# History of Iowa From the Earliest Times to the Beginning of the Twentieth Century/1/1

​NATURE'S supreme laws of never ending change from one degree of development to another, seem to pervade the universe. Man in all ages has been slowly reading these immutable statutes, unwritten, and only to be known through careful observation and patient investigation.
A little gained by one generation handed down to another, since the first appearance of man upon the earth, has made the sum of human knowledge. For how many ages on some other far off planet human intellect has been slowly pursuing the same great study we have no means of knowing.
Here the astronomer has discovered the existence of other worlds, has carefully computed their size, has measured their distance from the earth and each other, has observed their motion, their satellites, and learned some of the laws which govern them. He has even constructed a plausible theory as to how these planets were formed from the original elements.
As to the comparative antiquity of the eastern and western continents of our own earth, recent investigation brings evidence to reverse the old belief that Asia and Africa were earlier formations than America. Agassiz says:
“First born among the continents, though so much later in culture and civilization than some of more recent birth, America, so far as her physical history is concerned, has been falsely denominated the 'new world.' Hers was the first dry land lifted out of the waters; here the first shores washed by the ocean that enveloped all the earth besides; and while Europe was represented only by islands rising here and there above the sea, America already stretched one unbroken line of land from Nova Scotia to the far west.”
​In our limited world the investigators have explored the beds of ancient rivers, lakes and seas; the caverns of rocks and mountains, and penetrated deep into the earth in search of knowledge that may be derived from rock formations, animal and vegetable fossils. These to the scientist reveal much of the story of earth's growth; its stages of development; its desolations and changes through the agencies of fire, water and air. In these reservoirs have been found keys to earth’s prehistoric changes. They reveal to the student a history of its geological growth, vegetable and animal development for millions of years before written history begins. Scientists explore every known country, every island of the ocean, examine rocks, clays, gravels and fossils in pursuit of knowledge of the past. From these they read much of the story of the earliest formations, convulsions, growth and population of the earth with almost as much certainty as though the events had been inscribed in legible characters on imperishable tablets. If is from these evidences that we learn some of the history of the remote past, relating to the land we live in, which men have named Iowa.
Professor Samuel Calvin has well said:
Geology unfolds to us a wonderful history of the most remote periods of time, which reduced to language reads like a fairy tale. It tells us nearly all we know of the countless years that passed away while the continent, of which Iowa is a part, was in the process of formation. Professor Calvin continues:
During the ages of submergence, the sedimentary strata of Iowa, as well as of all the adjacent States, was being formed on the sea bottom. This formation contains a record of a period of duration altogether incomprehensible. Centuries pass while the light colored limestones so well represented at Anamosa are slowly forming by an imperceptible sedimentary accumulation. Other ages come and go while the limestones represented in Johnson County are forming. About this time a small portion of northeastern Iowa rises above the sea, while all the vast region south and west is still buried deep beneath the all pervading water. Odd shaped fishes and a species of ferns mark the highest point reached in the evolution of animal and plant life at this time.
Ages again go by while the sediment of the sea is forming beds of rock which appear in Marshall, Des Moines and Lee counties. Then slowly come the Coal measures and rocks above them. Ferns and air-breathing creatures have made their appearance. The sea gradually recedes to the southward and the surface of our whole State is visible. Later forests and other forms of vegetation cover ​portions of the land; birds appear in the woods and a few small rat-like animals are found, as well as reptiles.
But another great change comes; the waters again cover the northwestern portion of the State and ages come and go before the sea recedes, never to return. Iowa has finally been raised above the sea level and the waters drain toward the ocean, forming great rivers, and plowing deep channels through the oozing sediment. The sun and wind finally dry the surface; forests and rank vegetation again make their appearance; animals come forth from Nature's nurseries and spread themselves over the land, and roam through the jungles, preying upon each other in their struggle for food. The climate is that of the tropics, and myriads of forms of life are evolved.
All of the conditions are now favorable for the advent of man, but no evidence is found of his existence on any portion of the earth at this period. The rivers, which ages later were named the Mississippi and Missouri, were then carrying the inland waters to the sea which reached as far north as the Ohio river.
Where the upper Missouri now flows through the prairies of Nebraska, the Dakotas and Montana, where lakes spreading over a large portion of these States. Remains of forests and strange species of animals, long since extinct, have been found in the sediment that was formed in these lakes. Tropical trees such as the cypress, magnolia, cinnamon, fig and palm flourished in Iowa, Dakota, and far northward into British America; tropical birds sang in the forests; huge reptiles crawled about in the rank vegetation and swamps.
