Wright County, Minnesota - Chapter 1: Natural Phenomena, 1915

Chapter 1: Natural Phenomena

Advantages - Location - Surface Features - Drainage - Lakes - Ice Formed Ridges - Topography - Soil and Timber - Geological Structure - Glacial and Modified Drift - The Moraine - Fossiliferous Beds - Boulders of the Drift - Lignite Deposits - Explorations for Coal - Typical Till Exposure - Waterpowers - Underground Waters - Yield of Water - Head of Water - Quality of the Water - Cretaceous Rocks - Paleozoic and Older Formations - Water Supply in the Villages - Farm Water Supplies - Summary and Analysis.

Ou its splendid course from Itasca to the Gulf, the mighty Mississippi passes no fairer land than that which it touches in the central part of Minnesota, where, well tilled and populous, Wright county stretches away in sightly prospects.

A fertile country of rich black soil, its surface divided into hills and rolling land and prairie, beautified by meandering streams and sparkling lakes, and interspersed with natural and domestic groves, the county has advantages of location and surface which have made it one of the best agricultural and dairy coimties in the state.

The elevation of this stretch of land above the sea, its fine drainage and the dryness of the atmosphere give it a climate of unusual salubrity and pleasantness. Its latitude gives it correspondingly longer days in summer and during the growing seasons about one and a half hours more of sunshine than in the latitude of St. Louis. The refreshing breezes and cool nights in summer prevent the debilitating effect of the heat so often felt in lower latitudes. The winter climate is also one of the attractive features. Its uniformity and its dryness, together with the bright sunshine and the electrical condition of the air, all tend to enhance the personal comfort of the resident, and to make outdoor life and labor a pleasure.

Embracing, as the county does, so pleasing a prospect to the eye, and so fruitful a field for successful endeavor, it is natural that the people who from the earliest days have been attracted here should be the possessors of steady virtues, ready to toil and to saci'ifiee, that their labors might be crowned with the fruits of prosperity and happiness.

While there are no large cities, there are many thriving smaller places along the three lines of railroad. These places have had their share in the general commercial npbnilding of the community, furnishing excellent trading and shipping facilities for the rural districts as well as for their own people.

The agricultural neighborhoods are the scenes of peace, prosperity and contentment. The homes are substantially built, and furnished with the comforts and conveniences of modern life ; stock is humanely housed and well pastured; the farm laud is extensively tilled and productive ; and the churches and schools which are seen on every side testify to an interest in the higher things of life by a law-abiding, progressive and prosperous people.

It is indeed in its men and women, rather than in its creameries and commerce, its grains and vegetables, its live stock and fruits, that Wright county takes her greatest pride. From her hamlets, from her villages and from her farms have gone forth those who have taken an important jjart in the activities of the world, and who, whether in commerce or tliplomacy, in the professions or in the trades, have maintained that steadfastness of purpose, and staunchness of cliaracter, that mark true Wriglit county men and women wlierever they may be found.

Unusually blessed by nature with deep soil and abundant natural resources, and endowed with a wealth of historic and prehistoric lore, the county is a fitting home for the sturdy people who have here matle their dwelling place. Hard-working, pi'ogressive, educated and prosperous, they have appreciated the gifts which nature has spread for them, and have added their own toil, and the fruit of their intellect, to the work of the elements, making the county one of the beautiful spots of the earth. On the slopes graze cattle and sheep, while the tilled lands respond to the efforts of the spring time sower and planter with a wealth of harvest in the summer and autunni. On nearly every quarter section is reared a comfortable home and commodious barns, while from the crest of every swell of land are visible the churches and schools wherein the people worship the Giver of All Gifts and educate their children. Thus blessed by God and beloved by man, the county today stands for all that is ideal in American life, and is forging ahead to wider influence and more extended opportunity.

Wright county, surpassed by few lands in the state for the fertility of its soil ; its bountiful supply of timber and pure water ; its numerous water powers; its surface of hills and rolling prairies ; and its adaptation to every variety of agricultural product, has furnished to the citizens material wisely improved by them for substantial wealth, good homes and sound public institutions, economically and prudently administered ; where law and good order, industry and sobriety have always been upheld and observed; where tlie comforts and provisions for the cnjoyiiieut of life are evenly ilistributed, and where, in the future, as in the past, "peace aiul happiness, truth and justice, religion and i)iety, will be establishetl throughout all generations."

Wright county is situated in the east central portion of the state, on the right bank of the Mississippi river, by which it is separated from Sherburne antl Anoka eounti(>s on the north. Its eastern boundary is IIennej)in county, most of which line is marked by Crow river. Carver and MeLeod counties south, and Meeker and Stearns west, the latter partly marked by (Uearwater river, complete its boundary. With more than half its outline marked by streams, its shape is irregular. The length of Wright county from east to west is thirty-six miles, and its greatest width is thirty and a half miles. Its southern and western boundaries are straight lines, the former twenty-four miles and the latter twenty-two miles. The county includes fourteen whole Congressional townships and parts of eleven others, together constituting twenty organized townships, twelve of which are each six miles square. Its area is 713.97 square miles or 456,939.32 acres, of which 32,585.50 is covered with water.

The surface of the county is gently undulating, with occasional portions somewhat hilly. A few beautiful prairies are found mostly in the northern part; the remainder being originally timber and meadow land.

It is dotted with numerous lakes, whose clear, lucid waters enrich the scenery and furnish unlimited enjoyment to sportsmen and pleasure-seekers. No town in the county is destitute of lakes, while myriad streams, which, as well as the lakes, are fed by springs, afford ample attraction to stock growei's and farmers, while serving the further purpose of drainage, thereby rendering its area free from the malarious intluenees existing in less favored localities. The soil is very fertile, and produces in abundance all the varied list of cereals and vegetables grown in the Northwest. Year by year the timbered area has lessened and fertile fields supplanted the primeval forests, as have pleasant rural homes the wigwam of the native, or the still more recent claim shanty of the early pioneer.

The soil on the prairies is mostly a dark red loam, with a gravelly or sandy subsoil. In the regions originally covered with timber, the soil is mostly alluvial with a strong clay subsoil. The natural meadows or grass lands almost always rejected by the first settlers, came in time to be consitlered among the most valuable on account of the production of large quantities of hay of a superior quality, and fertility in prodiicing the tame grasses such as timothy and red top.

and need not be treated at length in this work. The state of Minnesota has issued many books and pamphlets on the subject which will well repay the thoughtful reader for a careful perusal.

Birds. Wright county with its lakes and trees - its tempting fields and barn yards, has its full share of birds each season. The permanent residents and winter visitors find more food here than further south where the tree trunks are often covered with ice, while during the spring and summer seasons practically all the birds found in Minnesota can be found in these parts.

As early as March before the snow has begun to melt many of the summer birds are seen. The meadow lark and the prairie horned lark, the blue-bird, robin, red-winged blackbird, phoebe and flicker come while we are still wearing our winter furs. These are followed in April by the yellow headed blackbird, tlie martin, grackle, cowbird, mourning dove, catbird and the vesper and song sparrow.

