Downes — Development of Kenosha County. 54Y 



northeast corner of section thirteen, town one, range nineteen 

 east, and extending west on the north line of sections thirteen, 

 fourteen, fifteen, sixteen, seventeen, and eighteen to tlie range 

 line, and the town of Randall created.^ This was the last 

 change made in the boundaries of any of the to^vns.^ 



Chapter II. 



GEOLOGY, SOILS AND TOPOGRAPHY. 



The surface features of the county are simple and imdulat- 

 ing in character with a gentle slope to the southeastward. The 

 height of the land above the level of Lake Michigan gradually 

 increases, with the exception of a small region in the western 

 part of the town of Pleasant Prairie and the eastern part of the 

 town of Bristol, to the westward, reaching its greatest height in 

 the extreme northwestern part of the town of Wheatland. 



The important rivers in the county are the Fox, Des Plaines, 

 and the Pike. These are located in the western, central, and 

 northeastern parts of the county, respectively. The current in 

 these rivers and their tributaries is not swift enough to furnish 

 any power for manufacturing purposes.^ The slight rise in the 

 height of the land in the eastern part of the county which ex- 

 tends through the central part of the town of Pleasant Prairie, 

 and then northwestward through the towns of Somers and Paris 

 is notable because it makes the streams which flow into Lake 

 Michigan short and abrupt, and forms a continuation of the 

 watershed between the St. Lawrence and the Mississippi basins. 



In its geological formation Kenosha county is divided into 

 four distinct north and south sections by the deposit of four 

 different varieties of coarse drift by the glaciers upon the 

 Niagara limestone, which forms the bed of the entire county. 

 These four different varieties of drift differ from each other 



iKenosKa County Records. 



2 For changes in town boundaries see Plate XXXIX. 



3 Census taker of 1850, remarked: "The only remarkable thing to 

 be seen in this town (Bristol) is a flouring mill built upon a stream 

 (Des Plaines) that it would require an 'observation' to tell which way 

 the water runs." 



