out its length, and of the upper end of Sandusky Bay; the location of all obstructions, all needed information as to the character and composition of the bottom and banks of the river, and the volume of its low-water discharge. The work could best be done by the officers and crew of the United States survey boat belonging to the district. It is estimated that a proper survey will cost, including the preparation of the maps, the sum of $1,500, and the time required to make it will be about two months. The work would necessarily be somewhat interfered with by other operations in the district. I do not, however, think it advisable to again take the survey boat through the mud bar at the upper end of the bay until something is done to afford a better channel for it. In coming out of the river a mass of fence wire was picked up by the screw and twisted around the shaft in such a way as to partially disable the boat until it could be gotten at and removed. The U. S. dredge Maumee will be taken in a few weeks to Huron to remove a portion of the old west pier. While on its way it could stop at Sandusky and make a shallow cut through the bar at the head of the bay, simply casting the material to one side so as to permit the survey boat to pass in and out with safety. The time required for this would probably not exceed one or two days. In case the survey is authorized and the allotment made I would recommend that I be authorized to do this small amount of dredging as a necessary incident of the survey. Very respectfully, your obedient servant, DAN C. KINGMAN, Major, Corps of Engineers. Brig. Gen. G. L. GILLESPIE, Chief of Engineers, U. S. A. (Through the Division Engineer.) [First indorsement.] OFFICE DIVISION ENGINEER, NORTHWEST DIVISION, Chicago, Ill., April 28, 1903. Respectfully forwarded to the Chief of Engineers, recommended for approval. O. H. ERNST, Colonel, Corps of Engineers, Division Engineer, Northwest Division. [Second indorsement.] OFFICE CHIEF OF ENGINEERS, U. S. ARMY, May 1, 1903. Respectfully referred to the Board of Engineers for Rivers and Harbors constituted by Special Orders, No. 24, Headquarters, Corps of Engineers, series of 1902, for consideration and recommendation. A. MACKENZIE, Acting Chief of Engineers. [Third indorsement.] BOARD OF ENGINEERS FOR RIVERS AND HARBORS, Washington, D. C., June 12, 1903. Respectfully returned to the Chief of Engineers, United States Army. The Board of Engineers for Rivers and Harbors has given careful consideration to the within report upon a preliminary examination of "Sandusky River from its mouth to Fremont," Ohio, the indorsement of the division engineer, and all other data available. On June 10, 1903, a committee of the Board held a public hearing at Fremont, at which interested parties appeared and advocated the improvement. The Sandusky River flows into Sandusky Bay about 144 miles, by the channel of the bay, from Lake Erie. Fremont, Ohio, distant 18 miles from the mouth of the river, had in 1900 a population of 8,439. When lake harbors were considerably shoaler than now, and before the construction of many of the railways now traversing northwestern Ohio, Fremont was the natural market town for a rich and important agricultural country. Grain was shipped thence to Buffalo by water, and general merchandise was brought back for the use of the neighboring population. At the time of a survey made in 1880 the condition of the waterway was as follows: In the river proper were ample depths for a 9-foot navigation except for about five bars, covering an aggregate channel length of about one-half mile, upon which the depths varied between 5 and 9 feet. In the bay immediately beyond the river mouth was a bar about 14 miles long between 9-foot contours, with depth upon its crest of 7 feet. Study of surveys and examinations made since that date shows that the waterway is to-day much as it was in 1880. While the depths on the bars within the river may be slightly greater, the bar at the mouth is probably somewhat shoaler. It is reported that prior to 1866 about $17,000 was expended upon the waterway by citizens of Fremont and the county of Sandusky. Since that date appropriations have been made as follows: Projects under which work has been prosecuted have been as follows: 1867 to 1880.-To secure a channel from 100 to 200 feet wide and 12 feet deep, at an estimated cost of $68,000. 