670 THE ILLINOIS GLACIAL LOBE. 



WOODFORD COUNTY. 

 GENERAL STATEMENT. 



Woodford County is situated on the east side of the Illinois River, 

 immediately south of Marshall and Lasalle counties, and has an area of 

 540 square miles, with Metamora as the county seat. The northwestern 

 portion is directly tributary to the Illinois River, through small streams. 

 The remainder of the county is tributary to the Mackinaw River, which 

 crosses its southeast border. 



This is one of the most elevated counties of central Illinois, the uplands 

 being in places about 850 feet and generally 750 feet or more above tide. 

 The Illinois River, on the west border of the county, is only about 430 

 feet above tide, thus making a valley fully 400 feet in depth. The small 

 streams, therefore, leading down to the valley make very rapid descent. 

 The southwestern border of the county is crossed by the Bloomington 

 morainic system, which has a subdued expression and rises so gradually 

 from the plain on the east that it would scarcely attract notice, though it 

 stands about 50 feet higher than the plain. 



There is a heavy deposit of drift covering the entire county, if we may 

 judge from the outcrops and the few wells which have reached rock, the 

 thickness at Metamora being 280 feet, at Eureka 150, and at Minonk about 

 125 feet. Outcrops of rock are reported in a few places in the south part 

 of the county on tributaries of Mackinaw River, and a single outcrop occurs 

 on Panther Creek in the northwest part. So far as known to the writer 

 there are no outcrops in the Illinois River bluffs. 



INDIVIDUAL WELLS. 



The public water supply for Minonk is obtained from a well 1,755 feet 

 in depth, which has a head about 150 feet below the surface, or 600 feet 

 above tide. Water veins are encountered in the Eocarboniferous lime- 

 stone at about 750 feet, but a supply with greater head and volume was 

 obtained in the lower part of the well, at about 1,700 feet, perhaps, from 

 the St. Peter sandstone, no careful record being available. The water is 

 moderately hard and the well has an estimated capacity of 100 gallons per 

 minute. An abundance of water is obtained from the drift in this vicinity 

 from a depth of 65 feet downward, rock usually being struck at about 125 



