Porter County, Indiana - General Features, 1912

Porter county is situated in the northwestern portion of tlu; st;ite. It is bounded on the north hy Lake Michigan; on the east hy Laportc county; on the south by the Kankakee river, which separates it from Jasper county; on the west by Lake county, and contains an area of 420 square miles. With regard to physiography, the county is divided into three well defined belts or sections, each with distinctive surface characteristics. Across the northern part stretches the Calumet reginn, so named from the fact that (he Calumet river flows westward tlii'ough this belt which contains about 85 square miles. South of this lies the Morainic region, which is the largest and most important divisou of the county, containing some 230 square miles, or more than one-half the entire area of the county. Still farther south is the Xankakre basin, lying along the river of that name and extending to the soutlioi] bouudary of the couutj. The ai-eti oi this region is sligiiily in excess of 100 square miles. The entile siirlaer oC the county is covered with a sheet of glacial drift varying in thicknc;ss from 90 to 140 feet.

Centuries ago the country soutli imd ea.st of Iludsoirs bay had a climate similar to that of Gji'cnlfiinl al lln' pi-esent tiinc. Great masses of snow, never melting, acciuuulaled into one vast lieid hundreds of feet in thickness. Near the ])ottoui of this mass, the miow was converted into a porou,s, plastic ice by the jiressure from ;djove and thus was formed a glacier, wliicli bc.uau io hkivc slowly south and southwestward. In this almost JmpiM-cepliMr niotiou, pai-tially decayed rocks and masses of clay were deta.clied from tlie liill-sides and can-ie'd along by the glacier. When the ice incited the chty and rocks were left to form a glacial drift, many miles from where they were first*^)ieked up. The drift deposited in this manner is called a terminal moraine. It is a deposit of this character wliicli liu'ins iht^ central or iloraiuic region of Porter county. The city of Valj)afaiso stands near the crest of the formation, which therefore takes the name of the "Valparaiso Moraine."

Frank Leverett made a special study of portions of this moraine and published the results of his investigations in a bulletin of the Chicago Academy of Science in 18D7. According to Mi-. Leverett, the moraine begins near the bouudary line between Illinois and Wisconsin, extending thence southward through purtions of Lake, j^TcIIenry, Cook, Dupage and Will counties,' Illinois. It then turns toward the southeast and enters the State of Indiana fi'om the .southeastern part of Will county. After entering Indiana (he trtiid is iiorthea;stward across Lake, Porter and Laporte counties into ]\Iirhiijaii, wliere its course has been definitely traced as far as .Moiitralm (-(ninly. Ur. {'liaiuberlain, in the Third Annual Report of the United Siatrs (iculogical Survey (1883), says: "It may be likened in a general iii.iniiii- Io an immi'iise U embracing the great lake between its arms. This gigantic lnoji is over 200 miles in length and from 90 to 150 mJUs in widtli. Tiir i>arallelism of the moraine to the lake shore is one of its mosl striking Irrilures. " it is about Jil'teeu miles in width, extciicliiif,' fioiii a point about a mile north of the Grand Trunk railroad to tlic edge of tlie Kankakee marshes about two miles south of the village ciT IK)ii-(iii. The crest of the moraine crosses the couutj' line about h;ilt ;i mile south of tlie northwest corner of Porter township. It then cxlcn.is ;i little north of east to a point about one mile west of the city ol' ^'lllparaiso, where it is broken by Salt creek flowing northward. Eusi of Salt creek it extends from Emmettsburg in a northerly direction 1o r>jbci-ty townsbi]i, nuiking a bend to the northward around Flint and Lcing lakes, when it again turns eastward and crosses the line into TjajKutc county a little south of Clear lake. On the eastern border the nioj-aine is only about five miles wide, extending from near the* southern line of Jackson township to within about a mile of the Calumet river.

