Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1954-02-08
Huge Ancient River
Once Cut Across u. S.
Valley in West Virginia
Indicated as Principal Truce
By THONGS r. Henry

~ suSVtSS W.
The Mississippi once was only trib-
utary stream to the greatest of North
American rivers, the Teays.
The Ohio. the Wabash and the Illi-
nois are extant fragments of this vast
stream, probably the most titanic river
the earth has known.
The great Teays was overwhelmed
and broken into fragments by the adj
vancing ice and glacial drift early in
the last ice age. One Of its most
prominent remains is great aban-
doned valley extending across West
Virginia from Huntington to Charles
ton. This has been known as an an
cient river course for the past half
century, but until recently was believed
to be the old bed of the Ohio
Well Diggings Indicate Course.
Now it is recognized as only a small
part Of much larger river, according
to a report to the American Association
for the Advancement of Science by DR..
Raymond E. Jansen of Marshall COL
lege, West Virginia, who has done much
work in tracing its course through that
State. Meanwhile. he says, well dig
gings through the glacial deposits
along the rest of its course now show
the whole TeayS basin in rough outline.
This great river arose in the Appa.
lachians of North Carolina, then con-
siderably higher and more extensive
than at present. From there it flowed
northwestward across Virginia and into
West Virginia as far as Charleston,
along about the same route as the New
and Kanawha rivers today. From
Charleston it continued west through
the abandoned valley to Huntington.
w. Va, and then swerved northward
to about Chillicothe, Ohio. Thence it
proceeded across Ir diana and Illinois
where 1t was joined by the Mississippi.
Then it flowed south to the st. Louis
area, where it was joined by several
streams from the west which now have
combined to form the Missouri.
Sea Covered Plains.
Originally. DR.. Jansen points out,
the Teays probably emptied into a
great inland sea which covered much Of
the present Great Plains area. Vast
earth upheavals destroyed this sea. At
about the same time an arm of the
Gulf of Mexico extended northward
into southern Missouri. Into this the
mighty 1eayS emptleQ.
knowledge of the actual course of
the Teays from Chillicothe to the Gulf
of Mexico" DR.. Jansen says, has
come from the recent study of thou
sands of we'll records. BY plotting the
we'll locations on maps and showing
the depth to bed rock for each. the
topography of the preglacial buried
land surface has been determined. Thus
it has become known that the general
bed rock surface from central Ohio
westward into Illinois represents a
continuation below the glacial drift Of
the gently sloping plateau surface. In
many cases the wells have penetrated
the drift to depths of 200 to 300 feet
before reaching bed rock. The distrl-
button of these deeper wells follows a
definite pattern and indicates the long,
winding course of the Teays.
Carved Big Land Area.
"Originating perhaps in the days Of
the dinosaurs, the ancient Teays e
tablished it's course from the Blue Rid
to the Gulf. With its great network +
tributaries it helped carve the lar
scape of a large portion Of the cont
nent The amount of sediment which it
eroded and carried to the sea NUT
have been tremendous. The sea into
which it poured these sediments was
the long, narrow arm of the Gulf Ct
Mexico. This long seaway from south
ern Illinois to New Orleans has been
completely filled and the great delta
now juts far into the gulf proper. The
building of this delta has been attrib-
uted to the Mississippi, which now
follows it's entire length. This part OF
the Mississippi, however, has been in
existence for brief time in COMPARE
son with that of the former Teays. 1t
seems evident that the greater part OF
the delta was built by the Teays. with
the Mississippi adding only the latest
portions"