History of Grant County, Wisconsin, preceded by a history of Wisconsin, Part 48

Author: Butterfield, Consul Willshire, 1824-1899
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: [Chicago : Western Historical Co.?]
Number of Pages: 1050

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There are two varieties of zinc ores produced in our mines-sphalerite, sometimes marma- tite, and smithsonite-the first a sulphide containing about 10 per cent of iron, known to the miners as "black jack ;" the pure sulphide of zinc contains about 67 per cent of the metal. Smithsonite, popularly known as " dry bone," is an iron-bearing carbonate, which is produced abundantly. Both the ores, lead and zinc, in the several varieties named, and some others, are limited practically to the beds of Galena and Trenton limestone, which have already been described in their order, underlaid by almost horizontal strata, deposited upon the archæan rocks the crystalline metamorphic sedimentary upheaval, to which we are under so many obliga- tions. The order of their coming has been already given, and the facts of their partial erosion ; but the strata attain a depth in all of nearly two thousand feet in the lead region. Galena buff and blue limestones are, in all, about three hundred and seventy-five feet thick, the upper and lower strata of the deposits being, in a metallic sense, barren. The blue and buff layers are the main depositaries of zinc, and lead is the chief product of the Galena limestone; but the layers all produce both metals in greater and less proportion. The deposits of ore are found in crevices

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sometimes vertical and sometimes lateral, the simplest and commonest form being a crack in the rock, probably a few inches wide, having a flat extension beneath, worn by the water as it per- colated through the stratum, leaving the chemical residue to be found by enterprising men. Some of these extensions are several hundred feet in length and breadth, vast chambers forty feet in height, lessening to nothing on every side, and brilliant with incrustations that might enrich a palace. The imagination of the reader may riot at will in conjuring up the wondrous forms of beauty assumed by these subterranean cavities, without danger that his most extrava- gant creation will surpass the reality in favored instances ; but many of the chambers contain masses of loose rock disintegrated, but not carried away, containing large quantities of Galena ; and the ore in numberless instances is found in cubes and stalactites, crystalline embodiments of the wealth that rewards patient labor. The limestone has been creviced in two directions, rudely indicating the points of the compass, the lines treading east and west being the most pro- ductive of metal. Vertical crevices are seldom found in the lower stratum or buff limestone ; hence the ores of zinc are not found in the vertical openings to any extent. Sometimes many of the chambers or "flat openings," sheets, or crevices. are worked together with manifest advantage to the miners. Occasionally the flat openings contain little or no galena, but are well supplied with "black jack " and " dry bone " ores and cleavable calcite, as well as marcasite or sulphide of iron on roof and floor, the area between being clear. Vertical crevices characterize the galena proper, as a rule, and the flat openings are looked for generally in the blue and buff limestones, so that zinc is principally obtained in such chambers.

Until the year 1860, the zinc ores, being more refractory than galena, were not considered capable of being worked with profit, the clay and fuel for smelting having to be brought from great distances, so that freights were enormous; but about the time named the plan of sending ore to La Salle, Ill., was initiated, and has since been prosecuted with much advantage, as it is cheaper to send the ore for reduction to the fuel and clay than to bring the other substances to the mining district in sufficient quantity for the work. The innumerable purposes to which zinc is increasingly applied in daily life render it certain that the large deposits of the ore obtainable in this State will long continue to be a source of wealth. The geological survey of the State has been of immense advantage in determining the localities in which the deposits of galena and buff and blue limestone have been more or less extensively eroded by atmospheric influences, and the economic value of such inquiries will be found in the saving of money and labor from being invested, where, even though the ores may be discovered, they do not exist in sufficient quantities to justify large outlay for permanent works. The practical miner knows the worth of accurate scientific investigation.

