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 72

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 72

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North of and overlying the veined rock is another belt of quartzite without veins, of a pinkish color, and containing much of the greasy, talc-like mineral, which, in places, imparts a highly schistose character to the rock, sometimes predominating over the quartz. In these cases, the slaty laminæ incline westward 15°, while the whole rock is intersected by east and west planes, standing at nearly 90°. The schistose layers are only in the upper portion of the belt which further south is purer quartzite, with an evident northward dip. The quartzite is overtopped for nearly the whole length of the section by horizontal sandstone and conglomerate layers. The conglomerate capping the bluff in its highest portions, and overlying the veined quartzite, shows a mass of pebbles and small bowlders of the veined rock, compacted together without matrix, or with one that is very hard and quartzite-like, and of a brownish color. A fine exposure of this conglomerate is to be seen at the top of the cliff, at a point just east of the southernmost of the two railroad bridges within the Narrows, and on the south side of the bend which both gorge and river here make to the eastward. At the top of the cliff, on the north side of the bow, 140 feet above the railroad track, sandstone, partly hard and brownish, with a vitrified appearance, and partly friable, is underlaid by horizontal ledges of conglomerate, having a hard quartzite matrix, and including red quartzite pebbles and bowlders of all sizes. Twenty- five feet below the top of the cliff, the junction of the conglomerate with the underlying vertically bedded quartzite is seen. As viewed from the track below, the unconformability is very strik- ing. The conglomerate extends northward from this point, and down the side of the ravine next north of the bend of the river, to within thirty feet of the railroad track. Its lower portions show a loose, friable, brownish matrix of coarse sand, the quartzite pebbles running up to a foot in diameter, but being usually smaller than this. Below the conglomerate, and abutting directly upon the railroad track, is a cliff, twenty to thirty feet high, of coarse, brownish, friable sand- stone, without pebbles, showing cross-lamination on a grand scale. North of the ravine, a low sandstone ridge is capped by the lower layers of bowlder conglomerate.

On Section 31, of the town of Excelsior, is another gorge, known as the narrows of the Narrows' Creek. In its structure and rock occurrences, this gorge is similar to the narrows of the Baraboo, the veined quartzite, however, being less developed than at the latter place. Between the two gorges the summit of the range is quite level.

Westward from the passage of Narrows Creek the north quartzite range curves south ward to meet the north-and-south ridge that connects it with the southern or main range ; in the road, near the center of Section 36, Town 12, Range 4; Reedsburg, well up on the ridge, quartzite is exposed with an east-and-west strike and dip of north 70°. This is its northern limit, and the western end of the range, for just west of the road a rocky ravine, over one hundred feet in depth, shows the quartzite flanked on the north by heavy beds of coarse conglomerate and friable

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HISTORY OF SAUK COUNTY.

sandstone, the quartzite occurring only on the eastern wall of the ravine, the western side being altogether of sandstone.

South from the center of Section 36, along the connecting ridge, the ground rises steadily for several miles. For the first mile, horizontal sandstone ledges are seen rising to an elevation of 520 feet. In the north part of Section 13, Town 11, Range 4, Westfield, elevations of over 600 feet are reached. In this vicinity, and over a considerable area in Sections 11, 12, 13, 14, 23 and 24, low outcrops of quartzite occur, the area including them being all very high, and constituting a rounded swell above the general level. A long, low outcrop, near the Lutheran Church, in the southwest quarter of Section 13, shows dark, purplish red, flaky-textured quartzite, which is plainly bedded and laminated, and dips 57° northwest, the strike being north 47º east.

Southward from the quartzite outcrops, the elevation continues to be between 500 and 600 feet in Sections 23 and 26, but the only rock to be seen is horizontal sandstone. Westward from these sections the elevation remains about the same, and one passes insensibly on to the Lower Magnesian limestone. Eastward, in Sections 24 and 25, the descent of 200 feet to the head- waters of Seeley Creek is very rapidly made, and sandstone is exposed through nearly the whole vertical distance.

On Section 35, a large exposure of reddish glassy quartzite occurs in a ravine at an eleva- tion much below that of the country occupied by sandstone to the northward. A few rods up the ravine sandstone ledges occur at a higher level. Taken together with the construction of the high country all through the east side of the town of Westfield, this outcrop is believed to indi- cate the existence throughout of a quartzite core only slightly covered with sandstone layers.

