The history of Sauk County, Wisconsin, containing an account of settlement, growth, development and resources biographical sketches the whole preceded by a history of Wisconsin, Part 70

Author: Western historical company, Chicago, pub
Publication date: 1880
Publisher: Chicago, Western historical company
Number of Pages: 840

USA > Wisconsin > Sauk County > The history of Sauk County, Wisconsin, containing an account of settlement, growth, development and resources biographical sketches the whole preceded by a history of Wisconsin > Part 70

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The basin of the Baraboo River has an area of over six hundred square miles, extending, of course, without the county. The stream itself is about two hundred feet wide at its mouth, and has a volume of water, made up mostly from the flow of springs, of between 15,000 and 20,- 000 inches, as calculated on the edge of a dam. It passes through two ranges of bluffs, form- ing the Upper and Lower Narrows, the latter being an opening in the Wisconsin River bluffs

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HISTORY OF SAUK COUNTY.

about ten miles from the mouth of the Baraboo. At this point, the valley is but sixty to eighty rods wide, and upon either side the bluff is from three hundred to four hundred feet high, pre- senting, in some places, a face of perpendicular rock, and, in others, rugged slopes covered with pine, red cedar and oak firmly rooted in the broken debris. This pass, or gorge, is half a mile in length, the river being very shallow along its entire extent. It was a favorite fording-place for Indians in primeval times. Below the Narrows, the Baraboo and Wisconsin River bottoms soon unite and form a large tract of variegated soil. The Wisconsin River being the most rapid stream, the floods that collect here soon discharge through its broad channel. In these bottoms. there are patches of marshes, but a good share of it can be plowed and cereals grown. From the Upper to the Lower Narrows, a distance of fifteen miles by six or seven wide, the country is interesting from its peculiar geological features, which are referred to in another part of this work. It forms a distinct basin from the other part of the Baraboo Valley. It contains about one hundred square miles, and the Baraboo Rapids seem to have been designed as its business center. There is but very little poor land in it, and the river is the dividing line between two distinct soils. That upon the south side is mostly a heavy clay subsoil, with a vegetable loam surface soil, being timbered with lime, maple, oak, elm, walnut, hickory, ash and cherry. That upon the north side has a similar subsoil, but more sand with the surface soil. In contradis- tinction with the cherry timber of the south side, the north side comprises openings, marsh and prairie, nearly equally divided. The rapids are some two miles and a half in length, and have a fall of fifty feet. The land being so well divided between timber, oak openings, prairie and marsh, well watered with springs and runs, and very healthy withal, time will give it credit for more advantages than are here rehearsed.

Narrows Creek breaks through the Baraboo range about two miles west, and flows at its base to the river. The gorge is very narrow, having a little more than enough width for the creek bed and a road. Here there is a natural fall over rapids of about ten or twelve feet, mak- ing a good water-power with from five hundred to one thousand inches. The opening for the river is still narrower. The quiet stream in this narrow dell, with rocks wildly arranged to the height of three hundred to four hundred feet, the absence of sunshine, the hemlock and pine, with their " music of a thousand harps," lead us to thoughts of nature's wonders. Above this range of bluffs, the basin of the Baraboo River is in unison with the country previously described, with the exception of some variations in soil. The great physical features of the Upper Bara- boo country are the prairies dotting the heavily timbered districts. The area of these prairies is from one acre to several hundred. Some of the largest have names-such as Narrows, Ball's, Blakeslie's, Hubbell's, Kerstetter's, Stead's, Ribock's, etc. Narrows Creek Valley is quite equally divided between timber, marsh and prairie. It has a large basin of country, containing from forty-five to fifty square miles, and is a rich valley of land.

Passing from Narrows Creek over a divide capped in several places with limestone, we come into the valley and basin of Babb's Creek, which is the largest of the timber-inclosed prairies above described, and lies thirty to fifty feet above the creek. The arms of the prairie extend in several directions into the heavy timber, and upon the main body there are several " timber islands," making the whole' aspect a very pleasant one. Upon its east side is the Baraboo River, and here, in early days, was an Indian ford, the bottom of the river for a short dis- tance being rock. Now upon this rock bottom the river is dammed, and near by is the village of Reedsburg.

