History of Houston County, Minnesota, Part 5

Author: Franklyn Curtiss-Wedge
Publication date: 1919
Publisher:
Number of Pages: 1343

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HISTORY OF HOUSTON COUNTY

This would necessitate a fall of about 200 feet to the Root River at its highest stages, in a distance of 50 miles in a right line. Root River valley, between the rock bluffs, has an average width through Houston county of about two miles, and that would have been the width of the stream, with a depth of over 100 feet.

There is, besides, this high, loam-terrace, a second terrace level, visible especially at La Crescent on the Mississippi, which there rises 50 feet above the flood plain of the river, and spreads out in a plateau on which the village has been located. This terrace, as already mentioned, is made of gravel and pebbles of northern glacial origin and was identified only along the Mississippi. The largest stones it contains are three inches in longest diameter. It is passed through in wells and seems to be entirely pervious to water, as all wells on it get water at about the level of the flood plain of the river. This material is used for grading and road-bed on the Reno- Preston branch of the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railway, and else- where. It consists entirely of rounded water-worn materials, the main part being the usual parti-colored quartzite pebbles, granitic, hornblendic, amyglaloidal and lamellar, as well as uniform and massive. A great many of them have a red color, or some shade varying from red. The coarsest pieces are rare, found only in the upper portions of the debris of alluvial fans.

The following more special observations have been made on these ter- races in Houston county. At Sheldon, six miles from Root River, in the valley of Beaver Creek, the terrace on which the Newberry House stands is 30 feet above the water of the creek below the dam. The materials of the terrace at this place are sandy loam, horizontally stratified, with more clay near the top and less evident stratification.

At Houston the only observable terrace, measured about a mile west of the city, is 65 feet above the flood plain. The track of the railroad is about one foot above the flood plain of the river, which is 18 feet higher than the water below the mill-dam.

At Money Creek the terrace rises 30 feet above the flood plain, which is 20 feet above low water below the mill-dam. The contents of this ter- race are stratified. On Section 30 in this town the contents of Root River Terrace, and their arrangement, are as follows: Mixed and broken strati- fications, roots, soil, etc., 2-4 feet ; loam and sandy loam, 3-6 feet; oblique strata of light sand; loam and light sand; one layer of sand, blown out 6 inches ; oblique layers of sand; horizontal strata of fine sand; strata of fine sand or clay; sloping clay layers, damp rusty; dry blowing sand; wet clay, with rusty lumps; contorted, curling, or massive strata; hid from view by debris.

The full height of the bank where the section was taken is about twenty feet. At a point further to the right a couple of bones were found, but in the confused and broken uppermost layer. They were where that layer comes down to the river, and about three feet below the surface, or five feet above the water of the dam, the surface of the bank sloping about 45 degrees.

At Hokah the village is on a terrace sixty-five feet above the flood

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HISTORY OF HOUSTON COUNTY

plain of Root River, and there is a distribution of loam about the bluffs at a higher level (as well as at many other points along Root River valley), reaching to 100 feet, or a little more, above the flood plain. This loam appears in indistinct benches or terrace-levels, or patches of terrace, rising often with a slope, far up the rock-bluffs. It very rarely appears level as a well-marked terrace. It suggests rather a worn-out terrace level, the upper surface of which has suffered erosion by being gullied out and smoothed off toward the river. It is generally cultivated for farms, and has good wheat fields, consisting of the same materials as the lower terrace. Its actual height is difficult to ascertain.

Southwest quarter of Section 22, La Crescent. At the roadside ap- pears a terrace, rising about fifty feet, which at the top consists of the fine loam of which the foregoing terrace is composed, showing at least eight feet of such material, while its lower twenty feet are of drift gravel, which is coarse and obliquely stratified, the coarsest pebbles being one or two inches in diameter. This occurs on the rounded point of the rock bluff which faces both valleys.

The village of La Crescent stands on a beautiful terrace of drift gravel, generously laid out, with wide streets and alleys, fifty feet above the flood plain of the Mississippi. This terrace gradually toward the high rock-bluffs. It is surmounted along the bluffs by another terrace, rising forty feet higher, which consists of loam.

This drift gravel must be attributed to the agency of the river. It has every feature of a water-work alluvial deposit. It is not found in Houston county in any of the valleys of the other streams, back from the Mississippi. It ante-dates the loess loam, as that is terraced above it, and probably bears the same relation to an earlier glacier period as the terraced loam does to the last.

