Pipestone County, Minnesota - Chapter 30: Descriptive, 1911

PIPESTONE county is situated in to show where tlie summit of tlie Coteau southwestern Minnesota, adjoining may be looked for, or where a spur thereof South Dakota and separated from puts off. The width of the Coteau is from Iowa by only one county. It boundaries seventy-five to one hundred miles; the are Lincoln county on the nortii, Murray eastern slope from the summit is the shortcounty on the east, Rock county on the er, the western the longer and more gracesouth, and Moody county. South Dakota, nil tlie \ve<t. The (duiity is rectangular in fiirm, its dimensions being nineteen and one-(|uaiter miles east and wtst by twentyfour miles north and south. It contains twelve congressional townships in addition to a striji of territory one and one-quarter miles wiile by twenty-four miles long. The aiea is 463.27 square miles, or 296,493.51 acres, of which only (511.76 acres - less than one square mile - is water area.

Pipestone county lies on the western slope of the Coteau des Prairies, that great stretch of elevated prairie country which was the marvel of the explorers. A brief description of the Coteau may not be out of )}lace here. Its length is about "300 miles, extending from the valley of the Red River of the North southeasterly tn Spirit Lake, in Dickinson county, Iowa. Its sLimiiiit is indii-ate<l l>y the beadwateis of streams which flow easterly or westerly therefrom. The higher elevations are often marked by what might be called camelback liills. These elevations are not continuous, hut lift themselves occasionallv ful and is composed of a finer, richer and more easily tilled soil. The eastern slope seems to have been more washed by its streams, and on its slope are many lakes; its soil is gravel or black mud. The western slope is free from lakes, is dry, rich upland prairie, with a fine soil of several feet in depth, underlaid with a boulder gravel, which seems to drain the surface. The streams are not deep down; they run over gravelly beds and are rapid. The general slope of the western side is about ten or twelve feet to the mile, and the slope throughout is uniform.

The Coteau des Prairies ranks among the wonders of the agricultural world. It is of the same geologic formation as the Downs in the soutli of England, the rich plains of Hungary, and the range of hills which reach down through the center of India, famous in all times for wealtli of <iii\]. lieauty of contour and salubrious cliiiuite. The elevation of the Coteau is from 1500 to 2200 feet above sea level. It belongs to the cretaceous and semi-silicious formation, the marly soil of -"vlu'ch

The western slope of the Coteaii, about filtj miles in width, comprises 0;;:eola a:id Lyon counties, in Iowa, the we.-toni part of Nobles, all of Pipestone and Rock and the western part of I^incoln counties, in Minnesota, and the eastern part of Moody, Brookings and Coddington and all of Deuel counties, in Soutli Dakota.

The contour of the surface of Pipestone county is caused by the disposition of the drift, but in some parts it is dependent upon the underlying rock strata. The county is diversified in its eastern townships by long and broad swells, running about north and south. The central part is a level prairie. The broad valley of Flandreau creek, with an elevation of about 1600 feet, diagonally crosses the northwest corner. The elevated crest of the Coteau des Prairies cuts off diagonally the northeastern corner. There, principally in Aetna township, occurs the greatest Tineveness of surface, as well as the greatest elevation, there being points on the ridge over 1900 feet above sea level.' The range of high land extending north-

'Of the formation in northeastern Pipestone county, Hon. Warren ITpham has written (Minnesota Geological Survey, 1884): "The outer terminal moraine, formed at the border of the ice sheet of the last glaciai epoch, when it reached its maximum extent, lies in the northeastern part of Pipestone county, which it enters from the southeast, in sections 12 and 13, Rock township, thence running northwest and passing Into Lincoln county at the north side of sections 1 and 2. Fountain Prairie. The moraine here varies from one to two miles in width and forms the crest of the broad area of highland called the Coteau des Prairies. In northeastern Rock township and from section 35 to section 28, Aetna, it consists of very roughly and prominently hilly till, diversified by many knolls and short ridges, of no well-marked uniformity In trend, much in contrast with the smooth surface of till, in long, gentle .siopes and swells, lying 100 to 150 feet below this moraine on each side. The till or boulder clay constituting the moraine seems to differ from the same deposit in the smooth tracts only in containing a very much larger proportion of boulders and pebbles, which on the morainlc hill and ridges are commonly at least twenty times and often evidently more than a hundred times as plentiful as they average upon the ordinary moderately undulating areas of till. Many of the knolls and hillocks of this moraine in Aetna are very stony with rock fragments of all sizes up to five or six feet in diameter, most. however, not exceeding half this size. The water courses on the flanks of this massive.

west from the mounds of Rock countv enters the southwestern part of Pipestone county and attains an elevation of over 1700 feet, the same rock causing it throughout. With exceptions noted, Pipestone county is emphatically and characteristically a prairie county, with no natural timber and few houldei-s."

