The history of Columbia county, Wisconsin, containing an account of its settlement, Part 46

Author: Butterfield, Consul Willshire, 1824-1899, [from old catalog] ed; Western historical company, chicago, pub. [from old catalog]
Publication date: 1880
Publisher: Chicago, Western historical company
Number of Pages: 1104

USA > Wisconsin > Columbia County > The history of Columbia county, Wisconsin, containing an account of its settlement > Part 46

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Courtland (Township 12, Range 1.2 east) .- The Potsdam sandstone is at the surface only along the bottom of the ravines on Sections 5 and 6. It is seen in small exposures below the mill-dam at Cambria. The Mendota and Madison beds constitute the tongue of high land lying between the branches of Duck Creek, and on which the village of Cambria is built, and are the surface formations over a considerable area in the northern parts of Sections 4 and 5. Reddish shaly Mendota is exposed in a railway cutting on the northwest quarter of Section 5. The Lower Magnesian is the surface rock over the larger part of the town, though, for the most part, covered by drift. It may be seen at the head of the ravine on the southcast quarter of Section 5, on the roadside on the northeast quarter of Section 34, and on a high point on the prairie in the northwest quarter of Section 20. The Trenton and St. Peters occupy an area in the north- eastern sections continuous with that of middle and eastern Randolph. The Trenton is quar- ried on R. Davies' land, in the southeast quarter of Section 12. At Randolph, on Section 1, the

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HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY.

wells pass through twenty-eight feet of Trenton limestone and twenty feet of St. Peters sand- stone into the lower magnesian. The eastward slant of the strata begins in this town to increase rapidly eastward.

Fountain Prairie (Township 11, Range 12 east) .- The Madison sand-beds come to the surface along the valley of the Crawfish, in Sections 17 and 18, where they give rise to a very sandy soil. The Lower Magnesian is the surface formation for nearly all the town, though not frequently exposed. It is little exposed on the northwest quarter of Section 32; on the south- west quarter of the northeast quarter of Section 29; in the railway cutting near Fall River Depot, where it is a white crystalline-textured rock, with numerous cavities ; on the southwest quarter of the northwest quarter of Section 32, and at other points. A narrow northeast and southwest ridge, composed of St. Peters and Trenton, extends into the town in Sections 13 and 24.

Columbus (Township 10, Range 12 east) .- The lower levels are occupied by the Lower Magnesian limestone, which may be seen exposed in a small quarry on the southeast quarter of Section 3, with a thickness of six feet of a reddish, concretionary and cherty rock ; on the west side of Section 9; on the southwest quarter of Section 24, and again on the east side of the stream in the east half of Section 26. The Trenton and St. Peter's formations occupy higher ground in the south and southwest, projecting northeastward in long narrow points. At Luey's place, on the northeast quarter of the northeast quarter of Section 20, the quarry face shows the following: (1) soil and drift, one foot; (2) blue shaly limestone, containing brachi- opods, orthoceratite casts, Gyroceras and Raphistoma, five feet ; third, bluff limestone in heavy regular layers, ten feet. The St. Peters sandstone is found in Mr. Luey's well, thirty feet below the base of the quarry and forty feet below. The Trenton shows also in the road near the center of Section 19, and near the center of Section 20. At Vosburg's quarry, on the south side of the stream, in Section 29, the buff limestone only is exposed, the layers being regular, three to ten inches in thickness, and showing a few of the ordinary brachiopods and orthoceratite casts. Large slabs, four feet by three feet eight inches, are easily obtained. Below the quarry, the junction with the St. Peters is seen. Boldt's quarry, near the cen- ter of Section 22, is on nearly the same horizon as Luey's, on Section 20, showing six feet of the blue and seven feet of the buff beds. The junction of the two is thirty feet below the same junction at Lucy's, proving an eastward descent of fifteen feet per mile. Miller's quarry, on the southwest quarter of the southwest quarter of Section 26, is at the top of the steep southern bank of a small stream. It shows only five feet of thin-bedded buff limestone, which is burned for lime. In the bank below, and running down to the stream, the St. Peters is seen with a thickness of twenty feet. Half a mile down the stream, the Lower Magnesian is exposed at an elevation of only twenty-five feet below the top of the St. Peters at Miller's. The buff beds are exposed again in a small quarry on the east side of Section 36, at a short distance from which place the St. Peters is found in wells. £ The base of the Trenton, thus indicated, has descended from its elevation at Luey's quarry, in a distance of four and three-fourths miles, and a direction E., 25°; S., 65 feet, or 13.6 feet per mile. From Miller's quarry, two miles in the same direction, the descent is 35 feet, or 172 feet per mile. These figures agree with the generally observed fact of an increase in the amount of an eastern dip as we pass east- ward.

