USA > Pennsylvania > Mifflin County > History of Mifflin County : its physical peculiarities, soil, climate, &c. ; including an early sketch of the state of Pennsylvania Volume I > Part 22
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It is a natural arrangement, therefore, to confine the limits of our present work to the Middle Juniata fossil ore belt. Its termini towards the Susquehanna are the east ends of Jaek's Mountain and of Shade Mountain, and its termini in the other direction are the west ends of Jack's Mountain and of Black Log Mountain.
One outcrop follows the south flank of Jack's Mountain from end to end, another encircles the East Shade Mountain, another the Blue Ridge, another the Black Log and West Shade Mountain.
Other smaller ones encircle the smaller ridges of East Shade Mountain, or follow the ridges on each side of the Juniata River, and along the middle of the Juniata Valley, and takes the suc- cessive ranges of outerops in an order from North to South, be- ginning with Jack's Mountain, and ending with Shade Mountain. The best geological work done east of the Juniata, was done in the vieinity of Lewistown, which will be described hereafter. The Oriskany outerops always make erested ridges, and when massive, very rugged ones, studded with picturesque pulpit rocks, like those so much visited in the vieinity of Huntingdon. These rocks may be recognized by the fossil easts which pit its weathered sides, often in great abundance. Sometimes it furnishes a good fire-brick clay. Around MeVeytown and in Jack's Narrows, its sand is - sharp, and so slightly eemented that the erosion of its surface has caused large accumulations of the best glass sand, which has been mined, washed and sold in large amounts; and this condition of things prevails more or less along the north dip of the south-east basin, from near Lewistown to McVeytown, and on the north side of the Oriskany basin of Ferguson's Valleys.
In Snyder and Juniata counties also, the same outcrops disintre- gate, and the coarse sand is spread in sheets along the top of the ridges, and is found along with the surrounding land.
At the McVeytown sand mine the glass sand mine is more than
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one hundred feet deep, and very little mixed with clay. The mother rock is compact enongh to require blasting, but the masses thrown out by the blast crumble in falling, and are often so completely broken up in the fall as to make it needless to pass them through the crusher, and they are at once washed with the accumulated sand. Some layers, however, are harder and have to be crushed be- fore going to the washers. The quantity of foreign matter washed out is insignificant when compared with the bulk of the sand. These rocks are, in some localities, hard and massive enough to be used as building stone. The planes in the McVeytown deposit do not run regularly but diagonally, forming wedge-shaped and pot- shaped nests, which sometimes drop out in mining when least ex- pected. When Mount Hope Furnace tunnel, seven miles from Lew- istown, was driven through the south-east dips of this rock to reach the Marcellus ore bed, it is said that more than sixty feet of pure white sand was brought to light. Where iron is present in this sand it is not adapted to the manufacture of glass. The top of the formation is frequently charged with iron, and its outcrop blocks look like masses of ore, but they are mere iron-stained and incrusted chunks of sandstone.
ORISKANY SHALE.
Takes its name from the Oriskany sandstone, which overlies it .. It is calcareous, sillicious, variegated in color, and of variable thickness, but is generally a deposit where the Oriskany sandstone exists, and with it forms the tops of theridges. Its layers are hard, its fractures are sometimes square and sometimes conchoidal. At Lew- istown, and also at Mount Union and McVeytown, the weathered layer shows bright colors, but where exposed on the Kishacoquillas creek, they are of a dark color. Exposures are almost always yel- low ; at Lewistown and McVeytown, traversed by streaks of white and chocolate; some of the strata of various shades of yellow have thin bands of purple and white, with purple streaks; the whole form- ing a handsome stone, especially when those colors are heightened by moisture. Each bed is generally in thin layers, traversed by many vertical joints, set close together, so that the blocks break off short. This lower division of the Oriskany varies from less than fifty to more than two hundred feet in thickness. Small pockets of brown hematite ore are of frequent occurrence in these shales, but no- where does the ore appear to exist in quantity.
