USA > Michigan > St Clair County > History of the St. Clair County, Michigan, containing an account of its settlement, growth, development and resources.. > Part 17
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GEOLOGY AND ARCH. BOLOGY.
In tracing the geological history of the country, it will be only necessary to revert to the era when the accumulated sediments of the ocean were being formed into masses of rock. Ge- ology teaches that the continents of the world were once beneath the ocean, even as Scripture implies that a sea of und, resembling in substance a South African river, was arranged by an Almighty hand, and the liquid separated from the solids contained therein. The inequalities in the ocean bed, corresponding with the hills and valleys of our land, point out the truth of geological science. 'The recent deep sea soundings reveal mountains and hills, valleys and table- lands. The greatest depth reached was over 29, 000 feet. which exceeds the height of the loft iest peak of the Himalayas. Some of the mountains springing from the bed of the ocean are stoeper and more abrupt than any on the face of the earth. In the Irish Sea and the British Channel the depth changes, within a radius of ten miles from 600 to 12,000 feet. and it is very cominon, within a few miles of our coasts and islands, for the depth of the waters to change suddenly from a few hundred to many thousand feet. In other cases. as in the bed of the At. lantic between Spain and the United States, there are plateaux extending hundreds of miles, with very slight undulations. The mysterious race that once occupied this continent may have sailed in galleons over the Peninsula of Michigan, and sounded the depth of the waters which rose above it, in precisely the same manner as the mariners of our day cast the sounding line into our great lakes and the oceans. It may be concluded that the State which we inhabit was to- tally submerged at the beginning of the Corniferous period. At the close of that epoch. a great upheaval of sea bottom formed a line of solid earth across the southern counties of Michigan. which extended to an onder and wider formation in Southern Ohio. The land comprised in the original county of St. Clair continued submerged for ages, but by degrees the southern belt rose higher, spread out toward the northern continent, and actually approached the condition of dry land at the beginning of the coal deposit era. At this time. Lakes Michigan. Huron. Ontario and Erie were not in existence, their centers forming the channel of a great river. with expan- sions at intervals. This torrent swept over this now prosperous district of Michigan. The great
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HISTORY OF ST. CLAIR COUNTY.
geological age-the Mesozoic -dates from this time. It was marked by activity in the animal and vegetable kingdoms; by mild climates and myriads of reptiles, which swarmed in rivers and over land.
The Tertiary period succeeded the Mesozoic. It was the age of beautiful elimates and high development of mammals. Animals, greater than the mastodon, roamed over the land, through magnificent forests. meeting their enemy -man-and ultimately falling beneath his repeated attacks. The glaciers came to destroy all this gigantic beauty, the snow and ice came on, burying all nature in their whiteness, and robbing the land itself of life. It was the begin- ning of the Glacial period, the duration of which is lost in mystery. Were it possible to ig- nore the existence of a Divine Architect, and His action in forming the earth we inhabit, the continuance of the ice age might be set down at 2.000 years. There is no intention, how- ever. to ignore the Omnipotent, and therefore what bears the impress of being the work of 2,000 years, might have been compassed in a moment.
Springtime 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 fragments or bowlder drift. This rocky con- formation 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 mold, and forest growths which denote 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 pale- ontological evidences.
So, also, may we behold evidences of the disintegration of strata, which formerly existed in this very county; we may see every day the comminuted materials lying round us in all direc- tions. 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 comminution are principally rounded fragments of syenite, greenstone, vitreous and jasperous sandstones, horn-rock, talcose and of the serpentinous rocks of the azoie series.
Here are the rocks overspread with blue elay, plutonie bowlders and pebbles. In other places those rude materials are often arranged in rude courses, which have a curved dip, and appear outeropping on the hillsides and sometimes on the plains. The outerop is very irregu- Jar in this county. In the deep borings for brine, as well as in the shallow surface water reservoirs, these bowlders 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 diffi. culty of plowing them.
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 outerop 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 San- dusky, Ohio, it affords valuable gypsum deposits. At Mt. Clemens, the salt rock was not
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reached, though at Alpena and Caseville a thick bed of such rock was penetrated. doubtless similar, or rather equivalent to the beds at Godorich 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 onterops 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 Islands; variegated gypseous marts, with imbedded masses of gypsiun. as at Little Point an Chone and the St. Martin Islands.
