USA > Nebraska > Sherman County > Loup City > The trail of the Loup; being a history of the Loup River region > Part 2
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Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28
The closing period of the Paleozoic aeon was the Per- mian Age, in which the ocean once more prevailed. though with gradually contracting limits. The greater part of Ne- braska was yet a part of the ocean bed, covered by turbulent waters. On stormy days the breakers must have roared along the shore and hurled their spray against the limestone cliffs now marked by a line drawn from Beatrice in Gage county to Blair in Washington county. Some fifteen of our present day counties in southeast Nebraska had by this time lifted their surface above the waters; all else were engulfed in the briny deep.
The Permian Age is in reality a transition period which ushers in the next great aeon of time, the Mesozoic or Middle Life. This is also called the Era of Reptiles "for nev- er in the history of the earth were reptiles so abundant, of such size and variety, or so highly organized as then." The era includes three periods : 1. The Triassic, so named for the triple rockbeds in Germany; 2. The Jurassic, named after the Jura Mountains in France: 3. The Cretaceous, from the Latin creta, chalk, referring to the formation of large chalk beds in England and continental Europe.
Careful examination of the rock strata of our state fails to disclose the least trace of a Juro-Triassic deposit. The probable explanation of this fact seems to be that this region had now, all of it, by some upward movement of the earth, become dry land. The continental sea had retired to Kan- sas on the south and Colorado on the west. The indications are that Nebraska then drained westward, emptying her surface water into Colorado, where flood-time deposits of Triassic and Jurassic land fossils are now to be sought. If the above supposition is correct, it stands to reason that the deposits of the age, which were all of them submarine, could not have been formed in Nebraska, hence we find our Permian rocks directly overlaid by rocks of the Cretaceous period.
During these numberless centuries of dry land existence in Nebraska,
'On either side Was level fen, a prospect wild and wide, With dykes on either hand, by ocean self-supplied. For on the right the distant ocean was seen,
And salt the springs that fed the marsh between.'
A seventy-five foot Mosasaurus from the Cretaceous beds of Kansas.
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PHYSICAL FEATURES
And yet the marsh was slowly becoming upland, though the climate was still moist and warm. A tropical vegetation of myriad species of giant ferns and noble cycads again clad the land with brilliant hues. These im- mense thickets and forests teemed with animal life. Most striking were the giant Brontosaurus of the Wyoming fossil beds, often measuring 60 feet in length ; the Atlantosaurus, which reached the phenomenal length of 80 feet; and the lately dicovered gigantic Stegosaurus, remarkable for a series of huge bony plates mounted along the back. As if these curious creatures were not enough to give character to the time we find uncanny, birdlike reptiles, pterosaurs, swarming the upper air and adding much to this the strangest and most interesting of faunas.
Nebraska forest of late Cretaceous times.
The Cretaceous period marks the beginning of the end of the Mesozoic Era. A general subsidence now set in which seems to have embraced even the Rocky Mountain region. The latter, together with the eastward-lying plain, was once more brought to the water level. A marine bay broke northward from the Gulf of Mexico and, before the middle of the period, covered Texas. Indian Territory, part of Kansas the western half of Nebras- ka. and much territory lying northwestward.
Thus the Rocky Mountain nucleus was again reduced to groups of islands, as in Paleozoic times, and all western Nebraska
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THE TRAIL OF THE LOUP
was once more, tho now for the last time, a part of the ocean bed. 'Toward the later part of the period the continent slowly rose again and the great western internal sea was narrowed and made shallow, the connection between the Gulf and the Arctic Seas was interrupted, lakes of fresh water, bavs and swamps with brakish water, took the place of the ocean, and vast quantities of vegetable matter were formed in the marshes of this closing epoch.' But this was more than a period of emergance; indeed a great geologic revolution was preparing. From the plains on the east to the Wasatch, the entire Rocky Mountain region was thrown into a series of earth folds; the crust was bent and the mountain system, as we have it today, was lifted up, getting a drainage seaward. Nebraska now faced eastward, a part of the continental plain.
