EXPLORING WISCONSIN'S WATERWAYS: THE Fox- WISCONSIN


ing 250 sixteen-candle power lamps, each equivalent to 50 watts. The genera-
tor operated at 110 volts and was driven through gears and belts by a water-
wheel operating under a ten-foot fall of water."
Appleton Lock No. 1, 1/4 mile West of Oneida Street at South River Street
   Built of stone in 1884, this lock rests on a rock foundation and is operated
with wooden gates. It is one of a series of 19 built for the Fox-Wisconsin
waterway, 4 of which were at Appleton. This is a good place to see one of
the
government locks at close range.
Atlas Mill, 425 West Water Street
   Still owned by Kimberly-Clark, the company responsible for its construc-
tion, the old cream brick Atlas Mill building is one of the few remaining
older
industrial structures associated with Appleton's paper industry in the late
19th century. Built in 1878, probably on the site of an old flour mill, the
structure stands close to the location of the first paper mill built in the
Fox
Valley in 1853 and close to the site of the first Edison hydroelectric generator
built in 1882. The Atlas Mill has special importance in the history of
papermaking in the Fox Valley for here a number of significant technological
innovations were first tested, among them the sulfite process of making paper.
7. Butte des Morts and the Fox Indians
  Traveling south on US Highway 41 from Appleton as you approach Nee-
nah-Menasha you cross a body of water where in the warm months you see a
host of pleasure craft and fishing parties. You also cross it on the state
High-
way 441 bridge leading into Menasha. It is Little Lake Butte des Morts, a
widening in the Fox River, named by the French for reasons noted below. A
look at the road map reveals another much larger body of water west of
Oshkosh marked Lake Butte des Morts, and a small village, Butte des Morts,
on the north shore of the lake. All of these are closely associated with
the
efforts of New France to retain a grip on the fur trade of the mid-continent
using the Fox-Wisconsin route to the Mississippi as an avenue of travel and
trade.
  The French have often been represented as the Western European power
which did the best job of cultivating positive relations with the Indian
peoples
so essential to their success in exploration and fur trading. In reality,
their
success was mixed and showed some of the worst, as well as the best, in cul-
tural relationships. Between 1701 and 1738, vicious warfare raged between
the French and the Fox Indians who then occupied the Fox River Valley.
Never especially friendly with the French, they used their strategic location
astride the river to block French canoe traffic.
  The French, once freed from the strains of the War of the Spanish Succes-
sion, moved against Fox interference in 1716 with a punitive expedition of
800 soldiers equipped with mortars and ammunition. Sweeping up the Fox
River from Green Bay, the invading army made its way to the south shore of
Big Lake Butte des Morts where the Fox maintained a fortified village.
Under French cannon fire and a threat to mine the stout oak stockade, the
Fox sued for peace. The French victors built Fort St. Antoine at Green Bay
the next year. This did not end the conflict for the Fox gathered allies
and


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