Menasha Lock

Menasha Lock. Builders and Owners of the Fox River Locks. , Size: 144’ x 35’ , Lift: 9.7’ , Construction: Concrete walls and steel gates , Built 1852. Rehabilitated 1937. Rebuilt 1978-1979. , Filling Time: About 4 min. Emptying Time: About 4 min. , Since its completion in 1856, the Fox River navigation system has had four different owners. The system was built by the Fox and Wisconsin Improvement Company, but that company went bankrupt in 1866. It later reformed as the Green Bay and Mississippi Canal Company, which sold the locks to the United States Government in 1872. , The federal government put the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in charge of the locks. The Corps surveyed the river’s condition and began repairing or rebuilding the locks. By 1910 workers had rebuilt or repaired most of the locks on the Lower Fox River. The Corps continued maintaining the locks and dredged the canals to keep navigation on the river safe., Commercial traffic on the Lower Fox River ended by the late 1950s. Recreational traffic increased for some years, but maintaining the locks for this purpose was not a priority for the federal government. After the 1987 season, the Corps closed all but three of the Lower Fox locks. The Menasha lock remained open through the 1980s and 90s. As the gateway to Lake Winnebago, it is heavily used by recreational boaters. , Many people advocated for reopening all the locks. They valued the historical importance of the entire Fox River lock system and believed it could again generate economic activity in the area. In September 2004 the State of Wisconsin assumed ownership and created the Fox River Navigational System Authority. Work began in 2006 to bring all seventeen locks back into service once again. , Settlers completed a lock at Neenah before the Menasha lock was finished. However, the route through Menasha was the “official” state channel, and the Neenah lock fell into disrepair and was abandoned by 1866.