Seven or eight miles further up, we come to the beautiful valley of the Little Baraboo, con- taining nearly forty square miles, one-fourth of which is in Richland County. The Little Bar- aboo River furnishes, at its mouth, probably 12,000 inches of water, and is a very permanent stream. Further on is the valley of the main river, which, upon the southwest side, is rather rolling, but not rough, the soil being very rich. Next come the Kerstetter, Stead and Ribock Prairies, and then we find ourselves in the Plum Valley, which is about one-third the size of the Little Baraboo, with similar characteristics. Across the river, on the northeast side, are the remains of the famous " Old Pinery," wlience came so many "drives " of logs in the early

Karmas Baker

PRAIRIE DU SAC.

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HISTORY OF SAUK COUNTY.

history of this wonderful valley. The town of Lavalle, and especially the Ox and Big Creek Valleys, is not inviting to the lover of prairie land. Turning southward into the town of Winfield, we enter the narrow valley of Twin Creek, surrounded by rich-soiled table-lands, which lie from seventy-five to one hundred feet above the creek bottom, and are well timbered with oak. In the eastern part of Winfield, there is an excellent country, in the edge of the Irish settle- ment formerly called Sligo. Nearer Reedsburg, in the Copper Creek Valley, the soil is light and sandy. Not far from the mouth of Copper Creek is a copper mine, which at one time cre- ated considerable excitement. The ore was rich, and several tons were taken out, but it seemed to run out and was abandoned. In sinking shafts or making excavations anywhere in this region, a sheet of clay is found strongly impregnated with verdigris.

Dell Creek enters the Wisconsin River near the foot of the Little Dells, and furnishes about one thousand inches of water. The area of this basin is sixty-five square miles. This is very large for the size of the stream, owing, probably, to there being but few hills or elevated lands, which always furnish an abundance of water. With the exception of some country in the neigh- borhood of the Dells, and a few isolated mounds, such as Hay Rick, Rattlesnake Bluff, Hay- stack and Prospect Hill, the basin is an unbroken level. The lower part of the basin is of a light, sandy soil, with black-oak openings and pine groves. There are, however, places in this region, equal to about a third part of it, that have a stiff clay soil, with white-oak openings. Interspersed through this light soil are occasional marshes. In the upper part of the valley, and lying at the foot of the ridge that divides it from the Baraboo Valley, is a strip of country equal to about half a township, which is second to none in the county in productiveness. The soil is a deep, rich clay loam, lying on a shelf about fifty feet higher than the rest of the valley. This vicinity is well supplied with timber.

In the southern portion of the county the aspect changes. Leaving Harrisburg and pass- ing in a southwesterly direction, the traveler finds himself in the little valley of Wilson's Creek, so called in honor of John Wilson, a Scotchman, who settled there in 1840. In passing down the Wisconsin River, about four miles from Wilson's, the bluffs recede from the river at Sauk, and for the first two or three miles the basin is timbered with white and burr oak openings, and has a very fair soil. From this we pass to a prairie dotted with patches of sand. About three miles from Spring Green and five miles from Lone Rock, Big Hollow opens out upon the prairie. This hollow, or canyon, is about three miles long, and its soil is an excellent clay loam.

Honey Creek empties into the Wisconsin River some two and a half miles below Sauk City, and is nearly forty feet wide. It flows along the south end of Sauk Prairie four or five miles, above which it has the appearance of being lost among the bluffs, or rather coming abruptly and almost mysteriously out of them. These high and formidable-looking bluffs, pre- senting in very many places perpendicular faces to the south and capped with red cedars, are mere walls-for their base is as nothing compared with their height-that stand from 100 to 150 feet high, and scarcely thick enough to support themselves. The valley of Honey. Creek is from two to three miles wide, and almost level. It is divided up between marsh, prairie, open- ings, tamarack swamp, thickets, oak brush, etc. It is emphatically a valley of "pockets," varying from ten acres to a section of land in size, nearly inclosed by these high bluff walls. The soil has a clay base and is generally of a durable nature. Excellent quality of building- stone is found in the foot-hills. This locality is somewhat famous for its caves, which, in cold weather, emit steam like furnaces. They are penetrated with considerable difficulty. In one of these caves have been found some very beautiful stalactites.

