[4] The southeast corner of the town lies in the hilly terminal moraine that runs from Westboro through Perkinstown and Lublin - dumped by the last glacier.

[5][3] Beneath the glacial till, most of Ford's bedrock is volcanogenic metasedimentary rock, with smaller areas of amphibolite and sandstone.

[6] In mid-summer of 1847 a crew working for the U.S. government surveyed a six-mile square which approximates the current boundaries of Ford.

Then in October 1854 another crew marked all the section corners in the township, walking through the woods and swamps, measuring with chain and compass.

[7][8] When done, the deputy surveyor filed this general description: This Township contains numerous swamps some of which are of considerable extent they are all unfit for cultivation.

The River Enters the Township Near the NW corner of section 1 and flows in a south westerly course with a swift current and has a good motive power for mills.

[9]An 1880 map of the area shows a "winter road" from Chippewa County loosely paralleling the Yellow River on the north side.

[13] At this auspicious junction, the hamlet of Polley sprang up, growing to include a 40-man sawmill, a hotel-saloon, a general store, a school, a barber, a cheese factory, a millinery shop, and a newspaper.

As years rolled on, some businesses moved two miles north to Gilman, the SM&P shut down in the 1930s, and Polley dwindled[12] until today only a bar and some homes remain.

The 1911 plat map of the six mile square that would become most of Ford shows the railroads, with Gilman where the SM&P crosses the Yellow River.