CHAPTER XIX. 



GLACIAL LAKE WARREN. 



By Frank B. Taylor. 



LOCATION AND ORIGIN. 



Lake Warren followed Lake Wayne and covered the basin of Lake Erie, a part of the 

 south arm of Lake Huron, including Saginaw Bay and much of the lowland which separates 

 Lake Huron from Lake Erie. It also included a small part of the Lake Ontario basin and 

 most of the lowland between Lakes Ontario and Erie. It drained westward from Saginaw 

 Bay through the Grand River channel to Lake Chicago. (See p. 360.) Lake Warren came 

 into existence in the same manner as Lake Whittlesey; that is to say, its waters were raised 

 from the level of Lake Wayne by a readvance of the ice which closed the outlet that had served 

 for the lower stage. (See PI. XVII.) 



EARLIER INVESTIGATIONS. 



Hubbard in 1839-40 made brief mention of the Warren beach in Michigan in the early 

 geologic reports of the State, and Whittlesey noted it in Ohio in 1850-51. Other early observa- 

 tions on it were made by Gilbert in Ohio, Pennsylvania, and western New York, and by A. A. 

 Wright in Ohio. 1 It was recognized as a "lake ridge" and was used as a highway at an early 

 day in Michigan, Ohio, New York, and Ontario. Gilbert traced it in 1S96 from Spencer's 

 locality west of Port Huron to a point opposite Richmondville on the "thumb." Fairchild 2 

 observed it in New York in 1897 to a point some miles east of Genesee River, and recog- 

 nized it provisionally to a point near Marcellus. Leverett 3 described it in 1902 in considerable 

 detail from the Ohio-Michigan line to the vicinity of Indian Falls, N. Y., about 30 miles east 

 of Buffalo. Spencer found it in Ontario and called it the Forest beach. He did not recog- 

 nize it as the beach of a glacial lake, but as that of a sea which he called "Warren Water," 

 and which he supposed to extend indefinitely to the north and northeast. Spencer made 

 "Warren Water" cover the whole Great Lakes region but regarded it as marine. Lawson 

 and Upham, following Spencer, gave it the same great extent but regarded it as a lake. The 

 present more restricted use of the name was suggested by the writer 4 in 1897. 



WARREN BEACH. 



DISTRIBUTION. 

 MICHIGAN. 



Monroe and Lenawee counties. — In Monroe and Wayne counties, Mich., the Warren (Forest) 

 beach, which has there been studied chiefly by Sherzer, takes the form of a wide belt of sand 

 generally fine in texture and in places considerably modified by the wind. It runs across a 

 flat clay plain sloping toward Lake Erie at the rate of 5 to 10 feet to the mile. 



The Warren beach constitutes a part of Gilbert's fourth beach in northwestern Ohio. At 

 the State fine in southwest Monroe County it is a sandy belt with some gravel, and it runs 

 thence several miles northwest to the large sandy delta of Raisin River in Lenawee County. 

 Thence northeastward it returns to Summerfield Township, Monroe County, fringing the delta 



1 Mon. U. S. Geol. Survey, vol. 41, 1902, p. 7C0. 



2 Bull. Geol. Soo. America, vol. S, 1897, pp. 274-297; also vol. 10, 1899, pp. 27-68. 



3 Mon. U. S. Geol. Survey, vol. 41, 1902, pp. 760-771. 



* Correlation of Erie-Huron beaches with outlets and moraines of southeastern Michigan: Bull. Geol. Soc. America, vol. S, 1897, pp. 56-57. 

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