The outcrop just referred to is on the slope downward toward the valley of the Wisconsin, and is really the western end of the southern quartzite range. From here eastward to Devil's Lake, we find this range as bold and wide as it is east of the lake, and characterized by the same heavy timber and clay soil. In Town 10, Range 5, Honey Creek, the southern slope of the range is in the northern row of sections. On the south side of Town 11, Range 5, Freedom, are very high-rounded swells, some of which are among the highest points on the range. On the northern slope, in this town, the streams flowing north into the Baraboo set back into the ridge in deep ravines, about which sandstone sometimes occurs at high levels. On the northwest quarter of

Section 22 the quartzite shows in two bluffs, 150 feet high on either side of the creek, with a distance between of about one-eighth of a mile. The rock here is for the most part closely like that at Devil's Lake, but portions are unusually light-colored, showing a light brown weathered surface, and a nearly white, slightly granular fresh fracture. Regularly interbedded is a soft, light gray, greasy, finely laminated clay slate, containing, according to analysis by A. C. Pres- cott, silica, 59.84; alumina and iron oxide, 35.39; magnesia, 0.10; water, 4.67-100, the iron oxide being in a very small amount only. Both quartzite and slate are plainly bedded, the strike being north 23° west, the dip 16º north.

On the road extending south ward from Bloom's Station across the range into Honey Creek, horizontal sandstone ledges are seen, as far as the northwest quarter of Section 23, at an eleva- tion of 530 feet. In the southern part of the same section, quartzite is exposed at an elevation of 700 feet, and along the east side of Section 26 an elevation of 830 feet is reached.

In the southern row of sections of Town 11, Range 6, Sumter, the south slope of the range is very bold and prominent, owing to the low ground of Sauk Prairie, which stretches from the foot of the bluffs for eight or nine miles to the southward. All along the slope toward the prairie are large rough exposures-as, for instance, on the west ; Sauk road, on Section 34 ; in the ravine on Section 27; on the east Sauk road, in Section 35, and all along the range east- ward from here to the Devil's Nose. On the north slope of the range in the northeast quarter of Section 15, Town 11, Range 6, dark-grayish, somewhat granular quartzite shows in a large exposure, with a dip of 26° north.

Within the circuit of the quartzite ranges are a few isolated points of quartzite and schist- ose rocks, which rise through the sandstone that forms the basement of the valley. One of these on the south line of Section 29, Town 12, Range 7, on Peck's Prairie, is a low, rounded

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HISTORY OF SAUK COUNTY.

ridge seventy-five feet high. The rock here is a light pinkish-gray metamorphic conglomerate, composed of small rounded pebbles of quartzite 1-16th to 1-8th of an inch in diameter, imbedded in a finer-grained matrix of similar character. An obscure north 70°-dip is to be seen at a few points, and veins of milky quartz occur, carrying nests of large-surfaced, brilliant specular iron. One of these veins is seventy-five feet long and two feet wide, with nests and seams of specular iron, one to three inches wide. A few rods west of the quartzite, at the center of the north line of the northwest quarter of Section 32, horizontal sandstone ledges are seen.

Other areas showing quartzite and slate occur on Section 5, Town 11, Range 6; Section 4, Town 11, Range 5; and Section 2, Town 11, Range 5. The two former are high, rocky points, the latter a low outcrop on the river side. Still another occurs on the southeast quarter of Section 33, Town 12, Range 5, near Ableman's. Here a railway cutting passes through the point of a ridge, near the north bank of the Baraboo River. At the west end of the cutting, coarse white sandstone, in horizontal ledges, lies against a craggy cliff of light-colored quartz schist, resembling that at the south side of the section at the Lower Narrows of the Baraboo, but less regularly slaty. At the junction of the two rocks, large bowlders of quartzite are in- cluded in the sandstone, which itself fills in the cracks between the layers of schist. One hun- dred and thirty feet from the west end of the cutting, the light-colored schist gives place to a gray or greenish clayey rock. Some of the layers are bright green in color, and marked with very fine lines of lamination. These layers are apparently quite silicious. Seventy feet further, pinkish granular quartzite is indefinitely exposed. The exposures throughout the cutting, though in places forty feet high, are very much jointed and confused. The position near the end of the ridge has caused much weathering and alteration. There is evidently a high dip, ap- parently to the north.

