USA > Iowa > Lucas County > History of Lucas County, Iowa containing a history of the county, its cities, towns, etc > Part 11
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The regions to which the drift lakes are principally confined are near the head waters of the principal streams of the State. We consequently find them in those regions which lie between the Cedar and Des Moines Rivers, and the Des Moines and Little Sioux. No drift lakes are found in Southern Iowa. The largest of the lakes to be found in the State are Spirit and Okoboji, in
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HISTORY OF THE STATE OF IOWA.
Dickinson County ; Clear Lake, in Cerro Gordo County ; and Storm Lake, in Bunea Vista County.
Spirit Lake .- The width and length of this lake are about equal; and it contains about twelve square miles of surface, its northern border resting directly on the boundary of the State. It lies almost directly upon the great watershed. Its shores are mostly gravelly, and the country about it fertile.
Okoboji Lake .- This body of water lies directly south of Spirit Lake, and has somewhat the shape of a horse-shoe, with its eastern projection within a few rods of Spirit Lake, where it receives the outlet of the latter. Okoboji Lake extends about five miles southward from Spirit Lake, thence about the same distance westward, and then bends northward about as far as the eastern projec- tion. The eastern portion is narrow, but the western is larger, and in some places a hundred feet deep. The surroundings of this and Spirit Lake are very pleasant. Fish are abundant in them, and they are the resort of myriads of water fowl.
Clear Lake .- This lake is situated in Cerro Gordo County, upon the watershed between the Iowa and Cedar Rivers. It is about five miles long, and two or three miles wide, and has a' maximum depth of only fifteen feet. Its shores and the country around it are like that of Spirit Lake.
Storm Lake .- This body of water rests upon the great water shed in Buena Vista County. It is a clear, beautiful sheet of water, containing a surface area of between four and five square miles.
The outlets of all these drift-lakes are dry during a portion of the year, ex- cept Okoboji.
Walled Lakes .- Along the water sheds of Northern Iowa great numbers of small lakes exist, varying from half a mile to a mile in diameter. One of the lakes in Wright County, and another in Sac, have each received the name of " Walled Lake," on account of the existence of embankments on their borders, which are supposed to be the work of ancient inhabitants. These embankments are from two to ten feet in height, and from five to thirty feet across. They are the result of natural causes alone, being referable to the periodic action of ice, aided, to some extent, by the force of the waves. These lakes are very shallow, and in winter freeze to the bottom, so that but little unfrozen water remains in the middle. The ice freezes fast to everything upon the bottom, and the expansive power of the water in freezing acts in all directions from the center to the cir- cumference, and whatever was on the bottom of the lake has been thus carried to the shore, and this has been going on from year to year, from century to century, forming the embankments which have caused so much wonder.
SPRINGS.
Springs issue from all formations, and from the sides of almost every valley, but they are more numerous, and assume proportions which give rise to the name of sink-holes, along the upland borders of the Upper Iowa River, owing
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to the peculiar fissured and laminated character and great thickness of the strata of the age of the Trenton limestone which underlies the whole region of the valley of that stream.
No mineral springs, properly so called, have yet been discovered in Iowa, though the water of several artesian wells is frequently found charged with soluble mineral substances.
ORIGIN OF THE PRAIRIES.
It is estimated that seven-eighths of the surface of the State was prairie when first settled. They are not confined to level surfaces, nor to any partic- ular variety of soil, for within the State they rest upon all formations, from those of the Azoic to those of the Cretaceous age, inclusive. Whatever may have been their origin, their present existence in Iowa is not due to the influ- ence of climate, nor the soil, nor any of the underlying formations. The real cause is the prevalence of the annual fires. If these had been prevented fifty years ago, Iowa would now be a timbered country. The encroachment of forest trees upon prairie farms as soon as the bordering woodland is protected from the annual prairie fires, is well known to farmers throughout the State.
The soil of Iowa is justly famous for its fertility, and there is probably no equal area of the earth's surface that contains so little untillable land, or whose soil has so high an average of fertility. Ninety-five per cent. of its surface is tillable land.
GEOLOGY.
The soil of Iowa may be separated into three general divisions, which not only possess different physical characters, but also differ in the mode of their origin. These are drift, bluff and alluvial, and belong respectively to the deposits bearing the same names. The drift occupies a much larger part of the surface of the State than both the others. The bluff has the next greatest area of surface, and the alluvial least.
