USA > Michigan > Kalamazoo County > History of Kalamazoo county, Michigan > Part 14
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57
PHYSICAL FEATURES.
sional townships Nos. 1, 2, 3, and 4 south of the base line, and of ranges Nos. 9, 10, 11, and 12 west from the princi- pal meridian, making it four townships square, or twenty- four miles on each side of the quadrangle. Theoretically, it contains five hundred and seventy-six square miles, or three hundred and sixty-eight thousand six hundred and forty square acres ; but the convergence of range lines and imperfect surveying make the actual area somewhat differ- ent from these amounts, -- a few hundred acres less.
HYDROGRAPHY.
Five-eighths of the county are drained by the Kalamazoo River, and about three-eighths by the St. Joseph River. The townships of Ross, Richland, Cooper, Alamo, Kala- mazoo, Comstock, most of Charleston and Portage, and por- tions of Oshtemo, Texas, and Pavilion are within the water-shed of the Kalamazoo; while Climax, Wakeshma, Brady, Schoolcraft, and Prairie Ronde, small portions of Charleston, Portage, and Texas, and most of Pavilion are drained by branches of the St. Joseph River.
The water surface of the lakes and ponds of the county is about 10,000 acres, divided among the several towns, ap- proximately, as follows : Ross, 1600 acres; Richland, 850; Cooper, 40; Alamo, 350; Oshtemo, 160 ; Kalamazoo, 200 ; Comstock, 200; Charleston, 550; Climax, 50; Pavilion, 1000 ; Portage, 1800; Texas, 1200; Prairie Ronde, 400; Schoolcraft, 1100; Brady, 800; Wakeshma has no lakes, at least they are not shown on the maps.
The larger of these lakes show about the following areas : Gull, 2000 acres ; Austin, 1300; Indian, 700; Long, 610; Rawson, 400 ; Gourd-Neck, 370; Eagle, 350; West, 300; Paw Paw, 170; Crooked, 150; and Howard, 150 .*
The Kalamazoo Rivert rises in Hillsdale and Jackson
* These estimates are made from careful computations, based upon the original and latest surveys, and the county maps. Bodies of water are invariably overestimated, unless measurements are from reliable surveys. Gull Lake is about four and a half miles in extreme length. + Mr. George Torrey, in his history of Kalamazoo, published in the directory of the village for 1867, gives the following regarding the origin of the name Kalamazoo :
"On Toland's Prairie there had once been a village, and it was here that the name of the river ' KALAMAZOO,' originated. A friend, Mr. A. J. Sheldon, to whom the writer is indebted for many incidents and historical notes regarding the Indians, writes me : 'There is no reason to doubt the truth of this story, as I took great pains among the Indians to ascertain the true meaning of the word. Schoolcraft and other authorities say its etymology is KIH-KALAMAZOO,-' It boils like a pot,' or the ' boiling-pot,' from the numerous small eddies on its surface. This is the true Indian tradition : 'Many moons ago, Toland Prairie was the site of a small Indian village. One pleasant day a wager was made that an Indian could not run to a certain point on the river and return ere the water, then boiling in a little pot on
the fire, should have boiled out. The race was made, and thus the beautiful river received its name of Kalamazoo, or 'where the water boils in the pot,' and which name has been applied to the whole stream, though originally designating only a small portion of its banks. The sweet sylvan tide of the Kalamazoo has oft reflected upon its fair bosom the ' cone-like cabins' of the original possessors of the soil, and its murmurs made music for their sports upon the green sward. Their 'light canoes' have skimmed its glassy surface, and re-echoed back the sound of mortal combat; yet, though the one who named it Kala- mazoo is forgotten, the stream will ever bear its title,-
"' It matters not his rank or name, or whence his baptism came, While thy swift waters lave their banks, shall live thy Indian name.'"
