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Wood County, Wisconsin
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==Geography== According to the [[United States Census Bureau|U.S. Census Bureau]], the county has a total area of {{convert|809|sqmi}}, of which {{convert|793|sqmi}} is land and {{convert|16|sqmi}} (2.0%) is water.<ref name="GR1">{{cite web|url=http://www2.census.gov/geo/docs/maps-data/data/gazetteer/counties_list_55.txt|publisher=United States Census Bureau|access-date=August 9, 2015|date=August 22, 2012|title=2010 Census Gazetteer Files}}</ref> The geographic center of Wisconsin is in Wood County, nine miles southeast of Marshfield.<ref>Wisconsin State Cartographer's Office. "[http://www.sco.wisc.edu/mapping-topics/wisconsin-geography-statistics2.html Wisconsin Geography Statistics]". Accessed July 25, 2014.</ref> [[Image:Lincoln_Wood_County_Wisconsin_terrain.jpg|thumb|In the northwest corner of the county near Bakerville, facing northwest]] Wood County spans two of [[Regions of Wisconsin|Wisconsin's five geographical regions]]. The northern part of the county is in the [[Northern Highland]]s, with mostly rich cropland with heavy clay soil, used for corn, soybeans, hay and dairy.<ref name=Hydrogeology>{{cite web|last=Batten|first=W. G.|title=Hydrogeology of Wood County, Wisconsin|url=http://wisconsingeologicalsurvey.org/pdfs/IC60.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/http://wisconsingeologicalsurvey.org/pdfs/IC60.pdf |archive-date=October 9, 2022 |url-status=live|work=Information Circular 60|publisher=U.S. Department of the Interior Geological Survey and|access-date=July 26, 2013|page=2}}</ref> In the northwest corner the Marshfield [[moraine]] runs from [[Marathon County, Wisconsin|Marathon County]] through [[Marshfield, Wisconsin|Marshfield]], [[Bakerville, Wisconsin|Bakerville]] and [[Nasonville, Wisconsin|Nasonville]] into [[Clark County, Wisconsin|Clark County]].<ref name=Pleistocene>{{cite journal|last=Clayton|first=Lee|title=Pleistocene Geology of Wood County, Wisconsin|url=http://wisconsingeologicalsurvey.org/gis.htm|journal=Information Circular 68|year=1991|publisher=Wisconsin Geological and Natural History Survey|location=Madison, Wisconsin|issn=0512-0640|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110722195534/http://wisconsingeologicalsurvey.org/gis.htm|archive-date=July 22, 2011}}</ref> The south and central areas from [[Babcock, Wisconsin|Babcock]] through [[Cranmoor, Wisconsin|Cranmoor]] and Wisconsin Rapids are in the [[Central Plain (Wisconsin)|Central Plain]], flat and marshy - one of the major [[cranberry]]-producing centers of the United States.<ref name=Hydrogeology /> The [[Wisconsin River]] cuts across the southeast corner, a corridor of sand flats, islands and [[Meander|oxbows]]. The river falls about 120 feet as it flows through the county,<ref>{{cite web|title=Biron Flowage|url=http://www.satelliteview.co/?lid=5245996_US_HRSV_WI&place=Biron-Flowage-5341-WI|publisher=SatelliteView.co|access-date=July 25, 2013}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Petenwell Flowage|url=http://www.satelliteview.co/?lid=5266682_US_HRSV_WI&place=Petenwell-Flowage-5879-WI|publisher=SatelliteView.co|access-date=July 25, 2013}}</ref> driving several power dams. The remainder of the county is drained by smaller streams and rivers, punctuated by isolated hills like [[Powers Bluff]]. The flat, sandy southern third of the county was largely shaped by the [[Wisconsonian glaciation#Wisconsin glaciation, North America|last glacial advance]]. The ice didn't reach Wood County, but it approached from the east into [[Portage County, Wisconsin|Portage County]] and butted up against the [[Baraboo Hills]] to the south. This blocked the Wisconsin River, damming it so that it backed up, forming [[Glacial Lake Wisconsin]], a frigid lake that stretched from the Baraboo Hills north to the sites of Babcock and Wisconsin Rapids, submerging that part of the county. This area is generally flat and marshy now because [[meltwater]] rivers from the glacier and streams from land to the north carried sand and silt out into the glacial lake, where the sediment settled beneath its still waters. After the glacial dam melted enough to drain Glacial Lake Wisconsin around 13,000 years ago, the Wisconsin River cut new channels through the lake-bottom sands in the southeast corner of the county. In a later dry period, wind blew the sand into dunes. One dune in the town of Saratoga is eight meters thick. Later still, the area became wet and [[peat]] formed in places on top of the sand.