Hampden (Township 10, Range 11 east) .- Except in the southeast, where the Trenton and St. Peters occur, the Lower Magnesian appears to be everywhere the surface rock, but it is not frequently exposed. Small exposures may be seen on the southwest quarter of Section 11; near the northwest corner of Section 33, and on the southwest quarter of Section 33.

Otsego (Township 11, Range 11 east) .- A large area in the central sections of the town- ship, is eroded down to the horizon of the Madison sandstone, and presents a loose, sandy soil. This sandstone, coarse, brown and friable, is exposed on the roadside just north of the center of the east line of Section 11, and again on the road ascending the hill on the east line of Section 23, where it is overlaid by twenty feet of roughly weathered, concretionary Lower

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HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY.

Magnesian. In the railroad-cutting, just northwest of Rio, both Madison and Mendota beds are to be seen.

Springvale ( Township 12, Range 11 east) .- The Potsdam sandstone is the surface forma- tion along the stream valleys. The Mendota and Madison beds reach the surface on the flanks of the higher land, and form the whole of one large, elevated area in Sections 21 and 22. Coarse, friable, brown-stained Madison sandstone is seen in a large, flat exposure at the center of the west half of Section 6, and again near the center of the south line of Section 15. The Lower Magnesian occupies all the higher levels. It is exposed on the north half of Section 16, at the center of the south half of Section 15, and at a few other points.

Scott (Township 13, Range 11, east) .- The Potsdam sandstone immediately underlies all the lower parts of the town, but is infrequently exposed. It shows on the north of the north- east quarter of Section 6, fine-grained, friable, noncalcareous, light colored, and in horizon about seventy feet below the Mendota base. The Mendota and Madison beds reach the surface in belts along the flanks of the higher ground. Reddish, shaly Mendota shows on the side of the ravine, on the south line of the southwest quarter of Section 34, and brown, friable, non- calcareous Madison at the southeast corner of Section 31. The Lower Magnesian caps all the high land, and may be seen in a small quarry on the southeast quarter of Section 34, and on the southeast quarter of Section 27, and several small outcrops on the west line of Section 31.

Marcellon (Township 13, Range 10 east) .- The Potsdam sandstone is exposed quite fre- quently in the southwestern sections, where it is generally friable, fine grained, light to dark brown in color, and upward of a hundred feet below the Mendota base.

Wyocena (Township 12, Range 10 east) .- The Potsdam sandstone is everywhere the surface-rock, and is not often exposed, more commonly in the southern than in the northern portions. For the most part, it is eroded below the calcareous portions of the formation.

Lowville ( Township 11, Range 10 east) .- The eastern and southeastern sections of this town are underlaid by the Lower Magnesian limestone. Further northwest, the surface forma- tions are the Madison and Mendota beds, except on a few isolated outliers. The northern and northwestern sections have the Potsdam sandstone as the surface-rock, but including several very prominent limestone-capped outliers. In these sections are the ravines in which heads Rocky Run. In Sections 31 and 32, is a low area, about the headwaters of Okee Creek, with a basement of Potsdam sandstone, but including a large and prominent limestone outlier.