Iron is not yet one of the great products of Wisconsin, but those who have read the former pages of this chapter cannot fail to know that there are great possibilities in the future in this respect. Many blast furnaces are now employed in the eastern section of the State, reducing ores brought from Michigan, but there are other furnaces dealing with ores from our own mines, and their number and profits will very largely increase. Our best iron fields are, beyond doubt, in the north, where the country is heavily wooded, and where much patient exploration and many tentative experiments should prepare the way for large investments, such as will afford remunerative employment to skilled miners and workmen for centuries in developing this branch shall try to avoid technical phraseology except in those instances in which the technique has of our great mineral resources. In describing the several ores from which iron is obtained, we

become a popular possession. Red hematite ores contain iron in an earthy condition, as anhy- drous sesquioxide, without luster, although when pure fully 70 per cent of metallic iron is present. The mined ore is seldom pure, and the mechanical combination of foreign substances reduces its value generally to about 50 per cent, or even less. Clinton iron ore is our most important find in this State of red hematite, at present being exploited, the name being derived from the locality in Oneida County, N. Y., where it was first obtained. Its rocks are limestones and shales in the Silurian formation, and its characteristics are marked so unvaryingly that any person once familiar with the ore cannot fail to recognize its presence in new positions. This

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HISTORY OF THE LEAD REGION.

ore contains much phosphorus, and the iron is known as " cold short," but, when blended with other ores, silicious and free from phosphorus, the product is very valuable for foundry purposes. The deposit is found in rocks of great thickness which are already being mined at many points from the locality of first recognition to Tennessee. Clinton ore is found in Wisconsin sometimes immediately overlying the Hudson River or Cincinnati shales ; but, more generally, the Clinton rocks merge into the Niagara limestone rocks in the eastern part of the State. Iron Ridge, in Dodge County, is an important deposit. A ledge of Niagara limestone running north and south, looking down upon lower land to the west, covers an ore bed from fifteen to eighteen feet thick, with horizontal layers ranging from three inches to fifteen, of concretionary structure, having lenticular grains one-twenty-fifth of an inch in diameter. The topmost layer is a dark purple, slightly metallic to the eye, but not resembling the other layers in structure. At Mayville. Mr. Sweet examined a thickness of forty feet three-fourths of a mile from the ridge, and the same authority gives the results of his analysis of the ridge ore in the following formula : Iron peroxide, 66.38; carbonate of lime, 10.42; carbonate of magnesia, 2.79; silica, 4.72; alumina, 5.54; manganese oxide, 0.44; sulphur, 0.23; phosphoric acid, 0.73; water, 8.75-100; metallic iron, 46.66. The average furnace yield of the ore at Mayville is about 45 per cent. Two small fur- naces operating at Mayville and Iron Ridge, and using charcoal, smelt from these ores an iron sometimes rich in phosphorus. The ore is not usually smelted at the local furnaces, being mainly shipped to the extensive iron works in Chicago, Joliet and Springfield, Ill., St. Louis, Mo., Appleton, Green Bay, Depere and Milwaukee, Wis., and Wyandotte and Jackson, Mich., to mix with other ores. The yield of the ridge eight years ago exceeded 80,000 tons per annum. The base of the Niagara limestone is marked by similar deposits at other points further north in this State, but the commercial value of the ore in the instances noted is yet uncertain. The Potsdam sandstone, lowest of our horizontal formations, is highly charged with red hema- tite in many places ; and, in Westfield, Sauk County, an excellent iron ore has displaced the sandstone, but the extent of the deposit is unknown.

Hydrated or brown sesquioxide, commonly known as brown hematite, contains 60 per cent of iron when pure ; but the average yield comes nearer 40 per cent. Bog-iron ore is one of the varieties of brown hematite, a porous deposit from the water of bogs and marshes found in Portage, Wood and Juneau Counties. Near Necedah, in Juneau County, and near Grand Rapids, Wood County, are excellent bog ores containing nearly 50 per cent of iron, but the quan- tity available is uncertain. Brown hematite mixed with red ore is found in Sauk County and in Richland County adjoining, filling fractures and cavities in the Potsdam sandstone; and two furnaces are now in operation on this ore at Ironton and Cazenovia, the first named having been established many years, and having proved the value and quantity of the deposit.

