USA > Minnesota > Jackson County > An illustrated history of Jackson County, Minnesota > Part 39
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Namsos was the name of a postoffice in Kimball township which existed many years. It was established in June, 1875. and Carl Frovarp was the first postmaster. Somerset postoffice was established in Christianin township in September. 1875, with .J. W. Jacobs as postmaster. It was discontinued JJanuary 1. 1826. but was re- established in March of the same year.
Sioux Valley postoffice was established in the township of that name January 1. 1880, with (. M. Hardy in charge.
Loon Lake consisted of a store and postoffice started in Minneota township in 1882. Mr. Creed was the first post- master. The office was discontinued in September, 1885, but was later reestab- lished .
Elaborate plans were made for the founding of a town. Trebon by name. on the south shore of Clear lake in 1885. The plan was developed by a colony of Bo- hemians, headed by Joseph Trea. of Chi- cago. Money was raised to start the town and to build i brewery, which was to be the principal industry.10 A plat was
1.The Bohemian village on the eastern shore of Clear lake, four miles west of Jackson, will doubtless this spring materialize Into a visible
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HISTORY OF JACKSON COUNTY.
surveyed in the spring and a few build- ings were put up. The brewery enter- prise was abandoned, and the townsite before very long reverted to farming lands.
Another Bohemian colony laid out the town of Artington on the southwest quar- ter of section 27, Kimball township, in 1885, but this did not advance so far as did Trebon.
N. C. Frederickson platted the town of Karlin October 13, 1888, on the north- west quarter of the northwest quarter of section one, Belmont township. Over 4,000 acres of land in the vicinity had
fact. Joseph Trea. of Chicago, is proprietor of the townsite. He is now preparing to have the ground platted. In the center of the town will be a public square, 600x600 feet. The business lots will be 30x100 feet and residence lots eight rods square. A large number of families are preparing to become citizens of the new vil- lage, and the frugal and hard working Bohem- ians will doubtless build up a thriving and live- ly community. It is intended to make the manufacture of Bohemian beer an extensive in- dustry."- Jackson Republic, March 27, 1885.
been sold by Frederickson & Company to Bohemians, and the platting of the town was for their benefit. The town did not materialize.
Gold Leat postoffice was opened in Kimball township in November, 1888, and had a short life.
Elm postoffice was established on the east half of the southeast quarter of sec- tion 10, Enterprise township, in Febru- ary, 1894, with Peter M. Getty as post- master. The office was later moved and had a life of several years.
Spofford postoffice, on the northwest quarter of section 26, Ewington township, was started in January, 1895, with J. A. Spafford as postmaster. A little later Mr. Spafford opened a store there, which he conducted several years. In the spring of 1909 Mr. Spafford again opened a gen- eral store on his farm.
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THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY
ASTOR, LENOX AND TILDEN FOUNDATIONS
HERON LAKE
Largest Body of Water in Southwestern Minnesota and a Hunter's Paradise.
CHAPTER XXII.
DESCRIPTIVE.
J ACKSON county is situated in the southern tier of Minnesota counties, and only two counties intervene be- tween it and the South Dakota line. It is bounded on the north by Cottonwood county, on the east by Martin county, on the south by the counties of Dickinson, Emmet and Osceola, Iowa, on the west by Nobles county. The geographical cen- ter of the county is in latitude 43 degrees, 47 minutes and 30 seconds north and in longitude 95 degrees and 7 minutes west of Greenwich. Jackson county is rectan- gular in form, contains twenty townships, and its dimensions are twenty-four by thirty miles. Its area is 722.66 square miles, or 462,501.20 acres-over one-half the area of the state of Rhode Island. Of its total area 696.98 square miles, or 446,- 066.45 acres, are land ; 25.68 square miles, or 16.434.75 acres. are water.
A glance at the map of Minnesota and the political division designated thereon as Jackson county will furnish the infor- mation above given. But there will be found nothing to distinguish Jackson county from the other divisions in the vi- cinity except that there are many lakes and watercourses, indicating excellent possibilities for drainage. The lithograph- ed piece of paper does not convey much idea of the country ; a personal inspection
is required to learn what it is and what it may become.
