The History of Clinton County, Iowa: Containing a History of the County, Its., Part 12

Author: Western Historical Co , Western Historical Company
Publication date: 1879
Publisher: Chicago : Western Historical Co.
Number of Pages: 807

USA > Iowa > Clinton County > The History of Clinton County, Iowa: Containing a History of the County, Its. > Part 12

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THE COAL-MEASURE GROUP.

The coal-measure group of Iowa is properly divided into three formations, riz., the lower, middle and upper coal measures, each having a vertical thick- ness 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 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 northwest- ward, keeping it at about the same distance to the northward of Skunk River and its north branch that it had at first, until it reaches the southern boundary of Marshall County, a little west of its center. Then carry it to a point

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HISTORY OF THE STATE OF IOWA.

three or four miles northeast from Eldora, in Hardin County ; thence west- ward 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.

Lower Coal Measures .- 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 lower coal meas- ures, 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 of the coal measures, but the genus lepidodendron seems not to have existed later than the epoch of the middle coal measures.

Middle Coal Measures .- This formation within the State of Iowa occupies a narrow belt of territory in the southern central portion of the State, embrac- ing a superficial area of about fourteen hundred square miles. The counties 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 lime- stone, the clays or shales constituting the bulk of the formation, the limestone occurring in their bands, the lithological peculiarities of which offer many con- trasts to the limestones of the upper and lower coal measures. The formation is also characterized by regular wave-like undulations, with a parallelism which indicates a widespread disturbance, though no dislocation of the strata have been discovered.

Generally speaking, few species of fossils occur in these beds. Some of the shales and sandstone have afforded a few imperfectly preserved land plants- three or four species of ferns, belonging to the genera. Some of the carbonif- erous 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.

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Vertebrates are only known by the remains of salachians, or sharks, and ganoids.

Upper Coal Measures .- The area occupied by this formation in Iowa is very great, comprising 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 potter's 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 represented by the fishes of the orders selachians and ganoids. The articulates are represented by the trilobites and ostracoids. Mollusks are represented by the classes cephalapoda, gasteropoda, lamelli, branchiata, brachiapoda and polyzoa. Radiates are more numerous than in the lower and middle coal measures. Protogoans are repre- sented in the greatest abundance, some layers of limestone being almost entirely composed of their small fusiform shells.

CRETACEOUS SYSTEM.

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 denuda- tion, which has taken place at two separate periods. The first period was during its elevation from the cretaceous 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 produced 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 :

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 Mont- gomery County ; thence to the middle of the north boundary of Pottawattamie County; thence to the middle of the south boundary of Woodbury County ;

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thence to Sergeant's bluffs; up the Missouri and Big Sioux Rivers to the northwest 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 form 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 north- ward, it passes beneath the Woodbury sandstones and shales, the latter passing beneath the inoceramus, or chalky, beds. This sandstone is, with few excep- tions, almost valueless for economic purposes.

The only fossils found in this formation are a few fragments of angiosper- mous leaves.

Woodbury Sandstones and Shales .- These strata rest upon the Nishna- botany 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 masonry.

Fossil remains are rare. Detached scales of a lepidoginoid species have `been detected, but no other vertebrate remains. Of remains of vegetation, leaves of salix meekii and sassafras cretaceum have been occasionally found.

Inoceramus Beds .- These beds rest upon the Woodbury sandstones and 1 shales. They have not been observed in Iowa, except in the bluffs which border the Big Sioux River in Woodbury and Plymouth 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.

PEAT.

Extensive beds of peat exist in Northern Middle Iowa, which, it is esti - mated, contain the following areas :

Counties.

Acres.

Cerro Gordo

1,500

Worth

2,000

Winnebago

2,000

Hancock

1,500

Wright

500

Kossuth

700

Dickinson

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

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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'sparse- ness of the population, this peat is not utilized ; but, owing to its great distance from the coal fields and the 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 unimportant. 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 abundantly 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 becomes lost beneath the over- lying 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 orig- inally connected as a continuous deposit, and there seems to be as little reason to doubt that the gypsum still extends to considerable distance 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.

The country round about this region has the prairie surface approximating 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 somewhat bold and interesting features in the land- scape.

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

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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 remarkable 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 formation, 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, result- ing 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 sur- faces 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 exposures, it is seldom seen to be more than from ten to twenty feet thick.

Since the drift is usually seen to rest directly upon the gypsum, with noth- ing intervening, except at a few points where traces appear of an overlying bed of claycy 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 somewhat clayey, partic- ulary in its lower part, it has doubtless served 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 instead of the drift clays, it would have no doubt long since disappeared by being dissolved in the water that would have constantly reached it from the sur- face. Water merely resting upon it would not dissolve it away to any extent, but it rapidly disappears under the action 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 contain more or less of it in solution in their waters. An analysis of water from one of these springs will be found in Prof. Emery's report.

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Besides the clayey beds 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.

Age of the Gypsum Deposit .- In neither the gypsum nor the associated clays has any trace of any fossil remains Been found, nor has any other indica- tion of its geological age been observed, except that which is afforded by its stratigraphical relations ; and the most that can be said with certainty is that it is newer 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 unconformably 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 upper 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 subcarboniferous 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, 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 quantities of oxide of iron nor any trace of native sulphur 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 laminæe of alter- nating white and gray gypsum, parallel with the bedding surfaces 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

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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.

Physical Properties .- Much has already been said of the physical proper- ties or character of this gypsum, but as it is so different in some respects from that of other deposits, there are yet other matters worthy of mention in connec- tion with those. According to the results of a complete and exhaustive anal- ysis 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 to top to bottom 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 impu- rities are also of such a character that they do not in any way interfere with its value for use in the arts. Although the gypsum rock has a gray color, it becomes quite white by grinding, and still whiter by the calcining process nec- essary in the preparation of plaster of Paris. These tests have all been practi- cally 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 Nature 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 com- monwealth, except to the small extent that it may be used in the arts. This is undoubtedly 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 areas 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 purposes 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

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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 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 Rail- road. 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 sidewalks in the town are made of the slabs or flags of 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 slippery when worn.

The method adopted in quarrying and dressing the blocks of gypsum is peculiar, and quite unlike that adopted in similar treatment of ordinary stone. Taking a stout auger-bit of an ordinary brace, such as is used by carpenters, and filing the cutting parts of it into a peculiar form, the quarryman bores his holes into the gypsum quarry for blasting, in the same manner and with as great facility as a carpenter would bore hard wood. The pieces being loosened by blasting, they are broken up with sledges into convenient sizes, or hewn into the desired shapes by means of hatchets or ordinary chopping axes, or cut by means of ordinary wood-saws. So little grit does the gypsum contain that these tools, made for working wood, are found to be better adapted for working the former substance than those tools are which are universally used for work- ing stone.

MINOR DEPOSITS OF SULPHATE OF LIME.

Besides the great gypsum deposit of Fort Dodge, sulphate of lime in the various forms of fibrous gypsum, selenite, and small, amorphous masses, has also been discovered in various formations in different parts of the State, includ- ing the coal-measure shales near Fort Dodge, where it exists in small quanti- ties, quite independently of the great gypsum deposit there. The quantity of gypsum in these minor deposits is always too small to be of any practical value, and frequently minute. They usually occur in shales and shaly clays, asso- ciated with strata that contain more or less sulphuret of iron (iron pyrites). Gypsum has thus been detected in the coal measures, the St. Louis limestone, the cretaceous strata, and also in the lead caves of Dubuque. In most of these cases it is evidently the result of double decomposition of iron pyrites and car-

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The History of Clinton County, Iowa: Containing a History of the County, Its., Part 12

Author: Western Historical Co , Western Historical Company Publication date: 1879 Publisher: Chicago : Western Historical Co. Number of Pages: 807

Author: Western Historical Co , Western Historical Company
Publication date: 1879
Publisher: Chicago : Western Historical Co.
Number of Pages: 807