USA > Wisconsin > Sauk County > A standard history of Sauk County, Wisconsin, Volume I > Part 4
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Eagle Rock, about in the center of the western cliffs, is the highest point around the lake.
PREHISTORIC MOUNDS AT THE LAKE
A circuit of the lake may well be concluded with a careful examina- tion of the Bird Effigy, and other prehistorie mounds on the lakeshore.
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The Bird Effigy was first platted by William H. Canfield, the pioneer antiquarian in 1875. The length of the body is about 115 feet and the wings spread 240 feet. A portion of one wing was destroyed when the hotel at Kirkland was ereeted at the south end of the lake. A more detail account of this remarkable relic is given elsewhere in connection with the placing of the tablet which marks its site.
At the north end of the lake are several mounds, which have also been more or less mutilated. A few rods north of the old Cliff House in the southern border of section 13 is a long low mound which is eut in two by the railroad. Some thirty rods to the west are two lineal mounds, one extending into the public road and the other nearly parallel with the lake shore. These mounds are on the wash plain, and are not to be confounded with the irregular ridge marking an old shore-line which lies close by. Directly in front of the well known Claude cottage is a group which is badly mutilated. A bear effigy, a lineal mound, and another effigy which none has had the hardihood to definitely identify, are all headed toward the lake. The bear lies on the level land at the foot of the moraine close to the path that leads from the house to the lake. The tail of the other effigy extends up the slope until destroyed by the drive that passes in front of the cottage.
On the crest of the terminal moraine some sixty rods northeast of these mounds is a well preserved effigy, also unnamed. Its site com- mands a complete view of Devil's Lake to the south and Baraboo and much of the adjacent country to the north. The head of this mound, which is very large in proportion to the body, is at least three feet in height. The tail slopes down to the level of the ground without a distinct point of termination. The mound is surrounded with trees. With the establishment of the State Park and the formation of an enlightened publie sentiment, it is probable that all of the remaining prehistoric mounds at the lake will be carefully preserved.
PEWIT'S NEST OF SKILLET CREEK
One of the most picturesque localities in the county is known as Pewee or Pewit's Nest, it being a cave in the sandstone canyon of Skillet Creek, a southern branch of the Baraboo River, which at this point flows through the northeast quarter of section 9, about three miles southwest of Baraboo and the same distance northwest of Devil's Lake. William H. Canfield states that it received its name in 1843 from the fact that an ingenious mechanic built a workshop in a recess of the solid sandstone there, ten feet above a deep pool of water the basin of which had been excavated by the plunge of water over a fall of eight or ten feet in height. The approach to it was either through a trap door in the roof, or a trapdoor in the floor. If through the roof, it was by elimbing down the rock wall to it; if through the floor, it was by a
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floating bridge upon the pool, with a ladder at its end leading to the trapdoor in the floor. The shop could not be seen from the mouth of the canyon, or from the top, or from any direction but one. Hence, by the early settlers it was called Pee-wee's Nest. Thenee the eccentric tinker repaired in both senses of the word, mending watches, clocks, guns, farming utensils and everything else in a damaged condition which was not beyond repair. His lathes for turning iron and wood were operated by an old-fashioned centrifugal water-wheel. He also had a large coffee mill and a grindstone run by the same means. He was a good story-teller, a lively fiddler and not a bad preacher for the Mormon Church. In later years, and the last heard of the resident of Pewit's Nest, he had added the practice of medicine to his other accomplish- ments. After he abandoned the "nest," a sawmill was built near by, propelled by an overshot water-wheel thirty-four feet in diameter, with a shaft nine feet long set into the rocky walls of the canyon. For years this wheel was an interesting feature of the landscape, and remained suspended there long after most of its contemporaries in the line of machinery had rusted into oblivion.
THE UPPER SKILLET FALLS
The lower falls of Skillet Creek are at Pewit's Nest; the Upper Skillet Falls three-fourths of a mile up the stream. The creek here
SKILLET FALLS
makes several leaps down a total fall of some fifteen feet into a shallow pond, the walls on either side rising twenty-five or thirty feet with borders of pine. In the soft sandstone the water has worn numerous
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holes, like basins, or the old-fashioned skillet. The first settler who built his cabin at the upper falls therefore named the stream Skillet Creek.
