SOIL SURVEY OF POETEE COUNTY, INDIANA. 7 



dence, but the beach marks a rise of about 15 or 20 feet to a flat plain 

 which formerly was a part of the lake bed. The deposits on this plain 

 consist chiefly of clays, although west of Salt Creek they are veneered 

 with sands as far south as the Elgin, Joliet & Eastern Railroad. 



The next higher beach Une of the old lake evidently existed along 

 the sandy, rugged belt running northeast from Sedley. However, at 

 the foot of this line of hills the action of glaciation, erosion, and deposi- 

 tion have left a complicated mixture of glacial and lake materials 

 with a rather uneven topography. 



Along the western county line the heavy lake deposits extend 

 almost to the Grand Trunk Railway. A morainic arm protrudes 

 northward from Wheeler almost to the Elgin, Joliet & Eastern Rail- 

 road. A bay of the glacial lake extends southward along Salt Creek 

 Valley almost to the Pennsylvania Railroad. The shore line then 

 swangs back toward Chesterton, and a long, narrow bay extends 

 eastward to the Laporte County line. In this bay there are many 

 sandy deposits, evidently deltas from streams flowing out of the 

 moraines. It seems probable that when the lake stood at the level 

 of this highest beach its waters drained through the great gaps in 

 the moraine west of Valparaiso or along where the Baltimore & Ohio 

 Railroad now has its line east of Woodville Junction. 



While the rise to the top of the main morainic ridge is rapid along 

 this northern border the ridge blends into the outwash plains and 

 Kankakee marshes along the southern border \dth no abrupt topo- 

 graphic change. 



The crest of the main Valparaiso Moraine divides the drainage of 

 the county and of the continent. North of it all the waters find their 

 way into Lake Michigan through the Calumet River, which crosses 

 Porter County in an east-west direction. Numerous small streams 

 head in the moraine and flow northward or northwestward to the 

 Calumet River. The principal creeks are Coffee and Salt Creeks. 

 The latter is peculiar in that it heads in the outwash plam south of 

 the moraine and after flowing a short distance southward turns back 

 through the gap and flows northwestward through the hills. 



Plans have been made for dredging an outlet for the Calumet River 

 through the dune strip near Dune Park. In that way the drainage 

 waters would reach the lake in less than IJ miles, instead of flowing 

 to the natural outlet at South Chicago. The channel would be 

 deepened so that the current would be reversed, and the waters of 

 Deep River in Lake County would flow eastward to the new outlet. 

 The proposed Lake Erie to Chicago ship canal is routed through the 

 Salt Creek gap in the Valparaiso Moraine, which is only 80 feet above 

 lake level. 



South of the main divide the smaller streams, most of which have 

 been dredged, flow in a general southerly direction until they approach 



