Fox-Wisconsin River Highway

 

Wisconsin's earliest transportation network was its series of rivers and lakes.   First used by European settlers in 1673 during the expedition of Father Jacques Marquette and Louis Joliet, it was one of the principal routes used by travelers between the Great Lakes and the Mississippi River until the completion of the Illinois and Michigan Canal in 1848 and the arrival of the railroads. As shown above in this 1888 illustration from Historic Waterways by Reuben Gold Thwaites, the Lower Fox River upon which Menasha sits was just one link in a network that could take a traveler from the bay of Green Bay all the way west to the Mississippi. Needless to say, the approximately 280 mile waterway was integral to the economic development of central Wisconsin.