Tusks of Mammoth excavated in Gosper County, and now in the Museum of the University of Nebraska at Lincoln.
The Cretaceous deposits in Nebraska are of vast extent and import- ance. For convenience the strata have been classified into the following groups: The Dakota, extending from near Dakota City, where many out- croppings are to be found, in a south-westerly direction, underlying practi- cally every part of the state; the Fort Benton Group, lying conformably on the Dakota Group in the eastern part of the state; the Niobrara Group, ex- tending from the mouth of the Niobrara River, dipping under the central portion of the state and reappearing again in the southwest in Harlan county ; the Fort Pierre Group lying above the Niobrara deposits, cropping out in Knox county and other places; the Laramie Group, exposed in southwestern counties.
These beds comprise various clays, chalks and sandstones, and are rich
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PHYSICAL FEATURES
in finds of fossil leaves and remains of animal life. Thus several hundred species of ferns, cycads and conifers have been counted, and some hundred or more reptile forms, ranging in size from twelve to seventy-five feet are known to have existed.
The last great acon in geological history is now at hand. This is the Cenozoic Time, or Era of Modern Life. A higher vegetation makes its ap- pearance and the great reptiles are rapidly giving way to higher species of animal life-the mammals. For convenience this acon is divided into two ages, the Tertiary and the Quaternary.
The Tertiary Age embraces three epochs, the Eocene, the Miocene and the Pliorene. Of these only the latter two are represented in Nebraska. From our discussion above it will be borne in mind that over the western part of the continent the region of marine waters was past. The Rocky Mountain revolution had left the Great Plains a part of the continent. But
ODD
Jurassic Stagosaurus which flourished in Wyoming and Colorado while Nebraska was an inland sea. It measured from 25 to 30 feet in length
this plain was yet very near the sea level, the proof of which is found in the existence of vast lakes of fresh water both east and west of the Rocky Mountain range. These were not, however, contemporaneous, but succeed- ed one another as the age proceeded. Thus, in Nebraska we find no trace of Eocene lake beds. Conditions were on the other hand quite changed during Miocene times; for then a fresh water lake covered much of 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-Triassic and Cretaceous deposits. Hither. too, were gathered, as in an immense 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, cut- ting valleys, leaving cliffs and buttes in endless variety.
These Mauvais Terres of the French trapper, or "Bad Lands" are today
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THE TRAIL OF THE LOUP
clearly defined in the White River Country of northwestern Nebraska, and covers hundreds of square miles in southwestern South Dakota and north- eastern Wyoming. The writer has personally inspected these regions, and nowhere is the story of the past told in more forcible language than in this vast graveyard. Banks full of fossil bones, baccolites, huge petrified tor- toises, and fossil leaves tell the story of how Nebraska looked in those times. Magnolias, oaks, palms, figs, maples, lindens and pines grew in wild luxuriance, and the giant sequoias of California grew on every hill. Indeed, a semi-tropical vegetation stretched far away towards the Pole. 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 masta-
Titanotherium Robustum from the Sioux County Bad Lands. When full grown it measured 14 feet in length and 8 feet in height at the shoulders.
dons 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 des- ignate these reigons.
The Pliocene Epoch of the Tertiary Age is marked by a general enlarge- ment of the old Miocene lake bed, particularly eastward and southwestward. The Pliocene strata in Nebraska far outreach the Miocene and are, on this account, found to overlie the Cretacious from the central counties east. These beds were of considerable thickness but thin out eastward since the bulk of the materials forming them came from the mountains. Much of the Pliocene material is exceedingly coarse. Beds of conglomerate rock, made up "of waterworn pebbles, feldspar and quartz in masses, and some
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PHYSICAL FEATURES
small pieces or chips of all the Archian rocks" overlie beds of much worn sandstones and clays.
Along the Loup Forks, and in other localities, the upper beds have be- come 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
Fine Loess Formation in Garfield County.
grits and layers of many colored sands and clays. In many places on the North Loup River calcarious outcroppings are seen. Such are the bottom rocks forming the "Falls of the Loup " the sandstones and limestones forming the channel bottom near old Willow Springs in Garfield county, and again near Scotia in Greeley county.