The general surface of Jackson county is a high, gently undulating plateau, though considerably diversified by streams and lakes, which have bluffy shores and more or less natural timber. While this describes the general contour, it varies considerably in different parts of the county. The whole surface is so deeply covered by the glacial drift, deposited thousands of years ago, that there are no outerops of the underlying rocks; there is no stony, waste land. The county is cross- ed through the center, north and south, by a belt of knolly and hilly and more prominently rolling land. This is from three to six miles in width and ineludes nearly all of the townships of Delafield and Heron Lake and about one-half of Hunter and Minneota. The same knolly and broken contour is also found in the southern parts of Sioux Valley and Round Lake townships. Excepting these higher and more rolling stretches of country, known to geologists as moraine tracts, the county is smoothly undulating, and in a few places noticeably quite flat, ascend- ing with a very gentle slope from east to west, enclosing lakes here and there in the depressions, slightly channeled by creeks and deeply cut by the Des Moines river.
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280
HISTORY OF JACKSON COUNTY.
The mean elevation of the county above sea level is 1,130 feet. The highest alti- tude is attained in the hilly belt which extends across the county from north to south and in the belt in the southwest corner. which in places rises to 1,415 to 1,550 feet above the sea. The lowest al- titude in the county is 1,250 feet and is at the point in Petersburg township where the Des Moines river leaves the county. The mean elevations of the several town- ships are as follows:1
Kimball 1,350
Enterprise 1.375
Wisconsin
1,400
Petersburg
1,375
Christiania
1,100
Belmont
1,410
Des Moines
1,420
Middletown
Delafick! 1,425
1.140
Heron Lake
1,460
Hunter
1,475
Minneota
1,460
Weimer
1.450
West Heron Lake. 1,420
Rost 1,440
Sioux Valley 1,460
La Crosse 1,425
Alba 1.150
Ewington 1,500
Round Lake 1,520
The elevations of the several villages are as follows:
Willer 1.448
lleron Lake 1,417
Jackson (Depot hill) 1,416
(Main street) 1,353
Lakefield 1,463
Okabena
1,410
Miloma
1,114
Concerning the drift and contour of Jackson county and the creation of its physical features, I quote at length from the writings of Hon. Warren Upham in the geological and natural history survey of Minnesota, edition of 1881:
The drift spread over Jackson and Cotton- wood counties is principally till, in part mo- rainic, being accumulated in knolls and hills, or with a prominently rolling surface in massive, smoothly sloping swells, but for the greater part it is only gently undulating in contour. Its thickness on the quartzito ridge [in Cotton-
wood county] varies from nothing to prob. ably fitty fret or more, and in other portions of these counties it probably varies from one hundred to two hundred feet in depth. The moraines to be described were formed at the western border of the ice sheet of the last glacial epoch, the first when this ice covered its maximum area, and the second after it had receded considerably from its farthest limits. when its retreat was interrupted by a halt and perhaps even by some reid vanee.
First Terminal Moraine. The outer or west- ern morainie belt of the coteau des prairies extends into the south edge of this state along it's course next west of Spirit lake, where the greater part of its width lies in lowa. From the Little Sioux river at the west side of Min- neota. through Sioux Valley and Round Lake townships, to Indian lake in southeastern No- bles county, the part of this formation in Minnesota i- characterized by numerous small ridges, hillocks and swells of till, and is from one and one-half to five miles wide, reaching north to Skunk lake, to a half mile beyond Rush lake, to Plum Island and Round lakes, and to the northeast of Indian lake. Its great - est extent north in this distance is at the north side of Round lake; but south of this a tract about two miles wide and three miles long to the east from State Line lake is smooth and only slightly undulating, though enclosed by rolling or knolly morainic areas.
Second Terminal Moraine. The inner or eastern of the two terminal moraines upon the cotean des prairies extends from the west side of Spirit lake north through the central range of townships in Jackson county. The width of this belt is from three to six miles. Its surface is prominently rolling, mostly in massive swells, twenty to forty feet above the depressions, but at many places in small, strep knolls and hillocks of similar height. The elevation of the range above the general level is from forty to seventy-five feet. Its material is till, which here contains more grav- el and boulders than on its smooth, slightly undulating areas which extend at each side beyond the limits of the county. In Minne- ota this morainie belt is about three miles wide, reaching from Little Spirit lake and Clear lake west to the Little Sioux river. It here has many knolls and short ridges, which continue into Hunter and are crossed seven to ten miles west of Jackson by the road to Worthington. Farther to the north the mo- raine forms a prominently rolling tract, about six miles wide, between the Des Moines river and Heron lake. rising in smooth, massive swells fifty to seventy five feet above the gen- eral level at the top of the bluffs of the river and seventy-five to one hundred feet above the lake.
