History of Fillmore County, Including the Explorers and Pioneers of Minnesota, Part 49

Author: Edward D. Neill
Publication date: 1882
Publisher:
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USA > Minnesota > Fillmore County > History of Fillmore County, Including the Explorers and Pioneers of Minnesota > Part 49

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The upper Trenton appears in the southwest quarter of section six, Forestville, along a little ravine, and is slightly opened by John Hipes. It also appears at other points between there and Spring Valley.

At Baldwin's Dam, section twenty-one, Forest- ville, 130 feet of the Trenton are seen. No Ga- lena visible, and no Green Shale.

Southeast quarter of section thirty, Forestville. In some fragmenls thrown out in the digging of a well can be seen a fine grained rock, resembling the fine shale seen in the race at De For's mill, which crumbles to pieces in the weather. It here lies below some heavy Galena beds, seen in the hills enclosing the valley, and contains doubtfully species of Gruptolites, Orthis, and Orthonota.

At Granger the Trenton only occupies the bluffs; but at two miles west of Granger, where the river enters the State for a short distance, the bluffs are high, and are made up of the Trenton, with a topping of fifteen or twenty feet of Galena.

Northwest quarter of section thirty-six, Bristol. Hiram Andrews has a quarry in the Trenton, which alone occupies, at this place, the river banks, though the beds of the quarry are appar- ently in the upper portion of the formation. The layers are thicker than usual, somewhat vesicular, and present some of the aspects of the Galena.

The rock shows a slight dip to the south. Mr. Andrews has built a stone barn and stable.

THE GALENA LIMESTONE .- The only separating horizon between the Trenton and Galena lime- stones is a lithological change in the rock. There is no unconformability between the layers of the formations, and there is no known difference of fossil contents. Near the upper portion of the Trenton occasional layers appear that are much more porous, and have a light buff color. They are also much heavier than the layers of the Tren- ton, reaching, after the change is fully established, a thickness of for or five feet. Mingled with these heavy magnesian layers are thinner layers of green shale. When these heavy magnesian beds are near the top of a bluff, they give it a rough- ness, but at the same time a persistence of outline which the thinner beds of the Trenton alone do not possess. This rock is generally sharply crys- talline, It contains numerous cavities of irregular shape, some due to the weathering out of carious material, and some to the absorption of fossils. It holds considerable masses of calcite, and some- times lumps of Galena, from which it has derived its name. Although the Galena limestone near Dubuque, in Iowa, is stated by Prof. J. D. Whit- ney to be about 250 feet, (Geology of Wisconsin, vol. 1, 172,) it enters Minnesota with a thick- ness much less than that. From all that can be seen of it in Fillmore county, it appears to be less than 100 feet thick. The Trenton, on the other hand, is given, by the same authority, at 70 feet average thickness, at Dubuque, while it has a thickness of 160 feet in Fillmore county.

The characters that distinguish the Galena are not constant. In Fillmore county the "lead fossil," Receptaculites, pervades the Trenton as low as the green shale, at least-although regarded as characteristic of the Galena; and the Lingula quadrata, also said by Prof. Whitney to not ap- pear in the lead region, in the "blue" nor the "buff," is found throughout both. A very fine specimen was obtained, of the latter, at Mr. Tay- lor's quarry, near Fountain, from the lower Tren- ton, ("buff limestone" of Prof. Whitney, ) and another from Chatfield, from the same horizon. Lithologically also the two formations appear to merge into one another. The compact, hard blue limestone, characteristic. of the Trenton, gives place near the top of that formation, to a lighter colored, slightly vesicular, even grained, more heavily bedded rock, that is very useful for an or-

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namental cut-stone. This is seen in some of the quarries a mile or two east of Spring Valley, where it is difficult to assign the beds either to the Galena or to the Trenton. A short distance fur- ther east the well characterized Trenton appears, while at the village of Spring Valley, unmistaka- ble Galena features pervade the rock exposed, to the depth of ten or twenty feet. The lead ore, moreover, which has given name to the Galena, is not confined to that formation. It is found to some extent both in the Galena and the Trenton, though in neither to that extent that will warrant sanguine expectations.

