Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1908-07-07
THE WISCONSIN RIVER.

Prof. Leonard S. Smith of the de-
partment of topography and geodetic
engineering at the University of Wis.
consin has prepared an exhaustive
work on Wisconsin's water powers, en-
titled 1.-THE Water Powers of Wiscon-
SIM" Besides his college work Prof.
Smith is also civil engineer for the
Wisconsin geological and natural
history survey and for the United
States geological survey and has made
al actual survey of 600 miles of rivers.
lie says that no other six states has
such resources for water power as has
Wisconsin and yet none of the rivers
has been developed to its fullest capac-
ity. The lower Fox comes nearest to
it, producing over 1000 horse power
in stretch of thirty-five miles.
Because of its length, its great drain
age area, and its central location, the
Wisconsin is prominently the main
river of the state. Like the Flambeau,
the headwaters are found in an intri-
cate networks of lakes and swamps in
the fiat plateau near the northern
boundary. Its extreme source is in
lake Vieux Desert, body of water
about ten miles square on the border
line between this state and Michigan,
1850 feet above sea level. The course
for 300 miles is south, then near Portage
it turns west, and flows 100 miles to
the Mississippi, only forty miles from
the southern boundary of the state.
The drainage basin includes 1920
square miles, with an average width of
fifty miles, and length of some 225
miles.
At many, if not at almost all, of the
larger lakes of Wisconsin's headwaters,
logging companies have long main
tanned dams which some day will serve
the double purpose of reservoirs and
sources of power. Among these are
sixteen lakes at the head of the Eagle,
Pelican and Tomahawk rivers, most of
which stand 1,592 feet above the sea.
Surveys have been made by the federal
government for eight proposed reser-
voirs on the Wisconsin having total
area of 81 As square miles and drain
age area of over ], 410 square miles. 1t
is proposed to fill these at the time of
the spring freshets, and by the escape
at lowwater maintain flow of 5000
second-feet for three months of the
year. Such a flow would nearly double
the present low-water flow and its re-
sulting power, and incidentally reduce
the danger of high floods to dams and
overfiowed lands, restoring the regi-
men of the river to that which it pos
sessed before deforestation and cultiva-
ton transformed the great primeval
forest region into cleared and well
cultivated fields.
The Legislators o. 19O6-7 enacted a
law authorizing the Wisconsin Valley
Improvement company TO construct
and maintain system of reservoirs on
the tributaries of the Wisconsin to con-
troll the water flow, and providing that
when the reservoirs have capacity of
two billion cubic feet, tolls may be col
lected from owners If improved and
operated water powers on the river be-
low the reservoirs, not to exceed per
cent of the actual investment. This is
a beginning of most important inn
provement of Wisconsin's water
powers, aud the company has been
given until next January for the COM
pletion of the reservoirs. 1t is, how
ever, but small part of the nineteen
billion cubic feet of reservoirs planned
by the United States engineers.
The Wisconsin has a total descent of
1,046 feet in about 429 miles About
634 feet of this fall is in the $50 miles
between Rhinelander and Nekoosa,
and the descent is concentrated in
many places in large number of valu-
able water powers, many improved and
used by important industries. In the
L1dAu LklOubdAlCc lhC Aai1 10 CFNu ElOaSCt
in many cases than in the parent
stream. A considerable point in favor
of the development of the powers in
this river is the fact that the railroad
facilities are not excelled by any other
big river in the state, and the drainage
area is being rapidly cleared and
farmed, so that the steady extension of
competing railroads ito that section is
certain.
Prof Smith names seven large dams
south of Wausau on the river produc-
ing total of IS, $50 horse power and
says that many other large power plants
have been built at dams developing
considerable head in various points on
the Wisconsin. among them are those
at the mouth of the Big Plover river;
another half mile above. where 1890
horsepower is in use; at Stevens Point,
where 8 new cam is projected to re-
place that built some sixty years ago;
Mosinee, where one of the best and
most easily developed powsSs on tie