At Brownsville the loam terrace is eighty feet above the flood plain of the Mississippi.

At Yucatan the terrace flat is forty feet above the present flood plain of the South Fork of Root River. The flood plain is six feet above low water.

At Freeburg the terrace is twenty feet above the flood plain of the South Fork of Crooked Creek, which is five feet above the water of the creek.

The material resources of the county consist of its excellent soil, its timber, its waterpowers and its stones. The rocks of the county do not contain any valuable minerals. They are everywhere abundantly exposed and are quarried at various places. A number of churches, schools, public buildings, mills, business blocks and residences in the county are con- structed of native stone and brick. Good sand is found in various places, and at varying depths, and has been used to a considerable extent. The loam everywhere is suitable for making brick, which are uniformly red. Lime has not been burned on an extensive scale, but considerable has been prepared in pot-kilns for local use.

Flowing wells can be obtained in the valleys of the Mississippi and Root rivers throughout their entire extent in this county and also in the

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HISTORY OF HOUSTON COUNTY

lower courses of the tributory streams. On the upland the water in the deep wells remains several hundred feet below the surface. For example, in the village well at Caledonia it is reported to stand about 250 feet and in the village well at Spring Grove about 300 feet below the surface.

The water from all horizons is moderately mineralized, the principal constituents being calcium, magnesium, and the bicarbonate radicle. A wide variation in the waters of this county in normal chlorine content was noted by H. C. Carel in his investigations some years ago, and recorded in the Eighteenth Report of the Minnesota State Board of Health, 1899- 1900, pages 241-260, and in the Nineteenth Report, 1901-1902, pages 346- 356. A general statement summarized from these reports is to the effect that the deep-lying water-bearing strata are much more heavily loaded with chlorine than the shallower beds. At Houston in 1900 there were twenty-eight artesian wells, ranging in depth between 230 and 310 feet, all obtaining their water from sandstones lower than the Dresbach. The shallowest of these wells yielded the least chlorine, 44.2 parts per million; the deepest yielded 187.2 parts per million. On the higher ground around Houston, where the supplies are drawn from the Jordan, the New Richmond, and even from so high a formation as the St. Peter, the amount of chlorine is appreciably less. The average chlorine content of springs flowing from these formations is, for the county, only 4.6 parts per million. As a sum- mary of Carel's investigations the following figures have been compiled from the large amount of material gathered by him as to the average chlorine content of underground waters being expressed in parts per million: Springs (several formations), 4.6; shallow wells, 2.8; Jordan sandstone, 9.4; Dresbach sandstone, 13; lower sandstone, 9.5; red clastic series, 76.

There are springs along the base of the cliffs at numerous points, the waters draining freely from the rocks wherever they are cut by deep valleys. In the vicinity of Hokah many springs rise from the base of the Jordan sandstone. Several miles west of Hokah is Stimpson Spring, which was long a favorite resort and which is reported to issue from above an impervious limestone as a stream of considerable size. When the county was first settled there were many gristmills operated by water power, and streams issuing from springs were frequently utilized. Winnebago Creek, Pine Creek, Thompson Creek, Money Creek, Beaver Creek, Crooked Creek, and Crystal Creek are all examples.

The village of Caledonia and the farms adjacent have a number of wells ranging from 250 to 312 feet in depth, in some of which the water stands more than 250 feet below the surface. A generalized section of these wells is here given: Loam clay and bottom of the St. Peter sandstone, 70 feet; Shakopee, 40 feet; New Richmond sandstone, 10 feet; Oneota dolomite, 150 feet; Jordan sandstone, entered 40 feet; making a total of 310 feet.

The village of Houston lies in the valley of Root River, which here apparently flows over a bed of the St. Lawrence formation. In the valley flowing wells are obtained from the Dresbach and lower sandstones. The public waterworks are supplied from a well six inches in diameter and 302 feet deep, which has been pumped at the rate of 130 gallons a minute.

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HISTORY OF HOUSTON COUNTY

The water rises 12 feet above the surface, or about 960 feet above sea level.

The village of Spring Grove is situated in the highest portion of the county, where the Platteville limestone occurs. The public waterworks are supplied from a well 396 feet deep, but many of the private wells are shallow. The water in the deep wells stands far below the surface.