Bear Creek Valley, with its branches, is properly a grazing country, as there is more meadow or marsh land than grain land. The soil is considered rich, and is well watercd by little rivulets coming from the adjacent rocks. There are no bold-faced rocks and picturesque hills here as in Honey Creek Valley, though the bluffs are equally high. The narrow ravines near the heads of the streams wind around in a most singular manner, and those unacquainted with the face of the country thereabouts will do well to take along a guide when they make exploring expeditions.

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HISTORY OF SAUK COUNTY.

Taken altogether, the surface features of Sauk County present an interesting study and are the most remarkable in the State.

ELEVATIONS.

The unevenness of the surface of Sauk County has frequently attracted the attention and scientific observation of geologists. Among the most instructive minor characteristics of the topography of the county are the elevations of a number of different points of its surface above the water-level of Lake Michigan. These are given in feet. By adding 589 feet to those of any given point, the result will be the elevation above the ocean. Following are the highest and lowest topographical points in the various towns mentioned :

Spring Green depot, 144 feet above Lake Michigan ; top of bluff, northwest quarter Section 5, 465 feet.

Town of Troy, northwest corner Section 2, Township 8, Range 4, 130 feet ; top of bluff, northwest quarter Section 14, Township 9, Range 5, 500 feet.

Prairie du Sac, base of bluff at southwest quarter Section 21, Township 9, Range 6, 166 feet ; top of bluff in Section 17, 490 feet.

Town of Franklin, Section 2, Township 9, Range 9, 195 feet; Section 19, 490 feet.

Honey Creek, Section 31, Township 10, Range 5, 200 feet ; Section 2, 610 feet.

Town of Sumter, Section 15, Township 10, Range 6, 230 feet ; road-bed on Section 26, Township 11, Range 6, 625 feet.

Town of Merrimack, Section 28, 260 feet; Section 23, 580 feet.

Town of Westfield, Logansville, Section 17, 330 feet ; Section 11, 600 feet.

Town of Freedom, bridge on east half of Section 2, 268 feet ; Sections 23 and 26, 830 feet.

Town of Baraboo, depot grounds, Section 2, 280 feet; cliff- top on middle west line of Section 24, 850 feet.

Town of Greenfield, road-bed on Section 26, Township 12, Range 7, 215 feet ; point near the middle west line of Section 15, Township 11, Range 7, 900* feet.

Town of Reedsburg, surface of creek, Section 35, 280 feet; highest points on Sections 29 and 30, 580 feet.

Town of Excelsior, middle north half of Section 2, 290 feet ; bluff-top in east half of Section 5, 575 feet.

Town of Fairfield, bridge, center Section 23, 225 feet ; bluff-top, southeast quarter Section 22, 590 feet.

Town of Winfield, southeast corner Section 27, 280 feet; southeast corner Section 24, 468 feet. Town of Dellona, Section 5, 300 feet ; Section 19, 390 feet.

THE BARABOO QUARTZITE RANGES.

It will be interesting to consider those isolated areas of Archæan rocks which are found pro- truding through the surrounding horizontal Silurian strata, at points widely scattered over the Central part of the State. Besides doubtful isolated areas, which may be somewhere connected with the main Archæan region without intervening horizontal strata, there are many others which occur as much as fifty or one hundred miles within the region of the Lower Silurian rocks. All of the scattered patches are but points of the universal Archæan basement, upon which all the later strata are built, having earned their especial immunity from complete burial by virtue of the resistant nature of their materials. They are, properly, buried mountains, and were high islands and reef-ledges in the early Paleozoic seas. All the areas, except the one, or. rather the group, including the Baraboo ranges in Sauk County, are of small size, generally occupying much less than a square mile of area. With the same exception, they are all mound-like in form, rising, usually, somewhat abruptly from the surrounding country, which is frequently level, and

*Highest point in the county.

