nearest to the canal, a large part of them being in Marinette County. On October 4, 1866, the company, known as The Sturgeon Bay and Lake Michigan Ship Canal and Harbor Company, organized by electing William B. Ogden, president; Alexander Mitchell, vice president; and Joseph Harris, secretary -and treasurer.

Money at this time was earning 10 per cent, being in great demand for pushing the industrial development that followed after the war. In a meeting of the officers in New York, Mr. Harris was told that it would be practically impossible to persuade capitalists to put their money into the enterprise unless an additional land grant of 200,000 acres was obtained. This was discouraging news but proved true. In Green Bay, for instance, the city that would be most benefited by the canal, no money was subscribed and only five dollars were obtained to be used for a preliminary survey of the canal. This survey was made in 1867 by A. E. Thompson and was paid for with $1,500, which Mr. Harris obtained May 13, 1867, $300 of this sum being given by the people of the Village of Sturgeon Bay. 'The survey made in 1867 located the canal about three-quarters of a mile north of the present route. Mr. Thompson estimated the cost of the canal on this route at $700,000. This route was later abandoned because a ledge of rock was discovered which it was feared would prove too great an obstacle for excavation.

March 5, 1868, the Wisconsin Legislature passed an act, which was really a contract, providing the conditions under which the canal was to be built and paid for. According to this act the canal company was to build the canal, receiving one-fourth of the lands as soon as one-fourth of the work was done and the balance on similar terms. For the next four years, however, all concerned in the canal company slept, except Mr. Harris. On him it devolved to secure from Congress the second grant of 200,000 acres which was to entice capital. He got one bill after another introduced in Congress, but views by the score were brought to the notice of Congress but without avail. S. P. Drew, lighthouse keeper on Green Island, kept a record of all vessels passing up and down the bay which would have used the canal if it had existed. According to him, there passed in 1868, 7,338 vessels; in 1869, 7,347 vessels; and in 1870, 7,369 vessels.

Statistics were collected showing the annual output of the sawmills whose products would pass through the canal when built. These were as follows:

'The untold dangers that these 7,000 vessels with their 600,000,000 feet of lumber annually encountered in the rocky defiles and tempestuous passages of Death's Door were thrillingly set forth, but Congress refused to thrill. It was like beating his head against a stone wall. In the meantime the time set for fulfilling the terms on which the first grant was based expired but this was twice renewed. Finally, to put a stop to any further importunities of that kind, Congress in 1872 declared against the policy of land grant and that avenue of assistance was closed for good.

Failing in this plan, Mr. Harris now tried another. He was at this time secretary to Senator Sawyer and through him got a bill passed providing for a new survey by the Government, and an examination of the lake shore for a harbor of refuge. This bill was passed and prepared the way for another making an appropriation of $40,000, which also was passed. The survey was made in 1871 by Capt. T. W. Casgrain. His estimate of the cost along the new route was $500,000.

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County had been busy in ruthlessly stripping the canal lands of their timber. A few of these thieves were brought to justice and about forty thousand dollars in "trespass funds" had accumulated in the state treasury to the credit of the canal company. At this time, too, Congress appropriated $40,000 to reimburse the canal company for the loss sustained in the great fire:of 1871, by which it was estimated that one-fourth of the pine lands of the canal lands had been rendered worthless. With this appropriation, with the trespass funds and with other funds raised by the company it now felt able to begin the work. May 7, 1872, a meeting of the directors was held in Chicago. W. B. Ogden was re-elected president; T. H. Beebe, vice president; Joseph Harris, secretary; and W. E. Strong, assistant secretary and treasurer. On the executive board were chosen W. B. Ogden, F. B. Gardner and Jesse Spalding. W. 'T. Casgrain was appointed chief engineer. Fifty-five thousand dollars was subscribed at the meeting to push the work. This was shortly afterward increased to $75,000. Mr. Casgrain was instructed to advertise for bids to build one-fourth of the canal this season.

July 8, 1872, the first shovelful of earth was scooped from the bed of the future canal, by the dredge, Gutches. Joseph Harris and Chief Engineer Casgrain were the only visitors allowed on the dredge. From that time the work was pushed until the fall of 1873 when one-fourth of the work was done. The governor's certificate to this effect was issued October 7th, and the company shortly afterward received one-fourth of the lands. The following year the second quarter of the work was done. In this year, however, another period of serious financial depression set in, and there was no sale for second rate timber lands. In order to enable the company to continue the work, an act was passed by the Legislature, authorizing the company to mortgage all the lands as security for its bonds. However, on account of the panic, the bonds of the company could not be floated and the work stopped.

Almost three years went by and in the meantiine the company was unable to raise any money on its bonds. This delay greatly irritated a large faction of the population of Sturgeon Bay and vicinity. Instigated by men who felt themselves slighted, a hue and cry went about that the whole scheme was only a fraudulent design of certain unscrupulous promoters who planned to sell the pine lands and pocket the money. Mr. Harris was sneered at as being only a tool of a ring of grafters. Three investigations were made of the affairs of the company and the deed to the second quarter of the canal lands for work done in 1874 was in the meantime held up. It was finally proven that the management and designs of the company were honorable and plain and that the delay was necessitated solely by lack of funds. The second quarter of the work was finally accepted by the state in the summer of 1877.

