HISTORY OF THE CHIPPEWA VALLEY - CHAPTER 39 -Minerals ***** Transcribed and contributed to the USGenWeb Archives by Timm Severud Ondamitag@aol.com Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm ***** Faithful Record of all Important Events, Incidents, and Circumstances that have Transpired in the Valley of the Chippewa from its Earliest Settlement by White People, Indian Treaties, Organization of the Territory and State; Also of the Counties Embracing the Valley, Senatorial, Assembly and Congressional Districts, and a Brief Biographical Sketch of the Most Prominent Persons in the Settlement of the Valley. BY Thomas E. Randall 1875. Free Press Print. Eau Claire, Wisconsin CHAPTER 39 -Minerals The valley of the Chippewa appears to have received very little attention, so far, from the State Geologist, or from the parties sent out by the general government to make geological surveys in this State. The party under the direction of the Honorable David Dale Owen, who ascended the river in July 1947, before referred to in this work, did nothing more than collect a few specimens, examine the formations and ascertain the general geologic structure from what was visible along the shores and the beds of the streams. This, and all other later surveys in the northwestern part of this State, seem to have been directed almost exclusively to the mineral regions of Lake Superior, the southern boundary of which, so far as known, seems to be the Penoka Iron Range, which, extending west in irregular ridges, constitutes the 'height of land,' or summit, between the lakes water shed and Chippewa River and other tributaries of the Mississippi. In the absence of more complete, practical, and detailed geological surveys of this part of the State, no accurate estimate of its mineral resources can be made. It is believed that iron ore exists in many localities, that scientific examination, capital, and enterprise will develop into sources of wealth. On the west side of the Chippewa, a little back from the shore, at the foot of an abrupt ridge, or bluff, and a little north of the correction line, between towns thirty and thirty-one north, are found, bursting out from the side hill, quite a number of springs, all so strongly impregnating with iron, and perhaps some other minerals, that, though clear as crystal, the water is so disagreeable to the taste that no one can drink it. A little further in the interior, surrounded by sharp pine ridges are several stagnant ponds, the water of which filter through the earth and find egress from this springs. And near one of these ponds, on top of a hill originally covered with thrifty sapling pines, I counted on a single acre more than a dozen trees that had been blasted by lightening. What could have attracted to this particular spot, on so many different occasions, the destructive force of this subtle agent? The locality is some two hundred rods southwest of Bob's Creek. The southwest quarter of the southwest quarter of section nineteen, town twenty-eight north, of range eight west, in La Fayette Township, is, in the spring of the year, and during high water, a lake, or constitutes a part of a lake covering a hundred acres or more, which usually dries up in summer. A considerable stream, taking its rise among the sand hills to the southeast, and flowing through a marsh, empties into the lake at this point. The bottom of the lake was originally a course, loose sand now covered with a deposit from the inlet a foot in depth, perhaps more near the entrance. On removing this muddy deposit, a compact stratum of iron is found an inch or two in thickness, below which is a layer of sand succeeded by another of iron, and so on in consecutive strata of sand and iron, of various thickness, to the depth of four feet, the iron in some instances being three inches in thickness and seeming pure ore, but as it has never been submitted to scientific test, nothing can be positively known of its value. These iron strata appear to have been formed by deposits from the water as it filtered down through the sand during time's slow processes; but whence is the source? May not those red sandstone ridges from whence comes the inlet, be the deposits of immense beds of iron? The Reverend Dr. Alfred Brunson, so well known and so intimately identified with every historical and scientific development in this State, writes as follows in relation to the prospective mineral resources of this valley: THOMAS E. RANDALL - My Dear Sir: - Our correspondence in reference to the Chippewa Valley History gives me great brotherly feelings towards you, and should I ever visit Eau Claire, I should have a strong inclination to give you a call, and should you visit our place I should expect a return of the compliment. The recent account of the discovery of gold in the woods somewhere near the head springs of the Chippewa, reminds me of an incident or two touching mineral matters, of which, I presume you will write, to make your history complete. I do not know how precise you will be in confining your remarks to the precise limits of the valley, or whether you will follow the windings of the ridges which divides the waters of your river from those of other rivers and the Great Lakes, I am unable to decide but presume you will claim every inch of your territory, especially if rich minerals are found there. In 1843, when I was Indian Agent at La Pointe, on Lake Superior, and Indian of mixed blood presented me with a piece of pure silver (which I yet have) about the value of a dollar. He said he plucked it out of a rock on or near the divide between the waters that flow to the south - in true Indian style. He refused to give the least intimation as to the locality, but my impression is that he was a Flambeau Indian, and that the rock lies on or near the trail leading from that Lake to La Pointe, which cannot be far from the track of the