The Manitowoc tribune. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1866-1878, 1873-08-07
The Milwaukee, Lake Shore d Wes-
tern Railroad.

We cut the following from J. Lang
sons Chamber of Commerce report, pub
lished in the Milwaukee Journal of Com
naercc, July 30:
The Milwaukee. Lake Shore and Yves
tern RR., another new road connecting
Milwaukee with the northern part Of the
State, Is now IN operation from MilWau-
kee to Sheboygan, and from Manitowoc
to Appleton and Menasha, a total dis
lance OF 80 miles. All but about 10 miles
of the road-bed between Sheboygan and
Manitowoc is built, and this portion OF
the road is expected to be finished by the
lst of September, as also the branch to
Two Rivers, six miles north of Manito-
voc, making in all 129 miles of road.
At Menasha this road will unite with the
Wisconsin Central RR of which ll6
miles have been in operation for some
months, and the connection of the whole
line to Ashland, on Lake Superior, a dis
lance of 240 miles from the head of Lake
Winnebago, is well advanced, and under
contract to be completed by the first of
October, 1873. The company contemplate
an early extension of THEN road from
Ashland to Fountain City ana Duluth,
the Lake Superior termini of the North
ern Pacific RR. Seven miles of the Lake
Superior end of the Wisconsin Central
were ironed before the extreme cold
weather of the past winter caused sus-
pension of the work. The CompsDy has
leased the NJ. L. S. 4 W. RI. and as
soon as the unfinished links in the line
are supplied, will run through trains to
Milwaukee and Ashland, total distance
of 1854 miles, penetrating for the first $50
miles of the route, fine agricultural
region, and beyond that, tapping the
great pineries and inexhaustible iron beds
of Northern Wisconsin. The famous
Penoka Iron range is on the line of that
road, about so miles from Ashland. The
Wisconsin Central with its Milwaukee
connections at Menasha, viii form the
shortest route that's likely to be construct
ed for many years to come, from Chicago
and Milwaukee to the western end of
Lake Superior. The distance from Chi
cago to Duluth, via the Milwaukee &
Northern R'y., or the Milwaukee Il Fond
du Lac Air Line, and Wisconsin Central,
will be about 4S6 miles. 80 miles less than
the existing shortest route. The distance
from Chicago to Duluth, by perfect air
line on the map, is 400 miles, but the
greater part Of the region through which
such an arbitrary line runs, everybody
ACQUAINTED with the Typography of Nor
thern Wisconsin knows, would be an i'm
practicable line for a railroad. 1t is, there
fore, extremely doubtful whether the
Chicago and Northern Pacific so-called
Air Line, if ever built, will effect any
saving in distance over the Wisconsin
Central route. The Wisconsin Central
will, doubtless. contribute materially to
the prosperity of Manitowoc and Sheboy-
gan, but this will not diminish its impor-
lance to Milwaukee, being connected with
it by two other competing roads at Me-
nasba, each of which will have an adyan-
tage of 25 miles is distance over the Lake
Shore route, and prospectively. by
third uia Berlin. The company have
leased ample depot facilities in this city,
and its general offices will doubtless be
located here as soon as their road is fully
COMPLETED