The Potsdam sandstone, friable, light colored, non-calcareous, is seen in the ravine near the northwest corner of Section 9. The Mendota beds are passed through in a well on S. W. Delaney's land, southwest quarter of Section 20, with a thickness of twenty feet of hard, yel- lowislı, fine-grained, argillaceous limestone. On the hill one-fourth of a mile south of here, are exposures of fine-grained, friable, brown, non-calcareous Madison sandstone, composed of sub- angular glassy quartz grains. The same rock is seen quite largely exposed on the road in the northwest quarter of the northwest quarter of Section 28; also near the middle of Section 31, and near the northwest quarter of Section 13. The Lower Magnesian may be seen in rough- weathered exposures on the hill near the southwest corner of Section 1; in a large ledge on the top of the bluff in Section 3; on the bluff in the southeast quarter of Section 9; on the west line of the northwest quarter of Section 13; on the hill on the south line of the southeast quar- ter of Section 23; on top of the bluff near the middle of Section 31, and at H. M. Delancy's quarry, on the northeast quarter of Section 28. This quarry lies on the south side of an isolated hill of Lower Magnesian. It shows a face of five feet of very regularly bedded, yel- lowish, fine-textured limestone, which is more nearly alike in character to the limstone of the Mendota beds than to that of the Lower Magnesian, as ordinarily scen. The layers are one to two inches in thickness, and flat slabs of large size are obtainable. The surface of the layers shows fucoidal and fine black dendritic markings. Below the quarry is a large exposure of the ordinary rough-weathered lower magnesian, whose base is on a level with the tops of the Madison sandstone exposures a few rods west, the whole thickness of limestone uncovered being fifteen feet.

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HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY.

Leeds and Arlington (Township 10, Range 10 east, and Township 10, Range 9. east) .-- In these towns, the Potsdam sandstone comes to the surface in the lower ground in northern Arlington and northwestern Leeds. Large ledges of it rise on the south side of a small creek in the northeast quarter of the northeast quarter of Section 3, Arlington, a short distance south of the village of Poynette. Here are exposed fifteen feet of white, heavily bedded, friable, non- calcareous sandstone, with some thin green-sand layers, the base of the ledge being fifty to sixty feet below the base of the Mendota horizon. Similar but higher ledges occur along the creek in Pine Hollow, in the adjoining parts of Sections 3 and 4. At this place are exposed thirty feet of very friable, white-and-yellow-banded sandstone, heavily bedded below, thinner above, the base of the exposures being almost eighty feet below the Mendota base. Along the slopes up to the high ground, the Madison and Mendota beds are at the surface. The former rock is quarried near the southeast corner of Section 2, yielding a coarse-grained, white, regularly bedded sandstone. The Lower Magnesian is the surface rock of nearly the whole of the two townships, and must reach a thickness in the higher parts of at least 120 feet. Rose's well, southeast corner of Section 20, Arlington, is ninety-eight feet in limestone. In Arlington, the Lower Magnesian is exposed above the sandstone quarry on Section 2; on the east line of Section 10; at a high point on the south line of the southwest quarter of Section 14; at a similar point on the south line of the southeast quarter of Section 21, where it holds an unusual amount of cherty material ; in several small outcrops on Section 29; in a small quarry on the south line of Section 31, and in the south part of Section 6. In Leeds, the exposures are not frequent. The St. Peters sandstone remains on top of the Arlington prairie, in five isolated knobs, the highest seventy-five to one hundred feet in height. Three of these

