USA > Iowa > Hancock County > History of Winnebago County and Hancock County, Iowa, a record of settlement, organization, progress and achievement, Volume I > Part 3
USA > Iowa > Winnebago County > History of Winnebago County and Hancock County, Iowa, a record of settlement, organization, progress and achievement, Volume I > Part 3
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* See Vol. IX, p. 122 and Vol. VII p. 144. et seq. Geological Survey.
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struck some earlier valley or depression, doubtless the earlier channel of the Des Moines. At West Bend, west side of Kossuth county, one hundred and sixty feet is the distance to the limestone. This reveals a remarkable uniformity in the rocky floor on which the drift has been in one deposit after another gradually laid down.
THE WISCONSIN DRIFT
Without exception, so far as now known the entire surface of Win- nebago, Hancock and Kossuth counties is covered by the deposit known in these reports as the Wisconsin drift. Often described in these pages it needs small discussion here. Where exposed by erosion or artificial cuttings it is the same whitish, sticky, pebbly calcareous mix- ture that we find everywhere as subsoil in all the northwest prairie. In this drift are abounding bowlders, none very large, predominantly of the type intersected by veins of trap and hence where weathered liable to assume fantastic shapes .* Occasionally the typical Wisconsin bowlder clay gives place to piles and beds of sand or gravel but this is unusual. Even Pilot Knob piled high as it is, appears to be made up throughout of naught but pebbly drift. The rains of centuries have washed, of course, all the finer earth from the summit of the hill and it now appears bare and gravel-capped, but the gravel is surely superfi- cial only. On the other hand a mound one hundred feet lower exhibits on its western face a gravel pocket of considerable size now used as a source of road material. Other rocky points appear here and there, as, for example, in sections 1 and 2 of King township, Winnebago county, but even the so-called 'hog's back" in Norway township of the same county, a peculiar ridge, some twenty-five or forty feet above the general level, a mile or more in length and in places no more than a rod wide, is probably Wisconsin clay throughout. In the neighborhood of all the lakes there are banks and beds of sand affording not infre- quently the luxury of a sandy beach, but such sand is often the result of a re-assortment of materials by the waters of the lake; the finer silt has been removed, the sand remaining on the wave-washed shore.
The Wisconsin Gravels-Under this caption may be discussed the few gravel deposits in the present area which seem to be due to the excessive wash incident to the melting and final disappearance of the assumed Wisconsin glacier. There are few or no such deposits along the Boone river, Prairie creek or the forks of the Iowa. Such as we have are to be seen along the Des Moines river below Algona. This in- dicates that the rapid drainage of the disappearing ice found principal
* In Avery township on the farm of Emily Griggs a collection of these peculiar Wisconsin bowlders has been assembled and the stones have been placed in various fanciful postures to which peculiar erosion well adapts them.
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exit by way of the larger river. From a point about two miles south of Algona on to the limits of Kossuth county the Des Moines channel has been choked with gravel. This is especially notable at Irvington where from a bed of such material the Northwestern railway has taken out hundreds of carloads of gravel ballast. At Irvington the river shifts abruptly west for a couple of miles and the northern bank is an immense gravel train. So at Lime creek in Ellington township of Han- cock county; the drainage before it ent through at Forest City must have gone over the ridge and found ready to hand south of Pilot Knob a considerable valley which it proceeded to fill up with gravel. The Burlington and Cedar Rapids railway has availed itself of part of this overwash found in the gravel-pit some two miles south of Forest City. In sections 15, 16 and 17 of Ellington township gravel trains are con- spienous along the north side of the creek. A well sunk on the Beadle farm, section 16, shows that the gravel is there more than forty feet in depth. These gravels are all referred to the close of the Wisconsin period. They are, when seen in section, fresh-looking, only slightly coherent or compacted, non-ferruginous; they contain many rotten bowlders, but these chiefly of the coarse-grained type whose elements were originally less intimately united. Water-laid beds of sand with abundant cross-bedding alternate with the layers of coarser gravel.
