USA > Nebraska > Hamilton County > History of Hamilton and Clay counties, Nebraska, Vol. I > Part 3
USA > Nebraska > Clay County > History of Hamilton and Clay counties, Nebraska, Vol. I > Part 3
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The soils of the sandhill areas are quite sandy as a rule. They correlate with the land forms and are herein described as dunesand, dry valley soils, and wet valley soils.
Dunesand is the typical soil of the sandhills. It occupies about two-thirds of the area of the region and is characterized by its mobility, low humus content, and uniform fine sandy texture. There is little difference between surface soil and subsoil. Both are light gray in color and of loose structure. They contain a very low percentage of silt and clay. The hill land, valued at from $8 to $20 an acre, is used nearly wholly for grazing.
The State Survey classifies the hills under two divisions-first grade and seeond grade, depending upon the continuity of the grass cover and the amount of blow ground.
Plains. The most distinctive feature is the high plains, hence the name now used. The smooth uplands are used for farming and grazing. Much of the valley land is irrigated.
The largest natural divisions of the High Plains Region are Perkins Plains, 1,650 square miles; Cheyenne Table, 3,215; Pumpkin Creek Valley, 455; Wildeat Ridge, 151; North Platte Valley. 1.100: Box Butte Table, 2,010; Niobrara Valley, 210 (western part) ; Dawes Table, 1,400; Pine Ridge, 500: Hat Creek Basin, 390; White River Basin, 862; Springview Table, 612; Ainsworth Table, 284, and ITolt Plain, 1,400.
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HISTORY OF NEBRASKA
Perkins Plain is in Perkins, Chase, and Keith counties and northeastern Col- orado, but has its most typical development in the northeastern part of Perkins County, Nebraska. It is bordered on the north by South Platte Valley, and on the east and south by sandhill and loess areas. The surface varies from nearly level to rough and is modified by a few sandhills. (See Chase County Soil Survey.)
The soils of Perkins Plain are used for grazing and farming. The more sandy types, because of blowing, are devoted to grazing. Dry farming is practiced generally on the more stable soils. Wheat, rye, oats, kafir, corn, ete., are the main erops. Land values range between $15 and more than $100 an aere.
Cheyenne Table is bordered on the north by the Pumpkin Creek and North Platte valleys and extends southward to and beyond Lodgepole Creek and the Colorado line. Much of the surface is a smooth table land, but some of it is undu- lating to rolling and rough, The eastern part, a spur between the Platte valleys, is capped with loess. The rest of the area, except on the valley floors, has residual soils.
The leading soil series on the table land is the Rosebud, represented by five types ranging between the silt loam and the gravelly sandy loam. The Kimball County survey classes these soils with the Sidney series, a name which has been discontinued. (See Cheyenne County Soil Survey.)
Some of the steep slopes of Cheyenne Table have stony onterops. The slopes, as along the Lodgepole, have sandy soils classed with the Cheyenne series. Similar materials oceur in many sand draws. Finer textured soils of the Tripp series occur on the low terraces, principally in Lodgepole Valley. The bottom land soils proper of the valley are elassed with the Laurel series. They have a light to pale yellow surface layer and a coarse, ealeareous subsoil. Persons wishing a description of Cheyenne Table should secure the soil reports of Kimball, Cheyenne, and Morrill counties.
Certain soils in Cheyenne Table have been farmed successfully for a number of years, as in the vicinity of Dalton. The drouthy soils are best suited to grazing. Here, as elsewhere, the farmer should select a farm on a basis of the soils and climate.
Land values for Cheyenne Table range between $35 and $150 an acre. Wheat, oats, eorn, cane, and potatoes are the principal crops. There is successful irrigation on higher priced land in Lodgepole Valley.
Pumpkin Creek Valley, between Cheyenne Table and Wildeat Ridge, is tribu- tary to the North Platte Valley. It is bordered by esearpment-like walls throughout most of its course, but is open near the Wyoming line and at the point of junction with the Platte.
Long slopes are a feature of the valley floor. These are of two kinds, those formed by the weathering and erosion of the underlying Brule elay, and those built up of colluvial materials. The Brule clay slopes are rounded and billowy. They are eroded as small badlands at places. The colluvial slopes, occurring south of the ereek in the eastern part of the valley, are comparatively smooth and terrace-like. The bottom lands of the valley consist of the flood plains bordering Pumpkin Creek and its tributaries, and of low terraces.
