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navigation but that it is imperative at this time because of the city's part in a $30,000,000 boat construction program and for shipment of canned milk and other food products. În addition the mayor stated that a turning basin, if located southeasterly of the existing bridges, would reduce the hazard of vessels striking the bridges. The Sturgeon Bay Harbor Commission claimed that if a turning basin is provided, freighters on Lake Michigan could use Sturgeon Bay as a harbor of refuge.

5. The district engineer finds that a turning basin, substantially in accord with desires of local interests, located about 600 feet southeast of the Lawrence Avenue bridge, may be provided by dredging an area along the southwest side of the channel in the vicinity of Bushman dock to a depth of 20 feet. This area is designated as area A on map accompanying his report. He estimates that the improvement will cost $11,500 with $600 for annual maintenance, including aids to navigation. Annual benefits are estimated at $1,200 and costs at $1,100. He recommends that the existing project for Sturgeon Bay and Lake Michigan Ship Canal, Wis., be modified to provide for a turning basin 20 feet deep located on the southwesterly side of the existing channel, southeasterly of the existing highway bridge, and between the city and the Bushman Docks, about as indicated as area A on the accompanying map, at an estimated initial cost of $11,000, with maintenance estimated at $500 annually, provided that, if required, local interests shall furnish without cost to the United States suitable areas on shore for hydraulic disposal of the material from the initial dredging of the basin. The division engineer concurs.

6. Local interests were advised of the partially adverse conclusions of the division engineer in reference to the extent and depth of the turning basin and were invited to submit additional data to the Board. Careful consideration has been given to the communications received.

VIEWS AND RECOMMENDATIONS OF THE BOARD OF ENGINEERS FOR RIVERS AND HARBORS

7. The Board concurs with the reporting officers that the construction of a turning basin is justified by the benefits which will accrue from the improvement. It recommends that the existing project for the Sturgeon Bay and Lake Michigan Ship Canal, Wis., be modified to provide for a turning basin 20 feet deep located on the southwesterly side of the existing channel, southeasterly of the existing highway bridge, and between the city and the Bushman Docks, about as indicated as area A on the accompanying map, at an estimated initial cost of $11,500 including $500 for aids to navigation, with maintenance estimated at $600 annually, including $100 for maintenance of aids, provided local interests furnish, free of cost to the United States, suitable spoil-disposal areas for new work and for subsequent maintenance as required.

For the Board:

JOHN J. KINGMAN, Brigadier General, United States Army, Senior Member.

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REVIEW REPORT ON STURGEON BAY AND LAKE MICHIGAN SHIP
CANAL, WIS.

SYLLABUS

The district engineer recommends modification of the existing project to provide for a turning basin at an estimated first cost of $11,000, with $500 for annual maintenance, provided that, if required, local interests shall furnish without cost to the United States suitable areas on shore for hydraulic disposal of the material from the initial dredging of the basin. He finds that there is no need or economic justification for dredging both areas requested by local interests in order to provide a suitable turning basin.

WAR DEPARTMENT,

UNITED STATES ENGINEER OFFICE,
Milwaukee, Wis., January 23, 1943.

Subject: Review report on Sturgeon Bay and Lake Michigan Ship
Canal, Wis.

To: The Division Engineer, Great Lakes Division, Chicago, Ill.

AUTHORITY

1. This review report on survey is submitted in compliance with the following resolution adopted November 5, 1941:

Resolved by the Committee on Rivers and Harbors of the House of Representatives, United States, That the Board of Engineers for Rivers and Harbors created under section 3 of the River and Harbor Act, approved June 13, 1902, be, and is hereby, requested to review the reports on Sturgeon Bay and Lake Michigan Ship Canal, Wisconsin, submitted in River and Harbor Committee Document Numbered 9, Seventy-fourth Congress, first session, with a view to determining if it is advisable to modify the existing project in any way at this time.