The topography of the IMorainic Ix'lt in ToiU'r county i.s much more varied than farther west. North and west of Hebron there are a number of high ridges composed chiefly of clay and covered for the most part with timber. Then comes Horse pi-iiiie, a high undulatory region, which covers the greater part of the south half of Porter township. On this prairie are a number of bowlders of large size, showing evidences of the glacial origin of this portion of the country. North of Horse prairie a stiff, jClayish subsoil is found near the surface, and a timbered area begins which covers the northern half of Porter and the southern half of Union townships. The soil over the greater part of this area is a whitish clay. Along the crest of the moraine this section is much broken liy ridges. The northern part oJ' Union township is chiefly sanely soil. A spur of the moraine about two miles in width extends into Portage town.ship and includes a portion of Twenty Mile prairie. In the western part of Center township tlie moj-nine begins to show more j)rominently ajid to assume more distinct ive ghicial characteristics. Here there are a number of high ridges, intersecting each other at various angles and presenting a broken surface. 'I'lie component materials of these ridges, whei-e exposed, consist jiiiiici]iatly of stiff, yellow clay and A limestone pebbles, angidar in form and little worn by the action of water. The city of Valparaiso is located on the slope of one of these ridges southeast of the main crest of the moraine. In Liberty towiLship the northern slope of the moraino is much narrower and more abrupt thhn in any part of its couisr in IVirtcr county. One standing near tlie Baltimore & Ohio railrond ;ilicnil Iwo miles west of Woodville and looking southward across a small tributary of Salt creek may get a fine view of the moraiuic hills, which here rise to a height of from 100 to 150 feet above the surrounding ('(nintfy. Farther to the eastward the irregulai-ities of the surface are strongly marked, and in Jackson township, especially in sections 13, 14 and 15j' there are to be seen many of the features of a typical, immodificd terminal moraine. Subordinate ridges branch off froni the main one in all directions; the largest bowldera along tlie moraine are found in this vicinity and are so plentiful that the farmers have used them in the construction of fences; numerous rounded depressions are setjii. suuk' of .them embracing more than an acre in extent, and alternating with these depressions are con-espouding rounded knolls of the drepressions. W. S. Blatchley, state geologist, in his report for 1897, says: "These 'knobs and basins,' as they are called, owe their peculiar formation to the in-egular deposition of tlie glacial debris, there probably having been a great isolated mass of ice imbedded in the debris where each basin now exists. By its melting, a cavity w'as left which was separated by a mass of drift material from a some^- what similar cavity where another ice mass had been imbedded. The shape and size of each cavity or basin depends upon the shape and size of the ice block and the amount of drift originally covering it. AVhere an impervious bed of clay was h'ft or has accunmlated in the bottom of the 'basin,' the latter often fills with water and a small lake results. Such was doubtless the origin of r.uU's Eye lake, two miles north of Valparaiso, whose area is but oiw-half acre, and whose waters are 45 feet in depth."

In this connection it is wortljy of note that practically all the small lakes in Porter county are of moraiuic origin. The principal ones are Eliza, Quinn, Flint, Long, Biill's Eye and Clear lakes, each of which lies verj' near to the summit of the, main crest of the moraine. Lake Eliza, one of the prettiest in the connty, is situated in the extreme northern part of Porter township, about two miles ejist of the western line of the county. It contains an area of aliout forty acres and it is surrounded by oak groves. Quinn lake with an aria of Iwdvc acres, lies about a mile southeast of Eliza. The outlet of tln'sc two lakes is Wolf creek, a tributary of Sandy Hook creek. Flint lake lies about three miles nearly north of Valparaiso and about a mile east of the crest of the moraine. It covers an area of ninety-five acres, and its waters have an average depth of aljout forty feet. It is surrounded by high ridges, those oji i\\i north and east being covered with timber. Long lake occupies a narrow morainic valley a short distance northwest of Flint lake, with which it is connected by a small drain. The natural outlet of these two lakes is a branch of Crooked creek, one of the tributai'ies of -ihe Kankakee river. Long lake is about three-fourths of a mile in length with a maximum width of some forty rods. Clear lake is located on the line between Porter and Laporte counlios about two miles north of the line dividing Jackson and Washington townships. It covers an area of about thirty acres and its w^atcrs average about twenty-five feet in depth, but it has no outlet. All tbe.sc lakes, as previously stated, lie near the crest of the moraine and their chief source of water supply is the natural rainfall, each lake draining a small aiea of the adjacent country. With the settlemeut ol' the cmiiilrv. the cuttiuy; .-iway of 1lie timber and the draining of the hind, il is n()ti<'cd that the water in tliese lakes is gradually diminishijig. and j^eoloyists ])i(<lict that th( time will come \vhen they will entirely dijs;ijii)ear. 'I'lic waters ol" Flint lalcc have receded more than fifty feet from thrir Im uicr margins. .Mm-h of tliis recession is due to the fact, however, that the city of Va]|)ar,iis(i tlrav.s its water supply from the lake, )ie,'ii'ly a millidii ij:allons being lalc'-u from it daily.