Geologically, the quartzite ranges passing through Sauk County are the most important and most interesting formations of the kind in all the Northwest.

WISCONSIN'S AMAZON.

Much the most important stream in what geologists have been pleased to term the Central Wisconsin District, is the Wisconsin River, which, with its valleys, constitutes the main topo- graphical feature of the region comprising the greater part of eight counties. As this river washes the eastern border of Sauk County, a scientific description of it will be interesting. The total length of the river, from its source to its mouth, is about 500 miles. Rising in Lac Vieux Desert, on the summit of the Archæan water-shed, at an elevation of 951 feet above Lake Michigan, it pursues a general southerly course for 300 miles over the crystalline rocks, and then, passing on to the sandstones which form its bed for the remainder of its course, continues to the southward for 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. 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. In the case of the Wisconsin, however, we may conveniently regard the river as having tliree distinct scctions : The first including all that part from the source to the last appearance of crystalline rock's in the bed of the stream, in the southern part of Wood County ; the second, that part from this point to the Dells, on the south line of Adams and Juneau Counties ; and the third that portion from the Dells 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 in- clined ledges of rocks 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 Dells, which, acting in a measure as a dam, prevents any con- siderable rise in the river below, the water above not unfrequently rising as much as fifty feet in flood seasons, while below the extreme fluctuation does not exceed ten feet. The total lengths of the Archæan, upper sandstone and lower sandstone sections of the Wisconsin are, respectively, 300.62 and 130 miles, the distance through the Dells being about seven miles.

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HISTORY OF SAUK COUNTY.

For a description of the course of the river more in detail, we begin with its entrance into the district in the northern part of Marathon County. From here, where the width, according to the Land Office plats, is from 300 to 500 feet, the river pursues a, general southerly course through Towns 29, 28, 27, 26, 25 and 24, of Range 7 east, and Towns 24 and 23, of Range 8 east, in the southern part of Portage County. In this part of its course, the Wisconsin flows through a densely timbered country, and has, except where it makes rapids, or passes through rock gorges, a narrow bottom land, which varies in width, is usually raised but a few feet above water level, and is wider on one side than the other. Above this bottom, terraces can often be made out, with surfaces in some cases one or two miles in width. Above, again, the country surface rises steadily to the dividing ridges on each side, never showing the bluff edges so char- acteristic of the lower reaches of the river. Heavy rapids and falls are made at Wausau (Big Bull Falls). Mosinee (Little Bull Falls), Stevens Point, and on Section 8, Town 23, Range 8 (Conant's Rapids). All but the last named of these are increased in height by artificial dams. Two miles below the foot of Conant's Rapids, just after receiving the Plover River on the east, the Wisconsin turns a right angle to the west, and enters upon the sparsely timbered sand plains, through which it flows for a hundred miles. At the bend, the river is quiet, with high banks of sand and a few low outcrops of gneiss at the water's cdge. From the bend, the course is west- ward for about nine miles ; then, after curving southward again, the long series of rapids soon begins, which, with intervening stretches of still water, extend about fifteen miles along the river to the last rapid, at Point Bass, in southern Wood County. East of the river line, between the city of Grand Rapids and Point Bass, the country rises gradually, reaching altitudes of 100 feet above the river at points ten or fifteen miles distant. On the west, the surface is an almost level plain, descending gradually as the river is receded from. At Point Bass, the gneissic rocks disappear beneath the sandstones, which for some miles have formed the upper portions of the river banks, and now become in turn the bed-rock, and the first division of the river's course ends. The main tributaries which it receives down to this point are, on the left bank, the Big Eau Claire, three miles below Wausau ; the Little Eau Claire, on the north side of Section 3, Township 25, Range 7 east, just south of the north line of Portage County ; and the Big Plover, on Section 9, Township 28, Range 5 east, just at the foot of Conant's Rapids. On the right bank, the Placota, or Big Rib, about two miles below Wausau; the She-she-ga-ma-isk, or Big Eau Pleine, on Section 19, Township 26, Range 7 east, Marathon County ; and the Little Eau Pleine, on Section 9, Township 25, Range 7, in Portage County. All of these streams arc of considerable size and drain large areas. They all make much southing in their courses, so that their lengths are much greater than the actual distances from the sources to the Wis- consin at the nearest points, and all of them have a very considerable descent, making many rapids and falls over the tilted edges of schistose and gneissic rocks, even down to within short distances of their junctions with the main river. The streams on the west side head on the high country along the line of the Fourth Principal Meridian, about forty miles west of the Wis- consin, and at elevations from 200 to 300 feet above their mouths. Those on the east, head on the divide between the Wisconsin and Wolf, about twenty miles east, at elevations not very much less. Reaching back, as these streams do, into a country largely timbered with pine, and having so large a descent, they are of great value for logging and milling purposes.