PARFREY GORGE
Parfrey Gorge, or glen, is one of the prettiest bits of scenery in the Baraboo Valley-a tiny gem. It is like two green and brown eur- tains 100 feet high parting the sandstone and higher formations of this section of the Baraboo Bluffs, swinging open the doors about seventy-five feet, and revealing a vista of a third of a mile into a valley of the highlands, through which comes leaping down a foaming stream, lively, beautiful-and powerful for turning the wheels of industry in pioneer times.
DURWARD GLEN
Three miles east of the Gorge, also on the south slope of the north Baraboo Bluff, is the beautiful Durward Glen, upon which seems to rest the spirit of romance and religion, of its beloved sponsor, B. I. Durward, the poet, painter and recluse. The glen, in the center of which tumbles a sparkling, pearly trout stream, is seventy-five feet across, and walled with irregular sandstone and conglomerates for a similar height. Upon one side, overhanging the gorge, is a painter's studio, wherein have been executed many large and beautiful altar pieces for the Catholic Church by Mr. Durward, the father of the glen, and his son, who was also educated as a painter. Another son is the venerable and beloved Father John T. Durward, who resigned from the active priesthood some six years ago. Upon the east side of the glen, some- what retired from the eliff and opposite the studio, is a rudely constructed chapel of stone, the Catholic St. Mary's of the Pines. In his "Wild Flowers of Wisconsin" the poet-painter has thrown the glamour of his verse around both Durward Glen and St. Mary's of the Pines.
LIFE OF THE BUYER OF THE GLEN
The eentenary of the birth of B. I. Durward, was appropriately observed at a meeting of the Sauk County Historical Society held at the home of Mr. and Mrs. R. B. Griggs in March, 1917, and in the course of its proceedings Father Durward gave an interesting account of his father's early life and his later work.
B. I. Durward was born at Montrose, Scotland, and when he was quite young his own father was drowned while bathing in the sea. There were four sons and one daughter in the family, the daughter dying before its various members came to America. The four brothers came
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to Dodge County, this state, and several of the descendants of those early families are still living in that section of Wisconsin.
Father Durward said it required thirty days to cross the ocean and the journey to Milwaukee was by boat through the Great Lakes. Before coming, B. I. Durward had been apprenticed as a shoemaker, but did little work on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays. On those days he
FALLS AT DURWARD GLEN
studied the books which were tucked beneath the bench. On the remain- ing days of the week he made up for lost time, so rapid a workman was he. Afterward he went to England, where he fell in love with the brush and easel. This training served him well. when he reached Mil- waukee. When he arrived at that city with his wife and two children he had one English shilling left. After coming ashore he noticed a fine
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looking man and followed him into his store. There a bargain was struck to paint his portrait for a barrel of flour. This was the first picture he painted in the State of Wisconsin.
Afterward among the other portraits which came from his brush were those of Bishop Henni and Joshua Hathaway. While painting the portrait of the former, Mr. Durward was converted to Catholicism. The two pietures now adorn the walls of the state historical rooms at Madison. Later, he became a professor of belles-lettres in St. Francis Academy.
While in Milwaukee Mr. Durward built three houses, and at last traded one of these for three pieces of land in other localities of the state. Through one of these dealings he came into possession of the glen. Two Scotch friends resided there-Alexander Prentiss and Georgie (George) Mearns, the latter having come from Montrose. The Durward family moved thither in 1862.
Parfrey and Durward glens are gems of beauty; the Devil's Lake region, as well as other sections of the southern Baraboo Range partake of the grand type of scenery; for grandeur is, at best, but comparative. The Baraboo Ranges and their deepest, most rugged gorges, are but pygmies in comparison with the Rockies and the canyons of Colorado.
VIEW FROM PROSPECT HILL
Of the impressive views in Sauk County few can be compared with that obtained from Prospect Hill, in Columbia County, opposite Prairie du Sae. At your feet is the Wisconsin River winding southward among islands and around sandstone cliffs or glassy points. In the foreground, with every detail visible, are the massive dam, power house and locks of the river, and the village of Prairie du Sac and less distinet, because two miles further south, Sauk City. The entire stretch of Sauk Prairie is before you, and as background Honey Creek, Otter Creek and Baraboo Bluffs.
HIGHEST AND LOWEST POINTS IN THE COUNTY
Although Prospect Hill is an imposing elevation, it is not the highest point in the region. That has been located in the town of Greenfield, near the middle west line of section 15, and is 900 feet above the water- level of Lake Michigan. Some of the highest and lowest points in the townships are thus given :
Spring Green depot, 144 feet above Lake Michigan; top of bluff northwest quarter of section 5, 465 feet.