Finally, it is interesting in this connection to note the varying thiek- ness of the surface drift. No doubt if all the data were in it would easily appear that the Wisconsin clay here as farther south, is rela- tively very thin; simply a veneer. No wonder old channels are some- times all unfilled. In Kossuth county the blue clay is encountered often at a depth of five or six feet. About Baneroft the pebbly clay is said to be from ten to fifteen feet in thickness. In eastern Winnebago from six to thirty feet and so for other localities. At Algona the re- ported thickness is ten feet, along the river it is certainly more; at Whittemore ten to fifteen feet is the thickness reported. The knobs and mounds previously described, where the deposit would seem much thicker are simply material undistributed resting on the old topog- raphy which, where the distribution of Wisconsin material has been accomplished, is often but slightly changed by the presence of this lat- est surface sheet. Furthermore, if the testimony of farmers is reli- able, and it probably is, there are as already stated many places where blue elay lies immediately under the black surface soil. In these places the newer drift is of course lacking altogether. These localities are generally low, and represent, probably, pre-Wisconsin depressions.
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SOILS
The soils of these counties are in all respects similar to those of the neighboring counties west. Over all is the same rich mantle of black surface soil of apparently inexhaustible fertility. In the region af- fected by the knobby drift as described in the pages preceding, there are hilltops from which the black soil has been largely removed by ero- sion. These pass for gravel hilltops; but in the great majority of cases there is really very little gravel or sand. Even Pilot Knob, al- though at the summit covered with small stones and pebbles is not a gravel mound; the real gravel deposit appears on the hill immediately west. Nevertheless there is some difference in the soils of these dif- ferent counties when studied in detail. We have the soil of the upland and the soil of the plain, both resting on a subsoil of pebbly clay. This meludes by far the greater part of the entire area under consideration. In the lowlands these black soils are often very deep; reported some- times as much as four feet; on the hillsides much thinner, as would naturally be the case, and often more serviceable for immediate culti- vation since the flats contain at times considerable peat, or at least soil in which organic matter has only partially decayed. This seems to be nearly everywhere the situation where marshes of considerable extent have been lately drained. Such soils are really suffering from excess of richness, and improve rapidly under the ventilation they receive in cultivation. Sometimes these lowland soils lie immediately upon the blue clay and these suffer from lack of subsoil drainage but these cases are few. 'In not a few cases in the knobby drift region there is consid- erable sand in the subsoil and sometimes at the surface. This is noticeable in the eastern townships of Winnebago and Hancock conn- ties particularly. There is a similar condition along the east side of Union slough in Kossuth county. Where the sand is not in excess the soils are improved by its presence. In German township of Hancock county are some of the finest farms to be seen anywhere and the pro- portion of sand is much greater than in most other localities.
The farms along Lime creek have not infrequently a sand or gravel subsoil; along the Des Moines south of Irvington there is some alluvial soil resting on beds of gravel, and in a few other localities a gravel sub- soil has been reported or observed, but in general the soils of these counties are very uniform, rich, and unfailingly productive. They are almost always so level that they will never lose by erosion, and as the drainage of the county becomes more and more perfect the whole country will gradually assume the appearance of a well tilled garden.
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ECONOMIC PRODUCTS
There is no petroleum, no coal, no lime rock in these counties. The limestone is buried under drift and from forty to one hundred and twenty feet below the surface; no coal has been reported by those who year by year send down their drills in every part of the country, and petroleum has seemingly not yet been thought of. The discovery of either coal or petroleum in this part of Iowa is, as we know, unlikely; the whole region is north of the known limits of the lowa coal field.
Notwithstanding the lack of stratified rock in place the country is liberally supplied with building rock, suitable for foundation purposes, at least, in form of surface bowlders. These when large are broken up in the field. In any case the granite is sold by the cord. Fourteen tons are reckoned a cord, and in Kossuth county the price is quoted at ten dollars per cord. The farmer commonly finds on his own premises sufficient stone for all his needs. Sometimes, indeed, the bowlders are far too numerous. Hundreds lie along the fence rows. One farmer reported three hundred on forty acres, all taken to the fence-line in a single season.
