USA > Iowa > History of western Iowa, its settlement and growth. A comprehensive compilation of progressive events concerning the counties, cities, towns, and villages-biographical sketches of the pioneers and business men, with an authentic history of the state of Iowa > Part 18
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HISTORY OF IOWA
the surface or hidden hundreds of feet below the surface, the rock is found to be of almost uniform texture. As far as we have been able to examine, the dip is found to be from 4.75 to 5.20 degrees to the northward, but the trend of the outcrop is to the eastward and westward. In some rare cases the rock is profitably quarried, but generally speaking, it is very difficult to secure it in dry forms, except that into which it naturally cracks, and the tendency is into angular places. I have found the samples sent to be absolutely indestructible.
There are many other systems, of themselves very interesting to the scientific reader and investigator, but our limited space stands as an insurmountable barrier; hence we will have to pass the Lower Silurian system in the Primordial group of the eastern part of the State; it, however, is valueless for building purposes, and contains few if any, fossils. Then we have the Lower Magnesian Limestone, found but little here, containing a few crinoids and smaller fossils. Following this in point of interest, is the St. Peter's Sandstone, which exists in uniform thickness throughout the State where found, which is beneath the drift.
Of the Trenton Group of the Upper and Lower Silurian age, but little of interest to anyone can be said, save that it contains a great variety of fossils, and it makes very ornamental stone for cap and window sills. In this section of the State the drift con- tains more silex and gravel than elsewhere, as before stated, but in those sections where fossils are found, they are new to all I have read of science, open new fields of thought and investigation, and are found peculiar to the Hawkeye State.
Passing again the Galena Limestone of Dubuque, and other counties: This is always the upper formation of the Trenton Group. It seldom extends over twelve miles in width, though fully one hundred in length. In Dubuque County the greatest development of this limestone is exhibited. It is found to be merely a pure dolomite, with an occasional slight admixture of silicious matter. It is almost worthless for dressing; its princi- pal value consisting of its formation being the source of lead ore, but the lead region of Iowa is confined to an area of say fifteen miles square. The one occurs in vertical fissures, which traverse the rock at regular intervals from east to west; some, however, is found in those which have a north and south course. Very small quantities of what is known as carbonate are found in it; its principal being what assayers call sulphuret of lead.
Probably one of the most important of all the geological forma- tions of the State is the Coal-Measure group. This is divided into three formations, viz., the lower, middle and upper coal measures, each having a vertical thickness of about two hundred feet.
A line drawn upon the map of Iowa as follows, will represent the eastern and northern boundaries of the coal fields of the State: Commencing at the southeast corner of Van Buren County, carry
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the line to the northeast corner of Jefferson County by a slight easterly curve through the western portions of Lee and Henry Counties. Produce this line until it reaches a point six or eight miles northward from the one last named, and then carry it northwestward, keeping it at about the same distance to the north- ward of Skunk River and its north branch that it had at first, un- til it reaches the southern boundary of Marshall County, a little west of its center. Then carry it to a point three or four miles northeast of Eldora. Hardin County; thence westward to a point a little north of Webster City, in Hamilton County; and thence further westward to a point a little north of Fort Dodge, in Webster County.
In consequence of the recedence to the southward of the borders of the middle and upper coal measures, the lower coal measures alone exist to the eastward and northward of Des Moines River. They also occupy a large area westward and southward of that river, but their southerly dip passes them below the middle coal measures at no great distance from the river.
No other formation in the whole State possesses the economic value of the lower coal measures. The clay that underlies almost every bed of coal furnishes a large amount of material for potters' use. The sandstone of these measures is usually soft and unfit, but in some places, as near Red Rock, in Marion County, blocks of large dimensions are obtained which make good building material, samples of which can be seen in the State Arsenal at Des Moines. On the whole, that portion of the State occupied by the lower coal measures, is not well supplied with stone.
But few fossils have been found in any of the strata of the low- er coal measures, but such animal remains as have been found are without exception of marine origin.
Of fossil plants found in these measures all probably belong to the class acrogens. Specimens of calamites, and several species of ferns are found in all the coal measures, but the genus lipedaden- dron seems not to have existed later than the epoch of the middle coal measures.
