USA > Iowa > Wapello County > History of Wapello County, Iowa, Volume I > Part 9
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In 1856 A. H. Worthen made an examination of the valley of the Des Moines, and gives in his report several sections occurring along that river in Wapello County. During the following year the same geologist again visited the region, and published a brief general account of the geology of the county. At that time the principal coal banks were in the neighborhood of Dahlonega and Kirkville, and in the river bluffs, four miles below Eddyville. In 1867 C. A. White visited the coal mines which were then in operation in the county, and in his report gives their location, together with the thickness and number of veins.
The record of one of the artesian wells put down at Ottumwa was published in 1880 by C. H. Gordon, and the record of this and another well is given and discussed by W. II. Norton in his report on The Artesian Wells of Iowa. In 1803 the coal mines of the district were visited by members of the lowa Geological Survey, and a brief account of them is contained in the report on The Coal Deposits of Iowa, by C. R. Keyes.
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HISTORY OF WAPELLO COUNTY
From the above it will be seen that little work had been done on the geology of Wapello County except that of a fragmentary and very general nature, which was all it was possible to do in the time which had been devoted to the study of the area.
TOPOGRAPHY
The topography of this region is due entirely to erosion, and the valleys and ridges have been formed by the action of running water on the soft drift materials and the underlying indurated rocks. The region was once a level or nearly level drift plain, from which the inequalities of the present surface have been carved by the streams. The greater portion of this plain has been thoroughly dissected and deep valleys eroded in it. In the north- eastern part of the county the surface has been much less affected by erosion than the rest of the area, the land is gently rolling and the creeks have cut comparatively shallow valleys. In strong contrast with this are the southwestern townships and those crossed by the Des Moines River. In these the surface has been deeply cut by valleys which branch and re- branch in all directions and produce a rough and rugged topography. But all the divides are seen to rise to the same height, and if the valleys were filled up to the same level the original plain would be restored. This thoroughly and deeply dissected area includes Green, Keokuk and Polk townships, with parts of Adams, Center, Cass, Columbia and Richland. The upland plain includes Highland, Competine and Pleasant townships, together with parts of Dahlonega, Agency and Washington townships. A northwest- southeast line passing through Kirkville, Dahlonega, Agency City and Ash- land would separate this rolling plain from the deeply eroded and rough country bordering the Des Moines River and lying south and west of it.
The most marked topographic feature of the region is the broad valley of the Des Moines. This stream crosses the county diagonally from north- west to southeast, and has cut its broad valley to a depth of from 150 to 200 feet. The flood plain varies in width from one-half to two miles, the average being about one mile. From Eddyville to Ottumwa the valley is noticeably narrower than it is below the latter town. Above Ottumwa the average width is less than three-quarters of a mile, while from Ottumwa to Eldon it is one and one-quarter miles. A large part of Ottumwa is built on the broad bottom land of the Des Moines, whose valley here broadens out until just below the town it has a width of two miles.
This difference in the width of the valley is probably due to a difference in the rock in which it has been carved. Below Eddyville as far as the county seat the river has cut its channel through the soft coal measure shales and into the harder and more resistent Saint Louis limestone. Below Ottumwa the limestone lies beneath the bed of the river, and the stream, in forming its valley, has had to erode only the easily washed shales and
VIEW OF DES MOINES RIVER. EDDYVILLE
EDDYVILLE SAAND COMPANY'S STEAMBOAT
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HISTORY OF WAPELLO COUNTY
soft sandstones. The recession of the sides by lateral cutting of the river and by atmospheric agencies would progress rapidly in these readily affected materials. On the other hand, where the channel is in limestone, the widening process goes on less rapidly, owing to the greater resistance offered by the latter rock.
In the broader portion of its valley, between Ottumwa and Eldon, the Des Moines meanders back and forth across its flood plain, striking first one bluff and then the other. At the former place the river makes several broad loops, and its course has changed in recent times, as is shown by an old abandoned channel. Another excellent example of stream meanders is furnished by Soap Creek as it flows across the flood plain of the Des Moines River, in the southeastern corner of the county.
