Drainage Modifications and Glaciation in the Danbury Region Connecticut Part 2

THE NEVERSINK-DANBURY VALLEY.

Between Neversink Pond and Danbury extends a deep rock valley, in places filled with drift. As has been shown, this valley was probably occupied in preglacial time by Rocky River, which then flowed southward. At its southern end is Still River, which flows through Danbury from west to east.

The most important tributary of the Still rises northwest of the city, just beyond the New York-Connecticut boundary line, and has two forks.

The northern fork, which drains East Lake, Padanaram Reservoir, and Margerie Pond, flows along the northeast side of Clapboard Ridge. The southern fork has two branches; the northern one includes the reservoirs of Upper Kohanza and Lake Kohanza, while the upper waters of the southern branch have been recently dammed to form an extensive reservoir. On approaching the city, the northernmost fork (draining East Lake) turns sharply out of its southeast course and flows in a direction a little east of north. At the end of Clapboard Ridge, the stream makes a detour around a knoll of coa.r.s.e stratified drift. From this turn until it joins Still River, a distance of about a mile, the stream occupies a broad and partly swampy valley.

At the cemetery in this valley (fig. 1, C) are two eskers of symmetric form, each a few hundred yards in length and trending nearly parallel with the valley axis. East of the valley, and about 1-1/2 miles north of the cemetery, is a broad, flat-topped ridge of till with rock exposed at the ends, forming a barrier which doubtless existed in preglacial time. West of the valley is a hill with rock foundation rounded out on the northeast side by a ma.s.s of drift. The preglacial course of Rocky River was between the outcrops at these two localities.

Northwest of the cemetery for one and a half miles the uneven surface is formed of till and small patches of stratified drift. In a swamp near the north end of the cemetery is a curved esker with lobes extending south and southwest. One mile north of this swamp is an area of excessively coa.r.s.e till containing boulders which range in diameter from 6 to 10 feet and forming a low ridge separating two ravines, in which head streams flowing in opposite directions. The area of coa.r.s.e till is bounded on the north by a long sinuous esker of coa.r.s.e gravel terminating in a flat fan, which is superposed on a field of fine till. a.s.sociated with the esker is an interesting group of kames and kettleholes, the largest kettlehole being distinguished by distinct plant zones banding the sides of the depression.

North of the area of boulders, eskers, and kames just described lies a swamp whose surface is 30 to 40 feet below the upper level of the kame gravels. Soundings made by T. T. Giffen revealed the presence of 36 feet of peat and 2 feet of silt overlying firm sand, so that 70 feet is the minimum estimate for the difference in level between the surface of the gravels and the floor of the swamp.

Below the rocky cliffs which line the valley sides are boulders brought by the ice from near-by ledges, and about one-half mile above the head of the swamp are remnants of a terrace standing 20 to 30 feet above the level of the stream. Although the terrace appears to consist of till, it may conceal a rock floor which was cut by a former stream.

As the valley is followed toward Neversink Pond, the various features of a till-coated, rock-floored valley are seen.

[Ill.u.s.tration: ~Fig. 6.~ Course of Still River. Dotted lines show the preglacial channels.]

STILL RIVER

STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

Still River presents several unusual features, as shown in fig. 6.

Tributaries from the west and south unite at Danbury to form a stream flowing northward opposite to the regional land slope. Near its junction with the Housatonic, the river flows northward, whereas its master stream half a mile distant flows southward. The lower valley of the river is broad and flat and apparently much out of proportion to the present stream; it is, indeed, comformable in size and direction with the valley of the Housatonic above the mouth of the Still. The Housatonic, however, instead of choosing the broad lowland in the limestone formation, spread invitingly before it, turns aside and flows through a narrow gorge cut in resistant gneiss, schist, and igneous intrusives. The headwaters of the Still mingle with those of the Croton system, and its chief southern branch, the Umpog, is interlaced with the sources of the Saugatuck on a divide marked by glacial drift and swamps. The explanation of these features involves not only the history of the Still River system, but also that of the Housatonic.

In explanation of the present unusual arrangement of streams in the Still River system, four hypotheses may be considered:

I. Still River valley is the ancient bed of the Housatonic from which that river has been diverted through reversal caused by a glacial dam.

II. The Housatonic has always had its present southeasterly course, but the Still, heading at some point in its valley north of Danbury, flowed initially southward through one of four possible outlets. The latter stream was later reversed by a glacial dam at the southern end, or by glacial scouring at the northern end of its valley which removed the divide between its headwaters and the Housatonic.