The most wonderful of the works of nature in Pipestone county are the rock formations. Just north of the city of Pipestone and adjacent to the famous Pipestone quarries is a ledge of rock which runs nearly north and south for a distance of three miles. The ledge consists of layers of red quartzite that have a very low dip toward the east, so that the rock soon disappears under the prairie in that direction, Init presents a nearly perpendicknolly ridge are deep, steep-sided ravines; and sloughs and lakelets are rare. From the southern part of section 20. .^etna, the next three miles of this moraine northwesterly are less kuolly than usual, but farther to the northwest it is as irregularly broken as in southern .\etna and northwestern Rock townships."

=The Minnesota Geological Survey has mapped Pipestone county as follows: One-halt of Aetna and the northeastern corners of Rock and Fountain Prairie, hilly till: the rest of .\etna. Rock and Fountain Prairie, all of .\ltona. Burke and Osborne, one-half of Trov. nearly all of Grange. Gray and Elmer, smooth and undulating; all of Eden and Sweet, the southern part of Troy, and small parts of Grange, Gray and Elmer, Potsdam quartzite formation.

=The elevations of the several stations and other points along three of the lines of railway that traverse the county, as determined by the railway surveyors, are as follows;

Milwaukee - Chanarambie creek (water level, at last crossing west). 1521; Edgerton, 1550; Rock river, 1552; Hatfield, 1662; highest point on the road (three and one-half miles east of Pipestone). 1744; Pioestone. 1693, Pipestone creek (water level). 1577; Airlie. 1629.

ular escarpment toward tlie west, foniied b}' the broken-off, lieavy lawyers of the rock. T|ie greatest heiglit of the ledge is about twenty-five feet. The rock also gradually disappears under the prairie both toward the noith and the soutli, the lower ground on the west of the escarpment slowly rising in those directions like the sides of a basin and coalescing witli tliat on the east of tiie ledge. Here, before its channel was diverted by direction of tl-e government, Pipestone creek passed ovei the ledge to the lower level in a perpendicular fall of al)Oul eighteen feet, forming Winnewissa fails. In the \it'init\' aie a few dwai'fed bur oaks and shrubs, tiie only natural timber existing in tlie county. This point is not the top of the t'oteau dcs Prairies, as many writers have asserted, among others, George C'atlin, the first wliite nian (n visit the site. The crest of the C'oieau is several miles northeast, passing tlirough Rock. Aetna and Fountain Prairie townships.

The rock of tlie ledge is e.xceedingly Jiai'd. It lies in layers of one, two and three feet thick and is separated by jointage pla le-: into huge lilocks of rectangular shape that lie often somewhat displaced or even tiirown hm'V entirely by the action "of tin? frost. Tie rock in places is pinkish in color; in otl)ers it is blood-red. The pink rock is generallv massive; when red it is more apt to be tiiin bedded.

Southwanl fiom the region of the quarrv the land cmitinues higli, and in some instanres there are ridges or long knolls "f driil (h:i1 aic bi'oid and evenly I'oundcd over b\ a l!iin Inam. In a few places in e''£tern F.deii townsliip there are outcrops of the rock in small areas, and westward along the Split Rock and its eastern tributaries a])])ear the same rocky outcrops, liiit iinwhere do they present the

-There is a Uttle natural timber on the northeast quarter of section 24. Osborne township. On the northeast quarter of section 27, Osborne township, on the left bank of Chanarperpendieular bluffs as at the Pipestone quarry. Outcrops of a continuation of the ledge appear frequently in northern Rock county and the ledge terminates in the wall of solid rock a little north of Luverne.