1880 to date. To secure a channel 100 feet wide and 94 feet deep, at an estimated cost of $44,000. The work heretofore done has been confined to dredging, as temporary results of which it may be stated that in 1869 a channel depth of 8 feet was secured. In 1872 the depth was somewhat greater than 8 feet. In 1880, no appropriation having been made for a period of eight years, conditions were as described in paragraph 5. As a result of the expenditure of $21,500, appropriated in 1880, 1881, and 1882, there ENG 1904203 was obtained a channel depth of 9 feet throughout. Expenditure of $6,500, appropriated in 1890 and 1892, again produced a 9-foot channel. Since 1892 there has been no appropriation, and the tendency has been to avoid a resumption of the conditions reported in 1880 (see par. 5). Commercial statistics for recent years are not always definite, but the volume of traffic may be gathered from the following quotations from Reports of the Chief of Engineers for the years noted: [1880.] The amount of revenue collected at Fremont during the eleven months from July 1, 1879, to May 31, 1880, was $27. The imports were as follows: 1,763,000 feet, board measure, pine timber; 900,000 shingles, 200,000 laths, 6,650 barrels of salt. The exports were as follows: 655,000 feet, board measure, of oak timber; 1,200 bushels of oats. Twenty vessels, with an aggregate tonnage of 2,268 tons, entered and cleared during the eleven months. [1883.] Eleven vessels, with an aggregate tonnage of 2,421 tons, entered, and 9 vessels, with an aggregate tonnage of 1,853 tons, cleared during the eleven months ending May 31, 1883. [1884.] The collector of the port of Sandusky, Ohio, in whose collection district is the port of Fremont, reports that during the eleven months ending May 31, 1884, the business of the port of Fremont was so small that he does not think it worth while to report it. [1885.] The collector of the port of Sandusky, Ohio, in whose collection district is the port of Fremont, reports that during the eleven months ending May 31, 1885, the business at the port of Fremont was so very small that it is not worth considering. [1894.] There is really no commerce on the river in any broad sense of the word. A small amount of lumber is taken up the river from Sandusky for local consumption, and a few picnic and other excursions are made in small steamers at irregular intervals in the summer. [1895.] The channels would doubtless remain longer were there frequent passing steamers to keep the bottom stirred up; the traffic is, however, so small as to be hardly worth a mention. * * * There is really no commerce on the river, and the passage of a boat with freight or passengers is so infrequent that the cost of maintaining a channel of 9 or 10 feet depth would be more than the total receipts for freight and passengers. It is thus seen that during two periods in the past twenty years there was practically no commerce developed by the existence of a 9-foot channel. The cost of obtaining a channel greater in depth than 9 feet would be so large, on account of the shoal water through Sandusky Bay, as to be unworthy of consideration. In considering the question as to whether a 9 or 9 foot channel to-day would serve a larger commerce than formerly, some study has been given to the industrial and commercial situation at Fremont. In 1880 (Annual Report, Chief of Engineers, 1881, p. 2301) it was stated that: The city of Fremont is the present terminus of the Lake Erie and Western Rail road, and is a town of about 9,000 inhabitants. It has two elevators, with a capacity of 200,000 bushels, four flouring mills, six sawmills, one woolen factory, large manufactories of reapers and mowers, steam engines, wagons, and carriages, four lumber yards, three planing mills, etc. To-day the conditions of a water-borne commerce do not seem to have improved materially. There would perhaps be greater receipts of lumber. There might be shipments of brick. A beet-sugar factory recently established at Fremont might make a somewhat greater use of a 9-foot channel than it now proposes to make of the existing 6 or 7 foot channel. But there would probably be no revival of the shipments of lumber or grain from the port or of the receipt by water of general merchandise. The existing 6 or 7 foot channel now connects Fremont with the deep harbor of Sandusky, which is distant but 23 miles by rail. The effect of this potential water route upon freight rates is probably as great as would be the effect of a 9-foot channel. As bearing upon the difficulty of maintaining the channel under consideration at a greater than the natural depth, the following