Fox River

A river in Wisconsin that flows from southern central Wisconsin to Lake Winnebego, then up into the Bay of Green Bay. In the days of travel and shipping by water, the Fox was an important waterway; along with the Wisconsin River, it connected the Great Lakes with the Mississippi River. The town of Portage, Wisconsin is the place where the Wisconsin and Fox rivers drew close enough together to carry goods across land.

The Fox River continues down into Illinois, meandering through the northwest suburbs of Chicago, through Elgin, Illinois, one of the larger towns there, where it supports many a riverboat casino. A large bridge across the river seems to be a staple in the downtown areas of many old villages along the way. The river valley slopes gently, and, in some places, where it's as many as 10 miles across, you can see the opposite side. Containing hills and dense vegetation, it's a little more interesting than the miles of flat farmland or the metropolitan areas that lie beyond.

It's clear that many of these towns were originally founded solely because of the river's presence.

The Fox river is one of a few rivers that run north in the US. (The longest North-flowing river in the world is the Nile.) The Fox is also the second-most polluted river in the United States, the other being the East River in New York. Most of the pollution comes from the booming paper industry in the area-the Fox Valley is the US's largest producer of paper. PCBs are the most toxic chemicals in the Fox, along with other biphenyls and chlorinated wastes. In case you are wondering what we poisoned our beautiful rivers with and why, PCBs were used to make carbonless copy paper in the 60s and early 70s. Now, we can't eat the fish.

Gee, I sure am glad we got that carbonless copy paper. Where would the world be without it...