USA > Wisconsin > Buffalo County > History of Buffalo County, Wisconsin > Part 3
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
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 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53
19
TOPOGRAPHY.
the river Po in northern Italy at the southern foot of the Alps. There would be some difference, inasmuch as our climate would even then be a continental one, unaffected by seas or oceans. Our climate is actually a continental one in all its faults and merits. Among the merits of it we may certainly mention the salubrity, which it possesses in spite of its sudden changes and occasional extremes of heat and cold. Climatic diseases, that is such as pre- vail regularly at certain seasons of the year, are almost unknown here. Those which are incident to sudden changes are frequent, but not very often serious. One of the great disadvantages di- rectly traceable to the peculiarities of our climate is the impos- sibity of raising fruits, with the exception of the smaller ones. I am only stating this as a fact. Of trees bearing the larger and finer fruits of a more genial climate, such as apples, plums, peaches and pears, only apple trees are a comparative success, and even those very seldom attain a long life, or a desirable size. Pear trees have for a short time been known to bear fruit, but most kinds of them are winter-killed during the first season after planting. Grapes of wild kinds are sometimes abundant, but the cultivated species are in danger of frost late in spring or early in the fall. These frosts are very capricious in making their appearance, and although it is often jocularly remarked, that it will not be quite as cold on the Fourth of July as in winter, I have nevertheless seen the leaves on the oaks and other trees, and the corn and other tender plants bitten by frost on that very same day.
It is to be regretted that there are no published records of the temperature as observed at stated times within this county, and that we can only speak of it in general terms. We are in about the same predicanient in regard to the other meteorological condi- tions, the prevailing winds, the amount of precipitation, the fre- quency of electrical disturbances, the rise and fall of the baro- meter, and similar items. Our prevailing winds are westerly ; easterly winds are rare in summer, but northeast winds less so in winter, at which season they are almost always accompanied by heavy snowfall. Northwest winds always reduce the tempera- ture, southwest winds are apt to raise it, but in winter there are some exceptions, at least if we judge by our feeling alone. Thunder-storins are in some summers more frequent than in others, but they are usually not of very long duration. Now and
20
TOPOGRAPHY.
then they are vehement, both in the discharge of electricity, and the accompanying rain. Precipitation, consisting of rain, dew and snow, according to season, is quite variable, but usually not excessive. Some of our summers are dry, very few are actually wet, and rain continues but seldom bepond the time of two days. Dews are often heavy and in their season regular, their intermit- tance may often be relied on as a sign for rain. Of our seasons spring is usually rather wet, with a short dry spell, while fall is almost uniformly dry, though exceptions to that are not excluded, of which the fall of 1881 was a most notable one in this decade. The floods in the Mississippi river do not depend on the rains in our own locality, but on those to the northwest and northeast of us; but these rains have a natural connection with our own, and we may therefore say that the floods or rises have. The spring rise or flood begins soon after the breaking up of the ice and con- tinues until May. It is probably the result of the melting of the winter's snow, accelerated by occasional showers. The second regular rise is called the June rise, though it sometimes begins earlier than in that month, and occasionally continues beyond it. At present it is often a mere delusion. Fall rises are of rare oc- curence, but I know that they may occur in consecutive years. This happened, for instance, in 1869 and 1870, but is certainly excep- tional. The phenomenon called a cyclone has visited our county but very little, although some damage has been done by it. The earliest I remember to have seen traces of must have occurred about 1866 or 1867, and ran across the Elk Creek Valley in the town of Dover in a northern direction. Its path was about one- eighth of a mile wide and marked by the trees twisted almost out of the ground or denuded of branches and leaves. The last one swept over the northern part of the county, unroofing houses and barns, lifting buildings from their foundations and tearing down fences and other feeble constructions. It did the comparatively greatest damage in the northern Spring Creek Valley, containing Sections 7, 8 and 9 of Township 24, Range 13, where it struck the new school house of district No. 2 of the Town of Maxville and demolished it entirely. The old log school house close by shared the same fate, although it was a low and heavy building.
After having considered our climate in general we may say something of the variations observed in different parts of the
21
TOPOGRAPHY
county. These variations depend entirely on local conditions. They are more perceptible in summer than at any other season, although some of them are observed at all seasons.
