About
Ales – well duh..
as for Ionia, I believe there is an island neer greece, or it’s in their mythology, but in extreme NE nebraska, there is a county called DIXON where my mother is from. It is amazingly beautiful there by the Missouri River. There are these steep and HUGE hills and gravel roads going from my mom’s small hometown to the river, where my family had farmland.
I camped there a bunch as a wee one with my father. The point is, right by the “old river farm” was a town called Ionia that was washed away by the Missouri River in the late 1800s. All that remains is the cemetary that was up on a big hill, which is called “the Ionia Volcano” because many years ago before the river was dammed up in SD, the river would change course a lot (also why the town was “washed away” and the river water would lap up on the bank of this big hill. The soil contained minerals that would smoke (and even catch fire) when the river water touched it. It was even in Lewis and Clark’s notes, the following is from the historical marker located in Newcastle, Nebraska.
“THE IONIA “VOLCANO”
On August 24, 1804, the Lewis and Clark Expedition, traveling up the Missouri River, passed a bluff about 180 to 190 feet high. Clark wrote that it appeared to have been on fire and was still very hot. He also detected signs of coal and what looked like cobalt. Later fur traders frequently noticed dense smoke and fire in this region. In 1839, J. N. Nicollet attempted to prove that these phenomena were not of volcanic origin. Nicollet theorized that the decomposition of beds of iron pyrites in contact with water resulted in a heat capable of igniting other combustible materials.
Unaware of this explanation, early settlers continued to fear the “Ionia Volcano,” which took its name from the once flourishing town of Ionia, located northeast of present-day Newcastle. An earthquake in 1877 aroused new fears of an impending volcanic eruption. In 1878, the Missouri River undermined the bluffs and a large section of the “volcano” fell into the river. The same flood nearly destroyed the town of Ionia. “Volcano” stories died out soon after the Ionia post office was discontinued in 1907.
Newcastle Community Betterment Committee
Historical Land Mark Council
Nebr. 12 in Newcastle
Dixon County
Marker 68″
http://www.nebraskahistory.org/publish/markers/texts/ionia_volcano.htm
Ponca, NE
Courtesy of Ponca State Park, Ponca, NE
“Near the Ponca State Park (shown above) on August 22, 1804, just two days after Sgt. Floyd died, tragedy nearly struck again. Testing soils for mineral content by heating and tasting them, Lewis nearly poisoned himself but recovered within a day. It has been observed that at Ponca would be the first stretch of the river that Lewis & Clark would recognize due to it being the first stretch of unchannelized river”
“On August 24, 1804, men noted a large bluff which was hot to the touch. Known as the Ionia volcano, the shale bluff has since eroded into the river, but it was determined in 1900 that the heat was generated by oxidation of the shale. About three miles west of Newcastle on Hwy. 12, a historical marker (shown above) notes the passage of Lewis and Clark (located at Pfister Park). Gravel road leads to Volcano Hill.”
http://www.travelnenebraska.com/lewisclark.htm