III. The Housatonic has always held its present southeasterly course, and the Still initially flowed southward, as stated above. Reversal in this case, however, occurred in a very early stage in the development of the drainage, as the result of the capture of the headwaters of the Still by a small tributary of the Housatonic.

IV. The Housatonic has always held its present southeasterly course, but the Still has developed from the beginning as a subsequent stream in the direction in which it now flows.

The first hypothesis, that the Still is the ancient channel of the Housatonic, has been advocated by Professor Hobbs, who has stated:

"That the valley of the Still was formerly occupied by a large stream is probable from its wide valley area.... The former discharge of the waters of the Housatonic through the Still into the Croton system, on the one hand, or into the Saugatuck on the other, would require the a.s.sumption of extremely slight changes only in the rock channels which now connect them.... To turn the river (the Housatonic) from its course along the limestone valley some obstruction or differential uplift within the river basin may have been responsible. The former seems to be the more probable explanation in view of the large acc.u.mulations of drift material in the area south and west of Bethel and Danbury."

"The structural valleys believed to be present in the crystalline rocks of the uplands due to post-Newark deformation may well have directed the course of the Housatonic after it had once deserted the limestone ... The deep gorge of the Housatonic through which the river enters the uplands not only crosses the first high ridge of gneiss in the rectilinear direction of one of the fault series, but its precipitous walls show the presence of minor planes of dislocation, along which the bottom of the valley appears to have been depressed."[9]

The hypothesis proposed by Professor Hobbs and also the second and third hypotheses here given involve the supposition of reversal of drainage, and their validity rests on the probability that the stream now occupying Still River valley formerly flowed southward. The first and second hypotheses will be considered in the following section.

[Footnote 9: Hobbs, W. H., Still rivers of western Connecticut: Bull.

Geol. Soc. Am., vol. 13, pp. 17-26, 1901.]

EVIDENCE TO BE EXPECTED IF STILL RIVER HAS BEEN REVERSED

If Still River occupies the valley of a reversed stream, the following physiographic features should be expected:

1. A valley with a continuous width corresponding to the size of the ancient stream, or a valley comparatively narrow at the north and broadening toward the south.

2. Tributary valleys pointing upstream with respect to the present river.

3. The regional slope not in accord with the present course of the river.

4. Extensive glacial filling and ponded waters in the region of the present sources of Still River.

5. Strong glacial scouring at the northern end in default of a glacial dam at the southern end of the valley, or to a.s.sist a dam in its work of reversing the river. The evidence of glacial erosion would be a U-shaped valley, overdeepening of the main valley, and tributaries ungraded with respect to the main stream.

1. A VALLEY WIDE THROUGHOUT OR BROADENING TOWARD THE SOUTH

At the mouth of Still River and for several miles north and south of it there is a plain more than a mile broad. This plain continues southward with a width of about one-half mile until, at Brookfield, it is interrupted by ledges of bare rock. A little distance south of Brookfield the valley broadens again to one-half mile, and this width is retained with some variation as far as Danbury. Drift deposits along the border of the valley make it appear narrower in some places than is indicated by rock outcrops. Between Brookfield and Danbury the narrowest place in the valley is southwest of Beaver Brook Mountain, where the distance between the hills of rock bounding the valley is one-fifth of a mile (fig. 6). Opposite Beaver Brook Mountain, which presents vertical faces of granite-gneiss toward the valley, is a hill of limestone. Ice, crowding through this narrow place in the valley, must have torn ma.s.ses of rock from the side walls, so that the valley is now broader than in preglacial time. The constrictions in the valley near Shelter Rock are due to the fact that the preglacial valley, now partly buried in till, lies to the north. There are stretches of broad floor in the valley of Beaver Brook, in the lower valley of Umpog Creek, in the fields at the south end of Main Street in Danbury, about Lake Kanosha, and where the Danbury Fair Grounds are situated. In the western part of Danbury, however, and at Mill Plain the valley is very narrow, and at the head of Sugar Hollow, the valley lying east of Spruce Mountain, is a narrow col.

The broadest continuous area in the Still-Umpog Valley is, therefore, in the lower six miles between Brookfield and New Milford; south of that portion are several places where the valley is sharply constricted; and beyond the head of the Umpog, about one and a half miles below West Redding station (fig. 7), the Saugatuck Valley is a very narrow gorge. On the whole, the valleys south and southwest of Danbury are much narrower than the valley of the Still farther north.

It is evident from these observations that Still River Valley is neither uniformly broad, nor does it increase in width toward the south.