There are for present report no exposures of valuable clays. Nevertheless, the manufacture of brick and tile has in many places been attempted. Mr. Pitkin has spent large sums of money and much time near Forest City in an attempt to manufacture brick and tile. The clay is said to cap blue clay. The worked bed is five or six feet thick, free from pebbles or other objectionable features and the product as shown by the specimens on the ground is certainly good; better than any so far noted on the Wisconsin drift region. Nevertheless, for some reason the enterprise seems to have been abandoned. The de posit is apparently an aqueous sediment, resembles loess. At Klemme, or near it, tile of fair quality is manufactured in limited amount. Near the river at Algona brick is manufactured from Wis- consin clay rather unusually free from pebbles. The brick and tile, however, show the usual fault; the lime pebbles that are present slack after burning and so make trouble. The brick are very soft, suitable it is said for inside work only.
At Britt, the Interstate Drainage Company began operations about July 15, 1902, and are even now (October) enlarging the plant. They have burned about 50,000 brick of fair quality and 60.000 tile. The de- mand, so far, is far in excess of the supply. The material is appar- ently Wisconsin clay of superior quality. The fuel is coal.
The gravel which oceurs in great abundance here and there should not be overlooked in a resumé such as this. This gravel makes the best of roads. In many parts of northern Iowa its value is apprecia-
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ted to such extent that miles of country roads are paved with it. Un- fortunately for road-making, gravel though widely is not evenly dis- tributed in nature. It occurs sometimes where not needed, and again cannot be procured conveniently where needed most. All the marshes of Kossuth and Hancock counties have been bridged by so called grades; these are often of gravel and excellent. They must be made of something other than ordinary surface soil if they are to be per- manent.
WATER SUPPLY
The running waters of the counties here described are of consider- able value. In Kossuth county particularly, good perennial streams are well distributed. The Des Moines river waters a large section of the country while its several tributaries, the Buffalo, Black Cat, Plum creek and Lott's creek are far-reaching and presumably perennial streams. In Winnebago county Lime creek is the only stream of value or importance. It is probable that the county ditch may be of service not only in draining wide-extended marshes but also as a water supply for many farms in the township by which it passes. In Hancock county we have the two branches of the Iowa river, both valuable streams especially in the southern townships. The Boone river also affords water for stock in the southwest part of this meadow county. There are besides in all these counties abundant pools and small lakes that are often serviceable in the care of stock. Some have been arti- ficially deepened and made permanent.
By far the greater number of farms have deep wells and wind- pumps, with reservoirs of various sorts. Water is obtainable at vary- ing depths. Many of the wells seem to yield abundant water above the blue clay at the surprisingly shallow depth of fifteen to twenty feet. In Mount Valley township wells eighty feet deep have water within ten feet of the surface. Such go through the blue clay but not to rock. Forest City has a well located near Lime creek, north of the city and three hundred and two feet deep; the well is flowing at the level of the creek or a few feet higher. In the eastern part of our territory rock is reached at about 120 to 130 feet, occasionally much less, and the wells enter the rock for varying depths. In Kossuth county, northern half, the rock seems to be not more than seventy-five to one hundred feet below the surface and at Germania a flowing well is found only sixty feet deep. Other flowing wells are found about Ledyard and indeed on all the farms from Germania north and west. Flowing wells are com- mon also along the Boone valley in Hancock county. So far as could be learned they are simply drift artesian wells; they do not in the cases
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reported reach the underlying limestone of the country at all and owe their peculiarity to the local topography, the intake being the morainic fields of southern Minnesota, of Winnebago and Kossuth or possibly of northern Hancock county. At Garner the town well is one hundred and twenty feet deep; about twenty feet to blue clay which is here some forty feet in thickness; "gravel and rock" make up the remaining sixty feet. The well at the Milwaukee railway station at Britt has been already quoted in these reports .* This is over five hundred feet deep, but the town well a mile away finds abundant water at one hun- dred and twenty-five feet, ten of which are in limestone.