Matt. Porter, writing from St. Clair, June 6, 1882, says:
" A few years ago Professor Winchell, of the State University, who was at the same time State Geologist, made the statement that under the center of lower Michigan there was a great salt basin, or strata of salt roek. Since that time I have proven by actual and practical work in drilling and boring the rock, that the renowned geologist was correct in his assertions.
" I have never seen anything printed from Prof. Winchell's pen, nor in fact from any other geologist, that has placed or given the boundaries of this salt basin. Therefore, having put down many wells along the western part of Canada and in Michigan. I have thought that it would prove interesting to those of your readers who are unacquainted with the work of well boring, and acceptable to those interested in geology, should I write a brief account of what I have found in delving after salt and oil in the rocks beneath.
" As my purpose in writing this communication is mainly to show the results of my labors in relation to the limits of the great salt basin under the center of the Lower Peninsula of this State, I will briefly give the depths and kinds of rock passed in reaching the salt and oil rock in Canada and Michigan.
" At Inverhuron, Canada, twelve miles north from Kinkarden, and on the Lako Huron shore, the distance to the salt rock is 700 feet. Here the salt rock is found only five feet thick. and there is no doubt but what this is the north limit to the great strata of salt roek. as is ovinced by the way it erops out so near the surface, and also by the way it thins up at this point.
" Now notice how, at Kinkarden, twelve miles south down the shore from Inverhuron, the depth to salt rock increases, and the rock becomes considerably thicker. At this point the dis tanco to salt rock is 900 feet. and the rock is found seventeen feet thick. One well at this place, the Wrightmyer, produces 700 barrels of salt per day. In this production there are used twenty-seven cords of wood at $I per cord. Seven men " put" the salt ready for barrel ing, and 13 cents is paid for filling the barrel. The cost of salt barrels is 10 couts apicer. Now this salt is all shipped to the United States at a good profit. No other business is carried on in connection with this salt block, as is done at Saginaw, the owners making the production of salt their sole business. The way the well is pumped directly from the salt rock proves that the rock water is stronger than the brine wells at Saginaw and other places in Michigan. The way the basin is made is as follows: When the salt rock is reached. a large basin. capable of holding a day's pumping, is made by Jetting water in on the rock and then agitating it, and finally, by pumping and drilling, a large basin is made, and then the water is let in upon the rock every day, thus making the strongest kind as well as the purest salt brine, wholly free from the mineral deposits found in the water of the common brine wells and salt springs throughout the country.
"At Goderieh. thirty miles on the shore south from Kinkarden. the depth to the salt rock is about 1, 110 feet. A change in the situation of tho strata is noticeable at this point. for here we find the salt rock split by a stratum of limestone about thirty feet thick. The distances down at Goderich are as follows: 1,110 feet to salt rock, or the lower stratum. First about 1.050 feet to a stratum of salt rock thirty feet thick, then twenty feet of limestone, under which is found forty feet of solid salt rock. At this place the same process is gone through in making and pumping the water as at Kinkardon, and at the same cost.
" The town of Warwick is situated about eighty miles south and a little east from Goderich. Here the salt roek has been struck at a depth of 1,200 feet. and the stratum of salt was found 100 feet thick. The manufacturing of salt is carried on here with flattering success.
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HISTORY OF ST. CLAIR COUNTY.
" The peculiarity of the different strata of rock passed in getting to the salt basin is al- most identical from Inverhuuron to Warwick, viz .: First limestown, then white flint rock, and then blue shale, which is found very hard and filled with gypsum; after this is the salt rock. Under the salt rock there is found, almost invariably, a soft rock that is full of sulphur beds, and this rock smells so disgustingly bad that it would, to use a vulgar yet suggestive ex. pression, stink a setting hen from off her nest.
" At Petrolia, twelve miles south of Warriek, are situated the great oil fields of Canada. Here the formation of the rock changes, and we strike strata in the following order: First is met limestone, which generally averages forty feet thick; then about 120 feet of soapstone; then about thirty feet of limestone; then soapstone again fifty feet; then about sixty feet of very hard or close limestone; and then a soft and porous limerock, in which is found the greatest amount of oil, although traces are noticed from the bed rock down.
" Mr. Englebart, a wealthy gentleman from New York City, who is largely interested in the oil business at Petrolia. put down an experimental well (and by the way I would say that all good mineral salt and oil wells are struck by test or experimental wells), and he was rewarded for his enterprise by striking the salt rock at a depth of 1,260 feet, and on boring the strata it was discovered to be the enormous thickness of 195 feet, a solid bed of salt rock. Under this strata was found the same formation of stinking rock with beds of sulphur as is found at the places named above.