There are a number of soils in Pumpkin Creek Valley. Those with largest distribution are elassed with the Epping, Bridgeport, Tripp, and Laurel series. The Epping silt loam was developed upon the Brule clay. It grades within a few
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HISTORY OF NEBRASKA
inches from the yellowish-brown surface soil to the undisturbed Brule clay. The soils on the colluvial slopes are classed with the Bridgeport series represented prin- cipally by fine sandy loam and very fine sandy loam, but there are small areas of fine sand. 'These soils drain well and are easily worked, but are subject to blowing where light textured.
The Tripp soils occur on the benches, and range between the very fine sandy loam and fine sand. The drainage is good and most of the soil is suited for farm- ing. The Laurel soils occur on the first bottoms of the trunk and tributary streams.
The soils of Pumpkin Creek Valley are described in the Survey reports of Scotts Bluff, Banner and Morrill counties and in the Reconnoissance Soil Survey of western Nebraska, which may be secured from the U. S. Bureau of Soils, Wash- ington. The absence of a railroad in the valley has retarded development. The rough and sandy lands are grazed but much of the rest of the area is dry farmed and irrigated. Land values range between $10 and about $125 an acre.
Wildeat Ridge is between Pumpkin Creek and North Platte valleys. It begins near the eastern end of 66-Mountain at the Wyoming line and extends eastward and southeastward about 50 miles, ending in Court House and Jail Rock south of Bridgeport. It rises from 400 to 200 feet above the bordering valleys in most of its course, but lowers eastward. Three prominent spurs project northward and northeastward toward the Platte ending in Scotts Bluff Mountain, Castle Rock, and Chimney Rock. A spur extending southward ends in Hog Back Mountain and Wildeat Mountain. Among the features of Wildcat Ridge are Signal Butte. altitude 4,583 feet : Bald Peak. 4.420 feet : Scotts Bluff Mountain. 4.662 feet; Hog Back Mountain, 5,082 feet : and Court House Rock, 4,100 feet. Wildeat Ridge is scenic because of its relief, topography and pine forest.
Much of Wildcat Ridge is rough broken land thinly covered with grass, shrubs, and pines. The less abrupt parts are occupied by the Rosebud stony fine sand and the more gradual slopes by the Rosebud loamy fine sand. Most of the soil is used for grazing. Some is farmed.
North Platte Valley is Nebraska's most important irrigation country. The soils, topography, elimate, and water supply support irrigation on a large scale.
The valley is wide between the Wyoming line and the eastern part of Morrill County, beyond which it is narrow to the point of union with the South Platte. The upper parts of the valley sides are steep. stony land. Sandhills border the north side between Oshkosh and North Platte. The rough stony land on the south gives way below Lewellen to loess bluffs. One feature of the valley is a large terrace on the north between the Wyoming line and northwest of Bridgeport. A long, bench-like colluvial slope forms the south side of most of the valley in Scotts Bluff and Morrill counties. The flood plain proper has a considerable area of silt loam to sandy and gravelly soils, part of which is poorly drained.
There are several soils in the North Platte Valley, varying from silt loam to the nearly barren slopes of the rough broken land. The soils with largest distribution are classed with the Epping, Mitchell, Bridgeport, Tripp, Laurel, and Minatare series, which are described in the soil surveys of Scotts Bluff and Morrill counties. Much of the agricultural land is farmed under irrigation and valued at $150 to $500 an acre. There is intensive farming of the best land. Among the main crops are beets, alfalfa, wheat, oats, rye, corn, and potatoes. Vegetables and fruit
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HISTORY OF NEBRASKA
of several kinds are grown. There are a number of good towns and cities in the valley served by the Burlington and Union Pacific railroads.
Box Butte Table is between the North Platte and Niobrara valleys and bordered on the east by the Sandhill Region. The surface of the table ranges from nearly flat to undulating, rolling and rough, and is modified at places by small sandhill areas. The borders near the Platte and Niobrara are roughened by numerous ravines and canyons.
The soils of Box Butte Table are classed with the Rosebud, Dunlap, Yale, Tripp. Laurel, and Valentine series. The Rosebud and Dunlap soils are similar to those of Cheyenne Table. (See soil survey of Box Butte County.)
The Rosebud soils are scattered generally, but the Dunlap silt loam occurs principally to the west and southwest of Hemingford. It has a brown to dark brown surface soil 6 to 12 inches deep, underlain by a dark brown compact heavy silt loam which passes gradually through a grayish-brown, heavy silt loam into a light, floury calcareous silt loam. The type occupies high, flat areas.
