GLACIAL LANDSCAPES

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The Might of Ice

Illustration: Retreat of glacial cover reaching down from Canada. Southern-most area noted here. 20,000 years ago: Lower Midwest. 14,000 years ago: Lake Erie. 9,000 years ago: Northern tip of Lower Peninsula. 7,000 years ago: Slivers of Lakes Superior and Huron. Image Credit: Alexandria R. Baszler

Michigan once looked like Antarctica, buried beneath a barren, windswept ice cap about one mile thick.

During Earth's last ice age, glaciers advanced and retreated, carving out the distinctive shapes of Michigan’s peninsulas and lakes.

An illustration shows features and terms associated with a glacial landscape. A moraine, the buildup of earth and stone deposited from a glacier, dominates the landscape. A melting Glacier has created a stream termed an outwash channel. Beside the stream, a long, narrow ridge of sand, gravel, and boulders called an esker juts out from the glacier. Elongated hills of glacial till called drumlins dot the valley next to a large lake of glacial meltwater. Small meltwater lakes fill steep hollows called kettles. Image Credit: Artwork, Michigan History Museum

The last glacier retreated from Michigan about 12,000 years ago, leaving behind geological features still seen in today's landscape. You are standing on the slope of an end moraine, a hill that marks the furthest advance of the ice sheet.

A color photo shows a large conical boulder, partially covered with moss, in a winter forest of young trees. Image Credit: Sue Hodapp

Glaciers carried gravel, rocks and other sediments to Michigan from as far away as northern Canada. Look along the trail for large boulders deposited by the retreating ice, kettle lakes and the steep hills of Lake Michigan's glacial lobe moraines.

Kettles and Kettle Lakes

In a color illustration, the rounded bottom of a large chunk of glacial ice is deeply embedded in the center of soft gray glacial till-gravel, pebbles, sand and silt, while the jagged top reaches upward into the sky. Image Credit: Michigan History Museum

Large, heavy blocks of ice that fell from the main glacier sank into soft glacial sediment. The hole left after the ice melted is called a kettle. When filled with rainwater, it is called a kettle lake. You can see two kettle lakes on the south side of the trail near the 10th Street parking lot.

An Esker

A color photo shows an esker that is approximately 20 feet high. Dotted with bare trees, the ridge of sand, gravel and boulders is covered with brown leaves. A gravel road winds up and around the top of the esker toward the blue winter sky. Image Credit: Sue Hodapp

The railroad company had to dig through the esker to lay level train track. An esker is a deposit of sand, gravel and boulders left by a stream that flowed from a glacier.

Down a Moraine

Kalamazoo's glacial moraine created a dangerous slope described in the Kalamazoo Gazette article. The Jones’ farm is not shown on the 1873 map below.

From the Kalamazoo Gazette October 9, 1878:

"FIVE DAYS IN THE COUNTRY

The Gazette colporteur left on Monday morning, Sept. 31st [sic], for a trip over the highways and bi-ways of Cooper and Alamo, to distribute ‘tracts’ Tuesday. In the afternoon we drove to Alamo center, driving over some of the worst roads we have seen in the country. We descended the ‘Big Hill,’ as it is called near the Jones' farm, which is almost a perpendicular descent of twenty-rods, with fearful washouts all the way down. We got out of the carriage, put the cushion in the bottom of the buggy, saw that the holdback was secure, and proceeded down, leading the horse, but before half the descent was made, the cushion tumbled out and rolled down the hill, followed by a satchel, which we thought secure under the seat, and the whip fell out of the socket, and slid down the incline, bringing up at the bottom with the satchel and cushion, and a part of the way we feared that the carriage itself would capsize over the horse's back, and the whole rig – buggy, horse and driver – bring up in a conglomerated mass at the bottom. We reached level land in safety, but will never again take the desperate chances of descending this mountain with a horse and carriage, and we would want to be let down with a rope, if we were again to tackle the ‘Big Hill’ even on foot. B. Dozer."

Historic map shows the K&SH Railroad running from the northwest and then turning south at Alamo center. A red pin along the railroad indicates your present location, south of Paw Paw road. The Kalamazoo river and two other historic rail lines are to the east. Image Credit: 1873 Kalamazoo County Atlas modified by Susan Cooper

Area Moraines

Map shows three glacial lobe moraines as parallel chains of glacial hills in southwest Michigan. The Lake Boarder Moraine touches Benton Harbor and South Haven. The Valparaiso Moraine runs through eastern Berrien and western Van Buren counties. The Kalamazoo Moraine touches Niles and the city of Kalamazoo.

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