Navigation on Maquoketa River-1849

SEARS

Posted By: Anne Hermann (email)
Date: 4/27/2008 at 12:38:08

Western Democrat, Andrew, Iowa
December 7, 1849

Navigation of the Maquoketa

Mr. David Sears, the enterprising proprietor of the Lowell Mills, at the new town of Lowell, at the forks of the Maquoketa river, is making preparations to test the feasibility of navigating that stream. He informed us the other day that he had nearly finished a flat boat capable of carrying 250 bbls. of flour, and will make the trial early in the Spring. This enterprise is highly commendable, and we hope that success may crown the adventure.

Mr. Sears, as well as others with whom we have conversed, entertains very sanguine expectations. Some doubt the practicability of the enterprise, owing to the rapidity of the current and the shifting nature of the bottom. But it has never been thoroughly tested, and for every enterprise we hope a happy termination until the result is shown to be otherwise. Should it be ascertained that the Maquoketa is navigable even for flat boats, the villages of Maquoketa, Lowell and Bridgeport will receive an impetus that in a few years will place them along side of older towns.

We shall wait anxiously to hear the result of this experiment.