The Galena, where not hid by the Cretaceous in the northwestern part of the county, is within the drift area. Hence it has not been so fully observed as is desirable. The line separating its super- ficial area from that of the Trenton is defined with tolerable accuracy on the map accompanying this report; but the line of its western boundary is very uncertain.

The principal exposures of the Galena in the county are on Bear and Deer Creeks, and at Spring Valley on the middle branch of Root River. At the latter place quarries are worked to a greater or less extent by Mr. Willard Allen, Thomas Thayer, Emylas Parsons, and Nelson Smith. These openings are on the south side of the valley, and are all in about the same kind of stone. Some of them furnish, as yet, only rough large pieces, water worn and rusty, dislodged from their original places. The rock has under- gone long weathering and erosion at Spring Val- ley, and is disintegrated and changed to a consid- erable depth. Along the road near the public school, a small cut in the shattered, crumbling layers has exposed a great number of detached casts of a brachiopod resembling that of Atrypa reticularis. These were regarded with great curi- osity by many as "little turtles" petrified. At J. Shumaker's quarry, one mile east of the village, about eight feet of the bedding are exposed. The layers here are of a finer and more uniform texture, and are associated with shale. When cut for building they are much whiter than the stone obtained at Mr. Allen's at Spring Valley. No systematic exploration, however, has been under- taken, the pieces found being at or near the sur- face. It has been found at a number of other points in the county, sometimes well within the Trenton area.

Northwest quarter of section sixteen, Jordan.

In ascending the south bluff of Lost Creek, large loose pieces of Galena Limestone are seen in the road, but the Trenton is in outcrop at the creek. Similar pieces appear on section thirty one, Jor- dan. These are on the most eastern limits of the Galena area, and belong to the lowest layers of the formation.

There is a weathered exposure of the Galena on land.owned by Mr. - Harris, northwest quarter of section twenty-six, Sumner. This out- crop fairly presents the typical lithological fea- tures that characterize the formation. By the Ga- lena characters are meant a yellowish, or buff, limestone, vesicular, crystalline, in heavy layers, even on weathered bluffs, having usually a very rough exterior, in consequence of atmospheric de- struction of the looser portions. When these looser portions are removed, the surface of 'the rock presents a pitted aspect, being covered with thimble holes, and depressions of all shapes, with angular knobs and excrescences separating them, the whole overgrown with lichens. The exposure here shows perpendicularly about twelve feet, in layers from one to four feet thick, piled up on either side of the road in detached mounds, like bridge abutments, from which the roadway has been removed. The "lead fossil," Receptaculites, appears in these layers.

At the crossing of the south branch of Root River, in the northeast quarter of section twenty- one, Bloomfield, there is no cut in the rock visible. The river is but about twenty feet below the level of the country, which is in a broad, shallow val- ley; but in the road are a few pieces of Galena, showing fossils and lithology like the rock at Spring Valley, though the layers must be near the top of that formation. The country here, and toward the southwest, is a broad, level prairie, gently rising toward the west.

Northwest quarter of section twenty-six, Bloom- field. The south bank of the river, near the west side of the section, has a rock bluff exposed about twenty feet above the river. This is massive, or in heavey layers, and is doubtfully assigned to the Galena, as it has some of the features of the Ni- agara. It is firm, but porous; of a buff color and & coarse magnesian grain, with superficial cavities, due to the weathering out of fossils. It is on the land of Mrs. Annie Postle. The crossing of the survey of the Winona, Green Bay & Grinnell rail- road is at the head of the bluff. A similarly doubtful exposure, slightly quarried, is owned by

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Dora Wright, near the center of section fourteen, Bloomfield, by the roadside. Wm. B. McVee has also taken out the same stone near his barn, in the northwest quarter of section fourteen, and used it in his barn foundation. It here holds con- siderable calcite.

