90 Safety of the Recreational Use of the Fox River near Hydraulic Dams Avery Hedican The Fox River is a 202-mile-long river flowing from southern Wisconsin into Ottawa, Illinois. Because the river is so vast, it is a popular spot for recreational activities such as fishing, kayaking, swimming, and much more. The users vary from families who are just visiting to go for a hike to people who have lived on the river their entire life. However, since the building of hydraulic dams to power mills and factories in the 1850s, the number of drownings in the river has increased significantly. The deep pools underneath the dams create death traps for unassuming patrons, which even very experienced swimmers cannot escape. Implementing hydraulic dams along the Fox River has caused significantly more deaths. This poses the question of how safe the river is for recreational use, specifically around the hydraulic dams, and what regulations are currently in place. The recreational use of the Fox River is not safe in relation to areas where hydraulic dams have been installed. Many variables have changed within the many drownings that have occurred in the Fox River over the past fifty years. The drownings range from accidents involving small children with zero swimming experience to full-grown, capable adults who should have no difficulty navigating a body of water. However, there is a question to be asked here. Why are so many people drowning in the river? Especially ones who are strong swimmers who, historically, have had no problems navigating a body of water. The main culprit for so many drownings on the river is the dams. Placed there to generate power for mills and surrounding communities, the dams now serve no purpose and are not-so-silent killers. Drawing from ten previous cases of drownings, five were from the 1960s and 1970s, and five were from the 2010s and 2020s. Seven of those cases were either caused
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