Among the May birds are the rose-breasted grosbeak, the Baltimore and orchard orioles, yellow warbler, red-start, northern yellow throat humming bird, swallows, thrush, house wren, bobolink, king bird and pewee. Sometimes we have had snow storms in May and the birds have been fed with suet, bread crumbs and grain by the farmers and town people. In May the yellow bellied sapsueker taps the maple trees, riddling the trunks with holes not more than an inch apart, and it is often necessary to destroy the bird in order to save the tree. About the lakes are often found the great blue heron and the little green heron, the killdeer and sandpiper, while coots and loons are very plentiful.

Some winter visitants are the tree sparrows, often seen in flocks with the junco in town and country, and the snow bird who lives on small seed and comes in barn yards when the fields are covered with snow. The most striking winter bird is the evening grosbeak, which is only seen occasionally and in small numbers near boxelder trees. It is large, with a buff, white and black color scheme, and is sure to excite comment, both because of its rarity and its beauty.

With these winter birds are the permanent residents who receive more attention then than in the summer months when the woods are filled with the brilliantly plumaged songsters. There are the two woodpeckers, hairy and northern downey, and the white-breasted nuthatch, who are easily attracted to our porches and window sills by suet or crumbs. The American gold finch loses its yellow color this time of year and looks like its buff female. The black capped chickadee is seen and heard through the entire year, as is the bob white or quail. It seems heartless to place these with gauu» birds, as they so trustingly respond to a little kindness and will feed in yards except during the breeding season.

Hunters find snipe, jirairic chickens, quail, i)lovri-, partridge and mallard, canvas back, teal, red licatl, spoon bill, blur hill and wood ducks, also wild geese.

Surface Features

The following notes are from Vol. 11, of the Geological and Natural History Survey of Jlinnesota, and einbotly the observations of Dr. Warren Upham, taken in 1879 and 1881.

Natural Drainage. The North branch of the Crow river enters Wright county near the nnddle of its west side, and crosses tlie county in a very mcanilering course, which has its general direction a little to the south of east. The South branch flows northerly through Franklin, the most southeast township of this county, aud iniites with the North branch at the east side of Roekford township, sixteen miles in a straight line southwest from the mouth of the Crow river at Dayton.

Clearwater river, along tlu' last fifteen miles of its course, is the boundary of this county on the northwest. Near the nuddle of this distance it flows through Clearwater lake, four miles long and from a lialf mile to one and a half miles wide.

The only considerable tributaries of the Mississippi river from Wright county, besides the foregoing, are a snudl creek at Otsego ; Otter creek, a mile above Monticello; and Silver creek, which flows through the township of this name. These, and the tributaries to Clearwater river, and tlie branches of Crow river in this county, are all small, only draining areas that reach five to twelve miles from their mouths.

LaJses. The largest lakes of this country are Pelican aud Clearwater lakes, covering respectively about six and four square miles. Others worthy of note are ]\laple and French lakes, the former about tliree miles and the latter one mile in length, which give their names to the townships in which they are situated ; Pulaski lake in Buffalo, one and a half miles long from north to south ; Buft'alo lake, one and a half miles in diameter, lying mostly in Chatham ; Waverly, Howard and Cokato lakes, each about one and a half miles long; Granite lake in Albion, of similar length; Lake Ida and Limestone lake in Silver Creek, each about a mile long; Sugar and Cedar lakes, each two miles long from north to south, and Pleasant lake, one and a half miles long from east to west, in Corinna ; and Sylvia lake, about two miles in length, nearly divided by a peninsula one mile long, in South Side. About ninety lakes occur in this county with a length equal to or greater than a half mile, and more than a hundred and fifty of less dimension appear on the map, while many others of small area are not delineated.

filled with marsh-grass, sometimes being nearly dry in summer. They thus show the various stages intermediate between a lake and a slough. Throughout the whole county, sloughs or marshes are also frequent, varying from a few rods to a half mile in length, and in some cases they extend one or two miles.

It has been obfserved by the older residents that the streams and lakes were gradually diminishing in volume during the two decades of years preceding 1880. Several lakes were noted in the exploration, in 1879, between Buffalo and Crow river, depressed five to seven feet below a high-water mark at which they had formerly stood. The three more rainy years from 1880 to 1882, inclusive, restored the lakes and sloughs of this region generally to their highest stage.

Ice-formed Eidges. Many of the lakes in this county, as likewise in most other parts of the state, are partially bordered by a ridge, heaped four to eight feet in height, of gravel and sand, in whicli boulders, from two to five or six feet in diameter, frequently occur. This formation, when composed principally of gravel and sand, is commonly from thirty to seventy-five feet wide, having moderate slopes and a rounded top which varies a little in height. Again, when consisting chiefly of coarse gravel or boulders, the ridge may be quite steep, sometimes sloping at an angle of fortyfive degrees upon the side away from the lake. These accumulations are found mostly where lakes are bordered by lowland or a marsli, from which the water is divided by this low ridge, which often looks like an artificial rampart. The origin of these ridges is generally known to be from expansion of the ice upon the lakes in winter. Boulders lying in shallow water are frozen into the ice and pushed a very small distance each year toward the shore. This is repeated through centuries at the varying stages of the water, till the materials of these ridges, gathered from the lake-bed, have been piled along its margin. Such accumulations were noted at the east side of Dean lake in Roekford ; at the north side of Buffalo lake ; and about Howard lake, west of which the road runs about a half mile upon a ridge of this origin, five to six feet high and three rods wide, composed of gravel and sand, so ancient that it is covered with the sanu^ dark soil which generally forms the surface of this region.

The shores of the lakes of Wright county mostly have very gentle slopes, which are continued beneath the water's surface. The basin of Pelican lake is of this kind. Less frequently the shores have been worn away by the waves, and form bluffs ten to twenty feet high. Examples of such erosion are seen on the northwest side of Buffalo lake. Here, and usually at the foot of similar banks beside lakes, a pavement of large and small boulders extends several feet above the water. About a mile west of Buff'alo tliis margin of boulders, some of them six feet in diameter, lying at the foot of the bank undermined by llic lake is quite noticeable iu comparison with the usual scarcity of such rock-fragments. Most of these were contained in the mass of till that has been washed away at this place. A few of tlieiii may have been added from the lake-bed by tlu> expansion of ice, which has pushed back to the receding shore the boulders of the whole area upon which the lake has encroached, eroding its border of till.

Topography. Nearly all of ^Vright county is included in the moraiiiic lirlt which extends from the Leaf liills soutii aiul southeast to this county and thence southward into Iowa, where it bends in a loop like the letter "U," thence taking a northwestward course along the Coteau des Prairies in southwestern Minnesota and eastern Dakota. It is well known that this long, looped nuiraine marks the sides and termination of a great lobe or tongue of the ice-sheet, and that it was contemporaneous with the Kettle moraine, which Professors Chamberlin and Irving traced in a similar looped course across Wisconsin in the geological survey of that state.