The drainage system of Porter county is gowrned almcist exchisively Iiy tlie topography of tlie central beU, tiic watershed si-parating the great lake basin from the MississIiJiu valley cut responding very closel.v to the sunnnit of the moraine already deseiilied. Except the (!aluiuet and Kankakee rivei-s, all the streams of i'insei|u.iice draining Ihe eouiity have theii- sources on or near the erest of ilu- divide. All fluise starting north of the crest line flow into Lake ilieliigan either direelly or through the Calumet river, while all those I'ising sonth of the crest, with one exception, find their way into the Kankaki'e i iver. That e\ee])tJon is Salt Creek, which rises in Morgan townshij) a nil tlows in a north westei-ly direction, piercing the crest not far from Emmettsburg, its watei.s finally reaching the Calumet river in Portage township. South of the divide the principal streams ai'e Crooked and Sandy Hook creeks. The former has no tributaries worthy of mention, but the latter receives the waters of Wolf creek, the west branch of tlie Samly Tlook, and C'ornell creek. All these streams are of small size and sluggish in their flow. In addition to Salt creek, the principal stream in the lunlhern part of tlie county is Coffee creek, which rises near the erest of the divide in the southern part of Jackson township and flows in a geneial northwesterly dii-ection until it empties into the Calumet river at Chesterton.

Geologists account for the formation of Ihe Calunu'l or Xoi'theru region as follows: After the formation ol the terminal moraine, the glacier slowly receded toward the nortlieasl. le;i\iiig l)etw('en the great^ ice wall and the inner slope of the moraine a low area, whii'h was soon covered witli water from the melting ghieiei' and from rainC-ill. This body of water, known to geoloticists ;is "t^ake Chicago," continued to rise until it ovei'flowed the moraine at the ktwcst point, which happened to he near the preseut city of Cliicasio, and fhrou^di the outlet thus formed the waters of the ghicial laku found tlicir way to the Des I'laiues river, and ultimately to the Mississijipi. lllatchley says: "The area of tliis lake was necessarily a variahle one ; since the ice dain on the north was all the time slowly receding. However, the name Lake Chicago is applied to all its stages from the time of the first opening of the Chicago outlet until its final closing on accnunl of the overflow of the Great Lakes, finding for itself a new cliannel tiirongli the Niagara river."

With the opening of the Niagai'a clianui'l and the (ireat Lakes talking something like their present form, llic watei's of Lake Chicago disappeared, leaving a low tract of land hetwccn the terminal moraine and the lake basin. Leverett has discovered tliic(> well defined ridges which mark in part the old shore line of Lake Chicago at diflferent stages. To these ridges he has given the name of l)eaches. The upper or Glenwood beach was thrown up by the first stage of the lake and is so named because it is well exposed at the town of Glenwood, a few miles south of Chicago. It enters Indiana at Dj'er and continues due east unbroken for a little more than two miles, where it becomes broken into sand hills or dunes, which extend to a point about two miles east of Sclierervillc, where they come to an end.

The middle or Calumet beach, formed at a later stage, enters Indiana about four miles north of Dyer and extends almost due east for a distance of eight miles. Here it is joined by Glenwood beach, which makes its reappearance near the village of Grififith, and side by side they trend northeastward to a point near the Calumet river about two miles northeast of Cri.sman, Porter county, where they terminate abruptly.

Again the waters of the lake receded, and when they again advanced tliey threw up the third ridge, known as the lower or Tolleston beach, since it passes through the Indiana town of that name. It crosses the western boundary of the state a mile north of the Little Calumet river and from there extends almost due east to ]\liller's Station on the Bait- imore & Ohio and Lake Shore railroads. Here it diverges sliglitly to the northeast and ends near the northeast corner of Portage township, Porter county.

