USA > Minnesota > Otter Tail County > History of Otter Tail County, Minnesota: Its People, Industries and Institutions, Volume I > Part 8
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76
In going from Otter Tail lake to Wadena, this range is encountered one or two miles northeast from East Leaf lake. Here its hillocks are only forty to sixty feet above the hollows, and one hundred to one hundred and twenty-five feet above the lake. Their material is gravel and sand, with enclosed boulders, unlike the stony and gravelly clay which makes up most of these morainic accumulations. This belt of irregular hillocks and hollows, occupying a width of about two miles, next extends in a course a little west of north twelve miles, running midway between New York Mills and Rush lake. Its most northern portion traced and mapped consists of hills which rise one hundred feet above the general level at the south side of Pine lake.
Outlying hills west of this series occur along the south side of the Leaf lakes, where they are fifty to seventy-five feet high, and for two miles south from East Battle lake, above which they rise about one hundred and fifty feet. On the east side of this moraine two lines of hilly and irregular con- tour branch off from it. The most northern starts four miles south from the east end of East Leaf lake, and extends nearly due east through Inman and Oak Valley into the northwest township of Todd county. On the road from Wadena to Parkers Prairie this line is represented by a nearly level tract of unmodified boulder-clay, in contrast with all the rest of this road. which has only stratified gravel and sand. Two miles farther east, in north- western Todd county, it rises in conspicuous hills fully one hundred feet above the general level. The other series starts from the highest part of the Leaf hills, fifteen miles south of the Leaf lakes, and passes southeast into Douglas county. In its first few miles, through Effington and Parkers
Digitized by Google
73
OTTER TAIL COUNTY, MINNESOTA.
Prairie, this morainic range decreases in height from two hundred to seventy- five feet.
Fergus Falls Morainc .- When the Minnesota lobe of the ice-sheet receded from its seventh or Dovre moraine, its next pause or readvance sufficient for the accumulation of a well-marked line of marginal drift depos- its seems to have been along the course of the morainic series traced from Hobart southward by Lake Lida to Fergus Falls, and by Swan and Ten- Mile lakes to the north side of Pelican lake and Lake Christina. this eighth or Fergus Falls moraine having been formed on the west border of the ice which still 'covered northern Minnesota. The southern border of the ice at this time apparently extended from Lake Christina along the course of the I.eaf hills to their highest point, and thence southeastward through Spruce Hills, in Douglas county, and through southern and eastern Todd county.
Leaf Hills Moraine .--- Later recession of the west margin of the ice and of its portion in southeastern Otter Tail county and in Todd county, is indi- cated by the morainic belt that reaches from Maine township south by Tur- tle lake and through Tordenskjold to the Leaf hills, and farther east by the morainic hills in northern Todd county; but when these were accumulated the ice-front probably still remained with no considerable or permanent recession along the line of the Leaf hills in Eagle Lake, Leaf Mountain, Effington and the south part of Folden. The portion of the Leaf hills farther north to East Leaf lake appears to have been formed along the east border of an ice-lobe whose west side was at Turtle lake, these morainic series on the east and west being accumulated where the ice had withdrawn considerably from its eighth or Fergus Falls moraine.
The latter or ninth morainic series may. therefore, be well designated as the Leaf Hills moraine, this and the preceding being merged together along the highest part of the Leaf hills. The moraine continuing north from East Leaf lake to Pine lake was probably formed on the west side of the ice during a halt in its subsequent retreat, being thus the latest mar- ginal deposits of drift in this county. Between the times of the Fergus Falls and Leaf Hills moraines, the west boundary of the ice in Becker and Otter Tail counties seems to have receded ten to fifteen miles, and in Todd county the glacial recession was from the most southern to the most north- ern tier of townships, some thirty-five miles.
Modified Drift .- By the next and much greater glacial retreat. to the tenth or Itasca moraine, Otter Tail, Becker and Wadena counties were uncovered from the ice, and very extensive deposits of modified drift, gath- ered from the ice-sheet by the floods produced in its melting, were spread upon these counties. Excepting the modified drift west of the Pelican river, and in Parkers Prairie, Elmo and Woodside, in the southeast corner of
Digitized by Google
74
OTTER TAIL COUNTY, MINNESOTA.
