267


EXPLORING WISCONSIN'S WATERWAYS: THE Fox- WISCONSIN


economic development. The Wolf River's rich, extensive pineries provided
the saw logs via a ready-made delivery system. The Wolf discharges into
Lake Poygan, which in turn flows into Lake Butte des Morts, where its waters
are joined by those of the upper Fox. From there both flow to Lake Winne-
bago, a kind of giant catch basin for these 2 rivers, as well as the Fond
du Lac
River. For decades Lake Poygan served as a storage pond for logs destined
for Oshkosh sawmills. Proximity to the timber source ultimately gave Osh-
kosh the edge in a sharp rivalry which developed between it and Fond du Lac
for primacy as the milling center for Wolf River timber.
  With the Menominee treaty of 1836 (see p. 252) and federal surveys, the
lands on the north bank of the Fox became legally available to settlers,
pre-
ceding the Panic of 1837. Despite bad times, by 1839 2 small villages, Athens
and Algoma, formed distinct communities on the opposite sides of the river.
Athens changed its name to Oshkosh in honor of Menominee Indian Chief
Oshkosh in 1840. By 1846 with the return of more prosperous times in the
West, a stream of settlers made their way to the area. Selected as seat of
Winnebago County in 1847, the growing town acquired its first steam saw-
mill. Two years later 7 sawmills operated at Oshkosh. In 1853 Oshkosh
incorporated as a city with a population of 2,800.
  In the prosperous 1850s, Wolf River timber came into demand for con-
struction in growing cities and on developing farms in the Midwest. While
by
1855 the Fox-Wisconsin improvement made possible shipments of sawed
lumber to Green Bay, because of the relatively light regular traffic into
that
port, the waterway had its limitations as a route to market. For a time in
the
late 1840s and 1850s, steamboats running to and from Oshkosh, Fond du
Lac, and Green Bay, up the Wolf to New London, and up the Fox to Berlin
carried hundreds of passengers, towed log rafts, and along with a small fleet
of 2-masted schooners, enhanced the development of the Lake Winnebago
area. The Rock River became an outlet for Oshkosh sawed lumber. The real


Wisconsin and Early History of the Northwest (1880).