USA > Missouri > Ray County > History of Ray county, Mo. > Part 9
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Shepherd Mountain is 660 feet high. The ore, which is magnetic and specular, contains a large percentage of pure iron. The hight of Pilot Knob above the Mississippi river is 1,118 feet. Its base, 581 feet from the summit, is 360 acres. The iron is known to extend 440 feet below the surface. The upper section of 141 feet is judged to contain 14,000,000 tons of ore. The elevation of Iron Mountain is 228 feet, and the area of its base 500 acres. The solid contents of the cone are 230,000,000 tons. It is thought that every foot beneath the surface will yield 3,000,000 tons. of ore. At the depth of 180 feet, an artesian auger is still penetrating solid ore. Dr. Litton thinks that these mountains contain enough iron above the surface to afford for two hundred years an annual supply of 1,000,000 tons. The ore is almost exclusively specular. It yields 56 per cent. of pure iron. The iron is strong, tough and fibrous.
Profs. Schmidt and Pumpelly, in their very learned work on the iron ores of Michigan and Missouri, have classified the iron-bearing region of our state as follows:
Eastern Orc-Region .- 1. Ore-district along the Mississippi river. 2. Iron Mountain district. 3. Southeastern limonite district. 4. Franklin county district. 5. Scotia district.
Central Ore-Region .- 1. Steelville district. 2. Ore-district on the up- per Meramec and its tributaries. 3. Salem district. 4. Iron Ridge district. 5. St. James district. 6. Rolla district. 7. Middle Gasconade district. 8. Lower Gasconade district. 9. Callaway county district.
Western Ore-Region .- 1. Lower Osage district. 2. Middle Osage district. 3. Upper Osage district.
Southwestern Ore-Region .- 1. White River district. 2. Ozark county district.
The same authorities have classified the various kinds of iron ores found in Missouri, thus:
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HISTORY OF THE STATE OF MISSOURI.
Deposits of specular ore in por- phyry.
Deposits of specular ore in sand- stone.
Disturbed deposits of specular ore. Drifted deposits of specular ore.
Strata of red hematite.
Disturbed or drifted deposits of red hematite.
Deposits of limonite on limestone. Disturbed or drifted deposits of limonite.
LEAD .- The annual lead product of Missouri is said now to exceed that of any other state or country; and it is conceded that its lead deposits are the richest in the world. The lead region all lies south of the Mis- souri river; the mineral is found chiefly in the magnesian limestone rocks, which are the great lead-bearing rocks of the world; but it is also found in ferruginous clays, in slates, in gravel beds, and in cherty masses in the clays.
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Mr. R. O. Thompson, mining engineer, of St. Louis, has written a sketch of the mode of origin of our lead and some other mineral deposits, which is plain, concise, and a clear statement of the teachings of science on this very interesting portion of Missouri's geological and mineralogical history. We quote:
"The Azoic rocks in this region, when the great Silurian system began to be formed, were so many islands, their heads only elevated above the vast sedimentary sea. The beds upon which the limestones and sand- stones were deposited consisted of the weatherings of the Azoic rocks, which naturally sought the valleys and became a base for the sedimentary rock. This boundless sea held in solution lime, magnesia, alumina, man- ganese, lead, copper, cobalt, nickel, iron, and other mineral substances. In this chemical condition gases were evolved and the work of formation commenced. The two gases forming the great creative power, and aiding solidification, were carbonic acid and sulphuretted hydrogen; the former seeking its affinity in lime and forming limestone; the sulphur in the latter naturally combining with the other metals, forming sulphates, or sulphur- ets. The work of deposition and solidification being in harmony, it is easy to understand how those minerals exist in a disseminated condition in these rocks. The slates that we find so rich in galena, presenting the myriad forms of lingula, must also have been formed in the Silurian Age. The distribution among the magnesian limestones of these decomposing slates can be most easily accounted for. The decomposed feldspar pro- duced by the weathering of the porphyry became in its change a silicate of alumina, and the sulphur, combining with the lead, disseminated the same in the slate as readily as in the limestone."
The Missouri lead region has been divided or classified into five sub- districts, as follows:
I. The Southeastern Lead District, embraces all or parts of Jefferson, Washington, Franklin, Crawford, Iron, St. Francois, St. Genevieve, Madison, Wayne, Reynolds, and Carter counties, with some mines in the western portion of Cape Girardeau county. Mining has been longest carried on in this district, and the aggregate of the production has been very great, although the work has been chiefly surface mining. Mine-
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HISTORY OF THE STATE OF MISSOURI.