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HISTORY OF MIFFLIN COUNTY.
LEWISTOWN SHALE LIMESTONE.
Underlies the Oriskany shale, and overlies the Lewistown lime- stone. It is composed of a shaly limestone, an argillaceons sand, in part, silliceons shale, with some thin beds of an excellent quality of hard blne limestone, excellent for building purposes, and for flagging. Portions of it produce blocks from ten inches to a foot in thickness, and some only a few inches thick.
Near Lewistown these flags and stones have been quarried to some extent. This is the character of the shale in the ridges of Mifflin county, but it makes lime of an inferior quality, but the Lewistown limestone is of a very superior quality, and thousands of tons are shipped to various points for the use of the furnaces. The thickness as far as known, may be stated as follows : at Lewis- town, one hundred and forty feet; at McVeytown, one hundred and thirty feet; at Mount Union only about eighteen feet thick ..
LEWISTOWN LIMESTONE.
This lower Heidleberg limestone underlying the lime shale, and overlying the water lime is general throughout those districts where Oriskany sandstone ridges have preserved it. It is a bed of sub-chrystaline limestone of a bluish color, making an excellent lime for which purpose it is extensively used. It is burned for lime in various localities in the county. It is used in preference to all others for fluxing at Emma furnace, at Logan, and at Matilda furnaces, near Mount Union. This formation carries at its top, in some places, a bed of cheet rock which makes an excellent building and curb stone. The blue Lewistown limestone veins are one hundred and eighty-five feet thick at Lewistown; two hundred and fifteen at McVeytown, and thirty-five feet at Monnt Union.
WATER LIME.
The cement layers of this period measure four hundred and . seventy feet at Lewistown, from the bottom of the heavy blue-gray sub-chrystaline Lewistown limestone down to the Salina group. The thickness of all the limestones from the Oriskany down to the Salina group measures seven hundred and ninety feet. Some of the water lime beds are of a purer quality than others, and this formation is largely composed of hydraulic beds, some of which make a good cement, but no sufficient series of analysis has yet been made. At the top of this formation, under the
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Lewistown limestone, there is a massive bed of dove-colored lime- stone and more argillaceous than the Lewistown limestone, and having a smooth fracture. This bed is finely laminated in thin and regular horizontal layers, some of them silliceous. Near the bottom are a number of massive beds of blue limetone of excellent quality, separated from each other by inferior limestones and shales and soft calcareous layers, some of the more flaggy and earthy beds slack but imperfectly when burned, and are more of the character of hydraulic cement rock. All these beds contain as a general rule magnisia.
SALINA OR ONONDAGO SALT GROUP.
Underlying the water lime and resting immediately upon the Niagra lime shales are three hundred and fifty feet of red, green and yellow argillaceous and calcareous shale, but it includes a calcar- eous sandstone, and also some thin poor limestones. The propor- tion of these impure limestone layers and lime shales increases toward the top of the group where it supports the bottom layers of the water lime group.
The soils produced along the outerops of this formation, are by far the most productive of all the soils in this district. This is the formation that holds rock salt and gypsum, and the same strata that yields the brine at Syracuse, New York.
The outer slopes of Jack's Mountain, Shade Mountain, Blue Ridge, Black Log Mountain, Tuscarora Mountain, the Buffalo and White Deer Mountains, in Union county, Bald Eagle Mountain, in Lycoming county, Tussey and Standing Stone Mountains, in Clinton county, are all outcrops of what are called the Clinton formation, as are also demonstrated by explorations along the foot of Jack's Mountain, between Logan's Gap and Jack's Narrows.
The ore, red sand stone, with its terrace, is the most important feature of this slope, being an infallible guide to the place of fossil ores. Upper red shale, so named because of its numerous red beds, although it contains more or less inter-bedded in it, green and yellow shales. At Logan Gap, it measures four hundred and thirty-two feet thick. In Ferguson's Valley, north of the Lewis- town, lime stone and Oriskany sand stone ridges, there is an unusual great thickness of red shale layers towards the top of the mass. Here and there, an occasional green bed occurs, and at one horison, near the middle of the mass, there are about forty feet of varigated layers of two to three feet thick.
