Compendium history and biography of North Dakota; a history of early settlement, political history, and biography; reminiscences of pioneer life, Part 3

Author:
Publication date: 1900
Publisher: Chicago, G.A.Ogle
Number of Pages: 1432

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The state has, also, a large number of beautiful lakes, the most remarkable of which is Minne- wauken or Spirit Lake, known by the whites as Devil's Lake. This body of water, which is about forty miles long, varies in width from about three hundred feet to over six miles. Its waters, strongly impregnated with salt, magnesia, etc., re- minding one of the ocean, are peculiarly clear and pellucid. In depth it varies, in some places being over one hundred feet deep. Most of the shore line is a gently shelving beach. It abounds in ex- cellent fish of the pike family. Its principal sub- divisions are known as Devil's Heart or Dono- hues, Tellers, West, Fort Totten, Creel, Lamor- eaux, Mauvais, Mission and Hill's Bays. The

lake has no apparent outlet, although it may have some underground connection with the Cheyenne river. It has but one considerable tributary, the Grand Coulee, which in dry seasons shrinks to comparative insignificance, but in the spring pours a torrent into the lake. The elevation of this body of water above mean tide is 1,423 feet, or 814 feet above the level of Lake Superior. Within half a dozen miles of it lies Sweetwater Lake, the waters of which, unlike its neighbor, is as clear and pure and sweet as the spring that gushes from the hill- side. It covers about eight thousand acres in Ramsey county. Other lakes are Stump, Ellis, Red, Rush, Twin, Long, Horsehead, Spiritwood and Arrowwood lakes.

The Turtle mountains, in the northern part of the state, are about all the eminences that rise above the dignity of hills within North Dakota. They include an area of about eight hundred square miles along the international boundary line, and consist of ranges of hills, rising generally but a few hundred feet above the surrounding prairie. There are, however, several prominent peaks, the principal of which, Butte, St. Paul and Bear Butte, have an altitude of about 3,200 feet above tide water, but, as the surrounding land is high, their summits are but some 700 feet above the level of the plain. The Pembina mountains, in the north- east part of the state, are simply the outer terraces of the Red River valley, where the tributary streams break down from the higher table lands. The first rise facing the valley is about three hun- dred feet, and the second, about five miles further back, about the same. The slopes of both these mountains are covered with oak, ash, aspen and other deciduous trees. Besides these there are elevated buttes, sharp hills and other departures from the practically level character of the land. The principal of these are the Short Medicine Pole Hills, in Bowman county ; Les Belles Pierre hills, on the Cannon Ball river ; the Cheyenne hills, in Boreman county, and others.

TOPOGRAPHY, CLIMATE, ETC.

The general topography of North Dakota is that of a vast undulating plain. The great Plateau du Coteau du Missouri (plain of the hills of the Missouri) traverses, in a belt, the state diagonally, from the northwest to the southeast. This is not the high dividing ridge or water shed it was formerly supposed to be, but simply an im- mense elevated plain, something like the llano

COMPENDIUM OF HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY.

estacado, of Texas. It is broken, occasionally, by low hills, or ridges, and sometimes by sharp peaked buttes. The country west of the Missouri river is generally more broken by hills and buttes, but has the advantage of being much better watered by a considerable number of small streams whose banks are fringed with timber. Practically speak- ing, the eastern part of the state lacks, in a great degree, the natural timber of the western part. When the settlers first came here it was nearly a treeless but grassy waste. The surface, gently un- dulating, is generally smooth, and the sweeps of the ridges long and easy. The climate is not so severe and harsh as is the general impression to those who have never been within its borders, On this point one of the commissioners of immi- gration of Dakota officially says:

Hundreds of miles north of this there is a country with winters no more severe than those of the north New England states and summers more suitable for the growing of grain. We are separated from that region by the forty- ninth parallel, an imaginary political boundary, which nature does not take into account. * * * Those who think Dakota is a section of the Arctic region slipped down out of place should look to the east. The south line of Dakota is the forty- third parallel of north latitude. Follow this line across the Atlantic and much of Europe will be found lying north of it. All of Norway, Sweden, Denmark and Great Britain are a full degree above the northern boundary of our great territory. Edinburgh, St. Petersburg, Stockholm and Chris- tiana, in the midst of a swarming population, are on the parallel of Sitka, Alaska. England and the north of Europe are made habitable by the influ- ence of the Gulf Stream. The Kuro-Siwo-the Black Ocean river of the Asiatic coast-or the Japanese current, gives the northwestern region the same mildness of climate that the Gulf Stream does to northern Europe, and why should not this country, like that, be filled with life and industry ? Water heated off the coast of southern Asia sweeps across the Pacific ocean and tempers the climate of our western coast nearly up to the arctic circle. This river of warmth gives to British Columbia, Washington and Oregon winters so mild that ice is a scarce article, even in Sitka, while roses grow in gardens along the Pacific coast at Christmas time. Imparting its heat to the air, it passes over the Rocky mountains-much lower between the fortieth and fiftieth parallels than further south-