These hills within the limits of Wright county seldom exhibit the singularly rough, broken, and irregular contour, which may be called the typical development of a terminal moraine. They yet are very ditferent from the gently undulating smooth area, a hundred miles wide, which lies next southwest, between this belt and the Coteau des Prairies. In contrast most parts of Wright county consisting of hills forty to seventy-five and sometimes one hundred or one hundred fifty feet high. These in nearly all cases have only moderate slopes, seldom rising abruptly or having a notabl.y broken contour. No well-marked uniformity in trend is perceptible, though upon the average these elevations are more prolonged from north to south or northwest to southeast than in the opposite direction. In respect to material there is little difference between the swells and hills of this county, or even the more roughly outlined Leaf hills, and the smoothed, slightly undulating expanse that stretches southwest from this moraine to the Coteau, all being the unstratified glacial drift, called till or boulderclay, inclosing or rarely overlain by comparatively small deposits of modified drift, that is, water-deposited gravel, sand, or clay. The till usually contains, however, a much greater proportion of boulders upon its morainic belts than on its smoother areas.

The most conspicuous hills in this county occur at two points near the Mississippi, about two miles south of Clearwater, and about the same distance southeast of IMonticello. These rise one hundred to one hundred fifty feet above the surrounding land. Another notably hilly area is the region for five miles northwest of Crow river, from its mouth to Rockford and Delano. These

In the east part of Silver Creek township, a very rough area of till reaches north to the river-road in section 14, a mile southeast from the mouth of Silver Creek. It forms hills fifty to seventy-five feet high, averaging fifty feet above the plains of modified drift at each side. The most uneven contour seen anywhere in Wright county is found in crossing this tract from Silver lake to Lake Ida, where the surface is as rough and irregularly thrown up in a profusion of knolls, hillocks and ridges as it is commonly in the most broken portions of the most typical morainic deposits. These accumulations are coarsely rocky till, and apparently include but little modified drift. The course and trend of the elevations are very irregular, and no prevailing direction or parallelism is noticeable.

The contour about Bufl^alo is in gentle swells fifty to seventyfive feet high. These continue northwest and west through Maple Lake, Chatham and Albion, and southwest to Waverly and Howard lake. These swells are round or irregular in form, trending in various directions. North of Cokato, massive, gently sloping hills rise forty to seventy-five feet or rarely one hundred feet above Cokato lake. The same rolling surface prevails northward through the west half of Fi-ench lake to\\aiship, and also extends westward into Meeker county.

Stockholm, at the southwest corner of the county, and most of Victor, the township next east, are moderately rolling, the height of the swells decreasing from thirty to forty feet at the west to only ten or twenty feet at the east. From Smith lake to Waverly the south boundary of the hilly area is on the north side of the railroad, and the tract beginning here and extending southeastward to the south line of the county, including the east part of Victor, Woodland, and the southwest part of Franklin, is only sliglitly undulating or nearly level. It is, however, mainly composed of till, like the hilly land northward.

With this exception, the only extensive level areas found in Wright county are those of modified drift which occur along the Clearwater and Mississippi rivers, consisting in large part, especially along the Mississippi, of natural prairies. The topography of these tracts, and the erosion which has been accomplished by the Mississippi river and its tributaries, will be again and more fully spoken of in describing the glacial and modified drift of this county.

The height of the Mississippi river along tlie northern boundary of this county, as determined by the United States engineer corps, under the direction of Capt. Charles J. Allen, is, at Clearwater, 938 feet above the sea ; at the head of Bear island, about one mile east from the mouth of Silver creek, 924 ; at Monticello,

893; at Elk River, 853; and at Dayton, 843 feet. The river-shore at Dayton is the lowest land of Wright county. Its higliest land, in Middleville, Cokato, Stockholm, and Victor, its southwestern townships, and the tops of the prominent hills mentioned near Clearwater and Montieello, are about 1,100 feet above the sea. Crow river, at the junction of its north and south branches, lias an elevation of about 900 feet; and the south branch of this river, where it enters Wright county, is approximately 915 feet above the sea. At the west line of tlie county, the heights, above the same level, of both the north branch of tlie Crow river and Clearwater river are estimated to be about 1,000 feet.

Soil and Timber. All portions of Wright county have a very fertile soil, blackened by decaying vegetation to a depth that varies from one to three feet. Fully nine-tenths of its whole area are adapted for exdtivation, tlie only exceptions being the frequent sloughs, very steep knolls or hillocks which occur rarel.y, and the abrupt bluffs, twenty to fifty and rarely seventy-five or one hundred feet higli. which border the creeks and rivers and were formed by their erosion. The generally undulating and rolling surface has sufficient slopes to give excellent drainage. The water produced by snow-melting in spring is thus speedily carried off, permitting seed to be sown early ; and damage by excessive rains is prevented. The rainfall is usually quite uniformly distributed through the successive seasons of spring, summer, and autinnn ; and from it the somewhat porous soil, which is the glacial and modified drift, readily absorbs the moisture needed by growing crops. The water of wells and springs in this region is commonly charged with the carbonates of lime and magnesia dissolved from the drift through which it has filtered. Though this does not impair its excellence for drinking and cooking purposes, it is rendered less desirable than rain-water for use in washing with soap. The pulverized limestone in the drift, which thus makes the water that soaks through it hard, is one of the most useful elements of the soil for the production of wheat, corn, oats, potatoes, and hay, which, witli dairy products and stock, are the chief agricultural resources of this district.

quent clearing away of much of the timber to make farms, were Clearwater prairie, three miles long and one to two miles wide ; Sanborn's or Moody's prairie, in vSilver Creek; Monticello prairie, six miles long and three miles wide, including the portion of this which is commonly called West prairie, lying northwest of Otter creek ; small areas of modified drift in Otsego, all the foregoing being portions of the valley drift of the Mississippi ; a few small tracts bordering Crow river, as Butler and McAlpine prairies ; and Mooers' prairie, south of Cokato, three miles long and about a mile wide. The last-named prairies are undulating and in part even hilly, and consist mainly of till or unmodified drift. On Mooers' prairie the hills rise in moderate slopes, thirty to sixty feet high. To these tracts are also to be added the numerous small sloughs, covered by marsh-grass, valuable for hay, and also the many small natural meadows, which are scattered here and there throughout the wooded area. Though the principal prairies of this county are modified drift, it is yet to be noted that considerable portions of this formation, bordering the Clearwater and Mississippi rivers at the north side of the county, are covered by a natural forest. This is the case with large tracts of modified drift adjoining Clear lake and reaching from it southwest to Sylvia lake and east to Sugar lake, as also with much of the northwest part of Silver Creek township.

At least nineteen-tweutieths of this county was once wooded. The greater part of this area was thick and heavy timber. The two species of trees which were usually most plentiful and largest were the white or American elm and the bass. Next in the estimated order of abundance are bur oak, ironwood, red or slippery elm, white and black ash, box-elder, black oak, the American aspen or poplar, and the large-toothed aspen, generally common ; sugar maple and red or soft maple, mostly occurring in groups ; wild plum, black cherry, June berry, balsam, poplar, and willows, plentiful in many places ; tamarack, common in swamps ; hackberry, white oak, butternut, and canoe or paper birch, less frequent; bitternut, cottonwood, and red cedar, rare.

Among shrubs the most common species are liazel-nut, prickly ash, Virginia creeper, climbing bitter-sweet, frost grape, sumachs, meadow-sweet, choke cherry, thorn, wild roses, bush cranberry, black currant, prickly and smooth gooseberries, high blackberry, and black and red raspberries.