Otter Tail county, all the large areas of gravel and sand in this county were formed during this glacial melting and recession from the Leaf hills to the Itasca moraine. The most remarkable of these deposits is the plain of Nidaros, about six miles long from south to north and three to four miles wide, elevated one hundred to one hundred and twenty-five feet above Clitherall lake, which bounds this plain on its northwest side. The south part of this tract, extending into Leaf Mountain township, is in broad undu- lations, ten to thirty feet high, having a prevailing trend from northeast to southwest. Some portions of the modified drift in Scambler and Pelican have a hilly contour. rising in smooth, gracefully curved slopes, forty to sixty or seventy-five feet above the depressions and lakes. Undulations in long slopes, with elevations fifteen to twenty-five or thirty-five feet above the enclosed hollows and lakes, are common upon most of the areas of modi- fied drift in this county. Its most flat tracts are in Perham, Rush Lake. Otter Tail, Nidaros, Woodside. Elmo and Parkers Prairie.
Osars .- Wall lake. five miles east of Fergus Falls. receives its name from an osar of coarse gravel on its west side, through which the lake has cut its outlet. This osar is a ridge of a third of a mile long, thirty to thirty- five feet high in its northern half and fifteen to twenty feet high in its southern half. At its south end, where it abuts on the higher area of rolling till, the gravel contains boulders up to two and even three or four feet in diameter, but they are absent or very rare in its other portions. The sides of this gravel deposit have the very steep slopes characteristic of osars, but it has for the most part a level, plateau-like top. several rods wide, unlike typical osars. There is a very interesting osar twenty to one hundred feet high, steep-sided and narrow-topped, extending some five miles east-north- easterly from section 12. Pine Lake. through the northwest part of Home- stead and into the south edge of Butler, to the head of Bluff creek. It is composed of sand and coarse gravel, constituting a single, definite ridge. with no others noticeably parallel with it or branching from it. On each side along most of its course are swamps, and in a few places the ridge sinks below the swamp-level.
Kames .- The Leaf Hills moraine, in the vicinity of East Leaf lake, consists of kame-like deposits of gravel and sand, with enclosed boulders, as before stated. its elevations being forty to sixty feet above the intervening hollows and about one hundred feet above the lake. The hills five miles northwest from Perham appear to be of the same kind. They are probably in the line of continuation of the Leaf Hills moraine from Turtle lake northward. In section 22. Maine, this moraine has a width of one mile and is composed almost wholly of kame-like hillocks and short ridges of gravel and sand, ten to forty feet high, with no boulders, the largest rock-fragments
Digitized by Google
75
OTTER TAIL COUNTY, MINNESOTA.
seen being one and a half feet in diameter. Frequent hillocks of kame-like gravel and sand occur in the township of Norwegian Grove, interspersed with swells and hills of till.
A boulder worthy of mention lies about forty rods east-northeast from the top of Indian hill, in Oscar township, on land some twenty-five feet below that point. It is an angular block ten feet long, as exposed, a part being under-ground. Most of this rock is light gray granite, in which are enclosed many angular fragments of black hornblende schist ( hornblende and black mica ) of all sizes up to one and a half feet long and one piece even three and a half feet long. making probably a fourth part of the whole mass. No other boulders of this kind have been found in this region, but a similar one has been observed near Correll in Big Stone county.
Ice-formed Ridges .- Low ridges a few feet in height and three to six rods wide, composed of gravel and sand and frequently containing boulders. accumulated by ordinary ice during the recent epoch, have been seen in the following localities: A short distance south of Parkers Prairie, divid- ing a lakelet from the northeast end of lake Adley and used as a road-way ; along a fourth of a mile on the east end of Lake Marian, separating the lake from a swamp, likewise occupied by a road: on the northwest shore of Clitherall lake: along an eighth of a mile between Lakes Lida and Lizzie; for nearly the same distance between the southeast and northwest parts of Spirit lake in Dora township; and in section 35. Candor, extending forty or fifty rods, connecting two islands of Loon lake with the west shore.
ABORIGINAL EARTHWORKS.
