Page:History of Goodhue County, Minnesota.djvu/26

 2 HISTORY OF GOODHUE COUNTY today stands for all that is ideal in American life, and. from year to year is forging ahead to still wider influence and more extended opportunity. Goodhue county is situated on the Mississippi river and Lake Pepin, and is bounded on the northwest by Dakota county, on the west by Rice county, on the south by Dodge county and a small portion of Olmsted county, and on the east and southeast by Wabasha county. Its Wisconsin neighbor is Pierce county. The population in 1905 was 31,628, and this has probably been increased by several thousand since that date. It is a large and important county, ranking among the first in the state in wealth. size, population, education, progressive]! ess and prosperity. It contains twenty-three townships and Red Wing, which is outside of any township jurisdiction. Its total area is 784.79 square miles, or 502,265.62 acres; the water area being only 20.21 square miles, or 12,936.06 acres. The surface waters of the county all reach the Mississippi river in an easterly or northeasterly course, descending from the height of 1,250 feel above the sea in Kenyon. to 665 feet in Lake Pepin, a drop of nearly 600 feet. The chief of these tributary streams are the Cannon, with its southern arm. the Little Cannon, and the north and north-middle branches of the Zumbro. Belle creek, another branch of the Cannon river, occupies an important valley, running northward from near the center of the county. Spring creel;. Hay creek and Wells creek, though not large streams, are important agents in defining the topography of the county, and have subterranean sources of supply which keep thein at a nearly uniform stage of water and afford valuable water powers. These water powers have in the past been utilized to a greater or less extent, and at the present time afford the motive power for many mills. Their use in generating electricity has also been considered. The county has no lakes. There are a great many large springs issuing from the banks of the streams, giving clear, pure water, which are dependent on the impervious nature of the rocky strata. Some of the tributaries of Belle and of Wells creeks issue from the rock Avails of the valley, having size sufficient, in some instances, to afford available water power for machinery. The topography of the county has from time to time been made the subject of careful study. The high prairies in the cen- tral and southwestern portions present a strong contrast with the hilly tracts in the northern and eastern. The former are broad, undulating, and somewhat monotonous. The winds find no nat- ural obstacles, and the exposed traveler can retire to no sheltered nooks for protection. The latter are broken by frequent and abrupt hills, which rise, with some sheltering timber, from two to