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F 591 .G84 1916 pt.B

BRIGHAM YOUNG UNIVERSITY

3 1197 22123 1860

Digitized by the Internet Archive
in 2013

http://archive.org/details/guidebookofwesteOOIeew

DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

Franklin K. Lane, Secretary

United States Geological Survey

George Otis Smith, Director

Bulletin 612

GUIDEBOOK

OF THE

WESTERN UNITED STATES

Part B. THE OVEIILAND ROUTE

WITH A SIDE TRIP TO YELLOWSTONE PAKK

BY

WILLIS T. LEE, RALPH W. STONE, HOYT S. GALE
AND OTHERS

Reprinted with minor corrections

WASHINGTON

GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE

1916

Principal Divisions of Geologic Time.«

[A glossary of geologic terms is given on pp. 182-185.]

Era.

Cenozoic (re-
cent life).

Mesozoic (in-
termediate
life).

Paleozoic
(old life).

Proterozoic
(primordial

life).

Period.

Quaternary.

Tertiary.

Cretaceous.

Jurassic.

Triftssic.

Carbonifer-
ous.

Devonian.

Silurian.

Ordovician.

Cambrian.

Algonkian.

Archean.

Epoch.

Recent.

Pleistoce n e
( Great
Ice Age).

Pliocene.
Miocene .
Oligocene.
Eocene.

(b)

(&)

(&)

Permian.

Pennsylva-
nian.

Mississip-
pian.

(b)

(b)

(b)

ib)

(b)

Crystall in e
rocks.

Characteristic life.

Age of man." Animals and plants of
modern types.

Age of mammals." Possible first appear-
ance of man. Rise and development of
highest orders of plants.

Age of reptiles." Rise and culmination
of huge land reptiles (dinosams) , of shell-
fish with complexly partitioned coiled
shells (ammonites), and of great flying
reptiles. First appearance (in Jurassic)
of birds and mammals; of cycads, an
order of palmlike plants (in Triassic);
and of angiospermous plants, among
which are palms and hardwood trees
(in Cretaceous).

' ' Age of amphibians. ' ' Dominance of club
mosses (lycopods) and plants of horsetail
and fern types. Primitive flowering
plants and earliest cone-bearing trees.
Beginnings of backboned land animals
(land vertebrates). Insects. Animals
with nautilus-like coiled shells (ammon-
ites) and sharks abundant.

"Age of fishes." Shellfish (mollusks) also
abundant. Rise of amphibians and land
plants.

Shell-forming sea animals dominant, espe-
cially those related to the nautilus (ceph-
alopods). Rise and culmination of the
marine animals sometimes known as sea
lilies (crinoids) and of giant scorpion-
like crustaceans (eurypterids). Rise of
fishes and of reef-building corals.

Shell-forming sea animals, especially ceph-
alopods and moUusk-like brachiopods,
abundant. Culmination of the buglike
marine crustaceans known as trilobites.
First trace of insect life.

Trilobites and brachiopods most charac-
teristic animals. Seaweeds (algae) abun-
dant. No trace of land animals found.

First life that has left distinct record.
Crustaceans, brachiopods, and seaweeds.

No fossils found.

Duration, accord-
ing to various
estimates.

Millions of years.

1 to5.

4 to 10.

17 to 25.

50 +

o The geologic record consists mainly of sedimentary beds— beds deposited in water. Over large areas
long periods of uplift and erosion intervened between periods of deposition. Every such interruption in
deposition in any area produces there what geologists term an unconformity. Many of the time divisions
shown above are separated by such unconformities— that is, the dividing lines in the table reoresent local
or widespread uplifts or depressions of the earth's surface.

b Epoch names omitted; in less common use than those given.
2

PREFACE.

By George Otis Smith.

The United States of America comprise an area so vast in extent
and so diverse in natural features as well as in characters due to
human agency that the American citizen who knows thoroughly his own
coimtry must have traveled widely and observed wisely. To ^'know
America first" is a patriotic obligation, but to meet this obligation
the railroad traveler needs to have his eyes directed toward the more
important or essential things within his field of vision and then to
have much that he sees explained by what is unseen in the swift
passage of the train. Indeed, many things that attract his attention
are inexplicable except as the story of the past is available to enable
him to interpret the present. Herein lie the value and tlie charm of
history, whether human or geologic.

The present stimulus given to travel in the home country will
encourage many thousands of Americans to study geography at first
hand-. To make this study most profitable the traveler needs a hand-
book that will answer the questions that come to his mind so readily
along the way. Furthermore, the aim of such a guide should be to
stimulate the eye in the selection of the essentials in the scene that
so rapidly unfolds itself in the crossing of the continent. In recog-
nition of the opportunity afforded in 1915 to render service of this
kind to an unusually large number of American citizens as well as to
visitors from other countries, the United States Geological Survey
has prepared a series of guidebooks^ covering four of the older railroad
routes west of the Mississippi.

These books are educational in purpose, but the method adopted is
to entertain the traveler by making more interesting what he sees
from the car window. The plan of the series is to present autliori-
tative information that may enable the reader to realize adequately
the scenic and material resources of the region he is traversing, to
comprehend correctly the basis of its development, and above aU to

^ Guidebook of the western United States: Part A, Northern Pacific Route, with a
side trip to Yellowstone Park (Bulletin 611); Part B, Overland Route, with a side trip
to Yellowstone Park (Bulletin 612); Part C, Santa Fe Route, with a side trip to Grand
Canyon of the Colorado (Bulletin 613); Part D, Shasta Route and Coast Line (Bulle-
tin 614).

3

4 PREFACE.

appreciate keenly the real value of the country he looks out upon,
not as so many square miles of territory represented on the map in a
railroad folder by meaningless spaces, but rather as land — ^real estate,
if you please — varying widely in present appearance because differing
largely in its history and characterized by even greater variation in
values because possessing diversified natural resources. One region
may be such as to afford a livelihood for only a pastoral people;
another may present opportunity for intensive agriculture; still
another may contain hidden stores of mineral wealth that may
attract large industrial development; and taken together these varied
resources afford the' promise of long-continued prosperity for this or
that State.

Items of interest in civic development or references to significant
epochs in the record of discovery and settlement may be interspersed
with explanations of mountain and valley or statements of geologic
history. In a broad way, the story of the West is a unit, and every
chapter should be told in order to meet fully the needs of the tourist
who aims to understand all that he sees. To such a traveler-reader
this series of guidebooks is addressed.

To this interpretation of our own country the United States Geo-
logical Survey brings the accumulated data of decades of pioneering
investigation, and the present contribution is only one type of return
to the public which has supported this scientific work under the Fed-
eral Government.

In preparing the description of the country traversed by the Over-
land Route the geographic and geologic information already pub-
lished as well as unpublished material in the possession of the Geo-
logical Survey has been utilized, but to supplement this material
Messrs. Lee, Stone, and Gale made a field examination of the entire
route in 1914, Mr. Lee working between Omaha and Ogden, Mr. Stone
between Ogden and Yellowstone, and Mr. Gale between Ogden and
San Francisco. Information has been furnished by Profs. J. C.
Merriam and G. H. Louderback, as well as by others to whom credit
is given in the text. Cooperation has been rendered by the United
States Reclamation Service and by bureaus of the Department of
Agriculture. Railroad officials and other citizens have also gen-
erously given their aid, and other members of the Survey have freely
cooperated in the work.

For the purpose of furnishing the traveler with a graphic presenta-
tion of each part of his route, the accompanying maps, 29 sheets in
aU, have been prepared, with a degree of accuracy probably never
before attained in a guidebook, and their arrangement has been
planned to meet the convenience of the reader. The special topo-
graphic surveys necessary to complete these maps of the route were
made by C. H. Birdseye and J. L. Lewis.

Guidebook of the Western United States.

PART B. the overland ROUTE, WITH A SIDE TRIP TO
YELLOWSTONE PARK.

By Willis T. Lee, Ralph W. Stone, Hoyt S. Gale, and others.

INTRODUCTION.

The westbound traveler over the Union Pacific Railroad will view
in the course of his journey some of the most conspicuous geographic
features of the North American Continent. These are shown in the
accompanying illustration (PI. I). The east end of the route lies in
the broad, well- watered Mississippi VaUey, where an abundance of
rainfall is indicated by the numerous branching streams. On leaving
Omaha the traveler crosses the Great Plains, which rise gradually to
the west and become progressively drier, merging into the relatively
barren region formerly called the Great American Desert. This
change in character is not very apparent to the traveler, because the
railroad foUows a vaUey whose bottom lands in the arid part of the
Great Plains are irrigated and do not differ in general appearance
from those farther east, where the rainfall supplies sufficient moisture
for growing crops. On both sides of this valley in western Nebraska
the hind is utilized for grazing and for dry farming. The cultivation
of the Great Plains by dry farming is rapidly spreading as new meth-
ods become more widely understood, and the region can no longer be
called a desert. In eastern Wyoming the route is in a belt of grazing
country.

West of the Great Plains lies a general mountainous country, known
as the CordiUeran region, which extends westward to the Pacific
coast. At Granite Canyon, Wyo., the railroad reaches the eastern
margin of the Cordilleran region, marked by a spur of the southern
Rocky Mountains — the Laramie Range — and thence westward it
winds around detached mountain groups and through the intervening
basins. The traveler may not realize that he is in a mountainous
region, for most of the lofty mountains of southern Wyoming stand
at considerable distances from the railroad. The mountainous part
of the route is not well populated. Many of the stations are little
more than section houses, and some consist only of a post on which
is painted the name, to indicate the location of a sidetrack. This

5

6 GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES.

part of Wyoming is used mainly for stock raising, but in the irrigated
valleys farther west, in Utah, there are orchards and well-tilled fields.

Soon after entering Utah the traveler crosses the Wasatch Moun-
tains, one of the great ranges of the continent, through the canyon
cut by Weber River, and then enters the valley of Great Salt Lake.

Leaving Ogden on the westward journey the traveler is fairly
within the Great Basin, one of the major natural divisions or physio-
graphic provinces of the United States, and he will be passing through
it for more than 16 hours. The Great Basin is called a desert and
as a whole gives an impression of dreariness and desolation, but it has
a peculiar interest not possessed by any other part of the transconti-
nental route. It is one of the most productive mining regions of the
world. That it is not all a desert is shown by the fact that large num-
bers of cattle and sheep are raised within its limits. It is developing,
moreover, to an increasing extent in agriculture.

Beyond the Great Basin lies the Sierra Nevada, which on this route
marks approximately the boundary between Nevada and California.
Through the forest zone of the Sierra the traveler descends into the
Great VaUey of California and, crossing its broad plains, passes, by
way of the one tidal outlet through the Coast Ranges, to the metropo-
lis of the Pacific coast.

Note. — For the convenience of the traveler the sheets of the route map in this bul-
letin are so arranged that he can unfold them one by one and keep each one in view
while he is reading the text relating to it. A reference is made in the text to each
map at the place where it should be so unfolded. The areas covered by these sheets
are indicated on Plate I, and a list of the sheets and the other illustrations is given
on pages 237-240. A glossary of geologic terms is given on pages 232-236, and an
index of stations on pages 241-244.

U. S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY

3ULLETIN 612 PLATE

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Areas shown on the sheets of the route map are indicated in red.

ITINERARY.

COUNCIL BLUFFS, IOWA, TO OGDEN, UTAH.

Abraham Lincoln established the eastern terminus^ of the Union
Pacific Railroad on the east side of Missouri River, so that the Over-
land Route begins at Council Bluffs, Iowa (see
sheet 1, p. 18), although the offices, shops, and
general terminal facilities of the road are west
of the river, at Omaha. Council Bluffs is on
the broad flood plain of Missouri River, at the foot of high bluffs

Council Blu£fs, Iowa.

Elevation 980 feet.
Population 29,292.

^ President Lincoln's Executive order
of November 17, 1863, and a supple-
mental order of March 7, 1864, were
issued under the law of July 1, 1862,
which created the Union Pacific Railroad
Co. and which authorized the President
of the United States to establish its east-
ern terminus on the western boundary
of Iowa. This required the company
to provide for the difficult crossing of
Missouri River.

The passage of this law authorizing the
building of a road to the Pacific coast was
preceded by a long debate. The north-
western region acquired by the Louisiana
purchase of 1803 had been explored by
Lewis and Clark, whose expedition started
in 1804. Their report aroused great
interest and stimulated many military,
trading, and exploring expeditions, but
there was great opposition to the holding
of the ' 'western wilderness' ' in the Union.
This was voiced in 1825 by Senator
Dickerson, of New Jersey, who said, in
debate: ''But is this Territory of Oregon
ever to become a State, a member of this
Union? Never. * * * The distance

* * * that a ^Member of Congress of this
State of Oregon would be obliged to travel
in coming to the seat of government and
returning home would be 9,300 miles.

* * * If he should travel at the rate
of 30 miles per day, it would require 306
days. Allow for Sundays, 44, it would
amount to 350 days. This would allow
the Memljer a fortnight to rest himself at
Washington before he should commence
his journey home. This traveling would

be hard, as a greater part of the way is
exceedingly bad, and a portion of it over
nigged mountains, where Lewis and Clark
found several feet of snow in the latter
part of June. Yet a young, able-bodied
Senator might travel from Oregon to
Washington and back once a year; but
he could do nothing else. It would be
more expeditious, however, to come by
water round Cape Horn, or to pass
through Bering Strait, round the north
coast of this continent to Baffin Bay,
thence through DaA-is Strait to the
Atlantic, and so on to Washington. It
is true, this passage is not yet discovered,
except upon our maps, but it will be as
soon as Oregon shall be a State."

But when California was acquired by
the United States, and especially after the
discovery of gold, the Pacific coast be-
came of great importance to the citizens
of the East, and routes leading to it were
carried across what had been a trackless
wilderness. The western migration, which
received its greatest impetus in the gold
rush of 1849, developed some famous
trails, one of which, the "Overland
Trail," was the forerunner of the L^nion
Pacific and Central Pacific railroads.
The convincing arguments in favor of its
construction seem to have been military
and political rather than commercial.
President Lincoln advocated it not only
as a military necessity but also as a
means of keeping the Pacific coast in the
Union. The name Union Pacific probably
resulted from the belief that the road
would bind the Union together.

7

8

GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTEKN" UNITED STATES.

composed mainly of a claylike material known as loess. According
to tradition these bluffs were used for centuries by the Indians as a
common meeting ground; here the several tribes held their pow-
wows, smoked their pipes of peace, or declared hostilities, as their
inclinations moved them. The name Council Bluffs was originally
applied to a locality about 20 miles north of Omaha, where Lewis
and Clark held council with the Indians. Later it was transferred to
the site of the present city.

The loess ^ north of Council Bluffs lies above loose sand and gravel
known as the Af tonian gravels (fig. 1 ) . The outcrop of these gravels
is marked by a line of springs, for the underground water passes
through them more readily than it passes through the less porous ma-

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FLOOD PLAIN OF MISSOURI Rl\^£^

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ABOI/£ SEA L£I/EU

Figure 1.

-Sketch profile of river bluffs near Omaha, Nebr., showing the Aftonian gravels lying between
two beds of glacial till and covered with thick deposits of loess.

terial above and below. From these gravels in some parts of Iowa
have been collected the bones of mastodons, camels, and many other
animals no longer found in North America. ^ (See PL II, p. 10.)

^ Loess is a peculiar silt, claylike loam,
or fine-grained sand, wliich strongly re-
sists weathering. The name is supposed
to be derived from the German word
losen (to loosen), because of the tendency
of the^ material to split off in vertical
columns. In color loess is generally buff
or yellowish brown. It covers large areas
in North America, where its beds were
probably formed after the ice of the glacial
period had disappeared. Its mode of
origin is not certainly known. Some
beds of it consist of material lifted by the
wind from the valleys where it had been
deposited by streams. Others probably
were deposited in water along stream
courses or in temporary lakes. In places
it contauis bones and teeth of animals and
shells of snails. If properly watered it
makes good soil.

2 The animals of the Pleistocene (plice^-
toe-seen) epoch (see table on p. 2) are in-
teresting because they are nearer to us in
time than others of the past and therefore

most nearly like some animals now living;
yet those that lived in North America dur-
ing this epoch were very different from
those living here to-day. To find the de-
scendants or near relatives of the Pleisto-
cene animals of North America we must
go to other continents, for some of them
as far away as India, The North Ameri-
can animals were doubtless scattered by
the changes in climate that resulted in the
advances and retreats of the continental
ice sheet during the Great Ice Age.

The fauna, or assemblage of animals, of
early Pleistocene time was varied in cliar-
acter. The animals were adapted to the
mild climate that then prevailed and re-
mained until after the southward advance
of the ice sheet, but were driven away or
exterminated before the close of the ice
age, and their place was taken by animals
such as are now found only in the frozen
areas of the North. When the ice melted
away and a climate as mild as that of
the present day was established, these

THE OVERLAND ROUTE COUNCIL BLUFFS TO OGDEN.

The Aftonian gravels separate two glacial deposits known as till,
consisting of sandy clay in which are fragments of rock ranging from
grains of sand to bowlders 2 feet or more in diameter. These frag-
ments are of limestone, sandstone, quartz, and other rocks, but the
largest and most conspicuous are of quartzite and granite, including

arctic species followed the retreating ice
front northward, and their place was
taken by animals adapted to life in a
temperate climate.

One of the effects of the climatic
changes and the resnlting migration of
animals was a radical change of fauna.
Could one of the Pleistocene men return
and view the present-day animals they
would seem as strange to him as those of
an African jungle are to an inhabitant of
the Great Plains. Prof. W. B. Scott, in
his history of land mammals, says of
the Pleistocene fauna:

"It is probable that the Pleistocene fos-
sils already obtained give us a fairly ade-
quate conception of the larger and more
conspicuous mammals of the time but no
doubt represent very incompletely the
small and fragile forms. With all its gaps,
however, the record is very impressive.
* * * The fossils have been gathered
over a very large area, extending from
ocean to ocean and from Alaska to Central
America. Thus their wide geographical
range represents nearly all parts of the
continent and gives us information con-
cerning the mammals of the forests as well
as of the plains.

"Those divisions of the early and mid-
dle Pleistocene which enjoyed milder
climatic conditions had an assemblage of
mammals, which from one point of view
seems very modern, for most of the genera
and even many of the species which now
inhabit North America date back to that
time . From the geographical standpoint,
however, this is a very strange fauna, for
it contains so many animals now utterly
foreign to North America, to find near rela-
tives of which we should have to go to
Asia or South America. Some of these
animals which now seem so exotic, such
as the llamas, camels, and horses, were yet
truly indigenous and were derived from a
long line of ancestors which dwelt in this
continent but are now scattered abroad

and are extinct in their original home,
while others were migrants that for some
unknown reason failed to maintain them-
selves. Others again are everywhere ex-
tinct.

"Most surprising, perhaps, in a North
American landscape is the presence of the
Proboscidea, of which two very distinct
kinds, the mastodons and the true ele-
phants, are found together. Over nearly
the whole of the United States and south-
ern Canada, and even with sporadic occur-
rence in Alaska, ranged the American
mastodon (Mastodon americanus), which
was rare in the plains but very abundant
in the forested regions, where it persisted
till a very late period and was probably
known to the early Indians. This ani-
mal, while nearly related to the true ele-
phants, was yet quite different from them
in appearance. * * ^ The tusks were
elephant-like, except that in the male
there was a single small tusk in the lower
jaw, which can not have been visible ex-
ternally; this is a remnant of an earlier
stage of development, when there were
two large tusks in the lower as well as the
upper jaw. The creature was covered
with long, coarse dun-colored hair; such
hair has been found with some of the
skeletons.

"Of true elephants, the North Ameri-
can Pleistocene had three species. Most
interesting of these is the northern or
Siberian mammoth (Elephas primigenius) ,
a late immigrant from northern Asia,
which came in by way of Alaska, where
Bering Land (as we may call the raised
bed of Bering Sea) connected it mth Asia.
The mammoth was abundant in Alaska,
British Columbia, and all across the
northern United States to the Atlantic
coast. Hardly any fossil mammal is so
well known as this, for the carcasses en-
tombed in the frozen gravels of northern
Siberia have preserved every detail of
structure. It is thus definitely known

10

GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTEKK UNITED STATES.

blocks of a pink rock known as Sicux quartzile, because the rock
mass from which they came is exposed near Sioux Falls, S. Dak.
Many of the granite bowlders were carried by the glaciers hundreds
of miles, for the nearest native rock of this kind occurs far to the
north. (For description of glacial deposits see note on pp. 21-23.)

that the mammoth was well adapted to a
cold climate and was covered with a dense
coat of wool beneath an outer coating of
long, coarse hair, while the contents of the
stomach and the partly masticated food
found in the mouth showed that the ani-
mal fed upon the same vegetation that oc-
curs in northern Siberia to-day. ^ * *
This is the smallest of the three Pleisto-
cene species — 9 feet [high] at the shoul-
der. The mammoth was not peculiar to
Siberia and North America, but extended
also into Europe, where it was familiar to
paleolithic man, as is attested by the
spirited and lifelike carvings and cave
paintings of that date. Thus, during
some part of the Pleistocene, this species
ranged aroimd the entire northern hemi-
sphere."

Two notable contemporaries of the
mammoth were the Columbian elephant,
Elephas colnmhi[P]. II, B], which attained
a height of about 11 feet, the size of the
largest African elephants, and the impe-
rial elephant, Elcphas imperator, the larg-
est of the American forms, which attained
a heiglit of 13 feet 6 inches.

"This great creature [the imperial ele-
phant] was characterized not only by its
enormous stature but also by the propor-
tionately very large size of its grinding
teeth and was a sur\dvor from the preced-
ing Pliocene epoch; it is not known to
have passed beyond the middle Pleisto-
cene and was thus the first of the species
to become extinct. In geographical
range the imperial elephant was a western
form, extending from the Pacific coast
almost to the Mississippi River, east of
which it has never been found, and from
Nebraska southward to the City of Mexico.
The meaning of this distribution is prob-
ably that this elephant shunned the
forests and was especially adapted to a
life on the open plains. * * *

"Many hoofed animals, far more than
now inhabit North America, are found

in this Pleistocene fauna. The Perisso-
dactyla were represented by horses and
tapirs, but not by rhinoceroses; it might
seem superfluous to say that there were
not rhinoceroses, but, as a matter of fact,
that family had a long and varied Ameri-
can history and became extinct only
during or at the end of the Pliocene epoch.
The horses were extremely numerous,
both individually and specifically, and
ranged, apparently in great herds, all over
Mexico and the United States and even
into Alaska. All the known species (at
least 10 in number) belong to the genus
Equiis, but the true horse {Equus cahallus)
to which all the domestic breeds are re-
ferred, is not represented. The smallest
known member of the genus is the pygmy
Equus tan, of Mexico. [These ranged in
size from ponies as large as a Shetland to
horses that exceeded in size the heaviest
modern draft horses.] * * * The Great
Plains must have been fairly covered with
enormous herds of horses, the countless
bones and teeth of which, entombed in
the Sheridan formation, have given to it
the name of 'Equus beds.' * * *

' ' To one who knows nothing of the geo-
logical history of North America it would
be natural to suppose that the Pleistocene
horses must have been immigrants from
the Old World which failed to establish
themselves permanently here, since they
completely disappeared before the dis-
covery of the continent by Europeans.
This would, however, be a mistaken infer-
ence, for North America was for long ages
the chief area of development of the
equine family, which may here be traced
in almost unbroken continuity from the
lower Eocene to the Pliocene: On the
other hand, it is quite possible that some
of the species were immigrants."

Tapirs, which are now confined to
southern Asia, Central America, and South
America, were abundant east of th e Missis-
sippi but are not known west of that river

U. 6. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY

BULLETIN 612 PLATE II

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^

is.

ANIMALS THAT LIVED IN CENTRAL NORTH AMERICA DURING PLIO-
CENE AND PLEISTOCENE TIME.

A, SABER-TOOTHED TIGER AND GIANT WOLVES ON THE CARCASS OF A PLEISTOCENE ELE-
PHANT; B, PLEISTOCENE ELEPHANTS (ELEPHAS COLUMBI), MUCH LARGER THAN THE
MODERN ELEPHANTS; 6', GLYPTODONTS, PLEISTOCENE ARMADILLO-LIKE ANIMALS (SOUTH
AMERICAN FORMS); 1), PLEISTOCENE MUSK OX, AN ANIMAL AS BIG AS A SMALL COW;
E, PLIOCENE HORNED GOPHERS, ANIMALS ABOUT THE SIZE OF WOODCHUCKS.
After Scott. Published by permission of The Macmillan Co.

U. S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY

BULLETIN 612 PLATE III

9

i

%'

»" ^-■■^

yl. FIFTY YEARS AGO.

D. SUPPORTING HERDS OF DOMESTIC CATTLE.

THE PLAINS OF NEBRASKA.

Photographs furnished by Union Pacific Railroad Co,

THE OVEELAND ROUTE COUNCIL BLUFFS TO OGDEN.

11

On leaving Council Bluffs the train gradually rises on a filled
incline, about 2 miles long, to the bridge, which is about 60 feet

above the ordinary water level of Missouri River.
Missouri River. From this incline a good view may be obtained of

the broad flood plain over which the river winds in a
constantly changing course and upon which at times of flood it
deposits the rich loam gathered from the vast areas it drains. The
productive fields that present so pleasing an aspect during the grow-
ing season and give the appearance of opulence at harvest time are
the direct result of this constant activity of the river. But neither
these fields nor anything else on the bottom lands can be regarded
as permanent, for the great river is continually eating away the plain
in some places and building it up in others. This action causes the
stream to assume a winding course — that is, to meander in loops and
bends that are called oxbows. In this process of shifting its course,
when these bends become very sharp the river tends to straighten
itself by cutting across the narrow necks, and it thus abandons parts

Wild hogs, camels, and llamas were abun-
dant. The hoofed animals, such as deer
and bison, were numerous, and also the
carnivores or flesh eaters. Conspicuous
among these were the saber-toothed tigers
(see PI. II, ^), which were contemporane-
ous ^nth primitive man and doubtless
were his formidable enemies. They have
appealed so strongly to the imagination
and have been referred to so often in
literature that they are among the best
known of the extinct animals.

The Pleistocene fauna was not without
its grotesque features. Among the most
curious animals of the time may be men-
tioned the ground sloths and the giant
armadillos (PI. II, C), of which Prof. Scott
says:

"The ground sloths were great, un-
wieldy herbivorous animals covered with
long hair, and in one family there was a
elose-set armor of pebble-like ossicles in
the skin, not visible externally. They
v\alk(;d upon the outer edges of the feet,
somewhat as the ant bear uses his fore
paws, and must have been very slow
moving creatures. Their enormous claws
may have served partly as weapons of
defense and were doubtless used also to
drag down branches of trees and to dig
roots and tubers. Apparently, the latest
of these curious animals to survive was
the very large Megalonyx, which it ia

interesting to note was first discovered
and named by Thomas Jefferson. The
animals of this genus were very abundant
in the forests east of the Mississippi River
and on the Pacific coast, but much less
common in the plains region, where they
would seem to have been confined to the
wooded river valleys. The still more
gigantic Megatherium, which had a body
as large as that of an elephant and
much shorter though more massive legs,
was a southern animal and has not been
found above South Carolina. Mylodon,
smaller and lighter than the preceding
genera, would seem to have entered the
continent earlier and to have become
extinct sooner. It ranged across the con-
tinent but was much commoner in the
plains region and less so in the forested
areas than Megalonyx, being no doubt
better adapted to subsisting u])on the
vegetation of the plains and less depend-
ent upon trees for food.

"The glyptodonts [armadillos, see
PI. II, C] were undoubtedly present in
the North American Pleistocene, but the
remnants which have been collected so
far arc very fragmentary and quite insuf-
ficient to give us a definite conception of
the number and variety of them." They
were abundant, however, in the South
American Pleistocene and heuce are well
known.

12

GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES.

of its former channel, which become bayous, or oxbow lakes. Cutoff
Lake, which can be seen to the right,^ 3 miles north of the bridge, is
one of these abandoned oxbows. At the time the river was agreed
upon as the boundary between Iowa and Nebraska Cutoff Lake was
a part of its channel, but in 1870 it straightened its course, so that
the land partly inclosed by Cutoff Lake, although a part of Iowa, now
lies west of the river and is almost surrounded by territory belonging
to the State of Nebraska. This shifting of the river's course can be
prevented to some extent by building levees, or embankments.
North of Council Bluffs an embankment has been thrown up and faced
with a hard quartz rock (Sioux quartzite) which was shipped for this
purpose from Sioux Falls, vS. Dak., 160 miles away. The necessity
for this protection is obvious, for some of the lowland near Council
Bluffs lies below river level.

The building of the bridge ^ was regarded as a notable feat of engi-
neering, and its present importance is indicated by the fact that the
traffic of seven railroads passes over it. It spans one of the longest
rivers in the world, the Missouri and Mississippi combined, 3,820
miles long. The bridge crosses this great river 669 miles above the
junction with the Mississippi, and the drainage from 323,000 square
miles, including large parts of Montana, North Dakota, and South
Dakota, passes under it. The water surface has a known range of level
of 25 feet at this point: the lowest water recorded was in 1867, and the
highest in 1881. The discharge at Omaha averages about 50,000
second-feet; that is to say, on the average, 50,000 cubic feet (374,000
gallons) of water passes under the bridge every second.

^ The terms right and left as eniployed
throughout this book apply to the west-
bound joiirney.

2 The first bridge built at Council Bluffs
was begun by the railroad company in
1869 and completed in 1872 at a cost of
$1,750,000. It carried a single track, con-
sisted of 11 spans, each 250 feet long, and
was about 60 feet above ordinary flood
level, or 50 feet above the highest re-
corded level. This height served two
useful purposes — it brought the track to
the level of the bluffs west of the river
and allowed boats which were formerly
used on the river to pass under it, thus
obviating the necessity of a drawbridge.
The two eastern spans of this bridge were
wrecked by a tornado in 1877, but the
bridge was used with temporary repairs
until 1886, when it was replaced by the
present double-track structure.

The river here during low water is
about 900 feet -vvide. The bridge over the
main channel rests on five piers, 250 feet
apart, that extend to bedrock at a maxi-
mum depth of 76 feet below the level of
the flood plain. These were built midway
between those of the old bridge. (See
diagram on sheet 1, p. 18.) They carry
the four main spans, and on each end
are three additional deck spans, mak-
ing the total length of the bridge 1,750
feet. Although the records give no inti-
mation of the kind of rock on which the
piers rest, it is supposed to consist of
limestone and sandstone of Carboniferous
(Pennsylvanian) age, which are known
from well borings to underlie the glacial
drift in the vicinity of Omaha. These
rocks are exposed in the river bluffs near
South Omaha but can not be seen from
the train.

THE OVERLAND ROUTE COUNCIL BLUFFS TO OGDEN. 13

Although designed to accommodate foot passengers and wagons,
the bridge has never been so used. Local traffic passes over the
bridge of the Omaha & Council Bluffs Street Railway Co., half a
mile farther north, and beyond this is a drawbridge of the Omaha
Bridge & Terminal Co., over which pass the trains of the Illinois
Central Railroad.

The Missouri is the muddiest river in the Mississippi Valley; it
carries more silt than any other large river in the United States
except possibly the Rio Grande and the Colorado. For every square
mile of country drained it carries downstream 381 tons of dissolved
and suspended matter each year. In other words, the river gathers
annually from the country that it drains more than 123,000,000 tons
of silt and soluble matter, some of which it distributes over the flood
plains below to form productive agricultural lands but most of which
finds its way at last to the Gulf of Mexico.

It is by means of data of this kind that geologists compute the
rate at which the lands are being eroded away. It has been shown
that Missouri River is lowering the surface of the land drained by
it at the rate of 1 foot in 6,036 years. The surface of the United
States as a whole is now being worn down at the rate of 1 foot in
9,120 years. It has been estimated that if this erosive action of
the streams of the United States could have been concentrated on
the Isthmus of Panama it would have dug in 73 days the canal
which has just been completed, after 10 years' work, with the most
powerful appliances yet devised by man.

Nebraska lies mainly in the Great Plains province of the western
United States, in altitudes ranging from 842 to 4,849 feet above
sea level, and is drained to the Missouri through the
Nebraska. Niobrara, the Platte, and many minor streams. The

annual rainfall in the State ranges from 13.30 to
31.65 inches and averages 23.84 inches. Dry farming is general and
large crops of corn, wheat, and oats are raised. Nebraska claims
a greater variety of native grasses than any other State in the Union,
their immber amounting to more than 200, of which 150 are valu-
able for forage. In the western part of the State some irrigation is
practiced.

Nebraska is primarily an agricultural State and has been called
"a. State without a mine," but it does contribute to the country's
mineral production by some utilization of its clay resources, by a
considerable output of sand, gravel, and building stone, and by a
practical monopoly of the country's production of volcanic ash, or
pumice. The packing industry is large.

The State includes 77,520 square miles and in 1910 had a popula-
tion of 1,192,214.

14

GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES.

Omaha, Nebr.

Elevation, 1,024 feet
Population, 124,096.

The name Omaha is derived from that of a tribe of Indians that
once inhabited this region. The first white settlement was made in
1854, but not until railroad construction began, about
10 years later, did it become a town of importance.
Here ground was broken December 1, 1863, for the
construction of the road, although little real construc-
tion work was done before the spring of 1865; here the first trans-
continental train started for San Francisco on September 13, 1870;
here occurred on November 1, 1897, 'Hhe world's greatest auction,"
when the Union Pacific, which had cost $115,214,587.79 to construct,
was sold for $57,564,932.76; and here are situated the offices, shops,
and general terminal facilities of the Union Pacific system.

The station at Omaha is built in a depression eroded in loess (see
p. 8), and good exposures of this peculiar material may be seen on the
left as the train leaves the station. Thence westward to Elkhorn it
lies on either side of the track, through the entire length of the Lane

cut-off, which

L OP ROAD BED

Wm&SMm,

Figure 2.— Sketch profile showing relation of loess to imderlying beds of clay and
glacial till in railroad cuts west of Omaha, Nebr.

is one of the
notable entji-
neering fea-
tures on the
Union Pacific

route. Prior to 1908 the trains passed through South Omaha and
thence up Papillion Creek to Elkhorn. To avoid this circuitous route
a line was built nearly due west from Omaha, cutting to a maximum
depth of 85 feet straight through the numerous hills and building
across the broad valleys, making, at a cost of $3,000,000, a level road-
bed nearly 12 miles long, which shortened the line by about 9 miles. ^
The city of Omaha is built on loess, and wherever grading has been
done or excavations have been made the characteristic steep walls of
this material may be seen. The loess is fine grained, massive, and
compact and carries numerous small light-colored limy concretions.

^ The figures given for population
throughout this book are those of the
United States Census for 1910. For unin-
corporated places the census figures give
the population of the election precinct,
township, or other similar unit; such fig-
ures are marked with an asterisk (*).

^ The material visible in these cuts is
mainly loess and clay. In some places
the glacial till under the clay is exposed,
but the two can not be distinguished from
the train. In nearly all the cuts, however,
the division between the loess and the
clay is readily discernible. The upper

part of the bank in each cut consists of
buff-colored loess 30 to 50 feet thick and
is rather sharply separated from the lower
part, which consists of brick-red clay. A
somewhat singular relation may be ob-
served in these cuts. The red material is
exposed only in the center of each cut, and
its surface in cross section has practically
the same outline as the surface at the top.
(See fig. 2.) The overlying loess is of
nearly the same thickness in all places, as
if it were a uniform blanket spread over an
older surface that had the same shape as
the present surface.

THE OVERLAND EOUTE COUNCIL BLUFFS TO OGDEN.

15

Neerly vertical walls of it have stood practically unchanged for 30
years, and other equally precipitous walls have the appearance of
being much older.

The blanket of glacial debris and loess (see fig. 2) overlies limestone
and sandstone of Carboniferous age,^ which have been penetrated by

^ The only Paleozoic rocks which come
to the surface in eastern Nebraska belong
to the Carboniferous system, deposited at
a time when most of the coal beds in the
eastern part of the United States were in
process of formation from vegetal deposits.
(For types of Carboniferous vegetation see

PI. IV, C, p. 20.) They are economically
the most important rocks in the State.
Most of the building stone, clay, and
lime produced in Nebraska come from
them. Their relations to other rock for-
mations exposed in eastern Nebraska are
shown in the following table:

Geologic column showing relations of rocks exposed in eastern Nebraska.

Age.

Formation.

Character.

Loess.

•

Kansan drift.

Glacial till.

Quaternary.

Aftonian gravels.

Sand and gravel; locally conglomerate.

Pre-Kansan or Nebras-
kan drift.

Glacial till.

Tertiary.

Sand and clay.

Niobrara limestone.

Chalkv limestone and shale.

Benton shale.

Blue shale with limestone concretions.
(Carlile shale.)

Cretaceous.

Hard slaty limestone and blue chalky
clay. (Greenhorn limestone.)

Dark sandy shale. (Graneros shale.)

Dakota sandstone.

Soft massive yellow sandstone.

Carboniferous.

Limestone, sandstone, and shale of Per-
mian and Pennsylvanian age.

In eastern Nebraska the Carboniferous
beds that appear at the surface comprise
200 feet of Permian and 1,200 feet of Penn-
sylvanian rocks. The lowest series of the
Carboniferous, the Mississippian, does not
outcrop here. The Pennsylvanian rocks
consist of alternating limestones and
ghales. The rock formations below the

Pennsylvanian in eastern Nebraska are
of interest because they include certain
strata that supply water to artesian wells.
Several of these wells drilled in and near
Omaha found water at depths of 1,200 to
1,800 feet under pressure sufficient to flow
at the surface. The lowest stratum yields
the strongest flow.

16

GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES.

numerous wells bored for artesian water, but which can not be seen
from the train. The Carboniferous period was so named because in
many parts of the world its rocks contain an abundance of carbon in
the form of coal. In the central and eastern parts of the United
States much coal is interlayered with rocks of this age, but only one
coal bed has been found in the Carboniferous rocks of Nebraska, and
that one is not of much economic value under present conditions.
Attempts to mine it have not proved successful.

Elkhorn is the first station west of the Lane cut-off and is located
on one of the branches of Papillion Creek. East of
this station the railroad crosses the eastern margin of
the widespread Dakota sandstone, but the rock is so
completely covered by glacial drift and loess that in
no place can it be seen from the train and, indeed,
its exact position is not known.

Elkhorn.

Elevation 1,164 feet.
Population 291.
Omaha 28 miles.

Horizontal scale

lOOMlL^S

Waterloo.

Elevation 1,124 feet,
Population 402.
Omaha 31 miles.

Figure 3.— Cross section of the rock formations from the Rocky Moimtains to Omaha, Nebr., showing how
some of the older rocks that crop out near Omaha extend westward underneath the younger formations
and crop out again in the moimtains, where all the stratified rocks have been upturned and eroded.
(After N. H. Darton.)

At Waterloo the railroad crosses Elkhorn River, which, unlike most
other streams, does not here flow in a valley of its own
making but for 25 miles or more meanders over the
bottom lands of the Platte.

Between Elkhorn and Waterloo great differences
are noticeable both in the character of the surface and
in the soil. To the east the surface is diversified by low rolling hills
and broad shallow valleys completely mantled with loess. The loess
forms a fairly good soil, but its inferiority to the dark-colored loam
of the bottom lands is obvious to the most casual observer of the
vegetation. West of the hills, in Platte Valley, the surface is flat and
unbroken and the soil is more productive. (See PI. Ill, p. 11.)
Valley is the center of an agricultural district in the rich bottom
lands of Platte Valley. Large quantities of garden
seeds are grown here. About 3 miles west of Val-
ley the traveler will obtain his first good view of
Platte River. The railroad follows this river as far
upstream as Julesburg, in northeastern Colorado, a
distance of about 350 miles.

Valley.

Elevation 1,139 feet
Population 810.
Omaha 35 mUes.

THE OVERLAND ROUTE COUNCIL BLUFFS TO OGDEX

17

Fremont.

Elevation 1,196 feet
Population 8,718.
Omaha 46 miles.

Although Fremont, the seat of Dodge County, is on the flood plain
of Platte Valley, where few exposures of rock can be seen, it stands
near the contact of the Dakota sandstone and the
overlying Benton shale, a fact determined by obser-
vations made both north and south of the valley.
The sandstone ^ may be seen in the bluffs at the south
end of the wagon bridge south of the city, but the
shale is not exposed. These bluffs consist mainly of glacial till man-
tled by loess.

Fremont is on the main line of the old trail from Missouri River to
California and Oregon, which before the Union Pacific was built was
known as the Overland Trail.^ In front of the station stands a rough-

^ The rocks in eastern Nebraska referred
to the Dakota or basal sandstone of the
Upper Cretaceous series are about 300 feet
thick and consist of sand with clay and
local beds of conglomerate. The sand-
stone was named for Dakota City, S. Dak.,
where collections were made of fossil
plants that were described by Profs. Heer
and Lesquereux and later became known
as the characteristic Dakota flora, for
many years the oldest deciduous-leaved
flora known in North America . This flora
comprises large and well-preserved leaves
of poplars, willows, oaks, alders, birches,
beeches, sycamores, persimmons, tulip
trees, magnolias, and sassafras and shows
that many of the familiar and still domi-
nant types of plants had already been
firmly established at this remote time.
However, none of the particular species
of Dakota plants here discovered are
known to have survived in this region
beyond the close of the Dakota epoch.

The Dakota is exposed in places in
the bluffs of Platte River from Fremont
to Plattsmouth. It is one of the greatest
water-bearing formations in America. It
rises gently toward the west, although
covered by younger rocks, and crops out
again in the foothills of the Rocky Moun-
tains (see fig. 3), where the surface waters
enter it. These waters slowly percolate
through its sands for about 450 miles to
supply the numerous wells in the Platte
Valley and elsewhere. The Dakota sand-
stone extends 400 miles or more north of
the Union Pacific Railroad and an equal
distance to the south and underlies the
38088°— Bull. 612—16 2

surface of the country from the Rocky
Mountains eastward to a maximum dis-
tance of 1,000 miles or more. It furnishes
excellent water to the citizens of 11
States.

^ Although four transcontinental rail-
road routes were surveyed by the Govern-
ment, the results being published in 11
large volumes, the first line built, the
Union Pacific, was explored and located
by private enterprise. The Overland
Trail seemed to offer the best advantages
for railroad construction, inasmuch as it
utiUzed the most feasible passage over the
mountains. Gen. Grenville M. Dodge,
the chief engineer of the Union Pacific
during the period of construction, says of
it: "This route was made by the buffalo,
next used by the Indians, then by the fur
traders, next by the Mormons, and then
by the overland immigrants to California
and Oregon. It was known as the great
Platte Valley route. On this trail, or
close to it, were built the Union and Cen-
tral Pacific railroads to California and the
Oregon Short Line branch of the Union
Pacific to Oregon." Its history as a defi-
nite route seems to have begun in 1804,
when Lewis and Clark visited and de-
scribed the locality that became its east-
ern terminus. A fur-trading company
sent out by John Jacob Astor in 1810,
which founded Astoria, Oreg., at the
mouth of Columbia River, the following
year, returned by a route which had never
before been traversed, but which corre-
sponded essentially with that later known
as the Oregon Trail. Astor had planned

18

GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES.

hewn monument of red granite with the inscription: ''This boulder
marks the overland emigrant trails through Fremont to Oregon, Cali-
fornia, Utah, and Colorado. Erected September 23, 1912, by Lewis-
Clark Chapter, Daughters of the American Revolution." Similar
monuments have been placed at many other railroad stations on the
line of the old trail.

From Ames may be seen a gap in the line of bluffs south of Platte
River that marks the course of an old valley occupied by the river
at an early stage of its development, when its bed
was about 100 feet higher than at present. The river
then flowed southeastward past Wahoo and thence
eastward to the valley which it now occupies south
This old channel is 5 or 6 miles wide and consists of
a valley floor covered with loam and sand like the floor of the present
vaUey. Also like the present valley it is bordered along most of its
course by steep banks of loess.

Ames.

Elevation 1,230 feet
Omaha 53 miles.

of Waterloo.

a line of trading posts extending from the
Great Lakes to the Pacific, the Sandwich
Islands, and China, but the War of 1812
put a stop to this scheme. About 1824
William H. Ashley and Etienne Provost,
of the Bocky Mountain Fur Trading Co.,
discovered South Pass, which made per-
manent the mountain-crossing route of
the Oregon Trail and later attracted the
Union Pacific locating parties. Gen.
Dodge says further:

"In 1843 the pathfinder, Gen. John C.
Fremont, began to spy out the military
ways across the West, and the same year
the Oregon pioneers took the first wagons
westward to the Pacific. The trail that
began with the journey of these early
pioneers was widened and deepened by
the wheels of the Mormons in 1847, and
when the herald of the first California
Golden Age sent forth a trumpet call in
1849, heard around the world, the trail was
finished from Great Salt Lake across the
mountains to the sea.

"That era had its great men, for great
men make eras. Ben Ilolladay, William
N. Kussell, and Edward Creighton gave
to the trail the overland stage line, the
pony express, and the telegraph.

"Dating the beginning of transconti-
nental wagon travel from the days of forty-
nine, it was 20 years before the railroad
reached California. The period was one

of great out of door men and women — the
last of American pioneers. When the
old trail was in full tide of life it was filled
with gold seekers from the Missouri to the
Pacific; 100,000 travelers passed over it
yearly. Towns stirring and turbulent,
some now gone from the map and some
grown to be cities, flourished as the green
bay tree. Omaha, Salt Lake, San Fran-
cisco and such lesser places as Julesburg,
Cheyenne, Laramie, Carson, Elko, and
Virginia City were picturesquely lively.

' ' The traffic of the old trail was of long
wagon trains of immigrants; the great out-
fits laden with freight for the mines; of
Holladay's coaches, six teams in full gal-
lop; of the first riders of the pony express-
and of all other manner of mo\dng men
and beasts. The protesting savages have
no place upon it but, perceiving in it an
instrument to alienate their domain,
burned its wagon trains and destroyed its
stages as opportunity offered. At times
great herds of buffalo obliterated great
sections of the trail, yet it held its own
until the golden spike was driven and
passed away as a wagon road only when
the need for it had passed. But the rail-
road Unes that took up the burden of
stage coach and pony express and ox team
have marked the way of the trail upon the
map of the West so that it shall endure as
long as the West endures."

BULLETIN 612

SHEET No.

GEOLOGIC AND TOPOGRAPHIC MAP

OF THE

OVERLAND ROUTE

From Omaha, Nebraska, to San Francisco, California

Base compiled from United States Geological Survey Atlas Sheets,
from railroad alignments and proftles supplied by the Union Paeiflc
Railroad Company and the Southern Paeiflc Company and from addi-
tional information collected with the assistance of these companies

UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY

GEORGE OTIS SMITH, DIRECTOR
David White, Chief Geologist R. B. Marshall, Chief Geographer

1915

Each quadrangle shown on the map with a name in parenthesis in the
lower left comer is mapped in detail on the U. S. G. S. Topographic
sheet of that name.

THE OVERLAND ROUTE COUNCIL BLUFFS TO OGDEN.

19

North Bend.

Elevation 1,274 feet.
Population 1,105.
Omaha 61 miles.

The town of North Bend (see sheet 2, p. 22) takes its name from
the northward bend of Platte River at this point, west of which the
railroad follows the river in a southwesterly direction
for a long distance. South of the river, opposite North
Bend, the bluffs are conspicuous, especially west of
Morse Bluff, and consist of loess and glacial drift
overlying shale of Benton (Cretaceous) age.^ This
shale was formed as a mud deposit at a time when Nebraska was at
the bottom of a sea. It contains many fossil shells of extinct species
of marine mollusks, such as oysters (see PI. IV, A, B, p. 20), clams,
and snails, as well as many fossils of types not represented by living
forms, such as ammonites and scaphites. It underlies the superficial
glacial deposits between Fremont and a point a few miles west of
Schuyler.

In the vicinity of Schuyler^ the seat of Colfax County, little other
than the cultivated fields on the alluvial plain can be seen from the
train. The Dakota sandstone, which here lies a little
below the surface (see fig. 3, p. 16), is of economic
importance because of the artesian water it contains,
and this water is held in confinement by the overlying
shale. About 6 miles west of the town, between
Lambert and RiahJand, the traveler passes from the Benton shale to
the Niobrara limestone,^ although he would not suspect the change
from anything he can see.

The westbound traveler is here passing directly toward the center
of the ancient sea in which the sedimentary rocks of Cretaceous age
were formed. He has crossed in the order of their deposition or age
two formations of the Upper Cretaceous series — the Dakota sandstone
and the Benton shale — and now enters upon the third, the Niobrara,

Schuyler.

Elevation 1,348 feet
Population 2,152.
Omaha 75 miles.

^ The Benton shale lies conformably on
the Dakota sandstone, that is, the beds
of the Dakota were not affected by erosion
before those of the Benton were laid down
upon them. In Nebraska and some other
areas a thin limestone (Greenhorn) near the
middle of the Benton separates a lower
shale (Graneros) from an upper shale
(Carlile). The lowest beds crop out near
Fremont, where the Dakota passes under-
neath it not to reappear at the surface
again toward the west for a distance of
about 450 miles. It is a marine shale
representing the first deposits formed
after the sea invaded the interior of North
America in the Upper Cretaceous epoch.

2 The Niobrara limestone, so named be-
cause of its good exposures on Niobrara

River in northeastern Nebraska, appears
to extend across the eastern part of the
State in a broad band under Tertiary and
later deposits. It is exposed for 125 miles
along the valley of Republican River, but
to the north is seen only in Loup Valley
near Genoa until Missouri and Niobrara
rivers are reached, in Holt, Knox, Cedar,
and Dixon counties, where it can be seen
in large exposures. The material is mainly
a soft limestone, chalk rock, or limy clay,
presenting considerable variation in com-
position from place to place. The geologic
age of this formation is shown in the table
presented on p. 15. It is the youngest
Cretaceous formation that is exposed near
the Union Pacific Railroad in eastern
Nebraska.

20 GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES.

which differs from the others in that it contains chalk similar to that
of the well-known chalk cliffs of England. Some of the deep wells
of this region encounter salt water in the shale and chalk rock. This
is excluded from the wells by the casing, so that it does not mingle
with the fresh water from the underlying Dakota sandstone. Other
evidence of the former presence here of sea water are fossil shells of
oysters and other animals that live in salt water and the bones of
sea monsters such as Mosasaurus. (See PL V, B, and map on stub
of sheet 2, p. 22.)

A comparison of these ancient conditions with those of the present
day indicates the slow, continuous change that is now and always
has been in progress. Where the tourist now travels comfortably
over a dry plain, these monsters sported in the water of the sea long
ages ago. On the shores of this ancient sea lived equally strange
beasts and birds of types that have long been extinct, and over its
water sailed great flying dragons — the pterodactyls. The animals
of that day were strikingly different from those of the present. The
birds, unlike any now living, had jaws armed with teeth. The
monarchs of the air then were not birds but flying reptiles, whose
fore limbs had been modified into wings by the enormous elongation
of fingers between which stretched thin membranes like the wings
of a bat. (See PL V, C.) These flying dragons, some of which had
a stretch of wing of 18 feet, were carnivorous; they were animated
engines of destruction that somewhat forcibly suggest the modern
war airplanes, of which they were in a sense the prototypes.

Columbus, the seat of Platte County, stands in the center of a
fertile agricultural district. In 1864 it was a frontier town consisting
of a few scattered shacks; but, with total disregard for
Columbus. things as they are and with true western confidence

Elevation 1,444 feet, in things as they should be, George Francis Train, one
omahrgi^miies. ^f its citizcus, then announced that Columbus was the

geographic center of the United States and therefore
the proper place for the national capital. Half a century has
elapsed, however, and the seat of government is still at Washington.

Columbus is on Loup River, or Loup Fork, as it is usually called,
near its junction with the Platte. The Loup is a stream of consid-
erable volume and nearly constant flow, draining 13,540 square miles
of the sand-hill region of northwestern Nebraska. West of the mouth
of the Loup the Platte usually consists of small irregular streams
among the sand bars, forming a lacework of small channels, whose
pattern changes with every flood. Although the Platte is normally
a large river, draining 56,900 square miles and having a maximum
discharge near Columbus of 51,000 cubic feet a second, there is little
or no water in it above the Loup during the dry season, the water
being diverted for irrigation farther upstream.

U. S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY

BULLETIN 612 PLATE IV

1^^*

iC^-r . ■•' 1

J iiiJMi-ii^iirJ'"^ ^V„ ^^.^^

A. n.

MARINE FOSSILS OF CRETACEOUS AGE.
A, Oysters (Ostrea congesta); B, Inoceramus labiatus.

C. CARBONIFEROUS FOREST.
From vegetation of this sort the great deposits of coal v^^ere formed.

U. S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY

ULLETIN 612 PLATE V

A. SKELETON OF THE HEAD OF HESPERORNIS.
A large diving bird having teeth, which were probably used in catching and holding fish on which it fed.

B. RESTORATION OF A MOSASAUR (TYLOSAURUS).
A sea monster about 30 feet long. (After Hutchinson.)

C. RESTORATION OF A PTERODACTYL (ORNITHOSTOMA).
A flying dragon nneasuring 1 8 feet fronn tip to tip of wings. (After Lucas.)

ANIMALS THAT LIVED IN CENTRAL NORTH AMERICA IN CRETACEOUS

TIME,

THE OVERLAND ROUTE COUNCIL BLUFFS TO OGDEN.

21

Her« and elsewhere in central and eastern Nebraska large quantities
of grain are raised. Much of it, especially the corn, is fed to live
stock. Animals raised on the western ranges are shipped here for
fattening before they are sent to the market.

In the river bluffs along Platte Valley southeast of Columbus are
the westernmost deposits made by the continental glaciers. East of
a north-south line passing a little east of Columbus the superficial
deposits consist of loess and of glacial till containing bowlders and
fragments of rock brought from the north by the glaciers during one
of their first southward advances in the Great Ice Age, some features
of which are described below by W. C. Alden.^ These deposits make
relatively high rolUng plains. West of this line the surface of the

^ Many of the physical features of east-
ern Nebraska were produced by sheets of
ice that invaded the region during and
after the earlier stages of the Great Ice
Age. The deposit best exposed, in the
street cuts and river bluffs in and near
Omaha and along the line of the Union
Pacific to the west, is a dustlike clay or
loess. Beneath this lies the glacial drift.

Another feature is the great Missouri
River, which swings majestically back
and forth across its broad valley bottom
as it gathers in the waters of the Great
Plains on their way to the sea. In late
Tertiary time, before the advent of the
earliest continental ice sheet, Missouri
River as now known was not in existence .
The Dakotas were drained to Hudson
Bay, and northeastern Nebraska was
probably drained southeastward across
Iowa. Platte River may have joined
Grand River in Missouri. The bedrock
east and west of the present lines of bluffs
lies relatively low in the Omaha region,
so that before the coming of the glaciers
there was probably only a valley of
moderate size with low slopes instead of
bluffs.

The close of Tertiary time and the be-
ginning of Quaternary time was marked
in the northern part of the United States
by the formation and spreading of vast
sheets of ice similar to the great ice cap
that now envelops all but the marginal
parts of Greenland. From the mild and
equable climate of the Tertiary period
there was a change, not necessarily sudden
or violent — perhaps only the lowering of
the average annual temperature a few

degrees — so that a large part of the precipi-
tation came in the form of snow, which
was not all melted away in the summer.
As this snow remained from season to
season a vast amount finally accumulated
and formed great glaciers. There were
three main centers of accumulation and
dispersion of this glacial ice, one on the
Labrador Peninsula, a second west of
Hudson Bay in the district of Keewatin,
and a third in the mountains of western
Canada. (See fig. 4, p. 22.)

At the opening of the glacial epoch the
great Keewatin glacier spread southward
and covered large parts of the Dakotas,
Minnesota, and Iowa and extended thence
into eastern Nebraska, where it was
probably several hundred feet thick.
The dark-blue clay containing pebbles
and small bowlders which is exposed
near the base of the river bluffs in South
Omaha and near Florence, several miles
north of Omaha, is a part of the deposit
made by this earliest ice sheet. It is
known as pre-Kansan, sub-Aftonian, or
Nebraskan glacial till. As the front of
the great ice sheet invaded the Dakotas
and Nebraska the eastward-flowing
streams were blocked and their water was
turned southward. This water must
have formed a stream somewhere west of
Omaha.

This first stage of glaciation was brought
to a close by the melting of the ice in a
warmer interglacial time or stage — the
Aftonian. During this stage the streams
of the region swept great quantities of
sand and gravel down their valleys.
Remnants of these sand and gravel

22

GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES.

plains is less uneven and slightly lower, and the superficial deposits
consist of fragments of rock brought from the Rocky Mountains.
These differ from the glacial drift in containing rounded pebbles,
none of which bear evidence of glacial origin. They seem to have
been brought from the mountains by streams which through long
ages were engaged in leveling the Great Plains, much as Platte River
is now grading its broad bottom lands, cutting away the higher
places and building up the lower ones.

deposits, deeply weathered and in places
cemented to hard conglomerate by lime
or iron oxide, overlie the pre-Kansan
glacial till at several places in the river

The late Prof. Samuel Calvin identified
the remains of horses, camels, stags, ele-
phants, mastodons, mammoths, and sloths.
When these animals lived in western Iowa

> <:^ '"nw \N^^: c*^; •

Figure 4.— Map of North America showing the area covered by the Pleistocene ice sheet at its maximum
extension and the three main centers of ice accumulation.

bluffs. A remarkable assemblage of ani-
mals invaded the region after the ice had
disappeared, and the bones and teeth
of many of these animals have been found
in the Aftonian deposits of western Iowa.

the climate there must have been com-
paratively mild and vegetation very abun-
dant. Prof. Calvin says: "To supply
these great herbivores with food required
an abundance of veo:etation such as could

BULLETIN 612

MAP OF NORTH AMERICA, SHOWING DISTRIBUTION OF LAND

AND SEA IN UPPER CRETACEOUS (BENTON) TIME

Area not shaded Indicates land, shaded area Indicates sea

SHEET No. 2

NEBRASKA

^'''^ 500000
Approxima'f-ly 8 miles to 1 inch

b 10 ,5

lO

20 26 soKilometers

Contour interval 200 feet

ELEVATIONS IN FStT ABOVE MEAN SEA LEVEL

The disiar.ces from Omaha h'ebraska. are shown every 10 miles
The crosslies on the ri iioads are spacer! 1 mile apart

/ /

ntoo

fiha^«

■ Upper Cretacedus)

EXPLANATION

The rock formations indicated on this map can not be seen from the train.
They are covered by recent stream deposits (alluvium) or by material (loess
and till) deposited during the "e age (Pleistocene). Information about
them is derived largely from ii>;iant exposures and from well borings

.^v

97°

THE OVERLAND ROUTE COUNCIL BLUFFS TO OGDEX.

23

West of Columbus the railroad is close to Platte River, whose bed
is only a few feet below the track level. The flood plain is here 10
to 12 miles wide and is confined between bluffs 100 feet or more
in height. It thus lies about 100 feet below the level of the Great
Plains, Avhich extend far to the north and to the south. The small
towns of Duncan, Gardiner, Silver Creek, Clarks, and Thummel are
passed before the next city is reached.

Near Central City (see sheet 3, p. 26), the traveler passes from
the Niobrara limestone, of Cretaceous age, to the formations of
Tertiary age.^ (See table on p. 15.) If the younger
Cretaceous formations, the Pierre shale, Fox Hills
sandstone, and Laramie formation, were ever depos-
ited here, they were eroded away before the Tertiary
beds were laid down. The contact therefore denotes
a very long period of time during which the older sedimentary
formations were being eroded.

Central City.

Elevation 1,699 feet
Population 2,428.
Omaha 132 miles.

not be developed until some time after
the pre-Kansan ice and all its climatic
effects had disappeared from southwestern
Iowa."

The character of the shells of the fresh-
water and land moUusks found in the
Aftonian beds shows that the climate was
similar to that of the present time.

After this mild stage the Keewatin
glacier again spread southward and in-
vaded the region. The ice reached at this
stage its greatest extension in northern
Missouri and northeastern Kansas, whence
this is known as the Kansan stage of gla-
ciation. As shown on the accompany-
ing map (sheet 2) the western limit
of the glacial drift crosses Platte River
near Columbus, Nebr. The Kansan
glacial drift that was uncovered in the
cuts made in South Omaha for the Lane
cut-off is bluish-gray clay containing red-
dish and purplish bowlders of quartzite,
popularly known as ''Sioux Falls gran-
ite," brought by the glacier from the
ledges exposed near Sioux Falls, S. Dak.
This drift is not now well exposed in these
cuts, but it may be seen at a place 1^
miles west of PapilUon Creek, where it
forms the lower 10 feet of the section ex-
posed. Long exposure after the melting
of the Kansan ice has changed the original
blue-gray color of the upper part of this
drift to rusty red, dissolved out the solu-
ble calcareous ingredients for a depth of

8 feet, and caused many of the granitic
pebbles to decay.

After the melting of the Kansan glacier
the continental ice sheets did not again
reach as far as the line of the Union
Pacific Railroad. At the last or Wiscon-
sin stage one lobe of the Keewatin glacier
invaded north-central Iowa, extending to
Des ^loines, nearly as far south as the
latitude of Omaha, and another lobe
covered the northern and eastern parts
of the Dakotas southward to a point about
90 miles north of Omaha, but Nebraska
was not again invaded .

An interesting deposit overhang the gla-
cial drift is exposed about 7h miles north
of Omaha and at several places farther
west. It consists of volcanic ash which
must have accumulated after the melting
of the Kansan glacier, at a time when the
air was filled with volcanic dust from
eruptions, possibly those of the Quater-
nary volcanoes of northeastern New
Mexico.

^ In marked contrast with the Cre-
taceous formations, which were laid
down in shallow marine water and
which are regular in thickness and
character over vast areas, the Tertiary
deposits of this region are irregular in
thickness and character, are nonmarine,
and were deposited along streams or in
shallow lakes. During the Cretaceous
period Nebraska and certain other parts

24

GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES.

Grand Island.

Elevation 1,861 feet,
Population 10,326.
Omaha 153 miles.

Grand Island, the seat of Hall County, is a railroad center, a
division station of the Union Pacific, where extensive
shops are maintained, and a city of considerable com-
mercial importance, having numerous factories and
mills. It is in an agricultural district where the raising
of sugar beets is one of the principal industries. About
7,000,000 pounds of granulated sugar is produced here every year.

The first known reference to Grand Island is contained in the
account of Robert Stuart, an employee of John Jacob Astor, who
left Astoria in 1812 and traveled eastward over what was later
known as the Oregon Trail. The greater part of this journey was
made through a country then wholly unknown. ^'Le Grande Isle"
was the first place he was able to recognize on his way east. Grand
Island, a strip of land about 42 miles long, included between two
channels of the Platte River, had previously been visited by trappers,
most of whom were French Canadians, but white people did not
settle here until 1857. In 1866 the Union Pacific was built north
of the north channel and the site of the city of Grand Island thus
determined.

of central North America lay beneath
the sea, but with the Tertiary period
began a new order of things. The sea,
which had extended from Iowa to Utah,
was expelled by uplift from the interior
of North America, and in the midst of
the region the sea formerly covered the
Rocky Mountains began to rise. It is
this change from a quiescent sea to
mountainous uplands, with all the dis-
turbances attending it, that marks the
division in geologic time between the
Cretaceous and the Tertiary period. If
at the present time the waters were
expelled from the Gulf of Mexico and
high mountains raised in their place, the
resulting changes in climate, geography,
etc., would be less conspicuous than
those which marked the change from
Cretaceous to Tertiary in the interior of
North America.

The earth movements that formed
the Rocky Mountains also brought the
Great Plains and the intermontane basins
above sea level, so that the region now
traversed by the Union Pacific from
Omaha to the Wasatch Mountains, which
had formerly lain under the water of the

sea, was changed to dry land and, so
far as is known, has never since been
covered with sea water. The plains were
doubtless very low — not much above
sea level at first. Rivers heading in the
newly upheaved mountains washed sedi-
ment out upon low-lying plains, where
it accumulated because the streams were
too sluggish to carry it away. This
newly emerged land became inhabited
by animals, some of which were doubt-
less developed from ancestors that lived
in North America during Cretaceous
time, though others immigrated from
other continents. The skeletons of these
animals were buried in the sands and
muds deposited by the streams, and from
the fossil remains of their bones the paleon-
tologist is able to determine to some
extent their forms, appearance, andhabits.
Great changes took place also in the
climate, a fact indicated by the charac-
ter of the plants, a critical study of which
shows that although the same general
types of vegetation that had flourished
throughout the Cretaceous continued into
the Tertiary the species were nearly all
different.

THE OVERLAND ROUTE COUNCIL BLUFFS TO OGDEN.

25

Grand Island is in the midst of what was formerly known as the
great buffalo range. Gen. Dodge says:

When the raih'oad reached this point, in 186G, buffalo were numerous. In the
spring these animals were wont to cross the Platte from the Arkansas and Republican
valleys, where they had wintered, to the northern country, returning again, sleek
and fat, late in the* fall. Gradually their numbers decreased on this range until
1873, when they disappeared. But at Julesburg, 219 miles farther west, a small
band was seen to cross the river as late as 1876. In 1860 immense bands were on
these plains. On the south side of the Platte, on the old emigrant road, the number
was so large that emigrant teams often had to stop while they were crossing the road.
At Fort Kearney, on the south side of the river, in 1860, an order was issued by the
post commander, forl>idding the soldiers to shoot the buffalo on the parade ground.

Some attempts have been made in the region of Grand Island to
sink wells to the Dakota sandstone to obtain artesian water. A weU
put down for the city some years ago penetrated 220 feet of sand,
gravel, and clay, consisting of river deposits and probably also of
some Tertiary material, and then went through shale to a depth of
935 feet without finding the sandstone. The artesian stratum there-
fore lies at some greater depth. At Hastings, about 25 miles farther
south, a well 1,145 feet deep entered sandstone that may be the
Dakota.

On leaving Grand Island the train passes through the middle of
the valley, which is here 22 miles wide. From anything the traveler
can see from the train he might imagine himself to
be passing over a boundless plain, for the bluffs on
either side of the vaUey are too far away to be dis-
tinguished. The surface looks level, but as a matter
of fact it rises toward the west about 10 feet to the
mile. No surface depression, such as the term ^'vaUey" might lead
one to expect, can be seen. The river flows in many interlacing
channels that frequently shift their position.

Over this part of the route there are long stretches of straight
track. West of Silver Creek the train runs for 40 miles in a nearly
straight Hne. The roadbed is remarkably smooth and free from
dust, being ballasted with Sherman granite. (For description see
p. 43.) This part of the route is on the typical Great Plains,^ which

Wood River.

Elevation 1,963 feet
Population 796.
Omaha 169 miles.

^ The Great Plains constitute that part
of the continental slope which extends
from the Rocky Mountains eastward to
the prairies of the Mississippi Valley.
Smooth surfaces chai'acterize most of this
area, but in some parts of it there are
buttes or flat-topped hills and long bluffs
or escarpments. In other places there
are large areas of bad lands and sand hills.

The origin and development of the
Great Plains are difficult to determine.
From Omaha westward to the Laramie
Range, a distance of more than 500 miles,
the surface rises with a regular inclina-
tion that is imperceptible to the eye
but amounts to more than 5,000 feet.
The rocks of this area, aside from the thin
Tertiary formations and the superficial

26

GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN^ UNITED STATES.

Kearney.

Elevation 2,146 feet
Population 6,202.
Omaha 196 miles.

rise gradually but regularly from the prairies of Mississippi Valley
to the Rocky Mountains.

West of Wood River are Shelton and Gibbon, agricultural and
stock-feeding centers. Two small towns, Optic and Buda, are next
passed by the train before it enters Kearney.

Kearney (see sheet 4, p. 28) takes its name from oW Fort Kearney,
which stood south of the river, a few miles east of the city, at the
junction of the emigrant trail from Kansas City and
the Platte Valley trail. It was a center of turbulence
during the time of Indian warfare. Here during
the construction of the Union Pacific Railroad,
according to Gen. Dodge, there were more des-
perate fights and literally hair-raising adventures than James Feni-
more Cooper ever dreamed of, and here Maj. Frank J. North,
with his four companies of Pawnee Indians, made history defend-
ing the Overland Route against hostile Indians. The Plum Creek,
Ogalalla, and Summit Springs campaigns under Maj. North's direc-
tion did much to prove conclusively to the Sioux and Cheyenne
that he was their absolute master. The same Avriter says that every
mile of the railroad had to be surveyed and built within range of
the rifle and under military protection, and much of the success
of the enterprise he attributes to the active support of Gen. Grant
and Gen. Sherman.

The bottom land, which farther east is about 22 miles wide, here
narrows to a width of 6 miles. The river bed is very wide and shallow
and the wagon bridge over it south of Kearney is nearly a mile long.
Except at times of high water broad stretches of sand in this bed are
exposed to the strong northwest winds, which pile it up south of the

deposits, are of marine origin; they were
formed below sea level. Later they were
tilted, but without notable warping,
through this great distance and beveled
by erosion, so that the surface of the plains
region extended across the eroded edges
of the Cretaceous formations from oldest
to youngest. On this surface were later
spread out the stream deposits of Tertiary
and Quaternary age, and at the extreme
east the glacial deposits.

A good illustration of this grading proc-
ess is furnished by Platte River, which
flows in a shallow valley cut slightly
below the surface of the plains and has
the same gradient or slope as the plains
themselves. This gradient is in nice
adjustment to the load of sediment that
the river carries, so that although during
past ages the Platte sometimes cut its

channel deeper than it is at present and
sometimes built it up, as it seems to be
doing now, it has on the whole spent its
energy in widening its valley and form-
ing rerdarkably even bottom lands. If
this process goes on long enough the
Platte and its neighboring streams will
form new Great Plains, slightly lower than
the present plains but having essentially
the same eastward inclination. On the
other hand, should some condition arise
whereby the sediment supplied to these
rivers would be increased in volume not
only might the present valleys be filled
with sand, gravel, and clay, but the whole
surface of the plains might be built up,
the conditions thus supposed to exist sim-
ulating the conditions that prevailed in
this region during middle and late Ter-
tiary time.

BULLETIN 612

SHEET No. 3

GEOLOGIC AND TOPOGRAPHIC MAP

OF THE

OVERLAND ROUTE

From Omaha, Nebraska, to San Francisco, California

Base compiled from United States Geological Survey Atlas Sheets,
from railroad alignments and profiles supplied by the Union Pacttie
Railroad Company and the Southern Pacific Company and from addi-
tional Information collected with the assistance of these companies

UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY

GEORGE OTIS SMITH, DIRECTOR
David White, Chief Geologist R. B. Marshall, ('hl>^f Geogra))her

]915

Each quadrangle shown on the map with a name in parenthesis in the
lower left comer is mapped in detail on the U. S. 0. S. Topographic
sheet of that name.

THE OVERLAND ROUTE COUNCIL BLUFFS TO OGDEX.

27

river, destroying much productive land. The sand-dune areas are
characterized by irreguhir, hummocky surfaces, some of the higher
mounds rising 100 feet or more above the general surface. The
largest bodies of sand extend for 50 miles alono^ the south side of the
Platte Valley south and west of Kearney. The width of the wider
parts of this sand-dune belt is about 3 miles.

The Overland Route here reaches its southernmost point and turns
a^ain toward the north. On leaving Kearnev the traveler mav see
the buildings of the State Normal School on the lowland north of the
road and an industrial school on the highlands.

West of Kearney the bluffs, consisting of loess overlying rocks of
late Tertiary age/ are about a mile from the railroad.

Could the traveler restore the landscape of late Tertiary time, he
would find himself surrounded by scenes greatly different from those
of the present. The swampy lowlands were covered with vegetation
smiilar to that now growing in moist climates farther south. He
would recognize few of the animals, for there were camels, masto-
dons, rhinoceroses, saber-tooth tigers, and other strange beasts, some
Hke those living now only in far-distant lands. (See PI. VL, p. 40.)
There were numerous holies, but none of them were like the horses
of to-day. In place of the one hoof or modified toe on each foot
which the modern horse possesses, his Pliocene ancestor had three. ^

^ A large part of the central Great Plains
is covered, according to X. H. Darton, by

deposits of Miocene and Pliocene age,
underlain to the west and northwest by
formations of the White River group, of
Oligocene age. All these formations lie
mainly on the Pien-e shale but overlap
other formations to a greater or less extent.
The average thickness is 200 to 300 feet
in eastern Colorado and western Kansas
but increases to nearly 1.000 feet in parts
of west«m Nebraska and southeastern
Wyoming. Probably the entire region
was originally covered by later Tertiary
deposits that extended far up the flanks
of the Rocky Mountains, the Bighorn
Mountains, and the Black Hills, as indi-
cated by the occurrence of outliers at
high altitudes.

2 The Pliocene of western North Amer-
ica is not well known, but along Snake
Creek in western Nebraska there are some
deposits referable to this epoch, and from
fossils found in them and in rocks of the
same age in other pans of the country a
considerable number of the animals that
lived on the Great Plains dui-ing; Pliocene

time are known. Though these animals
form an assemblage very different from
that of to-day, they much more closely
resemble the li\ing animals than those of
former ages. Camels and llamas were
abundant (see PI. VI. p. 40) and great
ground sloths and glyptodonts (see PI. II,
C, p. 10). whose relatives now live in
South America, inhabited western Ne-
braska during Pliocene time. Mastodons
with tusks on both the upper and the
lower jaws, much like those of the Miocene
epoch, still persisted. Short-legged rhi-
noceroses remained abundant, and there
was a great variety of wolf-like carnivora.
Saber-toothed tigers and true cats, some
of them considerably larger than the mod-
ern tigers, were also abundant. Three-
toed horses were still numerous, but the
modern genus Equus was not among them.
One of the most curious animals of the
time in Kansas and Nebraska was a
gopher-like rodent that had two large
horns on its nose. (See PI. II, E. p. 10.)
Its enormous claws indicate good burrow-
ing powers, and its horns also may have
been used in digging.

28 GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES.

After passing the relatively small towns of Odessa, Elm Creek^
Overton, and Josselyn, the train reaches the city of Lexington, for-
merly known as Plum Creek. This was once noted
Lexington. ^s a favorite locality for depredations by the Southern

Elevation 2,387 feet. Cheyeime Indians under Chief Turkey Leg, who cap-
omaiia 231 miles. tured and bumcd a freight train here in 1867. It is
now more famous for its irrigation system. Farther
east the farmers depend on the rainfall to water their crops, but
from this point westward the river waters are diverted through large
ditches and distributed over the cultivated land.

The next station is Darr, beyond which is Cozad, named after

a Cincinnati capitalist who purchased a 40,000-acre

Cozad. tract of land and laid out the town on it. The vil-

Eievation 2,485 feet, lagc of WiUow Island takes its name from one of

Population 1,096. ^j^g so-callcd islauds included between old channels of

Omaha 245 miles. i • .i • i i i i •

the river that are now occupied by water only durmg

floods. It now consists of only a few houses, but has

Willow Island. the distinction of being the point from which in 1872

Elevation 2,520 feet. Col. W. F. Cody (''Buffalo Bill") started with Alexis,

oXhf25oSiies. Grand Duke of Russia, Gen. Custer, Gen. Sheridan,

and others for a buffalo hunt over the prairies.

Just before entering Gothenburg the train crosses a large irrigation
canal, and farther west such canals are seen in many places. The
bottom lands are devoted to the cultivation of crops,
Gothenburg. and the higher land or general surface of the Great

Elevation 2,561 fe«t. Plains, at Considerable distances both north and south
oSfSmfies! of ^he road, is used largely for grazing. Here, as at
almost every other town along the railroad, may be
seen elevators, taU buildings used for storing grain.

West of the town is a prominent ridge of sand hills, which the road
skirts for many miles. Their barren aspect is in strong contrast with
the appearance of the productive bottom lands. This is a part of the
great sand-hiU district which covers nearly a fourth of Nebraska.
The sand is probably derived by disintegration from the Tertiary
beds and was heaped into hiUs by the wind at a time when the surface
was not well protected by vegetation. The movement of the sand
is checked by the spread of vegetation, especially the bunch grass
that grew here generally before the advent of the white man. Where
this protecting cover has been destroyed for any reason, such as
overstocking, and the sand is exposed, movement begins again and
dunes and blow-outs are produced by the winds.

South of the river, about 5 miles from the railroad but plainly
visible from the train, are steep slopes and bluffs rising abruptly to a
plain that lies 200 feet or more above the bottom lands. There is
a notable contrast between the lands along the river and these bluffs,
which parallel the railroad for many miles. The slope is notched

BULLETIN 612

SHEET No. 4

GEOLOGIC AND TOPOGRAPHIC MAP

OF THE

OVERLAND ROUTE

From Omaha, Nebraska, to San Francisco, California

Base compiled from United States Geological Survey Atlas Sheets,
from railroad alignments and profiles supplied by the Union Paclflc
Railroad Company and the Southern Pacific Company and from addi-
tional information collected with the assistance of these companies

UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY

GEORGE OTIS SMITH, DIRECTOR
David White, Chief Geologist R. B. Marshall, Chief Geographer

1915

Each quadrangle shoum on the map with a name in parenthesis in the
lower left comer is mapped in detail on the U. S. C. S. Topographic
sheet of that name.

NEBRASKA

r^'-

500.000
Approximately 8 miles to 1 inch

Contour interval 200 feet

ELEVATIONS IN FEET ABOVE MEAN SEA LEVEL

The distances from Omaha, Nebraska, are shown every JC m'tes
The crossties on the railroads are spaced J mile apart

EXPLANATION

The rock formations indicated on this map can not be seen from the train.
They are covered by recent stream deposits (alluvium). Information about
them is derived largely from distant exposures and from well borings

THE OVEKLAXD ROUTE COUNCIL BLUFFS TO OGDEN. 29

deeply by canyons with precipitous walls of loess nearly 200 feet
thick, which is underlain by sand and gravel containing pebbles of rock
brought by the streams in past ages from the Rocky Mountains.

West of Gothenburg the train passes Vroman, Brady Island,
Hindrey, Maxwell, Keith, and Gannett before entering North Platte.

The city of North Platte (see sheet 5, p. 30), the seat of Lincoln
County and the chief commercial center of western Nebraska, stands
at the junction of North Platte and South Platte
North Platte. rivers. It is in the middle of an irrigation district,
Elevation 2,800 feet, where sugar beets, hay, and other farm products are
omaha'SiSs. raised. About 1,000,000 tons of hay is shipped
annually from this town to the mountain markets.
Here are a United States land office and a station of the United States
Weather Bureau, and 4 miles south of the city there is a State experi-
mental farm.

North Platte is a railroad division point. Here the railroad main-
tains extensive shops and an icing plant, said to be one of the largest
in the United States, where more than 10,000 cars of fruit and other
edibles are iced annually. The plant may be seen to the left by the
westbound traveler as he leaves the station. At this station the
change is made from central time to mountain time, one hour earlier.

Just before entering the city the train crosses North Platte River,
which generally carries a considerable volume of water. The
South Platte is dry except during times of floods, because its water
is used for irrigation farther upstream. The North Platte is 650
miles long and drains about 28,500 square miles. At North Platte
it has a maximum discharge of about 20,000 cubic feet a second and a
minimum discharge of 70 cubic feet a second. Its average volume of
flow during the nine months from March to November is 3,490 cubic
feet a second.

Southeast of the city are prominent bluffs of loess, rising abruptly
400 feet above the bottom lands. The loess is about 350 feet thick
and lies on the ^'mortar beds" described on page 30.

West of North Platte there are many small towns and stations con-
cerning which no information need be given except that shown on the
accompanying maps. Many of the stations in Wyoming consist only
of section houses, and some are nothing more than signposts.

Beyond North Platte the valley widens considerably, being the
double vaUey of the two rivers, and the train passes for several miles
through an irrigated district, in the center of which
Hershey. stands Plershey. The fields in the bottom lands are

Eip^^^io" 2,901 feet, called farms, but similar fields on the highlands are
Omaha 303 miles. Called rauchcs. This district is in the transition zone
between the East, where each plot of rural ground is
a farm, and the West, where each plot other than a town lot, regard-
less of size or uses, is a ranch. Although the term ^' ranch" is too

30

GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES.

dear to the heart of the western man to be easily replaced by the more
homely term, the tendency in intensive development under irrigation
is to speak of ^^farms.''

Near Sutherland, between the rivers, about 6 miles west of Hershey,
begins a narrow ridge which toward the west gradually develops into
a broad table-land. From Dexter to Ogalalla the South Platte and
the railroad are close to the bluffs bordering this table-land. This
stretch of the river bed is dry most of the year, all the water being
used for irrigation farther upstream.

Here and at other places where the bluffs come close to the river
many travelers in the days of the Overland Trail suffered from attacks
by Indians and white outlaws, who would swoop down unexpectedly
from their hiding places in the hills to murder and plunder. It is
difficult for the modern traveler surrounded by the luxuries of the
railway train to realize the hardships and dangers endured by the
men and women of indomitable courage and energ}^ who under such
conditions invaded and finally conquered the West.

Beyond Dexter the train passes the station called Paxton before
reaching the town of Ogalalla.

Ogalalla (see sheet 6, p. 34) is a name used by the Brule Sioux, a
powerful and warhke tribe which under Chief Spotted Tail is said
to have included 10,000 warriors. About 25 miles
northwest of the town is Ash Hollow, where Gen.
Harney defeated these Indians in 1859. In the early
days of the Union Pacific Railroad OgalaUa was noto-
rious for its lawlessness and for the pranks of cow-
boys. It was the point to which great herds of Texas cattle were
driven across Oklahoma, Kansas, and Colorado, to be loaded on the
cars for shipment to the eastern markets.

The town Hes between the river channel and the rocky bluffs, which
are weU exposed for several miles to the east. Although the river
bed is dry most of the year water can always be found in the sand
just below the surface. This supply has been utilized for irrigation
at OgalaUa by means of an underflow channel or underground drain
into which the water finds its way, to emerge farther downstream
upon the lands to be irrigated. The bluffs consist of beds of sand
and gravel cemented together in some places into a relatively hard
rock, locally known as '^ mortar beds." This name is expressive of
the appearance and character of the rock, which resembles masses
of sand and pebbles mixed with mortar. In these rocks are found
fossil bones and teeth of extinct mammals. The rocks constitute
the Ogalalla formation.^

Ogalalla.

Elevation 3,211 feet.
Population 643.
Omaha 341 miles.

^ The Ogalalla formation consists mainly
of sand and gravel, cemented in some
places by carbonate of lime into a resistant
conglomerate. It crops out along the

Union Pacific Railroad as far west as Pine
Bluff and occurs in large areas in western
Kansas and Nebraska and eastern Colo-
rado. This formation is widely distrib-

BULLETIN 612

SHEET No. 6

GEOLOGIC AND TOPOGRAPHIC MAP

OF THE

OVERLAND ROUTE

From Omaha, Nebraska, to San Francisco, California

Base compiled from United States Geological Survey Atlas Sheets,
from railroad alignments and profiles supplied by the Union Pacific
Railroad Company and the Southern Pacific Company and from addi-
tional information collected, with the assistance of these companies

UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY

GEORGE OTIS SMITH, DIRECTOR
David White, Chief Geologist R. B. Marshall, Chief Geographer

1915

Bach quadrangle shoum on the map with a name in parenthesis in the
lower left comer is mapped in detail on the U. S. G. S. Topographic
sheet of that name.

10030'

NEBRASKA

EXPLANATION
Tertiary rocks covered in valley of the Platte by recent river deposit? (alluvium)

^Js^S^-'-^^?%^^t

A

^:

Contour interval 200 feet

ELEVATIONS IN FEET ABOVE MEAN SEA LEVEL

The distances from Omaha, Nebraska, are shown every 10 mites
The crossiies on the railroads are spaced I mite apart

.^'

!

101°

100*30

THE OVERLAND ROUTE COUNCIL BLUFFS TO OGDEN.

31

Brule.

Elevation 3,286 feet.
Population 410.
Omaha 352 miles.

The village of Brule is named for the Brule Sioux Indians, who once
inhabited this region. The French word brule, which means burnt,
seems to have been applied by the early French Cana-
dian trappers to these Indians because of the burnt
appearance of their painted faces, ^ilso, for some
reason not now known, the Indians called themselves
'^The Burned Thighs."
Four miles west of the town is California Hill, where the original
California trail left the
South Platte and crossed
the low table-land to
North Platte River.
Until 1860 the emigrants
went up this river around
the north end of the Lar-
amie Mountains and over
the Continental Divide
at South Pass. But when the United States soldiers were called
east at the beginning of the Civil War the northern Indians became
so aggressive that emigrants chose the less dangerous route up the

uted over the Great Plains. Along the the intervening formations being absent

here. Its relations are indicated in the
following table:

D£POSl

rs

i

¥'■

' 1

. 1

irrr^"-'"

=

_ro^

^^7-/O.V.

±=-

i

^ ■■• ■.■■••

Rll/ER

■;v-^;:—

OC^L^L

1- r-'Z>^

-0^

S

2iii-is=

_• ^—

__^ ._

Figure 5. — Sketch profile of the bluffs near Brule, Nebr., show-
ing relation of the Ogalalla formation to the overlying beds of
coarse sand and gravel, on which rest thick beds of loess.