With the close of the Tertiary Age and the opening of the Quaternary
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THE TRAIL OF THE LOUP
Age a great change came over the earth. In Nebraska the lakebeds grad- ually drained out, and there is evidence to show that the semi-tropical con- ditions which had so long existed were now undergoing changes. Arctic conditions began to prevail at the north, gradually extending into what is now the North Temperate zone , pushing, as it were, both fauna and flora equatorward. Much of the old life was exterminated or forced to give way before the rigors of the Glacial Period which was now preparing.
For reasons which it does not come within our province to discuss here 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. A great ice sheet, forced by its own weight, slowly moved southward, enfolding the earth in its em- brace. In the west we know that it extended almost to the 36th degree north latitude. Traces of the ice movement in Nebraska are abundant. Along the Missouri wherever the superficial deposits are removed the un- derlying limestone beds are worn smooth as glass and are full of glacial scratches and flutings. Indications are that the drift covered at least the eastern one third of the state. Here are found the beds of blue clay so characteristic of this period; and in strata above these, drift gravel and clay, 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; a great increase in humidity resulted and the ice mantle began to melt and recede. Immense floods were raging in the valleys and the continent from glacier edge to the gulf 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 bottom. These floods covered all of Nebraska with the excep- tion of the Miocene beds of the White River region and the western uplands and a few of the highest crests of the Pliocene deposits which lay too high to be reached by the engulfing waters. The Miocene or Pliocene forma- tions, known to us by such names as Scott's Bluffs and Chimney Rock must, in those times, have been so many islands set in a turbulent sea. The entire Loup region was submerged throughout this period, receiving then those loess-clay deposits which have made it one of the most fertile regions in the state. A change in level now set in. "The farther retreat of the glaciers and the elevation of eastern Iowa reduced the area of this great lake. What had been a great interior sea of turbulent waters now became a system of placid lakes that extended from Nebraska and Western Iowa at intervals to the Gulf." The Missouri, Platte and other well known streams of today drained through them, carrying immense loads of ground up Pliocene and Cretacious materials suspended in the muddy water. In the course of vast ages the lake beds became filled with this mud (loess) and, after passing through the stage of bog and marsh, be- came dry land. Vegetation soon covered the virgin earth ; and this from its annual decay and accumulation of debris gave us the rich surface loam so characteristic to Nebraska.
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PHYSICAL FEATURES
The chains of river bluffs familiar to every Nebraskan were heaped up while the river yet filled the whole trough from bluff to bluff, and, in fact, while these bluffs themselves were under water. They were in a way piled up on the flanks of the raging, mud-carrying flood current, as the glacial flood declined the waters gradually fell below the top of the bluff forma- tion, and the first terrace or upper bench of the valley flood plain appeared. The waters continued falling and the river dwindled down to a mere run, leaving the valley terrace above terrace, bench above bench. Thus in Ne- braska river basins there are often found three and even four such "bot- toms." The terrace building at an end, recent time is well along and geo- logical history need be pursued no further. The earth, topographically speaking, must have had practically its present day appearance; vegeta- tion covered hill and valley ; the highest orders of mammalia roamed over it and man took possession of it. In Nebraska, indeed, we find 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 huge elk of this period. We may thus with some reason presume that man roamed the Ne- braska plains ages before the advent of the long glacial winter.
From the foregoing pages it may be noted that in Nebraska forma- tions older than the Pliocene are nowhere exposed excepting the Miocene deposits in the "Bad Lands" of the northwest. The former, indeed, are represented only in a few isolated neighborhoods in the western part, where lofty "buttes" of Pliocine formation tower high above the flood plain. The remainder of the state is covered with glacial drift and loess, the drift be- ing confined to the eastern third. The loess clay forms a soil of inex- haustible fertility, and ranges in thickness from 5 to 200 feet.
