A stalwart band of boaters and boosters is hoping that “want” can resurrect in the next three years what “need” has allowed to expire over the last 150 years — the Fox River locks system.
“It’s a dirty shame they ever closed them,” said Hap Mignon, 77, of Little Chute. “Oh, God, I’d love to see them open.”
It may happen in his lifetime. The Friends of the Fox has already raised enough cash to restore the locks within eight years and is well on its way to raising enough to move the restoration schedule up to within three years.
“It’s going to happen,” said Bob Stark, president of the Friends of the Fox, whose group has taken upon itself to resurrect the locks along the 39-mile stretch of the Fox between the bay of Green Bay and Lake Winnebago.
The project will require about $28.8 million — about $23 million for the restoration work and the rest to keep the locks staffed and running for the next 30 years, according to Stark. But he and other proponents say the economic benefit could approach $100 million annually through tourism and development along the lower Fox River Valley. And, they say, it will give residents of that valley a link to their local history while providing river access to more people.The 17-lock system, built at the site of each of the dams on the river, consists of a series of gated chambers that fill or empty with water to lift or lower boats, thereby allowing them to pass the dams. The Fox locks were all hand-operated — powered entirely by water pressure and human muscle — one of the last such systems in the country.
The Fox locks are big enough for barges and other commercial vessels, but no one really needs them for commercial transit anymore.
The paint was barely dry on the brand new locks in the mid-19th century when the river system was supplanted by railroad transit as a cheaper, more versatile way of shipping bulk goods around Northeastern Wisconsin. And after World War II, the trucking industry finished the job of making the locks system obsolete.
By the 1980s, the federal government, which had been responsible for their operation since 1870, could no longer justify keeping the locks open for just the pleasure boaters. On top of that, a fear was developing that sea lampreys and other species that had invaded the Great Lakes would make their way up the Fox and decimate game fish populations in Lake Winnebago and elsewhere.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers closed 14 of the locks in 1986-87, allowing ones at De Pere, Lawrence and Menasha to remain open. The Corps then turned over the keys for the whole system to the Fox River Navigational System Authority, a state-appointed group of citizens charged with the mission of restoring and operating the locks or closing them as they see fit.
The authority and the Friends of the Fox organization see three reasons for resurrecting the locks system: recreation, tourism and history.
“This is all about tourism and the environment,” said Ron Van De Hey, chairman of the authority. “It’s going to allow people access to the river.”
Fisherman are concerned
Not everyone embraces that idea.
A number of fishing clubs, including Walleyes for Tomorrow and Oshkosh’s Otter Street Fishing Club, have opposed reopening the system out of fear of the sea lampreys and other invasive species.
The plan is to keep one lock — the one known as Rapide Croche, just south of Wrightstown — closed and sealed as a barrier to those unwanted pests.
Instead of a restored lock there, the site will be equipped with a boat lift. Boats needing to get from one side of the dam to the other will be lifted over, and those heading upstream will be cleaned each time.
Although lock proponents are touting that as a safeguard against invaders, fishermen are unconvinced that it’s enough.
“The fishery and natural resources on the Winnebago system have incalculable value,” said Mike Arrowood, chairman of the Fond du Lac-based Walleyes for Tomorrow. “To jeopardize that in any way, shape or form for the convenience of a few people to run pleasure boats from here to there doesn’t seem to make much sense to us.”
More than 200 non-native species have been found in the Great Lakes, Arrowood said.
“Is this sanitization system a for-sure thing that’ll cover 200 species?” he said.
But many of those species have already made their way into the Winnebago watershed, Stark said. Fishermen and other boaters currently must trailer their boats from one side to the other, and that provides even less of a safeguard than the Rapide Croche boatlift will provide, he said.
The lift is intended specifically to prevent sea lampreys from getting through, and it’ll do that, he said.
Happy memories
An open locks system will preserve what the river has and restore what it used to have as a viable transportation and recreation resource, Stark said.
The river provided many pleasant experiences in the past and can again, he said.
He remembers boating the whole length from Winnebago to the bay and would like others to experience the trip.
Van De Hey remembers diving off the locks when he was a boy.
For Mignon, the most vivid memory is the sound of the tug boats tooting their horns as they passed through. He recalled a little rhyme designed for remembering the horn signals: “One means danger, two means dock, three means bridge and four means lock.”
The locks’ potential as one of the few remaining hand-operated systems in the country have landed them on the National Register of Historic Places. But it’s their future and the opportunities that an open locks system offers that most people are looking to.
Dave Jansen, who lives on the edge of one of the Kaukauna locks, looks forward to boating the distance — to use either the bay of Green Bay or Lake Winnebago for a playground.
“I’d love to have them operational,” he said of the locks. “My boat is down there waiting,” he added, pointing to a small craft tied off in the lock canal.
The Tiger’s Den Pub & Grill in Wrightstown already is a destination point for recreational boaters, but owner Adam Ward eagerly awaits an open lock system.
“I’d love to see those locks open,” he said. “It’ll draw more traffic, and I’m all for anything that’ll increase traffic on the river.”
Not just businesses and boaters but entire communities along the river stand to gain, proponents of the locks system say.
“Anyone that can really appreciate the river and the use of that natural resource can’t help but feel good that increased usage may be just around the corner with this happening,” said Stephen Johnson, president of the village of Wrightstown.