Counties, and flows in a general direction, northwest by west, to its embouchure into Lake Michigan. It drains about two thousand two hundred square miles, and flows with a gentle current, except in a few places where there are " rifts" or slight rapids. Its whole course is through the alluvium, which is characteristic of many of the Michigan streams. Its total fall is probably in the vicinity of three hundred feet, which, estimating its winding course at one hundred and fifty miles, would give an average fall of two feet per mile. Its volume is exceedingly uniform, and it neither gets very low in times of drouth, nor devastates its banks in times of flood. Its rise and fall at Kalamazoo may be measured within the compass of six feet. This uniformity is produced by the many perennial springs which feed its flow ; by its passage among numerous lakes and marshes, which serve as equalizing reservoirs; and by the comparatively level country through which it passes.
The lower fifty miles of its channel, from Lake Michi- ga. to Kalamazoo, were in the early days, and down to the advent of railways, considerably used for purposes of navi- gation ; the water craft employed for merchandise and pas- sengers being mostly flat-boats, barges, and canoes.} This stream in its passage through the county intersects the towns of Ross, Charleston, Comstock, Kalamazoo, and Cooper. From Ross to Kalamazoo its course is west south- west, and from thence nearly north.
The principal affluents of the Kalamazoo within the county are Augusta Creek, in Ross township; the outlet of Gull Lake, in Ross and Charleston ; Portage Creek, in Portage and Kalamazoo ; and Spring Brook, in Richland and Cooper. Several of these furnish considerable water- power, notably at Augusta, Galesburg, and Kalamazoo. A considerable stream rises in the southeastern part of Alamo, and flows into the Paw Paw River in Van Buren County. The Big and Little Portage and Bear Creeks drain the southeast portions of the county, and two consid- erable streams flow south from Schoolcraft and Prairie Ronde. These streams furnish more or less motive-power at Vicksburg and other points. Springs are very numer- ous, and some of them of a mineral character ; one on sec- tion 27, in the town of Cooper, has made an immense deposit of calcareous tufa.
TOPOGRAPHY.
The surface of the county, while exhibiting the general characteristics of a level region, at the same time shows considerable variety, the leading features of which may be classed under the headings of timbered lands, oak-openings, prairies, river bluffs, and marshes.
The timbered lands originally covered the greater portion of the county, probably three-fourths. The timber con- sisted of a great variety of deciduous trees: oak, several varieties ; hickory, two varieties; elm, several varieties ; beech, maple, varieties of each ; basswood, black-walnut, butternut, or white-walnut, black-cherry, asb, tulip, syca- more, sour gum,§ birch, larch, etc., with some cedar and very little pine.
¿ Steam navigation has been experimented upon at times, but not with satisfactory results.
¿ This tree is commonly known under the name "pepperidge."
8
58
HISTORY OF KALAMAZOO COUNTY, MICHIGAN.
The lands known as "oak-openings" were principally level tracts sparsely timbered with burr-oak, though, in some cases, lands covered with a scattering growth of other varieties may have been so designated. The site of the vil- lage plat of Kalamazoo was originally a fine example of the Michigan openings, and the people have exhibited more than ordinary taste and judgment in preserving the primi- tive growth in streets and inclosures. The burr-oak always grows in a rich soil, generally a sandy loam.
PRAIRIES.
The prairies of Michigan are generally small, as compared with those of Illinois and the country west of the Missis- sippi, and comparatively few in number. Those found within the limits of Kalamazoo County are Prairie Ronde, Gourd-Neck, Gull, Climax, Grand, Toland's, Genesee, and Dry.