The behavior of Village Creek when it enters the valley of the Des Moines, in section 8 of Keokuk township, is so peculiar as to deserve notice. As soon as the flood plain of the latter stream is reached, instead of keeping on in the same direction as before, it turns abruptly and, taking a course at right angles to its former one, it follows along close to the side of the valley and enters the river a mile or more below. The cause of the creek taking this course and following the bluff is probably found in the slight outward slope of the flood plain. It is well known that there is a tendency for a flood plain to be highest next the river. where the deposition of silt goes on most rapidly, and from this point it slopes gently toward the sides of the valley. On this account when a tributary stream enters a valley it may be compelled to follow down along one side, where the land is lowest, until a favorable opportunity is afforded for joining the larger stream. In the present instance this is when the river makes a bend and comes over to its west bluff. North Avery Creek at one time followed the edge of the flood plain in the same way as Village Creek and entered the Des Moines at Chillicothe, one mile below its present mouth. The old channel still remains, and is occupied by the river during ordinary stages of the water. The formation of a new mouth and the abandonment of its old channel were caused by lateral cutting. At the bend where the creek abruptly changed its course the current was swiftest on the outer side, the cutting of the bank was most rapid at that point, and the creek thus gradually shifted its channel until it entered the main stream by its present mouth. On the map of the county made six or seven years ago, North Avery is represented as emptying into the river by way of its old channel, and its new mouth has probably been formed within a few years.
The Des Moines and its tributaries have eroded their valleys through the drift and have cut down deep into the coal measure strata, while in the northwestern part of the county they have worn their channels into the underlying Saint Louis limestone. At Ottumwa, where the Des Moines flows over the ledges of this limestone, the coal measures rise from 100 to
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HISTORY OF WAPELLO COUNTY
150 feet above the river, and at Eldon to a height of 135 feet above the same stream.
The chief drainage lines of the county appear to be pre-glacial. The valleys of the Des Moines and its larger tributaries were probably formed, at least in part, before the advent of the ice sheet. During glacial times they were filled with drift, and the entire region was covered with a mantle of that material, which obliterated the topographic features previously existing. Upon the retreat of the ice a nearly level drift plain was left where before there had been a surface deeply cut by the stream into valleys and ridges. But in the old pre-glacial valleys, where the drift was thickest, it would settle more than upon the uplands over which it was thinner. Slight de- pressions would thus come to occupy the place of the former valleys, and these sags would be taken possession of by the streams which established themselves on the surface upon the withdrawal of the ice. These streams would quite readily carry away the loose materials of the drift until they had cut their way down to the bed rock, clearing out and deepening the former waterways.
That the valleys are pre-glacial is shown by the fact that in places the drift is seen to follow down the sides, covering up the strata which once formed the walls. This is what would be expected if the valleys were already formed when the mantle of drift was laid down.
The following table gives the elevations above tide of the principal towns of the county and several just outside the area. The figures are taken from Gannett's Dictionary of Altitudes in the United States :
Localities.
Elevation.
Agency
807
Batavia
727
Bidwell 720
Blakesburg 912
Chillicothe
660
Dudley
674
Eddyville 676
Eldon 630
Hedrick 827
Highland
780
Ottumwa
650
Batavia is just over the east line of the county and Hedrick is a mile from the north line. Agency, Blakesburg, Hedrick and Highland are located on the upland plain, while the other towns are located in the valleys. The highest part of the area is in Adams township, in the vicinity of Blakesburg, and the lowest point is in the Des Moines valley at Eldon.
