A historical geography of changing attitudes to wetlands in the United States Midwest Hugh Counsell Prince University College London Thesis submitted for Ph D University of London Geography 1996 ProQuest Number: 10017204 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. uest. ProQuest 10017204 Published by ProQuest LLC(2016). Copyright of the Dissertation is held by the Author. All rights reserved. This work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. Microform Edition © ProQuest LLC. ProQuest LLC 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346 Abstract The study discusses ways in which different people at different times viewed wetland environments, appraised their potential value, contrived to transform them by draining and farming or protect them as wildlife refuges and places for outdoor recreation. It traces changes in peoples’ perceptions, critically examining literary evidence for changing attitudes towards wetlands in seven Midwest states of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota. Views of places described by travellers, landowners, journalists and writers of fiction are compared with reports by federal and state officials, maps and statistical data. Changing scientific descriptions and classifications of the physical characteristics of wet prairies, swamps and bogs are reviewed. Important changes in the outlook of Indians followed their contact with Europeans. The fur trade and later occupation of the land by white settlers disrupted Indian economy, society and culture and led to removal of people themselves. The earliest pioneers were repelled by wetlands as sources of disease and obstacles to movement. Railroads, cattlemen and large estates began to open up wet prairies in the middle of the nineteenth century but abiding prejudices deterred prospective settlers and kept land prices low. Tile draining transformed the landscape, raised confidence and encouraged farming settlement. Northern peatlands attracted railroads and lumbermen to cut and mill stands of white pine. For a brief period, from 1900 to 1920, attempts were made to drain large tracts of cutover swamps and bogs and establish farms. Farms failed and land reverted to public ownership. Conservation of wetland habitats for wildlife, reafforestation and recreational use replaced agriculture. In the second half of the twentieth century, ideas of conserving wetlands competed with ideas of increasing agricultural productivity. Since 1980, following economic anf environmental crises, conservation ideas have won many adherents. Frontespiece. Minnesota prairie under snow Landscape ’63. Silk screen. Lawrence Rosing Contents List of figures 4* List of tables (q Preface S 1. Changing attitudes I I Changing cultural values and moral principles Changing ideologies and political rhetoric Changing knowledge and research interests Changing terminology and classifications Changing institutions and agencies Critical interpretation of literary evidence Chronological and regional approaches to representations of wetlands 2. Physical characteristics of wet prairies and bogs 37 Changing objectives in scientific studies of wetlands Disappearing wet prairies Extent of northern peatlands Wastage of peat by fire ‘ Reconstructing past physical geographies Terrain W ater Soil Plants Wet prairie on upland till plains Silty clay loams of wet prairies Prairie vegetation and poor drainage Lowlying bogs bn newer drift Peat and muck soils of bogs Open bog, swamp forest and marsh vegetation Biological productivity of Midwest wetlands Wetland habitats in the Midwest 3. Indian occupation Environmental changes in the pre-Columbian period Fire and tallgrass prairies Hunting, gathering and wetlands Selection and protection of useful plants Seed planting and gardening Effects of sixteenth-century depopulation Impact of the fur trade on Indians Hunting for furs and the ecology of wetlands Loss of Indian independence Removal of Indians Environment and Indian removals 4. Early American views of wetlands | g Americans and Europeans repelled by first encounters with wetlands Initial doubts about the value of prairies Small prairies in favour Plats and notes of the federal land survey Swamp land grants Westward migration Speculators and settlers Preemption, graduation and homesteads 5. Landowners, cattlemen, railroads and tenants on wet prairies ) 7 6 Large landowners acquire wet prairies Wet prairies as high-risk speculations Cattlemen Railroads extend into wet prairies Railroad land sales and freight rates Breaking prairies and fencing Farming in hand Wheat growing Hired labour Tenant farmers ■ Speculation and disappointment 6. Draining and agricultural change on wet prairies 2.22. Open ditches