Recreational Activity On The Milwaukee River Basin
Not only did industry boom along the river, so did recreational activities. Many people were using the river for boating, swimming, fishing and ice-skating. From the late 1800's into the early 1900's many institutional and commercial recreational facilities were being developed along the Milwaukee River.
Most of the recreational land within the basin was privately owned. The Three big recreational facilities were Lueddemann's on the Milwaukee River (now called Hubbard Park in Shorewood), Blatz Park which was also known as Pleasant Valley Resort (now part of Kern Park south of Capitol Drive on the west bank of the river), and Hilgen's Resort in Cedarburg. These places offered boat rentals, swimming classes, and organized a variety of special events such as boat and ice-skating races. There were also three swimming schools located on the Milwaukee River above the North Avenue Dam.
Between 1890 and 1930, people could ride a ferryboat from the North Avenue Dam to downtown for just 5 cents. For an additional 5 cents, this allowed people to travel to the upper river basin area where one could find numerous resorts.
The most acclaimed recreational development on the Milwaukee River was the "Christopher Columbus" whaleback steamer. This was the only such steamer ever built for passenger service in the United States. Originally it was built to carry people from Chicago to the World Fair. When during the off months of the World Fair, the steamer was used to carry people between Chicago and Milwaukee for sight seeing and shopping. It wasn't uncommon to have 3,000 excursionists traveling from Chicago to Milwaukee via the steamer in one day.(To find out more about the whaleback steamer please visit) http://www.mnhs.org/places/nationalregister/shipwrecks/wilson/wilwf.html
By the late 1930's however, the recreational activities along the Milwaukee River began to wane. The intensive development that occurred in Milwaukee resulted in more sewage and industrial waste entering the river than the sewers were able to handle. The river had become so polluted by sewage that the three swimming school closed in 1940.
To address the smell and health concerns associated with the high levels of sewage in the river, the local city government decided to construct a combined sewer outfall in the upper river. This combined sewer system was also developed within the City of Milwaukee. (For more information on the combined sewer system, please see the Construction of the Sewer System link.)