Houston County, Minnesota - Chapter 2: Physical Features, 1919

Houston county is situated in the southeastern comer of the State of Minnesota and has for its neighbors, Winona county on the north ; the Mississippi River with Wisconsin beyond, on the east ; Alamakee county in Iowa on the south ; and FiUmore county on the east. It is about twentytour miles from north to south and nearly that from east to west, with a land area of about 334,120 acres, lying between the Mississippi on the east, and the line between Ranges 7 and 8 on the west, and between the Iowa State line on the south and the line between Townships 104 and 105 on the north. Aside from the irregularities caused by the winding course of the Mississippi River, the county consists of sixteen government townships.

There are seventeen political townships. Along the Mississippi from north to south they are named La Crescent, Hokah, Brownsville, Crooked Creek and Jefferson. The next row west is Mound Prairie, Union, Mayville and Winnebago ; the next, Houston, Sheldon, Caledonia and Wilmington; the next. Money Creek, Yucatan, Black Hammer and Spring Grove. Of these only five. Black Hammer, Caledonia, Spring Grove, Wilmington and Winnebago correspond with the lines of the government survey.

The Mississippi River has several sloughs winding through a swampy belt of varying width, which is broader near the southern boundary of the county. The largest tributary of the Mississippi in the county is the Root River, which comes into the county from Fillmore county on the west, and flows in an irregular eastern direction through the southern part of the northern tier of townships. Thompson's Creek from the south joins the Root River at Hokah, while the South Fork joins the main Root River at Houston. From the north Root River has several tributaries in this county, the largest being Money Creek and Silver Creek. The principal creeks emptying into the Mississippi are Pine Creek, finding its outlet in La Crracent township; Crooked Creek, finding its outlet in Crooked Creek township ; and* Winnebago Creek finding its outlet in Winnebago township. Mills have existed along these waterways since the earliest days, but the waterpower has never been made use of on an extensive scale.

The portion of the county along the Mississippi and other streams has a rugged and picturesque appearance, with irregular bluffs and oval crests with rock-capped summits. These, with alternating hills and valleys, extend back into the country several miles, and then gradually assume the form of a rolling prairie which still further on becomes a level prairie. The upland surface of the much dissected plateau which forms the county is from 1,150 to 1,300 feet above the sea level, and more than 500 feet above the valley of the Mississippi River. The sink holes, due to the caving of the subterranean drainage channels are a common feature, and in some places their linear arrangement is very noticeable.

If the valleys excavated by drainage were filled up the county would be very nearly flat, the highest part being in the southwestern comer, in the area of the Decorah shale and Platteville limestone. The great diversity of surface that appears arises entirely from the effect of erosion by streams and atmospheric forces on the rocks, which consists of alternating sandstones and limestones. This effect would be still greater, or still more apparent, were it not that the loess loam, which is very thick in this part of the State, tones down, with its overspreading canopy, the roughness which the rocky surface really possesses, leaving it actually one of an undulating or rolling character, except along the inmiediate river bluffs, and cause precipitous or steep hillsides.

The valleys excavated by the streams are remarkable and instructive. Not only have the larger streams cut out gorges of enormous depth in the rocky floors in which they run, but every little creek and tributary runs in a gorge which shows the same rock sculplure. Even the freshet creeks and the rivulets bom after every summer shower, dry entirely the greater part of the year, find their way to the main valleys through rock-bound, canon-like valleys. This makes the country present the usual characters of southem latitudes where the northem drift sheet has not been spread. There is nothing more evident than that these valleys antedate the glacial epoch.

In other portions of the northwest where the drift does prevail larger streams than those found in Houston county have generally wom their channels only through the drift sheet. Even the Mississippi River itself, above the Falls of St. Anthony, has no rocky bluffs. It very rarely there even strikes the rock. It is occupied still in dissolving and removing the materials of the drift which covers that portion of the State. It would require a good many inter-glacial periods, or pre-glacial periods, to excavate it as deeply as the same valley is wrought in the southeastem portion of the State.