The largest group of artificial mounds observed in Otter Tail county is on the south side of the Red river about fifty rods west from the mouth of Otter Tail lake. Here sixteen mounds, all having the usual dome-like form. were counted on a space extending some forty rods from north to south and about a dozen rods in width elevated about thirty-five feet above the lake. One of these is ten feet high, but the others are small. varying from one to four feet in height. The ten-foot mound and another close southeast from it. three feet high, have been partly excavated and were found to contain human bones. being burial mounds. A ravine east of these divides them from a nearly level tract some twenty feet above the lake, on which a third of a mile farther east are four mounds, each three feet high excepting the most northern one, which has only half this size.
At the east end of Otter Tail lake, a sixth of a mile south from the former site of Otter Tail City, three mounds are situated a few rods east of the road. lying in a nearly north and south line, the middle one being eight feet high and the others about two feet high. A half mile north from the site of Otter Tail City two mounds, each two or three feet high, were
Digitized by Google
76
OTTER TAIL COUNTY, MINNESOTA.
formerly seen fifteen or twenty rods west from the road. In the northeast part of Rush Lake township, in or near the south half of section I, four mounds, two to five feet in height, were plainly seen beside the road several years ago, three being on its west side and one on the east, between the road and Otter Tail river.
In the northwest one-fourth of section 36, Perham township, four mounds from two to three feet high were noted by early settlers. The length of the series was some twenty rods. About a mile north from the last, a mound seven or eight feet high was formerly plainly visible. Several mounds, originally about five feet high, lie on the east side of Prairie lake in Pelican township. On the top of Indian hill in Oscar township is an artificial mound, forty feet long from north to south and twenty-five feet wide. Its height was probably once three feet, but it is now barely discern- ible. Two skeletons were disclosed several years ago by a small excavation in this mound.
In the north part of Carlisle township two hills that overlook Fish lake, above which they rise forty to fifty feet, have each an artificial mound which were probably three feet high. One of these is in the northwest quarter of the southwest quarter of section 3, and the other in the northwest quarter of the northeast quarter of section 5, Carlisle. On the upper or Herman beach of Lake Agassiz, about a half mile south of the Red river and near the center of section 33, township 132, range 14 (Carlisle township), is a mound six feet high; and within forty rods farther south are several others which were once probably one to three feet high.
Several years ago J. A. Colehour and Rev. Myron Cooley, of Battle Lake, made a study of the mounds of the county in order to ascertain their distribution and nature, and the following condensed statement of their investigations follows :
COLEHOUR-COOLEY REPORT ON MOUNDS.
This county is rich in mounds and relics of that pre-historic people known as Mound-builders. In the townships of Everts, Girard, Amor, Per- ham and Star Lake, numberless mounds are found of every shape and size, together with many sites of prehistoric villages. In the woods on the north shore of East Battle lake there is a group of mounds, which have never been examined and are covered with a heavy growth of timber. A few pieces of pottery have been picked up occasionally in the vicinity. At the east end of Battle lake there are scores of mounds scattered around on the bluffs south of where the outlet from East Battle lake entered Battle lake. The general plan seems to have been a great semi-circle, terminating in two large mounds about eighty rods apart. facing the lake. One of these large mounds has been opened and parts of several skeletons taken out, also a
Digitized by Google
- -
77
OTTER TAIL COUNTY, MINNESOTA.
curious bone chisel, eight inches long, and an agate knife blade, two inches long. One of the smaller mounds yielded up five skeletons and a mass of flint and agate chips.
At the west end of Battle lake, near the outlet, there is another group of mounds which seem to be very ancient, as they have been weathered down more than any of the others, and those which have been examined show nothing but bone-dust, ashes, bits of charcoal, and, in one instance, a fragment of coarse woven matting. One of these mounds is twelve feet high, another is seventy-five feet long by five feet high. There are about a dozen mounds in this group. On a bold bluff overlooking the Red river, a short distance below where it leaves Otter Tail lake, is a group of eighteen mounds; seventeen of these are small, from two and a half feet to four feet high and from twelve to twenty feet in diameter. The eighteenth mound, which stands on the highest part of the bluff, is as large as all the others put together. Several of these mounds have been partially excavated and several skulls and parts of skeletons taken out; also some clay balls the size of medium-sized marbles, some stone implements, agate knife blades and flint and agate chippings.