In regard to temperature the places along tlie Mississippi enjoy some advan- tages over places farther from the river. There is more circula- tion of air and a greater uniformity of temperature. This may be ascribed to the width and uniform trend of the valley, and also to the amount of evaporation constantly going on upon the whole surface of the river. Frosts late in spring and early in the fall prove very often severe and destructive in the narrow valleys among the bluffs and upon the lands bordering on Beef River, while little or no damage is done along the Mississippi. The same impunity being observed, though in a less degree, upon the cleared lands on the bluffs, it can only be ascribed to the stronger motion of the air, and the advantage of the river localities over those on the bluffs must be due to the rising vapors which com- municate some of their latent heat to the objects with which they come in contact. The northern, especially the northeastern part of the county being open and perhaps from one to two hundred feet above points on the Mississippi, has, on the whole, a tempera- ture similar to that observed on the bluffs. But in the absence of figures based upon actual and correct observations we must be content to state that the variations of temperature in different parts of the county are, though not imperceptible, yet not very important. As the other changes are dependent on temperature, at least to a considerable degree, we may dismiss them with the same remark.
22
GEOLOGY.
GEOLOGY.
There are a few difficulties confronting me in the geological description of this county, which I would rather candidly state in the very beginning, than leave to the reader to surmise in the end.
1. I am not a very deep geologist, for although I have read considerably on the subject, and have occasionally tried to apply the information thus acquired, I never had time to make this a special study. Hence some of the petrifacts or fossils which I have come in possession of, or found in other collections, have tended to shake some of the theories, that I had formed and so I find myself in a state of doubt, when I am required to be posi- tive.
2. There being no mines, and up to time but few artesian wells, nor competent scientific observations on the boring of the latter, I submit, that the chances for reliable observations are not very extensive, and but little of our supposed knowledge is ac- quired by actual investigation.
3. While it might be comparatively easy to follow the example of others, and to make a bold display of scientific names, and leave it to the reader to get through it as well as he might, I consider this course rather unfair, as it seems to discourage most persons from further investigations in this matter. But I confess that it is not so very easy to write plain and popular, probably because people of plain common sense have left such matters too much to those who were in the habit of using scientific terms, because these terms were to themselves perfectly clear and conip- rehensible, which they are not to other folks.
GEOLOGICAL FORMATION.
The main features of the formation of rocks in our bluffs are:
a. The rocks appear almost always in regular strata, with little or no dip in the masses.
b. The same kind of rock is found at about the same relative elevation.
23
GEOLOGY.
c. The formation is worn down in the interior, and more prominent along the river.
d. There is drift on the top of the bluffs as well as upon the slopes.
e. There are no shells in the limestone and only fragments in the sandstone at some places.
f. The petrifacts or fossils found along the slopes of the hills in certain places are imbedded in a crust looking spongy, but being very hard and coarse.
g. Though detached, the pieces in which these specimens are contained, are not sanded or worn to any extent by friction or rolling.
h. These petrifacts are mainly gastropods; trilobites are found in some layers of sandstone that are not generally exposed.
¿. The principal rocks are limestone at the top and sandstone below it.
The limestone is usually hard and compact, the sandstone very often soft or friable. Chemically the limestone is not pure, but contains more or less magnesia.
In consideration of the above mentioned facts, which were also observed in adjacent counties on either side of the Missis- sippi, it is safe to consign our hills to the Lower or oldest Silurian System .. The foundation sandstone is usually called the Potsdam Sandstone; the limestone adjoining it is known as the Lower. Magnesian Limestone.
As the rocks occur in horizontal layers at corresponding levels, it is evident that neither during their original formation, nor since, there has been any serious or preceptible disturbance. There seems to be no disruption in the stratification, and the de- position of matter must have taken place under water which was deep and therefore but superficially disturbed. As the material of the Potsdam sandstone is almost entirely quartz in rounded grains the conclusion seems inevitable, that at some place quartz or quartzite existed and was subject to disintegration.
