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Ride to STcillsVille — Trempealeau Valley — Silver Mines — Mound Indians —Arrow Manufactory— Thumps on the Pine Stumps— Trouble Over.NKlLIiSVttLB, May 23d, 1860.Mil. Editor —In company with ltyland l’arkcr, Esq., 1 left Galogville Monday morning, for this place; by the way of Trempealeau River Valley. We fbund a good roncl over the Ridge, and took dinner in 'Trempealeau \ alley j with our friend, Mr. Reynolds. In the after-I noon we followed up the valley and put up for the night with Benjamin Merrill, Esq., East of what they,call the Silver Mines. Our route for the afternoon was through a broad and rich valley under a good state of cultivation. The broad fields of wheat look lino. The next morning, Mr. Merrill, proposed that wc should take a look at the ‘'diggings.'f which wc readily assented tp. We visited the norlh-wcstevn bluff, nearly four miles distant. At the west end of the bluft two or three holes had been dug about ten feet deep in the sand rock bringing to view some half inch veins of iron ore.— The rock was a loose granular sand-stonej generally cabled the Potsdam sand-stone by geologists, but colored nearly red by iron.—_ We fbllow’ed the bluff east fon three quarters of a mile and saw many of the holes that had been dug many years since, evidently for flint for arrowheads c. At one point we found scattered through the top *of the soil, plates of iron mixed with sand in all manner of shapes from that resembling parts of old kettles to whiskey ; flasks. 1 brought along one so nearly resembling a flask that an old toper would be likely to \ s ‘‘take a swig3; without an examination off; its contents. Interstratified with the sand i rock were strata and beds of flint rock, niuclH ; of which is very compact, affording an excel- 1' lent article for arrow heads. The sand rock. ; flint and iron, show evident signs of liaA ing suffered an intense heat at some time since its original deposit. The flint seemed to have ' been made by the fusion of the sand rock. I 1 obtained specimens with the granular sand s rock on one edge and the translucent flint on i the other with the lino of demarkation very lt;distinct. This heat might be accounted for . l’rom the fact that the trap rock shows itself, -near the falls of Black River, running nearly -in a line with this region of country. Some of lt;the flint is more granular, out of which a small ( pair of mill stones have been cut and are now 3 running in the neighborhood. I did not go on to the south-eastern bluff, but learned from * Mr. Merrill, that it was quite similar to the i one we examined. I saw no signs of Silver, or e
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Galesville Transcript
Galesville, Wisconsin, US
Fri, Jun 08, 1860
Page 4
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WI, USA 05 Oct 2017
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