Geography
Taylor county's terrain was shaped chiefly by glaciers. Geologists believe that 15,000 to 25,000 years ago the Laurentide ice sheet pushed down from Canada across what are now the Great Lakes, and over much of the northern U.S. One of the ice sheet's lobes bulldozed down over two thirds of Taylor county, at its farthest extent covering a line from Westboro through Perkinstown to Lublin. The ice sheet pushed down that far, then melted back, leaving the band of choppy hills and little lakes that cuts diagonally across the county. This band of hills is called the Perkinstown terminal moraine. North and west of the moraine, in the corner of the county toward Jump River, that last glacier left behind a more gently rolling plain of glacial till.
The striking glacial features in this area are glacial erratic boulders and eskers. Along with the Mondeaux and Lost Lake eskers, there are others in the towns of Westboro, Pershing, Aurora and Taft. The southeast corner of the county toward Stetsonville and Goodrich was not covered by the last glacier, but was covered by earlier ones. Here too they left glacial till, but the land is generally flatter and less rocky since erosion has had more time to level things.
Beneath the glacial till lies Cambrian and Precambrian bedrock. Outcrops have been exposed in places by the Jump and Yellow Rivers. An unmined copper and gold deposit known as "the Bend Project" lies north of Perkinstown, which geologists believe was formed up to two billion years ago by a black smoker, a volcanic vent under an ancient ocean.
The county straddles a divide between three river systems. The Jump River and Yellow flow west into the Chippewa river valley. The Big Rib River flows southeast to the Wisconsin. And the Black River flows out to the south. All eventually feed the Mississippi.
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 984 square miles (2,550 km2), of which 975 square miles (2,530 km2) is land and 10 square miles (26 km2) (0.98%) is water.
Read more about this topic: Taylor County, Wisconsin
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