Rensselaer Republican, Volume 27, Number 20, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 10 January 1895 — A SHIP CANAL. [ARTICLE]

A SHIP CANAL.

Senator Turpie introduced in the senate a memorial from the legislature of Indiana, praying for the establishment of a ship canal to connect Lake Michigan with the navigable waters of the Wabash river. The proposition is one in WhicEThe business people of Indiana are more largely interested than almost any other that has yet been brought to the attention of congress. Senator Turpie made a short speech at the time of the presentation of the memorial, in which he outlined the great advantage it would be to the shipping interests of the people in that section of ths country. The memorial sets forth the feasibility of the construction of a maritime ship canal from the lower end of Lake Michigan to the head of navigation of the Wabash river has been generally acknowledged and its value for fuuture development of the great northwest can hardly be estimated, and that the various reports of civil engineers of approved scientific skill, including the report of Major O. L. Gillespie, United States corps of engineers, made to the war department, Dec. 27, 1875, demonstrate the full practibility of such an enterprise,! thA report showing that there is a fall approximating about ’seventy feet from the south end of Lake Michigan to the head waters of the Wabash river, and that the construction of the work owing to the physical condition of the country through which it would pass, being level and sandy loam, could be done very cheaply in view of the commercial importance. The memorial also sets forth that the proposed canal would shorten the water way from Lake Michigan to the Gulf of Mexico by nearly 400 miles more than any other route that has been suggested or proposed. It was referred to the ..committee on commerce for action, and the senator intends to secure action upon it at the ea’rhest opportunity. —LaPorte Republican. This project of a ship canal from Lake Michigan to the Wabash river, is now receiving considerable attention. Its probable route has already been described in this paper. It would probably leave Lake Michigan about on the line between Lake and Porter counties. Would strike the Kankakee river at Baum’s bridge, follow ” up the river, m a southeast direction to Dunn’s bridge, and then southeast to the Monon river, which it would follow to the Tippecanoe. This route would strike DunnviUe in Kankakee tp., or just east of there and would also probably hit Medaryville. •" 1

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