Drainage laws and public benefits Large landowners invest in ditching Tile draining Perceived effects of tile draining wet prairies Draining and economic change, 1880 to 1920 Laying tiles to the edge of the prairies Farming on drained prairies 7. Occupying, draining and abandoning northern bogs and swamps 2^5^ Railroads advance into northern swamps and bogs Lumbering in northern pineries Attracting settlers to poorly drained cutover lands Swamps and bogs in central Wisconsin Exploiting undrained bogs and swamp forests Draining fever, 1900 Early difficulties of peat farming Collapse of drainage districts Conserving swamps and bogs in central Wisconsin Attitudes to abandoned wetlands in northern lakes region 8. Utilizing and conserving wet prairies since 1930 3 I % Wildlife conservation and draining Corn belt farmers on a technological treadmill Financial crisis and draining Tragedy for family farms Landowners’ attitudes to draining since 1980 Wet prairies and floods in the upper Mississippi basin, 1993 Bibliography '^(ij Figures 1.1 Drainage enterprises in the Midwest, 1920 |Lj. 2.1 Boreal peatlands and potholes in North America 2.2 Glacial drift deposits in the Midwest Zf 7 2.3 Wetland soils in the Midwest g ( 2.4 Prairie grassland in the Midwest (q 3.1 Chippewa Indians harvesting wild rice in northern Minnesota 3.2 Indian tribal areas, circa 1680 lOi 3.3 French and English fur trade, circa 1750 I 0 6 3.4 Waterways and hunting grounds in Wisconsin, circa 1810 I O^î 3.5 Boundaries of the United States to 1803 ( j $ 3.6 Indian land cessions, 1784-1889 i 2.0 4.1 Location of settlements in the Midwest in mid-nineteenth century 1 4.2 Entry dates in Springfield township, Illinois \L4 I0 4.3 Land entries in McLean county, Illinois in 1835 and 1850 iU-'J 4.4 Swamp Land grants in the United States j 5^9 5.1 Cattle ranches in Vermilion county, Illinois 5.2 Railroads in the United States, 1870 5.3 Thousand-acre farms in the Midwest, 1870 Zo ) 5.4 Farm tenancy in the Midwest, 1880 Ziq. 6.1 Plough ditcher and 16 horses near Madison, Lac Qui Parle county, Minnesota, . circa 1915 ^ 23 L 6.2 O F Doyle dredging outfit from St Cloud, digging a drainage ditch near Hogdenville, Minnesota, circa 1910 6.3 P J Jacobson’s ditch and tile machine at work on a farm near Madison, Minnesota, circa 1910 6.4 Steam trench digger and tile layer in the Red River valley, western Minnesota, circa 1918 2.3'^ 6.5 Effect of tile draining on corn root growth, lowering groundwater in spring 6.6 Corn production in the United States, 1879 2-4-5 6.7 Improved land in the United States, 1889 2 . ^ 0 6.8 Drained farmland in the Midwest, 1930 5 7.1 Location of central Wisconsin '2 -7 4 7.2 Wetland soils in central Wisconsin 2-^4- 7.3 Normal annual growing season for cultivated plants in Wisconsin 7.4 Drainage enterprises in central Wisconsin, 1924 2^% 7.5 Drainage enterprises in Wisconsin, 1930 7.6 Sections within which no farms stood in central Wisconsin, 1937 7.7 Drainage entei*prises in Wisconsin, 1940 2 9 7 7.8 National and state reserves in central Wisconsin, 1953 299 7.9 Land in public ownership in northern lakes states, 1946 8.1 Drainage enterprises in Illinois and Wisconsin organized before 1900 5 8.2 Houses in Tipton county, Indiana, 1982 350 8.3 Wet and flooded land in the Midwest, 14 July 1993 3M-S 8.4 Flood disaster counties in the upper Mississippi basin, 1993 3 5 2 Tables 2.1 Comparison of wet prairie, marsh, fen, swamp and bog 2.2 Primary productivity of some North American wetlands d H- 2.3 Species richness and hydrologie regime in northern Minnesota peatlands 5*f> 2.4 Net primary productivity of world vegetation types 7 ^ 3.1 Estimated populations of Indian tribes in the Midwest in the seventeenth century \ 00 3.2 Values of habitats for game animals in Wisconsin 1 IO 3.3 Population of the United States, 1790-1820 I lb 4.1 Early American and European settlers’ choices of vegetation types, 1816-1849 4.2 Tract Book entries by decade and vegetation type for four southern Illinois I'L+Lf districts 4.3 Swamp Lands and Indemnity Lands granted to states iS’S 4.4 Population of the United States, 1820-1860 f bZ 5.1 Number of cattle other than working oxen or milch cows, 1850-1890 i % 7 5.2 Number of farms 1,000 acres and over, 1860-1900 5.3 Population of the United States, 1860-1880 ^2.0] 5.4 Average size of farms (acres), 1850-1880 ' 6.1 Date of first state law authorizing public drainage enterprises and date of first organized drainage enterprises in the Midwest 2L2.0 6.2 Tile factories in operation in the United States, 1 January 1882 2.^3 6.3 Tenant farmers as a percentage of all farmers, 1880-1920 2.4-7 6.4 Average size of farms (acres) 1880-1920 6.5 Population of the United States, 1880-1920 7.S2.