USA > Michigan > Monroe County > History of Monroe County, Michigan : a narrative account of its historical progress, its people, and its principal interests Volume I > Part 36
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266
HISTORY OF MONROE COUNTY
PREHISTORIC REMAINS NEAR BIG PRAIRIE
In 1875 as laborers were making excavations near Big Prairie, Monroe county, they came upon a quantity of bones which formed the skeleton of a mastodon; they were removed to Monroe and measurements taken ; one of the tusks was eleven feet in length, and nine inches in diameter of its smallest extremity, where the tapering portion was broken off. Several teeth were found in a fair state of preservation, many of which measured six and eight inches in diameter, and weighing five pounds each. One of the ribs was nearly eight feet in length. Owing to the inflow of. water into the excavation the laborers were unable to further prosecute their work. It was intended to procure pumps to free the excavation from water, and continue the search for the remainder of the skeleton. Not far from this place stone hammers and arrow heads were unearthed, and other evidences of ancient human occupation.
SCIENTIFIC STUDY OF LIMESTONES
The scientific study of the limestones about the western end of Lake Erie, was begun almost simultaneously in 1837, by the Michigan Geolog- ical Surveys, under the direction of Lieutenant W. W. Mather and Dr. Douglas Houghton. Previous to this time many outcrops of these beds had been located by the early settlers and shallow quarries opened from which were obtained building stone and material for lime. The outerop of the Sylvania sand-rock, north of the River Raisin in Monroe county was known to the emigrants from the east, and samples of it had been successfully treated for a high grade glass. The presence of brine in these limestones, and in the overlying drift had been discovered by the Indians and early settlers, and salt was crudely manufactured at a few localities. "Salt licks" existed in numerous parts of the county, which were fre- quented by deer and other animals who resorted to them for their delecta- tion. These were salt springs of small area, but furnishing sufficient brine, which, overflowing and evaporating deposited a moderate amount of salt, a very welcome discovery both to the animals and the Indians. The lat- ter, when they discovered this valuable commodity and later, the pioneer settlers also, made use of it in curing their meats instead of resorting to the simple drying and smoking process, to preserve them in quantities for future use as needed, when it was called "jerked" meat. In his first geological report, dated January 22, Doctor Houghton describes the lime- stones in this vicinity, under the heading "Grey Limestones," which he traced, in outcrop, from the rapids of the Maumee to the River Raisin, and referred to them as being, in his opinion, the "Mountain (Carbon- iferous) limestone of European geologists." He did not separate the dolomitic limestones of the eastern part of this belt, from the purer and geologically younger limestones of the western part of the belt.
No attempt was made thus early to ascertain the approximate age of either belt by means of the fossils. The strata were found to dip towards the northwest, or northwest by north, and the dip was stated to equal about 5°. The amount of this dip was afterwards reduced to fifteen feet to the mile, with a variation of ten to twenty feet. The mineral contents of the beds and their occasional oolitic and veined character were noted. Further studies by Hubbard led him to conclude that these limestones lie beneath the "black strata," now known as the Antrim, or upper divi- sion of the Devonian, and above the Cincinnati blue limestones and shales, the Cincinnatian division of the Ordovician, and that they are the geo- logical equivalent of the so-called "Cliff limestone;" the Clinton, Niagara and Onondaga of Indiana and Ohio.
MAMMOUTH BOULDER, MONROE COUNTY [Sometimes Called The Sleeping Bear]
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HISTORY OF MONROE COUNTY
A geological reconnaissance of the rock strata of northwestern Ohio had been made by Dr. J. L. Riddell, who was one of the special committee commissioned by the Ohio legislature to report upon a method of obtain- ing a complete geological survey of that state. His report bears date of January 12, 1837, and alludes to the calcareous sandstones and the lime- stones of the Maumee valley. The more detailed study of the region was assigned to assistant geologist Prof. C. Briggs, Jr., the work being done during the season of 1838 and reported upon briefly in the Second Annual Report of the Geological Survey of Ohio, 1838, p. 109. The limestones in the bed of the Maumee river, for several miles above Perrys- burg, were examined, and their silicious nature and passage into a cal- ciferous sandrock were noted. The location of a number of outcrops and quarries in Wood county is given, based upon his own observations and those of the county surveyor. A mention is made of marble, this probably being the streaked and mottled dolomite known in Monroe county, Michi- gan, to the north.
