USA > Iowa > Webster County > Fort Dodge > History of Fort Dodge and Webster County, Iowa, Volume I > Part 2
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This was the last time that the ocean invaded Iowa and in all the centuries upon centuries which have succeeded the Cretaceous period the state has been a part of the constantly growing continental nucleus. Through much, perhaps the greater part, of the history which we have outlined, the building-up processes had been busy in Webster county. But from this time forward the activities and changes were to be those which tend toward the tearing down and carrying away of the piled-up masses of rock. To this a partial exception must be made of the events of the Pleistocene epoch. During this long gap in the geological record of Webster county the climate was mild and pleasant and the life forms were approaching gradually those familiar to us today. But with the beginning of the Pleistocene there was a change in conditions. For reasons not yet fully understood the climate of the northern hemisphere underwent a gradual change. Instead of the long warm summers of preceding epochs there came a time when the summers were shorter and cooler. In Canada the snow accumulated from year to year and finally began to creep, as solid ice-fields, over the sunny plains of the northern states. By and by these ice-fields overwhelmed Webster county and swept far to the south as the Nebraskan glacier. As this glacier marched slowly but irresistibly southward it gathered into itself the loose stones, clay and sand and other material which had accumulated from ages of rock weathering. With these as its tools it graved and scoured and wore away the underlying rocks. It carried along its miscellaneous load in its all-enveloping mass and when at last it was melted away this material was left as a great sheet of till or glacial drift spread alike over hill and vale. The effect of this sheet of till, added to that of the cutting down of the higher points in the topography, would be to produce a level, even landscape, probably very similar to that which characterizes Webster county's prairies today. Upon this landscape, then, the streams began to incise their valleys. The Des Moines river had probably been at work before the Ne- braskan glacier came down and the flowing waters again sought and cleared out
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HISTORY OF WEBSTER COUNTY
the old channel. Forests grew and grasses waved where only fields of ice had been and Webster county emerged into the pleasant summer-time of the Afton- ian interglacial age. The animal life of the time constitutes one of its most remarkable features. Elephants, mastodons and sloths roamed the forests and plains. The bison, the camel and the horse were familiar neighbors, and the deer, the bear and the wolf were then as now hereditary enemies. It has been only within the last two or three years that studies in western Iowa have proved the presence in abundance of these long-departed wanderers by prairie and stream.
After a time there came a recurrence of those climatic conditions which had caused the first glaciation and once more the ice-sheets crept slowly down from the northland. Forest and prairie were again hidden beneath the frozen mantle and life of all kinds was wiped out or driven southward. This was the Kansan glacier and today the burden it bore forms the surface till over south- ern and western Iowa.
As the years passed the climate again moderated, the ice melted away and Webster county again lay open to the smiles of the warm sun. The next glacier which entered the Mississippi valley- the Illinoian-came from the east and only its fringe crossed the Father of Waters into Iowa, covering a narrow belt between Clinton and Keokuk. So during the long, long centuries marked by the passage of the Yarmouth inter-glacial interval, the Illinoian glacial stage and the Sangamon interval, Webster county was experiencing the maturing of her topographic features which always goes on when Nature has a change to set her erosive forces in operation. During the long cold winter of the Illinoian, although there was no ice-sheet in the county, the heavy snows would cover the land with their white mantle and arctic conditions would prevail. These conditions may have recurred during the Iowan glacial stage also, for it is not very probable that the ice-sheet of this age extended so far westward. It seems to have been a small lobe of ice covering only the northeast part of the state, east of Clear Lake and north of Iowa river. In this case we shall have to extend to the end of the Peorian interval the time while Webster county was open to the influences of summer sun and winter snows.
We have but scant means of judging the length of these glacial and inter- glacial ages. We know from present-day studies how slowly the glaciers of the world move and how slightly they change from century to century. So we may know that centuries and milleniums unnumbered have rolled by since first the great continental ice-sheet swept down from its northern home. It has been estimated from studies of the different drift sheets of the Mississippi valley that if the time since the retreat of the last ice-sheet be considered as unity the length of time since the close of the Kansan invasion must be reckoned as fifteen to seventeen. To this must be added again the length of Kansan time itself as well as that of the Aftonian interglacial age and of the Nebraskan invasion. We know so little of this latter that we are not yet in a position to place any estimate upon its duration or antiquity.