La-Motte, in this district, was discovered in 1720, by Francis Renault and M. LaMotte, and has been worked more or less ever since.
II. The Central Lead District, comprises, as far as known, the coun- ties of Cole, Cooper, Moniteau, Morgan, Miller, Benton, Maries, Camden, and Osage. Much of the mining done here, again, has been near the surface, the lead first being found in clays, in caves, and in masses in clay but a few inches below the surface. Shafts, however, sunk in the mag- nesian limestone, find rich deposits in lodes and pockets.
III. The Southern Lead District, comprises the counties of Pulaski, La Clede, Texas, Wright, Webster, Douglas, Ozark, and Christian.
IV. The Western Lead District embraces Hickory, Dallas, Polk, St. Clair, Cedar, and Dade counties. Some rich deposits have been found in this district, especially in Hickory county.
V. The Southwestern Lead District comprises Jasper, Newton, Law- rence, Stone, Barry, and McDonald. Here very extensive mining has been done, more especially in the two counties first named, which have, for the last few years, produced more than one-half of the pig-lead mined in the state.
For several years past more than one-half the lead production of the United States has been from Missouri mines. Besides the numerous smelting works supported by them, the manufacture of white lead, lead pipe, sheet lead, etc., contributes materially to the industries and com- merce of the state.
COPPER .- Several varieties of copper ore exist in Missouri mines. Deposits of copper have been discovered in Dent, Crawford, Benton, Maries, Greene, Lawrence, Dade, Taney, Dallas, Phelps, Reynolds and Wright counties. Some of the mines in Shannon county are now profit- ably worked, and mines in Franklin county have yielded good results.
ZINC .- Sulphuret, carbonate and silicate of zinc are found in nearly all the lead mines of southwestern Missouri; and zinc ores are also found in most of the counties along the Ozark range. What the lead miners call " black-jack, " and throw away, is sulphuret of zinc. Newton and Jasper counties are rich in zinc ores; and Taney county has an extensive vein of calamine, or carbonate of zinc.
COBALT .- Valuable to produce the rich blue colors in glass and porce- lain, and for other purposes in the arts, is found in considerable quantities at Mine-La-Motte.
MANGANESE .- Used in glass manufacture and the arts; it is found in St. Genevieve and other counties.
NICKEL .- Found in workable quantities at Mine-La-Motte.
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HISTORY OF THE STATE OF MISSOURI.
BUILDING STONE.
Missouri abounds in solid, durable materials for buildings; she has quarries of red and gray granites, and very fine limestones, sandstones and marbles. In Crawford, Washington and Franklin counties there are workable beds of " onyx marble," a stalagmite formation found in caves, and very rich and valuable for mantles, table-tops, vases, ornaments, etc. This marble is not found anywhere else in the United States, and has been imported from Algiers and Mexico, at great cost. As an illustration of the high repute abroad, and substantial home value of Missouri products in the stone line, we give a case in point.
The new state capitol at Des Moines, Iowa, which will cost $3,000,000, and is said to be the largest and finest public edifice in the United States outside of Washington city, is built mostly of materials from Missouri, except the rough masonry and brickwork. The Missouri stones and their cost is as follows:
St. Genevieve buff sandstone $ 147,289.83
Carroll county blue limestone . 139,238.54
Fourteen red granite columns, 18 feet, 42 inches long, 2 ft. 3 in. diameter, turned and polished at St. Louis .... 8,144.50
Total paid by Iowa to Missouri on this one building. . $ 294,672.87
Other examples of Missouri building stone will be of interest. The Archimedes limestone is used for the U. S. custom house in St. Louis. The encrinital limestone is used for the State University building, and court house at Columbia. The Trenton limestone is used in the court house at St. Louis. A stratum called "cotton rock" in the magnesian limestone formation, is used for the state house and court house at Jeffer- son City. Encrinital marble is found in Marion county, and other varie- ties occur in Cooper, Cape Girardeau, St. Louis, Iron and Ozark coun- ties. In the bluffs on the Niangua, a marble crops out twenty feet thick, which is a fine-grained, crystaline, silico-magnesian limestone, of a light drab color, slightly tinged or clouded with peach blossom. Some of the beautiful Ozark marbles have been used in ornamenting the national capitol at Washington.
Lithographic limestone is found in Macon county.
EARTHS, CLAYS, OCHRES, ETC.
Kaolin, or decomposed feldspar, is a clay for making porcelain ware, and is found in and shipped from southeastern Missouri. Fine pottery clays are found in all the coal bearing region. North of the Missouri river many beds of best fire-clay are found, which is extensively manufac- tured at St. Louis into fire brick, gas retorts, metallurgists' crucibles, etc.