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HISTORY OF SAUK COUNTY.

showing, always, considerable rock exposures on the flanks and summits, being often almost all bare rock. They reach heights of from 50 to 250 feet, but are usually lower than the surround- ing outlying bluffs of the horizontal strata. The Baraboo group, unlike the others, constitutes a series of bold ridges, one of which reaches elevations of 800 and 900 feet above Lake Michi- gan, and a length of over twenty miles. The nature of the rocks composing the several areas

is not always the same. The large areas in Sauk County, and a few others, are chiefly of quartzite ; a number are of quartz porphyry ; still others of granite, which is different in differ- ent cases ; and yet others, occurring in Jackson County, and close to the main Archæan area, are of ferruginous quartz schist. Except in the cases of the granitic areas, these rocks are generally quite distinctly bedded, and are usually tilted at high angles.

The Baraboo quartzite ranges occupy much the largest extent of territory, and are at the same time much the most striking and most important as influencing the topography of the State of any of the isolated Archæan areas that occur within the region of the Silurian rocks. Their bold character, and the dissimilarity between their rocks and those of the country around, have drawn to them the attention of the State Geologists as well as of other scientific men. Percival regarded the quartzites composing the ranges as resulting from a metamorphism of the Potsdam sandstone of the surrounding region. Hall refers them, correctly, to the Archæan, making them Huronian, but his detailed examinations were not published. Alexander Winchell calls them " Lower Potsdam," on the evidence of some fossils belonging to the Middle Potsdam, and found in the sandstone lying against the quartzite. This he regards as proving the " Lower Potsdam " age of the quartzite, losing sight of the fact that the latter is unconformable with the sandstone, and projects upward into the horizon, not only of the Middle Potsdam, but even far above, into that of the St. Peter's. The Archæan age of the quartzite was first definitely proved by the State Geologist in 1872, and this conclusion has since been abundantly confirmed by the work of other geologists, and also by his own further researches in the region.

The Baraboo Bluffs constitute two east-and-west ranges, extending some twenty-five miles in length through the towns of Caledonia, in Columbia County, and Greenfield, Merrimack, Sumter, Baraboo, Honey Creek, Freedom, Excelsior and Westfield, in Sauk County. The southern one of the ranges is much the bolder and more continuous, and the two are not exactly parallel, but diverge as they are traced westward. At their eastern ends, in Columbia County, they unite in a bold point, rising abruptly from the low ground of the Wisconsin River, at the easternmost point of the great bend which the quartzite ranges compel it to take. Tracing them westward, we find the two ridges, about midway in their lengths, some four miles apart, and at their western ends a mile or so more than this. Here a bold, nearly north-and-south cross-ridge, also with a quartzite core, unites the two, thus finishing an entire cordon of bluffs around a depressed interior. All around the outside of this circuit of hills, except beyond the western cross-ridge, the country is comparatively low, and often quite level, so that the ridges rise very boldly, forming, for a non-mountainous country, quite a striking feature of the landscape.

The southern quartzite range is broken down in only one place, the gorge in which lies the Devil's Lake, and, as seen from the low ground of the Wisconsin River on the south, presents a continuous wavy crest, often with large areas of bare rock, and with elevations of from 500 to 700 feet above the river, and of 700 to 900 feet above Lake Michigan. Its higher portions have a width of from one to four miles, the outline being quite irregular on account of the deep and very anciently eroded valleys that indent its sides. The great antiquity of these valleys is evinced by their showing, on their sides and bottoms, layers of horizontal sandstone, clinging to the underlying quartzite. The sandstone has evidently been deposited in valleys which were originally formed long before its deposition, and have been carved out anew in the same places, on account of its friable and non-resistant nature. The country on top of the range is heavily timbered, presenting, in this regard, as also in its almost universal heavy clay soil, a marked contrast with the lower country around. This clay soil has caused the making of many excel- lent farms on top of the range. It occurs alike on the quartzite and the high-level sandstonc. In the eastern extension of the Bluffs, it might be regarded as of glacial origin, but to the

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HISTORY OF SAUK COUNTY.

westward, the glacial drift-limit is reached about midway in the length of the range, and some other origin must be sought.

