The History of Waukesha County, Wisconsin. Containing an account of its settlement, growth, development and resources; an extensive and minute sketch of its cities, towns and villages etc, Part 46

Author: Western Historical Co., pub
Publication date: 1880
Publisher: Chicago : Western Historical Company
Number of Pages: 1050

USA > Wisconsin > Waukesha County > The History of Waukesha County, Wisconsin. Containing an account of its settlement, growth, development and resources; an extensive and minute sketch of its cities, towns and villages etc > Part 46

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Few counties in Wisconsin-the mining regions alone excepted-present such an exceed- ingly rich and rare field for general study to the geologist and archaeologist as Waukesha ; and for the more particular examination of the details of that wondrous period during which the different strata of limestone were given to man, no other county is its equal. Peculiar features of the not less peculiar lacustrine system for which Wisconsin is famous, are quickly discern- ible in this county, as well as of springs and the unmistakable evidences of the glacial period's stupendous work.

When that portion of Wisconsin which is now called Waukesha County first emerged from the ocean, there are evidences that its surface, in common with that of the entire southeastern portion of the State, sloped more or less to the east and south, and was pretty nearly a plane surface. The little inequalities now visible-large, perhaps, as compared with the county, but insignificant as compared with the whole extent of similar geological formations-are due to subsequent changes, the running water of the pre-glacial period leaving few, if any, traces of its work in this vicinity, though long ages swept over the earth before any other marked geo- logical changes took place. This next change is designated as the Glacial Period, and the evi- dences of its power and work can never be effaced from Waukesha by the engines of mankind. The causes which led to the formation of vast ice-fields-thicker, perhaps, to the north and east of this section-are not of concern to this chapter; but it is not doubted that they had an existence, and the results of their movement and melting are salient features of the county. The work of the ice was twofold: First, in the leveling of the surface by planing down the hills and filling up the valleys ; and second, in the creation of a new uneven surface, by heaping up in an irregular and promiscuous manner the clay, sand, gravel and bowlders it had formed, thus giving the surface a new aspect. Among the features produced by the action of the ice are parallel ridges, sometimes miles in length, having the same direction as the ice movement ; hills of rounded, flowing contour, sometimes having a linear arrangement in the direction of glacial progress ; mounds of drift promiscuously arranged on an otherwise plane surface ; oval

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HISTORY OF WAUKESHA COUNTY.

domes of rock (roches moutonees); sharp gravel ridges, often having a tortuous, serpentine course, transverse to the drift movement; peculiar depressions known as "kettles," and half- submerged rock gorges, known as " fiords," all of which combine to form a peculiar and dis- tinctive surface contour. The melting of the ice mass gave rise to swollen lakes and flooded rivers, which eroded at some points and filled up at others, and so still farther modified the face of the country. All these peculiarities, being the result, directly or indirectly, of the ice action, may be denominated glacial features.

And they are particularly noticeable in almost every portion of Waukesha County. There are two distinctive features of the glacial drift, or glacial formations, in Waukesha as elsewhere : (1) The primary drift, consisting of ridges, or " hog's backs," and "kettle-holes ;" and (2) the modified drift. The former consists of glacial formations just as they were left at the end of the great ice movement, and the latter of deposits of sand, gravel and lacustrine deposits of clay, which received their present forms from the action of water and wind since the termination of the glacial movement. This glacial movement appears to have been a little west of south in direction in Waukesha County, the principal force and mass of ice coming from the north, although some of its moraines indicate a more westerly direction. The vast glacier that cov- ered the surface of this portion of the earth, lifted segments of disintegrated rocks which were imbedded in its lower side, and these were ground and crushed on the upper surface of the earth's crust as the ice plowed its mighty course to the south. They also scored the ledges, thus leaving the record of the glacial movements engraven on the enduring surfaces of the rock. Sometimes the ice-cakes raised sections of the earth's surface, thus leaving " kettle- holes," and the retrograde movements bunched into hillocks the masses of rounded rock and gravel. Both are to be seen in Waukesha County, the hillocks outnumbering the "kettle- holes." The latter vary from the merest indentation, not noticeable by the untrained observer, to bowls 100 feet in depth and generally from 50 to 500 feet across. Some of them, however, have greater diameters, and are filled with water. There are several of thesc in Waukesha County-beautiful, deep and clear lakes, having, apparently, neither inlets nor outlets. The slope of the sides of some of them are as steep as loose earth will lie, while others are beautifully curved hollows, with gradually descending sides. They are round, oblong, and sometimes long and trough-like. Ordinarily, the owners of "pots and kettles"-so named from their resemblance to the form of these articles of furniture-have very crude ideas as to the origin or date of them. They think but little about them, unless to grumble because their sloping sides and water-soaked bottoms are worthless except for grazing. It may be interest- ing, therefore, for them to know that "hog's backs " and " kettle-holes " are the results of the movements of ice and water during the glacial period ages ago, which movements pulverized the various rocks of which the earth is composed, into soil, sand and gravel, and brought bowl- ders, or " erratics," from the regions of harder metamorphic and igneous rocks, for the farmers' stone walls and " underpinning," as well as made some of his fields so stony as to be fitted only for sheep pastures.

