Part One ^. Part Two ^. Part Three ^. Part Four ^. Part Five ^. Part Six ^. Main Folio Page

Description of the Chicago District

By William C. Alden

"The 1902 Chicago Folio, containing economic, aereal and topographic maps."
being a part of
U.S. Geological Survey, Geologic Atlas of the United States, Number 81.

This publication is a long out-of-print folio volume about the size of a folded newspaper with the first color topographical maps of the Chicago area. These old maps show older forks of the Chicago River and man-made slips, the former lakeshore of Chicago before implementation of the Burnham Plan.

The illustrations which accompany the text are very yellowed and faint; the maps have survived marginally better. Additional visual material is provided to assist the modern reader.

This typescript follows the format of the original as much as possible. Note that in 1902 the Ordovician and Silurian were still considered one. Comments by the transcriber and words to assist the general reader are in [brackets]. This page was first posted in January 2001 on the Northeastern Illinois University server and was moved by the transcriber to this site in June 2001.

View a sample of the transcription text.
This typescript has been proofread for more than one year, but as with all electronic publications, errors may be introduced in transmission. Please send notes on any typos or errors you find as well as comments by email.

All 14 pages in the Folio have been transcribed. They have been divided into six sections:

Part One -- Topography: The plain and rivers
- Plates I to IV: Topographic Maps
- fig. 1 Chicago Plain and adjacent territory
- fig. 14 Map of Calumet River and its surroundings.
Part Two -- Bedrock Geology: Paleozoic
- fig. 2 Section of deep well borings - north side
- fig. 3 Section of deep well borings - south side
- fig. 15 Flooded Quarry at Stony Island
- fig. 16 Quarry at Hillside
Part Three -- Paleozoic Ice Ages
- fig. 17 Glacial Drift
- fig. 18 Striated pebbles
- fig. 4 Bedrock weathering
- fig. 5 Unconformity between till & rocks
- fig. 19 Blase Dale Glacier, Greenland
- fig. 20 Striated pavement, Greenland
- fig. 6 Glaciers over North America
- fig. 15 Flooded Quarry at Stony Island
- fig. 21 Limestone Quarry at Stony Island
- fig. 3 Subsurface columns
Part Four -- Glacial Retreat: Lake Chicago
- fig. 7 Glenwood Stage
- fig. 14 Map of Calumet River and its surroundings
- fig. 8 Wave-cut cliffs
- fig. 9 Oak Park spit
- fig. 10 Glenwood spit
- fig. 11 Calumet Stage
- fig. 12 Toleston stage
Part Five -- Post-glacial and Economic Geology
- fig. 13 Shoreline changes at the mouth of the Chicago River
- fig. 22 Lake cliff at Racine, Wisconsin
- fig. 23 Embryonic sand dune at South Chicago
- fig. 24 Sand dune burying trees, Dune Park, Indiana
- fig. 25 Sand dune at Dune Park
- fig. 26 Gentle windward slope, Dune Park
- fig. 27 Surface of dune, Dune Park
Part Six -- Bibliography and Literature Cited

Special thanks to

Gregory Kientop, Illinois State Geological Survey - for letting me photograph the copy in his Westchester office.
Perry Recker, Librarian, Trinity Christian College - for obtaining the Illinois Archives copy - and
Jon Meyers, MoonRay Imaging - for his lovely color slides of the Illinois Archives copy.

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Ellin Beltz / ebeltz@ebeltz.net

August 2, 2004