At Etna, Mr. S. S. Belding has a quarry in the Galena. This is a soft, porous stone, in heavy beds, which once held fossils, but which have been lost by absorption, leaving the rock porous, and finely vesicular. Mr. Belding states that this limestone has a hydraulic quality, but as near as can be ascertained it makes simply a quick-lime, which endures well under repeated wetting. An old foundation at De For's mill was laid with it nineteen years ago, and stands firm yet, though submerged by every freshet. It has not yet been subjected to the test of setting under water, which is the essential property of water lime. The rock here seen amounts to eighteen or twenty feet. Other quarries, similar to Mr. Belding's, are owned by O. M. Postle in the northwest quarter of section thirty-six, Bloomfield, by Geo. Hoy and Mr. De For in the northeast quarter of section twenty-five, and by H. T. Odell in the southeast quarter of section thirty-six.

At De For's Mill in the northeast quarter of sec- tion twenty-five, Bloomfield, the rock exposed is fine and even-grained, belonging probably to the lower portion of the Galena. It embraces one thin layer of a shaly limestone which has turned white. It makes a good quick-lime. It is in heavy beds of about eighteen inches, and holds a coarse coralline form seen also at the quarry of Mrs. Postle already mentioned. Below these heavy layers is a bed of shale which was exposed in the digging of the mill-race, having a thick- ness of five and a half feet. Below that thickness the shale becomes arenaceous, and in the weather crumbles to pieces. Among the crumbled frag- ments are indistinct remains of the buckler of a small trilobite.

At Foreston, one mile south of the State line, the Galena appears in the lower river bluffs, and is in very rough and heavy beds. It presents numberless cavities of all shapes, as large as a thimble, and larger, and often iron-stained. It here has a noticeable dip to the south. While it is fossiliferous, it is so coarsely and so completely crystalline that the fossils are either entirely ab- sorbed or remain as indistinct impressions or im-

perfect casts. It contains white calcite in some large masses. The river itself at Foreston is probably on the Trenton, the water-power there improved being due to a change from the firm Galena layers to a softer shale, indicating the upper portion of the Trenton. On the State line, due north from Foreston, a limestone appears in the road, of a coarsely crystalline grain, with cal- cite and cavities, entirely like the Galena. It is observable in a number of the hill tops, and extends half a mile at least, north of the State line. At a point about a mile north of the State line, north from Foreston, and a fourth of a mile east, the upper Trenton appears on the northeast side of a ravine, while the Galena appears on the southwest side, the road running between the two. The rock has' a perceptible dip toward the south. The Galena occupies the high river-bluffs from that point nearly to Granger, on the north side of the river, when it passes to the south and the Trenton takes its place, both having a dip toward the south. At a point two miles west of Granger the Galena is 15 or 20 feet thick in the top of the river bluffs, the Trenton underlying. These thick beds give a squareness and prominence to the tops of the bluffs, presenting a perpendicular rock-wall toward the river. Large masses of this rock fall from the bluffs and weather into the usual rough forms. Though this exposure embraces rock that is a little softer than the Galena at Foreston, yet in color, crystallization, and all general characters it is the same.

THE MAQUOKETA SHALES .- This is the name given to the Cincinnati Group of shales and lime- stones, as they appear in Iowa, by Dr. C. M. White, of the Iowa survey of 1870. Without questioning the correctness of his conclusion that where these shales appear in Iowa they embrace a distinct portion, only, of that series known as the Cincinnati Group, his designation is provis- ionally adopted in our nomenclature. While it is certain that this formation enters the State from Iowa, being seen two miles south of the State line, at Lime Springs, it is still true that not a single observation has yet been made of it within the limits of the state of Minnesota. Being made up of soft materials, its outcrops are to be sought in the low levels, along the bottoms of ravines. As its area in Fillmore county is covered by the northern drift, it will probably be a long time before any well authenticated localities of its ex- istence are known.

