Notes on the Northwest, or valley of the upper Mississippi ...

Front matter

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Introduction

The present work covers, in part, new ground geographically : — and differs in design, plan, and mode of treatment, from those that have before appeared descriptive of some portions of the district of which it treats.

Though for more than a century and a half known to the French Missionaries, the voyageurs, and the coureurs des bois, and to those few who went out as discoverers and explorers, yet it was almost wholly an unknown region to our American geographers only twenty years since. Mr. Darby, in his Gazetteer date 1827, says that much of the portion west of the Missisippi is unknown.

Most of the books that have been published in relation to this country, have been designed only for guides to travellers and emigrants ; — and have consequently been subject, so far as the general reader has been concerned, to the twofold objection that they were too much in detail to be of interest to them, or to embody that kind of information, in that shape, that would be valuable ; — and also that by the rapid transitions constantly in progress in this part of the country, they very soon became antiquated and not to be confided in lY INTRODUCTION.

for present information, and possess only the value of a past year's almanac ; the fate necessarily of books of mere details.

The country of which the present volume treats is one of great interest intrinsically, and especially at this time when two new sovereignties are about to be established within its limits. And the object of the writer has been, to put together some notes upon it, in such form as will be interesting to persons seeking general information in relation to the United States, and of such a kind as will be more permanent than the usual chapters of detail.

The physical geography of a country will, of course, remain unchanged, while the descriptions of towns given to-day will hardly apply to the same place w^hen the earth shall come again to the same place in its orbit.

The same is true of the history of a country. What has transpired will not be effaced by a new page, but what is once written will remain.

The other portions of the work are not of so permanent a nature, yet a considerable portion of the remaining three parts will not very soon become obsolete. The population and municipalities, the state of society, and the pursuits of the people, will undergo modifications. They are, however, made to occupy a subordinate place in the work.

The physical description of the country has been drawn almost exclusively from two sources : the writer's own observation, and the very excellent and graphic report of Mr. Nicollet to the Topographical Bureau of the War Department of the United States : from which, being the only published description of a considerable portion of this country,

INTRODUCTION. V

narrated in very animated style, large extracts have been transcribed literally, as better than a reproduction in new shape.

The history has been collected from a variety of sources : some of them of undoubted authenticity. Some of the older relations, however, to which resort must be had to ascertain the early events connected with the discovery of the country, are not to be received without caution. The practice among the French of publishing books in names of other persons, not the authors of them, has thrown doubts over some of its story. M. Tonti disclaimed the authorship of the volume published in his name ; and it is probable the same liberty may have been taken with others.

Parts III. and IV. are principally the result of the writer's observation, aided in some particulars by Mr. Wetmore's Gazetteer of Missouri, by a contribution of a gentleman of Wisconsin, and by some few public documents.

The reports of Mr. Owen and Nicollet, being very full and correct on the geology of this region, large extracts from them have been transcribed in the Appendix, and that part of the volume consists of little else than extracts from these reports and Mr. Keating's descriptions. These form the most complete and satisfactory account of the geology of the district that can be furnished ; and it was thought best to insert them literally. On that account this has been placed in the Appendix, though the subject would make it more appropriate to the body of the work. In the Appendix also is a very curious and interesting extract from Mr. Owen's Report, giving a minute description of some earth work

VI INTRODUCTION

monuments in Wisconsin. These two portions of the Appendix consist of matter suitable to the body of the work : — and to many readers will have more interest than I dare to hope for the original matter. The only reason for placing them in the Appendix is that they are not original matter. This will be a sufficient apology to most readers for the length of the Appendix.

The design of the work is to make an instructive volume for the library — and at the same time, though not strictly a guide, yet more useful to the emigrant than a book of mere details can be, by imparting to him those general ideas of the country which will be always of no less value than a knowledge of minute particulars in relation to certain places.

