588 THE GEOLOGY OF MINNESOTA. 



^ [Quartzyte. Historical resume. 



Historical resumt. 



The first written account of the quarry was by George Catlin, in 1837*, found in the 38th 

 volume of the first series of the American Journal of Science and Arts, p. 138, in a letter ad- 

 dressed to Dr. 0. T. Jackson, to whom he also sent a sample of the pipestone for analysis. The 

 journey was made on horseback from the falls of St. Anthony, in the summer of 1836, in com- 

 pany with "a young gentleman from England, of fine taste and education," and a single Indian 

 guide. Mr. Catlin describes the quarry as -'on the very top" of the Coteau des Prairies, which 

 rises above the country about it with graceful and almost imperceptible swells. The quartzyte 

 he regards "a secondary or sedimentary deposit," but no further defines its supposed age. 



Jean N. Nicollet visited the quarry in July, 1838, as is plainly shown by his own name and 

 date of that year, together with the initials of his companions, boldly and artistically cut on the 

 quartzyte at the top of the ledge, near the "leaping rock," and a little north of where the creek 

 passed over the brow of the escarpment.** 



Prof. James Hall, next in chronological order, read a paper before the American Philosoph- 

 ical Society in June, 1866, in which, among notes on the geology of some of the western portions 

 of Minnesota, he classes the red quartzyte as Huronian. He imagines the Coteau des Prairies 

 caused by a vast synclinal in the rocks of this age.f He did not see the pipestone quarry itself, 

 having gone only to lake Shetek. 



Dr. F. V. Hayden visited and examined the locality in October, 1866, and his account is in 

 the American Journal of Science and Arts for January, 1867, p. 15. After examining rock of the 

 same kind on the James and Vermilion rivers in Dakota, and at Sioux Falls on the Big Sioux 

 river, he gives an interesting detailed description of the quarry, and inclines to the opinion that 

 the quartzyte is "supra-carboniferous, Triassic, perhaps, or an extension downward of Cretaceous 

 No. 14 



Dr. C. A. White has given a description of a "Trip to the great red pipestone quarry" in 

 the American Naturalist for 1868-9, but he does not there state anything concerning the age of 

 these rocks, though elsewhere he has ranked them as pre-Silurian, and named the formation the 

 "Sioux quartzyte."|| 



The known area of this rock in Pipestone and Rock counties is ap- 

 proximately marked out on the accompanying map, but there is much 

 probability of its being much greater and perhaps it includes the greater 

 portion of both counties. The Cretaceous formation, no doubt, also occurs 

 in the northern part of Pipestone county, and overlies unconformably the 

 quartzyte in other places, but it has not been seen. Dr. Hayden has men- 

 tioned such facts in his account of the geology of southeastern Dakota, oc- 

 curring at or near the mouth of Firesteel creek, on the James river, where 

 he has identified the Fort Benton and Niobrara groups. 



The pipestone quarry. At the red pipestone quarry (plate 24) there is 

 a ledge of rock which runs north and south nearly three miles. This 

 ledge of rock consists of layers of red quartzyte that have a low dip to- 



Compare page 62. 



"See paare 69. This inscription is about nine rods northwest of the waterfall 

 (fig. 38) of Pipestone creek, and only two or three rods north of Leaping rock. 

 The pillar of quartzyte, divided from the cliff by erosion, appears as in the adjoin- 

 ing figure. LPHAM. KJG. 39. LEAPING ROCK. 



tCompare page 98. 



JDr. Hayden misapprehends Prof. James Hall, in quoting his description. The "wall of red quartzyte" described 

 by Hall Is situated at Kedstone, in Nicollet county, and not at take .Sh.-tek . 



lltieology of Iowa. 1870. The reader is further referred to the first, second and tenth annual reports for reasons for 

 believing these quartzytes are of the age of the Potsdam sandstone of New York. See also the reports on geology of 

 Blue Earth, Cottonwood and Nicollet counties. 



