USA > Missouri > Saline County > History of Saline County, Missouri > Part 14
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Chloride Sodium
89.91773 grains per gallon. 66 66
Potassium
3.39796
Lithium.
0.04756
66
66
Magnesia.
22.29123
66
Calcium
14.72127
66
Bromide Magnesia.
0.11801
Sulphate Lime ..
9.45713
..
66
Carbonate Lime.
9.56312
66
66
Iron
0.56656
66
Manganese
0.00190
Alumina ..
0.08921
Silica .
1.08471
4.05300
66
Organic matters
Wittenberg Sorber St.L.
, 24.
Rustic Bridge, Sweet Water Springs.
The ingredients of this spring, as given above, differ materially from all other known springs, resembling more nearly the ingredients of the King's Well at Bath, England, than any of the American or German springs of celebrity. The waters of this spring are limpid and have a pure, sweetish taste. Their action is strongly diuretic, and have exhibited wonderful curative and tonic properties upon dyspepsia, dysentery, diarrhea, diseases of the kidneys and urinary organs, and many of the diseases peculiar to women.
These springs will yet be the Saratoga of the Mississippi valley, and there is every reason why they should become so. The present Sweet Springs Company, composed chiefly of D. W. and Leslie Marmaduke,
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HISTORY OF SALINE COUNTY.
have already expended many thousands of dollars upon the buildings and grounds, and are constantly adding to their improvements, beautifying and adorning. An elegant hotel, with every modern appointment, is ever ready for guests, to which, more recently, a long line of beautiful cottages has been added. The health-giving properties of the waters of both the Sweet and Akesion springs are far superior to the Saratoga waters, as will be evident to any experienced medical man on an examination of the different analyses, and they are surpassed by none in America, not even the famous Hot Springs of Arkansas.
The saltpetre cave, to which allusion has been made; is located on Mr. Thornton's place on Fish creek. This cave yields pure nitre, but like many of the most valuable productions from nature's laboratory in this county, has never been utilized.
GEOLOGY OF SALINE COUNTY.
The geological structure of this county, ascending, is first, Silurian- saccharoidal sandstone and Trenton limestone; second, Devonian- semi-crystalline limestone, and Cooper marble; third, Carboniferous- chouteau limestone; encrinital limestone, Archimedes limestone, ferru- ginous sandstone and coal measures; and fourth, Quaternary-drift," bluff or loess deposit, and alluvium of Missouri valley. These lower rocks exhibit little evidence of disturbance, and generally have a horizon- tal appearance to the eye, except in one locality about six miles north of Arrow Rock, on the river, where there has evidently been an upheaval, bringing the saccharoidal sandstone and Trenton limestone above the sur- face at the river, while at Arrow Rock below and Cambridge above, the lower carboniferous is again seen at the water's edge, which indicates a distinct north and south dip from that place. The saccharoidal sandstone as it here projects, is known over that region as the "salt "rock," from its resemblance to common salt, is the oldest rock to be seen in the county, and this is, probably, the only place where it can be seen. The Trenton limestone, which here appears just over the saccharoidal sandstone, is a reddish, impure and crystalline limestone, full of white quartz and calcspar. This and one other, a half mile above, are probably the only out-croppings of this rock in the county.
DEVONIAN.
Semi-crystalline Limestone, is a grayish, granular limestone, presenting a rough, irregular fracture, with a semi-crystalline appearance. It may be seen in the bluff, about a mile and a half below the mouth of Fish creek, section 36, township 51, range 19, where it reposes upon the Silurian rocks.
Cooper marble is to be seen in this county on certain of the Blackwater bluffs, in connection with the Chouteau limestone. It is composed of
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HISTORY OF SALINE COUNTY.
nearly pure limestone, more compact than the Chouteau. As no fossils have heen found in this rock, its exact relative position may yet be said to be somewhat doubtful.
CARBONIFEROUS.
Chouteau limestone is a pure, compact grey limestone, which nearly equals the encrinital in thickness. It is generally hidden by other carbon- iferous rocks, except in a few instances where the streams have excavated their beds so as to bring it into view. It is oftenest exposed along Blackwater in the southwestern portion of the county, at the mouth of Salt Fork, for instance, and in section 32, township 49, range 20, where a bluff 200 feet in height exhibits it, with other rocks above and below. The bluffs on Cow creek and Rock creek also expose this limestone.
