Mindoro Cut is a
cut in the
Town of Farmington in
La Crosse County, Wisconsin, which carries County Trunk Highway C through
Phillips Ridge, linking
Mindoro
Mindoro is the seventh largest and eighth-most populous island in the Philippines. With a total land area of 10,571 km2 ( 4,082 sq.mi ) and has a population of 1,408,454 as of 2020 census. It is located off the southwestern coast of Luz ...
with
West Salem. The cut is deep, long, and wide; it is the second-deepest cut built by hand in the Western Hemisphere and the oldest functional cut which has not been improved upon.
[ Work on the cut began in 1907 and concluded in 1908; the project was completed primarily with hand tools. The Mindoro Cut was added to the ]National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...
in 2007.
History
Mindoro farmers and La Crosse County officials commissioned the Mindoro Cut as part of the Good Roads Movement
The Good Roads Movement occurred in the United States between the late 1870s and the 1920s. It was the rural dimension of the Progressive movement. A key player was the United States Post Office Department. Once a commitment was made for Rural Fre ...
, linking a creamery
A creamery is a place where milk and cream are processed and where butter and cheese is produced. Cream is separated from whole milk; pasteurization is done to the skimmed milk and cream separately. Whole milk for sale has had some cream re ...
in Mindoro with a railroad station in West Salem. Before the cut was made, Phillips Ridge was too steep to be traversed, so traffic to Mindoro had to take a longer route bypassing the ridge. Construction on the cut began in 1907 and was primarily conducted with hand tools, though dynamite
Dynamite is an explosive made of nitroglycerin, sorbents (such as powdered shells or clay), and Stabilizer (chemistry), stabilizers. It was invented by the Swedish people, Swedish chemist and engineer Alfred Nobel in Geesthacht, Northern Germa ...
was also used. Planners initially thought the ridge was composed entirely of sandstone
Sandstone is a clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate grains. Sandstones comprise about 20–25% of all sedimentary rocks.
Most sandstone is composed of quartz or feldspar (both silicates) ...
; construction became more difficult when it was realized that the ridge had an interior made of hard dolomite Dolomite may refer to:
*Dolomite (mineral), a carbonate mineral
*Dolomite (rock), also known as dolostone, a sedimentary carbonate rock
*Dolomite, Alabama, United States, an unincorporated community
*Dolomite, California, United States, an unincor ...
. Since horses could not be effectively used on the steep slope, waste rock was removed from the site via wheelbarrow
A wheelbarrow is a small hand-propelled vehicle, usually with just one wheel, designed to be pushed and guided by a single person using two handles at the rear, or by a sail to push the ancient wheelbarrow by wind. The term "wheelbarrow" is mad ...
s which were balanced on narrow, uneven planks. Louis Miller, a contractor and supervisor of the project, would fire workers who toppled their wheelbarrow three times; many workers reportedly left the job after bringing their first load down the ridge. Workers were paid $1.25 per day and purchased meals from an on-site cook shanty. The project was completed in 1908; its ultimate cost was $11,241.29, reportedly a loss to its contractors.
Gallery
References
External links
Mindoro Cut
old photos during construction at the Wisconsin Historical Society
{{coord, 43.973853, N, 91.095138, W, display=title, region:US-WI_source:GNIS
Roads on the National Register of Historic Places in Wisconsin
Geography of La Crosse County, Wisconsin
National Register of Historic Places in La Crosse County, Wisconsin