USA > Minnesota > Wright County > History of Wright County, Minnesota > Part 4
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In the distance from Clearwater to Dayton, the Mississippi
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HISTORY OF WRIGHT COUNTY
descends forty-nine feet. Its flood-plain of modified drift, depos- ited during the melting of the ice-sheet, had a somewhat more rapid slope, declining in its height southeastward to forty-five feet above the present river at Dayton, and to twenty-five or thirty feet at the head of the falls of St. Anthony. On the north- east side of the Mississippi river, adjoining Wright county, the valley drift covers a wide traet, reaching beyond the Elk river, which for an extent of about thirty miles lies only two to five miles distant from the Mississippi, flowing nearly parallel with it.
Crow river and its north and south branches in this county have effected comparatively little erosion. At Dayton and in many other places along this river, it has undermined bluff's of till which extend from a few rods to a fourth or a half mile. A little more than a mile east of St. Michael's, in Frankfort, this erosion shows a fresh seetion of till, seventy-five to one hundred feet high, its upper twenty-five feet being yellowish and all below dark bluish. Such bluffs, however, are only of short extent, and in general this river has no definite line of continuous bhiff's inclosing it on either side. Instead, the stream is bordered by undulating lowland, usually till, of varying width up to one mile, and rising in this distance to a height from thirty to fifty feet above the river. Some portions of this valley have doubtless been filled with fluvial deposits at the close of the glacial period or since that time, bridging glacial hollows, which must other- wise produee lakes in the river's course, but with these exceptions no deposits of modified drift are found; so that this valley is very unlike that of the Mississippi, which was filled deeply with stratified gravel and sand.
Water Powers. In 1881, the following water powers had been used in Wright county: Dayton flouring mill, on the Crow river at Dayton ; owned by Weizel & Hurlbut ; five runs of stone ; head, about seven feet. At Hanover: on the Crow river, about nine miles southwest from Dayton ; head, about seven feet. At Rock- fort : on the Crow river; a woolen mill; head, eight feet. In Middleville : two powers, on the north branch of the Crow river. In Cokato : a grist-mill, at the mouth of Cokato lake, on its outlet. On the west part of section 22, French Lake: a sawmill on the north branch of the Crow river; head, eight feet. Monticello mills on Otter creek, three-quarters of a mile northwest from Monticello; owned by Janney & Sons: three runs of stone for flour, and one for feed; head, sixteen feet. On the Clearwater river, at Clearwater, are three powers, as follows: Thomas Tol- lington's sawmill and furniture manufactory, ten or fifteen rods above the mouth of the river; head, five feet : can only be used when the Mississippi is at its low-water stage. Clearwater flour- ing mills ; a short distance above the last : owned by C. F. Davis & Co .; head, fifteen feet. Upper dam of C. F. Davis & Co .; one
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HISTORY OF WRIGHT COUNTY
mile above the mouth of the Clearwater river; known as the Fremont water-power; formerly, but not now, used ; head, twelve feet. At Fair Ilaven : on the Clearwater river; head, about ten feet.
UNDERGROUND WATERS
Surface Features. Wright county may be divided into three physiographic provinces-(1) the irregular morainie tract oeeupy- ing most of the county, (2) the gently undulating area lying in the sonth-eentral part, and (3) the level plain bordering Clear- water and Mississippi rivers along the northern margin of the county. The Mississippi has eut a narrow gorge into this plain, and its tributaries have accomplished a small amount of erosion, but the surface of the county is still imperfectly drained and remains covered with mimerous lakes and swamps.
Surface Deposits. There are two distinct types of bowlder clay, the blue and the red. The red clay occurs chiefly in the northeastern part of the country, but has been found as far south- west as Waverly. Where both are present the blue lies above the red. The red is apparently derived from the rocks in the Lake Superior region, and the blue comes for the most part from the Cretaceous formations to the west. These two varieties of drift have been discussed by the state geologists, N. H. Winchell and Warren Upham. In addition to the sand and gravel that is inter- bedded with the bowlder elay, extensive deposits lie at the sur- face, forming the level plain referred to above.