are close together, on each side of the line between Sections 28 and 29. The bluffs on Spoonam's land, northeast quarter of the southeast quarter of Section 29, shows large outcrops, in a disturbed condition, of fine-grained, friable, white and brown mottled sandstone, composed of glassy quartz grains, the larger ones of which are rolled, the smaller ones angular. Most of the rock has a very hard vitrified crust, one-fourth to one-half inch in thickness, in which the quartz grains appear to possess distinct crystalline surfaces. No trace of calcareous matter is present. Fine lamination and cross-lamination are plainly perceptible. The smaller knob on Mrs. A. D. Forbes' land has, on the south side, a vertical cliff, eighty feet in height, of sim- ilar but of distinctly horizontal and undisturbed sandstone. In the southwest quarter of the southwest quarter of Section 27, and extending into Section 28, and again in the north half of Section 34, are other similar bluffs. At the west end of the first named, the ledges are large, rising abruptly from the prairie level, the rock being much disturbed, and in all other respects like that on Spoonam's land, on Section 29. Near the southwest corner of Section 27, the sandstone is thin-bedded, incoherent and disturbed. At the east end of the bluff, which is about half a mile in length, there is a vertical cliff of entirely horizontal rock. On the prairie around these sandstone mounds, exposures of the Lower Magnesian limestone are seen at several points whose elevation is greater than that of the sandstone ledges; whilst at two points on the south line of Section 21, and in the north part of Section 29, the limestone rises as high as the tops of the St. Peters. The irregular nature of the upper surface of the Lower Magnesian is thus distinctly proven.

Dekorra (including Township 11, Range 9 east, and the triangular half of Township 11. Range 8 east, which borders the Wisconsin River), lies almost wholly within the area of the Potsdam sandstone, whose proximity to the surface is evinced by the prevalent sandy soil. The surface is generally wooded with the ordinary small oaks, showing only one small patch of prairie in the southeast corner of Township 11, Range 8 east. Along Okee Creek, in the southern part, and along Rocky Run, in the northern part, are marsh belts about a mile in width. Near the Wisconsin River, the altitude is generally 190 to 200 feet; away from it, 250 to 300 feet. The higher limestone country skirts Dekorra along its southern and western sides, sending into it a few projecting points. A number of isolated bluffs also dot the surface of Dekorra, rising 100 to 200 feet above the general level, the higher ones reaching the horizon

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HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY.

of the Lower Magnesian. The Lodi and Portage road crosses in Section 20, Township 11, Range 9 east, a high bluff, in a deep cut, which exposes about thirty feet of the calcareous lay- ers which immediately underlie the Mendota beds.

Pacific (including that part of Township 12, Range 9 east, which lies east of the Wis- consin River) .- The Potsdam sandstone is the only indurated formation and is unfrequently exposed.

Fort Winnebago ( Township 13, Range 9 east) .- The Potsdam sandstone is the only indurated formation, and the soil is generally loose and sandy. At T. Coughlin's quarry, northeast quar- ter of the southwest quarter of Section 20, are exposed ten feet of heavily bedded, fine-grained, white, porous, friable sandstone, which is composed of glassy subangular quartz grains, and is blotched with ferruginous spots. Rows of little brown-stained pores mark the laminations very plainly. Large fucoidal impressions occur. Large regular-shaped blocks are obtained. The isolated bluff on the adjoining parts of Sections 25 and 36 shows numerous small exposures of . white crumbling non-calcareous sandstone for a thickness of about ninety feet.

Lewiston and Newport ( Township 13, Range 7 east, and portions of Township 12, Range 8 east and Township 13, Range 6 east), are like the town of Fort Winnebago, in being entirely within the Potsdam sandstone area.

Lodi and West Point (Township 10, Range 8 east, and that part of Township 10, Range 7 east, which is south of the Wisconsin) .- The Potsdam sandstone underlies all the lower levels, and forms the lower portions of the bluffs, which above includes the Mendota and Madison beds, the Lower Magnesian limestone, and in one case the whole thickness of the St. Peters sandstone. Rock exposures are very frequent along the bluff sides.

