196 STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE 



SOILS OF THE UPPER PENINSULA. 



BY A. C. LANE, STATK GEOLOGIST. 



It is not eas.v to say very iinich of value rep:ardinj>- tlie soils of the Upper Peninsula 

 in a few words, because, with some exceptions, they are confined to rather small areas. 

 One noticeable character of the Upper Peninsula, as compared with the Lower, is the 

 relative shallowness of the soils and sub-soils, so that exposures of bed rock are much 

 more frequent, though there are places where the surface deposits are much over 100 feet 

 thick. The Great Lakes were at one time higher than at present — some GOO feet higher 

 on Keweenaw Point, and from that varying down to 200 or 300 feet around Menominee. 

 Consequently, except as modified by the cutting of the streams below the level mentioned, 

 the soils are arranged in long lines, parallel roughly to the shore, and consisting of strips 

 which are sandy and gravelly, backed with marshes, alternating with clay. The sand 

 or gravel deposits mark the old beach lines of permanent level, and the clay the levels 

 from which the water retired very rapidly. It may be expected that the higher levels 

 would be somewhat more gravelly than the lower, which consist of rehandled material, 

 but this is liable to many exceptions where the shore cuts into bed rock. In many 

 cases this aid beach line has been piled up into dunes, whieli travel back from the 

 shore in line after line, between which are narrow swamps with a soil of muck, shells 

 and clay. Above the highest level of the lakes, where the lake deposits have been 

 removed, we expect to find some deposits of glacial dump soils, known as till, or 

 overwashed sands or gravels deposited by the waters of the melting ice, or clays 

 deposited in lakes dammed by the ice. \Ve find, however, that a very large part of 

 the highlands have been washed and burnt bare, the most conspicuous exception 

 being certain ])arts of the Copper Range, upon the summit of which are piled over- 

 washed deposits of sand and gravel, full of kettle holes and lakes. These glacial 

 deposits may be also exposed by erosion at lower levels, and as a matter of fact we 

 find in a great many places a very fine-grained pink clay, which often lies under a 

 coarser deposit of sand, gravel or clay. These clays of the Upper Peninsula are 

 generally somewhat calcareous, and in Part I of Vol. 8 of our reports, just issued, 

 will be found four or five analyses. They also contain qviite a little iron, which is 

 natural when we consider that they come from the region of iron-bearing rocks. The 

 cold and damp climate favors the growth of peat moss, and we find very extensive 

 deposits along the Upper Taquamenon and Manistique rivers, and small deposits 

 will be found elsewhere. 



The celery of Newberry bids fair to rival in character that of Kalamazoo, and 

 about the southeastern part of the peninsula, where the sub-soil is limestone and the 

 waters limy and marl in the lakes not infrequent, it is probable that there will be 

 little difficulty with the souring of this soil. 



The ice moved in a general way parallel to the course of the lakes, and hence more 

 from the east than in the Lower Peninsula, and in the region of the sedimentary 

 rocks which lie east of the line from Marquette to Menominee, the course of the 

 underlying bed rock runs very much the same, so that the vast bulk of the materials 

 of the soils comes from the underlying lakes. Consequently in tlie northern part, 

 following the outcrops of sandstone shown on our map of the Upper Peninsula, 

 the soil is prevailingly sandy, and the rehandling by the ice of Lake Superior has 

 only served to make it more so. On the other hand, as we approach Lake Michigan 

 we get into the belt of the Trenton limestone and the Cincinnati beds, and the very 

 same formations which make the famous and fertile "blue grass"' region of Kentucky. 



This formation contains a great many fossils and brachipoids with phosphatic 

 shells, and I know of no reason why they should not be as good soils as in Ken- 

 tucky, of course leaving out of account the difference in climate. And south of these 

 and the beds of the overlying Niagara limestone in the Ilelderberg. we may find good 

 beds of gypsum, which furnish an excellent soil. The Upper Peninsula Experiment 

 Station, Chatham, lies toward the north margin of the limestone belts, and the 

 excellent farms and fruit around Menominee show in a practical way the good 

 quality of the land. Of course, we have the sandy strips already mentioned, and 

 there are many small lakes, often without outlets, but the sand is rarely too deep 

 for orchards. When we come to the iron country in Marquette, Baraga, Iron, 

 Dickinson and Gogebic counties, we are in a region where now-a-days fire has gen- 

 erally swept more than once. The hills are washed bare of soil and usually rise 

 without much regularity in smooth, round knobs, while between these are streams, 