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In the Lewistown Valley, where the Clinton formation comes up again, south of the ridges, a very little red shale is visible. Almost the whole mass is green and yellow. Upper lime stone shales and gray varigated shales on Kishaeoquillas Creek, measure three hun- dred and twenty- six feet. The rock is compact and heavy, some- times quite sandy, generally calcareous; color, varying from a greenish-gray to green and yellow, with an occasional reddish layer.
The weathered surfaces are of a dark greenish tint. The whole group is calcareous and forms the basis of the superior farming lands of the valleys of this district.
LOWER RED SHALE
Is the persistent formation which marks, with its deep zig-zag belts, the surface of Middle Pennsylvania, and gave to the Clinton forma- tion, in the old Geological Surveys, the name of Red Shale No. 5.
It keeps its color throughout, except for an occasional thin layer of reddish green shale.
It is finely exposed where the Pennsylvania Railroad enters the west end of the long narrows of the Juniata, opposite Lewistown, and on the river bluffs for several miles above Mifflintown, and other places lower down. It is seldom less than two hundred and sixty feet thick, as on the Kishacoquillas Creek, and often thicker ; and when the dip is low, its belt of outcrops lies considerably up the mountain slope, producing tillable land. Near the middle of these shales occur soft sandstone layers, from six inches to two feet thick, breaking with a square fracture. These layers become exceptionally hard and silicious near McCoytown, in Tuscarora Valley, where they exhibit on the surface numerous quartz chrys- tals. At Logan's Gap, in Jack's Mountain, the white Medina sand- stone measures eight hundred and twenty feet thick ; in Rockhill Gap, of Black Log Mountain, four hundred feet thick. The most of it consists of massive layers of hard, gray rock of sand, each from two to four feet thick ; some fine grained, some argillaceous. At Penn Creek, in Snyder county, and in Jack's Narrows, between Huntingdon and Union, one division of it is ferruginous.
These ferruginous layers are all between thirty to fifty feet thick. They overlie a layer between six to eight feet thick, con- taining, sometimes, a good deal of poor brown [hematite. Great blocks of this are found near the crest of the mountain, on Shade Mountain and elsewhere.
It is not true ore, but sandstone, the surface of which weathered 15
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HISTORY OF MIFFLIN COUNTY.
into a sandy brown hematite. When the blocks are broken, the interior is seen to be unaltered, hard, whitish sandstone. White sand collects along the crests of these mountains by the disintegra- tion of the more loosely grained layers of the Medina stone. West from Belltown, to Logan's Gap, a distance of about eight miles, through the property of the Logan Iron and Steel Company, the mountain terrace runs with extreme evenness and regularity. The dip continues steep, being fifty-six degrees at Logan's Gap.
The outcroppings of the ore beds warrant the belief that they exist in good condition ; and on these high dips, it is fair to sup- pose that the beds will contain soft fossil ore to various depths below the surface. During 1860 William Mann, Jr., and James Mann opened the sand vein ore bed at water level, on the creek, and obtained a good quality of hard ore. The bed was eighteen inches thick.
In 1875, Messrs. Longacre and Woods opened the sand vein ore bed, on the lands of Messrs. Manns, forty feet higher than the former beginning. A gangway was driven for about a hundred and forty yards, obtaining a soft ore throughout. The bed dips fifty-six degrees south, and is eighteen inches thick.
Emma furnace is located three miles north-east of Lewistown, on the Kishacoquillas creek, and belongs to the Logan Iron and Steel Company. It was built in 1862, and has since been making blast charcoal iron most of its time. The stack is of stone, thirty-four feet high, thirty-four feet square at the base, the opening at the two feet. The pressure of the blast used is one-half pounds to the square inch. The ore used in 1875, was brown hematite and Brush Ridge fossil ore, one-half of each The furnace averaged forty-three tons cold blast iron per weck, or fifty-five tons hot blast.
