When white men first came to our land, the Indian trails formed a
network of narrow, deep-sunken paths over the face of the country, as
they connected village with village, and these with the hunting and
fishing resorts of the aborigines. Many of the most important trails
simply followed the still earlier tracks of the buffalo, which in great
herds wandered from plain to plain, in search of forage, or in hiding
from man, through the dark forest and over the hills. The buffalo
possessed an unerring instinct for selecting the best places for a road,
high ridges overlooking the lowlands, and the easy slopes of hills. In
the Far West, they first found the passes over the Rockies, just as,
still earlier, they crossed the Alleghanies by the most favorable
routes.
The Indian followed in the footsteps of the buffalo, both to pursue him
as game, and better to penetrate the wilderness. The white man followed
the well-defined Indian trail, first on foot, then on horseback; next
(after straightening and widening the curving path), by freight wagon
and by stagecoach; and then, many years later, the railway engineer
often found his best route by the side of the developed buffalo track,
especially in crossing the mountain ranges. The Union Pacific and the
Southern Pacific railways are notable examples of lines which have
simply followed well-worn overland roads, which were themselves but the
transcontinental buffalo paths of old.
An interesting story might be written concerning the development of the
principal Indian trails in Wisconsin into the wagon roads of the
pioneers, and some of these into the military roads made by the federal
government for the marching of troops between the frontier forts.
Without fairly good roads, at least during the winter and summer months,
it would have been impossible for Wisconsin to grow into a great State;
for good roads are necessary to enable settlers, tools, and supplies to
get into the country, and to afford an outlet for crops. For this
reason, in any newly settled region, one of the first duties of the
people is to make roads and bridges.
We have still much to do in Wisconsin, before we can have such highways
as they possess in the old eastern States. In many parts of our State,
the country roads in the rainy seasons are of little credit to us. But
the worst of them are much better than were some of the best in pioneer
days, and some of our principal thoroughfares between the larger cities
are fairly good.
The federal government set a good example by having its soldiers build
several military roads, especially between Forts Howard (Green Bay),
Winnebago (Portage), and Crawford (Prairie du Chien). In Territorial and
early Statehood days, charters were granted by the legislature for the
building and maintenance of certain tollroads between large towns; some
of these were paved with gravel or broken stone, others with planks.
Many of the plank roads remained in use until about 1875; but before
that date all highways became the property of the public, and tollgates
were removed. Bridges charging tolls are still in use in some parts of
the State, where the people have declined to tax themselves for a public
bridge, which therefore has been built by a private company in
consideration of the privilege of collecting tolls from travelers.
Early in the year when Wisconsin Territory was erected (1836), and while
it was still attached to Michigan Territory, there was a strong
movement, west of Lake Michigan, in favor of a railway between Milwaukee
and Prairie du Chien, connecting the lake with the Mississippi River.
Congress was petitioned by the legislative council of Michigan to make
an appropriation to survey the proposed line. There were as yet very few
agricultural settlers along the route; the chief business of the road
was to be the shipment of lead from the mines of the southwest to the
Milwaukee docks; thence it was to be carried by vessels to Buffalo, and
sent forward in boats, over the Erie Canal, to the Hudson River and New
York.
This was in January; in the September following, after Wisconsin
Territory had been formed, a public meeting was held in Milwaukee, to
petition the Territorial legislature to pass an act incorporating a
company to construct the proposed lead-mine road, upon a survey to be
made at the expense of the United States, and there was even some talk
of another road to the far-away wilderness of Lake Superior.
But this early railway project was premature. Wisconsin had then but
twenty-two thousand inhabitants, and Milwaukee was a small frontier
village. Then again, railroading in the United States was still in its
infancy. In Pennsylvania there was a small line, hardly better than an
old-fashioned horse car track, over which a wheezy little locomotive
slowly made occasional trips, and the Baltimore and Ohio railway had not
long before experimented with sails as a motive power. It is not
surprising, therefore, that Congress acted slowly in regard to the
overambitious Wisconsin project, and that it was nearly fourteen and a
half years before a railway was actually opened in this State.
Indeed, many people thought at that time that canals, costing less in
construction and in operation, were more serviceable for Wisconsin than
railways. The people of northern Wisconsin were particularly eager for
canals; in the southern part, railways were most popular. The most
important canal project was that known as the Fox and Wisconsin rivers
improvement. From the earliest historic times, these two
opposite-flowing rivers, whose waters approach within a mile and a half
of each other at Portage, had been used as a boat route between the
Great Lakes and the Mississippi River. We have seen, in preceding
chapters, what an important part was played by this route in the early
history of Wisconsin. But when large vessels became necessary to the
trade of the region, and steam navigation was introduced, it was found
that the historic water way presented many practical difficulties: the
Fox abounds in rapids below Lake Winnebago, and in its upper waters is
very shallow; the Wisconsin is troubled with shifting sand bars. In
order to accommodate the traffic, a canal was necessary along the
portage path, and extensive improvements in both rivers were essential.
As early as 1839, Congress was asked to aid in this work, and from time
to time such aid has been given. But, although several millions of
dollars have, through all these years, been spent upon the two streams,
there has been no important modern navigation through them between the
Great Lakes and the great river. The chief result has been the admirable
system of locks between Lake Winnebago and Green Bay, making available
the splendid water power of the lower valley of the Fox.
Another water way project was that of the Milwaukee and Rock River
Canal. This was designed to connect the waters of the Milwaukee and Rock
rivers, thereby providing an additional way for vessels to pass from
Lake Michigan to the Mississippi. A company was incorporated, with a
capital of a million dollars, and Congress made a large grant of land to
Wisconsin Territory. But after some years of uncertainty and heavy
expense the project was abandoned as impracticable.
The Territorial legislature began to charter railway companies as early
as 1836, but the Milwaukee and Mississippi was the first road actually
built. The track was laid in 1851 and a train was run out to Waukesha, a
distance of twenty miles. In 1856 the line reached the Mississippi. This
was the modest beginning of the Chicago, Milwaukee, and St. Paul system.
The Chicago and Northwestern Railway entered Wisconsin from Chicago
about the same time (1855). Numerous small lines were built before the
War of Secession, nearly all of them being soon swallowed up by the
larger companies. During the war, there was stagnation in railway
building, but when peace was declared there was renewed activity, and
to-day Wisconsin is as well provided with good railways as any State of
its size and population in the Union.