History of Washtenaw County, Michigan : together with sketches of its cities, villages and townships...and biographies of representative citizens : history of Michigan, Part 14

Author: Chas. C. Chapman & Co
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Chicago : Chas. C. Chapman & Co.
Number of Pages: 1457

USA > Michigan > Washtenaw County > History of Washtenaw County, Michigan : together with sketches of its cities, villages and townships...and biographies of representative citizens : history of Michigan > Part 14

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*Some Indications of a Northward Transportation of Drift Materials in the Lower Peninsula of Michigan, Am. Jour. Science, II, xi, 331-8; Supposed Agency of Ice- floes in the Champlain Epoch, Scientific Monthly, Toledo, October, 1875, and Am- Jour. Sci., March, 1876.

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HISTORY OF WASHTENAW COUNTY.

Northern Ohio. It seems presumable that these regions supplied the lost masses. The transportation, therefore, has been north ward instead of southward, and by some other agency than glacier action. I have elsewhere speculated on the nature of this agency, and pro- pose again to advert to the subject in another part of this paper.

Kidney-Iron Nodules .- Many curious iron concretions are found distributed through the Drift. They are generally flattened oval bodies, from an inch to six inches in length; and when broken, are found to consist of a crust containing a more solid and darker colored nucleus. Both parts contain a large percentage of finely arenaceous matter, mingled with compounds of iron. The crust shows how far the action of the weather has penetrated, and changed the constitution of the mass. The nucleus easily separates from the crust, and the separation sometimes takes place before the nodule is broken. The specimen then forms a natural and very curious "rattle-box." These nodules are undoubtedly derived from a formation well known in the southern part of the State, especially in Branch county, and designated by Dr. Houghton the " Kidney- Iron Formation." In my reports on the geology of the State, it is embraced in the " Huron Group." These " Kidneys," when suffi- ciently abundant, may be employed in the manufacture of iron; but of course we have no use for them in Michigan.

Masses of Gypsum .- In the central parts of Washtenaw, as well as the southwestern part of Oakland, many masses of native gyp- sum have been found imbedded in the earth. Mr. Joseph Brown showed me, some years ago, samples of a whitish gypsum found a mile or two west of Ann Arbor, and stated that large fragments had been obtained years before, near the Central depot. He also described another large mass " crushed between two stones." in such condition that I concluded the whole was a fragment of a formation including a gypsum bed and the contiguous strata. Evidently, such a piece has not been far transported.

Drift of Local Origin .- As the "Kidney-Iron Formation " underlies a portion of Washtenaw county and a larger area of Lenawee county, it is evident that the iron nodules have not suf- fered extensive transportation. Those in the northern part of the county may even have been transported a short distance from the south with the tabular limestone masses already described. Con- tributions from other underlying formations, including gypsum and ferruginous sandstone fragments, have been added to the Drift of remoter Northern origin, and thus given the Drift everywhere something of a local character. Geologists, impressed by the evi- dences of remote Northern transportation presented by the incoher- ent materials which overstrew the surface of the Northern States, have overlooked the strictly local character of a considerable por- tion of them. I have estimated that five or 10 per cent. of the Drift has beenyielded by formations not more than 10 miles removed. Not only have small masses of gypsum been sometimes found. as already stated, but the Coal Measures also disclose their contribu-

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tions to the Drift by the trails of black detritus spreading south- ward from the out crops of the coal beds. Only the larger fragments of the coal have been transported more than a mile or two; and some of these have found their way into the northwestern part of Washtenaw. Nearer their source, however, the smaller fragments and particles become more abundant, and thus tend to discover the location of the outerop.

