• In 1889, farmers made applications to hand dig a ditch in Brookfield for the purpose of draining the Dousman marsh. 
• The ditch was 8 feet wide at the top, 4 feet wide at the bottom, and 4 ½ feet deep.
•  It cost $1,813 to build. 
• Begins at Bluemound and Calhoun Road, runs east to Pilgrim Parkway, turns north, passes the Dousman Stagecoach Inn. and it goes across North Avenue into Wirth Park. It follows a northeasterly course through Willaura subdivision, runs back through Mound Zion Cemetery, crosses North Avenue again into Elm Grove, then makes its way under Watertown Plank Road, to Bluemound Road. There it empties into the Underwood River in Wauwatosa.