USA > Michigan > Alpena County > Centennial history of Alpena County, Michigan > Part 3
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The writer thinks it will now be conceded by those who have noted the rapid developement and growth of the city and coun- ty, that his ideas did not reach the reality by as much as they thought him above it. Subsequently Mr. Little came up in the price of his property at Alpena, to fifteen hundred dollars, and sold it to S. E. Hitchcock, who now resides upon a portion of it. He subsequently made it an addition to the village, now city, of Alpena. The Union School house stands on a portion of this property.
In 1850, Congress passed an act, granting all the swamp lands to the several States, but the United States Land Offices continued to sell the lands as before the grant was made, until the latter part of 1859. In 1852, Congress passed an act, granting seven hundred and fifty thousand acres of land for the purpose of constructing a ship canal around the falls of the Sault Ste. Marie, and thereby connecting the commerce of the lower lakes with that of Lake Superior. A company was duly organized to prosecute the work, known and styled the "Sault Ste. Marie Ship Canal Co.," and in 1853, commenced selecting their lands. Parties of "land lookers" were sent out by the company, into all parts of the State, and finding large bodies of good pine in Alpena county and vicinity, it led other parties, desirous of purchasing pine lands, to look in the same direc- tion. In 1853, George N. Fletcher employed Daniel Carter, Esq., to look up and locate some pine lands on the waters of Thunder Bay river. Mr. Fletcher purchased the lands in the name of Thomas Campbell, of Boston, Mass., about eight thou- sand acres, up to 1857, in which he owned an interest, and he has been a purchaser and holder of pine lands in Alpena county ever since. John Trowbridge & Bros. commenced locating pine lands in 1854 or '55, and in two or three years had pur- chased about thirty thousand acres. Frank H. Page and David D. Oliver located and purchased about two thousand acres. G. S. Lester purchased, near Turtle Lake, about nine hundred
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ALPENA COUNTY-PRELIMINARY REMARKS.
acres. Lewis & Graves, of Detroit, purchased about three hun- dred acres; and Elisha Taylor, of Detroit, purchased about five hundred acres, near the rapids; and Capt. J. J. Malden pur- chased a lot in section 27, town 31 north. of range 8 east. This comprises most, if not all, the land holders and lands purchas- ed in the county, prior to its organization, in 1857.
CHAPTER 1I.
TOPOGRAPHICAL AND GEOLOGICAL CHARACTER OF THE COUNTY AND VICINITY. 1
Alpena county is bounded on the north by Presque Isle county, east by Thunder Bay, south by Alcona county, and on the west by Montmorency county, which, at present-1876-is attached to Alpena county for judicial purposes. It includes townships 29, 30, 31 and 32 north, of ranges 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10 east, taking in all of Thunder Bay and the islauds. It has an area of about one thousand four hundred and forty square miles. It contains approximately three hundred ninety-one thousand six hundred eighty acres of land. The surface descends a little to the south and east, and is from gently rolling to rolling. The tim- ber is of great variety, and is no indication of the soil on which it grows. Sometimes a rich argillo-calcareous loam is covered with white and black birch, aspen, balsam, tamarack, cedar and a few small sugar, hemlock, and norway and white pine. The principal timber is pine, hemlock, sugar, beech, cedar, balsam, white and black birch, black ash, elm lynn, poplar, spruce, etc. The soil is mostly a rich loam, reposing on limestone rock, and containing all the elements necessary to make the agricultural capabilities of Alpena county compare favorably with any coun- ty in the State. A few spots of arenaceous soil is met with, but it contains large quantities of carbonate of lime and mag- nesia. It also contains considerable ammonia, and it only re- quires a little addition of vegetable matter, and a sprinkling of salt, to make it very productive, so long as the ground does not suffer for want of rain. The salt produces chemical action in the soil, and dissolves the silica. On this kind of land, the seed should be put in with a drill or hoe, so that it will be cov- ered the proper depth, and the land prepared by a roller, so
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TOPOGRAPHICAL AND GEOLOGICAL.
as to enable the soil to hold the moisture, and in no case should the land be raised above a level.