Uses of Boulders .- In the absence of quarry stone, our boulders acquire a considerable importance for building purposes. They are almost universally employed for "stoning " wells and cellars, and very generally, also, broken into form, for walls beneath the coping of dwelling-houses. Boulders properly faced have also been used for substantial superstructures. In Ann Arbor, the Congregational and Baptist church edifices are built of boulders, as well as the res- idences of J. Austin Scott, Esq., and Hon. T. M. Cooley. The exteriors of these buildings present a solid and enduring appear- ance, and the general effect is pleasing. It must be confessed, how- ever, that when split boulders are employed only for a veneering, and the center and back are irregularly filled in with brick and rub- ble imperfectly mixed with mortar, the solidity of the structure cannot be all which is indicated by the massive-looking external courses of masonry.

Deposits of Clay, Sand and Gravel .- The action which was exerted upon the boulder drift on the breaking up of the continental glaciers, had the effect to assort the materials which were afterward left deposited in beds, presenting a confused stratification. The varying force of the currents transported the coarser and finer prod- ucts to different distances, and deposited them in different situa- tions. Pebbles and coarse sands were dropped while yet the force of the current was considerable. Fine sand and aluminous particles were borne onward until the current was greatly slackened, and were deposited in situations comparatively protected. The beds of most existing and former lakes have afforded such protected situa- tions, and hence it often occurs that their neighborhood yields extensive and valuable deposits of clay suitable for bricks and ordi- nary pottery. On the contrary, the neighboring hill-slopes may be found composed largely of the separated sand. This sand, like the pebbles and boulders, is constituted principally of silicious ma- terials, and hence, though the grains are rounded, forms, with quick-lime and water, an excellent mortar. Pebbles, besides being assorted in beds, are quite generally disseminated through the modified drift, and especially the widely distributed and often clayey subsoil. The mixture furnishes material for a good natural road- bed; and an increased amount of gravel produces a road approxi- mating the macadamized condition. Hence little necessity exists for paving the streets of any of our towns.

Buried Drift - Wood .- Mingled with the stony debris of the drift are numerous fragments of trees. The wood has the general appearance of white cedar; and microscopic examination reveals

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the peculiar discs characteristic of Coniferc. The state of preser- vation is tolerably good. The wood has assumed a dun or clay color, and appears generally to have been washed. Specimens have been taken from wells at depths of 20 to 40 feet; and they are often seen in the banks of rivers. In most if not all cases their geo- logical position is in the altered or semi-stratified drift. These fragments indicate that while certain regions were washed by tor- rents, other districts were sufficiently upland to support a growth of white cedar.

II. SUPER-DRIFT.

Lakes .- Above the modified drift exist the records of geological actions which have taken place since the period of the glacier-born torrents. These we will pass next in review. The lakelets with which the surface of the county is pleasantly diversified, rest in depres- sions shaped in the layer of modified drift. There exist within the county about 88 lakelets which attain a longer diameter of an eighth of a mile. Of these, 27 lie in the town of Lyndon, and 12 in the town of Dexter. There are none in the towns of Scio, Ypsilanti, Augusta, York and Saline. The remarkable group of lakelets in the northwestern part of the county continues through the south- eastern and eastern portions of Livingston, and thence into the central and northeastern part of Oakland. In other words. they are distributed along the scarcely descending valley of the Upper Huron and its tributaries, and are strung like heads along these streams, many of them probably the ancient work of beavers. The largest lake in the county is Portage, which is more than two miles and a half long. Though stretching a mile into Livingston county, it covers more territory in Washtenaw than any other lake, occu- pying in Dexter about 3,600 acres. Next in size is Whitmore lake, which is a mile and a half long and two-thirds of a mile broad, ex- tending for half its length into Livingston. The next in extent are South lake in Lyndon, North lake in Dexter and Pleasant lake in Freedom, each of which is a mile or more in length.

The lakelets of Washtenaw 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 character known as " hard." They furnish, therefore, charming places of summer resort. Whitmore lake, with its elevated banks, shelving, pebbly shores, supplies of fish and contiguous hotels, has acquired considerable notoriety as a place of pleasure resort. Portage lake and others in that vicinity are much sought by fishing and camping parties. Pleasant lake, with its high banks, is a delightful sheet of water.