This formation within the State of Iowa occupies a narrow belt of territory in the southern central portion of the State, embracing a superficial area of about fourteen hundred square miles. The coun- ties more or less underlaid by this formation are Guthrie, Dallas, Polk, Madison, Warren, Clarke, Lucas, Monroe, Wayne and Appanoose.
This formation is composed of alternating beds of clay, sandstone and limestone, the clays or shales constituting the bulk of the form- ation, the limestone occurring in their bands, the lithological pe- culiarities of which offer many contrasts to the limestones of the upper and lower coal measures. The formation is also character- ized by regular wave-like undulations, with a parallelism which in- dicates a widespread disturbance, though no dislocation of the strata has been discovered.
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Generally speaking, few species of fossils occur in these beds. Some of the shales aud sandstone have afforded a few imperfectly preserved land plants-three or four species of ferns, belonging to the genera. Some of the carboniferous shales afford beautiful specimens of what appear to have been sea-weeds. Radiates are represented by corals. The mollusks are most numerously repre- sented. Trilobites and ostracoids are the only remains known of articulates. Vertebrates are only known by the remains of sala- chians, or sharks, and ganoids.
The area occupied by this formation in Iowa is very great, com- prising thirteen whole counties, in the southwestern part of the State. It adjoins by its northern and eastern boundaries the area occupied by the middle coal measures.
The prominent lithological features of this formation are its limestones, yet it contains a considerable proportion of shales and sandstones. Although it is known by the name of upper coal measures, it contains but a single bed of coal, and that only about twenty inches in maximum thickness.
The limestone exposed in this formation furnishes good material for building as in Madison and Fremont counties. The sandstones are quite worthless. No beds of clay for potters' use are found in the whole formation.
The fossils in this formation are much more numerous than in either the middle or lower coal measures. The vertebrates are rep- resented by the fishes of the orders selachians and ganoids. The articulates are represented by the trilobites and ostracoids. Mol- lusks are represented by the classes cephalopoda, gasteropoda, lam- elli, branchiata, brachiapoda polyzoa. Radiates are more numer- ous than in the lower and middle coal measures. Protogoans are represented in the greatest abundance, some layers of limestone being almost entirely composed of their small fusiform shells.
There being no rocks, in Iowa, of permian, triassic or jurassic age, the next strata in the geological series are of the cretaceous age. They are found in the western half of the State, and do not dip as do all the other formations upon which they rest, to the southward and westward, but have a general dip of their own to the north of westward, which, however, is very slight. Although the actual exposures of cretaceous rocks are few in Iowa, there is reason to believe that nearly all the western half of the State was originally occupied by them; but being very friable, they have been removed by denundation, which has taken place at two separate periods. The first period was during its elevation from the creta- ccous sea, and during the long tertiary age that passed between the time of that elevation and the commencement of the glacial epoch. The second period was during the glacial epoch, when the ice pro- duced their entire removal over considerable areas.
It is difficult to indicate the exact boundaries of these rocks; the following will approximate the outlines of the area:
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From the northeast corner to the southwest corner of Kossuth County; thence to the southeast corner of Guthrie County; thence to the southeast corner of Cass County; thence to the middle of the south boundary of Montgomery County; thence to the middle of the north boundary of Pottawattamie County; thence to the mid- dle of the south boundary of Woodbury County; thence to Ser- geant's Bluffs; up the Missouri and Big Sioux Rivers to the north- west corner of the State; eastward along the State line to the place of beginning.
All the cretaceous rocks in Iowa are a part of the same deposits farther up the Missouri River, and in reality from their eastern boundary.
Nishnabotany Sandstone .- This rock has the most easterly and southerly extent of the cretaceous deposits of Iowa, reaching the southeastern part of Guthrie County and the southern part of Montgomery County. To the northward, it passes beneath the Woodbury sandstones and shales, the latter passing beneath ino- ceramus, or chalky, beds. This sandstone is, with few exceptions, almost valueless for economic purposes.
The only fossils found in this formation are a few fragments of angiospermous leaves.