Contents

PAGE

Introduction ,.<,... , , , , iii Part I. — Physical Geography ....... 1

" II.— History 60

Part I. Physical Geography

This country (^west of Lake Michigan) was almost unknown to geographers twenty years ago. The report of Rev. J. Morse to the Secretary of War, in 1821, states that in 1819 there were but three famihes settled from the mouth of the Illinois up two hundred and forty miles, and Darby, in his Gazetteer (2d edit., 1827), says, "of this immense region" (included between Lakes Michigan and Superior, Rivers Missisippi and Red, the State of Missouri and the northern boundary of the United States) "much remains unknown, and of those parts that have been explored, our information is generally imperfect." [Verb. Michigan.] Galena was settled in 1828; and in 1833, after the Black Hawk war, settlements began on Rock River and the northern parts of Illinois and in Iowa, upon the tract purchased of the Sacs and Foxes. In the list of rivers flowing into the Upper Missisippi, in the same work, are several defects and errors. On the right side. Root and Wabsipinicon and Checagua (or Skunk) are omitted ; and that now known to the inhabitants of Iowa as Tete des Morts, is called Galena. On the left, some considerable streams are not named. The falls of St. Anthony are placed, in the same authority, in latitude 44°, which is one degree south of their true situation.

It is said that the list is given mostly on the authority of Schoolcraft, and they are also moi^e minutely detailed from the circumstances that the valley of the Missisippi is yet imperfectly known, of great importance in the geography of the United States, and that the source of intelligence is recent and respectable. Mr. Darby well said that the knowledge of this region was imperfect ; for we are informed by Mr. Schoolcraft, to whom he refers as a source recent and respectable, that the Rock River Rapids extend six miles up the river. Their length is, in fact, fifteen miles. Another striking instance of the errors in regard to this country, is in the statement of Mr. Brackenridge, that the St. Peter's enters the Missisippi forty miles below St. Anthony, and is navigable one thousand miles to its source — when, in fact, it is nine miles from the falls, and its whole length is less than five hundred miles. In some maps of this country, still more recent, published within twelve years of the time of writmg this, there also appear similar inaccuracies. It is, in fact, only since the termination of the Black Hawk war, and the settlement of the country consequent thereon, that it has become known to geographers and to the world.

The country which is here intended to be included in the name of the Northwest, or the Upper Missisippi valley, is bounded on the east and southeast by the Lake Michigan and the waters connecting it with Lake Superior, and by Illinois River ; on the south, southwest, and west, by the Missouri River ; and on the north by the line separating the territory of the United States from the British Possessions. It comprehends about 10° of latitude, from 39° to 49°, and 14° of longitude, from 87° to 101° (10° to 24° from Washington), and contains about 300,000 square miles. A large part of this tract, consisting of the northern portion, is still held by the Indians ; and the Notes, excepting those relating to the geography, history and climate, will, for the most, apply to its remaining or southeastern portion.

This country has some very pecuhar natural features. The most remarkable of these is the innumerable multitude of lakes that spangle its northern surface, the remains, no doubt, of a vast sea that once covered the whole country extending north from the Gulf of Mexico, and perhaps reaching to Hudson's Bay.

Besides this, there are two great natural features belong*^ ing to the Valley of the Upper Missisippi, which perhaps are never fully realized but by actual inspection. The first consists in the uniformity of elevation, and the shape of the surface. The country, from the outlets of the Illinois and Missouri to St. Peter's, and from the Lake Michigan to Council Bluffs, and beyond that point westerly, is a vast plain, slightly inclining, ascending to the north and to the west. By observations taken between the Missisippi and the Lake, the elevation above the Atlantic has been found a little exceeding 500 feet : and west of the river, in the same parallel, toward the Missouri, something over 700 feet. At St. Peter's it is about 700. Nicollet states, as the result of over one hundred observations taken at Camp Kearney, near Council Bluffs, that that point is 1037 feet above the Gulf ; and the elevation of Rock Island, in the same latitude, on the Missisippi, he says, is 528 ; and the height of Fort Pierre Chouteau, on the Missouri, he states at 1456 ; and the lower end of Lake Pepin, in the same latitude (44^ 24'), 710. The mouth of St Peter's, in about latitude 45°, 744 feet. There are a few elevations above the general range, called mounds : but with the exception of these, the surface is marked only by ravines running from the general level down to the beds of the streams, which are usually from 100 to 200 feet lower.