Geological Structure

Tlie only formation found in this county which can be referred to a date older than the glacial period consists of beds of sand and gravel, some layers of which have been cemented, apparently by tlie deposition of carbonate of lime from percolating water, so that they have become sandstone and conglomerate, nearly as compact and hard as tlie most imlurated rocks. Tlieso were at first tlu)Uf?ht to be portions of the drift, cemented since their accumulation, but it seems possible that they may instead be Cretaceous, being perhaps of the same age with the Cretaceous sandstone that outcrops in the jMinnesota valley, in Courthuul, Nicollet county, eight and eleven miles southeast of New Ulm.

Two localities of this rock are exposed in Wright county, one being on the Crow river, and the other on its North branch. From the britlge east of St. Michael's, crossing the Crow river between Frankfort and Hassan, a conspicuous outcrop of it is seen in the left or northwest bank of the river, about twenty-five rods of this bridge. The bank here is some twenty-five feet high, and the cemented layer is in place near its top, from which position pieces five to ten feet in extent have fallen down and lie at or below the river-shore. This stratum of sandrock is three to five feet thick, nearly horizontal, of gray color, and was seen well exposed at two points some twenty-five feet apart. It is made up mainly of sand, with abundant fine gravel-stone, seldom so large as a half inch in diameter, but sometimes one and a quarter inches in diameter. Its lower portion incloses a layer of dark, irony sand, one foot thick. The bank fifty feet farther west is thirtji feet high, and appears to be composed wholly of stratified sand and gravel, having pebbles up to two or three inches in diameter. Three hundred feet east from the exposure of the sandrock or conglomerate, the bank or bluff of the river is fifty feet high, but exhibits no clear section. A well at the top of this blutf went twenty feet through "quicksand," then a foot or two through "an irony hardpan," then through "clay," to a total of forty-four feet, where water was struck and rose immediately eight feet. This irony layer, which is partly black, is seen also in the adjoining l)luft", and probably corresponds to the layer of dark, ferruginous sand in the conglomerate. The cemented stratum is more or less exposed along an extent of thirty or forty rods, having a slight dip eastwartl which carries it in this distance from tlie height of twenty feet down to the river's edge. It has been somewhat quarried for use in underpinning. Numerous specimens collected near this place by C. L. Ilerrick, from other low outcrops of the same formation, in the southeast bank of the river south of the bridge, are rather fine, gray, quartzose sandstone, containing no intermixture of gravel.

Mr. Herriek reports the discovery of a second locality of this rock in section 8, Jliddleville, where its outcrop rises only two feet above the north branch of the Crow river. This is a gray sandrock, mostly made up of fine quartzose particles, the greater part of which are white or gray, while some appear to be dull red jasper. It contains also a small proportion of granite and other pebbles, up to three-quarters of an inch, but mostly less than one-quarter of an inch, in diameter. This locality is about twenty-five miles west of that before described at the east side of Frankfort. No other exposures of this rock, or of any formation, excepting the ordinary deposits of the drift, were observed by Mr. Herrick in a boat journey along the North branch and the Crow river, from Forest City in Meeker county to the mouth of this stream at Dayton.

Glacial and Modified Drift. Wright is covered to an undetermined depth, probably averaging more than a hundred feet, by drift. The sections exhibited by streams and wells prove this mantle of drift to be so deep that the scientist may safely attribute the generally hilly surface to movements of the ice-sheet which spread its deposits in unequal thickness. It has been shown that this area was at the east border of a great segment of the icesheet; and these masses of drift pushed up into hills, inclosing frequent lakelets, are found to be part of a very extended series of similar or yet more irregularly hilly deposits, which were accumulated by the slow current of the ice along its fluctuating margin. By numerous short retreats and readvances, these terminal deposits were spread over an area from twelve to twenty miles wide ; but only very rarely in this county was the ice-front so long in one place or so loaded with drift as to heap up very abrupt and liigh, roughly-outlined hills, like those which make the most conspicuous parts of this formation.

The Moraine. The moraine occupies all this county except the nearly level area of till southeast from Smith Lake and Waverly and the areas of valley drift along Cleai"water river and the Mississippi. Its topographic features have already been sufficiently described. The material of which it is composed is mainly till, or a mixture of boulders, gravel, sand and clay, confusedly blended in one uustratitied mass. The principal ingredient is always clay, or very finely pulverized rock, unctuous and tenacious, giving this deposit sufficient cohesion to remain as a vertical wall with little danger of falling during the jjrocess of excavation, as for a cellar or well. The proportion of rock-fragments is small, as compared with their usual abundance in the eastern states. Generally the till in New England contains twenty times as many rock-fragments as in Minnesota. Otlun- names for this deposit are unmodified drift, boulder-clay, and hardpan.

In respect to color and hardness, considerable difference is perceptible between the upper and lower parts of the till. To a depth that varies from ten to twenty-five or thirty feet, it has a yellowi.sh color, because its iron has been changed from the protoxide to hydrous sesqnioxide or limonite, by weathering, that is, by exposure to the air and percolating water. Its iron is mainly in protoxide combinations as silicate or carbonate, or it is in the form of pyrites. At greater depths the till of central and western

Minnesota is dark and usually bluisii. Furtlicr oxidation and hydration of this iron in the upper part of tlie till changes it to limonite, with a yellowisli brown color that is very effective to impart its hue to the wliole deposit, of wliicli, however, it constitutes only a small percentage. "When this disseminated ore of iron is deprived of the conibineil water, ehanf;in>i it from limonite to hematite, as occurs frequently in briek-burning, it imparts a deep red hue. In the more common cream-colored bricks of this region, the iron is usually present in as great amount, but, through the influence of carbonate of lime in the clay, is chemically combined as a silicate and has no important coloring eft'ect. The diti'erence in hue of the till appears thus to be brought about by causes operating since its accuunilation, which are still sending this zone of chemical change farther below the surface.

The distinction in hardness between the upper and lower till seems, on the other hand, to be due to unlike conditions in its formation. Usually at the same depth with the change of color, a similarly sudden and equally definite change is noted in the hardness of the till, which below is much more compact and hard than above. Often the difference is such that the cost of excavation in the lower till is twice as great as in the upper till. This change is frequently found very well-marked at an exact and definite line, which is believed to mark the top of the till which lay beneath the ice-sheet and was subjected to its immense pressure, while the upper till was contained in the ice-sheet and dropped loosely when this was melted away. Because of the greater compactness and very impervious character of the lower till, the discoloration of weathering has been quite commonly limited to the upper till.

Fossiliferous Beds. Possiliferous beds inclosed in till have been observed at numerous places in Minnesota ; but no examples of this are known in Wright county. The beds of stratified drift which occur beneath or inclosed between sheets of till, may have been deposited like the valley drift along the Mississippi, that is by the waters discharged from the melting of an ice-sheet, after which they have been covered by the till of a later glacial advance ; or they may be the deposits of subglacial streams, during a period when this region was deeply buried by ice. The former explanation seems to be demanded by the thicker of these stratified beds under till, while the latter was probably true of many thin water-bearing veins of gravel and sand, which may be the tracks of sub-glacial torrents.