Along the valley of Root River in the vicinity of Hokah there are flowing wells with considerable head. In several wells where the situation is favorable the natural head of water is used to operate hydraulic rams that lift the water to levels to which it would not otherwise rise. At Hokah this inexpensive and convenient method of pumping is employed at the village waterworks. Ordinarily this device raises sufficient water, but a gasoline engine can be used in case of shortage. The village well is 544 feet deep, the water rising 18 feet above the surface or 692 feet above sea level. The yield exceeds present needs, though in the past there has been some difficulty owing to the loss of water either through a leak in the casing or through the uncased portion of the sandstone. The public supply is used by about one-half the people and about 5,000 gallons is consumed daily.

As a summary it may be said that the three strongest water-bearing formations are the Jordan, Dresbach, and basal Cambrian sandstones. On the upland they lie at depths of several hundred feet and the water stands far below the surface. In the deepest valleys they occur at or near the surface, and where not exposed by erosion give rise to flows. The basal Cambrian sandstone is best protected from erosion and is therefore the best artesian zone. The water from all sources is moderately hard.

The Government survey of Houston county was made in 1852, 1853, 1854. The field notes taken give an excellent idea of the general appearance of the surface of the county at that time. Following is a brief transcript of those notes:

Township 101, Range 3, fractional; east part of Jefferson. This is embraced wholly within the river bottoms of the Mississippi. It is tim- bered but low, with some marsh and standing water. Acreage, 3,169.76.

Township 101, Range 4; west part of Jefferson and south part of Crooked Creek. The Mississippi bluffs run north and south across the east end of this town, which embraces some marsh and slough land in the eastern tier of sections. These bluffs, which unite with those of Winne- bago Creek from the west, in the southeastern corner of the town, introduce in that portion a very rough and rocky character of surface. The town is nearly covered with timber. Acreage, 22,546.52.

Town 101, Range 5; Winnebago. This is crossed by Winnebago Creek, which received several tributaries from the north and south. There is a tract of prairie in the southwest corner of the town and another in the northwest corner. The remainder is either timbered or shrubby, with oaks and aspens. The creek valley is deep and rocky. Area, 23,045.05 acres.

Township 101, Range 6; Wilmington. This town is about equally divided between prairie and timber, which are irregularly intermingled.

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HISTORY OF HOUSTON COUNTY

Waterloo Creek, in sections 29, 32 and 33, runs in a deep valley, with steep and rocky banks. Area, 23,037.13 acres.

Township 101, Range 7; Spring Grove. Along the northwest edge of this town the south fork of Root River causes a deep valley, which is rough, timbered and rocky. The rest of the town is variously overspread with mingled prairie and timber or oak bushes, with gently undulating and sometimes rolling surfaces. Area 23,045.12 acres.

Township 102, Range 4; part of Crooked Creek and south part of Brownsville. This town is named from the creek which crossed it from west to east, south of the center. This creek with its branches causes a rough and rocky surface, with deep gorges over a considerable area. The town has no natural prairie. Area, 20,403.73 acres.

Township 102, Range 5; Mayville and west part of Crooked Creek. In the central part of this town are the sources of Crooked Creek, which leaves the town towards the southeast, in Section 25. With the exception of small portions of sections 31 and 32, this town has no prairie, but the heaviest timber is along the creek and its tributaries. The surface is un- dulating to rough. Area, 22,976.20 acres.

Township 102, Range 6; Caledonia. Beaver Creek is the only stream in this town. It causes a rough and bluffy surface in sections 19, 18, 7, 6, 5, 8 and 17, flowing northward. A little more than one-half is of elevated prairie, the timber being along the creek and in the eastern side of the town. Area, 23,063.95 acres.

Township 102, Range 7; Black Hammer. The south fork of the Root River crosses the western portion of this town in a northerly direction, accompanied by a heavily timbered and rocky tract affecting nearly one- half of the town. There is an irregular strip of prairie which enters the town from the southeast and runs northwest past the center. Area, 23,042.34 acres.

Township 103, Range 4; north part of Brownsville and south part of Hokah. This is a border town along the Mississippi, and in the north has some bottom land east of the bluffs. No prairie is shown. The Wild Cat Creek joins the Mississippi at Brownsville, Section 26, and Thompson Creek flows across the northwest corner. These streams, like others in the county, run in deep rocky valleys, and cause a great diversity of surface some distance on either side from the immediate valley. They have a great many tributory valleys which do not contain streams, but which are equally deep and bluffy. Area, 20,912.18 acres.