Union Pacific it lies on the Brule clay , a
formation of Oligocene (Tertiary) age,

Succession of rocks exposed in central and ivestern Nebraska and eastern Wyoming.

Period.

Epoch.

Life.

Group and formation.

Quaternary.

Recent.

Age of man.

Flood-plain deposits.

Pleistocene.

(Great Ice Age.)

Loess and gravel.

Pliocene.

Age of mammals.

Ogalalla formation.

Miocene.

Tertiary.

Arikaree formation.

Gering formation.

Oligocene.

White River group :
Brule clay.
Chadron formation.

The Ogalalla formation is overlain by
coarse sand and gravel similar to that in
tlie river bed at the present time, and

this in turn is covered with the loess that
clothes the higldands. The relations are
indicated by the sketch profile, figure 5.

32

GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES.

South Platte Valley and through southern Wyoming. It was this
southern fork of the Overland Trail that the Union Pacific followed
and that recently has been chosen for the Lincoln Highway.^

Near Big Springs, as the name implies, there are large springs of

water, which issue from the bluffs to the right (north) of the station.

Here in 1877 there was a bold train robbery, after

Big Springs, Nebr. ^hich, by an equally bold movement of the authori^

Elevation 3,367 feet, ^igg ^]^^ robbcrs wcrc Overtaken and killed in a fight.

Population 665. /-» i • n i i ■ c • ^ - i

Omaha 360 miles. (jeologically the placc IS 01 interest as markmg the
western limit of the thick loess and underlying
gravels previously described. North of Big Springs these deposits
terminate by abutting against a sharp rise of the Ogalalla formation,
and farther west this formation occupies the surface. About 8 miles
west of this station the road dips southward into Colorado, in which
it runs for 10 miles before returning to Nebraska.

At Julesburg, in northeastern Colorado, the Union Pacific Railroad
forks, one branch extending up South Platte River to
Denver and the other or main line turning northwest-
ward up Lodgepole Creek. At this point passengers
intending to travel by way of the scenic route of the
Denver & Rio Grande Railroad through the Rocky
Mountains take the Denver branch.
Gen. Dodge writes:

No town on the western plains has had a more checkered or exciting history than has
Julesburg. It has been built on four different sites. In the days of the overland
emigration a fort was established here and garrisoned with soldiers to protect travelers
from the Indians. Old Julesburg, the first, was located about 1 mile east of the fort,
on the south bank of the river at the old ford crossing. It was sacked and burned
by the Indians February 2, 1865. In July following the great Sioux war broke out,
and from that time on till peace was declared there was more Indian fighting in this
vicinity than at any other station along the Platte Valley. During these times Maj.
O'Brien says buffalo were more plentiful on the plains around Julesburg than the vast
herds of native cattle were in later years. * ^ "^

A second Julesburg was built 4 miles east of the fort. This was moved to the north
side of the river, where the town of Weir now stands, and at one time was the terminus
of the Union Pacific Railroad and contained 7,000 poeple. Here the desperado ele-
ment held sway until the better class of citizens organized themselves into a vigilance
committee and by their just but necessarily severe verdicts and punishments rid the
town of these lawless frontiermen and established a peaceful government.

Julesburg, Colo.

Elevation 3,465 feet.
Population 962.
Omaha 372 miles.

^ The Lincoln Highway, designed as a
memorial to Abraham Lincoln, is to be
an improved thoroughfare extending
across the continent from New York to
San Francisco by the shortest practicable
route. It will be 3,389 miles long and
will traverse 13 States. The route was
laid out and announced by proclamation
in 1913 by the Lincoln Highway Associa-

tion, whose headquarters are in Detroit,
Mich., and the work of improving it is
progressing rapidly under the direction of
local committees. The distinctive red,
white, and blue pole markers now cover
about 90 per cent of the route, which is
already used by numerous touring parties.
Between Omaha and San Francisco it
follows the Overland Trail.

THE OVERLAND EOUTE COUNCIL BLUFFS TO OGDEN,

33

At that time an Indian would trade a buffalo robe for a cup of
sugar or a yard of red flannel. Buffalo skulls were used as tablets and
signposts along the trail. A skull may be seen to-day in the Commer-
cial Club in Salt Lake City with the inscription, ^'Pioneers camped
here June 3, 1847, making fifteen miles a day; all well. Brigham
Young."

Julesburg was an important stage station on the Overland Route
in 1865 and as a supply point was the subject of much attention from
the Indians. The station was named after one Jules, agent for Ben
Holladay's stage line. He was killed by J. A. Slade, a noted des-
perado, who fought both for and against law and order and whose
career is set forth in Mark Twain's '^ Roughing it."

Figure 6.— Typical sand dune with blow-out in its top, illustrating the depressions formed by the wind in
the sand-dune country, where the sand is loose enough to be easily shifted.

Just beyond Julesburg the main line leaves the South Platte Valley
and, turning northward up Lodgepole Creek, reenters Nebraska. At
the turn of the road near Weir is a group of sand hiUs showing
characteristic blow-outs ^ or hollows formed by the wind. (See fig. 6.)
Lodgepole Creek takes its name from the fact that here the Indians
formerly obtained the poles about which they stretched the skins or
canvas to form their tents or tepees. Very little timber can be seen
now in any part of the valley that is traversed by the Union Pacific.
The train passes several stations and small towns — Weir, Ralton,
Chappell, Perdu, Lodgepole, Sunol, and Colton — between Julesburg
and Sidney.

^ These blow-outs, some of which occur
in the tops of the hills like craters in a vol-
cano, are produced by the wind wherever
it gets a chance to lift the sand. The
exposed tops of the dunes are especially
favorable places. The protecting cover
of growing vegetation becomes broken,
perhaps by a badger burrowing out a
38088°— Bull. 612—16 3

home for his family or by a coyote digging
out a gopher for his breakfast. The wind
blows out the loose sand, the sides of the
hole cave in and make more loose sand to
be blown out, and this process goes on
until the blow-out is so deep that the
wind can no longer lift the sand over its
rim.

34

GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTEEX VXITED STATES.

Sidney, Nebr.

Elevation 4,090 feet
Population 1,185.
Omaha 414 miles.

Just before entering Sidney (see sheet 7, p. 36) the train passes
under the tracks of a branch of the Chicago, Burhngton & Quincy
Railroad that runs from Denver to Alliance, in west-
ern Nebraska. The valley here is confined between
bluffs composed at the top of an impure limestone,
called ^^ mortar beds." These bluffs are prominent
near Sidney, where the rock is used as a buildmg
stone. It has furnished material for the depot and for many of the
business blocks and public buildings in Sidney and neighboring towns.
Were it not for the pebbles of harder rock that are embedded in it
and make cutting difficult, it might be a valuable building stone.
The ''mortar beds" constitute the lower part of the Ogalalla forma-
tion and rest with uneven base on the Brule clay. Both these
formations contain fossil bones of extinct mammals.^

^ The fossils found in the Ogalalla
formation show that western Nebraska
was inhabited in late Miocene time by
animals of very different types from those
living there now, and also that very dif-
ferent physical conditions prevailed at
that time. In place of the dry, barren
plains of to-day there were numerous
streams and swampy lowlands. The fos-
sils of the Ogalalla and .irikaree forma-
tions are not greatly different and will
be described together. Both these for-
mations were spread out over a great plain,
and it is not surprising to find in them
the bones of plains or running animals,
such as camels, horses, and deer, as well
as of those that inhabited rivers, bayous,
and marshes. Some of the horses were
as large as small ponies and were more
modern in appearance than their diminu-
tive Oligocene and Eocene ancestors.
They were also more numerous than their
ancestors, and their fossil forms represent
several widely different species.

The Arikaree contains great numbers of
bones of a peculiar type of animals
called chalicotheres. They were larger
than a large horse and had a horselike
head, long front- legs, and shorter hind
legs, but every foot had three toes, each
of which in place of a hoof bore an enor-
mous claw. One of the forms, known as
Moropus (see PI. VI, C, p. 40), was
strangely grotesque. An equally strange

form of Miocene time is a deerlike ani-
mal called Syndyoceras (see PI. VI, D),
whose headdress equaled or outdid in
grotesqueness that of its Oligocene ances-
tor Protoceras (see PI. VII, E, p. 41).
Its head somewhat resembled that of an
antelope but was longer and had four
horns, the larger pair, over the eyes,
cur\-ing inward and the smaller pair,
nearer the muzzle, curving outward.
Although these are called horns, they
were really bony protuberances and were
probably not sheathed in real horn.

Camels were common in North America
during the Miocene epoch, and several
forms have been found. Those of one
genus (Procamelus) were about the size
of sheep and are supposed to be the an-
cestors of modern camels and llamas.
Others were large and had long necks
like the giraffe (see PI. VI, -E). All these
ancient camels had hoofs like cattle,
not cushioned feet like those of the cam-
els of the present day.

Rhinoceroses were abundant in Mio-
cene time. Hundreds of specimens of
Teleoceras. a very heavy bodied, short-
limbed type (see PI. VI, J.), have been
found. The proboscidians, of which the
elephant is the best-known type and the
only living representative, became promi-
nent during the Miocene epoch, when a
large mastodon called Trilophodon was
common.

BULLETIN 612

GEOLOGIC AND TOPOGRAPHIC MAP

OF THE

OVERLAND ROUTE

From Omaha, Nebraska, to San Francisco, California

Base compiled from United States Geological Survey Atlas Sheets,
from railroad alignments and profiles supplied by the Union Pacific
Kailroad Company and the Southern Pacific Company and from addi-
tional Information collected with the assistance of these companies

UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY

GEORGE OTIS SMITH, DIRECTOR
David White, Chief Geologist R. B. Marshall, Chief Geographer

1915

Each quadrangle shown on the map with a name in parenthesis in the
lower left comer is mapped in detail on the U. S. G. S. Topographic
sheet of that name.

SHEET No. 6

NEBRASKA-COLORADO

'e^l.,

Ǥ'^^^.

S<=^'« 500.000
Approximately 8 miles to 1 inch

5 10 15

20

25

Contour interval 200 feet

ELEVATIONS IN FEET ABOVE MEAN SEA LEVEL

The distances from Omaha, Nebraska, are shown every 10 miles
The crossties on the railroads are spaced I mile apart

10?°

THE OVERLAND ROUTE COUNCIL BLUFFS TO OGDEN.

35

Kimball.

Elevation 4,704 feet
Population 454.
Omaha 451 miles.

Sidney came into prominence in 1868, when a military post was
established here to protect emigrants and railroad builders from the
Sioux and Pawnee Indians, the two powerful tribes of western
Nebraska. This post was maintained until 1894. Sidney was the
point from which freight was hauled to the Black Hills until that
region was supplied from railroads running much nearer to it than the
Union Pacific.

Beyond Sidney the trains pass several stations and small towns —
Margate, Brownson, Herdon, Potter, Jacinto, Dix, and Owasco (all
shown on sheet 7) — before reaching Kimball (see sheet 8, p. 38).

West of Sidney the ^^ mortar beds" of the Ogalalla formation,
which continue to make conspicuous bluffs north of the track in
many places, contain the fossil bones of many ani-
mals.^ These have been described by Prof. W. B.
Scott, Prof. H. F. Osborn, and others. In these
bluffs below the cap rock may be seen the Brule clay,
the youngest formation of the White River group, ^
of Oligocene (Tertiary) age. (See table on p. 31.) The exposures
in the Lodgepole Valley are not so conspicuous as those in the North
Platte VaUey, a little farther north, owing to the covering of grass
which protects the surface from erosion. In the North Platte Valley
badlands are developed at many places on the Brule clay, and curious
buttes, remnants of this clay, have been left by erosion, such as those
known as The Jail (PL VII, A, p. 41) and Chimney Rock, which
served as a landmark to many emigrants in the early days.

After leaving Kimball the train passes Oliver and Bushnell
before reaching Smeed. The '^mortar beds" which were observed
farther east at the top of the bluffs descend to
the valley floor west of Kimball and are not con-
spicuous, but west of Smeed they rise again in bluffs,
become more prominent, and terminate in Pine
Bluffs. Just west of Oliver, which is only a signpost, may be seen
to the left (south of the railroad) a small reservoir for the storage of
irrigation water, which is used in the vaUey farther downstream.

Just before entering Pine Bluffs the traveler sees to the right, north
of the track, a stone monument marking the boundary between
Nebraska and Wyoming.

Smeed, Nebr.

Elevation 4,933 feet
Omaha 468 miles.

^ See footnote on, p. 34.

2 The White River group, which has
been studied mainly in the bad lands
southeast of the Black Hills, has long
been a favorite collecting ground of the
paleontologist. Fossil bones have been
found in many parts of the group, and

those of certain animals are so abundant
as to give their names to the rocks con-
taining them, such as Titanotherium
beds, Oreodon beds, and Protoceras
sandstone. More complete information
on these fossils may be found in the works
of Profs. Scott and Osborn. (See p. 230. )

36 GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES.

Wyoming is a State of large resources, whose development has
only begun. Within its 97,594 square miles lie the most extensive
coal fields and the most productive Imown oil fields
Wyoming. of the Rocky Mountain region, thousands of acres of

irrigated and dry-farming lands, and extensive
areas of splendid stock range; moreover, some of the finest hunting
and fishing in the United States can be found within its borders.
Although the precipitation averages only 12^ inches a year, the many
irrigated areas are highly productive, and the success which dry
farming has here and there attained seems to indicate that a
still larger area may be brought under that kind of cultivation.
An index of the crops that may be raised is the fact that irrigated
oats running 45 pounds to the bushel are by no means uncommon.
(The average weight of a bushel of oats is 32 pounds.) The value of
the State's agricultural crops for 1914 is roughly estimated by the
Department of Agriculture at $22,000,000.

Noted in the early days as the range of the ^' cattle king," Wyoming
has in recent years become even better known as the home of the
'^ sheep baron." It has attained first rank among the United Stal;es
in the sheep industry, the number of sheep in the State on January
1, 1915, being estimated by the Department of Agriculture at
4,427,000, valued at $20,807,000. It should not be understood,
however, that the cattle industry has vanished, for the State stiU
ranks high as a cattle producer.

Among the mineral products of the State coal is preeminent. Its
coal fields cover about 41,500 square miles (42 per cent of the State's
area), and contained originally about 670,723,100,000 tons. Of
this quantity only 178,000,000 tons (about one-fortieth of 1 per
cent) has been exhausted, so that there remains in the ground the
enormous amount of 670,545,100,000 tons. The production in
1913 was 7,393,066 tons, valued at $11,510,045.

The second in value of production among the mineral resources is
oil, of which 2,406,522 barrels, valued at $1,187,232, was produced
in 1913. The production in 1914 amounted to about 4,600,000
barrels, equal to more than 60 per cent of the production of Pennsyl-
vania for the same year, and places Wyoming, whose oil fields are
newly discovered and only partly developed, in the ninth place
among the oil-producing States of the Union.

Other minerals, including gold, copper, iron, gypsum, limestone,
sandstone, marble, brick clay, and mineral waters, brought the value
of the State's mineral production in 1913 up to $13,682,091. Among
the undeveloped resources are bituminous shale, volcanic ash,
graphite, asphaltum, manganese ores, bentonite, tin, salt, bismuth,
and, perhaps most important, phosphate rock, on which the future
of American agriculture may largely depend. It is estimated that

BULLETIN 612

SHEET No. 7

GEOLOGIC AND TOPOGRAPHIC MAP

OF THE

OYEKLAND KOUTE

From Omaha, Nebraska, to San Francisco, Califaia

Base compiled from United States Geological Survey Atlas Sheets
from railroad alignments and profiles supplied by the Union Paciflr
Railroad Company and the Southern Pacific Company and from addi-
tional Information collected, with the assistance of these companies

UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURYE

GEORGE OTIS SMITH, DIRECTOR
David White. Chief Geologist R. B. Marshall, Chief Geographer

1915

Each quadrangle shoum on the map with a name in parenthesis in the
lower left comer is mapped in detail on the U. S. G. S. Topographic
sheet of that name.

THE OVERLAND EOUTE COUNCIL BLUFFS TO OGDEN.

37

more than 1,250,000 acres in Wyoming are underlain })y workable
phosphate deposits, a phosphate area greater than that of any other
State.

Finally, the scenic resources of Wyoming must not be forgotten,
the grandeur of the Bighorn and Wind River mountains and the
Tctons being excelled only by the wonders of Yellowstone Park.
Thus the State of W3^oming is of interest in its agriculture, stock
growing, mining, hunting, fishing, and natural beauty.

Pine Bluffs, Wyo.

Elevation 5,043 feet.
Population 246.
Omaha 473 miles.

The town of Pine Bluffs takes its name from the prominent bluffs
of ' ^mortar beds ' ' near by, on which grow a few stunted
pine trees. A tree is so rare on these sun-parched
plains that these pines seem to have been thought
worthy of commemoration in naming the ridge. The
bluffs may be seen for a long distance north and
south of the road and mark the western edge of the Ogalalla for-
mation.

The Arikaree formation ^ underlies the Ogalalla formation near
Pine Bluffs and extends thence westward to Granite Canyon, a dis-
tance of 62 miles. It consists mainly of sand loosely cemented into
a soft sandstone that contains limestone concretions. These are
due to the growth of calcite crystals and usually occur in layers con-
nected to form irregular sheets.

Between Pine Bluffs and Hillsdale are the stations Tracy, Egbert,
and Burns.

Near Hillsdale station the traveler gets his first glimpse of the
Rocky Mountains. To the west may be seen the dark summits of
the Laramie Range — formerly called the Black Hills —
and farther south, 60 miles away, is visible in ordi-
narily clear weather the snow-covered top of Longs
Peak (altitude 14,255 feet) and other high mountains
of the Front Range of the Rockies.

Durham and Archer are stations between Hillsdale and Cheyenne.

Hillsdale.

Elevation 5,634 feet,
Omaha 496 miles.

^ The Arikaree formation underlies a
laige part of western Nebraska and eastern
Wyoming and is widely distributed in
neighboring regions. These deposits ap-
pear to have been spread out by streams
over the low-lying plains. No place in
North America now exhibits the physical
conditions supposed to have existed in
Nebraska and Wyoming when these sedi-
ments were being deposited, but similar
conditions have been reported as prevail-
ing now in central South America, where

every year a plain of some GO, 000 square
miles is converted during the rainy season
into a labyrinth of lakes, ponds, swamps,
channels, and islands. On these islands
the animals gather and great numbers of
them perish. Large quantities of fossil
bones are found in small areas in the
White River beds. These areas have been
called "fossil graveyards" and are sup-
posed to represent ' ' concentration camps "
of Tertiary time similar to the isles of ref-
uge of the present day in South America.

38

GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES.

Cheyenne.

Elevation 6,058 feet
Population 11,320.
Omaha 516 miles.

The capital of Wyoming, Cheyenne (see sheet 9, p. 50), is 516 miles
west of Omaha and nearly a mile higher. It is rich in memories of
the ^'Wild West/' memories which its inhabitants
delight in perpetuating, for every year they hold one
of the most picturesque gatherings in the country,
known as '' Frontier Days Celebration," at which
Indians, cowboys, and plainsmen from aU parts of
the West, from Canada to Texas, gather for '^bronco busting,"
steer t^'ing, Indian dances, and the exhibition of all the unique and
characteristic features of frontier life. And here gather from far and
near spectators to see these performances.

Fort Russell, one of the larger Army posts, may be seen to the right,
north of the railroad, as the train leayes Cheyenne. The city is sup-
plied with water from reservoirs fed by springs that issue from the
granite of the Laramie Mountains in Crow Creek canyon. Three
miles east of the city the Union Pacific crosses the Chicago, Burling-
ton & Quincy Railroad, and a mile west of it the train passes under the
tracks of the Colorado & Southern. A little farther west, at Corlett,
a branch turns south from the main line, running to Denver, where
the westbound traveler can connect with the Denver & Rio Grande
Railroad.^

From Cheyenne the main line climbs a long, graded incline formed
by the Arikaree beds, which extend far up the slope of the Laramie
Mountains, where they abut against the foothiUs of the older sedi-
mentary rocks or overlap the eroded edges of these rocks and the still
older granite. (See fig. 7, p. 42.) The Arikaree and the underlying
deposits were here probably tilted to some extent after deposition, but
the large bowlders contained in them prove that the streams had a
steep descent and were swift and powerful. The character of the
Arikaree may be seen in the numerous cuts along the railroad and in
the bordering bluffs of the valleys, which are plainly visible to the
right, north of the incline. In these bluifs may be seen below the
Arikaree the rocks of the Gering formation and of the White River
group — the Brule clay and the Chadron formation — which contain
fossil bones of Oligocene animals. ^ The Brule clay may be distin-
guished from the train as long barren slopes just below the cliffs.

^ The branch from Cheyenne to Denver
runs parallel with the Front Range of
the Rocky Mountains, but at so great a
distance that the^e mountains do not
appear particularly impressive. It passes
through a prosperous agricultural district
in which are situated Eaton, Greeley,
Brighton, and other towns. In this dis-
trict the waters of the South Platte, the
Thompson, the Cache la Poudre, aud other

smaller streams are diverted for irrigation,
and from it great quantities of potatoes,
beet sugar, canned fruits, vegetables, and
farm and dairy products are shipped to
market.

2 The Oligocene epoch seems to have
been one of relative quiescence com-
pared with the Eocene, which was char-
acterized by impressive \-olcanic activity
and by the building of great mountain

BULLETIN 612

SHEET NO. a

GEOLOGIC AND TOPOGRAPHIC MAP

OF THE

OVERLAND ROUTE

From Omaha, Nebraska, to San Francisco, California

Base compiled from United States Geological Survey Atlas Sheets,
from railroad alignments and profiles supplied by the Union Pacific
Bailroad Company and the Southern Paclflo Company and from addi-
tional information collected with the assistance of these companies

UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY

GEORGE OTIS SxVIITH, DIRECTOR
David White, Chief Geologist B. B. Marshall, Chief Geographer

1915

Bach quadrangle shown on the map with a name in parenthesis in the
lower left comer is mapped in detail on the U. S. G. S. Topographic
sheet of that name.

NEBRASKA-WYOMING "11

THE OVERLAND ROUTE COUNCIL BLUFFS TO OGDEN

39

The stations Corlett and Boric are passed between Cheyenne and

Otto.

From several places near Otto station good views of the Front

Range of the Rocky Mountains may be obtained to the left (south).
Longs Peak is plainly visible, as well as the more
massive and scarcely less elevated mountains north
of it. Toward the right (north) the foothills east of
the Laramie Range form conspicuous ridges that are

plainly visible from the train. They consist of sedimentary rocks

upturned to a nearly vertical position. • These rocks range in age

Otto.

Elevation 6,946 feet
Omaha 530 miles.

systems. The Oligocene formations are
among the most widespread and most
regularly distributed of the Tertiary for-
mations of the Great Plains and cover a
vast area in Nebraska and Wyoming.
The sediments composing them were
deposited by streams that meandered over
low-lying plains and slowly built up the
surface, much as the lower Mississippi is
now building its delta or the Platte its
flood plain, over which the train has just
passed. Some of the old stream channels
can be recognized by the filling of con-
solidated sand and gravel.

The plains country of Nebraska and
eastern Wyoming was low during Oligo-
cene time and the divides between the
streams were not high enough to prevent
flooding during high water. The whole
country was virtually a great flood plain
on which accumulated the sediments
that the rivers brought from the moun-
tains. With these sediments occur beds
of pure volcanic ash, which must have
been carried by the wind or floated by the
streams for long distances. The volca-
noes that had been so active in western
America during the Eocene epoch had not
ceased their eruptions — indeed, they have
not yet become entirely extinct, as is tes-
tified by the recent outbiu*st of Lassen
Peak, in northern California, although
throughout later Tertiary and Quaternary
time their fires have been gradually going
out.

The lower Oligocene or Chadron forma-
tion is often called the Titanotherium
beds because it contains bones of extinct
mammals of that name. The titano-
theres lormed a comparatively short-lived

family and seem to have been confined
almost entirely to North America. Their
remains are the most numerous and con-
spicuous fossils found in the lower Oligo-
cene beds in western America. They
were clumsy brutes of elephantine size
having on the front of the skull a pair of
great bony protuberances, which although
hornlike in form were probably not
sheathed in horn. (See PI. VII, D, p. 41.)
The head was long and large and of fan-
tastic shape. In its thick heavy body
and short, massive legs the titanothere
resembled the modern rhinoceros. It
was doubtless a sluggish, stupid beast, for
its brain was small in comparison with the
size of its body. The brain cavity was
only a few inches in diameter and was
surrounded by thick bone, as if to with-
stand shocks in battle. The titanotheres
were the most formidable animals of the
time, and though, so far as known, there
were then no carnivores capable of doing
them serious harm, yet they seem to have
disappeared suddenly from North Amer-
ica. Their bones are not found in strata
above a certain geologic horizon. The
disappearance of a race of animals from
any locality or even from the face of the
earth does not necessarily require a long
period of time. It is easily conceivable
that the titanotheres were exterminated
by some disease or that one of the physical
changes which were so common in the
West during Tertiary time made their life
conditions here unfavorable and drove
them to some other region, in which their
remains have not yet been discovered.

The animals of Oligocene time seem to
have been abundant as well as varied in

40

GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES.

from Carboniferous to Cretaceous ; the rocks of the most prominent
ridge seen toward the north are those of the Casper formation
and the less prominent ridges are formed by hard strata in the red
beds of the Chugwater formation (Triassic or Permian) and by the
rocks here called the Cloverly formation, the upper part of which may
represent the Dakota sandstone of eastern Nebraska.^

kind. They had a somewhat more mod-
ern aspect than the animals that preceded
them, for the processes of evolution had
been active, and some of the primitive
animals of Eocene time had developed
into forms more nearly like those with
which we are familiar now. Others seem
to have left no descendants. Great num-
bers of Oligocene fossils have been found,
and the life of the time is probably better
known than that of any other epoch of the
Tertiary period. Among the character-
istic animals of this epoch were primitive
forms of rhinoceroses, peccaries, rumi-
nants, camels, insectivores, and opossums.
Some of the creodonts or flesh eaters of
Eocene time had developed into true
carnivores, including many forms of both
doglike and catlike animals. The saber-
toothed cats which later developed into
the saber-toothed tiger, one of the most
formidable enemies of primitive man, first
appeared in the Oligocene.

The horses whose history began with the
diminutive four-toed Eohippus continued
in the Oligocene, where they are repre-
sented by many three-toed forms which
were about as large as sheep. Hoglike
animals were rather numerous, and
although many of them were smaller than
the modern swine some of them were very
large. One of these, Archeotherium ingens
(see PI. VII, C, p. 41), was a formidable
beast with curious protuberances on its
head, the use of which is not known.
Rhinoce-roses similar to those now found

in Africa and India lived in western
America, and other rhinoceros-like ani-
mals known as anymodonts were abun-
dant, but rhinoceroses did not reach their
culmination in America until the Pleisto-
cene epoch.

In addition to these animals of more
modern appearance there were many that
were so unlike anything now living that
it is not possible to designate them by any
common names. Among these are the
animals of the protocerine group, of whose
history little is known. They seem to
have appeared suddenly in North Amer-
ica in Oligocene time and disappeared
from this continent during the early part
of the Miocene. They were deerlike
creatures about the size of sheep. The
head of the male was grotesquely orna-
mented with short bony protuberances
and large scimitar-like tusks. Each front
foot had four toes and each toe had a hoof
like that of a deer or antelope. The sup-
posed appearance of these curious animals
is indicated in the restoration of one of the
forms (Protoceras celer) reproduced in
Plate VII, E .

^ The table on page 41 shows the geologic
formations exposed in the vicinity of the
Laramie Mountains near the Union
Pacific Railroad in the order of their age,
the oldest at the bottom and the youngest
at the top. The position of these forma-
tions in the complete geologic time scale
may be ascertained by comparison with
the table on p. 2.

U. S. GEOLOGICAL SURVE

ULLETIN 612 PLATE VI

y-^'t.J^-^)

mmrrm*^

D.

E.

m

i

m

i

. . ^

^«*^

WM

ROCKS OF MIOCENE AGE AND RESTORATIONS OF ANIMALS THAT
LIVED IN NORTH AMERICA DURING THE MIOCENE EPOCH.

A, SHORT-LIMBED RHINOCEROS, KNOWN AS TELEOCERAS, AN ANIMAL ABOUT 5 FEET HIGH
(AFTER OSBORN); B, {a) MIOCENE MASTODON (TRILOPHODON PRODUCTUSi AND (/;) PLEIS-
TOCENE ELEPHANT (ELEPHAS IMPERATOR), AN ANIMAL NEARLY 15 FEET HIGH (AFTER
OSBORN); C, MOROPUS ELASTUS, AN ANIMAL SOMEWHAT LARGER THAN THE MODERN HORSE
(AFTER SCOTT); 7), A FOUR-HORNED DEER ^SYNDYOCERAS COOKI), ABOUT THE SIZE OF
THE MODERN DEER (AFTER SCOTT); /:, GIGANTIC GIRAFFE-CAMEL (ALTICAMELUS ALTUS\
ABOUT 15 FEET HIGH (AFTER SCOTTi; /', MIOCENE BEDS (ARIKAREE FORMATIONS RESTING
UNCONFORMABLY ON OLIGOCENE BEDS (BRULE CLAY) IN PAWNEE BUTTES, COLO.
*-l-^' published by permission of The Macmillan Co.

U. S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY

BULLETIN 612 PLATE VII

...i

ti

1^1

•€'

1

SSIIj^

► -■ - fl

■f

^^

\i

^

1

w--- , .„ --'f-.i

^1

^^

^

''' ^d^.^t^r.^

c.

ROCKS OF OLIGOCENE AGE AND RESTORATIONS OF ANIMALS THAT
LIVED IN CENTRAL NORTH AMERICA DURING THE OLIGOCENE
EPOCH.

A, JAIL ROCK, NORTH OF SIDNEY, IN WESTERN NEBRASKA, THE LOWER PART OF WHICH
CONSISTS OF BRULE CLAY; B, AN AMERICAN RHINOCEROS (AFTER OSBORN); C, "GIANT
PIGS," 3 OR 4 FEET HIGH (AFTER SCOTT); D, TITANOTHERES, ALMOST AS LARGE AS THE
MODERN ELEPHANT (AFTER OSBORN); E, PROTOCERAS CELER, ANIMALS THE SIZE OF THE
MODERN ANTELOPE (AFTER SCOTT).

£-i? published by permission of The Macmillan Co.

THE OVERLAND ROUTE COUNCIL BLUFFS TO OGDEN.

41

Succession of the roch formations exposed along the Union Pacific Railroad east and west

of the Laramie Mountains.

Period and
system.

Groups and formations.

Epoch and series.

East of Laramie Mountains.

West of Laramie ^fotmtains.

Pliocene.

Ogalalla formation.

Tertiary.

Miocene .

Oligocene.

Arikaree formation.

Not represented.

Gering formation.

White River group :
Brule clay.
Chadron formation.

Tertiary (pos-
sibly includ-
ing some
Cretaceous).

"Upper Laramie" for-
mation.

Cretaceous.

Jurassic or Cre-
taceous.

Jurassic.

Triassic or Per-
mian.

Carboniferous.

Archean.

Upper Creta-
ceous.

IMontana group :

Fox Hills sand-
stone.
Pierre shale.
Colorado group:

Niobrara limestone.
Benton shale, in-
cluding Mov/ry
shale.

Lower Creta-
ceous.

Pennsyl vanian .

Cloverly formation,

Morrison formation.

Sundance formation.

Chugwater formation.

Casper formation.

' ' Lower Laramie " forma-
tion.
Montana group:
Lewis shale.
Mesaverde forma-
tion.
Steele shale.
Colorado group:

Niobrara limestone.
Benton shale, in-
cluding Mo wry
shale.

Cloverly formation.

Morrison formation.

Sundance formation.

Chugwater formation.

Forelle limestone.
Satanka shale.
Casper formation.

Granite (including Sher-
man granite), gneiss,
and schist.

Granite (including Sher-
man granite), gneiss,
and schist.

42

GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES.

On reaching the foothills the train passes through a cut made in gray
massive hmestone and red quart zose sandstone of the Casper forma-
tion, which inclines steeply toward the east. Another aspect of this
formation may be seen to the left (south) of the railroad, where it
makes a steep cliff above the granite against which it is inclined. On
Mesa Mountain, a flat-topped table-land which may be seen to the
right, the Casper fonnation is nearly horizontal and forms the top of
the mesa.

The limestone of the Casper formation at Granite Canyon furnished
lime that was used by the railroad during the period of construction.
This limestone is nearly pure calcium carbonate (98 per cent CaCOg),
and on Horse Creek, 20 miles farther north, about 55,000 tons is
quarried every year to be burned for lime at the beet-sugar factories
in eastern Colorado, where it is used in refining the sugar.

Figure 7.— Tertiary sand and gravel overlying the truncated eroded edges of older rocks and forming the
approach to the Laramie Mountains between Cheyenne and Granite Canyon utilized by the Union
Pacific Railroad.

The ridge up which tlie train climbs in approaching the mountains
is a remnant of the broad plain that once extended uniformly along
the mountain front. The streams have made relatively little im-
pression on the hard mountain rocks but have eroded away large
parts of the soft Arikaree and other Tertiary beds of this plain, leav-
ing the ridge as the one practicable route by which the railroad can
ascend to the high table-land at the top of the Laramie Range.

The Tertiary sands and gravels of the
ridge up which the train approaches the
mountains form a thin covering over edges
of older formations that range in age from
Carboniferous to Cretaceous. The edges
of the older formations are truncated —
that is, the originally fiat strata were
tilted and their edges cut off obliquely by
erosion before the Tertiary deposits were
laid down upon them.. Such a relation is
called an angular unconformity. The
attitude of these older rocks is known
from exposures in the valleys both north
and south of this ridge, and the relations
are shown in the accompanying sketch
section (fig. 7). The oldest sedimentary
formation here is the Casper, consisting of
gray to white limestone and red sand-
stone. Next is the Chugwater formation,

which consists of red sandstone, red sandy
shale, thin beds of limestone, and thick
beds of gypsum. Unconformably on this
lies the Sundance formation, consisting of
sandstone and shale and containing
marine fossils that denote Jurassic age.
This is followed Avith apparent conformity
by the Morrison formation, which is noted
for its huge fossil reptiles. Upon the
Morrison, and apparently conformable
with it, lies the Cloverly formation, con-
sisting of two sandstones separated by
shale. The upper sandstone is probably
equivalent in age to the Dakota sandstone
and is therefore the base of the Upper
Cretaceous series. Above the Cloverly
in conformable succession lie the Benton
shale, the Niobrara limestone, the Pierre
shale, and the Fox Hills sandstone.

THE OVERLAND ROUTE COUNCIL BLUFFS TO OGDEX. 43

This easy approach to the mountains was discovered in a peculiar
manner. For more than two years engineers had searched in vain
for a practicable grade by which the railroad might reach the summit
of the range. On one of their excursions in the valley of Crow Creek
they discovered Indians between them and their escort of mounted
soldiers. In their attempt to find a point where the cavalry could
see their signals for help the engineers reached the ridge, and in order
to get to a place of safety they traveled down the ridge and found that
it joined the plain east of the mountains without a break. This was
just such a grade as they had been looking for, and further exploration
showed that it was suitable for the road.

The station at Granite Canj^on is built on granite porphyry, a

crystalline rock of igneous origin. This particular granite porphyry

is the oldest rock yet encountered on this route, being

Granite Canyon. ^^ pre-Cambrian age. West of the station is a steep

Elevation 7,312 feet, ^j ^^ -^^ ^^^ 3^.^!^ ^.j which Ues directly on the

Omaha 535 miles. ^ , - ' -^

granite porphyry. This is the w^esternmost exposure
of this formation along the Union Pacific line. About 4 miles west of
the Granite Canyon station, near Ozone, the road crosses a narrow
strip of dark-colored granite gneiss, intruded ages ago into the older
crystalline rock which constitutes the core of the Laramie Range.

From many points in the vicinity of Buford good views may be
obtained of the high peaks of the Rocky Mountains far awa}' to
the left (south) and of the relatively low but rugged
Buford. vSherman Mountains, a part of the Laramie Range, to

Elevation 7,858 feet. ^YiQ right. Two prominent points seen to the north
are called Twin Mountains and are celebrated as one
of the strongholds of the notorious desperado Slade.

At Buford is tlie quarry that has furnished ballast for the Union
Pacific from Omaha to Rock Springs, Wyo., a distance of more than
800 miles. The quarry is in the crystalline rock of the Laramie
Range, known as the Sherman granite.^ At Buford this granite has

^ The Sherman granite forms a great
mass intruded into older rocks in pre-
Cambrian time. It is normally a coarse-
grained rock composed chiefly of pink
feldspar, glassy-looking quartz, black
hornblende, and mica, which in mass give
it a spotted appearance. According to
report it contains some gold at Buford but
not enough for profitable extraction. It
shows considerable variation in texture,
color, and composition. One of the com-
monest varieties is coarsely porphyritic,

Pacific Railroad crosses Dale Creek, west
of Sherman, the granite is rich in epidote,
a green mineral, which together with the
red feldspar imparts to it a mottled red
and green color. Although hard when
unaltered the Sherman granite breaks up
readily into a coarse gravelly soil under
the influence of heat, cold, and the action
of water, so that it forms smooth, round
hills. Where the rock is firm it weathers
along widely spaced joints and forms heaps
of rounded bowlders, many of which may

the feldspar standing out in crystals 1 to be seen from the train (PI. VIII, A), par-
2 iiuhes in length. Where the Union | tic ularly west of Buford.

44

GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UXITED STATES.

Elevation 8,009 feet
Population 115.*
Omaha 547 miles.

weathered to a depth of 50 feet or more. At the quarry the rock is
loosened by heavy charges of explosive, which shatter it to small
fragments, and it is then loaded on the cars by steam shovels. This
quarry is said to have furnished about 10,000 carloads of ballast
every year for the last 14 years and is stni in active operation. Bal-
last is thus obtained at a cost of about 6 cents a ton, whereas the
average cost of crushed rock used for railroad ballast is 49 cents.

Sherman, so named in honor of Gen. W. T. Sherman, is the highest
point on the Laramie Range reached by the railroad. It is claimed
that from this point on a clear day may be seen
Sherman. Pikes Peak, about 165 miles, and Longs Peak, 60

miles to the south, and Elk Mountain, 100 miles to
the west. The railroad was originally built a few
miles north of its present location and crossed the
divide at an altitude 237 feet higher than at present. On this old
Hne a great stone monument was erected in honor of Hon. Oliver
Ames and his brother Oakes, to whose energy and perseverance was
largely due the construction of the Union Pacific Railroad.

The road here traverses the relatively flat summit of the Laramie
Range, on what has been described as the Sherman peneplain.^
Along the track here and elsewhere in the Laramie Mountains there
are numerous board fences or windbreaks. The snow drifts badly in
the winter, and these fences prevent drifts from forming on the track.
Dale Creek is a point on the new line that crosses Sherman Hill at
a point 237 feet lower than the original crossing. This change not
only saved the expense of climbing the heavy grades
but did away with the famous Dale Creek Bridge,
Elevation 7,918 feet, ^hich was 650 feet long and 135 feet high. It also

Omaha 550 miles. • i i tip • • •

involved some notable leats m engineering. Along
the new hne there are many deep cuts in which the Sherman granite

Dale Creek.

^ The uniform fineness and approxi-
mately uniform tliickness of the Creta-
ceous sedimentary- rocks on each side of
the Laramie Range indicate that they
once extended over the area now occu-
pied by these mountains — in other words,
that the mountains did not exist during
Cretaceous time. At the close of that
period the region was uplifted and the
Cretaceous as well as the still older strati-
fied rocks were steeply upturned on the
eastern flank and slightly upturned on
the western flank of the mountains. Then
followed a long period of erosion diuing
the Eocene epoch, when the sedimentary
rocks were worn away from the top of the
mountains, except where they were pre-
served by being infolded within the gran-

ite, and the crystalline rocks underlying
them were eroded to a nearly level sur-
face, or peneplain.

At the close of the Eocene epoch the
range was again elevated and renewed
erosion attacked this planed surface, de-
riving from it in part at least the material
of the Oligocene and Miocene deposits
that border the range on the east. These
deposits could not all have been derived
from this area, however, for in some places
they extend over parts of this peneplain.
The present irregularities of the plain
were probably produced in large measure
by late Tertiary or Quaternary erosion,
which developed the canyons and re-
moved large parts of the Oligocene and
Miocene deposits.

U. S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY

BULLETIN 612 PLATE VIII

A. VIEW NEAR DALE CREEK STATION, WYO., SHOWING CHARACTERISTIC WEATHERING OF

THE SHERMAN GRANITE.

B. SMALL "SODA LAKE" ON THE PLAIN NEAR LARAMIE, WYO.

The bed of the " lake," which contains water only in wet weather, is when d-y covered with a white incrusta-
tion of salts, mostly alkali, left by the evaporation of the water.

U. 8. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY

BULLETIN 612 PLATE IX

NATURAL MONUMENTS ON THE PLAIN NEAR RED BUTTES, WYC, ERODED FROM RED SAND-
STONE OF THE CASPER FORMATION.

These monuments are 20 to 50 feet high.

THE OVERLAND ROUTE COUNCIL BLUFFS TO OGDEN.

45

Hermosa.

Elevation 7,862 feet
Omaha 554 miles.

may be seen to advantage, and a tunnel is driven 1,800 feet through
a spur of the same granite 3 miles west of Dale Creek. One hill
near this creek, known as Gibraltar Cone, 100 feet high above the
grade line, was drilled and loaded with about 1,000 kegs of black
powder and 1,000 pounds of dynamite, and on July 4, 1900, this
charge was exploded, blowing out the whole hill. The cuts are
equaled by some of the great fills. The fill across Dale Creek is 900
feet long and 120 feet high in its deepest part, and 500,000 cubic
yards of rock was used in constructing the embankment.

The name of the next station, Hermosa, which is Spanish for beau-
tiful, seems appropriate, as may be realized by a glance to the left,
toward the west. Across the broad Laramie Basin, ^
which the road enters at this point, the mountains
rise in rugged grandeur, and near by may be seen
natural monuments carved from red sandstone in
many forms. Some of these are illustrated in Plate IX.

From a point near Hermosa the road has two lines to Laramie.
The westbound trains run by way of Red Buttes, and the eastbound
trains come from Laramie over an easier grade by way
Red Buttes. of Forelle and Colores. Red Buttes is Uttle more

Elevation 7,300 feet, than a sectiou house and takes its name from the
o^ha 564 miles. natural mouumcuts or buttes of red sandstone that
are numerous in this vicinity (PL IX). From
Hermosa to Red Buttes the route has lain on gently sloping red beds
of Carboniferous age, consisting of the Casper formation, which was
seen east of the mountains; the Satanka shale, made up of red shale
and gypsum; and the Forelle limestone. These strata are overlain in
some places by deposits of gravel, and at one place, a mile southeast
of Red Buttes station, by gypsite. (For description see p. 48.)

About a mile south of Red Buttes is a deposit of gypsum, 20 or 30
feet thick, which is being manufactured into cement plaster or impure
plaster of Paris. It is of the form known as rock gypsum and is a

^ The Laramie Basin as usually defined
is 90 miles long and 30 miles in maximum
width and has a surface elevation of 7,000
to 7,500 feet. It is a hollow whose form is
c'ue to the general structure of the rocks
that underlie it. It is overlooked by the
Laramie Mountains on the east and the
Medicine Bow Mountains on the west.
These mountains are the northward con-
tinuation of the Rocky Mountain ranges
of Colorado, the Laramie representing the
Front Range and the Medicine Bow the
north end of one of the inner ranges of the
Rocky Mountains. The basin was formed

by the warping and tilting of the rocks
during the several periods of upheaval,
and has later been modified by erosion.
The Big Hollow, a depression in the gen-
eral basin a few miles west of Laramie, is
9 miles long, 3 miles wide, and 200 feet
deep. Other similar depressions are Big
Basin, northwest of Laramie, Cocper Lake
Basin, and many smaller hollows occu-
pied by alkali lakes. The basin is partly
drained by Laramie River, which crosses
the Laramie Mountains through a deep
ravine and finally joins North Platte
River.

46

GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES.

part of the Forelle formation. The most extensive gypsum deposits
of this region occur at Red Mountain, 25 miles farther southwest.

Other natural products of commercial importance in this region are
volcanic ash/ bentonite,^ and soda.^

On the track used by eastbound trains between Laramie and

Hermosa is a station called Colores, from the highly colored rocks of

the Carboniferous formations that are exposed near

Colores. " ]^j The eastbound trains pass over these red rocks

Elevation 7,637 feet, for about 10 miles. The rocks contain water under

Omaha 560 miles. -, , • • p ,-i

pressure, and many large springs issue from them
along the foothills. A spring near Colores furnishes water to fill
a 4-inch pipe. Another spring east of Laramie furnishes the city
supply — 3,000,000 gallons a day. About 4 miles south of the city
spring there is another large spring, which supplies a fish hatchery.

Toward the southwest, across the Laramie Basin, good views are
obtained of the Medicine Bow Mountains, which constitute the north
end of one of the main ranges of the southern Rocky Mountains and
are so high that they are covered with snow during much of the year.
Jelm Mountain, the nearest of this group, is a mass of ancient schist

'Beds of volcanic ash occur about 4
miles south of Red Buttes. They are
reminders of the volcanoes that were
formerly so active in the Rocky Mountain
region, but the location of the particular
volcanoes that furnished tliis ash is not
known. The material is pure white, soft,
and fine grained. It occurs in beds that
are comparatively young — that is. Ter-
tiary or Quaternary. (See table on p. 2.)
Volcanic ash is sometimes used as an
abrasive, for scouring, polishing, or clean-
ing kitchen ware and other articles.

- About 6 miles west of Red Buttes, on
the northwest shore of Creighton Lake, is
a bed of bentonite, 3 or 4 feet thick,
which appears as a white band in the
black Benton shale, from which bentonite
derives its name. Bentonite is a variety of
clay used chiefly to give body and weight
to paper, but to some extent in a dressing
for inflamed hoofs of horses, in antiphlo-
gistine (a proprietary remedial dressing),
and as an adulterant of candies and drugs.
It has notable powers of absorption, tak-
ing up about seven times its own volume
of water. It absorbs twice as much
glycerine as can be absorbed by diatoma-
ceous earth, and for this reason has been
suggested as a substitute for that material

in the manufacture of dynamite. Other
beds of bentonite occur farther west. It
was first mined in this region in 1888, but
with the closing of the western paper
mills in 1905 its production practically
stopped.

^ Soda lakes occur near the Union Pa-
cific Hne in Laramie Basin and at many
places farther west. The waters of these
lakes are strongly charged with sodiimi
sulphate, and along their edges lie thick
deposits of this salt that has been precip-
itated from the water. (See PL VIII, B,
p. 44.) Three of these deposits were
worked prior to 1895. The lakes lie in
depressions in Cretaceous shale that con-
tains a variety of salts, some of which were
derived from the sea water in which the
shale accumulated. Waters issuing as
springs from this shale take the salts into
solution, and rain falling on the surface of
the shale dissolves them and carries tliem
into the lakes. Water can escape from
the depressions only by evaporation, so
the salts accumulate in them. The soda
deposits near Laramie have received more
attention than any similar deposits in
Wyoming. They cover about 60 acres,
and the soda ranges in tliickness from
1 foot to 16 feet.

THE OVERLAND ROUTE COUNCIL BLUFFS TO OGDEN.

47

Laramie.

Elevation 7,145 feet
Population 8,237.
Omaha 573 miles.

and granite gneiss brought up by faults and contains some minerals
of special interest, among which are bismuth ores, allanite, and
sperrylite.^

Laramie is the second city in population in Wyoming and is the
center of large stock and manufacturing interests. The University
of Wyoming, including the State Agricultural College,
the School of Mines, the United States Experiment
Station, the Wyoming State Normal School, the
Wyoming State School of Music, and the University
Preparatory School, is located here. The city, as
well as the river, the mountain range, and the county, derives its
name from Fort Laramie, which stands at the mouth of Laramie
River. This most famous fort on the old Overland Trail was named
directly or indirectly for Jacques La Ramie, a French fur trader of
the early days. The old maps show the river as La Ramies Fork.
Stansbury, Sublette, Bonneville, Parkman, and many others have
described the old fort in its various stages from the small trading
outpost of a fur company to a L^nited States Army post.

Laramie was the home of Bill Nye, and here he founded the Boom-
erang, a journal of somewhat fitful existence, and wrote the articles
for the Cheyenne and Denver papers that brought him into promi-
nence as a humorist. It is w^orthy of notice that some 30 years ago
Nye and James Whitcomb Riley published a railway guide. ^^ What
this country needs," they say, '^is a railway guide w^hich shall not be
cursed by a plethora of facts or poisoned with information. In
other railway guides pleasing fancy, j^oesy, and literary beauty have
been tlirottled at the very threshold by a wild incontinence of facts,
figures, and references to meal stations. For this reason a guide
has been built at our own shops and on a new plan. It will not
permit information to creep in and mar the reader's enjoyment of
the scenery."

The city of Laramie rests on the red beds of the Chugwater forma-
tion, which may be seen at several places north of Red Buttes and
are conspicuously exposed just north of the city. Cement plaster is

^ Bismuth, which is used extensively
in the manufacture of drugs and of alloys
that melt at low temperatures, occurs in
Jelm Mountain in the form of carbonate
and oxide. Sperrj'lite, or platinum arse-
nide (PtAsg), has been found at Centen-
nial, near Jelm Mountain. It is very
rare, and this is the only place where it
occurs in quantity so large that serious
attempts have been made to work it for
platinum. At Albany, in this same
region, is found allanite, a black mineral

containing cerium, yttrium, thorium, and
other rare elements. In some places the
ore is nearly pure allanite; in others it
contains numerous impurities. Cerium,
which is now obtained as a by-product
in the reduction of thorium from mona-
zite, is alloyed with iron to make the
"sparker" in the modem "flint and
steel" mechanisms used as gas lighters.
Cerium oxide is used sparingly in glass
making to produce clear glass free from
any greenish tint.

48

GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES.

Howell.

manufactured from an impure gypsum known locally as gypsite/
which occurs near the city. Pressed brick are made from the
Benton shale for constructing buildings in the city and elsewhere.
Beyond Laramie is the station Bona.

The red beds of the Chugwater formation extend as far north of
Laramie as Howell, although for most of this distance they are not
visible, being covered with beds of gravel. West
of Laramie is a low ridge where the Morrison (see
fZ^t^o'^iT- PP; 41. 42) and Cloverly formations are exposed. The
railroad passes over them just north of Howell, but
they are covered with surface debris and can not be seen from
the train. About 2 miles north of Howell and also at Wyoming
the traveler passes through deep cuts in the Benton shale.^

From Wyoming station the train passes northward over the
Niobrara limestone, which, however, near the track is covered with
beds of sand and gravel. Outcrops of it appear as
light-colored bands southwest of the station on both
sides of the river. Northwest of this station the
road crosses a thick deposit of marine shale of middle
Upper Cretaceous age, but the shale is here covered
with the alluvial deposits of Laramie Valley.

At many places in this region during the summer there are large
fields of gorgeously colored wild flowers. In some places the plain
is colored red with the blossoms of a variety of loco weed, which is
poisonous to horses, and in others large areas are covered with the
deep-blue blossoms of the larkspur. Evening primroses are also

Wyoming.

Elevation 7,138 feet
Population 194.*
Omaha 584 miles.

^ Gypsite is finely divided gypsum
mixed with other matter, which does not
interfere with its use for cement plaster.
It is baked in ovens, its calcium sulphate
remaining as a dry powder, which is
mixed with water in plastering and then
becomes hard.

2 The Benton formation in Nebraska
consists of three members, two of shale
and one of limestone, which are recog-
nizable as far west as the east slope of the
Laramie Mountains. West of the moun-
tains the limestone is represented by shale
indistinguishable from the other mem-
bers. Near the base of the Benton on both
sides of the mountains there is a hard
sandy shale, called the Mowry, which
weathers almost white and which con-
tains numerous fish scales. Higher in
the Benton is a sandstone, about 50 feet
thick in the Laramie Basin, which seems

to correspond to the Frontier formation of
localities farther west. At some places
indications of oil have been found in this
sandstone.

In general there is no material differ-
ence in the Benton on opposite sides of the
Laramie Mountains, either in physical
character or in age, so that it is believed
that when these beds were formed the
Laramie Mountains did not exist and
that the sea in which the sediments
accumulated extended uninterruptedly
over the area now occupied by the
mountains. Some differences in nomen-
clature result from the fact that two
standard geologic sections have come into
use — one for the general region east of the
mountains and the other for the region
west of them. (See p. 41.) The Laramie
Basin is in the transition zone between
the two regions.

THE OVERLAND ROUTE COUNCIL BLUFFS TO OGDEN. 49

abundant, but they seem to prefer the gravelly slopes at the side of
the road.

For a few miles north of Laramie the train follows more or less
closely Laramie River, here a placid meandering stream. Not many
miles farther down its course, to the north, the river has cut squarely
across the main Laramie Range, below which it flows out into the
Great Plains country and empties into the North Platte. A large
storage reservoir has been built near the mountains, and here the
flood waters of the river are stored to irrigate the Wheatland tract,
east of the mountains. This irrigation project was put through
under the Carey Act by its author, ex-Senator Carey, later governor
of Wyoming. Mr. Carey showed that he not only could draft a law
but could operate under it, for the Wheatland project is said to be
very successful.

Just after crossing Laramie River, before reaching Bosler, the
route leaves the marine Cretaceous shale and enters an area underlain
by the sandstone of the Mesaverde, a coal-bearing
Bosler. formation of Upper Cretaceous age. The Mesaverde

Elevation 7,077 feet, is of gTcat ccouomic importance west of the Rocky
otmihf 592 miles. Mouutaius bccause it contains valuable beds of coal.
This sandstone near Bosler is soft and has disinte-
grated so deeply that its character can not be readily discerned from
the train. It is well exposed, however, at many places a little farther
west.

Near the station of Cooper Lake a small alkali lake surrounded

with white incrustations of sodium carbonate is visible near the

track, but Cooper Lake itself can be seen only from a

Cooper Lake. point several miles west of the station. This lake

Elevation 7,031 feet, ^g about 4 milcs lonff and 2 miles wide and occupies

Omaha 597 miles. ii /•! • tm

the lowest part oi a broad depression. Like many
of the smaller lakes of the Laramie Basin it has no outlet, and the
considerable quantities of water entering it through the two creeks
that head in the Medicine Bow Mountains to the south escape only by
evaporation. For this reason the size of the lake is variable, depend-
ing on the balance between rainfall and evaporation.

From Lookout station westward to Medicine Bow the railroad is
relatively new. The road was originally built north of the line now

operated, crossing Rock River about 10 miles north-
Lookout, gg^g^ q£ ^YiQ present crossing and following that river
Elevation 7,120 feet, j^orth of Como Bluff to Mcdicinc Bow. The new route

Omaha 600 miles. it

shortens the line 20 miles.
The station at Lookout is built on a sandstone that lies uncon-
formably on the Mesaverde. About a mile west of the station this
rock is exposed in railroad cuts and consists of soft yellow sandstone

38088°— Bull. 612—16 4 .

50

GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES.

containing pebbles of quartz and other varieties of hard rock ranging
from grains of sand to pebbles 2 inches in diameter. In a cut about
IJ miles east of Harper this conglomeratic sandstone ^ (see fig. 8)
rests with uneven base — that is, unconformably — on a yellow shaly
sandstone that contains marine shells.

The section house called Harper (see sheet 10, p. 62) is built on a
sandy shale in which have been found numerous fossil shells of
Cretaceous marine moUusks. In the deep rock cut
just west of the station may be seen a bed of coal
about 3 feet 6 inches thick. This coal thickens
toward the southwest, where it has been mined to
some extent for local use.

Harper.

Elevation 7,073 feet
Omaha 606 miles.

''. ..^ .•'•~..;~.."\-"'.ii:~

^;^^%^V ■■■■■ -v.,,:' :\r.

g;;^.„;QSM^a^^SS^^i^

Figure 8.— An unconformity in a railroad cut about 4 miles west of Lookout, Wyo., showing con-
glomeratic sandstone (A) of Tertiary age resting on marine shaly sandstone (B) of Cretaceous age.

Pine Ridge, so named because of a few scrubby pifions, or nut
pines, that grow on the sandstone cliffs, consists of a light-gray chff-
making sandstone that forms a prominent northward-facing ledge
and belongs near the base of the Mesaverde formation. West of the
cut are two prominent ridges formed by large reddish-brown lime-
stone concretions that contain great nxmibers of marine sheUs.
These are in the transition beds between typical Steele shale and the

1 The conglomerate contains near the
base sandstone concretions in which
have been found fossil plants that seem
to indicate Tertiary age, although these
rocks have usually been regarded as a part
of the Montana group of the Upper Creta-
ceous. These plants indicate that here,
as elsewhere in this region, Tertiary beds

lie unconformably on older rocks. The
significance of this relation is discussed in
the footnote on p. 2 and also in the foot-
note on p. 42. The conglomerate caps the
hill south of Harper station, where it
rests on rocks containing marine shells,
but the contact is not easily determined
owing to surface debris.

BULLETIN 612

SHEET No. 9

GEOLOGIC AND TOPOGRAPHIC MAP

OF THE

OVERLAND ROUTE

From Omaha, Nebraska, to San Francisco, California

Base complied from United States Geological Survey Atlas Sheets,
from railroad alignments and profiles supplied by the Union Paolfle
Railroad Company and the Southern Pacific Company and from addi-
tional information collected with the assistance of these companies

UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY

GKORGK OTIS SMITH, DIRECTOR
David White, Chief Geologist R. B. Marshall, Chief Geographer

1915

EXPLANATION

Thickness
in feet

r Sand, gravel, and clay; fresh- water deposits

' (Arikaree and GeiinK formations)

I Sandy clay; fresh-water deposit (Brule clay)

1^ Sand and Kravel; fresh-wat<rr deposit (Cliadron formation)

Sandstone, conglomerate, shale, and coal;
B fresh-water deposits ("Upper Laramie" and younger

formations)

Sandstone; marine deposi t ( Fox Hills sandstone east of Slierman )
C ■<! Sandstone, shale, and coal; marine and brackish water
deiH)sits (Mesaverde formation west of Sherman )

l-25ol

25t)r

t - lOOj

2,000

Tertiary

possibly including;
some Cretaceous

i Shale; marine deposit ( Pierre shale east of Sherman ) .'■),000
Shale; marine deposit (Steele shale west of Sherman ) 2,500 - a, 000

Limestone and shale; marine deposits (iJiobrara limestone^ 325 - 400

Shale; marine deposit (Benton shale; 700-1.000

Sandstone and shale, probably includes equivalents of Dakota
E sandstone, Fuson formation, and Ukota sandstone; fresh

and brackish water deposits (Cloverly formation) 70- 100

F Sandstoneandshalefresh-waterdeposit'Morrison formation) 1,50-200 Jui-a.ssicorCreUceous
G Sandstone and shale: marine deposit (Sundance formation) 30-60 Jura.ssic

H Red sandstone, shale, and gypsum; fresh or brackish
water deposits ( Chugwater formation)

(Limestone; marine deposit (Forelle limestone;
Sandy shale and gypsum; marine or brackish water
deposits (Satanka shale)
Limestone and red sandstone; marine deposits
(Casper formation ,i

Triassic c
1.100 Permian

0-201
0-23oi- Carbonifer

soo-i.oooj

ePh Fe

WYOMING

J Granite. gneis.s. schist, igneous rocks (mainly Sherman granite

COLORADO

THE OVERLAND ROUTE COUNCIL BLUFFS TO OGDEN. 51

massive sandstone of the Mesaverde formation that hes on it. These
transition rocks become gradually more sandy toward the west, and
west of Rawhns they form a part of the Mesaverde formation.

Pine Ridge is the divide between the Laramie River drainage and
that of Rock River. The waters of its eastern slope pass eastward
through the Laramie Mountains and enter Platte River at Fort
Laramie, 80 miles to the northeast. Those of the western slope flow
throusfh Rock River and Medicine Bow River to the Platte and thence
through the Seminoe Mountains around the north end of the Laramie
Mountains and after a circuitous route of about 250 miles join those
of the eastern slope at Fort Laramie.

Just before reaching Rock River station the train crosses the river

of the same name, and good exposures of the Steele

Rock River. shale may be seen in the bluffs in the north bank.

Elevation 6,904 feet. Northwest of the towu the railroad passes over a

Omaha 612 miles. broad plain formed on this soft shale.

About 10 miles from Rock River the road crosses a
low, sharp hogback of Niobrara limestone. This chalky-white bed,
5 to 10 feet thick, forms a crest because it is harder than the shale
above and below it.

Ridge takes its name from the prominent hogback ridge north of
the station, formed by a hard sandstone in the Benton shale. The
railroad parallels this ridge for a mile or more and then
Ridge. (j^^g through it west of the station. The lower part of

Elevation 6,692 feet, the Bcutou shalc is wcU cxposcd uorth of this sand-
stone ridge, in the center of the anticline formed by
the arching of the strata. The route traverses this shale for about
a mile before recrossing the sandstone and the Niobrara limestone and
finally returns to the Steele shale in the northern limb of the arch.
Near Ridge the sandstone disappears because the fold that extends
westward from the Laramie Range here plunges beneath the surface.
Como Bluff, which lies north of Ridge station and which constitutes
a part of this fold, consists of the Cloverly formation, the lower con-
glomeratic portion of which forms the crest of the bluff because of its
superior hardness and forms also the long southward slope seen to the
right from the train. Underneath this conglomerate occur in descend-
ing order the pink and blue shales of the Morrison formation, which,
because of the numerous shades of color, are often called the variegated
beds; the Sundance formation, containing numerous vertebrate and
invertebrate fossils which prove its Jurassic age; and the Chugwater
red beds.

The Morrison formation is probably the most interesting of those
exposed here, because of the fossil bones of huge reptiles that it con-
tains. The dinosaurs are described below by C. W. Gilmore, of the

52

GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES.

United States National Museum.^ The largest animals that have
ever been found lived at a time when reptiles were the ruling types
of animals in the sea, on the land, and in the air. Flying reptiles

^ Como Bluff is classic ground to those
interested in the fossil remains of animals
that inhabited this region long ages ago,
for it was here that the first dinosaur bones
were discovered in the Rocky Mountain
region. In 1876 Mr. W. H. Reed, now a
professor in the University of Wyoming
but then in the employ of the Union Pa-
cific Co., found in the bluff above the now
abandoned station of Aurora a large petri-
fied limb bone, which he sent to Prof.
O. C, Marsh, of Yale University. Prof.
Marsh at once recognized the fossil as be-
longing to some unknown extinct animal
and immediately enlisted the services of
Mr. Reed. Collecting was actively car-
ried on here for a period of ten years or
more, and as a result of this work Prof.
Marsh was able to publish the remarkable
series of restorations of dinosaurs which
appeared from time to time in several
publications.

So famous did these fossils become that
in 1899 the officials of the Union Pacific
Railroad invited the geologists of the
country to visit the places where the
bones were found. An expedition con-
sisting of geologists from universities and
museums in many parts of the United
States visited Como Bluff, the Freeze-
out Hills, and other famous fossil locali-
ties. So well known are the bone beds at
Como Bluff that some have called the beds
the Como formation. However, in the
same formation at Morrison. Colo., simi-
lar bones were found, and the formation
was named Morrison — a name which is
now generally accepted. Some of the
dinosaurs were the largest land animals
that ever walked the earth, and some
were very diminutive. They differed
greatly in size, shape, structure, and
habits. Some were plant eaters; others
fed on flesh. Some walked on four feet;
others with small, weak fore limbs walked
entirely upon the strongly developed hind
legs. Some had reptUe-like feet; others
were bird footed. Some had toes pro-
vided with long, sharp claws; others had
flattened hoof-like nails. There were di-

nosaurs with small heads and others with
large heads. Some were large and cum-
bersome; others were small, light, and
graceful and so much resembled birds in
their structure that only the skilled
anatomist can distinguish their remains.
Some of enormous size were clad in coats
of bony armor, which gave them a most
bizarre appearance.

The largest herbivorous or plant-eating
dinosaur whose fossil remains have been
found in Como Bluff was the huge Bron-
tosaurus, or thunder lizard, as it was
called by Prof. Marsh. It was 70 feet
long, stood 16 feet high at the hips, and
had a long tail, an equally long neck, and
a head that was only a little larger than
that of a horse . The weight of such a crea-
ture has been variously estimated at 18 to
20 tons. This animal doubtless lived on
the luxuriant tropical vegetation, but how
its enormous bulk could be sustained by
such food as could pass through its ridic-
ulously small mouth has caused much
wonder. It is not certain whether the
name thunder lizard was given to it be-
cause of its size or because of the large
sum— over $10,000- which Prof. Marsh
spent in excavating and preparing it.

Some dinosaurs that are even larger
than the brontosaur have been found
more recently. A Diplodocus now in the
Carnegie Museum in Pittsburgh had the
enormous length of 84^ feet. The size of
the fossil bones is indicated in the accom-
panying figure 9.

At the time these animals flourished the
Rocky Mountain region was a low, nearly
level country, covered with tropical vege-
tation, with many wide, shallow streams
and swampy areas, thus furnishing a con-
genial place for these sluggish swamp-
inhabiting creatures to wade lazily about
or float in the water, for it has been
deemed improbable that the enormous
bulk of some of them could be sustained
without lateral support such as would be
obtained in water.

One of the most striking of the vegeta-
rians of this period was the Stegosaurus,

U. S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY

DULLETIN 612 PLATE X

.1. AN ARMORED DINOSAUR (STEGOSAURUS).
The bones of this animal, which was about 1 0 feet high, were found in the Morrison formation.

/' ///v/y

B. A CARNIVOROUS DINOSAUR (ALLOSAURUS) PREYING ON ONE OF THE HERBIVOROUS

DINOSAURS.

U. S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEV

Bulletin 6t2 plate xi

A. A HORNED TOAD (PHRYNOSOMA CORNUTUM).

A modern lizard about 3 inches long tliat is armed like some of the ancient dinosaurs. Horned toads are dis-
tributed generally over western North America and are especially abundant on the dry sandy plains.

B. THE LAST OF THE DINOSAURS.

This restoration illustrates the appearance of Triceratops, showing the great bony frill over the reptile's neck.
From painting by C. R. Knight, made under the direction of J. B. Hatcher.

THE OVERLAND ROUTE COUNCIL BLUFFS TO OGDEN.

53

similar to the one represented in Plate V, C (p. 21), were common,
and the birds were so much like the reptiles that their remains can
scarcely be distinguished.

or plated lizard, so named because of the
bony plates and spinen with which its
back was adorned. (SeePl. X,^.) Some
of these plates, although very thin, were
from 2 to 3 feet in diameter. They were
held in upright position in two parallel
rows on each side of the middle region of
the back, extending from the base of the
skull well down on the tail, the tip of

may not have required other means of pro-
tection. Some passive protection, through
repulsive ugliness or otherwise, seems to
have been necessary, for its ludicrously
diminutive brain suggests a mentality in-
sufficient for conscious efforts at self-
preservation. The want of brain capacity
was compensated to some extent by an
enlargement of the spinal cord near the

Figure 9. — Leg bones of a dinosaur, showing size in comparison with that of a man.

which was armed wHth two pairs of long
bony spines. In some individuals these
spines were over 3 fee t in length . All the
plates and spines during life were covered
by a thick, horny skin. The stegosaurs
were about 20 feet long and stood about
10 feet high at the hips. The head w^as
extremely small and lizard-like in shape,
with a small brain, large eyes, and nos-
trils that indicate a considerable power of
smell. The great disproportion in length
between the fore and hind legs, the small
pointed head, and the skin ornaments of
plates and spines, made it so ugly that it

hips that was about ten times as large as
the brain.

The. life of these peaceable plant-feed-
ing animals, however, was not always
serene, for there lived at the same time
dinoscturs whose powerful jaws armed with
long, sharp teeth indicate that then* food
was flesh. These animals are called allo-
saurs. (SeePl.X.5.) That they fed upon
large brontosaurs and smaller animals of
their kind is indicated by the discovery
of teeth of the carnivorous species to-
gether with the bones of their herbivorous
contemporaries and of a skeleton of one

54 GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES.

The stratified rocks in this region have been greatly affected by
the disturbances that formed the mountains surrounding it. The
region lies between the Laramie Mountain uplift on the east, the
Medicine Bow uplift on the south, and the Seminoe and Shirley
mountain uphft on the north. The strata between these mountains
have been thrown into a series of folds and domelike arches, and in
some localities profoundly displaced. A small dome that brings to
the surface the Morrison and younger formations lies south of the
railroad, but can not be recognized from the train.

The little town of Medicine Bow is well known to readers of Owen

Wister's '^Virginian" as one of the places where the cowboys played

their laughable pranks, and the name of the novel

Medicine Bow. j^^g ^^^^ ^^^^^ ^^ ^^^ j^^^^l ^^^^ ^^le station. The

Elevation 6,560 feet, name Mcdiciue Bow is of Indian derivation, but

Population 127. . • n

Omaha 630 miles. how it Came to be applied to the mountains from
which the town takes its name is not certainly known.
It is known, however, that some of the tribes annually visited the
mountains that now bear this name to procure a certain kind of wood
for their bows. In Indian talk anything that serves its purpose weU
is '^good medicine," and according to report the mountains and
streams where this timber was found became known as places where
'^good-medicine bows" were obtained.

The Flattop uplift, north of Medicine Bow, is a large, irregular-
shaped dome, truncated by erosion and broken or faulted, as it is
called, on the northwest side since it was formed. Carboniferous rocks
appear at the surface in the center, and around these the younger
formations crop out in concentric rings. The Freezeout Hills form a
similar dome but expose granite in the center. Some of the smaller
domics from whose crests the Cretaceous formations have not been
removed by erosion may contain important oil pools.

The town of Medicine Bow is on a rolling plain formed by the erosion
of the Steele shale. In this plain are numerous depressions in which
water accumulates in wet weather, and as they have no outlet the
water becomes alkahne, because it takes up the salts dissolved from the
shale and left in the basins when the water previously collected there
evaporated. These basins are similar to the alkali lakes of the Laramie
Basin and are formed on the surface of the same shale formation. Such
intermittent lakes are found in many places in Wyoming.

of the herbivorous dinosaurs with bones
scarred with tooth marks and grooves cor-
responding exactly to the sharp, pointed
teeth of the allosaurs. The accompany-
ing picture (PI. X, B) depicts the rem-
nants of such a prehistoric feast.

The allosaur was a most powerful ani-
mal, and skeletons over 20 feet long have

been found. The large bones of the limbs
were hollow, as were many other parts of
the skeleton, this structure affording
greater power of rapid movement. The
feet were armed with long, sharp claws,
especially the fore feet, wliich were well
adapted for catching and holding prey or
for tearing and rending skin and flesh.

THE OVERLAND ROUTE COUNCIL BLUFFS TO OGDEN. 55

At Allen station, which is only a section house, the railroad passes
from the Steele shale to the Mesaverde formation, which is here
upturned and dips steeply toward the west. The
^**®"- softer layers, consisting of loose-textured sandstone

Elevation 0,601 feet, ^ud shalc, have been eroded, leaving the harder layers
to form sharp-crested ridges that are prominent along
the road for a distance of about 4 miles west of Allen. The Mesaverde
here has its full thickness, whereas at Pine Ridge the upper part had
been eroded away before the Tertiary beds were laid down upon it.

Although the Mesaverde farther west is an important coal-bearing
formation, Httle coal occurs in it here. A few thin seams less than afoot
thick crop out near the road, but none of economic value have been
found. The formation is characterized by two zones of hard sand-
stone separated by softer beds of shale containing fossil oysters and
other shells of marine and brackish-water origin. These softer rocks
have been eroded to form the depression which was crossed about 2
miles west of Allen, and wliich contains, north of the track, a small
lake fed by sulphur springs at its west end.

From the crested ridges of the Mesaverde formation the traveler
passes westward over a relatively smooth surface formed on the Lewis
shale. Tho Lewis is a marine shale, somewhat sandy in places, and
contains hmestone concretions and great numbers of fossil shells, which
belong to the Pierre fauna and indicate L^pper Cretaceous age.

Como is a section house on the new cut-off between Allen and Dana.

The original line, now abandoned, was built by way of Carbon, 4 miles

south of Como. The new line not only shortens the

^^^' distance and eliminates sharp curves and heavy

ol^a639^iSilf^* grades but passes through Hanna, the center of an

important coal-mining district. At Como the road

is built through a small lake about a mile long, in which are found

great numbers of salamanders that grow to be nearly a foot in length

and are locally known as ''fish with legs." These salamanders are

rather common in southwestern United States and in Mexico, where

they are used as food. The Mexican name for them is axolotl and

the scientific name is Amhlystoma mavortium.

About a mile east of Como the road passes from the Lewis shale to
a younger formation, called "Lower Laramie," consisting of soft,
easily eroded sandstone and shale containing fossil plants and shells
of fresh-water invertebrates. West of the section house may be seen
the yellow sandstones of the lower part of the ''Upper Laramie" over-
lain unconformably by terrace gravels. From this locality westward
for 5 miles the road is built on conglomerate, which is well exposed
in a prominent hiU to the left (south) of the track. It reaches the
coal-bearing portion of the "Upper Laramie" in the Hanna Basin, a
depression formed by mountain uplifts at the beginning of the Ter-
tiary period and filled with conglomerate, sandstone, and coal-bearing
shale. (See table on p. 56.)

56

GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES.

Succession and character of the formations exposed in the Hanna coalfield, between Como

and Fort Steele, Wyo.

System.

Formation.

Thick-
ness (feet).

Character.

Economic features.

Tertiary
(possibly
includes
some Cre-
taceous).

"Upper Lar-
amie" for-
mation.

10, 000?

Alternating beds of shale
and sandstone, of drab,
gray, and yellow col-
ors. The sandstone is
conglomeratic at the
base and in a zone
about 7,000 feet above
the base. The peb-
bles of these conglom-
erates represent older
rocks, now exposed in
the mountains sur-
rounding the basin.
The formation con-
tains well-preserved
fossil plants, shells of
fresh-water animals,
and in the lower part,
bones of huge dino-
saurs.

The most produc-
tive coal formation
in this coal field.
The coal beds are
in places 30 feet in
thickness but are
commonly from 5
to 10 feet thick.

•

"Lower
Laramie"
formation.

C, 200-h

Drab and gray shale, al-
ternating with brown
to gray sandstone.
Fossil plants, shells of
fresh and brackish
water invertebrates
(also marine shells in
the lower part), and
bones of turtles, dino-
saurs, and other ani-
mals occur in these
rocks.

Contains several thin
irregular beds of
coal, but none of
them are now
mined.

Cretaceous.

Lewis shale.

3, 200+

Dark-gray shale with
intercalated sandy
beds. The fossils in
this formation consist
entirely of marine
shells.

Mesaverde
formation.

2, 700+

White to brown sand-
stone and drab shale.
Marine shells and the
marine plant Haly-
menites major occur in
the lower part, and
fresh and brackish
water shells in the
upper part.

Contains a few thin
irregular coal beds
of little economic
value.

Steele shale.

3, 000+

Drab shale and thin beds
of sandstone. Con-
tains marine fossils;
ridge - making sand-
stone layers near the
top.

THE OVERLAND ROUTE COUNCIL BLUFFS TO OGDEN. 57

Hanna is a coal-mining town in the south-central part of the
Hanna Basin. Two beds of coal are worked here, one 24 feet and
the other 36 feet thick, according to the mine super-
Hanna. intendent. They are separated by about 1,500 feet

Elevation 6,769 feet, of strata in which ouc coal bed 18 feet thick has
omrha^65oiiiet been opened and several thinner ones are known to
occur. There are other coal beds below the lower or
36-foot bed that will be valuable sometime, but nothing has yet been
done toward developing them.

Coal was discovered in this region by Fremont in 1843 on Platte
River. The beds were opened there in 1856 and some of the coal
was used in a forge. From 1862 until the Union Pacific Railroad was
built these openings supplied coal for emigrants and for the Overland
Stage Co. The presence of coal here was one of the reasons why the
Union Pacific was built along the southern branch of the Overland
Trail rather than along the northern branch up Platte River and
over South Pass. Production of coal for the railroad bogan at Carbon
in 1868, after the completion of the railroad westward to this point,
and the coal of this field has furnished power for operating the road
ever since that time.

The mines at Hanna were opened in 1890. Until 1902 this to^n
was reached by a branch line, and Carbon, 10 miles to the southeast,
furnished much of the coal for the road. But when the main line was
diverted to pass through Hanna the town of Carbon was deserted
and the mines there were closed.

The higher coal bed at Threetown, east of Hanna, lies rather close
to the surface, and the falling of the roof in the abandoned parts of
the mine makes bad surface sinks. One such hole about 150 feet
across may be seen to the right, on the north side of the track, south
of Threetown.

Hanna has a daily coal output averaging about 2,500 tons. The
coal is subbituminous and is rather light and free burning. Under
the forced draft of the locomotives cinders are throwTi out and start
numerous fnes along the track. Burning grass and smoking ties are
familiar sights along this part of the route, and even station buildings
are sometimes set on fire. It is estimated that 500 square miles in
this basin is underlain by coal and that 33,000,000,000 tons of coal is
available for mining.

West of Hanna are several deep cuts in which the coal-bearing
rocks may be seen to advantage. Conglomeratic sandstones which
appear in two of these cuts dip eastward under the coal beds mined
at Hanna. Farther west and lower in the formation there are a great
number of coal beds, many of them thick enough to be of value for
mining. These are all inclined about 20° toward the center of the
basin and are warped and faulted in some places. The rocks here

58

GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES.

contain many fossils, including impressions of leaves, shells of fresh-
water clams and snails, and bones of dinosaurs, described below by
C. W. Gilmore.^ These fossils indicate a period of transition between
the old Cretaceous life, in which reptiles were the dominant forms,
and the newer Tertiary life, in which the mammals, the familiar
class of vertebrates of the present time, predominated. The dino-
saurs found here are the last known representatives of their type,
and the mammals are primitive and inconspicuous. The plants,
however, are of types not greatly variant from those of the present
time, although the species are all different.

^ Dinosaur bones belonging to the genus
Triceratops (which means "three-horned
face"), so named in allusion to the three
horns with which the skull is armed, are
found in the coal-bearing rocks of the
Hanna Basin and other formations of the
same age. Over each eye was a massive
horn directed forward and terminating in
a long, sharp point, and the nose usually
bore a third but much smaller horn . (See
PI. XI, B, p. 53.) A mounted skeleton
of a Triceratops in the National Museum
at Washington is about 20 feet long and
stands 8 feet high at the hips. Some
skulls that have been found measure
more than 8 feet, over one-third the
length of the entire animal. This great
length of head is due largely to the
remarkably bony development called the
frill, which projects backward over the
neck like a fireman's helmet.

That Triceratops, although a plant
eater, was a fighter and often engaged in
combat appears to be shown by the
broken and healed bones that have been
found. A pair of horns in the National
Museum bear witness to such an en-
counter. One of them has been broken
and has healed to a rounded stump.
Although Triceratops had an enormous
head, it had a smaller brain in proportion
to its size than the least intelligent land
animal of the present time. In the
earlier restorations of this animal as
shown in the accompanying picture its
skin, has been represented as being
smooth and leathery, but a recently
discovered specimen, in which impres-
sions of the skin are preserved, shows
that it was made up of a series of hexag-
onal scales of various sizes.

Triceratops probably lived on leaves
and branches of low trees or shrubs. At
the time these animals existed, this part
of the country was covered with vast
swamps in which peat accumulated and
wide watercourses that were constantly
shifting their channels, the region pre-
senting an appearance similar to that of
the Everglades of Florida. Where the
waters were not too deep the region must
have been covered by luxuriant vegeta-
tion and was inhabited by great numbers
of the huge dinosaurs, as well as by
smaller crocodiles, alligators, turtles, and
diminutive mammals, all of whose fossil
remains are now found embedded in the
deposits of that time.

Contemporary with the Triceratops
was a great duck-billed reptile related
to Trachodon, which was the commonest
dinosaur of an earlier period. An aver-
age-sized individual measured 30 feet
from the tip of its nose to the end of its
tail, and as it walked erect on its huge
three-toed hind feet the top of the head
was 12 or 15 feet above the ground.
The head was nearly a yard in length,
and the fore part of the skull was
expanded to form a broad beak that v/as
covered with a horny sheath, as in birds
and turtles. This was admirably suited
to the pulling up of the rushes and other
water plants that constituted the food of
this great creature. These trachodont
reptiles lived in the swamps and rivers.
The webbed fingers of the fore foot indi-
cate swimming ability, and the long,
deep, compressed tail must have been
an efficient swimming organ, and was
also useful as a counterbalance to the
weight of the body when the animal

THE OVERLAND ROUTE COUNCIL BLUFFS TO OGDEN.

59

Percy.

Elevatiou 6,932 feet
Omaha 655 miles.

East of Percy the train enters a cut 65 feet deep and 1^ mijes
long through beds of coal, carbonaceous shale, and sandstone. It
is reported that the coal taken up here by the steam
shovel was used in the engine and furnished the
power for making the cut. The best bed thus
exposed contains coal 8 feet thick.
Elk Mountain, which is visible from many points on the route,
is seen to best advantage to the left (south) from Percy station.
This great mountain of granite, conical in form and 7 miles in
diameter at its base (PI. XII, B), rises to an altitude of 11,162 feet
and is at the north extremity of the Medicine Bow Range. To
the west of it is a relatively small peak, of irregular outline caUed
Sheephead Mountain. Farther southwest can be distinguished on
a clear day the Sierra Madre, near the northern boundary of Colorado.
About 1 i miles west of Dana the traveler passes from the rocks of
the ''Upper Laramie" to those of the underlying ''Lower Laramie"
formation, but the change is inconspicuous from the
train because the rocks are obscured by surface
material near the road. The "Lower Laramie" con-
sists of sedimentary rocks more than 6,000 feet thick,
mainly coarse-grained sandstone, in which are a few thin beds of coaL

Dana.

Elevation 6,782 feet
Omaha 659 miles.

walked on its hind legs. From speci-
mens showing impressions of the skin it
is known that the animal was covered
with an epidermis made up of tubercles,
or knoblike plates, of two sizes, the
larger ones predominating on the back
and sides. One of the most remarkable
features about this reptile was its mouth,
which was armed with 2,000 or more
separate teeth arranged in vertical rows.
Each jaw has from 45 to 60 rows and from
10 to 15 teeth in each vertical row.
These were self-adjusting, and as one
was lost or worn out another pushed up
to take its place.

As in Morrison time, so in the very-
much later Lance epoch there were
armored and flesh-eating reptiles, and
some of these were even more ugly than
their Morrison progenitors. Ankylosau-
rus was an armored dinosaur whose entire
back was covered by flattened ridged-
skin plates of bone. The animal was low
of stature, had a short, blunt head, and
carried on the end of its stout, heavy
tail a great triangular club of bone . Even
the eyes were pro\'ided with a cup-

shaped bony shutter, like the visor of a
helmet, which could be closed over the
eyeball, so that all the vulnerable parts
of this animated fortress were protected
by bony armor. The "horned toad,"
one of the small modern lizards of the
western plains, is not very different from
the armored dinosaurs except in size.
(See PL XI, A, p. 53.)

The most striking of the flesh-eating
dinosaurs was the Tyrannosaurus, or
tyrant lizard, the largest carnivorous
animal that ever lived on land. It was
40 feet in length, and when it stood
erect the top of its head was 18 to 20
feet above the ground. The fore limbs
were small, and it must have walked
entirely upon its powerful hind legs. A
perfect skull of this animal is exhibited
in the American Museum of Natural
History in New York City. The jawa
are 4 feet in length and bristle with
sharp-pointed teeth, several of which
project 6 inches from their sockets. It
is with a feeling of awe that one standing
before the huge head contemplates a
beast of such terrible ferocity.

60 GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES.

These rocks contain fossil plants and shells of fresh-water mollusks,
although brackish-water and marine fossils occur near their base.

Between Dana and Walcott the strata are bent up in one of the
great arches or anticlines of this much-disturbed region. Edson is

on the Lewis shale, but the beds of the North Park

formation (Tertiary) extend to the railroad from the
fZt^m^iIr'' south. A mile farther southwest, beyond a short

tunnel, is a deep cut through the crest of the St. Mary
anticline, which consists of the arched sandstone of the Mesaverde
formation. The crest of the ridge is formed of this sandstone, which
is harder and has therefore resisted erosion better than the shaly
beds that originally covered it.