Then came the Tertiary period. Iowa was a part of the land area which then made up the half formed continent of North America. The drainage of the State must have been much the same as now, although the altitude above sea level was several hundred feet lower.
In the beds of Tertiary lakes were entombed animals and plant remains which man in these late generations has ​found. The sediment exposed to the action of the atmosphere has been converted into vast plains and prairies. In many cases the lakes have been gradually filled and converted into dry land. Modern streams, such as the Yellowstone, Missouri and the Platte rivers cut their way through these old lake beds. The surface of the sediment underwent continual changes through erosion. The remains of plants and animals were thus slowly laid bare, and the scientist was able to read the story of their lives. Such beds are believed to be the only places of importance where the records of Tertiary plants and animals have been preserved. While none of these lake beds have been found within the limits of our State, it cannot be doubted that the conditions which prevailed upon our western and northern boundaries were not unlike those which obtained here.
The animal inhabitants of this period consisted of opossums, a strange species of squirrel, beavers and gophers. There were large hoofed animals not unlike the rhinoceros; others bore resemblance to the tapir and the swine family. There were creatures with three hoofs to each foot and three toes on each hoof, of a species related to the horse. There were others resembling camels, oxen and cud-chewing animals that seemed to be a combination of the deer, the camel and the hog. There was a family of short jawed animals resembling the panther with sharp, knife-like teeth. There were saber-toothed tigers more powerful and cruel than the Asiatic species; there were monkeys, foxes and wolves. Huge snakes, lizards and turtles infested the swamps. Bright winged birds flitted among the forests and open glades. Bats and myriads of strange insects were present preying upon others.
Throughout the Tertiary period the climatic conditions appear to have been remarkably uniform over regions extending north to Greenland and westward to Montana. Iowa, and all adjacent regions far north and westward reveled in the luxuriance of a tropical climate. The air ​was balmy and laden with the odor of flowers and fruits. The bright summer days seemed never ending. A listless languor sent the birds and beasts into the shade at midday. Tropical vegetation grew spontaneously; brilliant foliage and flowers, luxuriant ferns and clinging vines mingled with the forests and open vistas in landscapes of surpassing beauty.
But in the course of time a change was perceptible. The intense heat of the long summer days was tempered by refreshing breezes, and the nights became delightfully cool. The winters were slowly growing colder. Snow storms came and piercing winds swept over plain and forest. Tropical plants were stricken with early frosts; ice formed in lakes and streams where it had never had before appeared. The more hardy animals sought the shelter of wooded ravines and deep gorges. Snow fell to unusual depths; year after year it came earlier, and winter continued later. The earth became frozen to great depths; fruits and trees disappeared. As the snow piled higher each succeeding year, and the summers were too short and cold to melt it, all animal life perished. The pressure of mountains of snow and the percolating rains converted the mass into a solid sheet of glacier ice that not only covered nearly all of Iowa, but reached out over the northern half of North America.
The ice sheet of this period had its southern margin south of the latitude of St. Louis. The ice was slowly moving outward from the center of accumulation, grinding over the underlying rocks, crushing them into the finest powder. Fragments of enormous size were frequently caught in the lower portion of the flowing ice and carried forward bodily, grinding the rock strata into rock flour, and being themselves planed and grooved on the lower surface. All bowlders of crystalline rock which we find strewn over our State were carried from their native ledges in British America by these ice sheets of what geologists call the Quaternary period.
BOWLDER IN BUCHANAN COUNTY
GLACIAL MARKING ON ROCKS IN DES MOINES COUNTY.
​Another climatic change slowly came, and the ice began to melt. Rivers were gradually formed, carrying on their turbid waters the soil made by the grinding ice. This was deposited over the surface of the State, forming yellow clay.
Professor Samuel Calvin, State Geologist for Iowa, has told how the soils of the State were produced by the action of the ice in the glacial period. He says:
“To a person passing from the drift-covered to the driftless part of the state the topography presents a series of surprises. The principal drainage streams flow in valleys that measure, from the summits to the divides, six hundred feet or more in depth. The Oneota, or upper Iowa River, in Allamakee County, for example, flows between picturesque cliffs that rise almost vertically from three to four hundred feet, while from the summit of the cliffs the land rises gradually to the crest of the divide, three, four, or five miles back from the stream. Tributary streams cut the lateral slopes and canyon walls at intervals. These again have tributaries of the second order. In such a region a quarter section of level land would be a curiosity. This is a fair sample of what Iowa would have been had it not been planed down by the leveling effects of the glaciers. Soils of uniforms excellence would have been impossible in a non-glacial Iowa. The soils of Iowa have a value equal to all of the silver and gold mines of the world combined.