WORK OF STATE SURVEY
A serious loss was sustained by the state, in the exploration and sur- veys of its geological formations, and in bringing into prominent place its wealth of resources by the death of Dr. Douglas Houghton, a very emi- nent scientist, who was drowned in Lake Superior October 13, 1845. With his passing, also passed all further geological work in this part of the state, until the second geological survey was made in 1859 by Dr. Alex- ander Winchell. In the meantime new outcrops had been discovered, new quarries opened and old ones deepened. Dr. Winchell began his field work in May, 1859, with a re-examination of Monroe county, assisted by two of his students, A. D. White and Lewis Spalding. The first biennial report, published in 1861, contained the results of this field work, pages 58-68. The work of the survey was interrupted in 1861, by the War of the Rebellion, and was not resumed until 1869, when Dr. Win- chell occupied the chair of state geologist. In 1873, Dr. Carl Rom- inger began his examination of the rocks of the lower peninsula, making a careful study, in detail of all the beds and their fossil contents. Some errors occurred in his conclusions, and deductions. The Sylvania sand- stone he gives as having a thickness of but eight to ten feet, and following the earlier reports of the Ohio Survey, regards it as probably the equiva- lent of the Genessee to which he refers the entire series, which is widely divergent from subsequent surveys and disclosures.
A still more serious error was made in bringing the base of the Upper Helderberg down to the top of the Sylvania sandstone, based upon the lower percentage of magnesia in these beds. The quarries at Ottawa Lake, Little Sink, Lulu, Ida, Raisinville, Woolwith and Flat Rock are all in beds above the Sylvania, and still contain practically enough magnesia for normal dolomite. Dr. Rominger does not admit the occurrence of the Hamilton (Traverse) in this portion of the state, on the ground that the thickness of five hundred feet at Alpena thins out completely before reaching the southern boundary. It is established, however that the Hamilton (Traverse) is well represented beneath its heavy mantle of drift in the northwestern corner of the county.
ROADS AND ROAD METAL
The nature of the soil and the flat slopes, conspire to give Monroe county exceptionally poor roads. In certain sections, the roads are prac- tically impassable for any kind of conveyance, especially transporting heavy loads, for several weeks of the year. There are no available deposits
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HISTORY OF MONROE COUNTY
of gravel in the county, such as occur in Lenawee and Washtenaw counties, but nature has given Monroe inexhaustible supplies of better road metal, and distributed it so that it is fairly accessible from all parts of the county. When the dolomites and limestones are crushed and spread over a road bed, which is properly drained the surfaces of the stone become firmly welded and a very solid foundation results. With a system of hard roads it would seem that much of the necessary farm teaming might be done when the clay soils adjoining are not fit for cul- tivation, and thus the time of the farmers, of their help and teams, could be disposed to better advantage. It has been demonstrated that three tons may be drawn upon a good road, with greater ease and less expense than one ton upon a poor road. A short time ago some ten thousand representative farmers from all parts of the country were called upon to furnish estimates as to the cost per mile, for hauling one ton of produce to market. The replies from these established the average cost for the entire country was twenty-five cents, while in certain sections of New Jersey where the roads have been improved by a system of state and county aid, the average was about eight cents, showing a saving of fifteen to seventeen cents to the mile, for each ton of produce. The subject of good roads, is now receiving wide spread and intelligent consideration, and a "campaign of education" bids fair to put before the farmers of the country the economic advantages enjoyable by those who reap the benefits of this twentieth century good roads movement.
The bed of Sylvania sandstone, which though it has no value for building purposes, has a quality far more important. The chief use of this remarkably pure bed is for the manufacture of glass, for which its fine even grain and purity perfectly adapt it. It had been tested for this purpose before Michigan became a state, and attention was called to it by Hubbard, Winchell and Rominger, in their state reports. The outcrop was originally preempted from the government, by Colonel Thomas Caldwell, a British officer, and held by him and his heirs for many years. From 1860 until 1873, the pits were actively operated by Mr. Charles Toll, of Monroe, the sand being washed, sifted and shipped to Bridgeport, Bellaire and Benwood, Ohio; to Pittsburg, Wheeling, Rochester, Syracuse and other cities of the United States and also to Hamilton, Ontario. These sand pits were located some seven miles from shipping points at that time, and the sand was hauled by team which so greatly increased the cost of preparation for market that it was finally unable to compete with beds more favorably located. The sand melts rapidly, mixing intimately with the fusible bases. Mr. Toll leased his land and mineral rights to the Michigan White Sand Company, whose headquarters were at Maybee, Michigan.