Thunder Bay river enters Thunder Bay on the southwest quarter of section 23, in township 31 north, of range 8 east, and is the principal stream in the county. The river, with its branches and their tributaries, take their rise in, or run through, the counties of Montmorency, Oscoda, Alcona, Presque Isle and Alpena, and drains and affords log-running facilities for thirty-nine townships. The river is 197 feet wide where it di- vides the city, on First street, but is much wider between this point and the mill dam. With nine feet of water on the bar, and fourteen inside, it is navigable only three-fourths of a mile. The river, from its mouth to the Broadwell rapids, by its ser- pentine course, is about five miles; and the river rises thirteen feet. It is from four to six rods wide.' Near the section line between 15 and 22, the river passes over a limestone ledge, now covered by water of the dam, nine feet four inches, which the writer believes to be identical with the limestone found at Sunken Lake. From the foot of the rapids to Trowbridge's dam is 231 chains, by the river, and the fall of the water from the summit level of the Trowbridge pond to the foot of the rapids is sixty-five feet; and the river is from eight to twenty rods wide. At the time the writer made the survey, he noticed at one place an exceptional dip in the rock, a short distance above the Broadwell pond, where the dip of the rock was east, but was only three and one-half feet in forty rods. The Trow- bridge dam slacks the water up the river a short distance above the North Branch, and the perpendicular fall of water from this point to the bay is seventy-eight feet. From the level of the Trowbridge pond to the head of Long Rapids, the rise can not be less than seventy-eight feet more. The river is rapid above this place, and runs over limestone ledges, in town 31 north, of range 4 cast, town 30 north, of range 3 east, and has a rise of not less than fifty feet more, making a total fall of water from
1
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TOPOGRAPHICAL AND GEOLOGICAL.
range one to Thunder Bay, of two hundred and sixty feet. All the tributaries are rapid streams, showing no lack of drainage for the land.
Devil river is a small stream, taking its rise in a small lake near Thunder Bay river, and runs south through Mud Lake, and empties into Thunder Bay, twelve miles south of Alpena. It has a log-running capacity for about six miles.
Long Lake is a beautiful sheet of inland water, being in Al- pena and Presque Isle counties. It is eight miles long and from one to one and a half miles wide, surrounded by good farming lands, densely covered with hardwood. The waters are well stocked with fish, the principal being pike, bass and sunfish. The outlet of Long Lake, called by the writer "Crys- tal river," from the clear, crystal appearance of the water, is a large stream in the spring, and dwindles to a small brook in the summer. It runs nearly east from the outlet to Lake Hu- ron, and on its way passes through two small lakes, mostly sur- rounded by high bluffs of limestone. In one of these lakes is a subterranean passage for the water, of sufficient size to pass nearly the entire stream during the lowest stages of water in the summer.
The city of Alpena is located at the mouth of Thunder Bay river, which enters Thunder Bay near its head, in forty-fifth degree of north latitude, and eighty-three degrees and fifty min- utes west longitude, in sections 22, 23 and 27, in town 31 north, of range 8 east, and is the county seat of Alpena county. It is, by section line, twenty miles west and one hundred and ninety-two miles north of Detroit, and twenty miles east and ninety-six miles north of Bay City. It is north from Ossineke twelve miles, and west from Thunder Bay Island twelve miles, and south from Presque Isle harbor about eighteen miles. At the time the writer first visited the place now occu- pied by the city of Alpena, there was, on the east side of the river near the foot of Dock street, a narrow ridge of land ex-
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TOPOGRAPHICAL AND GEOLOGICAL.
tending east, along the bay shore, for about eighty rods. Near the river, and extending to the bay, was a beautiful oak grove, containing about four acres, where the Indians camped, feasted, drank their "fire soup," sang their war songs, danced their war, religious and festive dances, held their councils, and buried their dead and feasted their spirits. North of this, and near the river, was a narrow ridge, crossed by a small stream, on its way to Thunder Bay river, and covered with a thicket of white birch, aspen, cedar, and a sprinkling of norway and white pine, and east of this was a dense cedar and tamarack swamp. This ridge widened as it extended north, until it reached the vicinity of Walnut street, where it was about forty rods wide, and cov- ered with a belt of large timber, of hemlock and pine. It thence extended north, into open norway pine plains. On this ridge was a deep-worn Indian trail, from the mouth of the river to the then rapids, near the section line between sections 15 and 22, in town 31 north, of range 8 east, and now covered by the mill pond, where the Indians fished for sturgeon, pike, pickerel and suckers, which were in abundance, and sometimes whitefish. From this point were two trails, one extending north, through section 16, to Long Lake, and the other extend- ing up the river. On the west side of the river, also, was a small ridge. A line, commencing near the foot of Second street, and thence running to the corner of Chisholm street and Washington avenue, and from thence reaching the bay a little below Messrs. Campbell & Potter's dock, would separate the ridge from the swamp. All of that portion east and south of this line, and reaching to the bay, was a sandy ridge, covered with small pine, white birch and yellow oak; and all west of this line, for a mile or more, was a dense tamarack and cedar swamp, filled with water, and well stocked with batrachians, whose loud prate gave token of approaching spring. By the united efforts of thousands, the timber has been removed, the swamp drained of its water, and the croakers, like the smoke
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TOPOGRAPHICAL AND GEOLOGICAL.
