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14
HISTORY OF WOODBURY AND PLYMOUTH COUNTIES.
CHAPTER II.
TOPOGRAPHY AND GEOLOGY.
INCOMPLETE SURVEY-SURFACE OBSERVATIONS-STREAMS-ELEVATIONS
OF GROUND-ROCK FORMATIONS-COMPOSITION OF GROUND-ALL LAND SUBMERGED-DEPOSITS
FROM GLACIERS-EVIDENCES OF ANIMAL LIFE-EARLY FORMATION-TROPICAL
VEGETATION-SPECIES OF TREES-LATER PERIOD -ABSENCE OF ANIMAL AND
VEGETABLE LIFE-SUDDEN CHANGE-LUXURIANT VEGETATION-SPECIES IDENTICAL
WITH THOSE OF PRESENT TIME -DEPRESSION OF THE EARTH-INCREASE OF
SHELL-FISH-THIRD, OR NIOBRARA GROUP-DEEPENING OF THE SEA-APPEARANCE
OF VERTEBRATED FISH-LARGEST CREATED ANIMALS-VALUE OF CLAY BEDS.
To the shame of the State of Iowa, no exhaustive geological survey
of any portion of her rich territory has yet been made, and our
knowledge of the rocks and soils of Woodbury and Plymouth counties
depends on the hurried and very superficial reconnaissance of
Dr. White, and the casual observations of scientific men like
Hayden, Marcon and Capellini, who have visited a few special locations,
mainly with the view of collecting proofs of theories already
promulgated.
The writer of this treatise has endeavored to avail himself of
all that has been recorded by these gentlemen, and has himself
passed with eyes wide open, if not accurately discerning, over
most of these two counties, and here records the results of his
best judgment. He wishes, however, to state distinctly that this
is not a complete scientific monograph; the data for such a writing
do not exist, nor are the statements herein made to be taken as
strictly exact, whenever figures and dimensions are set down.
For instance, when it is stated that a certain formation has
a certain thickness, or covers a certain area, it is to be understood
that such statements are not exact, but only approximate, their
exactness being impossible at present, and not at all essential
to our general knowledge of the region. It is believed, however,
that there are facts observed, patent to all who will look intelligently,
to fix the geological status of the, region we are considering
sufficiently for all practical purposes.
WOODBURY COUNTY.
15
Woodbury and Plymouth counties are nearly equal in area (Plymouth
being a few hundred acres the larger), comprising together about
1,100,000 acres; and may be looked at, in general, as part of
a larger plain with gentle slope toward the southwest. In riding
over the country one is struck very forcibly with the apparent
equality in height of all the peaks and ridges within his horizon,
and with the certainty that the channels of all the streams and
the drains that lead down to them, have been carved out of level
ground by the action of water, aided in places by winds that have
helped to give roundness and softness to the everywhere beautiful
landscape. Close observation brings conviction that such has been
the case.
Indeed, such observation enables us to see the process of the
ages still going on; and the brief occupation of civilized man
has in many places assisted very perceptibly in the process.
In the whole chapter of indirect causes there are few things
more interesting than that portion narrating the unexpected and
wholly unforeseeable influence of man over external nature, and
particularly over the conformation of the surface of the ground.
The direct and intended changes are very meager and insignificant
compared with the results of acts or accidents altogether unthought
of, so far as their effects are concerned. The passage of a stream
at one point rather than another equally easy, the wagon track
up the hill at one point rather than at another, the felling of
a tree across a ravine, or even the thoughtless rolling of a stone
down a tempting slope, by obstructing or diverting a current of
water, or gathering the next fall of rain into the slight depression
of a wagon track, have produced changes quite important in their
neighborhood, and strictly of the same pattern with the manifold
changes which an infinite variety of petty forces, increasing
with rapid ratio by continued action, have brought about in reducing
the general surface to its present contour.
An excellent and easily understood illustration of this influence,
and of the manner in which ravines and valleys have been excavated
and hilltops rounded, is the following: There are now many deep
and rugged gulches in the loess and drift, where the early settlers
remember gently sloping valleys leading down to neighboring streams,
and covered with turf as compactly as the adjacent hillsides.
