Evening Republican, Volume 20, Number 249, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 17 October 1916 — Bill Bat Describes Trip To the Kankakee. [ARTICLE]

Bill Bat Describes Trip To the Kankakee.

Last Saturday Attorney Halleck, of Rensselaer; Dudley Washburn, of Kentland, Commissioner for the lower Kankakee river improvement, and Wm. H. Parker, of Morocco, engineer for said work, took a trip to the Kankakee valley for the purpose of obtaining some additional information relative to the further drainage of this vast district. They kindly invted me to accompany them, and I gladly accepted. After leaving Rensselaer we sped along at a good rate of speed in Mr. Halleck’s Oakland,, receiving a Sew jolts in passing over the Union township gravel road thuck holes. Then a fine spin to DeMotte over an excellent stone road. We made a ten minute stop in this thriving village, shaking hands with a few old friends, not even taking time to inquire the way to Granger’s camp. We flew along the north end boulevard,~~aff excellent piece of engineering skill in road building, due north, keeping directly under polaris until we reached the Kankakee river at the new Hebron bridge. Here we alighted and toured around a bit, making a brief study of the topography of the country and admiring the new bridge, and more especially the new river channel which Is under the process of construction by a one and a half yard dipper dredge. They have- already cut the south half of the river channel for the Marble ditch from this point in an air line to the outlet of the Hodge ditch and Wabash Valley Ry., a distance of nearly two miles. This channel is about 60 feet, wide and work will soon be commenced on the north half of this channel, which, when completed, will be about 120 TeeFwide and from 15 to 20 feet deep, thus saving the great detour made northward by the old river channel.* We then ran a mile north to the Morrow dyke, which has been allowed to fill up with willows and sand to a great extent and now failsrtd keep out the overflow and carry away" thewater from the northern watershed. After « casual view of this north side, we retraced and dined sumptuously at the Halleck hotel in DeMotte. Mr. Halleck was very sociable and his wife and daughters deserve especial mention for the courteous way in which they entertained us and for the quantity, variety and quality of the- “eats” which adorned that massive table. One of the daughters treated us to. a wonderful display of oratory in a short eulogistic speech in defense of the principles and patriotism of Charles Evans Hughes while pointing to his picture, which she keeps hanging over the glass door, regretting nothing except that she couldn’t vote for him. After dinner we ran eastward to the eastward to the crossroad north of Wheatfield,'thence north crossing the source of the Hodge ditch and Baums grade, where they are tearing the old bridges out of the waterways and filling In grade. Stopping at the new Baums bridge, we were here an hour and collected .data which included geological and botanical specimens of the surrounding country. The' big dredge has already lowered the water in this vicinity until we toured all over the woods, dry shod with low shoes on, right across

oldbayous where never before since Noah’s flood could man travel without high topped rubber boots. At this point the new channel is 100 feet wide and 17 feet deep. Standing on the new iron bridge and lookdown stream one gets the most inspiring scene perhaps in *all northern Indiana. As you look over this great river of water down through a three mile stretch two hundred feet wide cleared through the timbered swamps, a lovely avenue bordered by stately ash and branching maples intermingled with sycamore, oak and birch, which, having been recently touched by the finger of the frost king, give off all the colors of the rainbow’, and all the shades between them. Three miles away at the far end of this leaf-bordered avenue looms up in bold relief the great dredging boat, straining and groaning under the great loads of earth which swings right and left to the waste banks. ’ Somewhat wearied it looks at that distance seen through the haze of atmosphere, great coL

umns of black smoke rolling up from its two great, funnels like storm clouds or emissions from a volcano. As I took my first view of this wonderful panorama I was thrilled with amazement and I said to myself, what a grand, soul-inspiring spectacle, and surely that moving monstef away yonder must 'be “Do Wacht am Kankakee.” Thence we meved on around the curved grade northeastward to th z. old wooden Baums bridge, still standing over the old channeLof the river, and under which we found the old weather-beaten water soaked government elevation grange, with the dim figures still legfHe, which we dS-' ciphered and translated to show that the surface of the water in the Kankakee on that date stood just 653 feet , above sea level.

This is the same crossing used by the early settlers and Ihdians 82 years ago when government surveyors meandered the river. The old trail led from Laporte to Buncomb, now Iroquois, 111. » Thence we ran north to within 11 miles of Valparaiso, thence westward along the Panhandle railway several miles, then down to .the river hank

at the coaling station for the dredge. From this point we took boats. Washburn and I secured the services of an old trapper to take us around to the dredge while Halleck and Parker “paddled fiheir own canoe.” Our pilot stood erect in the stem of the little skiff and shot us over the rippling waters and swift currents with as much skill and dexterity as did ever William Tell on the glassy lakes of Switzerland. Our man claimed ‘o be 50 years of age, yet as we rounded an island and ran into a bayou, he introduced us to another old fisherman, trapper and bee hunter, as his father, 80 yaers old. I quietly asked him if he had a grandfather anywhere in the swamp. “No,” said he

sorrowfully, “He’s dead.” Striking the new channel we glided quietly down to the big boat where the gang plank was run out and we all went on board. My pen falters and my vocabulary falls short when I attempt to describe this great dredging craft. Hence, I will state a few facts and figures and allow you to formulate your own opinions by analogy contrast and comparison. Two huge square timbers placed fore and aft, of California redwood, each 50 feet high, are used for center spuds. The double steel A frame is 60 feet high, over which the boom cables pass. The boom is 87 feet long, length of dipper arm 55 feet. Lenth of boat 110 feet, width 60 feet, dipper capacity 3% yards. The engine is 950 horse power and there are two spud engines and one double crapk engine for the turntable; it cuts a channel 20 feet deep and 110 feet wid", throwing great mountains of dirt far back into the woods, tearing • the limbs from the trees as it falls from the dipper, immense stumps and logs are tom up and thrown out as if they

weie coin toys. ' ' After running back to the laundry, past three barges and the double boat cabin around Sandy Hook and up the Phillips ditch, we ran north in the faithful Oakland to the great apian way of. Porter and Lake counties westward on this elegant stone road to Hebron, thence south through DeMotte again and home in time for supper, having traveled about a hundred miles of road and saw much more than Moses did in the wilderness in 40 years’ travel. —BILL BAT.