Near the southeast corner of Section 27, Lodi, Township 10. Range 8 east, the road ascending the bluff is cut into the Madison sandstone, of which twenty-five feet in thickness is exposed. The uppermost layers are light-brownish, medium grained, friable and calcareous, the rolled quartz grains having mingled with their fragments of cleavable calcite. The rest of the exposure shows the usual dark brown, friable, non-calcareous sandstone. Above is sixty feet of Lower Magnesian limestone in small weather-roughened exposures, and below a small outcropping of the Mendota beds. The Lower Magnesian, Mendota and upper calcarecus layers of the Potsdam are exposed again on the south side of the bluff in the southeast quarter of Section 12; and again, on the south face of the bluff on the northeast quarter of Section 21, both in Township 10, Range 8 east. The Lower Magnesian limestone is also exposed in quar- ries in the southwest quarter of Section 7; the southeast quarter of Section 20; the southwest quarter of Section 20; the southeast quarter of the northeast quarter of Section 32; near the middle of the north half of Section 34, where the Madison sandstone shows well in a cave below the quarry, and near the center of the north line of Section 31; all in Township 10, Range 8 east ; also near the center of the north line of Section 13, in the southwest quarter of Section 24; the northwest quarter of the northwest quarter of Section 26, the north half Sec- tion 31, and in the northeast quarter of the northeast quarter of Section 36, all in Township 10, Range 7 east. These quarries are generally at the top of the bluff faces, where the rock is often to some extent naturally exposed. The Mendota is quarried on the hillside just west of the depot at Lodi, where it presents the typical yellow color and reddish stains, and is over- laid at the top of the hill by white incoherent Madison sandstone. Another and much larger Mendota quarry is on the south side of the bluff in the south half of Section 18, Township 10, Range 8 east. There are some ten feet of very regularly bedded, yellow sandy lime- stone, the layers below heavy, above thin and shaly, with fine large specimens of Dicello- cephalus Minnesotensis.

Gibraltar Bluff is the name given to the boldl cliff of St. Peters sandstone, which sur- mounts the western end of a large outlying area of limestone-capped bluffs in Sections 17 and 18, Township 10, Range 8 east. The area over which the sandstone is present is proba- bly not more than forty rods in diameter, but the top of the bluff reaches an elevation of about six hundred and thirty feet above Lake Michigan, or upwards of four hundred and fifty feet

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HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY.

above the adjacent river, so that it constitutes one of the most striking points in the scenery of this part of the valley of the Wisconsin, rising far above all the immediate surrounding country. The eastern face of the bluff is precipitous in its upper portion for over a hundred feet. At the top of the cliff is a wooded summit, composed in part of glacial drift, but showing in one place a few broken layers of limestone, which are in the proper place and have the proper character for the buff or lower Trenton limestone. The cliff itself is made up of fine-grained, light-colored to nearly white, friable sandstone, which is composed of angular and subangular quartz grains, and possesses a hard, vitrified erust. In the uppermost part of the cliff, the hori- zontal bedding is distinct-the layers being quite thin ; below, however, it is not plainly percep- tible ; whilst the whole has a sort of a vertically columnar appearance due to jointing. On the upper part of the long, wooded slope below are numerous very large sandstone masses, evidently fallen from the cliff. At the lower edge of this slope, the Mendota limestone is partly exposed ; and below it, the upper layers of the Pottsdam with intercalated calcareous bands. To the right and left of the line of section, lower, non-calcareous sandstone layers are exposed, in low cliffs, rising from the edge of a marsh. At a point on top of the hill, only a few rods from the sand- stone cliff, but at an elevation of forty-eight feet above its base, is an outcrop of much disturbed Lower Magnesian limestone.

Numerous points on the surrounding bluffs also show limestone at elevations above the base of the sandstone of the Gibraltar cliff, proving the existence of a very irregular upper surface to the Lower Magnesian.