How has the change been wrought and what has man had to do with
it? Simply this: Man brought neat cattle with him. Now the buffalo,
the elk
16
HISTORY OF WOODBURY AND PLYMOUTH COUNTIES.
and the deer in passing from one place to another in their feeding
grounds make their trail, so far as they can, on high ground;
and when they go down to a stream of water to drink, or to ford,
they usually pass down the ridge of some point of high land nearest
the water; but the habit of neat cattle is exactly the reverse;
for they, when passing from one feeding ground to another, or
to the water for drink, invariably seek the head of the nearest
valley and follow it on the lowest ground until they reach the
desired locality. So it happens that the frequented valley soon
has a beaten path worn through the turf in its full extent, which
gathers rain-water from the adjacent slopes into a narrow channel,
and the heavy summer rains begin at once the excavation of a deeper
vale. If it happens that when the path reaches the stream, the
slope is steep and the bank abrupt, the overfall from the water-flow
soon cuts out a pit in the alluvium, down to the water level,
and every rain extends the gulch farther back into the higher
ground, until, in some observed cases, excavations a mile or more
in extent, with perpendicular sides of soil, and perhaps twenty
or thirty, or even more feet in depth, are found where not so
very long ago all was smooth and grassy turf. Nor does the process
stop here, water flows from the side slopes over the edge of the
gulch and wearing off the edge until in a short time the sides
are no longer precipitous, but form a steeper part of the original
slope, and here and there, from lateral draws, come heavier currents,
and these in their turn make tributary gulches, cutting back into
the side hill and going through the same process as the main excavation.
So in a few years the gulch is excavated, the descent is diminished,
the bottom widens and lateral tributaries are formed in the image
of their parent, and we find a new valley with its narrow bottom
ground and its central channel, or, perhaps, since cattle can
no longer enter at the head, there may be no channel but smooth
turf instead, and at its extreme head a deep and, precipitous
pit where the process still goes on at a diminished rate, because
of the diminished supply of water. So streams of considerable
size, which, when cattle came into the country, flowed in narrow
and deep channels, between slopes well grassed over, or lined
with bushes and with unbroken slopes, now flow in gulches with
sides torn and ragged, cutting deep into this side or that, wherever
a path has broken the turf an the slope, widening their beds,
until in many places, the beginning or a new alluvial plain may
be distinctly seen,
17
WOODBURY COUNTY.
through which the current flows between banks so low and flat
that water from the sides has no longer excavating force.
This illustration is given because instances of it may be found
in every neighborhood and on almost every upland farm throughout
this district; and in them we can see going on to-day the full
process by which the land has been wrought from a tolerably level,
smooth plain into its present rolling surface, furrowed at frequent
intervals by the abrupt ravines of smaller streams, or wider valleys
of the Floyd and Little Sioux.
A dry weather crack in the soil and a heavy fall of rain, an
unusual amount of snow drifted and frozen, a pile of dry weeds
heaped up by wind-anyone of thousands of apparently inefficient
accidents, has in past ages changed the course or concentrated
the volume of trivial currents whose forces, singly insignificant,
have in the lapse of centuries, carved out the beautiful landscape
we now behold.
To similar insignificant causes are due the broad and fertile
bottom lands that border the larger streams. The accidental stranding
of a piece of driftwood on the side, or a strong wind across the
stream, or anyone of myriad constantly occurring accidents, directs
the current at some point against the higher ground which it wears
away, and then carries the material down to be deposited in some
eddy or gentler current to form a bar, or narrow the channel,
and so increase its motion or give it new direction, and so continue
to wear down the adjacent bluff and widen the alluvial vale.
So from unnoticed and singly insignificant causes the stream
is moved from side to side of the depression, reaching higher
ground here and there, and wherever reaching it bringing down
more or less soil and rock to increase its alluvial plane. To
the effects of water, winds have added no little in forming the
present surface. The immense volume of ashes from the annual prairie
fires that have prevailed ever since the grasses grew, have had
no small share in filling up old excavations, and even in building
mounds and considerable elevations around springs where the greener
unburned vegetation caught and retained them. So there are many
places, as at Sand Hill lake, in 'Woodbury county, sand dunes
that loom up across the level bottom like hills of some magnitude.