High terraces in the vicinity of Alliance are capped with the Yale silt loam and very fine sandy loam which carry considerable clay. The low terraces of Snake Creek Valley are covered with the Tripp very fine sandy loam.
The Valentine loamy fine sand occurs in the southern and eastern parts of Box Butte County. The principal soils on the bottom land of Snake Creek are the Laurel silt loam and fine sandy loam. They are poorly drained and alkalied in spots.
The Box Butte soils are used extensively for grazing and dry farming. They grow large yields of wheat, corn and potatoes. Land values are a little lower than on Cheyenne Table.
Niobrara Valley has three distinct courses or divisions in Nebraska. Two of them separate parts of the High Plains, and the third division is in the northern part of the Sandhill Region. The western course of the valley lies between Box Butte and Dawes tables. It is narrow and bordered by rough lands near the Wyoming line, but widens considerably across Sioux, Dawes, and Box Butte coun- ties where there are bold, rounded grass covered slopes and some broken stony land. The soil with largest distribution on the valley sides is the shallow phase of the Rosebud very fine sandy loam underlain with sand and stone. The valley floor is divided between low benches and the flood plain proper. The benches are occupied principally by the Tripp sandy loam and some fine sandy loam. The first bottom soils are the Laurel fine sandy loam and very fine sandy loam.
Much of the western part of the Niobrara Valley is grazed. Parts are dry farmed and irrigated.
The sandhill course of the Niobrara Valley is narrow and deep and closely bor- dered by sandhills and stony land.
The lower course of the valley which is east of Valentine is narrow U-shaped to V-shaped. The slopes east of Keyapaha and Rock counties are more gradual and occupied in most of their parts by the Pierre shale, which forms a very heavy soil similar to that of the northern parts of Hat ('reek and White River basins, but occurring under a heavier rainfall.
The Pierre clay soils extend into the Ponca Creek Valley as far west as the town of Butte. They oeenpy much of the slopes bordering the Niobrara in Boyd and Knox counties.
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HISTORY OF NEBRASKA
Dawes Table extends through Sioux, Dawes, and Sheridan counties. It is between Niobrara Valley and Pine Ridge, but is not distinctly set off from the latter. The surface grades from a typical table in Dawes County to a rolling surface in Sheridan and Sioux counties. Some parts are badly dissected.
The soils of Dawes Table are classed with the Rosebud and Dunlap series and resemble those of Box Butte and Cheyenne tables. The Rosebud very fine sandy loam and a shallow phase of the type oceupy much of the rolling land. The Dunlap silt loam is on the flat table. Much of the table is successfully dry farmed to wheat, rye, corn, and potatoes. Lands are advancing in value.
Pine Ridge is a mountainous country of irregular form, which in a general way lies between Dawes Table, IIat Creek, and White River basins. It was eroded of the High Plains. The north face of Pine Ridge is very steep at most places. It contains deep canyons, prominent cliffs, and long steep slopes. There are two esearpments or cliff elements in this face of the ridge, one of them lying just below the table land level and the other coming down to the borders of Hat Creek and White River basins. There are a number of park land areas between these rough parts of Pine Ridge.
Much of the Pine Ridge country is covered with scattered pine trees. The steeper slopes are bare and the more gradual ones are grass covered. Parts of the park land are farmed. Soils range between stony land and the Rosebnd very fine sandy loam.
Hat Creek Basin occupies the extreme northwestern part of the state and extends into South Dakota. It slopes away from Pine Ridge. The southern part of the basin is composed of long rounded slopes and low butte-like forms. The soils of this division are classed under two series, Dawes and Epping. They form the so- called yellow gumbo belt, which is less heavy than the name would indieate. The soils range between silt loam and fine sandy loam.
The northern part of Hat Creek Basin is occupied by billowy hills developed on the Pierre shale. The soils range between clay and a clay loam. They are dark gray to brownish, quite thin at places, become very sticky when wet, and hard when dry.
Much of Hat Creek Basin is gravel. Some is dry farmed and small areas are irrigated. Land values are held back because of inadequate transportation facilities.
White River Basin is bordered on the south and west by the steep slopes of Pine Ridge, from which open many small valleys. The lower slopes of the ridge are long and billowy. They were formed on the Brule elay and part of the soil is elassed as Epping silt loam. The more gradual slopes have a deep silt loam soil with a heavy middle layer. This type is called the Dawes silt loam. The two soils just named form a belt which reaches northward to White River in most of Dawes County and follows northwestward around the edge of Pine Ridge on the west. These soils become slippery, but not very muddy, when wet. They are grazed and snecessfully dry farmed.