Caledonia .- This large township is the most interesting, geologically, of any in the county. Extending east and west through the central part are the two bold quartzite ridges known as the Baraboo Bluffs. In the eastern part of the township, these two ranges unite, forming a bold point, around which the Wisconsin River is forced to flow. The spoon-shaped space between the two uniting ranges is filled up by the Potsdam sandstone to a high level. The same forma- tion shows in numerous remnants clinging to the outer flanks of both quartzite ranges, and the surface rocks over all of the rest of the town, except on the tops of the highest bluffs of the southern portions, where Madison, Mendota and Lower Magnesian beds all present themselves. Very fine and striking sections, showing the unconformity of the Potsdam sandstone and con- glomerate to the Huronian quartzite, are to be seen at Derevan's Glen, on the north side of Section 18, Township 11 north, Range 8 east, and at Jones' Glen, on Section 22, Township 12 north, Range 8 east, both of which places are very interesting, also, from a scenie point of view.

RIVERS IN COLUMBIA COUNTY.

Central Wisconsin may be said to include portions of four distinct drainage systems-those of the Wisconsin, Black and Rock Rivers, flowing south ward and westward to the Mississippi, and that of the Fox River, of Green Bay, flowing northward and eastward to Lake Michigan, and is thus tributary to the St. Lawrence. The direction and areas of these river systems are more or less directly influenced by the rock structure of the State. Extending into Wisconsin from the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, and forming the central nucleus of the northern half of Wisconsin, is a great mass of ancient crystalline rocks, which is bordered on all sides by newer and undisturbed formations, whose outcropping edges, on the south, east and west, succeed one another in concentric bands. The central crystalline mass, probably for the most part never covered by later formations, includes the highest land in the State. It has a general slope to the southward, reaching its greatest elevation-1,100 feet above Lakes Michigan and Superior- along its northern edge, within thirty miles of the latter lake. The waters which fall upon it are shed in four different directions-to the north, into Lake Superior ; to the southeast, into Lake Michigan ; to the south, into the Wisconsin, which ultimately reaches the Mississippi, and to the southwest, directly into the last mentioned river.

Wisconsin River .- This stream is much the most important of those which drain the ele- vated lands of the State. Its total length from its source to its mouth is about four hundred and fifty miles. It forms, with its valley, the main topographical feature of Central Wisconsin.

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HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY.

Rising in Lac Vieux Desert, on the summit of the Archæan watershed, at an elevation of 951 feet above Lake Michigan, it pursucs a general southerly course for 300 miles over the crystal- line rocks, and then, passing on to the sandstones which form its bed for the remainder of its course, continues to the southward some eighty miles more. Turning then westward, it reaches the Mississippi within forty miles of the south line of the State, at an elevation of only thirty feet above Lake Michigan, so that its fall from Lac Vieux Desert is 921 feet, an average of a frac- tion over two feet to the mile. Like all the other streams which run to the south, southeast and southwest from the crystalline rocks, it has its quite distinct upper or crystalline rock portion, and its lower or sandstone portion. This river, however, may be regarded as having three dis- tinct sections-the first including all that part from the source to the last appearance of crystal- line rocks in the bed of the stream, in the southern part of Wood County; the second, that part from this point to the Dalles, on the south line of Adams and Juneau Counties, and the third, that portion from the Dalles to the mouth of the stream. The first of these divisions is broken constantly by rapids and falls, caused by the descent south of the surface of the Archæan area, and by the obstructions produced by the inclined ledges of rock which cross the stream. The second and third sections are alike in being almost entirely without rapids or falls. and in the nature of the bed rock, but are separated by the contracted gorge known as the Dalles, which, acting in some sort as a dam, prevents any considerable rise in the river below, the water above not infrequently rising as much as fifty feet in flood seasons, whilst below, the extreme fluctuation does not exceed ten feet.

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The history of Columbia county, Wisconsin, containing an account of its settlement, Part 46

Author: Butterfield, Consul Willshire, 1824-1899, [from old catalog] ed; Western historical company, chicago, pub. [from old catalog] Publication date: 1880 Publisher: Chicago, Western historical company Number of Pages: 1104

Author: Butterfield, Consul Willshire, 1824-1899, [from old catalog] ed; Western historical company, chicago, pub. [from old catalog]
Publication date: 1880
Publisher: Chicago, Western historical company
Number of Pages: 1104