| Summary: | 2 A HISTORY OF RICHLAND COUNTY AND THE CITY OF WAHPETON In the Glacial Period, which followed the Tertiary, great ice sheets pushed out from the Hudson Bay region and covered much of North America. Twice the ice advanced over North Dakota, at one time covering nearly all the State east and north of the Badlands. Throughout most of this area, including the old valley, clay, sand, gravel, and boulders were left to a depth of 200 to 300 feet. In the southwestern corner of the county—the section southwest of Hankinson—the effects of this glaciation are very apparent. The surface is composed of morainic hills between which are found kettle-like depressions. Over it are scattered characteristic glacial boulders and gravel. In the early history of the county a chain of lakes—• Elk, Elm, Taylor, and Twin—extended from six miles northwest of Lidgerwood to Hankinson and southward. They were the results of depressions in the glacial channel of the Sheyenne River, which at one time drained the water from the melting front of the Dakota Glacier near what is now Devils Lake, and had a much longer course through the area of the county than its short route across the northwest corner today. Another of these now dry glacial lake beds is that of Skunk Lake. Toward the close of the Glacial Period the ice dammed the northern end of the old valley eroded during the Tertiary, and formed Lake Agassiz, which at one time had an area of 110,000 square miles, covering a region greater than the area of the Great Lakes. From the southeastern corner of what is now North Dakota the lake extended northward for 550 miles into Canada beyond Lake Winnipeg, one of its present-day remnants. In the north it was more than 130 miles wide and 600 feet deep, but in the south it was much narrower and shallower, being 50 to 60 miles wide and about 100 feet deep in the Wahpeton area. Rivers flowing into the lake brought sediment which in the course of time raised its floor 20 to 50 feet, forming a very level bed. As a consequence this part of the county—most of the county is the floor of the ancient lake—is perhaps as level as any land surface on earth. From Wyndmere (altitude 1,062) to Wahpeton (altitude 965), 25 miles east the slope is less than four feet per mile, and from south to north in the county it is less than two feet. Some of the rivers entering Lake Agassiz were especially large and sediment- laden. When their swift waters met those of the quiet lake, they dropped their heavier gravels and sands, and in the course of great periods of time formed huge deltas. The one deposited by the Sheyenne covers almost 800 square miles, largely in Ransom and Richland Counties, the area in the latter county comprising in general the land north and west of Hankinson. The outline of the Sheyenne Delta is very pronounced along its northeastern edge, in places rising 75 feet above the valley proper. It was when the ice receded and the delta was formed that the latter turned the course of the Sheyenne more directly east toward the lake and into its present channel. In the northeastern part of the county the beaches of the old lake, sometimes as much as 10 to 20 feet in height and 10 to 30 rods in width, may still be seen. As the waters of the lake receded, only a stream was left here and there. Today at the lowest point in the center of the valley the Bois de Sioux flows north to Wahpeton, where it joins the Ottertail from the east to form the Red River. The course of the Bois de Sioux and Red Rivers was the route of early-day exploration and steamboating, and now marks the eastern boundary of North Dakota and Richland County and forms the main drainage channel of the Red River Valley. The only other river of importance in the county is the Wild Rice. This little stream rises in the Drift Plain in eastern Sargent County and flows in a generally easterly direction across central Richland to the neighborhood of the Red. Here it turns north and almost parallels the latter stream, into which it empties some distance north of the county line. Scanned with a Zeutschel Zeta book scanner at 300 dpi. Edited with Multi-Page TIFF Editor.
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