Indeed there is no region where the processes of geological change
are more readily perceived and understood than in northwestern
Iowa, or where it can be more distinctly
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HISTORY OF WOODBURY AND PLYMOUTH COUNTIES.
seen that the present active forces of nature are amply sufficient
of themselves to have produced in the illimitable past all the
wonderful earth changes apparent to our view, without any special
spasmodic catastrophe.
The counties of Woodbury and Plymouth are plentifully watered
by frequent streams, flowing by gentle descents southwesterly
into the Missouri. On the western border flows the Big Sioux from
the northwest corner of Plymouth, in section five, township eighty-nine,
range forty-eight, to its mouth at Sioux City, in section thirty,
township eighty-nine, range forty-seven. Its elevation where it
enters Plymouth county is 1,150 feet above meantide, and on a
direct line, drawn from its entrance to the mouth, it falls at
the rate of one and four-tenths feet per mile, or probably less
than six inches following the actual course of the stream. It
forms the western boundary of the county and the state, and, including
its tributaries, drains about 140,000 acres of land in Plymouth
county.
Its alluvial plain is continuous, and from half to one and one-half
miles in width, is rarely overflowed, and forms a body of land
unsurpassed for fertility and ease of cultivation. The bluffs
on its border, in the upper part of the county, are quite gentle
of ascent, and the valleys opening through them have very little
rough land and no stone. A little way below Westfield, about the
north line of township ninety-one, cretaceous rocks begin to appear,
and thence to the mouth of the river the bluffs are very precipitous,
even where no rock is apparent. These rocks are also more or less
exposed for some distance up the course of all the tributary streams,
in many places forming considerable precipices.
The tributaries of the Big Sioux are Indian creek, Beaver creek,
Westfield creek and Broken Kettle, which last has a course of
more than twenty miles, and is a very important stream, with much
good land in its valley, and it is the only stream having rock
exposure along its valley, beyond its immediate entrance to the
river bottom.
The mouth of the Big Sioux is in Woodbury county, and thence,
to the south line of the county, the Missouri River is the western
boundary of the county and state, and at this point, or a short
distance above, begins that very remarkable bluff formation on
the eastern border of the great Missouri bottom, which extends
far down the river, even beyond the south line of the state. The
first tributary entering
19
WOODBURY COUNTY.
the Missouri in Woodbury county is Perry creek which rises near
the northeast corner of township ninety-one, range forty-seven,
and runs nearly south to section twenty-eight, in township eighty-nine,
range forty-seven, about seventeen miles in a direct line, with
a descent of ten and one-half feet per mile, or somewhat less
than five feet, following the stream.
The summit between Perry creek and Mink creek flowing into the
West Fork of the Floyd river, by railroad level, is 342 feet above
the river bottom at Sioux City, or 1,455 feet above meantide.
It is probable that some points in this neighborhood rise to a
height not less than 1,525 feet, and are higher than any other
points of land in Plymouth county. The Floyd river emptying into
the Missouri at Sioux City, in section thirty-three, township
eighty-nine, range forty-seven, rises in O'Brien county in the
northwest corner of township ninety-seven, range forty, runs west
to the southeast corner of township ninety-seven, range forty-two,
thence west of south, entering Plymouth county in section thirty-one,
township ninety-four, range forty-four, and continuing in the
same direction to its mouth. It is a very considerable stream,
with broad open valley and wide alluvium.
There are no steep bounding bluffs beyond the Missouri bottoms,
but the slopes rise gently on either side, and there is no waste
land between the bottom and the rolling upland prairie. No rock
is visible in this valley north of the Woodbury county line, and
it shows a constant succession of beautiful and highly cultivated
farms, from its mouth to its source. Its average descent in Woodbury
and Plymouth counties is about four feet per mile in a direct
line. From Merrill to its mouth, in a direct line, a little less
than twenty miles, the descent is three and eight-tenths feet
per mile. The elevation at Merrill is 1,191 feet above meantide.