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HISTORY OF THE STATE OF MISSOURI.
Yellow and red ochres, ferruginous clays, and sulphate of baryta, all val- uable in the mannfacture of mineral and fire-proof paints, are found in great abundance all through the iron districts. Near St. Genevieve there is a bank of saccharoidal sand which is twenty feet in height, and miles in extent. The mass is inexhaustible. Two analyses give the following results:
Silica
98.81 99.02
Lime 0.92 0.98
The sand is very friable, and nearly as white as snow. It is not oxy- dized or discolored by heat, and the glass made from it is clear and unstained. One firm in St. Louis has annually exported more than 3,500 tons of this sand to the glass manufactories of Wheeling, Steubenville and Pittsburg.
GEOGRAPHY OF MISSOURI.
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LOCATION AND AREA.
The state of Missouri (with the exception of the Pan-Handle, in the southeast corner, which extends 34 miles further south), lies between the parallels 36 degrees 30 minutes and 40 degrees 30 minutes north latitude, and between longitudes 12 degrees 2 minutes, and 18 degrees and 51 min- utes west from Washington. Its southern boundary line, extended east- ward, would pass along the southern boundaries of Tennessee and Vir- ginia. The line of the northern boundary, extended in the same direction, would pass north of the centers of Illinois, Indiana and Ohio, and near the centers of Pennsylvania and New Jersey. Extending these lines west- ward, they would embrace the entire state of Kansas, and a considerable portion of Nebraska on the north and of the Indian Territory south.
The length of the state north and south is 282 miles; its extreme width, east and west, is 348 miles, and the average width, which is represented by a line drawn due west from St. Louis, is 235 miles.
The area of the state is 65,350 square miles, or 41,824,000 acres. In size it is the eighth state in the Union, and is larger than any state east of or bordering upon the Mississippi, except Minnesota. It occupies almost the exact center of that portion of the United States lying between the Rocky Mountains and the Atlantic, and is midway between the British possessions on the north and the Gulf of Mexico south.
The following list shows what other large cities of our own and foreign countries lie on the same latitude with the largest cities in our
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HISTORY OF THE STATE OF MISSOURI.
state: The latitude of 38 to 39 degrees north, embraces Annapolis, Maryland; Washington and Georgetown, D. C .; Alexandria, Va .; Ports- mouth, Ohio; Lexington, Frankfort and Louisville, Ky .; Madison, New Albany and Evansville, Ind .; St. Louis and Jefferson City, Missouri; Sacramento and Vallejo, California; Yarkand, China; Tabreez, Persia; Smyrna, Turkey; Messina and Palermo, Sicily; Lisbon, Portugal.
The latitude of 39 to 40 embraces the cities of Philadelphia, Dover, Wil- mington, Baltimore, York, Gettysburg, Columbus, Cincinnati, Indiana- polis, Terre Haute, Springfield, Quincy, Hannibal, Kansas City, St. Joseph, Leavenworth, Denver; Virginia City, Nevada; Marysville, Cali- fornia; Tientsin, Pekin and Kashgar, in China; Bokhara in Turkestan; Erzroom in Turkey; Valencia in Spain.
The meridian of 90 to 91 degrees west longitude, takes in Grand Portage, Minnesota; Mineral Point, Wisconsin; also Dubuque, Davenport, Rock Island, Galesburg, St. Louis, Memphis, Vicksburg and New Orleans.
Missouri is half as large again as New York, and more than eight times the size of Massachusetts. It would make a score of German prin- cipalities. Larger than England and Wales, or Scotland and Ireland, it is equal to one-third of the area of France.
SURFACE FEATURES.
As explained in the chapter on geology, there occurred away back in the earliest geological ages, some subterranean force which pushed up through the crust of the earth, a series of knobs and irregular ridges and hills in a region extending from St. Genevieve, in a southwest direction, to Shannon and Texas counties, taking in some portions of Madison, St. Francois, Washington, Iron and Reynolds counties. After this, these knobs and ridges were islands in the ocean, which covered the rest of Missouri and adjoining states. On the bottom of this ocean the solid strata of limestone, sandstone, and other rocks, were formed. In course of time the rest of the country was raised above the ocean, and the sur- face presented a broad, undulating plateau, from which projected the hills and ridges above named. The rains descended upon this plateau, and the waters collected into branches, creeks and rivers, and flowed away to the ocean, as now; and during the succeeding cycles, the channels and valleys of the streams were worn into the rocks as they now appear. These facts respecting the formation of our state, give some idea of its surface features. It may be described as a broad, undulating table-land or plateau, from which projects a series of hills and ridges extending from St. Genevieve to the southwest, and into which the branches, creeks and rivers have worn their deep broad channels and valleys. In that portion of the state north of the Missouri river, the northwest part is the highest,
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HISTORY OF THE STATE OF MISSOURI.
