THE DISCOVERY, SETTLEMEXT, GEOGRAPPIICAL LOCATION, TOPOGRAPHY, NATURAL RESOURCES, GEOLOGY, CLIMA- TOLOGY, COMMERCIAL FACILITIES, AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTIVENESS, MANUFACTURING ADVAN- TAGES, EDUCATIONAL INTERESTS, IIEALTH- FULNESS, GOVERNMENT AND THE LXI’ELLENC’E OF THE SOCIAL AND MORAL LiFE OF, THE STATE OE IOWA The Brighfesf Star in the flrnerican Constellafiorj. CHARLES ASHTON, JAMES 0. CROSBY AND J. W. JARNAGIN, Committee on Archaeological, Historical and Statistical Information, Iowa Columbian Commission. PUBLISHED BY THE COMMISSION A. D., 1893. ERRATA. Page 14, last line, first paragraph, omit the word one. Page 17, in fourth line from top, for Northwestern read Northeastern. Page 61, ninth line, fourth paragraph, for 1880 read 1870. Page 64, first line, first paragraph, for country read county. Page 77, bottom line, for own read now. Page 138, bottom line, third paragraph, read, and are winning highest honors. NOTE. We are indebted to the office of the Superintendent of Public Instruc- tion for Chapter XXVIII of this work. 1 IOWA STATE CAPITOL. fl HAND BOOK OF IOWA, OR THE DISCOVERY, SETTLEMENT, GEOGRAPHICAL LOCATION, TOPOGRAPHY, NATURAL RESOURCES, GEOLOGY, CLIMA- TOLOGY, COMMERCIAL FACILITIES, AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTIVENESS, MANUFACTURING ADVAN- TAGES, EDUCATIONAL INTERESTS, HEALTH- FULNESS, GOVERNMENT, AND THE EXCELLENCE OF THE SOCIAL AND MORAL LIFE OF THE STATE OE IOWA. The Brightest Star in the Arnerican Constellation. CHARLES ASHTON, JAMES 0, CROSBY AND J. W. JARNAGIN, Committee on Archaeological, Historical and Statistical Information, Iowa Columbian Commission. PUBLISHED BY THE COMMISSION A. D., 1893. Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2017 with funding from University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Alternates https://archive.org/details/handbookofiowaOOiowa TABLE OF CONTENTS. I. PAGE. Introdnctory^Remarks 1 II. The Name Iowa. Origin, Meaning 1 III. Discovery. By whom. Time. Place 1 IV. Settlement, Providential Circumstances. Rapid Development 3 V. Boundaries and Area 5 VI. Geographical Location 0 VII. Topography. Elevations. Landscapes. Rivers. Lakes, Spirit Lake Massacre 1 VIII. Iowa a Prairie State. Advantages for Settlement, Changed Conditions. 12 IX. Geological Surveys 14 X. The Geology of Iowa. Relation of Geology to Agriculture. Forma- tions. Rocks. Soils. Coal, Etc 14 XI. Climatology. Importance of climatic conditions. General climatic features. Precipitation. Temperature, Etc 28 XII. Natural Resources. Water. Medicinal Waters. Soil. Clays. Sands, Stone. Gypsum. Coal, Iron. Lead. Zinc 42 XIII. Commercial Facilities. River Navigation. Railroads. First Pro- jected. Construction. Land Grants in aid of. Present Mileage. General Distribution. Present Taxable Valuation. Tonnage Carried. Earnings. Number of employees. Salaries, etc 51 XIV. Postal Facilities. Telegraphs. Telephones 57 XV. I'Acr,, Hanking. State and Savings l>anks. (Capital. I)ej)OHitH, Ktc. Hrivate lianks. Ijoan and Trust (Joiniianies, National Hanks, (’ai)ital. deposits .'57 XVI. Insurance. Fire and Life. Home and Foreign ('ompanies. V’olnme of Hnsiness, Etc ,78 XVII. Development of Wealth. Demonstration of Figures, (k)mparative (Ti’owtli of Po])ulation and Wealth .70 XVI 1 1. Finance and Taxation 02 XIX. Agricultural Excellence and Productiveness. Hank of State, in Area and Population, (train Productiveness. Demonstrative Figures. Value of Agricultural Production f34 XX. The Oldest Tjegends of the Origin of Maize 08 XXT. The Live Stock Industry. Its (trovvth. Comparative Values. Grain Products and Live Stock. Six Leading Stales — Iowa Leading. Cattle. Sheep. Swine. The (trasses. Flax 75 XXII. The Dairy Industry. Number of Milch Cows in the Country, Value, Etc. Number and Value of Milch Cows in Iowa Compared with Other Leading States. low^a Dairy Display at the Centennial and the New Orleans Expositions. Value of Iowa’s Dairy Pro- ducts. Their Importance in our Agricultural Industry 70 XXIII. Horticulture. Nurseries. Their Number. Value. Employees. Value of Products. Fruit Production. Shipments. Vegetable Pro- duction. Hands Employed. Productions. Growth of the Industry. Floriculture. Florist Establishments. Male, Female Employees. Seed Farms. Value of Products. State Encouragement. State Societies. State and other Fairs. Poultry 81 XXIV. The Native Flora of Iowa 86 xxV. Forests and Artificial Groves. Growth of Woods, Etc 89 XXVI. Manufacturing Interests. Inviting Outlook for Manufacturing Itidustries 90 XXVIl. Tin* Iowa f’lsh Commission and its Work 95 XX VI 11. f’irst Schools. Law of 1858. The System I'klucation in Iowa. I’ACK. Described. School Houses. School Finances. Educational Associations. State Schools. Closing Suniinary h(i XXIX. Public Libraries 105 XXX. Churches and Church Work in Iowa. Crowth. Denominational Organizations. Statistical Table. Denominational and Non- Sectarian Colleges and Universities. Parochial Schools 105 XXXI. Iowa Palaces. Corn Palace, Flax Palace, Blue (Irass Falace, Coal Palace 115 XXXII. Iowa Books and Authors 110 XXXIII. Iowa and Patriotism 127 XXXIV. Iowa and Art loO XXXV. Iowa in AVorld’s Expositions. At Paris. At New Orleans. In the World’s Columbian Exposition 180 XXXVI. Population tabulated. 1840, 1850, 1860, 1870, 1880, 1890 141 XXXVII. State Government and Institutions 148 XXXVIII. Pauperism 158 XXXIX. The Newspaper Press 158 INTRODUCTORY... Of Iowa we write. Our task is to set forth its discovery, settlement, geographical location, topographical features, geology, climate, soils, minerals, rivers, agricultural advantages and productiveness, its commer- cial opportunities, educational facilities, development, progress and the excellence of its intellectual, social and moral life. The subject is broad yet inviting, the duty is a pleasant one, yet in many respects one difficult of accomplishment. The artist who would attempt to present with the brush the grandeur of hue and majestic form of the bow of promise would find the task to lie beyond the reach of his culture or the grasp of his endow- ments. So the pen is inadequate to present in its bright and wdnsome reality this realm of topographical beauty, rich resources, gracious climate and excellent development which earth’s millions now know as the State of Iowa. * THE NAHE, IOWA. Prior to the settlement of the region a tribe of the aboriginal inhabi- tants were designated by a term from which we have the name of Iowa. An intelligent and early pioneer of the territory now forming the state, well acquainted with its native tribes and their languages, Mr. Antoine Le Claire, stated that this word, used by its original inhabitants to designate the portion of the country which they occupied, signified “This is the land.” Pre-eminently among its sister states Iowa is “the land.” DISCOVERY. Iowa was first seen by white men in the summer of 1673, two hundred and twenty years ago. The French settlers then occupying Lower Canada, in exploring the great lakes and their connections, had reached Mackinaw, and the Catholic church had formed at that place a missionary settlement. In their association with the Indians its missionaries heard of a great river in the west that came out of the north and flowed into the far-away south, and a wonderful land along its shores. So enrapturing were the descrip- tions given of the “Father of Waters” and the beauties of the treeless land bordering it, that an educated missionary, then laboring at Mackinaw for the conversion of the Indians, became possessed of an intense desire to explore it. Louis Joliet, a young man of Canadian birth, but of French descent, well educated, active and ambitious, traveling under the authority of the government of Quebec, reached Mackinaw in one of his adventurous voyages of exploration. There he met Jacques Marquette, an educated missionary priest. These two energetic men with five French-Canadian attendants, left Mackinaw on the thirteenth day of May, 1673, in two bark HAND BOOK OF IOWA. canoes to reac;li, if possible, the great river of whi(;h they had heard, and explore “the beantifnl land.” Father Manpiette and his eompatiion, .Joliet, were both intent on enlarging tlue dominion of the French government, but the former was more directly concerned in pro[)agating the (latholic faith among the native tribes in the then unknown interior region of this then unknown west. Ijcaving Mackinaw in their two canoes, frail vessels for such a voyage, with “some Indian corn and some dried meats as their stock of provisions,” these intrei)id Christian leaders coasted along the western shores of laike Michigan into Green Bay. On reaching the month of the Fox River they entered it and ascended to the i)ortage, where, being directed by Indian guides, they transferred their canoes and j)rovisions to the Wisconsin river and descended the stream. On the seventecmth day of June when near its mouth they looked across a greater stream, the “Missi,” great, and “ftepe”, river, on the western shore of which ro8(‘ the high bluff on which, in 1805, JJeut. Pike planted the United States Hag. Then had they the first view ever enjoyed by white men of the strange land on the sunset side of the great river which their venturous voyage was made to discover. Of the thoughts and emotions of those men, forming that day the vanguard of our present Christian civilization in this central west, we have no record. Something of the strange musings they indulged as they rode in their fragile vessels amidst their strange, weird surroundings, we are left to imagine. Gliding slowly down the great stream on that June day, the valley and the not far away hills that bound it were clothed in summer luxuriance. As they entered the Mississippi to their right, but little above them on the Wisconsin shore lay a beautiful prairie, reaching miles up the great stream and some three miles back from the river, but this they did not see. In front of them on the Iowa side of the larger river were the high bluffs, but turning down the stream they were soon in a delightful river archipelago. The first Iowa prairie they beheld was that on which the town of Guttenburg was built. In all this varying scenery they saw no sign of human form or habitation. It is said they rode on the river four days before the first sign of human inhabitant was seen. Then they beheld human footprints in the sand. How profound the solitude in which they rode ! How wonderfully different that great valley now from its condition, then ! Those men must have been conscious that they were in a vast in- habitable region, but had but slight conception of its present wonderful develoi)ment and civilization, more beneficent than any which in their day shed blessings upon humanity; which in this celebrative year graces with its wealth of happiness the dwellers in the great central region which they then discovered, but now having world-wide fame alike for its beauty and its j)roductiveness. In this commemorative year which calls the millions of the na- tion to the shores of the great lake, from which those men began their voyage, should any of these millions traverse this interior region they will lind on the short's of the great river then discovered, ten Christian com- mon wealths, all fretg powerful states, yet parts of this one imAverful Nation- ality. Those ten statt's have a po])ulation of nineteen millions of Christian THE FIRST SPOT IN IOWA SEEN BY ITS DISCOVERERS THE SETTLEMENT OF IOWA. 3 people, anci possess a wealth surpassins: the riches of the wealthiest nation of as recent date as Iowa’s discovery; while on that tree-clad, western shore, on which those men first looked with inquiring anxiety, there is now^ this beautiful state, the home of two millions of the most prosperous, intelligent, orderly and happy people of earth. In the intervening years, this region, then nameless to those adventurous voyagers, largely covering the fertile peninsula formed by the two largest rivers of the country, then an unex- plored, herbage-covered land, inhabited only sparsely by an uncultured, savage race, has made a progress in civilized attainment that must ever be the marvel of the country’s history. Here are now commercial facilities, manufacturing forces, educational advantages, and a Christian freedom and liberality unknown to the world when this beautiful portion of the country was discovered. THE SETTLEMENT OF IOWA. The territory bordering the Mississippi river extending eastward of that stream to the Alleghanies and vrestward to the Rocky Mountains, and from the Gulf by which thrives the stately palm and fragrant orange, to the great lakes, was by right of