USA > Minnesota > Redwood County > The history of Redwood County, Minnesota, Volume I > Part 49
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Gravel. There are pockets of gravel in various parts of the county. One of the largest gravel pits is situated half way be- tween Redwood Falls and North Redwood on the west side of the road. The gravel of the county is used in making roads, and has also been used in various places in the county for making cement tile and cement blocks.
Wells. The wells of Redwood county are of three varieties : (1) The so-called surface-wells, which extend only into the drift; (2) the wells which extend into the Cretaceous strata underly- ing the drift; (3) the wells which extend into the archean rocks, that is into the basal rocks of gneiss and granite.
Surface Wells. The surface deposits of Redwood county con- sist of glacial drift and revent alluvium. The drift occurs every- where except in small areas in the Minnesota valley, in the val- ley of the Redwood river below the falls, and in Granite Rock township, where older rock formations are exposed. Over most of the eastern, central and southwestern parts of the county, it is between 100 and 200 feet thick, and in places it reaches a still greater thickness. In the northwestern part it is generally thin- ner, being less than fifty feet thick throughout a large portion of the following townships: Vail (township 111, range 37), Granite Rock (111-38), Westline (111-39), Sheridan (112-37), Vesta (112-38), and Underwood (112-39). Where the drift has considerable thickness it generally includes deposits of sand and
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gravel that will produce water supplies adequate for all ordinary purposes, but where it is less than 100 feet it may not contain a reliable water-bearing bed. In the northwestern part of the county, especially in the townships just mentioned, the drift is not an entirely satisfactory source of supply, although on a large portion of these townships it is the only available source. The water from the glacial drift is generally under considerable pres- sure, but it is not known to rise above the surface. The flowing wells in the southwest are supposed to be supplied from the Cre- taceous rocks, but no record could be obtained of most of them, and it is possible that some end in the drift. Many springs issue from the sides of the Minnesota valley, and these have lowered the head of the water beneath the adjacent uplands. The anal- yses of the water from the surface wells reveal a wide range in the mineral composition of the water.
Cretaceous Wells. Throughout most of this county, Cretace- ous strata lie beneath the drift. In the southwest they have a thickness of several hundred feet, but they thin out toward the east and north. They occur everywhere in the southern tier of townships and almost everywhere in the tier next north. They are also found adjacent to Lyon county nearly or quite to the north boundary but are absent in the vicinity of Vesta and Sea- forth and in much of the northwestern part of the county. Small and irregularly distributed areas containing thin deposits of this age are concealed below the drift in the northeastern part, but the accurate mapping of these patches can not be accomplished until many more well sections are available than at present.
The following specifie data bear on the occurrence of the Cretaceous in this county : (1) At Tracy, one mile west of the county line, a series of Cretaceous shales and sandstones about 450 feet thick, has been penetrated. (2) At Walnut Grove there is a considerable thickness of the same series, but no definite section is available. (3) Near Pell Creek, along the road from Revere to Lamberton, Cretaceous clay and sandstone come to the surface, and in the S. E. 1/4, sec. 11, T. 109 N., R. 38 W., shale was struck at a depth of 110 feet. (4) At Lamberton an 80- foot stratum of shale was reached at a little more than 200 feet below the surface. (5) In Sanborn a sandstone and shale series was entered at a depth of 217 feet and was penetrated for fifty- three feet. (6) A few miles east of Sanborn, along Cottonwood river, Cretaceous outerops are found. (It seems probable that the deposits of Cretaceous elay, sandstone, etc., exposed in the outcrops lie above the thicker shale beds encountered in drill- ing and are not generally differentiated from the drift in well sections.) (7) Near Cottonwood river, south of Milroy, a num- ber of deep wells have been sunk and shale and sandstone about 400 feet in thickness have been penetrated by the drill. (8) In
