USA > Nebraska > Hamilton County > History of Hamilton and Clay counties, Nebraska, Vol. I > Part 2
USA > Nebraska > Clay County > History of Hamilton and Clay counties, Nebraska, Vol. I > Part 2
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During neither of the two first named-the age of Invertebrates or Fishes-is land attributed to have formed in the area now occupied by Nebraska. Numerous islands are attributed to have dotted the present states of Illinois, Kentucky, Mis- souri and Iowa, so we are fast approaching the beginning of Nebraska. Likewise, we pass by the Subcarboniferous era, but it is in the Carboniferous era that dry land is believed to have appeared in Nebraska. It was one of the most wonderful ages in the history of the globe, for, during its progress, the thickest, most extensive and most valuable of all the coal beds were formed.
A few brief features of this era will be noted.
Atmosphere. It has been described thus: "A murky, cloudy atmosphere, sur- charged with carbon-dioxide gas, enveloping the earth and giving it a uniform hothouse temperature."
Physical Surface. From Pennsylvania to eastern Nebraska and central Kansas, it presented a changing view of vast jungles, lakes with floating grove islands, and some dry-land forests.
THE PERMIAN AGE
This was the closing period of the Paleozoic aeon. The greater part of Nebraska was yet a part of the ocean bed, covered by turbulent waters. This age is really a transition period that ushers in the next great age. The Nebraska area formed in this age covers but a few more counties. Near Beatrice are many exposures of yellowish and bluish magnesian limestone, full of geode cavities, lined with cale-spar, indicating the Permian deposits. The Carboniferous Age was brought to a close by an upward movement of the Continent and this continued through the Permian, until much of the surface water was drained, making it impossible to preserve many memorials of its latter history.
THE MESOZOIC AGE
This, the age of Middle Life, has also been called the Age of Reptiles, "for never in the history of the earth were reptiles so abundant, of such size and variety, or so highly organized as then." This era included three periods: 1. The Triassic, so named for triple rockbeds in Germany ; 2. The Jurassic, named after the Jura Mountains, in France ; and 3. The Cretaceous, from the Latin creta, chalk, referring to the formation of large chalk beds in England and Continental Europe.
Early scientists tell us that careful examination fails to disclose the least trace of a Juro-Triassic deposit in Nebraska, so we can rather rapidly pass by this period. The same events that prevented a preservation of distinguishable traces of the Permian would, if continued, prevent the deposition of Triassic and Jurassic rocks here. So we may, in a large degree, be certain that during these periods Nebraska had become an extended land surface, and if so, there must have flourished here for countless centuries the peculiar vegetable and animal life of these times. The length of these periods can be ascertained only relatively. But basing an opinion on the fact that in the Rocky Mountain regions the sediments reach 3,800 feet in thickness-
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large portion of which accumulate very slowly-the time involved in the aceumu- lation of sediments in sea bottoms has been variously estimated from one inch to one foot a century, so at even the latter rate, the time involved may have been 315,000 years.
THE CRETACEOUS PERIOD
This period marks the beginning of the end of the Mesozoie Era. A general subsidenee now set in which seems to have embraced even the Rocky Mountain region. A marine bay broke northward from the Gulf of Mexico, and, before the middle of the period, covered Texas, Indian territory, and part of Kansas, and the western half of Nebraska and even much territory still northwestward. Thus the Rocky Mountain nucleus was again reduced to groups of islands, as in Paleozoie times, and all western Nebraska was once more, though now for the last time, a part of the ocean bed. Toward the latter part of this period the continent began to rise again. During this period of emergence, indeed a great geologic revolution was preparing. The entire Rocky Mountain region was thrown into a series of earth folds, the crust of the mountain system was formed, with a drainage seaward. So Nebraska, from thence on has faced eastward, a part of the continental plain.
The Cretaceous deposits in Nebraska are of vast extent and importance, so we will dwell a little longer upon them than upon some of the preceding periods. For convenience, they have been classified into several groups.
The Dakota Group, so named by Hayden, because of its development southwest from Dakota City. It is found mainly in the present counties of Dakota, Wayne, Winnebago, Burt. Washington, Cuming, Stanton, Colfax, Dodge, Sarpy, Saunders, Butler, Seward, Laneaster, Cass, Gage, Jefferson, Saline, and occasionally in counties bordering on these.