The northern range is much less pronounced than the southern. For about seven miles west from the junction of the two, in Columbia County, it forms a continuous ridge some 300 or 400 feet in height, but generally much less than a mile in width. Further west, its height lessens for long distances, the Archæan rocks forming its core, at the same time becoming covered by the overlying horizontal sandstones, through which they appear here and there in small outcrops. Further west still, this range rises again, and where it joins the cross ridge at its western extrem- ity has become again bold, with a height of 200 to 300 feet. Although thus indefinite in its middle portions, the higher ground never entirely disappears along the line of the range, except at the three points where the Baraboo River and one of its tributaries cut through in deep gorges.

The depressed area within the circuit of quartzite bluffs is, for the most part, somewhat higher than the surrounding outside country, and toward its eastern and western extremities rises rather rapidly up to the inclosing ridges. In Columbia County, much of the area between the ranges is as high as the northern range itself, and is underlaid by a great thickness of sandstone, which fills in the canoe-shaped trough of the uniting quartzite belts. At one time, the rest of the valley between the ranges was filled in a similar manner, and has since been partially recarved in the friable sandstone which still forins its bottom. This valley is now traversed longitudinally by the Baraboo River, which enters and leaves it, by deep gorges, through the northern ridge, having a fall between the gorges of about seventy feet.

The rock constituting the great body of the Baraboo ranges is a quartzite of a non-granular (usually flaky) texture, and of a color from nearly white, through gray, pink and amethyst, to purplish-red and even brick-red, the gray and deep red being the most common, the white the least so. Very rarely a distinct granular texture is seen. The quartzite is frequently very dis- tinctly laminated, the lines of lamination being contorted in a remarkable manner, and marked by alternating light-colored and dark-colored lines. There is never any cleavage parallel to the lamination lines. Next in abundance to the regular quartzite, and merging into it, are heavy beds of a fine metamorphic conglomerate, usually of a grayish to amethystine color, in which the matrix and pebbles are alike quartzite, and not always very well defined from one another. Forming thin layers between the thick layers of quartzite, is in many places to be seen a pecu- liar greasy-surfaced quartz schist, the laminæ of which are composed of quartzite like that of the regular quartzite layers, seamed and covered on the surface with a soft, lilac to white, talc-like mineral. This slate or schist usually exhibits the true slaty or transverse cleavage. The soft mineral pervading it is suspected to be always, as it certainly is sometimes, aluminous rather than magnesian. It occurs occasionally, forming slaty layers with but little quartz admixture, and, in small seams, even entirely pure. It then has rather the physical characteristics of a compacted clay, and this appearance is borne out by the analyses given beyond, which show that the pure clay-like kinds are probably not distinct minerals, but rather a mixture of a clayey sub- stance with fine silica. In both physical properties and chemical composition, this material is closely allied to the pipestone of Southwest Minnesota, from which it differs only in color. Other quartz schists of quite a different character have been observed forming the lowest layers of the north quartzite range, both at the Lower Narrows of the Baraboo and at the Upper Narrows of the same stream. These are white to straw-colored, distinctly granular in texture, the quartz grains being of translucent, glassy quartz. The whole rock is more or less pervaded by a soft, clayey material, and splits out in large thin sheets. On the northernmost portions of the north range, at the Lower Narrows, and also for a short distance to the westward, a great thickness of quartz porphyry is also to be observed. This porphyry resembles that of the several small porphyry areas of the adjoining portions of Columbia, Marquette and Green Lake Counties, and proves at once that we must regard these areas as part of the same formation that appears in the Baraboo ranges.