East of the second moraine. the country extending from it to the Des Moines river in southern Jackson county is till. nearly flat through the central part of Middletown for five or six miles northeast from Spirit lake: moderately undulating in the castern half of
"As given by the geological and natural his- tory survey of Minnesota, 1884.
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HISTORY OF JACKSON COUNTY.
Minneota; and in the western part of Des Moines township massively rolling, in paral- lel swells that trend nearly from the north to south, sloping gently down on their east and west sides to the intervening depressions which are thirty to fifty feet lower, the dis- tance between the tops of these undulations being from a half mile to one or two miles.
The surface of the part of Jackson county east of the Des Moines river is a smooth, nearly flat, but everywhere more or less un- dulating, sheet of till, sloping eastward ten to twenty feet per mile. Its descent on the line of the Southern Minnesota railroad is 173 feet in eleven and one-half miles from the junction of the branch to Jackson, at the top of the eastern bluff of the Des Moines. . .
West of the second moraine, the eastern shore of Heron lake mainly rises in gradual slopes of till, reaching the summits of the morainie belt at a distance of three or four miles; the south end of this lake, lying within the edge of the moraine, is enclosed by banks abont forty feet high; but on the west and southwest is a very flat expanse of till, ten to twenty feet above the lake, only undulat- ing five to ten feet in slopes a mile long, stretching with slowly increasing height as far as the view extends westward. On the Sioux City [C., St. P., M. and O.] railroad, in the ten miles southwest from Heron Lake to Hersey [ Brewster], the ascent is sixty-eight feet; in eight miles on its branch from Ileron Lake northwest to Dundee, twenty-six feet; and on the Southern Minnesota railroad north- west from its intersection with the Sioux City line to DeForest [Kinbrae], is thirty-two feet. This smooth plain of till continues south through Rost. and Ewington townships, having the same slight ascent to the west, and crossed from north to south or southeast by occasional watercourses and sloughs ten to twenty feet below the general level.
Interglacial Drainage. Heron lake lies in the continuation of the southeast course of the upper Des Moines river below lake Shetek. There seems to be good reasons for believing that lake Shetek, this part of the Des Moines. Heron Jake and Spirit and Okoboji lakes in lowa resemble the chains of lakes in Martin county, in occupying portions of what was orig- inally a continuous valley excavated by in- terglacial drainage in the thick till of the ear- lier and severer glacial epoch, before the time of the last ice sheet by which the terminal moraines in this and adjoining states were formed. It is possible that the Des Moines
river then continued southeast where Heron lake is now, and onward in the same course through IFunter, where the rolling and hilly drift of the second terminal moraine now forms a watershed one hundred feet above Heron lake; thence southward at the east side of Minneota to Spirit lake and the Okoboji lakes; [and thence on, reentering the present valley of the Des Moines at Emmetsburg.]
Drainage During the Last Glacial Epoch. Very significant changes in the drainage of
this region have been produced by the lobe of the ice sheet which covered these counties and a width of about a hundred miles eastward during the last glacial epoch. From the south end of Heron lake to Okoboji township, in southern Dickinson county, Iowa, the inter- glacial channel of the Des Moines has been principally lost by being filled with the drift of terminal moraines, accumulated at the west border of the ice. The outer border of these deposits extends in Iowa from Storm Lake, in Buena Vista county, northward through eastern Clay county to the Okoboji lakes, and thence westward to Ocheyedan mound in Os- ceola county. Thence passing into Minnesota, it reaches northwesterly through the central part of Nobles county, western Murray coun- ty to the most northeasterly township of Pipe- stone county, forming there and farther northwest the highest part of the cotean des prairies. The present basin of the Des Moines river from central Iowa northwestward was entirely covered with this ice sheet; but a small portion of its interglacial valley, in southern Dickinson and northern Clay county, Iowa, and most of the basin of Ocheyedan creek, here tributary from the northwest, were outside the ice lobe, by which they were dam- med and their drainage in the old course to the east and southeast was made impossible. A lake about one hundred fifty feet deep and covering the greater part of Clay county was thus formed at the west side of the ice lobe, until its overflow cut the deep, trongh-like valley or channel in which the Little Sioux river now flows along the south side of Clay county and in northeastern Cherokee county, one hundred fifty to two hundred feet deep, and in some places only a quarter of a mile wide between the tops of its bluffs, which con- sist wholly of glacial drift. This ontlet was so deeply excavated while the ice sheet lay as a barrier on the east that after the de- parture the stream continued to flow by this passage to the Missouri through a broad area of till which has its surface one hundred to one hundred fifty feet higher than the divide between the Little Sioux and Des Moines riv- ers east of Spencer.