The other remarkable prominent feature is the vegetable covering of the surface. There are large tracts of country wholly destitute of tree or shrub, and covered only with a luxuriant growth of wild grass, and beautifully interspersed with flowers of every hue and variety, each successively making the prairie to look gay with their presence from April to October. This beautiful natural meadow is not more pleasant to the eye, than it is genial to the culture and grateful to the toil of man. It consists of a very dark brown vegetable mould, in appearance like a mixture of the light feathery part of ashes with a rich ooze. It is mellow beyond the conception of those who are acquainted only with the hard, stiff soils of the Atlantic slope, and as rich and productive as it is mellow. It is turned over by a prairie plough running on wheels and set to cut the turf in a regular and uniform parallelogram, about three inches thick, and fifteen or eighteen inches wdde. This ploughing should be done during the springing of vegetation, or one of the three summer months ; though May would usually be considered better than August for the operation. If done in May or June, it will, in some cases, be ready for a fall sowing, the same year. This mould is from one and a half to two feet deep usually, and sometimes more than that ; and for whole sections, for several townships of six miles square in extent, a person could not find more gravel in the same quantity of mould than in his flour barrel. Below this rich mould is a subsoil, which seems not unsuitable to cultivation, being similar in appearance to the soil of the timbered lands, a yellow light clay, or clay loam. The country is a limestone formation. The timber is only on the streams, and consists of elm, ash, black walnut, butternut, maple, mulberry and iron wood on the bottoms, and on the upland white, red, black, and burr oak, shell bark and common hickoiy, with occasionally linden, birch, wild plum and cherry, locust, and some other. On the Wisconsin and St. Croix are heavy growths of pine, and for several years past a great business has been carried on upon the Missisippi in getting lumber down from those regions to the towns along the river.

The best portions of this Upper Missisippi Valley are upon the western shore of Lake Michigan, including the eastern portion of Wisconsin ; the Illinois and Rock rivers, and their tributaries ; the Missisippi on both sides ; and generally the whole of Iowa. In Iowa the prairies are less extensive than in Illinois, and the proportion of wood is greater. In the southern portion of Iowa, below the Iowa River, the soil is more stiff than to the north of that river, where, by a slight admixture of fine sand, it is made more friable and mellow. By reason of this quality, and being also, for the most part, more level, the land south of that river retains its moisture later in the spring, and the soil thus loses the advantage of time which the climate would give in the difference of latitude.

The soil of the prairie is deeper, and is said also to be richer at a distance from timber than in its vicinity. By scientific examination, it has been found that carbonate of lime enters into its composition in proportion of from twenty to forty per cent. In timber lands the proportion is much less. The first settlers, however, take the timber land for the convenience of fuel and making improvements. Thus the best land is actually the last taken. The soil is of such fertility, that in a few years, if the fires are kept out, there will be an abundant growth for all purposes. In the Gazetteer of Missouri, by Dr. Beck, published in 1823, it is stated that St Louis county is generally prairie : yet, in fifteen years after that date, it was almost wholly covered with a thrifty growth of timber. The same is the case with other places.

The following statement of the geological structure of tliat portion of Illinois known as the military bounty tract, situated in the northern part of the State, is extracted from a volume called ''Illinois in 1837." As it is applicable to all the valley of the Upper Missisippi, with very slight variations, a very accurate idea may be derived from it of the structure of any portion of that countr}^ In Iowa generally the vegetable mould at the top is a little thicker than it is here stated : —

" A scientific gentleman who has recently examined the central parts of the Military Bounty Tract, has given the following as the geological structure of the upland prairies in that region. That the same general structure prevails throughout the entire peninsula (between the Illinois and Missisippi Rivers), and all the central and northern parts of the State, is most probable. 1st. Vegetable mould, formed by the decomposition of gi'ass upon the original clay soil, eight to thirty inches : 2d, pure yellow clay, three to eight feet : 3d, gravelly clay, mixed wqth pebbles, four to ten feet : 5th, limestone rock, two to twelve feet : 5th, shale, covering a stratum of bituminous coal, generally four to five feet thick : 6th, soapstone ; then sandstone. The bed of limestone seems to be universal in this region, it having been discovered in aU the wells that have been dug, and in all the banks of water-courses of any magnitude."