Of these Prairie Ronde is the most considerable, and claimed to be the most extensive in the State. Its area has been vastly overestimated, however, by almost every writer, from James Fenimore Cooper, in the " Oak-Open- ings," to the present time. The highest estimates have been from twenty-five thousand to thirty thousand acres. A careful computation upon a sectional map, giving nearly its exact outlines, shows an approximate to thirteen thou- sand acres. This estimate is confirmed by Mr. Hodgman, county surveyor, who is familiar with the county. Gull Prairie comes next with about two thousand eight hundred acres ; Gourd-Neck, with two thousand five hundred; Cli- max, with eight hundred; Grand, with eight hundred ; Galesburg, or Toland's, with five hundred ; Genesee, with four hundred ; and Dry Prairie, with three hundred, mak- ing an aggregate of twenty-one thousand one hundred acres, or something less than the area of a Congressional township. In tabular form,-
Acres.
Prairie Ronde
13,000
Gull Prairie
2,800
Gourd-Neck Prairie ...
2,500
Climax Prairie.
800
Grand Prairie.
800
Galesburg, or Toland's Prairie.
500
Genesee Prairie
400
Dry Prairie,
300
Total.
21,100*
These figures will no doubt surprise many citizens of the county, but they have been made after careful study, and largely upon information obtained from Mr. Hodgman ; and we have little doubt that an accurate survey would show them approximately correct. Prairie Ronde extends a short distance into St. Joseph County, but we have estimated only the portion lying in Kalamazoo County.
The origin of these " natural meadows" has been attrib- uted to many causes. The immense prairies farther west have been considered as the beds of ancient seas or fresh- water lakes, long since (probably in the carboniferous period) permanently elevated above the receding waters. Periodical burnings are supposed to have prevented the growth of forest-trees, and the constant accumulations of
vegetable remains and ashes are the probable sources from whence the rich black surface mould is derived.
Some writers believe that the prairies of Michigan have been produced by the combined action of whirlwinds and fire. The study of these phenomena of nature is an ex- ceedingly interesting one, and worthy the deepest research.
RIVER BLUFFS.
These form the more or less precipitous escarpments of the margins of the river valleys, and vary in height only in a slight degree in Kalamazoo County, increasing somewhat as they trend towards the lake. The highest elevation in the county is said to be in the township of Oshtemo, which is stated at over two hundred feet above the river, and about three hundred and fifty feet above Lake Michigan. The highest elevation of Prairie Ronde is given at two hun- dred and seventy-eight feet above the lake, and eight hun- dred and fifty-six feet above the sea. The village of Kal- amazoo is stated at one hundred and fifty-four feet above Lake Michigan, and seven hundred and thirty feet above the sea.t The general level of the country is from eighty to one hundred and fifty feet above the bed of the Kala- mazoo River.
The valleys of the streams, eroded from a former general level of the peninsula, date from the Champlain era, which followed the subsidence of the vast continental glacier, whose irresistible onward movement towards the south and south- west strewed the whole region between Lakes Michigan and Huron with the shattered and worn debris of the crystal- line and sedimentary rocks of the upper peninsula and Canada.
With the melting of the glacial masses came powerful currents of fresh water, which, in their rapid movement towards the level of the lakes, excavated and gave character to the various river-beds of the peninsula. As the frozen accumulations slowly disappeared under the rising tempera- ture the streams diminished, and at different stages and levels new beds were formed, and from each in turn was excavated the new and regularly-narrowing channel, leav- ing the curious terraces which invariably mark the changes in the volume and level of the streams. The flowing water of the post-glacial days was enormous in quantity, as compared with that of the present day, and the Kalamazoo undoubtedly at one period filled the valley indicated by the upper terrace from bluff to bluff in a broad, shallow stream.
MARSHES.
These cover quite an extensive area, and include large tracts around the margins of the lakes, and others which are no doubt the beds of former lakes, drained by the cut- tings of the water-courses within a comparatively recent geological period. The area of the marsh-land in the county is difficult of determination, and is constantly being reduced by the clearing away of timber, and by drainage and cultivation. The soil is exceedingly rich, being com- posed of black muck, in places approaching the consistency
* The " Indian Fields," a tract of land of about one hundred acres, cultivated by the Indians, located in Portage township, will be found described in the history of that town. It is not strictly prairie.
t The railroad survey of the Michigan Southern road makes Kala- mazoo two hundred and ten feet above the lake, and seven hundred and seventy-five feet above the sea. If this statement is true, it ma- terially changes all the elevations given by some other authorities.