NATURE OF REPORTS BEING REVIEWED

2. River and Harbor Committee Document No. 9, Seventy-fourth Congress, first session, is a review report dated November 2, 1934, submitted in compliance with a River and Harbor Committee resolution, adopted May 10, 1934, requiring a review of "the reports heretofore submitted on Sturgeon Bay and Lake Michigan Ship Canal, Wis., with a view to determining if further improvement is advisable at the present time." The report was favorable to modification of the then existing project by providing a depth of 22 feet from that depth in Sturgeon Bay to a point 800 feet inside of the easterly entrance of the revetted canal, thence 23 feet in rock cut in the remainder of the canal and through the harbor to that depth in Lake Michigan, the width of the channel to be 600 feet in Lake Michigan, reducing to 200 feet through the harbor and 130 to 220 feet through the revetted canal, thence 250 feet through Sturgeon Bay to a point 5,500 feet northwest of the railroad bridge in the city of Sturgeon Bay, and thence 500 feet to the vicinity of Sherwood Point, all at an estimated cost of $1,375,000. The report was also favorable to eliminating from the then existing project the turning basin immediately west of the revetted canal. These recommendations were adopted by Congress in the River and Harbor Act of August 30, 1935. The further improvement of the project now desired is within the scope of Document No. 9.

DESCRIPTION

3. Sturgeon Bay and Lake Michigan Ship Canal is an artificial waterway, without locks, connecting Lake Michigan with the head of Sturgeon Bay, an estuary of Green Bay. A dredged channel extends

through Sturgeon Bay from the canal to deep water in the bay, thus providing a waterway from the waters of Lake Michigan to the waters of Green Bay. The average controlling depths are 23 feet from Lake Michigan to about 800 feet west of the cast entrance to the revetted canal and 22 feet through the remainder of the revetted canal and through Sturgeon Bay to the vicinity of Sherwood Point. The easterly entrance of the canal is located on the west shore of Lake Michigan, 128 miles northerly from Milwaukee, Wis., and about 119 miles northwesterly from Muskegon, Mich. The general location of the canal and its relation to ports on Lake Michigan and Green Bay is shown on Lake Survey Charts Nos. 7, 703, and 728, and on the map accompany this report.

4. The principal purpose of the waterway is to shorten the distance between ports on Green Bay and those on Lake Michigan. The natural passage between Green Bay and Lake Michigan is through Porte des Morts passage, about 40 miles northerly from the canal, at the northerly end of the peninsula separating Green Bay from Lake Michigan. This passage is a dangerous one because of the numerous detached reefs and shoals which obstruct navigation and the strong currents setting in or out according to the direction of the wind and barometric effects. The sailing distance between southern Green Bay and practically all Lake Michigan ports is from 60 to 90 miles shorter each way via the canal than by way of Porte des Morts passage. The canal is used almost exclusively by the car ferries running between Menominee and Frankfort, Mich.

5. Depths are referred to low-water datum for Lake Michigan which is 578.5 feet above mean tide at New York. Since the year 1900 fluctuations of water level as measured by monthly means have ranged from about 1 foot below to about 4 feet above datum. Seasonal fluctuations amount to about one-half foot above or below the annual mean stage, while temporary changes due to wind and barometric. influences amount to as much as 2 feet above and below the mean lake level prevailing at the time.

TRIBUTARY AREA

6. The city of Sturgeon Bay has a population of 5,439 (1940 census). It is located on both shores of Sturgeon Bay, about 5 miles northwesterly from the Lake Michigan harbor entrance to the canal. The city is the county seat of Door County, which has an area of 469 square miles and a population of 19,095. The banking facilities of the city consist of 1 bank with capital stock of $100,000 and total assets of $2,865,000. The principal industries in the city are shipbuilding, the quarrying and crushing of limestone, canning and packing cherries, and canning condensed milk.

7. The trading area tributary to Sturgeon Bay consists of practically all of Door County, which is a well-developed agricultural region devoted principally to dairying and the growing of fruit, the county being noted for its extensive cherry orchards. The county is also popular as a summer-resort region. The value of livestock in Door County in 1930 was about $3,053,000; dairy products $2,166,000; and crops $2,982,000. The value of manufactures in the county in 1935 was about $3,275,000. Nearby villages and their populations are Jacksonport, 124; Ephraim, 254; Egg Harbor, 150; Brussels, 150; Maplewood, 124; and Forrestville, 300.

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8. The city of Sturgeon Bay is the northern terminus of the Ahnapee & Western Railway, extending from Green Bay. The surrounding territory is well served by improved Federal and State highways connecting the city with all principal communities in the tributary area as well as the larger centers of population. Motorbus and truck service is available to all principal surrounding points.

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BRIDGES

9. The following table shows the location, dimensions, and other pertinent data for the two bridges involved. Both bridges were built under War Department approval.

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Miles

from Lake

Michigan Nearest street

entrance

to canal

Location

Lawrence Ave. Bas

cule.

St. John...... Swing.

Document and
number

House, 117..

