Wisconsin Legislative Reference Bureau October 2004, Vol. IV,
No. 4 [T]he river Mississippi and the navigable waters leading
into the Mississippi and St. Lawrence, and the carrying places
between the same, shall be common highways and forever free, as
well to the inhabitants of the state as to the citizens of the
United States, without any tax, impost or duty therefor. The
public trust doctrine is a body of common and statutory law that
provides that the state holds title to navigable waters in trust
for public purposes. The public trust doctrine has its roots in
the English common law. Under English common law, the British
Crown held title to the bed beneath tidal waters. This concept
was incorporated into the Northwest Ordinance of 1787. The
Northwest Ordinance states that “navigable waters leading into
the Mississippi and St. Lawrence, and the carrying places
between the same, shall be common highways and forever free….”
When Wisconsin, which was a part of the Northwest Territories,
became a state in 1848,