The glacial drift ranges in thickness from a scant layer to per- haps about 400 feet. It reaches its greatest development in the central and southwestern parts and is somewhat thinner in the northern and northeastern, but there are considerable variations within short distances. The following specific data will give some conception of the thickness in the different localities: (1) In the vicinity of Cokato depths of 150 to 300 feet have been reached without passing ont of the drift: (2) in the village of Howard Lake one well is reported to have struek rock at a depth of 135 feet and several other in the same distriets at depths of 170 to 218 feet, but on the other hand many wells in this region end in drift at depths of more than 200 feet: (3) at Waverly "rock" was encountered in one well at 190 feet below the surface, but in the mill well in the same village the drift deposit may be deeper : (4) near Delano (in the NE. 14 see. 24, T. 118 N, R. 35 W.) sand- stone was found at a depth of 211 feet, but there are deeper wells in the locality which do not reach this formation ; (5) in the Buf- falo railway well 385 feet may be drift : (6) in the vicinity of the Mississippi river and Crow river, near its month, there are great and abrupt variations in the thickness of the surface deposits, the maximum probably being at least 300 feet.
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HISTORY OF WRIGHT COUNTY
Yield of Water. The numerous thick beds of sand and gravel provide ample and permanent supplies, and where they lie at the surface, as they do throughout a considerable section of this coun- try, they commonly yield large quantities of water even to very shallow wells.
Head of the Water. Flowing wells are found in a number of localities and could without doubt be secured in other restricted tracts, such as stream valleys and depressions partly filled by lakes. The chances of obtaining flows are always best in low dis- triets that lie close to high morainie belts.
In the following areas the water from the drift will rise above the surface: (1) Along the eastern and southern margins of Buf- falo lake and on the low ground southwest of this lake, the supply coming from sand and gravel beds at various depths. In the vil- lage of Buffalo the water is lifted fully thirty feet above the level of the lake: (2) Along both branches of Crow river and some of their affluents. A number of seattered flowing wells with slight head have been obtained here, and probably many more could be had on the lowest ground bordering these streams. (3) On the west side of Cokato lake, north of the village. This is a small area, and the wells thus far drilled have not been more than 100 feet deep. Flows are also obtained from the surface deposits in the valley of the Mississippi.
Quality of the Water. The mineral constituents of the water from the drift consist chiefly of sodium, magnesium, and biear- bonates, only small amounts of sodium, potassium, sulphates, and chlorides being present, This water, therefore, has a considerable temporary hardness (which can in a large measure be removed by heating) but will not deposit mueh hard seale in boilers.
The water in this county is similar to that from the deeper por- tions of the drift farther west, but is less highly mineralized than the shallow drift water in that region. Thus far there is both a horizontal and a vertical variation in the composition of the water, the mineralization (especially the content of caleium, magnesium and sulphates) decreasing from west to east and from the sur- face downward.
Cretaceous Rocks. About fifteen miles beyond the northwest- ern edge of Wright county, in southern Stearns county, there is an exposure of shales ete. in which Cretaceous fossils have been identified, but it is not known that deposits of this age exist at any point within the county. Two outerops of sandstone and con- glomerate are described in the report of the state survey, one on Crow river east of St. Michael and the other on North Branch north of Howard Lake (see. 8, township 119, range 27). The sug- gestion made by the state geologist that these may he Cretaceous in age. but there is no proof that they are so. It has already been mentioned that a number of wells in the vicinity of Howard Lake
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HISTORY OF WRIGHT COUNTY
and Waverly enter "rock." This rock, which appears from the drillers' description to be light-colored water-bearing sandstone, may be the same formation as that which forms the outerops, but this, too, is uncertain. The blue shales encountered in drilling along the Mississippi are certainly not Cretaceous.
Paleozoic and Older Formations. Most of Wright county is underlain by stratified formations which are Paleozoie and per- haps in part pre-Paleozoie in age. Their combined thickness is probably great in the southeast, but much less in the northwest. Because of the dip of these strata and their apparent tendency to change in character and thickness from one locality to another, great caution is necessary in the interpretations of well sections.
In the vicinity of Elk river, a village situated on the opposite bank of the Mississippi, numerous deep wells have been drilled, and these show the stratigraphic succession below the surface deposits to consist of blue shale, white water-bearing sandstone, and red shale and sandstone nearly destitute of water. Both shale and sandstone are so hard that they do not require casing ; in this respect they differ from most of the Cretaceous strata of southern Minnesota. The total thickness of the red clastic series is not known.