In northern Clay county, where the Little Sioux river takes the place of the interglac- ial Des Moines, the broad and deep valley eroded by that stream before the last glacial epoch has become nearly filled with modified drift, which forms an extensive plain, ten miles long and two to four miles wide, bor- dering the Little Sioux river through Summit, Riverton and Spencer, reaching west to Stony and Ocheyedan creeks. These fluvial beds of gravel and sand were deposited after the ex- cavation of the channel of the Little Sioux river, by which the lake that previously ex- isted here had been drained into the Missouri; and they are thus shown to have been sup- plied during the latter part of this epoeh. while the ice sheet, in which they had been held, was being melted away.
The decline and departure of this ice was
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282
HISTORY OF JACKSON COUNTY.
interrupted by a halt and probably by a re- advance, forming a second or inner line of terminal moraine, which reaches through Mur- ray, Cottonwood and Jackson counties, from the east side of lake Shetek southeast to the Blue mounds west of Windom, and thence south to Spirit lake, and continues southeast in lowa within a few miles west of the Des Moines river to Pilot Mound and Mineral ridge. At this time the drainage from the head of the Des Moines basin in Murray coun- ly and the waters of lleron lake and its trib- utaries went southward through West Heron Lake, Rost and Sioux Valley townships and were carried by the Little Sioux to the Mis- souri river, instead of going southeast as now to the Mississippi. lleron lake stood about twenty feet higher then than now, probably covering three times its arch. The shallow channel of its overflow has become partly filled by the silt of tributaries and contains a suggestion of sloughs and small reedy lake- lets, connected at time of high water by a stream which is the head and most northern source of the Little Sioux river.
Further recession of the ice gave to the wa- ters of Heron lake and the upper Des Moines river a lower outlet by the present course northeast across the second terminal moraine at the north side of the Blue mounds, and thenee sontheasterly along the east side of this moraine. This avenue of drainage be- came marked by a considerable valley eroded while the ice yet lay as a barrier upon the east part of Cottonwood and JJackson coun- ties: for the top of the bluffs and the gen- eral surface of the country bordering the Des Moines in eastern Jackson county are slightly higher than the watershed between Heron lake and the Little Sioux river: and, furthermore, the natural slope in eastern Cottonwood and northeastern Jackson county is eastward, so that this river could not flow here to the south-southeast unle-s its valley had been thus formed before the ice sheet was melted at its east side, being excavated sufficiently deep to hold the stream afterward in its course.
As has been stated. the soil of Jackson county is a drift deposit. It has the same nearly uniform fertility that character- izes all southern and western Minnesota, Jackson and Martin counties having a trifle more sandy soil than those counties adjoining them on the east, north and west.
nesian limestone, red quartzite, granite and crystalline schists. Its fine delritus is a mixture of these rocks pulverized, pre- senting in the most advantageous propor- tions the mineral clements needed by growing plants. It produces abundantly each year without perceptibly losing any of ils fertility. The sub-soil is the same as the surface soil, except that it is not enriched and blackened by organic decay. it is of a yellowish-gray color io a depth of from ten to twenty feet, and of a dark bluish color below.
The great depth of soil contributes to ils durability, and its fertile properties appear almost inexhaustible. One of its peculiarities is its remarkable ability to resist droughts. In time of exceedingly dry weather, a thin crust forms on the surface and retards evaporation below without being firm enough to interfere seriously with the growth of vegetation. The loam is free from surface water and ready for cultivation as soon as the frost leaves the ground in the spring.
