The
Day They Blew Up the Bog
a
video and song about a local environmental disaster...
An
environmental disaster occurred in northeastern Wisconsin
in the Lake Winnebago river and its "pool lake"
system of Lakes Poygan, Winneconne and Butte des Morts.
In
the late 1800s, dams in the Fox River at Neenah-Menasha
were built higher to provide more hydropower. Water levels
behind the dams rose more than two feet. Higher water
levels uprooted many square miles of marsh (or "bog")
plants in the pool lakes, greatly reducing fish and wildlife
habitat.
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photos of this event can be obtained from the Oshkosh Public Museum
Large
mats of the plants floated downriver like rafts. In Oshkosh
where the river narrowed, the mats clogged the river in 1906.
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photos of the blocked river in downtown Oshkosh can be obtained from the Oshkosh Public Museum
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The
river channel looked like a soggy meadow. Boats could not
get through, so Oshkosh residents dynamited the mats.
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| A
folk-music song about the incident is in the video along with
an interview with a Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources
biologist, helicopter-video of the region, and historic photos
from the Oshkosh Public Museum collection. |
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Produced
in 1999 by the;
Fox/Wolf Rivers
Environmental History Project
Green Bay, WI
www.wisconsinwaterhistory.org
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