Redwood County, Minnesota - Chapter 32: Material Resources, 1916

The excellence of this county for agriculture, and the areas of prairie and valleys of the watercourses, have been adequately treated in this work. Besides the fertility of the land, this region possesses an invigorating, healthful climate, and almost invariably good water in its wells and springs. The material resources which remain to be mentioned are water-powers, building stone, lime, clay products, gravel and mineral paint. Explorations made for coal, its mode of occurrence, and the improbability that it exists here in any valuable amount, have been spoken of in the chapter on physical features. No ores of any practical importance have been found. The principal resources of this part of the state are the products of its rich soil, and as yet, little developed water power. At one time a gold mine of considerable proportions was developed.

Springs. Springs of water, often impregnated with iron, occur along the ravines and valleys of many of the creeks and rivers in this region. At the southwest side of the Minnesota valley in the north part of section 30, Swedes Forest, near the west line of Redwood county, is a "boiling spring," also irony; from which a stream three or four feet wide, and six to twelve inches deep, flows away. This is at the northwest side of a rivulet, in a ravine some fifty feet below the general level. These springs issue from the drift, and show that large water-courses exist in sand and gravel feins or strata, enclosed in the till. Such subterranean streams are often struck in wells, with the water sometimes flowing constantly through them at the bottom; but more frequently, when the outlet of the spring is distant, the water soon rises to fill the well permanently, 10, 20 or 30 feet in depth.

Mineral Paint. A good and durable paint was manufactured in 1868 or 1869 from ferruginous portions of the kaolinized gneiss and granite mentioned in the vicinity of Redwood Palls. The material thus used was obtained from the northwest or left bank of the Redwood river in its gorge, about a mile north of Redwood Falls, in the N. y2 of the N. E. % of section 36, Delhi. Of this business Prof. N. H. Winchell wrote in his second annual report of the Geological and Natural History Survey of Minnesota, 1872-1882: "At Redwood Falls the kaolin which has resulted from the decomposition of the granitic rock, has become stained with iron, and has a brownish or greenish-brown color. It contains, generally, some silica. From this stained kaolin a good mineral paint has been manufactured. Messrs. Grant and Brusseau commenced the enterprise, and carried it far enough to demonstrate the quality of the product. The manufactured article is said to have been equal to that of Brandon, Vt., but the cost was so great that, after transportation to St. Paul, it could not be offered in the market so cheaply as the Brandon paint. Their process was very simple. The raw material was obtained from the banks of the Redwood river, and was of a rusty-brown color, having also a greenish tinge. It was broken or crushed to the fineness of corn or wheat. It was then dried in a large pan placed over a fire, and ground by water-power, between two burr-stones. In that condition it was ready for use by simply mixing with boiled or raw linseed oil . . . The color produced was reddish umber. By making some selections various lighter shades, of the same general character, were produced. It had a heavy sediment, consisting probably of iron and silica. The quality of the paint is said to have been superior to that from Ohio, and fully equal to that from Brandon, Vt. The surface of the wood painted becomes hardened and glazed, but remains smooth." A number of buildings in Redwood county were painted with this mineral paint. The paint material outcrops in various places in the valley of the Redwood and even near the mouth of that stream in the cliffs of the Minnesota river.

that the water-power at Redwood Falls was the magnet that brought Col. Sam. McPhail to this spot in 1864, nevertheless the water power of the county has been but little developed. A. C. Burmeister built the present dam at Redwood Falls in 1902, and power secured from this dam operates his extensive electric and heating plant, as well as his mill. The power obtained by damming the Redwood river at North Redwood, is used to operate a grist mill. This is the total extent to which the water power in Redwood county is now utilized.

The tremendous fall of water on the Redwood river at Redwood Falls has been used more or less in times past. In 1855 the government established a saw mill in what is now the Redwood Falls city park. The mill was located on the southeast bank of the river, just below where the falls are now spanned by the cement bridge. Power was obtained by carrying the natural fall of the water onto an overshot waterwheel from a flume for which a space was made by blasting in the granite. This mill, though abandoned during the massacre and for a few years thereafter, was reopened in 1865 by the early settlers, and used for many years. The first log sawed after the massacre, was furnished by Birney Flynn, and was used by him for tables for a grand Fourth of July picnic, held in a grove nearby.

From the late sixties and early seventies, through the grasshopper period and well into the railroad period, waterpower sites were being utilized for four mills, three being flour mills at Redwood Falls, and one being a sawmill (later converted into a flour mill and finally into a grist mill), at North Redwood.

