Monday, September 04, 2006

Unearthed pipeline is link to the past

Erik Larson, in The Devil In The White City discusses this pipeline.

It carried Waukesha County water to 1893 World's Fair

By SARAH LARIMER
slarimer@journalsentinel.com
Posted: Sept. 3, 2006

Waukesha - The treasure, though buried just a few feet deep, took more than 100 years to discover.

A segment of a water pipeline that connected a water spring in Waukesha County with the 1893 World's Fair, also called the Chicago Columbian Exposition, was recently unearthed in Kenosha County.

The segment of the line was saved and sliced into three pieces before being sent to local historian John Schoenknecht. It will soon be donated to the Waukesha County Historical Society and Museum.

"In some ways it's priceless because there isn't a lot of it," Schoenknecht said.

Workers repairing stretches of roads in Kenosha County discovered the steel pipe in May. Each slice measured a little more than 6 inches in diameter and about 2 feet in length. Rusty and dented, the pipe certainly wasn't much to look at, and the workers considered scrapping the find. But a Kenosha County woman, who Schoenknecht said wished to remain anonymous, suspected the pieces of steel might be part of the pipeline and called him.

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