The first settlers came to the
Raymond area early 1850's The Dubuque and Sioux City Railroad
came through in 1861. At one time Raymond's businesses included
a train depot and telegraph, blacksmith shop, dry goods and grug
store, tavern, general store and meat market, post office,
Poyner No. 7 School, barber shop, hotel, stock yard a grain
elevator and lumber yard. The Methodist Church was built in 1873
and the Catholic Church in 1906. A telephone line came through
in 1920 and by 1924 there was electricity in town. People
endured the Great Depression and Wars. A good account of
Raymond's history can be found in a 57?page booklet compiled by
Margaret Wingert Pint in the early 1970's
Thought out the whole life of
Raymond, this Glacial erratic was there for the whole time. Time
passing slowly for it.
What is it, were did come from,
how did it get there?
Ice Ages, periods in Earth’s
history when sea ice or glaciers have covered a significant portion
of the planet’s surface and significant cooling of the atmosphere
has occurred. Earth has existed for about 4.5 billion years. During
that time it has experienced several ice ages, each lasting tens of
millions of years. The total of these episodes may account for as
much as 15 to 20 percent of the planet’s history. The icy cover has
ranged from about 10 percent to about 30 percent of the entire
surface of the planet.
The most recent ice age, the
pleistocence Epoch, lasted from about 1.6 million years to 10,000
years before present. During that time at least 20 glaciations, or
periods when the ice cover increased, occurred. Each of these
periods was followed by an interglaciation, or a period when the
ice cover shrank. The most recent glaciation in North America,
called the Wisconsin glaciation, lasted from about 115,000 years
ago to 10,000 years ago. The climate during that time was much
different from what it is today, with temperatures on the
continents as much as 15° C (27° F) colder. In areas that are
currently occupied by subtropical deserts, cooler and wetter
climates caused large lakes to form from increased rainfall and
glacial runoff. The past 10,000 years have been part of a
relatively warm interglacial period. However, the presence of
massive continental ice sheets on Greenland and Antarctica, along
with numerous smaller glaciers in mountainous regions throughout
the world, indicates that Earth is still in the grip of an ice
age.
Glacial erratics: Are boulders of
igneous and metamorphic rock, native to geographic regions well
north of Iowa, and carried into Iowa by glacial advances over
500,000 years ago. They were concentrated at the land surface by
later erosion, which removed the fine-grained deposits once
surrounding them. Glacial erratics in Iowa are not difficult to
identify. The vast majority are igneous or metamorphic rocks,
rather than the usual sedimentary rocks of sandstone, limestone,
dolomite, and shale that constitute the bedrock under most of Iowa.
If you pick up a granite rock, composed of interlocking crystals of
pink feldspar and glassy quartz, you can be sure it is not native
and that it came from outside the state, most likely carried by
glacial ice.
1 Measure how long the the glacial
erratic is ? .
2 Describe to me the way the
surface of this erratic feels. (Is it rough, smooth, etc?) Describe
the color and texture of the minerals in the erratic. .
3 When logging this Earthcache,
please upload a picture of yourself/team with the erratic in the
background and have your GPS clearly visible. .