" In Northern Ohio, the salt rock has been found at about the same depth of drilling as is necessary at Inverhuron, and the rock was of about the same thickness, thus proving that the southern limit of the great salt basin is at that point.
" Test wells are going down at different places east and west of the St. Clair River, and it is only a question of time when we will know definitely the exact boundary of this immense bed of salt. At Marine City, ex-Senator McElroy is putting down a well as an experiment and test, and already strong brine is found therein. In this eity, brine has been found, but not in paying quantity, because the drilling did not extend deep enough. Mineral springs are the principal waters discovered in boring at this point, and at present I am engaged in putting down an ad- ditional well to supply the increasing demands of the large hotel at the mineral springs just below the city.
" I find the difficulty is the same here as at Saginaw. and that is, the wells are not drilled deep enough. My theory is that the salt stratum lies in a basin and that it dips down like the inside of a tea saucer, and I believe that at a depth of from 1,500 to 2,500 feet the salt rock can be found anywhere from London, Canada West, to the shores of Lake Michigan, and, too, just as thick (or thicker) as it is twenty miles east from here in the Englehart well at Petrolia. The expense in putting down wells is not costly, and when salt, oil or mineral water is found. the investment will pay as well as a gold mine, if properly worked. Two dollars per foot and four to eight weeks' time will be all the cost and time needed in which to test the rock.
" But the question remains: Where can be the eastern and western limits of this salt basin ? Is it possible that it runs parallel with the Niagara limestone (as geology teaches) and finally end at or near Syracuse, N. Y .; or does the mighty Niagara mark its eastern boundary? Can it be a fact that the geologist theorizes correctly, when he says that, ages ago, in the chaotic birth-making of our beautiful earth, the whole of New York, Western Canada and Michigan was one large inland sea, and that with the upheavals and transformation of the face of this land. the inflowing of the salt sea and the gradual drying up of this inland water, the great salt rock of which we speak was then formed and deposited along parallel, with the Niagara limestone? Does the western boundary of this great salt rock lie in Wisconsin, or do the waters of Lake Michigan mark its limit?"
A group of argillaceous and magnesian limestones outcrops along the western shore of Lake Erie, aud exists beneath the surface in the counties bordering on the Lake and River St. Clair. It consists of an argillaceous, chocolate-colored, magnesian limestone in regular lay- ers, each layer from four to eight inches thick. This conformation seems to correspond with the watertine formation of New York.
The formation known as corniferous limestone is very general in masses of hornstone.
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HISTORY OF ST. CLAIR COUNTY.
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 peenliar 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 twenty feet thick. sometimes laminated and fissilo. 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 grato 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, argillaceous. micaceous, friable sandstone, which pass into the Warerly group.
The black shale, hitherto regarded, holds an important place in the stratification of the county. It appears that upon Teeple's farm, a well was sunk twenty-six feet in 1864. since which time the gas came in in such quantity as to actually blow the curbing out of the well. and the men engaged in the work were obliged to abandon it. On Baird's farm, there are great quantities of stone so saturated with kerosene oil as to burn readily. They have a strong odor of oil. These stones are conglomerate, partly decomposed, and give strong evidences of vol- canic eruption. On Clark's farm, gas has been burning for years. A well was dng by him to the depth of a few feet, and a barrel placed over it with a hole in the top, forming a sort of a tube, from which the gas, being lighted, burned readily with a clear, bright tlame. On the Gill farm, a well was dug to the depth of 107 feet, when a volume of gas was struck that blew ont the drill with a noise that was heard a distance of four or five miles: small pebble stones were also thrown up as high as the roof of the house. A pipe was placed in the well. through which the gas was conducted to Mr. Gill's house, with which it was lighted for over a year. In August, 1875, the people of Cottrelville imagined they had a second Vesuvius in their midst, and that Marine City and AAlgonae were to play the roles of Herculaneum and Pompeii. The Marine City Gusette gave publicity to the following story of terrestrial activity: Joseph Hahn, who lives some three or four miles west of Marine City, has been for some time engaged in sinking an artesian well to obtain a supply of water for his stock and for household pur- poses. In sinking these wells, a derrick is used, consisting of three heavy pieces of timber, fastened together at the top, like a tripod; this derrick was fastoned by means of a heavy log chain wound around the timbers at the top: the diameter of the well is thirteen inches, and the boring was done by means of an anger turned by horse power. On Monday night, the auger had penetrated to a depth