Partly cloudy. Low 66F. Winds SW at 10 to 20 mph..
Partly cloudy. Low 66F. Winds SW at 10 to 20 mph.
This article will take us back billions of years ago before man occupied the earth.
We are starting with a layer of earth under Sheldon that was first molten magma that cooled and hardened. This layer of earth can be seen at Gitchie Manitou State Preserve in the northwestern corner of Lyon County. This area of land was pushed up when there were mountains on earth. This rock layer has been called Sioux Falls granite or Sioux Falls quartzite. The Time After Time building on the southwestern corner of Ninth Street and Third Avenue in Sheldon was built with this granite, the oldest and hardest rock in the world. This historic building is located in the center of Sheldon and is rightly placed.
Another rock layer was sedimentary formed from sands and muds that covered the area where we now live, which happened at different times hundreds of millions of years ago. Limestone, dolomite and gypsum are composed of calcium from ancient seashells and fish skeletons. That explains the reason why Sheldon’s water is so hard.
Some other rock layers were coal, clay, sand and gravel. We did not have any coal layers in northwestern Iowa.
Then came the four glacial periods in the next 68 million years. There were two glaciers that covered the four northwest counties of Iowa. The last glacier gave us a few creeks and small rivers. Nebraska was touched by one of the glaciers, and Kansas was touched by the other glacier.
The Kansan glacier left Sheldon’s area as we see it. The Wisconsin glacier was responsible for making Okoboji and Spirit Lake but did not touch the Sheldon area.
After the glacial ice melted, scratched bedrock left boulders and fine powder. The hills around Sioux City are actually fine dust drifts.
Then the forests appeared on the sides of rocky hills and mountains. Spruce and pine trees around Okoboji and southern O’Brien County are remnants of this era. Birds, hawks, eagles, owls and insects appeared.
Why didn’t our ancestors see trees in the Sheldon area? The answer was lightning set fire to the forests and the matted leaves on the ground. Grasses and flowers grew in the burned areas. Tree seedlings were unable to grow among the grasses and wildflowers. In northwest Iowa, six tall grasses took over: turkey foot, switch grass, wheat grass, Indian grass, cord grass, and side-oats grama. A shorter grass called little blue stem took over in dry areas. Varieties of flowers bloomed during warm weather until the first freeze of the fall. We rarely see these grasses and flowers today unless they are found on prairie preserves.
The decaying glaciers left water channels which became the Sioux and Floyd Rivers. Marshes, lakes, bogs and sloughs remained when water was unable to escape some areas. These became the habitats of geese, ducks, herons, turtles, beavers, muskrats and fish. Prairie dog, grouse and prairie chickens appeared.
Large animals appeared after the glaciers, such as the woolly mammoth, which looked like a large elephant, except it had shaggy brown hair. When Sheldon’s water tower was built in City Park, fossil remains of a woolly mammoth were found.
A woolly mammoth tooth was found in March near NCC and is being preserved. This new tooth will join the woolly mammoth fossils that already are on display in the Sheldon Prairie Museum. The new woolly mammoth tooth should be preserved and fossilized by the time of the Sheldon Sesquicentennial Celebration in September, so people may view it at the museum.
Prehistoric men hunted the woolly mammoth because spear points have been found with the skeletons of them. The woolly mammoth came from Siberia across the land bridge that connected Siberia with Alaska.
Other herds of bison, musk oxen, caribou, buffalo, antelope, elk, deer coyotes, bears, cougars, giant wolves and saber tooth tigers appeared. All of these appeared before the 1800s, but now are rarely seen unless they are in zoos.
The Indians made the next appearance and roamed northwestern Iowa. The Mill Creek and Oneota Indians populated the valley between the Little Sioux and the Big Sioux Rivers. Chief Inkpaduta and his tribe of outlaw Indians massacred the settlers in the Okoboji area.
The first settlement in northwest Iowa, called the Northwest Frontier, came in 1856, when Hannibal Waterman, his wife and child homesteaded the southeast corner of O’Brien County. Before this time, there was no mention in any historical account of settlers in the area. After the Watermans’ arrival, there was a constant flow of other settlers that settled here.
The open prairie around Sheldon had no trees. It was once called the “Great American Desert.” It was considered to be worthless land. This land was too open, too cold in winter, too windy and too hard to grow food.
The invention of the train/railroad was the impetus that changed the idea of the so-called worthless land around Sheldon. When the last railroad track was laid in 1872, and Sheldon became a town, the railroad brought lumber, coal and supplies to the settlers easily and at a reasonable cost. The settlers found rich, black, fertile soil under the tall grass that grew abundant crops. So, the railroad was the reason Sheldon survived as well as adventurous settlers saw the possibility to improve their lifestyles. The railroad changed everything. The railroad delivered farm produce grown by the settlers to the whole country.
Many hazards were realized by the early northwestern Iowa settlers: winters were difficult due to cold and blizzards; strong winds prevailed since there were little or no wind barriers; there were no roads or maps; there were no bridges available to cross streams or rivers; dwellings were caves, sod huts and later log structures; fuel to heat their homes was limited; and money was scarce.
The prairie grass offered a solution for their heating problem. Settlers twisted the grass into a compact form for heating fuel. Another serious problem in the spring and summer was fire that destroyed everything in its path. Breaking up the soil to grow crops was difficult because the soil was hard and not easily broken up. It took two to three years for the soil to become mellow. When the grasshoppers arrived, they viciously ate the crops.
Think of all the improvements, inventions and luxuries that have happened in the last 150 years! The Sheldon Sesquicentennial Celebration is a time to be thankful for our city and rural areas. Set aside the Labor Day weekend in September and attend the activities.
Millie Vos is the secretary/treasurer of the Sheldon Historical Society and the museum director and a board member of the Sheldon Prairie Museum. This is part of a series of historical articles about Sheldon. Members of the Sheldon Historical Society receive a yearly newsletter with articles like this. To join the society, call her at 712-324-3235.
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