Elkhorn Falls, Boston, Wayne County, Indiana, USAi

Regional Level Types
Elkhorn Falls	Exposure (Paleo feature)
Boston	Village
Wayne County	County
Indiana	State
USA	Country

Elkhorn Falls is immediately west of the bridge of Boston Pike (Indiana State Route 227) over Elkhorn Creek, approximately 2.25 miles northwest of Boston, Boston Township, sec. 22, T. 13 N., R. 1 W. The top 13 feet (the “ledge”) is identified as the Silurian Brassfield Dolomite which overlies and forms an unconformity with the Upper Ordovician Elkhorn formation. This is the type-locality of the Elkhorn formation (Cumings, 1908).

John T. Plummer (1843) was the first professor to describe the geology of Richmond, Indiana. Although he did not state that he visited Elkhorn Falls directly, his provided sketch shows four locations he visited, one which was approximately four miles south of Richmond, Indiana, which is the location of Elkhorn Falls. Plummer describes the locality fairly accurately, with the overlying Brassfield as the “cliff limestone” and the underlying Elkhorn and Whitewater formations as the “blue limestone”. He also noted mineralization in the “cliff limestone”, having “small cubes of sulphuret of iron, which, decomposing, tarnish the surface of the stone”, in other words he found pyrite.

Elkhorn Falls was then visited and described by Indiana geologist, E.T. Cox in the mid-1870 (1879). In his paper, he describes that the “ledge” is a buff-colored magnesian limestone, which he calls the Niagara, overlies the “Hudson River rocks” and form the falls. He identified both formations as Silurian age. Cox also calls this locality "Elkhorn Mill".

The locality would then be later visited by Edgar R. Cumings (1908) who suggested that the shales and limestone at Elkhorn Creek was its own geologic formation. The Elkhorn Formation was correctly identified as being part of the Ordovician and not the Silurian.

In 1950, the area was field checked by Richard C. Erd and Seymour S. Greenberg (1960) who found baryte nodules in the Elkhorn Formation. In their bulletin on Minerals of Indiana they interpreted the locality as an “abandoned quarry immediately west of the bridge of Indiana State Route 227 over Elkhorn Creek" . Their interpretation of an “abandoned quarry” was however, incorrect. What they misinterpreted as a quarry, was in fact a former mill, established by John E. Wolfe (1843-1917) in 1880, which used Elkhorn Falls for power. This mill was also the first in eastern Indiana to adopt a roller mill instead of a gristmill. The only mineral that was confirmed at this locality was nodular baryte, though pyrite is likely to be found here as well.

Other Regions, Features and Areas containing this locality

References