and affects the climate of a region larger than the original United States. Comparisons of tempera- ture made with the north Atlantic coast are most favorable to Dakota and Montana. The Missouri river at Fort Benton, Fort Buford, Bismarck and Pierre is clear of ice earlier than it is at Omaha. In the light of existing knowledge who will say that up to the sixtieth parallel this northwest is not as capable of being settled as Russia and Nor- way and Sweden south of that line?

Glance at the physical features of this portion of the continent and one will see a great plain sloping northward. It is the latitude of the con- tinental water system. Nowhere else in the world is there such a succession of lakes and navigable rivers; no other country possesses such an area of agricultural land so intersected by fresh water. Within a radius of one thousand miles is half the fresh water of the globe. At Grand Forks the Red river is less than one thousand feet above the sea ; follow the river to its mouth, Lake Winnipeg, and it has descended three hundred feet; and in a boat one can steam westward on the Saskathchewan more than one thousand miles, and then double the distance on other rivers.

Follow the Red river to its source in Lake Traverse, and in high water a boat can reach Big Stone lake, the source of the Minnesota, and there pass to the Mississippi, thus joining Hudson's bay and the Gulf of Mexico. Two hundred miles to the east is Lake Superior and a waterway to the Atlantic. Two hundred miles to the west the Mis- souri can be reached, and the traveler can be borne into the shadows of the Rocky mountains, from whose western side another mighty river springs --- the Columbia-and leaps to a different sea. After the Mississippi and the Missouri, the Columbia drains the largest basin in the Republic.

From Lake Superior along the northern bound- ary of the Republic to the Pacific ocean, the aver- age altitude is less than two thousand feet above the sea. It is the only line on which connected agricultural settlement can be made across the con- tinent. It is the cereal belt, and history shows that mankind gathers in largest numbers where food is most abundant and cheapest. Southwest of here is the roof of the continent; the plains of Colorado are almost as high as the mountains of Montana; Denver, surrounded by productive farms, is a half mile higher than the average of Montana's valleys and plains. Between Omaha and Sacramento there is a continuous elevation of

COMPENDIUM OF HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY.

quite four thousand feet. Ascending every three hundred feet makes a difference of one degree in temperature.

GEOLOGY.

The geological structure of North Dakota does not cover a wide range, but has many interesting features. The great interior of the state seems to be entirely covered by immense strata of creta- ceous deposits of the Quaternary and Tertiary ages. This formation spreads over nearly all the terri- tory from the Red river to the Yellowstone. These were formed when the great inland sea covered this region. When eroded by the action of the rivers, particularly the Missouri, cliffs of an im- perfect form of chalk, clay and limestone project from the bank. In fact, Von Bach, the eminent German scientist and geologist, says: "This great river (the Missouri) flows uninterruptedly from the foot of the Rocky mountains through strata of chalk, at least as far as the mouth of the Sioux river."

After the chalk deposits were made, "the gla- cial drift overwhelmed the country, tearing away the upper layers and deposited all the Tertiary or upper masses of boulders, gravel, clay, sand and lastly, the rich, black sedimentary loam which forms the arable land of the present day."

"The Red River Valley is leveled and filled with a deposit of several hundred feet of heavy blue clay, and no rock is found near the surface." So says A. W. Barber, the eminent geologist.

That the Cretaceous formation once extended over nearly the whole of the prairie region of Dakota, at the level of the few fragmentary up- lifts, like the hills spoken of, is scarcely doubtful, from the disintegration of which we have the im- mense bluff deposits of the Missouri valley, and much of the alluvium of the great plains.