The Encrinital Limestone is immediately above the Chouteau and below the Archimedes rock, the most important limestone in this county, and is most extensively exposed in the southeastern part of the county. About Arrow Rock there are bluffs of it nearly eighty feet in height; along Salt Fork it crops out in many localities up to S. 29, T. 50, R. 20, and upon nearly all the streams of the county, and in the bluffs of the Missouri at Miami, and the Pinnacle bluffs.
The Archimedes Limestone may be seen at many places, but is evi- dently not a continuous stratum in this county, as the coal measures are often found reposing immediately upon the encrinital. It consists here of bluish-gray argillaceous limestone, with layers of blue clay. Its greatest exposure may be seen on Flat creek, where it forms bluffs of from ten to thirty feet in height.
Ferruginous Sandstone is a fine-grained yellowish sandstone, apparently destitute of mica. As coal has never been found below this rock, it most probably belongs to the lower carboniferous series. It varies much in thickness, and is often wanting. It attains its greatest thickness in the bluffs of the Missouri river, T. 52, R. 19, and T. 52, R. 20, forming here bluffs of from twenty-five to thirty feet high, and attains probably a thickness of about forty feet.
Coal Measures occupy one-half of the entire area of this county, and coal can be found almost everywhere. In some parts the upper coal stratum is buried deep beneath heavy deposits of drift and loess, while in very many localities the deposit is very light, and in some places the coal outcrops at the surface. The coal measures here are, indeed, of such varying thickness and depth from the surface that it is difficult to find any two points, a few miles apart, which agree in their details, and sometimes their differences are so great that it seems impossible to account for them in any other way than to suppose that after the deposit of portions of the series, oscillations and changes must have occurred by which they were exposed to denuding agencies. But there are many heavy and rich
12S
HISTORY OF SALINE COUNTY.
deposits of coal in different localities, notwithstanding the irregularities spoken of above. The thickest and heaviest deposits of coal are to be found in townships 49, 50 and 51, range 19, and in township 49, ranges 20 and 21, though coal is easily found in all the southeastern, southern and southwestern and in the northeastern portions of the county. In these sections nearly every farmer can obtain coal upon his own farm with a little extra labor, and the supply of coal is very nearly inexhaustible.
Township 49 and range 19, lying within the township of Arrow Rock, contains, perhaps, the richest deposit of coal in the county. The stratum of bituminous coal in this section varies from two to twenty feet in thick- ness, of the very finest quality of coal, and is interspersed in numerous places with huge pockets of cannel coal of a quality equalling the famous cannel coal of Kentucky. These pockets often present a face of from 30 to 40 feet of coal. In this region is the famous cannel coal mine on the farm of the late Gov. C. F. Jackson, besides numerous others, nearly all of them of great thickness, from 10 to 30 feet-of limited extent, and most of them reposing on the lower carboniferous rocks. South of Black- water there is much the same coal deposit as that in the region just described. Cannel pockets are also here, as is proved by those found on the farm of the late C. G. Clark, now worked by Mr. Laner. Coal has also been found along the northern edge of the county, near Miami, in township 52, ranges 19 and 21.
QUATERNARY.
The Drift formation, which is generally found above the coal measures, is distributed over Saline county. It lies beneath the loess in certain local- ities, but immediately beneath the sub-soils and surface, where the loess does not exist. It is composed of beds of arenaceous clays, mingled with pebbles and a few boulders. Whitish pipe-clay also occurs in deposits near the upper part in many places. These beds of drift may be seen along many of the streams, and are often struck when sinking wells.
Bluff or Loess occurs along the bluffs of the river, and extend back over much of the country north and east of Salt Fork-if it occurs on the high prairies south of Salt Fork, it is of a character not easily distinguish- able from the drift formation. The bluffs along the Missouri river are largely composed of this loess formation founded on encrinital and Archimedes limestones. The looseness and depth of the loess along these bluff's in township 52, range 22, are the probable cause of those sharp, high conical ridges which are known as the Pinnacle hills, an account of which is given elsewhere. The loess deposit here consists of fine light, yellowish and argillaceous material, and the same continues'ten or twelve miles up the river, and forms the boundary of the vast alluvial bottom north of the Petite Saw Plains. There are, however, no repetitions of the Pinnacle hills, there or elsewhere. Back from the river, as already stated, this deposit
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HISTORY OF SALINE COUNTY.
continues as far as the north and northeast banks of Salt Fork, varying in depth from 10 to 50, 60 and even 80 feet. The Petite Saw Plains are a vast bottom prairie of this same bluff formation in a large measure. The soil is made up of sands, clays, vegetable mold-the sand very fine and powdery and yellowish brown, the clays bluish brown and marly, the veg- etable mold of a dark color, and the whole as rich, perhaps, as any in the world.