discovery subject to the crown of France. In the course of human events that portion of this interior territory west of the Mississippi and reaching from Lake Superior to the Gulf of Mexico passed under the dominion of the Spanish crown. In 1800 Spain receded this great territory to the French government. That part of the original French possessions in this region lying north of the Ohio and east of the Mississippi had, by the conquest of Canada, become subject to the British crown, and by the fortunes of war in the American Revolution had subsequently be- come United States territory. In 1803, by the treaty arrangement known as the Louisiana Purchase, France ceded its possessions along the Missis- sippi river to the United States government. The wise action of the Jeffer- son administration in extending the western frontier of the country to the Rocky Mountains, secured to this fertile prairie-interior the advantages, forever, of free government and liberal laws. When the Revolutionary war closed settlements soon began to extend west of the Alleghanies from New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia and the New England states. In 1802 Ohio was admitted into the Union. In 1730 the French had formed a settlement at Vincennes and in 1809 Indiana was given state government. Yet in 1810 its population numbered only 23,890 white persons. In 1720 the French had formed a settlement at Kaskaskia. In 1818, lacking but two years of a century thereafter, Illinois was given a place as a state in the Union. Yet in the centennial anniversary year of the founding of that settlement at Kaskaskia that state con- tained a population of only 53,788 white persons. A French settlement was formed at Detroit, Michigan, in 1701 but the census of 1830, taken 129 years thereafter, reported the population of the Michigan territory at only 31,346. Several more years passed before the American Congress gave it statehood. At the close of the first third of the present century the population of the four states formed out of the old Northwestern Territory covering the region between the Ohio river, the Mississippi and the Great Lakes had a 4 HAND BOOK OF IOWA. l)oi>ulatioii only a littlo in excess of ()ne and a half millions of white per- sons. In 1870, forty-three 3 "ears after the permanent settlement of Iowa began, it had a larger i)opulation than M ichigan, the settlement of which was commenced a century and a half before the first settlement was founded in Iowa. For IFjj^ears after the discovery of Iowa by Joliet and Manpiette it remained virtually an unknown land. Iti that cycle of slow transi)ortation, limited reading, but numerous discoveries of new lands, the discover}' /)f this interior ]M)rtion of the North American contitient had failed to attract public attention. No effort was made to effect any settlement within the borders of what is now the state of Iowa, until the fall of 1788. Julien Du- buque, an adventurous French trader, having secured from the Indians a grant of land extending southwardly from the Little Maqiioketa river seven leagues along the Mississippi by three leagues itdand, embracing about 121,()()0 acres, formed a settlement thereon. On it, it is said Dubuque “improved an extensive farm, built houses to dwell in, erected a horse mill, cultivated the farm and mined lead.” He died in 1810 and his possessions w'ere soon controlled b}' others. The Indians becajne dissatisfied with the lead mining and other conduct of their French and half breed neighbors, drove them from their mines and homes, and broke up the settlement. In March 1799 Louis Ilonori obtained a grant of land from the gov- ernment of Upper Louisiana in Lee county, where the town of Montrose now stands, near the head of the rapids in the Mississippi river. The tract was sold from him in 1803 and a settlement, founded by him, was abandoned. Various venturesome parties of hunters, trappers and Indian traders made temporary settlement along the Mississippi, within the limits of Iowa, from 1820 to 1830, but did not permanentl}' remain. In 1809 a military post had been established on the present site of Ft. Madison. The troops however did not long occupy the post, its establishment having been in violation of treaty stipulation made with the Indian occupants of the region it was abandoned by the government. The cit}' of St. Louis was founded in 1764. It soon had trade with the Indians. In 1804 that city, the river approaches of which were then navigated by only flat boats and Indian canoes, passed, by the Louisiana Pur- chase, under the dominion of the United States government. Three years later Pobert Fulton made his successful trial trip on the Hudson with the “Clermont”, and steam, as a motive power on American rivers, was demon- strated to be a practical force, and soon had large application. In 1817 the first steamboat reached St. Louis. That city then passed from its primal stage, as a mere trading post for Indians and hunters, to a growing and im- ])ortant commercial center. Steam navigation being apjdied on the Ohio ami Mississipj)! brought settlers into southwestern Illinois and northeastern Missouri and prejiaredthe way for the settlement of Iowa. The western liorder of Iowa was lirst traced in 1805 by the Lewis and Clark exp(Mlition on its famous journey across the continent by way of the Missouri atid Columbia rivers. Maj. Pike traced its eastern border as he asceiKhid tin; Mississipj)! river to its source about the same time. The re- ports of tli(*s(! exix'ditions i)ublished by the government, with the reports of the JfiuriieyH of hunters and Indian traders through the t('rritoi\v, spread BOUNDARIES AND AREA. 5 knowledge of the remarkable beauty and natural excellence of this then far western region. When the Indians were finally subdued by the defeat of Black Hawk at the “Bad Axe” in 1833, and permanent safety was thereby assured to venturesome pioneers, settlements rapidly formed on the Iowa side of the Mississippi. No region, ever opened for settlement, offered more inviting advantages to home seekers, and they were rapidly embraced. In 1833 the area now comprising the state of Iowa was a part of the ter- ritory of Michigan. Its legislature organized two counties within what is now Iowa, naming them Des Moines and Dubuque. Three years later, namely in 1836, Congress organized the territory of Wisconsin — Iowa con- stituting a part of that territory. In 1838 the territory of Iowa was consti- tuted by act of Congress, and Robert Lucas of Ohio was appointed to the office of Governor. The first legislature of the Iowa territory assembled November 12th, 1838, at Burlington. Iowa, as a territory, embraced a con- siderable portion of what is now the state of Minnesota, and had almost un- limited expansion toward the setting sun. On the opening of Iowa for settlement in 1833 settlers rushed into the lead mining regions surrounding Dubuque, and that city was founded. In 1836, three years after Iowa was opened for settlement, the population of the territory numbered 10,315. Two years later the population had in- creased to 22,850. In the census of 1840, taken but seven years after the territory was opened for settlement, the population numbered 43,112. Six years later a state enumeration found the population to be upward of 100,- 000. The star of empire was taking its way westward, the people of the timber-clad east had heard of the beauty and richness of this prairie land wffiere a farm could be made in a season with a yoke of oxen and a plow, and were coming in by thousands to enjoy the beauty of its broad landscapes, the glory of its sunshine, the purity of its waters and the fertility of its acres. In 1850, but seventeen years after the building of the first cabin in its permanent settlement, the second national enumeration therein reported a population of 192,214 free men and women. December 8, 1846, but thirteen years after its first permanent settlers entered upon its soil, Iowa was admitted into the Union. The fame of its wonderful natural meadows and the beauty and fertility of its prairies had spread, not only over this country, but had crossed the seas and the people of other countries, as well as the states in the east were crowd- ing in to find homes in this richly inviting region of the prairie west. BOUNDARIES AND AREA. The constitution under which low’a was admitted into the Union fixed the boundaries of the state as follows “Beginning in the middle of the main channel of the Mississippi river at a point due east of the middle of the mouth of the main channel of the Des IMoines river, thence up the mid- dle of the main channel of the said Des Moines river, to a point on said river where the northern boundary line of the state of Missouri, as estab- lished by the constitution of that state, adopted June 12th, 1830 — crosses the said middle of the main channel of the said Des Moines river, thence westwardly along the said northern boundary line of the state of Missouri 6 HAND BOOK OF IOWA. as established at the time aforc^said, until the extension of said lim* inter- sects the middle of the main channel of the Missouri river; tlumce up th(‘ middle of the main clmnnel of the said ^lissouri river to a ])oint opposite the middle of the main channel of the Pug 8ioux river, intersected hy the parallel of forty-three degrees thirt}' minutes north latitude, (a range of latitude possessing u temperate climate most highly favorable for agricul- tural production.) The area of the state covers on the forty-secorid parallel six ranges of townships east of the tiftli Ih M., the fourteenth meridan west of Washington and the ninetieth west from Greenwich, and on the same ])arallel forty-five townshii)8 west of that meridan. Estimating each town- ship at six miles the state has an extreme length east and west of IlOO miles hy a breadth of about 204 miles, including in its breadth thirty-four sur- veyed townships. According to a report made by the Secretary of the Treasury to the United States Senate in iSfarch, 1802, it embraces 5o,044 S(iuare miles, or 25,220,200 acres — an area larger than Scotland, almost as large as England, four times tlie size of the kingdom of Denmark, five times as large as Eelgium; three times as large as the kingdom of Greece, that made the world’s i)re-Christian history interesting by it glorious deeds and the splendor of its philosophy and architecture; and it is five times the area of the laud of Judea, that gave to the world its noblest ethical code, and to the race its Redeemer. Such is the state of Iowa in its location and area; greater than many powerful, wealthy kingdoms in extent, and the equal of great empires in natural resources. The free bestowment of the beneficent Creator, its pro- ductive capabilities are yet unmeasured, its every acre being fertile. Bar- ren, rocky, sterile, sandj^ or great swamp areas being unknown in its extent, its ultimate wealth producing power cannot be estimated. GEOGRAPHICAL LOCATION. An artist once represented Columbus as standing and surveying the North American continent. When his eyes rested upon the brightest spot, central in the vast expanse, that spot was named Iowa. Geographically it is centrally located in this union of states. On the forty-second parallel its eastern boundary is ui)wards of one thousand miles from the Atlantic’s tide by Plymouth Rock, while on the same parallel from its western border to the Pacific’s surf-beaten shore, fifteen hundred miles intervene. From the northern line of the state to the British possessions by the Lake of the Woods, the distance is four hundred miles, while between the southern bor- der of the state and the Gulf coast lie the states of JMissouri, Arkansas and J.ouisiana, covering an expanse of 700 miles, A position so central in the richest, freest and most i)Owerful nation of modern times, and central in the vast system of river navigation connected with the great streams that form its eas1(!rn and western boundaries, and so situated that the i)rincipal lines of railway binding ocean to ocean must cross its territory, must ever possess incalculable advantages in tin* s(‘curity its location alTords, the markets it asHuiais, and tlu' commcj’cial advantage's that must ('ver ac(‘rue to its citizens. TOPOGRAPHY. 