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the village of Milroy shale is encountered at a depth of only thirty-five feet, and it seems to have been penetrated for about 230 feet. (9) In the southwestern corner of Underwood town- ship (T. 112 N., R. 39 W.), a 75-foot stratum of blue shale, under- lain by white sand, was reached forty-five feet below the surface. (10) One mile west of Lucan, on the farm of Patrick Curtin, N. E. 1/4, sec. 20, T. 111 N., R. 38 W., shale was found at a depth of seventy feet. (11) At Clements the same material was struck at 115 feet, and was penetrated only a short distance. (12) In the valley of Redwood river below the falls and in the Minnesota valley between Redwood Falls and Morton, outcrops of thin Cre- taceous strata are found. (13) In the northern part of the county shale has been encountered in drilling. There are two phases of the Cretaceous in this region. One phase, which consists of rap- idly alternating and imperfectly assorted strata of clay, sand, sandstone, etc. indicates by the rude stratification the cross-bed- ding of the sandstone, the red oxidized character of much of the clay, the lignite beds, the fossil leaves, and other features that the conditions of deposition were nonmarine or littoral. The other phase consists for the most part of a thoroughly assorted series of soft shale and sandstone, the shale greatly predominating and having a characteristic gray-blue color. It attains a maxi- mum thickness in this state of at least 500 feet, and was evidently laid down in a large and quiet body of water, where thorough assortment and stratification were possible. It is to be correlated with the Cretaceous in South Dakota and other western states. These two phases are described in the reports on Brown and Lyon counties where they are respectively best developed. Their exact relation to each other has not been determined. The series in the western and southern parts of Redwood county belongs to the Lyon county phase, and the rocks in the northeastern part belong with those in Brown county. Where the Cretaceous is several hundred feet thick it will yield moderately large quan- tities of water, as is illustrated by the 6-inch city well at Tracy, which is pumped at the rate of fifty gallons a minute, and by the 6-inch village well at Walnut Grove, which is pumped at the rate of thirty-five gallons a minute. In general it may be said that in the vicinity of Milroy and thence southward and south- eastward to Walnut Grove and Revere the Cretaceous can be depended on for adequate supplies, but that northeast of Lamber- ton and Lucan it is generally absent or devoid of any good water- bearing stratum, though in a few localities it will furnish some water. The Cretaceous area of flowing wells projects from Lyon county into the southwestern part of this county. The southwestern margin of the area enters the county about four miles north of the southern boundary and thence passes to Wal- nut Grove and approximately to the Cottonwood county line. It
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enters the county between the 1,200-foot and 1,300-foot contours and gradually descends until it nearly coincides with the latter. The northeastern margin enters the county about three miles north of Cottonwood river and for some distance runs roughly parallel to that stream, but eventually crosses it and passes south- ward to Revere, where there are several flowing wells. The north- eastern margin is determined to a great degree by the thinning out of the Cretaceous and the consequent failure of the deep ar- tesian beds. However, throughout the flowing area the head is not great and the natural flow never exceeds a few gallons a minute. Moreover, immediately outside of this area there are wells in which the water rises nearly to the surface. Thus in the Cretaceous wells at Walnut Grove it fails only by a few feet to reach the top, and in the similar wells at Milroy it comes with- in fifteen to twenty feet of the top.
The Sioux quartzite, which attains a relatively great thick- ness farther south, projects into the southern part of Redwood county, in the form of a wedge between the Cretaceous and the granite. At Lamberton it is reported to have a thickness of sev- eral hundred feet. It is probably of no economic value in this county as a source of water.
Archean Wells. The Archean consists of granite and gneiss, which constitute the basal rocks. Throughout the northern and eastern parts of the county it is everywhere relatively near the surface. In the vicinity of Seaforth three outcrops are known, and there are several others in Yellow Medicine county, within a mile or two of the boundary line; it is frequently encountered in drilling in this region. Moreover, in the Minnesota valley, and in the Redwood valley, both above and below the falls it is exposed. In the southern part of the county, however, the gran- itic surface descends and within a short distance is many hun- dreds of feet below the surface. Thus at Tracy, Lyon county, it occurs at a depth of a little more than 600 feet, or not quite 800 feet above sea level, and at Lamberton it was reported about 600 feet below the surface, or only 550 feet above the sea.
Farther south it lies at so great a depth that it is very seldom reached by the drill. At Blue Earth, Faribault county, and at Sioux City, Iowa, it was struck at a level of 135 feet below the sea, and at Lemars, Iowa, at 215 feet above the sea.