The counterparts of these " kettle-holes " are the hillocks called " hog's backs." They vary in form, size and height, and in Waukesha County are composed of almost impenetrable masses of coarse gravel, sand and bowlders. Any attempt to penetrate some of them suggests that they are compact enough to warrant the conclusion that the mass was glued firmly together, as separate kernels are stuck together to form popcorn balls. Some of these hills have had a thin layer of soil-finely pulverized rock-spread over them by the last of the glacial flow, and are therefore tillable; but most of them are called " gravel-knolls " by the farmers, and are hard, dry, barren, and able to resist all efforts of the plow. With the unlearned, " gravel-knolls " are usually ascribed to violent upheavals of the earth's surface, caused by internal forces. This is a positive error, even if they do not owe their origin to the glacial period. That they do owe their origin to that period there is little doubt now among savans, however.

In Waukesha County, the " kettle range " comprises among its elevations the highest points of land in the county. They are high and bold in Delafield, Government Hill being 611 feet

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HISTORY OF WAUKESHA COUNTY.

above Lake Michigan. They are numerous, and of marked elevation in Menomonee, Eagle, Pewaukee, Waukesha, Vernon, Delafield, and in fact almost every town in the county.

The fact that not all of the series of hillocks in the "kettle range" extend in the same direction has been a subject of much discussion, the question being raised as to whether the gla- cial flow was really from northeast to southwest, or whether there was first one to the west, or east, and another across it to the south. There was probably but one general direction, so far as any evidences are left in this county, and that toward the southeast ; but that flow may have been violently interrupted, or turned aside by some ice-mountain, or other obstacle not now dis- cernible, thus causing lateral moraines, and in some places leaving hills and " kettle-holes " well intermingled, giving the surface the appearance of a chopped sea, similar in likeness to the famous cairns of Scotland.' The erosion, abrasion and trains of gravel, bowlders and silt, show that the general flow was from the north to the south, southeast or southwest.

In the town of Eagle, where the range of kettles crosses the Cincinnati group of limestone, large quantities of calcareous shales, belonging to that formation, are found. These, at Lake Winnebago, lie about two hundred feet below the upper face of the group mentioned. In the same town are large quantities of that unmistakable, fine-grained, white dolomite, which came from the Waukesha beds of the Niagara group, and which journeyed only a few miles before being deposited. They came, however, from the northeast, which is the important point, thus establishing the direction of the glacial flow. Pieces of native copper have been found from time to time, usually near the surface, in Waukesha County, which is further evidence of the general southerly direction of the great glacial drift movement, all copper, of course coming from the North.

Occasionally, a large hillock of drift deposit is found in the shape of an elbow, or acute, obtuse, or right angle. Wherever such are found, their structure conflicts with the theory of a general flow in a southern or any other direction ; but they are generally such as suggest the theory that perhaps an ice mass moving forward cornerwise, on the surface of the earth's crust, was halted, and that either melting or retreating, the sand and gravel which had been scraped up and pushed along before it, were left to conflict with the conclusions of geological theorists, and to show the outlines of some vast fragment of ice.

Some of the "hog's backs " in this county, so far as examined, are composed entirely of sand of nearly uniform fineness. Occasionally, one of this kind is found between large hillocks of gravel and bowlders, as though the ice masses had halted, and a vast stream of water, heavily charged with sand, had rushed on through an opening, thus forming a large rounded hillock of clean sand, while on all sides, perhaps, the halted ice masses were finally melted, thus deposit- ing in irregular shapes their mixed burdens of fragmentary rocks, rounded bowlders and coarse gravel.