GEOLOGICAL MAP OF THE LOWER PENINSULA MICHIGAN.
Explanation of Colors
OS BLANC ID.
Helderberg Group
WADEOSHINCKC
Hamilton
cheboy
1
Black Shale
AY MOND'S BAY
Waverty Group
Carboniferous Limestone
PRAVE
Coal Measures
FRESQUE
SLE
VALE
NORTH MISTROV
EST PRESQUEISLE
N
food
SOUTH MING
KONDER BAY ID.
Alper
A
OTSEGO MONTMORENDI
(ALPENA
SLEEPINGSE
NTŘIM
BOTH POINT
C
Kodaska
azcona
Traverse City
R
Franklin
BEN ZIE
KALKASKA Crawland
· Harrisville
H
O
Bable City
C
word
Z
MANISTEE WEX FORD. MASSAUKEE ROSCOMMON
·Ogemaw O GEM AW
Tawas City
am take
.Falmouth
BANQUES
WORTONE QUARRIES
MASON
LAKE
Q CEOLA
CLARE
GLADWIN
Portcrescent MARQUES
Ludington
Caseville
Chase
Lake
Sand Beach Rock Falls
Pontwater
HURON
-Big Rapidy MECOSTA ISABELLA
MIDLAND Sanford
Sebenting
White Rock
OGRANA
Morgangrille
Bay City
NEWAGO.
Saginaw
St.Louis
Bast Sagina US COLA
Vanilac
-E
Whitehall MUSKEGON
MONTCALM
GRATIOF
St. Charles
·Muskegon
Stanton Greenville
Perry &bear
A
RENT
Owosso
Grand Hall
Grand 1
ONIA Ionias
St. Johns CLINTON
· Corunna
OTTAWA
SHIAWAS SEE
7
LANSING
Holle
MACOMB
OAKLAND
Hastings BARRY
EATON Charlotte Eaton Rapidy
INGHAM Mason
Pentlah
ALLEGAN
M. Clemens
Allegan
LAKE
Battle to
Ann Arbor
VAN BUREN
WAYNE
Pow Pow
CALHOUN
·Schoolcraft
St Josentia
Union City BRANCH Coldwater
Fecumsche
CONROE
BER RLEN
LENAWEE
HILLSDALE
Adrian
LAKE ERIE
1
D
0 ₦ 170 TOLEDO
atsar
SANILAC
K
Rockford
GENES Flint
LAPEER
Lake Fort
ST. CLAIR Port Huron
ST. CLAIR
MALAMA ZOO
ALTROIT
KALAMAZOO
JACKSON
Ypsilanti WASHTENAW
Jonesville
JOSEPH
CASS Cassopolis Wiles
Monroe
G
LEÉLEN AU
1
CRAWFORD OSCODA
ALCONA
PERAND TRAVERSE Walton
TESTONE PY
HAT
Port
Lego City
Furwell
claire
SAĞIN
SAGINAW
LIVINGSTON Howell
South How
RAVERSE
IX
59
PHYSICAL FEATURES.
of peat, and generally underlaid with a heavy, compact marl. The marsh-lands lying south of Kalamazoo village, under the hand of intelligent industry, are fast becoming prolific gardens, and a few acres, well cultivated, return an astonishing profit on the cost of the land and the labor of reclaiming it. Immense crops of celery are grown on these lands.
An approximate estimate of the present area of marsh- lands within the county may be placed at fifteen thousand acres ; but a half-century hence will see them nearly all under cultivation and the most valuable of any.
SOILS.