7 TOPOGRAPHY. Iowa is not only princely in its area and highly fortunate in its geo- graphical location, but it is winsome in its topography. In the days of a geographical ignorance, which an intelligent world remembers now with smiles, Iowa may have been placed in school-book maps in “The Great American Desert.” But if this beautiful and fertile state was ever a desert, then surely it was that one of which the Lord’s prophet spoke when he de- clared “The wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad for them and the desert shall rejoice and blossom as the rose. ****** The glory of Lebanon shall be given unto it and the excellency of Sharon.” No grander cedars ever grew on Lebanon than now adorn Iowa homes, and no more beautiful or fragrant roses ever bloomed along the sunny slopes of Sharon than now grow in this realm of Edenic loveliness. One of the more noticeable features of the topography of Iowa is the entire freedom of the state from barren, rocky elevations, or other waste lands. It has no Saharas, dismal swamps, nor fever-breeding everglades. From railroad surveys and other sources of information we have defin- ite knowledge of the elevation of the chief portions of the state. Low water in the Mississippi at the southeastern corner of the state, its lowest point, being 444 feet above sea level. The point recognized as its highest elevation is on the summit divide near Spirit Lake, Dickinson county, it being estimated at 1250 feet above low water at Keokuk, giving the highest point in Iowa an elevation of only 1,604 feet; between these extremes in elevation lies all of Iowa. To show more clearly by comparison the moderate elevations of this area, w'e notice that its highest point is 165 feet lower than the Union Pacific railroad grade in the Platte valley at Grand Island, Nebraska, the grade at that station being 1,860 feet above tide. The water in the Big Sioux river at the northwestern corner of the state is 1344 feet above the tide level. This is the descent from that point to the Gulf of Mexico via the Missouri and Mississippi rivers. The crest of the state or the summit forming the water shed between the waters of the Mississippi and the Missouri lies diagonally across the state; its general trend being from the northwest to the soutlieast. Entering Iowa from Minnesota where it separates the waters of the Des Moines and Little Sioux rivers, it leaves the state entering Missouri near the southeast corner of Appanoose county, there separating the waters of the Chariton river from the Fabius creek, having crossed in its course through the state Dickinson, Clay, Buena Vista, Sac, Carroll, Audubon, Guthrie, Adair, Madi- son, Union, Clark, Lucas, Monroe and Appanoose counties. The altitude of this important ridge is shown by the elevations at which it is crossed by the five chief railroad lines crossing the state from east to west. The most southern of these lines is the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy. It touches this great water-shed twice. First at Chariton, Lucas county, at an elevation of 1,080 feet, and the second time at Murray, Clark county, thirty-seven miles west of Chariton at an altitude of 1,268 feet. This line of road reaches its highest altitude in the state at Creston, Union county, 1,355 feet, on the divide separating the Platte and Grand HAND BOOK OF IOWA. rivers, aflluents of the Missouri. The (Jhicjii^o, Rock Island and Pacific railroad, the next line north of the one first named, crossesdhis waterslnnl in the northwestern part of Adair county, at the town of Adair, at an eleva- tion of 1,881) feet. The summit of the divide at this point is fifty feet above the railroad grade. The Chicago and Xorthwesterji railroad crosses this watershed at or near Arcadia, in Carroll county, at an elevation of 1,487 feet. The Dubiupie and Sioux City (Illinois Central) crosses it at Alta. Buena Vista county, at an altitude of 1,521 feet. Thus the three roads named reach their highest elevations in the state at the crossing of this divide. The Chicago, Milwaukee and 8t. Paul railway crosses it at or near Buthven, Palo Alto county, at an elevation of 1,424 feet, but this road reaches its summit elevation at Sanborn, O’Brien county, 1,587 feet above tide, on the divide separating the east and west branches of the Floyd river. The facts here stated show the evenness of the altitude of the summit of the state and that there is a very moderate and easy descent across the state from the northwest to the southeast. From Sanborn to Chariton the descent is 475 feet. The distance is two hundred miles in a direct line, the descent averaging 2.37 feet to the mile. Any map of Iowa will show that the rivers in that part of the state which lies east of the great watershed, trend toward the southeast and flow into Mississippi, and that in the portion lying west of that summit all the rivers flow into the IMissouri with a southwesternly trend. The traveler crossing Iowa soon discovers that, although a prairie state, and lying under the moderate elevations given, it is not a breadth of swampy levels, but a realm of beautiful undulations, — in some places rising from the streams somewhat abruptly but seldom precipitously. The divides separating the numerous streams generally rising to an altitude of 175 to 250 feet, afford a constant succession of changing scenery. No country affords more graceful land- scapes, when clothed in summer’s green or when its groves are dyed in their autumn robes of silver, scarlet, gold and purple. Iowa landscapes are grandly beautiful, and the traveler sees a breadth of farm homes beautiful in situation and surroundings. The great fields of growing grain, in their season, add beauty to the delighting panoramas by every shade of green, covering the broad and billowy areas over which the eye extends. In the summer season great herds and flocks feed amid blooming flowers and rich herbage, and add enchanting variety to the inviting picture. In that season the enriching, life-giving sunshine paints the floral gemmed-meadows with a brilliancy of hue that makes the broad landscapes over which the vision reaches, constantly discovering new charms, superbly winsome. Para- phrasing tlie language of inspiration we may truly say, “beautiful for situa- ion, and tlie joy of her people” is beautiful, fertile Iowa. RIVERS. Iowa is a realm of Ixuiutiful, ])erennial streams flowing in deep chan- nels and with ra])i(l curnmt. Prof. WHiite in the first volume of his report on tin; geology of tlu^ stab;, tabulatc's the desc('nt of the i)rincipal rivers of the slate, according to railroad surva^ys and other sources of information which we h(‘r(! copy. FARM HOnE ON THE CREST OF IOWA. RIVERS. 9 > Namk OF River. Part of Course. Slope PER Mile. FT. IN. Authority. Missiesippi From Lansing to the Confluence of the Missouri 6 J.E.Ainsworth- Missouri 1 R. R. Surveys- Des Moines From Fort Dodge to Ottumwa o 4 R. R. Surveys- Des Moines .. From Ottumwa to its mouth 1 11 R. R. Surveys- o 11 R. R. Surveys.. North Raccoon From Jefferson to Forks near Van Meter 4 R. R. Surveys- Skunk . 1 6 R. R. Surveys- Skunk From Colfax Station to Oakland o 2 R. R. Surveys.- Iowa From Iowa Falls to Iowa City 3 1 R. R. Surveys.. Iowa From Iowa City to its mouth o 4 R. R. Surveys. Cedar.... .... From State boundary to Cedar Falls 3 R. R. Surveys- Cedar From Cedar Falls to Moscow 2 5 R. R. Surveys- Wapsipinicon . From Independence to mouth 2 10 J.E. Ainsworth. Maquoketa From Manchester to the mouth 3 4 J.E. Ainsworth. Turkey From Cr.nne Creek to the month. ... 5 R. R. Levels. Upper Iowa.. . From Decorah to the mouth 8 6 R. R. Levels. E. Nishnabotna From C. R. I. & P. R. R. to mouth 2 5 R. R. Levels. W Nishnabotna From C. R. I. & P. R. R. to mouth 2 8 R. R. Levels.. Boyer From Denison to its mouth 3 3 R. R. Levels. Big Sioux From Indian Creek to mouth 1 4 Estimated. Big Sioux From N. W. corner of State to Indian Creek. . 3 2 Estimated. Little Sioux... From Cherokee to Sm Vahind 2 6 R. R. Levels. Little Sioux... From Smithland to its mouth 4 R. R. Levels. Floyd From fork of Willow Creek to mouth 3 J.E. Ainsworth. From this table it will be seen that the rivers of Iowa are not sluggish^, stagnant streams. The Little Sioux has rapid fall from its source in the; lakes in Dickinson county, on the summit divide, to Smithland. The streami furnishes many water powers in its course through Clay and other counties. Below Smithland it strikes the broad flood-plain of the Missouri, and so its small descent below that town is explained. The Skunk is perhaps the flattest stream in the state, yet it flows witk a strong current in its labyrinth of bends through the broad flood-plain im which its channel is cut. The traveler who had to cross this river in earljr days will never forget the “Skunk bottoms.” But now with graded and, bridged roads, its wide bottom lands are grand pastures and wealth produc- ing properties. Lying in the peninsula bounded by the rivers forming its east- ern and western boundaries, Iowa is not situated to afford inter- ior navigable streams. Its largest interior river, the Des Moines, has-, its source in Minnesota, and flows with a southeasterly trend east of the- great watershed and empties its volume into the Mississippi at the south- east corner of the state. From Fort Dodge to Ottumwa, a distance in a. direct line of 150 miles, its descent of two and a half feet per mile gives it a. rapid current precluding any great value as a navigable stream but render- ing it of great value for manufacturing purposes. At Bonaparte, Ottumwa,. Des Moines and other places it is made to furnish important water power. Before the advent of railroads, steamboats plied on this river in the spring: and early summer, an occasional small boat running up as far as Fort Dodge- Steam boats occasionally, in those days, plowed their way up the Iowa and no HAND BOOK OF IOWA. Cedar rivers, but the advent of railroad facilities rendered those streams unnecessary for navigation and they have been given u}) to manufacturing pur- poses. JVIany of the rivers of Iowa and their aflluents furnish numerousand valuable water powers. Some are improved for grist and other mill |)>ir- poses, but many of the most valuable yet invite improvement. The Cedar furnishes water j)ower of great value at Cedar Falls where the river de- scends about twenty-two feet in three-quarters of a mile. At Waterloo and also Cedar Rapids it furnishes important hydraulic power. The Iowa and many other streams also furnish valuable water powers at numerous i)lace8. The rivers of Iowa are classed in two systems. The one embracing the streams east of the watershed, the other the streams west of that ridge. The princii)al streams in the eastern system are the Upper Iowa, Turkc^y, Ma- qiioketa, 'Wapsipinicon, Cedar, Iowa, Skunk and the Des Moines and its .aibuents, the principal of which are South, jVIiddle and North rivers, the Raccoon with its branches and the Roone. In the western system we name the Floyd, Rock River, Little Sioux, Maple, Royer, Nishnabotna, Nodaway, Platte, Grand and the Chariton. These are mostly perennial, many of them serviceable in the milling and manufacturing power afforded. Along their •course were many tine native groves that attracted early settlers. All flow in fertile valleys bordered by sloping uplands and are sources of pleasure ■as well as utility and add beauty by giving variety to the luxuriant land- scapes through their course. LAKES. The people of Iowa do not boast of the magnitude of their lakes nor the surrounding grandeur of their “unsalted seas.” Yet there are numbers of lakes with charming surroundings, several of which are becoming famous as places of resort for rest and pleasure. low^a’s lakes all lie in the central third of the northern half of the state, and its most elevated portion, where the watersheds are developed into broad table lauds. None of her lakes are of value in aiding commerce by furnishing important water transportation. In the sporting season they are inviting to sportsmen, as they are visited by immense numbers of migrating waterfowls, as geese, ducks, brants, swans, pelicans, cranes, etc., and furnish large quantities of fine fish, it being true of them in this particular that “The waters brought forth abundantly.” The lakes are mostly bodies of clear, pure water. On the shores of many of them are beautiful groves of native timber, located in breadths of charniing scenery and are specially inviting to rest seekers and those desiring health- .giving recreation. Clear Lake, in Cerro Gordo county, is about five miles in length by two in breadth. Rice Lake, Silver Lake and Rright’s Lake in Worth county are small bodies of water from one to two miles long. Rice Lake lying partly in Winnebago county. Crystal Lake, Eagle Lake, Wood .Lake, Lake Edwards and Twin Lakes are in Hancock county. Eagle Lake being the largest of the three. Lake Gertrude, Elm Lake, and Wall Lake, beautiful bodi(;s of water, lie in Wright county, the largest of the three Wall Lake, b(‘ing about three miles long by two broad. Twin Lakes in < 'al hou ti county ar(^ becoming a iioUmI resort for lishing and pleasure par- 1i<‘H; the l)(‘s M()in(*s and Northwestern R. R. making them easily access- .il)l(!. 