The streams and rains and winds had worked for countless years upon the rocks and soils of Webster county when again the climate changed and another period of intense cold ensued. The drift sheets of former invasions seem to have been very largely worn away during this interval and deep valleys had
FIGURE V-OUTCROPPING LEDGES OF GYPSUM
THE NEWW YYOTIK PUBLIC WIRAMARY
APOSTA, LENOX AND THEDEN FOUNDATIONS.
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HISTORY OF WEBSTER COUNTY
been cut in the sandstones and shales and gypsum beds so that wherever the loose mantle rock is removed the surface of these underlying rocks is rough and irregu- lar. When the Wisconsin glacier came into our county it plowed over the rem- nants of old till, gathered up such rock fragments as it found loose on the surface or could pluck from their parent ledges and mixed and ground all this load in its mighty mills and finally left it spread out as the rich productive soils which make Webster county's farms a veritable treasure-house. All the ele- ments of soil fertility and plant food are found in these glacial clays and, enriched by generations of vegetable growths, they are unexcelled among the soils of the state. It is a common saying, though none the less a true one, that our soils are the basis of our wealth and our social welfare. Upon this founda- tion we may rear the superstructure of great manufactures and extensive com- merce; but where the foundation is poor or lacking the superstructure is impos- sible. It should require but little urging to show the intelligent farmer how carefully he should guard his priceless heritage, with what appreciation he should receive Nature's bountiful gifts.
Since the departure of the Wisconsin ice there have been no other advances of continental glaciers. The ice-fields of Canada have dwindled and gone ; only in Greenland is there any accumulation of ice in the northern hemisphere that is at all comparable to the glaciers of the Pleistocene. Whether we are living today in true post-glacial times or merely in an interglacial interval only the future can reveal. It seems incredible to us that the monuments of our civilization should ever be destroyed by the relentless push and grind of a con- tinental glacier, but we cannot well measure the mighty sweep of world-building by our tiny span of human achievement.
In addition to the coal mining industry there are two others in Webster county which are dependent upon the mineral resources of the county. These are the gypsum plaster and the clay-ware industries. In the first of these, as already indicated, this county is unique among the counties of Iowa. It has developed since the building of the first mill in 1872 until at the present time it places Iowa among the leaders in this industry. In 1910 there were mined 322.713 tons of crude gypsum and the various products made from this were valued at $943.849. The history and development of this industry will be traced elsewhere and need not be recounted here.
The great clay-shale deposits of the Coal Measures furnish the basis of another industry in which Webster takes high rank among the counties of the state. Drain tile, hollow building block, common and pressed brick, all of excel- lent quality, are made from these shales. The necessity for artificial drainage over much of the county has given an impetus to the manufacture of drain tile which makes it the most important branch of a large and growing industry. This is shown by the fact that during 1910 to the valuation of $976,266 placed upon the clay wares produced in the county, the drain tile makers contributed a quota of $668,445. With the development of scientific agriculture, and of scientific building it may be added, when greater care shall be taken in building homes and industrial structures of fireproof materials, there is certain to be a still larger growth of Webster county's clay industry.