The Fort Benton Group. This lies conformably on the Dakota group. A few exposures are present, from which some study of this group has been made. Among these might be mentioned-as seen below the mouth of Iowa Creek, in Dixon County, along the Missouri bluffs, and below Milford, in Seward County, in deep seetions.
The Niobrara Group, extending from the mouth of the Niobrara River, dipping under the center portion of the state and reappearing again in the southwest, in Harlan County. It is the most extensive of the eretaceous groups in Nebraska. It is evidenced by deposits of impure chalk rock, varying from a grayish white to a pinkish, bluish and yellow hue. These are in evidence especially in Knox, Cedar, and Dixon counties. An impure, yellowish siliceous limestone also evidences in Seward County, near Milford, and in Harlan County.
The Fort Pierre Group, lying above the Niobrara deposits, cropping out in Knox County, and other places, among which are as far west as Hitchcock County.
And lastly, the Laramie Group, in the southwestern counties of the state. The Laramie Sea extended from southwestern Nebraska over the entire plain region of Colorado, and reached into New Mexico, Wyoming and Dakota territory. The roek of the group is mainly composed of sandstones, shales and elays in Nebraska, but on the other hand this is the great coal-bearing group of the West. The great coal-bearing nature of almost all other parts of this group still fans the hopes of southwestern Nebraska toward the future discovery of coal.
This brings us to the last great aeon in geological history.
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CENOZOIC ERA
The culmination of those physical changes that had been in progress during the whole of the latter portion of the cretaceous period inaugurated the Cenozoic Age. This age, or the Age of Mammals, is divided into two periods :- Tertiary and the Quaternary.
The Tertiary Age embraces three epochs, the Eocene, the Miocene, and the Pliocene. Of these only the latter two are represented in Nebraska. The period of marine waters over western Nebraska was now past. The Rocky Mountain revolu- tion, heretofore referred to, had left the Great Plains a part of the continent. But this plain was yet very near sea level, as evidenced plainly by the vast lakes of fresh water found both east and west of the Rocky Mountains. As stated above, there are no evidences of deposits of the Eocene epoch in Nebraska. The vegetable life of the Tertiary Age carried forward somewhat in advance of the periods heretofore described. Lesquereux has described forty-six species of plants, among which were giant cedars, cottonwoods, elders, birch, oaks, figs, magnolias and walnuts. It will be observed that some of these still belonged to warmer climates than we know of in modern Nebraska. The animal life of this period was distinctly mammalian. In the deposits evideneing the Tertiary Age, most wonderful remains of these animals are found by scientifie researchers.
The Miocene Tertiary Epoch was a gradual shading from the preceding era. Conditions changed considerably during the Mioeene times ; for then a fresh water lake, or series of lakes, covered the western part of the state, receiving the drainage of the rivers that now have their outlet in the Missouri. Into this lake bed were carried broken down materials from the Rocky Mountain axis and the Black Hills, and from the higher lying Juro-Triassie and Cretaceous deposits. Hither, too, were gathered, as in a vast cemetery, remnants of all the vegetable and animal life of the epoch. A gradual uplifting of strata has left these lake bottoms high and dry. Erosion too has changed their contour much, accounting for many deep valleys, cliffs and buttes in endless variety in a non-mountainous country as Nebraska.
"The Mauvais Terres of the French trapper, or 'Bad Lands,' are clearly defined in the White River country of northwestern Nebraska, and eover hundreds of square miles of southwestern South Dakota and northeastern Wyoming. All through that region the story of the past is told in most forceful language. Banks full of fossil bones, baecolites, huge petrified tortoises, and fossil leaves tell how Nebraska looked. in those times. Magnolias, oaks, palms, figs, maples, lindens and pines grew in wild luxurianee, and the giant sequoias of California grew on every hill. Droves of Miocene horses frequented the lake shores, the ancestral hog wallowed in the bogs, flocks of monkeys chattered in the treetops, and plain and forest were the haunt and breeding ground of droves of huge mastodons and wicked-eyed rhinoceroces and tapirs. Such were then the Ma-koo-si-tcha, or hard lands to travel over, as the Sioux nomad has seen fit to designate these regions."
