Water Street Commercial Historic District

" Drainage. - The most marked and persistent feature of the lead region is the long dividing ridge, or water-shed, which, commencing near Madison, continues almost directly west to the Blue Mounds, a distance of about twenty miles. Here it takes a slight bend to the southwest for fifteen miles until it reaches Dodgeville, where it resumes its westerly course until it terminates in the bluffs at the confluence of the Wisconsin and Mississippi Rivers. Its total length is about eighty-five miles. Two points are noticeable - one is its general uniform directness of outline (it being subject to but few and unimportant flexures), and the other is its parallelism with Wisconsin River so long as the latter holds an approximately westerly course, tl\e summit of the ridge being always about fifteen miles from the river. The divide maintains an average elevation of about six hundred feet above Lake Michigan, and is seldom less than five hundred or more than seven hundred, except at the Blue Mounds, where it gradually rises east and west for several miles until it attains an elevation at the west mound of one thousand one hundred and fifty-one feet. This, however, is an extreme case, and, in fact, the only marked exception to the general level. In the town of Mount Hope, a slight decrease of elevation is about four hundred and thirty feet at a point within a mile of both the Mississippi and Wisconsin Rivers. There are also two main branches or subdivisions of the water-shed. Of these, the western is the ridge which separates the waters that flow into the Platte and Fever Rivers from those which flow into the Pecatonica. It leaves the main divide in the town of Wingville, and, passing through the townships of Bellmont and Shullsburg in a southeasterly direction, passes out of the State in the town of Monticello. The ridge is not so conspicuous as the main watershed, either for the directness of its course or the uniformity of its elevation. The most conspicuous points on it are the Platte Mounds, which appear from a distance to be very high, but their height is only relative, their actual elevation being about seven hundred feet above Lake Michigan. The ridge appears to slope somewhat in its approach to Illinois, its average elevation there being about five hundred feet.

Passage source: History of Lafayette County, Wisconsin, Containing an Account of Its Settlement, Growth, Development and Resources; an Extensive and Minute Sketch of Its Cities, Towns and Villages ... Its War Record, Biographical Sketches ... the Whole Preceded by a History of Wisconsin, Statistics of the State, and an Abstract of Its Laws and Constitution, and of the Constitution of the United States, published 1881.

" Prairie and Forest. - The prairie area of the lead region is comparatively small, and seems to be chiefly a continuation of the great prairies of Illinois. The most extensive prairie is that found in the southern part of Grant and La Fayette Counties, comprising the townships of Jamestown, Hazel Green, Benton, Xew Diggings, Shullsburg, Seymour. Monticello and Gratiot. From this there is a branch extending in a northwestern direction (corresponding to the eastern subdivision of the water-shed previously alluded to), until it unites with the main water-shed ; here .it branches to the east and west. The western extension forms a prairie in the towns of Glen Haven, Patch Grove, Little Grant, and some parts of Fennimore and Wingville. The eastern prairie follows the main divide already described, the prairie being from six to ten miles in width. Between the east and west branches of the Pecatonica there is a prairie, including most of the towns of Fayette, Waldwick and Wiota. Small patches of prairie are to be found in other localities. The original timber of the woodland has been mostly cut off, and is replaced by second-growth black, white and burr oak, maple, hickory, poplar and elm, the trees being generally of small size, not exceeding one foot in diameter.

Passage source: History of Lafayette County, Wisconsin, Containing an Account of Its Settlement, Growth, Development and Resources; an Extensive and Minute Sketch of Its Cities, Towns and Villages ... Its War Record, Biographical Sketches ... the Whole Preceded by a History of Wisconsin, Statistics of the State, and an Abstract of Its Laws and Constitution, and of the Constitution of the United States, published 1881.

Machine-read from a century-old scan, so expect the errors a machine makes: misspelled names, dropped words, stray characters.

Read the whole chapter on Shullsburg Town - 23,048 words on its settlement, mills, schools and churches.