South of the tunnel the train again crosses the Lewis shale and the
^^ Lower Laramie" formation before it reaches Walcott. The town

of Walcott is built on the North Park formation,
alcott. which here covers the older strata. This formation

Elevation 6,618 feet. ^^j^^g -^g ^^^^^ f^^^ js^^j.^^^ p^^.]^ q^Jo., where it
Omaha 669 miles. , , ' ^ '

occupies an extensive area and contains thick beds
of coal. From Walcott £i branch road runs south to Saratoga and
Encampment. Saratoga is on Platte River and is well known to
sportsmen for 'its hunting and fishing. Here are some hot sulphur
springs and a well that furnishes a mineral water sold under a dis-
tinctive name. Encampment, 43 miles south of Walcott, at the end
of the branch line, is the center of a copper-mining district which for-
merly produced considerable ore but is not now very active. This
district is in the Sierra Madre. Copper was discovered here in 1868,
but not until 1881 did the district become productive. Altogether it
has yielded over 20,000,000 pounds of copper. Gold, silver, and
other metals have been found in small quantities. The mines are
in crystalline and metamorphic rocks, of pre-Cambrian age, cut by
intrusive rocks, including gabbro, which is supposed to be the source
of the copper ore.

About 2 miles due north of Walcott is a prominent hiU known as
St. Mary Peak, which rises 7,496 feet above sea level. This peak and
the ridge extending northwestward from it are composed of upfolded
beds of the Mesaverde formation. The strata, during the process of
folding, were broken and thrust upon one another in such a way that
those east of the fracture were pushed up over those west of it, so
that certain beds of the Mesaverde formation now rest upon younger
beds that were originall}^ laid down on top of that formation.

Two miles west of Walcott the railroad leaves the nearly horizontal
beds of the North Park formation and reaches the steeply inclined
massive yellow sandstones of the Mesaverde formation, which are
carved by erosion into a great variety of forms. These sandstones
make a conspicuous ridge that extends northwestward for many

U. S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY

BULLETIN 612 PLATE XII

A. PLATTE RIVER AT FORT STEELE, WYO.
A characteristic view of tiie Cretaceous rocks in central Wyoming.

n. ELK MOUNTAIN, THE NORTH END OF THE MEDICINE BOW RANGE.

This nriountain nnay be seen during nearly 1 50 miles of the journey over the Union Pacific Railroad. Photograph
furnished by Union Pacific Railroad Co.

U. S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY

BULLETIN 612 PLATE XII

jgr-

^J^^.

-■■•'~<^^

^. GAP IN THE CAMBRIAN QUARTZITE THROUGH WHICH THE WESTBOUND TOURIST PASSES

AFTER LEAVING RAWLINS, WYO.

Sagebrush in the- foreground.

B. CHARACTERISTIC VIEW OF THE RED DESERT.

The plain is fornned on Tertiary beds and covered with sand and sagebrush. The distant buttes are capped with
harder beds, which have prevented the rain and wind from wearing thenn down to the general level of the
plain. Photograph furnished by Union Pacific Railroad Co.

THE OVERLAND ROUTE COUNCIL BLUFFS TO OGDEN.

61

Fort Steele.

Elevation 6,505 feet
Population 699.
Omaha 675 miles.

miles. The part of the ridge between Walcott and the point where
North Platte River crosses the formation is known as the Rattlesnake
Hills; the part north of the river is called the Haystack Hills.

Three miles east of Fort Steele the railroad leaves the Mesaverde
beds and reaches a formation which has been named the Steele shale/
from its occurrence here. This shale is the same as that which crops
out near Medicine Bow and extends westward from that place beneath
the coal-bearing rocks of the Hanna Basin.

The town of Fort Steele derives its name from Fort Fred Steele, an
army post established here in 1866 to guard the Union Pacific Rail-
road against Indians. At the time of the Meeker
massacre, in the early eighties, it was from Fort Fred
Steele that the unfortunate force commanded by Maj.
Thornburg was sent to put down the uprising. Maj.
Thornburg and most of his command never returned.
That any of them survived was due to the dispatch of a second expe-
dition from the -fort to their relief. There is little about the town
now to suggest the troublous Indian times. It serves as a place of
supply for sheep herders and for the farms scattered up and down
North Platte River wherever the vaUey is wide enough to be culti-
vated. The North Platte, from which the railroad diverged at the
city of North Platte, 291 miles west of Omaha, is reached again at
Fort Steele, 384 miles west of North Platte and 3,705 feet higher.

From its source in North Park, Colo., the North Platte foUows a
circuitous route to the north until it restches a point nearly halfway
across the State of Wyoming. In this part of its course it cuts through
the Seminoe Mountains and passes completely around the north end
of the Laramie Range. In the Seminoe Mountains the river has cut
some remarkably picturesque gorges. Across one of these the United
States Reclamation Service built the Pathfinder dam, 218 feet high,
creating a reservoir having a capacity of 1,100,000 acre-feet — that is,
enough water to cover that number of acres to a depth of 1 foot. In
this reservoir flood waters that formerly went to waste are stored, to
be released as needed to irrigate 130,000 acres in eastern Wyoming and
western Nebraska. This project, which is not yet completed, wiU
cost nearly $7,000,000.

To the left (south) as the train crosses the bridge over the North
Platte at Fort Steele may be seen a sawmiU which works timber cut
in the mountains and floated down the river. This mill produces
many railroad ties and mine props from timber grown in the Medi-
cine Bow and Hay den national forests.

^ The upper part of the Steele shale is
much more sandy near Fort Steele than
it is farther east, and several prominent

sandstones lie below the massive sand-
stone that is here mapped as the base of
the Mesaverde.

62

GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES.

North of Fort Steele the Rattlesnake Hills rise from the river level
by a series of escarpments, and about 2^ miles south of the town
there is another series of escarpments, composed also of the Mesa-
verde formation and the sandstones of the transition beds between
the Steele shale and the Mesaverde, which are illustrated in Plate
XII, A. If the traveler Avere to make an excursion to these two
ridges he would observe that the strata in the Rattlesnake Hills dip
toward the northeast, whereas those in the ridge south of Fort Steele
dip toward the south. If the strata of these two ridges were projected
upward along their dip till they met, they would form an arch whose
crest would be a little south of Fort Steele. As a matter of fact the
Mesaverde formation did at one time extend over such an arch.
When these beds were bent up by the development of the fold they
were probably fractured at its crest. Along this line of fracture the
hard sandstones were more easily eroded than elsewhere and were
finally cut through by the streams. The underlying soft shale was
then rapidly eroded along the crest of the fold, so that in time the
axis of the arch, which was originally a ridge, was reduced to a valley
bordered on either side by flaring walls of sandstone. This valley,
now several miles wide, is followed by the railroad from Fort Steele
to Rawlins.

The station at Grenville (see sheet 11, p. 68) is little more than a
pump house. Water from the wells that furnish the domestic sup-
ply for the town of Rawlins is not suitable for use
in locomotives because it contains mineral matter
that incrusts the boilers. Consequently water for
generating steam is pumped to Rawlins from North
Platte River at Fort Steele, a distance of 15 miles, with a lift of
236 feet.

Far to the north may be seen the Seminoe Mountains, named for
Seminoe Lajeunesse,^ a French trapper and fur trader. In plain

Grenville.

Elevation 6,580 feet
Omaha 683 miles.

^ It is said that Lajeunesse's real name
was Basil and that the name Seminoe
was corrupted from a French nickname,
*'Cimineau," although some reports have
it that Seminoe was the name given to
him by his Snake squaw. Lajeunesse
established a trading post on the Over-
laud Trail above Devils Gate. Early in
the sixties, w Ith two men and fifteen pack
animals loaded with goods, he started out
to trade with the Sioux. On the way the
party was attacked by Indians in Bates
Hole, southwest of Casper, and Lajeunesse
was killed. Lajeunesse was a successful
hunter and trapper, and the old settlers
who remember him say that the moun-
tains were called Seminoe to perpetuate

the name of one of the bravest and truest
pioneers of Wyoming.. He accompanied
Fremont on the first expedition into
Wyoming, and was one of those chosen to
make the ascent of Fremont Peak. He
is reported to have accompanied United
States troops as a scout on a number of
expeditions. His uncle, Gabriel La-
jeunesse, was, so tradition says, the hero
of Longfellow's "Evangeline."

It is interesting to note that some recent
maps show these mountains as the Semi-
nole Mountains, the compilers of the maps
evidently assuming that they were named
for the Seminole Indians and that the "1"
had been omitted by mistake from the
maps on which they were shown as Semi-
noe.

BULLETIN 612

SHEET No. 10

GEOLOGIC AND TOPOGRAPHIC MAP

OF THE

OVERLAND ROUTE

From Omaha, Nebraska, to San Francisco, California

Base compiled fx-om United Stares Geological Survey Atlas Sheets,
ft-om railroad alignments and profiles supplied by the Union Pacific
Railroad Company and the Southern Pacific Company and from addi-
tional information collected -with the assistance of these companies

UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURYEY

GEORGE OTIS SMITH, DIRECTOR
David White. Chief Geologist R. B. Marshall, Chief Geographer

1915

Each quadrangle shoum on the map with a name in parenthesis in the
lower left comer is mapped in detail on the U. S. G. S. Topographic
sheet of that name.

EXPLANATION

A Sandstone, conglomeratic; fiesh- water deposit-s v North Park
formation;

B Sandstone, conglomei-ate, shale, and coal : fresh water deposits
("Upper Laramie" formation)

C Sandstone, shale, and coal ; brackish and fresh-water deposits
("Lower I^ramie" formation)

Thickness
in feet

10,000
6,200=!

iary, possibly
eluding some
letaceous I 0

500,000
Approximately 8 miles to 1 Inch

2,700*
3,000

D Shale; marine deposit (Lewis shale)

E Sandstone, shale, and coal ; brackish and fresh-walf :• deposits
(Mesaverde formation)

F Shale; marine deposit (includes equivalents of Steele shale
Niobrara and Frontier formations and Mowry shale)

G Sandstone and shale (probably includes equivalents of Dakota
sandstone, Fiison formation, and Lakota sandstone); fresh and
brackish water deposits ' Cleverly formation > 70-100

H .Sandstone and shale ; fresh-, vater deposit; i Morrison formation) 150-200

Sandstone and shale: marine deposit (Sundance formation) 100^ Jjrassic

J Red sandstone, shale, and gypsum ; fresh or brackish water

deposits (Chugwater formation; l.OOOi

3oKilometers

Contour interval 200 feet

ELEVATIONS IN FEET ABOVE MEAN SEA LEVEL

The distances from Omaha. Nebiaska. are shown every JO
The crossties on the railroads are spaced J mile apart

THE OVERLAND ROUTE COUNCIL BLUFFS TO OGDEN.

63

sight also north of Grenville, although about 30 miles away, is a
range of mountains with striking white scallops on their southern
flank. These are^the Ferris Mountains, lying just west of the Seminoe
Range. The white scallops are vertical beds of limestone which
have resisted erosion while the softer beds around them have been
worn away. These mountains were named for George Ferris, one
of the early settlers in this region, whose name has been applied to
several of its natural features and many of its enterprises.

South of Grenville the rocks, which have been domed, are eroded
so deeply that the Mowry shale is exposed at the surface in the center
of the dome and the several sandstones of the Frontier formation lie
in concentric ridges around it. The shale between these sandstones
contains limestone concretions in which are shark teeth, ammonites,
scaphites, and other fossils of marine animals that indicate Upper
Cretaceous (Benton) age. These sandstones contain oil in some
places, and for the purpose of ascertaining their depth south of
Rawlins, where a well was started near the base of the Mesaverde
formation, the shale was carefully measured at a favorable exposure
south of Grenville, where it was found that the sandstone lies 2,200
feet below the lowest sandstone ledge of the transitional zone between
the Mesaverde and the Steele shale. The shale between the base of
the Mesaverde and the Frontier is therefore somewhat more than
2,200 feet thick.

A few miles east of Rawlins the outcropping edges of the several
formations are passed over in rapid succession. These strata are
upturned around the Rawlins dome ^ and range in age from Cam-
brian up to Cretaceous. (See table on p. 2.) Some of these for-
mations can not be seen to advantage from the train. From the
geologist's point of view it is unfortunate, though inevitable, that
railroads are built where the easiest grades can be obtained rather

^ The center of the Kawlins uplift con-
sists of granite which reaches an altitude
of more than 7,600 feet in the hills north of
the railroad . Around this granite core and
sloping away from it are the sedimentary
rocks. The oldest, the Cambrian quartz-
ite, is very hard and forms conspicuous
slopes. The railroad is built through a
narrow gap in these rocks west of Raw-
lins. (SeePl. XIII, ^, p.61.) The Car-
boniferous limestone lies in general uncon-
formably on the Cambrian quartzite, but
is separated from it in some places by
beds of iron ore. Red sedimentary rocks
that lie above this limestone are separated
into two parts by a layer of similar lime-

stone. It is possible that the upper part
represents the Chugwater red beds and
the lower part the Casper formation of
the Laramie region.

The Sundance formation comes next,
with its characteristic marine Jurassic fos-
sils, and above it lie the variegated Mor-
rison beds These are succeeded by the
('loverly, which here, as elsewhere, con-
sists of two sandstones, the lower one con-
glomeratic, separated by dark shale.
Above the upper sandstone is the Mowry
shale, the sandstone of the Frontier for-
mation, and a body of shale which in-
cludes equivalents of the Steele shale
and the Niobrara formation.

64

GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES.

Rawlins.

Elevation 6,741 feet
Population 4,256.
Omaha 690 miles.

than where the rocks are best exposed. The sandstone of the Frontier
formation may be recognized by low ridges through which shallow
cuts have been made, and the Cloverly forms a prominent ridge seen
to the right (north) of the track. The pink beds of the Morrison
formation appear to the south and the brick-red beds of the Chug-
water formation to the north.

The spring from which the town of Rawlins took its name was so

designated in honor of Gen. J. A. Rawlins, Secretary of War under

President Grant. The town is a shipping point for a

large area both north and south of the railroad. It

is the connecting station for Baggs and Dixon, in

southern Wyoming, 70 miles to the south, and before

the building of the ''Moffat road'' (Denver & Salt

Lake) it supphed Craig, Hayden, and other places still farther south

in northwestern Colorado. It is also a railroad division point.

In the old days a Government road ran southeastward from Rawlins
to the White River Indian Agency, in what is now Rio Blanco County,
Colo. Mail service was maintained on this road, and the bridge which
the Government built across Snake River at Baggs is still in good
condition. 1

The dark-colored Cambrian quartzite is conspicuously exposed north
of Rawlins, where it is overlain by light-colored Carboniferous lime-
stone. The red oxide of iron at the base of the Carboniferous was
formerly mined north of the town for paint.

West of Rawhns the formations on the Rawhns dome that were
crossed east of the town are passed over in reverse order.

From points west of Rawlins the Ferris Mountains are again plainly
visible far to the north; and a noticeable notch, called Whisky Gap,
may be discerned at the west end of the range. Through this gap
ruAs the old Rawlins-Lander stage road. West of this range are the
Green Mountains, which are terminated on the west by a pass known
as Crooks Gap, named for Gen. George H. Crook, a noted Indian

^ When the White River Utes massacred
Indian Agent Meeker and his family the
command sent south from Fort Steele
under Maj. Thornburg followed the Gov-
ernment road as far as Baggs, then swung
west, crossing Little Snake River about
12 miles farther down and striking out
southwest across the great rolling sage-
brush country which lies between Little
Snake and Bear rivers. Their guide
must have known the country thoroughly,
for their route, still known as the Thorn-
burg road, takes advantage of every topo-
graphic feature and every safe watering

place. Some miles after crossing Bear
River Maj. Thornburg decided, it is said
against the remonstrances of his subordi-
nates, to lead his command through a nar-
row valley. Here they were ambushed,
and for three days and nights defended
themselves as best they could, using the
few wagons which they could get together
and the bodies of dead horses as barri-
cades. Two of the number escaped during
the first night and brought word to Raw-
lins . When the rel ief expedition reached
the scene, Maj. Thornburg and more than
two-thirds of his command were dead.

THE OVERLAND ROUTE COUNCIL BLUFFS TO OGDEN. 65

fighter, whose name was given also to the creek that flows through
the gap and to the mountain that lies just west of it.

Near Ferris siding the railroad crosses a low ridge of hills formed by
the upturned sandstones of the Mesaverde formation, which con-
stitute the eastern rim of the Great Divide Basin, a
great depression in the older rocks filled with younger
omlhfeos'Sr- sediment. West of the ridge are the younger Creta-
ceous rocks, which are here steeply upturned, but
which flatten out as they extend westward under this basin. About
2 miles east of Knobs siding the road reaches Tertiary beds, also
steeply upturned here, but flattening out farther west. They consist
of conglomeratic sandstone alternating with dark-colored shale, and
m some places contain beds of coal. These rocks contain some fossil
plants and shells of fresh-water mollusks.

Near the station called Daley's Ranch the train crosses the wide
valley of Separation Creek, which, after following an erratic course
for 60 miles, is lost in the Great Divide Basin. North
Da ey s anc . ^^ ^^^ railroad (to the right) may be seen in this valley
oma^aTo4'Si'ef '■ ^hc bams and corrals of a large sheep ranch. Less
than 30 years ago the owner of this ranch was a sec-
tion hand on the Union Pacific, but he is now a large property
owner and has been a member of the State legislature. Many tales
might be told of sudden rise to fortune in the early days of the sheep
iudustry, before the ranges had been overstocked and depleted.

In Wood's cut, about 2 miles west of Cherokee, there is a poorly

consolidated yellow conglomeratic sandstone resting with uneven

base on dark-colored shale. This cut was made

through a rise in the rolling plain, and here, as at

oi^aTi2'^Lr' hundreds of other places along the Union Pacific, the

road needs protection against drifting snow. The

windbreaks for this one cut cost $3,500.

At Creston siding the train crosses the divide between the Atlantic
and Pacific slopes and a sign south of the track reads: ^'Divide of
the Continent." As a matter of fact, the traveler is
also within the Great Divide Basin. The ordinary
omaha°7°9 miies^^ conccption of a divide is that of a mountain crest,
but here is the anomaly of a continental divide pass-
ing through an undrained basin that is about 60 miles across from north
to south and 1 00 miles from east to west. This basin contains numerous
salt and alkaline lakes, mud flats, and mud springs. Hayden, one of
the earlier Government geologists, states that in the region between
the Seminoe Hills and Rawlins he saw an interesting group of mud
springs, analogous to the mud puffs of the geyser region in Yellow-
stone Park. About 400 of these curious springs were found and
examined.

38088°— BulL 612—16 5

66 GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN" UNITED STATES.

Throughout this part of the route the strata he nearly horizontal^
but there are long stretches of desert on which little can be seen
except the bunches and tangled growths of stunted
Red Desert. sagebrush and greasewood. (See PL XIII, B, p. 61.)

This part of the Great Divide Basin is called the
Red Desert. Coal beds crop out in it west of Latham siding, about
5 miles beyond Creston, but the coal is of poor quality and little
use has been made of it. West of Creston is obtained the first
comprehensive view of the Red Desert. A few miles north of the
track is a great stretch of sand dunes, which extends 100 miles^
from Green River to North Platte River. The dunes, many of them
more than a hundred feet high, are constantly traveling with the pre-
vailing winds in a direction a little north of east. If a few camels and
an Arab or two were added to the scene, the spectator could easily
imagine himself in the Sahara Desert. Frequent mirages, endless
variety of feature, and wonderful coloring make the desert far from
the monotonous stretch it may seem to be at first glance. As the
name suggests, the dominant colors are red — russet, brick-red, and
vermilion — but there is every tone of gray and brown, with not a few
shades of green, purple, and yeUow. Unlike the colors of an eastern
landscape, those of the Red Desert are not dependent on the season,
for there is little vegetation to hide the coloring of the rocks and soil.

Despite the sparsity of vegetable growth, the Red Desert is a winter
sheep range. The scattered ''bunch grass," which looks so meager
and dry, is in fact excellent forage, curing into hay where it grew and
having a high nutritive value. In summer, when the desert is dry
and water holes are few, the sheep are herded in the mountains, where
water is abundant and grass is green and tender. The early snows,
falling first. in the higher mountains and extending week by week to
lower altitudes, drive the flocks into the rough fall range between the
mountains and the desert. Here they are held until the snow falls
on the desert itself, but with the first heavy snowfall they are driven
from the foothills to spend the winter in the open, where they find
pasture in the spaces cleared of snow by the winds. The winds are
not tempered here, but neither is the lamb shorn, and Wyoming winter
winds make heavy wool when shearing time comes.

It may be noted that the great problem of stock raising in this-
western country is not so much to find pasturage — although the range
has been greatly overstocked — as to find water. This is true not
only in the Red Desert but in almost every grazing area throughout-
the semiarid States. Places at which stock may be watered are so
few that control of them in general means control of the entire pasture
range. In years gone by it was the custom for large stock owners to
acquire a number of water holes and so possess themselves of great

U. S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY

BULLETIN 612 PLATE XIV

-- '"^"W^^^^t.^^iP^^i^^:^

A. TABLE ROCK NEAR BITTER CREEK, WYO.

This rock is composed of alternating hard and soft Tertiary beds. The hard beds form the top of the table and

of the benches.

.^F^fei^^

; •"*^^^'

•3T:r^^/

^^•

]',. CHARACTERISTIC VIEW OF THE NORTH WALL OF THE CANYON THROUGH WHICH THE
TOURIST PASSES NEAR POINT OF ROCKS, WYO.

The bluffs are composed of the coarse sandstone which separates the two groups of coal beds of the Mesa-
verde formation. The Rock Springs coal group lies below this sandstone and tne Almond coal group above it.

U. S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY

BULLETIN

612

PLATE XV

1

1

1

^. COAL-BEARING SANDSTONE OF MESAVERDE FORMATION IN THE WESTERN PART OF THE
ROCK SPRINGS DOME EAST OF ROCK SPRINGS, WYO.

B. TRANSPORTATION. OLD AND NEW.

A 14-horse team hauling freight from the railroad (in the foreground). The bluff in the distance is White
Mountain and is composed of Tertiary beds.

a NEAR VIEW OF WHITE MOUNTAIN.

White Mountain consists of pink sandstone and shale of the Wasatch group below and th^ light-green beds of
the Green River formation above.

THE OVERLAND ROUTE COUNCIL BLUFFS TO OGDEN. 67

grazing areas as effectively as if they owned every acre of them. In
recent years the Government has attempted to break up this practice
by creating pubhc water reserves which are open to the use of all
comers, thus giving the small stock grower an equal chance with his
more powerful rival.

In the Indian days the southern Red Desert constituted a more or
less neutral territory among the numerous tribes. To the north were
the Shoshones or Snakes, to the northeast the Crows, and to the south
the Utes, but this territory was the common hunting ground and
battle ground of all. In 1906, when the Uncompahgre Utes jumped
the reservation in northeastern Utah and ranged northeastward across
Wyoming, they held a great antelope round-up in the Red Desert,
forming in genuine Indian style a great circle of riders which gradually
drew in until the frightened antelope were concentrated in the center
and killed. About 400 Indians took part in this round-up. Although
they traveled several hundred miles from their reservation, and
although it required a regiment of United States troops to awe them
into surrender, no one was killed.

Wamsutter, formerly called Washakie, is a division point on the
railroad. It is the site of old Fort Washakie, built for the protection
of railroad employees and emigrants from the Sho-
shone and Arapahoe Indians. Three deep wells have
omah.a°73i^^ie?^^ been sunk to water here by the railway company, the
deepest boring going down 1,900 feet. The coal
beds of the Wasatch group (Tertiary) were penetrated near the sur-
face, and those in the undifferentiated Tertiary at several lower
levels. The color and lithologic character of the beds penetrated
indicate that the well probably did not go entirely through the Ter-
tiary beds. Similar beds were struck in a well 1,115 feet deep at
Red Desert station, 9 miles west of Wamsutter.

West of Red Desert station is Hillside.

To the left (south), about 4 miles south of Tipton station is a promi-
nent escarpment known as Laney Rim, formed by the beds of the
upper part of the Wasatch group. To the right is an
uninterrupted view of the Green Mountains, more
)maha°7^7 miies^^ than 50 milcs away . In the distance toward the
northwest may also be seen the Leucite Hills. Toward
the west is a conspicuous dark-colored knob called Black Butte, which
las served as a prominent landmark since the days of the earliest
pioneers.

The stratified rocks, which are nearly horizontal in the center of
the Great Divide Basin, have hero a gentle inclination toward the east
The softer layers have been eroded away faster than the harder ones.

68

GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES.

Bitter Creek.

which now appear as prominent shelves. Near Tipton (see sheet
12, p. 70) the train crosses one of the harder layers of the Wasatch
beds, a shelf-making sandstone, which may be seen to the left,
south of the railroad, rising higher and higher toward the west until,
on Table Rock (see PI. XIV, A), south of Table Rock station, it
is about 800 feet above the level of the track. These rocks near
Tipton contain great numbers of shells of fresh-water moUusks and
some fossil bones.

Toward the east from Bitter Creek station may be obtained a good
view of Table Rock, a prominent point in the eastward-sloping shelf
just mentioned. The low hills south of the station
are covered with gravel deposited by Bitter Creek
omllTof muef ^' ^cforc that stream had eroded to its present depth.
The gravels contain many agate pebbles, some of
them beautifully colored. A well drilled at this station years ago to
a depth of 1,300 feet found water under sufficient pressure to flow at
the surface, but too alkaline to be of much use.

West of Bitter Creek station the railroad crosses the eroded edges
of eastward-dipping strata that range in age from middle Eocene to
Cretaceous. At Patrick siding these strata have the same general
appearance as the Wasatch beds farther east, but west of this siding
the hard layers are closer together and outcrop in numerous ridges.
These ridges are parts of the east limb of the Rock Springs dome.^

^ The Cretaceous rocks that are covered
by the Tertiary beds of the Great Divide
Basin on the east and those of the Bridger
Basin on the west are exposed between
Black Buttes and Rock Springs because
they have been arched up into a great
dome from the top of which the younger
beds have been removed by erosion. The
major axis of this dome is about 90 miles
long and trends nearly north and south
close to the west limb of the dome. The
beds on the west dip 15° to 30° ; those on
the east dip 5° to 10°. The minor axis is
about 40 miles long and passes through
the dome south of Rock Springs. The
oldest rocks exposed are the shales near
Baxter siding, which correspond to the
Steele shale seen farther east. Around
this shaly center outcrop in concentric
zones (1) a series of non coal-bearing sand-
stones; (2) the Rock Springs coal group,
600 to 2,400 feet thick, of lower Mesaverde
age; (3) a massive sandstone, 800 feet
thick, of middle Mesaverde age; (4) the

Almond coal group, 900 feet thick, said
to be of upper Mesaverde age; (5) the
Lewis shale, 750 ± feet thick; (6) the
Black Buttes coal group; and (7) the
Black Rock coal group, of Tertiary age.
It has been estimated that the amount
of coal in the Rock Springs field available
for mining — that is, within 3,000 feet of
the surface and in beds 2^ feet or more in
thickness— exceeds 142,000,000,000 tons.
As coal is fossilized vegetal matter, the
traveler, as he views the barren hillsides
where now scarcely a living thing can be
seen, may well wonder how all this great
store of carbonaceous matter came there.
These coal beds are mute but forceful
reminders that desert conditions have not
always prevailed in this region. Fossil
plants, such as palms, figs, and magnolias,
found at many places in these coal beds
prove that the carbonaceous matter of the
coal accumulated in swamps at a time
when the climate was as mild as that of
Florida at present.

BULLETIN 612

SHEET No.11

GEOLOGIC AND TOPOGRAPHIC MAP

OVERLAND EOITTE

From Omaha, Nebraska, to San Fi-aricisco, Califoinia

Base compiled from United States Geological Survey Atlas Sheets,
fi'om railroad alignments and profiles supplied by the Union Pacific
Railroad Company and the Southern Pacific Company and from addi-
tional Information collected, with the assistance of these companies

UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY

GEOKGE OTIS SMITH, DIRECTOR
David White. Chief Geologist R. H. Marshall, Chief Geographer

1915

THE OVERLAND ROUTE COUNCIL BLUFFS TO OGDEN.

69

Hallville.

Just before reaching Black Buttes station the train crosses the

youngest of the three groups of Cretaceous coal beds that are exposed
around the Rock Springs dome. This is called the

Black Buttes. ^i^^^]^ Buttes coal group. The coal of the Black

Elevation 6,610 feet. Buttcs group has been mined to some extent. An
abandoned mine may be seen to the right (north) of

the railroad half a mile east of Black Buttes station, where also a

spur runs to an active mine a mile farther south.

West of Black Buttes the route follows a valley eroded mainly

in the Lewis (Upper Cretaceous) shale. The rocks have been dis-
placed by faulting here, so that individual beds are
not easily traceable by one passing rapidly over them.

Elevation 6,554 feet, j^^ Hallville siduio; the road crosses one of the faults

Omaha 778 miles. t i /> i i

or displacements oi the strata that are so numerous
m this region and enters a narrow canyon whose steep, craggy walls
display the hard rocks of the upper part of the Mesaverde forma-
tion. From this siding is obtained a good view of the Almond coal
group, ^ which crops out north of the railroad (to the right) and is
underlain by the white sandstone of the middle part of the Mesaverde.
The light-colored sandstone near the middle of the Mesaverde for-
mation makes prominent chffs at the town of Point of Rocks. (See PI.

XIV, B.) It is an important water-bearing sandstone
Point of Rocks. ^^^^ yields mineral waters. This sandstone is slightly
Elevation 6,503 feet, coiiglomeratic, is iiTegular in texture and hardness,

Omaha 784 miles. i i i i i • o • i •

and has been eroded into many lantastic and curious
forms. To some of the cavernous hollows in it have been given names,
such as '^Hermit's Grotto," ''Cave of the Sands,'' and "Sancho's
Bower." Three wells that have been drilled here to depths of a httle
more than 1,000 feet have obtained an abundant supply of water.
The water is strongly charged with sulphureted hydrogen (ITjS), which
soon escapes or is oxidized on exposure to the air. From Rawhns to
Green River, a distance of 134 miles, there is scarcely a place where
water fit to drink can be found at the surface. The springs and
the streams are alkahne, and water from the wells at Point of Rocks is
hauled for domestic and railroad use over much of this distance.

The coal beds of the Almond group are conspicuously exposed above
the conglomeratic sandstone, and certain fossil oysters and other
brackish-water shells are abundant in the rocks above the coal. The
coal was mined about a mile east of the towTi, where the dip of the strata
brings the coal beds to the level of the valley floor.

^ The coals of the Almond coal group are
of poorer quality than those of the Rock
Springs coal group and as they occur
close to the abundant supply of high-

grade coal mined at Rock Springs they
have not been much exploited. The
only place where they have been mined is
Point of Rocks, formerly called Almond.

70

GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES.

About 2 miles west of Point of Rocks the route leaves the massive
cliff-making sandstone and comes to the relatively soft yellow sand-
stone and shale of the Rock Springs coal group/ which contains the
principal coal beds of this region.

Just east of Thayer Junction the railroad crosses the massive
sandstones that occur near the base of the Mesaverde formation and
emerges into an open space occupied by the marine shale which
farther east is called the Steele shale. This is separated from the
younger massive sandstones of the Mesaverde formation by a thick
zone of shaly yellow sandstone that forms prominent benches and
^^badland" slopes.

The coal of the Rock Springs group is mined at Superior, about 7

miles north of Thayer Junction. About 2 miles northeast of Superior

are the Leucite Hills, which are made up largely of

Thayer Junction, igneous rocks in the form of volcanic necks^ sheets

Elevation 6,434 feet, intruded into the stratified rocks, and dikes cutting

Omaha 791 miles. it a • i •

across the sedimentary strata. Associated with these
intrusive rocks are volcanic cones and lava flows. These rocks have
long been objects of scientific interest because of their unusual char-
acter. Lately they have attracted additional interest by reason of
the potash-rich mineral, leucite, they contain, which may some day
be utilized if a process can be found for extracting the potash cheaply.
It has been estimated that the igneous rock of the Leucite Hills con-
tains more than 197,000,000 tons of potash.

Baxter siding is near the center of the Rock Springs dome.
The several eastward -dipping formations crossed between Bitter
Creek station and Thayer Junction once arched over
the top of this dome and now dip in the opposite
Elevation 6,303 feet, direction ou its wcstem slope, as is indicated in the

Omaha 803 miles. • / i x * -i

profile on the accompanying map (sheet 12). A mile
west of Baxter siding a branch line runs northward 3 miles to Gunn,
where mines have been opened on the lower beds of the Rock
Springs coal group. Two miles west of the siding the route enters a

Baxter.

^ The Rock Springs group of coal beds is
of lower Mesaverde (middle Upper Creta-
ceous) age and is the most important group
of coals in Wyoming, for it contains many
beds of bituminous coal of higher grade
than that of the other groups of this region.
The basal portion of the group of rocks
consists of heavy ridge-making coal-bear-
ing sandstones (PI. XV, ^, p. 67), and the
remainder of brown, yellow, and white
sandstones, shale, clay, and interbedded
coal. The group is about 2,400 feet thick
and contains at least twelve coal beds

that range from 2 to 10 feet in thickness
and many other beds less than 2 feet
thick. These beds are somewhat regu-
larly distributed through the group and
are fairly persistent along the strike.
They have been prospected from Sweet-
water, south of Rock Springs, northward
around the end of the dome to Superior.
Very little prospecting has been done
south of Superior, as in this locality the
coal beds are somewhat thinner and are
fewer in number than between Superior
and Rock Springs.

BULLETIN 612

SHEET No. 12

GEOLOGIC AND TOPOGRAPHIC MAP

OF thp:

OVERLAND ROUTE

From Omaha, Nebraska, to San Francisco, California

Base compiled from United States Geological Survey Atlas Sheets,
from railroad alignments and profiles supplied by the Union Pacific
Railroad Company and the Southern Pacific Company and from addi-
tional information collected, with the assistance of these companies

UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY

GEORaE OTIS SMITH, DIRECTOR •

David White, Chief Geologist R. B. Marshall, Chief Geographer

1915

Bach quadrangle shoiun on the map with a name in parenthesis in the
lower left comer is mapped in detail on the U. S. G. S. Topographic
sheet of that name.

THE OVERLAND EOUTE COUNCIL BLUFFS TO OGDEN. 71

picturesque gorge eroded by Bitter Creek through the ridge formed
by the hard sandstone of the Mesaverde formation (PI. XV, A, p. 67).
Coal is mined from one of the beds that outcrop in the north wall
of this gorge. From the west end of the gorge, just before the train
enters Rock Sprmgs, the traveler gets a magnificent view of White
Mountain (PI. XV, C), to the right, northwest of the town. This is
the eastern escarpment of the plateau, made up of beds of Eocene
(Tertiary) age that occupy the Bridger Basin. The rocks are the
same as those th?.t will be seen at close range from the town of
Green River.

The city of Rock Springs derives its name from a large spring of

saline water that issues at the base of a bluff of the water-bearing

sandstone previously described as occurring between

Rock Springs. the Rock Springs and Almond groups of coal beds

Elevation 6,256 feet, near Poiut of Rocks. Howcvcr, water for domestic

Population 5,778. n «. x ^.i, • • i.1," • • • u. •

Omaha 809 niiies. ^§6 as Well as lor usc at the mines m this vicinity is
pumped from Green River, a distance of 15 miles,
with a lift of 179 feet.

Rock Springs is one of the most important coal-mining centers of
the West and ships each year nearly a million tons of high-grade
bituminous coal. The mines have been operated since 1868, when
the Union Pacific Railroad reached this point, and some of the older
workings extend for miles underground. Mine openings may be seen
to the right (north) of the railroad east of the city. A branch line
runs north to Reliance and another runs south to mines at Sweet-
water. All the mines are in beds of the Rock Springs coal group.

West of Rock Springs the road passes from the Cretaceous forma-
tions to the Tertiary beds that occupy the Bridger Basin. The Ter-
tiary rocks are conspicuous to the right (north) of the railroad, in
White Mountain (see PI. XV, C), which here forms the eastern
rim of the basin. The mountain is made up of stratified rocks con-
sisting of the light-pink beds of the Wasatch group and the white to
liorht-blue and orreenish rocks of the Green River formation. These
beds are inclined gently toward the west, so that the light-colored
beds of the middle portion of White Mountain descend to the river
level at the town of Green River.

Near Kanda (see sheet 13, p. 76) the train enters a narrow winding

gorge which was eroded by Bitter Creek and whose walls show the

westbound traveler first the pink beds of the lower

Kanda. i^Sirt of the Wasatch group and then the harder sandy

Elevation 6,204 feet, shalcs of the Green River formation. These beds are

Omaha 816 miles. , i c i • i i

made up oi a countless number ot very thm and sandy
calcareous layers separated by equally thin layers of shale, so that
the cliffs of this formation have a wonderfully banded appearance.

72

GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES.

The gorge extends to the mouth of Bitter Creek/ where the train sud-
denly emerges from its narrow confines directly into the broad valley
occupied by Green River,

^ In order to understand why Bitter
Creek established itself in its present
course, we must consider conditions that
existed here millions of years ago. This
stream cuts its way directly across the
Rock Springs dome instead of flowing
around it and then, seemingly regardless
of what would be easy lines of erosion,
flows across the broad valley west of Rock
Springs and plunges through White Moun-
tain, in which it has cut a gorge 1,000 feet
or more in depth. This apparently un-
reasonable course was established long
ages ago, when this part of the country
was lower than it is now and the distant
mountains, then newly formed and rug-
ged, supplied the streams with more sedi-
ment than they could carry. This ma-
terial was deposited on the lower lands,
building them up just as flood plains and
deltas are being built up in some places
at the present time. The resulting accu-
mulations of sediment constitute the
Wasatch, Green River, Bridger, and other
formations of Tertiary age.

There came a time, however, when the
region thus built up was uplifted so much
as not only to stop deposition but per-
haps also to divert the streams to new
courses and cause them to cut downward
into the beds of sediment which they had
previously deposited. The surface was
not raised the same amount in all places
and the uplift was accompanied by
warping and fracture of the rocks. East
of Rock Springs the upheaval produced
a great dome. In other fractured places
the rocks slipped past each other and pro-
duced faults. These movements were
very slow, and for this reason Bitter Creek
maintained itself even while the great
dome rose across its course. Doubtless
similar movements are in progress now,
but they are so slow that the lifetime of a
man is not long enough to enable him to
detect a change. The oldest inhabitant
of Bitter Creek valley would probably
insist that the creek had not deepened
its channel during his lifetime, yet it cut

its channel as fast as the dome rose , or it
would have been deflected.

A similar explanation accounts for the

behavior of this stream west of Rock

Springs. Its course was established when

the surface was a thousand feet or more

higher than it is now — that is, higher than

the present top of Table Mountain. As

the master stream, Green River, cut its

I course lower and lower, the smaller

■' stream. Bitter Creek, cut the narrow

i gorge through Table Mountain. But far-

I ther east, where the same sedimentary

rocks that compose this mountain were

more steeply uptiu-ned and more easily

eroded. Bitter Creek and its tributaries

cut down a vast area to a level much

lower than the top of Table Mountain.

The volume of rock removed by this
small stream alone would probably be
reckoned in hundreds of cubic miles, and
all of it found its way through the narrow
gorge to Green River. Hundreds of other
streams delivered similar amounts to the
same river, and the question may well be
asked, ^\^lat became of it all? Those who
have visited the Grand Canyon of the Colo-
rado in Arizona have noted the muddy
waters of that river and wondered where
the mud came from. Some of it came
from Wyoming. Those who have visited
the built-up plains and filled basins that
mark the ancient course of Colorado River
in western Arizona have wondered where
the material came from to fill these
enormous basins. Some of it came from
the valleys through which the Union
Pacific Railroad is built. Those who
have traveled over the Southern Pacific
line in southern California, where it
crosses the broad delta which the Colo-
rado built out across the Gulf of California
so far that the north end of the gulf — now
the Salton Sink — was completely cut off
from the main part of the gulf, have won-
dered where all the sand and silt of that
great delta came from. Some of it once
rested on the arch of the Rock Springs
dome.

U. S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY

BULLETIN 612 PLATE XVI

MAJOR J. W. POWELL.

U. S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY

BULLETIN 612 PLATE XVII

.1. GREEN RIVER CITY, WYO., AS SEEN FROM CASTLE ROCK.
Photograph furnished by Union Pacific Railroad Co.

B. NATURAL MONUMENTS WEST OF CASTLE ROCK.

Some of these monuments have assumed curious shapes, like the "teapot and cup," shown above. They are
composed of the regularly laminated Green River shale capped by hard k?r9Y^n Sandstone.

THE OVERLAND ROUTE COUNCIL BLUFFS TO OGDEN. 73

The town of Green River (see PI. XVII, A) is a division headquarters

of the Union Pacific Raiboad and the point at which passengers for

Oregon and Washington change to the Oregon Short

Green River. Line. The Short Line trains, however, use the main

Elevation 6,077 feet, line as far west as Granger.

Omaha 824 miles. Green River is picturesquely situated between the

river and the precipitous bluffs which rise 700 feet
or more above the water. Like most of the other towns along the
route throughout Wyommg it has little aside from the immediate
business of the railroad to maintain it. An attempt has been made
here to manufacture soda from alkaline water pumped from wells
about 250 feet deep, but the long haul to market renders profitable
operation difficult.

The town of Green River is on one of the most interesting drainage
systems in America. The river rises about 200 miles farther north
and at the railroad crossing is a stream of considerable size, having
an average flow of 2,200 cubic feet a second. About 540 miles farther
south it joins Grand River to form the Colorado, which, after winding
through more than a thousand miles of the most wonderful canyon
scenery in the world, reaches the GuK of Calilornia.

From the towTi of Green River, Maj. J. W. PoweU, afterward Direc-
tor of the United States Geological Survey, started May 24, 1869,
with his little company of daring associates to explore the canyons
of the Colorado. The story of the trip is well known, but from
the simple, unimpassioned language in which Major Powell (see
PI. XVI) himself tells it, the reader might not realize that this was
one of the most hazardous undertakings in the history of modern
exploration. Few have cared to undertake the adventure since,
and some of those have paid for their temerity with their lives. The
journey has recently been successfully repeated, however, by two
photographers, Ellsworth and Emery Kolb, who on September 8,
1911, also started from Green River and, after numerous adventures,
emerged from the canyons with a valuable collection of negatives
and moving-picture films.

The Green River beds, which form the bluffs near Green River, are
carved into many curious and picturesque forms — natural monuments
(PI. XVII, B) and castle-like structures. The bluffs are light green
in the lower part and dark brown above. The upper beds are harder
than the lower ones and form the protecting caps of the puinacles.
These bluffs have been a source of interest to geologists and travelers
ever since they were examined by F. V. Hayden more than 40 years
ago, and they have been described and illustrated many times.
Their character is indicated by the accompanying illustrations much
better than by any word pictures.

74

GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES.

Three miles west of Green River the raikoad passes through Fish Cut
(PL XVIII, A), so named because of the large numbers of fossil fishes
(Plate XIX; J.), taken from it. Fossils are obtained from this same for-
mation at Fossil, Wyo., a station on the Oregon Short Line, and sold as
curios. On the side of the river opposite Fish Cut the Green River
shale has been eroded into a variety of picturesque forms, such as are
illustrated in Plates XVII, B, and XVIII, B. These may be seen to
the right from the train.

On the old grade just below the present road in Fish Cut there are
several oil seeps, where the surface is kept moist by oil that oozes from
the shale. Little oil occurs in the Green River formation. Its car-
bonaceous content consists of partly decomposed vegetal matter (see
Plate XIX, B), which, when the rock is heated, yields petroleum
and ammonia. Rock from Fish Cut that gave no outward sign of
the presence of oil yielded, on distillation, 3 1 gallons of oil to the ton
and an amount of ammonia equivalent to 34 pounds of ammonium
sulphate, a product that is nea^-ly as valuable as the oil.

Just above the horizon at which the fossil fishes occur the shale
gives place to brown coarse-grained cross-bedded sandstone, which
occurs in such a way as to suggest that it fiUs old river channels. It
is this channel sandstone that caps the curious pinnacles which are so
conspicuous near Green River. The softer shale surrounding and
underlying the masses of hard sandstone softens and crumbles under
the influence of the weather and is washed by the rain or blown by the
wind from the bluffs, the portions that are protected by the hard cap-
ping standing as isolated monuments or precipitous cHffs.

From Peru station the traveler may catch glimpses toward the
southwest of the high peaks of the Uinta Mountains, in northwestern
Colorado. These appear more conspicuous from
^^^^' points farther west.

omIha'SfSLf '■ From Green River the road rises by a relatively
steep grade over strata that dip slightly to the west,
and at Peru the younger Eocene or Bridger beds ^ occupy the sur-
face. Where they are cut by the railroad these beds consist of
brown shaly or limy sandstone.

Great numbers of fossil bones, most of them representing primitive
or unspecialized types of mammals, have been collected from the

^ The Bridger formation takes its name
from Fort Bridger, which stands in the
valley of Blacks Fork about 10 miles south
of Carter station. To the traveler on the
train this formation is not readily dis-
tinguishable from the underlying beds,
but many of the prominent buttes in this
vicinity, especially those south of the

track, are composed of rocks belonging
to this formation. Probably those most
noticeable from the train are the buttes
near the station of Chiu-ch Butte, which
takes its name from the largest of this
group.

Most of the formations exposed in
western Wyoming and eastern Utah are

U. S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY

BULLETIN 612 PLATE XVIII

A. "FISH CUT," WEST OF GREEN RIVER CITY, WYO.

Many fossil fishes were found in the Green River fornnation at this locality. Photograph furnished by Uni<

Pacific Railroad Co.

k

L. BLUFFS OF THE GREEN RIVER FORMATION NEAR GREEN RIVER CITY, WYO.
Photograph furnished by Union Pacific Railroad Co.

U. S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY

BULLETIN 612 PLATE XIX

.1. FOSSIL FISH (DIPLOMYSTUSDENTATUSj, SHOWING THE BONES, FIN RAYS, ETC., EMBEDDED
IN A SLAB OF ROCK TAKEN FROM THE QUARRY.

"x-^.

\>

^.m,..^titetPi

'i^r-^yy -v m.-

..\

."1^^;

\ I

. f.

4

B. FOSSIL LEAF OF THE SWEET-GUM TREE (LIQUIDAMBAR) AS IT APPEARS ON A SL-AS OF
ROCK TAKEN FROM THE QUARRY.

FOSSILS FOUND IN THE GREEN RIVER (TERTIARY) FORMATION.

THE OVERLAND ROUTE COUNCIL BLUFFS TO OGDEN.

75

Eocene beds of the Bridger Basin. It was during the Eocene epoch
that the great development of mammalian life took place. The small

designated by other names than those I that lie farther east. The following table
used for beds of essentially the same age | shows the relations of these formations:

Succession of the rock formations exposed along the Union Pacific Railroad in western
Wyoming and eastern Utah.

Period. i Epoch.

Group and formation.

Tertiary.

Eocene.

Bridger formation.
Green River formation.
Wasatch group:

Knight formation.

Fowkes formation.

Almy formation.

Cretaceous or Ter-
tiary.

(?)

Evanston formation.

Cretaceous.

Upper Cretaceous.

Adaville formation.
Hilliard formation.
Frontier formation.
Aspen formation.
Bear River formation.

Jurassic.

Beckwith formation (possibly including

some Cretaceous).
Twin Creek limestone.

Jurassic or Triassic.

Nugget sandstone.

Triassic.

Lower Triassic.

Ankareh shale.
Thaynes limestone.
Woodside formation.

Permian (?).

Park City formation.

PennsylvRuian.

Carboniferous.

Weber quartzite.
Morgan formation.

Mississippian.

lyimestones.

Devonian.

Silurian.

Ordovician.

Cambrian.

Algonkian.

Archean.

Granite, etc.

76 GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES.

primitive mammals of earlier epochs were succeeded by a great
variety of forms, some of which are the ancestors of animals now
living, though others seem to have left no descendants. Two of the
common forms are illustrated in Plate XX (p. 80).

Bryan, the home of 3,000 people during the construction of the

Union Pacific Railroad, is now little more than a name in the desert.

Toward the southwest, 60 miles away, may be seen

^^y^"* the snowy summit of Gilbert Peak, one of the mon-

omlaTs'^Lr' archs of the Uinta Mountains, rising 13,422 feet

above sea level.

At Granger the Oregon Short Line branches off to the right from

the Union Pacific, turning northward up Hams Fork.

Granger. ^^g^ ^f ^j^js station the Tertiary strata dip slightly

omla'S^iSLf ^" toward the east, so that the westbound " traveler

passes gradually from younger to older beds.

From points between Granger and Hampton some of the distant

summits of the Salt River Range may be seen on the right, far to

the northwest, and the rugged, snowy peaks of the

Hampton. Uinta Mountains on the left, far away to the south.

Elevation 6,396 feet, rj^^ie hiU south of the raHroad, half a mile west of the

Omaha 873 miles. , , ' ,

station, contains great numbers of fossil shells. One
layer of rock here, about 4 feet thick, consists almost wholly of coiled
shells, of Eocene age, and another layer just below it contains numer-
ous clamshells in an almost perfect state of preservation.

Carter consists of only a few houses but is the center of an exten-
sive sheep-raising industry. During the summer the
Carter. sheep are pastured on the distant mountains, but

Elevation 6,507 feet, ^y^eu the suow falls thcv are driven doTVTi to the

Omaha 882 miles. "^ .

desert plains, where they pass the winter.

West of Carter the red sandstone and shale of the Wasatch
(Tertiary) group are again reached. These beds underlie the surface
rocks that occupy the center of the Bridger Basin. Their material
here is much coarser and of a deeper-red color than it is east of Green
River. This change in character becomes more and more conspicuous
toward the west, and near Evanston these rocks are markedly con-
glomeratic. Farther west, near the Wasatch Mountains, they are
made up largely of a still coarser red puddingstone.

Between Carter and Bridger is Antelope station, at which the
traveler will be nearly halfway from Omaha to San Francisco.

BULLETIN 612

SHEET NO. 13

GEOLOGIC AND TOPOGKAPHIC MAP

OF THK

OVERLAND EOIITE

From Omaha, Nebraska, to San Francisco, Califoi-nia

Base couii)iled from United States Geological Stirvey Atlas Sheets,
from railroad alijriiments and profiles supplied by the Union Pacihc
Railroad Company and the Southern Pacific Company and from addi-
tional information collected with the assistance of these companies

UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY

GEORGE OTIS SMITH, DIRECTOR
David White. Chief Geologist R. B. Marshall, Chief Geographer

1915

Each quadrangle shoum on the map with a name in parenthesis in the
lower left comer is mapped in detail on the U. S. G. S. Topographic
sheet of that name.

THE OVERLAND ROUTE COUNCIL BLUFFS TO OGDEN.

77

Bridger station (see sheet 14, p. 88) was named for James Bridger/
the first white man to settle in this section. Near the station the
rocks of Upper Cretaceous and Jurassic age that
Bridger. underlie the Tertiary beds of the Bridger Basin begin

omIhaTgs'SLf '■ to appear at the surface. About 3 mHes north of the
station, where the railroad turns south, the hills
formed by these older rocks are visible at the right (west), and the
ridges formed by them lie nearly parallel to the road as far south as
the Aspen tunnel. Throughout this distance the route traverses the
vaUey eroded by Muddy Creek, mainly in the Wasatch red beds,
which here dip gently to the east.

The original route of the railroad from Leroy up the vaUey of
Muddy Creek and over the divide near old Bear River City has been
abandoned. It was difficult to operate because of
curves and grades that necessitated helping engines
for all heavy trains. The new route follows the
valley used by the Mormon pioneers in crossing
Aspen Kidge.^ This ridge is pierced by the Aspen tunnel, which is
5,900 feet long and is the largest single piece of tunnel work per-
formed by the Union Pacific Railroad Co. In order to hasten

Leroy.

Elevation 6,702 feet
Omaha 898 miles.

^ James Bridger was a well-known pio-
neer who did much toward taming the
"wild West." Although he called Fort
Bridger his home, he may more properly
be spoken of as a citizen of the West, for
he was at home beside the camp fire
wherever night overtook him, whether on
the plains or in the mountains, whether
alone or surrounded by hostile savages.

He was born in Richmond, Va. , in 1804,
but soon drifted to the West, where he was
employed by the Rocky Mountain Fur
Co. So rapidly did he become familiar
with the wilderness and with its savage
inhabitants that before he was 30 years
of age he was known as "the old man of
the mountains." He discovered Great
Salt Lake in the winter of 1824-25, and,
because of the salinity of its waters,
thought it was an arm of the Pacific
Ocean. Two years later men under his
direction explored the lake, passing com-
pletely around it in boats made of
skins.

At his trading post on Black Fork, 10
miles southeast of the Bridger station, he
built the fort that bore his name and
which was later used by United States
soldiers. Bridger was long employed

as a guide for the Army in the several
campaigns against hostile Indians, and
also by companies of emigrants, espe-
cially by the gold seekers of 1849. He
was in western Wyoming when the ad-
vance company of Mormons, led by
Brigham Young, were on their way to the
"promised land" and urged them not
to settle in Salt Lake Valley, because of
the supposed difficulty of ripening crops
there. He said to Young: "I will give
you a thousand dollars for the first ear of
corn that ripens there." Young, who
claimed di\dne guidance, replied: "Wait
and we will show you."

^Aspen Ridge is the easternmost of a
series of north-south ridges that are sepa-
rated by troughlike depressions, of which
Mammoth Hollow is a type. These ridges
originated in mountain-making move-
ments which probably began at the close
of the Cretaceous period and resulted in
the upheaval of the L^inta and Wasatch
mountains on the south and the group of
mountains extending southward from
Yellowstone Park on the north. These
ridges connect the groups of mountains
and may be regarded as incipient moun-
tain ranges. The rocks were broken or

78

GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES.

the work of construction a central shaft was sunk, the top of which
was 331 feet above track grade. From the bottom of the shaft
headings were started east and west to connect with the end headings.
The greatest depth reached below the surface is 456 feet; the highest
point above sea level 7,296 feet. The tunnel accommodates a single
track and is lined with timber and concrete. The new route was
completed in 1901, at a cost of $12,000,000, and shortens the line
10 miles.

At the point where the road leaves the main branch of Muddy Creek,
2 J miles south of Leroy, the traveler may obtain a view, toward the
left (east), of the edge of the plateau of Bridger beds on which stands
Bridger Butte. A inile west of Ragan may be seen, to the right
(north), a group of derricks where oil wells have been sunk into the
Aspen shale, ^ which includes the oil-bearing rocks of this region. A,
small refinery was built at Leroy, but it was not in operation in 1914.

faulted and upturned in ridges, but the
movement was an-ested before high
mountains were formed here.

Two main groups of fault lines are
crossed by the Union Pacific in this gen-
eral region. The Absaroka fault and the
Oil Springs faults are crossed at the Aspen
tunnel and the Almy and Medicine
Butte faults at Evanston. The Absaroka
is a tlii'ust fault by which the rocks on the
west have been pushed eastward and
raised more than 15,000 feet, some of the
older sedimentary rocks being brought to
altitudes much greater than those of the
younger rocks of this region. This rela-
tion is conspicuous west of the Aspen
tunnel, where rocks of early Tertiary age
abut against some of Jurassic age. The
Medicine Butte fault, which the road
crosses at Evanston, is also an over-
thrust, but the Almy is a normal or gravity
fault — that is, the rock mass here has
dropped instead of being pushed upward.

Erosion, which followed the initial
mountain-forming disturbance, carved the
older rocks into low hills and shallow val-
leys, and these in turn were buried by
accumulations of sediment in early
Eocene time. Later the rocks were again
upheaved, erosion was renewed, and other
hills and valleys were carved out. These
also were buried by the red sands and
gravels of the Wasatch group, which re-
cent erosion has removed in some places,
exposing again the pre-Wasatch hills,
but which still remain as the surface rocks

o^-er large areas of western Wyoming and
eastern Utah.

^ The Aspen formation consists of shale
1,500 to 2,000 feet thick, in which are
layers of sandstone that contain oil . Near
the top of the formation occurs the
"Spring Valley oil sand," which con-
tains the principal oil pools, although
some have been found in lower sands.
The formation is of marine origin, and the
shaly parts contain numerous scales of
fishes, from which they have been called
the ''fish-scale shales." Certain fossils
found in the formation prove that it be-
longs in the lower part of the Upper Cre-
taceous series.

Although most of the oil of this region
has been found in the Aspen formation,
some comes from the Bear River forma-
tion, which immediately underlies the
Aspen. The occurrence of oil in this
region was known to James Bridger and
other early trappers, but the first pub-
lished account of it resulted from a visit
made by the Mormon pioneers in ] 847 to
the natural oil spring, known as the
Brigham Young oil well, 6 miles south-
west of Spring Valley. Small quan-
tities of oil were collected from this and
other springs, and prospecting was car-
ried on intermittently until 1900, when
high-grade oil was struck in a well near
Spring Valley. Since that time several
pools have been found, but the yield is
small, the best wells producing only a
few barrels a day.

THE OVERLAND ROUTE COUNCIL BLUFFS TO OGDEN.

79

Spring Valley.

Elevation 7,003 feet
Omaha 905 miles.

Just west of Spring Valley station the train crosses a small expo-
sure of the Frontier formation.^ These coal-bearing rocks are of
Upper Cretaceous age and have been exposed be-
cause of the removal of the red beds of the Wasatch
group that once covered them. Several abandoned
prospects and old coal mines may be seen on each
side of the track, but no coal is mined here now.

Aspen is a small station at the east end of the Aspen tunnel. From

Granger the tram has been ascending Muddy Creek and here reaches

the head of one of its tributaries. In going through

-^^P®"* the tunnel the train passes from the area drained by

Elevation 7,175 feet. Colorado Rivcr to the Great Basin — that portion of

Omaha 909 miles. -xt i 4 • i • i i i i^ j^ xi

western JNorth America which has no outlet to the
sea. The waters east of Aspen Ridge find their way down Muddy
Creek and Black Fork to Green River and thence through the Grand
Canyon of the Colorado to the Gulf of California. Those west of
this ridge find their way to Bear River and flow by a circuitous
route into Great Salt Lake, from which they can escape only by
evaporation.

The rocks at the east end of the tunnel are the red beds of the
Wasatch group, but the Oyster Ridge sandstone may be seen in the
ridge just above the mouth of the tunnel. The tunnel pierces this
sandstone and also part of the Hilliard formation of Upper Cretaceous
age, next younger than the Frontier.

West of Altamont the route passes for about 2 miles through an
open valley occupied by the soft Hilliard shale, then crosses the f aidt
line that separates this shale from the Beckwith for-
mation,^ the oldest formation exposed near the Union
Pacific Railroad in western Wyoming, and enters a
narrow gorge carved out of the hard conglomeratic
sandstone of that formation. This sandstone, upturned to a
nearly vertical position, now crops out in sharp ridges composed of

Altamont.

Elevation 7,217 feet
Omaha 911 miles.

' The Frontier formation consists of
coal-bearing sandstone and shale of Ben-
ton (Upper Cretaceous) age. Its name is
derived from Frontier, Wyo., where the
coals are well developed. The forma-
tion contains near the top a prominent
sandstone about 200 feet thick, which
usually forms a ridge at the outcrop and
is characterized by the presence of fossil
shells of a long, slender oyster (Ostrea
soleniscus). Since 1858, when Engle-
mann collected fossils from this sand-
stone on Sulphur Creek, it has been a
favorite collecting ground for geologists,

•and from the time of the Hayden Survey,
in 1872, it has been known as the Oyster
Ridge sandstone. Fossil plants also have
been collected fromtheFrontier formation.
2 The Beckwith formation comprises two
members. The lower member consists of
conglomerate, sandstone, and sandy clay
2,500 feet thick, light colored near the
railroad, but red farther north; the upper
member consists of light-colored sandstone
and clay about 3,000 feet thick well ex-
posed west of the railroad from Bridger to
Leroy and in the ridges west of the Aspen
tunnel.

80

GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES.

Knight.

Elevation 7,043 feet,
Omaha 916 miles.

coarse red conglomerate that is seen to best advantage toward the
right (north) . These ridges were formed by mountain-making move-
ments which fractured the once horizontal layers and shoved them
up to a vertical position, and by erosion, which carved them into
the present forms.

Beyond this series of sharp ridges and well exposed in the gorge, on
either side of the road, is the Bear River formation, ^ which is here
about 1,100 feet thick. In the lower part of this formation north of
the track were found great numbers of fossil shells of clams and snails.

West of the narrow gorge in the Beckwith and Bear River forma-
tions is a small open space in which the Aspen shale
crops out. Still farther west the route again enters
an area occupied by the red beds of the Wasatch
group. The Wasatch of this region consists of the
Almy, Fowles, and Knight formations, the last having been named
from Knight station.

About 2 miles west of the station the train reaches the open valley
of Bear River, a broad marshy flood plain over which the river
meanders in a serpentine course and which at times of high water is
completely flooded. Bear River rises in the Uinta Mountains, about
50 miles to the south, and flows in a circuitous route, first northwest-
ward and then westward, around the north end of the Wasatch
Mountains, and finally doubles back upon itself in a general southerly
course and empties into Great Salt Lake. Measurements of its flow
show that on the average 375 cubic feet of water passed Evans ton
every second in 1914. The current is swift in some places, and
from this point in its course to its mouth the river falls about 2,500
feet. Water from Bear River and its tributaries is utilized for irri-
gating about 75,000 acres of land.

^ The Bear River formation consists of
dark shale, some of it carbonaceous, and
thin layers of sandstone and limestone,
and in some places it includes beds of coal.
It may be distinguished from the older,
unfossiliferous Beckwith beds by its
darker color and by the fossils near its
base.

Some parts of the formation contain
numerous fossil plants, as well as shells of
fresh- water and brackish- water mollusks,
unlike those found in Cretaceous beds
elsewhere. The formation is not widely
distributed, being known only from Bear
River City — an early construction camp
of the Union Pacific near Bear River on
the line now abandoned — northward to
the Salt River Range. Its thickness
ranges from 500 to about 5,000 feet.

The Bear River beds were formed not
far from the continental land mass that
remained above water throughout Upper
Cretaceous time, west of the interior sea,
and it probably represents a delta at the
mouth of a river that drained this old con-
tinent. The presence of fossil plants, coal
beds, and fresh-water invertebrates in the
Bear River formation, together with its
stratigraphic position beneath the Aspen
formation, which is known from fossils
contained in it to be of Benton (Upper
Cretaceous) age, has led to the somewhat
persistent suggestion that the Bear River
may be the time equivalent of the Da-
kota sandstone, although its maximum
thickness is about 50 times that of the
Dakota.

U. S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY

BULLETIN 612 PLATE XX

A. A CREODONT, AN ANCIENT DOGLIKE ANIMAL. ONE OF THE ANCESTORS OF THE CARNIVOROUS

MAMMALS OF TO-DAY.

After Osborn. Published by permission of The Macmilian Co.

£. EOBASILEUS, ONE OF THE TYPES OF ANIMALS THAT BECAME EXTINCT AGES AGO.
After Osborn. Published by permission of The Macmilian Co.

THE OVERLAND ROUTE COUNCIL BLUFFS TO OGDEN. 81

Near Millis station may be seen to the right (north) great piles of
railroad ties that were cut in the mountains many miles to the south
and floated down Bear River at times of high water.
Millis. rp^ ^Ym left (south) are bluffs formed by beds of gravel

ol^a*9^^Sii^^*' ^y"^S horizontally over the eroded edges of the up-
turned red beds of the Kjiight formation. These
gravels were deposited by the river ages ago, before it had cut its
valley down to the level of the present flood plain.

Just before entering Evanston the road crosses the lines of the Almy
and Medicine Butte faults. Between these two faults the rocks are
steeply tilted, and to the left (south) may be obtained a glimpse of
the Almy conglomerates and the Evanston formation, a coal-bearing
formation that is best exposed north of the city.

Evanston is the seat of Uinta County and takes its name from John

Evans, a civil engineer, who founded it in 1869. It is a coal-mining

and commercial center and a division point of the

Evanston, Wyo. Union Pacific Railroad, with machine shops, icing

Elevation 6,739 feet, plants, and othcr buildine^s. A branch road connects

Population 2,583. i • • i i • i- i

Omaha 925 miles. the City With scvcral mmcs, some as lar north as
Almy. The Evanston formation, which contains the
principal coal beds of this region, is well exposed in a hill that may
be seen to the right, about 2 miles north of the city. Plate XXI, Ay
shows the relations of this formation as seen from Evanston. The
type locality of this formation is east of Bear River, just north of
the city, at the locahty shown in Plate XXI, B. Its rocks consist
of conglomeratic sandstone, shale, and thick beds of coal. It lies on
the eroded edges of several older formations, indicating that its depo-
sition followed a long period of erosion. (See table on p. 75.)

Six miles west of Evanston the railroad crosses from Wyoming into
Utah.

Utah has an area of 82,184 square miles and a population of 373,351.
The eastern part of the State consists of high plateaus; the western

part, which lies in the Great Basin, ^ consists of ranges
Utah. of rugged mountains trending in general from north

to south, sagebrush-covered hills, wide, nearly level
vaUeys, clear mountain streams, and fresh and salt lakes. The floor
of the Great Basin is formed of alluvium washed from the plateaus
and mountains.

^ As a general rule continental surfaces
are drained by streams flowing to the
ocean, but there are some exceptional
areas which have no outward drainage.
The Great Basin (fig. 10) is such an area.
It was so named by Fremont, who was
the first to gain an adequate conception of
38088°— Bull. 612—16 6

its character and extent. It lies near the
western margin of the continent and is
surrounded by the headwater divides of
rivers tributary to the Pacific Ocean.

Koughly, the Great Basin is bounded
by the Bocky Mountains on the east and
by the Sierra Nevada on the west. It

82

GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES.

The great mineral wealth of the State is shown by its record of
mineral production, which in 1913 amounted to more than $53,000,-
000. The five leading products in that year were copper, $25*024,124 ;
silver, $7,903,240; lead, $7,309,579; coal, $5,384,127; and gold.

Figure 10.

-Map showing outline of the Great Basin and the lakes it once contained. Shaded areas
show Quaternary lakes; dotted lines show boundaries of drainage basins.

$3,565,229. Utah is third among the States in the Union in the pro-
duction of silver and lead and fourth in the production of copper.

extends from Oregon on the north to and
beyond the Mexican boundary, but is
limited by the drainage system of Colo-
rado Biver on the southeast. The area
thus defined is 800 miles long from north
to south, and nearly 500 miles broad in its
widest part. It contains 200,000 square
miles, an area about equal to that of
France.

The Great Basin is a region of diversi-
fied surface features, including flat desert
valleys and rugged mountain ranges con-
taining lofty peaks. It is not, as its
name might suggest, a single pan-shaped

depression, gathering its waters to a com-
mon center, but is divided into a large
number of independent drainage areas.
Both the mountains and the valleys are
of types more or less peculiar to the region.

The mountains are long, narrow ridges,
most of which extend from north to south
and project abruptly out of the plains,
there being a noticeable absence of foot-
hills. Many of them terminate at the
ends as abruptly as their side slopes join
the surrounding plains.

Arid plains are abundan t in this region
and some are so extensive that they appear

THE OVERLAND ROUTE COUNCIL BLUFFS TO OGDEN.

83

Among the State's nonmetallic mineral resources are coal, whicli
underlies largo areas, and phosphate rock.

Although the average annual rainfall in Utah is only 1 1 inches, large
crops are grown, chiefly by irrigation, and great numbers of live stock
are raised. The value of the sugar made from sugar beets in 1914
amounted to more than $10,000,000. Wheat, oats, and potatoes are
raised in large quantities, the value of these products in 1913 having
been more than $8,000,000. The live stock in Utah in 1914 was
valued at $18,000,000, and the value of the wool clip was $7,000,000.
The value of the manufactures of the State in 1914 amounted to
about $76,000,000.

To the geologist Utah is an interesting field of work and study.
Its peculiar mountain ranges, the record of its extinct lakes, the depos-
its in its present lakes, its coal beds, its possible gas and oil fields, and
its diverse and abundant mineral deposits, as well as its underground
water and its available water powers, have long commanded attention
and have been the subjects of many reports.

almost boundless. They present many
of the features generally supposed to
characterize a desert, such as deep drift-
ing sands and broad stretches of wholly
barren mud plains, and in the heat of the
midday sun they exhibit all the tricks of
the mirage.

The climate of the region is very dr>%
the average annual rainfall vaiying from
10 or 12 inches in northern Nevada to less
than 3 inches in the south and southwest.
In northern Nevada the plains are in
general covered with scattered clumps of
brush, of which grease wood (Sarcobatus)
and numerous varieties of sage (Artemisia)
are most common. In the spring the
barren-looking soil brings forth a surpris-
ing variety of beautiful and delicate
flowers, most of which disappear entirely
as the parching heat of summer comes on.
Timber or even trees of any kind are,
as a rule, exceedingly scarce. Cotton-
woods and willows grow in patches or line
some of the more permanent water-
courses, and more or less scrubby pines
and cedars are scattered on some of the
higher mountain slopes. Herds of small
wild horses, or mustangs, roam over some
of the less frequented mountain ranges,
but, like the ubiquitous coyotes, they
are shy and are not likely to be seen from
the train.

Agriculture is almost wholly restricted
to a few areas that can be irrigated, al-

though dry farming is being tried in some
localities. A more common industry is
the grazing of sheep and cattle on the
bunch grass that grows in the shade of the
sagebrush.

The mines of the precious metals are
the principal source of wealth in the Great
Basin, and in connection with their
development towns have been built in
out of the way places, many of them high
on the bare mountain sides and far from
water and food supplies.

Since the completion of the first trans-
continental railroad, in 1869, settlement
of the region and development of its
resources have progressed enormously.
Now several transcontinental railroads
cross it and numerous branches extend
through the desert valleys north and
south from the trunk lines; towns and
mining camps have sprung up along these
highways, and almost every acre of easily
irrigable land has been appropriated by
settlers. Herds of cattle and sheep find
sustenance on the mountains and in the
sagebrush-covered valleys that were once
thought to be too barren ever to become
of service to man. Throughout the
eastern border of the Great Basin, in
Idaho and Utah, the followers of the
Mormon faith have found a "promised
land" which, by great industry, they
have reclaimed from its j)rimitive desola-
tion and made the home of thousands.

84

GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES.

Wahsatch, Utah.

Elevation 6,824 feet.
Omaha 935 miles.

Wahsatch, which consists of little more than a station house, stands
at the crest of the divide between Bear River and Weber River. The
name of the station retains the old spelling, which
has been simplified for the name of the mountains.
From many points west of this station may be had
glimpses of the Uinta Mountains, to the southeast,
and of the Wasatch Mountains, to the southwest. Toward the west
may be seen the northward extension of the Wasatch Range. The
hills near by consist of the red and yellow sandstone, shale, and
conglomerate of the Wasatch group, which occurs here in typical
development. It was from this region that Dr. Hayden, Director of
the United States Geological and Geographical Survey of the Terri-
tories, named these strata.

A short distance west of the station the railroad passes through a
tunnel in these red rocks and enters Echo Canyon, which is famous
for the curious forms carved by erosion from the red conglomerate
of its walls.

The first station in this canyon has been named Curvo, because of

the route taken by the railroad in its vicinity. Many

of the sharp curves and steep grades of the Union

Omaha 939 miles. Pacifio as first built have been eliminated by recent

improvements, but it is not easy to smooth out all

the rough places, especially where the road is confined in a narrow

valley.

The station of Castle Rock takes its name from the castellated
Castle Rock. form of the north wall of the canyon which over-

looks it. The red beds are here carved by erosion
into many fantastic shapes, and the peculiar forms
seen here become more numerous farther west and
culminate in grotesqueness near Echo.

Curvo.

Elevation 6,824 feet

Elevation 6,240 feet
Population 131.
Omaha 944 miles.

Some of the most productive gold and
silver mines in the world have been
developed in this inhospitable region.
With all this advancement, however, the
Great Basin is still very sparsely settled.
Although not generally attractive to
the pleasure seeker, the Great Basin
appeals especially to the geologist, both
because the absence of vegetation gives
unusual facilities for investigation and
because the problems to be solved are
peculiarly interesting and economically
important. There is, moreover, an at-
traction in the region that grows with
more intimate acquaintance, and that is
due partly perhaps to its vastness, its
clear dry air, and the free and healthful
life that it seems to induce. Although

the region is generally called a desert, its
climate compares favorably with that of
many other parts of the country. The
low humidity prevents the high tempera-
tures of summer from being oppressive,
except possibly in some of the low-lying
southern valleys where the heat is almost
unendurable. It is true that the wind
blows fiercely at times, so that the air is
filled with flying dust and sand, but these
storms are infrequent. The country
probably appears to least advantage
viewed from the windows of a Pullman
car. From such a position of comfort the
heat and dust of a summer's day appear
unnaturally intensified and the apparent
lonesomeness of a strange and unknown
country is likely to be repellent,

U. S. GEOLOGICAL GURV"Y

BULLETIN 612 PLATE XXII

A. "STEAMBOAT ROCK," IN ECHO CANYON, UTAH.

Name is applied to rock mass In foreground because seen at some angles it resembles the bow of a steamship.
It consists of red conglomerate of Tertiary age.

n. THE NARROWS, IN ECHO CANYON, UTAH.

Fortifications v.cro constructed by the Mormons in these narrows during the so-called Mormon war of 1 857.
The walls are composed of coarse red conglomerate of the Wasatch group.

U. S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY

BULLETIN 612 PLATE Xxlll

A. NORTH V/ALL OF ECHO CANYON, UTAH, AT ITS JUNCTION WITH WEBER CANYON, NEAR

THE TOWN OF ECHO.
The rocks consist of coarse red conglomerate of the Wasatch group.

B. PULPIT ROCK AT ECHO, UTAH.
Composed of red conglomerate.

THE OVERLAND ROUTE COUNCIL BLUFFS TO OGDEN. 85

Two miles east of Emory light-colored conglomeratic sandstone
appears in the canyon wall to the right (north), steeply inchned

beneath the red beds of the Wasatch group. These

^^^^' tilted beds contain fossil plants that indicate Creta-

olr^a^Q^^mn^^* ceous age. Near Emory station a thickness of several

thousand feet of these beds is exposed. The conglom-
erates are very coarse near the top and are colored light red, so that
they can not always be distinguished from the overlying conglomerates
of the Wasatch group.

In Echo Canyon west of Emory there is some of the most pictur-
esque scenery on the Overland Route. After passing over the great
stretches of flat, unbroken desert farther east, where little but sage-
brush and sand can be seen, the traveler is here refreshed by seeing
something that has a vertical dimension. Some of the cliffs are nearly
1,000 feet high. The canyon has been carved by the stream, the
rains, and the wind, working through long ages on the red conglom-
erate, which, because of inequalities in hardness, has been worn into
many a curious and fantastic shape whose general effect can not be
adequately described and is only poorly represented by the camera.
Many of the forms have received fanciful names suggested by their
shapes, such as ''Jack in the Pulpit," ''the Sphinx," "the Giant's
Teapot," "Steamboat Rock," and "Gibraltar." (See PI. XXII, A.)
The imaginative spectator may be able to distinguish the forms sug-
gested by these names, but the more observant will rather be im-
pressed by the evidences of the working of the great forces of nature
here so conspicuously displayed.

Echo Canyon is in places very narrow and long stretches of its north
wall are almost vertical. (See PL XXII, B.) On top of this waU
may still be seen the rude fortifications built by the Mormons during
the so-called Mormon war of 1857 to prevent the entrance of United
States soldiers into Salt Lake vaUey. Here the defenders watched
and waited for the battle that was never fought, for the misunder-
standing— or worse, according to Bancroft's "History of Utah" — was
adjusted before the troops reached the canyon.

Just before entering the town of Echo the train passes close to
Pulpit Rock (see PL XXIII, B) which may be seen on the right. As

the name imphes, this rock bears some resemblance
Echo. to a pulpit, and the story has been somewhat widely

Elevation 5,471 feet, circulated that from it Brigham Young preached his
0^1^9601111163. fi^s^ sermon on entering the, "promised land" in 1847.

However, those in position to speak with authority
on this subject say that the first company of Mormon emigrants did
not stop at Pulpit Rock and that Young was sick with mountain
fever during this part of the journey.*

^ Many of the facts relating to the Mormon immigration have been kindly furnished
by Mr. Andrew Jensen, of Salt Lake City.

86

GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES.

At the town of Echo the canyon opens into Weber Valley, up which
a railroad spur extends through the coal-mining town of Coalville to
the metal-mining district surrounding Park City.* Coal was found
by the Mormon settlers near Coalville long before the Union Pacific
was built and has been mined more or less contiauously ever since its
discovery. The mines of the Grass Creek valley, in the Coalville
field, now furnish fuel for the mining operations at Park City and for
the manufacture of Portland cement at Devils Slide.

At Echo the red conglomerates (Wasatch) form cliffs 500 feet or
more in height (PL XXIII, A). South and west of the town the
rocks of Cretaceous age reappear at the surface where the Wasatch
beds have been eroded away. About 2 miles west of Echo a group of
curious monument-like rocks, some of which are more than 100 feet
high, may be seen to the right (north) of the track, well up the slope.
These are known as The Witches (PI. XXIV, A) and are remnants
formed by the erosion of a coarse conglomerate. Although any rock
that has a fancied resemblance to some famihar shape is likely to
attract greater attention than many a more significant feature of the
landscape, these bizarre monuments are well worthy of more than a
passing glance. The name '^The Witches" is suggested by the form
of the cap rock of one of the monuments, which is shaped something
hke the fabled witch's hat. (See PL XXIV, B.) The caps are
formed from a light-colored band of conglomerate that is cemented
into a harder mass than the underlying pink conglomerate. This
hard cap rock protects the underlying beds from the rain until the
supporting column, by slow crumbhng, becomes too slender to hold it.
When the cap falls off the monument soon becomes pointed at the
top and is finally reduced to the level of the surrounding country.

^ The mining camp at Park City is
on the east side of the Wasatch Range at
an altitude of 7,200 feet, but some of the
mines are nearly 2,000 feet higher. The
sedimentary rocks of this district, ranging
in age from Carboniferous to Triassic, were
long ago compressed into a series of folds
and broken by mountain-making forces
and large portions of them were greatly
displaced. Masses of molten rock known
as quartz diorite and quartz diorite por-
phyry were then forced up into them from
below. Later other masses of molten rock
called andesite flowed over the surface.

The ores result from the older intru-
sions and occur as compounds of lead,
silver, copper, zinc, and other metals in
lodes and fissure veins and as bedded
deposits in the sedimentary rocks. The

more important lode deposits occur in
two zones about a mile apart, known as
the Ontario and Daly West zone and the
Silver King and Kearns-Keith zone.
These have been explored for several thou-
sand feet (in length), and in the Ontario
mine a fissure containing much valuable
ore has been explored to a depth of 2,000
feet or more.

Ore was discovered in this district in
1869, but not until 1877 did the camp
become an important producer. Since
that time production has been continuous.
The total reported output to the close of
the year 1913 was gold $3,959,132; silver,
$91,336,065; lead, $47,602,156; copper,
$3,587,247; zinc, $2,606,770— a total value
of $149,091,370, of which $38,753,126 has
been distributed as dividends.

U. S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY

BULLETIN 612 PLATE XXIV

A. THE WITCHES, NEAR ECHO. UTAH; AS SEEN FROM THE TRAIN.
A group of natural monuments- carved by wind and rain from conglomerate probably of Tertiary age.

'^^

B. SIDE VIEW SHOWING, ON THE BUTTE TO TmE RiGnT, TnE ■■vViTCHS CAP, vVni^n 5u^
GESTED THE NAME FOR THE GROUP.

U. S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY

BULLETIN 612 PLATE XXV

^H^'-v---^ J[^^Bt-V''*%

|p^ ^j^^^^

7^:^ ~~ «• ■'^^gg^'.^^MKE^I^^^gM

A. VIEW OF THE VALLEY OF WEBER RIVER FROM WITCHES ROCKS.

On the monument at the left is a cap which protects the rock under it because its pebbles are cemented
together more firmly than those below.

i

B. THE DEVILS SLIDE.

These beds consist of layers of hard limestone separated by soft shale of Ihe Twin Creek formation, of Jurrassic
age, and were originally formed in a horizontal position but during one of the mountain uplifts were upturned
to a vertical position.

THE OVERLAND ROUTE COUNCIL BLUFFS TO OGDEN.

87

Henefer.

Elevation 5,409 feet
Population 413.
Omaha 964 miles.

Plate XXIV, Af shows a inoniiinent (in the center of the group) that
is lower than the others and worn to a sharp point at the top. The
cap that once protected this "witch" now lies in a gulch at her feet.
The other caps will fall in time — probably after the lapse of centuries —
and The Witches, Hke their mythical prototypes, will disappear
from the face of the earth.

Near Henefer the first company of Mormon emigrants, for some
reason that is now hard to understand, left the Overland Trail and
chose the very difficult route up the creek that enters
the Weber from the south. After crossing the moun-
tains, they passed down Emigration Canyon to Salt
Lake City.^

To the right (north) , near Henefer station, may be
seen a gravel terrace rising 25 feet or more above the level of the road-
bed. This w^as formed by the river at some former stage, probably
during the time of high water in Lake Bonneville. (See pp. 97-99.)
Although the gravels here are more than 200 feet above the highest
terrace of the old lake, it seems likely that the diminished slope of the
river during high water then caused the stream to deposit in this part
of its course the beds of gravel that now form the shelf on which the
railroad is built west of Echo and that form the protecting cap of the
bluff at Henefer.

The Cretaceous rocks which in Echo Canyon dip steeply toward the
west under the red beds of the Wasatch group reappear with opposite
dip west of Echo, but owing to the great quantities of gravel that
cover the hillsides, derived by disintegration from the older conglom-
erates, these rocks can be seen from the train at only a few places.
However, the broad, open valley that the route crosses west of Hen-
efer is due to erosion of the soft Cretaceous shales.

Three miles west of Henefer the coarse red puddingstone of the
Wasatch beds extends down to the river level, and the broad basin-

' It is possible that a little study of the
earlier history of the Mormons may throw

some light on this strange procedure.
They had been driven from place to place
in the States until they had decided to
seek a place so far from settled districts
that they would not be molested. When
this first company, consisting of 140 men
and 3 women, started westward in April,
1847, one purpose of their leader, Brigham
Young, was to mark out a trail for the use
of later emigrants. Rather than follow
the Overland Trail, which had become
fairly well known by tliis time, he chose a
new and untraveled route that came later
to be called the Mormon Trail. The

beaten path was avoided for two reasons.
First, they wished to avoid their enemies,
some of whom they would be sure to find
on the older trail, and second, they never
traveled on Sunday and they made relig-
ious worship as much a part of their daily
program as the travel itself. In order to
avoid trouble, as well as for the sake of
being unmolested in their devotions, this
first company marked out a new route
through 1,000 miles of wilderness. The
Mormon Trail parallels the Overland Trail
and in some places where a different route
was impracticable joins it, as, for exam-
ple, at river crossings and in the mountain
passes and canyons.

88

GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES.

Devils Slide.

Elevation 5,314 feet
Omaha 969 miles.

like valley suddenly narrows to a gorge barely wide enough for the
river to pass through. The road bed has been cut in the side of this
gorge, and in the cuts may be seen great bowlders of quartzite, some
of them 4 feet in diameter, with smaller bowlders, pebbles, and sand
filling the space between them. These materials are cemented into a
resistant mass by red oxide of iron, which gives a brilliant color to the
whole mass. At the west end of this short gorge the red conglomerate
overlaps rocks of Jurassic age, which have been upturned to a vertical
position.

On emerging from the gorge, just before entering the town of
Devils Slide, the train passes through a long cut in the shale of the
upper part of the Jurassic and crosses Weber Kiver
at the point where Lost Creek enters it from the
right (north). To the right also, in the Lost Creek
valley, may be seen a large mill where limestone
and shale are manufactured into Portland cement.^ These strati-
fied rocks are all turned up into a vertical attitude. The soft shale
is worn away by rain and wind faster than the limestone, which
is left standing out as ragged vertical walls. The Devils Slide
(PI. XXV, B) is formed by two of these limestone reefs, about 20
feet apart, from which the shale has been eroded away, leaving them
standing about 40 feet above the general slope of the canyon side.
Many other reefs in this vicinity are equally prominent, but no others
are so conspicuous from the train.

From Devils Slide westward to Morgan Weber River has cut a
canyon through the Bear River Range. This broad range is by some
geographers included in the Wasatch Mountains, into which it passes
farther south. The sedimentary rocks of the Bear River Range
consist of steeply inclined beds of limestone and sandstone and a
subordinate amount of shale, ranging in age from Jurassic on the
east to Ordovician on the west. (See table on p. 2.) The forma-
tions are all conspicuously exposed in the precipitous craggy sides of
the canyon and may be seen to best advantage toward the right, in
the north wall of the canyon. West of the town of Devils Slide the
gray beds of the Jurassic Twin Creek limestone give place to a massive
salmon-colored sandstone (Nugget sandstone) of Jurassic or Triassic
age, west of which, and next older, are thin-bedded bright-red shales
and sandstones (Ankareh shale), fossiliferousshaly limestone (Thaynes

^ The Jurassic limestone and shale of
this locality are utilized in the manufac-
ture of cement, for which they are well
adapted and conveniently located. The
rock is blasted from the mountain side in
quarries plainly visible from the train to
the right (northj and passed downward
through the mills, coming out at the bot-

tom in the form of cement at the rate
of about 2,500 barrels a day. The fuel
used for the kilns is coal, mined on Grass
Creek. Electric power is furnished by
streams on the western slope of the
Wasatch Mountains and transmitted
from generating plants near the base of
the range.