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HISTORY OF WEBSTER COUNTY
TOPOGRAPHY
It doubtless has been made clear in the preceding paragraphs that the topog- raphy of a region is dependent upon its geological structure in combination with the history of the forces which have been acting upon it. In a district which is so heavily blanketed with glacial debris as is Webster county the structure of the underlying bedded rocks is entirely masked except where these are exposed by stream erosion. Then too, the time which has passed since the Wisconsin ice spread out its sheet of till has been so short that, if we except the immediate valleys of Des Moines river and its tributaries, the erosive agencies have scarcely begun to be effective in carving relief forms in the level Wisconsin plains. And so the result is that Webster county has what may be called a glacial topography as contrasted with an erosional topography, that is, one produced by the action of running water, frost and heat. There are two types of glacial topography. the flat even plain, and the irregular jumbled hills which rise from the surround- ing plain but usually bear no close relation to the natural drainage lines. Both of these types are represented in Webster county, although the plains type is by far the more important. As the glacier melted away the natural tendency was for the load it carried to be spread out quite evenly, but at the edge of the ice, where the forward movement was balanced by melting. the clay, stones, gravel and such material carried or pushed along would be dumped in great mounds. So here and there over the glaciated region we find these mounds and ridges, here arranged in long series, there without any arrangement whatever. Such ridges are quite common in the northwest part of the county, most of them west of the Des Moines and north of South Lizard creek, although some are found elsewhere, and one, Coon Mound, east of Gowrie, is miles from any simi- lar hills. Some of these piled-up hills are built largely of sand and gravel since the finer clay was washed away by water from the melting ice. These form today almost exhaustless supplies for all the purposes for which such materials are used.
The traveler along the Minneapolis and Saint Louis railroad from Tara southward may gain an excellent idea of the typical Wisconsin plain topography. While Lizard creek has a fairly deep valley the landscape for the most part is so level that one village may be seen from the next, and from Moorland and Cal- lender the great gypsum mills east of Fort Dodge are plainly visible. Railroads are a good index of topography and the long straight line of the Minneapolis and Saint Louis, with scarcely a curve between Tara and Gowrie, bespeaks a surface that is flat almost to monotony. Except where they follow drainage lines for convenience of access or to avoid heavy grades in crossing the deep valleys, the other railroads of the county reveal the same conditions. Webster county's topography is immature, it is in its youth and except for the rich harvests and prosperous homes one might almost believe that the great ice-cap had but yester- clay vanished and left behind its rich legacy of fertile soils.
But across this broad expanse there is incised the deep gash of the Des Moines valley. It is a marvel that such rugged bluffs and steep canyon-like walls should be found in the midst of such level plains and indeed apparently cut right into them. Oftentimes as one climbs up to the brink of the valley the illimitable expanse of the prairies stretches away from his very feet, and indeed these
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FIGURE VI-STRUCTURE OF THE GYPSUM
THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY
ASTOR, LENOX AND TILD N FOUNDATIONS
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HISTORY OF WEBSTER COUNTY
prairies may be drained away from the river. While as before indicated, the Des Moines valley may be pre-Pleistocene in age, it has been filled by each of the glaciers which have covered the region and the river has been obliged each time to re-excavate its channel. This gives rise to picturesque and beautiful scenery, both along the main stream and along the lower valleys of its tributaries. The Lizard forks, Two Mile creek, and numerous others, large and small, are examples. Where the covering of drift material has been cut through and the solid rocks are exposed the beauty and charm of the scenery are increased. Mural escarpments, miniature gorges and canyons, such as Wild Cat's Cave, give a delightful variety in a land of level prairies and monotonous landscapes. But the character of these creeks, and indeed all these features of rugged beauty, are indicative of the youth and immaturity of the topography and the drainage. Fol- lowed back a few miles even Lizard creek valley assumes the broad shallow sag- like features of the typical young prairie stream. In the ages to come the creeks will cut more definite valleys in their upper courses, the lower reaches of the valleys will widen out and the steep walls will be gradually worn down until they become low and gentle. The scenes which are today so pleasing will have dis- appeared and the peaceful quiet of the smooth, flowing contours of maturity and old age will rest upon the entire landscape.
The difference between the drainage of a region of youthful topography and that of one which has reached the mature stage is well shown in the accompany- ing sketches. Ringgold county lies in the area which has not been glaciated since the Kansas invasion and its streams have been long at work cutting back and lengthening their valleys. Moreover, a feature which could not be repre- sented on these maps is the abundance of short lateral ravines and gullies which cut up nearly every section of land in Ringgold county, while in Webster there are miles and miles without any drainage whatever, save that initiated by the farmer himself.
The geological history of Webster county has been long and varied. Uncounted centuries have passed away while that history has been in the writing and today the book is not yet closed. It lies open before us and we read therein the stories of the mighty forces of the past and see the tireless servants of Nature as with unobtrusive, persistent hands they inscribe their record upon its out- spread pages. If these pages bear any message it is surely that of a marvelous past and of hope and promise for the days still to come.