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THE NIAGARA LIMESTONE .- This formation has been identified in Fillmore county, at but one point. It is much more enduring than the shales underlying it, but it enters on a drift-covered area, with small valleys of drainage only, some distance south of the State line. The nearest important point of its known outcrop is at Lime Springs, in Iowa. It differs from the Galena limestone in being much lighter colored, especially when broken or powdered. It is strongly crystalline, and often porous, but it is also, in some parts, a very firm and enduring limestone. It also has a very different and much more abundant fossil fauna. It is separated from the Maquoketa shales, at Lime Springs, by a limestone breccia of about 18 inches. Its color, in its heavier and close-tex- tured portions, is somewhat grayish, or leaden, and it is interbedded with hard shale, which turns nearly white on exposure. This sbale, in broken pieces, makes up the larger part of the breccia mentioned, and falls down the bluff in that condi- tion, where it is lost in the weather, the framework of the cement only remaining, making a curious open network or mesh, the partitions and threads enclosing angular apartments. The great bed of shale, which causes the water power here, may have a thickness of 75 or 80 feet exposed, at the quarry of Mr. John Smith, though near the mill it is reduced to ten or fifteen feet. Throughout the most of that interval, a heavy debris covers it from sight, the overlying Niagara only being visi- ble along the top of the bluff. The Niagara has a dip of five or six degre's to the southwest, and passes below the lower Devonian (Corniferous?) which is exposed and quarried at Lime Springs station, about a mile further south. The thick- ness of the Niagara included in that interval may be 100 or 150 feet. This underlying bed of shale gives rise to springs of limy water that enter the river along the bluff, and gave origin to the name of the village.

In the southeast quarter of section thirty-three, York, about forty rods north of the State line, is a very small exposure of the Niagara, in the bottom of a ravine, with the Devonian in the enclosing hillsides. A slight opening has been made in these beds, which are very porous and light col- ored, and about three inches in thickness. Al- though no fossils were found here to identify the formation, the presence of a very different rock, well known as the Devonian, in the hills and ridges surrounding it, as well as the strong resemblance

it bears to the Niagara at Lime Springs, will allow of its being regarded only as the Niagara lime- stone.

THE DEVONIAN LIMESTONES .- In the report for 1874, the Devonian limestones were described as occurring at Le Roy, in Mower county. It was then supposed that those limestones extended but a short distance east of Le Roy. They have been found during the past summer to extend consid- erably further east, and to embrace an area in Fillmore county fully ten miles wide on the south- ern border. Along the western boundary of Fill- more county the width of this Devonian belt is not certainly known, but it has about the same width as on the southern. Hence the eastern boundary line of the Devonian in Mower county should run from about section thirteen, Bennington, north- westwardly to about section seven, in Pleasant Valley. The Silurian area, as laid off on the map of that county, should probably embrace the Ni- agara, the Maquoketa, and the Galena, overlain, in the northeast (Racine), by the Cretaceous.

The Lower Devonian limestones are very differ- ent from the Upper, at least lithologically. Dr. White has classed them all as Hamilton. But there seems to be some reason for separating them into at least two parts, the upper portion, which contains more shale, being the probable equiv- alent of the Hamilton, and the lower, which greatly resembles the Lower Corniferous, of the Ohio Geological Reports. The distinctively On- ondaga features of the Ohio Corniferous are the only ones seen in Fillmore county. The color of this limestone is like. that of the Galena, but its even and non-vesicular texture is enough to dis- tinguish it from that at a glance. The bedding is also less thick, being, when in exposure, usually less than eight inches, though when quarried it is in heavy beds. It is a yellowish, magnesian lime- stone, sometimes with a finely siliceous compo- sition, and is suitable for most purposes in com- mon masonry. It is tolerably free from calcite lumps, but has some chert nodules. It has a few fossil brachiopods, as Atryda, and an incrusting bryozoon like Fenestella.

At Lime Springs station is a quarry in the Lower Devonian, exposing about ten feet. At Hopkins' quarry, situated two miles west and a little south of Lime Springs, about twelve feet, in heavy layers, can be seen, without fossils, but hold- ing some flint. Dip southeast. At Chester sim- ilar beds are exposed, near the mill, three-quarters

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of a mile south of the State line. It is here in heavy beds, of a soft, uniform, granular texture and yellowish color, useful for a cut stone.

This rock is probably that which is said to ap- pear in the river banks, section thirty-four, Beaver, on Jerry Kingsley's land.

Southeast quarter of section twenty, Beaver. This rock is again seen here, exposed along the banks of Slough Creek; owner's name unknown. It here shows a brachiopod resembling Orthis, and. a radiating Fenestella. It is in the midst of an un- inhabited prarie, and only weathered pieces can be found.