The northern part of White River Basin is the well-known dark gumbo land formed on Pierre shale. The soil is very heavy and sticky when wet. Much of it is grazed, some is farmed, principally to small grains.
The valleys of White River Basin have narrow flood plains and bench lands. The bench land soils, which range between silt loam and fine sandy loam, are dry farmed and irrigated.
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HISTORY OF NEBRASKA
Springview Table is in Keyapaha County, but extends short distances in Cherry and Boyd counties. Its surface is divided between hard smooth land, rough broken land, loose sandy soil, and small dunesand areas. Much of the hard land contains gravel at or near the surface. This table is grazed and dry farmed. Its isolated position is a drawback.
Ainsworth Table, in northern Brown County, is nearly surrounded by sandhills. The surface is smooth to rough and divided between hard land and small areas of dunesand and Valentine soils. The soil with the largest distribution is the Rosebud fine sandy loam. A small area of silty clay occurs east of Bassett. Ainsworth Table is used for pasturage, the production of native hay and for farming. It is well developed at places. Much prairie hay is produced here.
Holt Plain, in northern Holt County, and southwestern Knox County, is the easternmost area of the High Plains Region. It is quite smooth on the upland proper, but rough near Brush, Eagle, Bird and Verdigre creeks. Most of the plain is hard land, but parts are sandy.
The soils with largest distribution are known as O'Neill loam, O'Neill gravelly loam and Valentine sand. Sandy soils, which blow, occur in the north and north- eastern parts of the plain.
The O'Neill loam is a dark gray to brown loam about 10 inches deep, underlain by 10 to 15 inches of light yellowish-brown clay loam, below which is a thick bed of sand and gravel. The gravelly loam type has a thin surface soil and coarse subsoil.
In recent years, most of the best land of Holt Plain has come under successful cultivation. Some of the land has advanced to more than $150 an aere. Wheat, corn, oats and native hay are the main crops.
In Nebraska there has been found, indeed, many traces of a pre-glacial race of man. Discoveries of stone implements, and then chiefly flint arrow heads and spear- heads have been made deep, in undisturbed loess beds, side by side with bones of the mastodon and the huge elk of this period. So we may well presume that man roamed the Nebraska plains ages before the advent of the long glacial winter.
PHYSICAL FEATURES
Before passing to a further review of the development, and especially of the populating, of Nebraska, we may well pause for a brief survey of her natural physical features.
LOCATION
Nebraska, the Land of Shallow Water, lies at the geographical center of the United States, and is bounded by parallels 40° and 43' North and longitude 95° 20' on east and 104° west. The extreme length of the state from east to west is 420 miles, and its breadth from north to sonth is 208.5 miles. In area it com- prises 77,510 square miles, or 49,606,400 acres, of which nearly 500,000 acres represent water.
ALTITUDES
The state stretches from the foothills of the Rockies to the Missouri, having a gentle, gradual eastward slope. The western half averages more than 2,500 feet above the sea, to only 1,200 in the eastern half.
HISTORY OF NEBRASKA
The highest point of elevation in the state is in northwestern Kimball County, at 5,300 feet. Scotts Bluff reaches fully 6,000 feet in height, while Richardson County is only 878 feet above the sea.
RIVERS
Nebraska is drained entirely by the Missouri and its tributaries. In contrast to the past geological times, there are no large lakes in Nebraska, though there are many small lakes. Many springs, wells and artesian wells dot various parts of the state. A remarkable artesian well of Nebraska is the one in the public square of Lincoln, 1,050 feet deep. At between 70 and 250 deep, strong brine was en- countered, but it did not come to the surface. At 560 feet, saline water came up in a powerful current. Saline springs have been encountered, especially around Lincoln and in its neighboring county, Seward.