of the Indian's wig-wam, are growing less every year, and soon will be known as only a something of the past. This swamp, so abhorrent a few years ago, has become valuable property, on which, in 1876, is standing beautiful residences, the abode of intelligence, peace and plenty. From Second street, north a few rods, was a small brook, winding its way to the river, and bounded by a cedar swamp about fifteen rods wide. North of this swamp was a piece of high land, containing about thirty acres, which was well timbered with white pine and hemlock. This ridge narrowed to a strip near the river, and extending north to the norway and spruce pine plains. On this ridge, also, was a deep and well marked Indian trail, which had been tramped by moccasined feet for many centuries. It led to the rapids, before mentioned, and thence to the big bend of the river, near Messrs. Campbell & Potter's sawmill, where it be- came two, one leading up the river, and the other following the sandy ridge to Shin-gaw-ba-waw-sin-eke-go-ba-wot-now Ossi- neke. These Indian trails were of much importance to the early surveyors, land-lookers and settlers, being the principal means of communication by land between various parts of the country. These were called "paths" by the first explorers and settlers, and this is the reason for finding a "Pathmaster" in the list of the first officers of the township of Fremont.
GEOLOGICAL.
Geologists have represented the geological formation of the Lower Peninsula of Michigan, as a slightly depressed basin, having its center in or near Jackson and Ingham counties. As you travel any direction from this central point, you pass over the outcropping edge of various lithological strata, in a de- scending series, until you reach the granite formation; hence, Prof. N. H. Winchell, in his notes on the geology of the Thun- der Bay region, published in the Pioneer, in 1870, says: "As one goes toward the north from Saginaw Bay, along the shore
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TOPOGRAPHICAL AND GEOLOGICAL.
of Lake Huron, he passes over the outcropping edges of rocks lower and lower in the geological series, until he reaches Lake Superior. The same is known of the Michigan side of Lake Michigan, northward from Grand Rapids." The writer be- lieves this to be true, only in part, and as confined to the shores of the lakes, but not true in regard to the interior of the State. His travels and explorations in nearly all parts of the State, have led him to the conclusion that the interior of the northern portion of the Southern Peninsula has not been sufficiently ex- plored by competent geologists, as to warrant them in coming to any definite conclusion concerning the geological structure of this region. A little observation will teach us that all rivers, wherever they run over stratified rocks, do not run with the dip, but over the outcropping edges. Whenever they run with the dip, they seldom show the rocks; the streams are mostly sluggish, and the rocks generally covered with alluvial deposit. This being the case, the sources of rivers indicate the highest portion of country ; and a little study of their courses and their descent, and the rocks over which they run, will give us an ap- proximate idea of the geological structure of the district of country through which they run. In referring to the rivers of the Lower Peninsula, we find the St. Joseph, Kalamazoo, and Grand rivers rising in the interior of the southern part of the Southern Peninsula, and carrying the summit level east of the center of the State, and running west and northwest with a moderate descent, over the outcropping edges of rocks, dipping slightly toward the center, empty their waters into Lake Mich .. igan. The Shiawassee river, rising in the same vicinity, runs north and mingles with the waters of Saginaw river, while the Clinton, Huron and Raisin rivers take their rise on the same summit level, and pour their waters into St. Clair Lake and Detroit river. After admitting that these rivers run over the outcropping edges of rocks dipping slightly toward the center of this geological basin, then allow the writer to invite the
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TOPOGRAPHICAL AND GEOLOGICAL.