In general over the whole area here described water is reached at or near the surface of the limestone. The average depth of wells is not far from one hundred feet and the supply at this depth for all ordinary purposes is apparently inexhaustible. The water is gener- ally reported good. Less complaint than usual is heard of bad water under the blue clay caused by slowly decomposing organic stuff. The deeper well at Britt, mentioned above, affords water which contains in solution an inconvenient amount of solids which tend to form incrusta- tions and so choke up pipes.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
In the prosecution of the work here recorded the author acknowl- edges his obligations to many citizens of the region, farmers es- pecially, who were ever ready to aid in every possible way. To Supt. A. M. Deyoc, Mr. J. A. Treganza, Hon. Eugene Secor the Survey is in- debted for special favors. In the preparation of the list of native trees following, the author would acknowledge his indebtedness to his colleague, Prof. B. Shimek, who in the interest of the United States Bureau of Forestry, has made a special study of this particular part of Iowa.
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FORESTRY NOTES FOR KOSSUTH, WINNEBAGO AND HANCOCK COUNTIES
The forest area in these counties was originally, and has been until recently, rather larger than usual in prairie counties. Especially is this true of Hancock and Winnebago. In the latter the greater part of the eastern townships was originally covered with forest trees and until comparatively recent years the same region has been more densely and extensively occupied by young native forest, the so-called "second- growth." The same thing was true of a large part of Forest township and of Newton township, and there was native wood about Lake Har-
* See Vol. VI, p. 195, Geological Survey.
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WINNEBAGO AND HANCOCK COUNTIES
mon, and perhaps one or two other native groves were known to the pioneer. In Hancock county, Ellington township, with the southern slopes of Pilot Knob and the banks of Lime creek, were all extensively wooded country and native groves were found all along the Iowa river in Avery township and abont Amsterdam. There is still a native grove at Twin lakes and one in section 11 of the township of the same name, and another at Crystal lake. The latter is now in part a park. In Kossuth county the native woods were limited pretty nearly to the valley and flood plain of the Des Moines river, particularly below the point where the tributaries, Black Cat and Plum creek enter. The list of species represented in these native forest plantations includes the names of nearly all the arboreal forms found in eastern or especially northeastern Iowa. Along the Des Moines about Algona and along Lime creek east of Forest City and especially on Pilot Knob and on its attendant hills genuine forest conditions prevail. Undis- turbed by fires the trees make luxuriant growth and add a beauty to these prairie landscapes otherwise unattainable. The presence of Pilot Knob and its wooded sides, seen like a blue wall from all the surrounding country for miles, has to this country and for it a real commercial value, and if the people who are so fortunate as to own farms and homes in the neighborhood of this piece of natural attrac- tiveness are wise they will never suffer its beauty to be destroyed. Steps should be taken to make Pilot Knob with its woods, its lake and its meadows, its exhilarating heights, a park to be for the delight and enjoyment of the people for all time. Algona has also great natural advantages. Her wooded banks and woodland drives along the river and across it, attended by the rich variety of native groves, are cer- tainly surprisingly beautiful and should belong to the city, some of them at least, for the benefit of coming generations.
Tree-planting in these counties has proceeded much as elsewhere for the purposes of shelter and fuel. Every farmer has a grove, and some of these are of fine proportions and show beautiful trees. Here as in other Iowa counties the species planted have been selected as rap- idly growing, rather than for value when grown. Nevertheless there are plantations sufficient to show that all sorts of trees conmon to our northern nurseries may be sucessfully reared along these northern borders. Mr. Eugene Secor has hundreds of conifers to show how easily the farmers of this region may provide themselves with timber, even for lumber. The primeval trees in all the forests named have nearly all long since disappeared. They were the product of centuries and were ripe for the harvest. Time has not elapsed for their succes- sors to attain much value, but there is not doubt that the most valuable hardwood trees of our northern forest will yet again find place upon the
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hills and by the streams of the counties to which they are native and in which history shows that they find congenial skies and soil. The observed species in the several localities discussed are named in the following list :
Tilia americana L. Linden. Basswood.
