USA > Pennsylvania > Blair County > Biographical and portrait cyclopedia of Blair County, Pennsylvania > Part 2
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and unroofed caverns through which Sink- ing creek finds its way in a straight line for three or four miles to the Little Juniata, are fine examples of the combined chemical and mechanical erosion of past ages, still going on, which has removed the great Paleozoic arches from over the present surface. The Springfield ore bank in Canoe valley, and the Bloomfield ore bank in Morrison's cove, are two of the largest and richest in the State. The great ore deposit in Leather- cracker cove near the Bedford county line is peculiar, because at the upper edge of the limestone next the slates of No. III, at the foot of Tussey mountain.
Prof. Franklin Platt, in speaking of the geological structure of Blair county, says : It is grand and simple in its main broad outlines, though a close examination shows that this simplicity is rendered complex in places by subordinate anticlinals, synclinals, overturns, and faults. The broad simplicity of structure is this, the eastern center of the county, along its entire length, is the lime- stone valley of Morrison's cove and Canoe valley. The center of this antielinal brings to daylight limestone and sand- stone which is fully 6000 feet below the bot- tom of III, and is probably in or near to the top of the Potsdam sandstone, Formation I. To the east and west of this anticlinal the measures dip away from it, until to the west- ward the Lower Productive coal measures, XIII, are caught on the Allegheny moun- tain at Bennington, while to the eastward the same measures are caught in the Broad Top coal field in Huntingdon and Bedford counties. The coal measures are only some 2000 feet above tide, and the center of the eroded antielinal is from 1000 to 1500 feet above tide. Some idea of the magnitude of the axis may be formed from the fact
86
BIOGRAPHY AND HISTORY
that it is 40 miles broad from base to base ; and, if the center of the arch were not eroded, the coal measures would now be riding over Morrison's cove in a mountain over 20,000 feet above the sea level.
The subordinate complications of struc- ture, as given by Professor Platt, include extended mention of the following anticli- mals from east to west: Canoe Valley, Snake Spring, Morrison's Cove, Alexandria, Bloomfield, Sinking Valley, Short Moun- tain, l'ipton-Altoona, and Blue Knob.
Professor Platt also states that Blair county, like Bedford, Centre, Clinton, and Lycoming, along the same belt, extending from the top of the Allegheny mountain down to and across the ridges and valleys which front that escarpment, is crossed by outrops of all the Paleozoic formations, from the Productive coal measures (No. XIII), down to the Lower Silurian, or Si- luro-Cambrian limestones (No. II), and even to the top layers of the Potsdam sand- stone ( No. I). The order of these forma- tions are as follows :
Feet Thick.
Carboniferous System ---
Lower Productive coal measures .. . XIII 345
Pottsville conglomerate. XII 223 Mauch Chunk red shale. XI 283 Porono gray sandstone X 1,241
Deconian System -
Catskill red sandstone. IX 2,560
Chemung olive shales Fortage gray grits.
Cenesee dark slates. VIII 6,519
Hamilton sandstones
Marcellus dark slates
Upper Helderberg limestone Oriskany sandstone. VII
50
Sitarian System-
Lewiston ( L. Helderberg ) limestone .. VI 900
Waterlime, Salina and Niagara marls . V 1,328
Clinton red shales and fossil ore
Carried forward. 13,449
Brought forward. 13,449
Medina upper white and lower red sandstone IV 2,906
Oneida white sandstone
Siluro-Cambrian System- Hudson River shales III 900
Utica black shales
Trenton limestone
,II
6,600
Calciferous ( Magnesian ) limestone )
Potsdam sandstone I Traces
Total 23,855
Nothing is known of the thickness of the Potsdam formation at the bottom of this column of over 23,000 feet, or the older systems which lie thousands of feet under it, with their gneis, granite crystalline lime- stone, and beds of magnetic iron ore.
