Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1916-08-10
WHAT FORMED THE INTERvALE?
First of All, Floods Which Fol-
lowed Great Ice Sheet.
Then the WinoOski Took n Hand
Present Intervnle Is It's Flood
Pinin-Iiistory Of Like
Champlain, Etc.

There were giants in those days,
meaning in this case the plelstocene period.
which preceded the present on the long
geological roll There were giant lakes
| giant rocks and particularly giant gla-
ciers one was so vast that it covered the
entire eastern half of the country this
side of the Rockies. Even the Winooski
| was "A little giant, and thereby hangs in
| part this tale
THE intervale in its present condition."
says State Geologist George H. Perkins.
'is a flood plain. that is, it has been form
ed by deposits year after year from the
flooded Winooslti river. The river at it's
food brings down from the back country
| n great amount of earth, which it deposits
/ over its banks.
| "Of course every citizen of burlington
knows that whenever the river is in flood
| the intervale is completely covered with
water-in the spring always-sometime
| once n year, sometimes two or three
| times. The banks of the river are low.
| IF YOU should ask me how North ave
nue. goes along on that high ground that's
|
originally was undoubtedly washed out
| by the great floods which came after the
melting Of the great ice sheet that once
covered all this country, thousands of
feet in thickness 1t went right over the
mountains and everything else. l have
pieces of quartz picked up on the top of
Mansfield and Cancels Hump, and such
pieces have been found even on the sum-
| ,,,it ,t,I, rIa
cier covered the Adrondacks and White
mountains also. in fact everything east
of the Rocky mountains. The proofs would
be rather long to enumerate but no geolo-
gist doubts the fact. The proofs arc
! abundant The scratches on the rocks
are in general from north to south, show
Ing the movement of the ice sheet.
| There are other scratches caused by
little glaciers, the remains of the ice sheet
moving from the mountains into the
jChamplain valley"
These little glaciers were small only by
comparison with the great mother of them
all. of which they were the survivors. They
! crept down westward from the White
mountains and eastward from the Adiron-
dacks into the valley which like the lake
was formed in still remoter times.
| There was no separate Lake Champlain,
as We know it to-day. but what the state
Eeologst agrees with his fellows in call
ing Lake "Hudson-Champl plain" This
was a body Of water that occupied the
Hudson valley and extended over the
present divide between Whitehall and
Troy by which the two basins are separ-
ated, into the Champlain basin so far as
the ice allowed. OF course as the ice in
the Champlan basin by melting retreated
north. this lake became larger. by the in
crease of its northern part.
| Quoting Professor Woodwork, Or Per-
kins said: From some cause which can
only be postulated from the known cond-
tons of the time and hence probably the
effect of the powerful discharge of the
drainage through the Hudson gorge com
ing not only from the melting ice in the
jChamplain district but as well from the
intake from Lake Iroquots which was now
in existence on the west of the Adiron-
dacks. the waters of Lake Albany (cre-
ated by Lake Iroquois) were drained off.
With the withdrawal of the waters orer
the Albany district divide partly of ga-
cial materials and partly Of bed rock was
revealed between the nascent glacial lake
over the Fort Edward basin and in Lake
Champlain valley and the region on the
south, and waters began to spill over
this barrier west and south of
Schuyervlle across those fields which
We're later the scene OF Rurgoyne' s
defeat Thus Lake Vermont glacial Lake
Champlain) was horn, consisting on the
south of the mountainous ridges between
two of which Lake George lies, of a shall
low lake over the Fort Edward distric,
and a constantly enlarging body of water
on tho north.
by the gradual removal Of the CLAWS
which filed the older gorge Of the Hud.
son, the outflow from the lake Went
through this and in time tho waters OF
the Lake Champlain of that time sank
lower and lower until they reached the
level of the divide now existing between
Hudson and Champlain valleys in Wood
creek valley near Fort Edward" So says
DR.. Perkins
AT yet later stage" saws Professor
Woodworth, following the stand Of wat
ers in Lake Vermont under control of the
Fort Edward outlet the ice barrier or
the north began to give way; the waters
leaked out northward, we are at lhert,
to suppose, thus lowering the lake leve
step by step; and then when the ice wa!
no longer a barrier the sea came in at
lower level The sea appears not to hav,
extended father south than Whitehall a
which time the land was as high on the
south if not higher than now"
After the melting Of the ice sheet tn.
IWinoosk river was very much larger
than 1t is now, and brough. down grea
volumes Of water which rushed through
into the lake and taking away material II
that way carried it into the lake" The
river flowed from a greater height. wa!
larger and brought down more earth. 1
emptied near where Richmond now is.
Originally this basin extended from
North avenue to the highlands on the cas-
of the Winooski river, The river now 1:
doing two things II is deepening it's chan
mel as every river does but II is also
like every river overlooking its banks, ano
to that extent is filling up the basin"
Thus two processes are in progress:
which tend to counteract each others in
fuence, the banks are becoming higher
above the rivers bed as the channel is Gu
deeper and then, as the floods come, arr
being worn down again by the added vol
ume of water
So this is the basin that came from the
river that came from the glacier tina
came from the big ice sheet which
stretched over the eastern half Of uncl'
Sans dominions.
IF HE HAD WINGS.
Algie's mother was an invalid. so hi