and there is a general descent to the south and east, as shown by the course of the Missouri river and its north side tributaries. In the eastern part of this region there is a high dividing ridge which separates the small east-flowing tributaries of the Mississippi from those flowing south- ward into the Missouri; the St. Louis, Kansas City and Northern railroad follows this highland from Warren and Montgomery counties to Coats- ville on the north line of the state, in Schuyler county; and railroad sur- veys show that in a straight line across the state, the Missouri river at the city of Weston, in Platte county, is 320 feet higher than the Mississippi at Hannibal.
South of the Missouri the highest part is a main ridge extending from Jasper county through Lawrence, Webster, Wright, Texas, Dent, Iron, St. Francois and Perry counties, striking the Mississippi river at Grand Tower. This ridge constitutes what is called the Ozark range, which for three-fourths of its course across Missouri is not mountainous, or com- posed of peaks, but is an elevated plateau of broad, level, arable land, and divides the northward flowing tributaries of the Missouri from the waters which flow southward into the lower Mississippi. It is a part of that great chain of ridge elevations which begins with Long's Peak, about fifty miles northwest of Denver, in Colorado; crosses the state of Kansas between the Kansas and Arkansas rivers; crosses Missouri through the counties above mentioned; passes into Illinois at Grand Tower and thence into Kentucky opposite Golconda; and is finally merged into the Cumber- land Mountains. This ridge probably formed the southern shore of that vast inland sea into which the upper Missouri and Platte rivers emptied their muddy waters for a whole geological age, and deposited over the states of Iowa, Missouri, Kansas and Nebraska, their sediment from the Cretaceous and Tertiary beds of the mountain regions in Dakota, Montana, Wyoming, etc., and the "Bad Lands" of northwestern Nebraska. This great sea or lake had its chiefs outlet at Grand Tower,* where for thousands of years its waters plunged over the rocky limestone ledges and flowed off to the Gulf of Mexico, which then extended nearly or quite up to the mouth of the Ohio river at Cairo. But as it gradually wore down the rocks of this southern high ridge barrier, of course the channel through this narrow pass became gradually deeper and deeper, and as gradually drained off the mighty lake, leaving four great states covered chiefly with a kind of sediment which Prof. Swallow has termed " bluft
* Dr. Shumard in his report on a geological section from St. Louis to Commerce,-p. 151, says: "The Grand Tower rises from the bed of the Mississippi, an isolated mass of rock, of a truncated-conical shape, crowned at the top with stunted cedars, and situated about fifty yards from the Missouri shore. It is eighty-five feet high, and four hundred yards in circumference at the base. During high water, the current rushes around its base with great velocity. *
*: About half a mile below the Tower, near the middle of the river, is a huge mass of chert. In the next two miles the Missouri shore is bounded by hills from 75 to 200 feet in altitude." It is rocky and bluffy for six miles or more along here, some of the elevations reaching 330 feet.
COTTAGE.
COTTAGE.
EWITTENBERG & SORBER ST.LOUIS
COLLEGE FARM HOUSE.
STATE AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE FARM, COLUMBIA, MISSOURI.
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HISTORY OF THE STATE OF MISSOURI.
deposit," though called by other writers locss. At Grand Tower, where the Mississippi has worn for itself this narrow gorge or pass through the rocks, the current rushes and roars and tumbles along at such a mill-flume rate, that the passage by boats either up or down stream, is difficult and dangerous .* And it was here that the river pirates had their stronghold in the early days of keel-boat traffic between St. Louis and New Orleans. They permitted no traders to pass this point without paying such tribute as they chose to levy; and upon the least show of resistance, they would rob, murder and plunder without remedy. If the human history of this place could be written, it would be full of blood-curdling incidents, and deeds of violence by rude and murderous men.
The following table of elevations above tide water in the Gulf of Mex- ico will give a general idea of the heights reached by this southern upland region:
Granby, Newton county, (farthest southwest). 1,030 feet. Marshfield, in Webster county, 96 miles from the west line
of the state. 1,462 "
Ohio City, opposite mouth of the Ohio river 279 66
New Madrid, 30 miles farther south 247
St. Louis directrix, (or register)
372
Base of Pilot Knob 909
Top of Pilot Knob. 1,490
It will thus be seen that the top of Pilot Knob, at the eastern end of our south border highlands, is only twenty-eight feet higher than Marsh- fleld, near the western end.