The linden is a valuable and beautiful tree not uncommon in all onr northern forests. In Iowa the species is usually encountered on the hillside not far above the flood plain of some perennial stream. It is common along the Des Moines about Algona, along Lime creek about Pilot Knob, nor is it lacking to any of the native groves mentioned in the paragraphs immediately preceding. The stooling habit of the tree which often gives us two or three or more distinct trunks from the same stump prevents the otherwise rapid development of a large tree. Nevertheless basswood logs and lumber were familiar to the pioneer, and an occasional trunk two or three feet in thickness is yet to be found in our native woods. The tree grows well when transplanted, is clean and beautiful and forms a dense, delightful shade. The bloom in mid- summer is pleasantly fragrant, the delight of the bees and the source of our very finest variety of honey.
Celastrus scandens L. Climbing Bittersweet.
This singular forest plant is not infrequent in all the groves of northern Iowa. Its peculiar habit attracts the attention of the wood- man who very frequently comes upon a young el or even hickory on- tirely smothered, its trunk fairly strangled by the twining coils of its too affectionate neighbor. The effort of the afflicted tree to send down nutrition to its roots results sometimes in a curious swelling ridge which like a giant corkscrew affects the tree-trunk from bottom to top and remains a permanent disfigurement even after the assailant has entirely disappeared. Nevertheless the vine is a favorite cover for un- sightly fences, and is sometimes planted for an arbor. In any situa- tion its bursting, but long enduring, scarlet fruit is one of the cheerful sights of our western autumn.
Ceanothus americanus L. Jersey Tea. Red-root.
This little shrubby bush well deserves attention and preservation on account of its abundant and handsome bloom. It is found on the borders of dry woodlands everywhere and in summer contributes its share to the beauty of Pilot Knob. As an ornamental shrub certainly one of the finest native to our prairie state and worth a dozen imported but less hardy species.
Vitis riparia Michx. Wild grape.
This is the familiar wild grape of all the west. Native by every stream, climbing in every thicket, it quickly avails itself of the shelter afforded by planted groves and may be found on many a farm removed
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WINNEBAGO AND HANCOCK COUNTIES
from its original habitat. The fruit, ripe after frost, is still much sought by those with whom still lingers the clean pure taste of the pio- neer, the bloom is fragrant to an unusual degree, and hardy vigorous growth commends it as a valuable climbing shrub eminently fitted for the covering of objects unsightly in town or field.
Ampelopsis quinquefolia Michx. Five-leaved Ivy. Virginia Creeper.
The Virginia creeper is a universal favorite as a cover for the masonry of walls, for fences, etc. It has a great advantage over the grape in that its tendrils adapt themselves to various supports. They know well the roughened or weathered surface of various objects and spread adhering disks against the face of a tree stump or quarry wal !. Hence the name five-leaved ivy. The plant very well supplies in this country the place of the English ivy. It will cover a stone building from top to bottom and adheres well to brick if not too much exposed to our burning summer sun. Five-leaved ivy bears no relation to the so-called "Poison ivy," and is by no means poisonous. The foliage in autumn turns brilliant red, conspicuous in the autumn thicket. The fruit resembles that of the grape, but the cluster is open and the dark blue berries are few.
Acer saccharinum L. Soft Maple. White Maple.
The soft maple is the most familiar tree in Iowa. Universally planted on every prairie farm it is at once an ornament and shelter and has transformed the landscape of the State. The tree is of surpris- ingly rapid growth, its wood makes excellent fuel and a quality of lum- ber much esteemed, especially in furniture-making. On the other hand the wood of the soft maple is brittle and in our latitude and eli- mate the long branches not infrequently fall a prey to the sweeping wind or the gusts of summer storms. This is A. dasycarpum Ehr. of the books.
A. saccharum L. Sugar Maple. Hard Maple.
In this part of Iowa the sugar maple is rare. It was observed and noted in Forest township, Winnebago county only. The tree probably occurs in other places along Lime creek. It was not discovered in Hancock county nor in the valley of the Des Moines, although to have been expected. The species is too well known to require much com- ment. It grows much more slowly than its relative the soft maple, but makes much better wood. When planted as an ornamental or shade tree the drought of an ordinary Iowa summer destroys its upper twigs and branches, so that all such trees sooner or later disappoint us, dying at the top. It seems probable that in any situation trees grown from seed do better than those whose roots have been disturbed and injured in the process of transplanting. In Iowa there were once large trees of this species, even groves of them, "sugar orchards," but
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