The road runs on the verge of a dry ravine, where an Indian effigy mound reposes on the opposite bank, near the Baraboo River. Other mounds were to the west and an Indian ford crossed the stream here. About 1906 an Indian skeleton was unearthed on the bank of the gully, nearly opposite the farmstead.
Garrisonville
In the region about the ravine, Mrs. Ann Garrison, in pioneer times, laid out a paper city, much to the regret of lot purchasers in Philadelphia and elsewhere. The sawmill, the pottery, the hotel, and the "salted" gold mine are but memories now.
The gap where the river escapes from the valley into the lowland to the north, has a geological history similar to that of Devil's Lake. No talus covers the slopes, however, the loose stones having been swept away when the ice sheet flowed slowly through in glacial times.
An Ancient Lava Bed
At seven localities about the outer margin of the quartzite region, igneous rocks have been found—at Alloa, near the Devil's Nose, at Baxter's Hollow, three near Denzer and the Lower Narrows.
By far the largest area, fully described by Professor Samuel Weidman in "The Baraboo Iron-Bearing District," is found at the Lower Narrows, distributed over the width of more than half a mile along the north slope, to the east and west of the gap. At the bridge the road to the left leads to a point less than a mile distant, here the igneous rock or rhyolite comes boldly within a few feet of the highway. By climbing upon the ledge one stands on a surface older than the Baraboo Hills, older than any deposit in the whole region. As lava the rhyolite flowed, then cooled and during the upheaval of the north range was forced upon its edge, remaining so to this day. Upon this cooled lava the whole later geologic formation of the region rests—to be upon it is to be upon the floor of the world.
