Box 13, Folder 5: Bois Brule River 1874

Portage of St. Croix I & Bois Brule 656 ft above Lake Superior Head of Bois Brule 544 15 miles below Portage 415 3rd Portage of the Bois Brule 373 Owen's Report.

[pen sketch]

Sandy Drift Boulder Drift Eau Claire Spring Lakes Dalles Lakes Trap Range 6 Falls 2 to 20 feet Rapids Mouth of the Bois Brule River Lake Superior

Trap Archean Rocks Clay Slate Trap? Bois Brule River Potsdam Trap Sandstone & Shales Red Marly Clay Boulder Drift Sandstone Archean

Level of L. Superior 600 ft above the Sea Level of L. Michigan 578 ft

T 43 T 44 T 45 T 46 Ocean Level T 47 T. 48 T49

Geographical Section Towns 43 to 49 in Range 10W - Bois Brule River etc From Information collected by Frank Ives, 1874

Report of Frank Ives On the Bois Brule River Range ten west Douglas Co WI 1874

Note - This part of the report copied with modifications I.A.L.

Report of a Reconnaissance of townships 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48 and 49 of Range 10 Douglas County Wisconsin during the year 1874

The Bois Brule River enters Lake Superior in section 3, Township 49, Range 50 For one and one half miles in ascending the stream, the water is comparatively still, though which a canoe or skiff can be propelled with the paddle. In section 10 of same township, the first rapids are encountered and from here to the south line of section 26, Township 48, a distance of not less than thirty miles by the meanderings of the stream there are one hundred and thirty two rapids or falls, some of which are navigated with great difficulty.

Six miles above the Lake in section 22 the first exposures of [seluvian?] sandstone is met, on either shore at the height of two and a half feet, as also in the bed of the river. There occurs fall no 1 as delineated on the map of that township (49) accompanying this report

2

This fall, from where the sandstone first appears as the floor of the river is a series of falls, six in number. (the descent in the greatest being four feet and in the lesser less than two feet) some rods apart, but all contained in a distance of one half mile of the river where the sandstone disappears under the drift The sandstone is dark colored indurated very heavy and compact, with no indications of organic remains. It dips from the [horizon?] about 5° North 63° East. The water in passing over has polished the rock on the bed of the river as smooth as plate glass, and entering the fissures has moved great sections downward which were broken up and eventually removed, giving the falls the structure of stairs with straight risers and wide steps. From fall No 1 to fall No 2 the river is rapid and slack, [alternately?]; no rock appears at the surface yet I found four or five places where the sandstone forms the bed or floor of the river for several rods. The bed of the stream and shores are covered with boulder drift and sand, with here and there a bank or ridge of marly clay through which the river has cut At fall No 2 I found the sandstone exposed again on the east side and in the bed of the river and from here to the trap dike in sections 23-48-10 it forms the bed

3

15 on the map

or floor of the river for nearly the whole distance After several falls in section 14, 48-10 it is worn smooth and is [free?] from drift, having the same [trappous?] character as at fall No 1 with [dip?] and strike nearly the same. None of these falls are very high. no one having a greater perpendicular descent of more than six feet. At the head of each the water from a comparatively quiet pool leaps over the escarpment and glides quietly along over the smooth [clean?/clear?] sandstone to the next stair falling in some instances over [twenty?] or more [mural?] escarpments before it reaches the slack pool at the head of the next fall. Here [compactness?] of this sandstone with its semi-metamorphic character renders it nearly or quite as hard as the sand schists of the north shore, and the action of the elements upon it wherever exposed seems to be very slight The physical features of the country from the lake to the [series?] of falls in township 48 are unvaried: a description of one section may generally be taken for that of any other. The soil is generally red marly clay on the ridges and high [levels?], while the banks of the stream and the low [levels?] are almost universally covered with boulder and gravel drift. The river throughout its whole length is