'Phe 1 wo cover a length of about four miles. They are separated by LAKES. a narrow belt of land through which is cut a narrow stream. Some twenty- five miles from these Twin Lakes lies Wall Lake in Sac county, which is -becoming a famous health and pleasure resort. The maps of Iowa show three separate lakes within the state denomi- nated Wall Lake, one lying in Sac county, one (the largest of the three) in Wright county, and one (the smallest of the three) in Hamilton county The idea has been entertained that at some time in the ante-historic period some strange people built veritable stone walls along portions of the shores ■of these lakes; but that idea is a myth. Over that region in which those lakes lie, when vast icebergs or ponderous glaciers were exerting their mighty forces in forming the wonderful drift coverings of the region, great numbers of boulders were borne by these forces from the north country and deposited about these fresh water bodies. The forces of winter frosts and ice have lifted these boulders in the shallow portions of these lakes and have piled them by their shores. Fancy has conjured them into walls :and so they have their name, and thus the stories of the “Walled lakes of Iowa” had their origin. In addition to the above named lakes we notice Swan Lake in Emmet nounty, which is one of the largest of Iowa lakes. It lies in the central portion of that county and is readily accessible from Estherville, the county seat. It is a beautiful pleasure resort. Storm Lake, one of the most beau- tiful lakes of Iowa, lies in Buena Vista county, on the line of the Illinois Central railroad and by it is the beautiful town of Storm Lake. The largest lakes in Iowa are Spirit Lake and the Okoboji, in Dickinson county. These lie on the great watershed and near the Minnesota line and being accessible 'by the B., C. R. & N. and the C., M. & St. P. railways have become very popular summer resorts. In the winter of 1857 a band of Sioux Indians passed southwardly through northwestern Iowa, and on their return passed through Sac, Chero- kee and Dickinson counties. The winter was a severe one and in the first week of March the ground was covered with deep snow. The Indians had trouble with the few white settlers then dwelling in Sac and Cherokee counties, stealing and destroying the settlers’ property. Reaching the Okoboji Lakes they perpetrated a fearful massacre of white settlers who were then dwelling in the surrounding groves. The few families settled in those groves, on account of the inclement weather and the deep snow covering the wide unsettled prairies of north- ern Iowa, were unable to seek protection from the distant settlements, there being no possibility of relief nearer than Fort Dodge, a hundred miles dis- tant. Upwards of forty persons were killed outright by those savages. The settlers’ cabins were burned and their property destroyed, and some three or four females were carried oft; as prisoners. When the news of the massacre reached Fort Dodge a force was immediately raised to go to the relief of these settlements. The sufferings of that brave band of civilian soldiers were terribly severe. Two of them were frozen to death. The In- dians immediately after the massacre fled into IMinnesota and could not be •overtaken by the pioneer force. Perhaps the only battle ever fought on Iowa soil between United States troops and Indian warriors took place some thirty miles east of Spirit Lake. 12 HAND BOOK OF IOWA. A company of I’nited States dragoons nnder command f)f Captain X. Hoone, about 1842, wliile crossing the state liad a skirmish witli an Indian band. Iowa has but a brief history of tlie lieroic in Indian wars, or tlie sorrowful in the massacre of its early settlers by Indian foes. PRAIRIE. Iowa was early known as a prairie state. Its broad, treeless areas were its glory. Its prairies were not in their natural condition vast marshes, or great breadths of sterile sand, barren of productive power, iior were they regions of cold barren clay. They soon became known as of the finest land, awaiting the plow to turn them into productive farms. On the fourth day after INIonsieurs Manpiette and .loliet entered the Mississippi they had their first view of an Iowa prairie in its summer dress of green and bloom. This great central region of the country was largely treeless then. How long it had existed thus is only known to Him who created it. Why, how, or when these breadths of fertile acres and beautiful landsca})es became treeless, would be useless for us to impiire. Iowa’s being so largely prairie favored its rapid settlement. Its first settlers had known something of the toilsome, slow process of making farms with a mattock and an axe iti a heavily wooded country. In 1845 a man went into northwestern Ohio, bought an axe and commenced on a piece of timbered land to make a farm. He found it slow work. He after- wards came to Iowa, bought a half section of “raw prairie,” went upon it with a breaking plow and team and broke the first furrow made on the tract a mile in length without a rock, grub, tree or stumb to hinder the plow. That was a speedier, saying nothing about its being an easier, way to make a farm. Then there was the continuous advantage of a stumpless- field. When he settled in the Ohio woods he could not have cut a ton of hay on a hundred acres of his land; when he came to Iowa he could go out on the prairie with a mowing machine, cut the finest of blue-joint and make all the ha}^ he wanted; as fine as was ever fed a horse. lie visited a neigh- bor, an old settler, and going into his hay-yard he asked: “How much hay have you there Mr. S “I guess about 800 tons,” was the reply. Every stem of it made from wild grass. The settler in Iowa soon saw there was a distinction with a difference between making a farm on eastern wooded lands and the prairies of Iowa. Infinite wisdom contrived seven- eights of Iowa’s surface to be prairie that Iowa might the more speedily and easily be turned into a paradise. The prairies of Iowa did not invite settlers merely by the ease by which they were turned into fine farm homes,, but the beauty of the views they afforded, the breadth and grandeur of the great natural meadows and i)astures they offered, and the ease of communi- cation they provided between neighbors and neighborhoods were potent in- llmmces in inducing settlers from the heavily wooded east. The facility of intercourse offered by the Iowa prairie was no mean factor iti inviting their rai)id settlement. In driving across them there was no climbing over stumj)s and logs. A few trips indicated a road which was soon worn, if not into a straight, at least into a line smooth, traveled way. The Iowa farmer had us(^ for a earriag(^ from his first settlement on the i)rairie.. 'Die writer knows soimhhing from ('xperience^ of opening and traveling new PRAIRIE. '3 roads in the east. Talk about the settler there having use for a carriage from its first settlement, he scarcely had use for such a vehicle in the first generation of its settlement. It has been objected that there are terrible blizzards and awful cyclones on these Iowa prairies. We admit that there are storms in Iowa, but are there no tornadoes, no terrible storms and blizzards in timber covered countries? We know there are tumults in nature’s domain in all regions. Men are helpless before nature’s forces in all places, but destructive tor- nadoes in Iowa, like destructive earthquakes in California, are of but rare occurrence. There have been severe winters in Iowa but they have been few in its history. There may have been danger for pioneer settlers in journeying across Iowa prairies from winter blizzards in the past, but those dangers are now matters of history. Iowa winters on Iowa prairies are desirable now for the benefits and pleasures which they afford. The prairies, yet beautiful, are not now as they were when the pioneer chased over them the agile deer and the fleeing elk. Their great breadths were then open commons with sloughs and streams unbridged. Fire, in the fall, swept off their summer vegetation and left naught to hold in place the falling snow. The settlers’ cabins, built in grove or sheltered nook, were far apart. The great breadths of open prairie were houseless and many of the pioneer settlers were poor and thinly clad. Then there was nothing to mark the traveled road in the winter’s snow storm, and the traveler seeking to cross the broad prairie may have been in danger when such a storm over- took him, distant from his home or a shelter. But terrible, life-destroying blizzards have been of rare occurrence in our history, while mild, beautiful, healthful winters, giving months of delightful sunshine and the smoothest, possible roads for winter travel, have been common. Our broad prairies, originally beautiful, have been made more grandly so by human handi-work, directed by cultured mind. Terrible prairie fires may be read about in our history, but they will never more be seen. Our great prairies now are broad realms of finely improved, or improving, pro- ductive and enclosed farms. Good roads are common and the farms dis- tinctly mark them. Streams and sloughs are bridged. Thrifty villages and thriving towns and cities are multiplied while the whole breadth of the country is flecked by beautiful artificial groves. Now, every where over Iowa prairies there are human habitations and the danger to a traveler in a winter blizzard is passed forever. But with all of this improvement and change made by human intelli- gence and industry there are some things pertaining to the prairies of Iowa which are unchanged. The depth, the richness, the porousness of the soil, qualities which give it superior excellence for agricultural productiveness, are yet unchanged. Proper culture never diminishes but increases its pro- ductive power. The perennial streams coursing through these broad prai- ries, yet flow in the same channels cut deep into the earth, with the same, ever continuing, rapid current, yielding imtold advantages in their sur- roundings. The prairies of Iowa, no longer grand in their wild luxuriance, have been made more truly beautiful by the art and industry inspired by our Christian civilization, and will ever be renowned for their agricultural «4 HAINl) BOOK OF IOWA. superiority, l^eautiful, fertile and exuberantly i)r()(luctive, their i)08S(>88orH are truly a fortunate jieople. GEOLOGICAL SURVEYS. The first geological explorations in Iowa were made by Dr. I). 1). Owen, under United States authority. Ilis field of work embraced parts of Wisconsin, Minnesota and Iowa. Ilis report was published, a large quarto- volume one. The first geological survey in the state was made under the direction of Professor James I lall, State Geologist, in parts of the years 1855, 1850 and 1857, with J. I). Whitney as chemist and mineralogist. Their reports were published in two illustrated volumes by authority of the General Assembly of 1858. In the years 1800, 1807, 1808 and 1800 a second and more extensive geological survey of the state was made by Dr. Charles A. White, State Geologist, Orestes II. St. John, assistant; and Hush Emery, chemist. Their work is reported in two volumes printed by F. M. Mills, state printer, in 1870. The twenty-fourth General Assembl}", deeming a new geological survey of Iowa desirable, made an appropriation for the work and appointed a commission to select a suitable geologist to make the survey. This com- mission selected Professor Samuel Calvin of the State University to take charge of the work, Dr. Charles lU Keyes, Assistant State Geologist and Professor G. E. Patrick, chemist. It is believed that this survey will lead to an enlarged development of the mineral interests of Iowa, and a fuller knowledge of the extent and value of its coal fields. A SKETCH OF THE GEOLOGY OF IOWA. By Charles R. Keyes, A. M., Ph. D., Assistant State Geologist. Iowa is so pre-eminently an agricultural state that usually her mineral resources are almost entirely overlooked. Yet her geological features are none the less interesting scientifically, none the less important from an economic standpoint. The mineral wealth of a community can only be developed through a liberal appreciation of its proper functions. Geology ranking first among the useful sciences, has for one of its leading objects the investigation of the natural resources of a region. It considers the characters of the differ- ent soils and their capabilities for agricultural