Finding that the bonds could not be negotiated, the first 50,000 acres of land in 1877 were put up at auction by the company, and, with the proceeds, work was resumed with great vigor. Finally, on June 28, 1878, the waters of Green Bay and Lake Michigan rushed together. Two dredges worked toward each other until only two feet separated the waters of Sturgeon Bay and Lake Michigan. Superintendent Sager cut this with a shovel and the current soon enlarged the opening so as to admit the passage of a row-boat, manned by Captain Casgrain. This marked the completion of the third quarter of the canal.

The people of Sturgeon Bay had looked forward to this great hour with the liveliest anticipation. A great celebration in honor of the event took place on the 4th of July. Delegations and bands were present from all the cities of the Green Bay region. After a dinner at the Music Hall, the invited guests and others proceeded to the public square. Gen. W. E. Strong presided over the ceremonies. Speeches were made by U. S. Senator T. O. Howe, Governor William E. Smith, George B. Smith, Judge John B. Cassaday, Jesse Spalding, and T. B. Chynoweth. Other prominent visitors from abroad were present, among them being Congressman Philetus Sawyer, State Senator George Grummer, William Pitt Lynde, George H. Paul, Perry H. Smith, P. V. Deuster, James H. Lowe, Harrison Ludington, J. T. Scammon, C. J. L. Myers, Abner Kirley and others. The canal was formally baptized and its entrance into the world of commerce formally recognized by the leading citizens of Wisconsin. But it was completed merely in the rough.

While small crafts at once began to use the canal, much dredging and excavation remained to be done to permit the passage of vessels drawing thirteen feet of water. Late in the fall of 1881 the canal was inspected by Government officials and was declared fully completed. More than one million one hundred thousand cubic yards of material had then been removed, being about one hundred thousand cubie yards more than the .Government estimates called for.

Clearing Timber From The Canal Site

tecting piers or rivetments to keep the banks from being washed away. At right angles to these, extending from the harbor entrance, are two sections of piers, 350 feet in length. Outside of the canal lies the harbor which was built by the Government. It is 800 feet wide at the mouth of the canal, flanked by two cribs extending 1,350 feet into the lake. At the outside opening the harbor is 235 feet wide. The harbor was built directly by the Government, for which Congress appropriated at different times a total of $180,000, which is the total cost of the harbor and breakwater. The cost of the canal up to 1881 when the canal was completed was as follows:

Due principally to Joseph Harris' initiative and dauntless perseverance this canal was built and Sturgeon Bay now occupies a safe position of commercial importance. As is common in such cases, however, the services of the early father of this great enterprise are largely forgotten and others who have had little- or nothing to do with the undertaking are given the credit. A striking illustration of this usurpation of credit is found in Hon. Isaac Stephenson's autobiography, where the ex-senator in describing his conquest of Northern Wisconsin and Michigan, calmly appropriates the credit of building the canal to himself! A little credit is given to his business associates, but not much; the lumber baron takes the lion's share to himself. As for Mr. Harris, Mr. Stephenson knows nothing of him. Mr. Stephenson refers to the canal in the following statements:

"1. The project of building a canal across the narrow neck of land at Sturgeon Bay called the portage had been under discussion for some years, but nothing was done until the Peshtigo Company (of which Mr. Stephenson was a large stockholder and general manager) took the initiative in the formation of a corporation to undertake the work of construction.

"5. General Strong, secretary of the Peshtigo Company; Mr. Ogden, Jesse Spalding and myself had charge of the enterprise; but the actual direction of the affairs of the corporation fell largely to me, as the others were without the practical knowledge needed for work of this kind.*

From this it would seem that from start to finish and all along the line Mr. Stephenson was pretty much the whole thing in building the canal. 'This boast is not borne out by the facts on record, however. While Mr. Stephenson as a practical business man presumably was interested in seeing the canal put through, there is very little evidence that he was more than a spectator. Nor in any of the multitudinous writeups of the canal in Sturgeon Bay, Green Bay or Milwaukee papers from those years have I seen Mr. Stephenson's name mentioned more than once as in any way interested in the canal. A few words may be added replying to Mr. Stephenson's assertions in detail, based upon an impartial investigation of historical sources.

1. Mr. Joseph Harris and Mr. F. B. Gardner took the initiative in the formation of the corporation and the Peshtigo Company were represented in it only like all other business concerns of the Green Bay region.

3. Congressman Philetus Sawyer, chairman of the rivers and harbors committee, whose secretary was Mr. Joseph Harris, provided for the survey by the Government.

5. Mr. Stephenson is in error about the officers of the company. They were until 1877 W. B. Ogden, T. H. Beebe, Joseph Harris, W. E. Strong and W. 'T. Casgrain. Upon Mr. Ogden's death in 1877 Mr. Jesse Spalding became president.

6. 'The canal was not opened in 1873. Only one-fourth of the work was completed that year. The canal was not opened for navigation until 1882.