Soil Survey of McHenry County, Illinois Part I - Soil Data Mart

12 Soil Survey of
counties. From 1836 until 1844, McHenry served as
the county seat. In 1844, the county seat was moved
to the geographic center of the county, Centerville,
which was renamed Woodstock in 1845.
Subsistence farming characterized settlement until
just after the Civil War. With the development of
refrigerated railroad cars, the shipping of milk became
practical and profitable. From then until after World
War II, McHenry County was a major dairy producing
area.
Physiography, Relief, and Drainage
The county is comprised of moraines, outwash
plains, stream terraces, flood plains, kames, kame
terraces, eskers, lake plains, and bogs. A prominent
north-south moraine, the Marengo Ridge, occurs in
the western part of McHenry County in line with the
towns of Harvard and Marengo. This moraine and all
of the county to the east is in the Wheaton Morainal
Country of the Great Lakes Section of the Central
Lowland Province (Leighton and others, 1948). The
remainder of the county west of the Marengo Ridge is
in the Rock River Hill Country of the Till Plains Section
of the Central Lowland Province.
The highest elevation in the county is about 1,190
feet above sea level. It is about 4.5 miles northeast of
Harvard on the West Chicago Moraine. The lowest
elevation is about 730 feet at the point where the Fox
River leaves the county south of Algonquin.
The western part of the county is drained by the
Kishwaukee River, which flows generally toward the
west. Two tributaries, Piscasaw and Rush Creeks,
flow southwest into the Kishwaukee River. A third
tributary, Coon Creek, flows in a northwesterly
direction into the river. The eastern half of McHenry
County is drained by the Fox River, which flows south.
Boone and Nippersink Creeks are the main tributaries
of the Fox River.
Several important lakes are in the eastern part of
the county. The largest natural lake is Pistakee Lake.
Wonder Lake is the largest manmade lake.
Natural Resources
Sue Ehardt, zoning enforcement officer, McHenry County
Planning and Zoning Department, helped prepare this section.
McHenry County is well known for its sand and
gravel resources. The sand and gravel materials
deposited by glacier action have proven to be a major
resource in the county and are the most extensive
deposits in northeastern Illinois (Masters, 1978). In
1975, McHenry County was the top producer of sand
and gravel in Illinois. The county remains a major
producer of this resource. Approximately two-thirds of
the county is underlain by various types of gravel.
In 1989, a comprehensive inventory of gravel
mining operations was undertaken in an attempt to
provide a complete informational document for
reviewing gravel mining operations on a countywide
basis. The inventory included two designations of
earth extraction—”borrow pit” and “pit.” The
designation of “borrow pit” was assigned to areas
where activity could be visually seen but apparent use
was obviously limited. These “borrow pits” were
generally in areas of predominantly agricultural use,
did not appear to be of sufficient size to maintain a
commercial operation, and were more than likely used
as a source of gravel for use on the farm itself. The
second designation of “pits” was given in those
instances where the size and location of the “pit”
appeared to lend themselves to more of a commercial
use of the gravel extraction. Based upon the
information in the inventory, a task force determined
that 31 active pits existed within McHenry County.
Urbanization
Brian P. Depies, planner, McHenry County Department of
Planning and Development, helped prepare this section.
In the 1830’s, land was sold in 80-acre tracts for
$1.25 an acre. The cheap, available land spurred a
large influx of people into McHenry County. Between
1840 and 1850, the population increased from 2,575
to 14,978, or by 481 percent. After a 47 percent
increase in population from 1850 to 1860 (from 14,978
to 22,089), population growth stabilized and stayed on
average at about 7 percent until the 1940’s. Among
the major attractions of McHenry County were the rich
agricultural soils.
During the last 50 years, McHenry County has seen
significant jumps in population of 20 percent or more
over 10-year spans. The 1990 U.S. census reported
183,241 residents in McHenry County. This number
represents a 24 percent increase in population since
the 1980 U.S. census and represents the largest
percent increase of any county in Illinois during this
period of time. Today, about 60 percent of the county
is still used for some form of agriculture.
Over the last 25 years, the migration of people from
urban to suburban areas has had a significant impact
on land use in McHenry County. The southeastern
part of the county has been more intensively
developed for urban uses, while the western part has
felt the pressure of residential development in the form
of small hobby farms and large lot estates ranging in
size from 1 to 5 acres.
Although the push for development is growing