Town of Troy, northwest corner of section 2, township 8, range 4, 130 feet; top of bluff, northwest quarter of section 14, township 9, range 5, 500 feet.
Prairie du Sac, base of bluff at southwest quarter of section 21, township 9, range 6, 166 feet ; top of bluff in section 17, 490 feet.
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Town of Franklin, seetion 2, township 9, range 9, 195 feet; section 19, 490 feet.
Honey Creek, section 31, township 10, range 5, 200 feet; seetion 2, 610 feet.
Town of Sumpter, section 15, township 10, range 6, 230 feet; road- bed on section 26, township 11, range 6, 625 feet.
Town of Merrimack, seetion 28, 260 feet; section 23, 580 feet.
Town of Westfield, Logansville, seetion 17, 330 feet ; section 11, 660 feet.
Town of Freedom, bridge on east half of seetion 2, 268 feet; sections 23 and 26, 830 feet.
Town of Baraboo, depot grounds, section 2, 280 feet; eliff-top on middle west line of section 24, 850 feet.
Town of Greenfield, road-bed on section 26, township 12, range 7, 215 feet; point near the middlewest line of section 15, township 11, range 7, 900 feet.
Town of Reedsburg, surface of creek, seetion 35, 280 feet; highest points on sections 29 and 30, 580 feet.
Town of Excelsior, middle north half of section 2, 290 feet ; bluff-top in east half of section 5, 575 feet.
Town of Fairfield, bridge, center section 23, 225 feet; bluff-top south- east quarter section 22, 590 feet.
Town of Winfield, southeast corner seetion 27, 280 feet; southeast corner seetion 24. 468 feet.
Town of Dellona, seetion 5, 300 feet; section 19, 390 feet.
By adding 589 feet to any given point, the result will be the elevation above the ocean.
The following figures are altitudes above the sea: Ableman, C. & N. W. Ry., 878 feet; Barahoo, C. & N. W. Ry., 861 feet; Baraboo, court- house, 897 feet; Black Hawk, iron post near stone church, 1,261 feet; Denzer, iron post at cross roads, 803 feet; Devils Lake, C. & N. W. Ry., 967 feet; Merrimack, C. & N. W. Ry., 796 feet; Reedsburg, C. & N. W. Ry., 1,011 feet ; Sauk City, C. M. & St. P. Ry., 758 feet ; Spring Green, C. M. & St. P. Ry., 729 feet.
NOT A COUNTY OF LAKES
There are few bodies of water in Sauk County which may be dignified as lakes. Dell Creek widens below Delton into a beautiful sheet 'of water known as Mirror Lake, which has become quite a resort for summer tourists and cottagers, while the development of the water-power at Prairie du Sae has backed the Wisconsin River up into Spring Creek at Merrimack, and there formed a little body which is often called a lake. The widened Wisconsin is often mentioned as Lake Wisconsin. There is also an expansion of Honey Creek in section 8, of Prarie du
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Sac Township, which may be either a pond or a lake; but the only recognized beauty-spot of this nature is Mirror Lake, at Delton.
THE BARABOO VALLEY LANDS
As to the general distribution of the prairie and timber lands through the county, and the varieties and the nature of the soil, it may be stated that the prairies are generally small, the only large ones being Webster and Prairie du Sac. The heaviest timbered lands comprise a central belt and substantially are comprised within the region of the Baraboo Valley and the Baraboo Bluffs. The basin of the Baraboo River, within the county, has an area of over 600 square miles, and seems to be the dividing line between two distinct soils. That upon the south side of the river is mostly a heavy clay subsoil, with a vegetable loam as surface soil, and is timbered with linn, maple, oak, elm, walnut, hickory, ash and cherry. That upon the north side has a similar subsoil, with more sand on the surface. The north side comprises oak openings, prairie and marsh lands, well watered with springs and runs.
The prominent physical features of the Upper Baraboo country were the small prairies dotting the timbered distriets, and ranging in area from an aere to several hundred. Some of the largest were Narrows, Ball's, Blakeslie's, Hubbell's, Kerstetter's, Stead's and Ribock's. Within comparatively recent years these old prairies have been partially obliter- ated by later growths of trees. Narrows Creek Valley is quite equally divided between timber, marsh and prairie, and contains about fifty square miles of fertile lands.
