Wayne County, Indiana - Geology and Archaeology, 1912

Geology and Archaeology

The characteristic topographical feature of the county is that of an elevated campaign, or table-land, which gradually slopes from the northern boundary of the county to the southwest. The general elevation of the north part may be stated as 1,200 feet above mean ocean tide, and that of the southern part of the county at goo feet.

This plateau is cut through by innumerable rivulets and larger streams that have their sources in the north part of the county, and flow to the southwest, and finally fall into the White Water river. The eroding effects of these streams are not so marked in the north, where they carry but a small volume of water, as we find in the south; there they run through broad shallow valleys that are not cut below the tough boulder clays of the drift, but in the south part of the county the erosion has, in some places, been carried far down into the beds of the Hudson river group of rocks. At the city of Richmond this phenomenon is so marked that we may, with propriety, speak of the eroded bed of White Water river as a veritable canon. The banks here are composed of 100 to 110 feet of Hudson river rocks, that in places form almost vertical mural shores to the stream. The Panhandle railroad bridge spans this stream across a narrow part of its canon. Along the principal water courses there, this plateau is interrupted by deep erosions, which terminate very rapidly as you recede from the streams, and the country opens into beautiful level tracts. A glance at the map will show that this county is well supplied with streams of living water. The west branch of White Water river, with its principal tributaries - Nettle Fork, Martindale's Fork, Green's

Fork and Noland's Fork - spread out over at least two-thirds of the county, and the balance is watered by White Water river and its tributaries - Elkhorn creek, Short creek, East Fork, Middle Fork, West Fork, Lick creek - and numerous smaller branches that have only local names. The large area of level lands, covered with a grand forest which includes every variety of timber that grows in this latitude, and the numerous streams of clear running water, must have proved an attractive sight to the early immigrants, and the rapid growth of the county in population and wealth has given proof that no part of the country afforded a truer prospect for happy homes.

The oldest stratified rocks in this county belong to the Hudson river group of Prof. James Hall. The name was first applied to the rocks of the Lower Silurian age that crop on the Hudson river at New York. The name was subsequently changed by Meek and Worthen to that of Cincinnati group. This group of rocks has also been called the Nashville group by Professor Safford in his report on the Geology of Tennessee. At Cincinnati and at Nashville there are extensive crops of these rocks, and hence the desire to apply to them local names. Now, if the relative strata were found nowhere else we might tolerate these new names, but it so happens that they exist in various parts of the United States and cover large areas of its surface, and to multiply names -is simply adding confusion to the nomenclature. The Hudson river beds are seen in the southern part of the county, where they have been exposed by the removal of the Niagara beds and the surface drift.

As we approach Richmond the Niagara is absent, and was probably removed by erosion, which must have taken place on a large scale at this part of White Water valley. There are then no other exposures of this formation along the line of the section until we reach the valley of Martindale's creek at Germantown, and the valley of west branch of White Water river at Cambridge City. The difference in elevation of the Niagara at the State line and where it is seen at Cambridge City 'is about sixty feet, and the distance is about twenty miles. If the section, then, was in the a of greatest dip, it would only be at the rate of three feet to the mile.

Springs, at the eastern end of the section, is 1,086 feet. These numbers agree so closely that one is led to conclude that at one period of the Glacial epoch the country between these two points was almost a level plain, and the intervening gaps have been eroded by the vast volume of water which flowed from the glaciers' southern border as it gradually retreated to the north. There are great numbers of large erratic boulders on the top of Cedar Spring hill, and on the dividing ridge of which Jackson's Hill is a part.

overlying the Hudson river rocks, and from the falls of that stream. It is from twenty to twenty-five feet thick, and has been variously referred to the Clinton and Niagara.

The lower part of this formation is a buff-colored, coarsegrained magnesian rock, that contains very few fossils of any kind. These magnesian beds are hard weathering, and rest upon soft, shaly beds of Lower Silurian, which are most easily eroded and carried away. At the Elkhorn Mills they form a vertical wall across the creek, over which the water falls some twenty-five feet, and has cut away a portion of the underlying Hudson river shales. These falls have in time been cut back a half mile or more, or from a point down the stream where the Niagara first makes an appearance. Where this magnesian rock terminates lower down the stream it maintains its full thickness, and there is reason to believe that the absence beyond that'point to the westward is due to glacial abrasion.

The most abundant fossils in the Niagara at this locality is a Brachiopod mollusc - Pentamerus oblongus. These fossils are so abundant that in some of the layers they lie packed upon top of one another, and constitute almost the entire substance of the stone, and have the same chemical composition.

A little to the southeast of the above crop of the Niagara we have at nearly the same elevation another crop of these beds that give rise to the falls of the west fork of White Water river. It is here, also, a buff magnesian limestone, about ten feet thick, and forms a complete mural cliff across the stream, over which the water falls a distance of ten feet or more. The surface above the falls is scratched and grooved by glaciation. Some of these grooves are deep and long.