<ref name=Pleistocene /> The first surveyors in 1852 found a great marsh, like a Wisconsin Everglades. Here is their description of what is now [[Cranmoor, Wisconsin|Cranmoor]]: <blockquote>''This Township is very nearly all covered either with Marsh or swamp there is not to exceed in the Township two Sections of land that would admit of cultivation... Timber on Swamp [[Larix laricina|Tamarack]] & small [[Spruce]](?) very thick. water from 6 to 20 inches deep, the marsh is covered with a light crop of grass, water from 12 to 40 inches deep, innumerable small Islands(?) interspered over this Town, the margins of which abound with [[Cranberry|Cranberries]].''<ref>{{cite web|last=Sterling|first=Levi|title=Interior Field Notes (Jan. 1852)|url=http://digicoll.library.wisc.edu/cgi-bin/SurveyNotes/SurveyNotes-idx?type=article&byte=2422803&isize=L&twp=T022NR004E|publisher=Board of Commissioners of Public Lands|access-date=June 6, 2013}}</ref></blockquote> [[Image:Nasonville sunrise.jpg|thumb|right|Looking southeast across Wood County from the Marshfield moraine at Nasonville, with Powers Bluff in the middle and a plume from a paper mill at Rapids or Nekoosa on the right, almost at the far end of the county.]] The north of the county was shaped by earlier [[glacier]]s, which deposited [[glacial till]], the basis for the heavy soil there. The Marshfield moraine in the northwest corner is probably a [[terminal moraine]] from one of these earlier glaciers, or from a series of them. Its age is unclear, but its relatively smooth surface indicates that it has eroded for a much longer time than the choppy terminal moraines left 13,000 years ago,<ref name=Pleistocene /> like the [[Taylor County, Wisconsin#Geography|Perkinstown moraine]] near [[Medford, Wisconsin|Medford]]. Much of the county except for the northeast corner is underlain by a layer of [[Cambrian]] [[sandstone]], formed long before the last ice age.<ref>{{cite web|last=Brown|first=B. A.|title=Bedrock Geology of Wood County, Wisconsin|url=http://wisconsingeologicalsurvey.org/gis.htm|work=Information Circular 54-DI|publisher=UW-Extension, Geographical and Natural History Survey|access-date=August 11, 2013|author2=J.K. Greenberg|year=1986|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110722195534/http://wisconsingeologicalsurvey.org/gis.htm|archive-date=July 22, 2011}}</ref> Most of the original sandstone layer has been eroded away and the remainder is usually buried under glacial till, but it can be seen in gravel pits and a few bluffs. The Lindsey bluffs (a.k.a. the Marshfield School Forest) and [[Birch Bluff]] and South Bluff in the [[Remington, Wisconsin|Town of Remington]] are hard spots in this sandstone which have resisted erosion.<ref name=Pleistocene /> [[Powers Bluff]] is different from the sandstone bluffs, much older, with a hard core of [[Precambrian]] [[quartzite]] and a peak of [[chert]].<ref name=Pleistocene /> A marker on the bluff says it is a "worn down peak of an ancient mountain range which once covered northern Wisconsin."<ref>{{cite web|title=Geological History of Powers Bluff|url=http://www.hmdb.org/marker.asp?marker=6109|work=marker on the bluff|access-date=August 11, 2013}}</ref> ===Adjacent counties=== * [[Marathon County, Wisconsin|Marathon County]] - north * [[Portage County, Wisconsin|Portage County]] - east * [[Adams County, Wisconsin|Adams County]] - southeast * [[Juneau County, Wisconsin|Juneau County]] - south * [[Jackson County, Wisconsin|Jackson County]] - southwest * [[Clark County, Wisconsin|Clark County]] - northwest ===Natural wildlife refuges=== * [[Mead Wildlife Area]]
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