BASIN OF BABB'S CREEK
Passing from Narrows Creek over a divide capped with limestone, entrance is made into the basin of Babb's Creek, which is the largest of the timber-inclosed prairies of the region. Upon the east side is the Baraboo River, and there was an Indian ford here in the early days, the bottom of the river for a short distance being rock. In the immediate vicinity is Reedsburg.
LITTLE BARABOO VALLEY
The Valley of the Little Baraboo joins the valley of the main stream about eight miles beyond. The point of juneture is just southeast of the village of Lavalle. The Little Baraboo River furnishes at its mouth some 12,000 inches of water and is a noticeably permanent stream. In Sauk County it waters about thirty square miles of good arable land. Several miles south, the little Baraboo traverses an iron deposit, which was one of the first worked in Wisconsin, with Ironton, in the northern
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part of the township by that name, as the center of operations. The deposits at that point, are a continuation of these mined in the famous Iron Ridge of Dodge County. The ores are very hard and were used to mix with the softer grades of the Lake Superior region. The later development of the great Gogebie Range in northeastern Wisconsin com- pletely submerged the mines of Dodge and Sauk counties.
LANDS IN THE UPPER BARABOO VALLEY
Further west in the valley of the Baraboo the land becomes rolling and agricultural in its nature; then come Kerstetter, Stead and Ribock prairies, and the fertile little valley of the Plum Creek, about a third the size of the basin of the Little Baraboo. On the east side of the Bara- boo River, about opposite this locality, was the Old Pinery, the source of so many great drives of logs in the days when lumber was king.
The town of Lavalle, and especially the Ox and Big Creck valleys, is not inviting to the lover of prairie land. Winfield, however, has some excellent lands, easily worked. Twin Creek, which is fringed with oak, meanders through fertile bottom lands and is also surrounded by rich- soiled table lands. An excellent agricultural country also lies along Hay Creek, in the southeastern and eastern portions of Winfield Town- ship, especially in the locality of Sligo, the old-time Irish settlement.
THE COPPER CREEK VALLEY
Nearer Reedsburg, in the Copper Creek Valley, the soil is light and sandy. Not far from the mouth of that stream was the copper mine which at one time created considerable excitement. What few tons of ore that were taken out were rich, but the vein suddenly refused to yield. In sinking shafts, or making exeavations anywhere in this region, a sheet of clay was found strongly impregnated with verdigris, but like the iron deposits, the possibilities of striking copper in paying quantities seemed so slight in comparison with the quick and enormous yields of Northern Wisconsin and Northern Michigan, that efforts in that line have been abandoned these many years.
THE VALLEY OF DELL CREEK
Dell Creek waters a fertile prairie basin of sixty-five square miles in the northeastern part of Sauk County. It embraces only a few isolated hills, such as Hay Rick and Rattlesnake Bluff, and the land is some- what broken near the foot of the Little Dells, where the creek enters the Wisconsin River. The upper part of the valley, especially the ridge which divides it from the Baraboo Valley, is composed largely of a rich, deep clay loam, very productive. The strip of remarkably fertile
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country lies on a shelf elevated about fifty feet above the rest of the valley. The lower part of the Dell Creek basin is a light, sandy soil, with black oak openings and pine groves.
FERTILE VALLEY OF HONEY CREEK
On the whole the country watered by Honey Creek and its tribu- taries, which embraces the southern third of Sauk County, is the richest agricultural seetion. It ineludes Sumpter, Prairie du Sae, Honey Creek, Troy and Franklin Townships. The main stream, about forty feet wide, empties into the Wisconsin some two and a half miles below Sauk City. The valley itself is about two miles wide and nearly level. It skirts the southern end of Sauk Prairie for some five miles, and along its lower course is walled by high and narrow bluffs, capped with red cedars, which are a portion of the Southern Baraboo Range. The general basis of the soil is elay. The towns of both Franklin and Spring Green, the ยท former drained by Honey Creek, are broken by hills and rolling swells, but produce both cereals and fruits in abundance.
RICH GRAZING SECTION
About three miles from Spring Green and five miles from Lone Rock the miniature canyon, known as Big Hollow, opens out upon the prairie and for three miles its elay-loamey soil furnishes the elements in the formation of a fertile tract. Bear Creek Valley, also on the western border of the county, is properly and pre-eminently a grazing country, and is the banner cattle-raising section of the county.