Formation XIII carries six coal beds : A, two veins, 4 feet and 20 inches; B, 33 feet ; C, two veins, 73 feet, and 22 feet; D, { foot; E, 5} feet; and a light bed, 22 fect. It also carries some veins of fire clay and iron ore.
Coal Measures. - The coal measures of Blair county cap the Allegheny mountain, and are mined in the upper reaches of the ravines by which the old Portage and the new Pennsylvania railroads ascend to their respective summit levels. The lower beds can be entered in all the ravines which descend from the Cambria county highland, along the whole west boundary line of Blair county. The coal measure rocks touch only a part of the western edge of Blair county ; and that part only included between the old abandoned Portage railroad on the south, and the Buck Horn tavern on the north. This comprises an area barely nine miles long. This area is principally in the lower productive coal measures, whose seams are Freeport upper coal (coal bed E), or Lemon seam, which is nearly always 5 feet thick ; Freeport lower coal (coal bed D), 3 feet
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OF BLAIR COUNTY.
thick; Kittanning upper coal (coal bed C), 2 feet 10 inches, and 42 feet below bed D; Kittanning middle coal, 2 feet, and 52 feet below upper coal; Kittanning lower coal (coal bed B), 3 feet 6 inches thick, and about 30 feet below middle coal; Clarion coal (coal bed A), 1 foot 8 inches thick, and 34 feet below the Kittanning lower; and the Brookville coal (coal bed A ), 4 feet thick, and 27 feet below the Clarion bed. The Lower Barren measures carries one coal bed of 2 feet 8 inches on the erest of the Allegheny mountain, and the Pottsville conglomerate carries the Mt. Savage coal bed, 1 foot 8 inches thick. From the Lower Kittanning coal is produced a coke second only to the famous Connellsville coke.
Lewistown Limestone. - This formation ( sometimes called Lower Helderberg) is mostly a dark blue massive limestone, cap- ping the Silurian, or No. VI group. It swells from 780 feet at Tyrone, to over 900 feet near Hollidaysburg. Many veins of this limestone are of unusual purity, and of great value for furnace use, or burning for agricultural purposes. This limestone also follows the sweep of the mountains of IV, and along this great line of outerop can be easily mined.
Iron. Ore. - Considerable quantities of brown hematite ore has been mined in No. VI, or the Lewistown limestone, but No. V is the great iron ore producing forma- tion of Blair county. Its rocks hold several different fossil iron ore beds in their ex- tended outerop around the outer edge of the mountains of IV. These iron ore beds are: The upper fossil ore, 1 foot thick ; doble fossil ore, two veins, 1 foot 4 inches, and 1 foot 1 inch; Frankstown fossil ore, 400 feet below the double fossil, averages 16 inches in thickness, is regular and per-
sistent in character, and an analysis yields from 41,900 to 52,000 parts of metallic iron in 100,000 parts of samples; and the Keel, or hard fossil ore, which is often mixed with higher grade ores with a favorable result.
The brown hematite iron ores of No. II (Siluro-Cambrian) are of great importance in Blair county. The most important mines are : The Springfield ( 3), Henrietta, Soister, Bloomfield, Rebecca, and Red ore, of Mor- rison's cove; the Williamsburg mine; and various productive mines in Canoe and Sinking valleys. In analysis of samples from these mines the metallic iron runs from 46,000 to 54,900 out of 100,000 parts tested.
Lead and Zinc Deposits. - The lead and zine deposits of the county are confined to the limestone formations of Sinking valley, where, in the Kettle, in the southern part, General Roberdeau, in 1778, opened and worked a lead mine, and where, in 1864, in the northern part of the valley, The Key- stone Zine Company opened their lead and zine mines, which they operated until 1870, when they became embarrassed. There seems to be no ore-bearing rocks in the central part of the valley, while the old mines and shafts are so filled up' as to preclude satis- factory inspection without great labor. It is said that the ore of the Keystone shaft was even quality, yielded 40 per cent. of lead, and cost $3 per ton at the mouth of the mine. If the ores in the northern part of the valley maintain what is asserted of them, it is im- possible to explain the failure of the Key- stone Company except by mismanagement.
