554 THE GEOLOGY OF MINNESOTA. 



[Building stone 



is occasionally a water which has a distinctly alkaline character, but this 

 is not common. Many of the wells of the county are curbed with pine 

 boards, and from that fact they supply a water that is now contaminated 

 with the organic decay known to result from that practice, and a number 

 were examined that were very foul from that cause. 



The curbing of wells in the prairie regions with pine boards or planks is very common, ow- 

 ing to the lack of convenient stone, and the ease of constructing such curbs of wood; but it is a 

 practice which all well-diggers should loudly and persistently protest against, and which all the 

 owners of wells should discontinue, as it is a fruitful source of foul water, causing intestinal dis- 

 eases and typhoid fevers. 



MATERIAL RESOURCES. 



These counties contain some of the best farming lands in the state. 

 They are not broken by rock exposure (except through the central part of 

 Rock county), so that nearly all their area is tillable. The rocks that under- 

 lie them are not known to hold anything of great economic value. They 

 will serve as a building material, but are rather hard even for that, and it 

 may be found more economical to bring in by railroad the building stones 

 of the eastern counties. The main material product of these counties is 

 now, and will always remain, wheat, of which they will produce as much to 

 the acre as any county in the state. 



Building stone. Near Pipestone City the red quartzyte is quarried on 

 land of Mr. C. H. Bennett. Stone suitable for cellar walls and ordinary 

 rough masonry is sold at three to four dollars per cord. Slabs about six 

 inches thick and six or eight feet square can be obtained. Quarrying has 

 also been done here by Mr. J. A. Phelps, leasing from Mr. Bennett. He sold 

 about two hundred cords of stone in 1879, about one-third of it being used 

 in Pipestone City, and nearly the same amount in Flandreau. His quarry- 

 ing has been at two points; one at the base of the "three maidens," supply- 

 ing a dark red stone similar in color to the red pipestone, the other a quar- 

 ter of a mile southeast from that point where the stone is reddish-gray, 

 being at each place very hard, strong and durable quartzyte.* 



In the N. W. J of section 25, Mound, some thirty rods east of the highest 

 part of the mound, Messrs. Shoemaker and Kelly quarry the red quartzyte. 

 They loosen and throw down the rock from the upper part of the vertical 

 cliff, which is here about forty feet high. This work has been carried on 



*Comparc the chapter on building stones, p. 149. 