Woodbury Sandstones and Shales .- These strata rest upon the Nishnabotany sandstone, and have not been observed outside of Woodbury County, hence their name. Their principal exposure is at Sergeant's Bluffs, seven miles below Sioux City.
This rock has no value except for purposes of common ma- sonry.
Fossil remains are rare. Detached scales of a lepidoginoid spe- cies have been detected, but no other vertebrate remains. Of re- mains of vegetation, leaves of salix meekii and sassafras cretaceum have been occassionally found.
Inoceramus beds .- These beds rest upon the Woodbury sandstones and shales. They have not been observed in Iowa, except in the Bluffs which border the Big Sioux River in Woodbury and Ply- mouth Counties. They are composed almost entirely of calcareous material, the upper portion of which is extensively used for lime. No building material is to be obtained from these beds; and the only value they possess, except lime, are the marls, which at some time may be useful on the soil of the adjacent region.
The only vertebrate remains found in the Cretaceous rocks are the fishes. Those in the inoceramus beds of Iowa are two species of squoloid selachians, or cestratront, and three genera of teliosts. Molluscan remains are rare.
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Extensive beds of peat exist in Northern Middle Iowa, which, it is estimated, contain the following areas:
Counties. Acres.
Cerro Gordo. 1,500
Worth . .2 000
Winnebago
2,000
Hancock
1,500
Wright
500
Kossuth
700
Dickinson
80
Several other counties contain peat beds, but the character of the peat is inferior to that in the northern part of the State. The character of the peat named is equal to that of Ireland. The beds are of an average depth of four feet. It is estimated that each acre of these beds will furnish two hundred and fifty tons of dry fuel for each foot in depth. At present, owing to the sparseness of the population, this peat is not utilized; but, owing to its great dis- tance from coal fields and absence of timber, the time is coming when their value will be realized, and the fact demonstrated that Nature has abundantly compensated the deficiency of other fuel.
GYPSUM.
The only deposits of the sulphates of the alkaline earths of any economic value in Iowa are those of gypsum at, and in the vicinity of Fort Dodge, in Webster County. All others are small and un- important. The deposit occupies a nearly central position in Webster County, the Des Moines River running nearly centrally through it, along the valley sides of which the gypsum is seen in the form of ordinary rock cliff and ledges, and also occurring abun- dantly in similar positions along both sides of the valleys of the smaller streams and of the numerous ravines coming into the river valley.
The most northerly known limit of the deposit is at a point near the mouth of Lizard Creek, a tributary of the Des Moines River, and almost adjoining the town of Fort Dodge. The most southerly point at which it has been found exposed is about six miles, by way of the river, from this northerly point before mentioned. Our knowledge of the width of the area occupied by it is limited by the exposures seen in the valleys of the small streams and in the ravines which come into the valley within the distance mentioned. As one goes up these ravines and minor valleys, the gypsum be- comes lost beneath the overlying drift. There can be no doubt that the different parts of this deposit, now disconnected by the valleys and ravines having been cut through it, were originally connected as a continuous deposit, and there seems to be as little reason to doubt that the gypsum still extends to considerable dis- tance on each side of the valley of the river beneath the drift which covers the region to a depth of from twenty to sixty feet.
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The country round about this region has the prairie surface ap- proximating a general level which is so characteristic of the greater part of the State, and which exists irrespective of the character or geological age of the strata beneath, mainly because the drift is so deep and uniformly distributed that it frequently almost alone gives character to the surface. The valley sides of the Des Moines River, in the vicinity of Fort Dodge, are somewhat abrupt, having a depth there from the general level of the upland of about one hundred and seventy feet, and consequently presents some- what bold and interesting features in the landscape.
As one walks up and down the creeks and ravines which come into the valley of the Des Moines River there, he sees the gypsum exposed on either side of them, jutting out from beneath the drift in the form of ledges and bold quarry fronts, having almost the exact appearance of ordinary limestone exposures, so horizontal and regular are its lines of stratification, and so similar in color is it to some varieties of that rock. The principal quarries now opened are on Two Mile Creek, a couple of miles below Fort Dodge.