The Alluvium, or alluvial deposits, compose all the large bottoms of the Missouri river, being from ten to fifteen feet above the river at ordinary stage. These bottoms vary from one to five or six miles in breadth. The general aspect is that of a perfect level, but when closely examined, it will be seen that they are always a little lower at the bluffs than at the river bank, and are nearly all of them subject to occasional overflow. The allu- vium according to Prof. Swallow, is composed of black loam, with the usual very fine clays and arenaceous materials, soils, sand, clays, humus and marls, and are fertile almost beyond compare. All the river bottoms in this county are subject to occasional overflow, as already stated, and when the floods subside, lagoons, lakes, sloughs, etc., are left full of turbid water, which evaporate and deposit their turgid contents until these lagoons and sloughs are gradually silted up.
COAL, BUILDING STONE, LIME, SAND, ETC.
Saline county presents to the geologist a rich, and comparatively unworked field. Its geological history has been but little investigated, as compared with other portions of the state. A chapter in the "Geological Survey of Missouri, 1855, 1871," by Prof. F. B. Meek, contains much the most elaborate and reliable geological researches that have yet been made of the county, and from it most of the geological information detailed in this chapter has been obtained. The geologist has a rich field yet before him here, while the economical geology is both rich and abounding. As has already been said, in speaking of the coal measures, coal, that most impor- tant of minerals, abounds in this county in quality and quantities that the people have not yet comprehended. It is true that the coal strata vary greatly in thickness and depth, but over two-thirds of the county rests upon the coal measures, and the supply of coal to be obtained, when the coal is systematically mined, will prove inexhaustible. No regular mining has ever been undertaken, but each farmer "drifts under," or " strips off" for fuel for his own use, and a few of them, by hiring a few hands, supply the wants of the villages nearest them.
The coal is generally of a good quality, and especially of a very fine quality in the great coal bed near the town of Arrow Rock. As the can- nel coal is always here found in " pockets," there is no method of estimat- ing the quantity of it, or how soon the supply may give out. As fuel, or for the production of gas, this coal has no superior. It has been thoroughly 9
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HISTORY OF SALINE COUNTY.
tested at the St. Louis gas works, and found to furnish abundantly the best quality of gas. It is thought that anthracite also exists, and will yet be found in this region.
BUILDING STONE, LIME, SAND, ETC.
Building stone of good quality is found in nearly every township in the county, and in some of them is obtainable with very little labor. On Blackwater and its tributaries, and in other places, excellent building material is quarried from the sandstone and limestone of the coal meas- ures. As yet, stone has been but sparsely used for building purposes, but the day will come when the people of this grandly dowered county will wake up from their lethargy, and will begin to utilize this, as well as many other sources of unbounded · wealth, which remain dormant and almost untouched in nature's storehouses. Right at their doors lie quar- ries from which the cheapest and best houses may be built-houses that will last for ages-but as yet, they prefer to send to the east and north for their building material, at the highest prices, and to build houses of wood that will, only for a few years, resist the wear and tear of the prairie winds and storms. The encrinitial and Chouteau limestones, as also the Cooper marble, which abound in the county, furnish admirable building stone, while the lower carboniferous sandstone furnishes an excellent material for the building of Macadamized roads, of which there is not one in the county. All the limestones of the lower carboniferous, but especially the Cooper marble, make an excellent quality of lime. The lime made by the Cooper marble is snowy white and admirably adapted to plastering and whitewashing-but the people of this county prefer to pay tribute to the east for their lime and cement, though it could be obtained better and cheaper at home.
Sand of the finest quality is readily obtained along all the streams that flow through the coal measures, and also in many localities on the Missouri river. Numerous localities furnish an excellent clay for the making of building brick, and there is at least one bed of white pipe-clay that would make good pottery.
HISTORICAL GEOLOGY.
FROM PROF. SWALLOW, IN HISTORY OF MISSOURI.
