History of Macomb County, Michigan, Part 16

Author: Leeson, Michael A., [from old catalog] comp
Publication date: 1882
Publisher: Chicago, M. A. Leeson & co.
Number of Pages: 952

USA > Michigan > Macomb County > History of Macomb County, Michigan > Part 16

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Spring time came, and under the influence of its season the sea of ice which covered land and water to a depth of 5,000 feet began to break up, to dissolve, when the solids held within its grasp fell down and formed a bed of rocky frag- ments or boulder drift. This rocky conformation must not be confounded with the partial drift of after years, evidences of which are given in many sections of our county.

SUPERFICIAL MATERIALS.

Abundant evidences are furnished along the shores of St. Clair Lake and river as well as those of Lake Huron, of the unbroken continuity of the action of those physical forces, which have assorted and transported the materials of the Drift. From the shingle beach formed by the violence of the last gale, we trace a series, of beaches and terraces, gradually rising as we recede from the shore, and becoming more and more covered with the lichens and mould and forest growths which de- note antiquity, until in some cases the phenomena of shore action blend with the features which characterize the Glacial Drift. These observations tally with the views of Pictet on the continuity of the Diluvian and Modern Epochs, as established by palæontological evidences. So also may we behold evidences of the disintegra- tion of strata, which formerly existed in this very county-we may see every day the comminuted materials lying around us in all directions. The uses of these cobbles are known wherever a pavement is necessary ; while on the land they keep it warm as it were, and aid in the growth of grain crops. These remnants of con- minution are principally rounded fragments of syenite, greenstone, vitreous and jasperous sandstones, horn-rock, talcase and of the serpentinous rocks of the azoic series. Here are the rocks overspread with blue clay, plutonic boulders and pebbles. There is a curious rock on the farm of Edwin Lamb in Washington Town- ship. It consisted of ordinary cobble stones bound together by a kind of water lime cement. Some years ago it was examined by Wm. A. Burt, who gave it as

137

HISTORY OF MACOMB COUNTY.

his opinion that it had been brought here from northern Michigan on a cake of ice at a time when all the county was covered by the waters of Lake St. Clair. In other places those rude materials are often arranged in rude courses, which have a curved dip, and appear outcropping on the hill-sides and sometimes upon the plains. The outerop is very irregular in this county. In the deep borings for brine, as well as in the shallow surface water-reservoirs, these boulders and pebbles have been found. Again entire fields .bear them upon the surface, or so near the surface that each successive plowing brings them more prominently into view. In some places a field is found bearing nine and twelve cobble stones on every square foot of its surface ; such fields are generally very productive, the only fault being in the difficulty of plowing them.

There is a thin series of argillaceous magnesian limestones and marls, embracing beds and masses of gypsum, and, in some regions, strata of Rock Salt is known as the Salina. It is the lowest stratified rock known in the Lower Peninsula. Its belt of outcrop stretches across the point of land north of Mackinac, from Little Point au Chene to the vicinity of the mouth of Carp River, and close to the shore from that point to West Moran Bay. The formation, with the characteristic gypsum, is seen beneath the water surface at the little St. Martin Island, and at Goose Island near Mackinac. Dipping beneath the Lower Peninsula, it re-appears in Monroe County where it has been exposed in some of the deepest quarries. In the well-borings at Mt. Clemens, as well as at Alpena and Caseville, this formation has been reached, and near Sandusky, Ohio, it affords valuable gypsum deposits. At Mt. Clemens the Salt Rock was not reached, though at Alpena and Caseville a thick bed of such rock was penetrated, doubtless similar, or rather equivalent to the beds at Goderich in Canada.

The total thickness of this formation is a matter of speculation, but is supposed to be fifty or sixty feet in depth above the Salt Rock. The stratification based on information obtained from the measurement of remote outcrops of the group, may be placed as follows :

Calcareous clay as seen at Bois Blanc. Fine ash-colored limestone, with acicular crystals, as at Ida, Otter Creek and Plum Creek quarries, and at Mackinac, Round and Bois Blanc Island. Variegated gypseous marls, with imbedded masses of gypsum, as at Little Point au Chene and the St. Martin Islands.

A group of argillaceous and magnesian limestones outcrop along the western shore of Lake Erie, and exists beneath the surface in the counties bordering on the lake and river St. Clair. It consists of an argillaceous, chocolate-colored, magne- sian limestone in regular layers, each layer from four to eight inches thick. This conformation seems to correspond with the waterlime formation of New York.

