USA > Iowa > Black Hawk County > History of Black Hawk County, Iowa, and its people, Volume I > Part 2
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Proceeding southward the tributaries from the west are Beaver, Dry Run, Black Hawk, Miller, Big and Rock creeks. On the east Elk, Indian and Spring creeks are the principal tributaries. It is worthy of note that each of these streams approaches the Cedar at nearly a right angle, in marked contrast with ine tributaries of the Wapsipinicon and the lowa. The hydrographic basin of the Cedar is therefore much wider proportionately than is that of either of the other rivers named. Along the north line of the south row of townships in Buchanan, Black Hawk and Grundy counties the Cedar valley extends fully sixty miles east and west. This width it maintains very nearly from the north border of the state to the neighborhood of Cedar Rapids, beyond which its valley narrows very rapidly by the approach of the lowa with which it unites in Louisa County. The headwaters of Spring and Elk creeks are within two miles of the Wapsi- pinicon River and Crane Creek respectively, while the Black Hawk takes its rise within five or six miles of the Iowa. Thus it may be seen that the Cedar domi- nates nearly the entire territory between the Wapsipinicon and the Iowa.
Naturally those townships where the lowan drift prevails are not so well drained as are those near the rivers. But nowhere are well established stream courses so remote that excessive surface waters may not be taken care of readily by artificial drainage.
GEOLOGICAL FORMATIONS
GENERAL RELATIONS OF STRATA
The geological formations in Black Hawk County are few and comparatively simple in their manifestations. Heavy deposits of drift conceal the indurated rocks in the northeastern and southwestern parts of the county. The rock ex- posures are mainly along the margins of the valley of the Cedar or outcrop in the banks of the lower courses of its tributaries where they have cut their beds in order to reach the level of the main stream. The valley of Spring Creek a fords an exception as has been stated already, since rock is found throughout two thirds of its course, the drift being thin and not concealing the erosive effects of the preglacial activities of this stream. Only rarely does induratec 'ock appear at the surface apart from the water courses.
In many exposures no fossils appear, or, if any are found, they are so frag- mentary or indistinct as to render very little assistance in determining the rela- tions of the rocks in which they occur. Fortunately, however, the frequent and widespread occurrence of the lithographie limestone, the lithological features of which are very constant and easily recognizable, makes it possible to fix the horizon in many instances where other means are wanting entirely.
The indurated rock belongs wholly to the Devonian system so far as is known. thought it is quite probable from the trend of the eastern border of the car- boniferons as revealed elsewhere in the state, that rock of that system underlies the thick glacial deposits of the southwestern corner of the county. No material
7
HISTORY OF BLACK HAWK COUNTY
from the wells that have penetrated the rock of that region has been accessible, however, and therefore the carboniferous appears only hypothetically in the table introduced below to show the taxonomic relations of the strata in Black Hawk County.
TABLE OF FORMATIONS
Group
System
Series
Stage
Recent
Alluvial
Cenozoic
Pleistocene
Loess
Iowan
Glacial
Buchanan Gravel
Kansan
Paleozoic
Carboniferous?
Mississippian ?
Kinderhook?
Devonian
Middle
Cedar Valley
Devonian
Wapsipinicon
DEVONIAN SYSTEM
WAPSIPINICON STAGE
The only definite, satisfactory exposure of rock observed belonging to this stage is a natural outcropping in the bed and slope of the bank of a small tribu- tary of Spring Creek in the northwest corner of section 13, Fox Township. It represents the uppermost part of this stage, the Spirifer pennatus beds. No sec- tion could be made as the exposures along the hillside were interrupted by de- posits of soil. But a few feet above the stream bed, in the flat, rock surface of which fossil corals and brachiopods were quite abundant, were the Spirifer pen- natus beds composed of the soft, light gray limestones so often referred to by Calvin. The fossils obtained here were Cyrtina hamiltonensis Hall, Spirifer pen- natus Owen, S. bimesialis Hall, Atrypa reticularis Lin., fine ribbed variety, A. aspera Schloth. and Paracyclas sp. In the road eight or ten feet above these beds, Acervularia profunda, one or more species of Favosites, Cyathophyllum and Zaphrentis occur. Evidently this is the Acervularia profunda zone, the lowest member of the Cedar Valley stage. As stone appears occasionally in the road surface at several points in this neighborhood, a closer survey of it, possibly would reveal other outcrops of the Spirifer pennatus beds.
CEDAR VALLEY STAGE
The lowest member of the Cedar Valley stage of the Iowa Devonian, the Acervularia profunda zone, is well represented in a quarry in the southeast quarter of section 25, Waterloo Township.