The upper part is generally much altered and passes grad- ually into the unchanged granite. This decomposed mantle is best exposed in the gorge of Redwood river below the falls, where it has been described by Prof. N. H. Winchell, but the same kind of material is encountered in many of the wells of the region. Drillers do not always differentiate clearly between the Cretaceous beds and the rotted granite, though it is of great prac- tical importance that the distinction be made. Brilliant colors
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(red, yellow, green, white, etc.), flakes of mica or steatite which give the drillings a silvery appearance not possessed by the Cre- taceous shale ("soapstone"), transparent and angular grains of quartz, which give a gritty character never found in the shale, and hard quartzose ("glassy") layers alternating with soft ma- terial, all indicate that the granite residuum has been reached.
Material from an outerop near Morton, in Renville county, is described as follows by N. H. Winchell: "A substance was met here for the first time which was afterward seen at a number of places. Its origin seems to be dependent upon the granite. Its association is so close that it seems to be the result of a change in the granite itself. It lies first under the drift, or under the Cretaceous rocks, where they overlie the granite, and passes by slow changes into the granite. It has some of the characters of steatite and some of those of kaolin. In some places it seems to be a true kaolin. It is known by the people as "Cas- tile soap." It cuts like soap, has a blue color when fresh or kept wet, but a faded and yellowish ash color when weathered, and when long and perfectly weathered is white and glistening. The boys cut it into the shapes of pipes and various toys. It ap- pears like the pipestone, though less heavy and less hard, and has a very different color. It is said to harden by heating. This substance, which may, at least provisionally, be denominated a kaolin, seems to be the result of the action of water on the under- lying granite. Since it prevails in the Cretaceous areas, and is always present, so far as known, whenever the Cretaceous de- posits have preserved it from disruption by the glacier period, it may be attributed to the action of the Cretaceous ocean. In some places it is gritty, and in others it may be completely pul- verized in the fingers. A great abundance of this material ex- ists in the banks of the Birch Coolie, within a short distance of its mouth."
Since the above statements were made, this clay, which is commonly whiter and less ferruginous than the sample de- scribed, has been found in scores of deep wells, and thus much additional evidence has been obtained as to its distribution and character. All this new evidence, however, corroborates Winchell's statements that it overlies the granite, into which it passes by slow changes, and that it prevails in the Cretaceous areas and is generally present wherever the Cretaceous deposits have preserved it. A conception of its wide distribution can be gained by referring to the reports of the counties in which the Archean lies beneath the Cretaceous. In this county it is ex- posed in the valleys of Minnesota and Redwood rivers and has frequently been reached in drilling, especially in the vicinity of Vesta and Seaforth, where it is near the surface.
In the gorge of Redwood river decomposed granite occurs
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which has a matrix of white clay very similar to the white clay under discussion, except that it is less compact. In this matrix are imbedded the angular, transparent grains of quartz which existed in the mother rock. It is the thoroughly weathered and leached granitic residuum left in its original position. On the south side of the wagon road from Redwood Falls to Morton, where the descent is made from the upland into the valley, there is a typical exposure of the white clay. It is here evidently of sedimentary origin, as it is free from quartz grains and lies above a stratified layer of grit. The outerop appears nearly white. Two samples, one from each of the above described exposures, were analyzed for the United States Geological Survey, by Prof. F. F. Grout, of the University of Minnesota.
The analyses show that the composition of the white clay is similar to that of the granitic residuum, and that both are similar to kaolin. It will be seen, however, that the white clay and, to a less extent, the residuum are a little higher in alumina and a little lower in silica than kaolin, as a result, according to Pro- fessor Grout, of the presence of small amounts of beauxite. The white color is due to the fact that the iron has nearly all been leached out.
Well sections and outerops show that in some places the white clay contains imbedded grains of quartz and is clearly residual, as in the exposure in the Redwood gorge; that in others it is en- tirely free from grit but includes interbedded strata of sand, as in the Tracy well, the exposure near Morton, etc., and that in still others quartz grains are present in the lower part and absent in the upper, as in many wells in Renville county. In brief, the white clay consists in part of granitic residuum, and in part of sedimentary deposits derived therefrom. Essentially this con- clusion has been reached by Warren Upham and others.