Tlie Boulders of the Drift. The boulders of the drift in Wright county are principally granite, syenite, and gneiss. Fragments of quartzyte, similar to that near New Ulm and referable to the Potsdam age, occur rarely. Boulders of magnesian limestone are so common that they are collected for lime-burning, perhaps makiug Tip a twentieth part of the rock-fragments that exceed one foot in diameter. This rock is a much more abundant ingredient of tlie gravel in the till and modified drift, and of the recent beach-formations of the lakes. The proportion of limestone pebbles at the northwest side of Howard lake and at the south side of French lake, is about one-tliird of all. The largest boulder of this stone noted in an examination of Wright county was beside the road in or near the northwest quarter of section 17, French Lake. TJie amount exposed measured seven by four by one and a half feet in dimensions, perhaps an equal amount being buried. The surface of this block showed a section of large gasteropod shell, probably a Maclurea, seven and a half inches in diameter. The source of this limestone, forming a part of the glacial drift which here has been transported from the northwest, is believed to be the foi-mations that outcrop near Winnipeg in Manitoba and along the west side of Lake Winnipeg.

Lignite Deposits. Fragments of lignite, an imperfectly formed coal, have been often encountered in digging wells in this county, and in some places have been found in such abundance in the beds of streams as to excite the hope that workable beds of coal might be discovered by proper search. These pieces are from thin layers of lignite in beds of Cretaceous age, such as have been found at several points near Richmond in Stearns county, which borders this on the northwest, as also near Redwood Falls and Fort Ridgely, and on the Cottonwood river. Some of these lignite-bearing deposits have been plowed up by the ice-sheets, and now form part of the glacial drift, in which through all southwestern Minnesota, fragments of this coal occur sparingly, being usually only from one to three inches in diameter. A well or cellar sometimes yields a half dozen or more of such lumps, but oftener contains none or only one or two. None of the pieces found are of such dimension as to show that they were part of any thick coal-seam ; and it appears very improbable, judging from the small quantity of coal thus occurring in the drift, and from the character of the Cretaceous beds which have been explored in the localities before mentioned, that any valuable deposits of this lignite exist in Minnesota. Respecting this and other Cretaceous contributions to the drift, Prof. Winehell writes, on page 48 of his Sixth animal report, as follows:

"Information having been received from Hon. William Pfaender of the existence of some evidences of coal in Wright county, an examination was made of the designated localities. On section 33, township 119, range 25, land of John Marth and Fred Wanderzce, along the north branch of Crow river, pieces of Cretaceous lignite have been found in considerable quantities ; also, along a creek, section 2.5, township 119, range 26, on land of Joseph Plant. These are all flat pieces, exactly similar to what have btH'ii t'ouiul in iniinci'ons otlicr places, 11i()ii<;li ])erlia|is iiioi-e abimdaut. An exaininatioii was made in ediiipaiiy witli .John JIarth, of Delano. The banks of the streams are composed entii'ely of drift, and largely of blue hardpan. The lignite was seen in the bed of the creek, having been most obsei'ved at or neaifording places, where it was most likely to i)e brought to the surface and seen by passing travelers. At no point could any Cretaceous beds be seen 'in situ.' Along the sti'eam arc numerous ])ieces of slate, or fissile slude, likcM'ise derived from the Cretaceous, though liere immediately from the hardpan drift. It is possible that Cretaceous beds wouhl be sti'uek below the di'ift, in sinking a shaft.""

Explorations for Coal. Professor Winchell, in his tifth annua! report for the year 1876, tleseribes a former pi'o,]'ect for coalmining, as follows: "Seventeen years ago there was some excitement in the vicinity of Dayton over a I'eported discovery of coal, about two miles west of the village, in Wright eonnty, by a man named Charles Williams. I'pon visiting the place, the excavation was found to consist of two shafts sunk in the drift, now nearl.y filled. About the i)lace the drift thrown out shows nothing but drift clay with pebbles of all kinds and colors. One shaft is said to have been about eighty feet deep. The general belief now is tluit all the coal tiiat was 'found" was brought for the purpose from St. Paul, as the owner, after vainly attempting to sell hi.s land, placed a heav.y mortgage on it and abandoned the country, allowing the sale of the land for the mortgage. There is certainly now no evidence of the existence of coal, or lignite, in the vicinity, though there are traces of the Cretaceous in the drift which point to the near proximity of its layers. There is also a reported exposure of 'slate" in a ravine a mile or so bej'ond, but it could not be found." The occasional occurrence of fragments of lignite in the drift has been noticed on a preceding page.

Typical TiU Exposures. A very instructive section in the till is exposed in the right or east bank of the Crow river at Dayton, between the dam and the upper bridge. Tliis section is about 500 feet long and from thirty-five to fifty feet high. On the left the till reaches to the surface and its upper one to two feet form the black soil, below which it has a yellowish color to a depth of fifteen feet, and is then directly underlain by reddish gray till, except that a layer of coarse ferruginous gravel, one foot thick, intervenes at their .junction. The same yellowish upper till is cut fifteen feet deep for the road at the north end of the upper bridge, about three hundred feet west from the northwest end of this section. There it shows in some portions an indistinct lamination, which was doubtless produced in its deposition from the ice-sheet, probably through the influence of the water set free by its melting. Southeastward in the section here shown, the yellow upper till thins out to nothing in a distance of 300 feet. A little farther on, it is seen again and attains a thickness of ten feet near the southeast end of this section. For the hundred feet at the northwest this till is covered only by the soil. Through the remainder of the section a layer of yellow sand, mostly from five to ten feet in thickness, overlies the yellow till. Next below this yellow upper till, throughout most of the section, is a deposit of dark bluish till, from thirty to thirty-five feet thick, like that which occurs generally throughout all southwestern Minnesota. Next below the last is the reddish gray till, which was noted at the northwest end of the section. There the thickness exposed of this lowest till is about seventeen feet; elsewhere it is partly covered by the talus which has crumbled from the bank above ; but at one place it was very plainly seen rising in a broadly rounded mass ten feet above the river-level. Professor Winchell has noticed this section on page 165 of his fifth annual report, and mentions that the blue till contains "many fragments of Cretaceous slate, siderite, iron concretions (covered with gravel and cemented by iron-rust), granitic pebbles, and (Devonian?) limestone masses which have supplied a great deal of quicklime, and an occasional large granite boulder." The underlying red till has "a great many small greenstone and quartzyte stones, and but few that are large, also many granitic stones."

On the north side of the Mississippi river, one and a half miles west of Otsego village, and about seven miles northwest from Dayton, the river-bank newly undermined along a distance of an eighth of a mile, having a height of fifty or sixty feet, consists of red till for all its lower half, while its upper half is yellow drift. A few miles farther west, David Bagley's well, in section 16, in the east edge of Monticello township, found the following deposits of drift in descending order : soil and yellow till, seven feet; sand, twelve feet; very hard, red till, thirty-one feet; and quicksand, four feet, in which the well stopped, at a total depth of fifty-four feet. Water is found in this quicksand, but does not rise above it.

