RICE COUNTY. 67] 



Well?. Building-stone.] 



clay. Mr. Ilsley found a log thirty- five feet under the surface in blue clay. Levi Strader, sec. 17; 

 well, 27 feet; soil and yellow pebbly clay, 25 feet; sand, 1 foot; cemented yellow clay (hard pan), 

 1 foot; water rose about 8 feet. 



Shicldsrille. Pat. McKenna, N. E. } sec. 1; well, 20 feet; yellow clay, 10 feet; blue clay, 10 

 feet; both with small stones; water from the clay. Another well near was the same, though 8 feet 

 higher at the surface. The lakes at Shieldsville do not supply the wells sunk near them, being in 

 superficial basins in the impervious till. Some wells are sunk seventy feet, or more, near these 

 lakes, without getting a permanent supply of water. 



Wells. Edward LaCroix, N. E. | sec. 12; well, 47 feet; yellow clay, 20 feet; sand, 2 feet; 

 yellow, hard clay, 1 foot; blue clay, 25 feet; this well is about on the contour-line of 1000, the west 

 limit of the gravelly, terrace-like expanse that accompanies the Cannon valley. C. J. Winans, S. E. 

 } sec. 6; well, 33 feet; yellow and blue clay, with gravel at the bottom. J. G. Scott, sec. 21 ; well, 45 

 feet; yellow loam, 12 feet; blue clay, 28 feet; gravel, 5 feet; water. Tinus Rand, sec. 21; well, on 

 thebrir.k of Roberd's lake; 28 feet in blue clay; though situated but ten feet above the lake, this 

 well had no water. Dennis Scott, N. W. i sec. 6; well, six or eight feet deep in gravel; near the 

 lake, but about 25 feet above the lake. 



Cannon City. Well of John Gordon, at Cannon City village, passed through soil and clay, 

 30 feet, and into limerock, 3 feet. Wm. Eigers. south part of sec. 18 (west of the river); well, 38 

 feet; yellow loam and clay, 4 feet; blue clay, 30 feet; sand, 4 feet; no water; small pieces of lignite. 



Morristown. At Morristown village wells are from 12 to 15 feet in depth, in gravel. Joseph 

 Goar, N. E. } sec. 33; well, 70 feet deep; only in drift deposits. When the wind is west air comes 

 into this well through the gravel near the bottom, and when it is east air passes in the opposite 

 direction through the gravel. The well becomes so cold by this circulation that in winter, at the 

 depth of seventy feet, the bucket freezes fast if left in the water. This well is in the prairie 

 country, about 1100 or 1125 feet above the sea, with a westward slope toward a marsh about a 

 hundred rods from the well. 



Warsaw. John O'Connor, S. E. J sec. 34; well, 13 feet; all in yellow clay; water in a thin 

 gravel bed. John Davis, N. W. } sec. 34; well, 90 feet; yellow and blue clay; no water. Another 

 well ten or twelve feet west of the last, 50 feet deep, had a little water, but not enough. 



Walcott. Widow Hannah Myers, S. W. ] sec. 21; well, 6 feet; soil and sand, 5 feet; then 

 blue clay; water rises and falls with Mud creek, but is unfailing. This well is situated on the 

 terrace-flat that accompanies the Straight river, and is about 25 feet above the river. Wells in 

 sees. 14 and 11 are shallow, and often in gravel. 



MATERIAL RESOURCES: 



Besides its fertile soil, and'the large supply of timber that covers most of the western half of 

 the county, Rice county has natural means of wealth derivable directly from the bedded rocks, 

 viz., building-stone, and lime. Bricks also are made in a number of places. 



Building-stone. Numerous stone-quarries occur in the eastern half of the county. The 

 bluffs throughout this region are capped by a layer of the Trenton limestone varying from two or 

 three feet to twenty feet in thickness, and the same stratum outcrops favorably at many points 

 along the Straight and Cannon valleys. This rock furnishes a useful stone for nearly all purposes 

 in common building, and is relied on throughout the country for all walls and foundations. It 

 has also, till very recently, supplied all the stone used in the principal buildings in Northfield 

 and Faribault; but within a couple of years several varieties of stone from abroad have been 

 sparingly imported into those cities for some of the larger structures.* 



Prairie creek valley has scores of small quarries opened along its bluff -i, and the valley of the 

 Cannon looks up to as many more. Some of the latter are as follows: east of Dundas quarries 

 are owned by Messrs. Lemont, Larkins, Mills, Kuntz, and by others. The quarries of Peter 

 Oleson and Archie Stetson are on the east side of sec. 25, Bridgewater. Porter Gray 'sand C. A. 

 Reed's quarries are on the N. W. j sec. 34, west side of the river. Charles Sanford's and William 

 Clelland's quarries, on the same quarter section, are run summer and winter. The stone obtained 

 here is not blue, but ashen gray, similar to that at Doyle's quarry at Faribault. Stone of the 

 best quality is furnished at Northfield at about six dollars per cord. 



* I'onipare the chapter on the building-stones of the state, p. 171. 



