Save the Oak Creek Dam and Mill Pond

Public Forum:

Long before South Milwaukee came into existence and Oak Creek was a 36-mile square of trees and streams in southeastern Milwaukee County, settlers drove their oxen and wagons north from Chicago along the western shore of Lake Michigan, settling in a pristine area covered with oak trees and a flowing stream now known as Oak Creek. They built homes, farms and businesses. Water power was supreme in those heady days of the 1830s and any site that proved suitable for a dam and mill was highly desirable. John Fowle located such a site on the stream, which meanders through what are now the cities of South Milwaukee and Oak Creek.

Although fisherman today regularly gather where the mill once stood at the base of the Mill Dam, it is easy to visualize the spillway, the water wheel and the subsequent Leffel turbine which generated power for Fowle's grain-milling operation.

South Milwaukee became a city some 50 years subsequent to this commercial activity. Settlers and residents over the generations have viewed the land around the Oak Creek stream, the Mill Dam and the Mill Pond as a place of recreation and natural beauty. Fishing, boating and ice-skating have all benefited from the improvements made by John Fowle.

Although the building, which housed the mill, was demolished in 1934 and the chimney, which identified its site, was removed in the 1960, the Mill Dam has remained as a monument to the industry of our ancestors.

All to often government bodies fail to recognize the value of the efforts of those before them. Buildings, neighborhoods, and sites are all destroyed in the name of progress, urban renewal or a slavish adherence to "return to nature" philosophy.

Our heritage is none of these. It is a recognition that we all go forward and our ancestors did so also. Let's not destroy every evidence of their being here before us. We do not believe the Mill Dam should be destroyed and the Mill Pond returned to "nature."

Steve and Lois Schreiter

South Milwaukee Robert Pfeiffer

president, South Milwaukee Historical Society