Sontheast quarter of section eighteen, Beaver. About fourteen years ago a cellar, dug for a farmer's residence, furnished stone of the same kind in suf- ficient quantity to construct his house, now owned by Mr. James Smith. Similar rock again appears in the road in the northwest quarter of section twenty, Beaver, but is somewhat more vesicular.

Widow Skarie has a small quarry in a yellowish, fine-grained rock, almost non-fossiliferous, and probably of the Lower Devonian, on the southeast quarter of section twenty-eight, Bloomfield. Out- wardly this much resembles the Cretaceous sand- stone, as exposed at Austin, in Mower county, but it has a doubtful brachiopod that appears like Atrypa. Its weathered color, its homogeneity and fineness of grain, its irregularly rounded cavities, containing loose, ochreous dirt, combine to make it Cretaceous. It is with some doubt classed as Lower Devonian.

This limestone is found in loose pieces, and often in surface exposures, on the tops of knolls, near the State line, sections thirty-three and thirty-four, York, the porous, white Niagara appearing in the ravines.

THE CRETACEOUS .- No attempt is made to map out the Cretaceous area in Fillmore county, inas- much as it is all embraced in the drift-covered portion, and but one or two localities of its exist- ence are known. It probably extends no further east, however, at any point, than the east side of the first tier of towns along the western border of the county. Its area is most reliably indicated by the surface features, in the absence of actual out- crops. Guided by this only it is supposed to occupy the flat and prairie portion of Sumner Township, stretching southward through Spring Valley and Bloomfield and covering the most of Beaver, and perhaps portions of York. Judging from the prevalence of Cretaceous features in the

drift-clay exposed in the railroad cut at Lime Springs, it has played an important part in originating the materials of the heavy drift cov- ering that spreads over not only the western por- tion of Fillmore county, but all the counties of the State further west.

The lower portion of the Cretaceous, which is that represented in Minnesota, consists of sand- stones and lignitiferous clays or shales-the sand- stones lying at the bese of the formation and be- ing the same that Dr. White has denominated in Iowa the "Nishnabotany Sandstone." Above this sandstone, which is often white and incoherent, with a thickness of about one hundred feet, so far as observed, is a clayey member of the Cretaceous which has been identified by Mr. F. B. Meek as the Fort Benton Group, of Messrs. Meek and Hayden. This is well exposed in the region of the Upper Minnesota Valley, and contains some impure lignite, and is found in small pieces dis- seminated with its fossils, through the drift-clay cut at Lime Springs, a couple of miles south of Fillmore county, in Iowa. The Niobrara, or chalky member of the Cretaceous, may also exist in the extreme western portion of the State.

So far as Fillmore county is concerned the pres- ence of the Cretaccous is known more by certain indirect or secondary evidences, than by the actual discovery of its beds in situ. In the extreme northeastern corner of Mower county it was struck by a farmer in digging a well. It there has the form of the fine-grained sandstone seen at Austin. The surface features that prevail at that point pass into the nortwestern corner of Fillmore county, and cover the most of Sumner Township. Southward, at Spring Valley, a similar stone ap- pears in the north side of the creek, where it has been opened for building purposes by Messrs. James Wilder and Henry Thayer. It is here a fine-grained, argillaceous sandstone that cracks and crumbles on freezing. It has been given up as worthless for a building material. Near the same place, on David Higby's farm, in the south- west quarter of section thirty-two, is a very fine and tough clay, of a generally bluish color, almost entirely free from grit, which is spread out over a wide area lying but a few feet below the surface. The overlying soil, which is annually plowed, is a black loam, (rather clayey) varying below to a yellow, clayey loam. This clay was discovered several years ago, but nothing has been done that will demonstrate or indicate its real origin, though

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it is evidently not a part of the drift. It has the appearance of being suitable for pottery or for brick, but would require some sand. A soapy, variegated clay also occurs at J. W. Smith's brick yard, two miles northwest of Spring Valley, though a drift clay, with some gravel, is used in the manufacture of brick. A similar clay is met in abundance at Spring Valley village, but it is mingled with limestone fragments and drift materials.

part being white, often limpid, quartz, the size of the pebbles varying from that of a pea to that of a hazlenut. On these knolls are a few northern drift boulders, and no doubt the gravel was also placed in the position it now occupies by the drift forces. This gravel, so remarkably homogeneous, like the white sand deposits mentioned, can only be referred to the immediate proximity of the lower Cretaceous. It could not have been far transported without being mixed with other rock material. It distinctly points to the existence of a coarse gravel or conglomerate in the lower Cre- taceous, which has not yet been discovered. It indicates also the littoral nature of the Cretaceous beds from which it was derived.