Topography .- The topography of Blair county depends directly on the character and structure of the underlying rocks; the soil is made from the disintegration of the
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BIOGRAPHY AND HISTORY
rocks in place, there being only a few un- important spots where there is any mass of foreign material; the wash of loose stuff along the foot of some of the mountains being clearly of no more distant origin than the mountain it skirts. The district can be divided into limestone, slate and sandstone country. The limestones make the large level valleys of Morrison's cove and Canoe valley ; the slates make small valleys, with sharp, steep hills; and the stones of IV, IX and X make mountains. The topog- raphy of the county is somewhat intricate, and beautifully illustrative of the geological structure. As the very nature of the struc- ture prevents any rational description of the county by townships, each mountain is taken in turn. Starting on the south, where it enters the county, and proceeding from east. to west, we have: Tussey, Dunning ; Loop, Lock, and Short mountains making one range; Canoe, Brush, and the Allegheny mountains. In these mountains are the fol- lowing water gaps : MeKee's, Short Moun- tain, Tyrone, Pattonsville, Water Street, Spruce Creek, Trout Run, Raver's, Dry, and Black's.
In regard to the valleys, as there is no wide-spread drift material in Blair county, the surface soil comes from the decomposi- tion of the rocks underlying. The lands of Morrison's cove and Canoe valley are lime- stone, and very productive farms; while the barrens of those valleys are not really barrens, but having been kept wooded for twenty years, and having no springs or running water, were not brought into culti- vation until of late years. The small val- leys, underlaid by the slates of III, are cultivated, and Bald Eagle valley, which rests on the slate of formations VIII and IX, is good farm land, while Sinking val-
ley is a limestone valley of rich and valuable farms.
Drainage. - The drainage of Blair county is somewhat complex from its geological structure, and, starting from the south, we have the following drainage systems : Frankstown Branch, Beaver Dam, and Lit- tle Juniata.
Levels above tide .- The elevations along the following lines of railways are shown in the tables given below :
1. PENNSYLVANIA RAILROAD.
STATIONS. FEET ABOVE TIDE.
Tunnel, at east end. 2126
Bennington Furnace. 2038
Alligrippus 1920
Murdocks 1626
Kittanning
1494
Altoona, at ticket office 1178
Blair Furnace 1114
Elizabeth Furnace. 1079
Bellwood (Bell's Mills). 1060
Fostoria.
1029
. Tipton 990
Tyrone R. R. junction 907
Tyrone water station. 896
Birmingham 866
Union Furnace 799
Spruce Creek.
777
Tunnel, west end. 761
Barre Forge. 724
2. NORTHWESTERN ( BELL'S GAP) RAILROAD.
STATIONS. FEET ABOVE TIDE.
Fallen Timber 1422
Van Ormer's. 1482
Cree's Summit 1857
Vanscoyoc.
1995
Figart's 2108
Summit Allegheny mountain. 2301
Lloyd's Station. 2180
Lloyd's Junction 2167
Point Lookout. 1915
39
OF BLAIR COUNTY.
STATIONS. FEET ABOVE TIDE.
Collier 1642
Root's 1222
Bellwood 1060
3. HOLLIDAYSBURG, NOW WILLIAMSBURG, BRANCH.
STATIONS. FEET ABOVE TIDE.
Altoona 1178
Allegheny 1152
Eldorado 1093
Canaan
1066
Duncansville.
990
Hollidaysburg
953
Old Terminus. 944
Brush Run (old canal line) 933
Frankstown 918
Reese Station
903
Clapper's Run
901
Koofer's Run
66
893
Juniata River
893
Pike Ponds 885
Flowing Spring 881
Springfield 66
876
Williamsburg
847
4. MORRISON'S COVE BRANCH.
STATIONS.
