I found the following article in the Little Falls Herald in November, 1909. It's helpful to remember that it was the era of automotive horse power, electrification, promised train routes, and it was only five years after the St Louis World's Fair. There were explorers at the north and south poles that year, and the first commercial and military airplanes were purchased. Absolutely everything must have seemed within reach. Projects didn't even really have to make sense:
Onamia, the "Soo" town, which is to be made the division point of the Soo road, is to have direct water connections with Mille Lacs Lake it is said, which, of course, greatly increases the prospect of that town. Many thought that Rum river would be utilized for this purpose but it seems that the Soo road has a more feasible way of getting at it according to the following from the Mille Lacs Pioneer:
"The Pioneer is in receipt of information from a reliable source to the effect that the Soo railway company have been considering for some time past the feasibility of giving Onamia village, which is to be a division point, direct water communication with Mille Lacs Lake through the construction of a canal of about one mile in length, which would connect Onamia lake with the main body of Mille Lacs.
"Last winter, surveyors in the employ of the company took levels from the north shore of Onamia lake, along the section line between sections 19 and 20 in this township, to the south shore of Mille Lacs, the distance being but a little over a mile between the two lakes. They reported the surface of Mille Lacs to be about seven feet higher than that of Onamia lake; that the strip of land separating them is but a sort of low sand bar, and therefore very easy to excavate; and that by the construction of a canal and ore lock, navigation between the two lakes would be made very practicable.
"The Soo company, it is understood, is about to ask permission from the government for this undertaking."
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