The following section is shown :
Aeolian
HISTORY OF BLACK HAWK COUNTY
Feet. Inches.
7. Sandy soll
5
6. Geest with mingled fragments of limestone.
4 6
5. Shaly parting containing unusually large specimens of coarse- ribbed Atrypa reticularis 2
Inn, irregularly bedded, buff limestone with much mingled residual earth, all highly ferruginous.
1 6
3 Soft, drab to buff, carthy limestone with a more or less well de- fined parting three feet from its lower limit. The upper 345 feet crowded with AAcervularia profunda, a species of Favorites, Cladopora magna, C. palmata, Cystiphyllum sp., Zaphrentis sp. small branching corals, and a few brachiopods, all weathered and iron-stained 7
2. Shaly parting
1. Soft, gray limestone with a narrow shaly parting near the middle 1
2
.A few rods farther eastward is another quarry affording a similar section. The stone is a little firmer in texture, and the beds have been exposed some two feet below the floor level of the former, without revealing anything of added interest, however. For many rods west of these quarries is a strip of waste ground grown up to weeds and bushes and showing scarcely a trace of rock in place, but from which stone has been taken until recently during nearly all of the years since the first settlement of Waterloo. It is a fossil coral reef and has been very rich not only in corals, but in brachiopods and other forms of De- vonian life. Ever since the visits of St. John and Whitfield, its reputation has attracted geologists and curiosity seekers, and it may be looked upon almost as classic ground to the geologist. Whitfield's list of fossils gathered here and in the immediate vicinity is a surprisingly large one and as a matter of common interest is quoted below from the twenty-third annual report .*
"AAmong the most common forms at this place are Stromatopora erratica of this paper, Acervularia Davidsoni, AA. profunda, Favosites sp., like F. polymorpha, Cystiphyllum Americanum, C. n. sp., * Zaphrentis gigantea, Chonophyllum sp. apparently the same one as in the Upper Helderberg of New York, and at the Falls of the Ohio, Amplexus Yandelli, Streptelasma n. sp., Aulacophyllum sulcatinum, Syringopora sp. having large cells, three species of Cladopora, two species of Aulopora, one very large. Of the brachiopoda we find the following : * Spirifer euruteines. * S. oweni, * S. manni, S. subvaricosa n. sp., S. pennatus only one individual, Cyrtina Hamiltonensis, Atrypa reticularis, A. n. sp., Penta- merella arata, * P. obsolescens, Gypidula laeviuscula, Rensselaeria johanni, Terebratula romingeri, * T. clia, * T. jucunda. There are also several forms of fish teeth known to occur in these same beds."
Those of this list marked with an asterisk are species which according to Calvin do not occur in this county. A considerable number of others have not been recognized for this report, though a more diligent search might have re- vealed them. Undoubtedly the present quarry is not as rich in variety of forms as were the carlier ones.
" "23rd Ann. Rept., N. Y, State Cab., Nat. Hist." p. 223. et seq. Albany, 1873.
9
HISTORY OF BLACK HAWK COUNTY
In the report referred to above, Whitfield referred these beds to the Cornifer- ous of New York. The error into which he fell in attempting to correlate the Devonian limestones of Iowa with those of New York is well set forth by Calvin in his report on Buchanan County. His language was quoted under the head "Previous Geological Work" and need not be repeated here.
In the southeast quarter of section 24, East Waterloo Township, in the east angle between the track of the Chicago Great Western Railroad and the track of the Illinois Central Railroad running to the machine shops, is a pit-like quarry of the Acervularia zone, but ranging a little higher than the West Waterloo Quarry.
If Calvin's section at Littleton, Buchanan County,* be taken as a standard, the section at West Waterloo seems to correspond to the Acervularia zone num- bers I to 4, while the East Waterloo Quarry seems to include numbers 5 to 7. In the latter the rock is firmer in texture and much less ferruginous. No good opportunity of examining the quarry has occurred and no section was made. Careful study might change the estimate of its relations to the West Waterloo Quarry.