North of the Calumet river, in Westchester and Pine 1o\vnshij)s, are two low lying beaches, thought to be a continuation of llic (llcnwoud and Calumet beaches. In places they are separated by a n.'vrow marsh lying a short distance north of the Michigan Cenlral j'aihvny. ivist of Furnessville the southern licach lies mainly soutli of tin- ^Mii/higaii Central and the northern beaoh eaters Laporte county nui far fioni tlie Northern Indiana Penitentiary.

Between the beaches thus formed by the advancing and receding watei-s of old Lake Chicago, there have been deposited sand and silt until the Calumet region has been built up to its present slate. The amount of sand thrown up by the waves of Lake IMiclupan u]i(>ii the sliores of Lake and Porter counties has been thus computed by Dr. Edmund Andrews: "For 25 miles west of Michigan City the beach maintains an average cross section of about 6,000. 'square yards, and its contents are 264,000,000 cubic yards. In this division the Itcacli is in the form of a lofty belt of sand dunes, about one-third of a mile wide and in places 160 to 200 feet in height. In the next eight miles (extending to the Indiana line) the beach spreads out into a broad belt of low parallel ridjes, about two miles in extreme width. This division has a ci'oss section of about 16,000 square yards, after deducting the sand which was deposited by Lake Chicago. It contents amounted to 225,280,000 cubic yards. ' '

The sand dunes form the piost picturesque and striking feature of the country's scenery. Sometimes they are great ridges of sand, a mile or more in lengtli, but more frequentl.y they are found as isolated hills. The highest of these hills is Mount Tom in Westchester township, the crest of which is about 190 feet above the waters of Ijakc Michigan. In the vicinity of Dune Park the ridges are almost entirely devoid of vegetation. Blatchley says: "Their bared sui'face, 50 to 100 feet in height, with sand piled just as steeply as it will lie, gleams and glistens ill the sunlight and reflects the summer's heat witli unwonted force. Othi:r ridges and rounded hills, especially those back some distance from the lake, are often covered with black oak, northern scrub pine, stunted white pine, and many shrulvs and licrbs peculiar to a soil of ^;!1K^. The roots of this vegetation form a network about the sand grains and i)revent the leveling of the dunes. In time, however, a tree is uprooteci, or a forest lire burns off the vegetation. The protecting network of rootlets is desti'oyed. A bare spot results over which the winds freely play. A great storm from the north or northwest scooj^s out a small bowlsliaped cavity, and, carrying the sand either south of soul li west, drops it over the hillside. The cavity is cut deeper and wider by succeeding storms, and a great 'blow-out' in time results. Where a few years before stood a high hill or imbroken ridge now exists a valley, or a cavity iu the hillside, acres, perhaps, in extent, and reaching ne^ii-ly to the level of the lake. The sands which once were there now fdiistilule new hills or ridges which have traveled, as it were, a greater distance inlantl. In many places the drifting sands have wholly or partly covered a tall pine or oak tree. Where but partly covered, its dead (somctiines living) top projects for a few feet above the crest of the hiU or ridge. One may rest in its shade and not realize that he is sheltered hy the uiijicr limbs of a large tree whose trunk and main branches lie far lieneatli him embedded in the sands."

The Calumet river, which drains this northern region of the county, has its source in Laporte county a short distance east of the Porter county line. It is a slow slug^sh stream with low banks, suliject to overflow with the melting of the snows and the usual rainfall of early spring. After crossing the county line about half a mile jiortli of the morainic belt, it flows almost due west through Pine and Westchester townships to Dune Park, where it turns slij^htly to thn southeast and enters Lake county about a mile south of Long Lake. Then, following a westward course, it crosses the state line about three miles south of the city of Hammond. Prom this point it follows a noi-thwcstcrly course to a point near Blue Island, Illinois, where it make a sharp curve, flowinji- first northeast mikI lliou southeast, until it again enters tlie State of Indiana not far from Ilaumioiid. It llii-ii flews eastward and finally empties into Lake IMiehigau in scctioi) 31, township 37, north, raii^'e 7, West, less than tliree luih's frdiu the point where it first enters Lake coimty. To distinguisli tin' Iwd parallel si reams flowing across Lake county, .the one flowing westwai-d is eaUed the Little Calumet and tlie northern stream - tlie one flowing east v, id - is called the Grand Calumet. During the spring i'vesliets, flie Calumet marshes lieeome the temporary home of myriads of uati'i-fiiw 1 and a fruitful field for the sportsman.

