Buchanan County, Missouri - Chapter 3: Geology of Buchanan County, 1881

Chapter 3: Geology of Buchanan County

Having spoken of the area, surface, soil, prairie and timber of Buchanan County, we shall now proceed to speak of the different geological formations of rocks, coal, mineral, etc. In order to present the geology of the county in an intelligent manner we shall here give the greater portion of Professor G. C. Broadhead's report, submitted in 1872,. beginning with

The "bluff" or "loess" is Wtfll exposed on the Missouri bluffs near St.. Joseph, where it rises in steep and often gently sloping peaks, covered mostly with grass. It is generally a fine, comminuted brown ashclay, and where a few feet from the surface, exposed by washings, isalways perpendicularly jointed. In King Hill, below St. Joseph, it has at the lower part eight feet of finely comminuted brown sand resting on two feet of white calcareous concretions. - The fossils found were Helicina occulta, Succinia and Helix. The drift occurs immediately beneath the bluff, but I observed no good exposure of it in the county. Boulders of granite and quartzite were occasionally found. 1 -

Upper Carboniferous

The rocks in this county belong to the Upper Coal Series, and include a total thickness of about 470 feet, from a bluff limestone, equivalent to No. 160, Gen. Sec, to No. 108 or Plattsburgh limestone, inclusive, of which there are 125 feet of limestone, eleven feet bituminous shales, the remainder consisting of sandstone, sandy and argillaceous shales. The prevailing dip of rocks is a very little north of west.

On the headwaters of Sugar and Contrary Creeks Mr. Ulffers observed the following section, which include some of the highest rocks. se-en in this county :

No. I - 15 feet light bufTlimestone shales.. No. 2 - 17 feet argillaceous'', shales. No. 3 - 16 feet cherty limestone. No. 4 - 2 feet argillaceous shales. No. 5 - I J feet bituminous shales. No. 6 - I foot hard blue limestone. No. 7 - 14 feet argillaceous shales. No. 8 - 4 feet light buff, compact linnestone. No. 9 - 7 feet argillaceous shales. No. ID - 2 feet buff, shaly limestone. No. II - 36 feet red and blue argillaceous shales. No. 12 - 6 inches shaly bituminous coal. No. 13 - 18 feet argillaceous and sandy shales. No. 14 - 5 fsct sandstone and sandy shales.

No. 160 was observed in bluffs back front the river, in the southwest: corner of the county. It occurs as a buff limestone, with 35 feet slope below, to No. 150. In the same vicinity No. 152 occurs as a dark gray limestone, containing a thin stratum of fine-grained, very dark green, fibrous Argillaceous Carbonate of lime, with probably some carbonate of iron,, the fibres nearly perpendicular to the horizontal surface, and interlocking, forming what is called " Tutcu Mergel," or "cone in cone." No. 150 occurs near the hilltops on the Missouri Bluffs, in. the northern part of the county, that occupies that horizon on the Missouri Bluffs as far as the south county line ; its greatest observed thickness was 23 feet at Rushville. It is a buff brown near the top, with P'roductus, Roger si,. Chonetes, Smithii, Syringapora, Fusulina cylindrica, Atliyris, subtilita; below it is very irregularly bedded and contains chert, especially in the upper portion. The beds of limestone are not often over 6 inches to i foot in thickness, and are separated by buff clay> Beatty's quarry, near St. Joseph,- exhibits most of the beds of No. 150. No. I - 23 inches limestone. No. 2 - 28 inches limestone.

No. 3 - 18 inches concretionary limestone and buff shales. No. 4 - 5 inches concretionary limestone. No. 5 - I foot nodular limestone, chert and brown shales. No. 6 - 2 inches limestone. No. 7 - 3 inches limestone. No. 8 - 6 inches limestone.

Bituminous shale is found in apifabout 10 feet below the limestone. The lower beds of limestone abound in fossils, mainly Orthis corbonaria; also contains Rotsia pimctulifiera, Rynchonella Osogensis, Athyris sub- Mlita, Productus splendens, Sc/nzodus. The upper beds abound in Fusu- cylindrica and Athyris subtilita; also contain Hemipronetes crassus, ^Orthis carbonaria, Spirifer {Martinid) planoconvexus, and Crinoid stems.

No. 4 - 7 fs^t irregularly -bedded limestone; abound in Fusilnia^ -cylindrica, also contains Athyris, Rotzia, Orthis carbonaria; cherty, No. 150.

No. 14 - 10 feet red and green clay shales ; at bottom we find 4 feet of ochrey green clay, with occasional thin bands of yellow ochre concretions and streaks of ochre.

