The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1871-07-27
WATER OF LAKE MICHIGAN ON
ITS WAY TO THE GULF OF
MEXICO

CdHdI was COHI Pl6L GU dIu C1G sWbIOA 1AOh
the South Branch of the Chicago River
let into the canal. The bottom of the
canal being considerably lower than the
bottom of the river the water of the
river reversed it's course and, instead OF
flowing very slowly into Lake Michigan,
commenced flowing with commendable
rapidity into the canal, and so through
the canal to the Illinois and Mississippi
Rivers, and is on its way to, if it has not
IaIrcady reached, the Gulf of Mexico.
Thus the dirty, filthy, offensive and
putrid water Of the South Branch, part
o the North Branch, and the Chicago
River, has been carried into the canal
aud through the canal into the Illinois
ana Mississippi Rivers. The offensive
ness and putridity Of the water caused
tear and CONSERVATION IN it's onward way
to the Gulf But fortunately he Chicago
River and it's Branches are but small
streams and their water could not last al
ways. As the offensive, putrid water of
the river flowed through the canal the
pure water Of Lake Michigan flowed in
to the Chicago River and its Branches
and so into the canal, and is thus on it's
way to and through the Rivers to the
Gulf of Mexico.
On Tuesday of this week the Chicago
officials and four thousand invited guests
took an excursion on four canal boats
or such part of them as could find place
on the boats-tO Lockport, to celebrate
the deepening ofthe cana and the flowing
of the water from the Chicago River
into the canal. For an account of the
celebration, and of how four or five thou
sand people found passage on four
canal boats not large enough to convey
one thoufand, and howzthey did not, we
refer the readers of the TELEGRAPH to
the Chicago papers. The Chicago people
have way of their own of doing things
or not doing them, and the Chicago pa
pers have way of their own of telling
or not telling how they do them.
Without going back to the time when
it is thought by some, if not all, geolo-
gists that the waters of the Lakes or of
the Ocean extended to the Rocky M oun-
tains, nor to the later period, when it
Is thought the waters of the Illinois and
Chicago Rivers extended much beyond
their present banks, but coming within
the historical period, there is evidence
that the water could flow from Lake
Michigan to the Gulf Of Mexico. An
early Xplerer-Father Marquette
in a canoe from Green Bay up the Fox,
over the portage into the Wisconsin
down the Wisconsin into the Mississippi,
down the Mississippi, up the Illinois
over the divide between the illinois and
Chicago, and down the Chicago into
Lake Michigan.
Western Railroad a channel with high
banks can be seen between the Railroad
and the Niagara River, extending with
a gradual descent from near Like Erie
and approaching Suspension Bridge, and
could probably be followed past the
Bridge and past the Falls. This channel
was once probably the outlet of Lake
Erie and of all the Lakes then connected
with it on the west At some time when
the pressure was great the water must
have broke over and formed a new and
deeper channel where the Niagara River
now is, and by lowering the Lake left
the old channel without sufficient water
and current to keep it open, and grad,
ually to become obliterated. And, al
Lake Erie became lowered, Lake Mich
igan, having an outlet through it, would
also become lowered, and thus leave the
outlet from the Chicago to the Illinois
River to become obliterated. The waters
on the highest ground between the Chi
cago and Illinois Rivers would be left tc
find their level, and part flowed to the
Illinois and the Mississippi, and {
part to the Chicago and Lake Michigan
! Valuable as the deepening of the Hin
OILS Canal must be for the purposes o.
navigation, it WILDE still more valuable
in changing and keeping comparitiyel.
pure the water of Chicago River and it
Branches. The great nuisance in ath'
midst of Chicago can now be abated AM