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CHAPTER VI
TOPOGRAPHY
TECHNICAL, DISCUSSION UNCALLED FOR -- SOIL SURVEY -- HON. JAMES WILSON -- HON. DAVID A. DE ARMOND -- SURVEYORS -- LOCATION, ELEVATION, AND EXTENT OF TERRACES -- EROSION -- RANGE IN ELEVATION -- ALTITUDE -- CHANNELS -- STREAMS -- UNDERSTANDING OF RIVERS OF IMPORTANCE -- DRAINAGE
An elaborate and technical discussion of the topography of Bates county is not called for in a work of this kind; but a brief review of its principal features will not be out of place. In 1908, a soil survey of this county was made under authority of Congress by the Bureau of Soils, Department of Agriculture. Milton Whitney, chief of bureau, in his letter transmitting the manuscript report and map to Hon. James Wilson, Secretary of Agriculture, says:
U.S. Department of Agriculture,
Bureau of Soils.
Washington, D.C. January 25, 1910.
Sir: Work in the state of Missouri was continued during the field season of 1908 by the survey of Bates county. The selection of this area was urged by the late Hon. D. A. DeArmond.
Soil survey work in Missouri is being carried on in co-operation with the State Experiment Station, which concurred in the importance of selecting Bates county for survey at this time."
This was among the first surveys made in Missouri, and we are indebted to Hon. David A. DeArmond, who represented us in Congress at the time the survey was made, for the selection of Bates county among the very first to be surveyed in Missouri, although the report was not made until some time after his unfortunate death in the fire which destroyed his home in Butler, November 23, 1909. This survey was made by Charley J. Mann, Allen L. Higgins. and Lawrence A. Kolbe, and it is the best and most complete authority available on the subject; and we make free use of it so far as seems of general interest to the average citizen.
Topographically, Bates county consists of three terraces, each of which is more or less dissected by valleys. The lowest terrace is in the southeastern part of the county and the highest in the northwestern part. The average elevation of the lowest is about 650 to 700 feet, the middle one about 800 to 850 feet, and the upper one about 1,000 feet above sea level. The highest one has the smallest extent and the middle one the greatest. In fact, by far the larger part of the county is included in the latter. Its eastern boundary runs from Rich Hill nearly eastward to a point two and a half miles south of Pleasant Gap, thence northeastward to the offset in the county line at the southwestern corner of Henry county. Its western boundary runs from the Kansas line near Amsterdam northward to Merwin, thence about eastward to near Adrian, thence northwestward to the northern boundary of the county, about six miles east of the northwest corner. At its eastern boundary this terrace drops rather abruptly about 150 feet to the lowest terrace, and its western boundary is the abrupt rise of about 150 feet to the highest terrace. The eastern border of this middle terrace is much dissected by deep valleys of streams that flow from it out into the lower terrace. The cut is much deeper into it than into the lower terrace, because it is so much higher than the latter. Westward and northwestward from the eastern boundary the valleys are more and more shallow, until along the northwestern border of the terrace there is a belt that is barely cut by valleys at all. In fact, there are considerable areas along it that are not well drained.
Only the northwestern part of the lower terrace lies in Bates county, the rest of it lying to the eastward. The whole of this area is therefore smooth. Its valleys are very shallow, even that of the Marais des Cygnes river it is a gently undulating plain. Only the eastern border of the third terrace lies in this county. The most of it is a high dissected plateau. It is like the eastern border of the middle terrace in roughness, but is higher.
As there has been no faulting or folding of the rocks, the surface features of Bates county are the direct result of erosion. This has acted in proportion to the relative resistance of the interbedded shales, sandstones, and limestones composing the region and has left low, well-marked terrace lines and mounds which form the only prominent topographic features of the area. Except for an occasional sandy knoll or low ridge, the numerous and extensive shale horizons are characterized by level or undulating topography, which gives way to more rolling relief where the underlying limestone has been exposed. Along the streams, particularly in the limestone region, the land is usually quite broken and rough, though there are occasional long gentle slopes in which it is frequently difficult to determine the limit of overflowed land.
There is a total range in elevation of over 300 feet. The lowest point where the Marais des Cygnes river leaves the county at the southeast corner is less than 700 feet and the highest, which is in the northwest corner, is over 1,000 feet above sea level.
This western prairie region is noted for its many stream channels. The greater part of the drainage of the county is carried by Miami creek, which rises in the northwest corner and flowing southeast empties into the Marais des Cygnes river in the south-central part of the county. This river enters the county three miles south of the middle of the west county line and receives nearly all the drainage of the southwestern third of the county. Two and one-half miles south of Papinsville it is joined by the Little Osage river.
From the confluence of these two rivers eastward it is the Osage river, sometimes called the Big Osage to distinguish it from the Little Osage, and it is the line between Bates and Vernon counties from the junction of the east lines of said counties. The Marmiton branch flows into the Little Osage river some four or five miles above the conflux of the Little Osage and the Marais des Cygnes, and nowhere touches Bates county. The Marmiton comes out of Kansas from the southwest, coming near Fort Scott in its course. The Little Osage comes out of Kansas, its general course being nearly straight east to its junction with the Marais des Cygnes, which latter river comes down from north-central Kansas in a general southeast course. So it should be stated that the head of the Osage river is at that point on the south county line where the Little Osage and the Marais des Cygnes unite, and thus form it. There is no Osage river in Bates county, and never was, notwithstanding the statements of alleged history and the showing of both old and new map-makers. A proper understanding about these rivers will become vital in our chapter on early settlements of the county. Most of the northern part of the county is drained by Mormon Fork creek, a tributary of the Grand river which forms part of the north county line. The east-central part is drained by Deepwater, North Deepwater, and South Deepwater creeks and their many tributaries.
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