Dead lake seems to have been a favorite haunt of these people. At two places on the south shore there have been extensive villages, and many speci- mens of pottery, arrow points, spear-heads, stone hammers and other utensils have been found. One of these village sites, where Dead river leaves the lake, seems to have been protected on two sides by the lake, on the third by the river, and on the fourth by a canal cut from the lake to the river, thus practically making an island of the village site. On the north shore of Dead lake, in Perham township. is a most interesting group of mounds. The bluff here is densely wooded and hard maple trees, eighteen inches in diameter, are growing on some of the mounds. The mounds here are very numerous and of great variety. The largest round mound is about ten feet high and sixty feet in diameter. A partial examination of this mound brought to light a few agates, pieces of stone hammers, a quantity of char- coal and fragments of human bones. Directly north of this round mound is found a group. The longest mound in this group is two hundred and forty feet long by twelve feet wide and four to five feet in height. The long mounds on the north and south are of the same width and height, but only sixty and forty-two feet long, respectively. The round mounds are exactly alike, about fifteen feet in diameter and five feet high. None of these mounds have been thoroughly examined. Of the structure of these mounds all that have been excavated are similar. At a level with the sur- rounding surface a layer of coarse gravel is found, then a layer of sand, then more gravel, and over this a layer of black surface soil varying in thick-
Digitized by Google
78
OTTER TAIL COUNTY, MINNESOTA.
ness from two to ten feet. If the mounds have been used for burial, the skeletons are in nearly every case found on the layer of sand.
It is safe to say that Otter Tail county is as rich in prehistoric remains as any county in the state. In all cases the sand and gravel have been brought from the lake beach, and fragments of shells are frequently found in these layers.
CAPT. JOHN POPE'S TRIP THROUGH OTTER TAIL COUNTY IN 1849.
In 1849 the secretary of war directed Major Samuel Woods, of the Sixth United States Infantry, then stationed at I't. Snelling, to make an expedition to Pembina to investigate and report upon conditions in that sec- tion of the county. He was directed especially to investigate and report upon the charges made by American traders that British traders and agents had been and were trespassing upon the trading districts and buffalo grounds of the United States in that region.
Accompanying him was an escort of the Fortieth United States Dra- goons. Capt. John Pope, of the United States Topographical Engineers, was detailed to accompany the expedition for the purpose of making a map of the country and especially of the route traveled. The expedition started from Ft. Snelling in September, 1849, and made its first stop at Sauk Rapids; thence the party traveled westwardly to the junction of the Sioux Wood and Red rivers; thence up the west bank of the Red river, through what is now North Dakota, to Pembina. The return trip was made by way of the Red river, East Grand Forks and Sauk Rapids.
Captain Pope came up the Red river to the mouth of the Otter Tail river; thence up the latter river to Otter Tail lake; thence through the lake and other lakes and portages to Leaf river; thence down Leaf river to the Crow Wing; thence down the Crow Wing to the Mississippi. He made a full and most instructive report of the country he traversed and of his trip generally.
1
What he has to say of Otter Tail lake, as he saw it in the fall of 1849, ought to be of interest to every citizen of Otter Tail county. The follow- ing extract from his report to the secretary of war in 1850, as printed in the executive reports of the thirty-first congress (Sen. Doc., No. 42, 31st Con., Ist Ses. ) contains such parts of his report as applies to Otter Tail county.
CAPTAIN POPE IN OTTER TAIL COUNTY.
"On the 12th of September. 1849, we left the mouth of the Sioux Wood river (at Breckinridge) with the expectation of reaching within four days the Otter Tail lake. Above the mouth of the Sioux Wood, the Red river takes the name of the Otter Tail Lake river, and, with a constant depth of water of four feet, becomes much more tortuous in its course. As we
Digitized by Google
79
OTTER TAIL COUNTY, MINNESOTA.
approached the Leaf mountains, at the point where the river debouches from it into the level plains to the north, the current becomes sensibly more rapid and the water clearer, until, about fifteen miles east of the crossing of the land route we found it necessary to use the cordelle. The banks also became much higher, with a tract of level, swampy land three-fourths of a mile in width between them, the river running from side to side through the swamp in the most serpentine manner. Small islands began to be numerous, and the steep banks were perforated in a thousand places with clear, cold springs. The woods along the banks became also much larger and more dense, oaks being the common tree. At about thirty miles above the mouth of the Sioux Wood river the rapids commence and are almost continuous to Otter Tail lake.
