CHAPTER VIII. 



MORAINES OF THE NORTHERN LIMB OF THE HURON-ERIE LOBE IN 



INDIANA. 



By Frank Leverett. 

 COURSE AND DISTRIBUTION. 



A broad and somewhat complex series of moraines lying along the north border of the 

 Huron-Erie lobe in northeastern Indiana seem to be the equivalent of several moraines of the 

 Saginaw lobe that connect with it on the north. The moraines lie entirely north of Wabash 

 River, though for a few miles near Logansport they follow the north bluff closely. 



They have their westernmost appearance on the north bluff of Wabash River a few miles 

 above Delphi, Ind. Here they have a width of only 2 to 3 miles, but in passing northeastward 

 across Cass County they widen to 10 miles and so continue throughout much of their course to 

 the Indiana-Michigan line. Their width is much greater than 10 miles in the northern counties 

 of Indiana, if the gravel plains lying between constituent ridges are included, and the combined 

 width of the moraines proper in places exceeds 10 miles. 



For a few miles west of Logansport the western or outer border of the moraines follows 

 Crooked Creek, and the inner border lies along the Wabash bluffs, the width of the moraine 

 here being about 3 miles. From the head of Crooked Creek the outer border leads northeast- 

 ward to Warsaw, passing near the villages of Macy, Akron, and Claypool. The inner border 

 follows up the Eel River valley to the western edge of Wabash County and then gradually bears 

 away from the river to the north, passing about 2 miles west of Laketon, 4 miles northwest of 

 North Manchester, 1 mile east of Sidney, and past Larwill to the head of Tippecanoe River, 

 about 8 miles north of Columbia City. Thus far the deposits form a single massive moraine, 

 but farther to the northeast they separate into two or more moraines, between which are gravel 

 plains and nearly plain till tracts. From a point north of Columbia City northeastward into 

 Michigan the inner border of the moraines is overlapped by the Mississinawa morainic system 

 of the Huron-Erie lobe, and a little farther north it is joined on the east by the Salamonie 

 moraine, also of the Huron-Erie lobe. 



At Warsaw the outer border connects with the comparatively weak Bremen moraine of the 

 Saginaw lobe, and between Warsaw and Claypool it connects by slight offshoots toward the 

 northwest with the undulatory district on the inner border of the Maxinkuckee moraine. From 

 Warsaw the outer border runs eastward past Little Eagle and the Barbee lakes to eastern 

 Kosciusko and southwestern Noble counties where it connects with the New Paris moraine 

 of the Saginaw lobe. (See p. 138.) 



Farther east, at High Lake, about 8 miles southwest of Albion, an outer member 2 or 3 

 miles wide runs northward past Ligonier and Topeka to Lagrange, where it connects with the 

 Lagrange moraine of the Saginaw lobe. The mam moraine, however, continues northeastward 

 from High Lake through the central and northeast parts of Noble and southeast part of La- 

 grange into Steuben County, the outer border passing near Albion, Brimfield, Rome City, and 

 South Milford. 



Between the main moraine and the outer member ridged and hummocky land is locally 



developed, but most of the surface is level or very gently undulating. One ridged belt runs 



out like a spur about 3 miles northwestward from Rome City. Other less conspicuous ridges 



with west-northwest east-southeast trend are found northwest of Wolcottville. An undulating 



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