But if a broad valley is to be accepted as evidence of the work of a large river, then there is too much evidence in the Still River valley. The broad areas named above are more or less isolated lowlands, some of them quite out of the main line of drainage, and can not be grouped to form a continuous valley. They can not be attributed to the Housatonic nor wholly to the work of the insignificant streams now draining them. These broad expanses are, in fact, local peneplains developed on areas of soluble limestone. The rock has dissolved and the plain so produced has been made more nearly level by a coating of peat and glacial sand. In a region of level and undisturbed strata, such as the Ohio or Mississippi Valley, a constant relation may exist between the size of a stream and the valley made by it; but in a region of complicated geologic structure, such as western Connecticut, where rocks differ widely in their resistance to erosion, the same result is not to be expected. In this region the valleys are commonly developed on limestone and their width is closely controlled by the width of the belt of limestone. Even the narrow valleys in the upland southwest of Danbury are to be accounted for by the presence of thin lenses of limestone embedded in gneiss and schist.

The opinion of Hobbs that Still River valley is too wide to be the work of the present stream takes into consideration only the broad places, but when the narrow places are considered it may be said as well that the valley is too narrow to be the work of a stream larger than the one now occupying it. Valley width has only negative value in interpreting the history of Still River.

2. TRIBUTARY VALLEYS POINTING UPSTREAM

The dominant topographic feature of western Connecticut, as may be seen on the atlas sheets, is elongated oval hills trending north by west to south by east, which is the direction of the axes of the folds into which the strata were thrown at the time their metamorphism took place. Furthermore, the direction of glacial movement in this part of New England was almost precisely that of foliation, and scouring by ice merely accentuated the dominant north-south trend of the valleys and ridges. As a result, the smaller streams developed on the softer rocks are generally parallel to each other and to the strike of the rocks. These streams commonly bend around the ends of the hills but do not cross them. The narrowness of the belts of soft rock makes it easy for the drainage of the valleys to be gathered by a single lengthwise stream. The Still and its larger tributaries conform in this way to the structure.

On the east side of the Still-Umpog every branch, except two rivulets 1-1/4 miles south of Bethel, points in the normal direction, that is, to the north, or downstream as the river now flows (fig. 6). The largest eastern tributary, Beaver Brook, is in a preglacial valley now converted into a swamp the location and size of which are due entirely to a belt of limestone. It is not impossible that Beaver Brook may have once flowed southward toward Bethel, but the limestone at its mouth, which lies at least 60 feet lower than that at its head, shows that if such were ever the case it must have been before the north-flowing Still River had removed the limestone north of Beaver Brook Swamp.

On the flanks of Beaver Brook Mountain are three tributaries which enter the river against its present course. Examination of the structure reveals, however, that these streams like those on the east side of the river are controlled in their direction by the orientation of the harder rock ma.s.ses. The southward flowing stream four miles in length which drains the upland west of Beaver Brook Mountain has an abnormal direction in the upper part of its course, but on reaching the flood plain it takes a sharp turn to the north. Above the latter point it is in line with the streams near Beaver Brook Mountain and is abnormal in consequence of a line of weakness in the rock.

The lowland lying west of Umpog valley, extending from Main Street in Danbury to a point one mile beyond Bethel, affords no definite evidence in regard to the direction of tributaries. In reconstructing the history of this valley the chief difficulty arises from the old-age condition of the flood plain. Drainage channels which must once have existed have been obliterated, leaving a swampy plain which from end to end varies less than 20 feet in elevation. It is likely that in preglacial times the part of the valley north of Gra.s.sy Plain, if not the entire valley, drained northward into Still River, as now do Umpog Creek and Beaver Brook. From this outlet heavy drift deposits near the river later cut it off. The lowland is now drained by a stream which enters the Umpog north of Gra.s.sy Plain. Several small streams tributary to the Umpog south of Bethel also furnish no evidence in favor of the reversal of Still River.

West of Danbury the tributaries of Still River point upstream on one side and downstream on the other side of the valley, in conformity with the rock structure which is here diagonal to the limestone belt on which the river is located. Their direction in harmony with the trend of the rocks has, therefore, no significance in the earlier history of the river.

From the foregoing discussion, it appears that no definite conclusions in regard to the history of Still River can be drawn from the angle at which tributaries enter it. The direction of the branches which enter at an abnormal angle can be explained without a.s.suming a reversal of the main stream, and likewise many of the tributaries with normal trends seem to have adopted their courses without regard to the direction of Still River.