The formation known as corniferous limestone, is very general in masses of

138

HISTORY OF MACOMB COUNTY.

horn-stone. The dark color of the rock is imparted by the presence of bituminous matter, which often shows itself in the thin partings between the strata. Petroleum saturates the formation, and as the bitumen colors the rock, so does the petroleum bestow on it its peculiar odor, often oozing from the crevices, and showing itself on the streams in the vicinity.

The black shale at the bottom of the argillaceous strata known as the Huron group, is about 20 feet thick, sometimes laminated and fissile. This shale has doubtless been pierced in the borings at Mt. Clemens, as it is known to exist in St. Clair, and counties adjoining Macomb. The shale resembles coal, and when placed in a stove or grate gives a blaze resembling that of coal.

We also find here a species of shales more arenaceous than the black shale, which, to use the language of geology, terminate in a series of laminated, argilla- ceous, micaceous, friable sandstone, which pass into the Waverly group.

The Black Shale hitherto regarded holds an important place in the stratifica- tion of this county, particularly on its southern borders. It appears that about the year 1858, F. P. Boutellier undertook the boring of a well in Greenfield township in the county of Wayne. The earth was penetrated beneath a saw-mill, then in operation. The drill having passed through the clay and subjacent rock, entered the blue-black shale, which it passed through at a depth of seventy or eighty feet. At this moment the iron was wrested from the hands of the laborers as if by some supernatural power. This phenomena was followed by a violent escape of gas, and an upheaval of water and sand.

The stream of fetid gas became ignited in some manner, and formed a fiery column, reaching to the roof of the mill. All efforts to extinguish the blaze proved utterly futile, the burning roof of the building had to be removed, and a furnace pipe placed over the boring to guide the terrific flame. This last act in the drama of that well boring had the effect of extinguishing the fire. Boutellier, it need scarcely be said, was happy for this denouement; yet he took precautions against the recurrence of such an eruption, by filling up the boring with pebbles, and clay, and refusing permission to have such an experiment repeated. In Ster- ling township one of such wells created a sensation some time ago.

Throughout Wayne, Macomb and St. Clair counties there are evidences of the existence of gas fountains, if not actual oil reservoirs. This fetid gas was undoubt- edly the product of distilled petroleum lying below the gas fountain in a similar position to the oil reservoirs of Petrolia and Oil Springs in Canada.

GAS WELLS.

On the grounds of Geo. C. Walker at New Baltimore is a gas well, which gives up sufficient gas to light his residence. It is his intention to utilize this light-mak-

139

HISTORY OF MACOMB COUNTY.

ing stream, by guiding it into the cookery and throughout the house. The well is only 56 feet in depth.

About the same time that Mr. Walker bored this well three other persons in the village engaged in a like enterprise, and struck the same gaseous vein. It is stated that about the year 1850 the existence of natural gas, at this point, was no- ticed by many of the villagers. Below the Hathaway warehouse bubbles were ob- served on the surface of the water, while a closer inspection pointed out the fact that some submarine power agitated the sand below the water, raising it up in cones and then scattering it around.

SUBTERRANEAN CHANNELS.

In consequence of the changes to which the various strata of the county has been subjected, the waters have carved for themselves, even within our own time, a passage through it, and find their way to the lower lakes throngh subterraneous rivulets, causing the diminution of, and sometimes the total disappearance of ponds and creeks. This, doubtless, is to-day operating against our rivers, and accounts for the visible reduction of the volume of water, compared with that which marked them in Territorial days. This diminution is partly attributed to increased evapo- ration, consequent upon the removal of the forests.

In the same way we must account for the reports of public officers in the olden times-one reports the Huron River navigable for thirty miles ; the other reports the brine obtained from the springs of the civil district of Huron capable of yield- ing 25 per cent. of solid saline matter.

WATER RESERVOIRS.

The small bodies of water or lakelets with which certain portions of Macomb County are diversified, rest in depressions shaped in the layer of modified drift. The remarkable group of water fountains in the northwestern township of the county, together with those in the northeastern part of Oakland, continues through Livingston, Washtenaw, and onwards to the lakes of Grattan in Kent County. They are particularly scattered along the scarcely descending banks of the Huron of Lake St. Clair, or the Clinton and its tributaries, and are strung like beads along these streams, many of them, probably, the ancient work of beavers.