The same species of fish and molluscs inhabit all the different lakes of the county, however disconnected. This fact presents an interesting and difficult problem to the investigator of the origin

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HISTORY OF WASHTENAW COUNTY.

of species. The most natural inference is that at a former period a general system of water communication existed among the vari- ous bodies of water in this part of the State, and that at this time one fauna extended through all our limits. A similar problem, but of larger magnitude, is presented by the similar faunas inhabit- ing different river and lake systems, and especially when the differ- ent 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.

Lacustrine Deposits .-- It requires but casual observation to become convinced that nearly all our 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 we feel constrained to believe was the ancient limit of the lake. 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 10 or 20 feet. That all these formations have been laid down since the flooded or Champlain period is evident: 1. From their superposi- tion on the modified drift; 2. From the fact that the lake is per- forming, in our own times, the same work as we see completed in the low-border marsh; 3. From our actual observation of the gradual extension of many lake-border marshes, and the corre- sponding diminution of the areas of the lakes.

The calcareous character of the water of these lakelets makes them a fitting abode for numerous species of lime-secreting mol- luscs. These animals eliminate the lime from the water, and build it into the structure of their shells. Finally the mollusc 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 material. Another portion of the marly deposit forming in the bed of the lakes is probably derived from calcareous precipita- tion directly from the lake water. Thus a bed of marl is forming over the whole bottom of the lake, in situations sufficiently pro- tected and shallow to serve as the abode of shell-making animals. But on the leeward side, the immediate shore is the seat of very different operations, the result of which is the formation 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 farther back, other sedges and grasses take possession in varying proportions. This is the leeside of the lake. Floating leaves, twigs and stems therefore find their way amongst the lake-side growths, and becom- ing entangled, sink and go into gradual decay. . More than this,

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each autumn's crop of dead vegetation produced around the bor- der, contributes to the accumulating stock of vegetable material, which gradually changes into the condition of humus and peat. This is a work begun at the surface of the water. When the material sinks, it overlies whatever the lake had previously accu- mulated. When the peat layer is first begun, the previous accumu- lation is marl, and hence, the well-known order of superposition of these two deposits. The peat bed grows lakeward as the con- tinued 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 below.

Swamps, or Ancient Lake-Sites .-- I have indicated a process by which lakes are becoming filled, and their superficial dimensions shrunken. As many existing lakes have obviously been contracted from their ancient limits, so a little reflection makes it obvious that many lakes once existing have become quite extinct through the completion of the process. It is probable that every marsh 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, some vestige of the lake which they have displaced; and others exhibit all transitions from a reeking and quaking bog to an alluvial meadow; while, in nearly all cases, ditch- ing 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 extraor- dinary number of lakelets ancient and modern, and hence, also, a region of small local marshes or filled lakelets. Some of these may be found on almost every section of land; but the majority of them are meadow lands, or even tillable fields, and constitute the choicest patches in the farmer's possession. Many of these ancient lake- sites, nevertheless, remain for the present nothing but swamps, and demand resolute ditching for their thorough reclamation. Some of these swamps, by a State system of ditching, have been properly desiccated, and others greatly improved. The following are the locations of some of the most extensive swamps found on the original occupation of the county. An extensive swamp sur- rounds Four-Mile lake, and stretches from the southern part of Dexter through the northwest corner of Lima, and diagonally through the center of Sylvan. This is about 11 miles long in Washtenaw county, with a width varying from half a mile to a mile and a half. Throughout six miles of its length, it fringes both banks of the North Branch of Mill creek, which joins the Huron at Dexter village. Another extensive swamp begins in the eastern part of section 11, Augusta, and stretches southeast- ward to section 31, where it passes into Wayne county. A third, beginning in section 33, Ann Arbor, stretches through section 4, Pittsfield, into section 10; thence, changing to a southwesterly trend

