The Irish standard., 1912-01-20
FOX RIVER VALLEY FACTORIES
WILL BE DESTROYED IF THE
WATER BREAKS, LOOSE,
BLASTING OUT THE ICE
To Give Water Right Of Way-Most
Precarious Situation 10 Report
ed to Exist at Appleton,
Wis.

part paper mills, in one of the great
est industrial centers of the country,
are threatened by the ice which has
completely choked the Fox river for
three miles that the river flows about
this city. Appleton has plants valued
at nearly $10,000,000, which are i'm
periled, and other cities in the val
ley, from Neenah and Menasha at the
south end to Green Bay at the outlet
of the Fox river, are imperiled. In all,
the mills ranged along the shores of
the river are valued at about $20,000.-
900, this valley being the greatest and
most congested paper mill center in
the world, not even excepting Massa-
chusetts district.
Thousands of men, in this city alone,
are busy trying to blast a channel and
other thousands are busy at other
points. The difficulty is that the river
is SO filled with manufacturing plants
that ice has formed nearly solid, shut
ting off the flow of the river, which
is the outlet of Lake Winnebago. To
cut the channel means the dynamit.
ing Of a canyon through bridges,
dams, and even factories.
There is not little power in use in
Appleton. At one time the newspapers
were printed on handbills and the city
was in darkness, for electricity is the
universal power in the valley.
At Neenah and Menasha, at the out
let of Lake Winnebago, there are sew
oro1 dopc providjno ,,ouor for no NOR
plants, valued at millions. The dan
ger there is not so great as here. Rail-
road bridges built across the river on
piles, form network with the dams
and canals, facilitating the formation
of ice, and preventing the breaking up
of the jam.
Other Points Imperlied.
At Kimberly, five miles below APP
pleton, is another great water power
site with million-dollar plant in the
old course of the stream. At Com
bined Locks and Little Chute, two
and four miles further down, are
other mills in the same precarious
situation, while at Kaukauna, mile
below Little Chute, are three more
water power sites. each with it's set
of factories.
The danger is that the water of
Lake Winnebago, backed up by the
choked main river, will sweep into
the rapidly weakening canals and
then break around the dams and
sweep to destruction the mills. This
volume of water, released on the low
er valley, would work untold f1nan.
cial havoc. Fortunately, the entire
Fox river valley is marked by high
land on each side of the river itself,
SO that should the water break it's
bounds, there would not be loss of
life, merely loss of property.
| At Appleton the upper dam has
been dynamited, but the river has
not been able to swing through the
ice dam which had formed back OF
the masonry dam. The city author.
tiles demand that the railroad allow
their bridges to be cut and dyna.
mited, for the only salvation Of the
valley seems to lie in the cutting of q
channel through the center of the ice
pack.
Business is practically suspended
for every man available is at work
trying to cut through the ice. The
ice, owing to the amount of masonry
in its course, has formed from the
bottom of the river and along the
foundations Of the mills, and there is
practically no current to carry away
the ice as it is packed from the main
jam.