The Phocene Epoch of the Tertiary Age is marked by a general enlargement of the old Miocene lake bed, particularly eastward and southwestward. This strata so outreaches the Miocene area that it overlies the Cretaceous in some central counties of the state. Much of the pliocene material is exceedingly coarse. Beds of conglomerate rocks made up of "waterworn pebbles, feldspar and quartz in masses,
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and some small pieces or chips of all the Archaean rocks" overlie beds of mueh worn sandstones and clays.
Sandhills. In many parts of the north central and northwestern Nebraska the upper beds have become decomposed and an immense amount of fine sand of a more or less stable nature has heaped up to form the famous "sand hills." Beneath lie strata of compacted gravel, then come limestone formations, yellow grits and layers of many colored sands and elays.
The Quaternary Period of the Pliocene Epoch brought a great change over the earth. In Nebraska lakebeds gradually drained out, and the semi-tropical conditions heretofore referred to began to change and fade away. Arctic conditions began to invade from the north, extending into what is now the North Temperate zone and pushing both fauna and flora equatorward. The Quaternary Period brought on the Glacial Period. For reasons more scientifie than historical, the temperature of North America gradually fell so low that the snows of winter accumulated too rapidly for the summer's warmth to remove. The result was a glaciation of vast land areas.
The Glacial Period. A great ice sheet. formed by its own weight, slowly moved southward, enfolding the earth in its embrace. A thick mantle of ice extended south of the southern line of Nebraska, and according to Agassiz, at one time to the 36th parallel.
Traces of the ice movements are abundant. Along the Missouri River wherever the superficial deposits are removed the underlying limestone beds are worn smooth as glass and are full of glacial scratches and thutings. Indications are that such a drift covered at least the eastern one-third of the state. Here are found the beds of blue elay so characteristic of this period : and in strata above these, drift gravel and elay ; and next above, gravel and water worn boulders of various size.
After countless ages of polar winter an era of general subsidence took place in the glaciated regions; through a great mass of general humidity, the iee mantle began to melt and recede. Immense floods raged in the valleys and the continent from the glacier edge to the gult was converted into an inland sea, full of floating icebergs, which drifting aimlessly about, when they melted, dropped their immense loads of sand, gravel and boulders to the lake bottoms. These floods are reputed to have covered all of Nebraska except the Miocene beds of the White River region and the western uplands and a few of the highest erests of the Plioeene deposits. which lay too high to be reached by the engulfing waters. The Miocene or Pliocene formations, known to us by such names as Scott's Bluffs or Chimney Roek, must, in those times, have been so many islands set in a turbulent sea.
The Loess Period followed the Glacial Period. It is claimed that during this melting period the Loup Valley of Central Nebraska was submerged entirely, and received the loess-elay deposits which have made it one of the most fertile regions in the state. The Loess deposits first received this name in America from Lyell, who observed them along the Mississippi in various places. The name had been used before in Europe to designate such materials in the valleys of the Rhine and Danube. Hayden called them bluff deposits, because of the peculiar configuration they give to the uplands that border the flood plains of the rivers. This deposit, not particularly rieh in organie remains, but in some respects one of the most remarkable in the world, prevails over something like three-fourths of the surface of Nebraska. It ranges in thickness from 5 to 150 feet. Even at North Platte, 300 miles west of
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the Missouri, on the south side of the river, it varies in thickness from 125 to 150 feet.
From the foregoing pages it will be noted in Nebraska that formations older than the Pliocene are nowhere exposed excepting the Miocene deposits in the "Bad Lands" of the Northwest. Up to this point, the narrative of the formation of the structure of our state has taken in account nothing concerning the presence of the human race within the confines of Nebraska.
The foregoing geological review has been designed mainly to serve as a pictorial panorama of the evolution of the physical "territory" now Nebraska. Most of the statements made have been based upon the earliest geological observations of Prof. Samuel Aughey and his associates, of a period of forty years ago. In the inter- vening forty years, with the increasing facilities for research, Prof. E. H. Barbour, Prof. Geo. E. Condra and other geological students of Nebraska have made many new discoveries, and have in some instances discovered evidences which lead to vastly different conclusions in relation to the location, initial appearance or manner of discovery of certain geological evidences, heretofore mentioned. The final results of these studies and changes and detailed observations from a practical viewpoint have been incorporated in "The Soil Survey."
It is purposed now, to make a short statement of the purposes of the soil survey. and to incorporate at this point a part of the final findings of Nebraska's students of this phase of the state's life. This portion is furnished by The Nebraska Conser- vation and Welfare Commission ( Bulletins 14 and 15, 1920). While this is also a slight departure from the historical narrative, it will serve for valuable practical purposes to many readers of this work.