Close to the ledge near Pipestone is quarried the soft, red pipestone of history - the stone which has made the spot famous throughout the North American continent. Centuries ago, before white men knew of a westcra world, the stone was dug by the natives for their pipes. Today the stone is manufactured by red and white men into trinkets of all kinds.

Until recently the Indian red pipest(me has never been used in the mechanic arts for any useful purpose. Now it is used in the manufacture of spark plugs for automobiles and is said to be the best material yet found for that purpose.

At the base of tliis wall, and running parallel to it, there is a level prairie of half a mile in width, in any and all parts of which the Indians procure the red stone for their pipes by digging through the soil and several slaty layers of the red stone to the depth of four or five feet. From the very numerous marks of ancient and modern digging, or excavations, it would appear that this place has been for many centuries resorted to for the red stone.

The red pipestone will, I suppose, take its place amongst interesting minerals; and the Coteau will become hereafter an important theme for geologists, not merely from the fact that it is the only known locality of that mineral, but from other phenomena relating to it. The single fact of such a table of quartz resting in perfect horizontal strata on this elevated plateau is of itself, as I conceive, a very interesting subject for investigation, and one which calls upon the scientific world for a correct theory in regard to the time when, and the manner in which, this formation was produced. That it is a secondary and s'edimenambie creek, at one time stood a Cottonwood tree, twenty inches in diameter, which was cut down by beaver.

tary deposit, seems evident, and tliat it lias withstood tlie force of tlie diluvial current, while the great valley of the Missouri from this very wall of rocks to the Rocky mountains has been excavated and its debris carried to the ocean, I confidently infer.

This red pipestone, not more interesting to the Indian than it is to the man of science, by its unique character, deserves a particular description. In the quarry of it which I had opened, the thickness of the bed is one foot and a half, the upper portion of which separates in thin slabs, whilst the, lower ones are more compact. As a mineralogical species it may be described as follows: Compact; structure, slaty; receiving a dull polish; having a red streak; color, blood-red, with dots of a fainter shade of the same color; fracture, rough; sectile; feel, somewhat greasy; hardness, not yielding to the nail, not scratched by selenite, but easily by calcareous spar; specific gravity, 2.90. The acids have no action upon it; before the blowpipe it is infusible per se, but with borax gives a green glass.

Professor N. H. Winchcll, of the Minnesota Geological Survey, had samples of tlie famous stone analyzed and described it from the standpoint of the geologist. He wrote in tlie publication of the Minnesota Geological Survey, 1884, as follows:

The real "pipestone quarry" is situated about a quarter of a mile west of this ledge and in the low land of the lower prairie. Earlier diggings seem to have been opened in the superficial outcroppings of the pipestone layer and to have followed along its strike north and south nearly a mile without penetrating very deeply into the rock. The layer which furnishes the pipestone is about eighteen inches thick and is embraced between heavy layers of the same rock as the ledge already described, and they all dip together toward the east, and of course run under the main escarpment. The present quarrying is a little east of the line of the old diggings, but follows along the strike of the formation the same as the other, the only difference being in having greater depth (the [liiiestone layer is about six feet under the ground here) and in the difficulties encountered in removing about five feet of very firm pinkish quartzite in heavy beds.

even to a pale yellowish red. The lighter colors fade into the darker, but sometimes (he ligh appears in the red as round spots, on a polished surface, but the red is not thus distributed through the lighter shades. It has, of course, suffered all the metamorphic influences that the quartzite itself has, but it has not lost its distinctive bedded structure, which may be seen when examined microscopically in polished thin sections. Indeed, it seems to have a laminated structure, and the different shades of color appear sometimes to be due to openings and fissures produced in the red clay becoming filled with sediment of a lighter color. The following analyses have been made of this substance. It is not truly a mineral but an indurated clay, and its chemical composition varies in consequence. Analysis No. 1 shows the results obtained by Dr. C. T. Jackson from the sample procured by George Catlin in 1837. Nos. 2 and 3 were obtained by the writer (N. H. Winchell) in 1877 and were analyzed by S. F. Peckham. No. 2 was of a red color; No. 3 of a pinkish color:

