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TELESCOPE Page 9S diagonally across the area for a distance of 6000 feet. Removal of this stone called for a great deal of manual labor after blasting. Much of the labor imported to work on the project was Italian. These recruited immigrants could neither speak nor write English, and the living cond- itions set up for them left a lot to be desired. Many were said to have been killed by not understanding the warnings when blasting was taking place, and the rumors persist that bones of many such victims are still buried under the huge piles of stone that line the channel cut through the rock. When the project was completed, the rock cut was twenty feet deep and over 6000 feet long. Navigation was opened on August 16, 1908 after five years of blasting, dredging, and excavation. This placed all up bound traffic on the old channel up the east side of Neebish while the new channel took the downbound traf- fic As vessels grew in size, it was necessary to increase the channel depths. On April 24, 1931. the rock cut section of the West Neebish Channel was closed for deepening. Again it was necessary to dam above and below so that the section could be worked on in the dry. By July 18, 1933, the project had been completed and again navigation could proceed down the west side of the island. The rock cut had now been deepened to 26.2 feet and was 300 feet wide. Large pieces of stone had been interlocked down the top side to form a straight-line wall the entire length of the cut. In the latter part of the 1950s the cut was again closed to naviga- tion while more blasting took place. The rock cut has a present depth of 28.5 feet with the same 300 foot width. Viewing the area today, one can still see the huge piles of lime- stone that have been removed during the channel improvements. While the rock cut area is posted "off limits" the Neebish Island Ferry dock at the head of the rock cut is still an excellent place to take pictures as the downbound freighters make the 45° turn to head into this long narrow channel JOHN A. FRANCE in the cut as it appears today. Photo by Author