At Merrill the Floyd receives its principal tributary from the
west, known as Beaver creek, or the West Fork of Floyd.
It rises in the south part of township ninety-seven, range forty-four,
and running thirty -five miles a little west of south, debouches
into the main stream in section two, of township ninety-one, range
forty-six. Its valley is open, the bottoms have no precipitous
bordering bluffs, but the slopes rise in many places gradually
from the bank to the upland prairie. Among all the rich and beautiful
valleys of northwestern Iowa none are more beautiful or productive.
A trip through Plymouth county over the Northern railroad in midsummer,
or better
20
HISTORY OF WOODBURY AND PLYMOUTH COUNTIES.
perhaps in harvest time, is a treat to be long remembered. The
valley has a descent of about six and two-thirds feet per mile
on the direct line. Where the West Pork enters the county, the
elevation is 1,284 feet above sea level, or 134 feet higher than
the Big Sioux valley, directly west about eighteen miles, giving
to the general plane a westerly descent of about seven and one-half
feet per mile.
The only important tributary of the West Pork is Mink creek,
coming from the northwest, with a course of about twelve miles.
From the east the Floyd river receives in Plymouth county, the
Willow, which has a course from the southeastern part of Sioux
county to Le Mars, of about eighteen miles, and receiving in section
two, township ninety-two, range forty-five, a tributary, Deep
creek, which rises in the southwestern corner of O'Brien, and
is more than twenty miles in length. Plymouth creek, with a course
of ten miles, has its mouth in section thirty-one, township ninety-two,
range forty-five. The valleys of these streams are all open, with
wide fertile bottoms and very gentle slopes. In Woodbury county
the Floyd receives from the east several small streams, all of
which enter the valley through narrow and deep ravine cut precipitously
into the bluff or drift formation through which they flow.
Below the Floyd river, there are no streams reaching the Missouri
within the limits of Woodbury county. Just below the mouth of
the Floyd, and within the limits of Sioux City, the bluffs recede
eastward from the river, and the great Missouri bottom .commences.
This remarkable tract of alluvium extends down the east side of
the Missouri more than 150 miles, and in some places attains a
width of more than twenty miles. On the south line of the county
the width is about .fifteen miles, and its entire area is more
than 200 square miles, or nearly one-fourth of the county. It
is never subject to overflow from the Missouri, but portions are
occasionally flooded from the Little Sioux and its tributaries.
No other county in the state has an equal amount of alluvial soil
fit for cultivation. Through the eastern part of this vast alluvial
plain, flows the sluggish swampy stream known as the Big Whiskey,
which has its source in sloughs far up in the southern center
of township ninety-one, range forty-five, and runs a little west
of south, till it debouches on the great Missouri bottom about
section thirty-two, township eighty-eight, range forty-seven,
and its waters. spread out to join Deadman's run and Little Whiskey,
and form the
21
WOODBURY COUNTY.
broad slough that runs southeast to section thirty-six, township
eighty-seven, range forty-six, where it resumes its open channel,
and crossing the county line in section thirty-two, township eighty-six,
range forty-five, falls into the West Fork of the Little Sioux,
just south of the county line. * Into this slough falls Elliott
and Camp creeks, and some other smaller streams.
Recently this swamp has been partially chained by the excavation
of a canal thirty-five feet wide at the top and eight deep, with
side slopes of one to one. Its descent is for the first 3,000
feet, two inches per 100 feet, or eight feet ten inches per mile,
thence for 2,900 feet, five and one-half feet per mile and the
remainder from one to one and a half feet per mile. It has proved
to be amply sufficient to carry off all surplus water, and has
made cultivable many thousand acres heretofore given up to' bog,
and swamp grass and rushes.
The West Fork of the Little Sioux has its source in Cherokee
county, and passing to the southwest crosses into Plymouth county,
and thence flows westerly and south, passing diagonally through
township ninety, range forty-three, and thence nearly south through
Woodbury county, entering the Little Sioux in Monona county.