These may be generally classified as sandy and gravelly loam, clayey uplands, and alluvial bottom-lands. Small areas are found too sandy or gravelly for farming purposes, but by far the greater portion of the county is susceptible of profitable cultivation, and the cultivatable portion is in- creasing each year in economic value and area. Clays suit- able for the manufacture of brick are abundant, and potter's clay is also found in certain localities. Nearly every variety of grain and grass found in the northern temperate zone is grown in great profusion, and no State in the Union pro- duces the great staple, wheat, in greater perfection than Michigan. Indian corn and other grains also do well. The soil is finely adapted to the growth of fruit and vegetables, -every kind of garden product yielding abundantly,-and apples, pears, peaches, grapes, and smaller fruits rivaling both in quantity and quality the finest productions of New Jersey and Delaware.
Under a general system of drainage and a scientific cul- tivation of her soils, Michigan must, in the near future, become a beautiful and a highly-prosperous agricultural region.
GEOLOGY.
The lapse of time since the earth's crust first began to cool and harden, and the subsequent time required for the formation of the crystalline and sedimentary rocks of the globe, cannot be estimated, but science has divided it into ages, periods, and epochs, for the sake of simplifying and systematizing the study of geology .* The various sub- divisions, as arranged and classified by Dana, are as follows :
I .- ARCHAAN TIME, including two subdivisions, the dividing line (not well established) being the dawn of life.
1. Azoic Age (without life).
2. Eozoic Age (earliest life).
II .- PALEOZOIC TIME (old life), divided into three periods.
1. The Age of Invertebrates, or Silurian.
2. The Age of Fishes, or Devonian.
3: The Age of Coal-Plants, or Carboniferous.
III .- MESOZOIC TIME (middle life), including only one period.
1. The Age of Reptiles.
* This word signifies a discourse upon the structure and mineral con- stitution of the earth. Most of the statements and deductions found in the following paragraphs have been drawn from information ob- tained in the report of Professor C. Rominger, in charge of the State Geological Survey.
IV .- CENOZOIC TIME (later or recent life), divided into two periods.
1. The Tertiary, or Age of Mammals.
2. The Quaternary, or Age of Man.
As shown on the diagram (page 60), Mesozoic time, or the age of reptiles, and the Tertiary, or age of mammals, are not represented by rock formations in Michigan. This last epoch includes the Cretaceous, Jurassic, and Triassic periods of Europe, which are not conspicuously represented on the American continent.
It is almost certain that the earliest vegetable and ani- mal forms of life existed in the rock structure of Michigan, as they are found in the Archaan of Canada and Massa- chusetts, and in Bavaria and Norway in Europe. Sea-weeds and lichens probably existed in the Laurentian age, and a supposed Rhizopod-a kind of coral-making species-has been found in Canada. It is named in the books Eozoon Canadense.
The forms of life belonging to Paleozoic and Cenozoic time are abundant, more especially in the rocks and drift of the lower peninsula. In Silurian days the lower penin- sula, and a considerable portion of the upper, constituted an immense ocean bay, bounded on the north, east, and west by the Archaan formations of Canada and Wisconsin ; and during the deposition of the Devonian strata it was still an ocean bay, almost land-locked by the Silurian for- mations, which had become dry land in Canada, Wisconsin, Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois.
In the Carboniferous age, and perhaps later, it seems to have been an oscillating basin, possibly covered by a great inland salt-water sea or lake. During the deposition of the salt formation, it was probably still a great bay of the main ocean, but so nearly surrounded by land that its waters were not affected to any great extent by ocean currents.
According to the State geologist, the sedimentary rocks underlying Michigan are mostly in nearly horizontal posi- tions, with probably a slight dip towards the centres of the lower peninsula and Lake Superior. Proceeding from the lowest or primitive formation towards the surface, the en- tire series are named as follows : Laurentian, Huronian, Acadian, Potsdam Sandstone, Calciferous Sand-rock, Tren- ton Limestone, Hudson River Shales, Niagara Limestone, Onondaga Salt Group, Helderberg Limestone, Hamilton Shales, Black Shales, Waverly Group (sandstone and shales), Carboniferous, divided into upper and lower meas- ures, and, above all, the Quaternary, composed of bowl- ders, coarse sand, clays, etc. This last includes the Glacial, Champlain, and Terrace periods.