Vol 1-2
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CHAPTER II ON THE WAY TO IOWA
LAENAS GIFFORD WELD
American history is today being largely written, and is being writ large, here in the Mississippi valley. We may say indeed, not boastfully but in truth, that world history is making here --- not the history of battles and of dynasties, but of industry and public policy and finance and education-of all that makes for the uplift, the generation and the regeneration of the world's people.
The territory included in the Mississippi valley is, from the standpoint of physical geography, the most remarkable on the face of the earth. Stretching from the Alleghanies on the east fifteen hundred miles to the foothills of the Rocky mountains on the west and from the Gulf of Mexico four thousand miles northward to the Arctic ocean, it presents a vast plain, unbroken by high moun- tain ranges, unmarred by desert wastes, but diversified in its climate and its prod- ucts, fertile beyond comparison, abounding mineral wealth, watered by count- less streams, and comprising the most magnificent system of fresh water seas in the world. Toward this region the tide of world empire has been setting for three quarters of a century and is not even yet at its height. The financier may turn his eyes toward Wall street or Threadneedle street, the student may plan his pilgrimage to Cambridge or Leipzig, the artist may long for the inspira- tion afforded by the Louvre or the galleries of Florence, but the teeming millions of the over-crowded places of the world, with hands restless to do and hearts ready to dare, turn eager faces toward this great central basin of North America. In the center of this vast tract, midway between the mountain barriers to the east and to the west, midway between the tropic sea to the south and the frozen sea to the north, stands Iowa. And the way thither-will it interest you for a few moments ?
Ever since our school days, Columbus and De Soto have been names to con- jure with. The one found the way to the new world. the other made known something of its vast extent. But the significance of De Soto's discovery of the Mississippi in 1541 was quite unheeded and his expedition was remembered only on account of its disastrous ending. So far as authentic records indicate, a century and a quarter passed by before any white man again looked upon the "father of waters." Meantime our Atlantic seaboard was dotted with English, French, and Dutch settlements-Catholic or Huguenot, Puritans or Cavalier. Meantime too, the armed merchantmen of Europe "poked their noses," as it were, into every bay and up every navigable stream opening to the Atlantic, from
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IHISTORY OF WEBSTER COUNTY
Tierra del Fuego to Greenland, in search of a passage through to the Pacific, which should shorten the route to southeastern AAsia-to "Far Cathay." But for ten thousand miles the American continent presented an impassable barrier. To penetrate this barrier was, indeed, the great geographical problem of the two centuries following the landfall of Columbus. Hudson ascended the river which bears his name in the hope of finding an easy portage to some tributary of the Pacific. The same quest lured Captain John Smith up the James river and Cartier up the St. Lawrence.
The crude astrolabes used by the early navigators enabled them to determine latitudes with reasonable accuracy, but the determination of longitude at sea requires some form of chronometer, and timepieces had not yet been brought to any degree of perfection. And so, even after Sir Francis Drake had sailed far . up the Pacific coast of North America, there was no adequate conception of the breadth of the continent. Ilence it was but natural that, hearing from the Indians of a "great water" to which the streams over the western slopes of the Alleghanies made their way, the colonists on the Atlantic seaboard should identify this "great water" with the Pacific or South Sea and imagine that upon reaching it the way to Cathay would be much easier than by way of the Straits of Magel- lan or round the Cape of Good Hope. The "great water" to the west was, of course. the Mississippi, but all this was for many years understood but vaguely, if at all. The real extent of the hinterland of the American colonies was but dimly comprehended and not at all appreciated until long after these colonies had achieved their national independence. But a far different situation prevailed among the French colonies to the north as we shall presently see.
