History of Saginaw county, Michigan; together with ... portraits ... and biographies ... History of Michigan ...

HISTORY OF SAGINAW COUNTY.

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sandstones of the Point aux Barques, the first 275 feet of the well
being in a mixture of sandy shales; succeeding this we have a
series of blue and red shales continuing to near 1,100 feet. At this
point a very white.nd porous sand rock was struck, there being
about 100 feet. This sand rock contains an abundant supply of
brine, and has since been improved by cleaning and scraping the
well. The capacity of the well is over 20 gallons to the minute,
filling a cistern 30x30 in 16 to 17 hours. The brine shows 92 degrees by salinometer. The offset is down 600 feet, and the pumping chamber just below. The well has an overflow of fresh water.
CASEVILLE, HURON COUNTY.
'The first salt well put down in this locality was for Frank Crawford. This well starts at the top of the carboniferous limestones
which outcrop near Wild Fowl Bay. From here it passes through
the same formation as found on the Saginaw river, until a sand
rock containing strong brine is struck at 850 feet. There was
near 100 feet of this formation, being mixed with sandy shales.
The well was pumped at this depth for some time, nearly a year,
but not being satisfied with the supply of brine, Mr. Crawford
determined to put down another well, and this time he proposed
to go deeper and see what he could find. Accordingly another
well was started. After passing through the above mentioned
formations a continued series of blue shales, followed by red and
brown shales, was found, which continued until a sand rock was
struck at the depth of 1,650 feet. Of this there was 100 to 120
feet, making the entire depth of the well from 1,760 to 1,770 feet.
And now at this place I would like to correct an impression or report that has gone out, the rock salt was found in this sandstone
formation. It was so given out at the time the well was bored,
but subsequent borings and closer operations have disproved this
statement. In this sand rock a strong brine was found, and an
attempt made to pump from it alone, but the supply not being
much greater, the tube was raised and the brine from the two
sand rocks was pumped together, giving a supply for about 125
barrels of salt each day, it being calculated that the lower rock
gave a supply equal to about 75 barrels. All the other wells of this
locality have been put down to this lower sand rock, but no rock
salt has been found.
X'At Bay Port, 10 miles from Caseville, a well has been put down
to the same depth as the Caseville well, but as it has not been
put in operation I cannot report the capacity of the well. This
finishes the history of the salt wells on the south side of the Saginaw Bay that have any bearing on the prospect of finding salt
brine in the lower sand rock of the Waverly group. Let us now
cross over the Saginaw Bay and examine the record of salt
wells there.