Description of the Ann Arbor Quadrangle
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
DESCRIPTION OF THE ANN ARBOR QUADRANGLE. By I. C. Russell and Frank Leverett." GEOGRAPHY. kames, eskers, outwash aprons, basins, till plains, moraine to the first well-defined moraine south draining a large part of Wayne County, also drains gravel plains are noted and described in the dis east of it. In addition to the features mentioned, a narrow area along the eastern border of the north CIVIC RELATIONS. cussion of the glacial geology, and therefore atten this district is traversed by several lines of glacial ern half of the Ann Arbor quadrangle. The Ann Arbor quadrangle, embracing an area tion is here directed only to certain strongly marked drainage that lead northwestward into the interlo Lakes. Within the limits of the quadrangle of 884.85 square miles, is in the southeastern part topographic belts. These belts, named in order bate belt. These are much broader than the depres there are nearly 150 small bodies of standing of the Southern Peninsula of Michigan, the city of from east to west, are (1) the lake plain; (2) the sions just noted, being in some places more than a water which occupy basins of sufficient depth to Ann Arbor being near its geographic center. It morainic system on the western border of the mile wide, and are filled with flat-surfaced deposits be debarred from ready drainage. Some of these is bounded by parallels 42° and 42° 30' north lati lake plain; (3) the interrnorainic strips with nearly of sand and gravel left by the streams that formed bodies are without outlet; others discharge to tude and meridians 83° 30' and 84° west longitude, plane surfaces; (4) the interlobate moraine, with its them. streams through bordering swamps with no defi and comprises a large part of Washtenaw County included gravel plains, lying between the Saginaw The interlobate moraine and included gravel nite channel of outflow; but, as may be seen by the and small adjacent portions of Livingston, Oakland, and Huron-Erie ice lobes. plains. A conspicuous system of moraines appears topographic map, most of them have definite out Wayne, Monroe, and Lenawee counties. The lake plain. The lake plain embraces the in the northwestern part of the quadrangle, north lets, and a few stand in the course of streams. The first settlement within this quadrangle was southeastern part of the quadrangle. It extends as of a line from South Lyon, passing Whitmore Nearly all of these are termed lakes, and more made in 1809 by French traders, who established far northwest as the 800-foot contour, which fol Lake, to Fourmile Lake. The surface of this than 50 of them have received names. These do a post on the site of the present city of Ypsilanti, lows approximately the highest beach of a large morainic system is much more irregular than that not include the bodies of water held in by artificial that being a point at which the Indian trails from glacial lake, discussed below. This plain occupies of the system just considered, sharp knolls 100 to dams and called mill ponds, nor those which have a wide extent of country intersected. In 1811 parts of several counties in southeastern Michigan 200 feet in height being here closely associated become extinct, for several marshes mark the site about 2500 acres were patented to these traders in and a still larger area in northwestern Ohio, bor with basins, some of which, now occupied by lakes, of old water bodies whose basins have become so accordance with an act of Congress, and the survey dering Lake Erie, toward which it gradually slopes. exceed 100 feet in depth. This morainic system nearly filled with peat, marl, and sediment that of these claims antedated the rectangular land sur The sandy portion of its bed is characterized by is traversed by sandy plains that mark lines of they are no longer mapped as lakes. vey begun in 1816, a fact that accounts for pecul low dunes, 5 to 20 feet high, but the clayey portion glacial drainage and with its included lakes and Of the lakes indicated on the Ann Arbor top iarities of boundary lines and absence of section is remarkably smooth. Beaches occur at various streams it forms part of a great interlobate tract ographic sheet 134 lie within the area drained by lines in Ypsilanti and the district immediately levels, their altitudes corresponding to those of sev developed along the junction of the Saginaw and Huron River, and only 11 in the portion drained south and west of that city. By the treaties of eral outlets opened for the discharge of the lakes Huron-Erie ice lobes. Its northwestern border is by the Raisin and its tributaries, Saline and Macon 1819 and 1821 all the lands in this region