 Before entering upon the history of the people who made their homes in this beautiful country, it may be well to consider the natural conditions they found here; conditions which determined them to cast their lot here, and to build up communities and create a new civilization for themselves; a country and a civilization which they might leave as an inheritance for the generations that should follow them.
 WESTERN BOUNDARY
The great Mississippi river, any school boy or girl will tell you, is the longest river in the world, it bounds the county on the west; the thread of the main channel of the river is the state and county line. The eastern bank of the river in the south part of the county is bordered with timber interspersed with bayous and runfling sloughs forming many wooded islands. The principal of these is Turkey Slough in the southwest corner of the county, between this and the meandering slough, so called, is Big Island, next east Little Island and Marble Island, and Marble Slough, so named after an early settler.
In early days these islands were covered with magnificent trees, some were nut bearing trees, the fruit of some was a very large hickory nut and there were smaller sheilbark hickory nuts and walnuts in great abundance. Here the squirrels, of which there were several varieties, did not want for a plentiful store of nuts for winter use. Neither did the early settlers who greatly relished this addition to their not extensive bill of fare. The waters were filled with the finest kinds of game fish, and game of all kinds was very abundant, on the islands; and on the waters there were several kinds of wild geese and a great variety of ducks, and there were also wild turkeys and deer, and pigeons in great numbers. East of the islands is a treeless almost level plain, called the Sand ridge, about five miles in width, not much above the level of the river in high water, extending from below Savanna south between the bluffs and the river, to the southern boundary of the county.
DYSON’S LAKE, DRAINAGE DITCH
Situated near the eastern boundary of this plain, In Mount Carroll and York Townships is Sunfish lake, called also Dyson’s lake, after William Dyson, a pioneer of 1837, who took up a claim on the western shore of the lake. Attempts have been made to drain this lake by digging a ditch through low-lying marsh ground northward to Plum river, but they have only succeeded in lowering the surface of the water in the lake a few feet, and draining a part of the surrounding lands temporarily; the ditch has invariably been filled up with sand and mud, washed into it by heavy floods in the streams to the east of it, particularly Deer creek, which flowing west past Hickory Grove, carries down from the hills a great deal of the soil, which is deposited in the ditch, especially when the waters in the Mississippi and Plum rivers are high. There is very little fall from the lake and consequently no current running northward to carry the sediment out of the ditch, on account of which conditions it seems to be an impracticable undertaking to drain Sunfish lake. The first ditch was dug in 1871 by the county and cost nearly seven thousand dollars and was paid from the sale of swamp lands successfully drained by the county ditch, running south through the Willow island tract of land. The last attempt to drain this lake was made by the owners of land to be benefitted under the drainage law. The ditch, however, filled up as before and an attempt is now being made to pump the water out of the lake into the ditch.
APPLE RIVER—RUSH CREEK
Apple river flows through the northwest corner of the county and empties into the Mississippi river on Section 11, Range 2, Washington Township. At its mouth is Apple River Island. A little farther east Rush creek flows through the center of the same township, on Section 17; in an early day it was McKillups dam and water power. This stream empties into, the great river on Section 28, where the Burlington Railroad crosses this creek. A little west of the bridge near Marcus station, is where the noted train robbery occurred in 1902. One of the principal tributaries of Rush creek is Camp creek. It gets its name from the fact that during the Blackhawk War and about the time of the attack on the fort at Elizabeth a large body of Indians were camped at the large spring in the beautiful valley which is the headwaters of the creek.
MCFARLAND’S BAY
A little further down the river from the mouth of Rush creek is McFarland’s bay, in early days used as a favorite and safe place for wintering rafts of pine logs that were then floated down the river from the pineries, also for wintering steamboats. Below the bay the river flows quite close to the high bluffs, in early days called the Council Bluffs of the upper Mississippi river. They are the highest bluffs anywhere along the river and the most picturesque; here can be seen high upon one perpendicular bluff the profile of an Indian face, in these bluffs is also the noted Bob Upton’s cave. In early days steamboats burned wood and got large supplies from Savanna. At one time, great piles of red cedar taken from the bluffs above the town were to be seen at Savanna waiting for the arrival of some steamboat. This gave some of the early settlers the impression that the much talked of Savanna where they were to land, was “only a wood pile.” For some years the railroads consumed great quantities of wood to make steam in the engines; they got large supplies from timber along the river, most of which belonged to Uncle Sam,—conservation of the forests had not then been thought of. When walnut wood became valuable the great walnut trees, centuries old, were felled by the woodman’s axe. Below Savanna is the big slough through which Plum river enters the Mississippi river, west of this was Savanna lake.
BIDGE ROAD—THE PECATOLIKEE
Between the valley of Rush creek and Plum river valley is a ridge road from which fine views are had over both valleys. Plum river is the longest stream in the county. The government survey gave its Indian name as Pecatolikee and marked it, “navigable,” up to “Bowen’s Ferry,” just below where the mill dam of Bowen’s mill used to be. In the north part of Woodland its two branches East and West Plum river come together, the east branch is fed by Crane’s run, on which was Crane’s fort; further up is the Lyn Grove branch, which rises near Lyn Grove on Section 16, Cherry Grove Township and Cherry Grove branch, on Section 13, Feedom Townsuip, on which in years gone by was Bolinger's saw mill.
FLOWING WELLS
In the northeast corner of York township on what was the Tomlinson farm is an artesian well. It was bored by some strangers, who came to this county prospecting, thinking that they would find coal because there was a shale saturated with some kind of oil cropping out in the neighborhood. They were skeptical of the way the geologists read the book of Stone, viz.: that coal is not found in this geological formation, and the deeper they bored the farther they were getting from the coal bearing rocks; they bored down through a very hard rock and at five hundred and fifty feet struck a white sand stone so soft they could not secure a core, and water rose to the surface in a fine flowing well.
In the city of Savanna they get a fine flow of water by boring about four hundred and fifty feet, and two of these wells supply the city with water.
At Mount Carroll the city had a well drilled, with the intention of going deep enough to get flowing water, but no water was reached except in small quantities, until at a depth of two thousand five hundred feet the white sandstone was struck and the water rose to within forty feet of the surface; it has been frequently analyzed and found to be of the very finest quality. This well is listed as one of the deep wells of the earth.
Rock creek, the headwaters of which begin just south of the city of Lanark, flows south to the southwest corner of Wysox township, where it is joined by Otter creek which takes its rise in the east half of Rock creek township; further east is Elkhorn creek whose headwaters drain Lima township. It was so named on account of the elk horns that have been found in the grove of the same name, some of which are still preserved by citizens of the county. Further east and near the county line is Eagle creek; in an early day on section 16 was Eagle creek mill dam. |