Although no part of this region can with propriety be denominated hilly, yet upon the Wisconsin, Fox, the head waters of Rock and Milwaukie Rivers, the country is considerably diversified with hills, or rather swells, and valleys. The only hills worthy of particular notice, not only in this vicinity, but in the whole section under consideration, are the Ocooch and Smoky Mountains, which are broad and elevated ridges rather than mountains. The former is situated about twelve miles north of the Wisconsin, one hundred miles above its mouth ; and the latter about forty miles south of the portage between the river just mentioned and Fox River of Green Bay. (Long's Expedition, v. ii., p. 335.) The blue mounds, near the Wisconsin ; the Platte mounds, near Platteville ; the Pilot-knob, near Galena ; the Table mound, three miles south of Dubuque ; Sherald's mound and Pike's mountain, may also be named among the lesser elevations of this region, as also Sinsinewa mound. There are some elevations also near the right bank of the Missisippi, above Lake Pepin ; and, in fact, on both sides in that part of the country. The Coteau des Prairies is an extensive and elevated tableland, dividing the w^aters which flow into the Missouri from those falling into the St. Peter's and Missisippi. A range of highlands extends from the Ocooch, on the Wisconsin, to Lake Superior, supposed by Long and Dr. James to be a continuation of the Ozark mountains. The northern section of this highland usually goes under the name of Porcupine Hills.

" It is neither a mountainous, nor a hilly, nor an absolutely flat country," says Nicollet, " exhibiting undulations of the surface that are not entitled to these usual appellations. There are hillocks, swells and uplands, but they have a longitudinal and horizontal rather than a vertical projection. Li other words, it is a beautiful arrangement of upland and lowland plains, that give it an aspect sui generis. The first Frenchmen who explored it, and the British and Americans who followed them, were so forcibly impressed with this novelty in the appearance of the topography, that they employed new names to designate it. Hence we have the expressions coteau des prairies, coteau des hois [highland praij'ie, highland woods^ hauteur des terres [summit of land], and rolling, flat, or marshy prairies. There is still sufficient variety in the irregularities of its surface, and the distribution of the water-courses, woodlands and prairies, to bestow interest and value upon its several sub-divisions.

" The basin of the Upper Missisippi is separated, in a great part of its extent, from that of the Missouri, by an elevated plain, the appearance of which, seen from the valley of the St. Peter's, or that of the Riviere Jacques, looming, as it were, a distant shore, has suggested for it the name of coteau des 'prairies. Its more appropriate designation would be that oi 2^^citeau, which means something more than is conveyed to the mind by the expression, a plain.

" Its northern extremity is in lat. 46°, extending to 43° ; after which it loses its distinctive elevation above the surrounding plains, and passes into rolling prairies. Its length is about two hundred miles, and its general direction N.NW. and S.SE. Its northern termination (called ' tete du coteau,^ in consequence of its peculiar configuration) is not more than fifteen to twenty miles across ; its elevation above the level of the Big Stone Lake is 890 feet ; and above the ocean 1,916 feet. Starting from this extremity (that is, the head of the coteau), the surface of the plateau is undulating, forming many dividing ridges, which separate the waters flowing into the St. Peter's and the Missisippi from those of the Missouri

" Under the forty -fourth degree of latitude the breadth of the coteau is about forty miles, and its mean elevation is here reduced to 1,450 feet above the sea. Within this space its two slopes are rather abrupt, crowned with verdure, and scolloped by deep ravines thickly shaded with bushes, forming the beds of rivulets that water the subjacent plains. The coteau itself is isolated in the midst of boundless and fertile prairies, extending to the west, to the north, and info the valley of the St. Peter's.