Magnetic ores and specular hematites are found intimately mingled in the same group of rocks in Wisconsin, and, although not yet included among the industrial products of the State, there are many indications that they will rank high in its mineral sources of wealth. Magnetite is an oxide of iron, containing, when pure, about 72 per cent of iron, the highest per- centage indeed possible to an ore. Specular hematite is of the same nature as red hematite, but the ore is crystalline and hard, with a metallic luster. These ores combined seldom give more than 50 per cent of metal, and the richest ores hardly ever yield more than 65 per cent. There are two iron districts in this State in which specular and magnetic ores abound ; the Me- nomonee, near the head-waters of the river of that name, in Township 40, Ranges 17 and 18 east, Marinette County, and the Penokee in Bayfield, Ashland and Lincoln Counties, ten to twenty miles south of Lake Superior. Veins and nets of specular iron are found with the quartz rocks of Baraboo Valley, Sauk County, and in Necedah, Juneau County ; and in the vicinity of the Black River Falls, Jackson County, in a peculiar quartz-schist, magnetic and specular iron oxides are found, but so far it does not appear that the ore would pay for reduction. The ores are found in the Menomonee and Ponokee districts in slaty and quartzose rocks, extensions of the series which in the Northern Peninsula of Michigan have contributed so largely to the fame .and wealth of that State as a producer of iron. Lean magnetic and specular ores are found in

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this rock series, in great beds, combined with large quantities of quartz, forming bold ridges, almost defying the power of the air to erode them ; but of little or no value for reduction. Other layers in the same series, very soft and seldom outcropping, for that reason are extremely rich, and the Menomonee region possesses the last-named layers in a marked proportion. One of these deposits shows a breadth of more than 150 feet of first-class specular ore. The existence of sim- ilar beds in the Penokee district, may be reasonably inferred, as the rocks form part of the same series, but the discovery has yet to be made, and should probably be sought north of the main range, under heavy deposits of drift which cover large areas of iron-bearing rock. There are lean ores in the Penokee range which are almost rich enough to pay for reduction, and which by and by will be reduced.

Copper is not raised in Wisconsin, except at Mineral Point, where chalcopyrite, the yellow sulphide of copper and iron, are found in the crevices of Galena limestone. Copper in small quantities in pyrites, can be found all through the lead region, but the return would not pay for exhaustive exploration. In Northern Wisconsin, also, copper is found, but under different con- ditions ; and it remains to be seen whether the newer developments will pay for mining, as many hope and believe. The Keweenaw Point, and Isle Royale copper-bearing rocks stretch across this State in two belts, southwesterly and parallel. One belt commences the journey at Mon- treal River, crossing Ashland and Bayfield Counties, and then expanding, fills a large area in the counties of Douglas, Saint Croix, Barron and Chippewa. The back-bone of the Bayfield pen- insula is found by the other belt which continues its bold ridge across Douglas County to Minnesota. The rocks appear to be igneous, as we have elsewhere explained, but they are dis- tinctly bedded and partly interstratified with sandstone, shales, and bowlder conglomerates. Veins cross the rock beds, in which pure metallic copper can be found in fine flakes, and like deposits are found scattered all through the several layers. There have been attempts at mining on small scales in these belts where nature favors experiment, but the commercial value of the deposit must be determined by larger and more scientific endeavors.

Gold may be found in infinitesimal quantities in almost any part of the earth, but there are few even of the great diggings where it actually pays to mine for the precious metal. A few men become suddenly rich, but the great mass remain poor to the end, until they mingle their dust with that of the placer in which their lives have been spent to so little purpose. Traces of both the precious metals have been found in Wisconsin, but happily not in any such quantities as may ever disturb the normal and more profitable industries of mankind. Clark County and Ashland County are the two localities said to be auriferous and argentiferous in the trivial degrees mentioned. Thus ends our record of the metals found in Wisconsin.

The non-metallic minerals may now pass under brief review. Brick clays are of great value to Wisconsin, and they are found extending inland from the great lakes for many miles, telling of a time, probably long after the glacial period, when these immense bodies of water covered a still greater area. The beds of clay are stratified and of lake formation, containing large amounts of carbonate of lime. In this State that stratum of wealth gives employment to thousands who make and burn bricks to the extent of more than 50,000,000 annually. Some of the bricks are red and others cream color, and it has been claimed that the red color indicated the presence of more iron in the constituents of the clay ; but a series of experiments and analyses carried out. by Mr. Sweet, formerly of Madison in this State, and now of Colorado, and supplemented by analyses by Prof. Daniells, of Madison University, show that the quantities of iron in the clay at Milwaukee, the clay in Madison, from which red bricks are made, and the clay from Lake Superior, in Ashland County, only vary in fractional parts, the difference showing a slight excess of iron in the cream-colored Milwaukee clay over the clay used in the red bricks in Madison. Carbonate of lime seems to be the ingredient in respect to which the bricks of Milwaukee differ from some of the bricks made elsewhere. The clay from which light-colored bricks are made is often a bright red at the outset of its career, as raw material for the manufacturer. Tiles and pottery of excellent quality are made from this clay in many places, and the number of men employed in such industries will steadily increase. The lake clays already named are not the