Eastward from Monticello and Dayton, to the Saint Croix river, and to Minneapolis and St. Paul, the blue (or superficially yellow) till and the red till continued together, the latter underlying the former, which gradually thins out ; and farther east, and northeast to Lake Superior, only the red till is found. These deposits were quite fully described in the Fifth annual report of this survey, pages 156 to 174, and in the Sixth report, pages 84 to 87. The conclusion there announced is that the red till is the deposite of an earlier glacial epoch than the blue till which overlaps it. Another explanation is admissible and seems to be required by the distribution of these tills; for, while the red till covers the northeast part of this state and the most of Wiseoiisiii, the blue till is fouiul cverywliere upon tlie western two-thirds of Minnesota and in Dakota to the limit of the di'ift.

Climatic conditions can hardly be supposed to have existed which sliould be capable of first pfoducin<; an ice-sheet over tlie northeast i>art of the state only, and afterward in another glacial epoch forming a similar ice-mantle spread only upon the west half of the state. Professor Ciuimberlin, in his reports as state geologist of Wisconsin, demonstrated tiiat the ice-sheet was partially divided at its front into vast tongues or lobes, each of wiiich had its center curi'cnt in the course of its longer axis, while the marginal ice-tlow was everywhere perpendicular toward its terminal edge. The presence of two such lobes of the ice-sheet upon Minnesota is indicated by the course of our terminal moraines, and affords an adequate explanation of the occurrence of these diverse kinds of till in the northeast and the west parts of the state, as also of the portion of one of them overlying the other. The ice-lobe tliat moved outward from the region of lake Superior toward the southwest spread a till derived in large part from red shales, sandstones and quartzyte, colored by the anhydrous peroxide of iron, or hematite. The coloring power of this ore of iron, tliough it is onl.\- a proportionately small ingredient of these beds and of the drift, is sufficient to give a red or reddish gray hue to the drift wherever a considerable part of it has been obtained from this source, even when, being pulverized by tlie glacial grinding, it has become mingled with inucl) material from other formations.

Western Minnesota was overspread by another ice-lobe whose current moved from the region of Lake Winnipeg to the south and southeast. Its drift was gathered from granitic and sedimentary rocks which have their iron mostly in protoxide combinations; and hence its color, below the weathered u]>per poi'tion, is dark bluish.

During the last glacial epoch, anil pcriiai)s in those preceding, it appears that these two lobes and opposing currents of the icesheet met upon the area lying between Dayton and St. Paul. The current from the noi'theast reached to the farthest limit at wliich the red till occurs, which is in northeastern Wright county, if we except the few localities described in the report of Big Stone and Lac qui Parle counties, in the west jiart of this state and the east edge of Dakota. Afterward, a change of climatic conditions, probably by bringing an increased snow-fall at the northwest, caused the outflow of ice from tliat quarter to drive back the curi'ent opposed to it, until its blue till, derived from the northwest, had been sjM-ead over the edge of the red till. This overlapping of the drift deposits of the last glacial epoch, measured from west to east, that is, perjiendicularly to the line of meeting of these currents, varies from twenty to seventy-five miles. The red and blue tills are regarded, in this view, as mainly contemporaneous and similar in their formation, the northeast and the west parts of the state being covered by lobes of the ice-sheet which moved independently of each other. When the ice of the last glacial epoch liad its greatest extent, or nearly so, these icecurrents were confluent upon this area, the outflow from the northwest finally pushing back that from the northeast.

The erosion affected by the Mississippi river along the northeast side of Wright county has been mostly in the stratified gravel, sand and clay of the valley drift, which at the close of the glacial period was swept into this depression by the floods discharged from the melting ice-sheet. A flood-plain was then accumulated which covered a width of five to ten miles or more, with an average slope southeastward of about three feet per mile. It was deposited in the same manner that additions are now being made to the bottomlands by the floods of spring, save that during the melting away of the ice-sheet similar high water existed through the whole summer. The flood-plain therefore rapidly increased in depth and extent, the material of which it was formed as well as the waters by which it was brought being both supplied from the departing ice. Remnants of this plain, high above the present bottomland, attest the great supply of sediment during the prevalence and withdrawal of the last ice-sheet, and the large amount of erosion that has been accomplished since then by the river acting under its present conditions. At Clearwater and Monticello the prairies called by these names are remains of this floodplain, which extended with nearly equal height across the area now occupied by the river and its bottomland, to the similar high plains of modified drift on tlie northeast side of the Mississippi. The areas of the ancient valley drift that occur in Wright county are situated like bays on the side of the main valley, and have thus escapetl excavation. The height of Clearwater and Monticello prairies is about seventy-five or eighty feet above tlie river. Sanborn's prairie, lying between these, is regarded as a part of the same descending plain of valley drift, though it is not bordered by equally distinct bluff's and terraces upon the side next to the river. This prairie and its adjoining wooded areas of modified drift are underlain at a small depth by till, the coarsely rocky boulder-clay or hardpan, which appears at the bridge across Silver creek on the river-road. The till rises so high along the river here that all of the overlying gravel and sand have been eroded. Where the modified drift extends deeper, it has been sculptured by the river in terraces and bluffs. Monticello village is situated on such a terrace, thirty-five to forty feet above the Mississippi, intermediate between the bottomland and the Monticello prairie.

descends forty-nino t'ci-t. Its flood-plain of iiioditicd drift, dt'posited during the melting of the iee-sheet, had a soniewliat more rapid slope, declining in its height southeastward to forty-five feet above the present river at Dayton, and to twenty-five oi' thirty feet at tiie head of the falls of St. Anthony. On the northeast side of the Mississippi river, adjoining Wright county, the valley drift covers a wide tract, reaching beyond the Elk river, wliieh for an extent of about thirty miles lies only two to five miles distant from the Mississippi, flowing nearly ])arallel with it.

Crow river and its north and south branches in tins county have eifected comparatively little erosion. At Dayton and in many other places along this river, it has luidermined blufl's of till which extend from a few rods to a fourth or a half mile. A little moi'e than a nule east of St. Michael's, in Frankfoi't, this erosion shows a fresh section of till, sevcnty-flve to one hundred feet high, its upper twenty-five feet being yellowisli and all below dark bluish. Such bluff's, however, arc only of short extent, and in general this river has no defliute line of continiums bluffs inclosing it on either side. Instead, the stream is bordered by undulating lowland, usually till, of varying width up to oiu» mile, and rising in this distance to a height from thirty to fifty feel. above the river. Some portions of this valle,v have iloubtless been filled with fluvial deposits at the close of the glacial period or since that tinu', bridging glacial hollows, which nuist otherwise produce lakes in the river's course, but with thesi' exceptions no deposits of modified drift are found; so that this valley is very unlike that of the Mississip[>i, which was tilled deeply with stratified gravel and sand.