reader to go with him into Roscommon, Crawford and Otsego counties, where we will reach another summit level, which is estimated to be one thousand feet above the level of the lakes. Here the Muskegon and Manistee, two large rivers, take their rise, and after running south and southwest, over ledges of rock dipping slightly to the northeast, discharge their waters into Lake Michigan. The Cheboygan, Pigeon and Black rivers rise in Otsego county, run north over ledges of limestone, dip- ping south, and lose themselves in the lakes of the Cheboygan river. The Thunder Bay and Au Sable rivers take their heads in small lakes in Otsego and Crawford counties, run east, with a rapid descent, over outcropping rocks, which dip to the west and northwest-with some local exceptional dip to the east, near Thunder Bay-pour their waters into Lake Huron. The Tittabawassee river, commencing in, and running near Roscom- mon county, runs south, and loses itself in Saginaw river. The Boardman, Elk and Pine rivers, take their sources on or near the summit level, and run west, into Grand Traverse Bay and Lake Michigan. Here we have another well defined geological basin, which, to practical geologists, is very little known, and especially that portion comprising the counties of Alpena and Montmorency. In 1859 and 1860, Prof. A. Winchell made some geological explorations in Alpena county and its vicinity, and subsequently it was visited by Prof. N. H. Winchell, but neither of them carried their explorations far enough to deter- mine, in the faintest degree, the geological character of Alpena county ; and they are not certain in regard to the super-position of the rocks, or the groups to which they belong. But the most important fact, entirely overlooked by geologists, in regard the geological formation of the Lower Peninsula, is the depres- sion between those two basins. A line drawn from the mouth of Saginaw river to the mouth of the Muskegon river, passes nearly in the bottom of a synclinal valley between the two places. The Tittabawassee river running south from the north-
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TOPOGRAPHICAL AND GEOLOGICAL.
ern basin, and the Shiawassee river running north from the southern basin; these rivers, with their branches, and other streams, establish the important fact that there is a depression running entirely across the Southern Peninsula, near its center, and dividing it into two parts or basins. This being a fact, we find the gypsum beds at Alabaster, and coal at Rifle river, to belong to the northern basin. Prof. N. H. Winchell says, in one of his notes to the Alpena County Pioneer, published in 1870: "There are various interesting problems, yet unsolved, connected with the geology of the Thunder Bay region. The foregoing 'notes' have merely indicated the outlines of its prominent features. These indications even, are too often bas- ed on conjecture, rather than actual observation." Although the explorations now made are indefinite and of no available benefit to the county, yet they afford important suggestions, and will assist materially in any further survey; and, therefore, the writer has copied from the reports, all that he deemed of any probable value. In the groupings of the rocks in this region of the State, all the reports are vague and ambiguous, if not contradictory.
Prof. A. Winchell, in his report for 1859 and 1860, says: "The elevated limestone region, constituting the northern por- tion of the Peninsula, consists of the higher members of the Upper Helderburg Group, which gradually subsides toward the south, and in the southern part of Cheboygan county, as nearly as can be judged, sinks beneath the shaly limestones of the Hamilton Group." In the "Atlas of the State of Michigan," Winchell calls these limestones the "Little Traverse Group," and says: "This is composed chiefly of the Hamilton Group proper, of the New York geologists; but as the lower limits of the Hamilton have not yet been clearly fixed upon in the State. we apply the above terms to a series of limestones outcropping in the vicinity of Little Traverse Bay and Thunder Bay, and constituting physically a single mass. They have been the sub-
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TOPOGRAPHICAL AND GEOLOGICAL.
ject of considerable study. In 1860, we made an official sur- vey of the Little Traverse strata; in 1866, a special survey and report, and in 1869, the ground was again officially examined, and as the result of all our studies, we submit the following generalized arrangement:
"IV. Chert Beds.
"III. Bluff vesicular magnesian limestone overlaid by character- istic crinoidai beds.
"II Bituminous shales and limestones, composed of (b) Acervu- laria beds above, and (a) Bryozoa beds below.
"I. Pale-biuff massive limestones, comprising (b) Cenostroma beds above, and Fish beds below."