In the limestone area the Houston county valleys are narrow and more generally rockbound; they widen out so as to include good farm lands on the bottoms here in the sandstone areas. This is illustrated in the upper portion of many of the tributaries of Root River. In descending one of these valleys from the upland, the first descent is very rocky and very impracticable. This is caused at first by the cut through the Shakopee limestone. The Jordan sandstone that underlies the Shakopee sometimes relieves this ruggedness a little, but its thickness is so small compared to that of the whole Lower Magnesian that it is barely observable in this way. Through the underlying St. Lawrence limestone the descent is also rough, and the valley narrow, with little or no arable land in the valley. On reaching the horizon of the top of the Dresbach sandstone, the change introduced into the aspect of the valley is very noticeable. It widens, the rock is seen exposed in a nearly continuous escarpment along the tops of the now more distant bluffs, the descent is easy, the stream flows with a winding course, and is perhaps fringed with a small shmbby growth, the lower slopes of the bluffs on either side are turf-covered, and, finally, a rich alluvial soil, spreading out over the bottoms show considerable areas that has been cleared and cultivated. This character then extends to and follows the whole course of Root River to its mouth, the valley constantly increasing in width and showing a terraced condition, where ancient floods or periods of high water have stood, and whence, after vast accumulations of alluvium, have retired, reducing the river at last to its present insignificant dimensions.

This is the general character of the valley tributory to Root River, but this succession of changes can be seen within Houston county only in those tributory valleys on the south side of Root River. Those on the north side enter on the St. Croix sandstone before reaching Houston. The best agricultural portion of the county is in the center and southwest quarter. The valleys throughout the county were originally wooded, and in the eastern part of the county a great deal of the upland was also wooded, and much timber still remains. Taken altogether, the county may be denominated rolling, broken and hilly, though there are also some fine prairies that are simply undulating. All the farms are well drained naturally.

The following measurements by aneroid will show the depth of some of the valleys below the immediate upland at the points named: Section 17, Caledonia, three miles south of Sheldon. Beaver Creek, at the great spring, is 230 feet below the tops of the bluffs, which embrace the Shakopee limestone, Jordan sandstone and a part of the St. Lawrence sandstone. At Sheldon the bluffs are 420 feet high. At Houston the bluffs north of the city are 520 feet above the level of water in Root River in summer. At Hokah, Mount Tom rises 530 feet above the flood plain of Root River. On Section 11, Union, the ridge between Thompson's Creek and the raibroad, at the sculptured rock, rises 355 feet above the highway directly south of the ridge. At Brownsville the height of the bluff above the flood plain of the Mississippi is 495 feet. Fred Gluck, of Brownsville, measured the same by triangulation in the winter season and obtained 486 feet as the height above the ice. Raibroad surveyors are said to have obtained 483 feet as the height of the same bluff. The most of this height is made up of sandstone, there being but 105 feet of limestone in the upper part of the bluff belonging to the St. Lawrence formation.

The soil of the county is formed by the loess loam. It is very fertile and apparently very enduring. It is mainly a clayey deposit, without stones or gravel, but yet in some places becomes arenaceous, the sand grains being very fine. The loess is hardly pervious to water. Many farmers resort to the expedient of retaining the surface water, after rains, in open reservoirs, produced by throwing a low dam across some of the shallow drainage valleys that intersect their farms, thus forming with the common loam a small pool or lake for the use of their stock. Except on the brows of the bluffs which enclose the valleys this loam is thick enough to make a reliable subsoil as well as surface soil. In some of the valleys it is very thick, but here it is apt to be influenced by the causes that produced the river terraces, and to mingle with the ordinary alluvium. On the uplands, generally, where it may not have been reduced by wash, its average thickness might reach thirty feet, but in some of the valleys

In the valley of the Root River, and also along the Mississippi, the soil of the alluvial terraces, greatly resembling that of the loam in the uplands, is apt to be more sandy, and sometimes very light and very poor. These materials are generally seen to be obliquely stratified layers, and to embrace, in the Mississippi VaUey, small gravel stones of northern origin. The immediate flood plain of these rivers presents still another variety of soil. While it is generally sandy, and often very light, it is also a very rich soil, and is apt to be enduring by reason of the Nile-like overflows to which it is subjected, and the decomposition of large quantities of vegetation. This variety of soil sustains some of the heaviest forests to be found in the county.

