Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1900-08-14
COM MUNICATED.
MINNEAPOLIS Aug. IL 1900


One of the features of the University
summer school is the annual excurcion
to the Dalles of the St. Croix, rugged
and picturesque region. Here nature
has writ her story large and plain.
Large areas OF eruptive rocks show the
tremendous volcanic activity of cons
long ago. The elevations thus formed
were gradually depressed until they
were submerged beneath the vast in
land sea which extended over southern
Wisconsin and Minnesota to the Gulf of
Mexico. While thus engulfed they were
covered with deep deposits of sedimen-
tary rocks-shales, sandstone, ETC.,
again uplifted, they We're denuded by
erosion until many of their rock forma-
lions were entirely borne away.
Then came the great ice age which
brought great masses of glacial drift
forming the present photographic
features of the region, modified only by
recent erosive agencies. First a great
ice sheet pressed down from the Lake
Superior region toward the southwest
extending an unknown distance into
Minnesota, and bringing the character
istic red sandstone of the lake region.
Then came another great ice sheet from
the northwest from the Red river valley
distributing limestone debris. At this
point these opposing glaciers locked
horns, so to speak, and contended for
possession of the territory. While
these gigantic antagonists were thus
struggling for the mastery the pre-
glacial valley of the ST. Croix river was
filled with drift and lost, and the river
was gradually settling down into its
present channel which it has cut down
to its present level in past glacial times.
The disintegration of the rocks thus
brought gives the present beds of red
and grey sand or clay.
The cutting OF the channel has ex-
posed the various formations and made
them easily accessible for study. Ac-
companying them are many curious or
interesting features. Perhaps the most
wonderful are the so-ca!led pot holes
resembling huge cisterns scooped out
of the hard resistant rock high up on
the shelves of the gorge The manner
of their formation is thus described:
at seems clear from study of the
locality that all of these holes have been
formed by swiftly running water, whose
swirling eddies, produced by the I'M
evennesS of the rock floor, have carried
loose sand and gravel round and round
so persistently that great holes have
been literally drilled into the hard crys-
taline rocks which formed the river bed.
Each hole was then filled with a rotat-
ting column of water at whose top the
onward flow of the river furnished
power enough to keep it in rotation,
and at whose bottom pebbles and sand
and boulders rolled round and round
year after year, century after century
boring the hole deeper and grinding the
Tlnhhlnc lap--lrntII tho rtxy y
ed its task or accomplished the object
of its toll. Untold thousands of pebbles,
imprisoned in these great mills of ma
ture, ground themselves to atoms on
ly to be replaced by as many others
swept down by the floods as were those
which preceded them-all used as slaves
by the river as great live monster to
grind away this defiant obstacle to his
progress"
Similar pot holes are now forming in
the present river bed and the operation
can be watched so that the description
is no fancy sketch.
Five distinct river terraces are easily
dstinguishable, the highest 905 feet
above sea level; the second, $40 feet the
third, $50 feet; the fourth, 100 feet; the
fifth, 725 feet, and from 20 to 30 feet
above the present water level.
Abandoned channels of the river are
seen, one of which, two miles long,
now contains Lake Thaxter. Evidence
is presented of former falls which may
have been 80 or 100 feet high.
A peculiar rock column, known as
the DEVILS Chair, is seen on the right
bank below the elbow in the gorge.
There seems slight Inconsistency in
the name, since his majesty is not sup
posed to have a material body and is
never represented as sitting A little
above, on the Wisconsin side, near the
top of the ledge, is the Old Man of the
Dalles, face resembling somewhat the
Great Stone Face seen in the White
Mountains.
These are but few of the interesting
features of this region set apart as an
inter state park. Instructors in geolo-
gy and botany accompany the excur-
sion to point out and explain what is of
most interest and importance