The fine quality of the iron manufactured in Mifflin county needs no comment. Her finished axes go to Europe and all over America, and her steel tire for locomotives go from Logan Steel Works to California.
EAST SHADE MOUNTAIN.
The anticlinical axis of this mountain crosses the Susquehanna river about a mile north-east of Selinsgrove, and traverses the Chestnut Ridge until it crosses the mountain, through the centre of which it runs to the termination of the mountain, south-east of Lew- istown. Beyond this point the axis is prolonged many miles south- west, in higher formations, forming the hills bordering on the Ju-
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HISTORY OF MIFFLIN COUNTY.
niata river on the south. The general course of the mountain from its origin, eight miles west of Selinsgrove, to its terminus one mile south-west of Lewistown, is south sixty degrees west. The moun- tain is thirty-two miles in length. Its crest ascends gradually from its north-east point, and extends for several miles with a broad rounded and unbroken summit. About ten miles from its north- east end, the Oneida conglomerate rises to the surface, and the crest becomes tripple, the three ridges extending to within six miles of Lewistown. The middle ridge is divided from the two exterior crests of Medina white sandstone by an elevated valley of the softer Medina red sandstone.
This mountain flexure subsides very rapidly towards the south- west, carrying the Medina white sandstone under the surface, just before reaching the Juniata river, south of Lewistown. As the flexure sinks the south dip decreases from forty degrees to thirty degrees, and the north-west dip changes from fifty-five degrees to thirty-five degress. Where the anticlinical is cut by the Juniata river, south of Lewistown, the section of the Upper and Lower Clin- ton shales and ore sandstone dipping forty degrees north-west is ex- posed. The antielinical of East Shade Mountain continues to sub- side towards the south-west, and about two miles south-west of Lew- istown, carries down the Upper Clinton shales and varigated red shales. There are a number of gaps in the East Shade Mountain, which we here mention in their order, proceeding westward, viz: Adamsburgh Gap, three and one-half miles west of Adamsburgh; Mitchell's Gap, three miles from Painter's Station ; Oswell's Gap, ten and one-half miles east from Lewistown; Mowery's Gap, two miles cast from Painter's Station, on the Sunbury and Lewistown railroad. These gaps do not cut through the entire mountain, but only through the north-west dip of the Medina. Along the course of this ridge the soil is generally covered with fragments of ore, which vary greatly in quality.
At Juniata Narrows, south of Lewistown, the block ore is repre- sented by a few thin seams of argillaceous sand stone in the lower Clinton shales. Mowrey's Gap, ten miles east of Lewistown, show, both the sand vein ore bed and the Danville ore beds show out- crops of good, soft fossil ore. The ore sandstone, retains a thick- ness of twenty-five feet. The upper portion, which at the Juniata Narrows, contains more argillaceous matter, here assumes the character of a silicions sand stone. On the property of Henry Gibony, on the east side of Mowrey's Gap, the measure's dip from
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HISTORY OF MIFFLIN COUNTY.
fifty degrees to sixty degrees. A surface specimen from the under- lying vein on this property, yields, upon analysis, iron, 32,700; sulphur, .031 ; phoshorus, .415; insolable residue, 32,560.
Nine miles from Lewistown, and about one mile south-east from Painter's station, a tunnel has been driven about eighty feet through the Upper Clinton fossil ore shale, cutting the sand vein ore bed, which is about twelve inches thick, composed of fossiliferous lime stone and hard fossil ore. From Maitland Station to Mowry's Gap, the measures dip about fifty degrees north-west, which brings the ore sandstone, close to the mountain, forming a high, abrupt and unbroken terrace.
Owing to the absence of ravines, cross-cuts will be necessary to open the ore beds. The ore will generally prove a hard fossil in both the sand vein and the Danville beds.