BULLETIN 612

SHEET No. 14

GEOLOGIC AND TOPOGKAPHIC MAP

OVERLAND ROLTE

From Omaha, Nebraska, to San Francisco, Calitoitia

Base compiled fi-om United States Geological Survey Atlas Sheets,
from railroad alignments and profiles supplied by the Union Paciiii
Railroad Company and the Southern Pacific Company and from addi-
tional information collected with the assistance of these compaiiii s

UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVE^

GEORGE OT]S SAIITH, DIRECTOR
David White. Chief Geologist R. B. Marshall, Chief Geographe

1915

Each quadrangle shown on the map with a name in parenthesis in the
lower left comer is mapped in detail on the U. S. C. S. Topographic
sheet of that name.

EXPLANATION

A Sandstone and congflomerate; fresh- water
deposits; includes Knight, Fowites, and
Almy formations (Wasatch group)

B Sandstone, shale, and coal; fresh-water
deposits (Evanston fonnation)

C Sandstone and shale; brackish and fresh-
water deposits (Adaville fonnation)

D Shale; marine deposit (Hiliiard formation)

E Sandstone, shale, and coal, (includes
Oyster Ridge sandstone member) ;
marine and brackish water deposits
'Frontier formation'

F Shale; marine deposit (Aspen formation)

G Sandstone and shale; fresh and brackish
water deposits (Bear River formation)

H Sandstone, eongloiiierate, shale, and lime-
stone; marine and fresh-water deposits
(Beckwith and Twin Creek formations) 3,800 - .").50()

I Sandstone and shale; marine deposits

I Nugget (1.700 i), Ankareh vl.oOO* ,,

Thaynes '1,700 i ), and Woodside

(1,000 + ) formations) 5,900

, /Limestone; marine deposit (Park City formation) l,500±"l
LQuartzite; marine deposit (Weber quartzite) 4,000±]'

Thickness
in feet

2,(>00-6,200j

0-1,600/

4,000
5..'>00-6.800

2,200-2,600
1.500-2,000

Cretaceous
or Tertiary

.Jurassic
possibly some
Cretaceous

Triassic
may include
some Jurassic

Carbon! f erous

THE OVERLAND ROUTE COUNCIL BLUFFS TO OGDEN. 89

limestone), and red sandstone and shale (Woodside formation), all
probably of Lower Triassic age. The purplish-red sandstone layers
of the Ankareh are beautifully ripple marked.

Still farther west appears the fossiliferous limestone of the Park
City formation, of Pennsylvanian or Permian age. In the lower part
of this formation are beds of black phosphate rock interstratified with
beds of shale and limestone. The traveler can see some old prospect
openings in the phosphate beds to the left, in the south waU of the
canyon, just before the train enters the tunnel. These beds are por-
tions of the great phosphate deposits of Utah, Idaho, Wyoming, and
Montana, which form a large part of the nation's store of material
available for making phosphatic fertilizers. (See pp. 127-129.)

West of the phosphate beds is the Weber quartzite, a thick forma-
tion of Pennsylvanian age which, because of its superior hardness and
resistance to erosion, forms the crest of the Bear River Range. Most
of the rounded quartzite bowlders and pebbles in the red conglom-
erate of Echo Canyon and of the gorge east of Devils Slide were
derived from this formation.

The river has cut a winding gorge through the quartzite, and two
of the projecting spurs of the craggy walls are pierced by short tun-
nels. At the eastern tunnel the strata, which farther east are nearly
vertical, are bent into a knee-shaped fold that brings the beds west
of the axis to an inclination of scarcely 15°.

The second tunnel in the Weber quartzite opens on the west into
Round Valley, a circular basin hollowed out by the river in the rela-
tively soft red sandstone and shale of lower Pennsylvanian age, known
as the Morgan formation, because of its occurrence near the town of
Morgan. These red beds are well exposed in the north wall of Round
VaUey and also south of the railroad between this vaUey and Morgan.

Morgan is the center of a rich agricultural district that is especially
noted for the fine quality of the peas which are raised here. From
Morgan (see sheet 15, p. 102) about 90 carloads of
Morgan. canned peas are shipped each year. The broad valley

Elevation 5,080 feet, whicli makcs this industry possible is due tp the
or^a 976 miles. presence of soft rocks, in which the river has greatly
widened its vaUey while it was cutting the narrow
gorges in the hard rocks both east and west. These rocks once fiUed
a basin lying between the two ranges of the Wasatch Mountains.
East of Morgan rise the craggy slopes of the Bear River Range,
through which the train has just passed, and which attains an altitude
of 9,245 feet in Mount Morgan, north of the town. To the west may
be seen the rugged crest of the main range of the Wasatch Mountains,
which in this latitude consist entirely of granitic rocks of Archean
age — that is, rocks which are older than the oldest sedimentary rocks
that contain remains of plants or animals. (See table on p. 2.)

I

90

GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES.

Just before entering Morgan the train passes close to the foot of a
slope on the right (north) in which dark-colored limestone containing
fossil corals and shells of early Carboniferous (Mississippian) age is
well exposed. Farther west rocks of Ordovician and Cambrian age
are exposed north of the track, but these can not be readily distin-
guished from the train.

The soft Tertiary rocks that occupy the basin west of Morgan may
be seen to the right from the train, north of Peterson, where they
appear as light-green to pink strata, slightly conglomeratic and in-
clined toward the east.

The station at Peterson is near the center of the basin just described.
The basin was formerly occupied by a bay of the ancient Lake Bonne-
ville, whose waters backed up through Weber Can-
yon. (See pp. 97-99.) Along the margin of this bay,
which was 300 feet or more in depth, sand and gravel
accumulated in large quantities. When the water
withdrew from the basin these beach accumulations
were left as a shelf, remnants of which lie about 300 feet above the
railroad at many places on the slopes.

Many a ''station" along the Union Pacific Railroad consists of

nothing more than a signpost, but at Strawberry not even a post is

visible. It is a switch for sidetracking cars to gravel

Strawberry. p^^g^ which may be seen to the right, north of the

Elevation 4,842 feet, railroad, and which furnish gravel for ballast. From

Omaha 985 miles. \ m i i i

many places near btrawberry the traveler may get
good views of Mount Morgan, to the east, and of Observation Peak
(over 10,000 feet above sea level), which lies to the north (right)
and is here the most prominent mountain north of the railroad.
To the left (south) rises the main mass of the southern part of the
Wasatch Range. ^

Peterson.

Elevation 4,892 feet.
Population 277.*
Omaha 983 miles.

^ The Wasatch is the easternmost of the
basin ranges. Although very complex in
structure, it may be described briefly as a
great block of the earth's crust that has
been elevated at its western margin, so
that it inclines eastward. Its tilting was
made possible by a break of the crust in a
north-south direction along what is now
the western base of the range. The rocks
that lie east of this line of fracture were
pushed up many thousands of feet higher
than those that lie west of the line, thus
producing a great fault. Later the ele-
vated part of the block was eroded, so that
now its surface is a complicated mass of
rugged mountains, separated from one an->
other by valleys, canyons, and gorges.

The western face of the range which was
originally nearly straight and might have
been a single cliff had it not been eroded,
is still very precipitous and forms what is
known as a great fault scarp. It is this
western fault scarp that is so impressive
as seen from Ogden and other points in
the valley of Great Salt Lake.

The Uinta Mountains differ from the
Wasatch Mountains in that they have re-
sulted from the erosion of a broad arch
whose axis trends east, nearly at right
angles to the Wasatch axis. The Uinta is
the westernmost of the Rocky Mountain
ranges, which reach their maximum de-
velopment farther east in central Colo-
rado. The junction of this range with the

THE OVERLAND ROUTE COUNCIL BLUFFS TO OGDEN.

91

Just before reaching Gateway station the route passes abruptly

from the open valley into the narrow V-shaped gorge cut by Weber

River through this great range of mountains. Pre-

Gateway. cipitous, craggy slopes rise on both sides and the

Elevation 4,804 feet, sccncry is Varied and impressive. The river descends

Omaha 988 miles. • n • i • i i n • i i i •

rapidly in this canyon and the power lurnished by it
is utilized by hydroelectric plants. Soon after entering the canyon
the train passes to the left (south) of a diversion dam at which a
large part of the water is turned into a pressure pipe 6 feet in
diameter. From this pipe it emerges about 2 miles downstream,
at an altitude 172 feet below the intake, at the power house of the
Utah Light & Railway Co., from which 5,000 horsepower is trans-
mitted 35 miles to Salt Lake City. From the power house the water
is carried by a canal along the south wall of the canyon to the tur-
bines of a second power house, from which it is distributed for irri-
gating the lands of the valley below. The once worthless desert has
thus been transformed to green fields and fruitful orchards which
support a thriving community.

Toward the lower end of the canyon the river makes a sharp turn
to the right through a rocky defile called Devils Gate. Instead of
passing through this defile, the railroad is built through a cut made
in unconsolidated gravel which fills a former channel of the river.
Apparently this old channel was filled during one of the stages of
high water in Lake Bonneville (see pp. 97-99), and when the lake
water withdrew the river was deflected to the right at this point and
cut a new channel in the solid rock, making what the physiographer
calls a young channel due to superimposed drainage.^

Wasatch constitutes the transition be-
tween the Rocky Mountain ranges^mod-
ified arches whose axes have a northerly
trend with a marked tendency toward
westward deflection — and the Basin
Ranges — tilted blocks, whose axes have a
regular northerly trend.

^ The behavior of the river at this point
gives the key to an understanding of its
course across the Wasatch Range. The
river rises east of this range, but instead
of taking the seemingly easier course
around the mountains, as Bear River did,
it has cut its way directly through them.
West of Echo it leaves the open basin-like
valley and enters a narrow gorge nearly
2,000 feet deep. West of Devils Slide it
enters a canyon cut to a dei)th of 4,000
feet or more through the Bear River
Range. West of this range it crosses
another open space and once more enters

a narrow canyon within which it passes
through the main range of the Wasatch
Mountains.

In Tertiary time such valleys as may
then have existed in this region were
filled with gravel, sand, and silt, and
practically the whole region was aggraded
or built up to nearly a common level.
Over this plain the streams established
their courses without regard to the kind of
rock beneath the surface. Weber River
chose the course of least resistance at that
time, and when it deepened its channel
and found itself flowing directly across
the ridges of hard rock that now form the
Wasatch Mountains it was too late to
change. The energy of the stream has
been sufhciont to cut only narrow gorges
in the hard rock, but in the softer rock it
has excavated the broad valleys west of
Echo and near Morgan.

92 GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES.

On emerging from Weber Canyon the train crosses the line of the
great fault by which the rocks on the east were uplifted many thou-
sands of feet relative to those on the west. Here we
^^"^^- enter a broad, fertile valley that is well watered by

Elevation 4,497 feet, ^j^^ rivcr. If the traveler covered with alkali dust
Omaha 993 miles. f rom the dcscrts farther east reaches this valley when
the orchard trees are bending to the ground under
their burden of ripening fruit he will not wonder that some of the
inhabitants call it ^^Zion."

This valley has been eroded from a broad delta of gravel, sand,
and silt built up by the river during the Pleistocene epoch, when the
waters of Lake Bonneville covered the region. The form of the delta
is not visible from the train, because the raiboad follows the trench
that the river subsequently cut in the old delta. The accompanying
map (sheet 15, p. 102) shows that a gently sloping surface with Ogden
near its center extends from Farmington nearly to Brigham, a dis-
tance of 30 miles, and from the foot of the mountains westward to
the lake, a distance of 17 miles. This is the delta built by Weber
and Ogden rivers and several smaller streams.

Two prominent beach lines are plainly visible on either side of the
canyon. The higher one, known as the Bonneville terrace, is nearly
1,000 feet above the river and marks the level reached by the water
when the lake was at its maximum height. The lower one, known
as the Provo terrace, is 375 feet below the Bonneville terrace and
denotes a later stage of the lake. From points at a considerable
distance these so-called ^^ water lines," some made by deposits of gravel
and others by notches cut by the waves of Lake Bonneville in the
hard rock, may be seen all along the western face of the mountains.
(For a description of these terraces and the phenomena associated
with them see pp. 97-99.)

The valley of Weber River, which appears so attractive in the
vicinity of Uinta, is a small part of the Great Salt Lake valley, which
includes a large part of northern Utah. This is the home land of the
Mormons, and according to the historian Hubert H. Bancroft it is
'' a new Holy Land, with its Desert and its Dead Sea, its River Jordan,
Mount of Olives, and Galilee Lake, and a hundred features of its
prototype of Asia."

THE OVERLAND ROUTE COUNCIL BLUFFS TO OGDEN.

93

Ogden.

Elevation 4,301 feet
Population 25,580.
Omaha 1,000 miles.

Ogden is the western terminus of the Union Pacific system.
Through passengers on the Overland Route here pass without
change of cars to the Southern Pacific line which
connects Ogden with San Francisco. Passengers for
Yellowstone Park change to the Oregon Short Line,
and those for Salt Lake City ^ have the choice of the
Salt Lake & Ogden electric road, the Oregon Short
Line, or the Denver & Rio Grande. The railroad time changes here
from mountain to Pacific time, and the westbound traveler should
set his watch back one hour.

Ogden is the county seat of Weber County and the second largest
city in Utah. It is said to have been named for an old trapper and
was laid out under the direction of Brigham Young in 1850. Ogden
has a variety of industries, owing in part to its good transportation
facilities and cheap electric power. Canning is one of the most
important. In 1913 canneries adjacent to the city made an output
of nearly a million cases (approximately 24,000,000 quarts) of fruit
and vegetables, of which more than half was tomatoes.

Ogden lies at the foot of the Wasatch Mountains, which rise
abruptly just east of it, and is on the border of the flat floor of Great
Salt Lake valley, stretching away to the west. The business part
of the city is on one of the later terraces cut by the waves of the

' Salt Lake City, 37 miles south of Og-
den, is the capital of Utah and the seat of
government of the "Church of Jesus
Christ of Latter-Day Saints," whose ad-
herents are commonly called Mormons.
It is a city of 92,777 inhabitants, beauti-
fully situated between the shore of Great
Salt Lake and the lofty and precipitous
front of the Wasatch Mountains. Many of
the natural features are unique, especially
the great lake of brine so salty that no fish
can live in it and so dense that the bather
floats on it like a cork on ordinary water.
But this city is of interest mainly as the
headquarters of the Mormon Church,
which has grown so rapidly that in place
of the 40 who organized it in 1830 it now
has a membership of about 500,000.
Here are the Temple, the Tabernacle,
and many other objects of interest. The
city was founded in 1847 by the first com-
pany of Mormon emigrants under Brig-:
ham Young and was the point to which
later companies came and from which

they went out to possess the land. The
story of this migration and the establish-
ment of the new sect in the wilderness is
of absorbing interest. The fortitude with
which these people endured hardships and
suffering and their unwavering devotion
to a fixed purpose compel admiration.

Bingham Canyon, the principal copper
district of Utah, is easily reached from
Salt Lake City. The ores occur mainly
in limestone of Carboniferous age and in
an intrusive igneous rock (monzonite por-
phyry) which cuts the limestone. The
low-grade disseminated ores in porphjTy
are now more important than the ores in
the limestone. In 1913 the disseminated
ore mined, chiefly by steam shovels,
amounted to 8,300,000 tons, yielding
about 0.75 per cent of copper and some
gold and silver.

The Park City and Tintic districts,
which produce large quantities of ores
carrying chiefly lead and silver, can also
be visited from Salt Lake City.

94

GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES.

ancient Lake Bonneville, described below by G. K. Gilbert/ in an
apron of mountain waste; the main residence section rises eastward

^ At Ogden the traveler is fairly within
the Great Basin, and for 590 miles, until
he reaches the crest of the Sierra Nevada,
his course traverses a series of closed val-
leys— valleys which resemble basins in
the fact that all parts of their rims stand
higher than their middle parts. All
streams of this region either lose their
water by direct evaporation or discharge
it to some lake that serves as an evap-
oration pan. Some of the lakes have
outlets, but every such outflowing stream
flows into another lake, and the final
receptacle has no outlet, all the water it
receives escaping upward, into the air.
No stream in the Great Basin finds its
way to the ocean.

Great Salt Lake has no outlet. Jordan
Iliver, which enters it from the south,
is the outlet of Utah Lake. Bear River,
coming from the north, carries the out-
flow from Bear Lake. The waters of
Utah and Bear lakes and of Jordan and
Bear rivers are fresh, and so is the water
of Weber River, the third great tributary
of Great Salt Lake, but the lake into
which the three rivers flow is saline. It
is saline becauoe it has no outlet. The
fresh waters of the rivers contain some
saline matter, but the quantity is too
small to be discovered by taste. As
stated by the chemist, in parts per mil-
lion, the quantity seems minute, but
when account is taken also of the total
volume of water brought by the streams
to the lake in a year their burden of
saline matter is found to be really great,
amounting annually to more than 500,000
tons. Year by year and century by
century the water which they pour into
the lake is evaporated, but the dissolved
solids can not escape in that way and
therefore remain. They have accumu-
lated until the lake water is approxi-
mately saturated, holding nearly as
much mineral matter as it can retain
in solution. The lake contains over
5,000 million tons of common salt and
900 million tons of Glauber's salt, or
sodium sulphate, as well as other mineral
matter.

Another consequence of the lack of
outlet is that the lake varies from time to
time in size. Whenever the gain from
inflow is greater than the loss from
evaporation the level of the water surface
rises; when the loss is greater it falls.
Each year there is a rise, beginning in
winter, when the cool air has little power
to absorb moisture, and continuing
through spring, when the rivers are
swollen by the melting of snows in the
mountains. Each year there is a fall,
beginning in summer, when the hot air
rapidly absorbs the water, and continu-
ing in autumn, when the rivers are
smallest. This annual oscillation amounts
on the average to about 16 inches.

In some years the rainfall and snowfall
are greater than in others, and then the
lake usually receives more water than it
parts with, so that the siu-face is left
higher than it was before. In a series of
wet years the lake level progressively
rises; in a series of dry years it progres-
sively falls; and as the rainfall is irreg-
ular the fluctuations of the lake are con-
spicuous. Since definite knowledge of
the lake began, in 1850, there have been
five periods of increase and four of de-
crease. (See fig. 11.) The summer lev-
els of 1868 and 1877 were more than 10
feet above the summer level of 1850, and
those of 1903 and 1905 were 4 feet below
that of 1850. The level of 1914 was 6
feet above that for 1905.

The land bordering the lake has in
many places a slope so gentle that a
small change in the height of the water
surface makes a great change in the area
of the lake. On a map completed in
1850 the area shown is 1,750 square miles;
on a map made in 1869 it is 2,170 square
miles. In the interval between the two
sm-veys the lake had risen 10 feet, and
this rise enlarged the area about 24 per
cent. From the greater smiace the
evaporation was of coiu-se greater, and
the dependence of evaporation on area
is thus an important factor in regulating
the size of the lake. The effect of a long
series of wet years is somewhat reduced

THE OVERLAND ROUTE COUNCIL BLUFFS TO OGDEN.

95

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96

GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES.

to the level of the Provo terrace, which was huilt by this lake when
its surface remained for a long time at an elevation about 625 feet
higher than the present lake.

by the resulting increase of evaporation
surface, and the effect of a series of dry-
years is lessened by the resulting reduc-
tion of siu-face exposed to evaporation.
This natural and automatic control lim-
its the range of oscillation and gives a
certain permanence to what may be called
a normal or average level. A change in
the normal can occur only when some
new factor is introduced.

Both man and nature have introduced
new factors and thus have produced
changes in the normal level. The occu-
pation of the surrounding region by white
men has recently modified the face of
the land in ways that have a recognized
influence on the water level; and the
ancient history of the lake includes
enormous modifications in response to
changes of climate.

Of human influences the most telling
has arisen from the development of agri-
culture with irrigation. In irrigation the
water of rivers and creeks is diverted to
cultivated fields, w^hich first absorb it
and then through evaporation feed it to
the air; and the water thus consumed
by utilization is lost to the lake. With
the gradual enlargement of the irrigated
area the normal level of the lake is
inevitably being lowered, and engineers
are already confident that the high-water
mark of 1877 will never again be reached.
On the other hand, there is no reason to
expect the lake's extinction, for there is
a limit to the possibilities of irrigation.

The fresh water brought by the rivers
mingles gradually with the brine, and as
the river mouths are on or near the eastern
shore, the brine is not so strong at the east
as at the west. Analyses from samples of
the brine gathered at different points and
in different years report the dissolved
solids as from 13.7 to 27.7 per cent, by
weight. A sample taken in August, 1914,
contained 18.9 per cent of solids. At the
present time the average salinity of the
lake is about 6J times that of the ocean,
and its density is 14.5 per cent greater
than that of fresh water. Only with difli-

culty can the bather keep his feet from
rising to the surface, and if he balances
himself in an upright position his head
and shoulders are above the surface.

The brine is weakest in the northeastern
arm, the portion visible from the train
near Brigham. This arm has been par-
titioned from the main body by the em-
bankment of the Southern Pacific Co.
and is continuously supplied with fresh
water by Bear Kiver. Ice can form on
the stronger brine only in zero weather,
but this arm is frozen from side to side
every winter and sleighs have been driven
across it.

The only climatic element with which
the lake oscillations have been connected
by direct observation is precipitation —
the lake rises or sinks as the fall of rain
and snow is great or small — but it is easy
to understand that the balance between
supply and loss of water may also be dis-
turbed by any change of climate which
affects the rate of evaporation. As every
laundress well knows, evaporation is
favored by heat, by dryness of the air, and
by strength of wind and is retarded by
cold, by moisture in the air, and by calm.
So there are at least four ways in which
changes of climate may cause the lake to
expand or contract. The latest of the
periods into which geologists divide past
time witnessed a series of climatic changes
which affected the whole earth, and
though all the elements just mentioned
were doubtless involved, the element
which recorded its changes most clearly
was temperature. There were several
epochs of cold, and they were separated
by epochs of warmth. During the cold
epochs the high parts of the Wasatch
Range held a system of glaciers, and in
one of them several ice tongues protruded
so far beyond the mouths of the mountain
canyons that they heaped their moraines
on the floor of Jordan Valley, only a few
miles from the place where Salt Lake
City now stands. In that epoch of cold
the rate of evaporation was far slower than
now, and evaporation was at so great a dis-

THE OVEELAND ROUTE COUNCIL BLUFFS TO OGDEN.

97

From the station at Ogden may be seen Observation Peak, 6 miles
to the east, its top over 10,000 feet above sea level and more than a mile

advantage in its contest with precipita-
tion that there was immense expansion
of the water surface. When the lake was
largest it was comparable in area and
depth with Lake Michigan; it had eleven
times its present extent. In attaining
this great expanse the water surface rose
to a position more than 1,000 feet above
its present level.

To this great body of water geologists
apply a distinctive name, Lake Bonne-
ville, and they have given much atten-
tion to its history, which is written in
shore lines, deltas, channels, deposits, and
fossils. The shore lines appeal most to
the traveler, and may be seen from car
windows at several points.

As a matter of definition a shore is
merely the meeting place of land and sea
or of land and lake, but as a matter of land
form it is much more. At the shore the
lashing of storm waves works changes in
the land, giving it new shapes. At some
places the land is carved away; at others
it is made to encroach on the water.
Where it is eroded the limit of erosion is
marked by a cliff, and below the water is
a shelf of gentle slope. Where additions
are made they take the form of beaches or
bars, which rise little above the water
level and are composed of sand or gravel.
At some places a bar spans a bay from side
to side; elsewhere it is incomplete, pro-
jecting from a headland as a spit.

The waves of Lake Bonneville were as
powerful as those of Lake Michigan and
fashioned the shore into an elaborate sys-
tem of cliffs, beaches, and spits; and
when the waters finally fell to lower levels
they left behind the shapes their waves
had made. The base of each surviving
shore cliff is a horizontal line, and so is the
crest of each beach, bar, and spit, and
these features in combination trace the
outline of the old lake as a level contour
about the sides of the basin and the faces
of mountains that were once islands in the
lake.

In rising and falling the waters lin-
gered at many levels, and so there are

38088°— Bull. 612—16 7

many ancient shore lines, but two of
them are more conspicuous than the rest
and have been named. The highest of
all is the Bonneville shore line, and 375
feet lower lies the Provo shore line. The
Bonneville line represents a relatively
short stand of the water and is conspicu-
ous chiefly because it marks the bound-
ary of wave action. All the slopes below
it have been more or less modified by the
waves, but the slopes above it retain the
shapes which had been given them by
other agencies. The Provo line repre-
sents a long stand of the water and is con-
spicuous because it is strongly sculptured.

In all the early history of the great lake
its basin was closed, like that of the mod-
ern lake. The water surface rose and fell
in response to climatic changes, like that
of its modern remnant. The last great
rising was the highest and terminated the
series of oscillations by creating an outlet.
The lowest point of the basin's rim was at
Red Rock Pass (90 miles by rail north of
Ogden), and when the water rose above
that level the stream which began to cross
the pass descended to Portneuf River, a
tributary to Snake River, the chief branch
of the Columbia. Through the creation
of this outlet the Bonne\ille Basin, which
had pre\'iously contained an independent
interior drainage system, became part of
the drainage system of the Pacific Ocean.

Red Rock Pass was not a mountain
pass, a notch in a rocky crest; it was
merely the highest point on the axis of
a valley between two mountain ranges.
Valley and ranges ran north and south
and the valley was floored by alluvium
washed from the ranges. From the Red
Rock summit the valley sloped gently
northward toward the Portneuf and south-
ward toward Bear River. The formation
at the summit consisted of soft earth, and
as soon as overflow began a channel waa
formed. The deepening of the channel
increased the volume of the stream by
lowering the outlet of the lake, the greater
stream was more efficient in deepening
the channel, and these two causes inter-

98

GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES.

above the railroad. This is the culminating peak of the Wasatch
Mountains (PI. XXVIII, p. 104), a range that came into existence

acted until the stream became a stupen-
dous torrent. The volume of water dis-
charged before the flow became steady-
was enough to supply Niagara River for
25 years, but the record of the torrent's
violence leads to the belief that it lasted
for a much shorter period.

The rapid deepening of the outlet chan-
nel was finally checked when the stream
reached a sill of solid rock beneath the
soft alluvium of the pass, and upon this
sill the outlet rested for a long period.
The lake surface then no longer oscillated
in response to varying climate but held
a constant level, and it was the long
maintenance of this level which enabled
the waves to carve and construct the
Provo shore line.

The draining of the lake down to the
Provo level reduced its area by one-third
and correspondingly reduced the quan-
tity of water annually evaporated. Two-
thirds of the inflowing water was then
disposed of by evaporation and the re-
mainder was discharged through the out-
let. Only a great change of climate could
restore the balance between inflow and
evaporation, and the change was slow in
completion. At last, however, the pen-
dulum of temperature swung far enough
on the side of warmth. The outlet chan-
nel ran dry, the lake basin was again
separated from the drainage system of the
Pacific, and the lake began to shrink.
So long as there was outflow the water
was fresh, but when the outflow ceased
there began that accumulation of salt
which has made the water of the present
lake a concentrated brine.

At times in the history of the lake,
especially while the Provo shore line was
being formed, the tributary streams
brought down sand and gravel, which
they dropped at their mouths, building
deltas. When the water fell these de-
posits remained as fan-shaped benches
having steep fronts. The streams that
built them then dug channels through
them. Part of the city of Ogden stands
on a delta bench built by Ogden River.

Between "Weber Canyon and Ogden the
railroad follows the channel that was
opened by Weber River through its
former delta.

The climatic revolutions which created
and destroyed Lake Bonneville wrought
similar changes in all parts of the Great
Basin. In Western Nevada the traveler
sees the shore lines of another ancient
lake, known to geologists as Lake Lahon-
tan. It did not rise high enough to
establish an outlet, but its water was so
nearly pure as to be inhabited by fresh-
water shells. Some of its shores are
marked by heavy deposits of travertine.
When it died away there remained in its
basin a group of smaller lakes, some salt
and some fresh, but only one — Humboldt,
a fresh lake — can be seen from the train.

The view from Ogden station is ob-
structed by buildings and trees, but by
climbing to a near-by viaduct one may
see the bold face of the Wasatch Range,
across which the line of the Bonneville
shore is drawn as a narrow pale band.
On the shore bench grow the ash-green
sage and other light-colored bushes, and
the steeper slopes are mottled by dark-
green thickets of dwarf oak. The west-
bound traveler obtains a better view by
looking backward just after leaving
Ogden, and may probably recognize the
Provo shore line as well as the Bonne-
ville. These traces of old shores appear
on Promontory Range and Fremont
Island ; and if the air is clear the traveler
will have the old shore lines in view until
he leaves the Bonneville Basin near
Montello, 130 miles from Ogden.

On the route from Ogden to the Yellow-
stone National Park the old shore lines
are prominently and almost continuously
in sight until the train enters Bear River
Canyon and may also be seen on a distant
range to the left. They reappear in
Cache Valley, beyond this canyon, and
are especially conspicuous at the left
where their terraces surround a range of
hills. At the Provo stage of the lake
these hills projected above the water as

THE OVERLAND ROUTE COUNCIL BLUFFS TO OGDEN. 99

in comparatively recent geologic time and that has an interesting
^^^^^^•' [For continuation of itinerary to San Francisco, see p. 148.]

a long island, and at the Bonneville stage
as a chain of smaller islands. Between
Oxford and Downey the railroad traverses
the Red Rock outlet channel, one of the
stations, Swan Lake, being ^vithin the
channel. The modern streamlets, flow-
ing from neighboring hills, have brought
down enough gravel and sand to build
alluvial dams and have thus obstructed
the drainage of the old river bed, so that
it now contains a series of ponds and
marshes.

In quality of water and in temperature
Lake Bonneville was as wel/ fitted for
abundant and varied life as the Bear
Lake of to-day, and though the only re-
mains yet found in its sediments are
fresh- water shells, we need not doubt
that its waters teemed with fish. We
may confidently picture its bordering
marshes as fields of verdure and its bolder
shores as forest clad; and we may less
confidently imagine primitive man as a
denizen of its shores and an eyewitness
of the spectacular deluge when its earthen
barrier was burst.

The only permanent animal inhabitant
of Great Salt Lake is a tiny "brine
shrimp, " a third of an inch in length. A
more conspicuous temporary resident is a
minute fly which passes its larval stage in
the water, and when its transformation
takes place leaves behind it the discarded
skin . These flies are so numerous in their
season that even the passing tourist should
feel grateful that they do not bite. Their
brown exuviae darken the water edge and
often sully broad belts of the lake surface.
More decorative denizens are gulls and
pelicans, which find safe nesting ground
on some of the smaller islands. There
are no shoal-water plants, and the salt
spray of the beach is fatal to all land
vegetation along the shores.

When the lake is low its salt is segre-
gated and deposited in shallow lagoons at
its margin, to be redissolved when the
water rises. Each autumn, as the water
cools, deposits of hydrated sodium sul-
phate (Glauber's salt) coat piles and other

fixed objects near the water surface, and
the deposits increase as the temperature
falls. In the depth of winter large masses
of this salt may be seen along the embank-
ments and trestles of the Lucin cut-off.
Calcium carbonate, the mineral consti-
tuting limestone, travertine, and chalk,
is continuously and permanently sepa-
rated from the water, which is unable to
retain that which is brought to it by the
rivers. Along the shores it forms minute
balls, which together constitute sand, a
sand quite distinct from the siliceous sand
of ordinary beaches.

Man makes little use of the lake. On
its shores there are neither fisheries nor
ports, and commerce finds it an impedi-
ment rather than an aid. Its deposits of
Glauber's salt, which it offers for the
gathering, are neglected because the
world's demand is small and is cheaply
met in other ways. Its common salt is
harvested with great economy of effort,
for impurities are easily excluded and
the work of evaporation is performed by
the sun. The present annual output of
40,000 tons must be multiplied fivefold be-
fore it can commence to weaken the brine.
For the rest man is content to resort to
its shore for bathing and to realize a new
sensation as he floats upon its surface.

Ulost of the rocks in the Wasatch
Range were laid down as sand and mud
on the bottom of the ancient sea, where
they became compacted and hardened
into sandstone, shale, and limestone.
The sea bottom eventually became land.
As mother earth has aged her skin has
cracked and wrinkled. In the Utah-
Nevada region many long cracks were
formed and the rocks on one side or the
other were moved slowly upward or down-
ward, forming long ridges along the
cracks, steep on on© side and gently slop-
ing on the other. Such breaks in the
earth's crust are called faults. A fault
may be a few feet or hundreds of miles
long, and the distance which the rock
beds on one side slip past those on the
other may range from a fraction of an inch

100

GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES.

To see the structure of the Wasatch Mountains, the traveler should
make a side trip to the local scenic attraction, Ogden Canyon, which
can be reached by street car from Ogden station. In
Ogden Canyon. bright afternoon sunhght it can easily be seen that
the face of the range is divided into bands of different
rock formations. (See PI. XXVIII, B, p. 104.) Observation Peak
itself is a mass of pink rock called quartzite. This rock was a wide-
spread bed of sand which was laid down on the bottom of the sea
about the time the earUest forms of life appeared on the earth.
How it reached its present position has been explained in the precediug
footnote. A dark band of rocks, partly concealed by brush and tim-
ber, lies below the peak. In a spur much lower down the mountain is
another band of pink quartzite which makes a 1,000-foot wall and
rests on a dark band similar to the one above it. This pink rock is
a part of the same formation as that at the peak, the repetition
being due to breaking of the earth's crust and piling up of the frag-
ments. In fact the structure of the mountains at Ogden is not unlike
that of the cakes of ice in an ice jam.

to thousands of feet. When the rocks on
one side are shoved up over those on the
other side the break is called a reverse
or overthrust fault. (See fig. 12.)

period of slow earth movement which
made these mountains flat-lying parallel
beds of rock were locally turned on edge,
crumpled, and folded in a wonderfully

Figure 12.— Diagram showing normal faults (a) and a reverse or overthrust fault (b).

In the region now occupied by the
Wasatch Mountains a number of parallel
faults were developed close together and
the broken pieces of the earth's crust be-
tween them were pushed up, the rocks on

intricate manner. These upturned and
crumpled rocks are well exposed in Ogden
Canyon. The west face of the Wasatch
Range is believed to mark the plane of a
normal fault (fig. 12) at a nearly vertical

Carboniferous

Algonkian

Figure 13.— Diagrammatic structure section of the Wasatch Range in Ogden Canyon.

one side of each crack riding up over
those on the other side until a great moun-
tain range was formed where once lay a
plain. The accompanying diagram (fig,
13) illustrates the structure of the Wasatch
Range in cross section. During the long

crack in the earth's crust, the rocks on
the east side of which went up or those
on the west side went down. The forces
which have raised these mountains are
still active, for movement along this
fault has disturbed the surface recently.

U. S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY

JLLETIN 612 PLATE XXVI

A. Z-SHAPED FOLDS NEAR EAST END OF OGDEN CANYON.
The lines follow 1he outcrops of the folded beds.

rAUi_T b^AHP Ai 1 HE MOUTH OF U^LU^ ^AU'^ ON.
Scarp is dark wavy line crossing the meadow.

U. S. CfcOLOGlCAL SURVEY

BULLETIN 612 PLATE XXVII

VIEW IN OGDEN CANYON BELOW THE NARROWS.
Looking upstream to gap cut in Cambrian quartzite.

THE OVERLAND ROUTE COUNCIL BLUFFS TO OGDEN. 101

Just before reaching the mouth of the canyon the traveler may see
a nearly perpendicular blufiF or scarp, a few feet high, at the top of
the bank above a gully a few rods southeast of a single-arch concrete
bridge. This small bluff, which was made by recent uplift along a
great fault that parallels the mountain front, is best seen from the
higher bench land. (See PL XXVI, B.)

The steep face of the mountain range represents the exposed edges
of geologic formations whose continuation west of the fault is now
far below the level of the plain. The mouth of the canyon is in very
old, greatly distorted rocks (Archean gneiss and schist) which were
formed before life began on the globe. Warm springs issue near the
bridge below the mouth of the canyon, and where the trolley road
passes over a steel bridge just inside the canyon a warm spring in the
south bank of the river steams forth from the contact between pink
quartzite and somber-colored gneiss. The water is salty, contains
iron, and has a temperature of about 136° Fahrenheit. Rounding a
curve brings into view a waterfall which shoots out from the rocks
several hundred feet above the track and turns to spray. The water
collects on the rocks below and cascades into the river. This is an
artificial fall, made by a hole in a flume that carries water to a hydro-
electric plant. Close to the foot of this fall the bedrock waU of the
canyon is plastered by a deposit of thoroughly cemented gravel, a
remnant of the material that choked the canyon when Lake Bonne-
ville backed up into it.^

The canyon at this point is very narrow, and there is barely room
for the highway on one side and the trolley-car tracks on the other
side of the river (PL XXVII). The mountain walls that rise thou-
sands of feet above appear almost insurmountable, and directly ahead
they seem to completely block further passage upstream. But a
little turn shows a thin notch cut by the river through a great mass
of quartzite beds standmg nearly on edge. This is the same pink
formation as that in Observation Peak, and its presence and position

^ G. K. Gilbert describes this material
as follows:

"The lower part of the canyon through
its length, but especially near its mouth,
is more or less lined with heavy beds of
coarse gravel, thoroughly consolidated by
a ferruginous cement. In some places
this forms the bed as well a^ the banks of
the stream; but at others it is cut through,
and the original well-worn rock bottom
of the old channel is exposed beneath the
gravel by the side of the road. It js evi-
dent that when this canyon was originally
excavated the G.eat Salt Lake was not
far if at all above its present level; so that
the rushing torrent which wore out this

old rounded bottom met no check until
it had passed entirely beyond the mouth
of the canyon. There followed a time
when the lake filled nearly or quite to its
highest terrace; and meanwhile the
Ogden River continued to bring down the
sand and pebbles which it had before been
accustomed to sweep out upon the lower
terrace, but now, checked by the rising
lake, deposited them in the lower parts
of its old channel, until they accumu-
lated to a very high level, not yet accu-
rately located. Again the lake retired
and the stream again cut down its chan-
nel, sometimes reaching its old level and
sometimes not."

102

GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES.

here show how much these rocks have been turned from their origmal
flat-lying position. The nearly vertical slitting or gashing of the
rocks is merely the result of weathering between the original beds of
sand as laid down on the sea bottom. The passage is narrow because
of the great hardness of the rocks, for the whole valley, like most other
valleys, has been made by the gradual washing away of material by
its stream and is narrowest where the rocks are hardest. Above the
narrows the valley walls are limestone and shale, which are more
easily worn away than the quartzite. A limestone quarry and kilns
are situated just above the narrows on the south side of the river.

Farther up Ogden River (which, by the way, would be called a
brook or run in some parts of the country) city people have built
summer homes along the stream bank.

In 1914 the trolley line ended 7 miles from Ogden at The Hermitage,
a rustic hotel built of logs and stone. The verandas of this hotel
afford a vantage point for enjoying the rugged canyon scenery.^

About a quarter of a mile east of The Hermitage, in the south wall
of the canyon, a few feet above the river, the limestone is folded.
The position of the thin strata, once nearly horizontal throughout
but now turned abruptly back on themselves, suggests something of
the stresses that have had a part in forming these mountains. A
mile farther along in the road cut, near a flume that crosses the river,
there is a very distinct S fold in black shales that indicates even more
vividly the complexity of the mountain-making process. Some of
this black shale contains phosphate.^

^ Ogden Canyon was cut in the solid
rock by the river which now flows through
it. Running water carrying sand and
gravel acts as a saw or file and, given
time enough, can cut through the hardest
rocks. Ogden River was flowing west
along its present course before the Wa-
satch Mountains came into existence.
The raising of the mountains went on
slowly for ages, so slowly that the river
kept its place by cutting down its ever-
rising bed, carving a deep and narrow
canyon straight through the block of the
earth's crust as it rose. In no other way
can we account for a river rising on one
side of the range and flowing directly
across it. Movement of the mountain
mass has continued down to the present
time — at least there has been recent dis-
turbance along the base of the Wasatch
Range, as is shown by faults which trav-
erse the lake deposits and the modern
alluvial aprons. Some of the breaks are

so new as to be devoid of vegetation.
Furthermore, the main stream channels
crossing from the uplifted fault block to
the undisturbed rocks on the west have
abnormal profiles. Ogden River has a
high gradient within the canyon, but on
crossing the fault and emerging on the
gravel fan at its mouth at once loses
grade. The upward movement of the
mountains has been so continuous that
the river has had no opportunity to widen
its valley, a task which it will begin as
soon as the mountains cease rising.

^ In a roadside ledge about 2 miles
below the upper end of Ogden Canyon
there is some black shale and limestone,
which proves on analysis to be decidedly
phosphatic. The richest material is con-
tained in two beds of black shaly rock,
each about 2 feet thick. Analysis of a
random sample gives 42.5 per cent of
bone phosphate. This deposit is too low
in grade and too broken to be of value.

BULLETIN 612

SHEET No.

GEOLOGIC AND TOPOGKAPHTC MAP

OK THE

OVEELAND KOUTE

From Omaha, Nebraska, to San Fi'ancisco, Califon:|ia

Base compiled from TTnitefl States Geological Survey Atlas Sheets,
from railroad alignments and profiles supplied by the Union Pacific
Railroad Company and the Southern Pacific C-'ompany and from addi-
tional Information collected, with the assistance of these companie.s

UNPrED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY

GKORGE OTIS SMITH, DIRECTOR
David White, Chief Geologist R. B. Marshall, Chief Geographer

1915

Bach quadrangle shown on the map with a name in parenthesis in the
lower left comer is mapped in detail on the V. S. G. S. Topographic
sheet of that name.

OREGON SHORT LINE OGDEN TO YELLOWSTONE.

103

The most prominent rock folding in the canyon is at the reservoir
about 2 J miles above The Hermitage. Here a thick bed of limestone
is crumpled into a Z fold, measuring 1,000 feet between the top and
bottom bars, which are about half a mile long. It can be seen plainly
from the south bank of the reservoir. (See PI. XXVI, A, p. 100.)
This great wrinkle was made by the shoving of one mass of rocks over
another during the formation of the mountain range.

At the upper end of Ogden Canyon, 10 miles from the city, is
Ogden Hole or Ogden Valley, which, when Lake Bonneville reached
its highest stage, was a small bay connected with the lake by a strait
in Ogden Canyon.

OGDEN, UTAH, TO YELLOWSTONE, MONT.

The route described in the following pages covers a distance of 291
miles on the Oregon Short Line Railroad from Ogden, Utah, across
southeastern Idaho to Yellowstone, Mont., the west entrance to
Yellowstone National Park,^ a public playground covering about
3,348 square miles. For 40 miles north from Ogden the road lies
along the boundary between the Wasatch Mountains and the region
once known as the Great American Desert, following the shore line of
Lake Bonneville, a great body of fresh water that in geologically
recent time covered a large part of Utah (pp. 97-99) ; then after turning
eastward and passing through the range in a rocky canyon, it goes
northward across a flat stretch of country which was the floor of a bay
of the former lake. This bay was surrounded by mountains, and the
railroad follows the foot of a north-south range to the head of an arm
of the bay.

About 90 miles from Ogden the railroad crosses Red Rock Pass,
through which for a time Lake Bonneville drained to the north, and
then runs down a valley between two mountain ranges. In this
valley the track for miles is on the siu^ace or along the edge of a black
lava flow. . Turning west and passing through a notch in the Bannock
Range, it comes out at PocateUo, 134 miles from Ogden, on the great
Snake River plain. From PocateUo north for 100 miles the way leads
across another lava flow, once a sagebrush waste, now an agricultural
paradise. The last 50 miles of the route is through forests and finally
over the Continental Divide, in mountains of volcanic rock poured
out in the vicinity of Yellowstone Park.

The northbound trains, on leaving Ogden, cross Ogden River and
come at once into orchards and into fields of sugar beets, hay, corn,

^ Mileposts from Ogden to McCammon
and from PocateUo to Idaho Falls give the
distance north of Ogden ; from McCammon

to PocateUo, the distance west of Gran-
ger, Wyo. ; and from Idaho Falls to Yellow-
stone, the distance north of Idaho Falls.

104

GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES.

and garden truck. From the outskirts of the city an uninterrupted
view of the Wasatch Range can be had (PI. XXVIII). Ogden
Canyon is seen as a great notch with bare cUffs of pink quartzite on
both sides, and tier on tier of gray Hmestone farther up the canyon. ^
In the distance on the west is the hazy blue outhne of Promontory
Range, a long point extending from the north out into Great Salt
Lake.

The traveler who is for the first time west of the Rocky Mountains
and wonders if the melodramatic activities of western life he has seen
quivering on the '^ movie" screen reaUy exist to-day along the route
between Ogden and Yellowstone Park should remember Francis
Parkman's introduction to ^'The Oregon Trail":

The buffalo is gone, and of all his millions nothing is left but bones. Fences of
barbed wire supplant his boundless grazing grounds. Those discordant serenaders,
the wolves, that howled at evening about the traveler's camp fire have succumbed to
arsenic and hushed their savage music. The wild Indian is turned into an ugly
caricature of his conqueror. The slow cavalcade of horsemen has disappeared before
parlor cars and the effeminate comforts of modern travel. The all-daring and all-
enduring trapper belongs to the past and the cowboy's star begins to wane. The wild
West is tamed.

The great desert which Fremont explored in 1842 and to which the
Mormons came in 1847 is still a desert, but orchards, gardens, and
grain fields now mark its border.

A large brick plant at Harrisville (see sheet 15a, p. 114) is using clay

that was deposited as sediment on the bottom of Lake Bonneville.

This is one of the few mineral industries along this

route. Many years of prospecting in the mountains

all the way from Ogden to Yellowstone Park have

brought to light a few smaU metaUiferous deposits,

but not one from which ore is being shipped. Among

the nonmetals clay, sand, gravel, limestone, marl, coal, building stone,

and water are utilized. Water is the one mineral to which above aU

Harrisville.

Elevation 4,297 feet.
Population 395.*
Ogden 5 miles.

^ The geologic structure of the Wasatch
Mountains, from Ogden north to Brigham,
has been described by Eliot Blackwelder
as "shingled structure with overthrust
slabs or wedges dipping eastward. " (See
fig. 13, p. 100.) Although this structure
can not be seen from the raihoad, the
various formations can be distinguished.
At the base of the range, showing above
the lake benches, is the oldest rock forma-
tion here exposed, the Archean gneiss
and schist, making dark-colored ragged
ledges. (See PI. XXVIII.) Above this
is 1,000 feet of bare rock cliff of pale
pink or faded iron-stain color, the Cam-

brian quartzite. Next higher, under
brush and scattered trees, are ledges of
gray limestone; then comes the pink
quartzite again, and at the top a thick
band of gray limestone. In the morning
sunlight the west face of the range is
somber and does not reveal the striking
differences in these formations, but under
the light of the afternoon sun they stand
out in marked contrast.

The Cambrian quartzite can be traced
by the eye from Ogden Canyon northward
for several miles, but not continuously,
for the rocks are broken by east-west as
well as north-south faults.

m ♦ 3 -*rr>-

V 1

/ / V j\« I

U. S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY

BULLETIN 612 PLATE XXIX

A. LAKE BONNEVILLE SHORE AT BRIGHAM, UTAH.

B. CAMBRIAN QUARTZITE RESTING ON ARCHEAN GNEISS NEAR WILLARD, UTAH.

OEEGON SHORT LINE OODEN TO YELLOWSTONE. 105

others is due the prosperity of the country traversed by this route.
Rock phosphate is a vast potential asset but is not yet used.

North of Harrisville a low ridge, strewn with many large angular
blocks of rock, both white and pink, projects from the mountain front
nearly to the railroad. This ridge is made of a great block of quartzite
and limestone broken in two, the two parts standing on edge. A
stone crusher working on one of the limestone ledges makes macadam
for the highways.

The electric-car line between Ogden and Brigham and the main
highway from Utah to Idaho are east of the track. There is a tomato-
canning factory near Harrisville. Tomatoes are grown extensively
all along the foothills between Ogden and Brigham, and in 1913
Brigham packed 30,000 cases, 24 cans to the case.

Just before reaching Hot Springs the train passes from Weber to
Boxelder County and leaves behind the last saloon on the route, the
country from Hot Springs to Yellowstone being "drj.^'

The Utah Hot Springs hotel and sanitarium is a bathing resort that

has some reputation for the relief of rheumatism. It is equipped with

an open-air concrete pool 125 feet square, two indoor

Hot Springs. pools 28 by 45 feet, several smaller pools, and private

Elevation 4,271 feet, baths. Small circular stone waUs inclose the springs,

Ogden 9 miles. ^ . ^ . i p i • n^i i • /

which are just south oi the station, ihe water, which
is strongly charged with salt and other minerals, has a temperature
of 131° F.

In this region there is a close relation between hot springs and lines
of faulting. The temperature of the earth increases about 1° with
every 50 feet of depth below the surface. Along the faults rocks
which formerly were buried deeply and were therefore hot are now
at the surface and water coming into contact with them a short dis-
tance below the surface, where they are stiU hot, is warmed; or the
heat of the rocks may be due to friction along the fault plane.

Soon after passing Hot Springs the train runs close to a lagoon on
the edge of Bear Bay, the northeast arm of Great Salt Lake. This
lake, as is shown on pages 97-99, is a remnant of the much larger Lake
Bonneville. Patches of white alkali (sodium sulphate and sodium
chloride) may be seen along the edge of the lagoon and are due to the
evaporation of salty water rising by capillary attraction.

A belt of land of varying width west of the railroad is in grain and
pasture, but a strip close to the water is too salty to cultivate. The
lagoon near Willard is often dotted with ducks and a flock of great
white pelicans may usually be seen on the shore of the bay. The
marshes and lagoons along the edge of the lake afford good hunting
and many of them are owned by gun clubs.

The steel towers between the track and the lake carry the Utah
Power & Light Co.'s high-power electric-transmission line, which
extends from the Grace hydroelectric plant in Idaho to Salt Lake City.

106 GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES.

On the east there are peach orchards, and back of them is the
Wasatch Range, culminating in Ben Lomond Peak (^'Willard Peak"
of the Fortieth Parallel Survey). The terraces of Lake Bonneville,
carved in mountain waste deposited along the base of the range, are
well preserved, and above them is the dark, rough-weathering gneiss.
The Cambrian quartzite is very conspicuous here, forming a great
pink band that extends far up the mountain side. The overlying
limestone and shale, by reason of their softness, have weathered
farther back than the much harder quartzite.

Willard is a quiet old village, its main streets lined with poplars

and its homes surrounded by orchards. The principal industry is

the growing of peaches and tomatoes. The traveler

Willard. ^]^q g^^g north to Yellowstone Park from Ogden

Elevation 4,260 feet, ^^i ggg mauv villages that were started by Mormon

Population 577. . c\ i> i i i /•

Ogden 14 miles. emigrants, home oi them are at the mouths oi moun-

tain canyons, where perennial streams afford water
for irrigating the arid land near by. Willard was located near such
a mountain stream, as were also Brigham, WeUsviUe, Logan, and
other towns in this region.

From Ben Lomond northward the pink Cambrian quartzite slopes
down abruptly (PI. XXIX, B), crosses the mouth of a sharp canyon
back of Willard, where a stream leaps over it in a beautiful fall, and
disappears under the terraces. The crest of the range also becomes
lower, and the front of the range as far as Brigham shows older rocks
(Algonkian quartzite and slate) thrust over the Cambrian. A short
distance north of Willard Canyon the mountain face changes from
bare crags to a fairly smooth grassy slope because the underlying
rocks decay, so that the bedrock is covered by rubble in which vege-
tation soon gains a foothold.

North of Willard the old lake terraces are weU preserved and peach
orchards become more numerous. Among the trees in the distance
is seen the white tower of a church in Brigham.

The first permanent settlers came to the mouth of Boxelder Canyon

in 1853 and named the site of Brigham for their leader, Brigham

Young. The Greens, Hunsackers, Johnstones, and

Brigham. Harrises were courageous folk, and although the level

Elevation 4,307 feet, couutrv was a great desert covered with sagebrush,

Population 3,685. , *^, 7 «.ii • tit

Ogden 21 miles. they saw the advantages oi the location, diverted the

mountain stream into irrigating ditches, and trans-
formed the desert into a veritable garden.

Brigham stands on a delta built m Lake Bonneville when the
water was rising to the Provo level. (See p. 98.) When the lake
was at its greatest height at the Bonneville level, the water extended
back through Boxelder Canyon, drowned the river and made a bay

I

OREGON SHORT LINE OGDEN TO YELLOWSTONE. 107

of Mantua Valley, which lies within the range. During this time
much of the material washed from the mountains around Mantua
Valley was deposited in that valley and not carried through the canyon,
which at that time held a quiet strait instead of a rapid stream. As
the lake dried up the waves on its lowering surface cut terraces on
the old delta, and a new Boxelder River came into existence and
wore a channel down through the delta its ancestor had built. In
summer Brigham, which is sometimes called Peach City, is almost
completely hidden in peach orchards. The trees grow luxuriantly,
because practically every street has an irrigating ditch for its entire
length. About 400 acres of land beyond the reach of ditches from
the canyon is irrigated from a score or more of wells pumped by
electric motor. Brigham has celebrated Peach Day early in Sep-
tember annually since 1907. Peach Day is to Boxelder County what
the 24th of July is to the State of Utah and the 4 th of July to the
Nation. On that day there are free peaches and plums and melons
for all the thousands of people who visit the city. In 1913 this station
shipped 467 cars of peaches. Tomatoes also are grown in large
quantities. A factory near the station cans in the height of the
season 60 to 75 tons of tomatoes every day.

The old transcontinental railroad line of the Central Pacific went
west from Brigham over Promontory Range and around the north
end of Great Salt Lake. It is little used now, for the trains go from
Ogden straight across the lake. Brigham is the southern terminus
of the Malade branch of the Oregon Short Line, which serves the west
side of the Bear River valley.

As the train leaves Brigham going north the traveler gets a fine
view of old lake beaches along the face of the mountain. (See PI.
XXIX, A.) The upper or Bonneville terrace is particularly conspic-
uous on each side of Boxelder Canyon.

A few miles to the west is Little Mountain, an isolated butte com-
posed of limestone containing abundant fossil coral and shells. This
butte was a small island when Lake Bonneville was at its greatest
height. Six miles west of Brigham is Corrine, a station on the old
main line of the Union Pacific Railroad, from which freight was
hauled by wagon to the mines of western Montana in the early days.
Then it had a population of nearly 5,000, but now it is only a small
settlement. From Brigham to Idaho Falls the railroad parallels the
road made by the freighters from Corrine. About 4 miles north of
Brigham the railroad crosses Boxelder Lake, a small area covered
with 1 inch or 2 inches of water, in which gulls, snipe, and plover are
usually wading about. A State law prohibiting the killing of sea
guUs at any time was passed many years ago, when these birds saved
the emigrants' first crops from a scourge of grasshoppers.

108

GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES.

Bakers.

Elevation 4,222 feet.
Ogden 25 miles.

Just beyond this lake is Bakers sidetrack and the plant of the
Ogden Portland Cement Co. This company owns a large area which
was supposed for many years to be worthless on
account of alkali, but which on testing by drill holes
was found to be underlain by 2 to 8 feet of marl, a
limy earth, averaging 85 per cent lime carbonate,
beneath which is a bed of clay — an especially valuable combination,
for the two materials together have the proper chemical composition
for making Portland cement, and for a number of years the plant
has been using them successfully. In 1914 it had an average daily
production of 700 barrels. The company supplied some of the
cement for the Arrowrock dam, built by the United States Recla-
mation Service near Boise, Idaho.

The broad brown and gray striping of the rugged mountain face

north of Brigham is due to alternating shale and limestone formations.

At the 28-mile post the railroad passes under a steel transmission

line carrying electric power from the plant of the Utah Power & Light

Co. in Bear River canyon.

The residents of Honeyville are principally descendants of Bishop

Abraham Hunsacker, the original settler, who was the father of 52

children. The name of the town is a euphonious

Honeyville. corruption and shortening of Hunsackerville. About

Elevation 4,266 feet. 2 milcs uorth of Houev villc, in fields east of the rail-

Ogden 30 miles. j 1 -f j i. i, x

road, are some weed-grown pools lormed by hot
springs that have been known for many years, though no commercial
use of the water has yet been made. The water is salty, and
strongly impregnated with iron and is described by a neighboring
rancher as being ''hot enough to scald a pig." Fremont reported
the temperature of these springs at 134° Fahrenheit in 1843, and
Gilbert found them varying from 121° to 132° in 1872. The dis-
charge from the hot springs, mixed with water from cold springs in
the same guUy, is used for power at a gristmill on the bank of
Bear River 1^ miles west of Honey viUe.

This part of Bear River valley is a former sagebrush desert that has
been changed by irrigation ^ to a thriving agricultural district in which

^ To readers who are not familiar with
irrigation a brief explanation may be of
interest. The common practice is to se-
lect a site at the edge of the mountains,
where, by throwing an inexpensive dam
across a stream, the cmrent may be di-
verted a little to one side, into a ditch
where a headgate is placed and made se-
cure by the use of bowlders or concrete.
During the winter and high-water seasons
the gate is kept closed, so that no water

flows into the ditch, but in the dry season
the gate is opened and a part of the stream
is diverted from its natural channel. The
headgate is, of course, far enough up-
stream to be at a higher altitude than the
land to be irrigated, and the course of the
ditch is determined by a more or less care-
ful survey, so that it will have a uniform
grade of a very few feet to the mile. As
many of the streams of this region fall
more than 100 feet to the mile, the height

f OKEGON SHORT LINE— OGDEN TO YELLOWSTONE. 109

large quantities of grain, alfalfa, sugar beets, potatoes, tomatoes,
onions, and other vegetables are raised. It is said that this land has
produced, per acre, 15 to 60 bushels of wheat, 65 to 135 bushels of
oats, 50 to 95 bushels of barley, 6 to 8 tons of alfalfa, and 10 to 40
tons of beets. Apples, apricots, peaches, and plums are the principal
fruits raised.

Madsen is only a siding and beet-loading platform. On the west

Madsen ^^ ^^^ ^^^ ^^^^ ^^ ^^^^ ^^^^^' ^^^^^ ^^^ ^^^^^d a

Eievation;298feet. f^^^^^^^g^^^urse in the old lake bottom. The river
ogden 33 miles. ^^ sluggish here, having nearly reached the level of

the present lake, though several miles from it. As the
tram approaches Dewey prominent lake benches are seen on the
mountain side.

Three excavations on the hHl a short distance back of Dewey were
made in obtaining limestone for a miHion-dollar beet-sugar factory.
Dewey ^^^ ^^ ^^^^ ^^^ removing various impurities from the

beet-sugar juice. The four smokestacks of the fac-
Porutdon m*"'' *^7 can be seen about 3 mUes to the west. To serve
ogcien 36 mUes. this sugar f actory was the purpose of the branch rail-

road from Brigham to Malade. Sugar-beet growing
is a large mdustry in this part of the valley, the area cultivated
bemg 5,000 to 7,000 acres and the average production per acre 18
tons of beets. The factory can handle 600 tons of beets daily. It
is on the edge of Garland, a vUlage with a population of 800, which

of the diteh above the valley bottom in-
creases downstream, and for this reason in
many ditches the water seems to be run-
ning uphill. As the upland inclines in
the same direction as the stream, it is pos-
sible, without using any hoisting device,
to locate the ditches so that water diverted
from the stream at a certain point will
flow out on the upland farther down-
stream—indeed, water can be carried in
this way from one stream over a divide
and down into another valley.

At the place where the water is to be
used an opening is made in the downhill
side of the ditch and the water is allowed
to flow out over the land. In grain and
hay fields care is taken to keep the water
spread out in very thin sheets, by throw-
ing earth in its pathway wherever there
are little depressions in the surface and
the water shows a tendency to get deep.
In gardens and orchards the water is
caused to flow down fiurows between rows
so arranged that it does not flow so fast as
to wash away the soil. The immense

acreage devoted to potato raising along
this route is irrigated in this way.

On a perfectly level field it would be
impossible to make use of this method of
irrigation, but western fields usually have
more or less slope, and hence it is possible,
by guiding the water in its natural down-
ward flow, to keep it spread out over the
land either as a thin sheet or as little rills
in closely spaced furrows. It is custom-
ary to allow the water to flow gradually
across a field until it reaches the lower
side, and then to stop up the opening in
the ditch and make a new one near some
other place which it is desired to irrigate.
The time required for the water to reach
the downhill side of a field is commonly
several days, because the land absorbs so
much of it.

In actual practice the method of irri-
gating is more complicated than that out-
lined here. According to the practice
generally followed the water is not taken
directly from the main ditch but from a
branch.

110

GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES.

was named for WiUiam Garland, of Kansas City, the contractor for
the construction of the irrigating canal through Bear River canyon.

The red color on the mountain side opposite Dewey is produced by
a mixture of blue, gray, red, and pink limestone and limy sandstone.
Just north of Dewey the traveler gets the first glimpse of Bear River,
the largest stream draining into Great Salt Lake. This river has an
interstate habit; it rises in southwestern Wyoming and is crossed by
the Union Pacific Railroad near Evanston, flows northwestward into
Utah, back into Wyoming, crosses into Idaho, and eventually turns
southward to empty into Great Salt Lake. It also drains Bear Lake,
a body of water 20 miles long lying across the Utah-Idaho boundary
near the Wyoming line.^

Irrigation is practiced throughout the length of Bear River vaUey
wherever it has been possible to divert water from the stream at a
reasonable cost.

Between Dewey and CoUinston may be seen three conspicuous
wave-cut terraces 300, 500, and 640 feet above the track; the upper-
most one is the BonneviUe and the lowermost the Provo terrace.
Several miles to the west on a clear day the parallel beaches can be
seen on the lower gentle slope of Blue Spring Ridge. Just before
reaching Collinston the train leaves the flat lake floor and ascends
through gravel cuts in an uneven surface to a slightly higher level.

CoUinston is a small settlement surrounded by grain fields. Lake
terraces, like gigantic music staves engraved on the mountain, are
beautifully preserved in this vicinity. The rocky
knob just beyond the station is gray conglomerate
(gravel and sand cemented together) of Tertiary age,
carrying an abundance of fossil snail shells. This rock
is very young in comparison with those found in the
Wasatch Range and is the remnant of a once extensive body of gravel
and sand which was deposited in a fresh-water inland sea that covered
this area just prior to or during the uplifting of the mountains.
Though geologically young, the rock in this knob is nevertheless hun-
dreds of thousands if not millions of years old, and ever since its for-
mation was completed and the lake was drained it has been subjected
to the washing of the streams which have crossed it, so that much of
it has been worn away. It has also been affected by movements
within the earth, as is shown by the fact that its once nearly horizontal
layers are now tilted and broken.

North of Collinston the railroad climbs by easy grades stiU higher
above the plain, across which winds the deep-cut trench of Bear River.

Collinston.

Elevation 4,416 feet
Population 114,*
Ogden 40 miles.

^ The mean discharge of Bear River
near Preston, Idaho, is 1,290 second-feet
(that is, 1,290 cubic feet of water a sec-
ond ) . The total estimated possible power

development on Bear River in the State
of Idaho with the aid of storage is 81,500
horsepower. Three hydroelectric power
plants are in operation on the river.

OREGON SHORT LINE OGDEN TO YELLOWSTONE. HI

The broad valley continues northward and is occupied by Malade
River, but the raikoad turns eastward and goes through a canyon
cut by Bear River across a low pass in the Wasatch Range.

The Utah-Idaho Sugar Co.'s canal, which irrigates the west side of
the lower Bear River valley, is seen on the far side of the river and
the Hammond canal on the near side. Although these canals appear
to chmb toward the west, they actually descend in that direction, for
the irrigator has not yet learned how to get around gravitation
without hf ting devices, and in Utah, as everywhere else, water runs
downhill.

The Utah Power & Light Co.'s 4,000-horsepower electric plant, with
Wheelon ^^^ ^^^^ flumes taking water from these canals, is on

Elevation 4,499 feet ^^^ '^'^^'^ ^^""^ ^^ ^^^ ^^^^^ ^^ ^^^ cauyou. The raH-
ogden 44 miles. ^oad statiou was named for John C. Wheelon, a civil

engineer who constructed part of the canal.
Such scenery as that for the 2 miles above Wheelon is to be found
at no other place on the railroad between Ogden and Yellowstone.
Here is one of the two tunnels on the route ; here are the highest trestles
and the sharpest curves. With a great flume of water just below
the track and Bear River roaring over bowlders that impede its
progress along the canyon bottom 175 feet below, this is no place
for speeding; and yet the time consumed in going through the canyon
is so short that one can only glance at the numerous interesting geo-
logic features. It is easy to see that the narrow canyon, with its high
precipitous walls, is cut in limestone whose beds dip about 25° to the
west; but there is httle Hkehhood that the traveler wiU notice the
cavities made by solution of the Hmestone or the numerous small
faults which break the normal continuity of the rock beds. He will
however, be attracted by a waterfall made by the overflow from a
flume below the track and by the low falls in the river.

At the upper end of the canyon, just below the dam which diverts
the water of the river into flumes, pink quartzite is exposed below the
Hmestone. Above the dam green Tertiary shales are seen m the
opposite waU. These shales are the hardened mud which was laid
down on the bottom of a lake that covered this area before the moun-
tains were formed or while their elevation was in progress. That
they are older than Lake BonneviUe is shown by their continuation
beneath the sflts deposited in that lake, and that they are older than
the mountain uplift is proved by the facts that their original con-
tinuity is broken by a mountain-forming fault, and that they were
hoisted and tilted from their original position along with the mountain
block.

The steel-tower transmission line that crosses the hill brings elec-
tricity from a power plant in the upper Bear River canyon 20 miles
above Preston, Idaho. On leaving the canyon the train swings

112

GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES.

arouiid a bend and enters the broad Cache Valley/ of which the Bear
River range, another part of the Wasatch Range, makes the east
wall. To the northeast is Newton Hill, which was an island in the
great arm of Lake Bonneville that occupied this valley. Wave-cut
shore lines are conspicuous on its sides (see PL XXX, A), showing
conclusively that Cache Valley was once occupied by a great body of
water several hundred feet deep. It will be easily realized that
when Lake Bonneville was at its greatest height the strait between
the body of water in Cache Valley and the larger body on the west
was about 5 miles wide and was shallow and interrupted by several
islands. The cliffs of the narrow canyon reach nearly to the level of
the second conspicuous terrace. (the Provo), and north of the cliffs,
where the highway now crosses the pass, there is a considerable break
in the upper (Bonneville) terrace, as there is also south of the canyon.
From this it appears that as the lake surface lowered the outlet of
Cache Bay dwindled to three channels. One of these whose position
may have been determined by a fault or line of fracture across the
pass persisted and now carries all the drainage. While the canyon
was being cut, the surface of the main lake must have been lower
than that of Cache Bay. The smaller body of water, besides evapor-
ating less rapidly, was receiving the largest inflow. When the shore
of the main lake had receded a considerable distance, perhaps several
miles from the mouth of the canyon, Cache Valley no longer contained
a bay connected with the main lake by a narrow strait, but instead a
separate lake which drained into Lake Bonneville by a short river.
Eventually the lake in Cache Valley was drained out, and the river
flowing across the abandoned lake bottom west of the canyon has
gradually deepened its channel.

From Cache Junction the Cache Valley branch of the railroad runs
to Wellsville, Logan, and Preston. The bottom of Cache Valley
has an altitude of about 4,500 feet and presents one
of the most beautiful pastoral spectacles in the State.
The valley proper is about 35 miles long and in many
places 10 miles wide. The settlement of this valley
was begun by the Mormons in 1856, when the town of Wellsville was

Cache Junction.

Elevation 4,444 feet.
Ogden 49 miles.

^ Cache Valley was formed by faults
which broke the earth's crust into blocks
and raised some with relation to others.
The Wasatch Range has already been
described (pp. 99-100) as made of up-
turned slabs of rock formations shoved
up one on another. The Bear River
Range had somewhat the same origin.
The west face at Logan is believed to be a
fault scarp like that at Ogden. Whether
the block under Cache Valley remained

at a fixed altitude while the surrounding
blocks were raised, or whether it sank
with relation to them is not known. The
surface of the valley block probably was
not smooth, but when Lake Bonneville
occupied this basin, the sediment brought
in by rivers, and the wash from
the mountain sides, were deposited
on the lake bottom and smoothed
over the inequalities, making the present
nearly level surface.

U. S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY

BULLETIN 612 PlATE XXX

A. "THE GATES" OF BEAR RIVER. FROM THE EAST NEAR CACHE JUNCTION. UTAH.
Horizontal lines indicate wave-cut shore lines of ancient Lake Bonneville.

^^.

•^^

n. EAST BUTTE, lUAHj.

OREGON SHORT LINE OGDEN TO YELLOWSTONE. 113

laid out by a colony of six families. White persons had, however,
been here before. J. C. Fremont, in the report of his explorations in
1842, mentions meetmg parties of emigrants in this locaUty, and
Marcus Whitman traversed the valley in the fall of 1842 on his mem-
orable journey from Oregon to Washmgton, D. C, with the object
of saving Oregon Territory for the United States.

Logan, the principal town in Cache Valley, has a population of
about 8,000 and is the location of the State Agricultural College,
Brigham Young College, and one of the four great Mormon temples!
The two towers of this temple, rising above the treetops at the foot of
the mountains to the east, can be seen from the railroad. Two large
sugar factories in this valley, at Logan and at Lewiston, contract for
the yield of several thousand acres of sugar beets, the growing of
which is one of the principal industries. Dairymg is also an extensive
industry and condensed-milk factories are located at Logan, Smith-
field, Richmond, and Franklin.

On leaving Cache Junction the train crosses Bear River and turns
to the north, giving a broad view of the south end of Cache Valley and
its encircling mountams. Logan Peak, the highest point on the
range near Logan, has an altitude of 9,713 feet. The strip of timber
along the foot of the mountains from Logan north is not natural forest
but is composed whoUy of orchards, shade trees, and windbreaks
around the farms.

Wave-cut terraces or beaches of old Lake Bonneville are weU pre-
served on the side of Newton Hill, west of Hammond siding. The
Hammond. ^^^^ ^^^^ ^^^^ probably is the result of comparatively

Elevation 4 448 fee ^^^^^^ Uplift aloug a uorth-south fault. Between
ogTeV^Viies. ^^ ' Hammond and Trenton, at the point where the rail-
road turns from northeast to north, the white spots
that look like closely set gravestones on the hillside west of the
track are about 200 beehives. The bees feed on alfalfa and white
clover, and the honey mdustry is growing. Many years ago the
Mormons attempted to establish a silk industry in the valley but were
not successful. Some of the mulberry trees they set out are stiU
standing.

The principal industry of Trenton is indicated by the grain elevators

and large flour mills. Most of the ridge on the west is formed of soft

sandy and limy rocks of Tertiary age. Some houses

"1 the vicinity are built of these rocks, which are

Elevation 4,460 feet, easily quarried and shaped. North of Trenton well-

Population 248.* J i i i i . i i . ,

ogden 57 miles. clevelopecl lake terraces may be seen on the ridge to

the west, and in the late afternoon sunlight they are
made particularly conspicuous by the shadows. To the cast stretches
a broad, level plain, the built-up floor of Cachg Bay of the ancient
Lake Bonneville.

38088°— Bull. 612— IG 8

114

GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTEEN UNITED STATES.

Ransom.

Most of the villages in the valley are at the foot of the mountains
on either side. The settlement of an arid country depends on the
water supply, and as the best and most usable water was found at the
mouths of mountain canyons, there the pioneers built their homes.
The center of the broad valley is thinly settled, largely because Bear
River and its tributaries have cut their channels so deep below the
general level that it is hard to get water from them up on the land.
Ransom is only a railroad siding. Several miles to the northeast,
in the broad valley of Bear River,^ is the town of Preston, which has
a population of about 3,000 and is the terminus of the
Cache Valley branch of the Oregon Short Line.
ogTen efmiies. ^ ' Hidden in the trees to the right of an isolated hill on
the east side of Bear River is the village of Franklin.
This hill, which is 6 miles east of the railroad, is a knob of lime-
stone known as Mount Smart (^^ Franklin Butte" in Gilbert's report
on Lake Bonneville; see p. 230) and was an island in Lake Bonneville.
The story of that lake is carved in unmistakable signs on what was the '
windward side of this island. Cliffs cut by the waves that once beat
against it and beaches covered with gravel are beautifully preserved
on the southwest side, toward what was a broad expanse of open lake,
while the east or shoreward side is comparatively smooth. Lime
for the beet-sugar factories in this valley has been quarried in this hill.
At Cornish the train leaves Utah and enters the State of Idaho.
The station stands on the State line. The irrigation
canal seen at Cornish is 19 miles long, heads on Bear
River above Battle Creek, 12 miles to the north,
and supplies water for 20,000 acres of otherwise desert
land. The irrigation systems in this valley were
built and are owned by private companies.

To those who remember Idaho in their school geographies as a
small pink block, shaped hke an easy chair facing east, it may be of

interest that this State, which in 1890 added the forty-
Idaho, fifth star to the constellation on the flag, is nearly as

large as Pennsylvania and Ohio combined and larger
than the six New England States with Maryland included for good
measiu-e. It is divided into 33 counties, the smallest of which is half
as large as the State of Rhode Island and the largest greater than the
combined area of Massachusetts and Delaware.

Cornish, Utah.

Elevation 4,522 feet
Population 143.*
Ogden 62 miles.

^ The mean discharge of Bear River as
determined by measurements of its flow
made at Preston, Idaho, during a period of
24 years, is 1,290 second-feet — that is, 1,290
cubic feet of water passing a given point
each second. A maximum flow of 7,980
second-feet was recorded in 1894, and a

minimum of 164 second-feet in 1905.
There are two hydroelectric plants on
Bear River above Preston, one under con-
struction in Oneida Narrows, to have an
installed capacity of 27,000 horsepower,
and one at Grace, Idaho, with 17,000
horsepower.

BULLETIN 612

SHEET No.lb

GEOLOGIC AND TOPOGRAPHIC MAP

OF THE

YELLOWSTONE PARK ROIJTB

From Ogden, Utah, to the Yellowstone National pjrk

Base compiled from railroad alignments and profiles supplied
by the Oregon Short Line Railroad Company and from additional
information collected with the assistance of this company

UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY

GEOROE OTIS SMITH, DIRECTOR
David White, Chief Geologist R. B. Marshall, Chief Geographer

1915

OREGON SHORT LINE OGDEN TO YELLOWSTONE. 115

Idaho covers an area of 83,888 square miles, divided principally
between the Rocky Mountain region and the Columbia Plateau, only
a smaU part, in the southeast corner of the State, lying in the Great
Basin. In elevation above sea level the State ranges from 735 feet,
at Lewiston, to 12,078 feet at the summit of Hyndman Peak. It is
drained mainly to the Columbia through Snake River and its tribu-
taries, and has an annual rainfall of about 17 inches, the range in a
single year at different places being from 6 to 38 inches.

The industries of the State are chiefly agriculture, stock raising,
and mining. Hay, wheat, oats, and potatoes are the principal crops.
A large area is cultivated by irrigation. The mineral production
includes gold, silver, copper, lead, and zinc. The output of lead in
1913 was valued at $13,986,366, that of silver at $6,033,473.

The population of Idaho in 1910 was 325,924.

A short distance from Weston the steel-tower electric line, which
conveys power from the upper canyon of Bear River and which was
last seen by the traveler at Bear River canyon, again
Weston, Idaho. crosses the railroad. Weston is an old Mormon village
Elevation 4,604 feet, on the lake tcrracc west of the station. North of it
0gdeif65*miies. ^^^ raikoad ascends a sUght grade, and the guUies cut

in the lake deposit give the surface an uneven appear-
ance, but on the upper level it is very apparent that the plain is only
slightly dissected. In the distance to the northeast is a high-cut
bank of Bear River, but the river is not in view because in this part
of its course it has sunk its channel in the easily eroded lake deposits
to a depth of 250 feet below the plain.

The main highway from Utah to Montana follows the foot of the
mountains on the west side of Cache Valley to its very head. Along
this road are several old Mormon settlements, among
Dayton. which is Dayton (see sheet 15b, p. 124), located at

Elevation 4,745 feet, the mouth of Daytou Canyon and the junction of a
ogdenVi^mUes. "^^ry rough Toad leading over the mountains to Malade.

The big cliff at the mouth of Dayton Canyon is com-
posed of very ancient sedimentary rocks (Cambrian?) dipping west-
ward at a low angle. About half a mile up the canyon these rocks
have been overridden by much younger (Carboniferous ?) limestone,
showing that the mountains west of this end of Cache Valley were
formed by the piling up of upturned broken slabs of the earth's crust.
The foothills back of Dayton are made of sandy and limy rocks which
were originally deposited as sand and mud in a fresh-water Tertiary
lake. Such rocks are found in many places around the edge of Cache
VaUey.

The train now approaches on the east a north-south ridge several
hundred feet high, known as Battle Creek Butte. It is isolated in the

116 GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES.

midst of the valley and takes its name from Battle Creek, the scene
of an Indian fight near its eastern base. Much of the ridge is made
up of very old shales (hardened mud rocks), but the south end and
some of the top are composed of diorite, a kind of granite which, in a
molten condition, was forced up into these shales from below. This
molten rock may not have reached the surface, for the surface at the
time of the intrusion was considerably above the present one.
Whether this ridge is an uplifted fault block or a remnant left by the
forces of erosion has not been determined, but it certainly was an
island when Lake Bonneville stood at its highest level. The north
end of the ridge consists of soft Tertiary sandstone.

Opposite the middle of Battle Creek Butte is Garner, a station for
the village of Clifton, which lies at the edge of the flat 1 mile west.
Clifton is an old Mormon hamlet of about 100 people.
Garner. Late in the afternoon the mountains on the west ap-

o^7en^7rmiiS ^^^^ P^^^ ^ hazy bluc, details are obscured, and it may not
be possible to distinguish the low rounded foothills
made by Tertiary conglomerate and sandstone or to see the promi-
nent lake-cut benches which continue along the edge of the valley as
far north as Oxford.

A large reservoir among the Tertiary ridges just east of Garner is
filled from a ditch that brings water from Mink Creek, several miles
to the northeast. An inverted siphon carries water from this reser-
voir across the creek at Garner, and a wooden pipe line that goes under
the railroad at the first road north of Garner station takes the water
to Clifton, where it is turned into irrigation ditches. About 31,000
acres is irrigated from this one system.

A short distance north of Garner a clear view is again obtained of
the Bear Kiver Range, several miles to the east (right), and of the
low Tertiary hills in front of it. The raihoad passes
Oxford. a big marsh, one of the few areas in this part of the

Elevation 4,748 feet. vaUcy which is uot yct much utilized, and continuing
ogden similes. aloug the practically level lake floor comes to the sta-

tion for a Mormon village, Oxford, which stands among
the trees 2 miles to the west. The Provo shore line may be seen near
the village. If Cache Valley should be filled again to the highest
level of Lake Bonneville, Oxford village would be 400 feet under
water, and the temple at Logan would stand in water 500 feet deep.

A low ridge just north of Oxford station extends eastward from the

mountains and makes the valley bottom much narrower. Directly

ahead, about 7 miles distant, there are two prominent

Swan Lake. rocky points, which mark Red Rock Pass, the old

Elevation 4,772 feet, ^^^j^^ ^^ j^^^^ Bonucville. Wcst of the track is Swan

Ogden 84 miles.

Lake, a small body of water on which it is common
to see many ducks either resting quietly or, frightened by the train,

OREGON SHORT LINE OGDEN TO YELLOWSTONE. 117

skittering away through the weeds. The railroad grade, which has
been gradually rising to Swan Lake station, now begins to descend.
By the overflow of Lake Bonneville the drainage divide was moved
from Ked Rock Pass, where it stood before Bonneville time, back
to this point, nearly 7 miles farther south. Sand and gravel
dumped by small creeks coming out from the hiUs have dammed this
part of the valley, making a marsh which extends most of the way
from Swan Lake to the pass. The hills on the east are composed of
Tertiary sediments, mostly shale, and show the Bonneville shore Hne
about 340 feet above the marsh. At Red Rock Pass red hmestone
cliffs appear on both sides (PI. XXXI, p. 113). From the road
crossing just south of the pass may be seen on the right a small valley
coming down from the northeast. This is the head of Marsh Creek,
which in pre-Bonneville time probably drained southward into Bear
River, but which, by the shift of the divide just mentioned, now
turns at a sharp angle and goes through the pass to join the Snake
River drainage system. Through this valley went the magnificent
river made by the overflow of Lake Bonneville.

As most of the water of Marsh Creek is used in irrigation, the natural

channel through the pass and for a short distance north of it may be

dry in summer. The knobs of limestone, 200 to 300

^" ^* feet high, which overlook the channel from opposite

Tr^'o^ ''^ ^^*' sides leave a maximum width of 600 feet for the river

Ogden 90 miles.

that drained Lake Bonneville just before it was drawn
down to the Provo stage. (See PL XXXI.) When Lake Bonne-
ville first started to overflow, the lake level stood higher than the
tops of these limestone rocks, which had been buried beneath
mountain waste. Gravel deposited by the stream that drained
the lake at its highest stage is found on top of the red butte
along the base of which the train passes. The Hunt ranch, men-
tioned by Gilbert in his description of this old outlet of Lake Bonne-
ville pubHshed in 1890, was at the foot of this rocky citadel. The
limestone crags bordering Red Rock Pass are conspicuous features of
the landscape and were well known to the early travelers in this
region and to the freighters who hauled supplies for the western
Montana mining camps over the road that follows the course now
taken by the railroad. The traveler going north from the pass may
notice that although the steep-sided valley is a quarter of a mile or
more wide, its stream is only a rivulet meandering through the
meadow. (See PI. XXXI.) The ill-matched stream and valley afford
evidence that a great river once flowed where now there is only a
brook. (See pp. 97-98.) Here, then, at or just north of the red cliffs,
Lake Bonneville overflowed its rim and began the discharge wliich
continued until evaporation exceeded inflow.

118

GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES.

Downey.

The valley bottom becomes wider toward the north, and the train
leaves it and comes out upon a broad bench, from which an extensive
view may be had of the valley of Marsh Creek.^ On
this bench is Downey, a small settlement in the midst
ogrnlTmfes'/'''' ^^ ^^ extcusivc agricultural district. The first homes
were built here about 1894, but it was not until 1910,
when water was brought by a large irrigation canal from Portneuf
Eiver below Lava Hot Springs and it became possible to irrigate the
land, that the settlement had any marked growth. It was named
for one of the engineers or officers of the Oregon Short Line. The
grain elevator and the broad fields of grain that stretch away in all
directions teU of the principal industry of the people. About 12,000
acres is irrigated by the Downey Improvement Co.'s ditch and cul-
tivated. When the ditch was completed in 1910 land sold for $35.50
an acre, $35 for the water right and 50 cents for the land. In 1914
it was worth about $45 an acre with water right but without im-
provements.

Oxford Peak (elevation 9,386 feet), which overlooks Red Rock
Pass, appears from Downey as a mountain mass with two tops of
about equal height. The front of the mountain range east of Downey
is made up of Carboniferous Umestone dipping to the east; the
mountains on the west are composed of Ordovician rocks, also dipping
east. In aU directions there is a strong suggestion that the com-
paratively level vaUey floor between the two mountain ranges was

^ Marsh Valley, like Cache Valley, is
inclosed between mountain ranges, and
has a north and south trend. Its length
is about 35 miles, and its greatest width
is 8 or 10 miles. Twenty miles from Red
Rock Pass the Portneuf River breaks
through the eastern mountain chain and
enters the valley, turning northward and
running parallel with Marsh Creek to the
end of the valley. There it receives the
creek and then turns abruptly westward
and escapes from the valley through a
deep but open canyon. The upper can-
yon of the Portneuf has at some time ad-
mitted lava as well as water. A succes-
sion of basaltic coulees have poured
through it into Marsh Valley and have
followed the slope of the valley to the
lower canyon. The Portneuf River fol-
lows the eastern margin of the lava beds,
and Marsh Creek the western, each occu-
pying a narrow vaUey sunk from 30 to

100 feet below the level of the lava table.
A comparison of these valleys illustrates
the disparity between Marsh Creek and
its channel. Portneuf River is several
times larger than Marsh Creek, but the
immediate valley by which it is contained
is smaller. Indeed, there is every evi-
dence that the valley of Marsh Creek, hav-
ing been formed by the ancient Bonne-
ville River, is now in process of filling.
It abounds in meadows and marshes and
at one point contains a lakelet.

It appears, however, that the Bonne-
ville River was not contained during its
entire existence in the channel now occu-
pied by Marsh Creek. The whole upper
surface of the lava tongue, where it has a
width of more than a mile, is fluted and
polished and pitted with potholes after
the manner of a river bed, and there seems
no escape from the conclusion that it was
swept by a broad and rapid current.