FEET ABOVE TIDE.
Hollidaysburg 942
Drawbridge. 942
Juniata river. 937 Reservoir 967
Catfish 968
Ridde's Lane 933 Brook's Mill. 1006 McKee's Gap. 1036
Martha Furnace 1054
Hammond's
1133
Roaring Spring 1196
Erb's Summit. 1354
Martinsburg Junction 1344
Martinsburg 1366
Ifenrietta Junction
1391
Matthew's Summit. 1471
STATIONS.
FEET ABOVE TIDE.
Nicodemus' Summit
1432
Clover Creek ..:
1392
Henrietta, ore bank.
1409
Terminus in Leathereracker Cove ..
1422
5. SPRINGFIELD BRANCH, CANOE VALLEY. STATIONS. FEET ABOVE TIDE
Williamsburg Tunnel
876
Trestle No. 1
968
Goods
1006
Davis' Summit
1376
Eighth-mile post.
1374
Although about one-half of the county has a rugged, mountainous surface, unsus- ceptible of cultivation, the rest is good val- ley land; and so great is the variety and scope of its geology that both its agricul- tural and mineral products are unusually varied and valuable, and its wealth and prosperity exceptionally great. The coal and coke works at Bennington and other places on the Allegheny mountains; the blast furnaces at Bennington, Altoona, IIol- lidaysburg, McKee's Gap, Rebecca, Spring- field, and Frankstown; the various forges and rolling mills, and the great railroad shops at Altoona; the brown hematite iron ore mines of Bloomfield, Springfield, and numerous other places (the two first named second in size and value to none other in the State); and the fossil ore of the Clin- ton formation mined at Frankstown, Holli- daysburg, and MeKee's Gap, are all impor- tant industries. Moreover, the valleys show numerous rich farms in Morrison's cove and Canoe valley.
Arch Spring .- This spring in Sinking valley was described by a writer in the Columbian Magazine, in 1788, as a deep hollow formed in the limestone rock, about 30 feet in width, with a huge arch of stone hanging over it, forming a passage for the
40
BIOGRAPHY AND HISTORY
water, which is thrown out with some degree of violence, and with so much volume that a fine stream is formed. U. P. Jones in describing it, in 1856, said: That the Arch spring is one of the greatest curiosities to be found in any country. It gushes from an opening, arched by nature, in such force as to drive a mill, and then sinks into the earth again.
Roaring Spring. - This is the largest spring in the upper end of the Juniata valley, and has more the appearance, it is said, of a subterranean river breaking out at the hillside than a spring. It gives name to the town of Roaring Spring, drives a grist mill only 100 feet below its head, and within two miles its stream of water fur- niishes motive power for two flouring mills, a a saw mill, and four forges. It derives its name from flowing with a sonorous sound over a rocky bed.
Sinking Valley Cave. - The triangular Sinking valley occupies the centre of the northern part of Blair county, narrowing south from the Juniata river until its east andi west boundary arms of Brush mountain unite in a point. It is ten miles long; has an area of about twenty-one square miles; lies 1,100 feet above the Atlantic ocean ; and contains some of the finest farming land in the county. The Sinking Valley cave is an opening in a hillside which is said to be large enough to admit a shallop with her sails full spread. Into its mouth flows Sinking run, whose source is Arch spring, and whose subterranean waters can be seen at places three hundred feet down in the earth through openings or pits in the lime- stone formation of the valley. After enter- ing the cave, it flows some four hundred feet until the cave widens into a large room, where it falls into a chasm or vortex, and
can not be followed any farther. No one has ever been able to explore this remark- able cave beyond where Sinking run falls into the vortex.
Another remarkable subterranean run is one which rises and sinks back of Ty- rone, where it breaks out in a large spring, while seven miles below Hollidaysburg, on the right bank of the river, is a spring that ebbs and flows with the regularity of the tides of the ocean.