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 longi- tude 95°20' and 104° West. The extreme length of the state from east to west is 420 miles, and its breadth from north to south is 208.5 miles. In area it comprises 77,510 square miles, or 49,606,400 acres, of which nearly 500,000 acres represent water,
The state stretches from the foothills of the Rockies to the Missouri, having a gentle eastward slope. The western half averages more than 2,500 feet above the sea, to only 1,200 feet for the eastern half. Scott's Bluffs reach the height of fully 6,000 feet, while Richardsor county is only 878 feet above the sea. Nebraska is drained entirely by the Missouri and its tributaries. Of the latter the most important are the Platte and the Niobrara, which flow through valleys extending the length of the state from west to east. The Republican comes from western Kansas and, after draining much of the "South Platte Country," returns again to that state. The Elkhorn and, farther west, the Loup are the only important northern tributaries of the Platte. The latter, with its three forks, the North, Middle and South Loup, flows from an interesting lake region in Cherry
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THE TRAIL OF THE LOUP
county and empties into the Platte just above Columbus. This river system will presently be treated more in full.
The climate of Nebraska is dry and exhilarating. It is subject to sudden changes in temperature, the thermometer being known to have varied from 114° to 42°. The mean temperature for January is, however, 19.7º, for July 74.8º. The nights are for the most part cool and refreshing. Ne- braska autumns are delightful, the period from carly frost till well toward Christmas is peculiar for its mellow, hazy atmosphere-crisp and bracing -this is the well known "Indian Summer Time." The annual rainfall is 23 inches, most of it falling east of the 100th meridian. The moisture is indeed very unevenly distributed. In the eastern half it averages 30 inches and locally it has gauged as high as 50 inches. In the western half it averages a little more than 19 inches, though on the extreme western border it scarcely reaches 10 inches. Most of the rainfall occurs between April and September, the greatest amount falling in May and June.
As is peculiar to the great continental plain, the weather is very change- able. Snow storms, or "blizzards," may in winter burst with scarcely any warning, and rage with sudden fury over the prairie which but a few moments before lay bathed in brightest sunshine. Occasional hot winds have in summer repeatedly injured the growing crops. It is only justice, however, to add that Nebraska, east of the 99th meridian is as "safe" for agricultural purposes as any state in the union. West of this line it is better adapted for grazing purposes, where not irrigated. Nebraska climate is extremely healthful. The stranger settling within the state can- not help noticing a general quickening of spirit and a strange increase of vitality. His appetite becomes voracious, and he sleeps as never before. The dry, continental climate is surcharged with an invigorating ozone which acts as a new life vigor to him who comes into it from the malaria and ague ridden districts of other states.'
To the travelling public not intimately acquainted with its topography Nebraska is a part of the Great Plains-this, and no more. Tourists have passed through the state from east to west and pronouced it a monotonous, tiresome prairie. But such impressions are at best faulty and do our great commonwealth injustice. A birdseye view would disclose a varied scene of rich valley and grassy upland, of broad basin and rolling water- shed.
The surface is indeed varied. The river valley, ranging in width from a few hundred yards to miles, is usually wooded along the river bank. Beyond the rich alluvial or sometimes sandy bottom lands lie the chain of border bluffs, steep or rounded and often of considerable height. These once passed, a gently undulating watershed meets the eye, stretching per- haps for scores of miles, or again may be for but a very brief distance, to be cut by a second bluff chain, the border of another water course.
The northwest is wild and broken but extremely picturesque-this is the Bad Lands. The Niobrara basin is in great part gently undulating ; along the river are many almost romantic spots. Here limestone out-
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PHYSICAL FEATURES
croppings and pine-growths make one forget that this is a prairie state. To the south of the Niobr tra are the "sand hills," which are mostly great dunes of Pliocene sands fantastically heaped up. This great region, which by the way, affords excellent range for cattle-grazing is gradually being covered with grasses and shrubs, and will no doubt in time become fit for agriculture. These hills with their grasses and wild flowers, occasional "blowouts" and reed-grown lakes give one an impression of a country yet in the making.