It is important that drillers should distinguish this clay both from the ordinary Cretaceous shale and from the ordinary de- composed granite, because its significance as to water supplies is somewhat different from that of either. It does not usually yield water, but the interbedded layers of grit, where they occur, may furnish adequate supplies. A number of good wells draw from this source, but there are also many instances on record where drilling into the clay has resulted in failure. The white clay is always a warning that the drill is approaching granite.
Public Water Supplies. There are public water supplies in Redwood Falls, Vesta, Morgan, Wabasso, Wanda, Lamberton, Walnut Grove, Sanborn, Lucan and Milroy. There are none in Belview, Delhi, Revere, Clements, Seaforth Rowena and North Redwood.
Farm Water Supplies. Drilled wells are most numerous in the flowing area and adjacent parts, that is, in the southwestern
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HISTORY OF REDWOOD COUNTY
portion of the county, where the Cretaceous is a sure source of supply. They have an advantage over the shallower-bored wells in that they can be sunk to beds which in most of this area will yield flows of soft water. Flowing wells, those that end in sandstone and those that are four inches or more in diameter, are generally finished with open ends, but others must be pro- vided with screens to keep out the sand. Where the water is truly soft the screens will give no trouble, but where it is hard they become incrusted in a few years by the precipitation of calcium carbonate and other mineral matter.
In the area northeast of a line drawn through Lamberton and Lucan (including by far the greater part of Redwood county) bored and dug wells greatly predominate. As the depth to the impervious formations in this area averages probably not more than 200 feet and is locally much less, it is necessary to procure water relatively near the surface; and as larger supplies can be developed from weak zones by means of bored or dug wells than by means of the ordinary drilled wells there is reason for preferring the former type.
CHAPTER XXXIII.
PIONEER EXPERIENCES.
McPhail-His Life, Times and Cabin. The starting of a town usually differs but slightly one from another in the details of its procedure, but the beginning of Redwood Falls was suffi- ciently unique, so unlike in circumstances to other ventures of its kind and so closely associated with adventurous and dramatic occurrences and with the history and development of the upper Minnesota valley, that any record or relic of the story of its earliest days cannot fail to be of unusual interest.
At this time when so many modern residences have been com- pleted, with conveniences and materials from many factories and other sources widely distributed, a very marked contrast is pre- sented by the removal to Ramsey park of the first log house built in Redwood Falls, fifty-two years ago, constructed by crude means, of cruder materials, this being the first procedure in establishing the first settlement above New Ulm in the region devastated by the greatest slaughter of civilians ever perpetrated on the North American continent, the Indian massacre of 1862.
This building was constructed by Col. Sam McPhail, in the summer of 1864, at the time when he secured the site on which he platted the new town of Redwood Falls. This, with others of a small group of buildings, was protected from attacks from
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Indians by a substantially built stockade of prairie sod, while a series of military camps provided a daily patrol of mounted sol- diers along the frontier and a night watch sentinel was main- tained as further precaution against surprise attacks.
The McPhail cabin was built of logs taken from an abandoned Indian house situated near the Sioux Agency headquarters, and there is some probability that this was the earliest boyhood home of Dr. Chas. A. Eastman, the Indian author and lecturer, which was located at about the same place. It was erected at the cen- ter of what was afterwards, and is now, the original plat of Redwood Falls, on a rise of ground gently sloping in all direc- tions from the site of the cabin, which stood next to the alley, facing south, immediately in the rear of the present Palace Dry Goods store and this cabin served the purpose of securing a squat- ter's right to the future townsite tract. One feature of its con- struction, which probably was the only instance of its kind, was an inside wall of brick, which made it a safer protection from hostilities. The supply of brick was from a government brick- yard in operation before the outbreak.
Col. McPhail began locating claims for landseekers in 1863, but the first group of families arrived in 1864, when other houses and the stockade was built and rooms were added to three sides of the cabin. The only person now living who assisted McPhail with his cabin and in the building of the stockade, is Wm. Post, who occasionally still comes to Redwood Falls. Marion John- son is the only resident who came to Redwood Falls during the first year of 1864 and he and his brother were the first to risk living outside the protection of the stockade.