Besides these clayey deposits, which are be- lieved to have resulted from the degradation, or more or less perfect preservation, of the lower Cretaceous clays, there are a number of white sand deposits in the same portion of the county, which probably are referable to the incoherent layers of There is still another indirect evidence of the existence of the Cretaceous in the western portion of Fillmore county. There are heavy deposits of limonite iron ore, bearing some unascertained rela- tion to the Cretaceous, or to the drift found in the southwestern part of the county. In the Second Annual Report of the Survey, mention was made of the occurrence at a number of places in the Min- nesota valley, and in that of the Blue Earth, of a coating of iron ore on the Lower Silurian rocks, where they are unconformably overlain by the Cretaceous. Dr. Shunard says of this: (Owen's Geological Survey of Wisconsin, Iowa, and Minne- sota, page 487.) "The nodules of iron ore have mostly a concentric structure, and appear to be of good quality. The superficial indications render it probable that this bed of iron ore may be both extensive and easily accessible." In Fillmore county a discovery was made by Mr. C. C. Tem- ple, in digging a well near his sand pit, already described, and referred to the Cretaceous as' its probable source, which throws some light on the manner of occurrence of the limonite referred to. He testifies that this bed of iron ore is at least thirty-six feet in thickness. In his well, which is six feet circular at the top, he dug down about eighteen feet, when he reached rock, fragments thrown out revealing the Galena limestone. He describes the' rock as occupying but about one- half of the diameter of the shaft he was digging, which afforded great quantities of soft limonite, or ochre. He drilled into the iron-ore a depth of thirty-six feet. A number of wells in, the vicinity of Etna, a few miles further southeast, also struck a similar iron ore. On section thirty-six, Bloom- field, a great many loose pieces of porous limonite the Nishnabotany sandstone. One of these occurs north of Mr. J. W. Smith's brick yard, on section seventeen, Spring Valley. Another is situated on C. C. Temple's land, southeast quarter of section eight, Bloomfield, where it is twenty feet thick at least, having been tested to that depth, the bottom never having been reached. It here occurs in an open prairie country, and is known to spread out over many acres, lying but two or three feet below the surface. It lies on the Galena, of course uncon- formably. It is not a purely white sand, like the St. Peter, but yellowish white. It is sometimes very fine, but varies to coarse. Another deposit of this sand is on Mr. Andrew McNee's land in the northwest quarter of section twenty-two, Bloom- field, and still another on J. M. Rexford's, in the northeast quarter of section thirty-six, where it has been opened, as at the other points named, and used for mortar. These are situated in an undulating tract, with some shrubs and trees. These sand beds are not regarded as belonging to the Cretaceous rock in situ, but as being copious local products, under drift agencies, of the Creta- ceous. Sometimes they embrace lumps of clay, of a greenish color, like the Fort Benton, and sometimes they show oblique stratification. They are entirely uncemented, so as to be shoveled di- rectly into the wagon. Another singular deposit, in the same manner referable to the immediate presence of the Cretaceous, occurs on the south- west quarter of section fifteen, Bloomfield, land of Peter Peterson. Here a series of knolls, which embrace, indeed, that in which is Mr. Andrew Mc- Nee's white sand pit, and are covered with aspen and hazel brush, are found, many of them, to be com- posed of a beautiful, coarse gravel, the greater I are found in the fields, having been plowed up in

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History of Fillmore County, Including the Explorers and Pioneers of Minnesota, Part 49

Author: Edward D. Neill Publication date: 1882 Publisher: Number of Pages:

Author: Edward D. Neill
Publication date: 1882
Publisher:
Number of Pages: