Harbor Sites
First Lighthouse
"The seven lights which hung from the lantern house were not all that was lit nightly." |
Milwaukee River
From April to November the downtown riverfront was a thicket of masts. |
Confluence
The congested heart of Milwaukee's inner harbor was at a place called "the confluence." |
Straight Cut
On a dark night in 1842, Mayor Kilbourn sent a work crew to dig a new channel out to the lake. |
Jones Island and Kinnickinnik Basin
"Jones Island was to me the most picturesque spot in the city. It included docks and warehouses, where trout and whitefish were dressed and shipped, but the settlement was the real attraction." |
Pierhead Light
The pierhead light stood 1500 feet from shore before the lakefront was filled. |
Breakwater Lighthouse
"I have stood off the light for as long as two hours, waiting for the seas to subside enough to make a run for the corner. Scary!" |
North Point Lighthouse
The original cast-iron tower was set atop a new steel base in 1912, to raise the light above the treetops. |
Menomonee Valley
"The Menomonee Valley offered hundreds of acres of land, six miles of dock frontage, and superlative rail service - everything, in short, an industrialist could desire." |
Flushing Station
Why not, they wondered, dig a tunnel under the East Side and pump fresh lake water into the putrid river, giving it enough force to cleanse its lower reaches? Why not flush? |
North Avenue Dam
Will lake sturgeon ever again spawn in the Milwaukee River? |