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HISTORY OF THE LEAD REGION.

only deposits of the kind in the State available for such uses. The Yahara Valley in Dane County has an excellent stratified clay which is burned into red brick at Madison, and to cream- colored brick at Oregon and Stoughton. Platteville, Lancaster and other noteworthy points in the southwestern parts of Wisconsin are favored with fine beds of clay, from which excellent red brick is made, and the enterprise of the people will develop other and still more valuable methods to convert these deposits into sources of wealth and happiness.

Kaolin is a contribution to our language from the Chinese, being used by the Celestials to denote the rock from which they make their porcelain. We use the word to indicate a very fine clay, although it differs widely from the material employed by the Chinese and Japanese in the fabrication of their exquisite wares. Our kaolin is the result of a disintegration of felspathic crystalline rocks, the base of supply not being removed from its place of deposit. Silica, alumina and water combine to form the mineral kaolinite which is the base of our porcelain clay. Foreign ingredients, which are as a rule present in the rock when the process of disinte- gration is advancing, are removed more or less completely by manipulative skill, and a pure white clay of exceptional fineness is the result. Wisconsin is rich in the crystalline rocks from which kaolin may be formed, but the disintegrated material is rarely found, probably in consequence of glacial action having denuded the softened parts of the rocks. From Grand Rapids, on the Wis- consin River, westward to Black River, in Jackson County, is a belt where the crystalline rocks were once overlaid by sandstone, and at the point of junction many water courses lent their aid to the work of disintegration. Over the area named, drift action has been trivial or is entirely wanting, so that all the conditions have favored the deposition of porcelain clay or kaolin. The beds of the Wisconsin, Yellow and Black Rivers have large exposures of the desiderated rock over- laid by sandstone on either side, and just where the deposits of disintegration might be expected, kaolin is comparatively abundant, stretching across the country in the lines of the layers of the tilted crystalline rocks, waiting only the manipulative skill of competent workmen and artists for conversion into forms of beauty that will charm wealth into the surrender of its hoards. On the Wisconsin, near Grand Rapids, these patches are very numerous, varying in dimensions from less than an inch to many feet in depth. The quality is also variant; some pure and re- fractory, and other parts fusible and impure.

Milwaukce cement rock has been already referred to in our geological summary, but in this relation that material must be again mentioned to assist the classification of our minerals. Cer- tain layers of Lower Magnesian limestone produce a lime which has in a large degree the hydraulic property. Some parts of the blue limestone, in the Trenton group, which may be found in Southwestern Wisconsin has that quality ; but the best yet discovered in this State is the Milwaukee cement rock. The location of the deposit has been already given. The cement is obtained in almost any quantity, and the product manufactured from it exceeds in value and strength every other material of the kind, except the famous Portland cement, made in Great Britain. The rock exhibits great evenness in the distribution of its ingredients throughout the mass, and will prove of great value. Ripon has a cement rock which belongs to the Lower Mag- nesian limestone, but it cannot compare in excellence and durability with the great deposit of cement rock near Milwaukee.

Niagara limestone furnishes an excellent quick-lime, white and pure, far in advance of the other formations ; Lower Magnesian ranking next, as when burned it makes a strong mortar, but it is " off color," to use the language sometimes applied to precious stones. Madison lime is burned from the Lower Magnesian. Trenton limestone does not yield good lime, and the Galena lime- stone is little better in that respect, but much lime is made therefrom. Nearly half a million barrels of lime annually is now being made in this State from Niagara limestone alone. There is a limestone quarry near Milwaukee; the stone from which is used very successfully as a flux, at the rolling-mills at Bay View, in that city ; but Shoomaker's quarry is one of very few, as our limestones are mostly Magnesian. Some layers of Trenton limestone in many parts of Wis- consin, especially in the southern section, are non-magnesian, and will reward investigation when the demand increases.