In the northeast quarter of section 1 of Barclay Township, very near the county line, is the only rock exposure in all the northeastern part of the county. Some fifteen or twenty years ago Mr. Purtell operated a small quarry here, but since its abandonment the loose earth has covered most of the quarry face, and bushes springing up have completed the effacement of the quarryman's work. The upper rock is a soft, yellow, argillaceous limestone, thin and irregularly bedded, below which is a harder, lighter colored rock somewhat crystalline and more heavily bedded. This exposure is in the edge of a low bluff rising above the narrow valley of the Wapsipinicon River, and is within three miles of an out- cropping in the bluffs on the opposite side of this river in Buchanan County. From the meager data obtainable it may be inferred with reasonable assurance that the rock here is the same as that of the upper part of number 2 in the sec- tion "along the river bluff a short distance above Littleton" f made by Calvin and said by him to lie "above the beds described in the section below the mill at Littleton." On the same page Calvin incidentally remarks "that this is the level of the quarry stone at Raymond, in Black Hawk County." The quarry here referred to is in the southeast quarter of section 36, township 88 N., R. 12 W., not more than half a mile east of Raymond Station, and affords at the present time the following section :
Feet. Inches.
9. Residual soil with many rock fragments. I 6
8. Drab, compact layer, breaking with a suggestion of lithographic stone 2 6
7. Hard, brittle finely crystalline bed, gray on fracture, but yellow where exposed
I 6
6. Thin layers of limestone similar to numbers 3 and 5, but softer, weathering more readily, becoming thinner above and more jointed below (thickness not determined).
* Calvin : "Iowa Geol. Surv.," Vol. VIII, pp. 232-233, 1897.
Calvin : "Iowa Geol. Surv.," Vol. VIII, p. 234.
10
HISTORY OF BLACK HAWK COUNTY
Feet. Inches.
Rock similar to number 3, but with flattish, irregular cherty nodules many geode like ( thickness not determined)
Fragile and very fissile rock. . 3
Soft, yellowish-gray, heavy bedded rock. 3
Beds everywhere buried in quarry debris
IO
1 Quarry floor containing worn valves of Stropheodonta demissa everywhere over the surface, also a Spirifer, probably S. parryanus, AAtrypa reticularis, Cladopora stems, etc.
Nos. 5 and 6 represent a thickness of several feet, but it was not exactly determined. It would seem that No. 1 represents No. 8 of Calvin's section be- low the mill dam at Littleton, and his No. 1 in the section along the bluff above Littleton, while the other members correspond in part to No. 2 of the same section, judging from their superposition and lithological character. They are entirely unfossiliferous so far as could be observed.
Within one-half mile northwest of the last is another small quarry in which all the rock is quite similar, yellowish in color and barren of fossils. The lower 31% feet were much jointed, while the rock above was so free from joints as to form a roof, overhanging in one place fully six feet. It corresponds to the upper part of No. 2 mentioned above.
About one mile south of Raymond on the east side of the road where a small creek had worn its bed into the weak rock, a section was obtained as follows :
Feet. Inches. I
5. Black loam
A meager trace of Buchanan gravel. 6
3. Clay much like Kansan till.
2. Geest with limestone layers more or less well defined in lower part 3
1. Buff limestone, soft below with a thin, cherty layer, above which
4 the rock contains calcitic nodules and Stropheodonta demissa as in the floor of the Raymond quarry, above the creek bed. . 5
In the northwest quarter of section 14. East Waterloo Township, near the track of the Illinois Central Railroad and a little above it is the Bartlett Quarry. operated by the Waterloo Stone Company. The beds are unfossiliferous for the most part. A few crinoid stem fragments, a few specimens of Atrypa reticularis, coarse ribbed type, other fragmentary and indistinct forms, and an excellent specimen of the jaw and teeth of the ganoid fish, Onychodus sigmoides, have been found here. The section shows the following :
5. lowan drift
Feet. 6
Geest, including stony fragments 1
3 . Firm, drab limestone of somewhat conchoidal fracture, freely in- tersected by calcite veins. I
2. Soft limestone, the upper four feet of which is irregularly bedded
1. Limestone, buff where weathered, but blue on fracture, quite heavily bedded and having flinty nodules and pockets of calcite in the upper eight feet. 10
11
HISTORY OF BLACK HAWK COUNTY
A little northeast of this is an old quarry showing a similar section but with some slight modifications of the texture of some of the beds.
In the northeast quarter of section 14 is the Morganton Quarry from which stone of good quality is taken. The lowest beds have numerous oblique, open joints in which deposits of a beautiful buff travertine occur. In the upper part is a firm, drab rock of the lithographic type and which is the same as No. 5 in the Bartlett Quarry. This bed affords the best stone in the quarry. In a yellowish, decomposing shaly limestone three feet above this bed is found the only fossil, an Atrypa very much resembling the fine ribbed variety of A. reticularis. In one part of the quarry this bed contains many large concretions which under the hammer often reveal a lining of unusually fine calcite crystals.
From the lithographic features and from the order of superposition, as com- pared with the quarry in the angle of the railroad tracks not far away, it is judged that the horizon of these quarries is the same as that of the quarry stone at Raymond.