Mound-Builders. - The history of Blair county, Pennsylvania, naturally divides itself into three distinct periods, each of which is characterized by a peculiar inhabiting race, as follows :
1. Aboriginal Period-Mound-builders. 2. Savage Period -Indians.
3. Civilized Period-White race.
There is but little known of the ancient history of the North American continent, despite the most exhaustive researches. Four centuries ago, when human eyes in the track of the morning sun-rays first beheld the forest shores of America, it was as if a great curtain had rolled away from the western world of waters.
But back of it lay a continent with only the Mound-builders' ruins and the Red men's traditions. No history in volumes traced, no record in rock-written inscrip- tion, to tell when the one race with a civilization but no history had gone, or the other race with a tradition but no civiliza- tion had come. Of the Mound-builders' origin and mysterious fate-first we have supposition, next theory from relics, then speculation, and that is all.
Within the last quarter of a century some light has been thrown on the aboriginal and the earlier part of the savage period by the researches in the field of archeology. Dr.
41
OF BLAIR COUNTY.
Brinton, in his Iconographie Dictionary of the Arts and Sciences, says: That prehis- toric archeology is an independent branch of the general history of man, and is an indispensable introduction to the general history of culture, for the rude objects of ancient art are mute witnesses of a period of human existence back of the scope of written records, and that they supply the long-sought means of tracing man from almost his first appearance on the globe down through his conquests over nature to the time when history takes up the thread of his career.
De Mortillet divides prehistoric archæ- ology into the ages of stone, bronze and iron, and has the first age to embrace three periods :
1. Etholithic, or fired stone.
2. Palæolithic, or chipped stone.
3. Neolithic, or polished stone.
The nomenclature of the archeology of the western hemisphere is closely similar to that of the eastern, and the prehistoric is separated from the historic by the discovery of America by Columbus; so that whatever in this country is ante-Columbian is also prehistoric.
The prehistoric archaeology of the United States lies wholly within the age of stone as confined to the palæolithic and neolithic periods. In the first period occurred the glacial age, whose disappearance most of the geologists agree in placing at thirty thousand years ago. Among the extinct animals of that period were the true mam- moth (Elephas primigenius), the mastodon, the great musk ox (Ovibos bombifroms), the reindeer, a huge lion (Felis atror), whose Ixmes have been found near Natchez, and a. large tiger, which frequented the area of Texas, besides two species of the horse.
It is generally accepted now that man ex- isted in North America during the glacial epoch of the Paleolithic period ; and stone im- plements made by him have been found in the Trenton gravels, the Nebraska Loes beds, and the auriferous gravels of California, which strengthen this view ; as well as the finding of the celebrated Calaveras human skull, at the depth of 150 feet, in a mining shaft in Calaveras county, California.
The art products of the aboriginal Amer- ican are represented by articles in stone, clay, bone, and shell. Those of stone are arrow and spear-heads, grooved .hammers and axes, gouges, semi-lunar knives, awls, scrapers, mortars and pestles, food vessels, spades, plummets, ornaments, pipes, images, and inseribed petroglyphs or tablets. The pottery of the middle Atlantic states was rude in character and imperfectly burned. Bone was used for fish hooks, spoons, awls, and ornaments. Shells were used for cups, spoons, chisels, and knives.
At what time and by what route the Mound-builder came into America none with certainty can tell. Geology, archa- ology and botany now agree in the existence at one time of a narrow stretch of land, ex- tending from the shores of England to the coast of the State of Maine, which was rended by the great ice fields of the glacial age into mere island fragments, of which alone Iceland and Greenland remain to-day. The study of the ocean currents, the winds and temperature of the South Pacific, with the record of drifting boats from the land of the Orientals being thrown upon the western shores of the South American continent, allow the possibility of a Mound-builder emi- gration from eastern Asia to western South America. Came they from Asia when Abraham sojourned in the land of Egypt?