The lakelets of Macomb County, as of the Lower Peninsula in general, are surrounded by gravelly, elevated shores on two or three sides, with frequently a low, marshy border fringing the remainder of the contour. As the streams which feed them are clear, the water of the lakes is limpid and healthful, though of the char- acter known as hard. They furnish, therefore, charming places of Summer resort. The same species of fish and molluscs inhabit the different lakelets of the county, however disconnected. This fact presents an interesting and difficult problem to

140

HISTORY OF MACOMB COUNTY.

the investigator of the origin of species. The most natural inference is. that at a fornter period a general system of water communication existed among the various bodies of water in this part of the Peninsula, and at this time one fauna extended through all its limits. A similar problem, but of a larger magnitude, is presented by the similar faunas inhabiting different rivers and lake systems, and especially when the different systems discharge into the sea at different points, and their higher sources, as well as their valleys of discharge, are separated by elevations too great to admit the hypothesis of a general fresh-water inundation in former times.

It requires but casual observation to become convinced that nearly all these lakelets have formerly been of larger size. The shore upon one or more sides is frequently low and sedgy, and stretches back over an expanse of marsh and allu- vial land to a sloping, gravelly bank, which appears to have been the ancient con- tour of the lake or river expansion. The lowland between the ancient shore and the modern is composed of a bed of peat, generally underlaid by a bed of marl. Beneath the marl may be found, in many cases, a deposit of blue, plastic clay, which forms a transition to the layer of modified drift before described. Each of these deposits may have a thickness of a few inches or more, up to ten or twenty feet. That all these formations have been laid down from the flooded or Champlain Period is evident : first, from their superposition on the modified drift : second, from the fact that the lake is performing in our own times the same work as we see completed in the low-border marsh ; third, from the gradual extension of many lake-border marshes, and the corresponding diminution of the areas of the lakes.

The calcareons character of the water of these lakelets makes them a fitting abode for numerous species of lime-secreting molluscs. These animals eliminate the lime from the water and build it into the structure of their shells. Finally the mulluse dies and its shell falls to the bottom, where it undergoes disintegration into a white powder, or becomes buried in the progressing accumulation of such mate- rial. Another portion of the marly deposit forming in the bed of the lakes is probably derived from calcareous precipitation directly from the lake water. Thus a bed of marl is forming over the whole bottom of the lake, in situations sufficiently protected and shallow to serve as the abode of shell-making animals. But on the leeward side the immediate shore is the seat of a layer of peat. Bulrushes lift their heads through water one or two feet deep. A little nearer the shore flags may be seen, and still nearer scouring rushes. On the immediate border of the land willows and water-loving sedges hold a place, while further back other sedges and grasses take possession in varying proportions. This is the lee side of the lakes. Floating leaves, twigs, stems, therefore find their way among the lake-side growths, and becoming entangled, sink and fall into gradual decay. More than this, each autumn's crop of dead vegetation, produced round the borders of these lakes,

141

HISTORY OF MACOMB COUNTY.

contributes to the accumulation of vegetable material, which gra lually changes into the condition of humus and peat. This is a work begun at the surface of the water. When this substance sinks, it overlies what the lake had hitherto accumu- lated. When the peat layer is first begun, the previous accumulation is marl, and hence the well-known order of superposition of these two deposits. The peat bed grows lakeward as the continued formation of marl shallows the water. In the course of time, the actual seat of operations becomes removed far from the ancient shore, and a broad marsh comes into existence, with peat everywhere at the surface and marl beneath. On the Benjamin Farm, just south of Romeo, this formation may be seen. The enterprise of the owner has not only rendered the lake site capable of high cultivation, but has also brought to light the surfaces as they were formed during the last thousand years.

ANCIENT LAKE SITES.

Almost the entire country may be considered an ancient lake site ; yet in a re- ference here, the writer wishes to deal with the ponds of the county, which, long years after the Champlain epoch, were large sheets of water. As many existing ponds have obviously been contracted from their ancient limits, so a little reflection makes it obvious that many lakes, once existing here, have become quite extinct through the completion of the process of filling up. It is probable that every marsh in the county marks the site of an ancient lake. Level as the surface of the water, which determined their limits and depth, not a few of them retain, at some point, vestiges of the lakes which they have displaced ; and others exhibit all trans- itions from a reeking and quaking bog to an alluvial meadow ; while in nearly all cases ditching discloses the peaty, marly and clayey materials, in the order in which, under lake action, they are accumulating before our eyes along actual lake borders. The absence of any marked, general inclination of the surface in our Peninsula, has made it the seat of an extraordinary number of small lakes, ancient and modern, and hence, also, a region of small local marshes.