In the road 212 miles due north from the Bartlett Quarry is an outcropping of loose, shaly limestone not worthy of notice except as an evidence of the thin- ness of the drift in this vicinity.
In the northeast quarter of section 15, township 89 N., range 12 W., a small quarry has been worked, the rock in which is much broken up by oblique joints running at all angles, and the bedding planes of which are so confused as to render tracing of them impossible. Nowhere in the county is found better evidence of crushing than here. The exposure represents No. I of the Bartlett Quarry and possibly a part of No. 2. Specimens of Atrypa reticularis appear sparingly.
In and around Cedar Falls are several quarries. One of these, the Carpenter Quarry, has furnished a large quantity of stone, but it is no longer operated on account of the increasing cost of stripping, the work having advanced well into the high bluff. It is located a few rods south of the Dry Run wagon bridge near the center of section 13. Cedar Falls Township. The following section appears :
Feet. Inches.
12. Coarse, ferruginous Buchanan gravel overlain by Iowan drift ...
II. Thin-bedded, fragmental limestone such as is usually found at the top of the rock exposures in the county and which illus- trates well the effects of weathering, wherever the drift is thin. The stone in these layers varies considerably from top to bottom as if originally they made up several distinct beds. Near the top are numerous small, simple stemmed corals and good specimens of Idiostroma gordiaceum A. Winchell. . 7
IO. Thin, shaly parting
9. Vesicular limestone, gray, brittle, the small cavities yellow lined 7
8. Limestone, the lower half of which is in one layer, the upper in very many thin layers, about.
I 6
7. Shale and rock intermingled promiscuously, the layers manifest in places and elsewhere lost. Color varied; weathering since exposure, in a weak, earthy rock may account for the pecu- liarly varied conditions of this bed. 3 IO
12
HISTORY OF BLACK HAWK COUNTY
Feet. Inches. I 6
2
11. llard, brittle rock with conchoidal fracture; yellowish.
5. Greenish shale
Limestone, lower half compact and homogeneous, but upper half mtich checked and in some places nodular to such an extent as to appear like a conglomerate. Thickness undetermined. .
3. Shale, in three layers, (e) green shale two inches, (b) whitish. somewhat indurated, calcareous shale four inches, (a) green, jointed shale twelve inches
1
2. Limestone of variable appearance and texture. In general the upper half is a soft, yellowish, carthy rock, the lower a hard, dark drab, granular rock. In some places in the quarry this stone is in three or four layers, in other places it is in one bed, yet everywhere as it nears the top becoming more and more argillaccous until it blends with No. 3. 2
1. Variable bed, mostly firm in texture, drab below, yellowish and somewhat jointed and vesicular above. The line between the several layers everywhere markedly wavy 5
Variability is the most striking feature of this quarry. Fossils are absent everywhere except in No. 11, and, since these are in the beds that have been most affected by the agents of disintegration, they are generally imperfect. A few small colonies of Idiostroma have been well preserved, though deeply stained. Their presence is the only guide to the proper horizon of this exposure other than its position relative to the quarries of Waterloo. The Idiostroma horizon is just below the lithographie beds, and though the lithographie limestone is not well developed anywhere in Cedar Falls, it is found beyond question in a natural exposure in the bank of Dry Run one-half mile farther southwest. A few rods farther up the creek bed the stream has eaten into the bank, exposing a section of some interest. In the stream bed is a thin, whitish layer having over its surface many stems of the small coral found in No. 11 of the Carpenter Quarry, the rock, ringing clearly under the hammer and breaking freely with conchoidal fracture, promptly suggesting its relationship to the lithographie limestone. Above this are many thin layers, much jointed obliquely and vertically, usually litho- graphic in character, but evidently undergoing change by exposure. Near the top the coral stems appear again, and six inches below these are imperfect casts of Newberria johannis Hall, the only brachiopod found in the rocks at Cedar Falls. A slight fold is evident in this rock. Four or five rods south is a quarry owned by Mr. C. A. Round. The floor of this quarry is very uneven, showing marked unconformity with the beds above. A section represents the following :
FFt. In.
13. Thin layers of rock for the greater part lithographie in character 7
12. Light gray, carthy rock in about seven layers. .
9
11. Fissile, carthy limestone, having a narrow granular band midway 1 8
10. Excellent lithographie bed in two layers.
9. Bed in two layers, the upper containing many small masses of stro- matopora two or three inches in diameter, much weathered upon the outside, but usually very compact and hard within. 8
13
HISTORY OF BLACK HAWK COUNTY
Ft. In.