It is noticeable that many of the valleys, particularly those runnmg east and west, as Crooked Creek valley, have the bluffs along the north side of the creek, destitute, or nearly so, of timber, but are heavily timbered along the opposite bluffs, on the south side. This may be due to warm days in winter or early spring, when the sap may have started in the trees on the north bluffs, followed by severely cold weather, before the actual setting in of steady warm weather. Of course the sun's heat would be quickest felt on the bluffs facing south. This process repeated for a good many years would injure and at last destroy the timber on the north bluff, if it were ever possible for trees to come to maturity there, while timber on the south bluffs would escape these sudden changes, owing to the shaded condition of the bluffs during the warmest portion of the day, and would only experience a steady increase of warmth due to the progress of the season. Now, however, there are many valleys with the hills on both sides more or less heavily wooded.

Rock outcrops occur everywhere along the cliffs of the valleys of the Mississippi and its tributaries, affording abundant opportunity for the determination of the character and thickness of the successive beds. The rock formations outcropping at the surface are all Paleozoic.

The green Decorah shale is represented by a thickness of 25 feet, and is underlain by a massive bed of Platteville limestone, averaging 15 feet in thickness. Because of resistence to erosion, together with geologic position, these formations, as already stated, constitute the highest land in the county, capping the high areas in the southwestern comer. They yield small supplies to shallow wells, but are of little value as a source of water. Some springs occur at the margins of their areas, but most of the water sinks through the crevices of the formations into the underlying sandstone.

The St. Peter sandstone here is about 80 feet thick, or only half the thickness of the same formation in Hennepin county. It occurs beneath the Platteville limestone in the southwestern part of the county and underlies a large area of the uplands south of Root River. Although cemented by iron and somewhat resistant in places, a condition due to surface alteration, it does not generally give rise to rock exposure, the outcrop areas commonly being flat and covered with grass and trees. It yields moderate supplies of water to shallow wells, but owing to the free escape of its water to the adjoining lowlands, it does not afford amounts sufficient for industrial or public supplies.

The Shakopee dolomite is about 75 feet thick, occurring beneath the uplands above the river valleys. It carries some water in joints, bedding planes, and solution passages, and gives rise to a number of springs, but it does not generally afford supplies adequate even for domestic and farm purposes.

The New Richmond sandstone, which ranges up to 35 feet in thickness, is exposed beneath the Shakopee in the uplands several hundred feet above the stream. It affords little water along its outcrops, but where it is covered by younger rocks, as in the southwestern portion of the county, it may furnish supplies of considerable importance to moderately deep wells, though generally the amounts will prove insufficient for industrial or public supplies.

The Oneota dolomite, which is approximately 150 feet thick, outcrops in the upper portion of the cliffs bordering Mississippi and Root rivers and their tributaries and forms conspicuous bluffs and pinnacles. The upper portion is often broken and characterized by the presence of chert and other concretions. It contains some water in joints, bedding planes, and solution passages. Along the borders of the valley springs of considerable importance issue from this formation, a few yielding sufficient quantities for industrial or public supplies and even for water power.

The Jordan sandstone, a coarse buff sandstone about 100 feet thick, outcrops below the Oneota in the cliffs bordering Mississippi and Root rivers. In the greater part of the county it yields abundantly, the public supplies for several villages being derived from it. Near the outcrops, however, the jrield is greatly reduced because of the escape of the water into adjacent valleys.

The St. Lawrence formation consists of green and gray calcareous shales with some green sand and occasional sandstone layers, having a total thickness of about 175 feet. It outcrops in the lower portions of the cliffs of the Mississippi and underlies the bottom of Root River and the lower portions of its tributaries to the western border of the county. It contains considerable water in the sandy layers and is said to jrield flows at a few localities in the valleys. It has, however, little value as a water zone, its jrield being materially less than that from the overlying Jordan or the underlying Dresbach sandstone.

The Dresbach sandstone is a massive, crumbling sandstone about 60 feet thick, with occasional cemented layers. It outcrops along the cliffs of the Mississippi and beneath the alluvium of Root River. Its base is approximately at the level of the Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul Railway along the Mississippi. It is a strong water-bearing formation, and in the valley of Root River yields abundantly, the water being used for industrial and public supplies. Beneath the upland it contains large quantities of water, but there is generally no advantage in sinking to it, as the supplies are not materially larger than those from the Jordan except near an outcrop of the latter.