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HISTORY OF WAPELLO COUNTY
DRAINAGE
The drainage of Wapello County has reached its maturity. The streams, with their numerous tributaries, reach out to all parts of the land and carry off the water as rapidly as it falls upon the surface. The Des Moines and its tributaries drain about two-thirds of the area, and the affluents of the Skunk River, Competine and Cedar creeks, with their branches, drain the other third. The former drainage system, as already stated, has cut valleys which are much deeper than those formed by the latter system. The major stream and its chief tributaries flow in valleys from 150 to 200 feet in depth, while Competine and Cedar creeks, which drain the northeastern townships, have valleys with a depth of not more than forty to sixty feet. They are broad, with gently sloping sides, and in no place do they extend through the drift to the underlying coal measures. Though the drainage lines of the north- eastern townships ramify over the surface until they reach all portions of the area, the channels are shallow and the land is not deeply dissected as in other portions of the county. The reason the tributaries of the Skunk River have not eroded their valleys to the same depth as those of the Des. Moines system is found in the fact that the former streams flow long dis- tances before entering the Skunk River, and the latter in turn enters the Mississippi over thirty-five miles above the mouth of the Des Moines. Cedar and Competine creeks, therefore, have much less of a fall and erode their channels more slowly than the Des Moines drainage system. The Des Moines, being a large stream, has been able to cut its valley at a compara- tively rapid rate, and its tributaries have carved their valleys down to the same base level.
The chief tributaries of the Des Moines River are North Avery, South Avery, Bear, Village and Soap creeks, all of which enter it from the west or southwest. The streams flowing in from the north are smaller, the ma- jority of them being only a few miles in length. They have narrow, steep- sided valleys and their courses are approximately at right angles to the major stream.
In traversing the county from the northwest corner to the southeast corner, a distance of twenty-eight miles, the Des Moines has a fall of forty- eight feet. But the gradient below Ottumwa is twice as great as it is above. From Eddyville to Ottumwa the river has a fall of one and one-eighth feet to the mile, but from the latter town to Eldon the fall is two and one-half feet to the mile.
STRATIGRAPHY
The geological formations which are present in Wapello County are few in number, but of much importance economically. They belong to the Car- boniferous and Pleistocene systems. The oldlest strata which appear at the
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HISTORY OF WAPELLO COUNTY
surface are the limestones of the Lower Carboniferous. Overlying these, but separated from them by an unconformity representing a long time inter- val, are the more recent shales and sandstones of the Upper Carboniferous. It is when these upper beds, which once covered the entire county, have been cut through by the larger streams that the Lower Carboniferous lime- stones are exposed. As will be seen by a reference to the map, they are found in the valley of the Des Moines and along some of its chief tributaries.
Overlying these indurated rocks, which are of marine origin, is a forma- tion of entirely different character and of very much younger age. It is made up of the loose and heterogeneous deposits of the Pleistocene, including the drift and loess. These were formed at the time of the great ice sheets from the north invaded Iowa and left behind the mixture of clay, sand, gravel and bowlders which form the drift. The drift is covered by a thin layer of silt-like material, the loess. Belonging to the same period is the alluvium of the river valleys, formed by the streams during periods of overflow.
SAINT LOUIS STAGE
The rocks belonging to this stage are the oldest which appear at the surface in Wapello County. They consist of limestones, marly shales and sandstones. The limestone, which is quite uniform in character and ap- pearance, is very compact, fine-grained and light gray or blue in color. It frequently contains small particles of crystals of iron pyrites, and careful examination will usually show minute fragments of fossils, especially on a weathered surface. Some of the rock, however, resembles lithographic stone in appearance and bears no evidence of organic remains. The beds vary in thickness from two or three inches to two feet. Interstratified with the limestones are gray, marly shales, which are commonly quite rich in fossils. These marls, on long continued exposure to the weather, become soft and earthy, and, wearing away more rapidly than the limestone, leave the latter in projecting ledges. The marly layers often attain a thickness of two or three feet, and range from that down to an inch or less. They are very' characteristic of the upper portion of the Saint Louis. At several points sandstone was observed underlying the calcareous beds, and these arenaceous deposits are also reported from a number of wells in different parts of the county. Where seen in its outcrops the sandstone is soft and white or yellow in color.
The Saint Louis limestone is confined to the northwestern part of the county, where it outcrops in the valleys of the streams which have cut their channels through the overlying coal measure shales and sandstones and ex- posed the beds beneath. Though the strata of the formation underlie the entire area, as shown by deep wells, they are in most places buried beneath the deposits of the Upper Carboniferous. The limestones occur in the valley
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HISTORY OF WAPELLO COUNTY
of the Des Moines from Ottumwa to Eddyville, and also south of Eldon, just north of the Davis County line, along the South Avery and North Avery creeks and along the lower courses of many of the smaller streams entering the river from the north and west. The Saint Louis also probably occurs beneath the drift in several sections in the northern part of Com- petine and llighland townships, as shown from outerops across the line in Keokuk County. The rock is extensively quarried at Dudley, Ottumwa and Eddyville.