In the quartzite, milk-white veins and nests are frequently to be seen. In some places, as at the Upper Narrows, the white quartz veins show, frequently, geodic cavities lined with quartz

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HISTORY OF SAUK COUNTY.

crystals of great clearness and beauty, and not unfrequently of very large size, though usually small. In the veins at the Upper Narrows, such crystal-lined cavities are exceedingly numerous. Along with the crystals, somctimes compacted over them, sometimes loose in the cavities, and again in thin seams by itself, is to be seen a soft, white mineral. This is often pulverulent, at times gritty, at others a ncarly impalpable powder, and is shown by analysis to be essentially a silicate of alumina. With the white quartz, in nests of some size, is often to be observed brill- iant specular iron in large crystalline surfaces. It occurs also in some of the layers of quartzite in fine scales. Titanic iron is also reported. These, with the peculiar aluminous silicate alluded to in connection with the quartz schists, are the only minerals known to occur in the Baraboo rocks.

The quartzites and associated rocks are quite distinctly bedded, though the bedding is not unfrequently obscured by cross-jointing, which is often to be observed on a grand scale. The dip, wherever observed, is toward the north through the whole extent of both ranges, but varies much in amount. In the southern range it is usually quite low, as low sometimes as 15° in the middle and broadest portions. In the northern range, the dips are always much higher, running from 55° to 90°. The rocks of the two ranges appear, however, to be parts of a continuous series, the quartz porphyry beds of the northern range constituting the uppermost layers.

Beginning the detailed descriptions at the best known, and at the same time one of the most remarkable, points about the quartzite ranges, we note, first, the occurrences in the vicinity of Devil's Lake, in Township 11, Ranges 6 and 7. Here the southern range is cut entirely through by a deep quartzite walled valley or gorge, 500 feet in depth, and three-fourths of a milc in width. In its northern portion, this valley trends due north and south for about a mile ; turn- ing then abruptly at right angles, it extends eastward two miles and a half. In the north and south part lies Devil's Lake, with a length of something more than a mile, and a width one- fourth less than this, its surface being about one hundred feet above the valley surface at the eastern end of the gorge, more than one hundred feet above the Baraboo River at Baraboo, and more than two hundred above the Wisconsin at Merrimack. It is held in this elevated position by two immense morainic heaps of glacial drift lying at either end of the lake, and rising more than one hundred feet above its level. The lake has a nearly level sandy bottom, except near the shores, and is, over most of its area, some thirty feet in depth. £ It has no outlet and but one small stream running into it. It is thus, probably, fed chiefly by springs, and maintains its level by evaporation and by filtering through the heaps of gravel and sand which hold it in place. Near the northwest corner a small stream, running into the Baraboo, passes within a few rods of the lake, and, possibly, carries with it some of the lake water. On its west and south sides, the lake washes the bases of the bounding cliffs of the gorge. Both east and west cliffs are highest near their southern ends, toward which they rise gradually from the north, following, roughly, the dip-planes, which also rise southward, and the edges of which can be secn, quite well marked, on either wall of the gorge. By aneroid measurement, the highest point of the west bluff is 475 feet above the lake level, or 800 fect above Lake Michigan, and the southern portion of the cast bluff but little lower. In their upper portions, the cliffs are vertical, sometimes for as much as two hundred feet or morc, but their lower parts are clothed with a heavy talus or " ankle," com- posed of great blocks of the quartzite that have fallen from the cliffs above. These masses are often as much as twenty feet on a side, with a somewhat regular shape imparted by the powerful joints that everywhere traverse the quartzite, and cut it into blocks only needing to be slightly dislodged in order to fall down the cliff. For the greater portion of their lengths both east and west bluffs are quite narrow, being backed by deep ravines opening northward. The northern end of the east bluff, especially, is a mere crest, having behind it one of the ancient, sandstone- lined ravines that have before been mentioned.

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The history of Sauk County, Wisconsin, containing an account of settlement, growth, development and resources biographical sketches the whole preceded by a history of Wisconsin, Part 70

Author: Western historical company, Chicago, pub Publication date: 1880 Publisher: Chicago, Western historical company Number of Pages: 840

Author: Western historical company, Chicago, pub
Publication date: 1880
Publisher: Chicago, Western historical company
Number of Pages: 840