It receives in Plymouth county, from the north, a fine stream
ten or twelve miles long, also Deer creek five miles long, and
Clear creek twelve miles in length, and in Woodbury county from
the northwest, Mud creek and several smaller streams. From the
northeast comes Booth creek, which has a course of ten or twelve
miles, receiving on its south side Bear creek about five miles
in length.
There are no other streams of any magnitude entering the West
Fork within the county. The West Fork is a very considerable stream,
and drains nearly 100,000 acres in Plymouth county, and with its
tributaries, including Big Whiskey and Wolf creeks, more than
200,000
*The naming of Big and Little Whiskey creeks was
the outcome of a characteristic frontier Incident. In the summer
of 1858 the Inhabitants of Smithland and Woodbury (now Sergeant's
Bluff), agreed to bridge the numerous streams between those points,
to avoid traveling over the almost impassable Missouri bottom,
which was then one vast slough. They cut and hauled timbers and
willows, and with the aid of grass and slabs, the latter supplied
by a saw-mill at Woodbury, passable bridges were made. The two
working parties met and completed their labors at what is now
called Big Whiskey creek. In order to celebrate the event properly,
according to the rule of the times, the Woodbury men had provided
a five-gallon demijohn and two-gallon jug of whiskey. By the time
the larger package had been liberally sampled, all were feeling
pretty well. John Lloyd concluded that they had had enough, and
quietly secreting the jug in his wagon, he started for home. The
loss was soon discovered, and Lloyd was pursued by horsemen and
compelled to turn about and bring back, his booty. Despite all
effort to change them, the names have ever since clung to Big
and Little Whiskey creeks. [ED.]
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HISTORY OF WOODBURY AND PLYMOUTH COUNTIES.
in Woodbury, making fully 300,000 acres of drainage area. In
Plymouth county its valley is wide, and the slopes very moderate,
but below Booth creek the bottom lands are divided from the uplands
by much steeper slopes, and in places, the bluffs are quite abrupt.
There is, however, no rock exposure so far as is known to the
writer. In Woodbury county the West Fork and its chief tributaries
lie quite deep below the intervening country, the general level
of the plain being from 100 to 180 feet above the beds of the
streams, and the streams lying so near each other as to render
the country very difficult to cross with railroads.
The principal tributary of the West Fork on the east, is Wolf
creek, which rises in the center of township eighty-nine, range
forty-three and running a little west of south, loses itse1£
in a broad marsh near the south line of the county in township
eighty-six, range forty-four, from which its waters reach the
.West Fork by a recently excavated ditch. Wolf creek has a course
of more than twenty miles through a beautiful and rich valley
bounded by gentler slopes than the West Fork, and occupied by
some of the finest farms in the county.
Entering Woodbury county near its extreme northeastern corner,
the Little Sioux river flows somewhat west of south and passes
into Monona county in section thirty-five, township eighty-six,
range forty-four. It is by far the largest and most important
stream in northwestern Iowa. Its sources are in the state of Minnesota,
the Ocheyeclan branch issuing from West Okabeni lake at Worthington,
Minn., in township one hundred and two, range forty, and its eastern
from the West Heron lake in township one hundred and three, range
thirty-seven west. These lakes are very nearly on the divide between
the Missouri and Mississippi waters, at an elevation of 1,580
feet above sea level. The elevation of its confluence with the
Missouri in Harrison county, Iowa, in township eighty-one, range
forty-five is 1,030 feet above sea level, showing a fall from
its source to its mouth of about 530 feet. Its course does not
touch Plymouth county, though some small tributaries drain about
nine square miles of its territory, but passes nearly across Woodbury,
draining (without reckoning its larger tributaries, as Wolf creek
and the West Fork and Whiskey) an area of 216 square miles. It
has within the county a descent of two feet per mile measured
along the valley, but, as by measurement the current meanders
about two and a
23
WOODBURY COUNTY.