STONE AND STONE CRUSHING
It was a saying of Emerson that no science is sublime until it touches man. Geology commands our attention where the thread of earth history begins to blend with the warp of human industry. So the study of geology in Monroe county begins to interest us when it concerns itself with the business industries, as is the case with the other natural re- sources in the commercial life of the community. This leads directly to the quarries of the county in this epoch of "good roads building" and the betterment of public highways.
We may start in along these lines, with the Macon Quarry, which has long been known as the "Christiancy quarry" from the early owner, Hon. Isaac P. Christiancy formerly a prominent and well known resident of Monroe. It is located in the former bed of the Macon river, from
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HISTORY OF MONROE COUNTY
which the water was deflected by an embankment and extends along the stream for about thirty rods, with a main excavation of four hundred and fifty by two hundred feet. This was ten years ago, the most promis- ing locality in the county, for high grade limestones, since the same beds are here exposed as at the now famous Sibley quarry near Trenton. The quarry lies northeast of Dundee, one eighth of a mile from the line of the Detroit, Toledo and Ironton Railroad. The nearness of the Macon in- terferes now with the quarrying of the deeper and heavier beds, but with an extension of the quarry northward, in which direction the strip- ping increased only slowly, the annoyance caused from water would be diminished. Four beds are to be recognized in the quarry which can be designated as A, B, C and D, in descending order. Bed A, the uppermost, consists of a rich gray limestone from one to three feet in thickness abounding in fossils. The limestone is relatively soft, glistens with cleavage faces of calcite, and is thin bedded and more or less shattered. In the eastern portion of the quarry, the top ledge of this bed has an elevation of about 660 feet above sea level. The second, or bed B, has a thickness of 4 to 41/2 feet, and in places is free from seams; in other parts of the quarry it is divided into thick beds. The rock is a compact, brownish limestone which assumes a bluish gray color on weathered sur- faces. Fossils large enough to be seen with the naked eye are not as abun- dant as in the overlying bed and the cleavage faces are smaller. The rock gives a strong bituminous odor and drops of oil are occasionally seen in fresh specimens. With dilute hydrochloric acid a brisk effervescence is always obtained when the cold acid is applied to the solid rock. Toward the bottom the bed becomes somewhat cherty and in places there is interposed between this bed and the underlying bed C a seam of impure chert, varying in thickness from one to two inches. At the same horizon there is also to be seen in places a one-inch seam of blue clay, more or less charged with sand. The main excavation of the quarry has taken place in these two beds but two deeper ones have been penetrated and their characteristics determined. Bed C has a thickness of seven to eight feet, is a soft limestone of a dark gray color, either without seam or very heavily bedded. Beneath this lies a somewhat similar eight-foot bed, which the analysis shows is richer in calcium carbonate. The following table shows the chemical composition of these four beds, as determined by Mr. G. A. Kirchmeier, of Toledo.
Bed A. 90.80%
Bed B.
Bed C.
Bed D.
Calcium carbonate
86.80%
77.60%
95.00%
Magnesium carbonate
6.87
11.60
17.41
3.86
Silica
.48
1.10
2.78
. 81
Iron
.16
.12
.56
.41
Organic matter
1.69
1.63
Difference
.00
.38
.02
-. 08
100.00% 100.00% 100.00% 100.00%
Mr. K. J. Sundstrom, of Trenton, General Manager of the Sibley quarry and chemist for Church and Company, analyzed specimens of the two upper beds with the following results :
Bed A.
Bed B.
Calcium carbonate
98.10%
86.96%
Magnesium carbonate
.63
10.08
Silica
.70
1.86
Iron oxide and alumina
.62
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HISTORY OF MONROE COUNTY
Sulphur
.055
.123
Difference
.515
.357
100.00% 100.00%
From a careful study of the beds of the Sibley quarry it has seemed reasonably certain that the Macon beds are the equivalent of the deeper and better beds of that quarry. The analysis of the cores from the two test holes in the Sibley shows that their wonderful "nine foot bed" is from forty to fifty feet above the base of the series. The record of the Nogard well shows at a depth of fifty-nine feet, a change from gray to buff limestone which probably marks the change from limestone to dolomite. If this is the correct interpretation, and there is much con- firmatory evidence, bed D of the Macon quarry extends from thirty-eight to forty-six feet above the base of the Dundee formation. The actual dif- ference in elevation between the top ledges of bed D and the "nine foot bed" is eighteen feet, this representing the amount of drop towards Trenton in the direction of the strike.