To the south of Cambridge City about two miles, and on Simon's creek, the Niagara appears only a few inches thick, and rests immediately upon thin layers of Hudson river limestone.

Hudson River Group

The rocks belonging to this group lie immediately under the Niagara, since we are not able to establish the presence of the Clinton, which in regular sequence forms the intervening strata.

The Hudson river group is well expressed in this county on the three forks of White Water river near Richmond, and from thence southward along the main stream and its tributaries to Abington, in Abington township.

The Hudson river rocks are also seen in considerable force along the east, middle and west forks of White Water river, for short distances above their embouchure. On these streams the bluish, argo-carcarious shale, which underlies the Niagara where the succession is seen in this county; is here from thirty to forty feet thick, and the layers at the water's edge are thickly studded with fragments of fossils megistos, Acidaspis cincinnatiensis, Ceraurus Sp.

The following are among the best localities for collecting Hudson river fossils: At Richmond, on the banks of White Water and its branches, and on both banks of the main stream to the southern limits of the county. From the falls of Elkhorn to its mouth. The banks of this stream present a number of admirable exposures, where the fossil contents of the rocks are weathered out and in an excellent state of preservation. The same may be said of the banks of Bush creek, near its mouth.

The close proximity of these admirable localities for collecting fossils, to the city of Richmond, has enlisted the attention of a number of its citizens, and ng place of its size in the West can boast of more students of palaeontology or exhibit a greater number of fine cabinets or fossils and other objects of natural history.

Nowhere in the State are the effects of glaciation more apparent than in Wayne county. The north part of the county borders on the very highest land in the State. The water shed of all the streams that flow into the Wabash on the south, as well as White Water and its tributaries, take their rise from an elevated tableland which occupies a portion of Jay, Randolph and Wayne counties, and probably reaches its greatest elevation within the borders of Ohio. But the entire region where these waters start and flow to the north, west, south and east is so level that one is puzzled to point out any one spot that should be called the comb of the divide. Indeed, it is probable that these streams were the outlets of a shallow lake or basin, which has been filled up with sediment. From this divide glaciers poured their frigid streams in several directions. One of the principal found its way to the south, and was instrumental in forming at least a portion of the channel of the West and Middle forks and that of White Water river. Indeed, large granite boulders are found on all parts of the tableland of Wayne county, but they are particularly numerous along the shores of the West Fork, just above' the falls. The upper surface of the Niagara rocks which form these falls are distinctly scratched and grooved, and the lateral moraines are well defined. The bearing of these grooves is nearly north and south. At Richmond there appears to have been the coalescence of two or more streams, which were instrumental in cutting out the canon through which White Water river flows. The soft and easily weathering shales and bands of stone that form the shores of the river have caused the glacial marks to be obliterated, but the large boulders which still lie along the bluffs, or fallen to the stream by the undermining which has been going on, leave abundant evidence to justify the above conclusion. Large and small boulders are seen on all the high ridges that mark the boundaries of the streams.

At Jackson's Hill, eight miles to the west of Richmond, the drift is 140 feet thick. On the top there is a number of large boulders, and beneath this we have the usual alternations of clay, sand and gravel, and blue boulder clay. Jackson's Hill is on the divide between the waters of Green's Fork and Noland's Fork. On the divide between these streams and White Water river, the drift is ninety feet thick, and in places the large boulders are quite abundant on the surface. In the city of Richmond, the drift is only locally represented, and the greatest depth will not exceed twenty feet.

The drift has been of very great use in this county in supplying an endless quantity of gravel suitable for making gravel turnpikes. And probably no county in the State contains so many of these admirable channels of commerce.

In 1851, when making a cut through the divide, between Noland's Fork and Green's Fork, for the Richmond & Logansport division of the Pittsburgh, Cincinnati & St. Louis railroad, at the depth of about twenty-one feet in the middle of the cut, the work- men struck upon what seemed to them a solid pavement of boulders. The upper part of each boulder appeared neatly dressed on the surface, as though done by the hand of a skilled workman. This pavement extended nearly the entire length of the cut, though towards the ends it was considerably broken up, and finally gave out entirely. It was very thick near the center of the cut, and appeared to dip toward the east, but as the grade of the railroad was forty feet to the mile in the opposite direction, this may »not be the correct dip. The width of this pavement of boulders must be considerable, since at the distance of half or three-quarters of a mile on the north side four wells had been dug, and in three, at about the same depth beneath the surface, a layer of scratched boulders was encountered. The whole deposit of boulders is in a matrix of hard, blue clay - '"hard pan." On the face of these boulders are a number of parallel scratches, the direction being nearly north and south. Many of the boulders are of large size, and nearly all are a bluish colored, crystalline rock, susceptible of receiving a fine polish. One of these boulders measured two feet in diameter and eighteen inches thick, and was as round as a grindstone.

Scratches, or rather fine parallel striae, bearing north a little east, and south a little west, are also seen in the bed of Noland's Fork, near Centerville, and on rocks of Hudson river age. The face of the rocks are ground down to a level, and the striae are plainly visible. Indeed, everything leads to the conclusion that the glaciation was carried on in great force in this part of the State.