That portion of Porter eount>' lying south, of the southern border of'the Valparaiso moraine is iui-huietl in the Kankakee (lasin. Of this section aliout sixty-five sijuare miles eonsi.st ol swamp land proper and forty square miles of prairie, wliieh lies fiom ten to forty feet above the level of the uuir.sh lands. The Kaukak. . rive)-, which forms the southern boundary of the county, is note'! for the crookedness of its channel, its low banks and its sluggish current. From its source in a marsh about three miles southwest of the city of South Bend, Indiana, to where it crosses the state line at the southwest corner of Lake county is, in a direct line, about seventy-five miles. Yet, within that distance the stream is said to make 2,000 bends and to flow a total distance « of 240 miles.

The Kankakee marshes con.stitute tlic most e.xtensive body. of swamp land in the state. Some of the lands liave liecu reclaimed and brought under cultivation. Before this was done tlie area of marsh lands in the seven counties drained by the Kankakee was estimated at 500,000 acres. As early as 1858 an effort was nuide lo i-iclaim some of the marsh lands by the excavation of a lai-ge ditch. 'I'lie experiment showed that the lands could be drained and a few ycais later the legislature of Indiana passed a law under which was oi'gatn/ed the "Kankakee Valley Drainage Association," with power to lcv\ .issessments against the lands to be benefited. In many inslanees these ,is-.essmeuts wei-e opposed upon the grounds that they were unjust, eMcss-ve or partial; iiuligna- tion meetings were held, and tlie opposition gicw so loi-inidable and determined that the association passed out of existciice witliout making any serious attempt to carry out the works for whicli it was organized. Since then various schemes have been tried for the i)iii pusc of reclaiming tlie land. In 1870 another large ditch was dug. This was follo>ved by dredging the trilmtaries of the Kankakee, whieli liad a good efPecL. A mile of rock, seven feet in thickness, was remnxed liom the river at Momence, Illinois, at the expense of the state of Indiana, and thousands of dollars have been expended in other directions. No richer soil can be found in the state. It is a dark, sandj' loam, i-icli in ort^anic matter, and ranges from three to six feet in depth. AVhevc bi-oiighf undei' cultivatio<^ good crops are the universal residt. In 1897 ]?lafchlcy estimated the amount of unreclaimed marsh land in Poi-tcr county at 40,000 acres, which he says "for at least four months of the year arc covered with from one to five feet of water; and during the (dur remaining months this area is an immense bog or quagmire."

Geologically, Porter county is comparati\cl\' young. At several points where deep bores have been driven the bed rock has generally been found to be the black Genesee shale of the Devonian age. In some places in Lake county it is the lower Helderberg limestone, and in others it is the Niagara limestone, both of the Upper Silurian age. Says Blatchley : "Could all the drift be removed from the surface of Lake and Porter counties the elevations of the different portions of the exposed surface would be found to var^- but little, and tlie three formation.? - Genesee Shale, Lower Helderberg and Niagara limestones - would be exposed ^s the surface rock, each occupying its respective area above mentioned. If the black shale could in turn be stripped fi'om the area which it covei"s, beneath it would be found the Lower Helderberg, and beneath that the Niagara."