Although this substance has usually a red color like that which prevails in the formation to which it pertains, it should be added that this redness suffers all the variations that it does in the quartzite. It passes nearly to white, through pink; it is intensified to brown, and in small patches it is deepened to lilac or lavender brown, becoming reddish purple. It is only with a loose application of the term that it can be styled gray, a color which is derived from a mixture of black and white, and which is applicable to the schists and quartzites of the northern part of the state pertaining to a lower geological horizon.

spar often occurriiiij;' in crystals of an inch in diameter. Tlie tliree larger boulders are called the Three Maidens, from an I'adinn legend concerning them."' Each of the three largest stones is about twenty feet long and twelve feet high. Another piece is about twenty feet long and eight feet high. Two other pieces, nine and twelve feet long, respectively, are four or five feet high. There is also a seventh fragment, about five feet in length.

These large stones evidently at one time constituted one immense boulder and have been separated from a falling apart, under tlie influence of frost, of the granite along its natural seams or joints. Geologists assert that the original boulder must have constituted the largest ice-transported Idock in Minnesota, making a mass from fifty to sixtv feet in diameter. The pieces are all alike, and no ntlwv l)oul(lers of any kind are seen in the vicinity."

The red quai'tzite is an excellent l)iiil(ling stone and is quarried extensively -\\here it outcrops at Jasper and Pipestone. The quarries at Pipestone are located just north of the t'ity. All of the public buildings and most of the business blocks of the county seat city are built of the red stone secured there. In addition to supplying the home market, thousands of car loads have been shi].)pe(l to St. Paul, Minneapolis, Duluth, 8ioux (.'ity. Cedar Eapids, Kansas C'ity, Omaha and other cities of the west.

^George Catlin thus described tliese boulders and told of the veneration in which they were held by the Indians: "Thut these immense blocks, of precisely the same character, and differinj^ materially from all other specimens of boulders which I have seen in the great valleys of the Mississippi and Missouri, should have been hurled some hundreds of miles from their natis'e bed and lodged in so singular a group on this elevated ridge, is truly matter of surprise for the scientific world, as well as for the poor Indian, whose superstitious veneration for them is such that not a spear of grass is broken or bent by his feet within three of four i-ods of the group: where he stops and in humble supplication, l>y throwing plugs of tobacco tfi them, solicits their permission (as the guardian spirit of the place) to dig and carry away the red stone for his pipes. The surface of the boulders I found in every part entire and unscratched by anything and even the moss was

This stone may he descrihed as a metaiiKiipliir (piai'tzite rock of intense liardness, cdliiicil hy some chemical process of nature in \arious degrees of red, ranging from cherrv to lavender lU' viiilel - the ])revailing shades being those named - liy the aiil of ferric oxide, and disjiosed in strata from an inch to eighteen inches in thickness and of any surface area required in the erection of buildings, huge or small. Vertical seams run through the quarry and are of great advantage in getting out the blocks, which can be worked into fiagging or building stone.

Being the hardest of all building stone in use in this country, and of the color described, it is. of course, especially fitted for rustic styles of arehitecture, although Avhere needed the highest and most enduring ]ioIisb may lie given it. A\'hen the stone is laid uji in courses or in any tasteful way, it ]3rcsents a wall of unrivaled l!e:uity. It is practically proof against all (literiiiration froui any oi'dinary source and stands lire ei|ually well with any other stone.

IMie ipiarrying of building and jiaving stone is a more fully developed industry ;it Jasper than at Pipestone or any point in the red rock country and has been carried on since 1888. Several quarries are operated continuously at the village and in the vicinity and the output is considerable. Of the stone quarried at Jasper the Jasper .lournal of August, 1899, said: everywhere unbroken, which undoubtedly remains so at this time, except where I applied the hammer to obtain some small specimens, which I brought away with me."

fact alone that these Ijlocks differ in character from all other specimens which I have seen in my travels, amongst the thousands of boulders which are strewn over the great valleys ,of the Missouri and Mississipiji, from the Yellowstone almost to the gulf of Mexico. I'aises in my mind an unanswerable question as regards the location of their native bed and the means b.v which they have reached tlieir isolated position like five brothers, leaning against and supporting each other, without the existence of another lioulder of any description within fift.v miles of them." - George Catlin in "North .\merican Indians." [A large granite boulder is found on the southeast quarter of section 22. Osborne township.]