The Cretaceous formation in Dakota is divided into five groups by Meek and Hayden as follows: beginning at the lowest :

EARLIER CRETACEOUS .- I. Dakota Group .- Yellowish, reddish and whitish sandstones and clays, with lignite and fossil Augiospermnous leaves ; thickness, 400 feet. Location, southeastern Da- kota.

2. Benton Group .- Gray, laminated clays, with some limestone; thickness, 800 feet. Near Fort Benton, and also near Great Bend.

Viobrara Group .- Grayish, calcareous marl ;

thickness, 200 feet. Bluffs on the Missouri, near Great Bend, etc.

LATER CRETACEOUS .- 4. Pierre Group .--- Plastic clays; thickness, 700 feet. Middle part barren of fossils. Location, near Pierre, west to the bad lands, Sage Creek, Cheyenne and White river regions.

5. For Hill Group .- Gray, ferruginous, and yellowish sandstones (very hard) and arenaceous clays; thickness, 500 feet. Location, Fox Hills, near Moreau river above Fort Pierre, etc.

As will be noticed, the Fox Hills belongs to the upper strata, and probably indicate a former com- mon level of the country. Most of this portion has been denuded and carried away to form the later alluvium.

The imperfect chalk formation of the Missouri valley belongs to one of these Cretaceous groups, most probably the Benton. It is seen in the bluffs about Yankton, and also outcrops on the Dakota and Sioux rivers. In the quarry it is very moist and of a dark bluish color, but exposure to the atmosphere dries the moisture and changes its color to a creamy white appearance. It has been used for building purposes to a considerable extent in Yankton and some other places, and answers a very good purpose, though it is so soft and friable as to be easily whittled with a pocket knife. The atmosphere does not seem to affect it very seri- ously. This formation affords in various parts of the American continent cinnebar, coal, occasionally gold, copper and chromic iron. In New Jersey and other localities it furnishes a valuable fertilizer in the form of green sand, or glauconite, made up of silica, protoxyd of iron, potash, soda, lime and water. In the Black hills and some other portions of Dakota it affords very good building material, limestones and sandstones. This geological period was rich in various forms of life, both vegetable and animal. Among the former were more than a hundred varieties, including the oak, maple, sas- safras, tulip, beech, sycamore, hickory, poplar and fig trees, as well as species of the redwood and palms. Among the animal life were the rhizopods, from which were formed the chalk beds, mollusks in numerous varieties, conchifers, gasteropods, cephalopods, etc., and vertebrates, including many fishes in great variety, including species of the shark family. Reptiles were, also, very numerous, and many of them of great size. Swimming rep- tiles from ten to seventy feet long, the gigantic hadrosaurus, nearly thirty fect long, resembling the

COMPENDIUM OF HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY.

iguanodon; and sea saurians reaching eighty feet in length. Gigantic turtles, the width across which, from tip to tip of their flippers, averaged fif- teen or sixteen feet. There were, also, that sin- gular creation, reptiles with wide-spreading wings, often with a breadth across the latter of twenty feet. This deposit, in Dakota, has been a mine of wealth to those seeking the fossils of the prehis- toric and preglacial animal life. Many of the museums and institutes throughout the world in- clude in their possessions large numbers of speci- mens from the drift beds of the Dakotas.

The Tertiary age, called by geologists the age of mammals, is magnificently developed, also, in Dakota, covering, for the most part, throughout the twin states, the cretaceous strata. Locked up in its embrace are found those fossils of the gigantic animals, the wonder of the scientific world. Some of the most perfect remains of the mammoth and his kindred giants have been found in the drifts and gravel of this deposit in Dakota. And the col- lection of these monstrous relics that contains none from this part of the American continent is counted as incomplete. On the geological maps of the United States surveys it is shown that the western part of North Dakota was once covered by the fresh water Miocene lake.

GEOLOGICAL AND NATURAL RESOURCES.

In economic geology North Dakota can make a proud showing in the future, when it has at- tained more development. Coal, natural gas, petroleum and building stone can be found within its wide-spread borders. Of the most important of these, coal, the commissioner of immigration of the territory of Dakota, in an official work pub- lished in 1887, says : .

"A large part of north Dakota is underlaid with a deposit of lignite or brown coal, which crops out in many places, in veins sometimes twenty feet in thickness. This lignite or brown coal is of a soft variety, excellent for heating purposes, and has been tested and found to possess gas-making qualities superior to almost any coal discovered on the continent. It is defined by minerologists to be of the most recent geological formations, post- Tertiary, more recent than the anthracite or bitu- minous coal of the carboniferous period.