If we go back to the time when this continent began to emerge from the primeval ocean, the geological record will inform us that Pilot Knob, Shepherd Mountain, and some of the neighboring heights, were among the first portions of land that appeared above the waters. When Pilot Knob became an island, there was an unbroken ocean on all sides, save an island to the northwest, the top of the Black Hills, a large cluster to
131
HISTORY OF SALINE COUNTY.
the northeast, in New York and Canada, and a smaller cluster to the southwest.
These islands were formed in the Azoic seas by the eruptions that forced up the porphyry, granite, the Azoic slates and iron beds of Pilot Knob and the neighboring heights.
In the tranquil cycles which succeeded, the ocean was peopled with innumerable species of mollusca, zoophytes, protozoans and trilobites. Plants, too, appeared in the waters. But for some reason these animals were not abundant in the waters about Pilot Knob.
This is what we call the Age of Mollusks ;* and in it were deposited the series of magnesian limestones and sandstones so largely developed in the southern and eastern portions of the state. In the middle portion of this age, mollusks, with conical shells as large as saw-logs, made their appearance.
Towards the close of this age the higher portions of South Missouri became dry land, and the surrounding waters were filled with vast num- bers of corals, trilobites, bivalve, spiral and conical shells. At the end of the Age of Mollusks, the land emerged as high up the Mississippi as Louisiana, and the waters of the Pacific and Atlantic were separated by a chain of islands along the line of the Upper Mississippi and the great lakes and the St. Lawrence.
The next period, the Age of Fishes, was characterized by tranquil seas filled with coral reefs, around which sported the primeval fishes. Huge nautili spread their sails over the placid waters, and plants clothed the rising continent in green.
At the close of this age the Pacific retired a little to the northwest and left a narrow belt of Devonian rocks along its sinuous shores.
For many cycles the seas remained tranquil, and continued to be filled with fishes, corals, stone lilies, trilobites, star fish and algae, while the vast beds of carboniferous limestone were deposited. Reptiles and insects appeared upon the land. But towards the close of the period turbulent times intervened. Rocks were broken up, rounded to boulders and peb- bles, or ground to sand, and drifted to the sea and piled into vast beds, in the central portions of the Mississippi valley.
St. Louis now rose above the waters and formed a' peninsula which had its connection to the south with the older part of the continent. A shal- low bay extended around St. Louis to the north and west. It widened out over all the coal regions of Illinois and Kentucky, and out into the Pacific through St. Charles. All northwest Missouri and the coal regions of
*This term is used in the older works; but in all the recent geological text books and standard authors the " Age of Mollusks" has been changed to "Age of Invertebrates," because it had many animal forms that were not mollusks, although it had none that were vertebrates, or back-boned animals. See geological chart on page 67.
132
HISTORY OF SALINE COUNTY.
Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas, Arkansas and the Indian Territory were covered with warm, shallow waters, steaming under the rays of a tropical sun.
A hot atmosphere filled with vapor and carbonic acid nourished the rapid growth of trees, ferns, lepidodendrons, sigillaria and other plants in vast forests. Steaming marshes, fens and lagoons abounded. These lands were many times raised and submerged, and the forests swept away into vast beds, which formed the coal deposits over more than 100,000 square miles in the states above named. The turbulent waters deposited the clays and sands intercalated with the coal beds. Clear tranquil waters returned, filled with fishes, mollusks and corals, and the limestones of the coal measures were deposited.
Such changes followed each other in some twenty successive courses, revolving through the vast cycles of the age of plants.
At the close of this period the Pacific had retired westward to Sioux City and Manhattan; the Gulf of Mexico extended up as high as Cape Girar- deau; and a part of Scott county was a large island.
During the succeeding age of reptiles, while the vast saurians, like the zeuglodon, were sporting in the waters that covered the lower Mississippi val- ley, and the flying pterodactyli were flapping their wings over the shores of the Pacific, in Wyoming and Colorado, Missouri was quiescent, producing her quota of animal and vegetable life.
In the succeeding age of mammals, Missouri remained as before, but the regions bordering on the Gulf of Mexico and those on the upper Mis- souri and westward to the Pacific, underwent various depressions and ele- vations by which several dynasties of wonderful animals were buried in the rocks which now contain their remains. At the close of this vast period the continent assumed its present form, with some unimportant exceptions. The Gulf of Mexico still extended above the mouth of the Ohio. Our large rivers had cut their present channels to depths vary- ing from 100 to 500 feet, and in width from one to ten miles. Mighty waters poured over the solid strata and wore for themselves these vast channels to the sea.