All soil is disintegrated rock. The drift deposit of Iowa was derived, to a considerable extent, from the rocks of Minnesota; but the greater part of Iowa drift was derived from its own rocks, much of which has been transported but a short distance. In general terms the constant component element of the drift soil is that portion which was transported from the north, while the inconstant elements are those portions which were derived from the adjacent or underlying strata. For example, in Western Iowa, wherever that cretaceous formation known as the Nishnabotany sandstone exists, the soil contains more sand than elsewhere. The same may be said of the soil of some parts of the State occu- pied by the lower coal measures, the sandstones and sandy shales of that forma- tion furnishing the sand.
In Northern and Northwestern Iowa, the drift contains more sand and gravel than elsewhere. This sand and gravel was, doubtless, derived from the
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cretaceous rocks that now do, or formerly did, exist there, and also in part from the conglomerate and pudding-stone beds of the Sioux quartzite.
In Southern Iowa, the soil is frequently stiff and clayey. This preponder- ating clay is doubtless derived from the clayey and shaly beds which alternate with the limestones of that region.
The bluff soil is that which rests upon, and constitutes a part of, the bluff deposit. It is found only in the western part of the State, and adjacent to the Missouri River. Although it contains less than one per cent. of clay in its composition, it is in no respect inferior to the best drift soil.
The alluvial soil is that of the flood plains of the river valleys, or bottom lands. That which is periodically flooded by the rivers is of little value for agricultural purposes ; but a large part of it is entirely above the reach of the highest floods, and is very productive.
The stratified rocks of Iowa range from the Azoic to the Mesozoic, inclu- sive; but the greater portion of the surface of the State is occupied by those of the Paleozoic age. The table below will show each of these formations in their order :
SYSTEMS.
GROUPS.
FORMATIONS.
AGES.
PERIODS.
EPOCHS.
THICKNESS. IN FEET.
Post Tertiary
Drift ..
10 to 200
Cretaceous
Inoceramous bed ...
50
Lower Cretaceous.
Woodbury Sandstone and Shales.
180
Nishnabotany Sandstone.
100
Coal Measures.
Middle Coal Measures
200
Carboniferous
....
St. Louis Limestone
75
Subcarboniferous.
Burlington Limestone.
196
Devonian. ....
Hamilton
Hamilton Limestone and Shales
200
Upper Silurian.
Niagara ..
Niagara Limestone.
350
Cincinnati
Maquoketa Shales.
80
Trenton.
Trenton Limestone.
200
Lower Silurian.
St. Peter's Sandstone.
80
Primordial.
Lower Magnesian Limestone ..
250
-
Potsdam Sandstone
300
Azoic
Huronian
Sioux Quartzite.
50
THE AZOIC SYSTEM.
The Sioux quartzite is found exposed in natural ledges only upon a few acres in the extreme northwest corner of the State, upon the banks of the Big Sioux River, for which reason the specific name of Sioux Quartzite has been given them. It is an intensely hard rock, breaks in splintery fracture, and a color varying, in different localities, from a light to deep red. The process of metamorphism has been so complete throughout the whole formation that the rock is almost everywhere of uniform texture. The dip is four or five degrees to the northward, and the trend of the outcrop is eastward and westward. This
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200
Upper Coal Measures ..
Lower Coal Measures.
200
Keokuk Limestone .....
90
Kinderhook beds.
175
Galena Limestone.
250
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HISTORY OF THE STATE OF IOWA.
rock may be quarried in a few rare cases, but usually it cannot be secured in dry forms except that into which it naturally cracks, and the tendency is to angular pieces. It is absolutely indestructible.
LOWER SILURIAN SYSTEM.
PRIMORDIAL GROUP.
Potsdam Sandstone .- This formation is exposed only in a small portion of the northeastern portion of the State. It is only to be seen in the bases of the bluffs and steep valley sides which border the river there. It may be seen underlying the lower magnesian limestone, St. Peter s sandstone and Trenton limestone, in their regular order, along the bluffs of the Mississippi from the northern boundary of the State as far south as Guttenburg, along the Upper Iowa for a distance of about twenty miles from its mouth, and along a few of the streams which empty into the Mississippi in Allamakee County.