quotations are introduced from Annual Reports of the Chief of Engineers: [1880.] The bar off Eagle Island, being formed from the river deposits, will continue to form from time to time unless the river is prolonged by dikes out to deep water in the bay; this will require at least 11⁄2 miles of dike on each side of the channel, at an expense of about $180,000, and I do not think that the commerce of Fremont will justify so great an expenditure at this time. [1895.] To make a good navigable channel from the bay to Sandusky would now require as much labor as it would have done before any appropriation had been expended, and to render any such channel reasonably permanent would require some works of construction to change the existing conditions. The cost of such works would far outweigh any possible benefits. For the reasons given above, it is the opinion of the Board that it is not advisable for the United States to undertake the further improvement of "Sandusky River from its mouth to Fremont." For the Board: CHAS. J. ALLEN, Lieut. Col.. Corps of Engineers, PP 16. PRELIMINARY EXAMINATION OF VERMILION HARBOR, OHIO. [Printed in House Doc. No. 252, Fifty-eighth Congress, second session.] WAR DEPARTMENT, OFFICE OF THE CHIEF OF ENGINEERS, Washington, December 4, 1903. SIR: I have the honor to submit herewith report dated September 17, 1902, and supplemental report thereto, dated August 26, 1903, by Maj. Dan C. Kingman, Corps of Engineers, on preliminary examination of Vermilion Harbor, Ohio, ordered by the river and harbor act of June 13, 1902. This harbor has heretofore been improved by the United States by the construction of parallel jetties extending into the lake, and by dredging, with a view to providing a depth of 14 feet from the wharves in the city to deep water in the lake. The jetties were completed, but the full width of channel with a depth of 14 feet was never secured. The funds appropriated in recent years for this locality have not been sufficient for the maintenance of the jetties, the superstructures of which have decayed and are now in a ruinous condition and not effective in keeping the sand out of the channel, which is now so obstructed that the larger class of boats which formerly frequented this harbor can no longer use it. Major Kingman presents a project for restoring the jetties at an estimated cost of $38,500, and for restoring the channel by dredging at a cost of $2,400, a total, including contingencies, of $45,000 in round numbers, and states that in his opinion the harbor is worthy of improvement to this extent. Under the provisions of sections 3 and 14 of the above-mentioned act these reports have been reviewed by the Board of Engineers for Rivers and Harbors, and in its report of September 16, 1903, the Board expresses the opinion that it is not desirable for the United States at the present time to do any further work in improvement of the entrance channel at Vermilion, but that it is desirable permanently to repair the piers, as proposed by the district officer, at a cost of $42,350. I concur in the views of the Board. G. L. GILLESPIE, Brig. Gen., Chief of Engineers, U. S. Army. Hon. ELIHU ROOT, REPORT OF MAJ. DAN C. KINGMAN, CORPS OF ENGINEERS. ENGINEER OFFICE, UNITED STATES ARMY, GENERAL: In compliance with instructions contained in the letter of the Chief of Engineers, dated June 23, 1902, I have the honor to submit the following report of a preliminary examination made by me of the harbor of Vermilion, Ohio: The act of Congress approved June 13, 1902, directed a preliminary examination or survey to be made of Vermilion Harbor, Ohio. By taking advantage of a trip of the inspection boat belonging to this district, I visited Vermilion Harbor and made the required preliminary examination without cost to the United States. This harbor was first improved in 1836 under a project which provided for the construction of parallel jetties extending outward to the 10-foot curve in the lake. The project was subsequently amended so as to provide for obtaining a 12-foot depth by dredging, and in 1880 the proposed depth was increased to 14 feet, which depth was to be provided from the wharves in the city to deep water in the lake. This last project was never fully carried out. Between 1836 and 1878 there was appropriated and expended the sum of $113,701.28. Since then, in the past twenty-three years, only $19,576.27 have been available for the improvement, and of this sum $400 was a recent allotment not yet expended. The jetties were built |