HISTORY OF NEBRASKA
THE long run physical environment, such as soil, climate,
and topography, shape the man and the society; but human
character and social propensities, formed in older states
and in other and older countries, have been transplanted
into this new state, and while, according to a marked
American instinct or characteristic, the people have been
quick to adapt themselves to a somewhat important change of
conditions, yet the time during which they have been subject
to them has been too short appreciably to change their
character or social aspect. If they had only the richest and
most easily tillable soil in the world to conjure with, this
might tend to breed mental and esthetic dullness; but they
have been saved from this influence by the rarefied and
bracing atmosphere, by the sunshine in which they are almost
perennially bathed, as well as by certain adverse climatic
conditions which challenge their vigilance and ingenuity.
While the people of the Plains have missed the comforting
companionship of brooks and hills and groves, whose friendly
presence sustained the courage and inspired the esthetic
sense of the settlers of the Mississippi valley, yet these
Plains have a beauteous aspect of their own which often
inspired the limiting pen of Irving and engaged Cooper's
romantic eye. The illimitable expanse of landscape, the
unrivaled beauty of morning and evening lights and shades,
the marvelous clearness of the air, however monotonous, do
not fail to excite the esthetic sensibility and widen the
spiritual vision of the people.
1Astoria, pp. 258-259.
found enough to penetrate to the inexhaustible sheet of
subterranean water which, fed by the eternal snows of the
Rocky mountains, is coextensive with the great slope between
these mountains and the Missouri river and within easy reach
of the modern and post-Irving-Cooper windmills which now dot
these plains in such profusion that they would set a whole
legion of Don Quixotes in simultaneous frenzy. Nor could the
lively imagination of
Morrill Geological Expedition, 1900.
Ten miles east of Valentine, Neb., fed by Sand Hill springs and leaping over a wall of Arikaree sand rock. First plunge, eighty-five feet; second, fifteen feet. These are the loftiest falls in the state.
these great romancers foresee the practicability of the
substitution for the lacking wood, of the great deposits of
coal in the adjacent mountains and underlying a large part
of these vast plains, because railroad transportation was
beyond Irving's ken or fancy and Cooper's practicable view.
As to this, Cooper skeptically remarks: "It is a singular
comment on the times that plans for railroads across these
vast plains are in active discussion, and that men have
ceased to regard these projects as chimerical."
Photograph, Morrill Geological Expedition, 1895.
Bad Lands of Brule formation (Oligocene) two and a half miles west of the Burlington & Missouri railway station at Adelia, Sioux county, Nebraska, looking northwest.
Photograph, Morrill Geological
North face of Pine Ridge at Warbonnet canyon looking north across the Hat creek basin toward the Black Hills outlined in the distance. The pine covered cliffs are Arikaree formation. The white Patch in the distance is the Brule clay of the Little Bad Lands, Sioux county, Nebraska. Beyond the Brule clay the Pierre formation begins.
been an eternal fact or is a manifestation of an eternal
law of nature, but which has been hidden from our imperfect
understanding, is, from the changing point of view or in the
natural course of events, suddenly revealed, we call it
Providence, And so this vast hidden reservoir of water and
the man-wrought miracle of the steam railroad, which opened
the way for the waiting millions, were the Providence of
these Plains. Because Irving and Cooper and their compeers
failed mentally or physically to penetrate to the one and to
divine the coming kingdom of the other, they consigned the
whole region to the doom of eternal desolation. God indeed
moves in a mysterious way his wonders to perform. This
"wilderness which apparently defies cultivation and the
habitation of civilized life" is the granary as well as the
shambles of the world. Of two typical states -- Iowa and
Nebraska -- which cut through the heart of the Plains, the
first is the imperial agricultural commonwealth of the
richest farming country of the world, and in the production
of the great food staples the other lags but little
2For this description of the geology of Nebraska we are indebted to Erwin Hinckley Barbour, Ph.D., professor of geology in the University of Nebraska; state geologist and curator of the state museum.-ED.
and Washington counties, and in scattered patches as far
west as Lancaster and Gage counties. From an economic
standpoint this is the most important geologic formation in
the state, since it yields the limestone for lime, rubble,
riprap, building, smelting, sugar refining, and flint for
ballast, as well as enormous amounts of excellent clay for
brick, tile, and terra cotta.
Morrill Geological Expedition, 1900.
SCHLEGEL RAPIDS AND FALLS
Southwest of Valentine, Cherry county, Nebraska, in the Arikaree formation. Plunge, about twelve feet; width, about fifty feet.
artesian water, building stone (which, though ocherous
and soft, is often put to use), and beds of superior clay,
which furnish brick of all desired colors and kinds. It also
furnishes a large amount of sand for building purposes, and,
from a layer near its base, the best gravel in the state.
Overlying the Dakota is the Benton Cretaceous, consisting
essentially of a white layer of chalk rock overlying a layer
of black shale. It may be traced along the Republican river
from Harlan county to Hebron, Endicott, Milford, Niobrara,
and westward along the Niobrara river to Boyd county.
Economically this layer may become important. The chalk rock
is quarried for lime and building purposes. Being very soft
when "green," it is commonly cut into proper shape with
ordinary hand-saws, and, after drying and hardening, is laid
up with mortar in the usual way. In this layer is found also
an undeveloped resource of great promise, in as much as the
chalk rock, when properly tempered with the shale, gives an
hydraulic cement of excellent quality. Next above the Benton
comes the Pierre formation, ordinarily spoken of as Pierre
shale because it consists essentially of shale throughout
its extent. In western Nebraska it attains a thickness of
several thousand feet. Though broad in extent, it is
dom seen save where exposed by the cutting of some river;
and though four thousand to five thousand feet thick, it
presents nothing of commercial importance, being destitute
of water, gas, oil, coal, building stone, or anything else
of economic value. At least two thirds of the state consists
of Pierre shale, though covered from general view.
Morrill Geological Expedition, 1895.
TOADSTOOL PARK, SIOUX COUNTY BAD LANDS
Two miles west of Adelia on the Burlington & Missouri River railroad.
All of western Nebraska has a general
altitude approaching five thousand feet. and here the
magnificent buttes and tables add diversity and beauty to
the landscape. Here also thousands of pine trees flourish
and are the chief natural resource of this formation. Being
sandy, it is productive of pure water, and its grazing lands
are of the best. It lends itself to profitable and easy
cultivation, especially where irrigated. In many places in
southwestern Nebraska a still younger formation rests upon
what is known as the "magnesia" or mortar beds (Ogalalla).
All of the remaining beds are still more recent in time --