Encyclopedia Dubuque
"Encyclopedia Dubuque is the online authority for all things Dubuque, written by the people who know the city best.”
Marshall Cohen—researcher and producer, CNN
Affiliated with the Local History Network of the State Historical Society of Iowa, and the Iowa Museum Association.
SLACKWATER NAVIGATION COMPANY
SLACKWATER NAVIGATION COMPANY. Disgusted with the construction of STREETS that held rather than encouraged runoff and a street drainage system that was not working, the writers of the Dubuque Daily Herald "uncovered" a unique story in July 1891.
Apparently the mayor and council were involved in a syndicate whose purpose was to build sawmills on Main Street intersections. Rafts of lumber would be landed at EAGLE POINT and then transported to Main Street on tramways. Floated down Main, the rafts would eventually come to the mills. When rain did not provide enough water, the hydrants could be opened. The paper stated that the "street commissioner has already done an excellent job of stopping water at a very small expense." The money usually spent on streets, according to the newspaper, would go to improvements in suburban additions platted by private parties, a precedent which had been established.
The cynical piece of fiction looked forward to the "transformation of Dubuque into Venice."
---
Source:
"Sawmills on Main Street," Dubuque Daily Herald, July 3, 1891, p. 4. Online: https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=_OG5zn83XeQC&dat=18910703&printsec=frontpage&hl=en