Rensselaer Republican, Volume 27, Number 25, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 27 February 1896 — CANAL FOR INDIANA. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

CANAL FOR INDIANA.

"Conarcs* A Aed to Approjpriate Money for Its Survey. The Legislature of Indiana by a memorial has asked Congf ay for an appropriatrorr to tmublyfho Secret r. ry of Wariwpny the expenses <if a commission to make a survey for a ship canal from the south

~sffio~re oT Lal-wTHmhig.in to the^Wabash ■fryef nem-’T.oghnsppßF, which is the neajest point and about seventy miles distant i» an air; Ijnei Lewis Cass ordered a survey when he was Secretary of War tinder. I‘residpnt Jacksow. tutd in 1831 Mr. Btansberry, a United States engineer, made a rep»rt, which still stands as evijlcnee of it 4 feasibility'. It is claimed that this canal would shorten the waterway from Lake Michigan to the Gulf of Mexico nearly. 400 miles in comparison with that of the great Illinois canal, and that it is a work of such importance and magnitude that it ought to be undertaken by Qongress. Mr. Stansberry, in 1831, estimated i''e distance to be 157 nrjes, the ‘number of locks thirty-seven, and the cost .$3,941.569. He followed the valley of the St. Joseph tp the valley of the Tippecanoe, -uml-t-heuce-40-4ts yuwettou Avith theWa- - bash- river. Another rwutetoartiiigfroin Michigan City by way of Trail creek to ;he .Tippeeapoe valley w as found t.o be 118 miles in length and forty-four locks necessary and the estimated cost was $3,446,479. A tliii|d route was from Michigan .City by the Little (.'alll met. and then down Crooked Creek to the Kankakee. A fourth was by. Wolf lake, from the Grand Calumet river, and another, 14.8 miles long, was from St. Joseph into the valley of the Kanklakee arid way of Mbutoi crook and Tippecanoe river. The cost of this was estimated to be $3,945,791.

MAP OF NORIHWESTERN INDIANA.