A brief enumeration of the formations of the upper peninsula is all we can give in this connection.
The Laurentiant out-crops in Baraga, Marquette, and Ontonagon Counties, in which it covers an aggregate area of two thousand square miles. No minerals other than the ordinary constituents of the earlier crystalline rocks are found in this formation. Its constituent elements are quartz, mica, feldspar, hornblende, pyroxene, etc. The varieties of rock, according as these ingredients are com- bined, are granite, syenite, gneiss, hypersthene, schists, etc.
t So named from its fine development near the St. Lawrence River.
60
HISTORY OF KALAMAZOO COUNTY, MICHIGAN.
GEOLOGICAL DIAGRAM.
The following diagram, constructed especially for this work, shows all the important formations of the State, according to the most recent report of Professor C. Rominger, State geologist. The Triassic, Ju- rassic, and Tertiary formations do not exist in Michigan.
CENOZOIC TIME.
QUATERNARY. AGE OF MAN.
Fine Sands and Clays. Conglomerate, Coarse Gravel.
AGE OF COAL-PLANTS.
Carboniferous Age.
Carboniferous.
Lower Coal-Measures.
Millstone Grit. Carboniferous Limestone.
Sub-carboniferous. .
Conglomerate. Thick-bedded Sandstones. Sandstones and Shales.
Waverly Group.
AGE OF FISHES.
Devonian.
Traverse Bay.
Petosky Group.
Upper Helderberg .*
Mackinac Bois Blanc.
-
Lower Helderberg .*
Straits of Macki- nac.
Onondaga Salt Group.
St. Ignace.
Niagara. Clinton.
Niagara Limestone.
North shores of Lakes Huron and Michigan.
Medina.
AGE OF INVERTEBRATES.
Hudson River Shales.
St. Joseph Island, Green Bay.
Trenton Limestone.
Green Bay and
Lower Silurian.
St. Joseph Island.
South shore Lake Superior.
Potsdam Sandstone.
Pre-
Silurian.
Ontonagon.
Copper-bearing. (Trap.)
Keweenaw and Isle Royale.
Huronian.
Marquette County.
ARCHAAN TIME.
AZOIC AND
EoZOIC.
Marquette Counties.
and
Ontonagon
Laurentian.
-
-
Calciferous Sand-Rock.
UPPER PENINSULA.
Upper Silurian.
Hamilton.
and
PALEOZOIC TIME.
Black Shale.
LOWER PENINSULA.
Upper Coal-Measures.
100
Terrace. Champlain and Glacial Periods.
Acadian.
* There may be a layer of the Oriskany sand-rock intercalated between these formations, as in New York, and both the sandstone and lower beds of the Helderberg may be wanting.
61
PHYSICAL FEATURES.
The Huronian, classified by the State geologist as next in order, is by some scientists classed as Upper Laurentian. It also belongs to the crystalline formations, but of a sup- . posed later date than the Laurentian, or Old Laurentian, first named. It is the surface rock over a large area in the counties of Marquette, Baraga, Houghton, and Menominee, equivalent to about two thousand square miles. It is com- posed of nearly the same materials as the lower formation, . and the two often blend insensibly into each other. In addition to the constituents found in the earlier rocks, this formation abounds in iron ore, jasper, chlorite, clay, slate, mica, and hornblende schists, several varieties of limestone, including magnesian limestone and marble, quartzite, con- glomerate, etc.
Probably the richest iron region in the world is found in this formation about Marquette and Lake Michigamme. On the Michigamme River, a few miles south of the little lake of the same name, is a wonderfully rich bed of ore, in a belt of the Huronian formation about two miles in width. It is bounded closely on both sides by the primitive granite.
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