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and materially widening out, it passes to the southwestern part of section 17, whence bifurcating, it sends one branch through sections 20, 29, and 30, and the other branch through sections 18, 19 and 30. A fourth swampy region stretches from the south part of section 8, Saline, through sections 17 and 18,' and continues along the boundary between the third and fourth tiers of sections in Bridge- water, nearly to the Raisin river. Another considerable swamp borders both sides of the South branch of Mill creek, in sections 7, 8, 17 and 18, Freedom, and sections 1, 12, and 13,'Sharon. Other smaller swamps are Bear swamp in sections 16, 17, 18 and 20, Augusta; one in sections 21, 22 and 27, Superior; one in section 2, Dexter; one in sections 3, 4 and 5, Manchester; one in sections 7 and 8, Lyndon; one in section 1 and 2, Lima; one in section 17, Ypsilanti and one in section 6, Ann Arbor.

The peaty and marly deposits of our swamps possess great inter- est and value to the cultivator of the soil. Peat, as I have shown, is a substance of vegetable origin, and consists, therefore, of the very constituent which makes a fertile soil different from the stiff and sterile subsoil underneath. Before the cultivator of the earth took possession of the land, nature returned to the soil annually the vege- table growth which had developed at the expense of the soil. As the plant drew also much substance from the atmosphere, it returned continually more than it abstracted, and thus the soil grew deeper and richer. Thus the actual soil came into existence simply by the addition of vegetable matter to a surface having no more fertility than the ordinary subsoil which still exists. But the system of cropping takes from the soil annually the luxuriant growth which it had nourished into existence. It is a process of inevitable im- poverishment. The constituents which become deficient are not simply such as mineral fertilizers can restore. The demand of the soil is for vegetable food. Now, the provision of nature is at hand with her stores of peat-nature's savings banks, the slow accumu- lation of ages, during which the foot of civilized man had never pressed the soil-and these supplies are adequate to indemnify the soil for the loss of crops which man converts to human uses. But crude peat is not yet sufficiently changed to become assimilable food for plants. It is sour with humic, ulmic and other acids, and needs pulverization and exposure to the atmosphere for some months. Thus prepared, it forms the most natural application possible for the recuperation of exhausted soils.

The marl, also, affords the calcareous constituent always pres- ent in strong, productive soils. Every farmer understands the superior excellence of soils overlying limestone formations. Every one has noted in passing from a soil of limestone origin to one formed by the disintegration of sandstones, how the maple disap- pears, the oaks grow scrubby, the wheat short and slender, and the grass thin and pale. All which distinguishes the limestone soil from the arenaceous one, is found in our exhaustless beds of marl. Soils that are lean and weak may be strengthened by supplying them

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with the marl and peat which bountiful nature has provided at our hands. The return of the marl to the leached hillsides is but restor- ing an ingredient which has been slowly filtering away as long as the surface has been under cultivation.

Bog Iron and Manganese .- I have already stated that the Drift of Washtenaw county abounds in nodules of kidney-iron ore. There are also many boulders from the Lake Superior region, which contain large percentages of hematite and magnetite; and occasionally boul- ders composed entirely of these ores are met with. Besides these sources of iron, the coal region lying to the northwest of us has sup- plied many fragments of black band, iron stone and ferruginous sand- stones. Moreover, nearly all rocks, especially pyritous and micaceous rocks, contain iron as a constituent, and their slow disintegration releases it, to be acted on by atmospheric and aqueous agencies. From such sources it happens that most of the waters which per- colate through the porous beds of the Drift become charged with compounds of iron in a state of solution, the most abundant of which is probably a protoxyd carbonate. The escape of these waters to the surface exposes the iron protoxyd to a process of peroxydation. The iron peroxyd is insoluble, and must therefore be precipitated. Hence the rusty sediment often observable in spring water and upon the surface of objects bathed by them. Hence the considerable accumulations of ochre in certain situations, and the impregnation of bogs by a ferruginous deposit, and finally the creation of beds of bog-iron ore. Such iron bogs occur, to some extent, on nearly every section in the county. In some cases they become very rich, and might be utilized, as they have been in some countries, in the manufacture of iron. But bog ore contains only 60 to 73 per cent. of iron peroxyd, while the limonite of Lake Superior contains 80 to 86 per cent. of iron peroxyd, the hematites from 73 to 100 per cent. of peroxyd, and the magnetites 72 per cent. of pure iron. It is manifest, therefore, that some peculiar conditions must exist to render our own bogs capable of competing with the iron deposits of Lake Superior. For supplies of mineral paint they will be more available. I have seen from Hillsdale county some excellent examples prepared from such sources; and there is no doubt that Washtenaw county is similarly supplied.