THE SOIL SURVEY AND ITS USE
A considerable part of Nebraska has been covered by soil surveys made by state and federal departments. Persons dealing in real estate or expecting to buy land in Nebraska will find useful information in the various county reports.
Information regarding the surveys can be secured from the Conservation and Soil Survey Department of The University of Nebraska, Lincoln, or from the U. S. Bureau of Soils, Washington, D. C.
Soil the Greatest Natural Resource. Most Nebraska soils are deep, fertile. stone-free and easily tilled. Practically no artificial fertilizer is used. Humus is replenished in crop rotation by growing legumes. These unusually favorable con- ditions, as compared with most states, are not as fully appreciated as they should be by those who own Nebraska land.
Importance of Subsoil. Land sales should be made on a basis of careful examination and report. More care should be used here than in buying a house or some security.
THIE SOIL RESOURCES AND REGIONS OF NEBRASKA By G. E. Condra, Director Nebraska Conservation and Soil Survey
Nebraska is large and diverse. The area is 27,510 square miles. The altitude ranges between about 840 feet in the southeastern corner of Richardson County and 5,340 in the western part of Banner County. Surface features vary from
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smooth plains to mountainous areas. There are more than 100 soils which consti- tute the state's most important resource. Persons wishing a fuller or more ex- tended discussion of soil resources of the state should secure soil bulletin 15 of the Conservation and Soil Survey.
On a basis of soil and topography, Nebraska has three well defined regions- the Loess. Sandhill, and High Plains.
LOESS REGION
This region, so named on account of its subsoil, occupies about 42,000 square miles, or more than the southeast half of the state. It is a well-developed agri- cultural region.
The loess is well shown in many railroad euts and exeavations as at Omaha, Plattsmouth, and Nebraska City. There are three kinds, known as the plains, terrace, and bluff loesses. The deposits occur throughout the uplands of the Loess Region, except on the drift hills.
The loess is generally, but erroneously, known as "yellow elay." Technically, it is mostly silt, containing some clay and fine sand. It is a silt loam. The most distinguishing features are the buff color, massive appearance, fine texture, and ability to stand vertically in bluffs and exposures. Loess forms the most even- textured, deep, fertile subsoil of our country.
The Loess Region has eight kinds of land, known as loess plains, loess hills, drift hills, bluff lands, canyon arcas, bench lands, flood plains or bottom lands proper, and small areas of wind-formed hills.
Loess Plains, or the nearly level uplands of the region, have an area of about 14,100 square miles. The largest and most typical plain is between Gosper and Saunders counties. Its boundaries are the Platte, Republican, and Big Blue valleys. The surface of this plain is quite even, but modified to some extent by small drainage-ways, shallow basins, and low knolls. Some of the typical loeations on this plain are David City, Fairmont and Holdrege.
Smaller loess plains are located north of Ogallala, south of the Platte Valley at Sutherland, in southwestern Lincoln County, southeastern Chase County, north- eastern Dundy, southern Frontier, southwestern and southeastern Custer, part of the upland between Broken Bow and Sargent, northern Butfalo, small areas north of Ravenna, six miles south of North Loup, the upland between St. Paul and Boelus, west of Wolbach, southwest of Spalding, and the nearly flat uplands of Boone, Madi- son. Wayne. Cuming, Dodge, Douglas, Washington, and other northeastern counties. Several loess plains oceur east of the Big Blue, as in eastern Seward, northern Gage, southern Laneaster, central Cass and eastern Johnson counties.
All of the above plains are capped with 25 to 100 feet of loess subsoil. The land is stone free and very easy to till. The main crops are wheat, oats, alfalfa, and corn. The country is most beautiful. There are endless views of improved farms and towns. Land values range between $100 and $500 per acre depending on the position, amount of rainfall. and improvements. For further information in regard to the loess plains consult the soil surveys of Fillmore, Dodge and Phelps counties.
Loess Ilill Areas. These, with an area of about 11,900 square miles, occupy the northeastern counties of the state and a narrow strip just west of the bluff helt of the Missouri farther south.
