History of Hamilton County, Iowa

LOCATION AND TOPOGRAPHY-OUR SOIL AND ITS ORIGIN-ECONOMIC PRODUCTS INVESTIGATION-W. L. CLARK'S ESTIMATE OF OUR MINERAL WEALTH-WATER SUPPLIES--THE BOONE RIVER-THE WEBSTER CITY RESERVOIR WELLS-MC

-POWER POSSIBILITIES-FISH AND
MURRAY'S REPORT.

CLAMS-TIMBER-ARTESIAN

LOCATION AND TOPOGRAPHY

Hamilton county is located very near the centre of the state of Iowa. Its present limits were established by an act of the legislature in 1850 and it was then named Risley, in honor of a Colonel Risley, who was killed in the Mexican war. The county is twenty-four miles square and embraces, according to government survey, the congressional townships, 86, 87, 88, and 89 north, in ranges, 23, 24, 25, and 26 west of the 5th principal meridian.

It is bounded on the north by Wright county, on the east by Hardin county, on the south by Story and Boone counties, and on the west by Webster county. The topography as a whole, presents a comparatively level plain with a gentle slope to the south, which will average perhaps from one to two feet per mile. This level plain is broken by the Boone river which extends from north to south through the western tier of townships and by a range of small morainic hills which extend from the southwest corner of the county eastward through Marion, Clear Lake and Ellsworth townships until near Jewell the direction changes to the northward, through Lyon, Liberty and Williams townships. These hills are very interesting to the student of geology. They are curious both in individual appearance and arrangement. Sometimes there will be a single hill, quite regular in shape resembling an Indian mound. Sometimes they are in groups, and again they are found in a continuous range. These hills were not caused by the action of wind and water but were caused by forces that affected the whole topography. Mr. Thomas H. McBride in his report of the geological survey of Hamilton county gives the following description of their origin:

"Such hills or knolls, are thought to represent the modified remnants of an ancient moraine, a glacial deposit left here at some time in the history of the world, not very long gone by, when the great mass of snow and ice which

still persists about the north pole of our world came very much further south, even here to Iowa, a vast glacier, pushing and spreading by its own weight along the ground, leveling the hills, filling the valleys, so long as it moved, and finally leaving these scattered piles of drift and debris where its margin rested, and the glacier along its southern border, checked its southeast advance, shortened it, diminished it, caused it to recede even farther and farther north until it paused at last only as a great snow cap to the planet, covering Greenland and other icy lands, generally away north of the Arctic circle even as we see it this day.

"Wright and Hamilton counties are just within the limits of the old glacier's furthest eastward spread or push. Traces of similar topography extend almost to Ackley along the line of the Illinois Central and almost to Hampton along the Great Western Railway, but the high hills of Dows, and those about Iowa Lake are the most striking evidences of the glacier's pause, while points near Hampton and Ackley may fix for us the very furthest reach of glacial action. The hills referred to, mark perhaps a second limit when the glacier, once melted quite away, came down again, only once more to meet with check, once more dissolve away, and this time disappear for good."

OUR SOIL AND ITS ORIGIN

The surface of the earth throughout Hamilton County is composed of what geologists call "Wisconsin Drift." It is a sort of clay more or less intermixed with pebbles and the later formation is of a light yellowish color. When this yellow clay has been exposed to the weather and is mixed with decayed vegetation, it becomes black and forms the richest and most fertile soil. The Wisconsin Drift varies in depth from five or six feet to 100 feet, the average depth being perhaps about 50 feet.

If the student who is interested in the study of this formation will go to the high bluff which flanks Boone river on the south just north of Lawn Hill addition to Webster City, he will find a vertical exposure some 85 feet in thickness. This shows about 70 feet of Grey Wisconsin drift, 12 feet of yellow Wisconsin drift, and about 3 feet of black soil.

It is thought that the river at this point cuts clear through the Wisconsin drift formation and that the exposure here furnished is one of the best to be found in the county, though there are of course many others along the course of the Boone river. The surface of this formation in Hamilton county, while, on the whole almost level, was filled with small depressions from a fraction of an acre to 20 acres in extent. These depressions filled with water and formed sloughs or swamps and in pioneer days, there was hardly a quarter section of prairie land in the entire county that did not have within its borders, several of these sloughs. These sloughs were not confined to the lower lands but were found at all elevations, some even on top of the Morainic hills which range through the county. These swamps, though looked upon with extreme aversion by early settlers, were in fact storehouses of agricultural wealth for when they were once thoroughly drained, they became the richest and most productive land to be found.

The soil of Hamilton county is very uniform in character and is usually described as "black loam." This black loam is from three to five feet in depth and when thoroughly drained and cultivated, is of most astonishing productiveness..

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History of Hamilton County, Iowa, Volume 1