"It retains, to a great extent, the texture of the wood from which it was formed, and in mining lignite vegetable matters are often met with in

various stages of their conversion into mineral coal. Sometimes it is more altered in structure, so that its vegetable character is more indistinct; the beds presenting stratified bodies of dark, nearly black substance, with a concoidal fracture.

"The proportion of carbon in this variety of coal is found to vary, by different analyses, from fifty to seventy per cent.

"To Mr. C. W. Thompson, of Bismarck, who has had a lengthy experience in the mining and handling of Dakota coal, this office is indebted for the following analysis of lignite found in this locality : Moisture, 12.1 ; fixed carbon, 58.5 ; vola- tile, 27.0, and aslı, 2.4; total, 100. Specific gravity, 1.30.

"While inferior to anthracite, or the best qual- ities of bituminous coal, lignite burns readily and furnishes the settlers of a prairie country with that inestimable boon, cheap domestic fuel. At present, because of the lack of transportation facilities, only the outcroppings are worked, and, generally, for the supply simply of the settlers of the immediate neighborhood. The completion of the north and south roads, already in course of construction, will place the immense coal fields of north Dakota within easy reach of every village, and a good quality of soft coal can then be had as low as $2 per ton, and even in the more distant towns not exceeding $4.50 per ton. Already at some points * *

* especially on the Little Missouri, in Billings county, coal mining is carried on quite extensively and thousands of tons are shipped as far east as Jamestown. It is estimated that during the winter of 1886-7 ten thousand tons were shipped into the city of Bismarck alone, where it was retailed at $3.50, after paying a tribute of $1 per ton to the only railway line thus far reaching into the coal fields. Recent railroad developments will result, at an early day, in opening to markets the extensive coal areas surrounding the Devil's Lake, Turtle Mountain and Mouse river countries, as also of McLean, Mercer and Emmons counties, which contain some of the richest deposits of coal yet found, but are too distant from present railway facilities.

"In any one of the several counties of the north there is enough coal now in sight to supply the Territory with fuel for untold generations. Farm- ers haul wagon loads to the nearest towns the same as wood and sell it, the coal, at from one to two dollars a ton."

Another official document from the same office

COMPENDIUM OF HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY.

in 1889 has the following in regard to lignite coal in North Dakota :

"It is much better domestic fuel than wood. It is mined very cheaply from the outcroppings in the sides of the hills, and is more and more coming into general use as the common domestic fuel of the country. Lignite coal is largely mined for shipment at Sims, Morton county, and at Dickin- son, Stark county, on the Northern Pacific Rail- road. It is also mined for local consumption at New England City, in Hettinger county, and at all of the towns in each of the counties west of the Missouri river. It is also mined east of the Mis- souri river ; at Cold Harbor and other places in Mc- Lean county; at the Hawley mine in Burleigh county ; at several points in Emmons county ; at several points in the Mouse river country and at the Pony Gulch mines in Wells county. Settlers in the region west of the Missouri river, where numerous outcroppings of coal are found in almost every township, are in the habit of mining their own fuel. A little work with pick and shovel uncovers a vein on the side of a hill from which a wagon can be loaded without much labor. Lignite coal is wood in the first conversion into coal. It retains to a great extent the texture of the wood from which it was formed, and its vegetable character can often be seen in the carbonized sections of limbs and trunks of trees. The proportion of car- bon in this variety of coal will average about 50 per cent. The existence of these extensive coal beds is an important matter for the future devel- opment of North Dakota, and for the comfort and prosperity of the settlers, insuring them an ample supply of cheap fuel for all future time."

The following article in regard to the coal sup- ply of North Dakota is clipped from the Grand Forks Daily Herald of June 27, 1899, and was pre- pared by Professor Babcock, of the State Uni- versity :

"The existence of beds of lignite coal in North Dakota has been known for some time, but the extent of these beds and their ultimate value to the people of the state is appreciated by only a few. Though the area of the coal deposit is continually being increased by new finds, there is still, doubt- less, a vast extent of coal in North Dakota of which nothing certain is yet known.

"It is quite probable that the coal deposits of North Dakota are of the cast flank of the Rocky Mountain coal range, which has been followed over five hundred miles north and south. Whether the

outcrop discovered are fragments of one large coal basin which has been broken up and covered with later formations or whether they are deposits of numerous woody swamps of the same geological period we may not determine. But it will be sufficient to say that North Dakota alone has with- out doubt coal enough to supply herself and her less fortunate neighboring states for years to come.