It is equally evident that the particles after disintegration must have been subject to an unlimited amount of friction or roll- ing, as the grains of the Potsdam sandstone are small and worn. We also know of no natural force which could have brought them to their present location except that of gravitation. It is suggested
24
GEOLOGY.
that at the time of this disintegration and deposition of particles, the temperature of the earth and atmosphere was considerably higher than at present, but whether it was fluctuating according to the seasons, is uncertain. The higher temperature, and conse- quent evaporation and precipitation, much more rapid and copious than at present, would afford some explanation of the phenome- na connected with the formation of sandstone, except the pres- ence of animal remains in it. If these remains belonged to living organisms, it might be asked, whether these or any organ- isms of their kind could exist in a temperature much higher than the present, one that would work disintegration of crystalline rocks. The next question would be of the cause of the disappearance of the water that covered the deposits. Before this disappearance, the precipitation of the limestone as a mass upon the foundation of sandstone must have taken place. Limestone is not merely a mechanical aggregation like sandstonc, but a chemical combina- tion. We cannot refute the supposition that the lime must have been held in solution in the superincumbent waters for a long time. There must have been a time when the water did no longer contain this solution or when it was suddenly drawn off. But it would be reasonable enough to suppose that the deposition ceased before the draining took place, since there is still a crust of earth above the limestone, for which there seems no cause more natural than a similar deposition out of the water. As an explanation of the matter it is supposed, and very probable, that after the form- ation had taken place, the whole was by slow degrees elevated to its present absolute level, that the water following the inevitable law of gravitation, flowed off to a lower place, and that thence- forth erosion and abrasion began to work out the inequalities of the surface. There are many indications in this neighborhood and in other places not far away, that at some time the whole of the country was covered with a deep crust of ice, or, as we say, with glaciers. It has been found to be the nature of a glacier to move from the higher to a lower place, very much as a mass of molten metal would run down an inclined plain. The higher levels being colder, the snow and other precipitations congeal and accumulate there until they press upon those beneath or on lower levels, and push them slowly down the incline, and, unless the
25
GEOLOGY.
ice be melted at the lowest point, it may be pushed up an oppos- ing declivity. The force of this moving weight was irresistible, and even the hard rocks had to succumb. It is said that two such operations happened and were instrumental in shaping the sur- face of the country. We find it remarkable that there are no act- ual traces of the second one of these ice-floods, as we might call them, in the opposite hills along the Mississippi in our immediate neighborhood. But in the eastern and northern part of the county we find traces of its agency in the rounded form of ridges and even of higher hills, in the flattening of the surface and the absence of high continuous bluffs, while we meet more frequently with drift-hills, instead of solid bluff spurs. A glacier in its movements among hills and mountains would shove along masses of fractured rock and of earth, while it very often carried on its surface boulders, detached pieces of outcropping rock formations, which at the disappearance of the ice were left scattered about.
In the foregoing I have endeavored to present a few of the ideas prevalent among professional men, by whom I mean such as have made geology their particular study. For myself and most other people, who had no particular opportunities in such matters, the conclusion that the repetition of certain forms or shapes of hills or mountains may be caused by the similarity, both of elements and arrangement, of their constituent parts, is almost inevitable. This repetiton of forms is strikingly prevalent among our bluffs, and, as far as actual explorations go, they con- firm this conclusion. It must, however, be admitted that they are not by any means so thorough, as to remove all possible doubts. In the following extracts, copied verbatim from Vol. IV of "Geology of Wisconsin," (being actually the report on the Geological Surveys of the State of Wisconsin,) I present to the readers the opinions of others, whose claim of superiority over myself in such matters I do not care to dispute, although I pro- pose to reserve my own private opinion. In the course of these reports I shall have occasion to revert to the metal which at pre- sent causes the chief excitement all over the Northwest, and of which a spell has come over Buffalo County also.
RANGE TEN WEST.
Town 18. This is a fractional township of fourteen sections,
26
GEOLOGY.
lying along the Mississippi and consisting of sandy bottom land, intersected with sloughs.
Town 19, Buffalo. This township is very hilly and rough; the ridges are from 300 to 400 feet above the Mississippi, and are well timbered with large white oaks, and much smaller timber of second growth. The farms are confined to the valleys and the crest of the ridges. About two-thirds of the town is covered with Potsdam sandstone, and the remainder with Lower Magnesian limestone, which has sometimes a thickness of 200 feet.