Some noteworthy localities of bog iron ore are found in Bridge- water, section 16; Augusta, sections 14 and 27 (north line), and Sharon, N. E. quarter, section 21, where red ochre is obtained. Bog manganese, or wad, is also a peroxyd originating under nearly the same circumstances as bog iron. In fact, some small proportion of manganese generally accompanies bog iron. When pure, wad is nearly black, and any considerable proportion imparts a dark tint to the mixture containing it. Bog manganese exists in consider- able purity in the town of Salem; also in N. E. quarter section 21, Sharon; but other regions possess facilities so far superior for the extraction of the peroxyd that our local deposits are not likely to

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attain much relative importance. It has been used as a black paint for carriages.

Travertin .- The abundant calcareous masses before mentioned as disseminated through the modified drift, together with some proper limestone boulders, are subject to constant disintegration and solution by means of percolating waters. The first effect of this is to supply our soils generally with an adequate calcareous constituent, regardless of the nature of the deeply underlying strata. Another effect is to render our springs and streams abun- dant in lime. Limestone is soluble in pure water, but more so in water saturated with carbonic acid. This gas subterranean waters find and absorb in plentiful abundance. But these waters while under great pressure absorb more carbonic acid than can be retained when the pressure is removed by the escape of the waters to the surface in the form of springs. Some of the carbonic acid being disengaged by escaping spring waters, their solvent action on cal- cium carbonate is diminished, and hence, if previously saturated with this mineral, some of it must be given up. Thus, frequently, a white precipitate is thrown down which, in the bottom of stand- ing pools and lakelets, contributes to the accumulation of marl, as before stated. But calcium carbonate when precipitated in situ- ations more or less in contact with atmospheric air, forms a solid incrustation of limestone, called travertin. Thus, sometimes, the dried stems of mosses and other plants become incrusted, and in the former case, form what is popularly known as "petrified moss." Sometimes the water spreads over an even surface and deposits a succession of lamina which attain collectively a thickness of several inches or feet, and present a remarkable resemblance to the structure and solidity of a sedimentary limestone. These massive travertin deposits may be quarried for lime-burning or for building purposes, like the travertin of San Vignone and other Italian localities. But within the limits of Washtenaw county, I know of none sufficiently extensive for such uses. Travertinous and tufa- ceous deposits on a smaller scale are, however, of very frequent occurrence; and the valley of the Huron, from Ypsilanti to Dexter, presents an almost continuous series of the more porous or tufa- ceous forms. Travertinous deposits in many localities are colored to some extent with intermingled precipitations of hydrated iron peroxyd. A species of conglomerate or "crag," much resembling the "molasse" of Switzerland, frequently results from the mutual cementation of the pebbles in extensive beds, by the deposition of a calcareous precipitate in the interstices. Such beds, when strati- fied, are often mistaken for "bed-rocks." Fine examples may be seen in the valley of the Huron, immediately east of Ann Arbor. Travertinous deposits often incrust the pebbles in the bottoms of shallow lakes and streams. Even the shells of mussels become similarly covered. I have especially noticed these results in Port- age and Base lakes.

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History of Washtenaw County, Michigan : together with sketches of its cities, villages and townships...and biographies of representative citizens : history of Michigan, Part 14

Author: Chas. C. Chapman & Co Publication date: 1881 Publisher: Chicago : Chas. C. Chapman & Co. Number of Pages: 1457

Author: Chas. C. Chapman & Co
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Chicago : Chas. C. Chapman & Co.
Number of Pages: 1457