The high tablelands of this county, and its deep canon-like river valleys, afforded the Mound Builders favorable sites for their settlements, and we constantly find the remains of a number of large and interesting earthworks and a great many mounds scattered along the bluffs of the streams.

Observation Of Pre-Historic Earthworks

The surface of Wayne county presents many evidences of occupancy by the Mound Builders. Mounds are found in all parts of this county - situated on the uplands and along the courses of the streams. The plowshare has leveled many, and some have been removed in opening roads or the material used in. making

The works in this county seem to be a continuation southward from the works along White river in Randolph county, and follow the branches of the White Water. Perhaps when all the works located in this part of the Ohio valley are mapped, some systematic arrangement may be discovered.

Three miles north from Fountain City (formerly called Newport), on a rise overlooking the wooded valley of Noland's Fork, is a mound seventy-five feet in diameter (section 19, township 18, range I5 east).

Another is on the farm of Daniel Hough, adjoining Fountain City. A third is said to have been removed in making the principal street of that town.

One mile northeast from Fountain City, on level ground, between Noland's Fork and a small tributary - Buck Run - is an embankment enclosing eleven acres. The figure of this earthwork is a Square with curved corners. The length of the inside of the embankment is 780 feet. The embankment has been plowed over for years, yet can be plainly traced. A gateway is discernible on the west side, and hollows are found in the vicinity, which some suppose were made by the builders when collecting material for the embankment. A more careful survey has discovered the fact that the direction of the embankment is not due north and south, but at an angle, with the west side nearly parallel with the road.

A large mound stood two miles north from Chester (section 4, township 14, range I west). The greater part was removed in making the Arba road. A copper ring was found therein, and is now in the collection at Earlham College.

One mile north from Richmond, on the Hoover farm, and in that vicinity, several small mounds were located. In one, when removed, was found a copper ornament.

A mound near Earlham College was opened by President Moore, and the usual contents of mounds found - pieces of pottery, ashes and other evidences of fire.

On the J. C. Ratliff farm a mound was opened, and some small articles, which were at first supposed to be beads, but are now thought to be parched corn, found therein.

In the southwestern part of Boston township is a mound hidden away in a "hollow"; and one formerly stood south from Richmond near the Boston pike.

Traces of a mound are to be seen on the farm of James W. Martindale, adjoining Green's Fork. This mound was opened in early times, and charcoal found near the original surface of the ground. A great quantity of arrow heads have been found around a spring (long since dry) near this mound.

Overlooking Martindale's creek in Jefferson township (section 18, township 17 north, range 13 east) is a mound. Also two in the bottom land along West river, at Hagerstown.

Two miles southeast from Milton (section 6, township 15, range 13 east) is a beautiful mound, fifteen feet in diameter. Forest trees are still standing upon it; also stumps measuring two feet across.

Near the county line, about one mile north of Waterloo, Fayette. county, is a mound upon high ground, and about a mile to the southeast, in Fayette county, is a curiously shaped work.

The most notable mounds in Wayne county are located on the left bank of the west branch of White Water river, one and a quarter miles north from Cambridge City. They consist of a series of circular embankments, continued over a half a mile of ground. The south circle is in the best state of preservation. The embankment was made of the earth taken from the trench which is on the inside of the embankment. Within, the ground has been made to slope gently from the center to the bottom of the trench, except to the east, where there was left a roadway leading from the center through a gateway in the embankment to the level ground beyond. The embankment is four feet above the surface of the field, and seven feet above the bottom of the trench, and wide enough on the top to allow two carriages to pass each other. The gateway is one rod wide. This circle is made of gravelly soil, while the north circle is composed of a loam, and has yielded more to the destroying influence of plowing. It is not as symmetrical as the other, being more oval in outline. These two circles are

; GEOLOGY AND ARCHAEOLOGY 25 about fifteen rods apart and about the same distance from the bluff of the stream. In the bluff, equally distant from both the circles, is a passage way cut from the top of the bluff to low ground bordering the water, some twelve feet below. This cut is evidently not a water wash, for along the sides can be seen the earth which was removed in making it, thrown up as dirt is thrown up along the sides of a ditch. The bluff here spoken of is the edge of the first terrace. The rounded margin of the second terrace can be seen a quarter of a mile to the east. Several hundred feet north from the second of the above described circles is a group of five small circles. With one exception these are about sixty feet in. diameter, and are now from one to two feet high. The embank-. ment of the largest work in this group can not be traced on the south, that part being in a field which has long been cultivated. Trees of large size were, until recently, standing upon the em-. bankments of these works.

Burial places and remains have been found in various localities within the county. A number of years ago, in removing the gravel from a bank in the northwest part of Jefferson township, nine feet below the surface, eight skeletons were discovered. They had been buried in an upright position. These bones were gath~ ered together by the workmen and reburied in a common grave.