*' The plain, at its northern extremity, is a most beautiful tract of land, diversified by hills, dales, woodland and lakes : the latter abounding in fish. The region of country is probably the most elevated betv^een the Gulf of Mexico and Hudson's Bay. From its summit, proceeding from its western to its eastern limits, grand views are afforded. At its eastern border, particularly, the prospect is magnificent beyond description, extending over the immense green turf that forms the basin of the Red River of the North, the forest-capped summits of the hauteurs des terres that surround the sources of the Missisippi, the granite valley of the Upper St. Peter's, and the depressions in which are Lake Travers and the Big Stone Lake.

" The other portions of the coteau, ascending from the lower latitudes, present pretty much the same characters. This difference, however, is remarkable : that the woodlands become scarcer, whilst the open prairies increase in extent. It is very rarely only that groves are met with, to which the N'dacotahs, or Sioux, have given the name of Tchan Witah, or Wood Islands. When these groves are surrounded by water, they assume some resemblance to oases, and hence I have assigned this name to some of them on my map.

" These oases, possessed of a good soil, well wooded, offering an abundance of game, and waters teeming with fish, offer inducements for permanent settlements. In this region there are frequent instances of a marsh or lake furnishing waters to different hydrographical basins, — a fact observed by the Sioux, and which they express in the compound w^ord of iheir dialect, mini-akipan-kaduza ;* — from 7ninij water; akipan, division, share ; and kaduzct, to flow, to run out.'* [Nicollet, pp. 7, 8, 9, 10.]

* Mr. Nicollet seems to mistake the application of the phrase imniaMpan-haduza. Akipan is probably a ridge of land, or, as the white settler calls it, in the very word of the Indians, a divide. The phrase is pro- 2*

The country from Platte River to Council Bluffs is thus described by Nicollet [p. 39, et seq.] : —

" It will be recollected that I have represented the whole bed of clay, divided into two portions by a band of ironstone, as having a nearly uniform thickness of 200 feet, and that it is intermixed with lumps of gypsum and limestone, together with nodules of pyrites ; so that a soil, produced from such materials, could hardly be expected to throw up anything but a meagre vegetation. It is of a character, too, to be so acted upon by atmospheric agents, as to exhibit, by the wear and tear of its superficial portions, every variety of fanciful summits — domes, cupolas, towers, colonnades, &c.; imparting to it a remarkably picturesque appearance, especially when contrasted w4th the dense vegetation that borders the river, and a narrow slip of prairies crowning the summits of the hills that are seen to extend themselves on either side.

" The same physical causes, under other circumstances, produce new effects, that add to the beauty and grandeur of the scenery. Thus, the rains furrow and cut through the plastic and seleniferous clay, down to the most resisting limestone, giving rise to a sort of advancing platform, with a perpendicular elevation of from 30 to 40 feet, resembling a succession of long lines of parapets.

" But I have now reached the proper place to treat of a very interesting phenomenon observed in the midst of this cretaceous group. It manifests itself by the occasional appearance of a dense smoke at the top of some conical hill, or along a line of country bounded by the horizon, so

bably applied to a ridge, and not to a marsh. So Nicollet has himself applied it on his map to the ridge separating the waters of St. Peter's from those of the Missisippi.

as to awaken the idea of distant volcanoes ; hence I have chosen to call them pseudo-volcanoes

" The smoke from these hills and the crevices in the plastic clay is said to last at the same spot for a long time — say two or three years ; indicating at them a large accumulation of combustible materials. It is not, to my knowledge, accompanied by luminous vapors, and is silently wafted along the valley which it mournfully shrouds. The observance of this phenomenon, associated with the frequent recurrence of a peculiar light and spongy stone that the Missouri carries down and strews along its shores, and which has been mistaken for pumice-stone, has led to the often-controverted opinion that there was a volcanic region on the Upper Missouri. There are, however, no true volcanoes over any portion of the United States east of the Rocky Mountains ; and it was this belief that led me to the adoption of the word pseudo-volcano. Neither is the substance found in these regions, and commonly called pumice, a true pumice ; and, by a similar analogy to that which has prompted the name of its probable origin, I have called it a pumiciform stone {roche pumiciforme).