Some of these may be found on almost every section of land ; but the majority of them form meadow lands, or even tillable fields, and constitute the choicest patches in the farmers' possession. Many of these ancient lake sites, nevertheless, remain for the present nothing but swamps, and demand resolute ditching for their thorough reclamation, as is evidenced by the old cranberry marsh so well remem- bered by the old settlers of Wayne, Macomb, and Oakland.

MINERAL WATERS.

The salt springs of Macomb county result from an overflow of the great sali- ferous basin of the Peninsula.

142

HISTORY OF MACOMB COUNTY.

The wells at Mt. Clemens were bored upon the thinning-out edge of this basin, almost one degree of longitude south-east of the highest saturation point and at a place where the brine would necessarily be diluted with surface water or with that of subterranean rivers. Consequently, the brine of Mt. Clemens must be con- sidered separately from that so prized by salt manufacturers, for the reason that it is a medicinal mineral water, rather than a common salt brine. The difficulties pre- sented by this water in the manufacture of common salt therefrom, are due to the large quantity of deliquescent salts of calcium and magnesium existing in connec- tion with the chloride of sodium ; but what it loses in this respect is more than compensated for by the large quantity of salts present, possessing, in connection with the sulphuretted hydrogen, a decided medicinal effect. Chief among the active ingredients, in addition to those mentioned is iodine, an agent whose value has long been recognized by the medical profession.

THE SALT SPRING OF 1797.

The Salt Spring near the bank of Salt River in the vicinity of which the squatters of 1797 located, was considered by them a most valuable property. This spring appeared in the glen, close by the Plank Road Bridge of later days-four miles from the mouth of the river. In a report tendered to Thomas Jefferson by Charles S. Jonett in 1804, this agent of the government makes the following state- ment :- " From experiments which have been made, I am justified in saying that this spring deserves the public attention, it was wrought sometime by a couple of men, who, owing to their want of capital, were incapable of conducting the business on an advantageous plan. By these men I am assured that a quart of water did with them turn out a gill of salt, and in all their trials with greater quantities it never failed to produce a like proportion. There is a sufficient quantity of water to supply works to any extent."

From a report made by Douglass Houghton in 1838 to the Legislature, the analysis of the brine, said to be so rich in the saline properties, in the report of Jonett to Secretary Jefferson in 1804, was as follows:

Analysis of brine, sections two and eleven, Chesterfield.

Specific gravity

1.0057

Sulphate of Magnesia

Chloride Sodium

0.549

Carbonate of Lime 0.014

Calcium

0.013

Compounds of Iron

0.00I

Magnesium

0.037

Other Constituents.

Sulphate of Lime.

0.015

Total solid matter 0.629

MT. CLEMENS MAGNETIC WATERS.

A committee appointed by the Northeastern Medical and Scientific Society reported very favorably of the waters produced by the Mt. Clemens mineral springs.

HISTORY OF MACOMB COUNTY.

143

From an analysis made by Prof. Duffield in 1872, it is learned that the specific gravity at 60º Fahrenheit, is 1.129. The total amount of mineral matter per pint was 1417.6200, and the total amount of Chloride of Sodium per pint 1350.8498. The components were reported as follows :

Name.

Per Pint.

Per Gallon.

Sulphate Soda

12.0700

96.5600

Sulphate Lime.

5.4992

43.9936

Chloride Sodium

1350.8498

10806.7984

Chloride Calcium

. 26.9399

215-5120

Chloride Magnesium

20.2400

161.9200

Carbonate Lime

6216

4.9680

Carbonate Magnesia.

a trace

Silica and Alumina

1.4010

Organic Matter.

a trace

Total Solids

1417.6200

11340.9600

Sulphureted Hydrogen

.3.41 cu. in.

Carbonic Acid

. a trace

Recent investigations show that Iodine, Potassium and Ammonia Salts are present, the former in quite considerable quantity, as compared with other mineral waters. A new analysis is contemplated by Prof. H. F. Myers, which, doubtless, will bring to light all the medicinal properties of these celebrated springs. Such an analysis is deemed expedient to show the present actual condition of the waters.

The mineral water spring near Romeo, belonging to Mr. Dexter Mussey, which created some excitement early in 1874, claims the following analysis by Prof. Duffield :

Sulphate of Calcium

4.8536 grs. to gal. .0113

Sulphate of Potass.

Sulphate of Magnesia

2.1345

Carbonate of Magnesia

1.6321

Carbonate of Calcium.

3.9804

Chloride of Sodium

0.050I

Carbonate of Iron

0.0632

Aluminium Oxide

.0830

Silicium

.1753

Total amount of carbonic acid per gallon one and a half inches.

