The Wisconsin magazine of history: Volume 9, number 1, September 1925

              the old military road 51 it was a poor excuse for a road according to present day standards and could be used only in the winter when the ground was frozen or when the weather was dry in the summer downpours submerged great sections of it and made other portions as one writer expressed it as slippery as noodles on a spoon in the early days the main street of fond du lac — this being a portion of the military road — looked like a vat of blacking the mud held like an octopus and when a wheel or foot ventured into the mass something seemed to grasp it with tenacious power never to let go in 1850 james ewen proprietor of the lewis house at fond du lac waded out into the street early in the morning before the guests had arisen and placed a pair of boots and a hat in the sticky mass in such a way that at a glance one would think an individual was disappearing in the earthy muci lage those passing thought a man had drowned on land when a vermonter came to fond du lac early in the history of the city he sent a rhyme to his friends in the new england state in order to discourage emigration his opening lines were : great western waste of bottom land flat as pancake rich as grease where gnats are full as big as toads and skeeters are as big as geese commenting on the construction of the road dr james d butler2 says that the road raising army brought more civilization into wisconsin by plowshares than by swords in the day of small things its highways were as invaluable as any railway has been since the track of the north western railway westward from mount horeb station for twenty miles or more is now laid on the line of the doty military road traversing rough regions on military causeways i have a see wis hist colls x 80