RIVERS AND WATER COURSES.
The Mississippi river bounds the state on the east for a distance of more than 500 miles. The Missouri washes the western boundary of the state from the northwest corner southwardly, some 250 miles, to the mouth of the Kansas, whence it takes a course south of east, through the heart of the state to its junction with the Mississippi, a distance of nearly 400 miles, presenting a river front from these two majestic streams of 1,550 miles. Besides these mighty streams, are many smaller rivers, more or less navigable for steamboats and barges. On the south, or the right
*A small work published at Davenport, Iowa, in 1856, describes this place as "a gorge where the river has in some remote geological age burst through a limestone mountain ridge, making a dangerous rocky pass, and washing the cliff into strange, fantastic forms." And a western poet nearly 30 years ago, thus described the spot :
" Here Nature sports with Art in rocky towers, Quarried by the wave, or lifts in Doric state Abraded pillars to the corniced cliff; And through sharp angles, narrows, flume and gorge, The wildered waters, plunging, roar and foam- Scylla and Charybdis of no mythic tale."
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HISTORY OF THE STATE OF MISSOURI.
bank of the Missouri, the Gasconade, Osage and La Mine are navigable; on the Osage, steamboats make regular trips as high as Warsaw, and barges and keel-boats may pass as high as the state line. On the left bank of the Missouri, the Platte, Chariton and Grand rivers are naviga- ble for keel-boats and barges; and small steamers have made a few trips on their waters. The other important streams of the state are the Des Moines, Salt, Meramec, St. Francis and White rivers, all of which on rare occasions have been navigated by steamers. There are large num- bers of smaller streams called rivers and creeks.
There are places in all our streams, except the Mississippi and Missouri, where they might be dammed and made to drive the machinery of mills and factories. Rock beds to support dams and make them permanent are to be found in many localities on the Osage, Niangua, Pomme du Terre, Sac, Spring river, Big river, Castor, Bourbeuse, Gasconade, St. Francis, Current, White, Grand, La Mine, Meramec, etc. No country is better supplied with bold springs of pure water. Many of them are remarkable for their size and volume.
There is, on the whole, no state in the Union better supplied with an abundance of wholesome, living water for stock and domestic uses; and it abounds in springs, splendidly situated for dairy business, with water at a uniform temperature below 60 degrees Fahrenheit. There are no lakes in the state except a few small ones in the extreme southeastern counties.
NOTABLE SPRINGS.
Mineral Springs occur in every part of the state. There are excellent salt springs in Cooper, Saline, Howard and adjoining counties. Sulphur springs that have become known as places of summer resort, are: The Chouteau springs in Cooper county ; Monagan springs in St. Clair county; Elk springs in Pike county; Cheltenham springs in St. Louis county. And Prof. Swallow says there are sulphur springs in half the counties of the state. Sweet springs, on Blackwater creek, are what are call " chaly- beate waters, containing some of the salts of iron; and there re a few others of this class. Petroleum or tar springs occur in Carroll, Ray, Randolph, Cass, Lafayette, Bates, Vernon, and other counties, and fur- nish a good lubricating oil in large quantities. In the south part of the State there are numerous fresh water springs of such great flowage as to be utilized for water power. One called Bryce's spring, on the Niangua river, which runs through Dallas, Hickory and Camden counties, dischar- ges 10,927,872 cubic feet of water per day, drives a large flouring mill, and flows away a river 42 yards wide. This is the largest one, of these big springs. The temperature of its water is steadily at 60 degrees Fahr- enheit, and the flowage uniform throughout the year.
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HISTORY OF THE STATE OF MISSOURI.
SOILS AND THEIR PRODUCTS.
As late as 1830 the greater part of Missouri was still marked on com- mon school geography maps as part of the great American desert; and in 1820, even our own great statesman, Thomas H. Benton, had written: "After you get 40 or 50 miles from the Mississippi, arid plains set in and the country is uninhabitable except upon the borders of the rivers and creeks." But our present knowledge of Missouri's climate, soils and prod- ucts show how widely mistaken our wisest people were on this subject in those early days.
Prof. Swallow, Dean of the State Agricultural College at Columbia (State University), has given the soils of the state a classification adapted to the popular understanding, by using names that everybody can read and know what they mean, instead of technical scientific terms known only to a few who have had a college education. And as this history is designed for the masses of the people, and to a large extent for the farm- ers, we give a condensed statement of Prof. Swallow's classification.
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