DUNDEE QUARRY
This consists of a rectangular excavation about 240 by 90 feet, upon the north bank of the Raisin, just back of the National Hotel in the vil- lage of Dundee. It is but a few feet from the water's edge, and as it is worked only in the late fall, was full of water at the time of each of several visits. Most of the information concerning the beds was obtained from Mr. Horace Pulver, supplemented with a study of the blocks of stone piled about the quarry. The uppermost, or layer A, is two and one- half feet thick and consists of a rich, gray limestone, impregnated with oil and full of fossils. Fresh specimens are somewhat darker in color than those from bed A on the Macon, which it otherwise much resembles. Bed B is four and one-half feet thick and consists of a grayish brown limestone which gives a bluish effect on weathering. It shows but few fossils and is apparently identical with bed B on the Macon. The upper fifteen inches is said to be irregularly clouded and "gnarled." A third bed has been penetrated and found to be six and one-half feet thick. It is dark brown and bituminous and in the lower twelve to fifteen inches becomes cherty. Beneath this occurs a discontinuous seam of chert, car- rying silicified fossils. It is of light gray color, with brown streaks and is impregnated with black oil. It is very probable that this chert marks the same horizon as the similar seam in the Macon quarry and hence that bed B there is the equivalent of bed C in this quarry. Beneath the chert there occurs a heavily bedded five foot bluish layer, bed D, which becomes lighter colored towards its base. All the limestone in the quarry responds promptly to cold dilute acid upon the solid rock.
The Petersburg excavations have not received much attention-nor opened up in this vicinity, so as to give a satisfactory rock exposure, but stone has been removed from the bed of the River Raisin, and also from its banks, in ditching. Mr. Jacob McCarthy from a long acquaintance with this region is our authority for informbation on this quarry. In front of Spaldings flour mill upon the river bank just below the railroad bridge, a ledge of pure gray limestone was struck at a depth of about eight feet. According to Mr. McCarthy, considerable stone has been re- moved from the river bed at this point, and used for foundation walks in the village. Immediately below the dam the fall of water has cleared out a hole, laying bare the rock at a depth of fourteen feet below low water mark. This rock is blue streaked limestone similar to that found in the Lulu quarry.
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HISTORY OF MONROE COUNTY
THE WOOLMITH QUARRIES
These are located in Exeter township about half way between Maybee and Scofield. The chief of these is owned by the Michigan Stone and Supply Company. A branch of the Detroit, Toledo and Ironton railroad enters the property and furnishes the necessary shipping facilities. A quadrelateral opening was made about five hundred by three hundred feet and to a depth of forty-five feet. A large crusher is operated in con- nection with this quarry along with six gangs and one double gang of saws. The stripping consists of two to eight feet of blue boulder clay. This increases in thickness rapidly towards the east, south and west, but less rapidly towards the north. Nine different beds more or less distinct from each other can be recognized, the direction of their dip is approx- imately W. 25° S. and the amount two to three degrees. This is entirely local, the beds here being pushed upward into a knoll similar to that seen in the Sibley quarry. The upper surface is smoothed polished and striated. Where most weathered the rock becomes somewhat soft, mealy and gritty in texture. In places it is porous and cavernous owing to the dissolving action of the surface water and sink holes of considerable size were dis- covered when the stripping was first removed. Where nearest the sur- face the individual layers are thin, but become thicker towards the western part of the quarry. Its lower surface is rendered very irregular by the hummocky nature of the upper surface of bed C. In conforming to these large hummocks the bed becomes laminated, a character which it does not elsewhere exhibit. Small cavities carry celestite, calcite and a little native sulphur. Bed C may be traced entirely around the walls of the quarry, varying from fourteen or fifteen inches to three feet in thick- ness. It is a drab to brown dolomite, in places almost as homogeneous, tough and compact as "lithographie stone," but in others it is open and cavernous, the stone appearing soft and rotten. The large hummocks above referred to may be several feet in diameter, and the rock compos- ing them consists of fine concentric laminae, convex upward. Large cavities contain celestite, calcite and sulphur and above and below the bed there occurs a thin seam of impure asphaltum. The underlying bed D is a dark brown to gray dolomite varying towards blue. It attains a thick- ness of five feet but may be reduced to one foot where the bed D is cor- respondingly increased. Its component layers are from two to eight inches thick and are, in places, plainly laminated with streaks of blue, gray or brown dolomite and delicate films of carbonaceous material. This character is more pronounced and the heaviest bedding occurs in the deepest, southwest corner of the quarry. Compared with the beds C and E this one is much more compact and free from the mineral bearing cavities, but it is more or less impregnated with oil. Locally it contains multitudes of a minute Leperditia and a miniature Spirorbis. Beneath this compact layer lies a much more open and cavernous one, bed E, from one to three feet thick, known locally as the "sulphur bed." It is a dark brown porous dolomite thoroughly impregnated with oil, giving it a strong bituminous odor and filling it with black blotches. Casts and moulds of simple corals, brachiopods and lamellibranchs are much more abundant than in the adjoining beds. Numerous cavities, more or less ellipsoidal in shape and in varying size from a fraction of an inch to two or three feet, are found throughout the bed. These cavities contain beautiful crystallizations of calcite, celestite and sulphur, intermingled in such a way as to indicate that they were simultaneously deposited from percolating water .* Upon a level with this bed there escapes into
* Sherzer, Am. J. Sci., Vol. L, 1895, p. 246.
