Red River Rapids EarthCache

This Earthcache is named after the river that runs through here. It is located at Richmond Town Park, better known as "The Rock." Watch your step and enjoy the view, and maybe even a hydro-massage if the weather is right.

When Eastern Wisconsin first emerged from the ocean, it undoubtedly presented an essentially plane surface, having a slight inclination to the east and southeast. The irregularities which it now presents are due to subsequent changes, the results of three classes of agents, acting at different times and under different conditions.

During the long ages between the emergence of the land and the drift period, the streams were cutting their beds deeper and deeper into the rock, and rendering the former level surface more and more irregular. The softer rocks were more readily eroded than the harder ones, and this helped to increase the unevenness. There was a tendency of the streams, as far as the slope favored, to follow the less resisting belts of soft rock, and as these ran in a northerly and southerly direction in this region, the main streams had that direction. The little streams gathered into the larger ones in a manner not unlike that by which the branches of a tree are united into the trunk. The unevenness of surface produced by erosion of this nature possesses a certain kind of system and symmetry readily recognizable. As this erosion occupied the time preceding the Glacial period, we may conveniently designate the features produced by it Pre-Glacial.

We have the best example of this kind of surface configuration in the Lead region, over which the drift forces did not act, and which has not been re-submerged, so that we have the results of this class of action pure and simple. As we proceed eastward into the region of drift action in the central part of the state, these features are modified more and more by the results of glacial action, until in eastern Wisconsin they become wholly obscured, except in their grander outlines.

This Section of the Red River has little development, mostly wooded banks and two demanding sets of rapids and falls. It’s a highly popular destination for river paddlers, in part because the river’s water flow is regulated by a dam in this reach and as a result the river frequently carries good water levels through the summer when many other rivers are to shallow for good paddling. Alexian Falls, sometimes called Monastery Falls, with its six foot wide granite chute, is one of the most picturesque spots on the river. Alexian Falls can be found just a short hike upstream from this location.

Although distant from this area, these waters eventually flow into Lake Winnebago, the source of water for the Oshkosh, Neenah, Menasha, and Appleton municipal water systems. As a result, water from this area may affect the raw water quality of those municipal systems, which provide drinking water for approximately 162,000 customers.

The nickname of this park, was no doubt given because the agents which acted on this area exposed rocks. This part of the state is known for quite a few different varieties, The quarries mine limestone, granite, sandstone amongst others. One needn't go far to find any of these.

Sandstone (sometimes known as arenite) is a sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized minerals or rock grains. Most sandstone is composed of quartz and/or feldspar because these are the most common minerals in the Earth's crust. Like sand, sandstone may be any color, but the most common colors are tan, brown, yellow, red, gray and white. Since sandstone beds often form highly visible cliffs and other topographic features, certain colors of sandstone have been strongly identified with certain regions.

Granite is a common and widely occurring type of intrusive, felsic, igneous rock. Granites usually have a medium to coarse grained texture. Granites can be red, pink, white or grey in color, depending on their chemistry and mineralogy. By definition, granite has a color index (i.e. the percentage of the rock made up of dark minerals) of less than 25%. Outcrops of granite tend to form tors, and rounded massifs. Granites sometimes occur in circular depressions surrounded by a range of hills, formed by the metamorphic aureole or hornfels. Granite is usually found in the continental plates of the Earths Crust.

Limestone is a sedimentary rock composed primarily of calcium carbonate (CaCO3) in the form of the mineral calcite. It most commonly forms in clear, warm, shallow marine waters. It is usually an organic sedimentary rock that forms from the accumulation of shell, coral, algal and fecal debris. It can also be a chemical sedimentary rock formed by the precipitation of calcium carbonate from lake or ocean water.

All information about this area can be found in the archives of the Shawano County City Library

Thank you to Steve Gueths, Chairman of Richmond, for granting permission to post this Cache.