Underlying the Dresbach are several hundred feet of shale and sandstone, which lie almost entirely below the level of the flood plain of the Mississippi and are encountered only in deep wells. The upper portion consists of blue and green shale and the lower of porous sandstone. The shale furnishes an impervious cap, which confines the water in the sandstone thus giving rise to splendid flows from the sandstone in the valleys of the Mississippi and Root rivers. The yield is generally sufficient for all purposes, including industrial and public supplies.

Beneath the last-mentioned sandstone are the red shales, sandstones^ and quartzites of the red clastic series, which rests upon the granitic rock. Neither the red clastic series nor the granite will yield much water.

Houston county lies in what is called the Driftless Area, a tract of about 15,000 square miles, occupying nearly all the southwestern quarter of Wisconsin, and extending into southeastern Minnesota, northeastern Iowa and northwestern Illinois. Unlike the vast stretches around it covering more than half of North America, this comparatively small tract, about as large as the country of Denmark, contains no deposits indicitive of having been left by melting ice sheets. Houston county, therefore, contains no drift clay or boulders brought here by ice action, in the Glacial Age. There is a thick deposit of foreign gravel in Ricef ord, in the extreme southwestern part of the county, and there is a terrace along the Mississippi River that is made up of sand and gravel, evidently brought here from the north. It is possible that these deposits may have been brought here by small isolated glaciers in the raging waters which flowed from the receeding ice sheets, but the existence of such small flating glaciers in the driftless area is not yet agreed upon by all geologists. At any rate the county wholly escaped the operation of those forces which spread the well-known drift clay and boulders over most of the State.

There is a marked alluvial terrace ; that is, a terrace made up of deposits left by the waters of the past geologic periods, that accompanies the Mississippi and Root rivers, and ascends their lower tributaries, but it does not seem to be true that all the streams are terraced before reaching the level of that terrace. This indicates that the high water which produced that terrace was due to backing up from the Mississippi, and that possibly the country itself in general was not more wet than at present ; in other words, that the amount of surface drainage that passed down the valleys was no greater than now. Root River was simply wider and deeper, with a sluggish current, due to the greater volume of the Mississippi. The highest point at which the terraced condition of the Root River has been observed is Preston, in Fillmore county, but it must certainly extend several miles further up that valley. By aneroid measurements, united with the levels of the Southern Minnesota Railroad, the height of this terrace at Preston is found to be about 300 feet above the Grand Crossing of the Southern Minnesota Railroad near the mouth of Root River, while the same terract at Hokah, likewise near the mouth of Root River, is only about 100 feet above the flood plain. It is also probable that the loam terrace, as seen at La Crescent, is the same continued to and coalasoent with the Mississippi terrace ; and there it is 90 feet above the Mississippi flood plain.

This would necessitate a fall of about 200 feet to the Root River at its highest stages, in a distance of 50 miles in a right line. Root River valley, between the rock bluffs, has an average width through Houston county of about two miles, and that would have been the width of the stream, with a depth of over 100 feet.

There is, besides, this high, loam-terrace, a second terrace level, visible especially at La Crescent on the Mississippi, which there rises 50 feet above the flood plain of the river, and spreads out in a plateau on which the village has been located. This terrace, as already mentioned, is madie of gravel and pebbles of northern glacial origin and was identified only along the Mississippi. The largest stones it contains are three inches in longest diameter. It is passed through in wells and seems to be entirely pervious to water, as all wells on it get water at about the level of the flood plain of the river. This material is used for grading and road-bed on the Reno- Preston branch of the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railway, and elsewhere. It consists entirely of rounded water-worn materials, the main part being the usual parti-colored quartzite pebbles, granitic, homblendic, amyglaloidal and lamellar, as well as uniform and massive. A great many of them have a red color, or some shade varying from red. The coarsest pieces are rare, found only in the upper portions of the debris of alluvial fans.

