Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1908-03-10
ELECTRICAL POSSIBILITIES OF
WISCONSIN WATER POWERS

part of the state, which for the purpose
of comparison we may consider the
root of system. These powers may
be combined into trunk lines represent
ing the trunk of tree, and branch in
TO the southern part of the state to all
its cities from Milwaukee to Lacrosse.
We have the powers in the northern
part of the state going to waste for lack
of market. In the southern part of
the state we have an unlimited market
considerable cost, paying tribute to the
coal barons of Pennsylvania and Indi-
ana. If these water powers which are
going to waste can be made to relieve
Wisconsin manufacturers from the
.hraldom of the coal trust, it will mean
untold wealth to the manufacturer al
ready established in Wisconsin, and
will attract others to the state as
magnet attracts filings.
There are eight rivers of consider
able magnitude in Wisconsin, each of
which l will take great pleasure in re-
ferring to individually, and discussing
the possibilities of each in a few
words. In addition to these eight,
there are quite number of small
Superior, and which do not carry any
great volume of water, but these rivers
are very important as water power pro-
ducing streams because, as a rule, dur
ing their short runs they have tre-
mendous fall, and while they would
not be available for immediate develop
ment, they will always form very
valuable reserve for development at a
later date, after we have exhausted the
possibilities of the powers which are
directly under our noses"
The writer here takes up the Fox, Me-
nominee. Pestigo, Oconto, Wolf, Black,
Chippewa and st. Croix rivers and the
says of the
WISCONSIN RIVER
"This is grand old stream. the Rhine
of Wisconsin. Like the Chippewa
river, it rises in a mass of tangled lakes
and swamps. The drainage area of the
Wisconsin river is very large in its
upper region. In its lower region the
drainage area becomes narrow and not
unlike that of the Black river The one
distinct advantage of the Wisconsin
river lies in the fact that natural posi-
bilities exist along its head waters for
the storage of tremendous volume of
water by means Of building compare
lively small and inexpensive dams. In
fact, the proper sites for the dams have
been already located by the United
States government, who have had care
full surveys of the situation made, and
it is amazing to find that capitalists
have so far not taken advantage of the
investigations so carefully put at their
disposal by the government. The Wis
consin river has length of 429 miles
from its source to its mouth, and in
that distance it has total fall of 1046
feet, most of which is concentrated in
the upper part of the river. In fact
fall of 800 feet occurs in the upper part
of the river. This river used to be the
main high way Tor floating of logs from
the pine woods of the north to the
Mississippi river, and remnants of the
old logging dams may be seen along its
entire course. Anumber of its water
powers are developed in a small way,
but the possibilities are so great that
sooner or later these isolated devel-
opments must give way to one grand
development, utilizing the full power
of the magnificent stream in series of
develo pments for local consumption
and transmission to a distance.
The state of Wisconsin is particularly
favored in the matter of geological and
Typographical conditions. The northern
sections of the state have an annual rain
fall of approximately A inches, and the
country is geographically so formed
that this rain fall does not run off rapidly
to the rivers and from them into the sea-
On the contrary the numberless swamps
form most excellent storage basis and
retain a very large portion of the total
rain fall, which is given off gradually,
and serves to maintain a uniform flow
in the rivers, particularly to Chippewa
and Wisconsin rivers. photographers
have way of figuring the flow of
stream according to the cubic feet per
second per mile of water shed area
This is very plain and simple, but to
those not accustomed to it, it sometimes
seems unintelligible. The best way to
illustrate the conditions of the Wiscon-
sin rivers is to compare them with other
rivers in other parts of the country.
Almost all of the rivers emptying into
the Atlantic ocean from the Eastern
water shed of the United States, reach
an extremely low run of in fact, the
minimum flow is always second foot
per square mile of drainage area. This
low figure is reached principally by the
southern streams. from the state of
Virgins south to the state of Alabama.
From Virginia north the minimum run
of is somewhat higher, and averages in
the neighborhood of = second foot per
square mile of water shed area. Rivers
in the extreme west differ radically
from eastern rivers and from rivers in
the Mississippi basin, and it would be
useless to 60 into their intricacies in
this paper. The minimum run off of
the Wisconsin rivers, without artificial
storage TO help in maintaining its iow,
is as high is A second foot per square
mile of drainage area, and with the
storage facilities which have been
referred to which have been surveyed
by the United States engineers, the
minimum run of can be maintained at
approximately $ or 9 second foot per
mile of water shed, figure which l
doubt if it is possible to reach in any
other section of the Middle or Atlantic
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