No. 137 is seen on Platte River bluffs, two miles south of the Hannibal & St. Joseph railroad, cropping out ten feet in thickness. On the Missouri bluffs there are shales 60 to 75 feet in thickness, with sometimes a thin seanj of coal. Near the upper end of Sugar Creek Lake we have :

No. 2 - 18 feet of limestone, fracture buff and drab, weathering, brown ; contains occasional lenticular beds of concretionary deep-blue has brown shaly partings and contains Athyris subtilita Sp. Jineatus, Sp. camcratus, Rotzia, etc.

No. 3 - 4 feet even-bedded, shelly, dark ash colored limestone (128), at about 15 feet above the grade of railroad and forming a fine waterfall.

Approaching St. Joseph from the south we find the last named limestone quarried near the hill, and also northwest on King Hill, and in the next succeeding hill it is seen 30 feet above the bottoms, with 30 feet of shales lying below it.

Ascending King Hill, at 63 feet above No. 128, is found 7 feet of thick-bedded gray and brownish limestone, with but few fossils. Its upper part is shelly and brownish ochery, but affords a good, strong and durable building rock. It has been extensively used in buildings at St. Joseph. We found overlying it, tumbled masses of buff and brown soft sandstone, and hard green sandstone, containing remains of plant-leaves and the stem of a tree, probably a Lepidostrobus. Intermingled with' this overlying mass was some deep red clay, apparently very suitable for paint ; sixteen feet still higher is found seven feet of ferruginous limestone, and 24 feet above the last are seen outcrops of No. 150. All these layers have been extensively quarried for various purposes of building in St. Joseph. The last named is quarried in the hills north of St. Joseph for lime and for paving.

From 126 to 113, the rocks are generally covered with debris, and include about 100 feet. In southeast of township 55, range 34, No. 112 was observed, 12 feet in thickness, consisting of thick beds of coarse,, colored, semi-crystalline limestone. The lowest rock was observed on Platte River, in the eastern part of the county ; it is a blue limestone,, equivalent to the Plattsburgh series ; 12 feet of it was observed..

Coal. - Opposite Sugar Creek Lake, coal crops out about 30 feet above the level of the railroad. Limestone, No. 150, is in bluff 77 feet above. The same bed of coal is seen a mile below Hall's Statian, on Mr. Hinman's land. Section here is Section 19:

3 feet rough-bedded, yellow sandstone; 8 inches sandy clay; i| inches shale and thin laminae of coal; 2^ inches of coal; ij inches blue clay; 6 inches good coal ; i^ inches blue clay; 3 inches good coal ; fireclay.

Four inches of bituminous coal was observed in Section 23, T. 45, R. 36, and in Section 32, coal is also said to have been found on the headwaters of Bee Creek, a few miles southwest of Sparta. These beds are thin and poor and not worth working.

I02 History Of Buchanan Coun Tv

From careful comparisons I find, from reports made- by St. Joseph; Bridge Company, that the bottom of the "bore" still lacks about 44O' feet of reaching the "Lexington coal," which would be the first coal of any considerable thickness that would be reached. Other valuable coal' beds would lie still lower. These remarks concerning coal beds can be applied, with but slight variation, to localities in the adjoining counties, of Platte, Clinton, DeKalb, and southern parts of Gentry County.

The annual rainfall in the basin, drained by the river at St. Joseph,, averages 19^ inches, while that of the basin below is 36 inches, thus showing that three-fourths of the water flowing out of the Missouri River, at its mouth, passes St. Joseph ; at an ordinary spring flood, 170,"

000 cubic feet pass in a second, with a mean velocity of 26-10 miles- per hour. The fall in the low water channel, for seven miles below the city, is 82-100 of a foot per mile. At low water the channel opposite the city is from 400 to 500 yards wide, and 15 to 30 feet deep. The difference of high and low water is 23 feet.

At the greatest, the narrowest channel opposite the city will be- 1,420 feet wide. Rock is found-at an average of 43 feet below low water, and at no point deeper than 48 feet.

The bed of the river is fine sand on top, with layers of stiff, hard' clay, and coarse sand near the bed-rock ; resting on the bed-rock was found a 2 to 5 feet bed, consisting of medium sized and thoroughlywater-worn boulders mixed with coarse sand ; the boulders composed of red and gray granite, quartz, gneiss, trap, conglomei^te,. agate,, withi some fine quartz specimens containing gold.

The excavations were made to a depth of about 40 feet below thebed of the river, including the upper 30 feet of coarse and fine sand, then 5 feet stiff, blue clay, and lastly a deposit of gravel and boulders, through which flows a stream of clear, pure water, entirely different from, that of the river. 'While ice at the surface was two feet thick, and the mercury below zero, the water from this spring had a uniform. temperatu.re- of 54 degrees.