I Looking westward toward Green Bay.

House, 1382.

Type

Congress

56th.

62d.

Clear width normal
to channel

River and Harbor 74th.
Committee, 9

Left

77

2d.

Cen-
ter

PRIOR REPORTS

10. A total of eight reports have been submitted on the Sturgeon Bay and Lake Michigan Ship Canal. The reports made since 1887 are as follows:

Session

3d

139.4

1st

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Preliminary examination and survey
reports favorable to deepening the en-
tire channel to 19 feet below datum,
with entrance width in Lake Mich-
igan to be 600 feet, varying from 297-
foot width at the harbor entrance to
130 feet at the head of the canal. This
latter width to be maintained through
the canal to a point 6,200 feet from its
easterly end, from which point a 200-
foot width to be dredged throughout
the remainder (1,000 feet) of the canal
and in Sturgeon Bay, with suitable
widening at the bends, to a natural
depth of 19 feet in Sturgeon Bay, all
at an estimated cost of $218,000. The
recommended improvement was au-
thorized by the River and Harbor
Act of June 13, 1902.
Preliminary examination and survey
reports favorable to providing a
turning basin at or near the west end
of the canal with a width of 500 feet,
length of 600 feet along the channel,
and a depth of 19 feet. The recom-
mended improvement was author-
ized by the River and Harbor Act of
Mar. 2, 1919.
Favorable review report. The nature
and content of this report are given
under the heading "Nature of reports
being reviewed" in par. 2 hereof.

PROJECTS

11. Original project. The canal was originally constructed during the years 1872-81 by the Sturgeon Bay and Lake Michigan Ship Canal & Harbor Co., a corporation organized for that purpose under the laws of the State of Wisconsin. The canal when completed was 7,200 feet long, 100 feet wide at the water surface, and 11 feet deep. The 4,200 feet adjacent to Lake Michigan had been revetted on both sides and the remaining 3,000 feet adjacent to Sturgeon Bay were unprotected. A channel of the same width and depth as the canal had been dredged in Sturgeon Bay for a distance of 6,100 feet from the westerly end of the canal and a few hundred feet of timber shore protection work had been built at the Lake Michigan entrance to the canal. The total cost of construction of the canal, as reported to Congress in 1882 by a board of engineers, was determined to be $342,762.99.

12. The original Government project, adopted in 1873, was confined to the construction of a so-called harbor of refuge at the Lake Michigan entrance to the canal, thus relieving the State of Wisconsin from the responsibility of constructing the entrance piers. That project, as modified in 1880, provided for two converging piers 850 feet apart at the shore line, each about 1,200 feet in length and 250 feet apart at the outer end, with detached extensions each 150 feet long to provide an entrance width of 335 feet, and dredging to obtain a depth of 12 feet in the entrance channel. The original Government project for improvement of the canal, adopted in 1894 and modified in 1896, provided for building 6,000 linear feet of revetment with a width of 160 feet between revetments, the 1,000 linear feet of canal at the westerly end to have a width of 250 feet between revetments; and for a channel 12 feet deep from the westerly end of the canal to deep water in Sturgeon Bay. The original project, as modified, was completed in 1903.

13. Existing project. The existing project provides for an outer harbor or stilling basin protected by two converging breakwaters, each 1,344 feet in length, extending from the shore on either side of the easterly or Lake Michigan end of the canal; for a revetted canal 7,200 feet in length, varying in width from 160 to 250 feet; for a channel 23 feet deep in rock cut, extending from that depth in Lake Michigan to about 800 feet west of the east entrance of the revetted canal, a length of about 0.6 mile; thence a channel 22 feet deep through an additional 6,400 feet of revetted canal and through Sturgeon Bay to the vicinity of Sherwood Point, a length of about 8 miles, the total length of channel being about 8.6 miles; the width of channel being 600 feet in Lake Michigan, reducing to 200 feet through the harbor and 130 to 220 feet through the revetted canal, thence 250 feet through Sturgeon Bay to a point 5,400 feet northwest of the railroad bridge in the city of Sturgeon Bay and thence 500 feet to the vicinity of Sherwood Point, and that the turning basin immediately west of the revetted canal be eliminated from the project.

14. The existing project was completed in 1942. The breakwaters at the harbor entrance were completed in 1880; the canal revetments in 1903; dredging and rock removal at the easterly entrance to the canal and dredging the channel in the westerly section of the channel through Sturgeon Bay in 1940; and deepening and widening the

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