New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1871-06-04
A SENSATION In MICHIGAN.
A Harbor Created Without a Congress
SIGNAL Appropriation N How it was
DOne.


From the Manistee (kichigan) Standard
Events of the past few weeks in and
around Portage have been exciting and in
teresting as well to our citizens as those in
the immediate neighborhOod of the new
| harbOr, and have eliminated in developing
one of the safest and most accessible Ravens
of this shore. Portage Lake, which is sit
| uated about nine miles north of Manistee,
lies nearly twenty-five miles east from the
shore of Lake Michigan, and is beautiful
body of water, stretching fraction over
four miles eastward and two and one-half
| miles north and south, one hundred and
| fifty feet in depth at all points except the
| margin, and so steep at the shore that
craft of any tonnage may be safely moored
| thereby and receive cargo. 1t is surrounded
at a short distance back by an elevated
| plateau. The immediate neighbOrbood is
| occupied under the homestead act except
email portion OF State swamp land. The
soil is capable of profitable cultivation and
| OvergrOwn with beech, maple, hemlock and
small proportion of pine.
| This lake, until Sunday, the seventh, has
| had no available outlet, the natural one
| Ia small stream) having been damned in
| order to raise the water above its proper
| level to facilitate the floating of logs to the
| mill of Mr.. Potter, lying near Lake Michi-
gan. This operated injuriously to the own
ers of other property on the shore, hundreds
| of acres of whose land was overlooked,
killing the timber, forming large swamps
and rendering the neighbOrhOod unhealthy.
| Foreseeing the advantages of sufficient
communication with Lake Michigan, and
consequent market for their product out
side, the hOmesteaders determined to open
up a channel, upon which task they unani-
| mously engaged some three weeks ago. To
| this action objection was made by mill own
| ers, whose property it would affect, and the
diggers were arrested, brought to this city
for trial and released on bail Determined
not to be thwarted, they repaired again to
the work taking on reinforcements, whom
they detached into squads for day and
night duty, Again eleven men were ar
rested, with like result while the residue
| delved away like heroes. All hands
promptly appeared for trial last week, and
were discharged, when they returned and
completed the undertaking. A ditch about
four feet wide at the top and two at the
bottom was cut from one body of water to
the other, being completed early last Sun
day morning.
The denouement was sublimely grand.
From a small brook, swiftly the tide began
pushing its way onward increasing every
moment in volume, till the surging water
swept everything in its course, uprOOting
immense trees, hurting them headlOng into
the current, and conveying them far ont
upon the bosom of Lake Michigan. So ter
rible was its roaring, dashiHg fury, that
huge limbs were swept from trees two and
half feet in diameter as though mere
twigs, and the bare poles tumbled topsy
turvy in the boiling current till far away
from the spot where for years they had held
defiant sway. In just FIVE hours from the
start, channel twenty to thirty feet deep
and three hundred feet wide was washed
out, far into the big lake, leaving only high
bluffs at each side of the entrance. The
vast amount of water which escaped low
cred the little lake about eight feet, leaving
previously overlooked tracts high and dry.
Floating about Lake Michigan adjacent to
the inlet, and for miles south, are huge
trees and branches, the only remaining
relics of its former blockade.
On Monday last a party of our citizens
visited the scene, conveyed thither by the
tug Williams, of the Garfield Wrecking
Line. No impediment presented itself to
her free passage into the lake so recently
obscured by high hills. Portage Lake is a
handsome body of water, oval in shape, and
delightfully."- surrounded. Its banks are a
magnificent site for city, and, with but
small outlay. this may be made the best
harbor on the shore. The course of the in
let is devoid of crook or impeachment. and
the passage so short that you no sooner enter
than you are beyond harm reach and the
peril of storm. The mouth can be reached
from north or south with equal facility and
safety, the shallowest water on the bar being
eight feet Wednesday, the channel inclining
trif1e to the south.
The benefit to that section resulting from
this work can hardly be over-estimated and
residents are joyous in the extreme. The
business of one or two individuals may tenn
porarily suffer, but the enhanced value of
their property will in time compensate all
present damage. The chief shipments for
the present must be hard wood and hemlock
bark, which exist in inexhaustible quantities.
For these there will always be good and
near market. The fact of water craft being
able to hug the beach and receive such
cargo will lend that port superiority over
all others.
Some talk is being had of changing the
name of Williamsport, in honor of the first
large craft that ever appeared upon the
waters of Portage lake.