OREGON SHORT LINE — OGDEN TO YELLOWSTONE. 119

produced by outwash from the mountains. In other words, the
debris brought down from the surrounding mountains by the nu-
merous streams has spread out as a great apron, filUng the valley to
a considerable depth, and every year, especially at times when the
streams are high, a Httle more sand and gravel are added to the
deposit. The valley of old Bonneville River, now occupied by
Marsh Creek, is cut in this fill. At Downey the flat floor is composed,
at least near the surface, of well-rounded sand and partly cemented
gravel. It is said that a well 600 feet deep west of Downey was
driUed entirely in hill wash.

Virginia is the station for a considerable number of farmers living

on irrigated lands in the vicinity. The fine large school buildings

. . here and at Arimo, a few miles farther north, are

typical of the school facihties provided for country

Elevation 4,790 feet. -i • -i • . j» t i i 4 j»j^ i • -r-r*

ogden 100 miles. pupils m this part 01 Idaho. Alter leavmg Vir-
ginia the train runs down below the level of the
Arimo. upper bench and at Marsh VaUey siding passes

Elevation 4,736 feet, gravcl pits from which a great quantity of material
Ogden 105 miles. ^^^ ^^^^^ ^^^^^ ^^^ ^^^ ^^^ ballast aloug the railroad.

The gravel shows the character of the valley filhng. Arimo is one
of the numerous Httle settlements on the main highway between
Ogden and Pocatello, which parallels the track for many miles.

The vaUey of Marsh Creek has been flooded with lava in one
of the later stages of geologic history, probably in Pleistocene
glacial time. Lava of this kind, a basalt, is widespread in south-
ern Idaho. It is seen first in Marsh Creek valley about IJ miles
north of Arimo, between mileposts 106 and 107. The edge of
the lava first appears as a low vertical waU of black rock on the
east side of the creek, just north of some ranch buildings. Marsh
Creek flows along the west side of the lava and the railroad runs
along the east edge for a short distance, gradually going up on the
upper surface, which it traverses to McCammon. The surface ap-
pears smooth, but so much of it is bare rock partly hidden by sage-
bush that the land is not cultivated. Near McCammon, where there
is more soil on the lava, crops are being raised. Just before reaching
McCammon the traveler can see on the east the defile which Portneuf
River has cut through the mountains. In the forties and fifties pio-
neers from the Mississippi Valley bound for Oregon diverged from
the Astor route and entered the Snake River valley through this
defile by ox team, where travelers now pass along in Pullmans and
Packards.

120

GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES.

Elevation 4,763 feet
Population 321.
Ogden 111 miles.
Granger 191 miles.

At McCammon, the junction of the Granger and Ogden branches
of the Oregon Short Line, the mountains on both sides of the valley
McCammon. ^^^ composed of Ordovician shale, limestone, and

quartzite, dipping to the east. A cross section of
the valley at this point (fig. 14) shows a fold in the
hard rocks which explains how a single formation
may occur in the same position in two parallel moun-
tain ranges. It also shows the relation of the mountain wash to the
bedrock and contains in diagram the record of an interesting series
of events. After the mountains were uplifted and had been some-
what worn down by erosion, there seems to have been a long period
when the earth's crust in this region remained practically stationary
and the refuse from the wearing down of the mountains on both sides
gradually filled the valley to a considerable depth. Subsequently,

Figure 14. — Cross section of Marsh Creek valley at McCammon, Idaho.

an elevation of this region gave the streams greater fall, which in-
creased their cutting power, so that they gradually washed out deep
gullies in the fill. Then came a period of volcanic activity during
which great quantities of lava welled up through cracks in the earth's
crust and flowed out from volcanoes. The bottom of the valley
occupied by Marsh Creek and Portneuf River, from a point near
Arimo to Pocatello, was filled with black lava, most of which probably
came up from a crack along the valley bottom. After the lava
cooled Portneuf River, coming out from its canyon on the east, may
have flowed for a time directly across the top of the lava to the west
side of the valley, as suggested by an abandoned channel to be seen
along the railroad just before entering McCammon, and there joined
Marsh Creek. Subsequently it cut a new course along the east edge
of the lava tongue to its present position and left Marsh Creek in
possession of the opposite ledge. Long after the lava had cooled
Lake Bonneville formed and its outlet stream through Red Rock
Pass poured down Marsh Creek valley, flowed over the top of the
lava, leaving deposits of sand and gravel in its wake, and carved
deep channels on both sides of the narrow lava tongue.

OREGON SHORT LINE — OGDEN TO YELLOWSTONE.

121

A place of more than local interest is Lava Hot Springs, in Port-
neuf Canyon 12 miles east of McCammon, where in 1914 the State of
Idaho built a natatorium inclosing a concrete swimming pool 33 by
66 feet for public use. A number of hot springs issue from the bank
of the river, and near them is a popular camping place. In the can-
yon at and above the hot springs there is considerable calcareous
tufa, a soft ceUular limestone deposited by the evaporation of water
carrying lime in solution.

The gently sloping benches or terraces from McCammon to the foot
of the mountains on the east and west are composed of outwash
material which, though deposited by mountain torrents, has never-
theless accumulated so gradually that it makes a good soil. Large
quantities of grain are raised on it by dry farming. The great white
ledge seen on the mountain side 5 miles east of the village is a band of
gray sandy limestone about 100 feet thick. The Harkness ranch,
just north of the viUage, was one of the first in this region and was a
common stopping point for freighters before the railroad was built.
Mr. Harkness maintained a toll bridge over Portneuf River at this
point. ^ Water power at McCammon runs the local gristmill and
electric-light plant.

Immediately on leaving McCammon the train runs down off the
top of the lava into a Uttle canyon, and for a number of miles follows
the river and the edge of the lava. Toward the north the lava wall
increases from 10 to 50 feet in height. In most places its upper edge
is well exposed, but the lower part is concealed by large and small
blocks broken from the ledge above by frost action and other natural
forces. Fine exposures of black columnar basalt ^ are almost con-

^ Measurements of the flow of Portneuf
River show a mean discharge of 265
second-feet at Topaz, a station in the
canyon east of McCammon, during 1913-14
and of 334 second-feet at Pocatello during
1897-1899 and 1912-1 914 . The records at
Pocatello show from a minimum flow of
14 to a maximum flow of 1,880 second-
feet. No large power plants are feasible
on this stream.

2 Columnar structure, or the division of
a rock into prisms more or less straight
and parallel to one another, is a common
feature of basalts. Well-known examples
of this structure are the Giants Causeway
and Fingals Cave, in Ireland; the lavas
in the Auvergne, in central France; the
Palisades of the Hudson; the Watchung
Mountains, west of Orange, N. J.; and the
lavas in the Snake River canyon of Idaho

and the valley of the Columbia in Oregon.
Asin the drying of a mud puddle cracks
break the surface into figui'es having five
or six sides, so in the cooling of molten
basalt the prismatic shrinkage cracks
start at right angles to the cooling surface.
If the rock were perfectly homogeneous
and the cooling uniform, the columns
would all be hexagonal and of uniform
thickness. The slower the mass cools and
shrinks the larger will be the columns, and
as the upper and lower surfaces of a mass
of lava are likely to cool at different rates,
it is common to find the lower portion
separated into larger columns than the
upper portion. As the columns are de-
veloped at a right angle to the cooling
surface it follows that a sag or depression
in the surface of a basalt sheet is underlain
by radiate columnar structure.

122 GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES.

tinuous on the west side of the track. Areas a few yards in extent
showing radiate columnar structure may be seen at several points
close to the railroad between McCammon and PocateUo.

Onyx is a siding just below a concrete bridge over Portneuf River.
Near milepost 200 ^ the river tumbles over faUs made by travertine,
a soft cellular limestone deposited from calcareous
Onyx. spring waters. The smaU knobs of limestone in the

Elevation 4,615 feet, valley bottom bctwcen the 198 and 200 mile posts
Grangeri97mUes. wcrc oucc buricd in the lava which spread over the
whole valley floor but have been brought to light
again through the wearing away of the lava by the river.

Near the 201-mile post the railroad and river turn to the middle of
the larger valley, where there are basalt walls on both sides. An
abandoned channel of Portneuf River continues along the east edge
of the lava mass, so that the lava east of Inkom is an isolated block
lying between the abandoned channel and the new channel of Port-
neuf River.

At Inkom, a small settlement just below the point where Marsh

Creek enters Portneuf River, the river turns from north to west and

cuts through the range in a deep, narrow vaUey. The

basalt formerly occupying the present position of

Elevation 4,520 feet. t i i i in i i .i

Population 549. lukom has bccu gradually removed by the stream

ogdeni22 miles. which comcs in from the northeast. Portneuf River
ranger mi es. -j^^^ wom the basaltic lava away from the south side
of the valley from Inkom to PocateUo, leaving a black columnar wall
on the north side of the track. In some places it is very apparent
that there are two tliin sheets of lava, one resting upon the other,
indicating two distinct volcanic outbursts. About 4 miles west of
Inkom the lava stops short, and there is none in the narrow pass
through the mountains.

The valley of Portneuf River from McCammon to PocateUo is cut
in ancient Paleozoic rocks, including limestones, shales, and quartz-
ites, tilted at various angles but for the most part to the east. The
Bannock Range west of Inkom, through which the train passes so
quickly, is composed of Ordovician strata which are more or less
folded, an anticline or upward bend being indistinctly recognizable
on the south wall of the pass. There is no picturesque canyon here —
only a short, sharp gap. A great fault or break in the rocks along the.
west side of the range crosses the river at the west end of this gap, but
no trace of it can be seen from the train.

^ In the Portneuf Valley between McCammon and PocateUo the railroad mileposts
indicate the distanop west of Granger, Wyo.

OREGON SHORT LINE — OGDEN TO YELLOWSTONE. 123

As soon as the train leaves the gap a basalt wall is seen again on
the north. Probably the lava was originally continuous through the

gap, having flowed down the valley from McCammon
Portneu (spur). ^^ ^ great molten tongue, but if so it has been com-
GfangeJ'l)8"mnes. pl^^ely removed from the gap by the river. Plainly

there are two lava sheets here. The columnar struc-
ture is well developed, as shown in the vertical wall at the edge
of the basalt. At a few places where there were original sags
in the surface of the mass radiate structure can be recognized.
The basalt ends in the Portneuf Valley with a gentle slope about 3
miles east of Pocatello. Near Pocatello the mountains swing away
to the west and north, making room for the city.

A low, steep-faced reddish ridge north of the track just east of the

city appears to be a block of Ordovician quartzite uplifted by faulting.

Pocatello,^ another '^gateway to the mountains," is the junction

of the divisions of the Oregon Short Line running north to Butte,

Mont., and west to Huntington, Oreg. It was named

for an Indian chief and began as a tent city in 1882,
Po7uiation9,no^^ whcu the railroad was completed to this point. The
ogden 134 miles. early history of this locahty is a wild one. In the

days when the overland stage made its way through
Portneuf Valley trouble with Indians and with highwaymen was
common. The city is built on a town site of 2,000 acres sold by the
Indians to the United States. It is divided by the railroad into two
distinct parts, connected by a viaduct which crosses the numerous
tracks at the station. It is growing rapidly and already has many
noteworthy institutions, such as a Federal building, a Carnegie
library, a hospital, a large railroad Y. M. C. A., and fine schools,
including the Academy of Idaho, which bridges the gap between the
common schools and the State university. The electric Ught and
power used in the city is generated at American Falls, 25 miles west,
on Snake River. The growth of the city is due largely to the rail-
road shops, which give employment to hundreds of men.

Just west of the city highly tilted Cambrian quartzite is overlain
by rhyolite, a light-colored siliceous volcanic rock, which flooded the
surface before the basalt came. As the train leaves the station and
passes the roundhouses and extensive railroad shops the traveler
sees to the west the great Snake River plain. Far out in this plain
a solitary mountain appears in dim outline. This is Big Butte, the
cone of an extinct volcano, and the westernmost of three buttes
which for generations have been landmarks in this part of the country.
Farther than the eye can see the Snake River plain stretches away
to the west. The vaUey of the ancient Snake River was flooded

^The railroad mileposts from Pocatello to Idaho Falls give the distance from
Ogden.

124

GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES.

with great outpourings of black lava, which spread out sheet on sheet,
buried the old land surface, and partly filled the valley with molten
rock, which solidified and has remained to this day undisturbed
except for the gorges that the streams have cut in it. In some places
old mountains project through the petrified lava flood as islands pro-
ject above the surface of the sea, and old ridges stick out into it as
capes and promontories.

The description of the Snake River plain below given^ is taken
from a report written in 1901 by I. C. Russell.

^ Southern Idaho is a region composed of
geologically old rocks, which formed an
ancient land surface having a rugged
relief. In the depressions of this sur-
face, during later geologic time, exten-
sive lake and stream deposits and vast
lava flows were spread out. The older
rocks, sharply separated from the younger
by a long time interval, during which
extensive movements in the earth's crust
and deep erosion took place, are mainly
granite, rhyolite, quartzite, and lime-
stone. The younger of these is probably
the limestone which is thought to be of Car-
b onif erous age , These rocks were variously
folded, faulted, and upheaved into prom-
inent mountains, and deeply dissected by
a large river, with many tributaries,
which was long lived. The valley of the
main stream, the ancient representative
of Snake River, became broad and had
many important tributary valleys open-
ing from it and extending far into the
bordering mountains. The sharp-crested
mountain spurs between the lateral val-
leys are in some instances prolonged far
into the main depression.

After the topography had passed matu-
rity— that is, after the streams had exca-
vated deep valleys, leaving sharp-crested
or serrated divides between them — the
main stream was obstructed, possibly
by lava flows, but more probably by an
upward movement of the rocks athwart its
course, in the region now included in
western Idaho and eastern Oregon, and a
lake was formed which occupied a large
part of the country now included in the
Snake River plains. This water body,
named by Lindgren Lake Payette, re-
ceived the sediment brought in by trib-
utary streams and the dust blown out by

volcanoes and became deeply filled.
These sediments, which have a known
depth of over 1,000 feet, are now well ex-
posed, particularly in southwestern Idaho.
In places they contain impressions of
leaves of trees which grew on the borders
of the old lake, the shells of fresh-water
mollusks, the bones of land mammals, and
other remains. The fossils record a Ter-
tiary (Miocene) age.

Before Lake Payette came to an end
the vast lava flows which now form such a
conspicuous feature of the Snake River
basin began to be outpoured. In fact,
the lava and the sediments of Lake Pay-
ette and of a later lake in the same basin
were contemporaneous, the lava and lake
sediments being interbedded. Some of
the lava flows entered the lake, and the
occurrence of thick beds of volcanic
fragments (lapilli) and of scoriaceous,
glassy lava, with a torn and slaglike
structure, at the base of thick sheets of
usually compact basalt records the energy
of the steam explosions that followed.
Highly liquid lava continued to be poured
out at various intervals from a large num-
ber of volcanic vents and spread out in
the previously formed basin, making, in
truth, lakes of molten rocks. Besides
these two processes of upbuilding — that
is, sedimentation in lakes and the out-
pouring of lava which spread widely —
there was a third, the washing of debris
from the uplands and its deposition in
alluvial cover and widely extended sheets
of sand, gravel, and silt in the valleys.
In addition, there are widespread eolian
[wind] deposits. The volcanic eruption
continued after the lakes were either
filled or drained, so that by far the larger
portion of the Snake River plains is

GEOLOGIC AND TOPOGRAPHIC MAP

OK" 1^ H K

rELLOWSTONE PARK ROTJ'tB

From Ogden, Utah, to the Yellowstone National Pai i

Base compiled from railroad alignments and profiles supplied
by the Oregon Short Line Railroad Company and from additional
informatioii collected with the assistance of this company

UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY

GEORGE OTIS SMITH, DIRECTOR
David White, Chief Geologist R. B. Marshall. Chief Geographer

1915

BULLETIN 612

SHEET- No. 15 B

OREGON SHORT LINE — OGDEN TO YELLOWSTONE.

125

At Tyhee (see sheet 15c, p. 138), IJ miles south of the Fort Hall
Indian Reservation, the railroad turns more to the north and a view
is obtained on the left of the middle and east buttes
Tyhee. ^f ^j^g three already mentioned. The sagebrush fiat

now being crossed is owned by the Indians. Very
little land has been cultivated in this part of the reser-
vation, although much of the land is under ditches of the irrigation
system installed by the Government. Near Tyhee may be seen the
large upper canal which takes water from Blackfoot River about 15

Elevation 4,458 feet.
Ogden 140 miles.

directly underlain by sheets of basalt.
The last of the extensive volcanic dis-
charges happened in very recent times,
and the process of stream deposition still
continues.

The estimated area covered by the
Snake River lava is in the neighborhood
of 20,000 square miles. So far as is now
definitely known, there is but one lava
field in North America of greater extent,
namely, the Columbia River lava, the
estimated area of which is about 200,000
square miles. In Snake River canyon,
below Shoshone Falls, nearly 700 feet of
lava in horizontal sheets are exposed,
but whether this is the maximum thick-
ness or not can not be told. As a rule,
the various sheets of lava are relatively
thin, averaging perhaps 50 to 80 feet and
widely extended. That many inde-
pendent outflows of lava have occurred
is easily seen, but in the walls of Snake
River canyon, where the best sections
are exposed, it is difficult to determine
the number unless lacustral deposits,
beds of lapilli, etc., occur between them.

Although the soil of the Snake River
plains has well-marked variations, it may
be said that in general, and, in fact, almost
everywhere, it is fertile and needs but
the requisite moisture to enable it to pro-
duce a strong growth of either native or
cultivated plants. In general, however,
the soil of the plains is a fine yellowish-
white siltlike material, largely a dust de-
posit, which mantles the surface not only
on level tracts, but covers hills and broad
depressions alike. This material is simi-
lar to the celebrated loess of China, except
that it usually occurs as a comparatively
thin layer, and resembles also the deposit
bearing the same name in the Mississippi

Valley. Like each of these formations, it
is of exceptional fertility if properly
irrigated.

The ever-present and characteristic
plant of the Snake River plains is the
sagebrush (Artemisia tridentata) , which
grows abundantly and, we might say,
luxuriantly in the dry soil from the bot-
tom of the Snake River canyon up to an
elevation of some 2,000 or 3,000 or more
feet on the mountains bordering the
plains. It covers the broad arid valleys
almost completely and is seldom lacking
over any extensive area except where
fires have recently occurred or cultivated
fields supplant it. On the plains in sum-
mer fire sometimes sweeps through the
sagebrush in much the same manner that
it does over the prairies and "bums" are
produced. The "sage" in the localities
most favorable to its growth attains a
height of about 10 feet, but usually is not
over 3 feet high, the clump of bushes
being commonly 6 to 8 feet apart. One
can ride or walk over the sagebrush plains
with but little difficulty. The light
grayish-green leaves of this ubiquitous
plant give color, or perhaps more prop-
erly, lack of color, to the plains and en-
hance their monotony. Although the
Snake River plains are frequently termed
a desert, the name is true only in the sense
that they are practically without water.
Comparatively little of the surface is des-
titute of plant life. In fact, the flora is
found to be abundant and varied if one
examines it closely. There are many
lovely plants that blossom early in the
spring, filling the air with fragrance, and
in the summer and fall the yellow of
sunflowers and of the still more plenti-
ful " rabbit brush " (Bigeloviagraveolens),

126 GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES.

miles to the north. The canal is carried under the track near Tyhee
by means of an inverted siphon.

East and northeast of Tyhee the old flood plain of Snake Kiver
terminates against a bluff about 40 feet high, from the top of which
the land rises gently in long slopes to the hills made of upturned Paleo-
zoic rocks, more or less covered with lava. The gently sloping bench
lands are themselves composed of marls, sandstone, conglomerate,
volcanic ash, and lavas. These deposits are geologically very young,
probably Pliocene. They cloak the older formations over many
square miles.

Three gray stone buildings with red roofs east of the track belong
to a boarding school for Indian boys and girls, where the 180 pupils
are given instruction in practical matters relating to farm life as well
as the ordinary academic courses.

Fort Hall is the headquarters of the superintendent of the Fort Hall
Indian Reservation and the engineers on the reclamation project.
The Indian women seen here are dressed in blankets
Fort Hall. qj^^ moccasins, and the men in semicivilized costume.

Elevation 4,458 feet. Somc of the Indian maidens, however, wear gowns of
ogden 146 miles. the latest stylcs. Fort Hall, formerly called Ross
Fork, from the stream on which it is built, takes its
present name from a fort which was built in July, 1834, about 15
miles to the northeast, at the junction of the Missouri-Oregon and
Utah-Canada trails, by Capt. N. J. Wyeth and named for one of his
partners. It was to the original fort that Dr. and Mrs. Marcus
Whitman and Rev. and Mrs. H. H. Spaulding came in 1836 on their
way from Boston to missionary labors among the Indians in Oregon.
Theirs were the first wagons and Mrs. Whitman and Mrs. Spaulding

a relative of the goldenrod, here and 1 winter range. The mountain sheep is
there give broad dashes of brilliant also present in winter, and the mountain
color. Beneath the sagebrush in a state goat is reported to have been met with.

of nature nutritious bunch grass grows
abundantly and still furnishes pasturage
where sheep have not ravished the land.
Where the plains are broadest — that is.

The great horn cores of the mountain
sheep are occasionally to be seen bleach-
ing among the clumps of sagebushes.
Occasionally also the horns and bones of

north of the Oregon Short Line Railroad [ the bison are found, showing that south-
and especially in the vicinity of the three ern Idaho was witliin the former range of
steptoes, Big, Middle, and East buttes — that species. Besides the animals just
much of the land is without sagebrush and j mentioned, the plains are visited by
in the condition of a rolling prairie, which bears, wolves, lynxes, foxes, and skunks,
supplies excellent winter pasturage. and the coyote is only too abundant.

On the plains, more especially in the
broader portions in the vicinity of the
three prominent buttes that break their
monotony, big game is still to be found.
Antelope roam over them throughout the
year, while deer and elk find there a safe

Ducks, geese, and other birds visit the
ponds and streams, particularly along
Snake River and on the west side of the
plain to the Lost River country. Grouse
of several species are common and smaller
birds are by no means rare.

OREGON SHORT LINE OGDEN TO YELLOWSTONE.

127

the first white women to cross the Rocky Mountains. The party-
forded Snake River near the site of Blackfoot and went bravely west
over the waterless plain. The old fort was abandoned many years
ago and practically all vestige of it is lost.

In the Fort Hall Reservation sagebrush seems to cover every acre
and the traveler may question if the Indians cultivate any land.
Most of the Indians, however, live near the creeks and their homes
can not be seen from the train. In 1914 they had 7,240 acres under
cultivation. The principal crops are alfalfa, oats, wheat, potatoes,
barley, garden truck, and sugar beets. According to the report of the
Commissioner of Indian Affairs for 1914 the total Indian population
of the reservation was 1,797, including 462 children of school age.
Of these Indians, 1,506 are full bloods belonging to the Bannock and
Shoshoni tribes. There had been allotted to the Indians 38,280 acres
of irrigated land and 330,971 acres of grazing land. The old and
decrepit Indians, 250 in number, get rations. More than two-thirds
of the Indians live in tepees and tents 7 Nearly a third of them winter
on the Snake River bottoms, where there is timber for shelter, fire
wood, and plenty of pasturage and where snow rarely lies more than
a few days.

The road up Ross Fork from Fort Hall station leads across the
mountains to the dam of the great Blackfoot reservoir, about 30
miles east, built to store water for the Fort Hall irrigation system.
Phosphate deposits occur about 20 miles east of Fort Hall station
along this road. The deposits in this reservation contain approxi-
mately 738,000,000 long tons and are estimated to underlie 58^
square miles at depths of less than 5,000 feet; they doubtless underlie
a much larger area at greater depths. The main phosphate bed is
6 or 7 feet thick and is rich in tricalcic phosphate, the mineral con-
stituent in bones. The phosphate beds are relatively soft and are
exposed in only a few places, although clearly recognizable fragments
of phosphate rock are scattered more or less abundantly along the
zone of outcrop. A description of the western phosphate field, by
G. R. Mansfield, is given below. ^

^A hard problem for the farmer ia to
discover the needs of his depleted or un-
favorably proportioned soil. Its greatest
need may be phosphoric acid, one of the
three substances that are most necessary
in maintaining fertility, the other two
being nitrogen and potash. Phosphoric
acid for use in fertilizers has been sup-
plied for many years in part by the phos-
phates of Florida and Tennessee and from
islands in the Pacific Ocean. These de-
posits can not always supply the demand,
and therefore the recent discovery that

the Rocky Mountains contain the largest
kno^vn area of phosphate rock in the world
is of vital interest to future generations, if
not to the present one.

Albert Richter claims to be the original
discoverer of the western phosphate de-
posits, because he recognized rock phos-
phate in Cache County, Utah, in 1889 and
located claims on it. These phosphate
deposits are said to have been independ-
ently discovered in 1897 by R. A. Pid-
cock in Rich County, Utah, in old dig-
gings in black rock that he mistook for

I

128

GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES.

North of Fort Hall station, 1 to 3 miles east of the track, there is a
group of low rounded hills composed largely of basalt lava but covered
for the most part with dark sand that was blown out from a volcano,
the basalt appearing here and there as ledges and bowlders of black
rock. From Fort Hall station an excellent view may be obtained
of the highest mountains in the reservation. North and South Putnam,
situated 15 to 18 miles to the southeast and reaching 8,837 and 8,989
feet, respectively, above sea level.

North and west of Fort Hall station the surface of the flat is over-
spread with dark sand, largely of volcanic origin. It is similar to
volcanic ash except that it is coarser. This sand is piled in low dunes
west of Fort Hall, and some of the dunes have been utilized as burial
places by the Indians. These Indian cemeteries are marked by
high poles, set rather close together, which may be seen for consid-
erable distances. A cemetery about 2 miles west of the track and 1
mile north of Fort Hall can be seen from the train in clear weather.
On close inspection the cemeteries are found to be decorated with
effects of the departed Indians, including clothing, cooking utensils,
and implements.

gold prospects. A large sample analyzed
in 1899, however, proved to be high-grade
phosphate rock. In 1908, on recommen-
dation of the Geological Survey, Secre-
tary of the Interior Garfield withdrew
from entry 4,500,000 acres of public land
in Idaho, Utah, and Wyoming believed
to be valuable for phosphate, and this
phosphate withdrawal was continued by
President Taft under the act of June 25,
1910. In 1909 and succeeding years these
phosphate deposits were systematically
examined by the United States Geological
Survey, and in 1910 phosphate rock was
discovered in Montana, near Melrose, by
Geologist H. S. Gale. On January 1,
1915, the total area of phosphate lands in
Montana, Utah, Wyoming, and Idaho
withdrawn from entry was 2,713,155 acres.
This phosphate reserve is larger than any
similar area in the United States; it is,
indeed, the largest area of phosphate rock
yet recognized in the world.

A characteristic of the phosphate rock
of this region is its oolitic texture, the
rounded grains, resembling fish eggs,
ranging in size from the tiniest specks to
bodies half an inch or more in diameter.
In its weathered condition these grains
are more or less distinct and the rock has

a grayish color. When freshly mined,
however, the rock is dark brown or black.
In some places where the rock has been
subjected to great compression during the
deformation of the inclosing strata it has
apparently lost the oolitic texture and
shows a slight increase in density.

The phosphate deposits in the West oc-
cur in definite beds that extend over wide
areas and that are related to the associated
rocks inthe same way as coal beds. The
associated beds are predominantly shaly,
but include also sandstones and lime-
stones, the whole ranging in thickness
from a few feet to 175 feet. Above these
phosphate shales there is commonly mas-
sive chert or cherty limestone, and below
them in the Utah, Wyoming, and Idaho
fields a light-colored siliceous limestone.
These three sets of beds in Utah and west-
ern Wyoming are grouped together as the
Park City formation, of Carboniferous age.
In Idaho the phosphate shales and over-
lying chert are called the Phosphoria
formation. The number of phosphate
beds distributed through the phosphate
shales varies from place to place. There
is, however, usually near the base, a bed
5 or 6 feet thick in the Idaho field and the
adjacent portions of Wyoming and Utah.

OREGON SHORT LINE — OGDEN TO YELLOWSTONE.

129

Gibson.

Volcanic hills, composed largely of a rhyolite lava, appear to the
east at a distance of 4 or 5 miles from Gibson siding. On one of the
nearer hills of this group there is a very symmetrical
little cone built of material similar to that which
Elevation 4,463 feet, ^lakes SO larffc a proportion of the dark volcanic sand

Ogden lol miles. ^ .

found abundantly in this vicinity. It seems proba-
ble that this little cone is the crater from which the sand was blown
out and that its eruption marks perhaps the latest chapter in the
volcanic history of the district.

For many miles north from Fort Hall the three buttes in the Snake
River plain are visible in clear weather. The westernmost, or Big
Butte, is an old volcano rising 2,350 feet above the plain, or 7,659
feet above sea level. East Butte, also a volcano, is 700 feet high,
and Middle Butte, an upraised block of basaltic lavas, is 400 feet
high. Big and East buttes are ancient rhyolitic volcanoes which
existed previous to the outpouring of the fluid basalt that flowed
about them, their upper parts rising as islands in this sea of molten
rock. They are about 25 and 35 miles from Blackfoot, and Big Butte
is 15 miles from Middle Butte and 20 miles from East Butte. The
Lost River and Lemhi ranges may be seen behind the buttes.

North of Gibson there may be a few tepees along the road. At the
south end of the bridge over Blackfoot River there is a well-appointed
ranch, the home of a prosperous Indian who owns an automobile and
has several hundred head of horses and cattle in the hills.

I

This bed is also of uniformly high quality,
averaging 32 per cent or more of phospho-
ric acid, equivalent to 70 per cent or more
of bone phosphate. The total quantity
of high-grade rock in this main bed, esti-
mated for the areas examined by the Geo-
logical Survey in five years (not including
Montana fields), is approximately 5,000,-
000,000 long tons. This estimate includes
only rock that is believed to lie at minable
depths — that is, less than 5,000 feet from
the surface — but does not include a vastly
greater quantity of lower grade rock.

The raw phosphate rock is not readily
soluble, so that its action in fertilizing
land is very slow, but the so-called super-
phosphate, made by treating the pulver-
ized rock with sulphuric acid, which the
smelters of the West can furnish in large
quantity, contains phosphate in more
easily soluble and available form. At
present, on account of the cost of trans-
38088°— Bull. 612—16 9

portation to the eastern markets, the de-
mand for western phosphate is confined
to the Pacific Coast States, and even here
it is in competition with phosphate rock
imported from Ocean Island . Of the total
phosphate rock produced in the United
States in 1914, the Western States fur-
nished less than one-half of 1 per cent.
With the growing recognition of the im-
portance of intensive agriculture and the
consequent need of fertilizers in the great
agricultural districts that have passed the
period of maximum fertility, the demand
for phosphate rock is certain to increase.
Although at present the deposits in the
Eastern States are more accessible to mar-
kets, these deposits are already approach-
ing partial exhaustion, so that this rich
and extensive western field, already im-
portant as a grazing district, is destined
to become the scene of another thriving
industry.

130

GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES.

Blackfoot.

Elevation 4,502 feet.
Population 2,202.
Ogden 158 miles.

Blackfoot River/ which the raiboad crosses 1 mile south of the
village of Blackfoot, is the north boundary of the Fort Hall Indian
Reservation.

Blackfoot city and river are named from a tribe of North American
Indians. The name is explained as an allusion to an observation
by pioneer whites that their leggins were generally
blackened by walking over the freshly burned prairie.
The Indians commonly seen about the station and
on the streets, however, belong to the Lemhi, Ban-
nock, or Shoshone tribes. Blackfoot is the business
center of a large, weU-settled, and prosperous irrigated agricultural
district, and is sometimes called the ''grove city," because aU the
streets in the residence section are weU lined with mature shade
trees. It is noteworthy that the first trees ever planted in upper
Snake River valley were set out around the Blackfoot courthouse in
1886, and a ditch was constructed for irrigating them. Three grain
elevators and a flour mill suggest that a large part of the produce of
the surrounding district is grain. The railroad station, one of the
finest on the fine, is built of pink rhyoUte, a lava rock that is abundant
in the hiUs to the east. Blackfoot is the junction point for branch
Unes to Mackay and Aberdeen. Gasoline motor trains are run on
these lines and also to PocateUo. The city water supply is pumped
from weUs drilled to depths of 120 to 150 feet, which reach basalt
(black lava) at 65 feet. These wells show the depth of sand and
gravel deposited at this place by Snake and Blackfoot rivers in
wandering about over the surface before settling in their present
courses.

The electricity used in Blackfoot is brought from a power plant on
Snake River at American FaUs, 40 miles to the southwest.^ Gold
placers on Snake River about 15 miles below Blackfoot have been
worked intermittently in former years, but are now idle. In hard
times a few men wash out a httle gold by panning, but here, as
elsewhere on Snake River, the gold is so flaky and fine that it is
difficult to recover. Several attempts at large operations with
dredges have been failures. A beet-sugar factory at Blackfoot, built
in 1905 at a cost of $500,000, contracts for the beets from about

1 The mean discharge of Blackfoot
River in 1906-1909, measm-ed at Presto,
a few miles upstream from the railroad,
was 415 cubic feet a second. It has a
recorded range from a maximum of 2,370
to a minimum of 64 cubic feet a second
during that period. No hydroelectric
power plants are in operation or in
process of construction on this stream.
Although the fall of the river from the
Blackfoot dam down to the mouth of the

canyon is comparatively great, the storage
of water for irrigation makes it impracti-
cable to develop any very large amount of
continuous power. Besides the 48,000
acres to be irrigated on the Fort Hall
Reservation, 6,000 to 10,000 acres are irri-
gated by independent er private ditches
taking water from the river.

2 The mean discharge of Snake River at
Blackfoot during 1911-1914 was 7,930
cubic feet a second.

OREGON SHORT LINE OGDEN TO YELLOWSTONE. 131

7,000 acres and pays $5 a ton for them. The average yield is about
12 tons to the acre, but some tracts under skillful treatment produce
20 to 22 tons.

The flat extending from Snake River, 3 miles west of the railroad,
to the foot of the hills on the east is all under irrigation ditches,
practically every acre being cultivated. The agricultural interests
of tliis valley are diversified; no one crop predominates. On either
side of the track are fields of alfalfa, barley, oats, potatoes, sugar
beets, timothy, and wheat. Apple orchards are common. Many
of the highways are fined by trees, and almost every group of farm
buildings is shaded and sheltered by Lombardy poplars. This tall
poplar, a native of Europe, is a favorite because the trees grow rapidly
and, if planted in rows close together, make exceUent windbreaks.
They are propagated by means of cuttings. While viewing this pros-
perous and beautiful rural country the traveler should bear in mind
that only a few years ago, not further back than 1885, the entire
Snake River plain was one great sagebrush desert, wholly barren
of trees and populated mainly by jack rabbits, coyotes, and
rattlesnakes.

WapeUo in 1914 was a new settlement consisting of a store, a
school, and a railroad siding. The trees about a mile to the west

are on the bank of Snake River, the main stream of
Wapello. southern Idaho. The name of the river is said to

Elevation 4,542 feet. |^^ ^^iQ translation of the name of a tribe of Indians,

the Shoshones, who live along its banks. The river
rises among the high peaks of the Rocky Mountains in Yellowstone
National Park, flows southward, broadening into Jackson Lake, and
then northward, and near Rigby, Idaho, is joined by Henrys Fork,
locally known as the North Fork, which rises m Henrys Lake, near
the Idaho-Montana State fine. The portion of Snake River above
Henrys Fork is locaUy known as the South Fork. These two streams
receive numerous tributaries, much of whose water the year round
is molted snow. Below the confluence Snake River flows in a general
southwesterly course for 150 miles, to a point a short distance below
the American FaUs, where it turns nearly westward.

The small settlement of Firth, which was started about 1911, is on
the Snake River flat or first bottom. A three-span steel highway

bridge crosses the river near by. Half a mile north
**""*"• of Firth the river itself first comes into sight from the

Elevation 4,564 feet. ij.^\^^ ^pj^(3 j^i^fj nsing to thc sccond bottom is just

Ogden 169 miles. i t-.- -i r ^- i i

east of the track. Five miles east of Firth a second
bluff rises about 50 feet to a third flat or bottom. This flat is com-
posed of material brought down from thc mountains by Blackfoot
River and deposited on the plain at the mouth of its canyon.

Blackfoot River has had a hard fight for existence. When the
earth's crust cracked and broke and quartzites and fimestones were

132

GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES.

faulted up across the river's course, it kept its place by grinding down
its bed. The upturned hard rocks made a mountain range through
which the river cut a narrow valley. This valley was afterward
flooded with rhyolitic lava and the river had to grind its bed down
again. After it had regained its grade through the rhyolite that
blocked its course a stream of molten basaltic lava flowed down the
channel, and for a long time all water that came this way was turned
to steam. When the hot lava became cold rock Blackfoot Eiver
began a third time the task of sawing its bed down to grade. It has
now sunk a deep, narrow canyon in the black basalt so deep that the
road up the river is on a bench 100 to 300 feet above the stream.

The mountains east of Firth and Monroe, rising 7,000 feet above
the sea, or 2,500 feet above the plain, are mostly made of limestone
of Carboniferous age or older. They contain also younger rocks,
but all the beds are so tilted and broken up that their relations are
difficult to determine. Some of the mountains are included in the
areas of phosphate land withdrawn, for high-grade phosphate rock has
been found here by members of the United States Geological Survey.

The belt of irrigated land on the west side of Snake River at Firth
is very narrow, owing to the fact that the ^' lavas" are close to the
river. By this term is meant the area in which black lava, crumpled
into low ridges, makes a rough surface with very Httle soil. Many
of the ridges are cracked open along their axes as a result of internal
movement after the surface of the lava had cooled. These cracked
folds are called pressure ridges. The soil on the ^' lavas" is too poor
and thin to be cultivated, and is used only for pasturage. Farther
downstream the "lavas" recede from the river bank, and irrigation
projects^ have made great tracts of desert available for settlement.

^ Water is diverted from Snake River
at the Minidoka dam, 80 miles below
Blackfoot, and at the Milner dam, 35
miles farther west, Jackson Lake, in
Wyoming, just south of Yellowstone Park,
has been made into a great reservoir in
which 380,000 acre-feet of water, or
enough to cover 380,000 acres to a depth
of 1 foot, is now stored by the United
States Reclamation Service for use on the
Minidoka project. During 1914 work was
in progress of raising the dam at the out-
let of the lake to such an extent as to make
it possible to store 780,000 acre-feet.
The expense of this new work is being
borne by the North and South Side Twin
Falls projects, and the additional water
obtained will be used on these projects.

The Minidoka project includes 117,090
acres and during 1913 81,518 acres was

actually watered. The principal crops
raised here are alfalfa, grain, wheat,
oats, barley, potatoes, sugar beets, miscel-
laneous hay crops, and fruit — chiefly ap-
ples. Stock raising and dairying are
thriving industries.

At the Milner dam water is diverted foi"
irrigating lands included in the North and
South Side Twin Falls projects. The
exact area to be irrigated has not been
definitely determined but will be about
400,000 acres. During 1913 about 150,000
acres lying within the South Side tract
was watered and in cultivation. The land
is used for alfalfa, wheat, oats, pasture,
apples, potatoes, and peas. Sheep and
hog raising are profitable industries. The
crops raised on the North Side tract are
similar.

OREGON SHORT LINE — OODEN TO YELLOWSTONE. 183

Two miles north of Monroe siding and 1^ miles east of the track
there is a low sandy hill, on the top of which is the reservoir in which
the water supply of Shelley, pumped from a deep
Monroe. we\[, is stored. This hill is basalt partly mantled

Elevation 4,605 feet. ^y[i\^ drifted sand. Northeast of it there is a series
of moving sand dunes extending for about 8 miles in
the direction of the prevailing winds.

Shelley is the trading point for several small settlements away
from the railroad and is the center of an irrigation
Shelley. district which has been brought to a high grade of

Elevation 4,619 feet, cultivation.^ A hydroclcctric plant on Snake River,
ogden 175 miles. 2 milcs uorth of Shelley, develops about 8,000 horse-
power for use in this part of the valley.
West of Shelley the three buttes previously described are plainly
visible far out on the Snake River lava plain. East Butte (PI.
XXX, 5, p. 112) appears to have two sharp peaks between which
there is a saddle-shaped depression. Big Butte has a less pronounced
sag top, and Middle Butte shows a gentle south slope and steep
north slope, which indicate that it is not a volcano. To the north-
east, beyond the fu*st low range of lava hills, is the crest of the
Caribou Range. In very clear weather one can see more than 70
miles away a snowy peak coming into view over the crest of this range.
This is Grand Teton, 13,747 feet high, the culminating peak of the
range lying west of Jackson Hole and the largest of the three peaks
which have been known as the Tetons or the Pilot Knobs since the
members of the Astor expedition first saw them in 1811. (See p. 17.)
At Cotton, a railroad siding 3 miles south of Idaho Falls, named
for the owner of an adjoining ranch, an electric-power house may be
seen on the bank of Snake River. Just north of Bach,
Cotton. another siding 1^ miles south of Idaho Falls, is a

Elevation 4,661 feet. ^^^^ -^^ Tautphaus Park. This is the local fair

Ogden 1/9 miles. ^ ^

ground, where the annual War Bonnet round-up is held.
Every September for five days Idaho FaUs is thronged with visitors.
Tiiey come to see cowboys and Indians with their race horses, bucking
horses, and wild steers gathered here to amuse the crowd and to con-
test for prizes in feats of skiU in riding and rope throwing. The War
Bonnet round-up is to Idaho what Frontier Day at Cheyemie is to
Wyoming and the round-up at Pendleton is to Oregon.

' The variety of products of this type of I Shelley, the shipments, in carloads, were:

land is shown by the freight shipments
made from Shelley from July 1, 1913, to
June 30, 1914. According to the state-
ment of P. J. Bennett, a notary public in

"Wheat, 49; oats, 34; potatoes, 937; beets,
722; live stock, 104; mill stuff, 37; hay, 25;
apples, 6; miscellaneous, 31; total, 1,945
carloads, or more than 74,000,000 pounds.

184 GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES.

The city of Idaho Falls has a significant name and its site has had
an interesting history. Snake River ^ here falls over the edge of a
lava flow, and the incessant wear of the running
Idaho Falls. water has cut the falls back into the lava sheet fully

Elevation 4,708 feet, j^^^ g^ j^[Iq ^^d they are now at the head of a narrow
ogden i84°miies. cauyou, the walls of which are at one point barely
50 feet apart. Here a toll bridge was built in 1866,
and the toll money collected from the freighters over the Utah-
Montana trail started a store and the store started a town. The town
was called Eagle Rock, because for many years an eagle had a nest on
the large rock in the stream just above the bridge. The name was
changed to Idaho FaUs a few years ago. Snake River forms the west
boundary of the city, and the falls, the eagle rock, and the site of the
original bridge are only three blocks west of the railroad.

Steel was laid on the main line north from Idaho FaUs in 1879, and
the railroad was completed to Silverbow, 6 miles from Butte, Mont.,
in 1881. The branch line to Yellowstone was completed in 1906.
In 1914 a loop around the valley was being built from Idaho FaUs
northeastward to cross Snake River (South Fork) below Heise Hot
Springs and thence go north to St. Anthony.

Idaho FaUs owes its prosperity to the large quantities of farm
products raised in its vicinity and is the most important shipping
point between Ogden and Butte. Practically aU the land in this part
of the vaUey is in a high state of cultivation under irrigating ditches.
The average yield of grain to the acre in the upper Snake River vaUey,
on irrigated and dry land taken together, is estimated to be as f oUows :
Wheat, 40 bushels; oats, 70 to 75 bushels; potatoes, 200 bushels; and
beets, 14 tons. These averages are far below what the successful
rancher gets, for oats on irrigated land makeJrom 50 to 120 bushels
an acre and weigh from 40 to 44 pounds to the bushel. Two hundred
bushels of potatoes is a light yield, 200 sacks or 400 bushels a good
yield, and it is reported that as high as 700 bushels an acre have been
raised in one 20-acre tract. In 1913 the district between Blackfoot
and St. Anthony shipped 5,000 cars of potatoes, Idaho FaUs alone
being the shipping point for 2,500 cars. Potato bugs are as yet
unknown in this region. Wheat on irrigated land yields from 40 to
60 bushels, weighing from 60 to 63 pounds to the bushel. It is re-
ported that one tract of 720 acres averaged 38 bushels an acre in 1913,
and as much as 70 to 75 bushels an acre has been produced in lO-acre
tracts. It is said that almost no commercial fertilizer is shipped to
this country. Crop rotation is practiced. When oat fields fail to
yield 85 bushels an acre, some ranchers sow them with alfalfa or
clov^er for a few years. Seed peas and beans for planting kitchen
gardens from Maine to California are grown in the upper Snake River

^ The mean discharge of Snake River at Idaho Falls from 1890 to 1892, inclusive,
was 10,300 cubic feet a second.

OREGON SHORT LINE OGDEN TO YELLOWSTONE. 135

valley, and a seed-cleaning mill stands near the Idaho Falls station.
Raw land with water right sold in 1914 for $40 to $60 an acre, and
improved land brought $65 to $160 an acre, depending on the improve-
ments, the lay of the land, and the location.

Red Duroc Jersey hogs are favorite money makers in this region,
and sheep and cattle are ranged in the mountains in summer and
pastured at the valley ranches in winter. The honeybee is respected
and encouraged to greater industry. One man in this vicinity has
600 colonies of bees and keeps 4 tons of honey for their winter feed.
Another bee keeper in the valley has 3,000 colonies. A factory at
Idaho FaUs extracts, stores, and ships hundreds of tons of alfalfa and
sweet-clover honey every year.

A round stone tower (used as a tool house), which stands on the
lawn at the north end of the Idaho Falls station shows the fitness of
the local lavas, rhyolite and basalt, for use as building stone.

Soon after leaving the city ^ the train passes the first beet-sugar
factory built in Idaho. It was erected in 1903 at a cost of a milUon
doUars and has added much to the growth of Idaho FaUs. Lincoln,
a settlement of 300 people around the sugar factory, is reached by a
branch line.

St. Leon is a siding at the crossing of WiUow Creek. Far to the

east, if the air is clear, two of the three Teton peaks are visible,

and on the west, 12 miles from Idaho FaUs, there

is a low, broad, shghtly sag-topped cinder cone,

g en mi es. which holds a bowl-shaped depression about a quarter

of a mile in diameter. Near this cone in 1914 there was a single

tract of about 2,000 acres of dry-farm wheat.

The sagebrush plain just north of ITcon suggests what the whole
valley once was, and the fertile fields already passed show what can
be done by irrigation. Very little of the soil of the
Snake River plain is derived from the basalt on which
ogdTn 192 mibs^^^* ^^ ^^^^' There is an abrupt change from the soil to the
lava, and the exposed surface of the lava shows prac-
tically no trace of disintegration. The soil near the rivers, on their
present or former flood plains, is largely river deposit, and that near
the mountains is mountain waste, but the fine soil that covers the
plains at a distance from the mountains is mainly wind-blown dust,
which has accumulated gradually in the centuries since the basalt
was poured out The sources of the dust are the naked cliffs in
the mountains, talus slopes, stream deposits on the margin of the
plains, and volcanic ashes. The Market Lake Craters (see p. 137),
truncated volcanic cones 10 miles northwest of the track, and other
volcanoes of that type threw out large quantities of volcanic dust. A
vigorous growth of sagebrush attests the good quaUty of the soil.

^ Mileposts north of Idaho Falls give the distance from this junction.

136 GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES.

Near Ucon, as elsewhere in the valley, all trees except those along
Snake River have been planted by the settlers. The main highway
from Idaho Falls to Yellowstone Park parallels the railroad for several
miles, but farther north it follows section lines, making the distance
between towns by the highway somewhat greater than the railroad
mileage.

North of Ucon the summit of the third and lowest of the three
Teton peaks comes into view; farther north, at Ash ton, they come
into full view. The Teton Mountains were named from an Indian
tribe. In ' 'Astoria," Washington Irving's entertaining description of
John Jacob Astor's expedition which crossed this country in 1811 on
its way to establish a trading post at the mouth of the Columbia, there
is the following reference to these mountains :

September 15 one of the guides pointed to three mountain peaks glistening with
snow, which rose, he said, above a fork of Columbia River. These remarkable peaks
are known to some travelers as the Tetons; as they had been guiding points for many-
days to Mr. Hunt, he gave them the name of the Pilot Knobs.

. The Astor party came into Idaho near Victor, the present terminus
of a branch of the Oregon Short Line at the west foot of the Tetons,
and followed down the valley of Teton River, reaching Henrys
(North) Fork of Snake River near the present site of St. Anthony,
where there was then a ^'fort" established by Mr. Henry, of the
Missouri Fur Co. At the fort they built canoes and started down
Snake River. The next day they reached some falls about 30 feet
high, took another day to portage around them, and then pursued
their journey southward from the present site of Idaho Falls. They
soon found the river unnavigable, had to abandon their canoes and
strike across country, and endured terrible privations the following
winter, the account of which is told in thriUing narrative by Irving.

A branch railroad running northwest from Ucon passes through
Menan, 2 miles south of the Market Lake Craters.

Rigby is the largest town in the east end of Jefferson County and

is the trading and shipping point for an agricultural district having a

population of several thousand. It was organized in

Rigby. 1886 ^y the Mormon apostle John W. Taylor, from

Elevation 4,851 feet. Utah, and WiUiam F. Rigby, of the local church

Population 555. i • • m it i i •

ogden 198 miles. authorities. A post oihce was established m 1888,
and the railroad came in 1899. Within 15 or 20
miles above Rigby, on Snake River, are the headgates of a dozen or
more canals in one stretch of the river — a canal every three-quarters of
a mile. These canals, when full, carry every minute enough water to
flood 8J acres to a depth of more than 1 foot. This great system of
canals was built not by the Government or by promoters, but by the
ranchers whose land they irrigate. The first canals were built between

OREGON SHORT LINE OCJDEN TO YELLOWSTONE.

137

1879 and 1884, when settlement began in this section. Potatoes are
the leading crop near Rigby and a common yield is 300 bushels an
acre. Under especially favorable conditions of soil treatment 700
bushels are said to have been taken from 1 acre. Wheat is reported
to average about 45 bushels an acre, oats 65 bushels an acre, and beets
20 tons an acre.

Heise Hot Springs, 11 miles east of Rigby, is a resort on the north
bank of Snake River (South Fork), at the foot of the wall formed by
rhyolite tilted and overlain by horizontal younger lava flows. A log
hotel that will accommodate about 150 guests and a bathhouse with
two concrete pools have been built at hot springs which issue from the
bank of the river. The springs have temperatures of 126° to 140°
Fahrenheit. The water smells of sulphur and is strongly mineralized.
Bathing in it is said to reheve rheumatism. Fishing is popular at
this resort in summer and elk hunting in winter.

For a number of miles north of Rigby the railroad crosses a delta-
like deposit built by Snake River. The stream brings great quanti-
ties of sediment down from the mountains, and here, on the Snake
River plain, where the grade of the stream is decreased and its
velocity is slackened, much of its load has been dropped. As a result,
a low, broad fan has been built up, across which the river now flows in
a number of channels. Henrys Fork joins Snake River at the base of
the two craters seen a few miles to the west.

Between Rigby and Lorenzo the railroad crosses the ^'dry bed" of
Snake River. This was formerly the main watercourse, but in 1894
the current shifted to the channel it now occupies, north of Lorenzo.
At times there is water in the old channel, as part of its upper course
is used as an irrigating canal.

The beet-loading platform at Lorenzo indicates one of the principal
crops in this vicinity. Just after passing the station the train crosses

the main channel of Snake River, which at this point

is 500 feet wide.^

The Market Lake Craters, 4 miles west of Lorenzo,

are two low buttes, broad of base, with gently sloping

sides and broad tops, rising 500 to 600 feet above the
surrounding plain. Each butte has an oval base measuring about
1 by 2 miles, and each has a well-defined crater in its summit about
half a mile in diameter and 150 to 200 feet deep. The beds of ejected
material slope away in all directions at sharp angles around the rims

Lorenzo.

Elevation 4,866 feet
Population 379.*
Ogden 202 miles.

^ The discharge of Snake River at Heise
Hot Springs, about 10 miles above this
bridge, in 1910-1913, averaged 8^920 cubic
feet a second. The maximum and mini-
mum recorded discharges are 36,000 and
2,310 cubic feet a second.

The river passes through several can-
yons where dam sites could be found.
The fall between Jackson Lake and
Henrys Fork is about 2,000 feet. A largo
amount of potential power therefore exists
along this stretch of Snake River.

138 GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES.

of the craters and flatten toward the base, where they become nearly
horizontal. Within the crater rim the beds slope toward the center.
Sand and gravel contained in the strata of which the craters are built
indicate that these volcanoes were upheaved somewhat explosively
through an old river or lake deposit. There is nothing to show that
either cone poured out a lava stream. Material brought into the
craters by rain wash and wind has given fairly level floors to the
broad bowl-shaped depressions. The two cones are supposed to be
of about the same age and are moderately recent. The name was
derived from their proximity to Market Lake, a former shallow body
of water so called because ducks congregated on it in such numbers
that hunters went there regularly for a supply of meat.

A black volcanic tuff, an open-structured rock made of partly
cemented fragments and dust produced by volcanic explosions, is
used for building in the vicinity of Rigby and Rexburg. This rock is
quarried on the bank of Snake River at the base of the Market Lake
Craters. Houses are built also of the pink rhyolitic lava which occurs
abundantly in the hills at the east edge of the Snake River plain.

After crossing Snake River the train goes through a grove of native
cottonwoods along the channels of the river. This is the only natural
grove on the railroad between Ogden and the Targhee National
Forest, north of Ashton.

A mile or two east of Thornton a bluff rises abruptly 100 feet or
more to a bench. The foot of this bluff is the boundary between the
rhyolite that forms the low hills to the east and the
Thornton. basalt that makes the floor of the Snake River plain.

Elevation 4,859 feet. ^]^q relative agcs of the two rocks are indicated by
the fact that the rhyolite is deeply weathered and in
places its beds are disturbed from their original nearly horizontal
attitude, while the basalt is unweathered and its horizontal beds
abut against or overlap the older rhyolite.

Several miles to the west there is a low-lying light-colored band of
sand dunes with a group of hiUs at its north end.

From Winder, a siding and beet-loading platform, a clear view may
be had of the Market Lake Craters. Concrete tile for culverts is made
here from sand and gravel dug beside the track.
Winder. Near Rexburg the train crosses a large irrigating

Ogden 207 nSes.^^* ditch, the Water for which is taken from Teton River.
Ricks Academy, a Mormon school, stands near the
edge of the town. The numerous Mormon schools and churches in
this region attest the fact that eastern Idaho was settled with the
overflow population from Utah. In the late seventies and early
eighties the fertile spots of northeastern Utah were already occupied
and the stream of emigrants moved northward into Idaho.

BULLETIN 612

SHEET No. I5C

GEOLOGIC AND TOPOGRAPHIC MAP

OF THE

YELLOWSTONE PARK ROUTE

From Ogden, CJtali, to the Yellowstone National Park

Base compiled from railroad alignments and profiles supplied
by the Oregon Short Line Kallroad Company and from additional
Information collected with the assistance of this company

UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY

GEORGE OTIS SMITH, DIRECTOR
David White, Chief Geologist R. B. Marshall, Chief Geographer

1915

OREGON SHORT LINE OGDEN TO YELLOWSTONE.

139

Rexburg.

Elevation 4,866 feet.
Population 1,893.
Ogden 210 miles.

Sugar City.

Elevation 4,890 feet
ropulation391.
Ogden 214 miles.

Rexburg (see sheet 15d, p. 148) was founded in 1883 by Thomas
Ricks, and the present name is a corruption of Ricksbiu*g. Up to
1896 Rexburg was composed mostly of one-story dirt-
roofed houses, but it is now a prosperous and well-
appointed village, the county seat of Madison County,
and the center of an irrigated agricultural district
where crops never fail. Seed peas constitute one of
the important crops. The produce forwarded from Rexburg in the
15 months between January 1, 1913, and April 1, 1914, was: Grain,
679 cars; flour, 256 cars; sugar beets, 226 cars; livestock, 190 cars;
miscellaneous, 92 cars; total, 1,443 cars. Rexburg station is built
of the local rhyohte or pink lava. Soon after leaving Rexburg the
train crosses Teton River, ^ which drains Teton Basin and the west
flank of the Teton Mountains.

Sugar City is a settlement around a beet-sugar factory which was
built in 1904 at a cost of $750,000. This factory
contracts for the beets from about 7,000 acres and
pays $5 a ton for them. A branch of the railroad
runs west from Sugar City to Piano, tapping the
lower end of the Egin bench, a celebrated and pros-
perous farming district on the west side of Henrys Fork.

Four miles northeast of Sugar City is Teton City, a village of a
few hundred people on the bank of Teton River, in the midst of
grain and pea ranches. This settlement also was founded by Mor-
mons, in 1883. The gently sloping hills from Teton City east to
Canyon Creek are made up of rhyolite interbedded with a few thin
layers of hard black basalt. The alternate layers of two different
kinds of lava in these hills show that in the time of volcanic activity
in this part of the country thick flows of rhyolite were succeeded
by lesser flows of black lava. That the flows were separated by
lapses of considerable time is shown by the presence of layers of
soil between them. In a deep weU hole sunk in the lava several
miles east of Teton City the drill passed through a number of layers
of soil between beds of basalt and rhyolite. One bed of soil was
encountered at a depth of 400 feet.

A few miles north of Sugar City is a railroad siding known as
Wilford. St. Anthony, the county seat of Fremont County, is
hidden in the trees ahead. The building with a white dome seen
on the left on entering the town is the county courthouse, and the
large gray building just beyond the station is a Mormon temple.

^ At the mouth of its canyon, a few miles
east, Teton River has a mean discharge of
about 900 second-feet. The maximum

and minimum discharges recorded are
7,620 and 88 second-feet. There is a small
hydroelectric power plant on this stream.

140 GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES^

The location of St. Anthony, like that of Idaho Falls, was deter-

mined by the fact that the river has here cut a narrow canyon

through basalt, with walls so close together that a

St. Anthony. bridge was easily built. Previous to 1893 this place

Elevation 4,969 feet, included Only ^'jack rabbits, lava rock, and Old Man

Population 1,238. '^ t . . , -

ogden 221 miles. Moon. C. H. Moon, the original settler, came here
in 1887, built the first bridge and store, and called
the place St. Anthony because of its fancied resemblance to St.
Anthonys Falls, Minn. The river in the canyon has a fall of about
30 feet, and the walls at the highway bridge are barely 50 feet apart.
Immediately below the bridge the river spreads out to an extreme
width of 800 feet.

In the spring of 1893, when St. Anthony was made the county
seat of Fremont County, the settlement consisted of three log cabins
and one two-story log store building. The population increased
rapidly from that date and now numbers about 2,000 persons. St.
Anthony has two large schoolhouses, one of which cost $60,000, a
$70,000 courthouse, an opera house, a large flouring miU, grain
elevators, three banks, and a city water system supplied by pumping
with electric power generated by Snake River.

One of the principal industries in the immediate vicinity of St.
Anthony is the raising of seed peas. In 1913 there were 26,000
acres of seed peas in Fremont County. They are grown here exten-
sively because the soil and climate are favorable, and under irriga-
tion they yield heavily. There are nine seed warehouses in St.
Anthony. The shipments from St. Anthony for the year 1913
were 396 cars of peas, 470 cars of oats, 259 cars of wheat, 10 cars
of barley, 50 cars of potatoes, 106 cars of merchandise, 121 cars
of stock, 52 cars miscellaneous; total, 1,464 cars. Thousands of
head of stock are wintered in this vicinity each year after summering
in the mountains.

As the train leaves the station a glimpse is had of Henrys Fork of
Snake River. Twelve miles west of St. Anthony a group of hills
known as the SandhiU Mountains rise about 1,000 feet above the
plain. From a distance they appear to be two lines of hills with
nearly parallel tops, but on entering the gap between these lines of
hills oue finds a cultivated valley surrounded on three sides by a
ridge, the crest of which has rudely the outline of a mule shoe. The
lava that caps this ridge slopes away on all sides from the central
valley. This group of hills apparently is the broken-down remnant
of an old crater. A great mass of yellow sand, drifted in from the
southwest, is lodged in the north side of the crater.

Sand dunes 8 to 10 miles west of St. Anthony are plainly visible
from the train. They consist of fine sand, which is drifting north-

OREGON SHORT LINE OGDEN TO YELLOWSTONE.

141

eastward, and they cover several square miles. Most of tlie moving
dunes are not more than 50 feet high, and between some of them the
barren basalt bedrock is exposed. A weU in the midst of these dunes
is the source of drinking water for ranchers in the sand hills above.
A short distance north of St. Anthony there is a siding known as
Twin Grove. To the west black basalt can be seen along Henrys
Fork, and there is a broad view beyond the SandhiU Mountains, show-
ing the uneven surface of the lavas in the distance.

Before reaching Chester the train passes through a small cut in
basalt and the plain on the east is seen to be less smooth, owing to the
thmness of the soil on the irregular surface of the under-
Chester. lying black lava. The low and gently sloping hills

Elevation 5,073 feet, bcyoud are Underlain by rhyolite. Far to the north
ogden 227 miles. -^ ^^^ flat-toppcd ridge which forms the front of the
great elevated volcanic province around Yellowstone Park and which
terminates the Snake River plain. Chester is the site of a grain ele-
vator and a few houses. Where the railroad crosses Fall River ^
there are exposures of basalt in the banks and bed of the stream.

After crossing Fall River the railroad leaves the flat floor of the
Snake River plain and heads directly for Ashton over a slightly rolling
surface of basalt which is exposed in the railroad cuts. The porous,
ceUular, or vesicular character of this black rock can be seen from the
train. The cavities were developed by expansion of gases (probably
for the most part steam) contained in the molten rock and are a
common characteristic of the Snake River lava.

Practically aU the cultivated land hereabouts is in grain, and four
grain elevators at Ashton are seen directly ahead. Ashton, which
was started in 1906 when the railroad reached this
point, was named for the original owner of the town
site. The water supply is pumped from a deep weU,
and electricity is brought from a hydroelectric plant
on Snake River. Ashton is an outfitting point for
the fishing and hunting grounds to the north and east and for camp-
ing parties bound for Yellowstone Park.

The view of the Teton peaks from Ashton (fig. 15) is superb and
doubtless has been the inducement for many a tourist and sportsman
to leave the main line for the Teton Range and the Jackson Hole
country in pursuit of elk, sheep, trout, and unsurpassed mountain
scenery. Owen Wister's '' Virginian '^ was glad to get out of these
mountains because, as he explained, ''They're most too big."

Ashton.

Elevation 5,256 feet
Population 502.
Ogden 235 miles.

^ Tho following measurements of Fall
River were made about 12 miles above
the railroad bridge in 1904-1909: Maxi-
mum discharge, 4,160 cubic feet a second;

minimum, 168; mean, 800. No informa-
tion is available concerning power sites.
Water from the river is used for irrigation,
but to what extent is not known.

142

GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES,

The average American, who has only a vague conception of the
natural beauties of the Rocky Mountains and imagines that real
alpine forms are found only in Switzerland, must be surprised when
he first sees the lofty peaks of the Tetons. Even a man who has
climbed the Matterhorn would hesitate before daring to try Grand
Teton. According to local report, this peak has been ascended only
twice, in 1872 and 1894. As the snow-clad mountains along the
Alaskan Archipelago, rising to cloud-reaching heights, stand with their
feet bathed in the ocean, so from a viewpoint near Ashton the Tetons,
towering to the sky, rise from the billowy surface of a sea of golden
grain. The people who live within the shadow of these mighty
peaks soon look to them only as barometers of to-morrow's weather;
they no longer see the grandeur that thrills the traveler, heartens the
hunter, and inspires the artist.

i>^;^w«- ^■^■^ywi^;SMif^f^^^^!>^xf>tm&lj^^^^

Figure 15.— The Three Tetons, looking east.

Ashton is the junction point of the Victor branch of the Oregon
Short Line, which was built to Teton Basin in 1912. On this branch
IJ miles from Ashton is MarysviUe, a small rural settlement that can
be recognized from a distance by its grain elevator. From Marys-
viUe to Jenkins all the railroad cuts appear to be in glacial material,
and probably a glacier heading in the Teton Mountains once extended
nearly to Ashton. The canyons of Fall River and Squirrel and
Bitch creeks, which the branch line crosses on high trestles, are cut
in rhyolite. It was along Bitch Creek that the '^ Virginian" ic]led
and fished on the day after Steve and Ed, the horse thieves, paid the
penalty. Drummond, Driggs, Tetonia, and Victor are the main set-
tlements on the branch. Victor, the tenninus, is a small village 46
miles from Ashton, from which the mail stage road climbs over the
Teton Range to Jackson Hole. There is a trail over the range from
Driggs also. On the west side of the Teton Basin, near Victor, is the

OREGON SHORT LINE OGDEN TO YELLOWSTONE.

143

Horseshoe Creek coal district, which contains several beds of excellent
bituminous coal of Cretaceous age.^

North of Ashton fields of gram slope gently to the river. Here the
Snake River plain ends and the train enters a region of wooded hills.
The upland against which the great plain terminates is the edge of
the Yellowstone Park plateau, an elevated area of volcanic origin.
In geologically recent time (Eocene and Neocene epochs) volcanoes
on the east, north, and west of the park poured out enonnous vol-
umes of molten rock. Flows of rhyohtic lava filled the depressed
basiij between the encircling mountains and moved down the outer
slopes to a considerable distance. It is the outer edge of these lava
flows that the train crosses on entering the shallow rock-ribbed can-
yon of Henrys Fork. Here outcrops of rhyoHte are seen close to the
track for the fiirst time on this fine. From the entrance of this can-
yon to the end of the railroad the route is across lavas which are
older than the basalt imderlying the Snake River plain. RhyoHte
is the predommant rock in Warm River canyon and on the Conti-
nental Divide, but basalt, which is interbedded with the rhyolite, and
is much more resistant to weathering and erosion, underhes the mesas
and caps the canyon chffs.

In the canyon of Henrys Fork rounded outcrops of rhyolite stick
their heads above the river and form the lower part of the vertical
walls. Basalt makes the rim of the canyon, and its columnar jomt-
ing and cellular character may be seen from the train. The trees
are Douglas fir, outliers of the Targhee National Forest, within whose
boundaries the route continues to Reas Pass.

Warm River station is at the junction of Warm River and Henrys
Fork. The few settlers whose homes are along the vaUey bottoms
cultivate the benches above the canyon rim. Warm
River is so called because it has a warmer tempera-
ture than that of other waters in the region. Tliis
immediate vicmity fits the description of the country
where Owen Wister's '^Virginian" caught and hmig
the horse thieves. That job was done west of the Tetons and a day's
ride from Bitch Creek.

Here the railroad leaves Henrys Fork and follows the canyon of
Warm River tlu-ough the wildest scenery on the entire route from

Warm River.

Elevation 5,284 feet
Population 146.*
Ogden 242 miles.

^ The coal beds are irregular in thick-
ness and extent, are displaced by numer-
ous faults, and dip at steep angles. The
Government geologist who examined the
field concluded that the coal beds are
thick enough to be mined profitably if
they were horizontal; but the steep dip

and the breaks in the continuity of the
beds render mining expensive, difficult,
and uncertain. The district can supply
a local domestic trade for a long time, but
can not be reckoned as a factor in the
great coal industry of the Rocky Moun-
tain region.

144 GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES.

Ogden to Yellowstone. The first bridge above the station crosses
Robinson Creek.^

Just beyond this bridge the train crosses Warm River and begins
to ascend along its west bank. The grade of the track is greater than
that of the stream, so the train is soon well above the dashing, tum-
bhng, noisy brook. From this place to Mesa the angler will mentally
choose his flies and long for a chance at the trout that must be hidden
in those pools and rapids. Little will he care that the roadbed is a
niche cut in rhyolite and that there is a small fault marked by little
springs in opalescent-colored lava just below milepost 62. Immedi-
ately at the milepost the rhyolite is turned on edge, crushed, and clay
streaked, but the beds at the top of the cut are horizontal, showing
that there was considerable disturbance and faulting before the later
lava flow. The dashing mountain stream, tumbhng and jumping
over bowlders, makes a more vivid appeal to the traveler than the
evidences of that stream's ancient history, which is recorded in the
thick beds of finely sorted sand and the thin beds of gravel exposed
above and below the tracks at milepost 63. This material was depos-
ited in ponded water after the river had cut its channel nearly to
the present depth. To the question. What and where was the dam
that made a pond 100 feet deep in this canyon ? the geologist has not
yet found an answer.

Near milepost 63 a 561 -foot tunnel is to be driven to avoid the
danger from the scaling off of rocks in the points around which the
track now winds. A short distance beyond the trestle, at milepost
66, the train leaves the canyon and comes out on a flat surface under-
lain by basalt.

Mesa is a siding and Y in a natural park in the forest. The prin-
cipal timber seen here is Douglas fir. From Mesa the serrate crest of
the Teton Range is again in view, and a mile or two

®^^* away on the right is the front of a great sheet of lava,

ogdTn'Sl miies^'^** ^^^ covercd with grass and trees, rising 500 feet above
the flat.

About 4 miles southwest of Mesa Henrys Fork plunges over a
precipice 96 feet high with a sheer drop, and a mile below there is

^ The discharge of all three streams has been gaged near this station with the fol-
lowing results, expressed in second-feet (cubic feet a second):

Maximum. Minimum

Mean.

Henrys Fork, 1910-1913. .
Warm River, 1912-13. . . .
Robinson Creek, 1912-13.

3,300

900

1,140

705
192
53

1,260
295
180

There are no existing power developments on Warm River and Robinson Creek,
and the "w ater of these streams is not used to any great extent for irrigation.

U. S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY

BULLETIN 612 PLATP XXXII

UPPER FALLS, HENRYS FORK OF SNAKE RIVER.
iPhotograph furnished by Oragon Short Line Railroad Co.

OREGON SHORT LINE OGDEN TO YELLOWSTONE. 145

another faU of about 70 feet. (See Pis. XXXII and XXXIII.)
The river between these two falls flows rapidly in a canyon about
250 feet deep. The land in the vicinity is now owned by a Montana
electric company, which contemplates building a dam 2 miles above
the upper fall and carrying the water to a power house below the
lower fall, thereby getting a drop of about 450 feet with a force
sufficient to develop 40,000 horsepower.

About a mile north of Mesa, east of the track, there is a beaver
pond, recognizable by dead trees standing in a marsh. From Mesa
to Fishatch the railroad runs in a lane hewn through the forest and
there is little to be seen. All the rock exposed is dark porous basalt.
The low ridges through which railroad cuts have been made to depths
of 6 to 10 feet^for example, that just north of milepost 70 — show
either arched structure or a roof-like form cracked along the top.
These are called pressure ridges and seem to have been produced by
an internal movement in the lava after the siu-face had hardened
and become more or less rigid.

A State fish hatchery built in 1908 is located at the station called
Fishatch, on the bank of Warm River. The main buildmg is a log
structure 40 by 80 feet, equipped with 56 hatcliuig
Fishatch. troughs. These troughs are supplied with water

Elevation 6,119 feet, from Warm Rivcr, which passes under the railroad
at this point in a concrete culvert. The hatchery
breeds trout exclusively, including rainbow, eastern brook, and
native trout. The hatchery has a capacity of 3,000,000 fry annually.
Beef liver, ground very fine, is the principal food of trout fry.
Within the State reservation of 1,280 acres there are large springs
of fresh water with a temperature of 42°, which supply the spa^vning
pond and several concrete rearing ponds. Black and brown bear
and moose are hunted successfully in this vicinity.

For half a mile north of Fishatch the view from the rear of the train
shows the distant snowy Teton peaks framed in a lane tlu-ough the
evergreen forest. On the west, at milepost 75, an old beaver dam,
now grown up with willows, is seen in the ponded Warm River close
to the track. Fishing for native and eastern brook trout is said to be
good here.

At milepost 78 the train enters the lower end of the Island Park

country. Here are pits from which sand is taken by steam shovel for

railroad ballast. Island Park is an open sagebrush

Island Park. tract several square miles in area, surrounded by a

Elevation 6,290 feot. solid waU of lodgcpolc piiic with a bordcr of aspen.

This broad flat is underlain by sand and fine gravel,

composed largely of disintegrated volcanic rocks with a considerable

percentage of black volcanic glass or obsidian. This mixed material

38088°— Bull. 612—16 10

k

146 GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES.

is either alluvium deposited by Henrys Fork on its wide valley
floor or a lake deposit. It may have been laid down in a lake
caused by the ponding of the river by a glacier in the canyon below
Mesa. An ice tongue or glacial dam in this canyon would have
held the water back in a broad lake in which would have accumulated
a deposit of sand and gravel such as is seen in the ballast pits. A low
rise indicated by a slightly greater height of the tree tops about 3
miles west of Island Park is said to be an old volcanic crater. Mrs.
E. H. Harriman has a large cattle ranch on the river 6 miles west.

At milepost 84 the railroad crosses Buffalo River, and a third of a
mile north of the bridge there is a smaU cut in rhyolite, the first expo-
sure of bedrock along the track north of Island Park. This stretch
of straight track heads nearly into the gap below Henrys Lake. On
the left of the gap is Sauttelle Peak, flat-topped and rising 10,123 feet
above sea level, or 3,800 feet above the river. Three miles west of it
is Bald Peak. The mountains east of the gap are called the Henrys
Lake Mountains.

Trude is a siding for loading lumber and the station for Macks

Place and the fishing clubs on the river. Snow lies so deep here

in midwinter that the residents get about on snow-

^ shoes or skis and by dog teams. North of Trude

Elevation 6,327 feet, rhvolite is sccu in the rock cuts. Smoothed rock

Ogden 270 miles. *^

surfaces and large rounded bowlders perched on near-
by knolls indicate that this country once was covered by a glacier.

At milepost 90 Henrys Fork of Snake River is seen on the west.

The stream crossed at this point is formed by the discharge of Big

Springs, which are half a mile east of the railroad and

ig pnngs. ^^^ reached by a wagon road that goes through a

oX*2T5 mne/^'*' straight-cut lane in the forest to Big Spring Inn and

a fishing club house. Most of the water issues at two

places about 300 yards apart, and at each are several springs. The

discharge of the two groups joins midway between them and at a

bridge just below the junction is 120 feet wide and 3 to 4 feet deep.

A mile and a half north of Big Springs is a high wooded slope
trending southeastward, the front of a great flat-topped mass of lava
which came from Yellowstone Park. As the train climbs the moun-
tain soon after leaving Big Springs, rhyolite is seen in the railroad
cuts and bowlders of black glistening obsidian or volcanic glass
strew the surface. These bowlders have come from ledges in the
mountain side above the track. Beyond milepost 93 there is a wide
view over a timbered plateau and the alluvial flat of Henrys
Fork. At the upper end of this flat is Henrys Lake, which is not
visible from the train. One of the railroad cuts near by yielded the
material for building the station at Yellowstone.

OREGON SHORT LINE OGDEN TO YELLOWSTONE. 147

At Reas Pass the train stops to test the air brakes before descend-
ing the grade to Yellowstone Park. Here the route crosses the
Continental Divide, going from the Pacific slope
Reas Pass, Idaho. ^^ ^^ie valley of a small stream that flows into
Elevation 6,938 feet. Madison Rivcr, thence to the Missouri, the Missis-

Ogden 281 miles. , . ' , ' .

sippi, and the Gulf of Mexico. Where the train enters
a rock cut just beyond the railroad Y on which the helper engine turns
before going back, a signboard marks the State line between Idaho
and Montana. This board says that the boundary is 9 miles from
Yellowstone and 6,914 feet above the sea. The rock in the cut at
the divide is light-colored rhyolitic lava, but the ledges 100 feet
above the track on the east are obsidian or volcanic glass. This
black glass, which crumbles rather rapidly under the sudden and
great changes of temperature common at this altitude, is the source
of a large part of the sand that covers the broad flats below.

That glaciers once existed on the mountains around Reas Pass is
shown by the ice-sculptured surface, by old glacial moraines, and by
large bowlders which have evidently been transported by ice. Such
bowlders may be seen as the train descends the north side of the
mountain. The timber at Reas Pass is mostly a dense growth of
young lodgepole pine, through which it is difficult to travel except by
the opened roads and trails, because of the intricate network of fallen
poles killed by fire.

The train runs slowly down the steep grade north of the pass as it
follows a small, rapid brook which to a fisherman's eye looks like
good trout water. Light-colored rhyolite is exposed in the railroad
cuts. Down a little valley the train goes, and the view reaches no
farther than the wooded flat-topped mountains near by. In fact,
there is practically nothing to see but trees from this point to Yellow-
stone station. At milepost 105 the foot of the grade is reached, and
from this point to Yellowstone the road bed is on the flat pine-covered
surface of a wide alluvial deposit, made by Madison River when it
flowed over this part of its flood plain.

The sand carried by the river and spread on its flood plain is
derived from the crumbling of volcanic rocks and owes its dark color
to a considerable percentage of black volcanic glass. The forest here
is practically all young lodgepole pine, sometimes called jack pine.

As the traveler alights at Yellowstone, the terminus of the railroad,

his eye will turn from the attractive station, built of pink rhyolite,

to the four-horse stage coaches waiting for passen-
Yellowstone, Mont. tt i -- ii - -i • •ti-

gers. He may not notice that the engme is withm

Elevation 0,609 feet. ^ fcw rods of a liuc of blazcd trccs at the end of the

Ogden 291 miles. . - -n

station grounds, but those blazed trees are sigmncant.
They mark the boundary of Yellowstone National Park.

148

GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES.

OGDEN, UTAH, TO SAN FRANCISCO, CAL.

The railroad leaves Ogden (see sheet 15, p. 102) in a northwesterly
direction and follows for a mile or more the old line of the Central
Pacific Railway, which made a considerable detour around the north
end of Great Salt Lake. At milepost 781 ^ the present line diverges
from the original route and, swinging gradually westward, turns
directly away from the great mountain wall of the Wasatch Range.
It is 15 miles from Ogden to the eastern shore of Great Salt Lake,
and for 32 miles beyond this point the way lies directly across the
lake to its western shore.

As the train goes toward the lake the view from the rear, or obser-
vation platform, is one of the finest panoramas of mountain scenery
to be had from the railroad, especially if the light and weather are
favorable. Just back of Ogden appears an almost sheer mountain
wall of dark and rugged ridges standing above the flat valley in the
foreground. Such an abrupt face on one side is more or less typical
of the Great Basin mountains and is believed to be significant of
the manner in which they have been formed. There is little doubt
that these mountains have originated by fracture of the earth's
crust and uplift along one side or settling along the other side of the
crack. In geologic terms, the mountains are upheaved fault blocks.
Since the faulting the forces of erosion have more or less rounded
and scored the original cliff or scarp made by the break. The deep
notch across the range in the middle background is the canyon of
Ogden River, which flows into Weber River a few miles below Ogden.

The railroad extends across the level lands that. border the east
side of Great Salt Lake. For several miles most of this land is cul-
tivated and is richly productive after it has been ^-broken" — that is,
after it has been plowed and partly leached of its alkali salts by irri-
gation. The common crops are hay, grain, sugar beets, and vege-
tables. Tomatoes raised here are canned in considerable quantity.
In certain favorable situations along the foot of the mountains
peaches, apples, and other fruits are grown.

Near milepost 778 a line of steel towers of an electric-power trans-
mission line crosses the railroad from north to south. This conveys
current from large hydroelectric plants on Bear River, near CoUms-
ton, 20 miles north of the lake, straight across the meadow flats to
Salt Lake City and beyond to the Bingham mines and to the smelter
at Garfield.

^ Mileage along the route is marked by
milepost boards on telegraph poles and
numbers on semaphore signals, culverts,

and bridges. The figures given represent
distance from San Francisco and show the
westbound traveler how far he still must go.

3ULLETIN 612

SHEET No.15 D

GEOLOGIC AND TOPOGRAPHIC MAP

OF THK

YELLOWSTONE PARK ROUTE

From Ogden, Utah, to the Yellowstone National Park

Base compiled from railroad alignmeuts and profiles supplied
by the Oregon Short Line Railroad Company and from additional
informatioil collected with the assistance of this company

UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY

GEORGE OTIS SMITH, DIRECTOR
David White, Chief Geologist R. B. Marshall, Chief Geographer

1915

THE OVEELAND ROUTE OGDEN TO SAN FRANCISCO. 149

West Weber (see sheet 15, p. 102) is a farming community in the

midst of a broad, gently sloping plain, where water for irrigation

may be distributed by ditches almost anywhere.

West Weber,Utah. Artesian wells bored along this side of the lake, to a

Elevation 4,240 feet. depth of 300 or 400 fcct, yield natural flows of pure,

Population 823,* j-ij-j-Ij.! i r j.i j.*

Omaha 1,006 miles. ircsh watcr that has come down irom the mountams
in porous layers of rock that lie underneath some
relatively impervious layer. Along the east side of the lake this
fresh water may even be tapped in wells put down through the salt
water of the lake itself. Be3^ond West Weber the ground becomes
more and more salty on the surface, and the cultivated lands dimin-
ish in area, the salty meadows or marshes being used for pasture.
A few miles farther west the ground, during the dry season, is white
with crusted salt.

Little Mountain, the name of a railroad siding at milepost 769, refers
to the low, rounded terraced hiU north of the track. The terraces here,
as on the islands in Great Salt Lake and around Promontory Point,
mark old shore lines of Lake Bonneville, described on pages 97-99.
To the south, near the shore of the lake, are the remains of evapora-
tion vats, formerly used in the manufacture of salt by crystalliza-
tion from the water of the lake. The industry of this place was
ended by a general rise in the lake level during recent years (see
fig. 11, p. 95), but large quantities of salt are still manufactured near
Saltair, at the south end of the lake.

The building of the Lucin cut-off, completed in 1903, was an epoch-
making event in railroad construction. By this great fiU and trestle
straight across Great Salt Lake the main-line route from Ogden to
San Francisco was shortened about 44 miles and the steep and
troublesome grades around the north end of the lake, including one
climb of 680 feet to the old Promontory summit, were eliminated.
The new line is level for 36 miles and the grade is almost inappre-
ciable for 36 miles more, being nowhere over 21 feet to the mile, or
less than 0.5 per cent.

The cut-off was constructed at first as a gravel fill across the shal-
low marginal portions of the lake and as trestle work through the
deeper part. Much of the trestle work has since been replaced by
fiU. The gravel used at first came from pits near the railroad, the
largest of which was near the west side of Promontory Pomt. Rock
was originally used only on the surface of the embankment, but
later, in places where reconstruction was necessary, rock was employed
exclusively. The rock has been obtamed from Promontory Point
and from the immense quarries near Lakeside. The dark-gray,
almost ])lack limestone from the Lakeside quarries now covers the
surface of the fiU aU the way across the lake.

150 GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTER^- UNITED STATES.

An unexpected difficulty was encountered after the construction
was well under way. It was found that the material which was
dumped into the lake and which evidently sank deep into the mud
did not at once reach a firm and permanent foundation. Long after
the roadway had apparently been completed and trains had been run
by way of the new route, successive ''sinks" occurred, especially
along certain portions of the route. The weight of the filling mate-
rial, with the added weight and vibration of passing trains, seemed
to break through some sustaining layer in the lake bottom and then a
whole section, track and all, would settle into the lake, and traffic
would have to be diverted to the old route until the ''sink" could
be repaired. This happened so frequently that it might fairly have
discouraged the railroad company, but perseverance finally con-
quered. With the sinking of the track, ridges of mud appeared on
both sides, squeezed up from the lake bottom by the subsiding fill.
Just beyond Bagley, which is only a section house and side track on
the cut-off, remnants of these mud ridges can still be seen, although,
naturally, where they rise above the water they are being leveled by
the waves. The elevation of the track across the cut-off is 4,217
feet above sea level according to railroad figures; the lake is usually
10 to 15 feet lower.

A channel of open water 600 feet wide under a trestle at milepost
762 is now the only connection between Bear River bay and the
main lake. As Bear River, the largest tributary of Great Salt Lake?
enters at the north side of this bay, and as more water is evaporated
from the main lake than from the bay, there is usually a flow of water
from the bay into the lake through this passage. The water of Bear
River bay has for this reason become so much fresher that lately it
has frequently frozen over to considerable thickness during the
winter.

The view toward Ogden and the Wasatch Mountains expands as
the train proceeds. The high summit above Ogden is Observation
Peak, 10,103 feet above sea level; Ben Lomond, the summit on the
long, high ridge farther north, is stiU higher (10,900 feet). The
upper shore lines of the former Lake Bonneville show distinctly as a
series of clearly defined terraces on Promontory Point and also
around Fremont Island. On Fremont Island only a single little
point like a cap, undercut by wave action on aU sides, rises above the
highest water level of the old lake.

Milepost 759 is just at the west edge of the first section of the fill,
the section that crosses Bear River bay. This eastern part of the
cut-off is 8 miles long. The track skirts the south shore of Prom-
ontory Point for 4^ miles and then runs out on the second section
of the fiU, which is over 20 miles long.

