The history of Wells County, North Dakota, and its pioneers : with a sketch of North Dakota history and the oregin [sic] of the place names

• Format: Text
• Language: unknown
• Published: North Dakota State Library
• Subjects: Ice Sheet
• Online Access: http://cdm16921.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/ref/collection/ndsl-books/id/40805

And Its Pioneers 25 from year to year until its weight causes it to flow toward a lower level. The general movement of the last great ice sheet which covered most of North America was toward the south. Geologists say that this glacier was probably more than a mile in thickness and did not move more than a rod or so during a season. Accumulations of earth, boulders and lime stone were plowed up by the glacier and left as a residium or "drift" as the ice melted. What is lighter and more delicate than a snowflake; yet the mighty ice sheets of glacial times were nothing more or less than a great number of snowflakes that fell one upon another for centuries until a glacier was formed. The "drift" of the Glacial Period covers the old landscape of Wells county to a depth of many feet. We once found a piece of petrified cedar wood with a knot on one side, thirty-eight feet below the surface, when digging a well on our old farm near Cathay. Silt, the essential element in soils for producing wheat and other small grains, is pulverized limestone mixed with the black earth of this "drift." This limestone causes the hard water in the wells. There are many huge boulders near Cathay and in other localities, showing parallel lines or striations on their under surfaces, indicative of their long journeys during the Glacial Period. There are many Moraines or chains of ridges. One just south of Cathay, one northeast and another southwest of Fessenden, and several in the Harvey vicinity. A Moraine is an accumulation of earth and stones carried and deposited by a glacier. There are terminal, lateral, medial and ground moraines. In early days there was much alkali in the soil in some locali- ' u was caused by the salt water not having drained 1 Glacial Period. These spots were indicated irregular broken condition of grassless h soil. They were very deceiving when teams became easily mired. Wells of found at a depth of 40 feet. The lakes caline. by more water collecting than can up, the alkali minerals dissolve and ke beds. #54=^ c.2. Scanned with a Zeutschel Zeta book scanner at 300 dpi. Edited with Multi-Page TIFF Editor.