42
BIOGRAPHY AND HISTORY
Came they at a later date across the track- less wilds of inhospitable Siberia, passing over the Behring strait on its ice-bound floor; or did they, in the northern winter land's sickly smile of summer, coast along the chain of the Aleutian islands stretching from Asia to America; or left they fabled Atlantis, when it was sinking in earthquake throes, to plant themselves on the North American shore? Did they cross on the north Atlantic isthmus ere it was torn into fragments by the fateful ice field; or were they wafted by favoring breezes from the Flowery Kingdom or East Indian isles to the South American continent? No one can tell. Mexican and Indian traditions and relies found in the mounds favor the hypothesis of their migration from Asia by Behring strait or the Aleutian islands, and that they were the ancestors of the Toltees and Aztecs of Mexico.
David Cusick, an educated Indian, in a work entitled "Ancient History of the Six Nations," states an Indian tradition assign- ing the Mound-builders back twenty-two centuries before the landing of Columbus. Were they strong in numbers? Undoubt- edly. As no traces exist of their possess- ing domestic animals, it must have taken great numbers of men long periods to build the great works whose ruins remain to this day.
These great works were of two kinds: first, mounds; second, fortifications. The mounds may be considered in regard to form and use; in form they were round, oblong, and pyramidal; as regards use, they may be divided into four classes :
Temple Mounds. - The first great class is pyramidal, in form they were round; in the west they are from fifty to ninety feet high and from three hundred to seven hundred
feet long, with terraces or steps ascending to their summits, where clear traces of for- mer buildings are to be found.
Altar Mounds .- The second great class in form is round, and found to be from two to four feet high, and five to eight feet across. On the top is generally a depres- sion in a layer of hardened clay ; and in this depression, ashes; and in these ashes, evi- dences of burnt sacrifices.
Effigy Mounds. - The third great class in form body forth rude representations of different animals, and, north of the Wiscon- sin river, are some representing the human form.
Tomb Mounds .-- The fourth great class of mounds in form is round and oblong, their dimensions widely varying in different lo- calities. One close to St Louis is forty feet high and three hundred feet long. They are far more abundant than those of the other classes. They are of two kinds : first, interment mounds; and second, battle mounds, where the slain were piled up and the earth heaped over them. These mounds in the Ohio valley are larger, and the bones in them, by an advanced stage of decomposition, show them to be older than the mounds of the Atlantic states. A careful examination of the inter- ment mounds in many places gives evidence of the practice of eremation rites.
Fortifications. - The second kind of these great works may be considered in regard to form, as circular, square, or elliptical ; in re- gard to use, they may be considered as of two classes.
Old Forts .- The first great class existed all over the Mississippi valley, enclosing from a few yards up to several acres of land. They were of different shapes, and stood on the banks of some water. They were earth
43
OF BLAIR COUNTY.
structures, east of the Mississippi; while west, stone was extensively used in their construction.
Fortified Heights. - The second great class in the east are generally found in Georgia; where, in one section of the State, all de- fensible mountains were fortified by this ex- tinet race. Mt. Yond, 4,000 feet high, and Stone Mountain, 2,360 feet high, were for- titied with stone rolled and heaped, and built into defensive walls.
What tools did they employ in the con- struction of their great works? Revealed ly the plow-share, unearthed from the mound, brought up from the half-hidden pit and concealed hiding-place, they are ucarly all stone, although it seems about the the of their last work in this country they had commenced to use copper tools, such as axes and hammers, obtained by working mines on Lake Superior, where a block of copper weighing six tons was discovered some years ago that they had commenced to take out, with their rude stone and copper tools lying by its side.
Why left this mighty race this great em- pire ? Did war from the Indians, famine or fever, waste them ? Or sought they a southern clime more warm than glows beneath our northern skies?
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