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Our readers will remember the reference made elsewhere to St. Peter's sandstone, as a pure white, siliceous sand, suitable in glass making, and it is gratifying to note that this excel- lent material is being applied to the use named at many places in Eastern Wisconsin with advantage.

Peat will hardly ever be depended on as a fuel in this country, where coal is within easy reach ; but as a fertilizer it is of great value, and it is therefore a matter for congratulation that it can be obtained in great quantity, and of good quality, from the marshes in the eastern and central parts of the State. We have now nearly completed our presentation of the geological resources of Wisconsin, as nothing remains but to note the varieties of building stone available, and before proceeding to their enumeration it is our duty to acknowledge our obligations to Prof. Chamberlin, Prof. Irving, Prof. Whitney, Mr. Strong, Mr. Sweet and to many other gentlemen;' whose storehouses of fact have been ransacked without scruple to render these pages interesting and complete. More especially we are under deep obligations to the gentle- man first named, our chief geologist, for kindnesses innumerable, the value of which will, we hope, appear in the enhanced worth of this volume.

The story of the rocks has been a sketch, necessarily hasty and incomplete, of the various layers of sedimentary stone and trap from the Archæan upheaval to the drift formation, all more or less adapted to building purposes ; we shall name only a few kinds, representative of the great series. Granite and gneissic rock, the core of our State, are found in protruding masses at many points in Northern Wisconsin. Red granites, of great value and beauty, which have not yet been worked, but which will some day in the near future reward enterprise with rich returns, are exposed on the Wisconsin River and on Yellow and Black Rivers, more especially at Black Bull Falls, near which there may yet be quarries opened to supply the demands of neighboring States as well as our own for a building material seldom surpassed in loveliness and durability.

Along the shore line of Lake Superior, from Michigan to the Minnesota boundary, a valu- able sandstone, handsome and enduring, is found in Wisconsin. This rock forms the base of the Apostle Islands, and is largely quarried in one of them to supply Milwaukee and Chicago with a dark-brown, uniform and very fine-grained stone, upon which fashion and good taste have set their seal of approbation. The stone can be worked with comparative ease, in blocks of almost any dimensions that can be transported, and many public and private buildings in the great cities named are constructed of this excellent material. The neighboring islands and contiguous points on the mainland, offer abundant opportunities to quarry stone of the same kind, in every respect as good, so that the much-admired brown-stone front, in which opulence finds delight, will some day, soon, offer attractions to be embraced by a much larger class in our commu- nity. There is a hardened, well-compacted sandstone, ranging from white to brown in color, and of even grain, obtained from the Potsdam series, at Stevens' Point, Grand Rapids, Pack waukee, Wautoma, Black River Falls, and at several points in the Baraboo Valley, so that this valued stone is known to be easily accessible in Portage County and in the counties of Wood, Marquette, Waushara, Jackson and Sauk. Besides the treasures thus unfolded, the uppermost layers of the same series furnish a very sightly buff colored, calcareous sandstone, which is quarried near Madison, in Dane County, and largely used in building the ornate residences for which the capi- tal of the State is justly famous.

The limestone formations of this State furnish many varieties of building stone of less and greater value, and mostly durable as well as handsome. The stratum known as " Mendota," from its outcropping near the lake of that name, near Madison, is a part of the Potsdam series, very evenly bedded, finely-grained and yellow, well appreciated throughout the region in which it is found, and worked extensively all around Madison, as well as throughout the Lower Wis- consin Valley. A cream colored limestone, from the Lower Magnesian series, is quarried in West- port, Dane County, and very handsome fine-grained stone is supplied from a base that is prac- tically inexhaustible. It is, however, fruitless to attempt a complete summary of our resources in building-stone, as the work might crowd a volume and still fail to do justice to the wealth of detail by which we are surrounded; hence we must content ourselves with but a brief reference

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History of Grant County, Wisconsin, preceded by a history of Wisconsin, Part 48

Author: Butterfield, Consul Willshire, 1824-1899 Publication date: 1881 Publisher: [Chicago : Western Historical Co.?] Number of Pages: 1050

Author: Butterfield, Consul Willshire, 1824-1899
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: [Chicago : Western Historical Co.?]
Number of Pages: 1050