"The quarry lands contiguous to Jasper comprise more tluui a thousand acres, and from tliese quarries is produced stoue var3ing in color from light- gray to a dark red or blue, which is taken from the quarries in evenly stratified layers, varying iu thickness from three inches to, four feet, and often fifteen or more feet iu length.

"The quarries at Jasper have the reputation oC protlucing tlie hardest of known building stone iu this country and is a much desired material For buildings wliere solidity, elegance and parmanent color are sought. Strictly speaking, this stone is a jasper, being ninety-six per cent silieia and four per cent inm. It is harder than granite or liniestoiie, is not affected by acids, and is susceptible of the most beautiful and indesti'iictible polish. In point of hardness this stone is. superior to all others. A report of Professor Winchell, state geologist, gives.jasper as being harder than feldspar and only threetenths less than agate. It is capable of withstanding a pressui'e of 2500 pounds to the square inch. Another important item in its favor ns a building stone is that it is not easily affected by boat. Heat which will crumble granite and softer stone has not jicrceptible ed'ect upon it.

". . . The . Jasper (puirries- also jiosKCSs the advantage ol' lying close to the sui'lacc. After tlio removal of a very Miiall aiiKiunl nl' diit a ennliinuius wall nt sioue is e.\])osed to vic'W, which, al'tur the (|unrry"bas been well o|)oned, ]n-esents llie appi'aram'C (if a high wall of evenly liewu rocks piled layer upon layei'. and apparently awaiting only the action of the crowbar and derrick to be iiansfcM i ;'(1 into Ihe walls of 'cities. ... It is evenly si i at i lied and the strata lie almost level, and thus can he readily <l(i\cn inlc (liniciisii)n stone with mdy the use (if (I c di'ill anil wedge. The layers \ai-y in thicknes,- fidin a few inrl'e< Id four fed.

and some of the lower ones run very lU'arly fifty inches. The area of dimension stone taken from the heaviest strata is practically unlimited. Huge blocks, which measure sixteen feet in leugih, upwards of three feet in thickness, and probably four feet wide, solid throughout, and presenting without other dressing than the hammer a smooth surface, are quarried.

The products nf the ipuii'- rios have supplied nialerial for the construction of s(inu' of the finest business blocks, churches and residences of the towns and cities of tiie great middle west and northwest. No material has yet been found which serves the purpose of street paving so admirably as the paviug blocks from these quarries, and there is scarcely a paved city of the west that has not purchased vast quantities of the stone for paving purposes."

While much space ha.s been given to a description of the rock formations, -it is not to be Tiuderstood that Pipestone county is a rocky, sterile country. Such is not the case. In fact, the rock formations on the surface occujiy a very limited area, and only a small portion of the county is iiusuited to faini tillage because of the rock (11- friini any other cause. The soil is stony so as to interfere with plowing only in small areas in the rolling tract which forms the crest of the ('oteau in the northeastern pail (if the county. Even there the stony kudlls are interspeised with fertile valleys and slopes. "With these exceptions," says the ilinnesota Geological Survey, "these counties pRock and Pipestone] are among the best in the state for all fanning."

The soil is a liih hl-uk loam, from two to six feet deep, wvy line and gencially fi-ee fi-niii |n'lih]es. The .-(lil is aiming tlie viohe-t in the wdi'ld. almundiug in those mineral and chemical qualities, such as luagnesia, pliospliates, etc., ncee.ssarv for the prolific production of grain and grasses. The sul>s"il is a niixtui'e of gravi'i and clay and seems to have heen intended by nature to perform tlie double duty of both draining the surface and acting as a reservoir. In wet weather the gravel and clay quickly absorb the surplus surface water, which it retains until the heat of sununer draws the moisture back again to the surface. Thus nature has pi'ovided both a self-acting drain and reservoir that can never fail or get out of order.'

Pipestone county is well drained. There arc no large rivers, but there are numerous creeks, most of which are fed by springs, and as a consequence they are clear and pure. Almost the entire area of the county is drained by streams which flow to the southwest and iind their way to the Missouri by way of the Big Sioux." The exception is the extreme northeastern corner oC the county, which lies on tiie eastern slope (d' the ('oteau and which is drained by tlie liedwdud jivi'i'. in uliicli

~A wTitur in the Fipcstmie L'muity Stui- staUiI that this part of the continent was once the bed of an ocean, and he attributed the richness of the soil to decayed deep water animal matter. He wrote:

"What becomes of the flsh when they die? What becomes of the bones of the whales? Perhaps this is an unheard of question to ask, but still it may be asked. There are the shell flsh, the sharks, the porpoises, but to name the denizens of the ocean would require hundreds of pages to write their names, in all seas, in all ages; so we will leave to the imagination to call the roll of the inhabitants of the sea. and ask again: Wliat becomes of the fish when they die?

