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A Standard History of Sauk County Wisconsin an Authentic Narrative Of

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A Standard History of Sauk County Wisconsin an Authentic Narrative Of History of Sauk County CHAPTER I NATURE'S WORK EPIC OF WATER AND ICE-THE BARABOO AND WISCONSIN RIVERS-THE HOARY FEATURES OF DEVIL'S LAKE-MEETING OF THE PREHISTORIC AND THE HISTORIC-THE BARABOO BLUFFS OR RIDGES-THE NARROWS OF THE BARABOO RIVER-THE NARROWS OF NARROWS CREEK-WESTERN END OF NORTH RANGE-WESTERN END OF SOUTH RANGE-THE HONEY CREEK REGION-FANTASTIC FEATURES OF DEVIL'S LAKE-PREHISTORIC MOUNDS AT THE LAKE-PEWIT S NEST OF SKILLET CREEK-THE UPPER SKILLET FALLS-PARFREY GORGE--DURWARD GLEN-LIFE OF THE BUYER OF THE GLEN-VIEW FROM PROSPECT HILL-HIGHEST AND LOWEST POINTS IN THE COUNTY-NOT A COUNTY OF LAKES THE BARABOO VALLEY LANDS-BASIN OF BABB S CREEK-LITTLE BARABOO VALLEY-LANDS IN THE UPPER BARABOO VALLEY-THE COPPER CREEK VALLEY-THE VALLEY OF DELL CREEK-FERTILE VALLEY OF HONEY CREEK-RICH GRAZING SECTION-THE TREES OF THE COUNTY. Sauk County is like an individual to whom you are at first attracted by evident nobility of feature, for whom upon closer acquaintance and knowledge of special traits, the instinctive liking grows, and who, with longer lapse of time and greater opportunities for investigation and calm judgment, becomes an object of both pride and affection. There are few sections in Wisconsin which, by nature, are so attractive, and which so grow upon the mind and the imagination with closer acquaint- ance and basic knowledge. The scenery is superb and varied, and completely fills the eye and the imagination when the secrets of' its prehistoric molding are unfolded through the labors and. the publications of geologists and other natural scientists. EPIC OF WATER AND ICE The surface geology of Sauk County, which deals with the features which we see and admire, is primarily a story of the long applied and Vol. I-1 1 2 HISTORY OF SAUK COUNTY resistless forces of water and ice. It is an epic of great bodies of water, depositing vast plains and hills of sand and pressing them into stone, of the formation of super-Mississippis which plowed their ragged channels according to the laws of gravity and least resistance, of tremendous glacial movements from the north and the northeast bringing mountains of ice and firestones to dam the {gigantic rivers of the southern country. In the geological beginning, during Cambrian times, when sand from the north was brought down and piled up a mile deep, were formed the Baraboo Bluffs, extending generally east and west for twenty-five miles through the eastern and central sections of Sauk County. The southern range or bluff was the more prominent, and arose from a com- paratively level expanse of sand which had become sandstone and then quartzite. With the rising and deposits of oceanic waters, this elevated mass was afterward completely buried in sandstone and limestone. Dur- ing other long ages the fossil range was partly exhumed by the wear and pressure of the encompassing waters, and prior to that time the Wisconsin or other larger prehistoric river cut a gorge of at least 1000 feet through the southern bluff. Through this great gap poured the torrent now known as the Wisconsin River, which was afterward, in the glacial epoch, interrupted in its course and turned to the eastward. THE BARABOO AND WISCONSIN RIVERS Speaking in modern geographic terms, the main stream of the Wis- consin enters the gorge known as the Dells, or Rapids, not far above the southern boundary line of Juneau and Adams counties. At the foot of this seven miles of wonderland, lying in Columbia County opposite Sauk, the river enters upon the most remarkable bend in its whole length of 450 miles through the entire State of Wisconsin. Through the Dells 'its general course is southward, but it is now turned almost due east by a hard, sharp quartzite range, like a flint arrow-head, which stands for the union of the Baraboo Bluffs pushing themselves in from Sauk County. Rising some 400 feet above the river bottom it effectually turns the Wisconsin from its southerly course through the narrow Dells. The river then widens and naturally flows between low sand banks for seventeen miles to Portage. THIE HOARY FEATURES OF DEVIL'S LAKE With the damming of the great Wisconsin River by the northeastern glaciers a lake was created in the great southern bluff. In its forward movement, the ice in the shape of two tongues, piled up great walls of granite blocks and earth. With the melting of the ice a glacial body of water was formed now known as Devil's Lake, which, 35,000 or 80,000 years ago, during the ice epoch was much higher than it is