The reader will please bear in mind that the gypsum of this re- markable deposit does not occur in "heaps" or "nests" as it does in most deposits of gypsum in the States farther eastward, but that it exists here in the form of a regularly stratified, continuous for- mation, as uniform in texture, color and quality throughout the whole region, and from top to bottom of the deposit as the granite of the Quincy quarries is. Its color is a uniform gray, resulting from alternating fine horizontal lines of nearly white, with similar lines of darker shade. The gypsum of the white lines is almost entirely pure, the darker lines containing the impurity. This is at intervals barely sufficient in amount to cause the separation of the mass upon those lines into beds or layers, thus facilitating the quarrying of it into desired shapes. These bedding surfaces have occasionally a clayey feeling to the touch, but there is nowhere any intercalation of clay or other foreign substance in a separate form. The deposit is known to reach a thickness of thirty feet at the quarries referred to, but although it will probably be found to exceed this thickness at some other points, at the natural expo- sures, it is seldom seen to be more that from ten to twenty feet thick.
Since the drift is usually seen to rest directly upon the gypsum, with nothing intervening, except at a few points where traces ap- pear of an overlying bed of clayey material without doubt of the same age as the gypsum, the latter probably lost something of its thickness by mechanical erosion during the glacial epoch; and it has, doubtless, also suffered some diminution of thickness since then by solution in the waters which constantly percolate through the drift from the surface. The drift of this region being some- what clayey, particularly in its lower part, it has doubtless served
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HISTORY OF IOWA.
in some degree as a protection against the diminution of the gypsum by solution in consequence of its partial imperviousness to water. If the gypsum had been covered by a deposit of sand in- stead of the drift clays, it would have no doubt disappeared by be- ing dissolved in the water that would have constantly reached it from the surface. Water merely resting upon it would not dis- solve it away to any extent, but it rapidly disappears under the ac- tion of running water. Where little rills of water at the time of every rain run over the face of an unused quarry, from the surface above it, deep grooves are thereby cut into it, giving it somewhat the appearance of melting ice around a waterfall. The fact that gypsum is now suffering a constant, but, of course, very slight, diminution, is apparent in the fact the springs of the region con- tain more or less of it in solution in their waters.
Besides the clayed beds that that are sometimes seen to rest upon the gypsum, there are occasionally others seen beneath them that are also of the same age, and not of the age of the coal-measure strata upon which they rest.
In neither the gypsum nor the associated clays has any trace of any fossil remains been found, nor has any other indication of its geological age been observed, except that which is afforded by its stratigraphical relations; and the most that can be said with cer- tainty is that it is nearer than the coal measures, and older than the drift. The indications afforded by the stratigraphical relations of the gypsum deposit of Fort Dodge are, however, of considerable value.
As already shown, it rests in that region directly and uncon- formably upon the lower coal measures; but going southward from there, the whole series of coal-measure strata from the top of the subcarboniferous group to the uppe coal measures, inclusive, can be traced without break or unconformability. The strata of the latter also may be traced in the same manner up into the Permian rocks of Kansas; and through this long series, there is no place or horizon which suggests that the gypsum deposit might belong there.
Again, no Tertiary deposits are known to exist within or near the borders of Iowa to suggest that the gypsum might be of that age; nor are any of the palæozoic strata newer than the subcar- boniferous unconformable upon each other as the other gypsum is unconformable upon the strata beneath it. It therefore seems, in a measure, conclusive, that the gypsum is of Mesozoic age, perhaps older than the Cretaceous.
LITHOLOGICAL ORIGIN.