"The general direction of the coal deposits ap- pear to be from north to south. The seams gen- erally outcrop along the banks of streams or on the sides of a bluff leading to the valley below. The seam commonly worked appears from fifty to one hundred feet below the level of the surrounding country, and varies in thickness from seven to twenty feet. There is, usually, over or under this coal a layer of light colored clay, which may in some cases prove to be a fair fireclay. In some localities coal may be found below the layer now worked. In any case it is not to be expected that anthracite coal will be found in North Dakota, for the geology of the country can hardly permit it. It is conceded that anthracite varieties are associated with folding and metamorphism of strata.

"The coal of different localities varies some- what in its physical as well as in its chemical prop- erties. Most samples have a general appearance between that of cannel and brown coal. In one or two cases it approaches true bituminous coal.

"The deposits, for the most part, lie in the western and central portions of the state. A few miles west of Minot, Ward county, coal is found outcropping along the sides of the bluff. Indica- tions are that the coal continues for some distance along the valley. Coal has been mined in two or three places in this locality.

"Going west of Minot, coal again appears in the western part of Flannery and Buford counties. About Williston there is evidently a considerable deposit. South of Williston, about Medora, Bil- lings county, in the Bad Lands, coal is found but is not mined, so far as known. East of Medora, at and about Dickinson, there is a considerable amount of coal mined, especially from the large deposits of the Lehigh mine. In the banks along the val- ley from Sims, Morton county, to New Salem, coal is frequently seen. At Sims there are two or three places from which it has been mined. Coal occurs some distance north of Mandan, and along the Mis- souri river in McLean and Mercer counties there are said to be extensive beds. Near Dunseith, Rollett county, small deposits have been found on

COMPENDIUM OF HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY.

the southern slope of the Turtle mountains. A good quality of coal is found in Hettinger county.

"From the localities mentioned it will be seen that the coal deposits of the state must cover a very large area.

"A number of samples analyzed at the chemical laboratory of the State University gave the fol- lowing average results :

Water and volatile matter 48.37

Fixed carbon 44.71

Aslı 6.92

100.00

Sulphur 0.34

"The variety and value of coal depends mainly upon the purity and the proportion of the fixed carbon and volatile matter. .

"The ash of North Dakota coal is generally not high. It is of a good color and very free from clinkers. The amount of sulphur is very small, in some cases being hardly more than a trace.

"For general heating purposes the value of coal is often approximated by the amount of fixed car- bon it contains. From the analysis of North Da- kota coal would be not far below that of a ton of carbon is 44.71. Analysis of several of the Iowa coals give 45.42 per cent. fixed carbon ; of Indiana, 51.20; of Ohio, 58.10. Using this method of esti- mation the heating power of a ton of North Da- kota coal would not be far below that of a ton of Iowa coal, about four-fifths of a ton of Indiana coal and about two-thirds of a ton of Ohio coal.

"As compared with wood there is no doubt that, for ordinary purposse, the coal is far superior at reasonable prices.

"The value of coal varies widely according to the use to which it is to be put. For some pur- poses this coal will not be good, but for general manufacture and heating purposes, in which most of the fuel is used, the coal of North Dakota is well adapted.

"North Dakota coal, though lignite, is of high grade. The statistics of Germany and Austria show that many millions of tons of this fuel are annually used in those countries for domestic and other purposes.

"It will probably not be long before improved methods of burning will largely increase the use of this coal. Fair tests cannot be made by burning lignite in the common anthracite or soft coal burner. Lignite should be used in a burner suited

to its peculiar characteristics. It is understood that experimentation in this line has already resulted in the production of a burner which will make lig- nite a much more convenient and economical fuel. It can only be a matter of time when the people have become better acquainted with this coal, and the proper methods of burning, till it will be much more extensively used. Such a cheap and abund- ant supply of fuel will also help wonderfully in establishing various manufacturing industries."

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Compendium history and biography of North Dakota; a history of early settlement, political history, and biography; reminiscences of pioneer life, Part 3

Author: Publication date: 1900 Publisher: Chicago, G.A.Ogle Number of Pages: 1432

Author:
Publication date: 1900
Publisher: Chicago, G.A.Ogle
Number of Pages: 1432