PLATE XXXIII. 



GOODHUE COUNTY, 1888. N. H. WINCHBLL. 



Goodhue county resembles Wabasha in its glacial and pre-glacial history, but 

 it has a more liberal share in the drift materials. There are three main parts of the 

 drift which shade into each other lithologically, but which are rather distinct struct- 

 urally, viz: the till, the pebbly clay and the clayey loam. Of these the till is the 

 oldest and lies next to the rock. The pebbly clay sometimes appears to be an upward, 

 somewhat modified, condition of the till, as it occasionally carries stones of consid- 

 erable size, and the clay loam, which constitutes the subsoil on most of the uplands, 

 appears to be composed of a clay like the pebbly clay, but free from pebbles. 



The valleys of the main streams are marked by gravel terraces, as in Wabasha 

 county. These are most developed along the lower reaches of the Cannon, where 

 they probably owe their existence in part to the rapid wash from the nearby glacier 

 of the Mississippi fiord. As in Winona and Wabasha counties there are fragmentary 

 till deposits within the Mississippi bluffs, especially at Florence, beyond the recog- 

 nized farthest limit of the general ice-sheet, which can be referred to the marginal 

 action of the Mississippi lobe of the main ice-sheet. 



While the Cannon valley carried the waters of the Minnesota river (see Rice 

 county), its discharge was not, apparently, directly into the Mississippi river, but in 

 part by way of the Hay Creek valley to Wells creek, reaching the Mississippi at Flor- 

 ence. This continuous valley is terraced with gravel benches, which correspond both 

 in origin and function, to those seen along ancient water-courses in Brown, Yellow 

 Medicine and Lac qui Parle counties. These gravel deposits are the only remains of 

 the effect of the last glacial epoch on the topography of the county. The till and 

 the pebbly clay, as well as much of the loam of the county, are probably due to the 

 earlier ice-sheet. 



Besides the rocks of the Upper Cambrian and of the Lower Silurian, this county 

 exhibits some Cretaceous strata. The extensive stoneware works at Red Wing are 

 based on the clays of the Cretaceous from Goodhue township. They are (1888) the 

 largest establishments of the kind in the United States, producing 2,750,000 gallons 

 per year. There are also, at Red Wing, very extensive manufactories of quicklime. 

 The stone taken from the Lower Magnesian limestone at Frontenac is of superior 

 excellence for construction, as evinced by a series of practical tests detailed in 

 volume! of the final report. 



Goodhue county is well known for its excellent soil and its great production of 

 wheat, making Red Wing the largest primary wheat market in the United States. 



N. H. w. 