“From this point of view therefore, the history of Iowa's superb soils begin with first steps in rock making. The very oldest rocks of the Mississippi Valley have contributed something to making our soils to what they are, and every later formation laid down the surfaces of Iowa, or regions north of it, has furnished its quota of materials to the same end. The history of Iowas soils, therefore, embraces the whole sweep of geologic times.
It is estimated that the last invasion of Iowa by the glaciers was from 100,000 to 170,000 years ago. For many years scientists have been investigating the causes which have produced the great treeless plains of the Mississippi Valley. East of Ohio prairies are unknown, but as we go westward they increase in number and size. In western Indiana, and from there to the Rocky Mountains west and north the vast prairies prevail, although groves are often found, and the margins of lakes, rivers and creeks are generally bordered with the same extent as trees. From 98° of longitude west and treeless plains become almost a desert.
The soil of prairies varies in formation and quality to almost as great an extent as in the timbered regions. In Michigan, Indiana and Illinois the prairies are inclined to be quite level, the surface soil is a black vegetable formation to six inches to five feet or more in depth. In Iowa the prairies are more rolling, affording better surface drainage.
In southern Wisconsin, Minnesota, the Dakotas, western Nebraska, northern Missouri, and western Kansas, the vegetable formation is lighter, sand and gravel being quite common on the surface.
Along the first river bottoms, the soil is generally a deep rich alluvium. The second bench often presents a mixture of sand and gravel while the bluffs show soil of a lighter color, with clay near the surface. Large bodies of ​broken land, cut up into steep hills, generally extend back from the water courses, through which deep ravines have been cut in all directions. This land is generally covered to some extent with growth of stunted oak and hickory trees, among which are thickets of wild plum, crab apple and hazel bushes. These lands were called “barrens” by the early settlers. The soil of this hill land is productive, producing grain, grass and fruit of excellent quality. The “Missouri Slope” is the name given to that portion of Iowa which is drained into the Missouri River. The soil is a bluff deposit, generally destitute of surface stone and gravel, or rock strata beneath, and produces excellent crops of grain, grass, vegetables and fruit. The bluffs along the Mississippi River rise to a height of from one to two hundred feet, everywhere intersected with deep ravines. They are generally treeless, but in some places small timber is found. Northern Iowa is but gently rolling fifty miles west of the Mississippi, while the southern half of the state is more broken into hills and valleys, and has large tracts of woodland.
Although essentially a prairie state, almost every variety of surface soil is found, showing conclusively that it is not the peculiar soil formation which causes forests to grow in one locality and prairies to be found intermingled with them.
After more than half a century of investigation of the causes which have produced the prairies, the problem is yet unsettled. No theory yet advanced explain satisfactorily why the treeless plains begin in certain sections of Michigan, Indiana, Wisconsin, Missouri, Kansas and Louisiana, without any noticeable difference in soil or surface. In many places in the states where the prairies predominate, remains of forests are found that show evidences of having existed for hundreds of years, and among the mare prairies which furnish no indications of ever having been covered with trees.
The origin of the prairies is one of the most interesting ​problems that has engaged the attention of all thoughtful people who have seen them before they were touched by the plow. Scientists have sought carefully for evidences to sustain the different theories advanced. Professors Whitney and Hall, who made early geological surveys and examinations of portions of Iowa, gave considerable attention to the origin of prairies. Whitney says:
Professor James Hall says:
Dr. Charles A. White, who made a later geological survey of Iowa, in discussing this subject says:
The International Cyclopedia, in an elaborate article on the prairies, says:
It will be seen from these quotations that the subject of the origin of the prairies is by no means settled. Little, if anything new, has been developed during the last quarter of a century by scientific investigation to throw new light upon a subject that will always be of interest in the Mississippi Valley. The fact that prairie and forest conditions have been found on all of the continents, and among the islands, when first seen by men, show clearly that the solution of the problem cannot be found in local or ​climatic conditions. Some of the treeless plains are the most fertile lands known; some are level as the lakes; some are barren deserts of drifting sands; others are lofty elevations rising into hills and mountains; they exist in the Arctic regions, in the temperate latitudes and in the torrid zones; some are entirely destitute of sand, gravel or rocks of any description. Others are thickly strewn with granite bowlders, and in others arise enormous ledges of rocks. In some places in Kansas the prairies are covered with flat limestone, in sufficient quantities to fence the land into fields with walls, as in New England and Pennsylvania with cobble stones.