CHAPTER XLIV. 
REPORT ON THE GEOLOGY OF PUTNAM COUNTY. 
BY N. H. WINCHELL. 
SITUATION AND AREA. 
Putnam county is bounded north by Defiance and Henry, east by 
Hancock, south by Allen, and west by Van Wert and Paulding. Ottawa, 
its county seat, is forty-eight miles south of the Michigan State boundary 
line and thirty-nine miles east of the Indiana State boundary line. It 
contains nine square miles more than thirteen towns. 
NATURAL DRAINAGE. 
The principal river valley is that of the Blanchard, which crosses the 
county midway in a direction a little north of west, receiving tributaries 
only from the south, the direction of all of which is nearly due north. 
These streams, which afford frequent exposures of the rock over which 
they pass, are Reilly Creek, Cranberry Creek, Plum Creek, Sugar Creek, 
which unites with Hog Creek in Union township; the Auglaize, which 
receives Hog Creek in Jackson township, and the Little Auglaize. In 
the northern portion of the county are the sources of the Portage, which, 
intersecting Henry, Wood, Sandusky, and Ottawa counties, enters Lake 
Erie at Port Clinton, having a course nearly north-east; of the Beaver 
Creek, which joins the Maumee in Wood county, and of South Turkey 
Foot and Powell’s Creeks. Thus it appears the general slope of the 
county is toward the north, the Blanchard only having a westerly direc- 
tion. With the exception of the Blanchard, the Auglaize, Hog Creek, 
and the Little Auglaize, the streams of the county are not reliable for 
water-power through the summer season. These have been extensively 
improved for flour-mills and saw-mills. 
SURFACE FEATURES AND SOIL. 
The surface of Putnam county is flat, the only diversity being in the 
sand and gravel ridges which cross it, and the sandy, undulating tract 