purposes; the extent and value of the different deposits of coal and lead, iron and other ores; the distribution, i)roperties and uses of the exhaustless beds of valuable cla 3 '-s; the accurat(^ (hitermimition of the areas for artesian waters; the analysis of the mineral, Avell and river waters; the relative value and durability of the numerous kinds of building stones; and all kindred subjects which are of the utmost importance to the groat body of citizens. Agrifad tur(i and geology are daily becoming more intimate in their re- lations. Nowherf! has their inter-dejamdence been more clearl}’' under- stood and nowherf! bavf! the benelits been more ap})arent than in certain A SKETCH OF THE GEOLOGY OF IOWA. '5 European countries. Some of the older states of the Union, especially those along the Atlantic border, have followed the same line of work with the most happy results. To-day it is almost universally conceded that a good geological map of a region is practically a soil map also. The proper comprehension of the close relations of the two sciences cannot fail, there- fore, to impress the truth of the statement. In pointing out the various mineral deposits a knowledge of the dis- tribution of the geological formations is of prime importance. Iowa pos- sesses a measureably complete sequence of strata. The Paleozoic beds,, from the Cambrian to the Upper Carboniferous, are very fully represented. The Mesozoic deposits, of Cretaceous age chiefly, are found in considerable thickness. Over all spreads a thick mantle of drift or Ldacial debris. Below the soft, unconsolidated drift material the indurated sediments- are everywhere exposed through erosion. The complete vertical section of the rocks in the state shows a thickness of about five thousand feet. ALGONKIAN ROCKS. Sioux Quartzite. The rocks exposed within the limits of the state which are usually regarded as the oldest geologically are those, called the Sioux quartzite or Sioux “ granite,” which form outcrops of considerable extent in the extreme northwestern corner of the state. While there is no doubt that all the stratified sediments of Iowa rest at no very great depth upon the fundamental complex of crystallines which probably support all the sedimentary rocks of the globe, the Sioux quartzite and its associated masses are the only truly metamorphosed or massive crystalline rocks hav- ing a surface exposure in the state. The common phase of the rock under consideration is a completely vitreous type not unlike red jasper in general appearance and properties. Other parts of the mass are less indurated; and still others are simply loose sand. In places the formation is distinctly conglomeratic. Although the quartzite has been rendered in places so thoroughly crystalline since its original deposition, no igneous rocks have been noted in the vicinity until very recently. A few months ago Professor G. E. Culver found in the midst of the Sioux quartzite of southeastern Dakota, within a few miles of the Iowa boundary,, a large exposure of black trap rock, which extends for more than a mile along one of the minor streams flowing into the Big Sioux river. Dr. W. H. Hobbs, who has made careful microscopical examinations of the rock, finds it to be a coarse-grained olivine diabase — a massive basic rock unquestion- ably igneous in origin. It seems not improbable that further search will reveal other masses of the same rock or even other types of eruptives very similar. In quarrying, the quartzite presents numerous difficulties; but the labor in getting out the material is greatly reduced by the fact that it is everywhere jointed and cracked in such a manner as to enable it to be re- moved readily in convenient sizes for handling. It is one of the most com- pact and durable building stones in the northwest. For architectural pur- noses it forms a very beautiful stone and is used for all kinds of construc- tion throughout the region. Some of the leading churches and office buildings in Sioux City, Omaha, Council Bluffs, Des Moines, Burlington, and other places have been erected from this rock,, with very pleasing effects. HAND BOOK OF IOWA. h6 It has also been used with good results as a paving material both in blocks 5ind macadam. The chief (piarries in Iowa are near Rock Rapids, in Lyon county, where the develoi>ment of the (piarry industry, though not so great SIS a few miles northward and westward, is cai)able of great expansion, since the stone maybe obtained in i)racticaly inexhaustible (piantities. Reference has been made to the occurrence of igneous rocks near the state boundary. It may be of considerable interest therefore to mention the fact that in sinking a number of decj) wells in different i)arts of northwestern Iowa the drills have passed completely through sedimentary rocks into the ■crystalline basement below, penetrating the latter in some cases to the extent of several hundred feet. At one of the latest borings, at Hull, in Sioux county, several thick beds of flint-like rocks were i)as8ed through, the different layers being sei)arated by sands and gravels. These flint-like layers were found to be tyi)ical (piartz-porphyry, a truly igneous rock, or dava, very acid in nature and essentially ien obtained it seems desirable to recognize now only four sections of the Devoidan in Iowa. Som(‘ of these formations will probably recpiire further breaking up as the rocks become better understood. Kegarding the e(iuivalents of the Iowa Devonian beds with the more eastern formations much has been written, but as yet no satisfactorv results have been obtained. Independence Shales. For a long time the Devonian beds of Iowa were regarded as made up almost entirely of limestones. I lall and others found clay beds in the northern i)art of the state; while still more recently C'alvin has discovered imi)ortant shales layers at the base of the Devonian, in Buchanan county. The latter beds are made up of dark carbonaceous clays with thin bands of impure concretionary limerock. In places the shales are so highly charged wdth bituminous matter that considerable ex- citement has been caused at dilferent times, on account of their supposed nearness to coal deposits. Bemains of plants have been found scattered through these clays; and they have also accumulated so abundantly locally as to form thin veins of true coal. The shales also yield a very consider- able number of animal remains. Cedar Valley Limestones. As already remarked the greater portion of the Devonian in Iowa is made up of limestones, for which it seems desirable to revive Owen’s old name of Cedar Valley. These limerocks present very considerable differences in lithological characters. Although for the most part they are ordinary limestones they pass rapidly into argillaceous, dolomitic or even bituminous phases. Many of the beds are very massive though others are somew^hat shaley. Every wdiere the rocks of this age are highly charged with fossils of many kinds. Some of the most valuable building and ornamental stones occurring in low^a are of Devonian age. Perhaps the best limestones for heavy masonry found anywdiere in the state are those quarried on the Iowa river north of Iowa City. The old state house at the place just mentioned, and the basement of the new Capitol building at Des Moines w^ere both con- structed of this rock. Unlimited quantities of good building stone are ac- cessible in the Devonian throughout the exposed area. Abundant supplies for the manufacture of quick-lime are present everywhere but the quality of lime is not as good as that furnished by the upper Silurian strata. Montpelier Sandstone. This name is applied to certain arenaceous beds that are well exposed in Muscatine county, and which have been recently differentiated by Calvin from the lower Carboniferous sand-rocks found fartlier to tlie southward. They are Devonian in age, but w^ere formerly regarded as being identical w'ith the Kinderhook sandstone ex])OS(*d in the vicinity of Burlington. The Montpelier sandstone lies immediately above the Devonian limestone. The chief ex])Osures of this rock ai‘e near the mouth of Pino Creek in the county mentioned. It is compoHCil of yellowish or brownish material, somew’hat friable, but in phutcH iiidurat(‘d siiirK;iently to alford blocks for common masonry. Large (piautiticH of this rock have bc('u (piarried and used for the rip-rap which (ixtvmls for many mih's along th(^ IVIississippi above JMuscatine as a pro- tection for 1b(‘ raili-oads from the wat(‘rs of the river. A SKETCH OF THE GEOLOGY OF IOWA. 21 Lime Creek Shales. These beds have long been supposed to form the uppermost member of the Devonian in Iowa. The are well exposed in many places in Floyd county especially. Some of the most important out- crops being at Rockford and along Lime Creek. At the latter place there is exposed a vertical thickness of about one hundred feet of dark argilla- ceous shales which are highly fossilferous. They disintegrate rapidly under the influences of the weather, forming a plastic clay which will probably prove quite valuable for the manufacture of brick. The geo- graphic extent of these shales is not known at present; nor is their strati- graphic position fully understood. CARBONIFEROUS, Lower Carboniferous or Mississippian Series. At the base of the Carboniferous rocks as represented in Iowa and forming one of the most important geological formations exposed within the limits of the state is the great series of limestones which have commonly been termed the “ Subcarboniferous.” These rocks in Iowa form a sinuous belt twenty-five to forty miles in width midway between the Cedar and Des Moines rivers. The zone mentioned thus extends from the southeastern corner of the state northwestward as far as the Minnesota line. In southeastern Iowa the lower Carboniferous rocks form percipitous bluffs along the Mississippi and Des Moines rivers and their tributaries. The Mississippian series as represented in the continental interior is made up of four distinct formations. Only three of these however are exposed in Iowa. They are the Kinderhook, Augusta and St. Louis formations. Kinderhook Beds. In the southeastern part of the state the Kinder- hook beds are largely hard clay-shales with occasional bands of limestone. At Burlington these shales attain a thickness of over two hundred feet, not all of which, however, are exposed above the water level of the Mississippi river. Lithologically this formation as exposed at Burlington is a massive clay-shale, often highly calcareous and in the upper part contain silicious matter in the form of fine yellow sand which occasionally assumes the character of a soft sandstone. Below the sandy portion these shales have long been supposed to be destitute of fossils, but recent exposures have disclosed faunas of a most interesting and instructive character. A short distance below Burlington near the mouth of the Skunk river these shales disappear below the water-level. At Keokuk, as has been shown by recent borings, they are in the neighborhood of one hundred and fifty feet below the water-level in the Mississippi. At Burlington immediately beneath the Burlington limestone are several beds a few feet in thickness of limestone and oolite. These are separated by clay shales. The exact relation of these beds to the rocks farther southward in Missouri is not known at present. Beyond the immediate vicinity of the Mississippi river the shales in question are not exposed at the surface in Iowa; bnt they apparently have a considerable geographical extent and are thought to be recognizable in a number of deep well sections in different portions of the southeastern part of the state. A hundred miles northwest of Burlington, in Tama and Marshall 22 HAND BOOK OF IOWA. counties, rocks "which luive been referred to tlie Kinderliook are well expost'd along the Iowa river and some of its tributaries. The exact correlation of these beds with those of southeastern Iowa has not as yet been fully made out. As shown in the LeGrand (juarries the formation is chiefly a rather soft, soniewliat irregularly bedded, bull limestone, probably containing a considerable percentage of magnesia. It seems from an examination of the fossils contained in the Le (irand beds that a part of them at least correspond to the limestone at Ibirlington. In southeastern Iowa no good (quarry rocks have been found in the Kinderliook formation. Occasionally the oolitic beds are used, but they withstand weathering only a short time. The clay-shales at Burlington have recently been brough into prominence in the manufacture of paving brick. Toward the northern limit in Iowa the Kinderliook assumes a cal- cerous