About one-quarter of a mile below the mouth of Miller Creek several feet of black, fissile, coal measure shales appear, overlying the limestone, and one and one-half miles above the same point in Monroe County there is a four and a half foot seam of coal twenty feet above the Saint Louis, sep- arated from it by shale and fire clay. Eight or ten feet of this black shale outcrop at the wagon bridge in the northeast quarter of section 18, Columbia Township. The limestone appears along Palestine Creek, five feet of it being exposed below the bridge in section 21 of the same township. The Saint Louis limestone is exposed at many points along North Avery Creek between Chillicothe and Dudley.
One-half mile east of Dudley the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad has opened a new channel for the North Avery Creek in order to straighten out its course. In this artificial cut the Saint Louis limestone is well exposed.
The Saint Louis limestone is exposed along Harrow's branch, in the City of Ottumwa, and in the bed of the Des Moines River at the same place. The most southern point at which the limestone outerops at the surface, with the exception of the small area in the bed of the river about one mile below Eldon, is on Sugar Creek, near where it empties into the river.
The Saint Louis strata appear along Fudge Creek as far north as the southeast quarter of the northeast quarter of section 14. Columbia Township, where it is seen in the bed of the stream. It also appears two miles south of Kirkville, along the stream with the east-west course, near the center of the northeast quarter of section 20, Richland Township. At this point the beds rise eight to ten feet above the creek, and are composed of gray, marly shales with limestone ledges six inches to one foot thick. Overlying the calcareous beds are gray and black shales and thin-bedded sandstone.
DES MOINES STAGE (COAL MEASURES)
The rocks of this stage, in the order of their aggregate thickness, are clay shales, sandstones, limestones and beds of coal. The shales, which make up the great bulk of the coal measure strata, are of two varieties. One is carbonaceous, fissile and black in color ; the other is argillaceous, is not so fissile, and is found in a variety of colors, of which gray predomi- nates. By an increase in the carbonaceous material the black shale passes into bony coal, and so into true coal. The argillaceous variety frequently
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HISTORY OF WAPELLO COUNTY
becomes sandy, and with the increase of this constituent it graduates into sandy shales and sandstone.
A thick bed of massive sandstone occurs along the Des Moines River about two miles below Ottumwa, and for nearly six miles it forms the bluffs on either side of the valley. It is well exposed at Cliffland Station, on the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railroad. In places it rises as a steep escarpment 100 feet above the river. This massive bed of compacted sand is known to have covered an area of some eighteen square miles, and probably more. The Des Moines has cut its valley through it and has carried away a large part of the bed. Such thick coal measure sandstones are known to occur at other localities in southeastern Iowa.
The thickness of the coal measures in Wapello County varies widely in different parts of the area. In a few places they are entirely absent, in others they are more than two hundred feet thick. In the bluff at Ottumwa they are 150 to 175 feet thick; at Eldon they are about the same, and in section 12 of Pleasant Township they reach a thickness of 222 feet. It is probable that the maximum thickness of these strata in the county is not over 250 feet, and the average may be given as between 150 to 200 feet.
ALLUVIUM AND TERRACES
The flood plain of the Des Moines and its larger tributaries and of Cedar and Competine creeks are composed of alluvium. This deposit is composed of materials derived chiefly from the drift and loess which have been carried down the slopes by the rains and redeposited by the streams in their valley bottoms. The alluvial plain of the Des Moines reaches a width of more than two miles for some distance below Ottumwa. The surface of the flood plain lies at a level of about twelve feet above low water. The rem- nants of an older flood-plain show at a number of places in the Des Moines valley as a terrace lying eight feet above the "first bottom," or at an elevation of twenty feet above low water. The river has cut into and carried away most of this higher plain which once formed the bottom of the valley, and all that is left of it is this terrace. It appears on the west side of the river just below Ottumwa, south of Eldon, and at various points between these two towns. Eddyville is built on a terrace twenty-five feet above low water, and near Kirkville station there is what appears to be the remnants of a fifty-foot terrace. The road between the station and Chillicothe traverses it for some distance before descending to the present flood-plain.