The second section of the Wisconsin River begins at Point Bass, with a width of from 700 to 900 feet. The next sixty miles of its course, to the head of the Dells, is a southerly stretch, with a wide bow to the westward, through sand plains here and there timbered with dwarf oaks and interspersed with marshes. These plains stretch away to the east and west for twenty miles from the river bottom, gradually rising in both directions. Scattered over them, at intervals of one to ten miles, are erosion peaks of sandstone from 50 to 300 feet in height, rising precipitously from the level ground. Some of these are near and on the bank of the river, which is also, in places, bordered by low mural exposures of the same sandstone. The river itself is constantly obstructed by shifting sand-bars, resulting from the ancient disintegration of the sandstone, which in the vicinity everywhere forms the basement rock, but its course is not obstructed by rock rap-

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HISTORY OF SAUK COUNTY.

ids. As it nears the southern line of Adams and Juneau Counties, the high ground that limits the sand plain on the west, curving southeastward, finally reaches the edge of the stream, which, by its southeasterly course for the last twenty miles, has itself approached the high ground on the east. The two ridges thus closing in upon the river have caused it to cut for itself the deep and narrow gorge known as the Dells. In the second section of its course, the Wisconsin receives several important tributaries. Of those on the east, the principal ones are Duck Creek and Ten Mile Creek in the southern part of Wood County, and the Little and Big Roche a Cris Creeks, both in Adams County. The two former head in a large marsh twenty-five miles east of, and over one hundred feet above, the main stream. The two latter head on the high dividing ridge on the west line of Waushara County, at elevations between 150 and 200 feet above their mouths. These streams do not pass through a timbered country, but have very valuable water-

powers. Of those on the west, two are large and important-the Yellow and Lemonweir Rivers. Yellow River heads in Township 25, in the adjoining corners of Wood, Jackson and Clark Counties, and runs a general southerly course nearly parallel to the Wisconsin for over seventy miles, the two gradually approaching one another, and joining in Township 17, Range 4 east. The Yellow has its Archaan and sandstone sections, the former exceedingly rocky and much broken by rapids and falls, the latter comparatively sluggish and without rock-rapids. The upper portions of the river extend into the pine regions, and much logging is done in times of high water. The water-powers are of great value. The Lemonweir is also a large stream. Heading in a timbered region in the southeast corner of Jackson County, it flows southward for some distance through Monroe, and, entering Juneau on the middle of its west side, crosses it in a southeasterly direction, reaching the Wisconsin in Section 24, Township 15, Range 5 east, having descended, in its length of some seventy miles, about two hundred fect.

The Dells of the Wisconsin, as already said, is a narrow passage cut by the river through the high grounds which, after bounding its valley on both sides for many miles, have now grad- ually approached and joincd. The total length of the gorge is about seven and one-half miles. At the upper end, about two miles north of the south line of Juneau County, the river narrows suddenly from a width of over one-third of a mile to one of not more than 200 feet. Through- out the whole length of the passage the width does not much exceed this, while in one place it is only fifty feet. The water in the gorge is very deep, although immediately above it there are broad sand flats, with scarcely enough water at low stages to float a canoe. The perpendicular sandstone walls are from fifteen to eighty feet in height, the country immediately on top of them being about one hundred feet above the river. From this level, about midway in the passage, there is a rapid rise in both directions to the summit of the high country on each side. In sev- eral places, branch gorges deviate from the main gorge, returning again to it. These are, evi- dently, old river channels, and are now closed by sand. The streams entering the river in this portion of its course make similar canyons on a smaller scale.

