Hendricks County, Indiana - Chapter 1: Geology and Topography of Hendricks County, 1914

Hendriclcs county has a central position in tlie state, the county seat being nearly in the exact center from north to south and twenty miles west of the center on an east and west line. Its geographical position is between parallels 39 and 40 degrees north latitude and meridians 86 and 87 west longitude. The exact position of Danville is 39 degrees 40 minutes north latitude and 86 degrees 30 minutes west longitude. In extent, the county was intended to be twenty miles square, but the surveyors' correction line, which passes through the northern part of the county, destroys its quadrilateral shape, and makes it more than half a mile wider at the north than the south. However, owing to irregularities in the surveys, which were caused In' the passage through the county of both the second principal meridian and a correction line of the government surveys, the county averaged just twenty miles square until the year 1868, when a strip two miles in width, extending from the meridian line west to Mill creek and containing twenty square miles, was added to the county from Morgan county, which makes the area of the county four hundred and twenty square miles. The county is bounded on the north by Boone county, on the east by Marion county, on the south by Morgan county and on the west by the counties of Putnam and Montgomery.

The general elevation of the surface of Hendricks county is much higher than the surrounding country, except portions of Boone and Putnam counties. Passing through the county from south to north, from near Clayton to Lebanon, in Boone county, is a natural water-shed, which divides the waters of Eel river and Sugar creek from the waters of White river, and at a point three miles northwest of Danville, at Mount Pleasant church, it attains an elevation of more than one thousand feet.

The general surface of the county is level or gently undulating. Though the streams in many places have eroded deep, narrow valleys, there are but few acres in the county which, on this account, cannot be cultivated and not one which cannot be made useful for grazing purposes.

The streams which make the natural drainage of Hendricks county are the White Licks. Big, Little, East and West forks, .\bner's creek, Mill creek, School branch and Eel river. The east and north parts of the county are drained by the White Licks, the southwest by Mill creek and the northwest by Eel river. Owing to the elevation of the land, but few springs are found in the county, though pure water in great abundance is obtained at no great depth by digging through sand and clay. Originally the county was covered by a dense forest, composed of every variety of timber, trees and undergrowth found in this latitude, with an extraordinary amount of the more valuable kinds, popular, walnut and the oaks. After the Indians were gone and the annual burning of the woods ceased, there grew up a dense undergrowth, and the highwa3's of the early settlers consisted of narrow trails through the woods, the thickness of which may be illustrated by the statement of a pioneer that when driving cattle from place to place they often tied handspikes across their foreheads, which pre\-ented them from leaving the trail.

No official survey has ever been made of Hendricks county until the spring of 1914, but the publication of this report, having been delayed by the United States government printing department, will not be issued in time for this work. However, good information is at hand.

The entire county is covered b}' a glacial drift formation from ten to three hundred feet in depth. This formation is composed of sand, clay and calcareous substances, boulders, fragments of crystalline rocks, remains of ancient animals and vegetable life and extensive moraines of gravel.

The drift in Hendricks county rests upon a stratum of Devonian sandstone, known to geologists as the Marshall or knob sandstone. It is soft, brittle and shaly and unfit for economic uses. This sandstone ceases to appear near the eastern line of the county and it is probable that in the southeast corner of the county, the black slate of the Hamilton group, which underlies the Marshall sandstone, may be found. Near the western border of the county sub-carboniferous limestone overlaps the sandstone. The drift formation is composed of a disintegration and decomposition of almost everv variety of rocks, soils, the remains of animal and vegetable life and various mineral elements.