Piatt County, Illinois - Origin of the Prairies, 1883

TLLINOIS has long been known as the " Prairie State." By this J- appellative her fame has been carried from country to country all around the world. Nor has this state been made unjustly famous. The prairies are her pride, and well they may be, for it is owing to their extent and fertility that Illinois has made such rapid advances in civilization. At first their great beauty was their chief attraction. All early writers on the subject, as well as the early settlers of the state, agree in the statement that the vegetable growth on the prairies was, in their time, more profuse than now. The grass grew very high, and when it waved to a summer's breeze it seemed to the pioneer that a sea of great extent stretched out before his vision. A feeling of awe came over him, - that feeling which always comes upon beholding Nature's great handiwork. Marquette, in his account of his first voyage on the Illinois river, over two hundred years ago, made special mention of the beauty and fertility of the prairies.

After their beauty and grandeur, the prairies' next attraction was their utility. Gov. Reynolds said of them : " It is one of the great elements in the rapid growth of Illinois that such large and fertile prairies exist in the state. Nature has made the prairies the finest and most fertile fields in the Union, and has prepared them for, cultivation." The experience of persons who have lived since Gov. Reynolds' time proves that his statement is still a truthful one.

One cannot look upon the broad and beautiful prairies without a feeling of wonder as to their origin, which has been a subject of thought for years, and of which there can yet be only conjecture.

In dealing with this subject we can but give the opinion of persons who have given it their long and thoughtful attention. Judge Caton, of Ottawa, Illinois, and H. W. Beckwith, of Danville, Illinois, have both written very instructive and interesting articles on the subject. The unwritten opinions of many of the early settlers of the state should not be disregarded, for such men, although in many cases having but little scientific knowledge of geology and botany, are remarkable for their deep insight into the visible workings of nature.

origin of some special prairie. Illinois prairies, it may be, had an origin entirely different from that of the prairies in the western part of the United States.

One of the first theories, and one that is still held by many, is that our prairies here were produced by fire. It is certain that at an early day great fires swept over this state. Ofttimes, within the remembrance of some of the early settlers here, portions of forests have been entirely burnt down. In course of time these settlers have seen the prairie grass take complete possession of the ground where great trees had stood.

Gov. Reynolds said : " Many learned essays are written on the origin of the prairies, but any attentive observer will come to the conclusion that it is fire burning the strong, high grass that caused the prairies." He further said, in speaking of the forests of southern Illinois: "I have witnessed the growth of the forests in the southern counties, and know there is more timber in them now than there was forty or fifty years be'fore. The obvious reason is that the fire is kept out. This is likewise the reason the prairies are generally the most fertile soil. The vegetation in them was the strongest, and the fires there burnt with the most power." "It will be seen that the timber in the north part of the state is found only on the margins of streams and other places where the prairie fires could not reach it."

A later opinion, and one that is held by some of the best geologists in the United States, is that the prairies were formed by water rather than by fire. Judge Oaton says : " That the prairies, - that is, the land itself, - have been formed under water, except the very limited portion of the surface which has been added from decomposed animal and vegetable matter since their emergence, will not be questioned by anyone of the least observation ; but that is not the main question involved in the present inquiry. Why are they not covered with forests?"

Judge Caton agrees, in general, with Prof. Lesquereaux, who prepared a paper for the Geological Survey of Illinois, and thinks that the prairies were formed under water. He, however, disagrees with the Professor in the particular process of formation under water; and the fact that the elements of the soil of the prairies are such that are not conducive to forest growth. The Judge further says: "I entirely concur in the popular opinion that among the most important of the causes which have produced this interesting result is fire, while the exhaustion and replenishing the soil with their particular elements have, no doubt, had their influence." " The hard, impenetrable character of the sward, formed by most of the herbaceous vegetation of the prairies, forms a serious impediment to the germination of seeds of trees, when, by accident, they fall upon it. It is not the composition of the soil that prevents the germination of this class of seeds, but whatever difficulty is experienced in this regard arises from the mechanical cause above suggested." " The cause of the absence of trees on the upland prairies is the problem most important to the agricultural interests of our state, and it is the inquiry which alone I propose to consider, but I cannot resist the remark that wherever we do find timber throughout this broad field of prairie it is always in or near the humid portions of it, - as along the margins of streams, or upon or near the springy uplands." "If the head-waters of streams on the prairies are most frequently without timber, so soon as they have attained sufficient volume to impede the progress of the fires, with very few exceptions, we find forests on their borders becoming broader and more vigorous as the magnitude of the streams increases." " Another fact, always a subject of remark among the dwellers on the prairie, I regard as conclusive evidence that the prairie soils are peculiarly adapted to the growth of trees is, that wherever the fires have been kept from the groves by the settlers, they have encroached upon the prairies, unless closely depastured by the farmer's stock or prevented by cultivation. This fact 1 regard as established by careful observation of more than thirty years, during which time I have been an interested witness of the settlement of this country, - from a time when a few log cabins, many miles apart, built in the borders of the groves, alone were met with, till now nearly the whole of the great prairies, in our state at least, are brought under cultivation by the industry of the husbandmen. Indeed, this is a fact as well recognized by settlers as that corn will grow upon the prairies when properly cultivated. Ten years ago I heard the observation made, by intelligent and observing men, that within the preceding twenty-five years the area of the timber in the prairie portions of the state had actually doubled by the spontaneous extension of natural groves. However this may be, certain it is that the encroachments of the timber upon the prairie have been universal and rapid, whenever not impeded by fire or other physical causes, without regard to the constituents of the soil."

Hon. J. D. Caton's article on the origin of the prairies delivered before the Chicago Historical Society, is so to the point that we have quoted quite extensively from it.

Mr. H. W. Beckwith says, in the conclusion of his article on the subject in his " Historic Notes of the Northwest " : " The prairies of Illinois and Indiana were born of water and preserved by fire for the children of civilized men who have come to take possession of them."