THE OVERLAND ROUTE OGDEN TO SAN FRANCISCO. 151

The station at Promontory Point (see sheet 15, p. 102) is main-
tained chiefly for purposes of railroad operation.
Promontory Point. j^Qck and gravel for building the embankment across
Elevation 4,217 feet. the lake Were obtained at several places along the
south end of the point. The rock exposed in rail-
road cuts and quarries here is a black slate, which weathers rusty
and brown.

Just west of Promontory Point station, on the north side of the
track, is a pond cut off from the lake by the railroad embankment.
At times of high water in the lake this reservoir fills by percolation
through the embankment, and during the summer this water is con-
centrated to a brine by evaporation. The deep pink color of the
brine is a phenomenon that appears in salt ponds generally when a
certaui concentration is reached. In the salt ponds of San Francisco
Bay this color is due to a certain bacillus wliich lives in saturated
brines and also in the heaps of salt as it is piled for dramage and
shipment. Prohibitive to life as such an environment might be con-
sidered, strong natural brmes are, in fact, inhabited by a number of
minute organisms — animals as weU as plants. The pink color dis-
appears in winter or when fresh water is introduced into the pond.
The railroad company has done some experimental work on preserv-
ing piles and ties by soaking them in this pond.

Beyond the pond the track foUows the lake shore along the south
end of Promontory Pomt for a mile or two, passing a minor station
and group of railroad section houses called Saline.

Looking a little east of south from Promontory Point, one can see
on the south shore of Great Salt Lake the town of Garfield, the con-
centrating mills of the Utah Copper Co., and the copper smelter of
the Garfield Smelting Co. A long column of smoke may usually be
seen trailing away over the mountains from the smelter stack. These
plants were constructed a few years ago to treat copper ores from
Bingham Canyon, a short distance to the south, in the Oquirrh Kange,
and the town of Garfield was estabhshed to furnish accommodations
for the men employed at the mills and smelter. The two mills of
the Utah Copper Co. are among the largest concentrating plants in the
world and together are capable of treating over 20,000 tons of ore
daily. The ore treated contains an average of about 1.5 per cent of
copper in the form of sulphides.

At the semaphore marked 754.5 miles the raikoad runs out on
the fill across the west arm of the lake. Large excavations near by
are in the ''gravel" that was at first used in constructing the fill.
This ''gravel" is of a very unusual character. If examined closely,
preferably with a magnifying glass, it is found to consist of smoothly
rounded, opaque grains, not like ordinary sand grains. These are
known as oolites, the word oolite meaning literally fish-egg stone or

152 GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES.

roe stone. Each oolite is built up, onion-like, of one layer over
another. These layers consist of carbonate of lime chemically
deposited from solution in the lake water. There is almost no lime
in the water of Great Salt Lake as a whole, as the brine seems to
be too strong in other more soluble salts to retain the less soluble
carbonate. Waters sweeping into the lake around its margin and
the tributary river waters, however, contain a considerable amount
of lime, and this on mixing with the lake water is deposited on the
bottom in the form of these oolitic grains. The grains may be com-
pared to little pearls, which in fact they resemble both in compo-
sition and structure. It has been shown that minute plants (algse
or bacteria) have had much to do with the manner in which this
lime is precipitated; but that is another story, too long to tell here.

A mile and a half farther west the road runs across deeper water,
the track here being on a trestle, which continues for about 12
miles. The surface or deck of the trestle is ballasted with rock,
so that it is not very different in appearance from the solid fill.

From the railroad the islands in Great Salt Lake come succes-
sively into view. Fremont Island has already been referred to.
Antelope Island, a submerged mountain of considerable size, is
south of Fremont. Stansbury Island (with twin peaks on the
summit) may be seen in the distance at the south end of the lake.
Far to the south also are Carrington Island and Hat or Bird Island.
North of the railroad are Gunnison and Dolphin islands and Strong
Knob, which was formerly an island but has lately been connected
with the mainland by a narrow spit. A double
Midlake. track with station and railroad section houses has

Elevation 4,217 feet. ]^qq^ ^^ij^ o^ the trcstlc out in the middle of the

Omaha 1,037 miles. i i i i • i i i« i

lake, where the water is reported to be 42 leet deep.
The station is called Midlake. Between this station and Lakeside
is Rambo.

Near milepost 735 the railroad reaches the west shore and passes
through a cut in limestone rock, beyond which is a great cliff of blue
limestone in thick beds that dip toward the southeast. These rocks
are of Paleozoic age, the dark-blue to black limestones near Lake-
side belonging to the Carboniferous period. (See table on p. 2.)
The range lying along the west shore of Great Salt Lake is known as
the Lakeside Mountains.

Lakeside (see sheet 16, p. 156), a railroad maintenance, construc-
tion, and quarry camp, lies at the west end of the great fiU across

the lake (PI. XXXIV), only a short distance from

the shore. Here white dune sand which has been
omihatolfmifef ^^^wn back from the beach is piled up along the

tracks. It is oolitic sand like that already referred
to, and should a stop happen to be made here the traveler may find
interest in examining a handful of the grains. To the south great

:t 'f

4 ^

t- ^

^^ r$

>

HI »

2 5

I .1

< :5

'^''3 ' ^

I

THE OVERLAND ROUTE OGDEN TO SAN FRANCISCO.

153

quarry faces expose the thick beds of dark-blue Paleozoic limestone.
To the north vStrong Knob, which at the present lake level is almost
an island, presents a bluff front of conspicuous white and black rock.
Salt marsh lands on both sides of the track are sometimes flooded,
sometimes covered with a crust of glistening white salt,^ stretching
away to the south as far as the eye can see. A mirage can nearly
always be seen on these plains, the distant mountains to the south
appearing to be surrounded by water, the ghost of the greater Lake
Bonneville. (See pp. 97-99.) This area is a part of the Great Salt
Lake Desert and is so low and so flat that only a small rise in the
general level of the lake would reflood the whole area.

A water tank and section house at milepost 730 are at the end of
a 52-mile pipe line. Drilling for fresh water on the west side of
Great Salt Lake has not been successful. All the sandy stretches,
both north and south of the track, are composed of oolitic grains,
hjere mixed with some mud and heavily incrusted with salt, therefore
not so uniform or so clean as those in the dunes at Lakeside.

Brown fly larvse and their cast-off shells pile up along the railroad
embankment when the water is high, often creating an offensive odor.
Sometimes they collect in such masses over the rails that they make
the tracks slippery, actually interfering with the passage of trains.
Olney, a siding and signboard only, is situated in the midst of a
bare salt-incrusted desert. Beyond it the railroad rises slightly
over low gravel ridges, some of which show distinct
beach terraces and gravel bars, marks of former
oSa M^f milef ^^^^"^^ ^^^^ l^vcls. A fcw isolatcd outcrops of dark
limestone project through the valley deposits. The
railroad descends slightly to the level of the Great Salt Lake Desert

Olney.

^ The white incrustation seen for a long
distance west of Great Salt Lake con-
sists of chemical compounds or salts that
are more or less soluble in water, all of
which are popularly included in the term
"alkali." In its strict sense that term
refers only to a certain group of chemical
compounds that have the power of neu-
tralizing acids and have a corrosive ac-tion
on animal and vegetable tissue. The
most powerful of these are the lyes, the
hydrates of sodium and potassium. The
salts which incrust the desert surface are
not ordinarily of this character at all.
For the most part they consist chiefly,
in places almost exclusively, of common
salt (sodium chloride). In many places,
however, they include also other readily
soluble salts — Glauber's salt (sodium sul-
phate), washing soda (sodium carbonate),
baking soda (sodium bicarbonate), and

less commonly borax. More rarely in
this part of the country the soluble cal-
cium or magnesium salts are found.
However, where the soluble (sodium and
potassium) carbonates occur the salts in
fact partake of the character of true alkali.
The carbonates of sodium and potassium,
being formed by the combination of a
strong base (sodium or potassium) and a
weak acid (carbonic), break up(hydrolyze)
to a certain extent in solutions, and thus
there is actually liberated a small amount
of free caustic alkali. The water-soluble
carbonate of soda, known on account of
its darkening effect in soils as "black
alkali," is very destructive of vegetation.
The less harmful "white alkali" consists
of a mixture of the neutral soluble salts,
in large part common salt, and its pres-
ence, as the name implies, is indicated
by a white incrustation.

154

GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES.

Loy.

Elevation 4,221 feet,
Omaha 1,0

again, and the route is bounded on both sides by barren areas of
white clay, or playas,^ and low dunelike or lumpy areas of clay soil.
At milepost 718 is the beginning of a straight piece of track (tan-
gent), 38 miles long, which extends to the junction with the old route
around the north end of the lake near Lucin.

At Loy, a siding and section house only, the route is still bordered
by bare mud playas on each side. A dark rocky range, the Newfound-
land Mountains, juts out of the flat desert ahead to the
south. These mountains were formerly islands, as is
shown by the traces of old shore lines high about their
rock slopes. The desert here is only a little — perhaps 5
feet — above the level of the tracks on the cut-off over Great Salt Lake,
and a slight rise in that lake would again cover this extensive flat.

Another railroad siding and group of section houses situated in the

midst of the bare mud desert bears the name Newfoundland. Two

very distinct benches, marking higher shore lines of

old Lake Bonneville, may be seen on the front of the

omltlVvfrnifef Newfoundland Mountains (the Rocky HiUs of some

of the older maps) to the south, and the upper bench

was evidently cut by waves into the solid rock.

At Lemay, a pump station with section houses, a long pipe line
which comes from a spring in the mountains 27 miles to the north,
reaches the railroad. This line furnishes an excellent
^^^^' supply of clear, fresh water along the route across the

Omaha 1,080 miles. q^^^^ g^j^ j^akc Dcscrt. About 1903 a weU was bored
at Lemay to a depth of 2,340 feet. For about 1,000 feet the well pene-
trated desert mud like that at the surface, with intercalated layers of
clear crystalline gypsum. Below this material the hole was bored in
limestone and brown sandstone. This record is interesting in showing
the depth of the former lake or desert deposits in this part of the valley.

Newfoundland.

^ A playa is a shallow, flat-floored de-
pression, characteristic of valleys having
no regular drainage to the sea, in which
storm waters collect and evaporate. It
may be a shallow lake or a salt-incrusted
mud flat.

In his description of Lake Lahontan,
Russell writes:

"The scenery on the larger playas is
peculiar and is usually desolate in the
extreme but is not without its charm.
In crossing these wastes the traveler may
ride for miles over a perfectly level floor,
with an unbroken sky line before him
and not an object in sight to cast a shadow
on the ocean-Uke expanse. Mirages,
which may be seen every day on these
heated deserts, give strange fanciful

forms to the mountains, and sometimes
transfigure them beyond recognition. A
pack train crossing the desert a few miles
distant may appear like some strange
caravan of grotesque beasts fording a
shallow lake, the shores of which advance
as one rides away. The monotony of
midday on the desert is thus broken by
elusive forms that are ever changing and
suggest a thousand fancies which divert
the attention from the fatigues of the
journey. The cool evenings and morn-
ings in these arid regions, when the purple
shadows of distant mountains are thrown
across the plain, have a charm that is
unknown beneath more humid skies,
and the profound stillness of the night in
these solitudes is always impressive. "

THE OVERLAND ROUTE — OGDEN TO SAN FRANCISCO. 155

Beyond Lemay the route continues through the barren play as.
Beppo is a raih-oad siding and section house only. The view of the
mountain ranges to the west, across the State line in Nevada, Ls
characteristic of the scenery which will be displayed for several
hundred miles. Ahead, somewhat to the south, is Pilot Peak (eleva-
tion 10,900 feet), at the south end of the Ombe or Pilot Range. This
was a well-known landmark in the early days. One of the principal
overland emigrant routes led around the south end of Great Salt Lake,
then across the barren desert to the low pass south of this peak. The
Western Pacific Railway follows nearly this same course. The route
of transcontinental automobile travel now known as the Lincoln
Highway follows that railway around the south end of Great Salt
Lake and then swings southwest around the Great Salt Lake Desert.

Jackson (elevation 4,241 feet), Teck (4,289 feet), and Pigeon are
mere railroad sidings and section houses. The route continues
through the flat, low-lying desert lands, from this point on more or
less covered with scattered patches of brush. Owl Butte, an isolated
peak north of the railroad, is composed of lava (rhyohte), and its
slopes show jutting ledges, which are probably the edges of lava flows.
The top is in the form of a cap. Apparently it was a httle island
when Lake Bonneville stood at the higher levels and was sculptured
into this form by the waves. At Pigeon a spur track leads off to a
gravel pit, from which material is excavated by the railroad for bal-
lasting along the track. The gravels are ancient beach deposits,
remnants of the deposits laid down around the shores of the old lake
at its higher levels. Generally these gravel beaches extend out from
some rocky headland, the source of the rock fragments which, worn,
rounded, and sorted by the action of waves and currents, were dis-
tributed as gravel and sand along the adjacent shores. The bedding
of these deposits is irregular, showing that they were laid down by
shifting currents. The source of the original material at Pigeon was
evidently the lava on Owl Butte.

The Lucin railroad station is somewhat beyond the old settlement,

where there is a store and a post office. Here the route leaves the

Great Salt Lake Desert and enters a grazing country.

Lucin, Utah. Both sheep and cattle find sustenance in the sparse

Elevation 4,474 feet, grass that grows amoug the sage, and it is said that

Population 200.* i ij. •-if i t • ^ • ll

Omaha 1,103 miles. ^^^^ ^^^ ^ miluon shccp pass Luciii twicc annually,
going south to their winter range and north for the
summer. Lucin is the point of departure for a stage line to Grouse
Creek, a settlement 30 miles to the north. Beyond Lucin the rail-
road begins to climb more noticeably, and the stream beds indicate
clearly that the surface or storm waters flow toward Great Salt Lake.
The actual junction of the present line with the original route of
the Central Pacific around the north end of Great Salt Lake is at
Umbria Junction (see sheet 17, p. 162), half a mile beyond Lucin
station. Once a week a train is sent over the old route.

156 GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES.

Between Umbria Junction and Tecoma light-colored clay and
gravels in regularly bedded deposits are exposed along the railroad.
These are either deposits in the waters of Lake Bonneville or later
stream deposits of wash brought down by erosion from lake-bed clays
and beach materials higher up. These beds show a slight tilt toward
the east, indicating that they were probably left here by running water.

The Utah-Nevada State line, marked by a monument and a fanci-
fully decorative design in set stones at the north side of the track, is
passed opposite the first ranch building seen west of Great Salt Lake.
To the south the State line passes over the escarpment capped by
lava (basalt), the columnar jointing (sec footnote on p. 121) of which
may be distinguished even at this distance.

Nevada is a Spanish word meaning ''snowy" or ''white as snow,''
and the name of the State was derived from the Sierra Nevada. The
State ranks sixth in size in the Union. Its length from
Nevada. north to south is 484 miles, its width 321 miles, and

its area 109,821 square miles, of which about 60 per
cent has been covered by public-land surveys and approximately 21
per cent has been appropriated. National forests in Nevada cover an
area of 8,683 square miles, and Anaho Island, in Pyramid Lake, has been
made a bird reservation. The population of Nevada, according to the
latest census, was 81,875, or about one person for each 1.4 square miles.

Nevada is one of the most important metal-mining States of the
West and has yielded large quantities of gold, silver, and lead. Of
late also it has become a large producer of copper.

The history of Nevada is chiefly the history of its mines. Since
the discovery of the Comstock lode and other famous ore bodies,
periods of activity and prosperity have alternated with periods of
depression. Each discovery of high-grade ore in noteworthy quan-
tity has been followed by rapid settlement in that locality and the
establishment of one or more towns. Exhaustion of the richer or
more accessible ores or the bursting of overinflated speculative bubbles
has been followed by at least local stagnation and depopulation. In
1890-1893 a sharp decline in the price of silver initiated or accom-
panied a period of depression in Nevada's mining and general indus-
trial prosperity. Silver is so important a resource of the State that
to a large extent even now its prosperity depends upon the market
for that metal. Of late years, however, an increased production of
gold, copper, and recently of platinum has accompanied a gradual
and, it is hoped, substantial industrial progress. Permanent towns
have grown up and agriculture and related pursuits are becoming
firmly established.

The mining districts in the State number about 200 and are widely
distributed over its area. Almost every one of the larger mountain
ranges contains some ore. In the following pages emphasis will be

BULLETIN 612

GEOLOGIC AND TOPOGRAPHIC MAP

OVERLAJS^D ROUTE

From Omaha, Nebraska, to San Francisco, California

Base compiled from United States Geological Si;rvey Atlas .Sheets,
from railroad alignments and profiles supplied by the Union Paciflp
Railroad Company and the Southern Pacific Company and from addi-
tional information collected with the assistance of these companies

UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY

GEORGE OTIS SMITH, DIRECTOR
David White. Chief Geologist R. B. Marshall, Chief Geographer

1915

SHEET No. K

GREAT

SALT LAKE

500.000
Appro.ximately 8 miles to 1 inch

Contour rnterval 200 feet

ELEVATIONS IN FEET ABOVE MEAN SEA LEVEL

The distances from C»wha. Nebraska, are shown every 10 nnUi
The crnssties on the railroads are spaced I mile apart

THE OVERLAND ROUTE OGDEN TO SAN FRANCISCO. 157

laid on the record and the development of mining districts adjacent
or tributary to the raih'oad. More complete accounts of most of the
districts may be found in the publications of the United States Geo-
logical Survey.

The geology of Nevada is that typical of the Great Basin, in which
the two prevalent topographic elements are the basin ranges and the
intervening valley plains. In the mountains probably the most
conspicuous rocks are the Tertiary lavas, although a full series of
sedimentary beds is also present, as well as great masses of intrusive
igneous rocks of various types. The rocks may be briefly mentioned
in the order of age. (See table on p. 2.) The pre-Cambrian basal
or foundation rocks, on which the younger sedimentary rocks and
lavas rest, are visible in a few places. East of a line passing somewhat
east of Wimiemucca tlirough Austin to a point a little west' of Tonopah
Paleozoic strata are the predominating sedimentary rocks in the
mountain ranges, which include few or no Mesozoic beds. The
enormous thickness of the Paleozoic section at Eureka (almost 30,000
feet) suggests that the shore line of the Paleozoic sea was somewhere
near this place. This is further indicated by the fact that west of
the line mentioned the Paleozoic rocks disappear and are succeeded
by a thick series of Triassic and Jurassic sediments. During the
Paleozoic era western Nevada was apparently a land from which
sediments were washed into a sea on the east. In Mesozoic time the
situation seems to have been reversed. The Jurassic and Triassic
sediments were apparently derived from a land area of uplifted
Paleozoic strata in the eastern part of the State. The Triassic lime-
stone, slate, and sandstone and the associated lavas of the Humboldt
Range have an estimated thickness of 10,000 feet. Somewhat similar
Jurassic rocks add several thousand feet more to the record of deposi-
tion in this region during Mesozoic time. No Cretaceous sediments
have been found m Nevada, and it is therefore supposed that the
Great Basin during that period was a land area.

Large and smaU bodies of granidar intmsivc igneous rocks, chiefly
such as may be called granite (including quartz monzonite, grano-
diorite, and similar rocks), extend from the great masses in the Sierra
Nevada to the eastern part of the State or beyond. All these bodies may
be more or less related ; they appear to be younger than most of the
Jm-assic sediments but older than the Tertiary rocks and are probably
of Cretaceous age. The Tertiary lavas (rhyoHte, andesite, and basalt)
are widely distributed and cover large areas, some ranges being entirely
made up of them. Vast areas in the vaUeys are covered with the
gravcUy deposits of streams, with material laid down in lakes, or with
the ash or pumice ejected with the lava during volcanic eruptions.

The movements by which the mountains and vaUeys have been
formed probably occurred in different periods, but it is evident that
most of them broke and shifted the sheets of Tertiary lava, and were

158

GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES.

Tecoma, Nev.

therefore subsequent to these lava flows in date. The present ranges
in the Great Basin are therefore young compared with mountains in
general. They are supposed to have been uplifted by movements
that lasted at least through a part of Tertiary time and perhaps have
extended to the present day. The earth breaks or faults along which
the mountain blocks were upheaved are still recognizable at many
places in the topographic form of the mountains.

As a supply or trading point Lucin is now largely superseded by
Tecoma, a considerable settlement a few miles farther west. Of the
mines in the Lucin district/ south of Tecoma, only
the Copper Mountain mine has lately shipped much
Elevation 4,807 feet. Q^e. This mine is connected with the raiboad by a

Omaha 1,114 miles. />-i . t i •!/• ii\,

6-mile spur track and an aerial (wire cable) tramway.
Stock raising is now the principal industry in this region, but north
of the railroad there are some large land holdings which are to be
subdivided and utilized under a private irrigation project.

After ascending the drainage channel above Lucin, the railroad
passes out into a broader and more open valley through which the track
heads straightaway toward Montello. In this valley the railroad
reaches the elevation of the uppermost water level of the former Lake
Bonneville, but traces of the old lake shores are not readily discerned.
Montello is a railroad town and the first freight terminal west of
Ogden. The characteristic Nevada or Great Basin scenery is well dis-
played here, steep mountain ranges with rugged
decHvities contrasting sharply with the broad, gentle
slopes of rock waste and gravel from which they pro-
ject. The railroad winds in and out among such
ranges all the way across Nevada, generally finding
low passes through them or going around the end of the ranges.

Leaving Montello the road begins the steeper climb by which it
passes over the divide and out of the Bonneville Basin. The highest

Montello.

Elevation 4,878 feet
Population 355.*
Omaha 1,120 miles.

^ The Lucin mining district is in the
Ombe or Pilot Range, a few miles south
of Tecoma. Ore was discovered in the
district about 1869, and there was a con-
siderable output of silver and lead until
about 1876, after which the district was
nearly deserted. The increasing demand
for copper in recent years has encouraged
the development of the copper deposits
in the Lucin district, and the value of
the copper produced there from 1906
to 1912, inclusive, was approximately
$1,700,000.

The sedimentary rocks of the district
are chiefly of Carboniferous age. They
have been invaded by igneous rocks of
various kinds, the larger bodies of which

consist of a coarsely porphyritic rock of
granitic character (quartz monzonite por-
phyry). The black rocks seen from the
railroad at the north end of the range are
basaltic lavas.

The ore bodies, which embrace copper
deposits and lead-silver deposits, have
resulted from the replacement of lime-
stone adjacent to faults and fissures. The
copper ores are oxidized, no sulphides
having yet been reached. The lead-
silver ores are also oxidized. Wulfen-
ite, the yellow molybdate of lead, is
abundant, and the district is probably
best known to mineralogists for the beau-
tiful crystalline specimens of this min-
eral that it has yielded.

THE OVERLAND ROUTE OGDEN TO SAN FRANCISCO.

159

water level of old Lake Bonneville lay somewhere near Montello, at
an elevation of about 5,000 feet, probably just above the town, but
no distinct traces of the old water line can be seen from the train.
Looking back or down across the valley (southward), the traveler may
see Pilot Peak, the highest point at the south end of the Pilot Range.
Banvard (elevation, 4,976 feet). Noble (5,117 feet), Ullin (5,256 feet),
Tioga (5,597 feet), and Omar (5,640 feet), passed in the order named,
are mere sidetracks or minor stations.

The surface material of the valley is mostly a light-colored clay
mingled with pebbles and fragments of rock. The fragments include
many of light-gray limestone, evidently representing rock that is
exposed in the adjacent mountains. The valley is covered with a
fairly uniform growth of brush, and the sparse grass which in less
arid regions would hardly be noticed affords good grazing for stock.
The mountains appear smooth and rounded as seen from a distance
and are in part covered with a scanty growth of cedars.

Just beyond Tioga, a sidetrack and signboard near milepost 653,
the railroad reaches the head of the open valley. Bedrock projects
in many places, and ridges of rock extend down from the mountain
front to the north toward the railroad. These are limestones and
quartzites of Carboniferous age. Similar rocks show as rugged edges
on the more distant mountains to the south. In the reports of the
Fortieth Parallel Survey the pass through which the railroad climbs
was named Toano Pass, and the mountains to the south were called
the Gosiute Range and those to the north the Toano Mountains. A
large part of the high country for a long distance beyond Toano Pass
is made up of Carboniferous sediments. Phosphate rock is reported
to have been found in these rocks in the same relative position as in the
great phosphate fields of southern Idaho and vicinity, but in Nevada
the beds, so far as known, are too thin to be of commercial value.

From the upper end of Toano Pass, near milepost 649, may be seen
in the valleys on both sides beds that are conspicuously exposed as
chalky-white cliffs or as bare white patches on the rolling plains or on
low ridges. These beds are composed mainly of friable gray, white,
and drab sandstone and marly limestone, at many places containing
a great deal of volcanic material, chiefly the tuff or ash that accom-
panied lava (rhyolitic) eruptions. These rocks belong to the Hum-
boldt formation ^ and cover large areas in this part of Nevada.

^ The Humboldt formation was de-
scribed by Clarence King in 1878 as the
deposit of a great lake which he thought
had occupied most of the territory from
the Wasatch Mountains in Utah to the
Sierra Nevada, in Pliocene time. He
named this hypothetical body of water
Shoshone Lake, and these sediments,
which he supposed had been laid down

in its water, he called the "Humboldt
series. ' ' During recent years little atten-
tion has been given to the further study
of this formation, but geologists of the
present day are much inclined to doubt
the existence of the extensive lake thus
conjectured, as well as the necessity for
assuming that these beds as a whole were
lake deposits.

160

GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES.

At Cobre (pronounced co'bray, Spanish for copper) is the junction

with the Nevada Northern Raikoad, which since 1906

Cobre. j^^g giyg^ access to the Ely or Robinson copper

Elevation 5,922 feet, districts/ 140 milcs to the south, and a number

Omaha 1,138 miles. pit n i t • • i t ^

01 other less well-known districts, including Cherry
Creek and Egan Canyon.^

West of Cobre the railroad crosses a number of scarcely perceptible
divides. The old town of Toano, opposite milepost 643, is now
represented only by a few fallen and deserted stone buildings. These
were built from blocks cut from the sandstone of the Humboldt for-

^ The first mining locations in the
vicinity of Ely were made in 1867, three
years after the organization of the Eureka
mining district, in the same year in which
bonanza silver ores were discovered in the
White Pine district, 60 miles to the west.
Early operations disclosed a few deposits
of lead-bearing ores carrying precious
metals to the value of $10 to $40 a ton.
Occasionally small bonanzas were found,
and shallow deposits of rich copper ore
were mined.

The present copper industry of the dis-
trict is the outgrowth of explorations that
began about 1901. The aggregate quan-
tity of low-grade sulphide ore developed
is perhaps 80 million tons, in which the
mean copper content is a little over 1|
per cent. In 1906 extensive reduction
works were built at McGill, on the east
side of Steptoe Valley, about 25 miles
from the mines.

The sedimentary rocks of the district,
comprising limestones, quartz ites, and
shales, range in age from Ordovician to
Pennsylvanian. They have been dis-
turbed by folding and especially by
faulting and have been invaded by
masses of igneous rocks (monzonite
porphyry).

The ore, like the greater part of that at
Bingham, Utah, consists of monzonite
porphyry, greatly altered (metamor-
phosed) as a result of the igneous in-
trusions, carrying disseminated grains of
pyrite and chalcopyrite, and varying
amounts of chalcocite. Masses of por-
phyry which, through metamorphism,
had been almost uniformly charged with
grains of pyrite and chalcopyrite became

subject to erosion and oxidation. As the
rock was gradually worn down, surface
waters attacking the metallic sulphides
and charged with copper derived from
them soaked downward into the rock and
deposited the dissolved copper by chem-
ical reaction with the pyrite and chal-
copyrite in the rock. In this way a part
of the rock was gradually converted into
ore by addition of the copper sulphide.
Superficial examination of ore samples
shows a white to gray rock specked
through and through with a black min-
eral, which is the rich copper sulphide
chalcocite. On close inspection it is
found that this mineral occurs mainly as
films or coatings on grains of the pale-
yellow iron mineral pyrite or the deeper
yellow copper-iron sulphide chalcopyrite.
The oxidized capping or overburden has
an average thickness of about 100 feet.
The underlying ore blankets are from
15 to 500 feet thick. Up to the present
time comparatively little underground
mining has been done, though caving
methods were employed in the Veteran
mine. The Ruth ore body, estimated to
contain 8 to 10 million tons of ore car-
rying over 40 pounds of copper to the
ton, may be mined in a similar way.
Where the overburden is shallow the ore
is mined by steam shovels, and between
1908 and January, 1914, nearly 12 million
tons of ore averaging about 38 pounds of
copper to the ton had been produced in
this way, and in addition some 20 million
tons of overburden had been removed.

2 On the west side of Steptoe Valley, 93
miles south of Cobre, are the Cherry Creek
and Egan Canyon mines, in a low pass

THE OVERLAND ROUTE — OGDEN TO SAN FRANCISCO.

161

mation (Pliocene) near by. Valley Pass (elevation 6,072 feet) is the
highest of the low divides just mentioned. It is marked by a railroad
station and a water tank. The mountains across the rolling valley
to the north, grassy on top but more or less thickly covered with
scrubby cedar trees on their lower slopes, are composed of Paleozoic
sandstone, shale, and limestone.

Beyond VaUey Pass the drainage channels lead off to the northwest
toward Thousand Springs Valley. The broad brush-covered plains
adjacent to the railroad have little distinctive character geologically
or otherwise. They are presumably underlain by the volcanic ash
beds (tuffs) and other beds of the Humboldt fonnation, which are
trenched by shallow guUies. Cuts along the railroad show stream-
deposited gravels.

Within the 30 miles west of milepost 637 the train passes Icarus
(elevation 6,108 feet), Pequop (6,143 feet), Fenelon (6,153 feet), Hol-
born (6,103 feet), Anthony (6,124 feet), Moor (6,166 feet), Cedar
(5,969 feet), and Kaw (5,831 feet) — merely sidetracks, section houses,
or water tanks maintained chiefly for the use of the railroad. For
along distance the coarse white tuffaceous sandstones of the Hum-
boldt formation are the principal rocks seen near the railroad. Just
beyond Pequop, however, between mileposts 630 and 629, are con-
glomeratic strata interlayered with evenly bedded clays or clay shales
of a distinct light-greenish color, which are believed to be of older
Tertiary age (Eocene, Green River formation). Faults displacing the
clays and conglomerate are visible in the railroad cuts but possibly
would not ordinarily be noticed from the train.

Between Anthony and Moor an extensive view may be had to the
south and southeast over the north end of Independence Valley, the
larger part of which lies beyond the range of vision. This valley con-
stitutes another of the distinct drainage units of which the Great
Basin is composed. The railroad continues to ascend gradually,
skirting the slopes at the north edge of the valley. For several miles
near the summit of this part of the route the road passes through
groves of cedars, such as are frequently observed from a distance on
the flanks of desert mountain ranges.

I

that was used by the Pony Express and
Overland Stage in pioneer days. Gold
was discovered here in 1861, and between
1872 and 1882 the district supported a
population of about 3,000. The total
production amounted to several millon
dollars, but at present comparatively
little work is in progress. Gold ores and
silver-lead ores occur here in sedimentary
rocks, principally in quartzite.

38088°— Bull. 012—10 11

In the Gosiute mining district, which
lies 20 miles south of Cherry Creek, in the
Egan Range, silver-lead ores have re-
cently been mined from veins occurring
in limestone. The Spruce Mountain,
Hunter, Schellbourne, Duck Creek, and
Ward mining districts, in which work
has been more or less active during re-
cent years, are also tributary to the Nevada
Northern Railroad.

162 GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES.

At Moor the divide between the drainage of Independence Valley

and that of Humboldt River is reached, and the traveler enters

the area tributary to the ancient Lake Lahontan, an

extensive body of water that formerly spread out

omIha?i66 mifef ■ through most of the lowcr vaUeys in northwestern

Nevada. (See p. 172.)

From the summit of Moor the train makes a long westward descent,
at first down a heavy grade between Moor and Wells. Minor stations
along the way are Cedar and Kaw. A broad valley extends off toward
the north, the railroad skirting its southern side. Tulasco Peak, the
prominent pointed summit in the range across this valley, is formed
of limestone and quartzite of Carboniferous age, with lava (rhyolite)
at its base and beds of Pliocene tuff in the valley.

Wells, formerly a more important settlement and trading center
than it is now, was named from a group of springs called Humboldt
Wells, an objective point along the branch of the old
Wells. overland emigrant trail, which here comes from

Elevation 5,631 feet, the south iuto the routc followed by the Southern
omrha\T75 miles. Pacific. From Great Salt Lake to Wells the trail fol-
lowed in general the route which has been taken by
the Western Pacific Railway. From Wells to a point a little beyond
Winnemucca both the Southern Pacific and the Western Pacific run
in nearly parallel lines down the valley of Humboldt River, beyond
which they diverge to separate passes across the Sierra Nevada.

The springs at Wells are reported to be from 30 to 150 in number
and range in size from a few inches to 3 or 4 rods across. They are
inconspicuous little, pools scattered about in a grassy meadow just
north of the railroad, a short distance west of the town. The flow is
variable; it reaches a maximum about October, but during a large
part of the year there is no overflow at all. This variability with the
season indicates that the springs may originate in the underflow drain-
age in the valley, rather than from some deeper-seated source, which
probably would not be so subject to seasonal influences. These wells
have been called the head of Humboldt River, but that stream has
longer branches, which enter the valley below Wells.

Wells is still the center of an extensive cattle and sheep industry,
which has now largely replaced the mining of earlier days. A large
private irrigation project is being carried out in the valley beyond
the high mountains to the north. Near Wells, Humboldt River,
Willow Creek, Trout Creek, and Meadow Creek supply water for the
irrigation of 1,900 acres, or about 3 square miles of land, which is
devoted principally to growing winter feed for stock, although,
according to reports, barley, oats, potatoes, and cabbage are also
raised. Closer Valley, at the foot of the Ruby or East Humboldt
Range, south of Wells, is a good agricultural and stock-raising valley

BULLETIN 612

SHEET No. 17

GEOLOGIC AND TOPOGHAPHIC MAP

OF THE

OVEELAND ROUTE

From Omaha, Nebraska, to San Francisco, Califoiuia.

Base compiled fi-om United States GeoJogical Survey Alius Sheets,
from railroad alignments and profiles supplied by the Union Pacific
Railroad Company and the Southern Pacific Company and from addi-
tional information collected with the assistance of these companies

UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVE\

GEORtfE OTIS SMITH, DIRECTOR
David White. Chief Geologist R. B. Marshall, Chief Geographer

1915

UTAH -NEVADA

EXPLANATION

Stream depa^sits (alluvium), slopes of rock waste alonft
mountain fronts, and sediments of Lake Bonneville

Soft wiiite friable sandstones, conglomerate, and vol
cjinicash (Humboldt formation); Pliocene

Lavas ahyolite, basalt, etc.
Pliocene

probably Miocene and

Thin-bedded shales, with bituminous beds containing
some coal layers (Green River formation; ; Eocene

Granite ; probably Cretaceous

Blue. gray, and almost black limestones: Carboniferou.sl

Quartzite (Weber); Carboniferous

Limestone, quartzite, and shale, undifferentiated;
ehieflv Carboniferous but includmg some Devonian
north" of Wells J

Highest shore line of Lake Bonneville indicated thus —

Contour interval 200 feet

ELEVATIONS IN FEET ABOVE MEAN SEA LEVEL

The distances from Omaha. Nebraska, are shown every 10 mdes
The avssties on the railroads are spaced I mile apart

THE OVERLAND ROUTE OGDEN TO SAN FRANCISCO. 163

that was formerly dependent for its transportation facilities on Wells
but is now served by the Western Pacific Railway.

Humboldt River, which was so named by Fremont, and which is
one of the largest river systems in Nevada, heads entirely vdthin the
desert ranges of the central Great Basin. It rises on the eastern
border of Nevada and flows westward for about 200 miles. Near
some of the higher mountains it receives considerable water, but it
dwindles downstream and finally disappears. It enters the basin
formerly flooded by the waters of Lake Lahontan near the present
town of Golconda and from that point continues its course through
Lake Lahontan beds for nearly 100 miles to Humboldt Lake. In
the dry season the river water gets no farther than Humboldt Lake,
but during the winter this lake commonly overflows, the waters pass-
ing on to the Carson Sink, where they are evaporated. Throughout
its course it is almost if not quite destitute of native trees along its
channel. In its upper course Humboldt River receives a number of
tributaries, the largest of these being Reese River, which enters it
from the south. During the summer and fall several of these streams,
including Reese River, commonly dry up before they reach the main
channel.

Just below Wells the train runs along the margin of a strip of
meadowland and then passes into a narrower portion of the vaUey
hemmed in by low bluffs on each side. These bluffs and the cuts
along the railroad show bedded deposits of white and greenish clays
or sand, which are classed with the Tertiary Humboldt formation.
Beyond the narrows lies a broader valley.

As the valley opens out the traveler may see to the south a pano-
rama of the Ruby or East Humboldt Range, the highest and most
rugged mountain mass in Nevada. The name Ruby Mountains, or
Ruby Range, is locaUy accepted in preference to East Humboldt
and seems to have priority. Old settlers describe the finding of
*' rubies" and '^ruby sand" in the gravels of some of the streams
coming from these mountains. Specimens of these "rubies'' are in
fact red garnet, a rather common mineral developed in rock under
the influence of the heat accompanying igneous intrusion.

At first only the north end of the range, around which the railroad
passes, is seen, but farther west the western flank and the lofty
summits come into view. A number of these peaks attain a height
of 11,000 or 12,000 feet, and snow lingers along the crest of the
range late into the spring and comes early in the fall. Owing to
their height these rugged slopes receive a larger rainfall than the
surrounding country and supply water to the adjacent valleys, which
contain some of the most productive agricultural regions in the State.
On the east slope of the Ruby Range the waters quickly disappear
in the beds of the narrow canyons but break out again lower down

164 GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES.

in cold springs that feed Ruby and Franklin lakes. On the west
side the descent is more gentle and the waters gather in the South
Fork of the Humboldt. The crest of the Ruby Range is included in
the Humboldt National Forest.

The Ruby Range is a typical Great Basin mountain ridge. It
rises abruptly on all sides from flat valley plains or low, even slopes
of rock detritus or ''wash." The northern part of the range is
granite, formerly considered Archean but now known to be of post-
Jurassic, probably Cretaceous age. (See table on p. 2.) Flowing
streams from the Ruby Range reach the railroad in places, and hay
meadows and grainfields have been established wherever the water
supply is sufficient to permit irrigation. Wild grasses are cut for
hay along the flood plain in the main Humboldt Valley, and numer-
ous haystacks are usually visible from the railroad. Beyond Nardi
(see sheet 18, p. 168) a few ranches appear along the Humboldt, wliich
is joined near Deeth by Marys River, from the north. It is said that
7,000 acres are irrigated in this vicinity, but on account of the scanty
water supply only native grasses are grown, which are sometimes cut
for hay and sometimes used for grazing in fall and winter.

The main settled areas in this general region are Starr and Ruby
valleys, south of the railroad, at the foot of the Ruby Range. Starr
Valley contains some 3,700 acres of irrigated lands, for which Herd-
ers, Starr, Ackler, "^Deering, and Boulder creeks furnish an ample
water supply until about the middle of July each year. Nearly one-
fourth of this valley is ''self irrigating" through seepage from higher
irrigated lands. These " self -irrigating " lands are usually left in
native grass, which is cut for hay or used for pasture.

From Deeth, which is a trading center for Starr and Ruby valleys,
a stage line runs north 52 miles to Charleston (Cornwall Basin), whence
ore and concentrates (gold and copper) are shipped
I^eetl^- through this station. Jarbidge, a gold and silver

Elevation 5,341 feet, mining camp in the extreme northern part of the
0mahaTi93 mUes. State, formerly had its outlet through Deeth but now
receives mail and supplies from Twin Falls, Idaho, by
way of the Oregon Short Line.

West of Deeth the view of the Ruby Range broadens as the railroad
bends southward along the west front of these mountains and at the
same time gradually leaves them. The range from this viewpoint
shows a high and rugged crest with approximate north-south
trend, notched near the north end by a low pass. The highest sum-
mits lie north of the pass, among them Mount Bonpland, about 11,300
feet in elevation, and Clover Peak, just south of it, probably higher.

Natchez and Rasid are unimportant stations between Deeth and
Halleck. The Humboldt appears as a meandering stream close at
hand south of the railroad, bordered by narrow meadows of wild grass

THE Overland route — ogdek to san frakcisco. 165

behind which are low terraces or ridges. These terraces have evi-
dently been formed by the river at an earlier period of its history and
generall}^ have a surface covering of gravel.

lialleck is a shipping point for cattle and sheep. The station

received its name from old Camp Halleck, a fort and

Halleck. military reservation of pioneer days, close under the

Elevation 5,232 feet, mountain front, about 1 2 miles away, just south of the

omahaT^Gmiies P^^^ near the north end of the range. Stags lines run

from Halleck to several places on the north and south.

Elburz, a water tank, sidetrack, and section house, is just above

the mouth of North Fork, the principal tributary of the Humboldt

from, the north. The land watered by the North Fork

Elburz. ^j^j j^^g tributaries is divided into an upper and a lower

Elevation 5,204 feet. y^Uev by a rano;e of mountains throuo^h which the

Omaha 1,209 miles. n -i • • *i

stream Hows midway m its course. Abou ^ 4,500 acres
of land is irrigated hi the upper valley of the North Fork and 1,200
to 1,500 acres in the lower valley. Hay is the only crop raised.

Just below the North Fork the Humboldt Valley narrows to Osino
Canyon. For a distance of about 50 miles, extending nearly to Beo-
wawe, the strip of irrigable land along the river is rather narrow — in
fact, in some places there is none. The meadow land is used for hay
or pasture.

Ill Osino Canyon the railroad passes through three tunnels and
crosses the river several times. The walls of the canyon consist of lava
rock, which, although light colored when freshly broken, is weather-
stained to dark or rusty tints.

West of Osino Canyon the valley is broader, and near Elko culti-
vated fields and ranches come into view. The valley here extends from
the foothills of the Elko Range on the southeast to the low benchlike
spurs of tlie River Range on the northwest. These spurs slope off
gently toward the middle of the valley and are composed almost
entirely of volcanic ash, generally of white color, containing fragments
of lava. These beds belong to the Humboldt formation (Pliocene).
Underneath them are steeply tilted strata which contain beds of impure
coal and are supposed to be of Eocene age.

The origin of the name of Elko, the seat of Elko County, is not cer-
tain, for according to some it is an Indian word and according to
others it was given on account of the abundance of
Elko. elk in this vicinity. A camp site near some hot

Elevation 5,061 feet, springs 1-J milcs west of the town made this place a
Omaha i"22G'miios. station on the old emigrant route, but the present
town originated with the building of the railroad in
1868. The older part of the town, through which the two railroads
now pass, is built on the river flood plain, but a more recent extension
of the residence portion may be seen on a terrace north of the river.

166

GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES.

The main industries of this locaUty are stock raising and ranching. A
stage Une runs from Elko to Tuscarora/ a mining camp 50 miles to
the north.

Indians are usually seen about Elko, Lovelock, Reno, and at other
stations along the route. Several Indian reservations lie wholly or
partly in Nevada, and Indian schools are maintained at Carson and
near Fallon. The Indian population of Nevada, about 5,000, con-
sists of Piutes, Shoshones, and the remnants of other tribes.

For many years there has been much interest in the possibility of
finding oil in some of the Tertiary shales a few miles south and east
of Elko. Several wells have been drilled in this vicinity, but oil has
not been found in commercial quantity. Some oil appears to be
disseminated through these shales, but it is questionable whether
they contain any oil pools. Similar shales in this country and abroad
have been made to yield oil by distillation, and this industry might
under favorable conditions be profitable here. Oil-bearing shales of
Tertiary age occur in other parts of the country, as in the Book
Cliffs of Colorado and Utah.

Sandstone from the Tertiary beds near Elko has been used as a
building stone, and there is a granite quarry some 30 miles to the
north.

A mile and a half west of Elko, south of the railroad and across
the river channel, is a group of buildings, including a hotel and bath
houses, that mark the position of the hot springs above mentioned.
The main group of springs is well up on the lower slope, at the upper
edge of a terrace near the foot of the steep mountain front. Others
issue lower down, near the river channek These springs are prob-
ably related to the zone of late faulting by which this mountain
block has been uplifted. Waters derived from great depth may owe
their heat to the higher temperatures generally found with increase
in depth, to the fact that they have passed through or near some
mass of intruded igneous rock, or to direct volcanic action. Faults
along which there has been comparatively recent movement produce
openings that allow such waters to reach the surface. Hot springs
are found in many parts of the Great Basin.

^ Placer gold was found at Tusoarora in
1867 and rich silver veins were discovered
several years later. In the seventies and
eighties a number of silver mines were
opened, and for several years a large pro-
duction was maintained. Most of the ore
was milled at Tuscarora, and only very
high grade ore was shipped to smelters.
The production of the district, chiefly in
silver, is estimated to have been between
$25,000,000 and $40,000,000, most of which
was obtained between 1872 and 1886. In

recent years most of the mines have been
closed.

Other camps of this general region are
Bullion and Lone Mountain. Bullion,
where the mining of silver and copper ores
began 40 years or more ago, became inac-
tive when the price of silver fell, but in
1911 mining was resumed, and during the
early part of 1914 ore was hauled by motor
trucks to Palisade. Lone Mountain, 28
miles north of Elko, shipped in 1913-14
some ore yielding copper and silver.

THE OVERLAND EOUTE — OGDEN TO SAN FRANCISCO. 167

West of Elko distinct river terraces show on the south side of the
river. The Southern Pacific follows the upper edge of the meadow
north of the river; the Western Pacific keeps closer to the stream.

Avenel (elevation 5,021 feet), Moleen (4,982 feet), Tonka (4,958
feet), and Vivian (4,918 feet) are sidings or unimportant stations.
After passing Moleen (between mileposts 545 and 544) the train runs
southwestward down the narrowing valley, passing close to cliffs of
massive blue limestone. The railroad here is approximately parallel
with the trend or strike of the beds. At the entrance to Moleen
Canyon the track turns sharply to the northwest and within the
next mile or two passes a most interesting exposure of Carboniferous
limestones and quartzites. The limestone is about 2,000 feet thick,
although not all the beds are exposed in continuous section. The
quartzite underlying the limestone is in beds which stand nearly
vertical. The river here makes a sharp bend to the north, rounds
a ridge of the quartzite, and returns on an almost parallel course on
the other side. The railroad passes through this ridge in a tunnel.
Beneath the quartzite on the south side of the river lie slaty and
heavy blue limestones, incUned 45° or 50° E., which extend along
the south side of the valley as far west as Carlin. One of the shaly
beds near the top of these lower limestone beds contains a little
impure coal.

Beyond Tonka there is a tunnel and the Southern Pacific and
Western Pacific tracks wind down the narrow canyon together. The
valley again broadens as Carlin is approached.

Just before reaching Carlin station the train pasfees an icing plant
where the ice boxes of refrigerator cars are replenished in summer.
Some of the ice thus used is cut near by, in vats in
Carlin. which river water is allowed to freeze in winter, and

Elevation 4,898 feet, somc is shipped from the Sierra Nevada. Carlin is
oraahaT248 miles ^ railroad division point with shops and engine houses.
There are some ranches in the vicinity, and several
mining camps along the east slope of the Cortez Range north of
Humboldt River and west of Carlin. None of the mines, however,
is extensively developed or has produced more than a few tons of ore.

The valley below Carlin is narrow and is bordered on the south by
rounded, indistinctly terraced hills, passing into a low rolling country
to the north. Beyond Tyrol (a sidetrack, elevation 4,876 feet) the
valley becomes still narrower, and rusty-brown ledges of lava appear
on both sides. This is the upper end of Palisade Canyon (PL XXXV,
p. 153), which within a short distance contracts until there is little
room for more than the river and the railroads, hemmed in by the
lava cliffs. Parts of the canyon wall show that the lava consists
of a number of flows, indicating eruption at several distinct times.

168

GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES.

From the small town of Palisade the narrow-gage Eureka & Pali-
sade Railroad nms to Eureka/ one of the most famous of the old

mining camps of Nevada, 80 miles to the south.

The narrow-gage line goes up Pine Creek, the mouth

of which is passed just beyond the tunnel at Palisade.

Pine Creek valley trends due north, and irrigated

lands lie along it for 30 to 35 miles.
Below Palisade the route continues down the canyon, which is
wider and bounded by less steep walls than east of this town. The
lavas, which all look much alike in general aspect, are chiefly basalt

Palisade.

Elevation 4,844 feet
ropulation 242.*
Omaha 1,257 miles.

^ The first claims in the Eureka camp
were located in 1864, but it was not until
1869 that the Eureka mine was developed
on Ruby Ilill. From that time until the
early eighties this was the most active
mining camp in Nevada and had a popu-
lation of about 6,000. Between 1869 and
1883 the district yielded 160,000,000 in
bullion, about one- third gold and two-
thirds silver, and about 225,000 short tons
of lead. After 1878 the production de-
clined. The lead ores constituted the
main source of gold and silver until 1910,
since when the greater part of the precious
metals has been derived from milling ore
containing little or no lead.

The Eureka district comprises a rough,
almost completely isolated mountain
mass, and it is doubtful if within the
Great Basin province there can be found
any region of equally restricted area sur-
passing it in its exposures of Paleozoic
formations, especially those of the lower
and middle Paleozoic systems. The sed-
imentary formations represent all ages
from Lower Cambrian to Pennsylvanian
(see table on p. 2) and have a total thick-
ness of 30,000 feet.

In post-Jurassic time the strata in this
district, as elsewhere in Nevada, were
crumpled into a series of folds, some of
them with very steep sides. The folding
was followed by intense faulting. The
more profound faults had a general
northerly trend, and there were branches
or connecting faults of northwesterly
trend. Next came a long period of ero-
sion. Tertiary time was marked by
great volcanic activity, lavas (andesite.

rhyolite, and basalt) breaking up to the
surface along certain of the larger faults.

The Ruby Hill ore deposits were found
in a roughly V-shaped mass of shattered
limestone between the main Ruby Hill
fault and a branch fault which for the
most part followed the contact of the
limestone with quartzite. The shapes of
some of the ore bodies suggest that they
were formed by replacement along frac-
tures, but as a whole they are very irregu-
lar. The minerals originally deposited
in the limestone were pyrite, arsenopy-
rite, galena, and zinc blende, with minor
amounts of molybdenite and other min-
erals, but the bulk of the ore mined was
oxidized nearly down to ground-water
level, which ranged from 600 to 1,100 feet
below the surface. One of the principal
kinds of ore, known as "red carbonate,"
was composed of a hydrous iron oxide
mixed with sulphate and carbonate of
lead and inclosing residual lumps of ga-
lena. Most of it carried gold and silver
to the amount of $25 to $50 of each to the
ton. In some of the ore, however, the
gold was worth much more than the silver.

Several of the ore bodies in Prospect
Mountain contained a large amount of
quartz and a relatively larger proportion
of gold to silver, with less lead. Some
contained bismuth and tellurium.

According to J. S. Curtis, who studied
the deposits in 1881 and 1882, the ores
were deposited by hot volcanic waters
which ascended along the fissures after the
rhyolite eruptions. Curtis assumed that
these waters had leached the metals from
some deep-seated rock.

BULLETIN 612

SHEET No. 18

GEOLOGIC AND TOPOGRAPHIC MAP

OF THE

OVERLAND ROUTE

From Omaha, Nebraska, to San Francisco, Califoiijia

Base compiled ft'Oin United States Geological Survey Atlas Sheets,
from railroad alignments and profiles supplied by the Union Paclflo
Railroad Company and the Southern Paeifle Company and from addi-
tional Information collected with the assistance of these companies

UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVET

GEORGB OTIS SMITH, DIRECTOR
David M'hite, Chief Geologist R. B. Marshall, Chief Geographer

1915

15- 30'

NEVADA

3oKilometers

- ) 1

— , \

Contour interval 200 feet

ELEVATIONS IN FEET ABOVE MEAN SEA LEVEL

The distances from Omaha. Nebraska, are shown every JO mile^
The crossties on the railroads are spaced I mile apart

w^

THE OVERLAND KOUTE — OODEN TO SAN FRANCISCO.

169

Barth.

Omaha 1,262 miles.

and andesite. Not far beyond Palisade the Southern Pacific and
Western Pacific tracks cross, but both fines still follow Humboldt
River closely.

Gerald is a station just east of Barth.

Barth (see sheet 19, p. 170) is a sidetrack and shipping station near
the lower end of Palisade Canyon. (See PI. XXXV, p. 153.) Just
across the river there is an extensive deposit of iron
ore, which has been developed for use as flux in the
smelters in Utah. From 100 to 300 tons of iron
ore has been shipped daily from this place for a number of years, the
total shipments being more than 250,000 tons.^ Besides the iron
mine there are in the vicinity at least two other mines, the Onon-
daga and the Zenoli, about a mile south of Barth, which have pro-
duced $200,000 in silver from veins in andesite. The ores in addition
to silver carry lead and copper.

About 2 J miles west of Barth the canyon opens into a broad valley
with terraced floor. Harney and Cluro are stations in a somewhat
unpromising looking stretch of country, with hard, white, clayey
soil, deeply cut by gullies.

The old settlement at Beowawe (be-o-wah'we), which may be seen
from the railroad, stands south of the station in a group of trees that
is surrounded by cultivated land. The name is said
to be an Indian word meaning gate and was given
to this place because of the peculiar shape of the hills
near by, which present the effect of an open gateway
up the valley to the canyon beyond. The settlement
at the railroad is comparatively modern. It contains the power plant
of the Buckhorn Mines Co., from which a transmission line goes to the
company's mine and mill, about 35 miles to the southeast. The mine
was operied about 1908 and is reported to be working a large body of
low-grade gold-silver ore in Tertiary lava. Concentrates from the
Buckhorn (Mill Canyon) district are shipped by way of Palisade,
but some ore from the Tenabo and Cortez districts, south of Beowawe,
is shipped from this station. It is reported that 6,780 acres are
under irrigation near Beowawe. The land is used for growing alfalfa
and native hay and for pasture.

Leaving behind Beowawe, the railroad swings to the north. Across
Whirlwind Valley to the south may be seen a white line, or teiTace,
against the distant mountain side. This is a hot-spring deposit and,

Beowawe.

Elevation 4,695 feet
Population 155.*
Omaha 1,274 miles.

^ This deposit of iron ore is mentioned
in one of the reports of the Fortieth Par-
allel Survey. The ore is massive hema-
tite, carrying from GO to almost 70 per
cent of iron. It is of high quality, its
content of phosphorus, though above tlio

Bessemer limit, being much less than
that of the Alabama iron ores. The ore
body, a mass about 200 feet in diameter
and about 80 feet deep or thick, has
been described as a replacement deposit
in andesite.

170

GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES.

like SO many others in Nevada, is situated just below the steeper part
of a mountain front. Here, as elsewhere, the spring has probably
risen along the line of the fault or displacement which blocked out
the mountains from the valley.

Ladoga, Farrel (elevation 4,626 feet), Mosel (4,583 feet), Argenta
(4,553 feet), and Rosney are minor stations between Beowawe and
Battle Mountain. The railroad passes around the north end of a broad
lava plateau, and similar uplands are to be seen far across the valley
to the north. As the train skirts the northern foothills of the plateau,
the dark lava (basalt) may be seen close at hand. Beyond Argenta
the train runs out into one of the most extensive valley areas along
the Humboldt, the route traversing a broad expanse of plains far south
of the main river channel.

The town of Battle Mountain was named after the mountain

to the southwest, where in the early sixties a band of gold seekers

B ttl M t * attacked by Indians fortified themselves just south

of the prominent eastern ridge. Antler Peak is the

Elevation 4,512 feet. i • i ^ • -r» i ■% «- • • -i i «. i

Population 878.* highest poiut ou Battle Mountam visible irom the
Omaha 1,307 miles. train. The town is a distributing and shipping center
for a number of well-known mining districts, the principal among
which are the Austin^ and Reese River districts. It is the northern
terminal of the narrow-gage Nevada Central Railroad, which runs
south 93 miles to the old town of Austin, the seat of Lander County.
Probably more than $50,000,000 worth of silver has been taken from

^ Austin has a population of about 1,000
and supplies an extensive grain and stock
ranching territory along Reese River and
in the Smoky Valley. It is the starting
point for a number of stage lines into
central Nevada.

The discovery of ore near Austin is said
to date from May 2, 1862, when William
Talcott, one of the riders of the Pony Ex-
press, on his regular trip to Virginia City
picked up a piece of the rock along his
route and had it assayed. On his return
he located the Pony claim. Eight days
later the Reese mining district was organ-
ized, and the fame of Lander and Union
hills soon brought thousands of prospect-
ors to the camp.

The ore about Austin is in narrow veins
in granite (a porphyritic monzonite).
The veins consist of quartz and rhodo-
chrosite through which the metallic
minerals (tetrahedrite, pyrargyrite, prous-
tite, stephanite, polybasite, galena, sphal-

erite, pyrite, and chalcopyrite) are dis-
tributed. The first five minerals named
are rich ores of silver containing also anti-
mony or arsenic and copper with sul-
phur; galena, sphalerite, and chalcopy-
rite are ores of lead, zinc, and .copper, re-
spectively. The veins run northwest and
dip 15° to 45° NE. They are closely
spaced, and several may occur in the
breadth of a claim (600 feet). They have
been displaced in a remarkable manner by
parallel north-south faults that dip to the
west. All these faults are normal — that
is, the ground west of the fault has sunk
with respect to that on the east side.
The granite on both sides of the veins has
been decomposed and bleached by the
solutions that deposited the ores. Mining
in these small faulted veins has been
costly, but miles of underground tunnel-
ing attest the value of the ore, which has
been found in rather regularly dis-
tributed shoots.

GEOLOGIC AND TOPOGRAPHIC MAP

OK THE

OVERLAND ROUTE

From Omaha, Nebraska, to San Francisco, Califc.jjiia

Base complied from United States Geological Survey Atlas Sheets
from railroad alignments and profiles supplied by the Union Pacific
Railroad Company and the Southern Pacific Company and from addi-
tional information collected with the assistance of these companies

UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVt:^

GEORGE OTIS SMITH. DIRECTOR
David White, Chief Geologist R. B. Marshall, Chief Geographer

1915

Each quadrangle shown on the map with a name in parenthesis in the
lower left comer is mapped in detail on the U. S. C. S. Topographic
sheet of that name.

BULLETIN 612

SHEET N0.19

THE OVERLAND ROUTE OGDEN TO SAN FRANCISCO.

171

this district alone. Among the producing mining camps adjacent to
Battle Momitain are those of the Mayesville, Kimberly, and Hilltop
districts, 20 miles southeast. Deposits of lead, copper, silver, and
gold occur in the mountains to the southwest and recently placer
gold has been obtained on the south side of the mountain. Five or
six million dollars' worth of ore has been taken from the various
mining camps about Battle Mountain.^

From Argenta, 10 miles east of Battle Mountain, to the canyon
above Golconda, the river and railroads pass through an extensive
valley about 45 miles long and from 10 to 20 miles wide. Although
most of the land along the river has been taken up, several thousand
acres that lie at some distance from the river and that lack a water
supply is still under Government ownership.

Piute (elevation 4,509 feet), Valmy (4,507 feet), Stonehouse (4,451
feet), Herrin (4,408 feet), Iron Point (4,390 feet), Comus, and Preble
(see sheet 20, p. 178) are minor stations passed in turn. Stock and
hay raising are the chief industries in this vicinity. Stonehouse was
a station on the Overland Stage route. The name refers to an old
stone building near a spring at the foot of the Battle Mountain Range.
Conflicts with the Piute Indians occurred hereabouts, and there are
many graves in the vicinity. Beyond Stonehouse the railroad
approaches the foothills of lava and cuts through some of the lower
spurs. These sheets of lava with some interbedded softer rocks have
been broken by faults, and the resulting blocks have been tilted up
into ridges having abrupt, broken fronts and gradual back slopes.
Several such ridges are passed in succession.

At Preble Humboldt River enters another canyon, which extends
through the Hot Springs Range. Just east of Preble, above the
upper end of the canyon, may be seen bluffs of black shale with some
fractured and iron-stained limestone. West of Preble the limestone,
which is exposed in railroad cuts, is in thick dark-bluish beds with
veinlets of white calcite, separated by some thick layers of shale.
These strata dip toward the east, and their general trend is southwest,
so that the railroad crosses them. The rocks belong, at least for the
most part, to the Star Peak formation, of Triassic age. Rocks of
this formation make up a large part of the Humboldt and other
ranges, to be passed later, though there will be no other opportunity
to see them so close at hand.

^ The ores of the Battle Mountain dis-
trict occur in veins in sedimentary rocks,
as replacements of calcareous parts of
dark shales, or in contact-metamorphic

deposits. The main vein deposits are of
two types — pyritic gold quartz veins and
galena-silver-calcite veins. Copper has
been obtained from veins of both types.

172

GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTEBK UNITED STATES.

Golconda.

Elevation 4,389 feet.
Population 430.*
Omaha 1,349 miles.

Golconda, another old stage station, is a warm-spring resort and a
supply point for numerous mining camps. In 1897 a smelter and a
concentration mill were built at Golconda to treat
the copper ores from the Adelaide mine ^ about 12
miles to the south. The ore proved difficult to treat,
and the mill, in which several processes were tried,
is no longer used. It stands north of the track. The
Pequart mine, an early producer, is about 6 miles south of Golconda,
and there is a gold mine in the lone conical hill about 2 miles south of
the station. Ranches stretch along the river below Golconda. The
crops raised are alfalfa, native hay, and potatoes.

The elevation of Golconda is almost exactly that of the highest
level attained by Lake Lahontan,^ already referred to as having
spread over a large part of northwestern Nevada. The history of this
great lake is analogous to that of Lake Bonneville, in Utah, already
described (pp. 97-99 and fig. 10, p. 82).

The Overland Route passes across the basin of Lake Lahontan at
what is nearly its widest part. For 177 miles from a point in the
Humboldt River valley near Golconda to a point in Truckee Canyon
about 15 miles beyond Wadsworth or Fernley, the train passes over
the bed of this extinct lake, and many of the features of the landscape

^ The Gold Run district, in which the
most important mine is the Adelaide, is
on the east slope of the northern part of
the Sonoma Range — the Havallah Range
of the Fortieth Parallel Survey reports.
The district was organized in 1866.

The ore is a replacement of limestone
and contains copper, zinc, and a little
lead (pyrrhotite, chalcopyrite, sphalerite,
and galena with garnet, pyroxene, etc.).
The general country rock is dark calca-
reous slate (Star Peak) of Triassic age.

2 The large lake wliich flooded a num-
ber of the valleys of northwestern Nevada
at a very recent geologic date but has now
passed away was named Lake Lahontan in
honor of Baron La Ilontan, one of the
early explorers of the headwaters of the
Mississippi. The lake covered approxi-
mately 8,400 square miles at its greatest
expansion, and in its deepest part, the
present site of Pyramid Lake, it was at
least 880 feet deep — that is, its surface
stood approximately 500 feet above the
present water surface of Pyramid Lake.
The ancient lake had no outlet except the
one that led straight up, its waters being
dissipated entirely by evaporation.

Fluctuations of the water level in these
ancient lakes undoubtedly record cli-
matic changes. It has been generally
concluded that the periods of lake expan-
sion were related to the stages of ice
extension in the glacial epoch, or more
specifically that their waters rose to their
highest levels during the period when
the glaciers were retreating from their
farthest advance.

With the decrease of water supply the
lake level has fallen, and in many parts
of the basin the water has almost or en-
tirely disappeared. Traces of former
levels remain, however, in the form of
elevated beaches. As the lake fell,
ridges emerged and separated it into
smaller units. Some of these minor
basins are now essentially dry, although
the lowest parts are periodically flooded
to shallow depths during rains. When
these areas dry up they show almost level
floors with smooth mud surfaces, which
check or crack in the dry air. These are
the so-called mud lakes or playas, which
are in some basins very extensive. The
basins that are still fed by perennial
streams contain lakes.

J

THE OVERLAND ROUTE OGDEN TO SAN FRANCISCO.

173

and some of the rocks seen in the valleys along the route are evidences
of its former presence. The mountain ranges stood as islands or pen-
insulas in this body of water, and when the eye is trained to recog-
nize them the old shore lines can be traced from point to point along
the slopes.

Between Golconda and Humboldt Lake Humboldt River flows in a
trench that it has excavated in Lake Lahontan sediments since the
last drying up of the ancient lake. For a number of miles below
Golconda the river is practically a surface stream flowing between
low banks of marly clay belonging to the upper part of the lake de-
posits. At Mill City its channel begins to deepen, and at Rye Patch
the river is a little over 200 feet below the general level of the desert.
The general appearance of the trench cut by the river in the lake
sediments is shown in Plate XXXVII (p. 177) . The threefold division
of the strata exposed in the steep banks (upper lake clays, ^ medial
gravels, and lower lake clays) is easily distinguished where the beds
are not obscured by debris. Below Rye Patch the banks decrease in
height, and south of Oreana they are in few places over 40 or 50 feet
high. The total thickness of the section thus exposed is not much
over 200 feet. Borings in the desert valleys, however, have developed
the fact that sediments of similar character occupy the rock troughs
between the mountain ranges, in many places to very great depths,
probably thousands of feet. No way has been devised of determining
how much of this filling was deposited in the Quaternary lake and how
much may be older, possibly of Tertiary age.

Beyond Golconda the brown, rusty-colored ranges on both sides
of the railroad, having characteristic sharp and ragged peaks and
ledgy slopes, afford good exposures of the early Mesozoic shales and
limestones, very generally associated with lavas.

Eglon and Tule (elevation 4,325 feet) are unimportant stations
west of Golconda. Beyond Eglon the railroad bends close around the
foothills on the south and is here far enough above the vaUey to afford
an extended view to the north, over Paradise Valley, which is drained
by Little Humboldt River. Little use appears to have been made of
the lower part of this valley except for grazing and for cutting wild

^ According to I. C. Russell, mamma-
lian bones were obtained at a number of
localities in the sides of the Humboldt
and AValker River canyons and, with the
exception of a single vertebra found in
the medial gravels, were derived from the
upper lake beds. So far as determined
they include an elephant or mastodon, a
horse, an ox, and a camel. The fossils
are usually scattered through the sedi-
ments, more than one or two bones of the

same individual being seldom found at a
single locality, though the elephant or
mastodon bones obtained in the Hum-
boldt Canyon near Rye Patch constitute
nearly an entire skeleton. Many of the
bones had been removed as curiosities,
however, before the collections that were
submitted to study were obtained. Re-
cently similar remains have been found
in the beach or bar deposits of the former
lake near the north end of Pyramid Lake.

174

GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES.

Winnemucca.

Elevation 4,334 feet,
Population 1,786.*
Omaha 1 ,365 miles.

grasses for hay. Beyond Paradise Valley the Southern Pacific turns
and for a long distance pursues a general course to the southwest.
On the right, ahead, Winnemucca Peak projects like an island from
the desert plains. A whitish band along its base is the edge of an
extensive area of sand dunes. ^

The town of Winnemucca, named for a chief of the Piute tribe, is
the seat of Humboldt County and serves an extensive ranching and
mining coimtry. It was originally a small trading
station, established in 1850, on the emigrant route to
California and was tjien known as French Ford. Be-
fore the Oregon Short Line was built Winnemucca
was the gateway to the whole of southern Idaho.
The Southern Pacific and Western Pacific railroads pass through the
town about a mile apart, and Humboldt Kiver flows between them.
The agricultural and stock-raising districts tributary to Winnemucca
include Paradise Valley,* to the northeast, and the Quinn River val-
ley, to the north. Of less importance are the narrow bottoms along
the Humboldt above and below the town, on which the chief crop is
wild hay.

The National mining district,^ in the Santa Rosa Range, about 70
miles north of Winnemucca, is reached from that town by stage.
The National mine is noted for the occurrence of a remarkably rich
shoot of ore, which has yielded about $4,000,000.

After leaving Winnemucca the train runs straight down the valley
of Humboldt River for several miles, in a course parallel to the river

^ A large area a few miles north of Win-
nemucca is covered with sand dunes
formed since the disappearance of Lake
Lahontan. This belt of drifting sand ex-
tends westward from the lower part of
Little Humboldt Valley to the desert be-
tween Black Butte and the Dona Schee
Hills and is about 40 miles long from east
to west and 8 or 10 miles wide. The
dunes are fully 75 feet thick, and their
steeper slopes are on the east side, thus
indicating that the whole vast field of
sand is slowly traveling eastward. This
progress has necessitated a number of
changes in the roads in the southern part
of Little Humboldt Valley during recent
years. In some places in this region the
telegraph poles have been buried so
deeply that they have had to be spliced
in order to keep ths wires above the crests
of the dunes. The sand is of a light
creamy-yellow color and forms beauti-

fully curved ridges and waves that are
covered with a fretwork of wind ripples,
and many of these ridges are marked in
the most curious manner by the foot-
prints of animals, which form strange
hieroglyphics that are sometimes diffi-
cult to translate.

2 The gold-silver deposits at National
were discovered in 1907. The most prom-
inent and widespread rock in the district
is basalt, which occurs in a thick series of
flows and is probably of Miocene age.
The principal ore deposits, however, are
associated with older Tertiary lavas, es-
pecially with rhyolite and an andesitic
rock (latite). The veins were deposited
by hot waters soon after the eruption of
the rhyolite. They carry quartz, stibnite
(sulphide of antimony), free gold alloyed
with silver, and other less abundant or
less characteristic minerals. Some veins
occur also in older rocks.

THE OVERLAND ROUTE OGDEN TO SAN FRANCISCO.

175

but high on the terraces along its south side. Grass Valley, an exten-
sive depression between the Sonoma Range on the east and the East
Range on the west, opens on the Humboldt Valley from the south
just west of Winnemucca. From the rear platform the town is seen
to stand on a broad, flat, brush-covered alluvial slope, leading down
from the mountains on the east to the river channel at the very foot
of Winnemucca Mountain. The river bottom lands are but narrow
strips, where wild grass is cut for hay.

Beyond Rose Creek (elevation 4,324 feet) the two railroad lines

diverge, the Western Pacific taking a route which lies north of the

Southern Pacific route and passing out of the valley of Humboldt

River.

From Mill City, which was for a long time an important supply

and shipping station, roads lead to Bloody Canyon,

Star City, UnionviUe, Chafey (formerly Dun Glen), and

other camps that were of note in early days.^ Most

of these camps are south of the railroad.

The valley of Humboldt River in its course through
the old Lake Lahontan sediments takes on a more desolate aspect as
the river becomes more deeply intrenched in these barren clays. Ap-
parently no utihzation of the narrow river bottoms is attempted here,
and the channel, swinging off to the northwest, is soon lost to view
from the railroad.

Mill City.

Elevation 4,233 feet
Population 153.*
Omaha 1,393 miles.

^ The discovery of a rich body of silver
ore close to the surface in the Sheba mine,
on the east side of the West Humboldt
Range, due south of Mill City, led to the
rapid growth of Star City from 1861 to
1865. The town had two hotels, express
and telegraph offices, daily mails, and a
population estimated at about 1,000.
This was before the building of the rail-
road, and all supplies were hauled by
wagon from Marysville or Sacramento,
Cal. In 1871 the town was reported as
nearly abandoned. At UnionviUe there
are extensive mine workings dating back
to about the same time. Mills were built
here at an early date, and from 1860 to
1880 UnionviUe, although perhaps rivaled
or surpassed for a short time by Star City,
was on the whole the most important
town in the region, as it was the local sup-
ply point for many smaller communities
in neighboring mining districts. There
was considerable activity during the same
period near Dun Glen (now known as
Chafey).

The Kennedy district, 50 miles south
of Winnemucca and about 45 miles by
road from Mill City, lies on the east side
of the Stillwater Range, and first attracted
attention in 1890. Kennedy soon became
a flourishing town, mills were built, and
considerable work was done in several
mines. After the oxidized pay shoots
were exhausted the amalgamation mills
proved unfit for coping with the complex
gold -silver-lead ores, and since 1904 the
district has sunk into obscurity. The
total output has been estimated at
$120,000.

The mines in the West Humboldt
Range have yielded far more silver than
gold. Most of them were opened and
were worked extensively before the com-
pletion of the railroad. The great im-
provement in mining facilities brought
about by railroad communication was not
sufficient to offset the diminution in tenor
of the ore bodies below their enriched
portions and the decline in the price of
silver.

176

GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES.

Imlay.

Elevation 4,197 feet.
Population 326.*
Omaha 1,398 miles.

Imlay, a town of recent establishment, is a railroad division point.
With its growth Mill City has declined. Due south of Imlay is the
north end of the West Humboldt Eange, the north-
em and higher part of which is also known as the Star
Peak Range. Here is an excellent example of the
characteristically abrupt termination of the basin
ranges. The smooth, gradual slope of the aUuvial
plain sweeps up to the very foot of the mountain front, and foothills
proper are lacking.

South of Imlay a fairly abundant supply of good water is found
in springs near the base of the mountains and piped down to the rail-
road. The natural flow from such springs never reaches far beyond
the base of the mountain, as the water rapidly sinks in the loose soil
or rocky detritus of the piedmont plains. From Imlay to Humboldt
the railroad curves around the north end of the Star Peak Range and
then, turning almost due south, keeps the west side of this rugged
mountain mass in full view. (See PL XXXVI, A.)

At Humboldt station is Humboldt House, an old hotel building
that was formerly a meal station on the railroad. A good supply of
pure water is brought down in pipes from the moun-
tains southwest of Humboldt, making the place an
oasis, with trees and green fields. The Ruby quick-
silver mine is in Eldorado Canyon, about 8 miles south-
east of Humboldt.

The Star Peak Range ^ is rather regular in outline and is about
75 miles long. On the south it is separated by a low pass (Cole

Humboldt.

Elevation 4,238 feet.
Omaha 1,405 miles.

^ The Star Peak Range is made up of
great masses of Triassic rocks belonging
to two formations, the Star Peak and the
Koipato. The Star Peak formation, tlie
younger of the two, occupies mainly the
northern half of the Star Peak Range and
has an estimated thickness of 10,000 feet.
It is made up of quartzite, limestone, and
slates, among which have been found fos-
sil remains of both Middle and Upper
Triassic vertebrate and invertebrate ani-
mals. These rocks' are overlain con-
formably by limestone and dark slates
containing Jurassic fossils. The underly-
ing Koipato rocks, so called from the In-
dian name of the west Humboldt Range,
form a considerable part of the southern
half of the S tar Peak Range . The Koipato
formation was originally described as
consisting chiefly of beds of quartzite
(silicified sandstone) overlain by inter-
stratified beds of limestone, quartzite,

and "felsitic porphyroids, " and as hav-
ing an estimated thickness of 6,000 feet.
According to later determinations, how-
ever, the Koipato consists chiefly of lava
flows (rhyolite) with subordinate non-
volcanic sediments, including limestones.
Much of the rock originally taken to be
quartzite is actually rhyolite.

The Triassic slates and limestones of
the West Humboldt Range are noted for
the abundant and well-preserved fossils
found in them. These comprise skele-
tons of ichthyosaurs ("fish lizards," ex-
tinct marine animals of large size), spines
and teeth of extinct types of sharks, and
numbers of the coiled shells known as
ammonites.

On the lower slopes of the Star Peak
Range are considerable bodies of Tertiary
rhyolite and basalt, with which occur re-
lated beds of tuffs or other water-laid
sediments of about the same age.

U. S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY

BULLETIN 612 PLATE XXXVI

A. SNOW ON THE NORTH END OF THE HUMBOLDT MOUNTAINS.
View from a point near Innlay, Nev. Photograpli furnished by Soutiiern Pacific Co.

/,'. HOT SPRING NEAR ELKO, NEV.
Photograph furnished by Southern Pacific Co,

THE OVERLAND ROUTE OGDEN TO SAN FRANCISCO. 177

Canyon) from the much lower southern division of the West Hum-
boldt Range, sometimes called the Humboldt Lake Mountains. The
Star Peak Range culminates in Star Peak, about 10,000 feet above
sea level. At its south end is Buffalo Peak, about 8,400 feet in eleva-
tion. All along the rugged slopes facing the railroad and also on the
opposite side of the range are prospects and mines. One mine, the
Star Peak, which is being worked, is almost at the summit of the peak
whose name it bears. The Rosebud district, about 28 miles north-
west of Humboldt, or 35 miles north of Mill City, was the site of a
boom that followed the discovery of ore there in 1906. A town was
rapidly built, to be as quickly abandoned.

Some mounds about half a mile south of Humboldt, on the right
(west) side of the Southern Pacific track, are composed principally of
calcareous tufa. Each mound has an opening at the top hned
with crystaUized gypsum and sulphur. These deposits were un-
doubtedly made by hot springs that are now extinct. Small pits
and an old retort just west of Humboldt mark the site of some old
works on these sulphur deposits, but the supply was evidently too
small to be of economic importance.

Beyond Humboldt the railroad continues down the east side of the
valley over a broad, gently sloping plain of stony detritus and sand,
washed down from the mountains. Valery is a sidetrack and loading
platform for the Star Peak mine. The mining camp may be seen by
looking sharply at the right-hand end of a long, dark rocky ridge near
the crest of the range. A deep cut along the railroad at milepost 373
exposes a sand and gravel bar, a beach deposit of Lake Lahontan.
The old beach lines may readily be traced along the hillsides, particu-
larly late in the afternoon of a clear day. From the rear platform
there is now a fine view of the higher part of the West Humboldt
Range, which shows a lofty continuous crest with exceedingly steep
rocky slopes that contrast sharply with the smoothly graded alluvial
fans that spread out from the canyon mouths and coalesce into a
gently sloping plain reaching down to the river.

The old hotel building which serves as the station called Rye Patch

is a relic of the boom days of the old Rye Patch mine. The name

Rye Patch refers to the wild rye grass that formerly

Rye Patch. ^^^ abundantly about the place. The Rye Patch

Elevation 4 256 feet. ^Qine, about 5 milcs cast of the station, produced

Omaha 1,416 miles. , -i . i • i

much suver ore in the early seventies, but has lain
idle for over 20 years. Lately a cyanide plant has been installed,
and the old dump is being reworked. The ore occurred in limestone,
probably of Triassic age.

After passing Rye Patch the train runs nearly due south, the track
lying well up on the broad, gently sloping alluvial plain between
38088°— Bull. 612—16 12

178

GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES.

Nenzel.

Humboldt River on the west and the West Humboldt Eange on the

east. (See PL XXXVII.) Beyond Rye Patch is Zola.

Nenzel, which until recently was called Nixon (see sheet 21, p. 184),

is near the site of the old town of Oreana, noted as being the place
where silver-lead smelting was first successfully
carried on in Nevada. Oreana has been referred to

Elevation 4,185 feet, ^g ^]^g birthplace of silvcr-lcad smelting west of the

Omaha 1,424 miles. t^ i ,r • i i

Rocky Mountams, but some lead was produced
earlier at Argenta, Mont. The Nevada ore that was first smelted at
Oreana in 1867 came from the Montezuma mine, in the Trinity
Mountains, west of the railroad.

Nenzel is now a supply station for the new camp of Rochester. A
branch railroad, the Nevada Short Line, extends from Nenzel for 5
miles to the mountain foot, but the mines and settlement are high
up on the Star Peak Range. As late as August, 1912, Joseph Nenzel
relocated some old claims in this district and discovered the ore which
has made it a producing district. A small shipment of ore made in
August was followed by the discovery of larger bodies later in the
year. In less than a month the hitherto desolate canyon had a
population of more than 2,000 people and contained many substantial
two-story buildings. The total production to September, 1914, is
reported to be over $1,200,000.^ In the early days Rochester
Canyon and the adjacent ravines yielded considerable placer gold that
must have been derived from the disintegration of the gold-bearing
veins on the mountain slopes above.

The West Humboldt Range is divided southeast of Nenzel by a low
pass. Cole Canyon, which crosses the range obliquely. This pass
separates the Star Peak division of the range from the lower Hum-
boldt Lake division. The pass probably marks the place where a
fault, which runs along the west base of the Star Peak Range and
has caused the elevation of that block, swings across the range to the
south. If so, the Star Peak and Humboldt Lake ranges are distinct
in structure as well as in form. Traces of recent fault movement can
be found also along the alluvial slopes at the west base of the Hum-
boldt Lake Range.

Below Nenzel the train again approaches the river, and the deep
trench cut by the river into Lake Lahontan clays is well exhibited to
the traveler. Some of the artificial cuts along the railroad are also
in these lake-deposited clays, which are capped by gravelly beach

^ The ores of the Rochester district are
found in rocks which were classed by
the early geologic surveys as Triassic
(Koipato) sedimentary rocks, but which
have now been identified as mainly lavas
(rhy elite and some other varieties). The

silver-lead ores containing antimony were
deposited along zones of parallel cracks
in rhyolite. The valuable metals occur
with quartz, in the form of argentite,
cerargyrite, proustite, and pyrargyrite
(all silver mine^rals), and native gold.

BULLETIN 612

SHEET No. 20

GEOLOGIC AND TOPOGRAPHIC MAP

OF THE

OVERLAND ROIJTE

From Omaha, Nebraska, to San Francisco, California

Base compiled from United States Geological Survey Atlas Sheets,
from railroad alignments and profiles supplied by the Union Pacific
Railroad Company and the Southern Pacific Company and from addi-
tional information collected with the assistance of these corapauies

UNLPED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY

GEORGE OTIS SMITH, DIRECTOR
David White, Chief Geologist R. B. Marshall, Chief Geographer

1915

Each quadrangle shown on the map with a name in parenthesis in the
lower left comer is mapped in detail on the U. 5. G. S. Topographic
sheet of that name.

THE OVERLAND BOUTE OGDEN TO SAN FRANCISCO.

179

deposits.. The gravel in places slides down over the clays and con-
ceals them.

Beyond Woolsey, a siding and section house, the upper beaches of
Lake Lahontan are very distinct, especially in evening light. The
railroad now begins to descend to the broadening bottom lands of
Lovelock Valley, with its trees, fields, and ranch buildings.

Kodak is a sidetrack from which gypsum was formerly shipped

to a plaster mill at Reno, and fragments of the gypsum rock are

strewn along the railroad. They are of granular

Kodak. texture, like loaf sugar, and some portions show

^^^'f'?/;?^'*!"^^' distinct lamination or banding. The deposit is an

Omaha 1,433 miles. . i /. ^ ^ a m pi- \

immense mass that forms a bare blufi of light-colored
material in the low slopes of the Humboldt Lake Range opposite
Kodak. It is evidently an interbedded layer in the Triassic sedi-
mentary series, probably a chemical deposit formed in Triassic time
in a comparatively small basin. Deposits of gypsum were laid down
over very extensive areas during Triassic and Permian time in other
parts of the country, indicating widespread conditions of aridity in
those periods.

Lovelock and the adjacent Lovelock Valley, the lower 16 or 18
miles of the valley occupied by Humboldt River above Humboldt
Lake, constitute one of the most prosperous agri-
cultural settlements of Nevada. Lovelock is also
the railroad and supply point for a number of mining
districts. At present its principal industries are
connected with the raising of sheep and cattle and
especially the winter feeding of stock. The river is 15 to 25 feet
below the general level of the cultivated flood plain, so that it is
necessary to bring the water for irrigation in ditches from points
upstream. In 1900 about 14,000 acres were irrigated, and a little
over half of this area was in alfalfa. Wheat, barley, and potatoes
are also grown, and the town has a flour mill.

Of the mining camps which are generally reached by way of Love-
lock, Seven Troughs,^ a gold camp, is at present the most important.
North of Lovelock, in the Trinity Mountains, is the Montezuma
mine, which supplied antimonial lead-silver ore to the Oreana smelter
in the sixties. There are a number of antimony deposits in the

Lovelock.

Elevation 3,979 feet.
Population 1,421.*
Omaha 1,438 miles.

^ The Seven Troughs district, including
four little towns, Seven Troughs, Vernon,
Mazuma, and Farrell, is about 30 miles
northwest of Lovelock and lies on the
east slope of a minor range now generally
known as the Seven Troughs Mountains.
It is one of the more recent camps, not
much prospecting having been done here
before 1905 or 1907. The ores are in

Tertiary volcanic rocks and occur in
veins of soft, crushed material which
does not crop out at the surface. The
veins carry native gold containing a
considerable proportion of silver, in
sugary quartz. Some very rich ore has
been found in this district, and some
of the mines have yielded considerable
returns.

180

GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES.

mountains hereabout, one of them ui the West Humboldt Range a
few miles east of Lovelock. Nickel and cobalt deposits, not now
worked, occur in the Stillwater Range about 30 miles southeast of
Lovelock. A little niter has been found in this neighborhood, chiefly
in the Humboldt Lake Range. ^

From Lovelock the railroad continues down to the west side of
the Humboldt Valley, at first through broad fields of hay and grain^
At Perth (a sidetrack) there is a very large pit from which gravel
has been taken for grading along the railroad. The gravel here, as
at other places in this part of Nevada, is one of the old beach deposits
of Lake Lahontan, Shore terraces, which are in many places very
distinct, may be seen here on both sides of the valley.