The mineral well bored at Romeo, in 1881, gives promise of meeting the highest hopes of the citizens in regard thereto. The record of the boring is as follows :-

THICKNESS. DESCRIPTIONS.

40 Sand and gravel.

70 Blue adhesive clay, with seams of quicksand.

13 Light sand.

123 Casing belled.

144

HISTORY OF MACOMB COUNTY.

THICKNESS.

DESCRIPTIONS.

27 Shale-like material loose with seams of gravel.

30 Light bluish rock floating, effervescing with acid.

180

Drill entered hard rock at 170 feet, which it pierced to 180 feet, when it entered a buffish shale with minute disseminated mica scales, peeuliar to the conformation of the Michigan salt group, differ- ing only in the fact that the shale seemed to he very soft, if not clayed.

60 Frearstone rock.

240 At this point the bituminous shale should be reached and the presence of inflammable gas felt.

510 Soap stone, black shale.

750

A bed of rock salt was reached.

300 Blue shale or slate.

250 Grindstone rock.

70 Limestone.

1370 Soft rock, rotten limestone-continued to 1420 feet.

1420

Gas veins penetrated.

125 Soft porous rock of a plastic character, impregnated with gas.

1545

1545 Total depth reached in feet,

The original record of the boring shows simply 150 feet of sand and gravel forming the upper erust, resting on 30 feet of light floating rock, supported in turn by 60 feet of frear stone on which the reservoir rests. The 810 feet below the frear stone is simply credited with being a conformation of soap stone, black shale, and slate. At a depth of 750 a bed of rock-salt was reached, but the depth of this very important formation is not recorded. Below the slate a rock, named grind- stone in the record, was pierced to a depth of 250 feet, resting on a bed of lime- stone 70 feet deep, and this, in turn, resting on 175 feet of soft, plastic rock.

ANALYSIS.

The analysis of water obtained from the mineral well at Romeo, made by chemist Lyon, of Detroit, for the committee in charge of the well, is as follows :-

Special gravity at 60º F

1.0037

Calcium Sulphate.

6.066 grains per wine gallon.

7.281

Imp. Gal.

Carbonate

12.774

14 899

Magnesium

.554

4 .

.669

Iron

.892

1.070

Magnesium Chloride

4.019

4.824

Potassium

.455

5.466

Sodium

283.957

340 834

Sediment (debris of rock).

170.73

Carbonic acid (combined).

13.27 cu. in.

15.92

(free).

4.9 cu. in.

5.87

145

HISTORY OF MACOMB COUNTY.

As the work of pumping progresses the water shows signs of losing much of the sediment materials.

The carbonated waters contain a quantity of soluble salts; the sulphur waters are of the most pronounced character, each impregnated with mineral substances, which must always render them of inestimable value to the people. It is said that the magnetic waters of the State are not themselves magnetic; but that marked magnetic phenomena are manifested in the vicinity ot the wells, arising through induction from the earth, without regard to the waters; yet experiments indicate a power of excitation of magnetism possessed by these waters.

FOSSILS.

The fossil remains found in connection with the rocks of this county, and par- ticularly evident in the limestone strata, comprise the Lithostrotion mammillare, the L. longiconicum, the Cyathophyllum fungitis, and the Syringopore, all belong- ing to the polypi class. The only evidence of the Echinodermata is furnished by the remains of common species. The Bryoza class is represented in this lime-stone by no less than seven species ; the Brachiopoda by eighteen species ; the Lamelli- branchiata by six species ; the Trilobites by two very distinct species, each showing the tails. The remains of fish and reptiles are found to be very common. Human remains are unknown at present to exist in the conformations examined in Macomb.

REVIEW OF PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS.

The water courses of Macomb county are numerous and valuable. The leading stream, reported in early years to be navigable for thirty miles, is the most im- portant. Its waters are known throughout the entire district organized in 1818 under the name of Macomb, now forming many prosperous counties of the State. This river was called La Reviere Aux Hurons by the early French missionary priests, on account of the peculiar character of the hair which marked the red men of the neighborhood. This hair stood out like the bristles of the wild boar, and suggested to the thoughtful travelers a new name for the inhabitants and their territory, which name it held until the Territorial Legislature deemed it proper, for con- venience, to confer on the river the name Clinton.

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History of Macomb County, Michigan, Part 16

Author: Leeson, Michael A., [from old catalog] comp Publication date: 1882 Publisher: Chicago, M. A. Leeson & co. Number of Pages: 952

Author: Leeson, Michael A., [from old catalog] comp
Publication date: 1882
Publisher: Chicago, M. A. Leeson & co.
Number of Pages: 952