were by the withdrawal of the ice sheet. Although beyond the limits of the quadrangle. rivers; while none occur in the portion drained by thrown open to settlement, and in 1823 a number these are inconspicuous ridges, at few places reach Rouge River, Stony Creek, Swan Creek, and Sandy DRAINAGE. of English-speaking families built houses on the ing a height of more than 15 feet, yet their form Creek. Most of them are found in the northwest banks of the Huron immediately below Ypsilanti. and continuity attract attention, and from the earli Streams. The streams of this quadrangle flow ern part of the quadrangle and there are none on During the following year a settlement was started est days of settlement they have been recognized as either directly or indirectly to the western end of the plain in the southeastern part, though that at Ann Arbor. Within this quadrangle there are old lake shores. These beaches were mapped in Lake Erie. A large part of the quadrangle is plain, as already indicated, was for a long time now two cities, Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti, and part by the First Geological Survey of Michigan, drained by Huron River and the remainder chiefly covered by the waters of great glacial lakes. The seven incorporated villages, Pinckney, South Lyon, prior to 1840. by Raisin River and its tributaries. lakes abound in the part of the quadrangle where Dexter, Saline, Milan, Clinton, and Tecumseh. In Morainic .ridges. Immediately back of the lake Huron River, a stream about 150 miles in length, the irregularities of surface are greatest, and the addition to these there are over 40 smaller villages plain lies a system of morainic ridges running from flows southward from its source in Big Lake, Oak flatness or regularity of the surface in the south and hamlets. the northeast to the southwest corner of the quad land County, to the northern edge of the quad eastern part accounts for their absence there. Few According to the census of 1900 the quadrangle rangle and occupying a belt 8 to 12 miles wide. rangle, and then makes a curve southwestward, of the lakes cover an area of a square mile, and had then a population of about 57,000, of which Valley-like depressions between the ridges serve as southward, and southeastward through the quad most of them cover less than one-fourth of a square 14,509 were in Ann Arbor and 7378 in Ypsilanti, convenient courses for streams, which have in con rangle, and continues in a southeastward course mile. Several of those which are named fall within while the seven incorporated villages comprised a sequence assumed a trellis-like arrangement. to its mouth at the extreme head of Lake Erie. the limits of a 40-acre lot; those without names have population of 7220, leaving nearly half the inhab Three more or less distinct moraines appear in Nearly all the tributaries of Huron River are ordinarily an area of but 5 to 10 acres, though some itants in the rural districts and in villages and this system, of which the westernmost is far more small, the most important lying within the limits cover 40 acres or more. Few of the lakes have hamlets not separately enumerated. prominent than the others. This moraine includes of this quadrangle. been systematically sounded to determine max The cities and nearly all the villages are on the the highest points within the quadrangle, one Raisin River, a stream perhaps 160 miles in imum depths, but enough soundings have been banks of streams. These streams are not navigable, exceeding and several approaching 1100 feet in length, drains, with its tributaries, much of the made to show that even some of the smaller lakes but the location of the early settlements on them altitude indeed, much of the land that stands southern end of the quadrangle, though the main are 50 to 60 feet deep, and that a -few have was determined by the water power they afforded above 1000 feet. In the southwestern part of the stream traverses only its southwestern corner. depths of more than 100 feet. Nearly all the for gristmills and sawmills power which has been quadrangle this high moraine constitutes the divide From the source near Jerome, in northern Hills- lakes are so deep that they are not only protected utilized later for other manufacturing establish between the tributaries of the Huron and the Raisin, dale County, it flows north of east into Washtenaw from extinction by artificial drainage but also from ments. Within the past few years the scenic while in the northeastern part it separates the waters County, a distance of 40 to 45 miles. Near the early filling by sediments and organic growths and attractions and recreation afforded by the lakes in of the Rouge from those of the Huron.