Beyond the cultivated region the low irregular valley surface con-
sists of a mixture of clay and sand in dunelike form, the lumpy
surface being due more or less to the growth of brush and to conse-
quent local protection from the wind. The yellowish-green brush
that covers the country is greasewood (Sarcobatus), which seems to
prefer ground that is otherwise unproductive.

Granite Point (elevation 3,973 feet), a railroad siding and group of
section houses, is named from a rocky bluff that projects into the
west side of the valley below Lovelock. It is horizontally scored by
the upper Lake Lahontan terraces. Below this point the valley is
more barren, the hard white clay in the low-lying ground supporting
only isolated clumps of greasewood.

Humboldt Lake, a water body of irregular outline and variable
area which receives the surplus drainage of Humboldt River, comes
into view at or a little southwest of milepost 334. It is on the left
(east) of the railroad, at the bottom of a broad, smoothly graded
wash slope. The level and size of the lake vary greatly with the
seasons. At times of high water it overflows into Carson Sink. At
other times, however, evaporation exceeds the supply and the lake
decreases in size. The water is not densely saline, as it is partly

^ Saltpeter, or niter, which is a neces-
sary constituent in the manufacture of
most gunpowders and is also very largely
used for fertilizers and for other purposes,
has been found in small quantities in
many places in the United States, al-
though practically the entire supply of
these salts now used in this country is
obtained from Chile. Niter was discov-
ered in the foothills bordering the Love-
lock Valley at about the time of the first
coming of the railroad through this part
of the country, and the possibility of de-
veloping a local supply of these impor-

tant salts has ever since been a source of
intermittent interest. Incrustations of
salt containing in some places a consid-
erable proportion of sodium nitrate are
found on some of the fractured cliffs and
ledges of volcanic rock just above the
edge of the valley land south and south-
east of Lovelock. Continued exploration
and experimentation in these districts
have, however, failed to discover any
mass of niter-bearing material of sufficient
volume and richness to justify or encour-
age an enterprise for its commercial de-
velopment.

THE OVERLAND ROUTE OGDEN TO SAN FRANCISCO.

181

freshened by occasional overflow into the final ^'evaporation pan" of
the Carson Desert.

Beyond Toulon (a sidetrack) the railroad gradually approaches
the lake. There is no cultivation of the ground about here, nor any
settlement other than that represented by the railroad section
houses. At high water a narrow ridge parallel to the railroad appears
as a long tongue of land that extends out into the lake parallel to
the shore. A telephone line runs down the valley, and very commonly
the poles here stand well out in the water. These poles were set
when this part of the valley was dry, but the wire was later put on
them from boats.

The Humboldt Lake Range, at the east side of the valley, dwin-
dles to a long, narrow ridge extending off to the southwest. Over
this summit, beyond its southwesternmost point, lies the Carson
Desert, one of the most extensive of the Nevada desert valleys, and
its saline lake, Carson Sink.

Toy (formerly Brown's station), a group of railroad section houses,
stands just above the edge of Humboldt Lake at high water. A little
beyond this place the railroad crosses the line between
'^*^y- Humboldt and Churchill counties. In the hills north-

west of Miriam (a siding) a deposit of scheelite ^
was recently found.

The basin of Humboldt Lake is partly closed at its lower or
southwest end by a remarkable gravel embankment which looks
Uke a great artificial dam. Just beyond milepost 323 the railroad
passes through one end of this embankment in a deep cut that
exposes well the character and attitude of the beds of which it is
built. The embankment is clearly one of the beaches or bars of
former Lake Lahontan. Such bars are formed by waves and cur-
rents in lakes or along the seashore at the present time. This em-
bankment, now high above any recent water level, with even crest
and smoothly curving front in its sweep across the valley, is a
striking topographic feature.

The embankment is cut across in one place near its south end by
the overflow from Humboldt Lake. The breach has been partly
repaired by an artificial dam which largely increases the area of the
lake and, it is stated, furnishes power for mining and milling. Hum-
boldt Lake overflows only a part of the time, but at very high water
a considerable stream passes from it to Carson Sink. The breach
through which it overflows can be seen from the train by looking
back after the embankment has been passed. The embankment is

Elevation 3,930 feet
Omaha 1,453 miles.

' Scheelite (tungstate of calcium) is a
very heavy mineral, which is ordinarily
found in veins in crystalline rocks. It
is an ore of tungsten, a metal that is used

to form an .alloy with steel, made for uses
requiring great hardness. Tungsten is
also employed in making filaments for
electric lights.

182 GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTEEN UNITED STATES.

more or less concave toward the valleys on both the upper and lower
sides, but the backward view from the lower side best shows its form.

The railroad crosses and recrosses the overflow channel, traversing
broad stretches of bare white mud and irregular areas of lumpy
ground built up from white sand and clay. About 2 miles beyond
Ocala (a section house at milepost 320) salt vats and a small salt-
making plant lie close to the railroad, in the middle of one of the
white clay flats or playas. (See p. 154.)

The station called Huxley (formerly White Plains) is approxi-
mately at the junction of the present railroad with the
Huxley. original line of the Central Pacific, which ran from this

Elevation 3,908 feet, point duc soutliwcst, climbiug over a divide of several
hundred feet and passing a station called Mirage.
The present line swings southward along the border of the Carson
Desert.

The Jessup mining district, a gold camp, lies in the mountains 10
miles northwest of Huxley. Some shipments of gold-bearing ore
were made during 1908 and later, but the district has not been a
large producer.

One of the first deep wells drilled in the West was put down near
this place by the Central Pacific Railway in 1881, in a search for good
water. The boring reached a depth of 2,750 feet, but the water
obtained was of very unsatisfactory quality. At 1,700 feet the drill
encountered a bed of '^petrified clams," and the record states that
at 1,900 feet well-preserved '^ redwood timber" was found.

Huxley is the shipping point for the small salt plant passed a short
distance back. An old kiln east of the track has been used in the
past for making lime from a mass of compacted sheUs constituting
one of the shore deposits of the former Lake Lahontan. This deposit
seems to indicate that the lake waters could not have been very
heavily charged with salts at the time when the inhabitants of these
shells lived, although it must be admitted that the shells might have
been washed into the lake by Humboldt River. Many of the shells
are intact and perfectly preserved. The shell deposit is said to be
continuous for several miles along this part of the vaUey.

Near Huxley the river spreads out, forming extensive marsh lands
(the Mopung marshes), and during flood seasons this region is often
a favorite resort of waterfowl. The small lakes are said to be full
of carp and other fish at such times, doubtless carried down from
Humboldt Lake. Pelicans, ducks, geese, snipe, and other water-
fowl are found in the vicinity of the Nevada lakes and marshes.

At milepost 315 is the beginning of another long tangent of the
railroad which heads almost directly south. Along this stretch the
vaUey opens out toward the Carson Desert, across which the Still-
water Range may be seen in the distance. From Huxley to a point

4
I

I

/

*'i4 ,:'V,:a

THE OVERLAND ROUTE — OGDEN TO SAN FRANCISCO.

183

Parran.

Elevation 3,888 feet.
Omaha 1,470 miles.

a little beyond Hazeii the train passes through some of the most
typically desert country to be seen along the whole route. The over-
flow channel from Humboldt Lake is crossed for the last time, as it
turns off to the east toward the lowest part of Carson Sink. The
railroad passes along the margin of the sink, which has here a lumpy
dunelikc surface consisting of sand and clay soil, the mounds sur-
mounted by isolated patches of greasewood.

Parran is the lowest point on the Nevada portion of the Southern
Pacific route. The salt-incrusted surface about the station is typical
of the margins of the large playas that are common
in these deserts. Water generally stands on the
surface of the sink, and in the distance on its south
side may be seen a thin line of dark trees trailing out
into the desert. These trees are cottonwoods, which border the
lower channel of Carson Kiver, the principal source of the water
that flows into the sink. At Parran is an old salt plant which has
not been operated for several years, but which formerly produced
a few hundred tons of salt annually for local use at near-by settle-
ments. There is a water tank and pump station at Parran, but all
the water used at this place is brought in tank cars, being run into
an underground cistern from which it is pumped into the tank.

Beyond Parran lies a desolate stretch of barren dunes of clay and
sand w4th scattered clumps of greasewood. The desert is bordered
on the northwest by bare hills, whose slopes, in many places even to
the summits, are covered with white, wind-drifted sand. The
scenery along this part of the route offers but little variety and sug-
gests extreme desolation. (See PI. XXXVIII.) High sand dunes,
more or less covered with greasewood, and small bare mud plains
(playas) continue beyond Hazen. Just east of Hazen is another
gravel pit which, like several already mentioned, is in one of the
beach-bar deposits of former Lake Lahontan,

An extensive area in Nevada may be considered tributary to the
main line of the Southern Pacific by way of Hazen.
Within this area are the Tonopah, Goldfield, Yerington,
Elevation 4,012 feet. Luuiug, Silver Peak, Rawhide, Wonder, Fairview, and

Omaha 1,494 miles. i n i . . ,. . '

other well-known mining districts.
Fallon, 15 miles away on the low, broad alluvial fan of Carson
River, is the center of the Truckee-Carson irrigation project.^ It

Hazen.

' On the western border of the Great
Basin, in the bed of ancient Lake Lahon-
tan, in Nevada, the Government is bring-
ing to completion a project to irrigate
more than 200,000 acres of land. This is
one of the driest parts of the United
States, and was called "Fortymile Des-
ert" by the gold huntera who crossed it

on the way to California. Its average
annual rainfall is only 4 inches. To the
man from the humid region the valley at
first looks very desolate, but to one
acquainted with these deserts the La-
hontan country presents many attrac-
tions. As the train from Hazen neara
Fallon the possibilities of the region

184

GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTEEN UNITED STATES.

is reached by a branch railroad from Hazen which passes the old
settlement of Ragtown.^

Another branch line runs south from Hazen to Goldfield, which is
connected by rail with Las Vegas, Nev., on the Los Angeles, San
Pedro & Salt Lake Railroad, and with Ludlow, Cal., on the Santa Fe
system. This line gives access to Yerington - by a branch from
Wabuska, to Rawhide by a branch from the head of Walker Lake,
to Silver Peak by a branch from Tonopah Junction, to Tonopah,
and to numerous other mining districts. Connection may be made
also at Fort Churchill for Virginia City (the Comstock lode; see PI.
XLIII, p. 189), Carson, and Reno.

The deposits at Tonopah ^ were discovered in 1900, when the
mining industry generally in Nevada had sunk to a very low level.

become more apparent. It has all the
potential resources of the country that
surrounds Boise, Idaho, and Greeley,
Colo., and the energetic citizens who are
settling here will in a few years make this
district as fertile and famous as those.

The soil is sandy loam, clay loam, and
volcanic ash. The valley will produce
every variety of crop grown in the North
Temperate Zone. Alfalfa, wheat, barley,
and oats grow luxuriantly, and sugar
beets are a profitable crop. Apples,
pears, apricots, and cherries, as well as
garden vegetables, do well and find a
ready market in the mining towns near
by. Potatoes, celery, and cantaloupes
raised here are of superior quality and are
shipped for consumption on dining cars
and in first-class hotels. A considerable
number of farms now await settlers, and
additional areas will be thrown open
from time to time to meet the require-
ments of homeseekers

The Truckee-Carson project was the
first of the large irrigation projects under-
taken by the Government. The water
is derived from Carson and Truckee riv-
ers, that from the Truckee being brought
across the divide at Fernley by means of
a large canal.

' Before the railroad was built over-
land emigrant travel followed various
routes, one of which passed north of
Great Salt Lake and came down Hum-
boldt River. At that time, of course,
Hazen had no existence, but one of the
principal stations along the old route wa«
Ragtown, a few miles southeast of Hazen.
It was merely a trading station and de-
rived its name from its ragged and miser-

able appearance, for about the station
stood a group of huts of Piute Indians,
constructed of brush, pieces of old wagon
covers, ragged remnants of tents, old
quilts, and Indian mats, a more or less
familiar sight in parts of Nevada even
to-day. (See PI. XXXIX.)

Near Ragtown, not far from the present
railroad between Hazen and Fallon, in
the midst of the sand dunes of the Carson
Desert, there are two remarkable lakes,
formerly known as the Ragtown ponds,
now called Big Soda and Little Soda
lakes. They^are believed to be old vol-
canic craters, whose tops are now almost
on a level with the desert. They con-
tain a strong solution of sodium carbon-
ate, or washing soda, together with other
salts, from which soda was for a time
extracted.

2 Yerington is a copper district. The
principal ore bodies are of irregular shape
and occur in Triassic limestone near in-
trusive masses of granite (granodiorite) .
They belong to the type of contact-meta-
morphic deposits. The minerals charac-
teristically associated in the deposits are
pyrite, chalcopyrite, garnet, and pyrox-
ene. There are also some veins in the
district.

^ The Tonopah deposits are quartz veins
carrying a number of silver sulphide min-
erals, particularly argentite, stephanite,
and polybasite (the last two containing
antimony as well as sulphur), with some
gold. The country rocks are trachyte,
rhyolite, and andesite. The veins have
been faulted and displaced in a remarka-
ble manner, so that skill is required to
mine them.

BULLETIN 612

SHEET No. 21

GEOLOGIC AND TOFOGKAP^HIC MAP

OVERLAND ROUTE

From Omaha, Nebraska, to San Francisco, California

Base compiled from United States Geological Survey Atlas Sheets,
from railroad alignments and profiles supplied by the Union Pacific
Kallroad Companj' and the Southern Pacific Company and from addi-
tional information collected with the assistance of these companies

UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY

GEORUE OTIS SMITH, DIRECTOR
David White. Chief (leologist R. B. Marshall, Chief (Geographer

1015

Each quadrangle shoum on the map with a name in parenthesis in the
lower left comer is mapped in detail on the U. S. G. S. Topographic
sheet of that name.

2 d

i ^

i ^

O o

O j2

<3 c

THE OVERLAND ROUTE OGDEN TO SAN FRANCISCO.

185

The discovery greatly stimulated prospecting and led to the revival
of mining throughout the State. The district has produced silver
and gold to the total value of more than $60,000,000 from veins in
Tertiary volcanic rocks. (See PI. XL.)

The discovery of gold at Goldfield ^ in 1902 was a direct outcome
of the development at Tonopah. The deposits here also occur in
Tertiary volcanic rocks, but in form and character they are entirely
different from the Tonopah veins. The total production from Gold-
field to the end of 1913 was over $65,000,000 in gold and silver. Of
late years considerable copper has been recovered from the concen-
trates of the Goldfield miUs. (See PI. XLI.)

Argo and Luva, west of Hazen, are merely sidetracks, except that
Luva stands at the junction of the main line with a now little-used
branch that connects with a part of the original line of the Central
Pacific, until lately operated as far east as Leete, where there are old
salt works. Formerly the main line of the railroad followed a more
direct route through this valley to White Plains (Huxley). The
present route by Carson Sink, though longer, avoids a steep and
troublesome hill, where helper engines were employed.

Fernley (see sheet 22, p. 202) is one of the more recently developed
agricultural settlements resulting from the Truckee-Carson reclama-
tion project. The ditch from Truckee River runs
along a hillside a considerable distance south of the
railroad, and from it water is supplied for irrigating
some very promising bench lands. Good water for
domestic use is found in wells 100 or 200 feet deep. From Fernley a
recently finished line of the Southern Pacific, known as the Fern-
ley-Lassen branch, extends north and northwest into California.
Here also the traveler crosses the divide between two modern subdi-
visions of the former Lahontan basin, going from a basin tributary
to Carson Sink into the valley of Truckee River, whence aU natural
drainage passes northward toward Pyramid and Winnemucca lakes.
As a part of the Truckee-Carson project, a part of the Truckee
River water has been artificially diverted over the Fernley divide into
the Carson and Humboldt basins.

Truckee River, named from the Indian guide of Gen. Fremont,
flows through the old town of Wadsworth just beyond Fernley and
100 or more feet below the present railroad grade. The original route
of the Central Pacific passed down into this vaUey, and Wadsworth

Fernley.

Elevation 4,157 feet.
Omaha 1,506 mUes.

'The Goldfield deposits, which are
rather irregular in form, occur along zones
of Assuring in dacite, andesite, and la-
tite, all closely related lavas. A large
part of the ore consists of silicified por-

tions of these rocks. The gold is partly
free, partly combined with tellurium. A
peculiar feature of these deposits is their
content of alunite, a hydrous sulphate of
potassium, sodium, and aluminum.

186

GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES.

was one of the important stations on it. Now, however, the raiboad
swings to the south to maintain an even grade on the westward climb
along upper Truckee River.

Truckee River rises in Lake Tahoe and is of greater purity and
subject to less fluctuation than any other stream that enters the
Lahontan basin. At Wadsworth the Truckee makes a bend to the
north and then flows through a narrow and canyon-like channel for 18
or 20 miles to Pyramid and Winnemucca lakes, where its waters are
evaporated. Wadsworth was formerly a trading post and also served
as an Indian agency and fort. Pyramid Lake is still included in an
Indian reservation, the present Indian agency being situated at the
south end of the lake near the mouth of Truckee River. The Indians
are mostly of the Piute tribe. There are many references to Wads-
worth in the history of the early events in this part of the country.

West of Wadsworth a backward view down to the narrow bottom
lands along the river presents a pleasing contrast to the rocky barren-
ness of the hills on either side, at least during the summer, when a
stream of clear water glitters amid green fields and trees. The train
soon enters the Virginia Range and the canyon of the Truckee, which
gradually narrows upstream. The rocks exposed in the canyon walls
are mostly lavas, including volcanic flows and interbedded layers of
volcanic tuff or ash, representing successive periods of volcanic
activity. The lavas are of varied character, including light-gray
rhyolite, darker andesite, and black basalt. At lower elevations
along the bottom of the canyon are white, even-bedded clays, lying
horizontal, which were left by the receding waters of Lake Lahontan.
These clays rise to the maximum level reached by the former lake
waters, about 4,400 feet above present sea level.

Between mileposts 273 and 272 the mining district of Olinghouse ^
may be seen, though it is at some distance across the canyon to the
north or northwest. This district is now reached by way of Wads-
worth.

Opposite milepost 265 are the reservoir and diversion dam (PL
XLII, p. 188) by which Truckee River water is taken into the ditch of
the Truckee-Carson reclamation project. Unassorted and unconsoli-
dated deposits of bowlders, gravel, and sand exposed in some of the
railroad cuts are recent river deposits. The somber coloring of these
barren rocky slopes is very characteristic of the Nevada desert ranges,
particularly of the volcanic regions. Rock cuts along the railroad
expose also some materials of brilliant hues, principally weathered

^ The White Horse or Olinghouse dis-
trict lies on the east side of the Virginia
Range and covers about 6 square miles.
The prevailing country rock is andesitic

lava. The district has yielded fine ore
specimens and has shipped some good
ore, but on the whole it has not been very
productive.

THE OVERLAND ROUTE OGDEN TO SAN FRANCISCO.

187

Derby.

volcanic tuffs belonging to the succession of lavas of which the

Virginia Range is mainly composed.

Gilpin (a sidetrack) is in the midst of almost continuous rock cuts

and cliffs, mostly in basalt and basaltic tuffs. The channel here is

so narrow that little or no cultivation is possible along the stream.

At low elevations near the river channel the horizontal white lake

beds are clearly exposed across the valley.

Derby was formerly the junction of the original route, which passed

by way of Wadsworth, with the present line, but the old track down
the south side of the river has now been taken up and
the grade is used as a public road. West of Derby

Elevation 4,165 feet. ^]^g cauyou uarrows and its walls become higher, con-
sisting of continuous bluffs that show the lava flow

rocks and interbedded layers of ash, including deposits of white tuff

and diatomaceous earth, which appear as conspicuous white earthy

bands at a number of places, both high and low, on the slopes. The

successive flows of dark lava show here in the steep bluffs across

the river, on the south side of the canyon.

The line between Storey and Washoe coimties follows the channel

of Truckee River, and county-line posts are seen at one end or the

other of the bridges.

Clark is a minor station in the canyon and is the point of departure

for the Ramsay mining district,^ in the Virginia Range, to the south.
West of Clark the Lake Lahontan clays are exhibited
in cuts along the railroad. These extend to a siding

Elevation 4,257 feet, named Ditho (elevation 4,304 feet), where the last

Omaha 1,520 miles. pit • /• i i i i i

renmants oi such deposits are lound, the track level
at this point being almost exactly coincident with the uppermost
level reached by the waters of the old lake. This is therefore the
western limit of the former Lake Lahontan, whose basin the railroad
has been continuously crossing from a point at exactly the same
level in the Humboldt Valley near Golconda.

For several miles beyond Ditho remnants of a very recent though
prehistoric lava flow may be seen in the river valley. The flow is a
layer, apparently 10 to 20 feet thick, of dense black basalt, which lies
chiefly along the very bottom of the vaUey. It is exposed in cross
section at several places by the cutting of the river and along the
old railroad grades, which lie slightly above the present route. This
lava has flowed down since the valley attained practicaUy its present
form.

Clark.

' Ramsay, a town of about 100 inhabit-
ants, is 17 miles south -southeast of Clark
station, with which it is connected by a
good road traversed by a daily stage. The

country rock is Tertiary lava (andesite
and a little rhyolite). Several mines
have shipped some gold ore, but the pro-
duction has not been large.

188

GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES.

Hafed.

Elevation 4,376 fee
Omaha 1,529 miles

West of Hafed, a sidetrack opposite a ranch on the valley bottom,

some good examples of columnar jointing in the basalt lava are ex-
posed just above the railroad track. (See footnote,
p. 121.) Volcanic tuff, both coarse and fine, appa-
rently underlies the basalt and forms bluffs. To the
Vest the river channel narrows again and is bordered

on both sides by steep rocky ridges and spurs.

Vista, an old station and group of section houses, is at the upper

end of the canyon in the Virginia Range, and immediately beyond

it the Truckee Meadows spread out broad and flat.

*®^^* The extreme lower part of the meadows near the

Elevation 4,395 feet, entrance to the canyon is marshy, from a cause
ma a , mi es. explained in the footnote on page 189. The many

prospects of the Wedekind mining district may be seen in tlie low

foothills at the margin of the valley to the north. The district has

never produced much ore.

The city of Sparks was named after John Sparks, governor of

Nevada from 1903 to 1906. Although the second city in Nevada
in population, it is primarily a railroad division
point and contains the Southern Pacific Co.'s shops
and roundhouses. A stop of 15 or 20 minutes is
usually made at the railroad offices and shops, where
a huge mountain-cHmbing locomotive is substituted

for the ordinary one. After another stop at the passenger station,

three-foiu-ths of a mile farther on, the train proceeds westward 2J

miles across the open valley to Reno.^

Sparks.

Elevation 4,225 feet
Population 2,500.
Omaha 1,536 miles.

^ To the westbound traveler the view
to the rear across the Truckee Meadows
toward the narrow gorge by which Truckee
River passes through the Virginia Range
is suggestive of many events in the geo-
logic history of this general region. The
Virginia Range illustrates the block-fault

connected with the level plain at its foot
by short slopes of talus and small alluvial
fans. These works of erosion and depo-
sition, however, do not obscure the fact
that the range is essentially an uplifted
block of the earth's crust, and the valley
below, now buried by river flood-plain

Lava and tuff

Figure 16.— Diagrammatic cross section showing the geologic structme of the Virginia Range in its rela-
tion to Truckee Meadows.

Structure that characterizes the ranges of
the Great Basin. Its front stands like a
great wall along the lower edge of the
meadows, almost no foothills interven-
ing between mountain and plain. The
steeper part of the mountain front is
trenched by gulches or canyons and is

Virginia Range

Sierra Nevada
(front range)

-^ ^--— -^''_- \\^ Truckee Meadows

^^^^^<;^^00^B

a.^^

/

is a relatively downthrown
block. (See fig. 16.)

The mountains around the Truckee
Meadows are broken by a narrow gorge
through which Truckee River escapes.
This gorge, now deep and narrow and
worn into solid rock through the most of

H 2

THE OVERLAND ROUTE OGDEN TO SAN FRANCISCO.

189

The largest city in Nevada is Reno, the seat of Washoe County,

P which has long been the principal commercial and

industrial center of western Nevada. From this

Elevation 4,497 feet. • , , i xr- • • o rr^ i -r» -i i i

Population 10,867. pomt the Virgmia & iruckee Kailroad runs south
Omaha 1,539 miles. to Carson (31 milcs), the State capital, and to Vir-
ginia City (52 miles), the locality of the famous Comstock lode,

its course, has undoubtedly been cut by
the river. It seems that such a channel
may have been developed in one of two
ways. Either Truckee River, dammed
by the rise of a mountain ridge across its
path, formed a lake and, after an outlet
had been established by overflow at
some low point on the margin, gradually
wore this down into a canyon, or else the
river, having established its channel
across low-lying plains that existed before
the mountains were uplifted, simply
maintained its course by cutting down
its channel as fast as the mountain bar-
rier rose. That the latter hypothesis is
the true one appears from the following
considerations. If the site of the Truckee
Meadows had ever been dammed to a
considerable depth by uplift of the Vir-
ginia Range, the lake waters would have
soon found an outlet through a low pass
to the north, reaching Pyramid Lake by
a more direct course than they now take.
There is, however, no sign of such a chan-
nel nor of traces of shore lines about the
valley to indicate that the lake ever rose
to this height.

The uplift of the ranges in the Great
Basin and of the Sierra Nevada, which is
now near at hand, is a comparatively
recent event as reckoned on the geologic
time scale. (The term upUft is used
only in a relative sense; it does not nec-
essarily imply actual uplift. Some ap-
parent upUfts may be due to a sinking of
adjacent valley areas.) These mountain-
building movements began late in the
Tertiary period and have continued even
down to the present day. Little by
little blocks of the surface crust readjust
themselves, and here and there earth-
quakes or the opening of fissures at the
surface signify the gradual slipping of one
fragment of the earth's crust against
another. Probably the movements that
uplifted the higher mountain ranges took

place in the past in much the same grad-
ual manner as to-day. The east front of
the Sierra is now an earthquake zone, in
which are felt occasional shocks and tre-
mors due to movements in the earth's
crust, and these appear to come period-
ically. They may be frequent for a
period covering several months, which
may be followed by a period of relative
quiescence.

The Truckee Meadows may have been
intermittently a shallow lake and a
meadow. At present the river is flo\\dng
over volcanic bedrock at the entrance to
the canyon, on the east, while the valley
above is occupied by alluvium and possi-
bly some lake beds. The ground water,
following the general course of the stream,
rises as it encounters the natural rock
dam at the entrance to the canyon, mak-
ing the lands above the canyon entrance
marshy.

The mountains around the Truckee
Meadows are composed of sedimentary
rocks that are probably Mesozoic or
possibly in part Paleozoic, igneous, and
metamorpliic rocks, and lavas and asso-
ciated sedimentary deposits of Tertiary
or later age. The pre-Tertiary rocks were
exposed for a long period to weathering
and erosion before the Tertiary sediments
were laid down upon them. In Tertiary
time an extensive series of volcanic flows
was poured out, accompanied by showers
of volcanic ash and the accumulation of
fresh-water lake or marsh deposits. These
materials, with the deposits spread by
running streams, form the later group of
geologic formations here represented.
The geologic column in the vicinity of
Reno is very incomplete — that is, long
periods of geologic time are unrepresented
here in the record preserved by rock for-
mations. Although some deposits may
have been laid down during these periods
and later entirely worn away, it may be

190

GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES.

with the discovery of which Nevada's mining history began. ^ To
the north the Nevada-Cahfornia-Oregon Railway reaches Alturas
(184 miles), in the northeast corner of California, and has lately been
extended to Lakeview (238 miles), across the line in Oregon. Reno
is the seat of the Nevada State University, which includes the Mackay
School of Mines. Its manufactures include flour, foundry and ma-
chine-shop products, packed meats, and beer. Farming and stock
raising are important industries in this vicinity, particularly in the

inferred in general that the land surface
in this vicinty was elevated and that by
erosion its rocks were contributing to
sedimentation in other parts of the region.

The lavas are principally andesites of
varied mineralogic composition, but the
series includes also much rhyolite and
some basalt. All the lavas are inter-
bedded with layers of volcanic ash, tuff,
or tuff-breccia, the last consisting of
angular lava fragments thrown out from
the volcanic vents. -Most of the lavas
are Tertiary, but some are more recent.

The foregoing summary of volcanic
activity applies especially to the eastern
Sierra foothill belt, but it is broadly appli-
cable to the whole western part of the
Great Basin province. Moreover, the
lavas here described are undoubtedly
related directly to the extensive flows
that spread out over the Sierra, although
the later sedimentary record west of the
Sierra divide is entirely distinct from
that in the Great Basin.

1 Virginia City (PI. XLIII) is in the
Virginia Range near its crest, only 12
to 15 miles south of the canyon through
which the railroad crosses these moun-
tains. Ten years after the first gold ex-
citement in California prospectors began
to search the stream channels of Nevada.
They found "pay dirt" along Carson
River and traced these gravels far up-
stream. In January, 1859, prospectors
followed these gold gravels to their source
high on the slopes of Mount Davidson,
and as washings from the loose surface
croppings yielded rich returns, they dug
down to bedrock. Then it was that the
lode was discovered. A rush of prospec-
tors followed, and Virginia City rapidly
grew into one of the principal towns of
the far West. In 1870 a narrow-gage
branch railroad, 52 miles in length, was

completed from Reno. This has been
referred to as the most prosperous railroad
in the country in its day, as it was said
for a time to have regularly operated 40
trains a day over its 52 miles of crooked
track. As the workings were deepened
the ingress of hot water and the high
underground temperature made mining
difficult. The mines were in part drained
by the Sutro tunnel, a notable engineer-
ing feat for that time. Work in the deeper
levels is rendered possible only by the
constant forcing of large volumes of air
through the entries and a liberal use of
ice water, both for drinking and for bath-
ing, by the men, who work in very short
shifts.

The Comstock lode is a great fissure
vein, 4 miles long, along a line of faulting
in the Tertiary eruptive rocks (chiefly
andesite) of the Virginia Range. It crops
out on the east side of Mount Davidson.
The mountain range but not the summit
may be seen in clear weather from Reno
by looking up the open valley to the
southeast. The ore, which is of high
grade, carries silver and gold in quartz.
In the old days it occurred typically in
great bodies called "bonanzas." The
district was noted for the large scale on
which everything connected with the
mining, including the speculation, was
carried on. The size of the old dumps
and the kind of machinery employed
show even those who are used to mining
that great things were done here. About
$400,000,000 in gold and silver, in the
ratio, by value, of 2 of gold to 3 of silver,
has been taken out of the Comstock.
Considerable ore is still being mined, but
the great bonanzas have been worked
out, and Virginia City is a melancholy
wreck of what was once a lively town of
some 20,000 people.

THE OVERLAND ROUTE — OGDEN TO SAN FRANCISCO. 191

Truckee Meadows and in the broad expanse of open valleys lying to
the south, in the upper Carson Valley.

Reno Hes near the extreme western edge of Nevada and of the Great
Basin, at the foot of the Sierra Nevada. Here Truckee River emerges
from the foothills of the high mountains and flows out mto the open
Truckee Meadows. Now, as in the early pioneer days, Reno is a
landmark in the journey across the continent. Here ends the long
stretch of desert, and here the high timbered slopes of the Sierra
Nevada, with their streams of fresh running water, appear near at
hand. On the site of the present city a road house was erected in
1859 for the accommodation of travelers and freight teams on their
way to and from California. By 1863 this place had become known
as Lakes Crossmg, and five years later it was chosen as a site for a
station by the Central Pacific Railway. The name Reno was given
to it at that time in honor of Gen. Jesse Lee Reno, a Federal officer
of the Civil War. It became an important point of distribution for
this part of Nevada, particularly for the adjacent towns and camps,
which included the abeady famous Comstock.

Carson, the capital of Nevada, lies about 30 miles to the south and,
like Reno, stands in a broad, fertile valley at the eastern base of the
Carson Range, a front range of the main Sierra. This is the upper
valley of Carson River, which, like the Truckee, flows eastward into
the Great Basin.

About 10 miles south of Reno on the road to Carson is a group of
hot springs known as Steamboat Springs. These and other hot-
spring waters along the Sierra front have their origin in the heated
depths of the earth, and come up along fault fissures generally parallel
with the Sierra. The ground around Steamboat Springs has been
built up by silica deposited by the hot waters, as a low ridge of white
sinter, which is a conspicuous feature in the landscape. Many of
the pools are actually at boiling temperature, and in cool weather
clouds of steam rise from them.^

' Steamboat Springs, Nev., has figured
prominently in discussions of the origin
of ore deposits. The waters of these
springs contain the precious metals in

spaces or fissures in the rocks through
which the waters passed, the deposition
of some ores being influenced by chemi-
cal reaction with the surrounding rock.

minute quantities, and the sinter depos- Many ore deposits are undoubtedly
ited by them contains several minerals j formed in other ways, for some are unques-
that are common constituents of ores, as ; tionably of sedimentar>- origin and the
well as small quantities of many of the ' metal content of some others has been car-
rarer metallic constituents of ore deposits, ried down, redeposited, and concen-
includinggold and silver. Such springs, trated by rain water that descended into
therefore, suggest that many and perhaps the earth's crust; but the " hydrothermal "
most ore-bearing veins have been formed origin — that is, their deposition from
by hot waters rising from great depths, ascending hot water — of many of the more
wliich have brought their metal contents valuable ore deposits is indicated by the
upin solution and deposited them in open close relation observed at many places

192

GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES.

Leaving Reno the railroad runs west along the north side of Truckee
River, here again confined in a canyon, which, however, is not so
narrow or steep as the canyon in the Virginia Range. The river is
bordered on both sides by a succession of terraces, the uppermost of
which is several hundred feet above the river bottom. In the out-
skirts of Reno, on the north side of the track, there is a clay pit and
brick plant, and beyond them are large pits that have been excavated
in the river terraces for sand and gravel to be used in construction
work. The site of Reno and much of the valley to the west is over-
spread by deposits of bowlder and gravel left by the river during the
period of terrace building. The open lands at the foot of the high
mountains permitted the streams to spread out and deposit the load
of bowlders and finer sediments that they had washed through the
steeper and narrower parts of their channels above.

Projecting in places from beneath the nearly horizontal terrace
deposits are regularly bedded, tilted sedimentary rocks, the only
unaltered sediments of the Reno region known to be older than Qua-
ternary. They belong to a series of fresh-water deposits called
the Truckee formation, generally considered of Miocene age. These
beds, which consist of clay, gravel, sand, and a peculiar white earth,
are finely exhibited in conspicuous white bluffs 2 to 4 miles west of
Reno, and are worthy of particular notice, for the chalk-white earth
of which they are so largely composed here occurs in unusual quan-
tity. This chalk- white material consists largely of microscopic
shells, or frustules, as they are called, of one-celled plants known as
diatoms,^ once included under the general name Infusoria. These
remains have collected here in numbers so immense as to form
deposits hundreds of feet thick and in places make up almost the entire
mass of the rock. This mass of fossil diatoms, or diatomaceous

between mineral veins and eruptive
rocks. Thermal waters are believed to
be, in part at least, given off by slowly
cooling and solidifying masses of igneous
rock (magma) deep within the earth.

^ Diatoms are of many different forms
and inhabit both fresh and salt water.
They consist of single isolated cells, or
of strings of cells attached in linear suc-
cession or in zigzag chains. Those that
compose the beds west of Reno are en-
tirely of fresh- water origin. All diatoms
secrete siliceous shells about their living
parts, each shell consisting of two valves,
which fit together like a pill box and its
cover. Seen under the microscope they
exhibit marvelous beauty and delicacy
of structure. The myriads of such shells

that accumulate after the death of these
plants may form large deposits, although
the individual shells are so minute as to
be undiscemible by the unaided vision.
Diatomaceous earth is used largely as a
scouring or polishing powder, to which it
is well adapted because of the hardness
and sharpness of the individual grains
and their uniform fineness. It also has
uses dependent on its absorptive proper-
ties and has been so used in the manufac-
ture of dynamite. As it is a poor con-
ductor of heat and very light it is valuable
as a packing for safes, steam pipes, and
boilers, and for the manufacture of fire-
proofing materials. No use seems to
have been yet made of the deposits near
Reno.

THE OVEELAND ROUTE OGDEN TO SAN FRANCISCO. 193

earth, formerly called infusorial earth, is white and looks like chalk
but differs from chalk in that it is composed of silica instead of
hme carbonate. It has also been called tripolite, from Tripoli,
where a similar deposit is found.- It is so light that it will almost
float on water.

Near Lawton's hot springs granite projects through the sediments,
and the fresh rock is exposed in cuts along the railroad. The outcrop
is characteristic of rock of this type, consisting of
Lawton. weather-rounded joint blocks that look like big

Elevation 4,650 feet, bowldcrs but are reaUy a part of the solid rock in
Omaha 1,545 miles. place. Bcyoud the granite stream banks and rail-
road cuts reveal gravel, sand, and bowlder deposits, generally coarse
and ill assorted but with nearly horizontal bedding. These are old
river deposits, cut into by later deepening of the river channel.

At the bridges near milepost 234, by which the wagon road and rail-
road cross the river, and particularly at the wagon bridge over the
railroad, is an interesting exposure of some of the tilted Tertiary strata.
Here the beds consist of shale and sandstone and justify their usual
designation as ^^lake beds" by their uniform thin bedding or lamina-
tion. They contain abundant and well-preserved impressions of
leaves and grasses. These beds are believed to represent the Miocene
epoch of Tertiary time. Beyond the bridge these sediments are again
covered by terrace deposits.

Verdi is a lumber town whose history dates back to the days of the
Comstock, before the coming of the railroad, when many of the tim-
bers that went up to the mines were brought from this
Verdi, Nev. p^j.^ ^^ ^Yiq, mountains and hauled by way of Reno.

Elevation 4,904 feet. ^Test of Verdi, strctchinor north and south as far as the

Population 543.* . ^ <• i rx-

Omaha 1,550 miles, eye can see, is the steep iront oi the Sierra JNevada,

this part of which is known as the Carson Range.
The front is determined primarily by faults. (See explanation of
formation of Wasatch Range, in footnote on p. 100.) The Truckee
emerges from the mountain front after traversing a narrow canyon,
steeper and more rocky than any part of its lower course. Scattered
timber here clothes the mountain flanks, extending down even to the
railroad and river although, of course, aU the older and larger trees
were long ago cut away. The green pines with their long needles and
the growth of underbrush afford a welcome change from the monoto-
nous baiTcnness of the ranges and plains of the Great Basin. There
is some cultivation in a small way along the narrow strip of river
bottom lands.

On leaving Verdi the railroad turns southward up into the Truckee

Canyon which soon becomes so narrow that there is not room for both

raihoad and wagon road, the latter diverging northward and crossing

the range 10 miles or more farther north. The wagon road joins the

38088°— Bull. 612—16 13

194 GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES.

railroad again at Truckee. The rocks in the canyon walls are Tertiary
lavas, mainly andesites, and for some distance the supposedly Cre-
taceous granite, or a related rock, appears beneath these lavas along
the river gorge. It is not always possible at a distance to distinguish
between these two classes of rocks.

A few miles beyond Verdi the train passes a post marking the Cali-
fornia-Nevada State line, and about half a mile beyond it is a sign-
board and railroad siding marked Calvada, a name
Calvada, Cal. derived from those of the two States. This place is in
Elevation 5,041 feet. ^ southward strctch of the canyon, so that the State

Omaha 1,553 miles. ,. . . , ^^ t . i V i t

line IS crossed at a shght angle only a short distance
west of the longitude of Verdi.

California, known as the Golden State, is next to the largest State
in the Union. It is 780 miles in length and about 250 miles in average
width, and has a total area of 156,092 square miles,
California. being nearly equal in size to New England, New York,

and Pennsylvania combined. The population of Cali-
fornia in 1910 was 2,377,549, or about one-tenth that of the Eastern
States named. The area covered by public-land surveys is 123,910
square miles, or nearly 80 per cent of the State, and 21 per cent of the
State was unappropriated and unreserved July 1, 1914.

Along the State's 1,000 miles of bold coast line there are compara-
tively few indentations. The bays of San Diego and San Francisco are
excellent harbors, but they are exceptional.

The climate of California varies greatly from place to place. Along
the coast in northern California it is moist and equable. Around San
Francisco Bay a moderate rainfall is confined almost wholly to the
winter, and the range in temperature is comparatively small. In
parts of southern California typical desert conditions prevail. The
great interior valley is characterized by moderate to scant winter rain-
fall and hot, dry summers. Snow rarely falls except on the high moun-
tains, where — as, for example, in the Sierra Nevada — so much of it
may accumulate as to interfere with railway traffic.

Forests cover 22 per cent of the State's area and have been esti-
mated to contain 200,000 million feet of timber. They are notable
for the large size of their trees, especially for the huge dimensions
attained by two species of redwood — Sequoia wasJiingtoniana (or
gigantea), the well-known ^^big tree" of the Sierra Nevada, and
Sequoia sempervirens , the ''big tree" of the Coast Ranges. Some of
these giant trees fortunately have been preserved by the Government
or through private generosity against the attacks of the lumberman.

The 21 national forests in California have a total net area of
40,600 square miles, or about one-fourth of the State's area. The
national parks in the State are Yosemite (1,124 square miles), Sequoia

THE OVERLAND ROUTE OfiDEN TO SAN FRANCISCO. 195

(252 square miles), and General Grant (4 square miles). The national
monuments in the State are the Cabrillo, Cinder Cone, Devil Postpile,
Lassen Peak, Muir Woods, and Pinnacles, and there are bird reserves
at Klamath Lake, East Park, Farallon, and Clear Lake.

Agriculture is a large industry in California, and with the intro-
duction of more intensive cultivation its importance is increasing
rapidly. In the variety and value of its fruit crops California has
no rival in the United States, if indeed in the world. Its products
range from pineapples and other semitropical fruits in the south
to pears, peaches, and plums in the north, but it is to oranges and
other citrus fruits and to wine grapes that California owes its
agricultural supremacy. During the season from November 1, 1913,
to October 31, 1914, California produced 48,548 carloads of citrus
fruit, 42,473,000 gallons of wine, and 12,450 tons of walnuts and
aknonds.

Of its mineral products, petroleum ranks first in total value and
gold next. In 1914 California's output of petroleum was valued at
$48,066,096, about 25 per cent of the world's yield, and its output
of gold at about $21,000,000. In the production of both petroleum
and gold California leads all other States in the Union.

California was formerly a part of Mexico but in 1848 was ceded
to the United States and on September 9, 1850, was admitted to the
Union as a State. Its history is fuU of stirring and romantic episodes
and should not be neglected by the visitor desirous of understanding
the spirit of the land.

One of the power houses where electricity is generated from the
Sierra streams, an industry that has now reached great magnitude
on both sides of the range, is seen in Truckee River near milepost 225.
The ledges of volcanic rock exposed in the canyon in many bluffs
and cuts along the railroad present varied forms of lava, breccia
(cemented fragments of volcanic material), and tuff or ash. The
exposures are of many hues, light gray, rusty, purplish, and greenish.

At Floriston is a pulp mill, situated near the source of the wood
from which the paper pulp is made. The wood is brought down from
Hob art Mills by way of Truckee and nearly 100 cords
Floriston. q£ wood — four or five carloads — are used here daily.

Elevation 5,350 feet. Flonstou is in the uarrowcst and steepest part of the
canyon. (See PI. XLIV, A.) Reservoirs have been
built in the river above the town to store water for developing
power and for making ice in winter. No natural ice is obtained
at lower elevations in California, and as the winters in the Nevada
desert country are not very severe thick ice is rarely formed there.
Consequently an extensive business has grown up in the production

196 GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES.

of ice on reservoirs built along the Sierra streams near the railroad.
From this town onward many ice plants and storage houses will be
observed, as ice cutting is the principal industry of many of the
small places along the route. Iceland, a small station just beyond
Floriston, has a name suggested by this industry.

Boca is an ice station and seems to consist principally of a pic-
turesque little hotel and a store. It is the starting point of the
Boca & Loyalton Kailroad, primarily a lumber road,
^^^^' running north to Loyalton (26 miles) and thence to

Elevation 5,534 feet. Portola (45 milcs) , whcrc it connects with the Western

Omaha 1,565 miles. -r. -^ -n -i mi

racmc Hailway. Ihe canyon opens somewhat at
Boca, and to the rear may be seen the high continuous crest of the
Carson Range, just passed. West of the Carson Range and between
it and the main summit of the Sierra there is a broad and relatively
depressed area, the southern part of which is occupied by Lake
Tahoe and the northern part by Sierra Valley. A belt of relatively
low though mountainous country connects the basin of Lake Tahoe
with Sierra Valley. This depressed belt, like the mountain scarps, is
of structural origin. The area corresponds to a block bounded by
faults, that has sunk or has been less uplifted than the adjacent ranges.

During the uplift of the Carson Range the upper portion of Truckee
River was occasionally dammed to form a lake, but in the main the
river kept its course by cutting down its channel across the hard
rock as the mountains rose. West of Boca terraces built at former
higher levels of the stream channel are represented by benchlike
remnants along the sides of the valley, but the unmistakable
evidence of the damming of Truckee River is found in certain dis-
tinctly and evenly bedded or laminated deposits of clay, sand, and
gravel, which are interpreted as laid down under standing water.
A glance at the geologic map will show that these deposits spread
over an extensive area west of the Carson Range. It is supposed
that after the close of the andesite eruptions there followed a long
period of erosion, during which Truckee Canyon was cut to very
nearly its present depth. Then came a basalt eruption, covering
large parts of the valley and damming the river afresh. The resulting
Pleistocene lake probably persisted during a large part of the
glacial period, gradually diminishing in size as Truckee River cut
down its outlet. Its beach gravels are found aU around this upper
Truckee basin.

Low terraces overflowed by basalt may be seen along the river, at
one place (milepost 214) showing a good illustration of columnar
joint structure, which is a characteristic shrinkage phenomenon fre-
quently exhibited by such lava flows.

U. S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY

BULLETIN 612 PLATE XLIV

A. TRUCKEE RIVER CANYON NEAR FLORISTON. CAL.

View of tne narrower part of the canyon through the Carson (or front) Range of the Sierra. Shows volcanic
breccia in the ledges in the foreground and sparsely timbered lower slopes. Photograph furnished by the
Southern Pacific Co.

n. TRUCKEE, CAL., LOOKING EAST TOWARD THE CARSON RANGE.

View taken from the lower end of the glacial moraines found in Truckee Valley, the upper part of the town
being built on the terrace-like surface. Photograph furnished by Southern Pacific Co.

U. S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEV

BULLETIN 612 PLATE XLV

LAKE TAHOE, CAL.

Shore and road near Tahoe Tavern. Rubicon Peak irt the distance. Photograph furnished by Southern

Pacific Co.

THE OVEELAND ROUTE — OGDEN TO SAN FRANCISCO. 197

Truckee River from Lake Tahoe down to Boca or beyond is a

favorite resort of fishermen in summer. Camps and a number of

small hotels afford stopping places that are easily

Union Mill. reached from the California side of the mountains.

Elevation 5.623 feet, rp^ j. ^ ^j,^^ Polaris (milepost 211) to a point near

Omaha 1,568 miles. . i rr^ i i • i /• i

Emigrant Gap and Towle, on the west side of the
Sierra, lies in the Tahoe National Forest.

Exposures of the thinly and regularly bedded lake deposits con-
tinue and may be seen in a cut just west of Boca. Here is a layer
of white diatomaceous earth, which includes fragments of leaves and
stems and is believed to have been laid down in quiet water.

Near the town of Truckee the valley broadens considerably and the
river terraces become very distinct. To the north a branch lumber
railroad climbs the edge of one of the terraces, exposing in deep cuts
loose white bedded gravels and other stream deposits corresponding
in age to the Pleistocene lake beds observed lower down the range.

From Truckee, the last town passed on the climb to the summit, a

narrow-gage railroad runs up the main river valley to Lake Tahoe

(15 miles) and a short lumber road goes north to

Truckee. Hobart Mills, but the latter does not carry passengers,

Elevations 820 feet, xhcrc is much of interest from almost every point of

Omaha 1,574 miles. . , . .

view to be seen in crossing the Sierra Nevada, and
many features of geology, physiography, forestry, and history which
can here be only briefly noted. Beyond Truckee the evidences of
glacial action become apparent. The Sierra down to an elevation of
5,000 feet was long buried under ice. The grinding of this moving ice
mass widened the bottoms of the canyons, smoothed off and steepened
their sides, and removed enormous amounts of loose rock and soil.
To a large extent, however, the ice protected from water erosion
the area that it covered. Moraines composed of rough and angular
but not water-rounded bowlders of all sizes, mixed with finer
detritus and sand, were deposited by the ice tongues that pro-
jected down the valley, particularly at their ends and along their
sides. The lower valleys which the ice did not reach differ in form
from those that were glaciated. Below the glaciated region the
valleys are narrow and V-shaped in cross section, but the glaciated
valleys are broader and U-shaped and many of them are characterized
by nearly level stretches occupied by meadows (filled-in lakes),
separated by rocky portions of steeper grade. At Truckee lake
beds and stream terraces of the lower river course, the records of work
by water, join moraines, the records of work by ice. The upper part
of the town is built on the lowest identifiable portions of these gla-
cial deposits. (See PI. XLIV, B.) Tlie canyon of Truckee River
between Truckee and Lake Talioe has evidently never been glaciated,

198 GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES.

though the glaciers extended down the tributary valleys from the
west, just reaching the river at one or two points.

To the traveler in the heat of summer there is probably no more
refreshing and on the whole delightful side trip on the journey across
the continent than that to Lake Tahoe. The trip to
a e a oe. ^^^q Jake is usually taken by the branch railroad from

T^ulfee is^mnef'" Truckcc, but it may also be readily made by automo-
bile. The railroad terminus is at the northwest side of
the lake, where its waters overflow to form the head of Truckee River.
From this point a circuit of the lake may be made by a small steamer,
the trip occupying most of a day. The steamer stops at many sum-
mer camps, hotels, and permanent settlements. During the winter
most of the resorts are closed, as the snowfall is heavy at this elevation.

Lake Tahoe is not a natural wonder, as that term is applied to the
Yellowstone or the Grand Canyon, but the lover of nature can
probably get no truer satisfaction than can be had from a quiet and
restful sojourn along its beautiful shores. (See PL XLV.) There
is much in the history of its origin and that of the ranges surrounding
it that is full of interest.

The lake is 21 J miles long from north to south and about 12 miles m
its greatest width. Its surface, which stands 6,225 feet above sea
level, covers 190 square miles. The water is of unusual depth. Crater
Lake, in Oregon, being said to be the only deeper mountain lake in
America. A sounding of 1,635 feet was obtained a short distance
south of Hot Springs, in what is perhaps the deepest part, but the
contour of the bottom is not accurately known. According to a
generally accepted statement this lake never freezes over in winter,
probably on account of its great depth. The mountains around the
lake rise abruptly and culminate in Mount Rose, in the Carson Range,
at 10,800 feet. It has already been noted that the Sierra Nevada is
here a double range of almost parallel north-south ridges and that the
lake lies in a part of the depression between the two. The mountains
of the Carson Range, east of the lake, though they do not seem
unusually high or rugged as viewed from the lake, present an exceed-
ingly bold escarpment when viewed from the Nevada side. The
mountains to the west form the main watershed between the streams
flowing to the Pacific and those flowing to the Great Basin. Near
Tahoe the peaks on this divide do not attain so great a height as those
of the Carson Range, but farther south the main Sierra becomes
higher and culminates in Mount Whitney (14,502 feet).

One of the chief beauties of Lake Tahoe lies in the clearness and
purity of its water and its wonderful coloring, varying from the deep
blue of the main lake on a clear day to the crystal green of Emerald
Bay. The lake abounds in fish, which include several species of
trout. Shoals of the smaller fish may be seen from boats or along

THE OVEKLAND ROUTE OGDEN TO SAN FRANCISCO. 199

the shore and may he watched even at considerable depth through
the clear water as they dart over the bowlder-strewn bottom.

There is a dam and headgate at the outlet into Truckee River by
which the lake level is raised a few feet during the spring, the surplus
water being released during the dry season, when it is most needed
for maintaining a fuU flow at the power plant below and for irrigation
in Nevada.

The statement sometimes made that ^'Tahoe is an old volcanic
crater" is not true. The region about the lake shows evidences of
volcanic activity of various kinds, and the lake waters themselves
have probably been dammed at times by outpourings of lava. A lava
flow appears to have temporarily filled the outlet channel below
Talioe City. The lake, however, lies in a structural depression — a
dropped block of the earth's crust.

During the Neocene epoch and the earlier part of the Pleistocene
epoch the waters of Lake Tahoe stood much higher than now, prob-
ably on account of lava dams which have since been cut through.
Distinct beaches that mark former higher levels are found up to about
100 feet above the present lake, but it is beheved that the waters for-
merly rose to still greater heights. At Tahoe City the most distinct
of these old beaches is a terrace 35 to 40 feet above the level of the
lake, and it is this terrace that makes the level ground on which Tahoe
Tavern is built. Similar terrace levels may be distinguished from
point to point almost all the way around the lake. (See PL XLVI.)

West of Truckee the main line of the railroad follows Truckee River
for a little over a mile to the mouth of Donner Creek and then runs up
along the south side of the broad glaciated valley of that stream.
Here morainal deposits and forms characteristic of glaciation are
conspicuous. Huge bowlders of granite, brought here on the moving
ice during the glacial epoch, strew the surface on all sides.

At milepost 206, by looking across Donner Creek, the traveler may
see a large white cross at the forward edge of a low terrace on the
opposite side of the valley. This is a monument to the Donner party,
whose tragic story is told at length in most of the histories of early
California emigrations. About half a mile above this cross, in the
woods near the lower end of Donner Lake, is a cube of granite
inscribed as follows:

This stone marks the site of the Donner party cabins, where a monument will be
erected under the auspices of the N. S. G. W. [Native Sons of the Golden West] to the
pioneers who crossed the plains.

Donner Lake and tlte pass now used by tlio railroad are particularly
dentified with one of the emigrations that preceded the great gold
rush to California in 1849. Of tliese earlier emigrations to the Pacific
coast there were two. The first was that to Oregon in 1843, during

200

GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES.

which some parties turned off and entered CaUfornia, guided along
Humboldt River by the renowned mountaineer, Joe Walker. The
second was that to California in 1846 during hostilities between the
United States and Mexico. Bancroft says:

These adventurers were assured that California was a most delightful country — one
every way desirable to settle in; that it was thinly peopled and except along the sea-
board almost unoccupied; and that now the Nation was roused to arms, engaged in a
hand to hand conflict with the weaker power, it would probably result in the acqui-
sition of all that territory by the stronger. * * -5^ The result proved as had been
anticipated; scarcely had the emigrants of 1846 arrived in the valley of California
when the whole magnificent domain fell a prize into the lap of the United States.

It was during the second of these migrations that the Donner
tragedy^ occurred.

^ In the spring of 1846 some 2,000 emi-
grants were gathered at Independence,
Mo., waiting for the grass of the plains to
attain sufficient growth for feed for their
cattle before commencing the long jour-
ney to the Pacific coast. Some of these
were bound for Oregon and the rest for
California. Among the parties that were
finally formed for the journey was one
known as the Donner, or Reed and Don-
ner party. It consisted of the brothers
George and Jacob Donner and their fam-
ilies and others, making in all about 88
persons; 24 were men, 15 women, and
43 children. It was a well-equipped
party, and George Donner, a man of some
wealth, who was at its head, was carrying
a stock of merchandise for sale in Califor-
nia. For a time all went well. Most of
the emigrants of those days followed the
Oregon Trail northward as far as Fort
Hall, Idaho, and then, turning south-
west, crossed to Humboldt River in Ne-
vada and so went west to the Sierra. At
Fort Bridger, Wyo., however, the party
met a man whose advice was to cause
their ruin. Lansford W. Hastings, who
had led a party of emigrants across to
Oregon in 1842 and had returned and pub-
lished a guide to Oregon and California,
now claimed to have discovered a shorter
route which would save 200 miles over
the old route by Fort Hall. After de-
liberating several days the emigrants
divided. The greater part, going, by
Fort Hall, reached California in safety,
but the Donner party, who had elected
George Donner captain, decided to try

the Hastings cut-off. Both parties left
Fort Bridger on July 28.

At the start the Donner party followed
approximately the present route of the
Union Pacific Railroad and had little diffi-
culty until they reached Weber Canyon,
where the roads seemed impassable for
wagons. Making a detour to avoid this
canyon, they did not reach Salt Lake
until September 1. From September 9
to 14 the party were crossing Salt Lake
desert, going around the south end of the
lake by the route which is approximately
that of the Western Pacific Railway to-
day. Here disaster began to overtake
them. Some of the oxen died of thirst, a
part of the wagons and goods had to be
abandoned, and some of the party were
forced to walk. Rations were short and
the first snows of the season commenced.
The cattle were attacked and stolen by
Indians and the situation gradually be-
came desperate. Slowly they made their
way westward across Nevada.

On October 19 the starving emigra
met a relief party with some provisions at
the lower crossing of Truckee River (site of
Wadsworth) . After resting a few days the
party proceeded up by Truckee Meadows
(Reno) and finally, on October 31 , reach' ''
the vicinity of Truckee . Here the wi:
snows overtook them. On December .
some of the party attempted to escape by
crossing the summit on snowshoes. A
few succeeded in reaching Sacramento
and told of the plight of their companions.
When the rescue parties reached Donner
Lake they found that 36 of the 81 who
had camped at the lake had perished.

B.JHj

13^

^"^

^'7-

U. S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY

BULLETIN 612 PLATE XLVII

A. DONNER LAKE.
Glaciated ledge of granite in the foreground. Photograph furnished by Southern Pacific Co.

B. DESOLATION VALLEY, NEAR LAKE TAHOE.

Characteristic view of the higher Sierra even in midsumnnor. The bare and nnore or less rounded surfaces of the
rock ledges testify to the scouring action of the ice that has nrioved over them. Photograph furnished by
Southern Pacific Co,

THE OVERLAND ROUTE OGDEN TO SAN FRANCISCO. 201

Just beyond the Donner cross and before the first snowsheds are
entered, a bit of the lower end of Donner Lake may be seen by looking
through the trees up the valley ahead. From this point the train
turns southwestward, going up one side of the valley of Cold Creek,
and then doubles back again, still climbing, on the other side. As
the train rounds the loop in Cold Creek valley the rear platform
affords a view of the Sierra crest, culminating in Tinker Knob (9,020
feet), only 2 or 3 miles distant. Along the north side of Cold Creek
the snowsheds are almost continuous. They extend from this valley
along about 40 miles of the railroad, the last shed being just beyond
Blue Canyon, on the west slope. It is unfortunate that no satis-
factory plan has yet been devised to protect the tracks from snow
without marring the most beautiful part of the route over the
mountains.

Rounding the point of the ridge at the left (north) and passing
through a curved tunnel, the train comes out just above Donner
Lake. The basin of this beautiful mountain lake is apparently of
glacial origin, as the water occupies a hollow, evidently once filled
by a glacier, with bare granite cliffs at its upper end and a heavy
terminal moraine at its lower end. This moraine holds back the
water of the present lake, but the basin is believed to have been
originally dammed lower down by flows of basaltic lava which spread
across the valley just west of Truckee and through which Donner
River subsequently cut its way. Near the head of Donner Lake the
train runs back into another southward loop and, crossing some
heavy deposits of morainal debris, comes out above the upper end of
Donner I^ake. (See PI. XL VII, A.) From this point it is but httle
more than a mile to the long tunnel through granite by which the
crest is pierced.

Donner Pass, the highest point along the railroad, is just above the
tunnel. The elevation of the tunnel is 7,012 feet; the pass above
the tunnel is of course somewhat higher. Just be-
yond the tunnel is a flag stop known as Summit
Omaha 1,589 maes. jj^^^j^ ^^j ^^-^ ^ ^^^^ ^^ ^^ farther is the station in

the snowsheds called Summit. Although it is difficult to see out of
the snowsheds, glimpses to the south disclose the west side of the
main Sierra crest, usually with at least a few snow patches throughout
the summer. The 150-mile trip from Sacramento to this point, a
climb of nearly 7,000 feet, and down the east side of the range into
Nevada is mentioned in the Sacramento papers in the unimpassioned
phrase 'Agoing over the hill." And yet they say that the westerner
exaggerates.

The annual precipitation is veiy high over the west slope, ranging
from a mean of 52 inches at Cisco, at about 6,000 feet, to 48 inches at

202

GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES.

Summit, 1,000 feet higher.^ At the higher elevations a large pro-
portion of this precipitation is snow, as it rarely rains much during
the summer. Near the summit the snow may accumulate to a depth
of 20 feet on the level during a single winter. (See PL XL VII, B.)
On the west slope of the range, between the elevations of 6,000
and 7,500 feet, is the great Sierra forest zone, although the full
grandeur of the forest is not displayed along this particular route.
A note on the principal trees to be seen between the summit of the
Sierra and San Francisco Bay has been kindly supplied by Prof.
W. L. Jepson, of the University of California.^

^ The mean annual precipitation at sev-
eral places along the route is shown by
the following table compiled from records
of the United States Weather Bureau ex-
tending over periods of 30 years or more:

Mean precipitation on Sierra slopes along
line of Southern Pacific Railroad.

Inches,

Reno, Nev 8. 65

Boca, Cal 20. 84

Truckee, Cal 27.12

Summit, Cal 48. 07

Cisco, Cal 52.02

Blue Canyon, Cal 74. 22

Towle, ^1 59.38

Colfax, Cal 48.94

Auburn, Cal 35.13

Sacramento, Cal 19. 40

2 At the summit of the Sierra are found :

Jeffrey pine (Pinus jeffreyi), a near
relative of the yellow pine having a red,
rusty, or wine-colored bark and a large
cone suggestive by its outline of an old-
fashioned beehive.

Whitebark pine {Pinus albicaulis), a
timber-line tree, dwarfed and often pros-
trate, commonly associated with the
Jeffrey pine.

Tamrac pine (Pinus contorta var. mur-
rayana), found chiefly at the higher alti-
tudes and especially abundant in swampy
meadows, but grows also on the granite
ridges and is frequently a timber-line
tree. It is characterized by its short
foliage consisting of two needles in a place
and by its small burrlike cones. This
tree is not the eastern tamarack.

Western juniper (Juniperus ocdden-
talis), a very characteristic tree of granite
ridges and cliffs.

On the middle western slope the four
prevailing species, which can probably
be recognized from the train, are:

Yellow pine (Pinus ponderosa), the
dominant tree of the Sierra forest belt and
on the average the largest tree, excei)t the
big tree (Sequoia washingtoniana or gigan-
tea), which is not of general occurrence.
The yellow pine is distinguished by its
yellow bark, which is checked into large
plates 1 to 3 feet long and 6 inches to 1 or
2 feet wide, slightly resembling the back
of an alligator. The cones are ovoid and
about 3 to 5 inches long.

Sugar pine (Pinus lambertiana), usually
associated with the yellow pine, occurs
in the main forest belt; distinguished by
its finely checked bark, by its cones 12
to 16 inches long, and by the very notice-
able feature that the branches in the very
top run out into a few unequal horizontal
arms.

Incense cedar (Libocedrus decurrens),
the only cedar-like tree at middle alti-
tudes; has a reddish fibrous bark and for
that reason is sometimes mistaken for the
Sequoia by the amateur.

White fir (Abies concolor), a common
tree on the lower slopes below the main
summit, mostly associated with the yellow
pine. These trees will probably attract
attention because of the beautiful sym-
metry of their crowns, gently tapering to
a pointed top. Their branches expand
horizontally and impart a stratified or
layered appearance to the crown. On
the higher slopes of the Sierran axis this
species is replaced by the red fir, which is
similar in appearance but has a reddish
instead of a whitish bark.

Bulletin 612

SHEET No. 22

GEOLOGIC AND TOPOGKAPHIC MAP

OK THK

OVERLAND ROUTE

From Omaha, Nebraska, to San Francisco, California

Base compiled from United States Geological Survey Atlas Sheets,
from railroad alignments and profiles supplied by the Union I'aciftc
Railroad Company and the Southern Pacific Company and from addi-
tional information collected with the assistance of these companies

UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY

GEORGE OTIS SMITH, DIRECTOR
David White, Chief Geologist R. B. Marshall, Chief Geographer

1915

Each quadrangle shown on the map uriih a name in parenthesis in the
lower left comer is mapped in detail on the U. S. G. S. Topographic
sheet of that name.

EXPLANATION

Stream deposits (alluvium), sediments of Lake Lahon-
tan, and, in upper valley of Truckee River, other lake
deposits

B Glacial deposits, moraines : Pleistocene

C Uvas irhvolite. andesite, basalt, etc.). probably Mio-
cene, Pliocene, and later: with some interbedded vol-
canic ash and diatomaceous earth (Truckee formation!.
Miocene

D Granite and other coarse-grained intrusive igneous rocks]
(granodiorite. gabbro, etc.): late Jurassic or early
Cretaceous t

E Slate, schist, and qiiartzite (including Sailor Canyon
formation, Triassic) J

Highest shore line of Lake Lahontan indicated thus -'"'^

Tertiary and
Quaternary ('

THE OVERLAND ROUTE OGDEN TO SAN FRANCISCO.

203

Soda Springs.

For about 2 miles from the summit the route follows an upland
meadow, imdoubtedly of glacial origin, the lower end of which is now
submerged in a reservoir called Lake Van Norden,
after a family of eastern capitalists who have taken
omIhat592 mn!f ^ promiucut part in the water-storage, water-supply,
and hydroelectric power developments that have been
so largely extended in the Sierra during the last few years. The
mountain streams thus utilized supply light and power throughout
much of California and Nevada.*

Below Soda Springs (see sheet 23, p. 214) the railroad follows the
south side of the upper valley of South Fork of Yuba River, a typical
glacially scoured valley, its broad and smoothly rounded bottom worn
down to bare granite. Along the sides of the vaUey is scattered more
or less morainal debris.

An especially noticeable feature of the western slope of the Sierra
Nevada is the general evenness of its sky line. In any extensive view
it is not difficult to overlook the deep canyons and imagine oneself
looking over a great forested plain sloping gently westward. The
ridges between the canyons are in fact remnants of a former surface of

In the foothills there occur:

Digger pine {Pinus sabiniana), a light-
gray dusty long-needle pine, having a
foliage so thin that it scarcely casts a
shadow. It has a large, heavy cone and
is sometimes known as bull pine.

Blue oak {Queixus douglasii), almost
always associated with Digger pine, recog-
nizable by its white trunks and bluish
foliage.

In the Sacramento Valley the scattered
oaks and groves are composed of:

Interior live oak {Quercus wislizenii), a
symmetrical evergreen tree, frequently
with a hemispherical top, set low to the
ground.

Valley oak {Quercus lobata), a deciduous
tree which is taller than the live oak and
has long, drooping, cordlike branchlets
pendant from the great crown.

Near San Francisco Bay the interior
live oak is replaced by the coast live oak
(Quercus agrifolia), of similar appearance.
A marked feature of Coast Range scenery
is the considerable groves of the euca-
lyptus, an introduced tree, various species
of which have been set out in this country
within the last 30 or 35 years. They
come mostly from Australia. Of the

many species probably 120 are now rep-
resented in the State. They are rapid
growers and produce exceedingly hard
wood, which is difficult to cure for utili-
zation as lumber but which is of very
great strength when it can be proj)erly

^ There are in California about 75 de-
veloped hydroelectric power plants,
most of which, including the largest, are
in the Sierra. Along the route of the
Southern Pacific the principal develop-
ments are those of the Pacific Gas & Elec-
tric Co., which consist of a system of
storage reservoirs, conduits, and power
houses for the utilization of the flow of
Yuba and Bear rivers. Most of the
structures visible from the railroad, as at
Lake Van Norden and in the vicinity of
Colfax, have been built in connection
with the recently completed Drum plant,
which has an ultimate capacity of 40,000
kilowatts, or 53,600 horsej^ower. The
further utilization of the power of Bear
River will involve the construction of
five additional power j^lants extending
from Lake Spalding to Newcastle, the
total power capacity of the completed
system to be 1()0,000 ]i()rsei)ower.

204

GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES.

low relief. By the elevation and westward tilting of this surface the
Sierra Nevada was formed.

The rocks near the summit are principally granite (or granodiorite)/
lavas (andesite, rhyolite, and basalt), tuffs, and breccias. The vol-
canic rocks generally cap the ridges, the canyons being cut through
them into granite or into sedimentary rocks which have been invaded
by the granite. In general, throughout the western slope of the Sierra
Nevada, the lavas, the associated gold-bearing gravels, and the other
Tertiary rocks lie nearly horizontal on the worn surface or eroded
edges of a much older tilted set of rocks. These older rocks comprise
altered sediments, such as slates and schists, altered lavas and tuffs,
in part rendered slaty or schistose by pressure, and intruded igneous
masses. The various sedimentary formations are not readily dis-
tinguishable from one another from the train. The most widespread
and characteristic are the Calaveras formation, of Carboniferous age,
and the Mariposa slate, of Jurassic age. Both consist chiefly of slaty
rocks, although the Calaveras is less uniform than the Mariposa and
contains some limestone. The dip of the older rocks varies, especially
near intrusive masses, but in general it is 60° to 70° E.

Near Cisco the older sedimentary formations of the Sierra begin to
take the place of the granite and volcanic rocks. North of the
railroad, on the summit of a high ridge known as Sig-
nal Peak, the railroad company maintains a lookout
omIhlT(^fmnef station, from which a watch is kept for fires in the
snowsheds, many miles of which are in view from this
one point. The ridge on which the signal station is situated is com-
posed of metamorphosed slates (Sailor Canyon formation) of Triassic
age, like those that occur at Cisco. The brown talus from these slates
is in decided contrast with the white granite outcrops previously
passed.

Cisco is an old railroad-construction camp, now a small settlement
for the railroad employees. Here also is a summer hotel and camp.
In the valley of the South Fork of the Yuba below the railroad, on the
right, is a favorite summer automobile road which crosses the Sierra
and forms a section of the recently named Lincoln Highway.

There are openings in the snowsheds here and there at bridges and
at places where one part of the shed is made to telescope into
another, being mounted on wheels for that purpose. These tele-

Cisco.

^ The granodiorite of the Sierra Nevada
is an enormous mass of intrusive rock only
partly bared by erosion. Such a mass
that extends to unknown depth is called
by geologists a batholith. The batholith
of the Sierra Nevada is merely one mem-

ber of a chain that comprises many such
masses, which extend along the western
coast of North America. These immense
bodies of igneous rock were intruded in
late Jurassic or Cretaceous time and may
all be connected at great depth.

THE OVERLAND EOUTE OGDEN TO SAN FRANCISCO. 205

scoping sections are rolled back in summer, as a precaution against
the spread of fires. Crystal Lake (elevation 5,758 feet), Yuba Pass
(5,614 feet), and Smart (5,351 feet) are unimportant stations in the
snowsheds. The block-signal system in use on this part of the road
is interesting, and an account of it may be obtained by conversing
with those who are socially inclined among the railroad crews.

Just beyond Smart, near milepost 173, a glimpse forward on the

right shows the South Fork of Yuba River in its now rapidly deepening

valley far below. The river here turns sharply north

Emigrant Gap. . ^^^^ immediately disappears into a very narrow and

Elevation 5,225 feet, ^qqt) rockv 2:or2:e. This is a striking example of what

Omaha 1,610 miles. .^^ •^®®,. , ,

is known among physiographers as stream capture.
The part of the river already passed is the former headward por-
tion of Bear River, which now rises near this point and flows
south westward through a smooth, grassy gap, known as Emigrant
Gap. Another stream on the north, the original South Fork of
the Yuba, working backward at its head in the manner common to
streams, cut its canyon faster and deeper than that of the ancient
Bear River was cut and finally worked back into the Bear River val-
ley and, tapping that stream, drained off its water through the narrow
Canyon to the north. (See fig. 17, on sheet 23, p. 214.) The present
Bear River approaches within a quarter of a mile of the railroad just
beyond Gold Run. The evidence of this interesting bit of ancient
river history remains in view but momentarily, for the railroad plunges
through a short tunnel and emerges on the opposite side of the ridge,
in one of the upper tributary valleys of the American River system.

Emigrant Gap is the first station on the descent which suggests a
surrounding agricultural or fruit-raising country. The railroad cuts
expose slates and micaceous schists (Calaveras formation) which
belong to the Carboniferous system. Here may be noted a change
from the upper region where glaciers have scoured the rocks clean of
all loose material to the lower region where a mantle of soil and disin-
tegrated rock gives better opportunity for forest growth.

The station of Blue Canyon is situated on the timbered hiUside in a

deep reentrant curve of the railroad, which is here high above the

North Fork of American River, near the crest of one

Blue Canyon. ^^ ^^le characteristic flat-topped, lava-capped ridges

Elevation 4,701 feet, ^f the mid-Sicrra slope. (See PL XLIX, B, p. 207.)

Omaha 1,615 miles. m^ ^ i. n \ ^ . tit-. t

Ihe last 01 the snowsheds is near at hand. Beyond
them, as the road winds in and out on the mountain side, distant
views bring out with great distinctness the evenness of the sky
line that is significant of the smoothness of the older (early Ter-
tiary) topographic surface by whose uplift and westward tilting in
late Tertiary time the Sierra Nevada came into being as a mountain

206 GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES.

range. The depth to which the modern river canyons have been
cut below this surface is an index of the amount of erosion that has
been accomphshed since this uplift. The old plateau surface has been
deeply dissected, but it is yet far from being destroyed. The stream
channels are considered as still in the '^youthful" stages of their
development. When they attain '^maturity/' perhaps thousands of
years from now, the ridges between them will have been worn down
to low, rounded divides, and the streams themselves, instead of roar-
ing through rocky canyons, will glide in leisurely meanders through
broad green meadows. The canyons are thus evidence oi the geologic
recency of the elevation of the Sierra Nevada.

Beyond Blue Canyon the train skirts a thickly wooded steep slope,
above the gradually deepening canyon of Blue Creek. This part of
the railroad follows closely the bottom of the lava that caps the ridge,
the canyon below being cut in the slaty rocks of the Calaveras forma-
tion. The main cap rock of the ridge is andesitic tuff-breccia. Under
this in places is some lighter-colored rhyolite tuff. For a while there
are few distant outlooks. The hillsides are, for the most part, thickly
covered with small timber and underbrush, which is evidently second
growth, the original forest having been destroyed long ago by lumber-
ing or by forest fires. At Forebay (milepost 162), which is a side-
track and water station, there is again a partial view across the can-
yon to the distant level sky line. West of this are several deep cuts
along the railroad, showing the character of the deposits that were
formerly spread out over the old plateau surface, composed largely
of fragmental volcanic materials ranging from fine tuff to coarse
blocks of lava. (See PI. XL VIII, B.) Just beyond Midas (elevation
4,142 feet, milepost 161) appears a seemingly almost sheer drop into
the deep gorge of the North Fork of American River, here 2,000 feet
below the track. The evenness of the ridge tops to the south, due
largely to the fact that they are capped with volcanic rocks, chiefly
andesite tuff-breccia, is again clearly apparent. Beyond Gorge sta-
tion (elevation 3,904 feet) the railroad again skirts the 2,000 -foot
gorge, just above a constriction in the canyon known as Giant Gap,
also as Lovers Leap. The canyon is narrow here because it cuts
across a belt of altered igneous rock (amphibolite) that is harder than
the slates above it. The railroad here turns northward through a
little gap in the ridge into a smaU upland valley. The rock in the
gap itself is white rhyolite tuif, but above and below the gap the
railroad crosses some serpentine (an altered magnesian igneous rock)
which is a part of a north-south belt of this rock that extends along
this part of the Sierra slope.

DULLETIN 612 PLATE XLVIII

4. VIEW OF TERTIARY GOLD-GRAVEL DEPOSITS BETWEEN GOLD RUN AND DUTCH FLAT

LOOKING BACK OVER THE GOLD GRAVELS FROM GOLD RUN.
Note the flume in which water is conducted, formerly used in the washings but now employed for irrigation.

%

:^- _ -^

B. VIEW IN A RAILROAD CUT BETWEEN FOREBAY AND MIDAS.

Shows the character of the deposits laid down over the old plateau surface, which, now uplifted and tilted to
the west, forms the west side of the Sierra. The cut exposes rounded stream bowlders, coarse angular blocks
cf lava, and layers of finer volcanic ash and sediment.

U. S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY

BULLETIN 612 PLATE XLIX

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^1. VIEW DOWN CANYON OF NORTH FORK OF AMERICAN RIVER FROM CAPE HORN, GAL.

The even sky line in the distance represents the former surface by whose elevation and western tilting the Sierra
Nevada was brought into existence. Photograph furnished by Southern Pacific Co.

mms^

gMJioi

PRmPbR'^ it' ' ^^B^ '* ^^^S^I^^rwSUh^

B. BLUE CANYON, CAL.

This village is near the lower limits of the snowsheds. Trees are white <irs. Photograph furnished by Southern

Pacific Co,

THE OVERLAND EOUTE OGDEN TO SAN FRANCISCO.

207

At Towle are some of the higher orchards of the Sierra, and here
again, close at hand, is the Lincoln Highway. In the woods here-
abouts are summer camps and small hotels. In the
Towle. I^g^^j ^yf ^\^q little stream just below the railroad sta-

Eievation 3,692 feet, ^[q^i OH the left havc lately been found some magne-

Omaha 1,623 miles. . ^ i.i- -nii ?

Site (a carbonate oi magnesium) and also some asbes-
tos. So far as known the deposits are not of sufficient extent to be of
value. They occur with the serpentine, the usual association for mag-
nesite deposits. Dark ledges of amphibolite (the same belt that occurs
at Giant Gap) and of serpentine show along the railroad.

Just below Towle is a railroad cut in some of the white volcanic
tuff (rhyolitic) already referred to as occurring below the andesite
tuff-breccia. These volcanic deposits are mere rem-
nants, and once extended across the areas now occu-
omahaT62f^S^* P^®^^ ^^ ^^^® cauyous. The andesite tuff-breccia par-
ticularly covered enormous areas of the west slope of
the Sierra before that slope was tilted by earth movements and cut
into by the streams. At Alta are summer camps and a sanitarium.
The surrounding country is rather thickly timbered, but there are
clearings planted as orchards or cultivated in other ways.

Just beyond Alta is a sidetrack where round bowlders of white
quartz, obtained from the old gold diggings a short distance away,
are shipped. These bowlders are used in the furnaces of the railroad
repair shops at Sacramento. They come from a placer mine which is
called Nary-a-Red, referring to the absence of the usual red bowlders
in these gravels. The pure white cobbles remain behind after the
finer materials have been washed away by the hydraulic method of
mining for gold.

Beyond a bend on the north side of the ridge the town of Dutch
Flat, almost surrounded by the great pits made by hydraulic wash-
ing for gold, comes into view a short distance away
from and below the railroad. The railroad station
0mIhaT626^^^ ^^ *^® samc name is about a mile south of the town,
at a former settlement of Chinese miners that was
known as Chinatown. Here the view from the railroad embraces
a region that was prominent in the early mining days of California
for its yield of placer gold. The gold of Dutch Flat came chiefly
from the upper or bench gravels, deposited by the rivers of Ter-
tiary time* and now high above the present streams. Hydraulic

1 The Tertiary streams that flowed
down the western slope of the Sierra occu-
pied wider valleys than the present ones
and accumulated extensive dej^osits of
gold-bearing gravels along their channels.
These gravels were later covered by lavas

and flows of stony mud (tuff-breccia)
erupted from volcanoes near or east of the
present summit. A\Tien the grade of the
slope was increased by the tilting of the
range in later Tertiary time the rivers cut
new canyons, and many of the old chau-

208

GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES.

mining, in which the gravel is attacked by powerful jets of water, is
no longer in progress near Dutch Flat, partly because the rich parts
of the deposits have been worked out but chiefly because laws enacted
for the protection of the agriculturists along the lower courses of the
rivers prohibit the washing of silt and sand and other mining debris
into the streams. The general character of these old hydraulic work-
ings can be well seen from the railroad.

The historically important discovery of gold in California was made
in January, 1848, at John Sutter's mill on South Fork of American
River near Coloma, a point only 10 or 15 miles southeast of the town
of Auburn, through which the train will soon pass. From 1850 to
1853 the greatest yield was derived from the gravels, and the largest
annual output for this period was more than $65,000,000, in 1852.
There was some reaction in 1854, jdue to previous wild speculation,
but a production of about $50,000,000 a year, chiefly from placer
mines, was maintained up to 1861.

At first the gold was won chiefly from the gravels along the present
streams. Those who first got possession of the rich bars on Ameri-
can, Yuba, Feather, and Stanislaus rivers and some of the smaller
streams in the heart of the gold region made at times from $1,000
to $5,000 a day. In 1848 $500 to $700 a day was not unusual luck;
but, on the other hand, the income of the great majority of miners
was certainly far less than that of men who seriously devoted them-
selves to trade or even to common labor.

nels with their lava caps now lie on the
ridges. (See fig. 18.)

Of interest in connection with the Ter-
tiary river gravels is the story of the
Calaveras skull. For a time this skull
attracted much attention not only from
people in California, but from scientific

that man had been in existence in North
America very much longer than had been
supposed. Strange to say, the skull is
of a higher type than skulls which, al-
though known to antedate historic times,
are known also to be much younger than
the Tertiary. Although Prof. J. D. Whit-

Tertiary
auriferous gravel

FiGUEE 18.— Diagram showing the present relation of the Tertiary auriferous gravels to bedrock and
lavas, also the position of the gravel remnants high on the ridge summits.

men the world over. It was reported to
have been found in 1866, near the town of
Angels, Calaveras County, at a depth of
130 feet, in Tertiary gold-bearing gravels
underlying Tertiary lava. The finding
of a human skull embedded in such de-
posits was for a time believed to indicate

ney, then State geologist, accepted the
skull as a bit of genuine scientific evi-
dence, it is generally believed by stu-
dents of the antiquity of man that the
Calaveras skull, while undoubtedly old,
probably did not come from the aurifer-
ous gravels at all.

THE OVERLAND KOUTE OGDEN TO SAN FRANCISCO. 209

The gold pan, the ' 'rocker/' the ''torn," the sluice, and the hydrau-
lic ''giant" or "monitor," named in the order of increasing efficiency,
were the tools successively used by the miners. Into the "rocker"
and the "torn" the miner shoveled gravel or "dirt," rocking the
machine as he poured in water and catching the gold, often with
the aid of quicksilver, on riffles set across the bottom of his box.
Sometimes a stream was diverted into a flume to lay bare the gravel
in its bed so that the miner could get at it. In sluicing, the gravel
was shoveled into a similar but much longer box through which a
stream of water was allowed to run. The hydraulic giant was em-
ployed to wash into long riffle-set sluices immense quantities of
gravel, especially from the higher (Tertiary) deposits, much of which
was too lean to work out by hand. Water was brought for many
miles m ditches and flumes from the high Sierra and conducted
under great head to a nozzle from which it was projected with tre-
mendous force against the gravel. It was the vast quantity of refuse
washed into the streams by these hydraulic operations that brought
about the conflict between mining and agricultural interests, finally
decided in favor of the farmers. Of late years the gold obtained
from quartz veins in California has exceeded that won by placer
mining.

Half a mile beyond Dutch Flat station the railroad track rests on
Tertiary gold-bearing gravel, the right of way having been preserved
from attack by the miners. (See PI. XL VIII, A.) The lower part
of the gravel under the railroad is said to be worth about $8 a cubic
yard, and it is worthy of note that elsewhere gravels yielding only
$1 or $2 a yard are now being worked with profit by tunneling or
drifting. The bedrock on which the gravels at Dutch Flat rest is a
dark-green, somewhat altered intrusive igneous rock (gabbro).

Just beyond the hydraulic washings is Gold Run, which like Dutch
Flat was formerly a flourishing placer town. Beyond Gold Run the
railroad for about 6 miles crosses a north-south belt
of slate or slaty schist of Carboniferous age (Calaveras
fZhlV2!'ll^s: formation). These rocks are cut by dikes of dark,
altered igneous rock (amphibolite). Patches of Ter-
tiary lavas, outlying remnants of the former plateau surface, cap the
highest hills along the summit of the ridge near this part of the route.
On the right is Bear River, already mentioned as having lost its
original upper portion, above Emigrant Gap, through capture by the
South Fork of the Yuba.

Magra (elevation 2,899 feet). Cape Horn (2,656 feet), and Wirt

(2,442 feet) are unimportant stations. From a point near milepost

148 can be seen placer pits at Iowa Hill and Michigan Bluff, high on

the ridges across the canyon of the North Fork of American River,

38088°— Bull. 612—16 14

210

GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES.

far away to the southeast. These places, busy mining centers of the
early days, are now quiet little back-country settlements.