of 125 feet, and the next morning an air or gas chamber was reached; then occurred a phenomenon which the bystanders will not be likely soon to forget. In the twinkling of an eye. upon the removal of the auger, the wooden tubing shot out of that well like a stone driven from a catapult. followed by a volume of gas, water, gravel and mud, that rose full 200 feet into the air. while the trembling earth, the roaring torrent, and the de- scending debris made Mr. H. and his co-laborers think they had struck the regions infernal. Stones weighing from ten to twenty pounds were projected into the air, and some of them fell crashing through the roof of Mr. H.'s house, standing near by. In fact. the family were obliged to seek shelter at a neighbor's, for human life was not safe a moment at the farmhouse In the locality of Mr. Hahn's farm, a stone, large or small, was rarely found, but now they can be taken away by the cart load. The heavy log chain binding the derrick was out by the flying missiles into dozens of pieces, and one of the timbers blown away as by the breath of a cyclone. The discharge of mud and water soou began to overflow the fields, and bring ruin upon the poor man's erops. It was as if a water spout had burst. and the floods of heaven let loose. For eight or ten hours this extraordinary welt kept vomiting forth mud, water, gas and stones all around. On field, barn and house had settled a leaden hue: the corn was broken off and uprooted by the flood: the house and barn wore riddled with falling stones: destruction was visible on every side. It was then noticed that the subterranean monster was pretty well blown. and although he stith kept up a furious howling. his force was spent. It is estimated that some eight hundred cubic yards of clay and bowklers were cast out of this well."
In January, 1876, Henry O. Wonsoy succeeded in tapping a gas pocket at a depth of 150
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HISTORY OF ST. CLAIR COUNTY.
feet from the surface. The rush of escaping gas was tame in comparison with that of Hahn's well, yet sufficient to make considerable noise, and eject mud and water above the derrick. He put down four-inch iron pipes, and subsequently led a small connecting pipe to the street and lighied the gas. being the first gas lamp Marine City has ever had. The light was white and of considerable brilliancy, although it wavered and flickered a good deal, being unprotected from the wind. The news of Wonsey's success brought large numbers of citizens to the scene. There appeared to be no doubt at the time but that the gentlemen had enough gas to warm and light his house, and considerable to spare.
John A. Wonsey's well was only a partial success. He had gas enough, undoubtedly, to supply his house, but the pipe soon choked up with thin blue clay, which, forced toward the top by the pressure of the gas, hardened and to a great extent shut off the gas itself.
In February, 1880. the oil craze seemed to be on the eve of a revival. About the third of a mile from Military street, a little stream known as Indian Creek crosses Lapeer avenue. Passers-by were attracted by the peculiar appearance of the surface of the stream, which was covered with a dirty yellowish fluid, and the rippling of the waters caused this to assume all the colors of the rainbow. A peculiar odor also seemed to arise from the water, very much re- sembling that produced by crude petroleum oil. Some persons, more inquisitive than the rest. followed up along the course of the stream, on the south side of the street, until they reached a point where the source of this strange film was observed to exude from the bottom of the creek in quite copious quantities. A handkerchief soaked in the surface of the water smelled strongly of oil, and a slight probing caused the flow to increase sensibly. Since that time the place has been visited by numerous persons, but no definite conclusion reached as to the origin or extent of the flow.
Throughout Wayne, McComb and St. Clair Counties, there are evidences of the existence of gas fountains, if not actual oil reservoirs. This fetid gas was undoubtedly 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.
SUBTERRANEAN CHANNELS.
In consequence of the changes to which the various strata of the county have been subjected. the waters have carved for themselves, even within our own times, a passage through it, and find their way to the lower lakes through subterraneous rivulets, causing the diminution 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 evaporation 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 yielding twenty-five per cent of solid saline matter.
The mouth of Black River, in 1873, presented the form in which bed changes take place. It does not seem to be generally known that for years there was little use in trying to get inside the bar at the mouth of Black River with crafts drawing any considerable depth of water. The surveys made in 1871 and 1872, and the experience of the Benton and Golden Fleece, proved conclusively that the depth of water is growing less and less each year, and that the current is constantly changing the conformation of the bottom both above and below Black River. Of course every shipmaster thinks he knows just how the bar lies, but they often find to their sor- row that, Mississippi-like, the bar has shifted about a little, and their craft is hard onto it. The only certain way to avoid it is to go around it.
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