At the foot of the Dells, the Wisconsin enters upon the last section of its course, and also upon the most remarkable bend in its whole length. From a nearly southerly course, it now turns almost due east, in which direction it continues, with one or two subordinate turns, south- ward for about seventeen miles, through low sand-banks, as far as Portage. Here it bends abruptly south again, and, reaching its easternmost point at the mouth of the Baraboo, soon swerves around into the final southwestward stretch to the Mississippi. The cause of this long detour to the east is sufficiently evident. As the river leaves the Dells, it finds, lying directly athwart its course, the two bold quartzite ranges which extend east and west through Sauk County for upward of twenty miles, and, crossing into Columbia, finally unite about eight miles east of the county line, in a sharp and bold, eastward-projecting point, which rises 400 feet above the river bottom. Above Portage, where the Wisconsin forms the southern line of the town of Lewiston, the ground immediately north is lower than the water in the river, the heads of Neenah Creek, a tributary of the Fox, rising within a short distance of its banks. In times of high water, the Wisconsin overflows into these streams, and thus contributes much to a totally different river system. At Portage, the Fox, after flowing south of west for twenty

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HISTORY OF SAUK COUNTY.

miles, approaches the Wisconsin, coming from the opposite direction. Where the two streams are nearest, they are but two miles apart, and are separated by a low, sandy plain, the water in the Fox being five feet below that of the Wisconsin at ordinary stages. The greater part of this low ground is overflowed by the latter stream in times of high water, and to this is chiefly due the spring rise in the Fox. After doubling the eastern end of the quartzite ranges, as already said, the Wisconsin turns again to the west, being forced to this by impinging on the north side of a high belt of limestone country, which, after trending southwest across the east- ern part of Columbia County, veers gradually to a westerly direction, lying to the south of the river along the rest of its course. Soon after striking this limestone region, the river valley assumes an altogether new character, which it retains to the mouth, having now a nearly level, and, for the most part, treeless bottom, from three to six miles in width, ten to thirty feet in height, usually more on one side than on the other, and bounded on both sides by bold and often precipitous bluffs, 100 to 350 feet in height, of sandstone capped with limestone. Immediately along the water's edge, is usually a narrow timbered strip, rising two to four feet above the river, which is overflowed at high water. The line of bluffs along the south side of the valley is the northern edge of the high limestone belt just mentioned, which reaches its greatest eleva- tions ten to fifteen miles south of this edge. In front of the main bluff face, especially in its eastern extension, are frequently to be seen bold and high isolated outliers of the limestone country. On the north bank of the bluffs are at first the edges of similar large outlying masses, but further down they become more continuous, the river crossing over the northwestward trend- ing outcrop line of the Lower Magnesian limestone.

In this last section of its course, the Wisconsin is much obstructed by bars of shifting sand, derived originally from the erosion of the great sandstone formation which underlies the whole region, and to whose existence the unusual amount of obstruction of this kind in the river is due. The peculiar instability of these sand-bars, and their liability to form and disappear within a few hours, renders their control very difficult. In view of the enormous quantities of this already disintegrated sand in the region drained by the river and its tributaries, many of which have their entire course through sand districts, the construction of a continuous canal along the Wisconsin River, from Portage to its mouth, would appear to be the only way to utilize the natural highway from the lakes to the Mississippi, which is offered by this and the Fox Rivers. In the last section of its course, the Wisconsin receives within the limits of our district only one stream of importance, the Baraboo, which enters the river near the easternmost point of its great bend. Heading in the adjacent corners of Monroe, Vernon and Juneau Counties, at an elevation of about 400 feet above its mouth, the Baraboo runs southeastward into Sauk County, where it breaks into the valley between the two east-and-west quartzite ranges already alluded to, through a narrow gorge in the northern range. Turning then eastward, it runs along the middle of the valley between the two ranges for about fifteen miles, and then, break- ing again northward through the north range, follows its northern side east to the Wisconsin. The Baraboo is a stream of very considerable size, and yields a number of excellent water- powers in the valley between the quartzite ranges, having a fall on this portion of its course of seventy feet. The tributaries on the south side of the Wisconsin, in this section of its course, are of little importance, owing to the nearness of the limestone divide. The most noteworthy is Duck Creek, which, with its branches, drains a considerable area in the towns of Pacific, Springvale and Courtland, in Columbia County, cutting a long way back into the divide.

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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 72

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