The Redwood Mill, operated by Worden & Ruter, is now rebuilt and remodelled as the Burmeister mill. It stands on the southeast bank of the river, a short distance northeast of the bridge. Its original dam, with a head of eighteen feet, now washed out, was built a short distance above the mill, a part of the sluice through the mill being cut from the solid rock. This mill, the first flour mill in Redwood Falls, and the county, was erected about 1868. It was in this mill that A. C. Burmeister established the dynamo which furnished Redwood Falls with its first electric current, first using the dam (now washed out) above the mill, and later the present dam above the bridge. Still later the flume was extended to the present power plant which is located on the river bank, nearly opposite the foot of "Washington street.

The Delhi Mill, operated by A. A. Cook & Co., later by Baker & McMillan, and later by 0. W. McMillan, was situated on the west bank of the Redwood river, just across from the foot of Third street, in Redwood Falls. The dam, which had a head of some twenty feet, and was located a few rods above the mill, opposite the foot of Fifth street, is now submerged by the back-

E. Cuff, about 1870, erected a flour mill some forty rods north of the present Burmeister mill, on the high south bank of the Redwood river, a few hundred feet southeast from the present residence of Orlando B. Turrell. Below the Little Falls, he built a small dam, sufficient to divert water into his flume. This flume followed the natural descent of the rapids, and the water therein thus gained in force until reaching the waterwheel, situated in the bend just before the river takes its sudden course to the north through the Ramsey state park. Prom this waterwheel, a pulley conveyed the power to the mill, situated high above on the south bank of the river. After being operated for a number of years as a flour and grist mill, this mill was dismantled. In 1868-69 the Birum Brothers erected a saw mill on the present site of the Birum mills, at North Redwood, a few rods above where the river is crossed by the railroad. This was replaced by a flour mill in 1879. Of late years it has been used as a grist mill. The dam was washed away several times. The last time in the spring of 1916.

The foot of Birum 's dam is thirty or forty feet above the Minnesota river, being some seventy-five feet below the general level of the prairie and town. The beauty of this deep, rockwalled gorge, about one and a half miles long, with its cascades and rapids and meandering river, can scarcely be over-stated. Its geological formations are equally interesting, by reason of their variety and uncommon character.

Clay Products. In 1871 an attempt was made to manufacture bricks in the town of Sherman, on the bottoms not far from the old agency. It was operated for only a few months. In the late seventies brick was made on the west bank of the Redwood river at Redwood Falls, not far above the present dam. In the early nineties, brick was made quite extensively on the bank of the Redwood river, nearly opposite the present Redwood Falls cemetery.

Quarrying. The gneiss and granite of the Minnesota valley at the north side of Redwood county, and of the Redwood river gorge have been but little used for quarrying purposes. In the early days stones for foundations were quarried in the gorge of the Redwood river, just below the Redwood falls. Building and foundation stones have been quarried on the Charles Fleischer farm, a half mile east of the railroad station at North Redwood. This stone, being softer than some of the other deposits in the neighborhood, is somewhat more easily worked. A harder stone has been quarried on the farm of Thomas Hoskins, at North Redwood, the quarry lying half way between the Camp Pope marker and the bridge across the Minnesota river. Quite a large quantity of this stone has been used for paving in Minneapolis. Some is used for paving at Redwood Falls. Stone from this quarry is now polished and sold extensively for monumental and ornamental purposes. The Hoskin farm was formerly the farm of J. S. G. Honner, and his magnificent monument in the Redwood Falls cemetery is from this quarry. The boulders scattered throughout the county have been used for foundations and fence walls to some extent. Some "soap stone" has been secured near Redwood Falls.

Gold Mine. In the early nineties a gold mining proposition of considerable proportions was inaugurated in Swedes Forest, a mile or so northwest of the Vicksburg bridge. Options were secured on thousands of acres of land, stock was sold to the neighboring farmers, as well as in the cities, an extensive plant was erected, and considerable quartz milled and crushed. Gold was found, but not in paying quantities. For many years after the venture was abandoned, the machinery stood neglected on the spot, being partially dismantled from time to time whenever anyone who chanced to be in the vicinity needed any pieces of machinery. Finally the machinery that remained was taken down and removed, and only the remains of the plant, the crushed quartz and the hole in the rock now exist to mark the spot of this venture, which once inspired such high hopes.