“We have, for some time, always pointed to the Fox River as being a tremendous asset for the village if for no more reason than just the natural resource, the beautification that it does afford us. But now, maybe, commercially there’ll be some economic impact.”
Just how much economic impact remains an open question. Doug Dobbe, chairman of the Unlock the Fox Capital Campaign Committee, is claiming at minimum a $74 million annual shot in the arm for the entire Fox River Valley. And that’s based on a 10-year-old study, which means the impact could be closer to $100 million annually, he said.
“The opening of those locks creates new opportunities,” said Chuck Lamine, Brown County planning director.
“On weekends, when I go over (the Leo Frigo Memorial Bridge), I look down and see all those boats heading out to Door County or Marinette. I’d like to see some of them come back down this direction. From the economic development and tourism perspective, we’re looking for an opportunity to attract people to this area, and opening the locks provides for some of that.”
Financing is complex
But before the planners, developers and merchants start counting their money, there’s a lot of work that needs to be done.
First, there’s the fund-raising effort. The Friends of the Fox has raised just about $3 million — a bit more than its original goal of $2.8 million — which qualified the project for a $2.8 million match from the state. And the federal government has promised $5.6 million to match that total.
In addition, when the Corps turned over the locks to the authority, it also turned over $11.8 million. That’s the amount of money the Corps calculated was needed for closing the locks permanently and filling in the channels. The authority must save most of that money as a just-in-case so it can close the locks properly if need be. But it can use some of the money and the interest it generates for restoration and operation.
Those sums put the authority on a restoration plan that would’ve taken between seven and 12 years to execute, Dobbe said.
“So we went back to the authority and asked, ‘How much would we need to open in two to three years?’” he said. “It would take another $5,250,000, we were told.”
So the fund-raising campaign added that amount to its goal and entertains the notion that it could make that by the end of September.
“It’s certainly possible,” Dobbe said. “It’s a tricky thing. Work expands to the time allotted, so it’s good to have a deadline.”
Fund-raising, though successful, has been stymied.
Government leadership, federally as well as at the state level, has changed multiple times since the late 1980s, requiring locks proponents to have to re-educate and re-persuade new leaders.
Stumping for money this summer has been slowed by such mundane things as vacation schedules of representatives of the corporate and private foundations with deep pockets, Dobbe said. Efforts should pick up speed this September, he said.
Lack of publicity about the project also has complicated fund-raising efforts.
Noel Florek has lived for the last nine years in Little Chute — a village whose very name evokes the river, the falls and the dam and lock around which the community developed — but Florek had no idea about plans to reopen the locks or even what the locks were.
Pedaling his bicycle on the trail in Little Chute’s Island Park, Florek stopped to look over the Little Chute lock, which has been closed since the mid-1980s.
“I never knew what that was for,” he said. “I knew by the building and sign that it was some sort of government facility, but I didn’t know what it even was for. Now that I know, it’s pretty cool.
“I’d be in favor of them reopening it. I think it’d be an asset.”
The more people who learn about the locks, the more they become interested, and that will only help raise funds to make the re-opening a reality, Dobbe said.
Concerns remain
But when all $28.8 million is in hand, the question remains in the minds of some people whether that’ll truly be enough money to get and keep all 17 locks up and running. The plan as it stands now is to start with the four locks in Appleton and progress from there.
“We’re just concerned that they’ll run out of money before they get to Kaukauna,” said Kaukauna Mayor John Lambie. “If something goes haywire, we want to be certain we’re going to get ours opened or properly closed or whatever.”
Even the best locks in the system need work, and for the worst ones, it’s a trick just determining how much work they need.
Earlier this summer, the canal for Kaukauna’s five locks was drained for inspection. But the temporary dam of stop-logs, imposed upriver to keep water out of the canal, sprung a major leak a few weeks ago, and the valves to empty the canal had frozen closed. Water gushed below and through the dam at a violent rate, filling the canal. The authority’s operational manager, Dennis Arnoldussen, had the task of trying to figure out what to do about it.
On a recent Wednesday afternoon, he considered some solutions: laying sandbags at the base of the stop-log dam, driving the bottom gasket back into place by pounding wedges in, and dumping cinders into the upstream side of the dam to clot the gaps.
The temporary repairs likely wouldn’t be as complicated as the permanent ones, Arnoldussen predicted.
“The problem is, nobody’s ever really done this before,” he said. “It’s not like there are books out there telling you how to do it.”
And repairing the locks is only part of the expense.
“With this, you can’t just turn the key and open the gate and expect you’ve got something,” Lambie said. “You’ve got to deal with liabilities, vandalism, and that requires policing.
“It’s not a simple matter. It can be done, but it does require upkeep and maintenance. But when we get that far, we’re prepared to do whatever we have to do.”
Hurdles removed
Dobbe said the Friends and the authority have done their homework. Their cost estimates have been conservative, and the fund-raising goal, once achieved, will be sufficient to do the restoration and to maintain operation for 30 years, he said.
In addition, when the state acquired the locks system from the federal government, it also acquired 94 acres of land at the locks sites. Not all of that will be needed for lock operations and park sites, and some can be sold to raise additional money.
“People are skeptical, but it is going to happen,” he said. “All of the hurdles have been removed.”
Don’t count Jansen as one of the skeptics. Although he already has a pair of boats at his home near one of the Kaukauna locks, he’s planning to buy a pontoon boat within the next three years to make use of the expanded river system available to him.
“I’ll blow my horn when I come through De Pere,” he promised.
