23000 B.C.
23000
1100
Mother Nature forms the Mississippi Basin (melting ice and snow from the last ice age), the American Bottom (reaching a maximum width of 11 miles near present-day Granite City) and the great Central Lowlands. The glacier that covered much of North America during the Wisconsinian Period stops about 100 miles north of the area. Prevailing westerlies sweep across the silty alluvium in winter months and deposit a soil known as loess on the eastern bluffs.
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six sections (one square mile each) and section 16 is reserved for the support of public schools.
Greatest flood ever in area (according to Indians) takes place. Settlers were in awe and they dubbed it the "l'annee des grands eaux," or "Year of the great waters."
