- There's a certain freedom
that you feel when you get out on the water.
- Not everyone finds their life's passion as a child.
- And the area just was very interesting to a young kid.
I mean you hop on your bike and come down here.
- But Bob Stark did.
There's even a photo of it happening.
- I'm probably what?
Maybe 10, 11 years old there.
- That's when
he took the wheel of a family friend's boat
on Lake Winnebago.
- That's when it bit, and it's been there ever since.
I mean. look at the look on that face.
[chuckles]
[splash of wave]
- And he's never looked back.
- I've had a boat since I was 12 years old.
- Soon Bob's view went beyond the shores of Lake Winnebago.
- You could see the tug boats going out here on the water.
They would have to take and go out around the entrance buoy
before they could come into the river
and go to the various yards that are along the river.
One day it was like,
yeah, you can go anywhere in the world from here.
* *
- The key was the Fox River Locks.
A series of 17 bays
where boats could enter at one water level...
* *
...and exit at another.
Up or down,
depending if you're heading upstream to Lake Winnebago...
- Bye.
- ...or downstream to Green Bay.
- The water drops 170 feet
going through the Lower Fox River
from when it leaves Lake Winnebago
until it enters the bay of Green Bay.
That's about the height of Niagara Falls
if you put that into perspective.
- What's even more amazing is
the locks don't rely on big pumps and motors.
- Twelve turns to open the gate.
- They are all operated by hand,
and with a simple understanding of physics.
- Hi there. - Hi.
- When a boat enters the lock, the doors are closed
and a series of valves are opened
to allow the water to drain down
to the level of the next segment of the river.
- We used to tell our kids it was like being in a bathtub.
- Then the next set of doors are opened and the boats can go.
- Away we go.
- To go upstream, just reverse the process.
Water from upstream fills the lock to the proper level.
- It fills up with water
and then you go through a little door thingy.
- Gravity makes
the water pressure pushing on the doors
so strong it's impossible to open them
until the water level and pressure
on both sides is equal.
- When you're in a lock,
you get a real appreciation for the power of water.
[trill of Red-winged Blackbird]
- The locks were built in the 1850s.
- Wisconsin became a state in 1848,
and the construction of the lock system
was actually the first public works project
for the state of Wisconsin.
* *
- At the time, water was the main highway
to get goods in and out of the Fox Valley.
The original logbooks
show a lot of coal coming in and paper products heading out.
Eventually the railroads and interstate system
made commercial shipping on the Fox River obsolete.
- The last trip, I want to say, was I think officially in 1988.
- Federal funding for maintenance dried up
and the Fox River Locks fell into disrepair
and were closed.
- Ultimately the whole system was destined to be filled in.
In some instances literally torn out
and it just simply would have gone away.
I found out about this group that was trying to preserve it.
I got involved with them.
- The group became the Fox River Navigational System Authority.
Bob became chairman, and then CEO.
- The more that I got into it, the more personal it became.
- Bob knew firsthand
the impact the locks had on his life and his children.
- It's been part of my fabric ever since I was a small kid.
I didn't know I was learning physics.
I didn't know I was learning history.
That's why I got involved
and why I have the passion to do what I do.
- See you later.
This needs to be preserved for everybody
so that other people can experience that as well.
- It took 10 years and $15 million,
but the locks are restored and busy.
- You go to a museum and you stand on this side of the rope.
Here you are in this living museum
and you're actually using it
and you're helping to preserve it.
* *
- It's been a long time
since Bob's first trip through the locks
but it never gets old.
- It's a thrill.
It's amazing to me that you can do that.
You can't get there from there unless you do that, right?
This is the last lock going downriver.
You can see the mouth of the bay down there.
There's the world out there.
* *