"There are two and a half and three feet of water over the rapids and in the intervening pools of still water, about three and a half feet. The bed of the river is filled with loose boulders of all sizes and the deep water assumes an extremely crooked channel among them. `Every hour of our advance toward the east increased the amount of heavy timber on the banks, and we began, also, to perceive at various distances on each side large groves of heavy timber upon the borders of numerous lakes, which I have described as forming so peculiar a feature of the country between the Mississippi and St. Peter. We had thus again entered the second general division of coun- try I have described in a previous part of this report, and as we progressed toward the east the lakes became much more numerous and the timber much heavier and more abundant.
"From Otter Tail lake to its entrance in Leaf mountains the river passes through a number of beautiful lakes, surrounded by rolling country, heavily timbered, with a depth of water from nine to twenty feet, and filled with the most luxuriant growth of wild rice. The largest and most beautiful of these is Lake Gardner, which is within eight miles of Otter Tail lake. On the 14th of September we reached the mouth of the Little Pelican river, which, at its confluence with Otter Tail river, is about twenty yards wide and about three feet deep.
"On the morning of the 17th we arrived at Otter Tail lake and encamped near its northeastern extremity, at the remains of several small trading houses. Upon entering this lake from the southwest the woods to the north- east, although very large, are not visible, and it is by far the largest sheet of water we have seen. It is about ten miles in length from southwest to northeast, and from four to five miles in width. It is filled with fish, with clear, pure water, with a depth of twenty feet, and no islands. The fish are white and said to be the same known as the white fish of the Great Lakes, so celebrated for their flavor.
Digitized by Google
80
OTTER TAIL COUNTY, MINNESOTA.
"To the west, northwest and northeast, the whole country is heavily timbered with oak, elm, ash, maple, birch, bass, etc. Of these the sugar- maple is probably the most valuable. In the vicinity of Otter Tail lake large quantities of maple sugar are manufactured by the Indians. The wild rice, which exists in these lakes in the most lavish profusion, constitutes a most necessary article of food with the Indians, and is gathered in large quanti- ties in the months of September and October. To the east the banks of the lake are fringed with heavy oak and elm timber to the width of one mile. The whole region of country for fifty miles in all directions around this lake is among the most beautiful and fertile in the world.
"The fine scenery of lake and open groves of oak timber, of winding stream connecting them, and beautiful rolling country on all sides, renders this portion of Minnesota the 'garden spot of the Northwest.' It is impos- sible in a report of this character to describe the feelings of admiration and astonishment when we first beheld this charming country in the vicinity of the lake. And were I to give expression to my own feelings and opinions in reference to it, I fear they would be considered the ravings of a visionary or an enthusiast. *
"The Indians who reside along the bank informed me that the whole country toward the Crow Wing river and the heads of the North Red river and Mississippi contained very little prairie, but was covered with dense groves of oak and elm, interspersed with spruce forests of pine.
"I employed the Indians during the 17th and 18th days of September in making rude maps of all the country in the vicinity of the lake. From their accounts there can be but little doubt that the whole region of country to the north and east of Otter Tail lake, comprising the valleys of the North Red river, Crow Wing and Mississippi rivers, is among the most beautiful and fertile portions of the northwest. I am not aware that it has ever been traversed by any white person, but it appears most desirable to me that it should be carefully examined at as early a date as practicable.
"On the 19th we made a portage of one mile towards the east to a small round lake about one mile in diameter. This lake is completely isolated, having no apparent outlet or inlet, and from the dip of the land and the evi- dent marks of an artificial obstruction, said to be a beaver dam, I am quite satisfied that the lake at one time discharged its waters into Otter Tail lake. The evidences of this kind of obstructions are numerous through this region of the country, and whatever may be the theory as to the original extent of these waters, it is quite certain that the largest of the lakes has been divided into several smaller ones by the occurrence of these artificial dams.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.