The " modified drift "-consisting of clay, finer sand and gravel, which shows the action of water or wind some time after the end of the glacial flow-is not so conspicuous in Waukesha. A section of this drift might present a horizontal stratum of deposit, or an undulating one, or a sharply waving one, or all three of these features. The strata may be composed of thin layers of clay, fine sand, coarse sand, and coarse gravel, in almost any order, the coarser deposits, how- ever, generally being below. The most casual observer will notice these features in the softer sandpits, which have been opened to secure material for buildings and road-beds.

Farmers, when contemplating the worthlessness of their " pots and kettles," should recollect that the rich, strong soil of this portion of Wisconsin is due to the grinding, pulverizing and intermingling of many different rock formations, by the advances and retreats of the great ice- fields of the glacial period, thus furnishing a soil of such varied ingredients as make it adapted to the production of more numerous varieties of plants, fruits and grains, than could otherwise have been possible.

The surface of Waukesha County is composed of prairies, oak openings, small marshes, almost innumerable lakes and small hills. The openings and prairies are rich, productive and valuable lands ; the marshes are mostly drained, and used for meadows, while the hills are no

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where-to any extent-so barren and precipitous as not to be utilized for grazing purposes. But comparatively little of the surface, except that covered by lakes, is worthless for all the branches of agriculture. The natural resources of the county are therefore as varied as they are extensive, while its natural beauties would seem to be unsurpassed. It presents a surface neither flat nor precipitous ; submerged nor lakcless ; a jungle nor treeless, but a well-watered, generally well-timbered, undulating and pleasing landscape, combining hill, valley, lake, prai- rie, stream and forest in one beautiful landscape gem.

GEOLOGICAL FORMATIONS.

Geologically speaking, the vicinity of Waukesha is the oldest in Wisconsin-that is, it was covered by the ocean for ages after later formations began to come into existence in other local- ities. It was, for unknown centuries, the bed of an ocean teeming with invertebrate, or back- boneless, life, while the earth's crust in other States was undergoing various changes and receiv- ing additions. Waukesha, geologically, belongs to the first or oldest period of the Paleozoic Age-the Silurian, or Age of Invertebrates. The backboneless fossils of this age are visible everywhere, almost, in the county. After the Silurian came, successively, the Devonian, or Age of Fish ; Carboniferous, or Age of Coal ; Reptilian, or Age of Reptiles ; Mammalian, or Age of Animals which give birth to their young alive, and, lastly, the Age of Man. Thus, gold, silver, coal and granite will never be found native in Waukesha County.

Archcan Rocks .- The Archaan formation of rocks is the oldest that crops out in Wis- consin, and of this, only the upper stratum is visible. It is the great, sloping floor of quartzite, porphyritic and granitic rock on which rest, successively, all the later formations. Were it not for its great irregularity of surface, Archaan rocks would appear nowhere in the State. Its knobs protrude through the superincumbent deposits as far south as Green Lake County, but none are visible in Waukesha and Southeastern Wisconsin. The thickness of this formation varies, and can only be estimated, so far as that portion underlying this county is concerned, but extends downward many thousands of feet. The ordinary observer may distinguish the formation by the numerous specimens of heavy, hard or crumbly, bluish, flesh-colored, pinkish or grayish bowlders and erratics which appear in the trains of glacial drift in various portions of the county. They are all true igneous rocks.

Potsdam Sandstone .- Next above the Archaan floor is Potsdam sandstone, which is also next younger. It varies in thickness, mostly on account of the uneven surface of the rock on which it lies, but its depth is generally from eight hundred to one thousand one hundred feet. " Sandstone Bluff," at Green Lake, is the most southern outcrop of this formation, so that none can be found visible in Waukesha County. It is the lowest stratum of the Lower Silurian formations, whose superincumbent strata are so conspicuous in this vicinity. The evidences of marine animal life in the Potsdam sandstone indicate that it was deposited beneath the ocean.

Lower Magnesian Limestone .- Dr. Owen gave this name to the silicious dolomitic beds of limestone, which rest upon the upper surface of the Pottsdam sandstone. This is in contra- distinction to the Galena and Niagara limestones, which were once called Upper Magnesian. The term dolomite, given to most of the limestones in Waukesha County, has no significance, geologically, but is so called from a once famous French geologist named Dolomieu. When pure, it is composed of 54 per centum of carbonate of lime and 46 per centum of carbonate of magnesia. Although geologists credit none of this Lower Magnesian limestone formation to Waukesha, it probably underlies the county in a thin bed. Much of the true and general geo- logical character of the district has undoubtedly been obscured by the various local terms given to the same formations by different persons, the names being determined by the names of the localities where the outcrops are visible, or by some slight local modification.