As little can be said with certainty concerning the lithological origin of this deposit as can be said concerning its geological age, for it seems to present itself in this relation, as in the former one
11
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as an isolated fact. None of the associated strata show any traces of a double decomposition of pre-existing materials, such as some have supposed all deposits of gypsum to have resulted from. No considerable quantity of oxide of iron nor any trace of native sul- phur have been found in connection with it; nor has any salt been found in the waters of the region. These substances are common in association with other gypsum deposits, and are regarded by some persons as indicative of the method of or resulting from their origin as such. Throughout the whole region, the Fort Dodge gypsum has the exact appearance of a sedimentary deposit. It is arranged in layers like the regular layers of limestone, and the whole mass, from top to bottom, is traced with fine horizontal laminæ of alter- nating white and gray gypsum, parallel with the bedding surface of the layers, but the whole so intimately blended as to form a solid mass. The darker lines contain almost all the impurity there is in the gypsum, and that impurity is evidently sedimentary in its character. From these facts, and also from the further one that no trace of fossil remains has been detected in the gypsum, it seems not unreasonable to entertain the opinion that the gypsum of Fort Dodge originated as a chemical precipitation in comparatively still waters, which were saturated with sulphate of lime and destitute of life; its stratification and impurities being deposited at the same time as clayey impurities which had been held suspended in the same waters.
Much has already been said of the physical properties or charac- ter of this gypsum, but as it is so different in some respects from that of other deposits, there are yet other matters worthy of men- tion in connection with those. According to the results of a com- plete and exhaustive analysis by Prof. Emery, the ordinary gray gypsum contains only about eight per cent. of impurity; and it is possible that the average impurity for the whole deposit will not exceed that proportion, so uniform in quality is it from top to bot- tom, and from one end of the region to the other.
When it is remembered that plaster for agricultural purposes is sometimes prepared from gypsum that contains as much as thirty per cent. of impurity, it will be seen that ours is a very superior article for such purposes. The impurities are also of such a char- acter that they do not in anyway interfere with its value for use in the arts. Although the gypsum rock has a gray color, it be- comes quite white by grinding, and still whiter by the calcining process necessary in the preparation of plaster of Paris. These tests have all been practically made in the rooms of the Geological Survey, and the quality of the plaster of Paris still further tested by actual use and experiment. No hesitation, therefore, is felt in stating that the Fort Dodge gypsum is of as good a quality as any in the country, even for the finest uses.
In view of the bounteousness of the primitive fertility of our Iowa soils, many persons forget that a time may come when Na-
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ture will refuse to respond so generously to our demand as she does now, without an adequate return. Such are apt to say that this vast deposit of gypsum is valueless to our commonwealthi, except to the small extent that it may be used in the arts. This is un- doubtedly a short-sighted view of the subject, for the time is even now rapidly passing away when a man may purchase a new farm for less money than he can re-fertilize and restore the partially wasted primitive fertility of the one he now occupies. There are farms even now in a large part of the older settled portions of the State that would be greatly benefited by the proper application of plaster, and such eras will continue to increase until it will be difficult to estimate the value of the deposit of gypsum at Fort Dodge. It should be remembered, also, that the inhabitants of an extent of country adjoining our State more than three times as great as its own area. will find it more convenient to obtain their supplies from Fort Dodge than from any other source.
For want of direct railroad communication between this region and other parts of the State, the only use yet made of the gypsum by the inhabitants is for the purpose of ordinary building stone. It is so compact that it is found to be comparatively unaffected by the frost, and its ordinary situation in walls of houses is such that it is protected from the dissolving action of water, which can at most reach it only from occasional rains, and the effect of these is too slight to be perceived after the lapse of several years.
One of the citizens of Fort Dodge, Hon. John F. Duncombe, built a large, fine residence of it, in 1861, the walls of which appear as unaffected by the exposure and as beautiful as they were when first erected. It has been so long and successfully used for building stone by the inhabitants that they now prefer it to the limestone of good quality, which also exists in the immediate vicinity. This preference is due to the cheapness of the gypsum, as compared with the stone. The cheapness of the former is largely due to the facility with which it is quarried and wrought. Several other houses have been constructed of it in Fort Dodge, including the depot building of the Dubuque & Sioux City Railroad. The company have also constructed a large culvert of the same material to span a creek near the town, limestone only being used for the lower courses, which come in contact with the water. It is a fine arch, each stone of gypsum being nicely hewn, and it will doubtless prove a very durable one. Many of the side- walks in the town are made of the slabs or flags or gypsum which occur in some of the quarries in the form of thin layers. They are more durable than their softness would lead one to suppose. They also possess an advantage over stone in not becoming slip- pery when worn.
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