TILL-LIKE DEPOSITS SOUTH OF KANSAS RIVER IN 
DOUGLAS COUNTY, KANSAS 
WALTER H. SCHOEWE 
The line marking the position of the maximum advance of the 
Kansan ice sheet in northeastern Kansas has been established by 
investigators at various places as lying either north or south of 
Kansas or Kaw river. The earlier maps, 1 figure 1, show the drift 
border as being south of the river and extending at least as far 
south as 38° 50' north latitude. Of the more recent work that 
done by Todd 2 not only represents the latest but also the most 
thorough. This investigator locates the edge of the Kansan ice 
sheet as lying north of the Kaw river valley from a point midway 
between Lecompton and Lawrence to Kansas City, Kansas. See 
heavy continuous line, figure 1. This line separating the glaciated 
from the unglaciated area in Kansas is essentially the one adopted 
by the Kansas Geological Survey and published on its more recent 
maps. 3 
The presence of erratics and exposures of what appeared to be 
till was first called to the writer’s notice some time ago while he 
was passing hurriedly through the country in a car. The presence 
of the familiar red quartzites so numerous around Lawrence 
aroused no special surprise as these are indicated in the literature 
of the region. Not so, however, with the till-like exposures, es- 
pecially as no typical till was known to exist at least within ten 
miles north of Lawrence. The nearest outcrop to Kansas river 
is in the vicinity of Lin wood and Lenape. 4 Opportunity presented 
itself later for a somewhat more detailed investigation of several 
of these deposits. The exposures, which are all in Douglas county 
1 Hay, Robert, Geological and Topographical Map of Kansas: Geology and Mineral 
Resources of Kansas, Eighth Biennial Report of the State Board of Agriculture, 
1891 -’92. 
Chamberlin, T. C., and Salisbury, R. D., Preliminary Paper on the Upper Mis- 
sissippi Valley, Plate XXI, Diagrammatic Map of Drift Currents Adjacent to the 
Driftless Area: U. S. Geol. Survey 6th Ann. Rept., 1885. 
2 Todd, J. E., Kansas During the Ice Age: Trans. Kansas Acad. Sci. ? Vol. 28, pp. 
33-47, 1917. 
3 Moore, R. C., Oil and Gas Resources of Kansas, Part II, Geology of Kansas, 
Outline Map showing distribution of the Quaternary deposits of Kansas, Plate XIII, 
p. 92: Bull. 6, Kansas Geological Survey, 1920. 
4 Todd, J. E., Kansas During the Ice Age: Trans. Kansas Acad. Sci., Vol. 28, 
p. 35, 44, 1917. 
