Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 37, Number 31, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 21 April 1905 — Government Interested In Kankakee Drainage. [ARTICLE]

Government Interested In Kankakee Drainage.

Ths United States Geological Survey Issues an Important Bulletin. t The United States Geological Survey has issued a bulletin regarding the Kankakee swamps and the problem of their drainage, of which the following is a very complete abstract: All of the reclamation problems now being considered by the United Stats s Government are not located in the sage brush desert oountry. Right at the very doors of Chicago is a vast area of land of inexhaustible fertility but now rendered of little value by the perveriety of the Kankakee river. Year after year the rich bottom land of this stream is submerged during the flooded periods and on 400.000 acres the agriculture is restricted largely to hay.

This is no new problem. Thousands of dollars have been expended in investigating it and numerous attempts have been made to solve it. In this portion of the Kankakee valley the stream Aowb through a broad alluvial plain, varying in width from one to twenty miles, and sloping westward with an almost uniform gradient of a little over one foot to a mile. Across this great maTsh the river winds a slow and devious way, its rate of fall beirg only four inches to the mile, Its crooked channel lengthens out to 240 miles in 2 000 bends *o travel a distance of afcout seventy one miles.

From 1879 to 1885 many sohemes of reclamation were considered and several thousand dollars were expended on drai rage work. The drainage area of the Kankakee contains 1000 square miles and the valley is an elevated marsh lying some ninety feet above Lake Michigan and situated on a glaoial plain. The drainable lands are situated 88 follows: St Joseph oonnty 39,638 aores; Laporte, 124,253; Porter, 75,543; Starke, 153,. 625; Jasper, 90,459; Newton, 79,854 and Lake, 61,438 a total of 624,805.

"At the lower end of this vast Bwamp, near Momenoe, 111., the extrusion of a limestone ledge forms a natural dam in the river channel, checking its flow, and in flood times backing up the water for many miles. For many yerrs this ledge was thought to be the key to tbe drainsg* of tbe whole valley, and upon its demo'iticn already many thousands rs dollars have been expended. While the excavations in the ledge and tbe construction of many miles of canals and laterals have reeu’Pd in improving conditions, the real problem of drainage is vet unso'ved. The work in the past has made it apparent that tbe removal of the ledge will not alone remedy the difficulty.