Gravel. There are pockets of gravel in various parts of the county. One of the largest gravel pits is situated half way between Redwood Falls and North Redwood on the west side of the road. The gravel of the county is used in making roads, and has also been used in various places in the county for making cement tile and cement blocks.

(2) the wells which extend into the Cretaceous strata underlying the drift; (3) the wells which extend into the archean rocks, that is into the basal rocks of gneiss and granite.

Surface Wells. The surface deposits of Redwood county consist of glacial drift and revent alluvium. The drift occurs everywhere except in small areas in the Minnesota valley, in the valley of the Redwood river below the falls, and in Granite Rock township, where older rock formations are exposed. Over most of the eastern, central and southwestern parts of the county, it is between 100 and 200 feet thick, and in places it reaches a still greater thickness. In the northwestern part it is generally thinner, being less than fifty feet thick throughout a large portion of the following townships: Vail (township 111, range 37), Granite Rock (111-38), Westline (111-39), Sheridan (112-37), Vesta (112-38), and Underwood (112-39). Where the drift has considerable thickness it generally includes deposits of sand and gravel that will produce water supplies adequate for all ordinary purposes, but where it is less than 100 feet it may not contain a reliable water-bearing bed. In the northwestern part of the county, especially in the townships just mentioned, the drift is not an entirely satisfactory source of supply, although on a large portion of these townships it is the only available source. The water from the glacial drift is generally under considerable pressure, but it is not known to rise above the surface. The flowing wells in the southwest are supposed to be supplied from the Cretaceous rocks, but no record could be obtained of most of them, and it is possible that some end in the drift. Many springs issue from the sides of the Minnesota valley, and these have lowered the head of the water beneath the adjacent uplands. The analyses of the water from the surface wells reveal a wide range in the mineral composition of the water.

Cretaceous Wells. Throughout most of this county, Cretaceous strata lie beneath the drift. In the southwest they have a thickness of several hundred feet, but they thin out toward the east and north. They occur everywhere in the southern tier of townships and almost everywhere in the tier next north. They are also found adjacent to Lyon county nearly or quite to the north boundary but are absent in the vicinity of Vesta and Seaforth and in much of the northwestern part of the county. Small and irregularly distributed areas containing thin deposits of this age are concealed below the drift in the northeastern part, but the accurate mapping of these patches can not be accomplished until many more well sections are available than at present.

The following specific data bear on the occurrence of the Cretaceous in this county: (1) At Tracy, one mile west of the county line, a series of Cretaceous shales and sandstones about 450 feet thick, has been penetrated. (2) At Walnut Grove there is a considerable thickness of the same series, but no definite section is available. (3) Near Pell Creek, along the road from Revere to Lamberton, Cretaceous clay and sandstone come to the surface, and in the S. E. *4, sec. 11, T. 109 N., R. 38 W., shale was struck at a depth of 110 feet. (4) At Lamberton an 80- foot stratum of shale was reached at a little more than 200 feet below the surface. (5) In Sanborn a sandstone and shale series was entered at a depth of 217 feet and was penetrated for fiftythree feet. (6) A few miles east of Sanborn, along Cottonwood river, Cretaceous outcrops are found. (It seems probable that the deposits of Cretaceous clay, sandstone, etc., exposed in the outcrops lie above the thicker shale beds encountered in drilling and are not generally differentiated from the drift in well sections.) (7) Near Cottonwood river, south of Milroy, a number of deep wells have been sunk and shale and sandstone about 400 feet in thickness have been penetrated by the drill. (8) In the village of Milroy shale is encountered at a depth of only thirty-five feet, and it seems to have been penetrated for about 230 feet. (9) In the southwestern corner of Underwood township (T. 112 N., R. 39 W.), a 75-foot stratum of blue shale, underlain by white sand, was reached forty-five feet below the surface. (10) One mile west of Lucan, on the farm; of Patrick Curtin, N. E. %, sec. 20, T. Ill N., R. 38 W., shale was found at a depth of seventy feet. (11) At Clements the same material was struck at 115 feet, and was penetrated only a short distance. (12) In the valley of Redwood river below the falls and in the Minnesota valley between Redwood Falls and Morton, outcrops of thin Cretaceous strata are found. (13) In the northern part of the county shale has been encountered in drilling. There are two phases of the Cretaceous in this region. One phase, which consists of rapidly alternating and imperfectly assorted strata of clay, sand, sandstone, etc. indicates by the rude stratification the cross-bedding of the sandstone, the red oxidized character of much of the clay, the lignite beds, the fossil leaves, and other features that the conditions of deposition were nonmarine or littoral. The other phase consists for the most part of a thoroughly assorted series of soft shale and sandstone, the shale greatly predominating and having a characteristic gray-blue color. It attains a maximum thickness in this state of at least 500 feet, and was evidently laid down in a large and quiet body of water, where thorough assortment and stratification were possible. It is to be correlated with the Cretaceous in South Dakota and other western states. These two phases are described in the reports on Brown and Lyon counties where they are respectively best developed. Their exact relation to each other has not been determined. The series in the western and southern parts of Redwood county belongs to the Lyon county phase, and the rocks in the northeastern part belong with those in Brown county. Where the Cretaceous is several hundred feet thick it will yield moderately large quantities of water, as is illustrated by the 6-inch city well at Tracy, which is pumped at the rate of fifty gallons a minute, and by the 6-inch village well at Walnut Grove, which is pumped at the rate of thirty-five gallons a minute. In general it may be said that in the vicinity of Milroy and thence southward and southeastward to Walnut Grove and Revere the Cretaceous can be depended on for adequate supplies, but that northeast of Lamberton and Lucan it is generally absent or devoid of any good waterbearing stratum, though in a few localities it will furnish some water. The Cretaceous area of flowing wells projects from Lyon county into the southwestern part of this county. The southwestern margin of the area enters the county about four miles north of the southern boundary and thence passes to Walnut Grove and approximately to the Cottonwood county line. It enters the county between the 1,200-foot and 1,300-foot contours and gradually descends until it nearly coincides with the latter. The northeastern margin enters the county about three miles north of Cottonwood river and for some distance runs roughly parallel to that stream, but eventually crosses it and passes southward to Revere, where there are several flowing wells. The northeastern margin is determined to a great degree by the thinning out of the Cretaceous and the consequent failure of the deep artesian beds. However, throughout the flowing area the head is not great and the natural flow never exceeds a few gallons a minute. Moreover, immediately outside of this area there are wells in which the water rises nearly to the surface. Thus in the Cretaceous wells at Walnut Grove it fails only by a few feet to reach the top, and in the similar wells at Milroy it comes within fifteen to twenty feet of the top.