The Missouri Rirer. Not only is this one of the chief rivers of the Republic, but by all means the chief river of Nebraska. Rising in Montana, at the eastern edge, and traversing North and South Dakota, it comes to the north state line of Nebraska at a point approximately one hundred miles west of the east side of the state, and forming the entire castern border of the state, borders Nebraska for something like 500 miles. It is deep and rapid. Its bed is moving sand, mud and alluvium, and nowhere in its Nebraska career has it a rock bottom. Professor Samuel Anghey, Professor of Natural Sciences in University of Nebraska, in the early '80s, had described this stream :-
"Its immediate banks, sometimes on both, and almost always on one side, are steep, often, indeed, perpendicular or leaning over toward the water. It is generally retreating or advancing from or on to one or other shore. It is the shore from which it is retreating that is sometimes gently sloping, while the one toward which it is advancing is steep. This steepness is produced by the undermining of the banks and the caving in that follows. Near the bottom there is a stratum of sand, which, being struck by the current, is washed out and the bank falls in. Many acres in some places have been carried away in a single season. The principal part of this 'cutting' is done while the river is falling. When the river is low and winding through bottoms fringed with, in many places, dark groves of cottonwood and other timber, it is a sad, melancholy, weird stream. When it is on a big rise' however, and presses forward with tremendous volume and foree toward the Gulf, it becomes surpassingly grand and majestic. It is now full of eddies and whole trees that have been dragged forward at a fearful velocity. It is never fordable. Boats of various kinds were exclusively used for crossing the river until the advent of the railroad bridges at Omaha and Plattsmouth. The water is always muddy or full of finely comminuted sand, the current rapid and full of whirling eddies. It is a dangerous stream to trifle with. So well under- stood, however, is this feature of the Missouri, that no more persons are drowned in it than in other rivers of corresponding size. *
* Had it not been for the * Missouri, the settlement of this region would have been indefinitely delayed. As the Missouri is navigable for 2,000 miles above Omaha, it was a great highway for traffic with the mountain regions of the Dakotas and Montana. Since the building of railroads, its business has fallen off."
The Platte River is the next river in importance to the Missouri. Its head-
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HISTORY OF NEBRASKA
waters originate in the mountains, and some of them in lakes fed by the ever-lasting snows. By the time it reaches Nebraska it is broad, shallow, sandy, but still flows with a rapid current. It flows through the whole length of the state. It is not navigable, but has been bridged at all of the important towns along its course. The south fork, commonly called the South Platte, enters the state from Colorado and flows eastward to North Platte at which point it joins the north fork, called the North Platte, which comes in from Wyoming, near latitude 42. There is usually a good volume of water in the stream, though at times of low water it can be forded. The average volume of water at North Platte is greater than at its mouth, but its various tributaries, Elkhorn, Papillion, Shell Creek, Loup and Wood rivers bring in a new supply.
The Republican River, the next important stream, rises in the Colorado plains near Range 49 of Sixth Principal Meridian west. At the state line, it is only a few feet across. Seven miles east it picks up Arickaree, and becomes shallow, sandy, and in places rapid. Various tributaries then joining it are: Frenchman's fork, near Culbertson; Driftwood Creek, near MeCook; Sappa Creek, near Orleans; Beaver Creek, near Orleans; the latter three coming from the southwest; Red Willow and Medicine creeks come in from the northwest. An immense number of creeks flow in every few miles especially from the north. It might be noted that the general level of the Republican River is approximately 350 feet below that of the Platte. This descent from the Platte gives the Republican the natural drainage of the intervening territory. This river, unlike the Platte, increases regularly in breadth and volume from its source to its exit from the state in Nuckolls County, slightly over a hundred miles west of the southeastern corner of the state. It comes in from Kansas and goes back into Kansas.
The Niobrara River also flows almost entirely across the state, coming in from Wyoming and entering the Missouri River near the town of Niobrara. From its source to its mouth it is 460 miles long. Its source is 5,100 feet above sea level. It is very narrow at its entrance into the state, but gradually widens. For 189 miles it continues through a canyon of high and steep walls. Upon emergence from this canyon, it becomes a broad, rapid and sandy stream. It has some tributaries of im- portance. First, on the south side is the Verdigris, in Knox County, and joins the Niobrara six miles from its mouth. There are a great many small tributaries between the Verdigris and the Keya Paha. Snake River, joining in Cherry County 'is the next important tributary. The Keya Paha, coming in from the north, is about 125 miles long.
The White River flows through northwestern Nebraska. It comes in from Wyoming and flows northeasterward, entering South Dakota a little east of longi- tude 103. It has many small tributaries in its course through the corner of Nebraska.
The Elkhorn Rirer is a very beautiful river. It rises west of Holt County. In the region of its source, the valley widens to a very great breadth, and in that vicinity are many small fresh-water lakes. Within a certain region, eighteen by twelve miles square, there are at least twenty of these lakelets, most of which drain into the head waters of the West Fork of the Elkhorn. In the eastern border of Madison County this stream receives the North Branch of the Elkhorn, which rises in the southern part of Knox County. That fork originates in a region of innumerable small springs. The Elkhorn empties into the Platte in the western
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