Town 20, Cross, (in part). The interior of the township is oc- cupied by the valley of the Trempealeau river which is from one to two miles wide, being about one-half meadow land and one- half large elm timber. The remainder of the township is very hilly and cut up with deep ravines. The town is well watered by numerous small streams and the soil is rather sandy. The form- ation is chiefly Potsdam.
Town 21, Glencoe. This township is very hilly, the central part being occupied by a ridge dividing Muir Creek from the Waumandee River. The ridge is about 580 feet above the Mississippi and is capped by about 100 feet of Lower Magnesian limestone. Muir Creek occupies the eastern part of the township; it has a wide and well-cultivated valley, with rich, black soil, in some places rather swampy. The formations are Potsdam and Lower Magnesian in nearly equal proportions.
RANGE ELEVEN WEST.
Township 19. This is a fractional township through which the Mississippi runs from Section 6 to 36, bordered with high and precipitous cliffs. Nearly all of the town consists of high rolling ridge land lying from 500 to 600 feet above the river. It is well timbered with large white oak and small timber. In the north- east quarter of Section 9, the geological section from the ridge to the bed of the river is as follows:
FEET.
St. Peter's sandstone. 50
Lower Magnesian limestone 200.
Potsdam sandstone .350.
Total from ridge to bed of river 600. The Lower Magnesian is the principal surface rock.
27
GEOLOGY.
Town 20, Cross, (in part.) This town is well watered by Eagle Creek and its branches in the central part, and by the Wauman- dee River in the western part. The other parts of the town are very hilly, and consist of dividing ridges lying about 550 feet above the streame. The soil on the ridges is clay, which in some places is suited to the manufacture of brick. One brick yard was seen in the southeast quarter of Section 32. The valley of the Waumandee is from a mile to a mile and a half wide, and well settled; the soil is largely of quaternary origin, and is very fertile. The formations are Portsdam one-third Lower Magnesian two-thirds.
Town 21, Waumandee, (in part.) The valleys of the Wau- mandee and its tributaries occupy a large part of this town and afford much good agricultural land. The hills are not so high or so steep as in the country further south. The ridges are well tim- bered. Formations, Potsdam two-thirds, Lower Magnesian one- third.
RANGE TWELVE WEST.
Town 20, Milton, (in part.) This is a fractional town lying along the Mississippi, which runs from Section 6 to 34. There is a strip of flat sandy land about two miles wide lying between the river and the inclosing, which is cultivated next to the bluffs; the soil there containing more clay. About one-fourth of the township has the Lower Magnesian for the surface rock, and the remainder is Potsdam.
Town 21, Belvidere, (in part.) This town consists chiefly of high ridge land, much intersected with ravines. The divide be- tween Beef River and the Waumandee passes through the town and has a pretty uniform elevation of about 600 feet above the Mississippi. The ridges are wide and well settled, with clay soil and white oak timber. The Lower Magnesian is the principal formation.
Town 22, Alma (in part.) The southern half of the town is similar to Town 21. Beef River flows through the town from Sec- tion 2 to 19. Its valley is about a mile and a half wide, rather swampy and chiefly devoted to hay meadow. The farms are on the terraces which form the foot of the bluffs on either side of the river. The town is well watered by numerous small streams. The formations are Potsdam and Magnesian in nearly equal parts.
28
GEOLOGY.
Town 23, Modena. The greater part of the town is valley land, with high ridges in the western and northern part. It is not as thickly settled as the country farther south, and the soil is much more sandy. The height of the dividing ridges in this town is about 530 feet above the Mississippi, and they are well-timbered with white oak. The formations are Potsdam, covering two-thirds. of the town, and Lower Magnesian the rest.
Town 24, Canton. There is a high narrow dividing ridge of Lower Magnesian in the southern part of the town. The rest of the town is covered with a sandy soil, and slopes to Bear Creek, which has a very wide and swampy valley, consisting chiefly of meadow land and some tamarack. There is some very good farm- ing land.
RANGE THIRTEEN WEST.