The Sioux quartzite, which attains a relatively great thickness farther south, projects into the southern part of Redwood county, in the form of a wedge between the Cretaceous and the granite. At Lamberton it is reported to have a thickness of several hundred feet. It is probably of no economic value in this county as a source of water.

Archean Wells. The Archean consists of granite and gneiss, which constitute the basal rocks. Throughout the northern and eastern parts of the county it is everywhere relatively near the surface. In the vicinity of Seaforth three outcrops are known, and there are several others in Yellow Medicine county, within a mile or two of the boundary line; it is frequently encountered in drilling in this region. Moreover, in the Minnesota valley, and in the Redwood valley, both above and below the falls it is exposed. In the southern part of the county, however, the granitic surface descends and within a short distance is many hundreds of feet below the surface. Thus at Tracy, Lyon county, it occurs at a depth of a little more than 600 feet, or not quite 800 feet above sea level, and at Lamberton it was reported about 600 feet below the surface, or only 550 feet above the sea.

Farther south it lies at so great a depth that it is very seldom reached by the drill. At Blue Earth, Faribault county, and at Sioux City, Iowa, it was struck at a level of 135 feet below the sea, and at Lemars, Iowa, at 215 feet above the sea.

The upper part is generally much altered and passes gradually into the unchanged granite. This decomposed mantle is best exposed in the gorge of Redwood river below the falls, where it has been described by Prof. N. H. Winchell, but the same kind of material is encountered in many of the wells of the region. Drillers do not always differentiate clearly between the Cretaceous beds and the rotted granite, though it is of great practical importance that the distinction be made. Brilliant colors

(red, yellow, green, white, etc.), flakes of mica or steatite which give the drillings a silvery appearance not possessed hy the Cretaceous shale ("soapstone"), transparent and angular grains of quartz, which give a gritty character never found in the shale, and hard quartzose ("glassy") layers alternating with soft material, all indicate that the granite residuum has heen reached.