"On the seaboard in many lands the.v catch fish and manure the land with them, and it is a rich manure. If the fish had died on tile r)eean where they lay. where they were l>uried it would be just as rich. There are eiu'rents in the ocean, and no doubt wliere the waters mo\e most there the fish are most numerous; thei'e there must be most death, and they are. no doubt, swept on with the flowing sea "until the\' are carried to a burial ground, where the waters are at rest,, and where would that most likclv be? No doubt the bottom of the sea is uneven like the surface of the land. Here there is a great chain of hills and on one side or the other there is a deep depression, the hills retarding the flowing waters and the dead, floating therein, drop silentl.v into the deep depression imder tlie lea of the hills, and there the>' are buried; it's a great graveyard. liundre<ls of miles long, maybe, and miles aiid miles in W'idth. There lie the fishes, little and great, in one common burial groimd. The billows may roll above and the sea be l.ished into foam and

The princi]ial stream (if the cnunty is the west foik of Hock ii\ei-. wliieli rises in Pock township (so named I'rnm the circnmstance) and Hows soutli tlirough the eastern tiei' id' townships, leaving the county one and one-half miles south of the village of Edgerton. Its elevation above sea level at that point is 1500 feet. In Burke township the valley of Rock river is about fifty feet below the general level. Farther south the bluffs increase in height, reaching seventy-five and eighty feet in Osborne township, w bile tl e surrounding country is about twenty-five feet liigher still. Rock river receives several tributaries fmm the east, l)ut none of imjiortance from the west. The principal tributary that enters the Rock within I'ipestime county is Ohanarambie creek, wliicli enters one mile below Edgerton, .\notber tributary, Puplar creek, from the west side entei's the Rock a few inds snulh "f file sdidlK'asf iMiniei' of sectitui :!-.', Osliiirne lii\\n>lii|). The ( 'liana ramliie the water become muddy, but down in the burial ground all i.s quiet; the dead lie there in silence, and the muddy waters drop down their mantel of sediment and cover them over.

"Now, just such a state of things existed in the ocean on the west side of the Coteau des Prairies. The soil that now yields the fabulous crops of flax and wheat and roots and grass was once the burial groimd of the ocean, and under the long line of hills, stretching from whero is now Spirit Lal^e, Iowa, to way up beyond the water sheds of the Mississippi and Red River of the North on the east and the Missouri on the west, to BritLsh America, is the bed of the sea; this was ocean's burial ground for pei'haps thousands of years, at least long enough for the dead and their covering to he of many feet in depth. The peculiarity of the burial ground is that it has undergone but little change. The substances of the dead of the ocean are substantialb' still there, and it is to this is to l)e attril)uted the marbled character of the soil as one sees it when it is dug through. Dig a cistern down into the yellow clay with its gravel and lime and then look at it as it is to be seen on the sides of the cistern; you can almost make out the form of the bones f>f the fish as you look at the peculiar .shapes the lime has assumed.

"^The only portions of Minnesota whose waters find their w'ay to the sea b.v way of the Missouri are Rock county, nearly all of Pipestone county and portions of Nobles and Jackson counties.

All the other streams of tlie county flow iu a southwesterly direction and citer the Rig Sioux river. The average slope of the prairie from northeast to southwest is about ten feet to the mile : hence the streams whose beds are gravelly and not deep down flow freely but not I'apidly. The most northerly of the streams on the west side of Pipestone county is Flandreau creek, which has as a tributary Willow creek, and which rises in Fountai'i I'rairic lownshij). Pipestone creek, which is the next south, flows past the Pipestone quarries and receives a tributary from the north before it flows from the county. The Split Eock, one of the most picturesque streams of southwestern Minnesota, has its source in the southwestern part of the county and flows; through the village of Jasper.