St. Peters Sandstone. - Although geologists credit none of this formation to Waukesha, they describe its unmistakable outcroppings in Rock County, a few miles distant. It is also known to exist to the northwest and north of this section, and therefore probably stretches

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HISTORY OF WAUKESHA COUNTY.

along under Waukesha, between the Lower Magnesian and Trenton limestones, in a stratum varying in thickness from 8 to 130 feet. It is undoubtedly a submarine deposit, as is evi- denced by ocean fossils, laminations and ebb and flow structure. There are some modifications, but this rock may be generally described as being composed of rounded, nearly uniform, trans- parent and incoherent grains of igneous rock, making a very friable formation. It is too soft for building purposes, but it is a water-bearing formation, valuable also for glass- making pur- poses. Glass has already been successfully made from it in Wisconsin.

Trenton Group .- This large and remarkable bed of limestone has frequently been obscured by local names. It consists of (1) Trenton limestone, lying next above the St. Peters sand- stone ; (2) Galena limestone, and (3) Cincinnati shales, which are the latest formations in the Lower Silurian group. The whole group may possibly be five hundred feet in thickness.

(1) Trenton limestone is the lower stratum of the Trenton group. It has several features, which has caused it to be subdivided, so far as name is concerned, into as many different groups or heads. They are essentially limestone and dolomite, blue and buff. All contain numerous fossils.

(2) Immediately upon the blue or Trenton limestone rests the gray or Galena limestone, possessing similar characteristics. It derives its name from the fact that it is the main formation that bears Galena or lead in the southwestern part of the State. It differs from the Trenton in being deeper bedded and having a more irregular texture, weathering into rough, craggy forms, sometimes with a rotten appearance. Being essentially dolomite, the weather disintegrates much of its lime and magnesia, giving any outcroppings a jagged appearance. It is not visible in Waukesha County.

(3) The Galena limestone is succeeded by a series of shales and limestone known as the Cincinnati group, which constitute the upper series of the Lower Silurian period. Just where this series begins and ends, however, is a matter of some dispute among geologists. The thick- ness varies from 180 to 255 feet. The formation contains fossils of seaweeds, radiates, mollusks, and articulates. The shales that form the prominent member of this group have a varied character; one kind is but little else than silicate of alumina. It is indurated, of a greenish or bluish color, and contains but little sand or other hard material. It graduates, however, by the addi- tion of fossils, iron pyrites, calcareous and silicious matter and gypsum, into impure, worthless shales. A second class is more shaly and easily splits into thin, brittle, regular plates. A third has something of the appearance of fine-grained sandstone. These three general classes are subdivided into minor varieties. The characteristics of the rock are no reliable guide to what may be found below. Some sanguine parties expended large sums in piercing this forma- tion for coal in Waukesha County, but, of course, found none. Probably none will ever be found in or beneath it. Its most southern outcrop is probably in the town of Eagle, in this county. The exposure at that point is slight, and is not, contrary to geological theory, next below the Niagara limestone, a bed of clayey shale separating them. On Section 10 of the same town, there is a plain line of demarkation between this group and the bed of Niagara lime- stone above it. It is the dividing line between the Upper and Lower Silurian formations. At Pewaukee, in this county, it is almost impossible to distinguish where the lower beds of Niagara limestone end and the upper beds of the Cincinnati shales begin. In fact, in a shaft fifty feet in depth, sunk in the before-mentioned search for coal, limestone was found in which at least eight new fossils were discovered. That is to say, eight never before known to exist in what have been named Cincinnati shales and Niagara limestone in other localities. This is signifi- cant, as well as confusing to those who read the printed works of professional geologists. It indicates that if there was not some distinct formation between the Cincinnati shales and Niagara limestone, the lower beds of the latter or the upper beds of the former had some features and fossils in Waukesha not yet found elsewhere.

Niagara Limestone .- This, with its various subdivisions, is the latest geological formation that appears in Waukesha County, except the drift, which was merely a shifting and changing of form, in formations already completed. It belongs to the Upper Silurian series. Dr.