facies. It is extensively (piarried at numerous places in Humboldt, Hardin, Grundy, Tama and ]Marshall counties. In the latter localities the rock is a tine-grained limestone and forms a very durable building stone. It has been used largely for bridge piers and architectural purposes. Portions of it contain ferric-oxide in narrow veinings. It takes a fairly good polish and is extensively used for interior work in place of ordinary marble. The lower part of the Le Grand section is made up of very com- pact oolitic rock which withstands very well all weathering influences, as is shown in the court house at ]Marshalltown which is constructed almost entirely of this stone. Augusta Limestone. The two formations commonly known as the Burlington and Keokuk limestones have recently been found to form properly but a single sequence of rocks. The Burlington and the Keokuk groups are called after the cities of the same name in southeastern Iowa. At these localities the rocks have been regarded as typical developments. A care- ful examination of the fossils contained and of the relations of the different beds indicate that the limestones under consideration which were formerly considered as two distinct formations should be included under a single term. The lower portion of the formation commonly known as the Burling- ton limestone is a coarse-grained, encrinital rock, usually white and very pure in certain layers. It often contains considerable ferric-oxide and con- sequently a reddish hue is imparted to it upon exposure. The lithological characters of this rock are remarkably constant over broad areas. There are also in certain places silicious beds, the lowermost of which have thick- ness of twenty-five feet or more. They are made up largely of nodular masses and irregular bands of cliert with some calcareous matter. There are other layers of tlint of equal if not greater importance in the Augusta beds than those just mentioned. The so-called Keokuk limestones are essentially the same as the Burlington rocks. They are usually more com- [)act, h;ss fossilil'erous and have a bluish cast instead of the pure white color. The upi)er portion of tlie formation also contains beds of clay-shales. The Augusta Limestones are ([uarried rather extensively; the chief localities b(uuga1 (hluml)us . I unction, Burlington and vicinity, Pt. Madison, Keokuk, Bonai)art<‘, and Bentonsport. The ri'cks at Burlington are used lor oi'dinaiy maHonry; some of the layers, the more massive ones, A SKETCH OF THE GEOLOGY OF IOWA. 23 forming fairly good material for building. Large quantities of good lime ■could be manufactured, but at the present time only a few small kilns are in operation. Farther southward in Missouri, the Burlington limestone is quarried largely for the manufacture of lime as well as for ordinary masonry. The lower la3^ers at Keokuk have been used for bridge work and •all kinds of common masonrj^ A good quality of lime is burned at various points in the vicinities of the places just mentioned. The sandj^ magnesian la\^ers at the top of the Keokuk limestone have been extensively ■used for building and a number of churches and other structures are com- posed of this material. Along the Des Moines river the rocks of this form- ation were formerly used in the construction of dams at the time when slack-water navigation was proposed for the Des Moines river. St. Louis Limestone. The rocks of this stage have commonly" passed under the name of Concretionary limestone. But thej^ are the same as those developed at the mouth of the Missouri river which Shumard called after the city of St. Louis. The northern limit of these rocks is one hun- dred miles beyond any known exposure of Augusta rocks. From this northern border nearly to the mouth of the Missouri river the limestone is comparativety thin; but southward from the latter point it thickens rapidly until it attains a measurement of more than two hundred feet. Everywhere over the northern area of the St. Louis, characteristic brecciated rocks are seen. In Iowa this formation has probably a surface exposure much greater than any other member of the Lower Carboniferous. It is usually a fine-grained, compact, bluish rock breaking with conchoidal fracture. The upper por- tion of the formation is often covered by a white, highly fossiliferous marl. The St. Louis limestone is made up largely of pure calcium carbonate. ■Quick-lime is manufactured at numerous places everywhere throughout the range of the formation. At Tracey, and elsewhere in Marion, Wapello and Van Buren counties certain of the St. Louis rocks furnish excellent material for heavy constructional purposes, bridge piers and foundations COAL MEASURES. From an economic standpoint the most important geological formation in the state is that yielding coal. The strata of Iowa furnishing this valu- able product form the northernmost extension of the great interior coal field of the American continent. The beds occupy the southern third of the state and are distributed more or less extensivety through one-half of the entire number of counties. The area covered b}" the Carboniferous strata is therefore not far from twenty thousand square miles. It must not be inferred, however, that the coal is equally distributed over all this dis- trict, for such is not the case. The broad belt running southeast and north- w^est and traversed its entire length by the Des Moines river from Fort Dodge to Keokuk has heretofore been found to be much more productive of coal than other parts of the region. Lately in inan^^ places outside of the belt named, coal has been discovered in abundance, often where its presence was unsuspected before. Taken as a whole there are two kinds of beds, sharpty contrasted, w'hich go to make up the Coal Measures of the state. The first is marked by a great predominance of c\ay shales and sandstones, often to the total ex- clusion of the limestone. The individual beds have usually a xery limited 24 HAND BOOK OF IOWA. extent and rei)laco one another in rapid sneeessioii. On tlm otlier hand, the second class of sedinunits al)ov(‘ inentionecl is made np chielly of <'al- careons shales with heavy beds of limestone. The laytTs are evenly bedded and extend over very considerable areas. As the conditions of deposition \v(‘re evidently those of a slowly sink- ing shore the marginal deposits as a whole practically nnderlie the optni sea formations, the former being r(‘garded as the “Lower” (k)al Measures and the latter as the “Upper” Coal Measnia's. At the same time it must bt; remembered that this does not necessarily imply that the “Lower” meas- ures are to be considered much older than the “Upper;” but rather that along the great and successive planes of sedimentation dilTerent beds of the npjter and lower divisions were laid down contemporaneously. The limits of the two formations in low'a thus assume somewhat different lines from those that have commonly been recognized. It has been proposed, therefore, to divide the Coal Measures, or U]tper Carboniferous, into: (2) The “Ujtper” Coal ^Measures, or Missouri Stage. (1) The “Lower” Coal ]Measnres, or I)es Moines Stage. The Des ]\[oines formation represents the Lower Coal Measures or mar- ginal deposits of the upper Carboniferous. It takes its name from the Des Moines river which flows for more than two hundred miles directly through the beds of this terrane. It extends into Missouri forming the northern and western boundaries of the Ozark mountains and extends still farther southward into Kansas and Indian Territory. The j\Iissouri formation corresponds essentially to the upper Coal ^Measures, representing the more strictly marine deposits. It is the form- ation typically developed in the northwestern part of ^Missouri. The Mis- souri river also winds its w^ay for more than four hundred miles through the beds of this stage, exposing numerous fine sections on both sides of the stream throughout the entire distance. In the order of their abundance the rocks of the Coal Measures are clay-shales, sandstones, limestones and coals. The secondary part that the calcareous beds play in the Coal ]\Ieasures of the state, especially in the lower division, contrasts this formation with the other paleozoic rocks. Ilelow, the Coal Measures rest on a great basement of massive limestones with but few clayey or sandy beds of separation. Not less striking is the relative thinness, as a rule, of the individual layers which replace one another upwards and laterally in rapid succession. If the upper and lower divisions of the Coal Measures in Iowa were to be contrasted upon litho- logical characters alone it would be found that the former is prevail- ingly lime bearing; the latter largely clayey. Littb^ need b(; said here concerning the quality of the coals of the state. They ar(' all of the bituminous variety and are fully described in another plac(\ Tin; carbonacc'ous seams vary from a few inches to seven or eight or everi t(*i) feet in thickness; the average of the veins at present worked is l)etw<‘en four and livc^ feet. These beds are deposited not in twoorthi’ee, eoMtinuons layers ov(‘r th(‘ (Mitire area, as has been commonly Bui)poHed, Init ill mor(‘ or h‘SH lenticular massi's varying from a few feet to several miles in extent. A SKETCH OF THE GEOLOGY OF IOWA. 25 The stratigraphical importance of the coal seams is not so great as has been generally supposed, since the bituminous beds are, with very few exceptions rather limited. Only a single case is at present known in which the geographic extent of a coal stratum is more than a few miles, and for a part of this distance the coal is but two or three feet in thickness. On the other hand, the amount of coal in the state, is probably very much greater than has been commonly supposed. For reasons which need not be stated in detail here, considerable difficulty has been encountered in working out the structural features of the Coal Measures of Iowa. The general inclination of the beds is to the south- westward. Careful estimates indicate that the greatest thickness of the Lower Coal Measures in the state is probably in the neighborhood of four hundred feet; and that the maximum vertical measurement of the upper division is thrice that figure. Erosion has removed much of the coal bear- ing strata of this district and the original thickness of these rocks is not now represented at any one place. The basal coal seams of the Lower Coal Measures of Iowa appear to be much more extensive than those toward the top, where the}^ are only a few inches in vertical measurement and perhaps a hundred yards in extent. The coal may therefore be regarded as disposed in numerous basins of greater or less area, thickened centrally, but gradually becoming attenuated toward the margins. These are arranged in various horizons interlocking with one another, but separated by varying thicknesses of sand- stone and shale. Thus at any one point a dozen or more seams may be passed through in sinking a shaft, several perhaps being workable. The disposition of the coal in numerous limited lenticular basins instead of a few layers extending oyer broad areas is of the utmost importance from a purely economical standpoint. In all mining operations and in all prospecting it is very essential that this fact be kept constantly in mind. With methods of boring more modern than those commonly in vogue throughout the western states there is every reason to believe that in the Lower Coal Measures especially the large majority of good coal seams twelve inches in thickness and over encountered in prospecting may be traced readily and easily to localities where they are thick enough for profitable working. In Iowa the restrictions upon the distribution of the individual seams are not numerous as compared with other regions. Yet there are disturbances of various kinds which break the continuity of the coal strata, locally interfering slightly with mining operations. They are referable to the three general agencies of deposition, erosion and dislocation. From careful estimates made from reliable sources the production of coal for the past year amounted to more than 5,340,000 tons, valued at |7,- 750,000. By comparisons it will be seen that Iowa as a coal producer ranks first among the states west of the Mississippi river and fifth among the states of the Union. Throughout all of the Coal Measures in Iowa occur unlimited quantities of clay of excellent quality for the manufacture of paving, pressed, fire and other kinds of brick. An excellent qualit}' of potter’s clay and material for tiling, terra-cotta, and in fact nearly all other kinds of clay products, are plentiful. 