In the spring of 1865 this building had been enlarged to a six-room house, occupied by three families, one of them being that of Dr. D. L. Hitchcock.
During the previous winter a teacher was employed by Col. McPhail, who also supplied the schoolroom for the few chil- dren of the stockade, including his own. Grant Martin and Elizabeth Hitchcock, still residents of the town, were born in the stockade.
McPhail also built the first frame residence of the town, out- side the stockade, near the falls, which location still remains the most picturesque residence property of the town, owned now by Julius Melges. This building was removed in later years and is now a part of the Glasco cottage on the west side of the entrance to Redwood Falls park.
The stockade building was next occupied by the family of Wm. Mills, who supplied lodging accommodations to transient travelers. Mills had been mail carrier and tavern keeper at Fort Ridgely before the outbreak and according to a story of incidents previous to the siege of Fort Ridgely, he was the means of sav-
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ing the garrison at that place from complete annihilation by a timely warning of plans by the Indians which could have been easily executed had no warning been given.
The ownership of the lot on which this building stood passed later to Mr. Traugott Henze, and his family occupied it until Mr. Henze moved the original cabin part to his farm by the Minnesota river in Honnor township. Here it was occupied first by his son Richard, then continuously used as a farm building until Richard Henze presented it to Joe Tyson to be removed to the Ramsey state park.
The story of this primitive structure would be incomplete without more extended reference to the picturesque personality of its first owner, the proprietor of the original townsite and general manager of Redwood Falls, whose varied and aggressive part in its early affairs were indelibly fixed in the memory of every resident of that period. McPhail was a real Kentucky colonel, or rather a real colonel from Kentucky, where he was born. He received training in a southern military school and served as a soldier in the Mexican War. Following this, as a surveyor, he assisted in establishing the boundary line between Iowa and Minnesota which brought him into this state. He had already started two Minnesota towns, Caledonia and Browns- ville, previous to his enlistment in a regiment across the border in Wisconsin, under Major Powell. McPhail was also one of the first townsite owners of Beaver Falls.
He was an army officer in the Indian campaign of 1862 which brought him to Redwood, and as he stood on the banks of the river, overlooking the falls and the government sawmill, he told a comrade that at the first opportunity he would establish a town at this point.
As a literary and advertising man he was the first editor of the first newspaper, the Redwood Falls Patriot; as a good roads man he was appointed by the first board of county commissioners as the first road overseer of the county ; as a finan- cier he was authorized by this same board to supply funds for maintaining the first county government before it had income from first taxes and when its only financial resources were prom- ises to pay ; as a humorist he was a continuous entertainer to his acquaintances; as a Fourth of July orator he was always a main feature of this annual festival; as a military man he attained the position and salary of a commissioned officer for two years after every other officer and private of his regiment had been mus- tered out of service; as one of the widely known Minnesota men he was appointed by Governor Marshall to distribute govern- ment rations to needy frontier settlers and Redwood Falls re- ceived its allotment of beans and hard tack during a serious scarc- ity of food; as a surveyor and frontiersman he heeded the call
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to a farther frontier and removed to the prairies nearer the Da- kota line and located many of the earliest settlers in Lyon and Lincoln counties, and as a lawyer and politician he was the first county attorney of Redwood and later was chosen by the voters to the same position in Lyon county.
The first building of the McPhail cabin, re-erected where the two park streams meet, marked the time when the whites first took possession of these reservation lands which up to that date had been in undisputed ownership and occupancy of the aborig- inal Americans,
Here, it may be predicted, this relic and reminder of the early days, which has in turn served the purposes of an Indian house, a pioneer's cabin, military headquarters, the first school- house and hotel, the first doctor's office and medicine supply house, town residence and farm building, will now stand for many years with its latch string out in welcome to any sojourner in these parts, as typical of the hospitality of log cabin days and with the genial Joe, representing the state of Minnesota, as chief host .- (By H. M. Hitchcock.)
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