The following more special observations have been made on these terraces in Houston county. At Sheldon, six miles from Root River, in the valley of Beaver Creek, the terrace on which the Newberry House stands is 30 feet above the water of the creek below the dam. The materials of the terrace at this place are sandy loam, horizontally stratified, with more clay near the top and less evident stratification.

At Houston the only observable terrace, measured about a mile west of the city, is 65 feiet above the flood plain. The track of the railroad is about one foot above the flood plain of the river, which is 18 feet higher than the water below the mill-dam.

At Money Creek the terrace rises 30 feet above the flood plain, which is 20 feet above low water below the mill-dam. The contents of this terrace are stratified. On Section 30 in this town the contents of Root River Terrace, and their arrangement, are as follows : Mixed and broken stratifications, roots, soil, etc., 2-4 feet ; loam and sandy loam, 3-6 feet ; oblique strata of light sand ; loam and light sand ; one layer of sand, blown out 6 inches ; oblique layers of sand ; horizontal strata of fine sand ; strata of fine sand or clay ; sloping clay layers, damp rusty ; dry blowing sand ; wet clay, with rusty lumps; contorted, curling, or massive strata; hid from view by debris.

The full height of the bank where the section was taken is about twenty feet. At a point further to the right a couple of bones were found, but in the confused and broken uppermost layer. They were where that layer comes down to the river, and about three feet below the surface, or five feet above the water of the dam, the surface of the bank sloping about 46 degrees.

plain of Root River, and there is a distribution of loam about the bluffs at a higher level (as well as at many other points along Root River valley), reaching to 100 feet, or a little more, above the flood plain. This loam appears in indistinct benches or terrace-levels, or patches of terrace, rising often with a slope, far up the rock-bluffs. It very rarely appears level as a well-marked terrace. It suggests rather a worn-out terrace level, the upper surface of which has suffered erosion by being gullied out and smoothed off toward the river. It is generally cultivated for farms, and has good wheat fields, consisting of the same materials as the lower terrace. Its actual height is difficult to ascertain.

Southwest quarter of Section 22, La Crescent. At the roadside appears a terrace, rising about fifty feet, which at the top consists of the fine loam of which the foregoing terrace is composed, showing at least eight feet of such material, while its lower twenty feet are of drift gravel, which is coarse and obliquely stratified, the coarsest pebbles being one or two inches in diameter. This occurs on the rounded point of the rock bluff which faces both valleys.

The village of La Crescent stands on a beautiful terrace of drift gravel, generously laid out, with wide streets and alleys, fifty feet above the flood plain of the Mississippi. This terrace gradually toward the high rock-bluffs. It is surmounted along the bluffs by another terrace, rising forty feet higher, which consists of loam.

This drift gravel must be attributed to the agency of the river. It has every feature of a water-work alluvial deposit. It is not found in Houston county in any of the valleys of the other streams, back from the Mississippi. It ante-dates the loess loam, as that is terraced above it, and probably bears the same relation to an earlier glacier period as the terraced loam does to the last.

At Yucatan the terrace flat is forty feet above the present flood plain of the South Fork of Root River. The flood plain is six feet above low water.

At Freeburg the terrace is twenty feet above the flood plain of the South Fork of Crooked Creek, which is five feet above the water of the creek.

The material resources of the county consist of its excellent soil, its timber, its waterpowers and its stones. The rocks of the county do not contain any valuable minerals. They are everywhere abundantly exposed and are quarried at various places. A number of churches, schools, public buildings, mills, business blocks and residences in the county are constructed of native stone and brick. Grood sand is found in various places, and at varying depths, and has been used to a considerable extent. The loam everywhere is suitable for making brick, which are uniformly red. Lime has not been burned on an extensive scale, but considerable has been prepared in pot-kilns for local use.

Flowing wells can be obtained in the valleys of the Mississippi and Root rivers throughout their entire extent in this county and also in the lower courses of the tributory streams. On the upland the water in the deep wells remains several hundred feet below the surface. For example, in the village well at Caledonia it is reported to stand about 250 feet and in the village well at Spring Grove about 300 feet below the surface.