" Before proceeding to account for the appearances and circumstances attending these smoking hills, I must add a few more facts concerning their traditional and recorded history. There were none in activity when I ascended the Missouri in 1839 ; and so would seem to have been the case at the passage of Lewis and Clark at the beginning of this century. But, previous to my arrival, since the memorable expedition last referred to, and during a period of three years, they were seen, as my information goes, by many intelligent persons engaged in the fur-trade, all of whom are naturally observant, and most of them of unquestionable authority. I have no doubt, therefore, of the existence of these hills ; and, in truth, upon a distance of 1 30 miles from Scalp mountain to beyond the Karmichigah, or Great Bend, there is nothing to be seen but a black zone, known to the voyageurs as * les cotes hruUes ' — ' collines brulees,^ — viz : burnt bluffs, or burnt hills.

*' In other respects, the character of the vegetation, which is always scant upon this zone, indicates, in a measure, the epochs when it was visited by these subterranean fires ; the blacker and more sterile parts being the most recently burnt. They are pointed out by the voyageurs, and I have indicated several on my map. The fossil shells, that I have precedingly enumerated, lose their brilliant opalescent appearance, and are partly calcined, though still preserving their specific distinctions. Layers of the clay are also met with, so altered as almost to deserve the mineralogical name of porcellanite ; in fact, all the minerals belonging to the formation exhibit the alteration which might be supposed produced by exposure to that sort of action now to be assigned.

" I believe that these pseudo-volcanic phenomena may be compared with those described as occurring in other portions of the globe, under the name of terrains ardens ; although they are not here accompanied by the emission of flames. They are evidently due to the decomposition, by the percolation of atmospheric waters to them, of beds of pyrites, which, reacting on the combustible materials, such as lignites and other substances of a vegetable nature in their vicinity, give rise to a spontaneous combustion ; whilst further reactions (well understood by the chemist) upon the lime contained in the clay bed, produce the masses and crystals of selenite that are observed in the lower portion of this interesting deposit. This is the theory which, with some little confidence, we have formed of these pseudo-volcanoes.

" It may be interesting to future travellers to learn that.

in order to collect both fossils and most interesting specimens of crystallized selenite, without taking the trouble of making diggings, it is only necessary to perambulate the zone of plastic clay shortly after it has been washed by heavy rains. Under such circumstances, should they be favored moreover by the reflections of the sun, they will be struck with the appropriateness of the designation of these hills, as applied both by the voyageurs and Indians — ^namely, of shining mountains. In truth, it is not unlikely that these hills, a portion of them attaining an elevation of from 500 to 700 feet above the river, were some of those referred to by the Sioux of the Missisippi, who, conversing with the first white men who visited them, and long afterwards with Capt. Carver, spoke of the Shining Mountains of the West.

•' These (so named) pseudo-volcanoes are not, however, confined to the valley of the Missouri. Traces of them are not unfrequently found over the more westerly regions, as far as the upper portions of the rivers called by the Indians Mankizitah and Waslitey. The name of Mankizitah-ivatpa, usually translated by that of " White-earth-river" (or simply White river), means, more properly, Smoking Earth river ; whence I have concluded that these indications of pseudo-volcanoes were at the same time evidences of the recurrence of the upper members of the cretaceous formation, the limit of which I have assigned as being somewhere eastward of the Black Hills. The name of ' Mauvaises Terres' (bad lands) has been applied to districts cut up into deep and intricate chasms, from which the traveller could hardly hope to extricate himself without the assistance of a good guide, and that are doubtless due to the burning out of their pseudo-volcanoes.