CHAPTER XXII. 



THE GEOLOGY OF LE SUEUR COUNTY. 



BY WARREN UPHAM. 



Situation and area. Le Sueur county (plate 30) is in the southern part 

 of Minnesota, and is bounded on the west by the Minnesota river in its 

 course northward from its great bend at Mankato. The distance from Le 

 Sueur, the county seat and largest town, northeasterly to Saint Paul and 

 Minneapolis is 50 miles; east to lake Pepin, 80 miles; south to the Iowa line, 

 67 miles; and west to the Dakota line, 125 miles. Other considerable towns 

 and villages in this county are East Henderson, Ottawa, East Saint Peter, 

 Kasota, and Caroline, on the Chicago, Saint Paul, Minneapolis & Omaha 

 railway; New Prague, at the north line of the county, lying partly in Scott 

 county, Montgomery, Kilkenny and Waterville, on the Minneapolis & Saint 

 Louis railway; and, between these lines, Heidelberg, Lexington, Cordova, 

 Cleveland, Marysburgh, and Elysian. The area of Le Sueur county is 472.48 

 square miles, or 802,388.18 acres, of which 17,891.77 acres are covered by 

 water. 



SURFACE FEATURES. 



Natural drainage. The Minnesota river receives the drainage from 

 three-fourths of this county; and the remainder, a tract of about 120 square 

 miles in its southeast part, is drained easterly to the Mississippi by the 



Cannon river. 



The principal tributaries of the Minnesota river in Le Sueur county are Shanaska creek, 

 about seven miles long, the outlet of lake Washington, which enters the Minnesota river between 

 Kasota and East Saint Peter; Cherry creek, about thirteen miles long, the outlet of Scotch, Deck- 

 er, and other small lakes in Cleveland and Cordova, which unites with the Minnesota close south 

 of Ottawa; Le Sueur creek, nearly twenty miles long, the outlet of Eice lake in Sharon and other 

 lakes, which joins the Minnesota close north of Le Sueur, after receiving from the northeast, 

 about a mile above its mouth, the Little Le Sueur creek, some twelve miles long, whose sources 

 are Clear lake and lake Mary near Lexington arid School Section lake in the southeast corner of 