The same succession of blue shale, white sandstone, and red roek has been found in Monticello and at a number of points in the eastern extremity of this county. At Anoka drilling has gone to a depth of 420 feet without reaching the red elastic series ; this fact indicates the general thickening of the overlying Paleozoic strata toward the southeast. Near Dayton, which is situated at the confluence of Mississippi and Crow rivers, sandstone was encountered in several wells at a depth of about 50 feet below the river level, and on the opposite side of the Mississippi limestone, which probably lies higher in the series, is reported 100 feet below the upland level.
At Buffalo the following section is reported for the railway well. The upper 386 feet is probably glacial drift. (The depth below the surface is given in parentheses.) Clay, 35 feet (35 feet) ; sand, 2 feet (37 feet) ; blue bowlder clay, 245 feet (282 feet) : sand, 37 feet (319 feet) ; qnieksand, 6 feet (325 feet) ; sand and gravel, 31 feet (356 feet) ; sand and large stones, 30 feet (386 feet ) : clean sand, 9 feet (395 feet) ; sandstone, 158 feet (553 feet). These figures were taken by Joseph Greeninger, a well driller of Anoka.
Light-colored water-bearing rock, which was encountered in the southern part of the county, has already been alluded to as a possible Cretaceous formation.
Among such rock wells drilled in southern Wright county may be mentioned these owned and located as follows: J. Freden. N. E. 14, sec. 24, township 118, range 25, 211 feet to rock, rock
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HISTORY OF WRIGHT COUNTY
penetrated nine feet. Doctor O'Hair, Waverly, 190 feet to roek, roek penetrated seven feet ; Mart. Fleener, Howard Lake, 135 feet to roek, roek penetrated five feet; J. McKee, N. E. 14, see. 34, township 119, range 27, 218 feet to rock, rock penetrated seven feet ; F. Birkholz, N. W. 1/4, see. 27, township 118, range 27, 169 feet to rock, rock penetrated three feet ; C. Dangers, S. W. 1/4, see. 15, township 118, range 27, 170 feet to rock, rock penetrated three feet.
A few miles north of Wright county the granite rocks come to the surface and form numerous outerops in Sherburne and Stearns counties; in Meeker county they have been encountered in several wells. These facts indicate that in the northwestern part of Wright county the granite is not far below the surface, but the depth probably inereases rapidly toward the southeast.
Yield of Water .- The data given above show that water- bearing sandstone (perhaps belonging to more than one forma- tion) oeeurs throughout the southeastern part of the county and may extend to the northwestern margin. It has been encountered at depths ranging from 80 to 400 feet and in all wells yielded generously. Neither the red elastie series, which lies beneath the white sandstone in the eastern part of the county, nor the granite, which may be reached in deep drilling in the northern part, is of any value as a source of water.
Head of the Water .- The sandstone will produce flows in the valley and on the lower terraces of the Mississippi but not on the uplands. In the village of Elk River the water is lifted about 60 feet above the river level, or 904 feet above the sea, and at Monticello it rises about. 918 feet above sea level, a considerable height above the river.
Quality of the Water .- The water from the Paleozoie sand- stone is not highly mineralized. Its chief constituents are eal- cium, magnesium and bicarbonates; in this respect it is similar to the water from the glacial drift.
Buffalo .- The village of Buffalo is picturesquely situated on the northeastern shore of Buffalo Lake. The glacial drift is here deep and contains several sand and gravel layers, from which the water rises above the level of the lake. The seetion given above shows that a thick stratum of water-bearing sandstone lies beneath the drift. The village has no system of public water- works.
Delano .- The glacial drift is here probably more than 200 feet deep. Below the drift there is believed to be water-bearing sandstone, but it has not been reached by drilling within the village. In the valley deposits of sand and gravel lie at the sur- face. The publie supply is obtained from fourteen three-inch wells, whose stratigraphie section is as follows, the depth below the surface being given in parentheses: Sandy loam, 6 feet
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HISTORY OF WRIGHT COUNTY
(6 feet) ; blue elay, 13 feet (19 feet) ; sand (water first struck), 17 feet (36 feet) ; blue elay (containing sand and a little water), 4 feet (40 feet) ; coarse sand (impregnated with water), pene- trated 10 feet (50 feet).
The water rises virtually to the surface and is drawn from all the wells by suction. Pumping at the rate of 250 gallons a minute for several hours continuously has thus far produced no noticeable effeet. The water is only moderately hard, and will not deposit much hard scale in boilers. It is used at the pumping station, mill, and printing house, and altogether about 30,000 gallons daily is consumed. The railroad company takes water from the river. Many of the private wells are drilled and range between 50 and 150 feet in depth.