half times the length of the railroad near by, the actual descent
must be less than three-fourths of a foot per mile. At Correctionville,
the crossing of the Illinois Central railroad and the Chicago
& Northwestern railroad is 1,135 feet above tide water, or
twenty-three feet above the railroad at Sioux City exactly west,
a distance of thirty-one miles, and seven-eighths miles below
the crossing, the bed of the river is 1,098 feet, or nine feet
higher than the bed of the Missouri Ever at Sioux City, showing
that here as all the way hence to the south line of the county,
the descent westward is exceedingly small, if indeed it exists
at all. The valley of the Little Sioux is wide and completely
occupied by well-cultivated flourishing farms, presenting a spectacle
of beauty and prosperity rarely equaled. High bluffs 300 to 400
feet high bound this lovely valley and make access to the upper
level of the country somewhat difficult. The principal tributary
of the Little Sioux is the Maple, which has a course of about
seven miles through the south-east corner of the county, cutting
township eighty-six, range forty-two almost from corner to corner.
It is a large stream, having its source in township ninety-three,
range thirty-eight in Buena Vista county and debouching into the
Little Sioux in township eighty-three, range forty-four in Monona
county. Its valley is seventy-seven miles long, it drains an area
of 732 square miles, of which sixty-seven are in Woodbury county,
and from its source to its mouth it descends 398 feet or five
and one-fourth feet per mile. In Woodbury county the rate of descent
is about four feet per mile. It has a wide valley with slopes
gentler than those of the Little Sioux, and fully as productive.
Its only important tributary in Woodbury county is Reynolds branch,
about nine miles long and draining about twenty-five square miles.
The Little Sioux receives, from the east, Miller creek, having
a course of about nine miles and draining some twenty square miles
of area, and Wright creek, running ten miles and draining about
thirty-three square miles, and Bacon creek having a course of
six miles due west from its source and draining eighteen square
miles. These are all fine, rapid streams with open valleys, and
Bacon creek is already occupied by the Chicago & Northwestern
railroad, while the Sioux City & Northeastern railroad company,
have their surveys made along Wright creek where it will doubtless
be built at an early day.
24
HISTORY OF WOODBURY AND PLYMOUTH COUNTIES.
The Little Sioux receives from the northwest, Pearson creek,
which has a course of thirteen miles and draining nearly forty
squares about equally divided between Woodbury and Plymouth. Its
valley has a rapid descent, but not too steep for railroad occupancy.
Three Mile creek enters the river from the northwest, having a
course of six or seven miles, and Rock creek runs southeast six
miles.
This multitude of streams has each its network of smaller streams
so numerous that it is quite rare to find a section of land within
the upland districts that has not its springs and perennial watercourses.
As has been before said, the general appearance of the whole
region, to one looking down from above, would be that of a smooth
plane surface, sloping very gently to the southwest, and quite
closely furrowed with watercourses fifty to one hundred and fifty
feet deep, or in the case of the Little Sioux, three hundred to
four hundred feet, and all tending in the general direction of
the slope.
On the north line of Plymouth county, at the crossing of the
West Fork of the Floyd river, the ground has an elevation of 1,284
feet, as before stated, while directly west, about eighteen miles,
the valley of the Big Sioux is 1,150 feet, showing a descent westward
of nearly seven and one-half feet per mile. The Floyd descends
southerly to Sioux City 171 feet, or about six feet per mile,
and the Big Sioux falls thirty-seven feet to the Missouri near
the mouth of the Floyd.
The elevation of the ground where the valley of the Little Sioux
merges in the Missouri bottom is 1,086 feet, making the descent
from the north line of Plymouth county, where the West Fork of
Floyd enters, to the south line of Woodbury, where the Little
Sioux passes out, 198 feet, or a little more than four feet per
mile. The banks of these streams, and the bluffs bounding their
valleys, afford the chief information as to the geological characteristics
of the country; and with the exception of Big Sioux bluffs and
those of its tributaries near their entrance to its valley, the
Missouri bluffs at Sioux City and Sergeant's Bluff, and the lower
part of some small streams entering the Floyd from the east in
Woodbury county, they show nothing but alluvium and drift. In
effect both counties, outside of the alluvial bottoms, are covered
with drift from fifty to one hundred and fifty feet in depth.
There is no rock exposure except in the narrow line of bluffs
above mentioned, with two or three doubtful cases on the western
bluffs of the Little Sioux; but this narrow line furnishes ample
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