Singularly enough the history of the Mississippi valley began with Jacques Cartier's voyage up the St. Lawrence. Fishing fleets were now frequenting the waters about Newfoundland. occasionally ascending the river for the winter and carrying on a profitable fur trade with the Indians. It soon became evident that this trade was well worth developing. The supply seemed inexhaustible and furs soon came to be sought by the French in the north as eagerly if not as rapaciously as was gold by the Spaniards in the south. Champlain came up the river, bringing colonists who founded Quebec, in the same year that the English founded Jamestown. Whence came this supply of furs? And whence came this great river, mightier tenfold than any of the rivers of Europe? The first of these problems appealed to Champlain's superiors. the latter to Champlain him- self. He took but little interest in his colony except as it served him as a base for his explorations. He heard of a great sea to the west and would reach it and find thereby the way to Far Cathay. The St. Lawrence itself was blocked by the Iroquois Indians of northern New York, whose hostility to the French. and particularly to Champlain, was fierce and unrelenting. So he pushed his canoes up the Ottawa until its waters enmeshed with those of a lake called Nipis- sing. From this lake he followed a river, now known as French river, down to the Georgian Bay of Lake Huron. The Great Lakes lay before him, but it was not his to explore them. Indeed he had been preceded thus far by Franciscan missionaries who were already established among the Huron Indians at the head of this same bay.
Then followed two decades of confusion and reorganization of the French
FIGURE VH-MORAINIC KNOBS IN WISCONSIN DRIFT, NORTHERN WEBSTER COUNTY
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HISTORY OF WEBSTER COUNTY
colonies. The great Richelieu next assumed their management and, though Champlain was reappointed governor, commerce and trade were monopolized by a company known as the Hundred Associates ; while the Jesuits were virtually in charge of all other interests, temporal as well as spiritual. The Franciscan mis- sionaries were peremptorily excluded from the country-their work, represent- ing a quarter of a century of intense devotion, being ignored and even discredited. Forthwith began the publication of that remarkable and invaluable series of documents known as the Jesuit Relations. In these we find recorded from year to year in the language of the devoted fathers themselves, the principal events and items of interest in connection with the various missions esablished, not only in the vicinity of the settlements along the St. Lawrence, but in the far Northwest on the remotest borders of the Great Lakes as well.
Champlain seems merely to have been in charge of the garrisons stationed at Quebec and Three Rivers, but was at the same time free to promote further explorations. This he did, though now too old to again set out upon the wilder- ness trail himself. He dispatched Jean Nicollet on a voyage westward through the waters of Lake Huron to obtain more definite information regarding those countries which, through current rumors, were identified as the Asiatic Orient.
It is recorded that Nicollet took with him upon this journey, carefully sewed up in an oilskin bag, a handsomely embroidered mandarin's cape or cloak, in order that, when he should appear at the Chinese court, he might be respectably attired. The enterprise was one for which Nicollet was well prepared. For fifteen years he had lived among various Algonquin tribes, acquiring their lan- guages and inuring himself to the hardships of the wilderness.
The Jesuits had arranged to reestablish the mission to the Huron Indians at the head of Georgian bay, from which the Franciscans had been so summarily recalled. Each year the canoe fleet of the Hurons came down the Ottawa laden with furs for trade with the French on the St. Lawrence. In July of 1634 it was that the missionaries Brebeuf Daniel, and Davost embarked with this annual canoe fleet on its return journey to the Huron country. Nicollet was one of this motley company, but the situation was far less novel to him than to his fel- low countrymen of the black robes. The journey up the Ottawa was both diffi- cult and dangerous. This was "on the way to Iowa," so let me quote to you what the Jesuit Relations say of it.
"Of the ordinary difficulties," writes Brebeuf in his report (J. R. 1635), "the chief is that of the rapids and portages. Your reverence" (addressing Le Jeune, the superior at Quebec) "has already seen enough of the rapids at Kebec to know what they are. All the rivers of this country are full of them notably (this river. It runs not over ) "a smooth bed, but is continually broken up, roll- ing and leaping in a frightful way, like an impetuous torrent ; and even, in some places, it falls down suddenly from a height of several fathoms. * Now when these rapids or torrents are reached it is necessary to land and carry on the shoulders through woods and over high and jagged rocks all the baggage and the canoes themselves." This narrative, continued in Brebeuf's own words for the most part literally translated, affords a fair sample of the style and spirit of the Jesuit Relations. "In some places where the current is strong
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