The water from all horizons is moderately mineralized, the principal constituents being calcium, magnesium, and the bicarbonate radicle. A wide variation in the waters of this county in normal chlorine content was noted by H. C. Carel in his investigations some years ago, and recorded in the Eighteenth Report of the Minnesota State Board of Health, 1899- 1900, pages 241-260, and in the Nineteenth Report, 1901-1902, pages 346- 356. A general statement summarized from these reports is to the effect that the deep-lying water-bearing strata are much more heavily loaded with chlorine than the shallower beds. At Houston in 1900 there were twenty-eight artesian wells, ranging in depth between 230 and 310 feet, all obtaining their water from sandstones lower than the Dresbach. The shallowest of these wells yielded the least chlorine, 44.2 parts per million ; the deepest yielded 187.2 parts per million. On the higher ground around Houston, where the supplies are drawn from the Jordan, the New Richmond, and even from so high a formation as the St. Peter, the amount of chlorine is appreciably less. The average chlorine content of springs flowing from these formations is, for the county, only 4.6 parts per million. As a summary of CareFs investigations the following figures have been compiled from the large amount of material gathered by him as to the average chlorine content of underground waters being expressed in parts per million: Springs (several formations), 4.6; shallow wells, 2.8; Jordan sandstone, 9.4; Dresbach sandstone, 13; lower sandstone, 9.5; red clastic series, 76.

There are springs along the base of the cliffs at numerous points, the waters draining freely from the rocks wherever they are cut by deep vaDeys. In the vicinity of Hokah many springs rise from the base of the Jordan sandstone. Several miles west of Hokah is Stimpson Spring, which was long a favorite resort and which is reported to issue from above an impervious limestone as a stream of considerable size. When the county was first settled there were many gristmills operated by water power, and streams issuing from springs were frequently utilized. Winnebago Creek, Pine Creek, Thompson Creek, Money Creek, Beaver Creek, Crooked Creek, and Crystal Creek are all examples.

The village of Caledonia and the farms adjacent have a number of wells ranging from 250 to 312 feet in depth, in some of which the water stands more than 250 feet below the surface. A generalized section of these wells is here given: Loam clay and bottom of the St. Peter sandstone, 70 feet; Shakopee, 40 feet; New Richmond sandstone, 10 feet; Oneota dolomite, 150 feet; Jordan sandstone, entered 40 feet; making a total of 310 feet.

The village of Houston lies in the valley of Root River, which here apparently flows over a bed of the St. Lawrence formation. In the valley flowing wells are obtained from the Dresbach and lower sandstones. The public waterworks are supplied from a well six inches in diameter and 302 feet deep, which has been pumped at the rate of 130 gallons a minute.

The village of Spring Grove is situated in the highest portion of the county, where the Platteville limestone occurs. The public waterworks are supplied from a well 396 feet deep, but many of the private wells are shallow. The water in the deep wells stands far below the surface.

Along the valley of Root River in the vicinity of Hokah there are flowing wells with considerable head. In several wells where the situation is favorable the natural head of water is used to operate hydraulic rams that lift the water to levels to which it would not otherwise rise. At Hokah this inexpensive and convenient method of pumping is employed at the village waterworks. Ordinarily this device raises sufficient water, but a gasoline engine can be used in case of shortage. The village well is 544 feet deep, the water rising 18 feet above the surface or 692 feet above sea level. The yield exceeds present needs, though in the past there has been some difficulty owing to the loss of water either through a leak in the casing or through the uncased portion of the sandstone. The public supply is used by about one-half the people and about 5,000 gallons is consumed daily.

As a summary it may be said that the three strongest water-bearing formations are the Jordan, Dresbach, and basal Cambrian sandstones. On the upland they lie at depths of several hundred feet and the water stands far below the surface. In the deepest valleys they occur at or near the surface, and where not exposed by erosion give rise to flows. The basal Cambrian sandstone is best protected from erosion and is therefore the best artesian zone. The water from all sources is moderately hard.

The Government survey of Houston county was made in 1852, 1853, 1854. The field notes taken give an excellent idea of the general appearance of the surface of the county at that time. Following is a brief transcript of those notes:

Township 101, Range 3, fractional; east part of Jefferson. This is embraced wholly within the river bottoms of the Mississippi. It is timbered but low, with some marsh and standing water. Acreage, 3,169.76.

