Fox Heritage Parkway - The Road to Empire

An early entrepreneur once described the Fox River System as just that…An early trade route for Indians, later the route for the French Voyageurs as they carried their furs to the market in Canada, the Fox became the route for pioneer settlers to make passage into the rich heartland of Wisconsin.  By canoe, Durham boat and barge they breasted the swift rapids of the Fox, portaging laboriously around the most fearsome.  With the coming of the steamboat, the cry for canals and locks to tame the Fox was answered.

The early system was crude and soon fell into disrepair.  In 1884 it was given to the Army Corps of Engineers for operation and improvement.  The locks that you see today are that same system.  Built of native limestone, many of the locks have their original walls.  Each, with its gates and valves just as they were installed 100 years ago, is a capsule of history, one that must be preserved.  Each site can be a state park in microcosm with its locks well fenced, its bypass flume a miniature waterpower operation:  A park awaiting use!  With proper effort and funding we can make this available to communities along the Fox Waterway.

Over the past decade, industry has spent in excess of $295,000,000 for water quality improvements, and the municipalities have done just as much to make the waters of the Fox swimmable and fishable.  Now we must preserve access to that river by keeping the locks and canal system in operation for all the citizenry – whether they fish, boat, swim, or just watch a lovely sunset on the river.