Consequently there are no fossils of importance to tlie scientist to be found in the countj', except possibly a few belonging to the Silurian age, and these have been deposited by the glai'ial drift. Remains of the mastodon have been found in the Kankakee marsh three miles southeast of Hebron, near Sandy Hook creek a .short distance nortlnvcst of Kouts, and in a marsh on Cobb's creek east of nel)ron. In each of Ihcso cases a few bones or teeth were discovered while excavating a draiii;i<;i' ditch, and no sj'steiuatic search was made for the rest of the skck'lon. 'J'lu' most perfect skeleton ever fonnd in the county was the one nucirtlied by some woi'kmen engaged in excavating what is known as the Kosclko ditch in Washington township in the fall of 1911. On Ndvcndn'f 1, IStll, a suit was filed by Mrs. Zada Cooper in the Porter Snperior Conrl, chiimiiig to be "the owner of and lawfully entitled to possession of tlic I'dUowiiig per.sonal pi-operty, to wit: The head, consisting of the .skull, iipjier and lower jaws, and teeth, fonrteeu vertebrae, two hiiiiicii. two uhiac, two patellae, twelve riba, two tusks and other minor hours foiniiui;' ainl making a part of a .skeleton of a cert;iin mastodon, a prrliisl'.iii- nninial of immense size, ' ' etc.

'"William Hubbard, Herman Shales and Jacob E. Davis, the uien who discovered the skeleton", were made the defendents, and in her complaint Mrs. Cooper placed a value of $500 upon tlie bones, which she claimed had been discovered on a tract of land owned by her. The case was finally compromised, the plaintiff taking part of the skeleton, the defendents retaining possession of some of the bones, and a portion of the .skeleton was left in the gi'ound. By a compromise of this character no one was hiaterially benefited by the discovery. The ma,stodon inhabited this country' at the close of the glacial period, and the remains found in Porter countj' were doubtless left there by one of the great masses of lee, probably the one which formed the Valparaiso moi-ainc.

"With regard to the economic geology of Porter county, it is worthy of note that it contains but few mineral productions of couiniercial value. Neither coal, building stone, oil nor natural gas has been found within its borders. Molding sand of fine quality occurs at several places, the best known deposits being near McCool, in Portage towiishii), and near the "Nickel Plate" railway a short distance southeast of the city of Valparaiso. In the marsh north of Furnessville and along tlic Sandy Hook creek in Morgan township thci-e are large peat beds, but flicy have never been developed, owing doubtless to tlie I'.Ht tbat coal can be delivered by tbe many railroads so clieaply Ibat il would be unprofitable to work the peat deposits. Beneath the peat boj's, esjiecially in the Caliunet region, there are great quantities of limonitr or hog iron ore. In tbe peat marsh north of Furuessvillc have liceu found masses of limonite weighing several hundred pounds, but tlie ore is too impure to compete with the high grade ores from the Lake Superior, IMissoui-i and other iron mines. Some years ago a blast furnace was erected at Mishawaka, St. Joseph county, for the redu'eton of tin/ liog oics found in the Kankakee region, but it has long since ceased to exist.

In 1859 Richard Owen made a geological reconnaissance of IndianfT, and in his report says: "On Mr. Howell 's elevated land, about threequarters of a mile southeast of Valpaiaisi), on section 30 (35 north, 5 M'est), we. were shown good gray ciyslalliiK' limestone which had been quarried arid burned into lime; but as the layci- is only two or three feet thick, and apparently local in extent, it was soon abandoned. Unfortunately, no fossils were found, the lithographic or lithological character however, indicates a rock of Upper Silurian age."

Subsequent investigation developed the fact that IMr. Howell did burn lime 'there, but the stone was not in strata, being set up on edge, the supply proved to be limited, and the stone was no doubt of the drift origin. In the fall of 1897 it was reported that an outcrop of sandstone had been discovered on the land of John 'rratcbas in the western, part of Liberty township in one of the Salt creek bluffs. Beneath some sixteen feet of soil, clay and sand was a vein of calcareous sandstone formed T>y the cementing action of carbonate of lime on the grains of sand. The blocks of it were rough and irregular in size, and when exposed showed a tendency to disintegrate into loose sand.