railroad now being built to Ashland. There were two trails leading from La Pointe south - one to Flambeau, and the other to the St. Croix Valley. It is possible that it is the latter, but my impression that it was the former. Now, as the enterprise of your valley men is equal to anything, it is possible that someone taking this hint may find the treasure. Another mineral that may be profitable lies nearer your city. On my way from this place to La Pointe, in the summer of 1843, after leaving the Chippewa Falls, our route was between the waters of the Chippewa and the Red Cedar Rivers. At one of our camps, which, I think, could not have been more than forty or fifty miles from the Falls, possibly not so much now, a young Indian in our company (no other Indian then being present) told my son, B.W. Brunson, now of St. Paul, and Mr. William W. Warren, my interpreter, that we were near the 'Red Pipestone Mountain,' and offered to pilot them to it if they would not tell the Indians of it, for if they knew of him showing a white man where it was, they would kill him. He led them to the mound by one route and from it by another, and left at the mound a plug of tobacco and some trifling articles, to appease the Manitou or Great Spirit, on account of the trespass on the sacred spot. This he said was the Indian custom in visiting that mound to obtain stones of which they made their pipes. Of the specimens brought away, several pipes were whittled out with knives and carried along. This stone hardens on being exposed to the air. It admits a glossy polish, like marble, and is impervious to the oil of the tobacco from smoking. I should think it could be turned to profit for slabs of furniture, where red instead of white should be fancy. The locality of this mound is difficult to settle. In looking over ht map of the State, I see we must have traveled near the lne between ranges ten and eleven, mostly in range ten, and should think the mound is in town thirty- four or thirty-five, in range ten. Respectfully, ALFRED BRUNSON Pipestone Mountain, referred to by the learned Doctor, or 'Mountain of the Prairie,' as Longfellow calls it in Hiawatha, is situated on the west half of section twenty- seven, town thirty-five north, of range ten west. It is now owned by H.C. Putnam, Esq., of this city, who bough it from the government some time ago, after having personally examined the premises. His visit was made under the guidance of an Indian half-breed, who was quite as superstitious in regard to the desecration of the sacred spot, as was the one who attended the party of D. Brunson. Mr. Putnam describes it as an oblong, irregular mound, rising two hundred and fifty to three hundred feet above the surrounding surface, sloping down from the summit on the north and west in irregular but not very bold declivities, but on the southeast in a concave form, as though a section of the hill had at some time lost its foundation and sunk, a third or more of its original size breaking off in a curved perpendicular line, and even now presenting a sublime exhibition of the convulsions of nature, well calculated to inspire awe in the savage breast. Before its upheaval, the mound appears to have been a mass of very fine red clay, which hardened into a compact, nearly seamless, beautiful stone, well adapted to the purpose to which the Indians have applied it, and, no doubt, will be found far more useful and ornamental when the artistic skill of his less superstitious, enlightened successors, have opened the way of commerce, and carved the easily wrought, but beautiful and substantial material into forms of elegance, adapted to the wants of civilization. Small nuggets of silver and specimens of silver ore have occasionally been brought down the river by Indian and half- breed hunters, ever since the first white settlers came here, said to have been gathered on the rocky shores of some of the small lakes, on the headwaters of the Flambeau, but nothing could induce the hunters to disclose the precise locality, and we must trust to time, circumstance, and scientific research to unfold his hidden wealth. In ascending the Chippewa from it mouth, we discover the same sandstone that underlies the Mississippi valley, but the limestone which is overlaid disappears at Durand, above which, with a single exception in the big woods west of Menomonie, no calcareous rock is found, and the sandstone becomes thinner, more uneven, rising in places in irregular jagged peaks and ridges, between which the river has worn itself a winding bed, until we reach the falls, where, in a descent of twenty-two feet over the hardest granite, nearly vertical in its structure, it has scarcely made an impression of the obdurate rock in all the ages. A few miles above this point, the sandstone formation entirely disappears, grand boulders disfigure the surface of the soil in many places and obstruct navigation of the river; a rock so hard as to be almost unmanageable for building purposes. In town twenty-six north, range three west, in Clark County, on the headwaters of Wedges Creek, and near the source of the south fork of Hay Creek, there rises suddenly to the traveler, right up in the midst of a dense forest of tall timber, a stupendous hill or mountain of pure crystallized sandstone, compact, fine-grained, white in some places as driven snow, which glistened in the setting sun at the time I visited it in 1855, like polished marble, The peak rises about four hundred feet above the surface of the surrounding country, and seems to have been shot up to an immense height, as great masses that have fallen from its top and been detached from its sides, line in great, irregular heaps at the base - beautiful in the confusion which surrounds them. See Webb's geological report for a more definite description of this striking instance of Nature's handiwork in the creation of a most romantic spot.