Township 101, Range 4; west part of Jefferson and south part of Crooked Creek. The Mississippi bluffs run north and south across the east end of this town, which embraces some marsh and slough land in the eastern tier of sections. These bluffs, which unite with those of Winnebago Creek from the west, in the southeastern comer of the town, introduce in that portion a very rough and rocky character of surface. The town is nearly covered with timber. Acreage, 22,546.52.

Town 101, Range 5 ; Winnebago. This is crossed by Winnebago Creek, which received several tributaries from the north and south. There is a tract of prairie in the southwest comer of the town and another in the northwest comer. The remainder is either timbered or shrubby, with oaks and aspens. The creek valley is deep and rocky. Area, 23,045.05 acres.

Township 101, Range 7 ; Spring Grove. Along the northwest edge of this town the south fork of Root River causes a deep valley, which is rough, timbered and rocky. The rest of the town is variously overspread with mingled prairie and timber or oak bushes, with gently undulating and sometimes rolling surfaces. Area 23,045.12 acres.

Township 102, Range 4; part of Crooked Creek and south part of Brownsville. This town is named from the creek which crossed it from west to east, south of the center. This creek with its branches causes a rough and rocky surface, with deep gorges over a considerable area. The town has no natural prairie. Area, 20,403.73 acres.

Township 102, Range 5; Mayville and west part of Crooked Creek. In the central part of this town are the sources of Crooked Creek, which leaves the town towards the southeast, in Section 25. With the exception of small portions of sections 31 and 32, this town has no prairie, but the heaviest timber is along the creek and its tributaries. The surface is undulating to rough. Area, 22,976.20 acres.

Township 102, Range 6; Caledonia. Beaver Creek is the only stream in this town. It causes a rough and bluffy surface in sections 19, 18, 7, 6, 5, 8 and 17, flowing northward. A little more than one-half is of elevated prairie, the timber being along the creek and in the eastern side of the town. Area, 23,063.95 acres.

Township 102, Range 7 ; Black Hammer. The south fork of the Root River crosses the western portion of this town in a northerly direction, accompanied by a heavily timbered and rocky tract affecting nearly onehalf of the town. There is an irregular strip of prairie which enters the town from the southeast and runs northwest past the center. Area, 23,042.34 acres.

Township 103, Range 4; north part of Brownsville and south part of Hokah. This is a border town along the Mississippi, and in the north has some bottom land east of the bluffs. No prairie is shown. The Wild Cat Creek joins the Mississippi at Brownsville, Section 26, and Thompson Creek flows across the northwest comer. These streams, like others in the county, run in deep rocky valleys, and cause a great diversity of surface some distance on either side from the immediate valley. They have a great many tributory vliUeys which do not contain streams, but which are equally deep and bluffy. Area, 20,912.18 acres.

Township 103, Range 5 ; Union and south part of Mound Prairie. Root River, with its tributaries, the Crystal, Bear and Thompson creeks, causes a rolling and even a rough surface over much of this town, with frequent rock exposure. There is a small area of prairie, covering Section 4, with adjoining parts of 5, 8, 9 and 3 ; but the greater part of the town is represented as timbered, or overgrown with small oaks and aspens and with hazel. Area, 22,951.16 acres.

Township 103, Range 6; Sheldon and south part of Houston. The south fork of Root River, with its tributaries from the south. Beaver, Crystal and Badger creeks, covers this town with a network of deep valleys.

Township 103, Range 7; south part of Yucatan. The south fork of Root River crosses the southeastern quarter of this town. The whole town is rough and wooded, except a narrow prairie belt occupying the river bottoms. Area, 23,045.67 acres.

Township 104, Range 5; north part of Hokah and east part of La Crescent. This is a Mississippi River town, and between the line of the river bluffs and the channel of the river is a belt of bottom land, much of it marshy, from two to four miles wide. The Root River cuts a deep gorge across the southern part of the town, and Pine Creek crosses the northern portion. Area, 20,398.03 acres.

Township 104, Range 5 ; Mound Prairie and west part of La Crescent. This town is crossed by Root River, along the southern two tiers of sections. It has a belt of prairie within the rocky bluffs, covering sections 33, 34 and 35, and a marsh in sections 30 and 31, but the rest is more or less wooded. Pine Creek also crosses the northeastern portion of the town. Area, 23,045.07 acres.

