The crisis. (Chillicothe, Livingston Co., Mo.) 1877-1878, 1877-10-18
PR REHISTORIC KANSAS.
The Secretary Ofthe Historical Society
interviewing Past Ages.


The efficient Secretary of the Kansas
State Historical Society seems disposed
to carry historical Investigations in Kan
sas back to prehistoric times; in man
ner, too, both interesting and instruct
i've. 1t is a well-established geological,
fact that considerable portion of the
subsoil of eastern Kansas, at least, was
formed as sedimentary deposit, in &
fresh water lake, or in number of such
lakes, which at one time covered large
portions of the country adjacent to the
Missouri River and its tributaries. This
mud deposit form perhaps the richest
of the Kansas upland soils. 1t has been
brought to view most prominently al
Leayenworth, Atchison, st. Joseph
Wyandotte and Kansas City in street
grading, and in railroad cuts in the
eastern part of the State. This deposit
has been yariously named by geologists
bluff, "Ioess," and "lacustrine" soil
The study of the character of this soil
and the circumstances under which il
was formed, is one ofgreat interest both
to the farmer and to the scientific in.
quirer. Recently the editor of the
Saline county journal gave lengthy
and interesting description of a capaci-
GUS cave in that county, the walls, cell
ings and passage ways of which are
covered with "hieroglyphics, picture
writing,-the work of ancient races, OF
of more recent Indian tribes nowpassed
away. The Journal suggests that the
deciphering of these hieroglyphics is
worthy the attention of the State His
torical Society, whcreupon the Secreta.
ry of the Society sends the following
communication to that paper, in which
he refers to circumstances which 60 to
associate the earliest of the human in.
habitants of the Missouri Valley with
this lacustrine period:
OFFICE STATE lIIsToRICAL SOCIETY,
TOPEKA, KANs., Sept. IA, 1877,
Editors JOmndi:-I have read with
interest your account of "Palmer's
Cave" Your suggestion that the in.
scriptions upon its walls are worthy OF
historical attention is a timely one
Kansas etbnology has hitherto received
but little attention. Our neighboring
States are quite in advance Of us in this
respect. Just on our eastern border
have been found and subjected to scien.
titic examination relics of the races in,
habiting the Missouri Valley during the
lacustrinc period; the time when large
portions of Kansas Nebraska, Iowa and
Missouri were covered by vast fresh
water lake, in which was formed the de-
post of beds of gray and brown mari
which underlics and forms the basis OF
the rich soil in all this vast region. The
history of these times is found in the
pctrified wood and shells and bones OF
the trees and animals of those days
carefully laid away in the mari beds OF
bluff formation, deposited in this lake
and which pctriiications are from time
totime brought to light when wells OF
cellars are dug, or railroads or streets
cut through these beds.
Forests of elm, sycamore, walnut, oak,
and other trees like those of our present
forests, grew upon the shores of this
lake. The squirrel, beaver, deer, elk,
buffalo, elephant, and mastodon lived in
the forest upon its borders. The re-
mains brought to light by the examina'
tions in Pompcii, Herculaneum and
Troy do not tell the history of those
cities more accurately than the petritied
trees and shells and bones exhumed
from what was that mud deposit, tell
the history of this lake and its shores
Maj. T. Hawn, now of Leavenworth
in pursuing his land surveys under Sur
veyor- General Calhoun, and subsequent.
ly in assisting Prof. &. &. Swallow in
his Kansas geological survey, found this
lake, or Loess deposit as it has been
called in the following Kansas counties
Miami, Brown, Doniphan, Chase, Linn,
Lyon, Butler, Usage, Morris and Green
wood. Frof. Swallow mentions it as
forming the principal soil of cultivation
in many other of our Kansas counties
Its depth is spoken of as being in places
in Miami county as great as twenty feet
and in Brown county seventy-five feet
Prof. Samuel Aughey says the Loess
depositprevails overa least three-fourths
of the surface of Nebraska, and that it
ranges in thickness from five to one
hundred and fifty feet. Prof. G. A,
White says this deposit occupies the
surface of all the countiesof Iowa which
border on the Missouri River,
In Missouri, near Kansas City, on
what were the banks of this great lake,
have been found mounds which were
built by people who lived at the time
the waters of this lake swept its shores
Within the mounds, besides human
skeletons, have been found stone imple-
ments, of peace and war, used by those
people. Such implements have been
found in Nebraska, deeply buried in
the soil which composed the sediment
of the lake; found under such circum-
stances MS to admit of no doubt that the
implements were deposited there during
the time of the prevalence of the waters
of the lake over that region.
Little research has been had in Kan
sas for relics of the tribes of the past
Yet ancient pottery has been picked up
in many places. On the Solomon and
the Big Blue, Prof. Nudge has seen
places where such pottery was evidently
manufactured. At Junction City re-
mains of supposed ancient earth-works
are seen. Hieroglyphics, perhaps SINH
lar to those seen at Palmer's Gave, have
been found elsewhere, cut upon the
faces of the rocks in western Kansas
But no attempt at description or trans,
lation has yet been made SO far as
know.
When the educators of the State shall
have well taken hold of the study and
teaching of the surface geology of Kan.
sas, as the school law contemplates
that they should do and in the manner
pointed out in the admirable little Kan
sas school book entitled Agricultural
Geology" by Prof. VIM. X. Kedzie. Of
the State Agricultural College, we shall
have raised up an army of inquirers and
observers. in respect to this portion OF