From a commercial standpoint the mosi important mineral products of the county are the clay deposits which occtir at various places. These clays are sedimentarj' in their structui-c and are divided into two groups - the "drift" clays and the "marly" chiNs. The drift clays are made into common brick and int" dra.in tile at llcluon, Valparaiso and near

Chesterton, and the marly clays ai-i; mauufactured iuto a fine quality ol pressed front 'brick at Chesterton, Porter and Garden City. At the last named place there is an extensive de|)osit of a fine yiiiiuVd bluish gray clay, which a chemical analysis slmws to be very similar in eompositiou to the celebrated terra cotta clay used at Glenn's Falls, New York. The pressed brick factory at Porter is one of the largest (if not the largest/ in the state. It is owned and operated by the Chica,i;:o Hydraulic Pres,-. Brick Company and has been iu operation since .18!)0. At Chestex'tou, less than a miTe east, the Chicago 15rick Company has a large plant, capable of turning out 35,000 brick daily. 'There is also a company at Garden Citj' which manufactures porous fire proof products, the clay being well adapted to that puiiio.se.

Several artesian or flowing wells have been bored within the county. .Near the northeast corner of Jackson township, just within tbe borders of the moraine, Edward Stevms put down a well in June, 18!)7, which proved to be a flowing well. The (otal depth was eight y-four feet, and the water rose through a two-inch pipe to a height of foiu' feet above the surface with a flow of six gallons per minute. The Blair well, in the extreme northeastern corner of the county, has a depth of 840 feet and a flow of eighty gallons per minute. For a time a sanitarium was main tained here for the treatment of patients, but after the death of the owner the use of the water for medical purposes has been practically abandoned. The water contains 6!)0 grains of solids to tlu' gallon', chiefly chloride of sodium, bicarbonate of calcium, chloride of njagnesium, sulphate of calcium and sulphate of potassiuna. The Chicago Hydraulic Press Bi'ick Company bored a deep well at their works at Porter in the hope of obtaining natural gas. This dcvclupcd into an artesian well with a floiv of about 7') gallons per minute. Dr. J. II. Salisbury of tlie Northwestern University made an analysis of tlie water with the following result:

Commenting upon his analysis, Dr. Salisbury said: "The wafer from Porter is very free from injurious organic matters. It is vo-y useful for drinking at the well in cases which need ^alterative or laxative treatment; and it is also useful £or baths and for sanitarium purposes, lis sulphuretted hydrogen will not long be retained if exposed lo the air."

In his report for 1897 State Geologist Blatchlej' publishes a table of altitudes in Porter coixnty, from which the following are taken, the figures in each case I'epresenting the numb.er of feet above esa level :

By comparison of these altitudes with a map of the county one may get a fairly good idea of the general surface characteristics. Tlie level marked "Summit" in the table was run by Henry Rankiu while surveyor

Liberty townshiijs, about lour and a half miles north of Valparaiso, and is believed to represonf Ihr highest point of land in Poi-ter county.

This chapter may Ijc brought to an appropriate close by a brief mention of the fauna and flora of the county. Many of the ajiimals that once roamed over this section of the country are extinct. "While the region was inhabited by the Indians food and fur-bearing animals were plentiful. Notable among these were the Buffalo, deer, elk, otter and beaver. Smaller animals, some of which are still to be found, were the gray and fox squirrels, the slomk, the muskrat, the timber wolf and occasionally a porcupine. Around tlie lakes and swamps waterfowl were abundant, especially during their migi-ating seasons, and the streams teemed with edible fishes, making a (hvcjling place well suited to the Red man.

- In addition to this tlic primitive inhabitant found along the sand ridges a profusion of wild fruits - cranbernes, huckleberries, grapes, cherries, plums, etc Wild rice grew in the marshes, and nut bearing trees of various kinds were to be found in the groves. Rev. E. J. Hill of Englewood, Illinois, has made a special study of the sand dune area, and has found there a number of species of plants not noted by botanists in other sections of the state. In the Biilletin of the Chicago Academy of Science in 1891 wa.s jiublished a list of some one hundi'ed and twenty 9f these species. Aside from the well known forest trees, this list included the white, red and dwarf birch, the common pawpaw, wild red, sand and choke-cherries, several varieties of grapes, violet prairie and bust clover, asters of different kinds, the golden rod, various species of sumach, and a large variety of mid flowers. State Geologist Blatchley says: "There is no belter place for an extended botanical study of a limited area in the state than among the dunes, swamps, peat bogs, prairies and river bottoms of this area, and it is to be hoped that some one with leisure and ability will, before it is further modified by man, make a complete and permanent record of its flora."