Township 104, Range 6 ; Houston and east part of Money Creek. This town is broken by Root River and Money Creek. It also has Silver Creek in the eastern portion. There is a belt of prairie land along the Root River, within the rock bluffs, and in the western portion of the town in Money Creek valley, but the most of its surface is wooded and broken. Area, 22,984.56 acres.

Township 104, Range 7 ; north part of Yucatan and west part of Money Creek. This town has prairie bottom-land along Root River, which crosses it from west to east in the southern half, and along Money Creek in sections 1, 2 and 12. The rest of the town is more or less wooded, with a rolling surface. Area, 23,179.03 acres.

The conditions as described in this early report continue to the present time, except that much of the timber has been cleared from the tillable land, and new growths of timber, hitherto prevented by the spring fires kindled by the Indians have appeared on the bluffs and ridges.

The characteristic feature of the northern part of the county is the Root River, which has recently been deepened and straightened for drainage purposes, and which was at one time navigable.

The first appearance of the Root River on any map was in 1703, when the published map of Guilliaume De L'Isle showed the course of the ''R, des Kicapous," flowing into the Mississippi from the west. This water, which historians have identified as the Root River, is sketched as a large stream, and is continued westward by a dotted line to a supposed union with the "Riviere Longe," of La Hontan. This fictitious "River Long," of La Hontan is made to be a northwestward continuation of the. Des Moines River with a conjectural connection with the Kicapous, which, as just stated, has been identified as the Root River.

La Hontan's own map appeared in 1704. As his works are now believed to have been fiction, and his map purely a garbled copy of previous maps, it is not a matter of vital import whether or not he intended that his "River

Lonfi:*' should be merely an exagrgeration of the Root River. As elsewhere stated, N. H. Winchell believes that the Root River flows into the Mississippi at about the place where La Hontan describes the mouth of his Long River. Nicollet believed La Hontan's River to be the Cannon, while De L'Isle, as noted, drew it as a western extension of the Des Moines.

Sheet No. 5, of Popple's Atlas of the British Empire in America, published in 1733, shows the River Quicapon, which is probably intended to be the stream now called Root River.

Another map, evidently of Italian origin, which bears neither date nor author's name, but was evidently published in the latter years of the eighteenth century (1750 and 1778 are both conjectural dates) has a river '"Quikapous," which from its size and location is evidently the Root River.

The map of Sr. Robert Vaugondy, probably pubhshed in 1775, shows the "R. des Quicabou," evidently the Root River. The "Quicapous" also appears on the map by Le Sr. d' Anville, published in 1775, and the ''Quicapoux" on the "Carte des Cinq grands Lacs du Canada" (Map of the Five Great Lakes of Canada), probably published in 1762, but of which no author or date are given.

But in a map published by J. Hinton, probably about 1776, the old general form of the name is resumed, and the Root River appears as the "Quicapous."

In Carver's own map of 1781, the Root River is named the ''Yallow." The map of the United States of North America, etc., engraved by William Faden in 1793, calls the Root River the "'Quicapoo," but the map published by Laurie and Whittle in 1794 uses the name ''Maceret."

The map compiled by Gen. C!ollott to accompany his travels in North America in 1774-76, engraved in 1805, calls the Root River the '"Yellow R." but incorrectly gives its source as a lake, a mistake which may be due to marshes having been covered in time of high water.

The Root River has borne its present name since about 1806-7, when it appears on a chart entitled ''A map of Lewis and Clark's track across the western portion of North America from the Mississippi to the Pacific oceaiL By order of the executive of the United States in 1804, 1805 and 1806. Copied from the original drawing of William Clark by Samuel Lewis/' Since that time the Root River has been a feature of every map of Minnesota.

Thus it will be seen that from the first appearance of the stream on a map in 1703 down to the time it assumed its present name in 1805-06, the Root River bore the following names: Kicapous, Quicapon, Quikapous, Quicabou, Quicapoux, Maracet, Quicapous, Yallow, Quicapoo, Maceret, Yellow and Cameilie. The Indians found here by the whites called the stream Hokah, which also means ''root."