Material from an outcrop near Morton, in Renville county, is described as follows by N. H. Winchell: "A substance was met here for the first time which was afterward seen at a number of places. Its origin seems to be dependent upon the granite. Its association is so close that it seems to be the result of a change in the granite itself. It lies first under the drift, or under the Cretaceous rocks, where they overlie the granite, and passes by slow changes into the granite. It has some of the characters of steatite and some of those of kaolin. In some places it seems to be a true kaolin. It is known by the people as "Castile soap." It cuts like soap, has a blue color when fresh or kept wet, but a faded and yellowish ash color when weathered, and when long and perfectly weathered is white and glistening. The boys cut it into the shapes of pipes and various toys. It appears like the pipestone, though less heavy and less hard, and has a very different color. It is said to harden by heating. This substance, which may, at least provisionally, be denominated a kaolin, seems to be the result of the action of water on the underlying granite. Since it prevails in the Cretaceous areas, and is always present, so far as known, whenever the Cretaceous deposits have preserved it from disruption by the glacier period, it may be attributed to the action of the Cretaceous ocean. In some places it is gritty, and in others it may be completely pulverized in the fingers. A great abundance of this material exists in the banks of the Birch Coolie, within a short distance of its mouth."

Since the above statements were made, this clay, which is commonly whiter and less ferruginous than the sample described, has been found in scores of deep wells, and thus much additional evidence has been obtained as to its distribution and character. All this new evidence, however, corroborates WincheH's statements that it overlies the granite, into which it passes by slow changes, and that it prevails in the Cretaceous areas and is generally present wherever the Cretaceous deposits have preserved it. A conception of its wide distribution can be gained by referring to the reports of the counties in which the Archean lies beneath the Cretaceous. In this county it is exposed in the valleys of Minnesota and Redwood rivers and has frequently been reached in drilling, especially in the vicinity of Vesta and Seaforth, where it is near the surface.

which has a matrix of white clay very similar to the white clay under discussion, except that it is less compact. In this matrix are imbedded the angular, transparent grains of quartz which existed in the mother rock. It is the thoroughly weathered and leached granitic residuum left in its original position. On the south side of the wagon road from Redwood Falls to Morton, where the descent is made from the upland into the valley, there is a typical exposure of the white clay. It is here evidently of sedimentary origin, as it is free from quartz grains and lies above a stratified layer of grit. The outcrop appears nearly white. Two samples, one from each of the above described exposures, were analyzed for the United States Geological Survey, by Prof. F. F. Grout, of the University of Minnesota.

The analyses show that the composition of the white clay is similar to that of the granitic residuum, and that both are similar to kaolin. It will be seen, however, that the white clay and, to a less extent, the residuum are a little higher in alumina and a little lower in silica than kaolin, as a result, according to Professor Grout, of the presence of small amounts of beauxite. The white color is due to the fact that the iron has nearly all been leached out.

Well sections and outcrops show that in some places the white clay contains imbedded grains of quartz and is clearly residual, as in the exposure in the Redwood gorge ; that in others it is entirely free from grit but includes interbedded strata of sand, as in the Tracy well, the exposure near Morton, etc., and that in still others quartz grains are present in the lower part and absent in the upper, as in many wells in Renville county. In brief, the white clay consists in part of granitic residuum, and in part of sedimentary deposits derived therefrom. Essentially this conclusion has been reached by Warren Upham and others.

It is important that drillers should distinguish this clay both from the ordinary Cretaceous shale and from the ordinary decomposed granite, because its significance as to water supplies is somewhat different from that of either. It does not usually yield water, but the interbedded layers of grit, where they occur, may furnish adequate supplies. A number of good wells draw from this source, but there are also many instances on record where drilling into the clay has resulted in failure. The white clay is always a warning that the drill is approaching granite.

Public Water Supplies. There are public water supplies in Redwood Falls, Vesta, Morgan, Wabasso, Wanda, Lamberton, Walnut Grove, Sanborn, Luean and Milroy. There are none in Belview, Delhi, Revere, Clements, Seaforth Rowena and North Redwood.

portion of the county, where the Cretaceous is a sure source of supply. They have an advantage over the shallower-bored wells in that they can be sunk to beds which in most of this area will yield flows of soft water. Flowing wells, those that end in sandstone and those that are four inches or more in diameter, are generally finished with open ends, but others must be provided with screens to keep out the sand. Where the water is truly soft the screens will give no trouble, but where it is hard they become incrusted in a few years by the precipitation of calcium carbonate and other mineral matter.

In the area northeast of a line drawn through Lamberton and Lucan (including by far the greater part of Redwood county) bored and dug wells greatly predominate. As the depth to the impervious formations in this area averages probably not more than 200 feet and is locally much less, it is necessary to procure water relatively near the surface; and as larger supplies can be developed from weak zones by means of bored or dug wells than by means of the ordinary drilled wells there is reason for preferring the former type.