Property Record
END OF W MULLETT ST
Architecture and History Inventory
| Historic Name: | Portage Lock |
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| Other Name: | Portage Lock (DNR) |
| Contributing: | Yes |
| Reference Number: | 56002 |
| Location (Address): | END OF W MULLETT ST |
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| County: | Columbia |
| City: | Portage |
| Township/Village: | |
| Unincorporated Community: | |
| Town: | |
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| Year Built: | 1927 |
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| Additions: | |
| Survey Date: | 1992 |
| Historic Use: | lock |
| Architectural Style: | NA (unknown or not a building) |
| Structural System: | Unknown |
| Wall Material: | Concrete |
| Architect: | |
| Other Buildings On Site: | |
| Demolished?: | No |
| Demolished Date: |
| National/State Register Listing Name: | Not listed |
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| National Register Listing Date: | |
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| Additional Information: | The current Portage Lock structure was built by the federal government in 1927-28 as a concrete lock, the only all concrete lock on the Upper Fox system. Cost for the work was put at $179,605. The lift at mean stage for the new 35 foot wide lock was 2.3 feet. Although the current Portage Lock itself is concrete, walls adjacent to the structure along the canal are made in part of stone and cut stone. These walls apparently are remnants of pre-1927-28 lock construction at the site. Metal gates at both ends of the lock are in a closed position. The lock chamber is partially filled with sand, and there appears to be some water leakage through the lock gates. The canal on both sides of the lock is partially filled with sand, vegetation and debris. The Portage Lock is fenced off but can be viewed from a small adjacent park like area at the end of W. Mullett Street. The Portage Lock was the ninth lock upstream from Oshkosh on the Upper Fox system. According to a 1917 Annual Report of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the original lock here was built in 1851 when the Fox-Wisconsin Improvement Project was directed by the State of Wisconsin. It was located in the center of Portage at the south end of the Portage Canal near the canal's confluence with the Wisconsin River. The original Portage Lock (sometimes called the Wisconsin River Lock) was not a lift lock but a wooden guard lock, built in part to help prevent sand in the Wisconsin River from entering the canal. It was the only guard lock ever built on the Upper Fox system and in time measured 160 feet long and 35 feet wide. The Portage Lock was rebuilt b the federal government in 1892-93, apparently as a lift lock at a slightly different location. The walls of the new structure were dry stone masonry that, if not originally, in time were faced with wood planking. Cost of the new lock was $2;3,161. It was renovated in 1901-02; the lock measured 165-by-35 feet and provided a lift of 1.97 feet. Following abandonment of the Upper Fox system locks in July 1951, the Portage Lock was one of three upper locks subsequently not filled in or converted to a water control structure. The lock was left in place, although certain hardware was removed and banks adjacent to the lock re-sloped. The new structure's concrete walls and upper and lower metal gates were left in place. No available evidence suggests that a lock tender's house was ever built for the Portage Lock. A service building was extant as of the early 1950s; a warehouse was cited in 1902 records. The Portage Lock was one of nine locks constructed on the Upper Fox River/Portage Canal between Oshkosh and Portage for the Fox-Wisconsin Improvement Proj3ect. The project was advanced by private interests from 1829 to 1848 and 1853 to 1872, by the State of Wisconsin from 1848 to 1853, and by the federal government from 1872. The Wisconsin River part of the project was officially abandoned after the 1886 navigational season, and the Upper Fox section was turned over to the state in 1962. |
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| Bibliographic References: | A. Corps of Engineers, Annual Report for Fox-Wisconsin Project, 1873, 1876, 1877, 1880, 1884, 1901, 1902, 1917, 1926, 1927, 1928, 1952, 1961. B. Document Package Entitled "Transfer of Upper Fox River to State of Wisconsin," containing map, letters, reports, etc., from Corps of Engineers, 1958-1959. C. Corps of Engineers, map entitled Lake Winnebago, Upper Fox and Wolf Rivers, Wisconsin, 1916-1921; revised 1928, 1933, 1949. D. Samuel Mermin, The Fox-Wisconsin Rivers Improvement, pp. 1-100, 135, 162 passim. E. Richard N. Current, The History of Wisconsin, 2:19-21. F. Robert C. Newbit, The History of Wisconsin, 3:88, 136-137. G. State Planning Division of Wisconsin, "The Upper Fox River," report to Gov.Kohler, July 14, 1952. H. Corps of Engineers, report entitled "Upper Fox River, Wisconsin," with cover letter dated March 26, 1951. Historic Portage, WI: Downtown & Waterfront Walking Tour, 1995. |
| Wisconsin Architecture and History Inventory, State Historic Preservation Office, Wisconsin Historical Society, Madison, Wisconsin |