Monticello. The village of Monticello is situated on the south bank of the Mississippi river. The valley is narrow and nearly all the houses are built upon an elevated terrace. Alluvial depos- its and glaeial drift oceur near the surface, beneath which lie the Paleozoie strata. The thick beds of sand and gravel, as well as the Paleozoie sandstone, yield large quantities of water. The well which furnishes the publie supply is 8 inches in diameter and 237 feet deep. The water rises to a level 5 feet below the top of the well, which is about 30 feet above the river, or approxi- mately 918 feet above the sea, and pumping at the rate of 275 gallons a minute for five hours continuously is reported to lower this level only 2 feet. The water is only moderately hard and will not form much hard scale in boilers. About 25,000 gallons is consumed daily, but most of the people still use water from pri- vate wells.
Howard Lake .- The glacial drift has a considerable thickness and contains water-bearing deposits of sand and gravel. Beneath the drift there is a light-colored water-bearing sandstone which is reported to have been penetrated at 135 feet below the surface, though generally occurring at a greater depth. The public supply is pumped from the lake without filtering, through an intake which is about 800 feet from the shore. This water has a relatively low total hardness, and is used by more than one-half of the people, approximately 25,000 gallons being consumed daily. The glacial drift and underlying roek will yield ample supplies of water that is only moderately hard.
Cokato .- Drilling to a depth of 185 feet at Cokato has revealed nothing but glacial drift, as is shown by the following section of a well at the canning factory: Yellow boulder clay and blue boulder elay, 78 feet ; sand, thin (a little water) ; blue boulder elay, 50 feet ; sand (impregnated with water), 2 feet ; blue boulder elay, penetrated 55 feet.
It is altogether probable that there are other water-bearing beds at greater depths. The publie waterworks are supplied from
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JHISTORY OF WRIGHT COUNTY
a drilled well three inches in diameter and 125 feet deep, which ends with a sereen in a bed of sand reported to be at least six feet thick. The water rises to a level about 45 feet below the surface or 1,020 Feet above sea level. It is moderately hard but has not much permanent hardness. Most of the people use water from private drilled wells, none of which is much more than 100 feet deep. The well at the canning factory, which is supplied from the sand layer 128 feet below the surface, has been tested at fifteen gallons a minute. The head and quality of the water are similar to those of the village well.
Waverly. The following seetion for the well at Adam Berkner's flouring mill, which is the deepest well drilled in the locality about Waverly. Yellow and blue clay, 117 feet ; "hardpan, " 8 feet ; yellow sand (impregnated with water), 85 Feet; red clay, 215 feet ; coarse yellow sand impregnated with water, entered 19 feet. The public waterworks are supplied from the lake, but all the people depend upon private wells, most of which are of the two-inch drilled type and have an average depth of about 125 feet.
Farm Water Supplies. The most common type of farm wells found in this region are the 2-inch or 21/2-inch drilled wells. These range from about 40 to 300 feet in depth, their average depth being slightly more than 100 feet in the southern part of the eounty and somewhat less in the northern. Nearly all stop in the surface deposits and are finished with screens. In the south the sereens are liable to become clogged after several years of serv- ice, but further north they seldom do. As a rule the water is harder in the southern than in the northern part and there appears to be a relation between the hardness of the water and the ten- deney of the screens to become inerusted.
Other types of farm wells are the driven, bored, or dub and drilled wells of larger diameter. In the past the bored and dug wells were the prevailing kind, but they are now being gradually replaced by the drilled types. Where 6-inch wells are not to be pumped faster than the rate at which a windmill operates, they can be successfully finished with open ends, thus obviating all difficulties with sereens.
Summary and Analysis. The surface deposits contain large supplies of water that is only moderately hard, and in low areas they may give rise to flows with slight pressure. The southeastern part of the county, and perhaps the entire county, is underlain by water-bearing sandstone, which has been encountered at depths ranging from 80 to 400 feet, and which will usually yield large quantities of water of about the same hardness as that from the surface deposits. Near the Mississippi the water from this sand- stone is under sufficient pressure to rise to a level about 900 feet
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HISTORY OF WRIGHT COUNTY
above the sea, and in the valley it will therefore be lifted above the surface.