Township 103, Range 5; Union and south part of Mound Prairie. Root River, with its tributaries, the Crystal, Bear and Thompson creeks, causes a rolling and even a rough surface over much of this town, with frequent rock exposure. There is a small area of prairie, covering Section 4, with adjoining parts of 5, 8, 9 and 3; but the greater part of the town is rep- resented as timbered, or overgrown with small oaks and aspens and with hazel. Area, 22,951.16 acres.

Township 103, Range 6; Sheldon and south part of Houston. The south fork of Root River, with its tributaries from the south, Beaver, Crystal and Badger creeks, covers this town with a network of deep valleys,

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HISTORY OF HOUSTON COUNTY

in many places very rough. In the eastern portion of the town the surface is more uniform and open. Area, 22,854.31 acres.

Township 103, Range 7; south part of Yucatan. The south fork of Root River crosses the southeastern quarter of this town. The whole town is rough and wooded, except a narrow prairie belt occupying the river bottoms. Area, 23,045.67 acres.

Township 104, Range 5; north part of Hokah and east part of La Crescent. This is a Mississippi River town, and between the line of the river bluffs and the channel of the river is a belt of bottom land, much of it marshy, from two to four miles wide. The Root River cuts a deep gorge across the southern part of the town, and Pine Creek crosses the northern portion. Area, 20,398.03 acres.

Township 104, Range 5; Mound Prairie and west part of La Crescent. This town is crossed by Root River, along the southern two tiers of sec- tions. It has a belt of prairie within the rocky bluffs, covering sections 33, 34 and 35, and a marsh in sections 30 and 31, but the rest is more or less wooded. Pine Creek also crosses the northeastern portion of the town. Area, 23,045.07 acres.

Township 104, Range 6; Houston and east part of Money Creek. This town is broken by Root River and Money Creek. It also has Silver Creek in the eastern portion. There is a belt of prairie land along the Root River, within the rock bluffs, and in the western portion of the town in Money Creek valley, but the most of its surface is wooded and broken. Area, 22,984.56 acres.

Township 104, Range 7; north part of Yucatan and west part of Money Creek. This town has prairie bottom-land along Root River, which crosses it from west to east in the southern half, and along Money Creek in sec- tions 1, 2 and 12. The rest of the town is more or less wooded, with a rolling surface. Area, 23,179.03 acres.

The conditions as described in this early report continue to the present time, except that much of the timber has been cleared from the tillable land, and new growths of timber, hitherto prevented by the spring fires kindled by the Indians have appeared on the bluffs and ridges.

The characteristic feature of the northern part of the county is the Root River, which has recently been deepened and straightened for drainage purposes, and which was at one time navigable.

The first appearance of the Root River on any map was in 1703, when the published map of Guilliaume De L'Isle showed the course of the "R, des Kicapous," flowing into the Mississippi from the west. This water, which historians have identified as the Root River, is sketched as a large stream, and is continued westward by a dotted line to a supposed union with the "Riviere Longe," of La Hontan. This fictitious "River Long," of La Hontan is made to be a northwestward continuation of the Des Moines River with a conjectural connection with the Kicapous, which, as just stated, has been identified as the Root River.

La Hontan's own map appeared in 1704. As his works are now believed to have been fiction, and his map purely a garbled copy of previous maps, it is not a matter of vital import whether or not he intended that his "River

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HISTORY OF HOUSTON COUNTY

Long" should be merely an exaggeration of the Root River. As elsewhere stated, N. H. Winchell believes that the Root River flows into the Missis- sippi at about the place where La Hontan describes the mouth of his Long River. Nicollet believed La Hontan's River to be the Cannon, while De L'Isle, as noted, drew it as a western extension of the Des Moines.

Sheet No. 5, of Popple's Atlas of the British Empire in America, pub- lished in 1733, shows the River Quicapon, which is probably intended to be the stream now called Root River.

Another map, evidently of Italian origin, which bears neither date nor author's name, but was evidently published in the latter years of the eighteenth century (1750 and 1778 are both conjectural dates) has a river "Quikapous," which from its size and location is evidently the Root River.