The total thickness was set down provisionally at 141 feet, which is probably too low. This grouping will apparently hold good over extensive region. On the Geological Map of Michi- gan, this group occupies the shore north from Little Traverse Bay to Thunder Bay, and round the bay as far as Ossineke. Prof. N. H. Winchell says: "The Hamilton limestones and shales, and the Huron shales, furnish the geological basis of the Thunder Bay region"; but he is somewhat puzzled in re- gard to the arrangement and super-position of the various strata, as will appear by his remarks, before quoted, and by the following to the Pioneer: "It has been remarked that the natural dip of the strata is toward the center of the State, in all places. This, however, is so slight as to be almost impercepti- ble to the eye; and hence, the natural beds generally appear horizontal, unless local causes have produced exceptional dip." Now, it has been found that rocks which underlie the Thunder Bay district are much affected by an exceptional dip. Along the lake shore, and in the limits of Thunder Bay, the excep- tional dip eastward is always found. This is true as far north as Nine Mile Point, but it is not noticeable within Thunder Bay, and as far inland as Broadwell's mill, dip toward the bay. This downthrow of the rocks accounts for the occurrence of higher members in the Hamilton at the mouth of Thunder Bay
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TOPOGRAPHICAL AND GEOLOGICAL.
river than at the "Big Rapids," thirty miles west. £ Prof. A. Winchell, in his report of 1859-'60, page 69, says: "On the . east side of Thunder Bay Island, the rocks of the Helderberg group are seen overlain by a black bituminous limestone, abounding in Atrypareticularis, and numerous other Brachio- pods allied to the types of this group, (Hamilton). The local- ity furnishes, also, two or three species of trilobites, (a) Faro- sites, a large coral allied to Acervularia, and some small fishı remains. The same beds are again seen at Carter's quarry, two or three miles above the mouth of Thunder Bay river, and here it contains the same fossils. It is seen again on the south shore of Little Traverse Bay, replete with Brachiopods and Bryozoa, and is here eighteen feet thick. The exact order of super-position of the rocks constituting the Hamilton group, has nowhere been observed. The bluffs at Partridge Point, in Thunder Bay, are believed to come in next above the bitumin- ous limestones of the localities just cited. The rock here is, at bottom, a bluish, highly argillaceous limestone, with shaly in- terlaminations, the whole wonderfully stocked with the remains of Bryozoa, and not a few encrinital stans. Above these beds, which are but five feet thick, occurs a mass of blue shale, six feet thick; still higher is a massive limestone, below filled with Bryozoa, encrinites and Brachiopods; above, little fossiliferous, the whole with interlaminations of clay. At the upper rapids of Thunder Bay river, still a different but entirely detached section was observed, and it is yet impossible to collocate it with the others. At the upper rapids-northeast quarter of south- west quarter of section 7, town 31 north, of range 8 east-on the south side of the river, limestone is seen in a bluff fifteen feet high, dipping east-southeast about five degrees. The whole section exposed is twenty-five feet, made up as follows, from above:
8. Limestone, bluish, flaggy-S feet.
7. Limestone, dark gray, highly crystaline, thick bedded, with Favosites-9 feet.
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TOPOGRAPHICAL AND GEOLOGICAL.
6. Limestone, dark bluish, very fine grained, hard, compact and heavy, with a few reddish streaks and spots, and some en- crinital stans and shells, and a few crystals of spar interspersed with occasional seams of the same, in the form of dog-tooth spar. Would make an excellent building stone, and probably would receive a fine polish-6 feet.
5. Limestone, gray, crystaline, thick bedded, seen in bottom of river. This rock resembles fragments seen at the highest level above the lower rapids-2 feet.
4. An interval of no exposure. Half a mile higher up the stream, the section is continued, as follows:
3. Limestones, dark, bluish gray, fine grained, compact in layers two to four inches thick; resembles the rock at the lower rapids.
2. Clay indurated, regularly stratified, rather dark-32 feet.
1. Calcarious shale, with fossils, forming the bed of the river. The dip at this place is abnormal, and evidently local. The true geological position of the rock must be determined by future investigation. The rocks of the Hamilton group are traced from the south shore of Little Traverse Bay, to near the outlet of Grand Traverse Bay. In speaking of the Huron group he says: "At Sulphur Island, in Thunder Bay, not more than a mile east-southeast from Partridge Point, is found a black bituminous slate, which is believed to overlie the fossili- ferous cliffs at the latter place. No undisturbed strata are to be seen on the island, which consists of a mass of fragments, rising a few feet above the water. These slates, or shale, burn with considerable freedom, and it is stated that combustion started from camp fires has, in several instances, continued spontaneously for many months, in one case sixteen months. The cinders resulting from these fires, are still very conspicu- ous. These shales furnish no fossils, except a few vegetable impressions, resembling Calamites, and some very indistinct impressions of shells. Pyriteous noctules and septaria are
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