It is nearly valueless for economic purposes.
No fossils have been discovered in this formation in Iowa.
Lower Magnesium Limestone .- This formation has but little greater geo- graphical extent in Iowa than the Potsdam sandstone. It lacks a uniformity of texture and stratification, owing to which it is not generally valuable for building purposes.
The only fossils found in this formation in Iowa are a few traces of crinoids, near McGregor.
St. Peter's Sandstone .- This formation is remarkably uniform in thickness throughout its known geographical extent; and it is evident it occupies a large portion of the northern half of Allamakee County, immediately beneath the drift.
TRENTON GROUP.
Trenton Limestone .- With the exception of this, all the limestones of both Upper and Lower Silurian age in Iowa are magnesian limestones-nearly pure ยท dolomites. This formation occupies large portions of Winnesheik and Alla- makee Counties and a portion of Clayton. The greater part of it is useless for economic purposes, yet there are in some places compact and evenly bedded layers, which afford fine material for window caps and sills.
In this formation, fossils are abundant, so much so that, in some places, the rock is made up of a mass of shells, corals and fragments of tribolites, cemented by calcareous material into a solid rock. Some of these fossils are new to science and peculiar to Iowa.
The Galena Limestone .- This is the upper formation of the Trenton group. It seldom exceeds twelve miles in width, although it is fully one hundred and fifty miles long. The outcrop traverses portions of the counties of Howard, Winnesheik, Allamakee, Fayette, Clayton, Dubuque and Jackson. It exhibits its greatest development in Dubuque County. It is nearly & pure dolomite, with a slight admixture of silicious matter. It is usually unfit for dressing,
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though sometimes near the top of the bed good blocks for dressing are found. This formation is the source of the lead ore of the Dubuque lead mines. The lead region proper is confined to an area of about fifteen miles square in the vicinity of Dubuque. The ore occurs in vertical fissures, which traverse the rock at regular intervals from east to west ; some is found in those which have a north and south direction. The ore is mostly that known as Galena, or sul- phuret of lead, very small quantities only of the carbonate being found with it.
CINCINNATI GROUP.
Maquoketa Shales .- The surface occupied by this formation is singularly long and narrow, seldom reaching more than a mile or two in width, but more than a hundred miles in length. Its most southerly exposure is in the bluffs of the Mississippi near Bellevue, in Jackson County, and the most northerly yet recognized is in the western part of Winnesheik County. The whole formation is largely composed of bluish and brownish shales, sometimes slightly arena- ceous, sometimes calcareous, which weather into a tenacious clay upon the sur- face, and the soil derived from it is usually stiff and clayey. Its economic value is very slight.
Several species of fossils which characterize the Cincinnati group are found in the Maquoketa shales; but they contain a larger number that have been found anywhere else than in these shales in Iowa, and their distinct faunal char- acteristics seem to warrant the separation of the Maquoketa shales as a distinct formation from any others of the group.
UPPER SILURIAN SYSTEM. NIAGARA GROUP.
Niagara Limestone .- The area occupied by the Niagara limestone is nearly one hundred and sixty miles long from north to south, and forty and fifty miles wide.
This formation is entirely a magnesian limestone, with in some places a con- siderable proportion of silicious matter in the form of chert or coarse flint. A large part of it is evenly bedded, and probably affords the best and greatest amount of quarry rock in the State. The quarries at Anamosa, LeClaire and Farley are all opened in this formation.
DEVONIAN SYSTEM. HAMILTON GROUP.
Hamilton Limestone .- The area of surface occupied by the Hamilton lime- stone and shales is fully as great as those by all the formations of both Upper and Lower Silurian age in the State. It is nearly two hundred miles long and from forty to fifty miles broad. The general trend is northwestward and south- eastward.
Although a large part of the material of this formation is practically quite worthless, yet other portions are valuable for economic purposes ; and having a
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HISTORY OF THE STATE OF IOWA.
large geographical extent in the State, is one of the most important formations, in a practical point of view. At Waverly, Bremer County, its value for the production of hydraulic lime has been practically demonstrated. The heavier and more uniform magnesian beds furnish material for bridge piers and other material requiring strength and durability.
All the Devonian strata of Iowa evidently belong to a single epoch, and re- ferable to the Hamilton, as recognized by New York geologists.