26 HAND BOOK OF IOWA. ('Ki<;rA('K(>us. Althougli foniiorly known to l)o exposed only over a small area near Sionx City, the Cretaceous rocks of Iowa have rec(mtly been fonnd to occupy a veiy considerable district in the northwestern portion of the state. On account of a thick mantle of drift over all this portion of the state there is considerable difliculty in locating the exact boundary along tin; eastern margin of the deposits. From numerous borings, however, the Cretaceous beds have been recognized over more than a dozen comities, showing that the approximate eastern boundary is a somewhat sinuous line running through a point midway between 8ioux City and Council Bluffs nearly to Fort Dodge and thence bending northward. Beyond th(>. limits of this line numerous outliers have been recognized, some apjiearing more than fifty miles beyond the boundary mentioned. There are four formations in Iowa which are probably referable to the ‘Cretaceous, though the exact stratigraphical eipiivalents of two of these, the Fort Dodge gypsum deposits and the Nishnabotna sandstone are at present somewhat doubtful. Nishnabotna Sandstone. Although the beds under consideration have usually been referred to the Cretaceous they have never been directly traced to the outcrops of the Woodbury shales. The geograjihical distance between the nearest exposures of the two formations as at present known is very considerable. If the Nishnabotna is Cretaceous it may be the equivalent either of the AVoodbury shales or of the Niobrara chalk; which one it is cannot now be stated. In regard to the gypsum beds their form- ation indicates a saline lake deposit such as might be left by a retreating ocean. This fact taken in connection with the probable great eastern ex- tension of the Niobrara suggests that the Fort Dodge beds were formed dur- ing the retreat of the Niobrara waters through Iowa. At the present time .it seems best not to attempt a specific correlation of the gypsum deposits, nor of the Nishnabotna sandstone, but merely to regard them as Cretaceous in age. The sandstones and loose sands that have been called Nishnabotna are to be regarded as shore deposits; along with numerous other beds of similar char- acter which occasionally are found as outliers through central and northern Iowa. The Nishnabotna as reported by White has a thickness of fifty to seventy-five feet, and is seen exposed in the southeastern part of Guthrie county, southern Montgomery county, and elsewhere in the western part of central Iowa. (Quarries have been opened in these rocks at Lewis, in Cass count 3 \ In its lithological characters the formation is a coarse-grained, ferruginous sandstone, dark brown in color and usuall}" quite friable. Occasionally thin clay seams are intercalated. Fort Dodge Beds. This name is applied to the gypsum deposits and ■certain associated b(*ds which are well exposed in the neighborhood of Fort Do(lg(‘. The gyi)sum attains a vertical measurement of from two to thirty fe(^t, its averages thickness being ])erhaps about fifteen to sixteen feet. It occupi(!H an anni, in Ihecfuitral part of W(‘bster counW, of about twenW-five Hcpian! mih*H. It is traveu-sed north and south its entire length bv the Des Moimis river and is cut 1 hrough by many of this stream’s smaller tributaries A SKETCH OF THE GEOLOGY OF IOWA. 27 Probably more than one-half of the entire deposit has been removed through erosion by the chief water course. The most extensive exposures now open are about six miles below Fort Dodge. To some extent the massive gypsum of Fort Dodge has been quarried for building purposes. A number of buildings and foundations have been constructed of this material. It has also been used quite extensively for heavy masonry. Its most important use, however, is its manufacture into stucco and land-plaster. During the past year more than fifty thousand tons of these materials were prepared in the vicinity of Fort Dodge. Woodbury Shales. As already intimated, the typical outcrops of this formation are to be seen in Woodbury county along the Big Sioux river. The formation corresponds essentially with the Dakota and Fort Benton groups of Hayden. The beds represent shore deposits and it seems desir- able to retain the name in preference to the two proposed by Hayden. “Woodbury” as defined by White expresses more accurately than any other name yet proposed the lithological features of the rocks as represented in Iowa. The Woodbury shales are made up in certain places largely of the sandstone, which sometimes form hard concretionary masses not unlike quartzite. In some localities these masses are so near together that they may be quarried to advantage for building stone. The most important of these openings is in the vicinity of Sioux City and is now known as the Rees’ Granite quarry. The rock has apparently all the qualities of the regular crystalline massive rocks. The greater portion of the Woodbury shales is argillaceous and afford inexhaustible quantities of good clay for the manufacture of pottery, fire and paving brick. Niobrara Chalk. These beds in their chalky facies have been ob- served in Iowa in the vicinity of the Big Sioux river. They are probably represented farther eastward by more strictly shore deposits. They consist of fine soft calcareous layers appearing not unlike clay at first glance. These chalky layers in connection with the clays form excellent material for the manufacture of Portland cement. This industry has already begun under favorable circumstances on the Missouri above Sioux City. PLEISTOCENE, OR SURFACE DEPOSITS. Over all Iowa, covering the indurated rocks to a depth of from a few inches to two or three hundred feet, is a mantle of loose incoherent material. This material is chiefly of three kinds; known as the drift, loess, and alluvium. The latter may be regarded as the deposits of the modern rivers, the two former as glacial debris. Alluvium. Little need be said here in regard to the alluviul deposits. They are the fine sediments laid down in the river valleys making up what is commonly known as the flood plain. Many of the river terraces are also alluvial. These materials will be treated at length in another place in con- nection with an account of the soils of the state. Drift. To the heterogeneous mixture of clay, sand, gravel and boulders which is seen everywhere throughout the state there has been applied the name of drift. Everwhere the proportions of these drift constitutents vary. It changes rapidly from place to place passing from one kind into another. The clays form by far the largest portion of the mixture and is 28 HAND BOOK OF- IOWA. usually luitiglod with iJiore or loss tino saud. In color it has a characlf'ristic* brown or hiiiF tint. When excavated the surface (‘xposed ((nickly hr(*aks uj) into small cul)ic or angular fragments commonly known as joint-clay. The sand and gravel often form considerable beds yet they are nsnally (|nito limited in extent. The boulders are chiellyof crystalline rocks of northern origin. They represent a great variety of eruptive and metamorphic tyi)es. The drift is largely of glacial origin. It has been shown in Iowa to be made u}) of two sheets. The lowest or earli(‘st drift forms a i)art of the great drift mantle extending over northern United States. In the ]Mississi])pi valley it has its southern boundary ah)ng the line of the Ohio and Missouri rivers. The u])per till belongs to a later glacial epoch and is included within the area bounded b}' what is known as the moraine of the ])es Moines lobe of the second great ice invasion. This forms a narrow tri- angle in Iowa with its ajmx reaching to the city of Des Moines. Loess. This dejiosit is well displayed along the Missouri and jMississippi rivers and at numerous places throughout the interior of Iowa. It is a tine homogeneous clay-like material which seldom shows any tendency toward stratification. It is friable enough to be imi)ressed with the finger but resists weathering in a remarkable way. The surface deposits of the state belong chiefly to the (Quaternary age of geology. Over a great part of Iowa the soils are formed directly through these deposits. The i)urer clays afford good material for the manufacture of brick; while certain portions afford sand which can be utilized in glass making. CLiriATOLOGY OF IOWA. By John R. Sage, Director Iowa Weather and Crop Service. The prime factors of agricultural prosperity are a fertile soil and a favorable climate, the latter being the more important. There are in this country millions of acres of soil, which, though abundantly supplied with the elements of fertility are comparatively worthless, because of unfavor- able climatic conditions. Nothing can fully compensate for the lack of rainfall in the growing season, for only a small portion of any arid region can be made productive by irrigation. The claim may be made in behalf of Iowa that in respect to these two essentials, soil and climate, it stands foremost among the agricultural states of the Union. There is no question as to the exceeding richness and de]ith of its soil, for it has maintained a large measure of its original fertility under a system of continual cropj)ing which would have reduced to barren- ness 1h(i thinner soils of less favored sections. And its climate has served as a fit comphunent of its soil in the production of those vast crops which hav;, more than an av(;ra^(‘ yield, both of corn and small grain; and the three or four dry seasons w** have had abundantly prove that the soil and climate of Iowa are unsiirpasscMl on tin* continent for farming ])ur])oses.” These facts so well stated by Prof. Parvin have been remarke(l In the occasional dry seasons that hav'e occurred since the above was written, justify- ing the assertion that tluu’e has nev(u- been any vauy n(‘ar ai»i)roach to absolute failure of CTops in Iowa since its s(‘ttl(‘ment by civilized man. And the years of severe drought in the summer months have been ver}' few 1 ji comparison to the number suffered in some of the States which have a larger average annual rainfall. The severest drought in recent years, affecting the lower part of the State, occurred in the mid-summer of 181)0. The average amount of rainfall in July was only 1.08 inches, and in August, 8.41 inches. And the severity of the drought was greatly increased by very high winds during the ])eriods of high tem])erature. And yet in that year of untoward conditions, Iowa produced 280,000,()0() bushels of corn, 71,8<)8,()00 bushels of oats, 2,070,081 bushels of flax, 8,882,000 bushels of i)otatoes, 4,001,000 tons of hay, and over 150,000,000 worth of i)oultry products. There is no danger of a famine in a country, wdiicli, in the w orst seasons, can produce such vast amounts of food stuffs. The same porous nature of the soil which causes it to wdthstand severe droughts, also gives it the requisite (juality to take up a considerable surplus of rainfall, making it fairly productive in abnormally w^et seasons. ^ These extremes, how'ever, are exceptional, b}" far the greater number of years bein g normal and abundantly productive. The State is favorably situated in the heart of the valley, escaping frequent liability to the extremes of w^et and dry to wdiich other sections are subject. Prof. W. I. Chamberlain, of Ohio, wdio served about five years as president of the low^a Agricultural College, gave the following unbiased testimony concerning the soil and climate of this state: “One thing has surprised me each spring and summer, viz: that the si)ring is considerably earlier here than it is a hundred miles further south in Ohio, and the summer is much hotter and surer to mature the corn crop before frost. The proportion of clear sky and hot days and nights is far greater, and the powder of the sun’s rays upon the black soil is immense. I believe Iowa to be on the wdiole the best and surest corn State in the Union, the surface is more rolling, tlie soil more ])orous and sandy and better drained by nature than most of the prairie soils in other States. Hence the com is not so subject to damage from too much rain here as in Illinois and .Missouri. It dries out for cultivation (luicker.” CLIMATOLOGY OF IOWA. 35 II o CS^ o h -s < --2 Q ?- n 2 h < h a Si O |s ? (= s o P M 3 if < =3^0 h '^■2^ a'S II o 2 II II si ■3c.S 3 l = ” II ;=! 0«-i <« e II t S i g S ^ i i? S g g g g S c2 ^ ? s S S g 5 g ?^. S g g S g g g ^ g S g g g ^ g g g $ ti: ^ g g ^ S g ?2 S g 5 g rt 12^ ■ _; rt r-i ,-(' r-l r-i ‘ C ^ o T, 5 a; S,iii !0,= o I?, ill - 5r^ =. 