Maitland Station, four miles east of Lewistown, is the most western point along this line where prospecting has been donc. William Howe, shafted upon the sand vein ore bed, which proved a good, soft fossil ore, sixteen to eigliteen inches in thickness.
Jack's Creek flows south from Jack's mountain, and makes its way through the Lewistown limestone ridges, by means of gaps and subteranean passages, cuts through the ore sandstone and terrace of Shade Mountain, one mile east of the Juniata River, to the Medina sandstone, which turns its course westward, then flow- ing west between Shade Mountain and low, irregular hills of lower Clinton shales, it empties into the Juniata River, two miles below Lewistown. From Juniata Narrows to Granville Gap, the ore, sand- stone, forms the flank of a ridge over the surface of which boulders of rock are scattered. Granville Run, which rises in the gap of the Blue Ridge, cuts through the ore sandstone, two hundred feet from the Juniata River, leaving a small knob between the two streams. There are no surface indications of ore.
At Granville gap, one mile south-east of the Juniata narrows, the ore sandstone is exposed on the north-west dip of 30 degrees, the south-east dip is seventy-five degrees. The crest of the anti- clinical is flattened and almost arched over by the ore sandstone. None of the ore beds have been opened, for their exposures indicate they are very small.
LOGAN AND LEWISTOWN SECTIONS.
These sections show the relation of the rocks between the Juniata river at Lewistown, and the Kishacoquillas Valley, at
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Reedsville. They include the rocks of the lower portion of the Hamiltonian period, and all of the Silurian age to the upper por- tion of the Trenton period. The same rocks, together with all the formations of the Devonian age, and a portion of the carbonifer- ous have been measured in a section from Orbisonia to Broad Top. In the valleys lying between Jack's and Shade mountains there are no rocks higher in geological order than the Genesee and Hamilton shales. These form prominent ridges in the central portions of the valleys.
LOGAN SECTION.
The line of section is taken at right angles to the strike of the measures which is south fifty-four degrees west. The section shows the position of the rocks and gives thickness to the divisions which occur between Logan and Reedsville. At Logan the water-lime shale dips forty degrees south. This dip flattens as weapproach the Furgeson valley ore ridge anticlinical which occurs between Logan and Yeagertown. The anticlinical, bears the ore sandstone on its. crest about four hundred feet below the level of Kishacoquillas creek. The rising of the anticlinical towards the south-west brings the ore sandstone to the surface about two miles from Yeagertown. The fossil ore beds crop out on the south-east flank of Jack's mountain. The upper layers of Medina white sandstone form the cress of Jack's mountain. The bold terrace on the north-west flank of the mountain is made by the out-crop of the Oneida gray sandstone.
LEWISTOWN SECTION.
The line of this section is located two-and-a-half miles south- west of the Logan section, and parallel to it. It shows the posi- tion of the rocks between Lewistown and Jack's mountain. It shows the measures from the Marcellus black slate to the Medina white sandstone.
Between Lewistown and Ferguson's Valley are three synclinal flexures containing Oriskany sandstone. The several outerops of this sandstone form parallel ranges of irregular hills. Just north- west of Lewistown are some slight flexures, which spread out the Oriskany sandstone over considerable area. These flexures are shown more in detail in the Kishacoquillas Valley section, which is located east of this. To the west, owing to the rising flex- ures, the sandstone has been carried away by erasures. The principal . synclinal flexure south of Prospect Rock contains the Marcellus
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HISTORY OF MIFFLIN COUNTY.
ore bed. Both dips steepen, and the flexure sinks slowly to the south-west. It is the same with the McCoy ore bank synclinal of the McVeytown section. On the north-east dip of the Oriskany sandstone of this synclinal, the Juniata Sand Company and Dull & Bradley's sand mines are located.