The most conspicuous and characteristic fossils of this formation are bra- chiopod, mollusks and corals. The coral Acervularia Davidsoni occurs near Iowa City, and is known as "Iowa City Marble," and " bird's-eye marble."
CARBONIFEROUS SYSTEM.
Of the three groups of formations that constitute the carboniferous system, viz., the subcarboniferous, coal measures and permian, only the first two are found in Iowa.
SUBCARBONIFEROUS GROUP.
The area of the surface occupied by this group is very large. Its eastern border passes from the northeastern part of Winnebago County, with consider- able directness in a southeasterly direction to the northern part of Washington County. Here it makes a broad and direct bend nearly eastward, striking the Mississippi River at Muscatine. The southern and western boundary is to a considerable extent the same as that which separates it from the coal field. From the southern part of Pocahontas County it passes southeast to Fort Dodge, thence to Webster City, thence to a point three or four miles northeast of El- dora, in Hardin County, thence southward to the middle of the north line of Jasper County, thence southeastward to Sigourney, in Keokuk County, thence to the northeastern corner of Jefferson County, thence sweeping a few miles eastward to the southeast corner of Van Buren County. Its area is nearly two hundred and fifty miles long, and from twenty to fifty miles wide.
The Kinderhook Beds .- The most southerly exposure of these beds is near the mouth of Skunk River, in Des Moines County. The most northerly now known is in the eastern part of Pocahontas County, more than two hundred miles distant. The principal exposures of this formation are along the bluffs which border the Mississippi and Skunk Rivers, where they form the eastern and northern boundary of Des Moines County, along English River, in Wash- ington County ; along the Iowa River, in Tama, Marshall, Hamlin and Frank- lin Counties ; and along the Des Moines River, in Humboldt County.
The economic value of this formation is very considerable, particularly in the northern portion of the region it occupies. In Pocahontas and Humboldt Counties it is almost invaluable, as no other stone except a few boulders are found here. At Iowa Falls the lower division is very good for building pur- poses. In Marshall County all the limestone to be obtained comes from this formation, and the quarries near LeGrand are very valuable. At this point
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some of the layers are finely veined with peroxide of iron, and are wrought into ornamental and useful objects.
In Tama County, the oolitic member is well exposed, where it is manufac- tured into lime. It is not valuable for building, as upon exposure to atmosphere and frost, it crumbles to pieces.
The remains of fishes are the only fossils yet discovered in this formation that can be referred to the sub-kingdom VERTEBRATA; and so far as yet recog. nized, they all belong to the order selachians.
Of ARTICULATES, only two species have been recognized, both of which belong to the genus phillipsia.
The sub-kingdom MOLLUSCA is largely represented.
The RADIATA are represented by a few crinoids, usually found in a very im- perfect condition .. The sub-kingdom is also represented by corals.
The prominent feature in the life of this epoch was molluscan ; so much so in fact as to overshadow all other branches of the animal kingdom. The pre- vailing classes are: lamellibranchiates, in the more arenaceous portions ; and brachiopods, in the more calcareous portions.
No remains of vegetation have been detected in any of the strata of this formation.
The Burlington Limestone .- This formation consists of two distinct calca- reous divisions, which are separated by a series of silicious beds. Both divi- sions are eminently crinoidal.
The southerly dip of the Iowa rocks carries the Burlington limestone down, so that it is seen for the last time in this State in the valley of Skunk River, near the southern boundary of Des Moines County. The most northerly point at which it has been recognized is in the northern part of Washington County. It probably exists as far north as Marshall County.
This formation affords much valuable material for economic purposes. The upper division furnishes excellent common quarry rock.
The great abundance and variety of its fossils-crinoids-now known to be more than three hundred, have justly attracted the attention of geologists in all parts of the world.
The only remains of vertebrates discovered in this formation are those of fishes, and consist of teeth and spines; bone of bony fishes, like those most common at the present day, are found in these rocks. On Buffington Creek, in Louisa County, is a stratum in an exposure so fully charged with these remains that it might with propriety be called bone breccia.
Remains of articulates are rare in this formation. So far as yet discovered, they are confined to two species of tribolites of the genus phillipsia.
Fossil shells are very common.