The map of Sr. Robert Vaugondy, probably published in 1775, shows the "R. des Quicabou," evidently the Root River. The "Quicapous" also appears on the map by Le Sr. d' Anville, published in 1775, and the "Quica- poux" on the "Carte des Cinq grands Lacs du Canada" (Map of the Five Great Lakes of Canada), probably published in 1762, but of which no author or date are given.

A map published by Robert Sayer and J. Bennett probably in 1775 gives the Root River as the "Macaret" River.

But in a map published by J. Hinton, probably about 1776, the old general form of the name is resumed, and the Root River appears as the "Quicapous."

The same name for the Root River is also used in the map which accompanies the stories of Carver's travels published in 1779.

In Carver's own map of 1781, the Root River is named the "Yallow." The map of the United States of North America, etc., engraved by William Faden in 1793, calls the Root River the "Quicapoo," but the map published by Laurie and Whittle in 1794 uses the name "Maceret."

The map compiled by Gen. Collott to accompany his travels in North America in 1774-76, engraved in 1805, calls the Root River the "Yellow R." but incorrectly gives its source as a lake, a mistake which may be due to marshes having been covered in time of high water.

The map of 1806 compiled by M. Lewis and copied by Nicholas King, gives the "Carneille" River in the present location of the Root River.

The Root River has borne its present name since about 1806-7, when it appears on a chart entitled "A map of Lewis and Clark's track across the western portion of North America from the Mississippi to the Pacific ocean. By order of the executive of the United States in 1804, 1805 and 1806. Copied from the original drawing of William Clark by Samuel Lewis." Since that time the Root River has been a feature of every map of Minnesota.

Thus it will be seen that from the first appearance of the stream on a map in 1703 down to the time it assumed its present name in 1805-06, the Root River bore the following names: Kicapous, Quicapon, Quikapous, Quicabou, Quicapoux, Maracet, Quicapous, Yallow, Quicapoo, Maceret, Yel- low and Carneille. The Indians found here by the whites called the stream Hokah, which also means "root."

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CHAPTER III

ABORIGINAL REMAINS

That Houston county has been the home of man through countless gen- erations is shown by its numerous earthworks. These earthworks extend along the high lands overlooking the Mississippi River, and back along the bluffs of the Root River and its tributaries. Notable among the remains of a departed people in Houston county are the La Crescent group, with human remains and copper implements; the Hogback group with rock burials, the mounds at Jefferson, in the upper part of one of which was found a skeleton of a warrior with gun and hatchet, while in the lower part was found a stone box grave of small dimensions containing the flexed bones of an adult skeleton deposited after the flesh had been removed, while in one adjacent was a stone vault six feet in diameter, which contained charcoal, ashes and split bones of animals and two chipped scrapers. In other groups are found effigy mounds, in the shape of birds of large dimensions.

The evidences are many that these mounds were not built by a race distinct from the Indians, but that the Mound Builders were in fact no other than the more or less immediate ancestors of the Indians found here by the whites. The relics found in them indicate a state of society and mode of life in every way identical to that of the Indian.

Much interesting material has been written on the subject and N. H. Winchell's "Aborigines of Minnesota" contains aside from a general dis- cussion of aboriginal inhabitants of Minnesota, a detailed description of some of the remains found in Houston county. The following survey is reproduced from that work.

The La Crescent Group (northern part), S. W. 1/4, N. E. 1/4; S. E. 1/4, N. W. 1/4; and E. 1/2, S. W. 1/4, Sec. 10, T. 104-4. Many mounds were destroyed by the railroad and many others have been plowed down and dug away. These are in part on a terrace about twenty feet above a lower plateau, which is about thirty feet above the Mississippi River, and the rest are on the lower plateau.

The northern part of the La Crescent group embraces fifty-two mounds, which are all circular except two, which are elongated mounds. Of these one is 62 feet by 44 feet, and 4 feet high, and the other tapers from 33 feet in width to 12 feet near the narrow end. Its greatest height is at its widest point, viz: 11/2 feet. Its ends have the form of semi-circles, one with a radius of 12 feet, and the other with one of 6 feet. One, which is partly removed, furnished an aboriginal pipe.

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History of Houston County, Minnesota, Part 5

Author: Franklyn Curtiss-Wedge Publication date: 1919 Publisher: Number of Pages: 1343

Author: Franklyn Curtiss-Wedge
Publication date: 1919
Publisher:
Number of Pages: 1343