Water Powers. In 1881, the following water powers had been used in Wright comity: Dayton flouring mill, on the Crow river at Dayton ; owned by Weizel & Hurlbut ; live runs of stone ; head, about seven feet. At Hanover : on the Crow river, about uine miles southwest from Dayton; head, about seven feet. At Rockfort: on the Crow river; a woolen mill; head, eight feet. In Middleville : two powers, on the north branch of the Crow I'iver. In Cokato : a grist-mill, at the mouth of Cokato lake, on its outlet. On the west ijart of section '22. French Lake: a sawmill on the north branch of the Crow river; head, eight feet. Monticello mills on Otter creek, three-quarters of a nule northwest from IMontieello ; owned by Janney & Sons : three runs of stone for flour, and one for feed ; head, sixteen feet. On the Clearwater river, at Clearwater, are three powers, as follows : Thomas Tollington's sawmill and furniture manufactorj-, ten or flfteeu rods above the mouth of the river; head, five feet; can only be used when the Mississippi is at its low-water stage. Clearwater flouring mills; a short distance above the last; owned by C. F. Davis & Co. ; head, fifteen feet. Upper dam of C. F. Davis & Co. ; one mile above the inoutli of the Clearwater river ; known as the Fremont water-power ; formerly, but not now, used ; head, twelve feet. At P^air Haven : on the Clearwater river ; head, about ten feet.

Underground Waters

Surface Features. Wright county may be divided into three physiographic provinces - (1) the irregular inorainie tract occupying most of the county, (2) the gently undulating area lying in the south-central part, and (3) the level plain bordering Clearwater and Mississippi rivers along the northern margin of the county. The Mississippi has cut a narrow gorge into this plain, and its tributaries have accomplished a small amount of erosion, but tlie surface of the county is still imperfectly drained and remains covered with numerous lakes and swamps.

Surface Deposits. There are two distinct types of bowlder clay, the blue and the red. The red clay occurs chiefly in the northeastern part of the country, but has been found as far southwest as Waverly. Where both are present the blue lies above the red. The red is apparently derived from the rocks in the Lake Superior region, and the blue comes for the most part from the Cretaceous formations to the west. These two varieties of drift have been discussed by the state geologists, N. H. Winchell and Warren Upham. In addition to the sand and gravel that is interbedded with the bowlder clay, extensive deposits lie at the surface, forming the level plain referred to above.

The glacial drift ranges in thickness from a scant layer to perhaps about 400 feet. It reaches its greatest development in the central and southwestern parts and is somewhat thinner in the northern and northeastern, but there are considerable variations within short distances. The following specific data will give some conception of the thickness in the different localities: (1) In the vicinity of Cokato depths of 150 to 300 feet have been reached without passing out of the drift; (2) in the village of Howard Lake one well is reported to have struck rock at a depth of 135 feet and several other in the same districts at depths of 170 to 218 feet, but on the other hand many wells in this region end in drift at depths of more than 200 feet; (3) at Waverly "rock" was encountered in one well at 190 feet below the surface, but in the mill well in the same village the drift deposit may be deeper ; (4) near Delano (in the NE. i^ sec. 24. T. 118 N, R. 35 W.) sandstone was found at a depth of 211 feet, but there are deeper wells in the locality which do not reach this formation; (5) in the Buffalo railway well 385 feet may be drift; (6) in the vicinity of the Mississippi river and Crow river, near its mouth, there are great and abrupt variations in the thickness of the surface deposits, the maximum probably being at least 300 feet.

Yield of Water. The numerous thick beds of sand and frravel provide aiiij>le and jieniianent supplies, and where they lie at the surface, as they do tlirouf^hout a (-onsi<lfrable section of tills country, they commonly yield large (luantities of water even to very shallow wells.

Head of the Water. Plowing wells are foinid in a nuitd)er of localities and could without doubt be secured iu other restricted tracts, such as stream valleys and depressions partly tilled by lakes. The chances of obtaining Hows are always best in low districts that lie close to high morainic belts.

In the following areas the water from tht> drift will rise above the surface: (1) Along the eastern and southern margins of Buffalo lake and ou the low ground southwest of this lake, the supply coming from sand and gravel beds at various depths. In the village of But^'alo the water is lifted fully thirty feet above the level of the lake; (2) Along both branches of Crow river and some of their affluents. A number of scattered flowing vcells with slight head have been obtained here, and probably many more could be had on the lowest groiuid bordering these streams. (3) On the side of Cokato lake, north of the village. This is a small area, and the wells thus far drilled have not been more than 100 feet deep. Flows are also obtained from the surface deposits in the valley of the Mississippi.

Quality of the Water. The mineral constituents of the water from the drift consist chiefly of sodium, magnesium, and bicarbonates, only small amounts of sodium, potassium, sulphates, and chlorides being present. This water, therefore, has a considerable temporary hardness (which can in a large measure be removed by heating) but will not deposit mucli hard scale in boilers.

The water in this county is similar to that from the deeper portions of the drift farther west, but is less highly mineralized than the shallow drift water in that region. Thus far there is both a horizontal and a vertical variation in the composition of the water, the mineralization (especially the content of calcium, magnesium and sulphates) decreasing from west to east and from the surface downward.

Cretaceous Rocks. About fifteen miles beyond the northwestern edge of Wright county, in southern Stearns county, there is an exposure of shales etc. in which Cretaceous fossils have been identified, but it is not known that deposits of this age exist at any point within the county. Two outcrops of sandstone and conglomerate are described in the report of the state survey, one on Crow river east of St. Michael and the other on North Branch north of Howard Lake (sec. 8, township 119, range 27). The suggestion made by the state geologist that these may be Cretaceous in age, but there is no proof that they are so. It has already been mentioned that a number of wells in the vicinitv of Howard Tjake and Waverly enter "rock." This rock, which appears from the drillers' description to be light-colored water-bearing sandstone, may be the same formation as that which forms the outcrops, but this, too, is uncertain. The blue shales encountered in drilling along the Mississippi are certainly not Cretaceous.

Paleozoic and Older Formations. Most of Wright county is underlain by stratified formations which are Paleozoic and perhaps in part pre-Paleozoic in age. Their combined thickness is probably great in the southeast, but mucli less in the northwest. Because of the dip of these strata and their apparent tendency to change in character and thickness from one locality to another, great caution is necessary in the interpretations of well sections.

In the vicinity of Elk river, a village situated on the opposite bank of the Mississippi, numerous deep wells have been drilled, and these show the stratigraphic succession below the surface deposits to consist of blue shale, white water-bearing sandstone, and red shale and sandstone nearly destitute of water. Both shale and sandstone are so hard that they do not require casing; in this respect they differ from most of the Cretaceous strata of southern Minnesota. The total thickness of the red elastic series is not known.

The same succession of blue shale, white sandstone, and red rock has been found in Monticello and at a number of points in the eastern extremity of this county. At Anoka drilling has gone to a depth of 420 feet without reaching the red elastic series ; this fact indicates the general thickening of the overlying Paleozoic strata toward the southeast. Near Dayton, which is situated at the confluence of Mississippi and Crow rivers, sandstone was encountered in several wells at a depth of about 50 feet below the river level, and on tlie opposite side of the Mississippi limestone, which probably lies higher in the series, is reported 100 feet below the upland level.

At Buffalo the following section is reported for the railway well. The upper 386 feet is probably glacial drift. (The depth below the surface is given in parentheses.) Clay, 35 feet (35 feet) ; sand, 2 feet (37 feet) ; blue bowlder clay, 245 feet (282 feet) : sand, 37 feet (319 feet) ; quicksand, 6 feet (325 feet) ; sand and gravel, 31 feet (35.6 feet) ; sand and large stones, 30 feet (386 feet) : clean sand, 9 feet (395 feet) ; sandstone, 158 feet (553 feet). These figures were taken by Joseph Greeninger, a well driller of Anoka.

