Democratic Sentinel, Volume 6, Number 48, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 December 1882 — The Kankakee Swamp Land Survey. [ARTICLE]

The Kankakee Swamp Land Survey.

The final report of Prof. <L L. Campbell upon the survey of the Kankakee swamp lands has been submitted to the Governor. The report is’lengthy and gives a vast amount of information relative to the Kankakee region of Indiana, which is comprised chiefly in the counties of St. Joseph, La Porte, Starke, Jasper, Porter, Newton and Lake? A careful survey made some years since statei that between South Bend, Ind., and Momence. 111., there are 2,000 bends in the Kankakee river. The approximate length of the stream is 240 miles. The river drains an area of country estimated at 1,000,000 acres in Starke, Jasper and Newton counties The uplands are sandy and the adjacent marshes have little depth, but there is no part of the valley which is not worth fur more than it will cost to improve it. The number of acres which it is estimated mav be recovered iu the marshy region is estimated as follows : In St. Joseph county, 39,633 acres: La Porte, 124,253; Porter, 75,543; Starke, 153,625; Jasper, 99,450; Newton, 79,854; Lake, 131,438: total, 624,805. Estimating the increase in value at S2O an acre, the aggregate addition to the wealth of the State will be $8,000,000, while the general increase of the entire section of the Kankakee region will make it not less than $10,000,000. The entire cost of draining this section is estimated at about SOO,OOO.