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Some of the river bluffs are quite high, as along the Missouri. From the top downward they contain loess, drift, and bedrock. The mantle rock materials dis- lodge from the steep slopes making land slides below and vertical walls above. The bluff land belts are ent by many deep ravines and small valleys and further modified by numerous ridges and spurs. As a whole, the topography is rough. The principal soil is the Knox silt loam.
Canyon Areas. These have a combined area of about 1,500 square miles in the western part of the Loess Region. Here the rough, steep sided valleys, called canyons, separate the upland into flats. Canyon areas occur in parts of Lincoln, Hayes, Frontier, Hitchcock, Gosper, Dawson, and Custer counties. Small slips or land slides are common in canyons having sides not so steep, and in places the flat divides have been eroded away leaving areas of bold hills separated by V-shaped canyons.
Much of the soil of the canyon areas is used for grazing. The small, flat divides are farmed to wheat, oats, rye, corn, kafir, cane. etc.
The Waukesha soils occupy most of the benches in the central and eastern counties, but are modified by small patches of basin soils of heavier texture and knolls having soils of lighter texture.
Sand is exposed along the edges of some terraces. This sand mixes with the silt from above or washes out upon the valley floor making fine sandy loams. Persons wishing descriptions of the bench land soils should consult the surveys of Saunders, Dodge, Douglas, Wayne and other counties.
The bench lands of Nebraska have high value because of their fertility and freedom from overflows. They are well suited to grain farming and especially well adapted to alfalfa raising.
Bottom or Alluvial Lands are well defined in all river valleys and in most creek valleys of the Loess Region. The total area of such land, including flood plains, alluvial fans, colluvial slopes, and the poorly defined, low benches, is about 3,750 square miles.
Several alluvial soils have been mapped. Among them are those of the Wabash, Cass, Sarpy, Hall, Lamoure, and Judson series. Descriptions of these series may be found in the soil surveys of Washington, Nemaha, Richardson, Douglas. Wayne, Dodge, Gage, Polk, Fillmore, Hall, Phelps, and other counties.
The Wabash silt loam, silty clay loam, and clay are common alluvial soils in the eastern part of the region. They are close textured, dark colored and unusually deep as shown on the flood plains of the Big Nemaha, Little Nemaha, Weeping Water, Salt Creek, Maple Creek, and Logan Creek, and most of the Big Blue and its tribu- taries. There are considerable areas of these soils in the Platte, Elkhorn, and Missouri River valleys. As a whole, the Wabash soils are very fertile. They are generally farmed to corn rotated with small grain. Drainage is required at places.
The Cass series, represented by five types, is black in the surface layer, brownish to grayish in the upper subsoil and underlain by a thick layer of sand. These soils are productive.
The Lamoure soils, represented by three types mapped along the Platte in Dodge, Polk. Hall. and Phelps counties, resemble those of the Wabash series, but are less perfectly drained. They have a calcareous subsoil, which is lighter in color than that of the Wabash series.
The Judson silt loam occurs as small areas principally on cofluvial slopes at.
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the foot of uplands and terraces in various parts of Dodge. IIall, Polk and Phelps counties and is not subject to flooding. It is deep, dark brown and contains consid- erable humus.
There are a number of other alluvial soils in the principal valleys of the Loess Region. As a rule, they become more sandy and carry less humus as one goes west- ward. The sandy soils are well suited to grazing and hay production and those of finer textures are well adapted to farming.
Wind-formed areas oecur at various places along the western border of the Loess Region and at a few places on the loess plains proper. They are represented by ehoppy hills resembling dunes and oecupy about 900 square miles.
In a general way, the larger wind-formed areas are a broader land between the loess and sandhill regions. Their soils vary in texture but are composed largely of sand and silt. The largest areas of these soils are north and northeast of Minden ; east of Ilildreth ; north of Grand Island ; in western Boone County ; eastern Wheeler County ; northwest of Greeley ; northeastern Lineoln County ; on the upland south of North Platte; ten miles southwest of Maywood, and at the east border of the sandhills in Dundy County. The land is used for grazing, production of native hay and for farming.
SANDHILL REGION
This is the best defined soil region in Nebraska. The topography, drainage, soils and roads are very unlike those of the Loess Region to the east and the high plains on the west.
The main body of the sandhills, in the north-central and central western parts of the state is known as the Sandhill Region. There are several outlying areas, making in all about 20,000 square miles, occupied by hills, basins, valleys, marshes, and lakes.
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