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SOUTH WALL OF WOOLMITH QUARRY
Vol. 1-18
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HISTORY OF MONROE COUNTY
the quarry a stream of water from which sulphur is still being deposited ; white, soft, and mealy looking at first but becoming yellowish upon ex- posure. Portions of the bed are compact and furnish building stone of a brown, bituminous character.
The five beds above described are essentially dolomitic limestones and sharply separated from the underlying beds F, G, and H, which consist of a mass of sand grains embedded in a dolomitic matrix. The uppermost, or bed F, varies in thickness from two to three feet and from its blue color it is one of the most conspicuous in the quarry. It has a gritty feel and becomes almost a sandstone in certain layers. It is permeated with vertical flexures, sub-cylindrical channels about three millimeters in diameter and several centimeters in length. These contain carbonaceous matter and oil and probably mark the position of seaweeds about which the sand and dolomitic slime accumulated. The channels are more abund- ant in the upper part of the bed and occur sparingly in the lower part. Near the top it becomes laminated with black, bituminous streaks. To- wards the bottom the bed loses its blue color, becomes blotched with brown and merges into bed G. These blotches and streaks of chocolate brown fade out and we have a gray, highly silicious dolomite, from three to four feet thick. This passes without break into a beautiful sixteen-foot bed (H) of light gray silicious dolomite, which is marketed as a "sandstone." This is so solid and free from seam that immense blocks may be cut out by means of steam chisels. When broken, the rock gives a very coarse, conchoidal fracture. Occasional "glass seams" and dark streaks of grains of iron oxide somewhat disfigure the rock for building purposes. The dilute acid gives but slight action upon the solid rock, but upon the powder the acid gives brisk effervescence. Five grams of this powder give 1.37 grams of insoluble residue, or 27.4%, consisting of some alumina, with bituminous matter, but mostly of a white sand resembling that of the Sylvania bed. Examined under the microscope these grains are found to have been secondarily enlarged against the rhombohedrons of dolomite, giving them a roughened exterior and proving that the enlargement took place after the formation of the bed. This series of silicious dolo- mites has a thickness of 21 to 23 feet in this quarry. Beneath lies bed I, a compact, even grained, gray dolomite heavily bedded. This has been penetrated fifteen feet and found to rest upon the Sylvania sandstone.
RAISINVILLE QUARRIES
A series of six quarries exist near the river in the township of Raisin- ville, which owing to their location and the similarity in their strata can be conveniently grouped for description. The largest and most im- portant of the six is located upon claim 516 (North River Raisin) at Grape, and consists of two main excavations, one upon either side of the highway. This has been operated by Silas A. Kring for lime. The stripping is reduced, in places, to but a few inches of clay charged with irregular fragments of the shattered dolomitic beds. The rock is esti- mated to dip two to three degrees toward a little south of west. Upon the north side of the road the silicious dolomite forms the uppermost ledge of the west quarry wall. It is of a bluish gray color gritty from the numerous sand grains, with numerous small irregular cavities, many of which are filled with calcite and give a spotted effect on the rock. The main quarry rock consists of a compact dolomite, faintly glistening with minute cleavage faces. It is thin bedded and much fissured toward the top but more heavily bedded, and more silicious towards the bottom. Nodules of impure chert occur and lenticular masses several feet long and five to six inches thick through the center. The following analysis was
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