The two lowest classes of the sub-kingdom radiata are represented in the genera zaphrentis, amplexus and syringapora, while the highest class-echino- derms-are found in most extraordinary profusion.
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The Keokuk Limestone .- It is only in the four counties of Lee, Van. Buren, Henry and Des Moines that this formation is to be seen.
In some localities the upper silicious portion of this formation is known as the Geode bed. It is not recognizable in the northern portion of the formation, nor in connection with it where it is exposed, about eighty miles below Keokuk.
The geodes of the Geode bed are more or less spherical masses of silex, usually hollow and lined with crystals of quartz. The outer crust is rough and unsightly, but the crystals which stud the interior are often very beautiful. They vary in size from the size of a walnut to a foot in diameter.
The economic value of this formation is very great. Large quantities of its stone have been used in the finest structures in the State, among which are the post offices at Dubuque and Des Moines. The principal quarries are along the banks of the Mississippi, from Keokuk to Nauvoo.
The only vertebrate fossils found in the formation are fishes, all belonging to the order selachians, some of which indicate that their owners reached a. length of twenty-five or thirty feet.
Of the articulates, only two species of the genus phillipsia have been found in this formation.
Of the mollusks, no cephalopods have yet been recognized in this formation in this State; gasteropods are rare; brachiopods and polyzoans are quite abundant.
Of radiates, corals of genera zaphrentes, amplexus and aulopera are found, but crinoids are most abundant.
Of the low forms of animal life, the protozoans, a small fossil related to the sponges, is found in this formation in small numbers.
The St. Louis Limestone .- This is the uppermost of the subcarboniferous group in Iowa. The superficial area it occupies is comparatively small, because it consists of long, narrow strips, yet its extent is very great. It is first seen resting on the geode division of the Keokuk limestone, near Keokuk. Pro- ceeding northward, it forms a narrow border along the edge of the coal fields in Lee, Des Moines, Henry, Jefferson, Washington, Keokuk and Mahaska Counties. It is then lost sight of until it appears again in the banks of Boone River, where it again passes out of view under the coal measures until it is next seen in the banks of the Des Moines, near Fort Dodge. As it exists in Iowa, it consists of three tolerably distinct subdivisions-the magnesian, arena- ceous and calcareous.
The upper division furnishes excellent material for quicklime, and when quarries are well opened, as in the northwestern part of Van Buren County, large blocks are obtained. The sandstone, or middle division, is of little economic value. The lower or magnesian division furnishes a valuable and durable stone, exposures of which are found on Lick Creek, in Van Buren County, and on Long Creek, seven miles west of Burlington.
Of the fossils of this formation, the vertebrates are represented only by the remains of fish, belonging to the two orders, selachians and ganoids. The
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HISTORY OF THE STATE OF IOWA.
articulates are represented by one species of the trilobite, genus phillipsia, and two ostracoid, genera, cythre and beyricia. The mollusks distinguish this formation more than any other branch of the animal kingdom. Radiates are exceedingly rare, showing a marked contrast between this formation and the two preceding it.
The rocks of the subcarboniferous period have in other countries, and in other parts of our own country, furnished valuable minerals, and even coal, but in Iowa the economic value is confined to its stone alone.
The Lower Silurian, Upper Silurian and Devonian rocks of Iowa are largely composed of limestone. Magnesia also enters largely into the subcarbon- iferous group. With the completion of the St. Louis limestone, the production of the magnesian limestone seems to have ceased among the rocks of Iowa.
Although the Devonian age has been called the age of fishes, yet so far as Iowa is concerned, the rocks of no period can compare with the subcarbon- iferous in the abundance and variety of the fish remains, and, for this reason, the Burlington and Keokuk limestones will in the future become more famous among geologists, perhaps, than any other formations in North America.
It will be seen that the Chester limestone is omitted from the subcarbon- iferous group, and which completes the full geological series. It is probable the whole surface of Iowa was above the sea during the time of the formation of the Chester limestone to the southward about one hundred miles.
At the close of the epoch of the Chester limestone, the shallow seas in which the lower coal measures were formed again occupied the land, extending almost as far north as that sea had done in which the Kinderhook beds were formed, and to the northeastward its deposits extended beyond the subcarbon- iferous groups, outlines of which are found upon the next, or Devonian rock.
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