COAL
Wapello is one of the important coal-producing counties of the state. Thirty years ago its output was greater than that of any other county, with
VIEW NEAR CLIFFLAND
SOUTH OTTUMWA PARK
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HISTORY OF WAPELLO COUNTY
the possible exception of Mahaska, and for many years since then it held its place near the head of the list.
Mining has been carried on here almost from the earliest settlement of the region. As long ago as 1857 there were mines in the neighborhood of Kirkville and Dahlonega, in the river bluffs four miles below Eddyville, and along Bear Creek four miles west of Ottumwa. In 1862 Wapello produced 327,650 bushels of coal, or nearly three times as much as any other county in the state. In 1867, when White visited this district, the following were the more important mines in operation: C. Dudley & Company's, one mile south of Dudley, on Middle Avery Creek. The seam was four feet thick and lay fifty feet above the Saint Louis limestone. Henry Shock & Com- pany's mines in Happy Hollow (section 8, township 72 north, range 14 west ) were working in a five-foot seam. Messrs. Brown & Godfrey ope- rated the U'nion mine near Keb (section 33, township 73 north, range 14 west), where the coal was four to four and a half feet thick. The Alpine Coal Company had a large mine at Alpine station ( two miles below Cliff- land ) on the Des Moines Valley Railroad. The seam was from four to five feet thick, and large quantities of the coal were shipped to Keokuk. White states that since the mine was opened it had produced about a million bushels, which was probably more than the output up to that time (1867) of any other mine in the state.
In 1877 the largest mines in the county were the Union Coal Company mine, with an output for that year of 608,977 bushels, and the Postlewait mine at Happy Hollow, with an output of 582,507 bushels. The latter mine was connected with the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad, over one mile distant, by a tram road. For a number of years prior to 1890 the Wapello Coal Company operated extensive mines just south of Kirkville (section 17, township 73 north, range 14 west). The Ottumwa & Kirkville Railroad connected them with the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railroad, and large quantities of coal were shipped. The vein averaged five and one- half feet thick, and over four hundred acres were worked out. Over three hundred miners were employed, and the total output of these mines was between one and two million tons.
Mining has been confined so far chiefly to the northwestern part of the county, in Richland, Center, Columbia and Cass townships. Aside from the Laddsdale mine and the old mine at Alpine very little coal has been taken out in the southern and southeastern portions of the county. Yet this is not because no coal occurs, for seams are undoubtedly present in the coal meas- ures of these parts of the area. Coal outcrops in the hills in the vicinity of Ormanville, and there are a number of small country banks in Green Town- ship. An eighteen to twenty inch vein has been mined on a small scale about one mile east of Ormanville, and near the latter town two seams outerop, the lower eighteen inches and the upper three feet thick. There are no outerops of coal measure strata in the northeastern townships, Highland, Competine
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HISTORY OF WAPELLO COUNTY
and Pleasant, since the indurated rocks are concealed under the thick drift deposits in which the streams have cut only shallow channels. But pros- pecting would doubtless reveal the presence of coal in this part of the county. A deep well sunk on the land of Norman Reno, in section 12 of Pleasant Township, is reported to have gone through a three and a half foot seam of coal at a depth of 135 feet.
The absence of mines from the southern and northeastern portion of the county is probably due chiefly to the distance from railroads. Then, too, toward the south the country is very rough and the roads hilly. Timber is here abundant, so that there is little inducement to look for other fuel to supply the local demand. In the northeastern townships the thickness of the drift and the depth to which it would be necessary to go to reach coal have undoubtedly tended to discourage prospecting. In other portions of the district the coal is more accessible and in most instances lies near the sur- face. But when these areas have been worked out it is not unlikely that the parts which at present produce no coal will furnish a good supply. It may be expected that systematic prospecting will show the presence of workable seams in these now neglected portions of the county.
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