today, the HISTORY OF SAUK COUNTY 3 water extending about a third of the way up the bluffs. This is shown by the drift boulders on the sides of the igorge. Borings at the north end of the lake which have penetrated nearly 300 feet have not yet reached the old river bed. It is evident to geologists that the Devil's Lake region represents an older page of nature than has been revealed by either the Rocky Mountains or the Himalayas. MEETING OF THE PREHISTORIC AND THE HISTORIC The following are well-authenticated facts about Devil's Lake: Situated three miles south of Baraboo, it lies 120 feet above the river at that point; the east bluff averages 610 feet, the west, 500 feet and the south, or Devil's Nose, 545 feet; its. greatest length is 11/4 miles and average width, 2,200 feet, or two-fifths of a mile; the greatest depth of the lake, which, for years was pronounced unfathomable, is 43 feet, and its average depth, 30 feet; its circumferance is 31/4 miles, and its area 388 acres, or three-fifths of a square mile; height above sea- level at low water, 955 feet and at high water; 959 feet; volume at low water, 17,258,000 cubic yards, or 3,495,245,000 gallons. The lake is fed by several springs and two creeks. It has no visible outlet. The greater portion of Devil's Lake is included in the State Park, a tract of about 1,040 acres which was set aside by the Wisconsin State Legislature in 1909 to preserve this beautiful region, so charming to the eye, so mellowed with legend and romance, and of such absorbing interest to the scientist that it has become the mecca for those of his type in both hemispheres. Its cliffs are ancient even when measured by the eons of geology and symbolic evidences of a long-departed race are preserved along its shores. For about forty-six years the Chicago & Northwestern Railway has skirted the eastern borders of Devil's Lake, perpetuating its famous echoes in vastly increased volume and, if statement of old-time cliff travelers may be credited, going far toward the expulsion of venomous reptiles which formerly made those wild haunts of terror for those inclined to be timid. At one end of the lake a dance hall, refreshment pavilion, docks for boating and diving, and at the other end, corn fields, a hotel and the railroad depot, with pretty cottages tucked away in the dense foliage covering the few gradual slopes toward the cool clear lake-these are other striking features of a region which is noted throughout the country as an impressive link between the past, before history was, and the very present, when history is in the making. When these bold impressive features of nature's wonderwork in Sauk County have been impressed upon the visitor and reader, the details are readily marshalled and mastered. Logically and scientifically, these include a re-examination of the most prominent natural features of the region, the Baraboo Bluffs; a survey of the prairie country to the south; a notation and brief description of the water courses and 4 HISTORY OF SAUK COUNTY valleys of the county, as determined by its surface geology, and a sweeping picture of the special points of natural interest within the area embraced by this history. THE BARABOO BLUFFS OR RIDGES Scattered throughout Central Wisconsin prior to the .oncoming of the glacial fields from the north and east were elevated islands of a moundlike form, or more pronounced reefs and ledges. With the excep- tion of the Baraboo Ranges they were generally of small area and comparatively of small height. But they were all buried,, more or less completely by the glacial debris. As they have come under the observa- tion of modern observers, the lower heights are from 50 to 250 feet, and are usually even lower than the outlying bluffs of the horizontal strata, laid down after the passage of the glacial fields. The Baraboo group, unlike the others, constitutes a series of bold ridges, the highest eleva- tions of which are reached around Devil's Lake. The composition of the rocks varies in different localities, embracing quartzite, porphyry, granite and schist; sometimes in distinct formations, and at other times over- lapping. The rocks are generally distinctly bedded and tilted at rather high angles. In Sauk County, much the larger area is occupied by the quartzite formations; so much so that they are often spoken of as quartzite ranges. As stated, the Baraboo Bluffs constitute two east and west ranges extending into the county from the mouth of the Baraboo River for a distance of nearly twenty-five miles. They pass through the towns of Caledonia, Columbia County, and Greenfield, Merrimack, Sumter, Baraboo, Honey Creek, Freedom, Excelsior and Westfield, Sauk County.
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