THE TREES OF THE COUNTY
Nature thus provides the clements and the fields, the use and cultiva- tion of which determines the development of any special section of the country. One of the mistaken ideas of what constituted real develop- ment was that all timber must be eleared from the land, whether it was required for fuel or to insure profitable cultivation. The result has been that with the passing of the recklessly-destructive years, later genera- tions have little idea of the varieties of trees which flourished on the soil of Sauk County in the days of their forefathers. More than seventy- five years ago a traveler who floated down the Wisconsin from Fort Winnebago to Sauk Prairie for the purpose of studying the flora of the county made the following observations: "The topography of a country largely influences its climate; and this is, in a limited degree the case in the area of 800 square miles which is covered by Sauk County. On the northern slopes of the Baraboo Bluffs crops may be grown to advantage that would not yield a remunerative harvest on the prairie, and yet the
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soil in both localities may be the same. Favored by the configuration of the ground occupied by the county, and also aided by a productive soil, the flora of Sauk County is exceptionally numerous and varied. Of the prominent forest trees, we mention only the oak in six and more varieties; the maples, soft and sugar; the ash, elm, poplar, birch, linden, hickory, butternut, cherry, mountain ash, crab apple, tamarack and a variety of trees secondary in value. Trees of the pine order present themselves occasionally but in small groves only. Of indigenous plants collected in the town of Prairie du Sac, the variety of species numbers nearly 600. Of these ninety-five species belong to the grass and sedge tribe; seventeen species are fern; twelves orchids; the remaining varie- ties of trees, shrubs and herbaceous plants are shared by different species."
Prairie du Sac was not only the most interesting section of the county from the view-point of the naturalist, but was the cradle of its history. None of the varieties of trees mentioned by the old-time botanist have disappeared, and several have been introduced, such as the magnolia, Norway maple and yellow birch.
Vol. 1-2
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CHAPTER II
NATURE THROUGH SCIENCE
PROFESSOR SAMUEL WEIDMAN ON THE GEOLOGY OF THE COUNTY-PRO- FESSOR JAMES H. EATON'S PAPER-ORIGIN OF THE QUARTZITE-SLOW UPHEAVAL OF THE SANDSTONE AND QUARTZITE STRATA-THE DEFLEC- TION OF THE BARABOO RIVER-PIONEER SCIENTIST OF THE REGION- PROFESSOR LAPHAM'S FIELD NOTES-THE DREADFUL DELLS-FLORA ABOUT THE DELLS GEOLOGY AROUND BARABOO AND LYONS-DEVIL'S LAKE DESCRIBED-IRON REGIONS OF SAUK COUNTY-THE WISCONSIN PINERIES-DEVIL'S LAKE STATE PARK.
An attempt has been made in the foregoing chapter to draw but the boldest lines picturing the natural features of Sauk County. The more scientific details and the fine-line etchings have been reserved for others who are so well qualified to present them. The first in this array of special talent is Professor Samuel Weidman, the widely known geologist.
Professor Weidman has been connected with the geological depart- ment of the University of Wisconsin and with the Wisconsin Geological Survey for many years. He is a recognized authority on the forma- tions in Sauk County, having made a special study of this interesting field. Doctor Weidman is the author of volumes and special papers bearing on the subject in this county and state.
GEOLOGY OF THE COUNTY By Samuel Weidman
The natural features of Sauk County, especially the Baraboo Bluffs and Devil's Lake, have not only been a great attraction to lovers of beautiful scenery, but also to geologists, because of the very interesting story revealed by the hills and valleys, the rivers and lakes, as well as the rock formations that make up the landscape of the surrounding region. The story of the rocks and hills is indissolubly connected with the history of the whole continent, for within the borders of the county are not only the very latest, but also the very earliest records of geologie events. Only a very brief sketch can, therefore, be pre- sented of the most important features of interest.
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ARCHEAN OR PRE-CAMBRIAN GEOLOGY
The oldest rock formations known to geology, the Archean, form the main body of the Baraboo Bluffs. The very earliest of these rocks in the Baraboo region are on the north side of the North Range at the Lower Narrows and on the south side of the South Range at various localities near Denzer, the Devil's Nose and farther eastward, at Alloa, in Caledonia, Columbia County. The oldest rocks are of volcanic origin, and after their eruption, with other similar rocks, formed the Arehean land surface for a very long period.
Finally this oldest land of volcanic rocks became submerged, either by an ocean or an inland sea, and upon the bottom of this sea were deposited beds of sand which gradually accumulated until they reached the enormous thickness of 5,000 or 6,000 feet. This great thickness of sand was later changed to sandstone, and finally into the hard quartzite which forms the rock body of the bluffs.
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