5a;^' 11 Isirfilsd ;^^OOcc^SS^ Totiil for the 8ix gro\vin5 ]K*r cent of the ])recipitation falls at evening or during the night. The rising sun, increasing heat and ex])anding air of tJu* morning hours, and throughout the larger part of each day, serve to dissipate the (douds and rai)idly dry the surface of the fields moistened by evening showers. Fogs are of rare occurrence, and usually of short duration. At I)(^s Moines the average number of days on which there is a fall of rain or snow amount- ing to .01 of ail inch or more is 117 jier year, and the average number of cloudless days is 120 jier year. Prof. Parvin’s thirty-two years records at ^Muscatine and Iowa City show an annual average of 110 clear days, 100 variable and 80 cloudy. The average for the State is 115 clear days, 144 partly cloudy, and 105 cloudy da\'s jieryear. For the three summer months the average is 80 clear, 41 -jiartly cloudy, and 21 cloudy days. That shows a very large average amount of sunshine during the season of crop produc- tion. The maximum of cloudiness is in March and December, and the minimum in July, August and Septemher. TEMl’EKATUIlE. In Iowa the summers are decidedly warmer, and the winters slightly colder than in the eastern States on the same parallels. The annual mean temperature is about 47 degrees, ranging from 42 at the more elevated northern iioints to 50 degrees near the southern line. The mean tempera- ture of spring and autumn very nearly correspond to the yearly average. And the normals of April and October also approximate very closely to the spring, autumn and yearly means. The temperature range of the State is quite high, averaging probably 120 degrees from the minimum of winter to the maximum of summer. But the winters are relatively of much shorter duration than on the same lines of lalitude in the Atlantic states. And the transition from winter to sum- mer temperature is usually very rapid, the average increase in April and .May being a third of a degree per day. The average of the three summer months is as follows; June 00.2, July 74.1, August 71.0, giving a mean summer temperature of 71.4. The mean of the three winter months is 20.6; spring 40.5 ; autumn 48.5. The charts issued by the Signal Service, showing the isothermal lines of the United States, furnish a basis of comparison of the temperature of Iowa and the eastern States. In January the State lies between the isotherms 15° and 25°. The line of 20° ])asses diagonally through the norlhcrn half of tin; State from a point below Sioux (Jty to the northeast corner, thence diagonally through Wisconsin to the northern jiart of Michi- gan ; and (eastward throui 2 :h Kingston, (7inada ; northern New York, Ver- mont, and New Hampshire to Kastport, Maine. In February the 20° and 80° lines cut the northwestern and soutln'astern corners of the State, and CLIMATOLOGY OF IOWA. 37 the 25° isotherm crosses the State on a nearly direct line from Sioux City to Dubuque, curving slightly northward across Wisconsin through Milwaukee, thence eastward with slight curvatures through Michigan and Canada, and along the southern shore of Lake Ontario, through northern New York, ending in Portland, Maine. And for the three winter months the normal temperature of Iowa corresponds very nearly with that of the latitude of northern Michigan, northern New York, Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine. The Iowa winters, however, are much more endurable and enjoy- able than the corresponding season in the regions above named, which have a much larger number of stormy days and heavier precipitation. In March the isotherms touching Iowa follow more nearly the parallels of latitude, with sharp curvatures to the southward in crossing the Alle- ghanies. In April the temperature of Iowa corresponds nearly with that of central Ohio, southern Pennsylvania, Washington, Philadelphia and New York city. In May and through the summer months the isotherms curve sharply southward on nearing the Atlantic coast, and the temperature of Iowa is as high as that of central Ohio, southern Pennsylvania, West Vir- ginia, Maryland and New Jersey. These comparisons show the wide range between the winter and sum- mer temperature of this portion of the Mississippi valley. In short, the winter temperature is like unto that of Montreal, and the summer heat is equal to that of Baltimore and Washington. The marked extremes of temperature above noted give to this region its marvelous productiveness, the cold as well as the heat being an important factor in the growing of crops. The myriad plowshares of Jack Frost pene- trate the earth to great depths, pulverizing the soil and preparing it to respond to the quickening influences of the gentle rains and almost tropical heat of the summer months. The winter campaign is usually short and sharp, and the clear, pure air tones up the systems of all who have the vital- ity to withstand extremes. It is not exactly an ideal climate for invalids who need an equable temperature, but the tables of vital statistics show that it is remarkably healthful. THE SEASONS IN IOWA. The calendar year is divided into four seasons of equal length, but in matter of fact in this latitude the seasons are of variable duration. In Iowa, summer is the longest season, averaging about four mouths, during which the mean temperature ranges above 60 degrees. The average duration of winter, during which the mean temperature is below 30 degrees, is a little over three and a half months. The balance of the year is divided about equally between spring and autumn, the mean temperature ranging between 30 and 60 degrees. On this basis the average dates of beginning and end- ing of the seasons in this State may be tabulated as follows : Winter — November 28th to March 17th. Spring — March 18th to May 20th. Summer — May 21st to September 23d. Autumn— September 24th to November 27th. Spring and summer usually open from one to two weeks earlier in the extreme southern part of the State than in the northern and more elevated localities. There is, however, less difference in the opening of the winter season. TEMPERATURE DATA. 3 « HAND BOOK OF IOWA. Aver&ge for the six growing months of the year, 63.8 CLIHATOLOGY OF IOWA. 39 LATE AND EARLY FROSTS. On an average there are 140 to 150 days between the latest damaging frost of spring and the first killing frost of autumn. The latest of spring occurs on an average, about the last week in April or the first week in May; and the earliest damaging frost of the fall is about the 25th of September, Light and comparatively harmless frosts occasionally occur between those dates, but as a rule there is in every season ample time to produce a well- matured crop of the best varieties of western dent corn, which with favor- ing conditions may be grown in 100 to 110 days after germination. Prof. Parvin’s very complete records, covering the years from 1839 to 1869, show the mean dates to have been for the latest frost May 4, and for the earliest September 24. This would give an average exemption from hurtful frosts of 142 days. Prof. Parvin, writing in 1870 said: “ It has happened but once or twice in the last thirty years that the frost has, over a great extent, seriously injured the corn crop. When the spring is late, the fall is either quite hot or lengthened, so as to afford time for the crop to mature.” This has been the result of observation in the years since this paragraph was written. A careful study of all available records leads to the con- clusion that Iowa has, on an average, as long a period of exemption from killing frosts in the crop season as any State within the same parallels of latitude in the eastern part of the United States, except possibly within a few miles of the coast. DESTRUCTIVE STORMS. In common with nearly all portions of the United States east of the Rocky Mountains, Iowa is subject to the occasional visitation of violent atmospheric disturbances, in form of wind-squalls, hail and thunder storms. The more destructive effects of these disturbances, however are purely local, and limited to small areas compared with the extent of territory benefitted by the storm. Being well watered, it cannot escape these almost universal conditions. The Gulf is the great thermal fountain of humidity, and the boreal regions send down the valley the titanic forces which wring fertilizing- moisture from the vapor-laden winds of the south. The Gulf and the Arctic sea are the positive and negative poles of the battery which propels the alternating life currents through this favored region. And the earth is watered and made fruitful by this confiict of elements, which at times becomes so intense and violent at local points as to cause destruction to life and property. But the more violent storms which occasionally sweep over small areas of the State are the incidental ills resulting from condilions which promote the general good. Hail-storms, thunder storms, tornadoes and wind-squalls are the exceptional products of the benign elements of heat and moisture which make this valley a paradise of abundance. If the course of this great valley had been east and west instead of north and south, with the mountain ranges at right angles with their present direction, the interior of the continent would be exempt from atmospheric distur- bances of this character ; but it would be an uninhabitable desert instead of the garden of the world. There are regions of wide extent which enjoy 40 HAND BOOK OF IOWA. almost perfoc-t immunity from tho class of storms al)ov(‘ rcfcrr(*(l to, l)ut they are descu'ts or arid sections which must needs he irrigated to yi(dd even a scanty support to tlieir irdiahitants. The climate of this State, with all its drawbacks and incidental disturbances is vastly to h(‘ pr(d’(‘rr(Ml to the deserts or semi-arid rc^i^ions, notwithstanding: their ex(un])tion from destructive storms. The reputation of Iowa’s climate has been injured among i)eople who are not Avell informed on the subject, by exaggerated descriptions of the occasional severe storms incidemt to this latitude; and th(‘ idea has i)re- vailed to some extent that this section is alternately plowed by tornadoes and harrowed by blizzards. This has resulted from the fact that newsi)aper reports of wiiid-storiiiS are often highly over-wrought, from imhdgence in the American passion for sensationalism. And, unfortunahdy, some of these exaggerated re])orts have been embodied in oHicial records to tho detriment of the State. Using these highly colored newspaper reports as a basis, there was published a few years ago in the American Meteorological Journal, a so-called “Iowa Tornado Chart,” giving the tracks of alleged tornadoes for the i)eriod of hfty-two years. The total number charged to the account of this State was 128, and the year of greatest frequency was 188G, which year was credited with a crop of twenty-six veritable tornadoes raised on Iowa soil, A careful investigation showed that the bulk of these disturbances were merely wind-scpialls accompanying tlninder-storms of some local severity. The aggregate of damage from storms that year was very light. The tendency to exaggerate the importance or violence of local phenomena causes certain newspaper reporters to apply the term “c 3 ’’clone” to every wind gust which is powerful enough to demolish some of the frail structures which were very common in this State in the pioneer era, and which are j^et quite numerous. But the people who have resided in Iowa through good and evil report have learned that it is as safe as any other section within the tenq^erate zone. And despite the exaggerated reports it may be positively affirmed that veritable tornadoes are quite infrequent in this State. Since its settlement by the whites, there have been in Iowa two notably" destructive tornadoes which are entitled to rank with the great disturbances of like nature at Lawrence, Mass,, Reading, Pa., and Louisville, Dr, Gustavus llinrichs, in his annual report of the Iowa Weather Ser- vice for the year 1888, published a very complete refutation of the exagger- ated statements that had been given currency relative to Iowa tornadoes. Gen. Greely, Chief Signal Officer, in his book on American Weather, says that three thousand jrersons haye been killed in the United States b}' this class of storms, and the loss of life has been greatest in relative order in States as follows : Missouri, Mississippi, Iowa, Illinois, ^Minnesota, 'Wis- consin and Ohio. The loss of proirerty aggregates several millions, and has been lixed in round nundx'rs, as follows : Ohio, over eight millions of dol- lars ; Minnesota, six millions; Missouri, three millions; Mississippi, two millions; Iowa, om* and a half millions ; Wisconsin, over one million. In his r<‘porl for 18'.)(), (hm. Greely gives a statement ol the relation l)c1w(‘