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HISTORY OF WAUKESHA COUNTY.

Increase A. Lapham gave to the limestone in this vicinity the name of " Waukesha Beds." This name is still retained.

The reports of the State Geologists will be used as authority in treating of the so-called Waukesha beds. They consist of three classes of limestone. In the quarry near Carroll Col- lege, in the village of Waukesha, the upper fourteen feet consists of layers of soft, yellowish, coarse dolomite, which in other localities, is called Racine limestone. Below it is the more regular bed of hard, compact, firm-textured, crystalline dolomite. This is of a grayish color and conchoidal fracture. "It is characterized," qnoting from the State Geologist's report, " by the presence of much chert in the form of nodules, distributed chiefly in layers coinciding with the bedding joints. These strata abound in orthoceratites, but contain few other fossils. They constitute the type of the Waukesha beds. The transition to the Racine beds is quite abrupt, but does not correspond to a bedding joint. From three to four inches of the base of the thick layer consists of compact rock, like that below, while the remainder has the open texture and fossils of the Racine beds. Passing by several intermediate quarries for the moment, we find at the limekilns, two miles above Waukesha, a fine display of Racine limestone reposing upon similar cherty flags, which form the sole of the quarry. * * In the road south of this quarry the porous Racine limestone appears ; but 100 yards beyond, and at the same eleva- tion, occurs a light-colored, hard, close-grained, sub-crystalline dolomite, resembling closely Waukesha flags, except the chert is absent. *

* * Several openings follow at short intervals, including Mr. Hadfield's main quarry, which exhibit the same character. This is true also of the several quarries on the opposite side of the Fox River. * *

* The only undoubted members of the Waukesha beds are the cherty flags near the [Carroll] College and the kiln " [in Waukesha Village].

In Menomonee the cherty flags appear, but at Pewaukee the Racine beds appear. At Pel- ton's quarry both Racine and Waukesha beds appear, the former being above the latter.

" Aninteresting feature of this locality, " again quoting from the State Geologist's report, " is a mound of rock, lying a short distance west of the main quarries, which rises ten or twelve feet above its base. * It is hard, compact, white and in some portions cherty, and contains a few brachiopods. It owes its origin (position) to irregularities of disposition and not to upheaval. Johnson's quarry, in the town of Genesee, presents a vertical exposure of twenty- five feet of beautiful white, fine-grained dolomite, in beds twenty inches in thickness and less, having an eastward dip of one foot in sixty. * * A few rods distant, on the opposite side of the road, a quarry displays very similar beds; but they are more porous and abound in chert in certain layers, which is rare or absent at the other locality. In Section 34, town of Lis- bon, we find a formation that may be said to be identical in character with the upper strata at Pewaukee. To the east and northeast, in that and the adjoining towns, are numerous openings upon white, fine-grained, even-bedded dolomite, with few or no fossils, which renders their place in the series somewhat doubtful. As the horizon of the Waukesha beds is traced northward, it plunges beneath the deep drift of the kettle range, and on emerging beyond, the Byron beds and upper and lower coral beds are found to occupy the space between the Racine beds above and the Mayville beds below. The cherty flags at Waukesha most closely resemble the upper portion of the upper coral beds, which occupy the same stratigraphical position beneath the Racine strata, but nowhere in the southern counties is there manifested that abundance and variety of coralline forms that distinguish the formation to the northward. The Pentamerus beds at Pewaukee bear a closer alliance to certain members of the lower coral beds than to any other member of the Northern Niagara series, while the white, compact, chertless beds bear so striking a lithological resemblance to the Byron beds (in Fond du Lac County) that they have been some- times regarded as equivalents. But to satisfy all these affinities would be to impose incredible if not impossible demands upon the stratigraphical relations upon the southern members ; besides, the affinities are not by any means unequivocal. The facts seem to be that in this case, with the lower formations, the deposits in the southern counties differ from the corresponding ones in the northern counties, and that the Waukesha group of strata is the equivalent of the

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The History of Waukesha County, Wisconsin. Containing an account of its settlement, growth, development and resources; an extensive and minute sketch of its cities, towns and villages etc, Part 46

Author: Western Historical Co., pub Publication date: 1880 Publisher: Chicago : Western Historical Company Number of Pages: 1050

Author: Western Historical Co., pub
Publication date: 1880
Publisher: Chicago : Western Historical Company
Number of Pages: 1050