Several scientific analyses of the soil have been made, and by all authorities it has been pronounced as containing ele- ments of extraordinary fertility. Years ago David Dale Owen, after an examina- tion of Jackson county soil. described it as of "excellent quality, rich as well in organic matter as in those salts which give rapidity to the growth of plants and that durability which enables it to sus- tain a long succession of crops." Another scientist. who examined the soil before its fertility had been proven, said: "It is a dark colored. fine-textured soil, abound- ing in organic matter and highly fertile. It has. in fact. a large amount of natural manures mixed with soil and cannot fail to produce great and permanent fertility."
The surface soil is a black sandy clay, with some intermixture of gravel, colored to a depth of from a few inches on the bluffs to two and three feet in other parts Bul. the magnificent crops which the soil of Jackson county produces speak by decaying vegetable matter. The de- posit contains many fragments of mag- more eloquently than the scientist can.
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HISTORY OF JACKSON COUNTY.
The testimony of farmers who have aeeu- mulated wealth and independenee affords unquestionable proof of the richness of the soil.
There is no section of country in the United States which has a smaller pro- portion of waste lands. Except for the area actually taken up by the waters of lakes and ereeks, all is tillable, even to the tops of the hills and knolls and in the bottom lands. Jackson county has not the rocky, untillable land of many of the eastern states; it has not the marshy, un- tillable lands of other parts of the coun- try
Sand and building stone are found by digging into the bluffs of streams and lakes. Good elay for the manufacture of briek and tile is found in many parts of the county.
The climate is healthful. Owing to the more perfect drainage afforded by the Des Moines and Little Sioux rivers, Jack- son county surpasses the neighboring en- tirely prairie counties in point of health- fulness as a result of the dryness of the atmosphere. This natural drainage not only prevents an accumulation of stag- nant water, which breeds disease germs, but it purifies the air as only rapid streams ean.
While Jackson county is classed as a prairie county, in places it supports a heavy growth of natural timber, and thereby has the advantage over all the counties of extreme southwestern Minne- sota. This timber is not a mere fringe of trees along the banks of the streams, but in many places it extends baek over the bluffs and forms dense woods. It was this character of the county's physical features that led to its early settlement and gives Jackson' county a historical im- portance above any of the exclusively prai- rie counties. About three thousand aeres are covered with natural timber, which in-
cludes black walnut, sugar and soft maple, ash, elm, oak, linden, iron-wood, box elder, cottonwood and poplar.
Jackson county has one of the most perfeet and complete systems of drainage of any section of the west. It is located on the great divide or watershed separat- ing the Mississippi and Missouri systems of rivers. The southwestern portion of the county is drained by the Little Sioux and tributaries to the Missouri; the east- ern and northern portions are drained by the Des Moines and its tributaries and by Elm creek, by way of the Minnesota river, to the Mississippi.
The most important stream is the Des Moines river. It rises in lake Shetek, in Murray county, and flows in a general southeasterly direction to its junction with the Mississippi, 385 miles from its source. Of this length a little less than one-fourth is in Minnesota and about 26 miles in Jackson county. About 420 square miles of Jackson county land lie its basin. There is no stream of any consequence flowing into it within Jaek- son county and its only important affluent in the vicinity is the outlet of Heron lake, which enters it nine miles west of Windom. The descent of the Des Moines in the county is estimated to be eighty feet-from 1,330 feet at the north line to approximately 1,250 feet where it erosses the state line. The river provides a num- ber of good water powers, several of which are utilized.
The valley of the Des Moines is one hundred to one hundred fifty feet below the average height on each side and is between one-third and two-thirds of a mile wide between the tops of its bluffs. In the north part of the county these bluffs take the form of knolly and irregu- lar slopes of morainie drift, but at Jaek- son and southeast from that town they have generally the nearly straight course
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HISTORY OF JACKSON COUNTY.
and steep ascent characteristic of fluvial erosion. At Jackson the immediate river bluffs are about one hundred feet high, but there is a further rise of moderately undulating expanse of till on each side, amounting to fifty or seventy-five feet within a mile or less from the top of the bluffs.
About ninety square miles of the north- east part of the county are drained by Elm creek, which has its sources in Bel- mont and Christiania townships, only two to four miles from the Des Moines river. Elm creek flows eastward through Martin county and enters the Blue Earth after a course of forty miles.
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