Peoria County, Illinois - Chapter 6: Physical Geography and Geology, 1880

Chapter 6: Physical Geography and Geology

The Cretaceous and Tertiary Periods - The Ice Period - The Quartenary Divisions - Coal Measures - Alluvial Deposits - Archaeology - Origin of the Prairies - Building Stone - Iron Ore - Clays - Sand - Gravel - Timber - Soil and Agriculture.

The physical geography of Peoria county is very simple. It is situated about seventy five miles north of the center of the State and is bounded on the north by Stark and Marshall counties ; on the east, by the Illinois river ; on the south by the Illinois river and Fulton county, and on the west by Fulton and Knox counties. It embraces an area of fourteen full townships and seven fractional townships bordering on the Illinois river, or about six hundred and thirty square miles. The Illinois river extends about fifty miles along its eastern and south-eastern borders. Kickapoo creek and its several affluents traverse the central part of the county, and drain the northern and southern portions. Spoon river intersects the north-western townships for a distance of ten or twelve miles.

The surface of the county was originally nearly equally divided into timber and prairie. The prairies are usually small, the most extensive ones being those in the western and northern portions of the county, and extending over the highest lands between the water courses. There is also a narrow strip of prairie extending along the river from the north-east corner of the county to the outlet of the Kickapoo, having a width varying from one to three miles. This belt of prairie covers a sandy terrace below the river bluffs, and is elevated from thirty to fifty feet above low water level.

Economical Geology Building Stone

Sandstone of good quality may be obtained from the bed overlaying coal No. 4, which at some points in the Kickapoo, is fully twenty feet in thickness, and it outcrops at many points under very favorable conditions for quarrying. The rock is a brown micaceous, and partly ferruginous sandstone, in massive beds, some of which are two feet or more in thickness. It presents a bold escarpment at many points where it outcrops, indicating a capacity for withstanding well the ordinary influences of the atmosphere. The ferruginous layers harden very much on exposure, and would form the best material for bridge abutments, and for all other purposes where a rock was required to withstand well the influences of frost and moisture.

On Aikens' and Griswold's land, on the south side of the Kickapoo, on section twenty-four [in Limestone township - Ed.] this sandstone has been somewhat extensively quarried, and the bed presents a perpendicular face of solid sandstone fully twenty feet in thickness. It is rather soft when freshly quarried and can be easily dressed, and splits freely into blocks suitable for building and for foundation walls. These quarries are located just above the level of the railroad grade, and very conveniently situated for the transportation of the stone by railroad to the city of Peoria, or wherever else it might be in demand.

At Lonsdale's quarries, on section fourteen, town eight north, range seven east, the lower part of the limestone affords a durable building stone, though the layers are not usually more tiian from four to six inches thick. This rock is in common use in this part of the county for foundation walls, and there are several small buildings in this neighborhood constructed of this material. That portion of the beds which affords a building stone is from four to six feet in thickness.

At Chase's quarries, three miles north-east of Princeville, the limestone is nearly twenty feet in thickness, and though for the most part thin-bedded, yet the greater portion of it can be used for foundation walls, flagging, etc., and is the only building stone available in that portion of the county. The thickest layers are ai the bottom of the bed here, as well as at Lonsdale's, but the middle aud upper portion is more evenly bedded at this point, and ma)- be quarried in tliin, even slabs of large size.

The limestone over coal No. 6 may answer for rough foundation walls where it can be protected from the atmosphere, but is generally too argillaceous to make good building stone.

Concretionary bands of iron ore occur in the shales overlaying coals No. 4 and 7, but in sufficient quantity to be of any economical importance. In the south part of the county, large concretions of iron and clay, the former mostly in the form of the bisulphuret, are quite abundant in the roof shales of No. -1 coal. Some of these concretions are two feet or more in diameter.

No beds of fire or potter's clays were found in this county in connection with the coal seams that appeared to be sufficiently free from foreign matters to be of much value, but excellent brick clays are abundant, the subsoil clays over a large portion of the uplands throughout the county being used for this purpose, and furnishing an abundant supply of brick of good quality at a moderate cost. The best beds of fire and potters' clay known at the present time in this State, are associated with coal No. 1. of our general section of the Illinois Valley coals, » - * » and should a shaft be sunk to that horizon in this county, good clays may probably be -found here, and mined successfully in connection with these lower coals.

Sand

The modified drift deposits, forming the terrace upon which the city of Peoria is mainly built, will furnish an inexhaustible supply of sand of various qualities adapted to the varied economical uses to which this material is applicable, and it will also afford an excellent moulders' sand, in quantities sufficient for the supply of all the adjacent region.

Gravel

An inexhaustible supi)ly of clean gravel maybe obtained from the gravel beds forming the bluffs at Peoria, and along the north side of the Kickapoo for a distance of eight or ten miles above the outlet of tliat stream. All the railroads in the State might obtain here an ample supply of ballast for their road beds, without greatly diminishing the amount of this material to be found in this county.

There is an ample supjdy of timber in this county, the proportion of timber and prairie land being origiimlly about tlie same. The timlRMi'il land is mostly confined to the ridges and valleys of the streams, though occasionally fine groves are met with on the level land adjacent to the prairie. The growth on tlie uj>]and is mostly black and white oak, pignut and shell-burk hickory, elm, linden, wild cherry, honey locust, wild plum and crab apple ; while on the bottom lands and the slopes of the hills, we find white and sugar maple, black and white walnut, pecan, Cottonwood, sycamore, ash, red birch, coffee-nut, hackberry, mockernut, hickory, post, Spanish and swamp white oak, red bud, dogwood, persimmon, mulberry, serviceberry, buckthorn and three or four varieties of willow and box alder.

Soil And Agricultuee

As an agricultural region this county ranks among the best in this part of the State. The western and northern portions of the county are mostly prairie, and generally level or gently rolling. The soil is a dark chocolate-colored loam, rich in organic matters, and producing abundant crops annually of corn, wheat, rye, oats and barley ; and, with judicious cultivation, this kind of soil will retain its fertility for an indefinite period of years, without the application of artificial stimulants. On the more broken lands adjacent to the streams, the soil is of a lighter color, but when it is predicated upon the marly beds of the loess, it is still productive, and scarcely inferior to the best prairie soils. Where the soil overlies the yellow drift-clays, the timber is mostly white oak and hickory ; the soil is thin, and would be greatly improved bj' an annual, liberal application of manure. These lands, however, produce fine crops of wheat and oats, and are excellent for fruit orchards and vineyards. The soil on the terrace and bottom lands is a sandy loam, and generally very productive.