The valley of the Platte is of a sandy nature near the river bed, but, as it recedes is transformed into a fertile, rising plain north and south, losing itself in wavy undulating farmlands, as rich as found anywhere in the country. Westward the state changes from rich prairie, so well adapted to agriculture, to dry plains and sage covered foothills, the typical range country of the west. Toward the southeast are excellent farm lands, beautiful water courses and wooded lowlands. On the eastern border winds the "Big Muddy" through its great flood plain, with chains of towering bluffs on either side-bluffs remarkable for their changeful beauty. "Occasionally," savs Professor Aughey, "an elevation is encountered from whose summit there are such magnificent views of river, bottom, forest and winding bluffs as to produce all the emotions of the sublime."
"There are many landscapes everywhere of wonderful beauty along all the principal rivers. The bluffs are sometimes precipitous, but generally they round off and melt into gently rolling plains. They constantly vary, and in following them you come now into a beautiful cove, now to a curious headland, then to terraces, and however far you travel you can look in vain for a picture like the one just passed."
The Aborigines.
CHAPTER II.
"The land was ours this glorious land - With all its wealth of wood and streams; Our warriors strong of heart and hand. Our daughters beautiful as dreams, When wearied at the thirsty noon, We knelt us where the spring gushed up,
To take our Father's blessed boon -- Unlike the white man's poison cup." -Whittier-"The Indian Tale."
T HE first mention of Nebraska Indians by white explorers comes from the pen of Father Jaques Marquette. In June, 1673, that devout Christian worker and missionary, accompanied by Louis Joliet, embarked upon his great exploring trip of the "Father of Waters." Fired by a relig- ious enthusiasm and by a determination to convert the Algonquin tribes roaming its banks, he made the perilous descent as far south as the Red River. From his account of this momentous expedition we draw many a thrilling picture of hair breadth escapes and dramatic scenes. Interesting to our narrative is Marquette's description of the hitherto unknown Missouri country. The voyagers were rapidly approaching the mouth of the great western tributary, when, to quote from that Reverend Father's account, "we heard a great rushing and bubbling of waters,- and soon beheld small islands of floating trees coming from the mouth of the Pekitanoni (the Missouri) with such rapidity that we could not trust ourselves to go near it. The waters of this river are so muddy that we could not drink it. It so discolors the Mississippi as to make the navigation of it dangerous. This river comes from the northwest and on its banks are situated a num- ber of Indian villages."
In a most interesting chart of the expedition, now in the archives at Montreal, Marquette locates, in what is now Kansas and Nebraska, the following Indian villages: The Quemessourict (Missouri), the Kenza (Kansas), the Ouchage (Osage). the Pancassa (Pawnce), and the Maha (Omaha). That his information was indeed surprisingly accurate is seen from this that French explorers found these very tribes in relatively the same position as indicated in the chart nearly 200 years later.
Lewis and Clark, in the expedition of 1804, found Pawnees, Missouris and Otoes in possession of the Platte, the Poncas near the mouth of the Niobrara and the Omahas in the northeastern part of the state, centering
Pawnee Village.
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THE TRAIL OF THE LOUP
around what is now Sioux City. The Pawnees were then the dominant tribe of the western prairie, the others here mentioned being treated as wards and dependents.
Their original home seems to have been somewhere in the lower Red River Valley in Louisiana, where they formed the chief tribe of the important Caddoan stock. At an early date several of these tribes migrated northward. Thus the Arikari moved by way of the Missouri, penetrating far into North Dakota. Sometime later the Skidi (Wolves) advanced northward and halted at the Platte, there to be overtaken by the Pawnees proper.
The Pawnees called themselves Skihiksihiks, or "men par excellence." The popular name, and the one most in vogue, is Wolf People. They were a warlike and powerful nation, claiming the whole region watered by the Platte from the Rocky Mountains to its mouth. They held in check the powerful Kiowas of the Black Hills and waged successful war against the Comanches of the Arkansas.
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