Town 22, Nelson (in part.) The southern and western parts are occupied by the wide sandy valleys of Beef River and Beef Slough, in which the soil is very poor except at the foot of the bluffs. Trout Creek, which runs through the northeast part of the town, has a long and well cultivated valley, from a quarter to a half mile in width. There are some high limestone ridges in Sections 2, 4, 10, 11, 12, 13, 15 and 22, which are timbered with white oak ; the rest of the town has the Potsdam for the surface rock.
Town 23, Nelson (in part.) This town consists of high lime- stone ridges in the central and southern parts ; the northern part is occupied by Little Bear Creek and its tributaries. The soil is very sandy in the valleys but clay on the ridges. The formations are Potsdam and Lower Magnesian in nearly equal parts.
RANGE FOURTEEN WEST.
Towns 22, 23 and 24, Western parts of Nelson and Maxville. This particular situation is not mentioned in the Geol. Report as far as these towns lie in Buffalo County. There is indeed nothing to be said about them, except that no part contains any consid- erable hills, and that in factso much of them as is contained within this county is on the sandy prairies along Beef Slough and adja- cent bottoms, and in these bottoms themselves.
REMARKS:
Any one conversant with the situation of the towns mentioned
29
GEOLOGY
will know that whoever reported the above may have been a com- petent geologist, but was rather at sea concerning the towns. A glance at the county map will show, that Sect. 9 of Township 19 North of Range 11 West, is just east of the Village of Fountain City, its southwest corner reaching down into the same. As there is a specification for this section differing from the common reports on the bluffs in the county, I found it advisable to refer to the sit- uation.
The Geol. Report further says :
BUFFALO COUNTY.
There are two small outliers of St. Peter's sand stone in the southern part of the county on the ridge between Eagle Creek and the Trempealeau River.
1. This is a large outlying area, comprising parts Sects. 2, 3, 10, and 11 in T. 19 R. 11 equal to one square mile. It only manifests its presence by making the soil more sandy, in occasional bould- ers and fragments of sand stone, and in a few outcrops in place.
2. There is a small area, equal to about half a section, on the same ridge, and a short distance north of area No. 1. The greater part of it lies in Section 35, T. 20 R. 11.
Remarks :- By consulting the " Atlas of Buffalo County " we find that area No. 1 above described is between the east and west branches of Eagle Creek in the town of Cross.
Area No. 2, immediately north of the other, is somewhere close to the sources of Schoepp's Valley Creek in the town of Wau- mandee.
The report continues:
The above are new discoveries, and serve as connecting links between the outcrops south of the La Crosse River and those in Pierce County.
The following table shows a section of a mountain not too far from our county :
SECTION NO. 1. TREMPEALEAU MOUNTAIN. Feet.
1. Heavy bedded, unfossiliferous sand stone 40
2. Intercalations of magnesian limestone and sand 20
3. Sandstone layers, with lines of cross stratifications 19.
30
GEOLOGY.
4. Layers of yellowish concretionary sandstone 3.
5. Heavy bedded, yellow sandstone. Layers 2 to 6 feet thick 45.
6. Thin bedded, brown, yellow and white sandstone 11.
7. Thin, yellow, argilaceous shales, with traces of dicello- cepalus 10.
8. Soft and friable green sandstone 12.
9. Heavy bedded, red and yellow sandstones 20.
10. Hard and compact sandstone, containing considerable lime 9.
11. Concretionary sandstone, containing green sand. 3.
12. Thin bedded, yellow sandstone, with frequent green layers 33.
13. Band of green clay 1.
14. Alternations of green and red sand stone 6.
15. Compact green sandstone. 5.
16. Soft and friable green sand 9.
17. Sandstone containing scales of mica, and indistinct fossils 3.
18. Ferruginous sandstone 20.
19. Thin bedded, soft green sandstone, with intercalations of green clay from two to four inches thick. 30.
20. Heavy bedded, brown, calcareous sandstone 10.
21. Soft and friable sandstone, with mica and green sand 12.
22. Friable sandstone, with indistinct trilobites 6.
23. Loose green sand. 2.
24. Heavy bedded, yellow and gray sandstones, containing large quantities of finely comminuted white Lingula shells 80.
25. Slope of hill, sandstone to water in the Mississippi 25.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.