8. Granular rock, with pockets of calcite, the upper three inches shaly and nodular. Partings occur, but not continuously, or uniformly .. . ..
7. Shaly partings I
2 5
6. Earthy rock, upper part more calcareous and firm, with pockets of calcite II
5. Shaly parting I
4. Gray limestone in numerous layers, becoming yellowish and earthy in places 2
3. Shaly parting I
2. Heavy-bedded limestone, gray to white, with rusty spots, granular and firm where gray, but earthy where white, in two beds with a shaly parting of five inches between 4
I. A fairly good quality of limestone, lithographic in character, in three layers
3
In number 13 occur the coral stems referred to elsewhere. Stromatopora is abundant in places. Overlying the loose rock at the top of number 13 is about sixteen inches of Buchanan gravel and above this, three feet of sandy loam. Mid- way between the Round and the Carpenter quarries is a quarry belonging to the Harris and Cole Company. The rock here is softer, joints are wide, oftentimes filled with geest ; small cavernous openings are not uncommon. Here we found a few massive stromatoporoids, and also a few colonies of Idiostroma among the weathered rock fragments in the eastern edge of the quarry and a single specimen of Straparollus cyclostomus. Lithographic features are not very manifest. Some layers are beautifully ornamented with dendrites, and in the creek bed near, at the same horizon as the upper layers of the quarry, are slabs containing numerous mud cracks.
A few rods northeast of the Carpenter Quarry, between the Rapid Transit track and Dry Run, is a small quarry belonging to Mr. N. Olson, the floor of which is a little lower than that of the Carpenter Quarry. A section is here given :
Ft. In.
14. Iowan drift 2
13. Buchanan gravel, lower part highly oxidized, coarse, upper part less ferruginous, stratified, some layers a fine sand, uppermost layers much reddened IO
12. Jointed, geest-like clay, the base of which is red-brown, the rest yellow 6
II. Dark drab, crystalline rock.
5
IO. More or less indurated shale. I
9. A bed whose upper half is less compact and uniform than the lower. 2
4
8. Green shale I
S
7. Soft rock, whitish, saccharoidal, deteriorating upwards. 2
6. Very dark drab rock, compact and smooth on fracture. I
5. Light gray rock, soft and in two layers, having much calcite finely dis- tributed throughout I
6
8
4. Rock very much like number I .
3. Soft, shelly, mud colored limestone. I
2. Dark drab, finely saccharoidal limestone. I
I. Dark drab, finely saccharoidal limestone, thickness not ascertained.
9
1-4
HISTORY OF BLACK HAWK COUNTY
There is little in common between this and the other quarries of Cedar Falls in the lithological character of the rock excepting in a general way. The horizon is believed to be in part the same. The lower eight feet of this quarry appear to be below the floor of the Carpenter Quarry. No fossils were recognized.
About one-eighth of a mile west of the Carpenter Quarry, and also west of Main Street, is J. Nielson's Quarry, which affords the following section :
Ft. In.
18 Firm, yellowish stone with intermingled geest, not continuous through- ont 3
17. Lithographie limestone, somewhat nodular, more or less weathered and inconstant 2
16 Yellowish clay shale, with interbedded stone in places, very variable in thickness, averaging 4
15 Limestone in three layers, (a) finely laminated, slightly iron-stained, six inches, (b) like (a) but lighter in color, two inches, (c) gray, fine-grained, smooth, often weathering oddly near seams, makes good lime, averaging 1
6
14 A variable stone, sometimes splitting easily into layers, sometimes firm and even textured, finely crystalline, with earthy streaks, rusty in patches, crystals in pockets and calcitic sheets intersecting one an- other and thus, being more resistant than the amorphous portion. making pitlike areas along the joint planes, averaging.
13. Fine-grained, bluish-gray limestone with occasional patches of crystals, quarried in sheets, and used for window and door sills and caps, and ashlar 10
12. Bluish-gray stone of good quality, carthy at the lower surface. 5 I
11. Shaly parting
10. Gray, finely brecciated limestone, with seams of crystals below, upper part yellowish, carthy. If quarried in cold weather, it is reduced to fragments readily, but, if dried out before freezing, it makes a dur- able stone a
9. Firm, fine-grained, bluish-gray limestone with occasional pockets of crystals, in two layers. Makes an excellent range stone. The lower layers yield fine large flags. 1
8. Uniformly fine-grained limestone. yielding flags 7
7. Heavy-bedded limestone, shelly on the under side, abounding in crystal. bluish-gray l 4
6. Fine-grained limestone more or less streaked or banded 9
5. Like number 6
4. Lighter colored stone, with a possible parting in upper part along an irregular line
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