But a change came over the continent. Some mighty power of water or ice, or both, swept over the surface, grinding the softer rocks to atoms, and rounding the harder into pebbles. Vast boulders were moved hundreds of miles and dropped in strange places.
Another change, and a large part of the upper Mississippi and the lower Mississippi valleys were covered with a vast fresh water lake. The land was covered with forests similar to our own. The land and waters were peopled with many of our present races of animals. The squirrel ate the same mast, and the deer ate the same herbage as now. But the huge ele- phant and mastodon were then lords of the soil. The bluff formation was deposited in this lake. Another change, and the lake was gradually
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HISTORY OF SALINE COUNTY.
drained and the waters subsided to the channels of the rivers." The cur- rents of the great rivers were sluggish, they were spread from bluff to bluff, and the bottom prairie was deposited, covering the valleys of our great rivers.
Again the level changed, the great rivers became more rapid, and cut their present channels in the bottom prairies.
The alluvial deposits were formed, the gulf was driven back to its present limits, the swamp country was added to our state, the soil was formed, and Missouri was finished. The Age of Man commenced, and the geological record gave place to [written] history.
[This brief but beautiful sketch of the changes undergone in pre- paring our state and county for the abode of man, would be incomplete without the following testimony by the same pen, in regard to " develop- ment," or " natural selection," with which it closes.]
But in this countless array of animals, whose orders and genera and species have come and gone through the vast cycles since Pilot Knob announced the rising continent, among them all, do we find one species of animal developed from another? NAY, VERILY.
Species come without progenitors, maintain their identity for countless ages, and utterly perish, leaving nothing developed to call them ancestors.
But have not the species, and genera, and orders, improved by natural selection ? NOT AT ALL.
When we examine through their whole existence, they degenerate rather tham improve. In some instances they do improve for a time; but in all instances they retrograde again, and finally perish miserably.
The trilobite was one of the first animals that appeared in the primeval ocean; he lived through the entire Palæozoic period. They sometimes improved and sometimes degenerated; but finally they dwindled down to a few insignificant species, and utterly perished.
The trilobite stood at the head of the primitive orders. He had the world for his field, and all time was before him. He perished by no catastrophe; and yet, natural selection did not improve him, much less save him from utter extinction.
At the close of the Age of Mammals, the elephant and mastodon were at the head of the order on this continent. They had space enough, climates enough, time enough, and none to molest or make them afraid; and yet natural selection did not save them. They dwindled away and died out.
The genus Cyrtia and the species Spirifer Cameratus, and a thousand others, might be named to show that natural selection, where it had the widest field, the longest time, and the most favorable circumstances, failed utterly to make [or develop] a new species. Such, at least, is the testi- mony of the rocks of Missouri.
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HISTORY OF SALINE COUNTY.
ARCHAEOLOGY OF SALINE COUNTY.
In many portions of the North American Continent, but especially that part known as the great Mississippi valley, along the Mississippi, Mis- souri and Ohio rivers, are innumerable monuments which attest the former residence of some ancient but partially civilized races of people, which have long ago disappeared utterly from the face of the earth, leaving no history, except what may be gathered from these monuments, and not even a name behind them. There are more or less distinct traces of vil- lages, towns, and even large cities yet to be seen, and evidences of culti- vated lands, which attest beyond a doubt that comparatively dense populations were once collected along the rivers of this great valley, whose customs, modes of life and institutions were very far superior to those of the Indians who were found in possession of the country by the white men from Europe. The evidences of a superior social state are numerous; and scattered all over the west, especially among the mounds and fortifications of Arkansas and Missouri, and of this vast population, generally now called the Mound-builders, New Madrid, in Missouri, would seem to have been the center. The labors of the archaeologist have enabled us to arrive at something like a connected history of these long-vanished people; to look in upon their modes of life and domestic scenes, their method of burial and gropings concerning a future exist- ence, and their ceaseless struggles, like man in all ages, for the means of daily subsistence. Two things, however, seem lost never to be recovered -their name and their language. For ages they flourished in the great valley, lived, grew wealthy and civilized, until at length, as seems to be history in all ages and in all quarters of the globe, they were driven out from their country and their homes by a stronger, fiercer and more bar- barous "people from the north," who came and occupied. They do not seem to have been conquered, and to have remained as a vanquished peo- ple, but to have been literally driven out, and to have departed toward the south by a universal exodus.
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