Light-colored water-bearing rock, which was encountered in the southern part of the county, has already been alluded to as a possible Cretaceous formation.

Among such rock wells drilled in soutliern Wright county may be mentioned these owned and located as follows : J. Freden, N. E. 14, sec. 24, township 118, range 25, 211 feet to rock, rock

A few miles north of Wright connty the granite rocks come to the snrface and form numerous outcrops in Slu'rburne and Stearns counties ; in Meeker county they liave been encountered in several wells. These facts indicate that in the nortliwesteru part of Wright county the granite is not far below tlu> surface, but the depth probably increases rapidly toward the southeast.

Yield of Water. - The data given above show that waterbearing sandstone (perhaps belonging to more than one formation) occurs throughout the southeastern part of the county and may extend to the northwestern margin. It has been encountered at depths ranging from 80 to 400 feet and in all wells yielded generously. Neither the red clastic series, which lies beneath the white sandstone in the eastern jiart of the county, nor the granite, which may be reached in deep drilling in the northern part, is of any value as a source of water.

Head of the Water. - The sandstone will produce flows in the valley and on the lower terraces of the Mississippi but not on the uplands. In the village of Elk River the water is lifted about 60 feet above the river level, or 904 feet above the sea, and at Monticello it rises about 918 feet above sea level, a considerable height above the river.

Quality of the Water. - The water from the Paleozoic sandstone is not highly mineralized. Its chief constituents are calcium, magnesium and biearbouates ; in this respect it is similar to the water from the glacial drift.

Buffalo. - The village of Buffalo is picturesquely situated on the northeastern shore of Buffalo Lake. The glacial drift is here deep and contains several sand and gravel layers, from which the water rises above the level of the lake. The section given above shows that a thick stratum of water-bearing sandstone lies beneath the drift. The village has no system of jjublic waterworks.

Delano. - The glacial drift is here probably more than 200 feet deep. Below the drift there is believed to be water-bearing sandstone, but it has not been reached by drilling within the village. In the valley deposits of sand and gravel lie at the surface. The public supply is obtained from fourteen three-inch wells, whose stratigraphic section is as follows, the depth below the surface being given in parentheses: Sandy loam, 6 feet

(6 feet) ; blue clay, 13 feet (19 feet) ; sand (water first struck), 17 feet (36 feet) ; blue clay (containing sand and a little water), 4 feet (40 feet) ; coarse sand (impregnated with water), penetrated 10 feet (50 feet).

Tjie water rises virtually to tlie surface and is drawn from all the wells by suction. Pumping at the rate of 250 gallons a minute for several hours continuously has thus far produced no noticeable effect. The water is only moderately hard, and will not deposit much hard scale in boilers. It is used at the pumping station, mill, and printing house, and altogether about 30,000 gallons daily is consumed. The railroad company takes water from the river. Many of the private wells are drilled and range between 50 and 150 feet in depth.

Monticello. The village of Monticello is situated on the south bank of the Mississippi river. Tlie valley is narrow and nearly all the houses are built upon an elevated terrace. Alluvial deposits and glacial drift occur near the surface, beneath which lie the Paleozoic strata. The thick beds of sand and gravel, as well as the Paleozoic sandstone, yield large quantities of water. The well which furnishes the public supply is 8 inches in diameter and 237 feet deep. The water rises to a level 5 feet below the top of the well, which is about 30 feet above the river, or approximately 918 feet above the sea, and pumping at the rate of 275 gallons a minute for five hours continuously is reported to lower this level only 2 feet. The water is only moderately hard and will not form much hard scale in boilers. About 25,000 gallons is consumed daily, but most of the people still use water fi'ora private wells.

Howard Lake. - The glacial drift has a considerable thickness and contains water-bearing deposits of sand and gravel. Beneath the drift there is a light-colored water-bearing sandstone wliich is reported to have been penetrated at 135 feet below the surface, though generally occurring at a greater depth. The public supply is pumped from the lake without filtering, through an intake which is about 800 feet from the shore. This water has a relatively low total hardness, and is used by more than one-half of the people, approximately 25,000 gallons being consumed daily. The glacial drift and underlying rock will yield ample supplies of water that is only moderately hard.

Cokato. - Drilling to a depth of 185 feet at Cokato has revealed nothing but glacial drift, as is shown by the following section of a well at the canning factory : Yellow boulder clay and blue boulder clay, 78 feet ; sand, thin (a little water) ; blue boulder clay, 50 feet; sand (impregnated with water), 2 feet; blue boulder clay, penetrated 55 feet.

a drilli'd well three inches in dianietei' and ILT) I'eet ileep, wliicli euds witli a sereen in a hetl of sand reporttnl to be at least six feet thick. The water rises to a h'vel about 45 i'eet below the surface or 1,020 feet above sea level. It is moderately iiai-d but has not nuich permanent hardness. .Most of the jieople use water from private drilled wells, none of which is much more than 100 feet deep. Tlu' well at the canning factory, which is supplied from the sand layer 1'2S feet below the surface, has been tested at fifteen gallons a minute. The head and (|uality of tlie water are similar to those of the village well.

Waverly. The following section for the well at Adam P.erknei''s flouring mill, which is the deepest well drilled in the locality about Waverly. Yellow and blue clay, 117 feet; "hardi»an," S feet; yellow sand (impreguatetl with water), 85 feet; I'cd clay, 215 feet; coarse yellow sand impregnated with watei-, entered 19 feet. The public waterworks are supplietl from the lake, but all the people tlepend upon private wells, most of which are of the two-inch ilrilled type and have an average depth of abotit 125 feet.

Farm Water Supplies. The most common type of farm wells found in this region are the 2-ineli or 'ly^-hich drilled wells. These range from about 40 to 300 feet in di'pth, their average depth being slightly more than 100 feet in the southern part of the county and somewhat less in the northern. Nearly all stop in the surface deposits and are finished with screens. In the south the screens are liable to become clogged after several years of service, but fiu'ther north they seldom do. As a rule the water is harder in the southern than in the northern part aiul there appears to be a relation between the hardness of the water and the tendency of the screens to become incrusted.

Other types of farm wells are the driven, bored, or dub and drilled wells of larger diameter. In the past the bored and dug wells were the prevailing kind, but they are now being gradually replaced by the drilled types. W^here 6-inch wells are not to be pumped faster than the rate at which a windmill operates, they can be successfully finished with open ends, tluis obviating all difficulties with screens.

Summary and Analysis. The siu'faee deposits contain large supplies of water that is only moderately hard, and in low areas they may give rise to flows with slight pressure. The southeastern part of the county, and perhaps the entire county, is underlain by water-bearing sandstone, which has been encountered at depths ranging from 80 to 400 feet, and which will usually yield large quantities of water of about the same hardness as that from the surface deposits. Near the Mississippi the water from this sandstone is under sufificient pressure to rise to a level about 900 feet

The red clastic series and the granitic rocks, which occur at greater depths, are of no value as sources of water, and should not be penetrated in drilling.