The red elastic series and the granitic rocks, which occur at greater depths, are of no value as sources of water, and should not be penetrated in drilling.
CHAPTER I.
PRE-HISTORIC INHABITANTS.
Nature's Paradise The Coming of Man-The Eskimo-The Mound Builders-Purpose of the Mounds-Life and Habits of the Mound Builders-Location of the Mounds-Excavations and Discoveries-Relics.
Scientists declare that in the Glacial period this region was several times covered with a great ice sheet at recurrent inter- vals. When for the last time the glacier receded it left behind what in a few years became a wonderfully diversified and beauti- ful region. Verdure took the place of glaring ice, and a forest, known as the "Big Woods," nearly covered Wright county, leaving here and there, however, stretches of prairie. Thus lay Wright county, beautiful and virgin; expanses of gently rolling prairies, in summer covered with grass and spangled with flowers; park-like oak openings, verdant swells of land studded with a sparse growth of oaks; dense forests of maple, oak, elm, linden and birch, poplar thickets and tamarack swamps, jungles of under- brush of hazel and dwarf beech, dwarf hickory, ironwood, alder, kinnikinie, as well as young trees of larger species, forming in some places almost as impenetrable a mass as the famous jungles of the Amazon, and finally, even in Wright, here and there a little guard of conifers, mainly white pine, outposts of magnificent forests of evergreens to the northeast. And this varied landscape was flecked and ribboned and jeweled by many a stream of water and by matchless blue and silver lakes. These waters, woods and prairies fairly quivered with animal life. The most notable carly animal was the mammoth. From remains found, he seems to have been fairly plentiful in Minnesota. Later the leader in animal life was the American bison, generally known as the buffalo. In Wright county the most plentiful among the larger animals were the bears and the antlered animals, such as the deer and the elk.
A country so bountiful and inviting to man, whether primitive or civilized, would remain uninhabited only while undiscovered. At some period of the earth's history, mankind in some form took up its abode in what is now Wright county. How many ages distant that period was no one can tell. It is evident that man followed very closely the receding of the last glacier, if indeed
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HISTORY OF WRIGHT COUNTY
he had not existed here previous to that time. A diseussion of the possibilities of the existence of man in Minnesota during Gla- cial, Inter-Glacial and Pre-Glacial ages is beyond the scope of this work. It has been made a special subjeet of study by several Minnesota savants, and many notable articles have been written concerning evidences that have been discovered.
Many scholars are of the opinion that in all probability the first inhabitants of the northern part of the United States were, or were closely related to, the Eskimo. While the data is very meagre, they all point that way. The Eskimos seem to have remained on the Atlantic seaboard as late as the arrival of the Scandinavian discoverers of the eleventh century, for their description of the aborigines whom they call "skrälingar" (a term of contempt about equivalent to "runts") is much more consonant with the assumption that these were Eskimos than Indians.
So possibly it is permissible to picture the first human inhab- itants of Wright county as a small yellowish-brown skin-clad raee, slipping around nimbly and quietly in the woods and dells, sub- sisting mainly on fish, but also partly on the chase. Their homes were doubtless of the simplest descriptions, and their culture not above absolute savagery.
The Eskimos seem to have followed more or less closely the edge of the last receding glaeier. Whether they were forced out by a stronger race or whether they found the bleak shores of the Arctic seas more suited to their physical make-up than the fertile regions further south is only a matter of conjecture.
Scholars are of the opinion that the next inhabitants of Min- nesota were tribes of the Sionan stock, in other words the ances- tors of the present Sioux (Dakota) Indians. These peoples of the Sionan stock appear to have built the mounds of southeastern Minnesota. Possibly they lived in Wright county. These Siouan people were possibly driven out by the peoples of the Algonquin stock, whereupon they eventually took up their homes in the neighborhood of the upper valley of the Ohio river and possibly elsewhere. How many centuries they lived there it is impossible even to estimate. In the meantime the Algonquin peoples prob- ably occupied the Minnesota region, and possibly Wright county. They did not make mounds. Some five hundred years ago the Siouan Mound Builders were driven out from their homes in the upper Ohio region where they had erected the mounds that are now the wonder of the world, and a part of them found their way to the homes of their ancestors in the upper Mississippi region. The mounds built here by these peoples were inferior to the ones built by their ancestors. In coming up the valley it is possible that these Mound Builders drove from the Minnesota regions the intruding Algonquins.
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