Dry Valley is formed by a synclinal flexure, which, between Logan and MeVeytown, is generally known as Squaw Hollow. It corresponds to the Ross ore bank synclinal of the McVeytown section. The first synclinal flexure south of Ferguson's Valley is comparatively small, and does not contain the Marcellus ore bed on the line of section. To the west, however, the north-west dip steepens, and the whole flexile subsides. This synclinal corre- sponds to the Dull & Bradley ore bank syncline of the McVey- town section, and is the one on which the MeGirk ore bank is located. The ore ridge anticlinal section brings the fossil ore measures to the surface, where they form two lines of outerops. This anticlinal has risen eight hundred feet in two and one-half miles, between the Logan and Lewistown section. The combined thickness of the rocks in the Lewistown and Logan sections, exclusive of the Marcellus and Trenton group, is eight thousand and eighty-four feet.
FERGUSON'S VALLEY
Lies between Jack's Mountain on the north, and the Oriskany ridges on the south, and extends west from Yeagertown thirteen miles, to the east end of the Kansas Valley. Owing to the steep- ening of the dips, and the consequent approach of the ridges of the mountain, the valley, which was one and three-quarter miles wide at Yeagertown, becomes narrower to the westward. The Clinton, saliferous and the water-line shales underlie this valley, and give it a great variety of soils.
JACK'S MOUNTAIN ORE RANGE,
On the south-west side of Logan Gap, the outcrop of the fossil ore beds, attain a greater height than on the east side.
No openings have been made on the mountain dips of the ore beds between the Logan Gap and Long Hollow, though there is abundance of evidence of the existence of ore in the sand vein bed throughout its entire course. The outcrop shows in many places . both as fossil ore and hematite. The bed is seen to be of a fair size at Logan's Gap, and increases to the south-west, being twenty-
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two inches thiek at Mt. Union. The block ore scattered on the surface of the terrace, seven miles from Logan's Gap, is of no economic value, though richer in iron than at Logan's Gap and Jack's Narrows.
A bed of bloek ore at Logan's Gap, is in two thin layers, divided by shale.
At Jaek's Narrows, on the east side of the Juniata river, it is three feet thick. The terrace of Jack's Mountain is broken by fre- quent ravines, affording the opportunity for opening the ore beds and increasing the probability of their containing soft ore. From Logan's Gap to Peter Rush's, where the ore ridge sinks away, the terrace is high and regular, and from here to a point north of MeVey- town, the outerop of the ore sandstone is broken down, the terrace is low, and broken by numerous small shallow ravines. The flexure which forms the ridge, rises south-west from Yeagertown, bringing up the ore sandstone and accompanying ore beds in about two milles, where they form a small ridge. The synelinal between Yeagertown and Jaek's Mountain rises with the anticlinal. North of MeKees, the highest roeks remaining in it are the Clinton Lower red shales. Near MeKees' ore bank, seven miles south-west from Yea- gertown, the ore ridge is wide, and nearly as high as the terrace of Jack's Mountain. At John Kinser's, two miles west of MeKees, the anticlinals are very much contorted. Two miles further south-west, at Peter Rush's, which is three miles north-east of the line of the McVeytown section, the south-east anticlinical flexure earries the ore sandstone under the surface. Between Peter Rush's and the line of the MeVeytown seetion, one of the flexures of the ore ridge flattens out. In the MeVeytown section, there is a single, simple anticlinieal, on the crest of which the ore sandstone must lie at a depth of more than one thousand seventeen hundred feet below the surface. The whole length of the ore ridge, from Keever's ore bank to Peter Rush's, is about eight miles. In this distance a number of ravines eut through the ridge and afford good opportunities for opening ore beds at water level. The drips are generally moderate, from thirty degrees to forty degrees. The ore of the sand vein bed is a medium soft fossil, of very fair quality, throughout the ridge. At the Graham ore bank these beds are hard fossil ore, sixteen in- ches thick. They exist on the mountain dip at Logan's Gap, at Jack's Narrows, near Mount Union. At both these points they are of suf- ficient size to warrnt their being worked if they are rich enough in iron.
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