Just beyond Cape Horn station the train turns south along the
side of a wooded ridge and suddenly, at the south end of the ridge,
rounds a point known as Cape Horn. Until this year (1915) the
road skirted the point at the summit of a precipice 1,500 feet above
the North Fork of American River, which afforded the superb canyon
view shown in Plate XLIX, A. Now the old line '' around Cape
Horn'' has been abandoned, and railroad traffic goes through double
tunnels built to eliminate what had seemed like a dangerous curve
around the point. Turning back along the other side of the spur,
the railroad crosses a deep ravine up which runs the narrow-gage
road from Colfax to Grass Valley and Nevada City. This ravine,
which opens on the North Fork of American River, is cut in slate of
Jurassic age (Mariposa slate). This formation and some of the
altered slaty or schistose volcanic rocks associated with it (amphibo-
lite schist, greenstone, etc.) contain some of the principal gold-
bearing quartz veins of California, including the series of veins
known as the Mother Lode.^

1 The Mother Lode, so called because
the early miners imagined it had some
sort of ancestral relation to smaller lodes,
extends from the vicinity of the Middle
Fork of American Kiver southward for
fully 120 miles, past the towns of Placer-
ville, Amador, Sutter Creek, Jackson, San
Andreas, Angels, Jamestown, Jackson-
ville, Coulterville, and Mariposa. It is
not, as the name implies, a single great
vein, but a remarkable linear system of
closely parallel and overlapping veins,
some of which are many miles in length.
The lode has the same general trend as
the belts of slaty or schistose rock that are
characteristic of the western mid-Sierra
slope and follows in the main a very per-
sistent belt of Mariposa slate, although it
is not confined to that formation. In
places the Mother Lode veins are in al-
tered schistose igneous rocks (amphibo-
lite schist or greenstone schist), in slaty
rocks of the Calaveras formation, or even
in serpentine.

The slaty rocks of the Mother Lode re-
gion generally dip 60° to 75° E., and
most of the veins are a little less steeply
inclined than the rocks in their vicinity.
The veins consist chiefly of quartz carry-

ing free gold, auriferous pyrite, and other
minerals that are less constantly or less
abundantly present. They were de-
posited in early Cretaceous time by hot
waters probably given off, in part at least,
by deep-lying, slowly cooling masses of
granite (granodiorite).

A few of the principal mines along the
Mother Lode are the Plymouth, Fremont,
Bunker Hill, Original Amador, Keystone,
Lincoln, Wildman-Mahoney, Eiureka,
Amador, Central Eureka, South Eiu*eka,
Oneida, Kennedy, Argonaut, Zeila, Gwin,
Gold Cliff, Lightner, Utica, Melones,
Rawhide, Dutch, App, Eagle-Shawmut,
and Princeton. Not all of these are now
active. The deepest mine and one of the
most productive is the Kennedy, which
has a vertical shaft 4,000 feet deep.

The ore of the Mother Lode is treated
in stamp mills, and the gold is recovered
partly by amalgamation and partly by
concentration and cyanidation of the
pyrite and other sulphides present. The
gold quartz mines of California produce
annually gold valued at from $10,000,000
to $12,000,000. The greater part of this
comes from the mines along the Mother
Lode.

THE OVERLAND ROUTE OGDEX TO SAX FRANCISCO.

211

Colfax.

Elevation 2,422 feet
Population G21.
Omaha 1,639 miles.

Beyond the ravine is Colfax, first known as Illinoistown but later
renamed for Vice President Colfax. The Central Pacific Railway,
being built up from the Sacramento Valley, reached
this place on September 1, 1865. The Nevada County
Narrow Gage Railroad runs from Colfax to the impor-
tant mining districts of Grass Valley and Nevada
City, where there are many lode mines that have
long been productive.^

After leaving Colfax the train passes through shallow cuts in yellow
soil derived from the deep decay of the Jurassic slates. The road
continues the descent along a ridge between canyons, although the
traveler wall hardly recognize this fact without reference to the map.
The upper slopes near the railroad have been largely cleared of tim-
ber and are now covered with a dense underbrush, including man-
zanita,^ scrub oak, and other shrubs and dwarf trees. The Jurassic
rocks in some places carry a few distinctive fossils, but the numerous
outcrops of slate as seen from the train do not look very different
from the rocks of Carboniferous age (Calaveras) that occur east of
Cape Horn.

About 2 miles below Colfax the tracks separate, the westbound
route turning off to the north side of the ridge. From this point to
RockUn the two lines are in general some distance apart, although
here and there they run together and at two places even cross each
other. The older line, used by the westbound trains, affords the
better views, as the newer, more uniformly graded track passes
through deep cuts and many tunnels.

Lander (elevation 2,282 feet), New England Mills or Weimar
(2,278 feet), and Applegate are all small settlements along the route.

1 The Nevada City-Grass Valley dis-
trict is second only to the much larger
Mother Lode district as a source of vein
gold in California, and probably nowhere
else in the State has there been so great a
concentration of gold in a small area.
The veins occur in many kinds of rock,
including granodiorite, slates of the Cala-
veras formation, altered volcanic rocks
(greenstones, amphibolite schist, etc.),
and serpentine. They vary much in
trend and dip, are generally rather nar-
row, and yield ore of higher grade than
the Mother Lode veins. The veins are
similar in general character to those of
the Mother Lode, although they show
some mineralogic differences. A famous
mine of the district is the North Star, the
most productive gold mine in California.

From 1884 to the end of 1913 this mine
has yielded gold to the value of over
$15,000,000. Its main shaft, an incline,
is 5.850 feet long and attains a vertical
depth of 2,200 feet.

2 The manzanita (Arctostaphylos patula)
is a shi'ub ha\TLng a smooth bark of rich
chocolate color, small pale-green roundish
leaves, and berries that resemble dimin-
utive apples. It is this resemblance that
gives the shrub its common name, Spanish
for little apple, by wliich it is known
everywhere on the Pacific coast. Bears
are very fond of these berries. The
manzanita covers many of the hills in
California with a stiff, almost impene-
trable growth. Its wood is hard, and the
blaze from an old gnarled root cheers
many a western fireplace.

212 GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES.

From several points in this vicinity a very fine view to the rear may
be had across the level-topped upland surface which slopes up to the
now distant summits of the main range near the south end of Lake
Tahoe.

The route crosses obliquely the outcrops of Jurassic (Mariposa)
slate and after rmming for a few miles near the western edge of this
belt of rocks enters, near New England Mills, a belt of the Calaveras
formation. This change, however, is not readily recognized from a
moving train, as both formations consist largely of similar slaty and
schistose rocks.

Fruit growing is obviously the principal industry of the country

about Applegate, and evidences of it increase as the journey continues.

The train, still following the crest of a broad ridge,

Applegate. passes through a country of rolling hills covered with

Elevation 1965 feet, orchards, ficlds of grain, and patches of timber. It

Omaha 1,647 miles. . ' fe J I

is said that some of the settlements along this part of
the route specialize in certain fruits. For instance, Applegate raises
pears chiefly, New England Mills prunes, and so on. Snow falls
occasionally here and may lie for a few hours, and there is some frost.
Consequently this country is not suited to the growing of oranges
and other semitropical fruits.

Clipper Gap, a little settlement on the narrow ridge followed by the

railroad, is surrounded by orchards and cultivated ground. A few

miles beyond it, between mileposts 128 and 127, the

Clipper Gap. slates of the Calaveras formation are succeeded on the

Elevation 1 757 feet. ^^^^ -^ altered grecuish igneous rocks (diabase, am-

Omaha 1,650 miles. i -i t i -i t i • x < i

phibolite, and amphibolite schist), m places slaty or
schistose and decomposing in general to a reddish soil. These rocks
are the record of volcanic activity in Jurassic time and perhaps also
in Carboniferous time.

The westbound traveler passes along the east side of the thriving
town of Auburn, the seat of Placer County, named by settlers from

the city in New York. The eastbound trains go west
Auburn. ^f ^l^g town. The older part of Auburn, dating from

Eievationi,36o feet, ^hc early mining days, is built in the valley of the
omrhai°S7 miles. small stream called Auburn Havine, but since those

days the settlement has spread over the surrounding
hills and fruit growing has largely taken the place of mining. The
principal fruits raised here are peaches, plums, prunes, raisin and table
grapes, and olives. Many of the ranchers have a few orange trees, but
these are more numerous at Newcastle, the next station, 400 feet
lower, where the soil and temperature are better adapted to citrus
fruits. From the suburb of Aeolia Heights, just east of the railroad,
may be obtained fine views of the deep canyon of American River,
similar to those seen from the train near Cape Horn (PL XLIX, A) ;

THE OVERLAND ROUTE OGDEN TO SAN FRANCISCO.

213

and from the hills west of Aiibiirii may be seen on a clear day the sum-
mit of Momit Diablo, on the other side of the Great Valley of CaU-
foruia, more than 80 miles away.

About 2 miles west of Auburn, north of the railroad, is the Ophir
mining district, where gold and silver vems occur in granite (granodi-
orite) and greenstone (amphibohte) scliist. Beyond Auburn the
route continues for about 2 miles farther across amphibolite schist,
which, as exposed in raikoad cuts, looks hke dark-colored slate and is
in places rusty. Tlie raih-oad winds along the south side of Dutch
Ravine, keepmg approximately to the general slope of the former
plateau surface. Here agam are remnants of the Tertiary lava cover,
and at one place the railroad passes tln*ough a deep, narrow cut m the
andesitic tuffs and breccias. These beds rest on granite (granodio-
rite), wliicli is the prevalent rock from tliis vicinity do^^1l to Sacra-
mento Valley.

Just beyond a tunnel on the westbound track is the station of New-
castle, in the center of an orchard comitry. Peai*s,
peaches, and prunes are gro^\1l here, and also some
oranges and lemons. Fig trees and pahns may be
seen near the station. Beyond Newcastle a rolluig
timbered lowland comes into view to the south.
Granite is exposed in the cuts along the road and as bowlder-like out-
crops in the fields.

Penrjni, like all the other stations along this part of
the route, ships great quantities of fruit. Granite ^
was formerly extensively quarried here for use m rail-
road construction and m public buildings. A small
production is still maintamed.
At Loomis is another large gi*anite quarry. The stone is inter-
mediate in color and texture between that quarried at Penryn
and at Rocklin. It is coai'ser and darker than the
RocMin gi'anite but is finer and carries less biotite
than the Penryn stone. Loomis is, however, prin-
cipally a fniit-shipping point, and the fruit-packing
houses may be seen near the station. It is said that fruits, especially
oranges, ripen early in this section, and that injm'ious frosts are un-
known. The soil m this locahty is decomposed granite, and beyond
the station bowlder-like granite ledges crop out lunn* and there on the
soil-covered plain.

^ The Penryn stone is a dark biotite avoided as far as possible in the selection

granite, rather uniform in color, but Viiry- of tlie stone. About a mile eiist of Penryn

ing somewhat in texture in tlie different a gabbro, or "black granite," is quarried,

quarry openings. Dark blotches where This stone is used chiefly for monuments,

the biotite crystals have segregated are as it takes a brilliant polish.

Newcastle.

Elevation 970 feet.
Population 755.*
Omaha 1 ,6(52 miles

Penryn.

Elevation 635 feet.
Population 240.*
Omaha 1,666 miles

Loomis.

Elevation 391 feet.
Omaha 1 ,668 miles.

214

GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES.

Rocklin.

Elevation 249 feet.
Population 1,026.
Omaha 1,671 miles,

E-ocklin, also in the fruit belt, is the principal granite-producing
locality in California, whence its name. In the vicinity of the town
20 or 25 quarries are in operation, and some of them
may be seen from the railroad. The first quarry was
opened in 1863, and the stone was used in construc-
tion work on the Central Pacific Railway. The stone
for the State Capitol at Sacramento (PL L, p. 216) and
for many buildings in San Francisco came from Rocklin.^

The traveler has now practically reached the Great Valley of
California. The country spreads out to the north and south. in low
undulations and ahead are plains as far as the eye can see.

The great gold-dredging fields of California lie along the belt of
country where the Sierra slope merges into the valley plain, but
none of these fields is crossed by the Overland Route. One pro-
ductive district is near Folsom, about 10 miles south of Rocklin, on
American River. This district produced gold to the value of
$2,498,603 in 1913. The Marysville dredging district, on Yuba River
about 30 miles northwest of Rocklin, produced $2,420,455 in 1913,
and the Oroville district, on Feather River about 25 miles north of
Marysville, $1,918,050. The gold is obtained by powerful electri-
cally driven dredges — -huge floating scows, some of them 150 feet long,
provided with great buckets, linked together in an endless chain, for
scooping up the gravel and with complete machinery for screening
and washing the gravel and recovering the gold. Once floated in a
pond the dredges dig their way through fields, vineyards, and
orchards, fiUing in behind them with washed gravel. The gold was
brought down from the slopes of the Sierra and deposited in recent
geologic time by the rivers near which the dredges are working.
Of late years the hard bowlders left by the dredging have been
crushed and utihzed as broken rock for road building. Some effort
has been made also to restore the dredged ground to arable condi-
tion. Where this has been successfully accomplished in the Sacra-
mento region vineyards and ohve groves occupy areas from which
gold and road metal have been mined.

At the west base of the Sierra, but not continuously exposed aU
along it, are beds of brown Upper Cretaceous sandstone (Chico for-
mation) and of lighter-colored Eocene sandstone and clay, containing
thin coal beds (lone formation).^ All these beds are younger than

^ The rock is of light-gray color and of
medium fine grain. Grayish quartz
grains, white feldspars, black or dark-
brown biotite, and silvery muscovite in
small scales may be readily distinguished
with the unaided eye. In composition

the rock is a normal granite, but a short
distance from Rocklin the country rock
grades into a granodiorite.

2 The lone formation has been described
as Miocene, but recent investigations in-
dicate that it is Eocene.

GEOLOGIC AND TOPOGKAPHIC MAP

OVEKLAND EOUTE

3ULLETIN 612

From Omaha, Nebraska, to

an

Fi'ancisco, Califojnia

Base compiled from United .States Geological Survey Atlas 8ht>ets,
from railroad alignments and profiles supplied by the Union Paeilic
Railroad Company and tlie Southern Patilic Company and from addi-
tional information collected with the assistance of these (X)mpanies

UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY

GEORGE OTIS SMITH, DIRECTOR
David White. Chief Geologist R. E. Marshall, (;hief Geographer

1915

Each quadrangle shown on the map with a name in parenthesis in the
lower left comer is mapped in detail on the U. S. G. S. Topographic
sheet of that name.

FiSURE I7.-SKETCH MAPS SHOWING CAPTURE OF UPPER PART OF BEAR RIVER BY SOUTH
FORK OF YUBA RIVER. >4 , BEFORE CAPTURE, ^, AFTER CAPTURE. RAILROAD SHOWN
TO IDENTIFY LOCATION.

SHEET No. 23

Tertiari

EXPLANATION

A Modem stream deposits (alluvium)

B Glacial deposits ' moraines) ; Pleistocene

C Lavas (chiefly andesite but including rhyolite, basalt,
etc.X flows, tuffs, or tuff breccias (shown bv stippled
pattern): Neocene

D Auriferous (gold-bearing) gravels : Neocene

E Clays, sand, and gravel, with some coal beds (lone for
mation); Eocene

F Gi-anite (chiefly gi-anodiorite but including granite
phyry, gabbro, peridotites, serpentine, etc
•Jurassic or early Cretaceous

G Slates, sandstone, and conglomerate (Mariposa slate .i
Jurassic ; calcareous slates and limestones (Sailor Can
yon formation), Triassic Locally changed to schist
and other metamorphic rocks

H Slates and schists with some quartzite, sandstone and p ,

limestone (Calaveras formation) ; Carboniferous raierzou-

I20"30'CAL1F0RN1A

THE OVERLAND ROUTE OGDEN TO SAN FRANCISCO. 2l5

the rocks forming the mass of the Sierra and have not been squeezed
or altered. They dip gently westward and are covered by gravels,
silts, and muds washed into the Great Valley of California by streams.
Remnants of the lavas that were poured down the Sierra slopes
during Tertiary time cap some of the foothills along this part of the
route. West of them all is open plain.

At Roseville the main line is joined from the north by the South-
ern Pacific Co.'s line to Marysville, Chico, and Tehama. At

Tehama this line joins the main Shasta Route of the
Roseville. same company, which south of Tehama lies along

Elevation 164 feet. ^}^q ^^^-^ q[^q ^f Sacramcuto Valley. Beyond Rose-
omaha 1,675 'miles. villc is a nearly level country, practically all of which

is under Qidtivation, chiefly in grain but partly in
orchards. The scattered oak trees in this part of the valley include
two species, the live oak and the valley oak. (See footnote on p. 203.)
Antelope (see sheet 24, p. 218) is a few miles beyond RoseviUe.
Beyond Ben Ali, a siding about 12 miles from RoseviUe, there is a
tile and brick yard north of the track.

As it approaches Sacramento the train runs on an embankment,
a part of a rather extensive system of levees which hold the flood
waters of Sacramento and American rivers in check. After cross-
ing American River the train skirts the north side of the city to the
station, which is close to Sacramento River.

Sacramento, the capital of California, is on the east bank of Sac-
ramento River 61 miles above its mouth, just below the mouth of

American River. The city is on the low flood plain
Sacramento. ^£ Sacramento River, about 30 feet above mean sea

Elevation 30 feet. levcl. It is a distributine' point and wholesale center

Population 44,696. « , i c -i o xr n i i

Omaha 1,693 miles. lor the vast and lertile bacramento Valley and has
numerous manufactures, of which flour is the chief.
As boats drawing 7 feet of water can come up to the city, freight
can be transported by water to and from San Francisco Bay. Elec-
tricity for lighting, for street railways, and for power is furnished by
hydroelectric plants at Folsom, on American River, 22 miles away,
and at Colgate, in the Sierra, on Yuba River, 119 miles away.

The first settlement on the site of Sacramento was a fort built in
1839 by John Augustus Sutter, a Swiss military officer in the service
of Mexico. In 1841 Sutter was granted 11 square leagues of land by
the Mexican Government, but the real history of the town begins
with the discovery of gold in 1848. In December, 1849, the popula-
tion was 4,000, and a year later it had increased to 10,000. The city
was made the State capital in 1854. Before 1862 destructive floods
were frequent, but since that date the city has been protected by
levees. The lower portions of the main streams in the Sacramento
Valley, overloaded with silt and, especially since 1849, with the debris
from the placer mines in the Sierra, have built their channels above

216

GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES.

the level of the adjacent valley lands. Thus it has become of great
importance to the farmers to confine the flood waters within the river
channels, and to this end the banks have been raised by levees. There
are many channels, usually dry, which lead out into the valley, par-
ticularly from the Coast Range. The flood waters of these channels
can not reach the main river at all and therefore spread out over the
lowlands on either side, to be eventually dissipated for the most part
by evaporation. This accounts for the numerous areas of low marshy
lands that border the river.

Leaving Sacramento the train crosses Sacramento River on a steel
bridge and runs across flats which lie almost at tide level but which,
being protected from inundation by levees, are cultivated as market
gardens and for hay or grain. Farther west the land becomes marshy
and is covered with a thick growth of tule (pronounced too'ly), a
bulrush (Scirpus lacustris or californicus) which looks like a coarse,
high grass. These marshes extend for miles on both sides of the
track. In places the ground is slightly above the general level and
its surface is covered with short grass used for the grazing of cattle
and sheep. Beyond this country the train reaches slightly higher
and better-drained lands, on which Swingle, a minor station, is sur-
rounded by hay meadows and corn fields.

At Davis the Shasta and Overland routes join. The country in
this vicinity is a smooth plain, near tidewater level, but nevertheless
high enough to provide drainage. With its rich
fields of grain and orchards, it has a distinctly pros-
perous look. Beyond Davis the Coast Ranges^
become more prominent, especially to the right,
ahead of the train, where one of them appears as a
low dark ridge broken by one or more gaps. Valley and live oaks are
again a common feature through the fields.

Dixon is an agricultural town in Solano County. Beyond it the
Coast Range now looms larger as the traveler proceeds westward.
Elmira (elevation 79 feet), a junction whence a
branch road goes to Vacaville, Winters, and Rumsey
is next passed. Beyond Elmira the road approaches
low foothills of the Coast Range — first a bare ridge
with gaps through one of which the railroad passes over a slight rise.

Davis.

Elevation 42 feet.
Population 750.*
Omaha 1,706 miles

Dixon.

Elevation 61 feet.
Omaha 1,714 miles.

^ Along the Pacific coast, from the
vicinity of Santa Barbara on the south to
Humboldt County on the north, rise the
Coast Ranges, dividing the Great Valley
of California from the ocean. These
ranges are broken by the one great gap by
which the combined Sacramento and San
Joaquin rivers find outlet into the Bay of
San Francisco. The Coast Ranges are

geologically the most recent of the grea<
structural features of the State. They
are built up largely of folded and crushed
Cretaceous, Jurassic, and Tertiary sedi-
mentary rocks, which are in places broken
through by andesitic and basaltic lavas
and by older igneous rocks (diabase and
other dark, heavy rocks, in part altered
to serpentine).

THE OVERLAND ROUTE OGDEN TO SAN FRANCISCO.

217

The factory of the Pacific Portland Cement Co. and adjacent shale
quarries can be seen to the north. The limestone used here to mix
with the shale is brought from a point near Auburn.

The traveler coming across the Sacramento Valley in the day during
midsummer is likely to find the trip warm, but on reaching this gap
in the Coast Range he almost invariably notices a change. The cool
breezes sweeping in from the west and carrying the smell of the salt
marshes become fresher as the train proceeds, and it is a reasonable
precaution to have wraps handy from this point on.

Beyond the first spur of the Coast Range the valley again broadens.
Higher mountains, more or less darkened by scrubby timber on their
upper slopes, border the valley to the north and far to the south.
If the air is moderately clear, Mount Diablo ^ and the southern con-
tinuation of the Coast Range may be seen. A group of low, round,
and grassy hills a few miles to the south are known as the Potrero
Hills. (Potrero, pronounced po-tray'ro, is Spanish for horse pasture.)

Suisun (suey-soon', locally soo-soon', the name of an Indian tribe,
said to mean great expanse) and the adjoining town of Fairfield (the
seat of Solano County, population 834) are at the
edge of another swampy district green with tule.
From this point the railroad is graded across the
Suisun Flats, which are so near tidewater level in
Suisun Bay, to the south, that no cultivation is
possible under present conditions, though the camps of several
duck-shooting clubs are situated among the sloughs. The rail-
road formerly encountered much difficulty in maintaining its grade
across this soft ground. Certain spots sank continually ever
since the road was first constructed, and it was seldom that in
going over this part of the route the traveler did not see work

Suisun.

Elevation 15 feet,
ropulation 641.
Omaha 1,733 miles.

1 From a point near Benicia, if the day
is clear, an excellent view may be had of
the double summit and graceful curves
of Mount Diablo. Its general outline and
isolated position have given the impres-
sion that this mountain is an old volcano.
It represents, however, the higher por-
tions of an overturned arch or anticline of
sedimentary rocks thrust from the north-
east toward the southwest. From its
summit to the sea level at Carquinez
(car-kee''nez) Strait is displayed a re-
markably complete series of typical Coast
Range formations, including Franciscan,
Knoxville, Chico, Martinez, Tejon, Mon-
terey, San Pablo, late Tertiary fresh-
water beds. Pleistocene, and Recent.
Although Mount Diablo is of moderate

height (3,849 feet), its isolation and its sit-
uation on the edge of the Great Valley
make it one of the finest viewpoints in
the State. From its top, on a clear morn-
ing, the summits of the Sierra Nevada can
be traced for over 200 miles. Lassen Peak
is often visible and sometimes Mount
Shasta. The Great Valley appears di-
vided into squares like a checkerboard by
the section-line roads and fences. The
San Francisco Bay region is sometimes
liidden by a rolling, snowy sea of fog.
The mountain is easily reached from San
P>ancisco, tliougli at present the actual as-
cent must be made on foot or by driving.
It is expected that the road, whicli goes
practically to the summit, will be fitted
for automobile travel.

218

GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES.

Benicia.

Elevation 6 feet.
Population 2,360.
Omaha 1,749 miles.

trains and grading crews busily engaged in filling and raising some
sunken portion of the track. Mud ridges rose along the tracks on
both sides, and their broken and lumpy sm-faces indicated a slow
flowing mass of mud squeezed out by the weight and vibration of
passing trains. It is said that as much as 30,000 carloads of coarse
gravel ballast was dumped into one of these spots.

Beyond the marshes the railroad meets the rocky headlands that
here close in upon Carquinez Strait. Some fine exposures of Creta-
ceous and Tertiary sandstones and shales may be seen in the cliffs
and road cuts around Army Point.

Near Benicia, on the left, is a United States arsenal and signal
station. Benicia (named by Gen. Vallejo after his wife) is a manu-
facturing town with deep-water frontage. It con-
tains, besides the arsenal, tanneries and other com-
mercial establishments. Southeast of Benicia, across
the strait, is the town of Martinez, near which John
Muir, California's great naturalist, lived for many
years. The tall smokestack east of the town belongs to the smelter
of the Mountain Copper Co., which mines its ore near Kennett, in
Shasta County. At this smelter sulphur fumes are utilized in making
sulphuric acid, which in turn is used in treating rock phosphate
brought from the company's mine near Montpelier, Idaho, and here
turned into fertilizer. Just beyond Benicia the train is run onto a
ferryboat and is carried across Carquinez Strait to Port Costa, a
distance of a mile.

The geologic section from Benicia and Port Costa to the vicinity
of Berkeley and Oakland is particularly interesting, as in it are
represented many of the characteristic sedimentary formations of
the Coast Range. This stratigraphic section is quite different from
that of corresponding age in the Sierra foothills.

Port Costa (see sheet 25, p. 224), the western ferry terminus, is a
shipping point, particularly for grain, which comes from the exten-
sive grain-producing district in the valley ^ and is
here loaded into ocean-going vessels. A long line of
galvanized-iron grain warehouses may be seen on the
water front.

On leaving Port Costa the train skirts the south shore of Carquinez
Strait, where the steep bluffs offer many good exposures of folded
sedimentary rocks. The first rocks seen are Upper Cretaceous

Port Costa.

Elevation 11 feet.
Omaha 1,750 miles

1 Agriculture in California had its be-
ginning in wheat raising, and wheat was
long the State's greatest crop. Its pro-
duction steadily increased until about
1884, to over 54,000,000 bushels annually.
The levelness of the great grain fields
of the valley led to the utilization of

combined harvesters, steam gang plows,
and other farm machinery of extraordi-
nary size and efficiency. Recently,
however, fruit growing has become a more
important industry than grain farming.
In the value of its fruit crop California
leads all the other States.

BULLETIN G12

GEOLOGIC AND TOPOGRAPHIC MAP

OK THE

OVEELAND EOUTE

From Omaha, Nebraska, to San Francisco, Califoi-nia

Base compiled from United States Geological Survey Atla.s Sheets,
from railroad alitrnineuts and profiles supplied by the Union Faoitic
Jiailroad Company and the Southern Pacific Company and from addi-
tional information collected with the assistance of these companies

UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY

GEORGE OTIS SMITH, DIRECTOR
David White, Chief Geologist K. B. Marshall, Chief Geographer

1915

Each quadrangle shown on the map with a name in parenthesis
lower left comer is mapped in detail on the U. S. C. 5. Topo^
sheet of :hat name.

the

Topographic

SHEET No. 24

Kresh-water conglomerate, sandstone, clay, and lime-
stone lOrinda formation); sli-atified light-colored
pumice (Pinole tuff>: Pliocene

Sandstones and shales, mostly liffht colored. ' Monteie>
group and San Pablo formation at top): Miocene

Sandstone with some shale and conglomerate rfejon for-
mation above and Martinez fomiation l>elow i ; Eocene

Ijiva flows 'basalt, rhyolite

assive yel
glomerate

Massive yellowish .sandstone and clay shale with con- 1
bottom Chico formation. Upper Greta- I

reous) under!;
Cretaceous)

by dark shale Kr

THE OVERLAND ROUTE OGDEN TO SAN FRANCISCO.

219

(Chico) sandstone and shale. The rocks have a moderately steep
westward dip and trend almost directly across the course of the
railroad, so that as the train proceeds successively younger forma-
tions are crossed. At Eckley, a short distance beyond Port Costa,
brick is manufactured from the Cretaceous shale. At Crocket is a
large sugar refinery. Mare Island, across Carquinez Strait, is the
site of the United States navy yard, which, however, is not readily
discerned from this point. The Cretaceous shales and sandstones
continue to Vallejo Junction and a little beyond.

On the southeast side of San Pablo Bay, near the west end of
Carquinez Strait, there are wave-cut terraces and elevated deposits
of marine shells of species that are still living. These terraces and
deposits do not show south of San Pablo Bay, and therefore seem to
indicate the recent elevation of a block including only a portion of
the shore around the bay. This block probably includes the Berkeley
Hills and a considerable territory to the east, perhaps even extending
to Suisun Bay.

From Vallejo Junction a ferry plies to Vallejo (val-yay'ho), which

is on the mainland opposite the navy yard, and from which railroad

lines extend into the rich Napa and Sonoma valleys.

Vallejo Junction, g^^^^ ^^^^^ ^^^ ^^^^ ^^ ^^^^ famous Luther Burbank,

is in the Sonoma Valley. Vallejo was named from
Gen. Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo, who played a
prominent part in the early history of California. It was the capital
of the State from 1851 to 1853. Beyond Vallejo Junction Carquinez
Strait begins to open out into San Pablo Bay.^

Elevation 12 feet.
Omaha 1,754 miles.

^ The section along the shore of San
Pablo Bay between Vallejo Junction and
Pinole (see figs. 19 and 20, on sheet 25,
p. 224) includes six of the most widespread
divisions of the sedimentary series in the
Coast Range region of California. The
formations or groups represented are the
Chico (Upper Cretaceous), Martinez,
(Eocene), Monterey (earlier Miocene),
San Pablo (later Miocene), Pinole tuff
(Pliocene), and Pleistocene. The only
large divisions of the middle Coast Range
sequence not represented are the Fran-
ciscan (Jurassic?), Tejon (Eocene), and
Oligocene, all of which are found within a
few miles to the east and south.

In the San Pablo Bay section all the
formations below the Pleistocene are in-
cluded in a syncline, on the northeast
side of which the strata are nearly verti-
cal, but on the southeast side the dip of
the beds is lower. The Pleistocene beds

rest horizontally across the truncated
edges of the Miocene and Pliocene. The
aggregate thickness of the sediments in
the San Pablo Bay section is not less than
8,000 feet. With the exception of the
Pliocene and a portion of the Pleistocene,
all the formations are of marine origin,
A portion of the Pinole tuff was certainly
deposited in fresh water. The Pleisto-
cene beds were deposited under varying
marine, estuarino, and fluvial conditions.
Fossil remains are found in all the for-
mations of the San Pablo Bay section,
and at least six distinct faunas are repre-
sented. Very few specimens have been
procured in the Chico near the line of the
railroad, but abundant fossils are found
in the same formation a few miles to the
east. The Martinez fauna is represented
in the cliff opposite the Selby smelter.
The Monterey and tlio San Pablo con-
tain abundant remains. The fresh-water

220

GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES.

The dark Cretaceous shales near the railroad station at Vallejo
Junction are soon succeeded by brown shales and massive sandstones
belonging higher in the Cretaceous system. The contact between
the Chico and the Martinez (Eocene) beds is in a fault zone cut by
the railroad tunnel a short distance west of Vallejo Junction. Just be-
yond the tunnel the contact between the Martinez and the Monterey
(Miocene) is clearly shown in a high cliff to the left, opposite the
Selby Smelting Works, where the buff-colored Monterey sandstones
and shales rest with marked unconformity upon the black Eocene
shales. Near the contact the Eocene shale is filled with innumerable
fossil shells of boring Miocene mollusks. The Monterey beds are
extraordinarily well exposed in the cliffs to the left, and immediately
beyond the contact, where they consist of fine buff shales with shaly
sandstones and thin bands of yellow limestone.

After leaving these cliff exposures the train passes Tormey station,
crosses a little swamp, and approaches a tunnel cut into vertical
cliffs of massive gray sandstone; this is the type locality of the
San Pablo formation (upper Miocene). The refining plant of the
Union Oil Co., at the east end of this tunnel, is located on the upper
part of the San Pablo beds. Vertical beds of massive tuff imme-
diately west of the oil refinery represent the lower part of the Pinole
tuff. Beyond these beds the train crosses another swamp and enters
a cut in which white volcanic ash beds of the Pinole tuff dip at
a relatively low angle to the northeast. This change in dip shows
that these beds are on the southwest side of the San Pablo Bay
syncline, the axis of which passes through the swamp area. Kesting
upon the tilted ash deposits in this part of the section are horizontal
beds of Pleistocene shale.

The name Rodeo (ro-day'o), meaning "round-up," indicates that
the station so called was formerly a cattle-shipping point. Beyond
Rodeo the train enters a series of cuts. Near the sta-
Rodeo. ^JQj^ g^j.g exposures of massive tuffs close to the base of

the Pinole tuff. Beyond this point the San Pablo
(Miocene) appears, with low dips to the northeast.
In the sea cliffs on San Pablo Bay a few yards from the rail-
road are excellent exposures of the Miocene capped by Pleistocene
shale. At Hercules, where there are large powder works, the rail-
road cut is in broken shale of the Monterey group, the same beds
that were seen near the Selby smelter, on the northeast side of the
syncline. Beyond Hercules the railroad passes over Monterey shale

Elevation 12 feet.
Omaha 1,757 miles

fauna of the Pinole tuff is represented by
molluscan species. Leaves and remains
of vertebrates are also present. The
Pleistocene shale contains abundant

marine shells of a few sj^ecies, with mam-
mal bones representing the elephant,
horse, camel, bison, ground sloth, ante-
lope, lion, wolf, and other forms.

THE OVEKLAND ROUTE OGDEN TO SAN FRANCISCO.

221

Pinole.

to the town of Pinole (pee-no 'lay, a Spanish term used by the Indians
for parched grain or seeds), where the Pinole tuff is in contact with

the Monterey and is covered by a thick mantle of

the Pleistocene shale. In the cuts southwest of
oXhflTeo^^^es Pii^ole the rocks exposed are all either steeply in^

clined Pliocene tuffs or horizontal Pleistocene beds.
At Ki'ieger, where the tracks of the Santa Fe route may be seen
approaching the bay front from the south, is a so-called " tank farm."
The oil-storage tanks, which belong to the Standard Oil Co., are be-
yond the Santa Fe Ime. Beyond Sobrante station is Giant, another
powder factory, and beyond that are pottery works which obtain
clay from lone, in the Sierra Nevada. The bay shore near Oakland
is largely given over to industrial uses, on account of its facilities
for rail and water transportation.

Beyond Giant the foothills retreat from the bay shore and the rail-
road enters the broad lowland on which the cities of Berkeley and

Oakland are built. Near San Pablo, in the vicmity
San Pablo. ^^f g^j^ Pablo and Wildcat creeks, there is a gravel-

Elevation so feet, filled basin. Many wells sunk in this gravel may be

Omaha 1,765 miles. ^ , , "^ , , „ , , ° • . ,

seen near the tracks, and from them a municipal
water company and both railroads obtain water. West and south-
west of San Pablo station a line of hills shuts out a view of San
Francisco Bay. These hills constitute the Potrero San Pablo, so
called because, being separated from the mainland by marshes,
they were a convenient place in which to pasture horses during
the days of Mexican rule, when fences were practically unknown.
The hills are made up wholly of sandstone belonging to the Fran-
ciscan group. ^ On the other side of them are wharves, warehouses,
and large railway shops belonging to the Santa Fe system. From
that side also the Santa Fe ferry plies to San Francisco.

^ The rocks of the Franciscan group
comprise sandstone, conglomerate, shale,
and local masses of varicolored thin-
bedded flinty rocks. The flinty rocks
consist largely of the siliceous skeletons
of minute marine animals, low in the scale
of life, known as Radiolaria, and on this
account they are known to geologists as
radiolarian cherts. All the rocks men-
tioned have been intruded here and there
by dark igneous rocks (diabase, perido-
tite, etc.), wliich generally contain a good
deal of magnesia and iron but little silica.
The pcridotitos and related igneous rocks
have in large part undergone a chemical
and mineralogic change into the rock

known as serpentine. Closely associated
with the serpentine as a rule are masses
of crystalline laminated rock that consist
largely of the beautiful blue mineral
glaucophane and for that reason are called
glaucophane schist. Schist of this char-
acter is known in comparatively few parts
of the world, but is very characteristic of
the Franciscan group. It has been
formed from other rocks through the
chemical action known as contact meta-
morphism, set up by adjacent freshly in-
truded igneous rocks. The Franciscan
group is one of tlie most widespread aud
interesting assemblages of rocks in the
Coast Ranges.

222

GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES.

Richmond.

Riclimond, on both the Southern Pacific and the Santa Fe lines,
is becoming a busy shipping, railroad, and manufacturing point, on
account of the congestion of the water front of Oak-
land and San Francisco. The hills on the east side
^°P^^^^\%^,f ; of the track, known to old Californians as the Contra

Umana 1,767 miles. . ■'

Costa Hills, but now often referred to as the Berkeley
Hills, rise steeply from the plain. The most conspicuous summit
from the west is Grizzly Peak (1,759 feet), but Bald Peak, just east
of it, is 171 feet higher. The hills are generally treeless on their
exposed western slopes, although their ravines and the eastern
slopes are wooded.^

Beyond San Pablo and Richmond the rocks of the Franciscan group
outcrop in low hiUs. At Stege the railroad is still close to the shore
of the bay. Between this place and the hills is one of the suburbs of
Berkeley known as Thousand Oaks. The traveler can get here an
unobstructed view out over the bay and through the Golden Gate.
Mount Tamalpais is on the right and San Francisco on the left. Just
to the left of the Golden Gate the white buildings of the Exposition
grounds can readily be distinguished if the day is at all clear. At
Nobel station a little wooded hill of Franciscan rocks stands close to
the railroad on the left. Beyond Nobel an excellent view may be had
of the hilly portion of the city of Berkeley.

West Berkeley station, also known as University Avenue, is in the
older part of the city of Berkeley, and the center of the city is now
almost 2 J miles back toward the hills. Berkeley was
named after Bishop Berkeley, the English prelate of
the eighteenth century who wrote the stanza begin-
ning '^Westward the course of empire takes its way,"
by those who chose it as a site for the University of
California. One of. them, looking out over the bay and the Golden
Gate, quoted the familiar line, and another suggested '^Why not
name it Berkeley?" and Berkeley it became.

The University of California was founded in 1868. It is one of the
largest State universities in America, including besides the regular
collegiate and postgraduate departments at Berkeley the Lick
Observatory, on Mount Hamilton; coll ;ges of law, dentistry, phar-
macy, art, etc., in San Francisco; the Scripps Institution for Biological

Berkeley.

Elevation 8 feet.
Population 40,434,
Omaha 1,772 miles

^ The geologic structure of these hills is
rather complicated. Along their south-
west base, between Berkeley and Oak-
land, is a belt of the sandstones, cherts,
and schists belonging to the Franciscan
(Jurassic?) group and characteristically
associated with masses of serpentine.
Overlying the Franciscan rocks are sand-
stones, shales, and conglomerates of Cre-

taceous, Eocene, and Miocene age.
These in turn are overlain by tuffs, fresh-
water beds, and lavas of Pliocene and
early Quaternary age. The general struc-
ture of the ridge east of Berkeley is
synclinal, the beds on both sides dipping
into the hills. The upper part of Grizzly
Peak is formed chiefly of lava flows of
Pliocene age.

THE OVERLAND ROUTE OGDEN TO SAN FRANCISCO. 223

Research, at La Jolla, near San Diego; and other laboratories for
special studies elsewhere. It is a coeducational institution and had a
total enrollment for 1914-15, not including that of the summer
school, of 6,202. The members of the faculty and other officers of
administration and instruction number 890. The university build-
ings at Berkeley are beautifully situated and have a broad outlook
over San Francisco Bay. Their position can readily be identified
from the train by the tall clock tower. Another prominent group
of buildings occupying a similar site just south of the university
grounds is that of the California School for the Deaf and the Blind.

Just before reaching Oakland (Sixteenth Street station) the train
passes Shell Mound Park. The mound, which is about 250 feet long
and 27 feet high, is on the shore of the bay close to the right-hand
side of the track. It is composed of loose soil mixed with an immense
number of shells of clams, oysters, abalones, and other shellfish
gathered for food by the prehistoric inhabitants of the region and
eaten on this spot. The discarded shells, gradually accumulating,
built up the mound. Such relics of a prehistoric people are numerous
about the bay, for over 400 shell mounds have been discovered within
30 miles of San Francisco. The mound just described is one of the
largest, and from excavations m it a great number of crude stone,
shell, and bone implements and ornaments have been obtained. The
mounds evidently mark the sites of camps or villages that were
inhabited during long periods, for the accumulation of such refuse
could not have been very rapid. Archeologists who have studied the
mound say that it must have been the site of an Indian village over
a thousand years ago, and that it was probably inhabited almost
continuously to about the time when the Spaniards first entered
California.

The first stop in the city of Oakland is made at the Sixteenth Street
station, about 1^ miles from the business center of the city. Oakland
is the seat of Alameda County and lies on the eastern
Oakland. shore of San Francisco Bay directly opposite San

Elevation 12 feet. Fraucisco. Its name is derived from the live oaks
om^ha 1^774 miles! which Originally covcrcd the site. It is an important
manufacturing center and has a fme harbor with 15
miles of water front. Visitors to Oakland should if possible take the
electric cars to Piedmont, from which a fine view may be had of San
Francisco, the bay, and the Golden Gate. This view is especially good
at sunset. A walk or drive to Redwood Peak takes the visitor past
the former home of Joaquin Miller, author of ''Songs of the Sierras"
and many other familiar poems, and affords equally fine views.

Leaving the station at Sixteenth Street, the train skirts the west
side of the city and runs out on a pier or mole IJ miles long. This
is the end of the ''overland" part of the route, for the rest of the

224 GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES.

journey must be made on the San Francisco ferries. The distance
across the bay is 4 miles, and the trip is made in the ferryboats in
about 20 minutes. In crossing the bay the traveler sees Goat (or
Yerba Buena), Alcatraz, and Angel islands to the right, Marin
Peninsula beyond them, and the Golden Gate opening to the west of
Alcatraz.

Goat Island lies close to the ferry course across the bay. Like most
of the other islands in the bay, it is owned by the Government. On
the nearest point there is a lighthouse station, and below it the
rocky cliff is painted white to the water's edge. Just to the right of
this is the supply station for the lighthouses of the whole coast from
Seattle to San Diego. Behind this station is the United States naval
training station, of which the officers' quarters may be seen on the
hillside and the men's quarters near the larger buildings below. At
the extreme northeast point of the island is a torpedo station, where
torpedoes are stored for use in the coast defense.

On Alcatraz, the small island west of Goat Island, is a United
States disciplinary barracks, and on Angel Island, north of Alcatraz,
are barracks and other military buildings, a quarantine station, and
an immigrant station.

Few people in viewing the Bay of San Francisco think of it in any
other way than as a superb harbor or as a beautiful picture. Yet it
has an interesting geologic story. The great depression in which it
lies was once a valley formed by the subsidence of a block of the
earth's crust — in other words, the vaUey originated by faulting. The
uplifted blocks on each side of it have been so carved and worn by
erosion that their blocklike form has long been lost. Erosion also has
modified the original vaUey by supplying the streams with gravel and
sand to be carried into it and there in part deposited. The moun-
tains have been worn down and the valley has been partly fiUed.
Possibly the valley at one time drained out to the south. However
that may be, at a later stage in its history it drained to the west
through a gorge now occupied by the Golden Gate. Subsidence of this
part of the coast allowed the ocean water to flow through this gorge,
transforming the river channel into a marine strait and the valley into
a great bay. Goat Island and other islands in San Francisco Bay
suggest partly submerged hiUs, and such in fact they are.

San Francisco, the chief seaport and the metropolis of the Pacific

coast, is the tenth city in population in the United States and the

largest and most important city west of Missouri

San Francisco. -^.^^^^ .j^^ population in 1910 showed a gain of 20

Sf i782mfils: per cent since 1900. The city is beautifully situated

at the north end of a peninsula, with the ocean on one

side and the Bay of San Francisco on the other. The bay is some

50 miles in length and has an area of more than 300 square miles.

BULLETIN 612

GEOLOGIC AND TOPOGRAPHIC MAP

OVERLAND ROUTE

From Omaha, Nebraska, to San Francisco, California

Base compilecl from United States Geological Survey Atlas Sheets,
from railroad alignments and profiles supplied by T<he Union Pacific
Railroad Company and the Southern Pacific Company and from addi-
tional information collected with the assistacEce ot these companies

UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY

GEOKGE OTIS SMITH, DIRECTOR
David White, Chief Geologist R. B. Marshall, Chief Geographer

1915

Bach quadrangle shown on the map with a name in parenthesis in the
lower left comer is mapped in detail on the U. S. G. S. Topographic
sheet of that name.

FI6URE I9.-MAP SHOWING 6EDLj061C f=ORMATIONS AIjONS THE SOUTH SHORE OFSAN FVKBUD BftY.

SW. ^. NE.

Tb Thi Tb

^i^s^g^^

m:.

FIGURE 80- SECTION SHOWINS STRUCTURE! ALONG THE SOUTH SHORE OF SAN PABLO BAY

SHEET No. 2b

EXPLANATION

A Stream deposits (alluvium), sand dunes, and beach sands

B Fresh-water gravels, sands, and clays (Santa Clara for-
mation, early Quaternary and Pliocene) ; marine clay,
sandstone, and conglomerate (Merced formation. Plio-
cene); and stratfied light-colored pumice (Pinole tuff.
Pliocene)

C Light-colored soft sandstone and chalky bituminous
shale 'San Pablo formation and Monterey group):
Miocene

D Hard sandstone above (Te.jon formation) ; chiefly con-
glomerate with sandstone; some shale and thin lime-
stone (Martinez formation) below; Eocene

E Lava flows t basalt and rhyolite)

F Massive yellowish sandstone with conglomerate member
below (Chico formation. Upper Cretaceous), underlain
by calcareous and arenaceous shale (Knoxville forma-
tion. Lower Cretaceous)

G Chiefly intrusive rocks (basalt, diabase, gabbro, perido-
tite, pyroxenite, serpentine); Jurassic (?)

H Sandstones with subordinate shales, locally alternating
with varicolored radiolarian cherta and some limestone ;
local schists due to rnetamorphism on contact pf
igneous rocks (Franciscan group); Jurassic (?)

I Granite (quartz diorite)

Scale

500.000
Approximately 8 miles to 1 inch
5 10 15 2pMiles

Contour interval 200 feet

ELEVATIONS IN FEET ABOVE MEAN SEA LEVEL

The distances from Omaha, Nebraska, are shown eveij 10 miles
The crossties on the railroads are spaced J mile apart

123-

THE OVERLAND ROUTE OGDEN TO SAN FRANCISCO. 225

The entrance to the bay Hes through the Golden Gate, a strait about

5 miles long and a mile wide at its narrowest point.

The site of the city is very hilly, and a line of high rocky elevations
run like a crescent-formed background from northeast to southwest
across the peninsula, culminating in the Twin Peaks, 925 feet high.
Telegraph Hill, in the northeastern part of the city, is 294 feet above
sea level. Here stood the semaphore which signaled the arrival of
ships in the days of the gold seekers. The city has been laid out
without the shghtest regard to topography; consequently many of the
streets are so steep as to be traversable only by cable cars and pedes-
trians. The waters of the bay formerly extended westward to Mont-
gomery Street, and most of the level land in the business section of
San Francisco has been made by filling.

Golden Gate Park, containing 1,014 acres, and extending westward
from the city to the ocean, was a waste of barren sand dunes in 1870,
but skillful planting and cultivation have transformed it into one of
the most beautiful semitropical public parks in the country. At its
west end is the famous Cliff House, overhanging the sea, and a short
distance out from the shore are the Seal Rocks, where the great sea
Hons may often be seen. The Sutro Baths, near by, named after
Adolph Sutro, constructor of the famous Sutro tunnel on the Comstock
lode, contain one of the largest inclosed pools in the world.

San Francisco Bay is the largest and most active harbor on the
Pacific coast. Besides the coastwise routes, the port maintains steam-
ship connections with Austraha, Hawaii, Mexico, Central
and South America, the Philippines, China, and Japan.
The direct foreign trade is chiefly with British Columbia, South
America, China, and Japan. Although the export grain business
has now largely shifted to the ports of Oregon and Washington,
San Francisco's permanence as one of the greatest ports of
the country is assured by its advantageous position, its wealth
of back country, and its command of trans-Pacific and transcon-
tinental trade routes. Three large railroad systems — the South-
ern Pacific (with two transcontinental lines), the Atchison, Topeka

6 Santa Fe, and the Western Pacific — connect it with the East.
Lines of the Southern Pacific Co. connect the city with different
parts of the State and with the northern transcontmental lines.
The Northwestern Pacific serves Mendocino, Sonoma, and Marin
counties, on the north, and several smaller lines radiate from differ-
ent ports on the bay. Only one of the lines mentioned, the Coast Line
of the Southern Pacific, actually enters the city. The other roads
have their terminals in Oakland and other cities around the bay.

38088°— Bull. 612—16 15

226 GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES.

The first settlement on the present site of San Francisco dates
from 1776. It consisted of a Spanish military post (presidio) and
the Franciscan mission of San Francisco de Asis. In
1836 the settlement of Yerba Buena (yair'ba bway'na)
was established in a little cove southeast of Telegraph Hill.
The name San Francisco was, however, applied to aU three
settlements. The United States flag was raised over the town in
1846, and the population rapidly increased, reaching perhaps 900
m May, 1848. The news of the gold discoveries was followed by
crowds of fortune seekers, so that by the end of 1848 the city
had an estimated population of 20,000. From that time on
San Francisco has grown rapidly. The first regular overland mail
communication with the East was established by pony express in
1860, the charge for postage being $5 for haK an ounce. In 1869
the completion of the Central Pacific Railway to Oakland marked
the beginning of transcontinental railway communication.

The city suffered from severe earthquakes in 1839, 1865, 1868,
and 1906. In respect to property loss the disaster of April 18, 1906,
was one of the great catastrophes of history. The actual damage
to the city by the earthquake was comparatively slight, but the
water mains were broken and it was consequently impossible to
check the fires which immediately broke out and which soon de-
stroyed a large part of the city, including most of the business sec-
tion. Some 500 persons lost their lives, and the estimated damage
to property was between $350,000,000 and $500,000,000. Recon-
struction began at once, and the city was practically rebuilt in the
three years following the earthquake.

The Ocean Shore Railroad (station at Twelfth and Mission streets)
and connecting automobile line afford a good opportunity to see
Excursions ^^^ g^^logy aloug the shore from San Francisco to Santa
from San Oruz. I'hc rctum trip may be made by rail or stage
across the Santa Cruz Mountains. For 4 J miles north
of Mussel Rock (11.9 miles from San Francisco) there is exposed
in the bluffs along the coast a remarkable section of the Mer-
ced (Pliocene) formation, consisting of about 5,800 feet of highly
inclined marine clays, shales, sandstones, conglomerates, and shell
beds. In these beds have been found fossil remains of 53 species
of marine animals, mostly moUusks, of which three-fourths are still
represented by forms hving in the ocean to-day. The San Andreas
rift (the fracture along which displacement occurred in the San
Francisco earthquake of 1906) passes out to sea at the mouth of
a little ravine half a mile north of Mussel Rock and is crossed by the
railroad. The exposures of the Merced formation along the sea cHffs
were much finer before the San Francisco earthquake, which shook
down some of the cliffs. From Tobm (18.1 miles) to Green Can von

THE OVERLAND ROUTE OGDEN TO SAN FRANCISCO. 227

(21.1 miles) the bed of the Ocean Shore Railroad is cut in bold
sea chffs high above the water and affords not only fine shore scenery
but also an excellent section of rocks that probably belong to the
Martinez (Eocene) formation. The contact of these rocks with a
large mass of pre-Franciscan granite (quartz diorite), which forms
Montara Mountain, a bold ridge that extends southeastward from
this part of the coast, is crossed by the railroad between Tobin and
Green Canyon. At the north end of Seal Cove, opposite Moss Beach
station (24.1 miles), the bowldery and fossiliferous sea-beach beds
here formmg the base of the Merced (Pliocene) and resting on the
granite of Montara Mountain are well exposed.

This delightful excursion may be extended down the coast to
Pescadero, and the return made by stage across the range and rift
zone to San Mateo; or the traveler may continue down the coast to
Santa Cruz and return across the range on the Southern Pacific line
either by way of the Big Trees and Los Gatos or by Pajaro and Gilroy.

The characteristic thin-bedded radiolarian chert of the Franciscan
group is well exposed about Strawberry HiU, in Golden Gate Park.
There are good exposures of the chert also on Hunter Point, reached
most readily by the Kentucky Street cars from Third and Market
streets. The principal rock of the point is serpentine. A mass of
basalt in the sea cliffs on the south side presents a remarkable sphe-
roidal and variolitic structure.

The summit of Mount Tamalpais is very easily and comfortably
reached by ferry to Sausalito, electric train to Mill VaUey, and a
•mountain railway to the hotel on the top. The ferry trip is one of
the best to be had on the bay. The steamer passes close to the island
of Alcatraz, on which is a disciplinary barracks. To the west may
be seen the ocean through the Golden Gate. Angel Island, with its
interesting glaucophane schists, serpentine, and other rocks, lies to
the right as the boat approaches Sausalito. The sedimentary rocks
of both islands belong to the Franciscan group and are chiefly sand-
stone. The trip from Sausalito to Mill Valley by the Northwestern
Pacific Railroad gives the traveler opportunity to see some character-
istic bay-shore scenery and particularly to note how the waters of the
bay appear to have flooded what was once a land valley. Mill Val-
ley is named from an old Spanish sawmiU, the frame of which is still
standing. The views obtainable from the scenic railway and from
the summit of Mount Tamalpais arc extensive and varied. To the
south may be seen San Fiancisco and Mount Hamilton (4,444 feet).
To the southeast is Mount Diablo (3,849 feet), through which runs
the meridian and base line from which the public4and surveys of
a large part of California arc reckoned. Nearer at hand is the bay,
with its dark-green bordering marshes through which wind serpen-
tine tidal creeks. Close under the mountain to the north is Lake

228 GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES.

Lagunitas (an artificial reservoir), and beyond it ridge after ridge
of the Coast Range. To the west is the vast Pacific.

From the summit of Tamalpais one sees clearly that San Francisco
Bay is a sunken area in which hilltops have become islands and penin-
sulas. This area is the northern extension of the crust al block whose
sinking formed Santa Clara Valley. A later sag admitted the ocean
into the valley, and the Golden Gate, formerly a river gorge, became
a strait.

Mount Tamalpais has really three peaks: East Peak (2,586 feet)
near which the Tavern of Tamalpais is situated; Middle Peak (about
2,575 feet); and West Peak (2,604 feet). From the grassy hills IJ
miles west of West Peak there is a good view of Bolinas Lagoon,
though which passes the San Andreas rift, but for close views of the
rift topography the visitor should walk or drive through the valley
between Bolinas Lagoon and Tomales Bay, where the effects of the
movement of 1906 are still in many places clearly evident.

Mount Tamalpais is composed wholly of the sediments of the Fran-
ciscan group and the igneous rocks usually associated with them,
though it is chiefly sandstone. A mass of radiolarian chert occurs
near the tavern, and serpentine may be seen at several places beyond
West Peak. To one fond of walking and of marine views, a trip on
foot to West Peak, thence down the main ridge to Muir Woods (red-
woods), and back across the hills to Mill Valley may be heartily
recommended. The distance is probably 8 or 9 miles. The Muir
Woods, which bear the name of California's greatest nature lover,
form a national monument, presented to the nation by WiUiam Kent,'
now a Member of Congress from the first California district, for the
purpose of preserving untouched by the lumberman one area of red-
woods. No fitter memorial could be dedicated to the memory of John
Muir, whose writings have contributed so much to the movement for
preserving in national ownership, for pubhc enjoyment, some of our
finest scenic resources.

The geologic event of greatest human interest on the Pacific coast
in modern times was the San Francisco earthquake of 1906. It
was produced by a sudden movement of the rocks
^r*ft ^^^ ^ (faulting) along opposite sides of a fracture which
may be traced for many miles in the Coast Range.
The fissure existed before the earthquake of 1906, and it is evident
from the relations of hiUs and valleys along its course that it has
been the scene of earlier and, for the most part, prehistoric move-
ments. The last movement was mainly horizontal and in places
amounted to about 20 feet. The San Andreas rift, as this fissure
has been called, lies just west of San Francisco, and its course is
marked on sheet 25 (p. 224).

THE OVERLAND ROUTE OGDEN TO SAN FRANCISCO. 229

The cracks in the soil that mark the Hne of the last displacement
and the parallel ridges and valleys that show older displacements
along the fault zone are well displayed in Spring Valley, 13 miles
south of San Francisco, and especially near Skinner's ranch, 40 miles
northwest of San Francisco.

To reach Spring Valley the visitor should take the Southern Pacific
tram to San Mateo (18 miles), where a conveyance may be obtained
for a trip through Spring Valley along Crystal Spring and San An-
dreas lakes.

Skumer's ranch can be reached by the ferry to Sausalito and the
Northwestern Pacific Railroad to Point Reyes station, from which
the ranch is only 2 miles distant, near Olema. In this region may be
seen best the earth cracks along the fault line. Near the ranch house
there is striking evidence of the horizontal character of the movement
that produced the earthquake. The house formerly had two trees in
front of it. The fault line, which trends northwest, passes between
the trees and the house, and the trees were moved 15 feet to the
southeast with reference to the house. There was no perceptible ver-
tical movement nor any change in the water line along Tomales Bay.

SOME PUBLICATIONS ON THE GEOLOGY OF THE REGION
TRAVERSED BY THE OVERLAND ROUTE.

Ball, M. W., The western part of the Little Snake River coal field, Wyo. : U. S. Geol.

Survey Bull. 341, pp. 243-255, 1909.
Becker, G. F., Geology of the Comstock lode and the Washoe district: U. S. Geol.

Survey Mon. 3, 1882.
Blackwelder, Eliot, Cenozoic history of the Laramie region, Wyo. : Jour. Geolc^y,

vol. 17, pp. 429-444, 1909.

See also Darton, Blackwelder, and Siebenthal.

BouTWELL, J. M., Economic geology of the Bingham mining district, Utah: U. S.

Geol. Survey Prof. Paper 38, 1905.
Geology and ore deposits of the Park City district, Utah: U. S. Geol. Survey

Prof. Paper 77, 1912.
Calvin, Samuel, Aftonian mammalian fauna: Geol. Soc. America Bull., vol. 20, pp.

341-356, 1909.
Cross, Whitman. See Schultz and Cross.
Darton, N. H., Preliminary report on the geology and underground- water resources

of the central Great Plains: U. S. Geol. Survey Prof. Paper 32, 1905.
Darton, N. H., and Siebenthal, C. E., Geology and mineral resources of the Lara-
mie Basin, Wyo.: U. S. Geol. Survey Bull. 364, 1909.
Darton, N. H., Blackwelder, Eliot, and Siebenthal, C. E., U. S. Geol. Survey

Geol. Atlas, Laramie-Sherman folio (No. 173), 1910.
Dodge, G. M., How we built the Union Pacific Railway: Senate Doc. 447, 61st

Cong., 2d sess., 1910.
Emmons, W. H., A reconnaissance of some mining camps in Elko, Lander, and

Eureka counties, Nev.: U. S. Geol. Survey Bull. 408, 1910.
Gilbert, G. K., Lake Bonneville: U. S. Geol. Survey Mon. 1, 1890.
Hayden, F. v., U. S. Geol. and Geog. Survey Terr, (many reports), 1868-1888.
King, Clarence, U. S. Geol. Expl. 40th Par., Final Repts., 1871 to 1878.
Lawson, a. C, U. S. Geol. Survey Geol. Atlas, San Francisco folio, including Tamal-

pais, San Francisco, Concord, San Mateo, and Haywards quadrangles (No. 193),

1913.
LiNDGREN, Waldemar, U. S. Geol. Survey Geol. Atlas, Colfax folio (No. 66), 1900.
• U. S. Geol. Survey Geol. Atlas, Sacramento folio (No. 5), 1894, reprinted in

Folio Reprint 3, 5, and 11, 1914.

U. S. Geol. Survey Geol. Atlas, Tmckee folio (No. 39), 1897.

Lindgren, Waldemar, and Turner, H. W., U. S. Geol. Survey Geol. Atlas, Placer-
ville folio (No. 3), 1894, reprinted in Folio Reprint 3, 5, and 11, 1914.

Louderback, G. D., Basin Range structure of the Humboldt region, Nov.: Geol.
Soc. America Bull., vol. 15, pp. 289-346, 1904.

Lucas, F. A., Animals of the past. New York, McClure, Phillips & Co., 1901.

OsBORN, H. F., The age of mammals. New York, 1910.

Powell, J. W., Canyons of the Colorado, Meadville, Pa., Flood & Vincent, 1895.
230

REFERENCE LIST OF PUBLICATIONS. 231

Ransome, F. L., The geology and ore deposits of Goldfield, Nev.: U. S. Geol.

Survey Prof. Paper 66, 1909.
Notes on some mining districts in Humboldt County, Nev.: U. S. Geol.

Survey Bull. 414, 1909.

U. S. Geol. Survey Geol. Atlas, Mother Lode district folio (No. 63), 1900.

Russell, I, C, Geological history of Lake Lahontan, a Quaternary lake of north-
western Nevada: U. S. Geol. Survey Mon. 11, 1885.

ScHRADER, F. C, The Rochester mining district, Nev.: U. S. Geol. Survey Bull. 580,
pp. 325-372, 1915.

ScHULTZ, A. R., Deposits of sodium salts in Wyoming: L'. S. Geol. Survey Bull. 430,
pp. 570-589, 1910.

The northern part of the Rock Springs coal field, Sweetwater County, Wyo.:

U. S. Geol. Survey Bull. 341, pp. 256-282, 1909.

The southern part of the Rock Springs coal field, Sweetwater County, Wyo.:

U. S. Geol. Survey Bull. 381, pp. 214-281, 1910.
ScHULTz, A. R., and Cross, Whitman, Potash-bearing rocks of the Leucite Hills,

Sweetwater County, Wyo.: U. S. Geol. Survey Bull. 512, 1912.
ScoTT, W. B., A histor>' of land mammals in the Western Hemisphere, New York,

1913.
Shimek, B., Aftonian sands and gravels in western Iowa: Geol. Soc. America Bull.,

vol. 20, pp. 339-408, 1909.
Siebenthal, C. E. See Darton and Siebenthal; Darton, Blackwelder, and Sieben-

thal.
Smith, E. E., The eastern part of the Great Divide Basin coal field, Wyo.: U. S.

Geol. Survey Bull. 341, pp. 220-242, 1909.
Spencer, A. C, The copper deposits of the Encampment district, Wyo.: U. S. Geol.

Survey Prof. Paper 25, 1904.
Spurr, J. E., Geology of the Tonopah mining district, Nev.: U. S. Geol. Survey

Prof. Paper 42, 1905.
Todd, J. E., Pleistocene history of the Missouri River: Science, new ser., vol. 39,

pp. 263-274, 1914.
Turner, H. W. See Lindgren and Turner.
Veatch, a. C, Coal fields of east-central Carbon County, Wyo.: U. S. Geol. Survey

Bull. 316, pp. 244-260, 1907.
Geography and geology of a portion of southwestern Wyoming, with special

reference to coal and oil: U. S. Geol. Survey Prof. Paper 56, 1907.
Wegemann, C. H., The Coalville coal field, Utah: U. S. Geol. Survey Bull. 581,

pp. 161-184, 1915.

GLOSSARY OF GEOLOGIC TERMS.

Alluvial fan. The outspread sloping deposit of bowlders, gravel, and sand left by a
stream where it passes from a gorge out upon a plain. (See PI, XLII, p. 188.)

Andesite. A lava of widespread occurrence, usually of dark-gray color and inter-
mediate in chemical composition between rhyolite and basalt.

Anticline. An arch of bedded or layered rock suggestive in form of an overturned
canoe. (See also Dome and Syncline.)

Badlands. A region nearly devoid of vegetation where erosion, instead of carving
hills and valleys of the familiar type, has cut the land into an intricate maze of
narrow ravines and sharp crests and pinnacles. Travel across such a region is
almost impossible, hence the name.

Basalt. A common lava of dark color and of great fluidity when molten. Basalt is
less siliceous than granite and rhyolite, and contains much more iron, calcium,
and magnesium.

Bolson (pronounced bowl-sown^). A flat-floored desert valley that drains to a central
evaporation pan or play a.

Bomb. See Volcanic bomb.

Breccia (pronounced bretch^a). A mass of naturally cemented angular rock frag-
ments.

Crystalline rock. A rock composed of closely fitting mineral crystals that have
formed in the rock substance as contrasted with one made up of cemented grains
of sand or other material or with a volcanic glass.

Diabase. A heavy, dark, intrusive rock having the same composition as basalt, but,
on account of its slower cooling, a more crystalline texture. Its principal con-
stituent minerals are feldspar, augite, and usually olivine. Olivine is easily
changed by weathering, and in many diabases is no longer recognizable. Augite
is a mineral containing iron and magnesium arid is similar to hornblende.

Dike. A mass of igneous rock that has solidified in a wide fissure or crack in the
earth's crust.

Diorite. An even-grained intrusive igneous rock consisting chiefly of the minerals
feldspar, hornblende, and very commonly black mica. If the rock contains
much quartz, it is called quartz diorite. Quartz diorite resembles granite and is
connected with that rock by many intermediate varieties, including monzonite.
The feldspar in diorite differs from that in granite in containing calcium and
sodium instead of potassium. Hornblende is a green or black mineral containing
iron, magnesium, calcium, and other constituents.

Dip. The slope of a rock layer expressed by the angle which the top or bottom of
the layer makes with a horizontal plane. (See also Strike.)

Dissected. Cut by erosion into hills and valleys. Applicable especially to plains
or peneplains in process of erosion after an uplift.

Dome. As applied to rock layers or beds, a short anticline, suggestive of an inverted
basin.

Drift. The rock fragments — soil, gravel, and silt — carried by a glacier. Drift in-
cludes the unassorted material known as till and deposits made by streams flow-
ing from the glacier.

Erosion. The wearing away of materials at the earth's surface by the mechanical
action of running water, waves, moving ice, or winds, which use rock fragments
and grains as tools or abrasives. Erosion is aided by weathering. See Weathering.
232

GLOSSARY OF GEOLOGIC TERMS. 233

Fault. A fracture in the earth's crust accompanied by movement of the rock on
one side of the break past that on the other. If the fracture is inclined and the
rock on one side appears to have slid dovra the slope of the fracture the fault is
termed a normal fault. If, on the other hand, the rock on one side appears to
have been shoved up the inclined plane of the break the fault is termed a reverse
fault. (See fig. 12, p. 100, and fig. 16, p. 188.)

Fault block. A part of the earth's crust bounded wholly or in part by faults.

Fault scarp. The cliff formed by a fault. Most fault scarps have been modified by
erosion since the faulting.

Fauna. The animals that inhabited the world or a certain region at a certain time.

Fissure. A crack, break, or fracture in the earth's crust or in a mass of rock.

Flood plain. The nearly level land that borders a stream and is subject to occasional
overflow. Flood plains are built up by sediment left by such overflows.

Flora. The assemblage of plants growing at a given time or in a given place.

Fold. A bend in rock layers or beds. Anticlines and synclines are the common
types of folds.

Formation. A rock layer, or a series of continuously deposited layers grouped
together, regarded by the geologist as a unit for purposes of description and
mapping. A formation is usually named from some place where it is exposed
in its typical character. For example, Denver formation, Niobrara limestone.

Fossil. The whole or any part of an animal or plant that has been preserved in
the rocks or the impression left by a plant or animal. This preservation is in-
variably accompanied by some change in substance, and in impressions the
original substance has all been removed. (See PI. IV, p. 20, and PI. XIX, p. 75.)

Gneiss (pronounced nice). A rock resembling granite, but with its mineral con-
stituents so arranged as to give it a banded appearance. Most gneisses are meta-
morphic rocks derived from granite or other igneous rocks.

Granite. A crystalline igneous rock that has solidified slowly deep within the
earth. It consists chiefly of the minerals quartz, feldspar, and one or both of
the common kinds of mica, namely, black mica, or biotite, and white mica, or
muscovite. The feldspar is the kind kno^vn as orthoclase, and may be distin-
guished from quartz by its pale-reddish tint and its property of breaking with
flat shining surfaces (cleavage), for quartz breaks irregularly. The micas are
easily recognized by their cleavage into thin, flexible flakes and their bril-
liant luster.

Horizon. In geology any distinctive plane traceable from place to place in different
exposures of strata and marking the same period of geologic time. A particular
horizon may be characterized by distinctive fossils.

Igneous rocks. Rocks formed by the cooling and solidification of a hot liquid
material, known as magma, that has originated at unknown depths within the
earth. Those that have solidified beneath the surface are intrusive rocks, or,
if the cooling has taken place slowly at great depth, as plutonic intrusive or
plutonic rocks. Those that have flowed out over the surface are known as effusive
rocks, extrusive rocks, or lavas. The term volcanic rocks includes not only lavas
but bombs, pumice, tuff, volcanic ash, and other fragmental materials or ejecta
thrown out from volcanoes.

Jlithologic. Pertaining to lithology, or the study of rocks. (See also Petrology.)
Pertaining to rock character.

Lode. An ore-bearing vein (see Vein); especially a broad or complex vein.

Loess (pronounced lurse with the r obscure). A fine homogeneous silt or loam
showing usually no division into layers and forming thick and extensive
deposits in the Mississippi Valley and in China. It is generally regarded as in
part at least a deposit of wind-blown dust.

234 GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES.

Meander. To flow in serpentine curves. A loop in a stream. The term comes
from the Greek name of a river in Asia Minor, which has a sinuous course. Most
streams in flowing across plains develop meanders. (See PI. XXXVII, p. 177.)

Metamorphism. Any change in rocks effected in the earth by heat, pressure,
solutions, or gases. A common cause of the metamorphism of rocks is the intru-
sion into them of igneous rocks. Rocks that have been so changed are termed
metamorphic. Marble, for example, is metamorphosed limestone.

Monzonite. An even-grained intrusive igneous rock intermediate in character
between diorite and granite. It resembles granite.

Moraine. A mass of drift deposited by a glacier at its end or along its sides.

Oil pool. An accumulation or body of oil in sedimentr.ry rock that yields petro-
leum on drilling. The oil occurs in the pores of the rock and is not a pool or
pond in the ordinary sense of these words.

Outcrop. That part of a rock that appears at the surface. The appearance of a rock
at the surface or its projection above the soil.

Paleontology. The study of the world's ancient life, either plant or animal, by
means of fossils.

Peneplain. A region reduced almost to a plain by the long-continued normal ero-
sion of a land surface. It should be distinguished from a plain produced by the
attack of waves along a coast or the built-up flood plain of a river.

Petrography. The description of rocks, especially of igneous and metamorphic
rocks with the aid of the microscope.

Petrology. The study of rocks, especially of igneous and metamorphic rocks.

Placer deposit. A mass of gravel, sand, or similar material resulting from the
crumbling and erosion of solid rocks and containing particles or nuggets of gold,
platinum, tin, or other valuable minerals. The valuable materials in placers have
been derived from rocks or veins by erosion.

Playa (pronounced plah^ya). The shallow central basin of a desert plain, in which
water gathers after a rain and is evaporated.

Porphyry. Any igneous rock in which certain crystal constituents are distinctly
visible in contrast with the finer-grained substance of the rock.

Quartzite. A rock composed of sand grains cemented by silica into an extremely
hard mass.

Rhyolite. A lava, usually of light color, corresponding in chemical composition to
granite. The same molten liquid that at great depth within the earth solidifies
as granite would, if it flowed out on the surface, cool more quickly and crystallize
less completely as rhyolite.

Schist. A rock that by subjection to heat and pressure within the earth has under-
gone a change in the character of the particles or minerals that compose it and
has these minerals arranged in such a way that the rock splits more easily in cer-
tain directions than in others. A schist has a crystalline grain roughly illustrated
by the grain of a piece of wood.

Sedimentary rocks. Rocks formed by the accumulation of sediment in water
(aqueous deposits) or from air (eolian deposits). The sediment may consist of
rock fragments or particles of various sizes (conglomerate, sandstone, shale); of
the remains or products of animals or plants (certain limestones and coal); of the
product of chemical action or of evaporation (salt, gypsum, etc.); or of mixtures
of these materials. Some sedimentary deposits (tuffs) are composed of fragments
blown from volcanoes and deposited on land or in water. A characteristic feature
of sedimentary deposits is a layered structure knoAvn as bedding or stratification.
Each layer is a bed or stratum. Sedimentary beds as deposited lie flat or nearly
flat.

Shale. A rock consisting of thin hardened lavers of fine mud.

GLOSSARY OF GEOLOGIC TERMS. 235

Slate. A rock that by subjection to pressure within the earth has acquired the
property of splitting smoothly into thin plates. The cleavage is smoother and
more regular than the splitting of schist along its grain.

Stratigraphy. The branch of geologic science that deals with the order and rela-
tions of the strata of the earth's crust.

Strike. The direction along which an inclined rock layer would meet the earth's
surface if that surface were level. The outcrop (which see) of a bed on a plain is
coincident with its strike.

Structure. In geology, the forms assumed by sedimentary beds and igneous rocks
that have been moved from their original position by forces within the earth, or the
forms taken by intrusive masses of igneous rock in connection with effects pro-
duced mechanically on neighboring rocks by the intrusion. Folds (anticlines
and synclines) and faults are the principal mechanical effects considered under
structure. (See figs. 12 and 13, p. 100.) Schistosity and cleavage are also struc-
tural features.

Syncline. An inverted arch of bedded or layered rock suggestive in form of a canoe.

Talus (pronounced tay'lus). The mass of loose rock fragments that accumulates at
the base of a cliff or steep slope.

Terrace. A steplike bench on a hillside. Most terraces along rivers are remnants of
valley bottoms formed when the land was lower or when the stream flowed at
higher levels. Other terraces have been formed by waves. Some terraces have
been cut in solid rock, others have been built up of sand and gravel, and still
others have been partly cut and partly built up.

Till. The deposit of mingled bowlders, rock fragments, and soil left behind by a
melting glacier or deposited about its margin.

Tuff. A rock consisting of a layer or layers of lava particles blown from a volcano.
A fine tuff is often called volcanic ash and a coarse tuff is called breccia.

Type locality. The place at which a formation is typically displayed and from
which it is named; also the place at which a fossil or other geologic feature is
displayed in typical form.

TJnconfomiity. A break in the regular succession of sedimentary rocks, indicated
by the fact that one bed rests on the eroded surface of one or more beds which
may have a distinctly different dip from the bed above. An unconformity may
indicate that the beds below it have at some time been raised above the sea
and have been eroded. In some places beds thousands of feet thick have been
washed away before the land again became submerged and the first bed above
the surface of unconformity was deposited. If beds of rock may be regarded as
leaves in the volume of geologic history, an unconformity marks a gap in the
record. (See p. 42.)

Vein. A mass of mineral material that has been deposited in or along a fissure in
the rocks. A vein differs from a dike in that the vein material was introduced
gradually by deposition from solution whereas a dike was intruded in a molten
condition.

Volcanic bomb. A rounded mass of lava thrown out while in a hot and pasty con-
dition from a volcano. A bomb, like a raindrop, is rounded in its passage through
the air and may be covered with a cracked crust due to quick cooling.

Volcanic cone. A mountain or hill, usually of characteristic conical form, built up
around a volcanic vent. The more nearly perfect cones are composed princi-
pally of lava fragments and volcanic ashes.

Volcanic glass. Lava that has cooled and solidified before it has had time to crys-
tallize.

236 GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES.

Volcanic neck. A plug of lava that formerly congealed in the pipe of a volcano.
When the tuffs and lava flows that make up most of a volcano have been washed
away by erosion the neck may remain as an isolated hill.

Volcanic rocks. Igneous rocks erupted at or near the earth's surface, including
lavas, tuffs, volcanic ashes, and like material.

Weathering. The group of processes, such as the chemical action of air and rain
water and of plants and bacteria and the mechanical action of changes of tem-
perature, whereby rocks on exposure to the weather change in character, decay,
and finally crumble into soil.

ILLUSTRATIONS.

ROUTE MAP.

For the convenience of the traveler the sheets of the route map are so folded and placed that he can
tinfold them one by one and keep each one in view while he is reading the text relating to it. A reference
in parentheses is given in the text at each point where a new sheet should be unfolded.

Page.

Sheet 1. Council Bluffs, Iowa, to Ames, Nebr 18

2. North Bend to Clarke, Nebr 22

3. Thummel to Buda, Nebr 26

4. Kearney to Gothenburg, Nebr 28

5. Vroman to Dexter, Nebr 30

6. Paxton to Ralton, Nebr 34

7. Chappell to Owasco, Nebr 36

8. Kimball, Nebr., to Archer, Wyo ? 38

9. Cheyenne to Harper, Wyo 50

10. Harper to Fort Steele, Wyo 62

11. Lahkota to Red Desert, Wyo 68

12. Hillside to Rock Springs, Wyo 70

13. Kanda to Carter, Wyo 76

14. Antelope, Wyo., to Devils Slide, Utah 88

15. Morgan to Midlake, Utah 102

15a. Ogden, Utah, to Weston, Idaho 114

15b. Dayton to Pocatello, Idaho 124

15c. Tyhee to Winder, Idaho 138

15d. Rexburg, Idaho, to Yellowstone, Mont 148

16. Rambo to Umbria Junction, Utah 156

17. Umbria Junction, Utah, to Alazon, Nev 162

18. Tulasco to Palisade, Nev 168

19. Gerald to Comus, Nev 170

20. Preble to Zola, Nev 178

21. Nenzel to Luva, Nev 184

22. Fernley, Nev., to Summit, Cal 202

23. Soda Springs to Roseville, Cal 214

24. Antelope to Port Costa, Cal 218

25. Port Costa to San Francisco, Cal 224

PLATES.

Page.

Plate I. Relief map showing surface features of the western part of the

United States 6

II. Animals that lived in central North America in Pliocene and Pleis-
tocene time: A, Saber-toothed tiger and giant wolves on the car-
cass of a Pleistocene elephant; B, Elephants; C, Glyptodonts;

D, Musk ox; E, Horned gophers 10

III. The plains of Nebraska: A, Fifty years ago; B, Now covered with
com; C, When buffalo roamed over them; D, Supporting herds of

domestic cattle 11

237

238 ILLUSTRATIONS.

Page.

Plate IV. A, B, Marine fossils of Cretaceous age; C, Carboniferous forest 20

V. Animals that lived in central North America in Cretaceous time:
A, Skeleton of the head of Hesperornis; B, Restoration of a

mosasaur ; C, Restoration of a pterodactyl 21

VI. Rocks of Miocene age and restorations of animals that lived in
North America during the Miocene epoch: A, Short-limbed
rhinoceros, known as Teleoceras; B, Miocene mastodon and
Pleistocene elephant; C, Moropus elastus; D, A four-horned
deer; E, Gigantic giraffe-camel; F, Miocene beds (Arikaree
formation) resting unconformably on Oligocene beds (Brule

clay) in Pawnee Buttes, Colo 40

VII. Rocks of Oligocene age and restorations of animals that lived in
central North America during the Oligocene epoch: A, Jail
rock, north of Sidney, in western Nebraska; B, An American
rhinoceros; C, ''Giant pigs"; D, Titanotheres; E^ Protoceras

celer 41

VIII. A, View near Dale Creek station, Wyo., showing characteristic
weathering of the Sherman granite; B, Small "soda lake'' on

the plain near Laramie, Wyo 44

IX. Natural monuments on the plain near Red Buttes, Wyo., eroded

from red sandstone of the Casper formation 45

X. A, An armored dinosaur (Stegosaums); B, A carnivorous dinosaur

( Allosaunis) preying on one of the herbivorous dinosaurs 52

XI. A, A horned toad, a modern lizard that is armed like some of the

ancient dinosaurs; B, The last of the dinosaurs (Triceratops).. 53
XII. A, Platte River at Fort Steele, Wyo.; B, Elk Mountain, the north

end of the Medicine Bow range 60

XIII. A, Gap in the Cambrian quartzite through which the westbound

tourist passes after leaving Rawlins, Wyo.; B, Characteristic
view of the Red Desert 61

XIV. A, Table Rock, near Bitter Creek, Wyo.; B, Characteristic view

of the north wall of the canyon through which the tourist

passes near Point of Rocks, Wyo 66

XV. A, Coal-bearing sandstone of the Mesaverde formation; B, Trans-
portation, old and new; C, Near view of White Mountain 67

XVI. Major J. W. Powell 72

XVII. A, Green River City, Wyo., as seen from Castle Rock; B, Natural

monuments west of Castle Rock 73

XVIII. A, ''Fish Cut, " west of Green River City, Wyo.; B, Bluffs of the

Green River formation near Green River City, Wyo 74

XIX. Fossils from the Green River formation: A, Fossil fish; B, Fos-
sil plant 75

XX. A, A creodont, an ancient doflike animal, one of the ancestors of
the carnivorous mammals of to-day; B, Eobasileus, one of the

types of animals that became extinct ages ago 80

XXI. A, Geologic features seen from point south of Evanston, Wyo,; B,

Details of prominent hill at left of \dew shown in A 81

XXII. A, "Steamboat Rock," in Echo Canyon, Utah; B, "The Nar-
rows,' ' in Echo Canyon, Utah 84

XXIII. A, North wall of Echo Canyon, Utah, at its junction with Weber

Canyon; B, Pulpit Rock at Echo, Utah 85

GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES.

239

Page.
Plate XXIV. A, The Witches, near Echo, Utah, as seen from the train; B,
Side view showing, on the butte to the right, the "Witch's

Cap" 86

XXV. A, View of the valley of Weber River from Witches Rocks; B,

The Devil's Slide 87

XXTV-^I. A, Z-shaped folds near east end of Ogden Canyon; B, Recent

fault scarp at the mouth of Ogden Canyon 100

XXVII. View in Ogden Canyon below The Narrows 101

XXVIII. A, West front of Wasatch Range at Ogden, Utah; B, Diagram

showing geology of mountain masses in ^ 104

XXIX. A, Lake Bonneville shore line at Brigham, Utah; B, Cambrian

quartzite resting on Archean gneiss near Willard, Utah 105

XXX. A, "The Gates" of Bear River; 5, East Butte, Idaho 112

XXXI. Red Rock Pass and the outlet channel of Lake Bonneville 113

XXXII. Upper falls, Henrys Fork of Snake River 144

XXXIII. Lower falls, Henrys Fork of Snake River 145

XXXIV. View eastward along the Lucin cut-off across the west arm of

Great Salt Lake 152

XXXV. Palisade Canyon, Nev 153

XXXVI. A, Snow on the north end of the Humboldt Mountains; B,

Hot spring near Elko, Nev 176

XXXVII. Channel of Humboldt River near Rye Patch, Nev 177

XXXVIII. Carson Desert at Parran, Nev 182

XXXIX. Piute Indians at home 183

XL. Tonopah, Nev., a typical mining community 184

XLI. Consolidated mill, Goldfield, Nev 185

XLII. United States Reclamation Service dam on Truckee River 188

XLIII. Virginia City, Nev., on the famous Comstock Lode 189

XLIV. A, Truckee River canyon near Floriston, Cal. ; B, Truckee, Cal. 196

XLV. LakeTahoe, Cal 197

XLVI. Cave Rock, Lake Tahoe, Nev 200

XLVII. A, Donner Lake; B, Desolation Valley, near Lake Tahoe 201

XLVIII. A, View of Tertiary gold-gravel deposits between Gold Run
and Dutch Flat; B, View in a railroad cut between Forebay

and Midas 206

XLIX. A, View down canyon of North Fork of American River from

Cape Horn, Cal. ; B, Blue Canyon, Cal 207

L. State capitol at Sacramento, Cal 216

FIGURES.

Page.

Figure 1. Sketch profile of river bluffs near Omaha, Nebr., showing Aftonian

gravels 8

2. Sketch profile showing relation of loess to underlying beds of clay

and glacial till in railroad cuts west of Omaha, Nebr 14

3. Cross section of the rock formations from the Rocky Mountains to

Omaha, Nebr 16

4. Map of North America showing area covered by the Pleistocene ice

sheet at its maximum extension 22

5. Sketch profile of the bluffs near Brule, Nebr 31

6. Typical sand dune with blow-out in its top 33

7. Tertiary sand and gravel overlying truncated edges of older rocks. . 42

8. Unconformity in a railroad cut 4 miles west of Lookout, Wyo 50

240 ILLUSTEATIOITS.

Page.
Figure 9. Leg bones of a dinosaur, showing size in comparison with that of a

man 53

10. Map showing outline of the Great Basin 82

11. Diagram showing fluctuations of water surface of Great Salt Lake,

Utah, 1850-1914 95

12. Diagram showing normal and reverse or overthrust faults 100

13. Diagrammatic structure section of the Wasatch Range, in Ogden

Canyon 100

14. Cross section of Marsh Creek valley at McCammon, Idaho 120

15. The Three Tetons, looking east 142

16. Diagrammatic cross section showing the geologic structure of the

Virginia Range in its relation to Truckee Meadows 188

17. Sketch maps showing capture of upper part of Bear River by

South Fork of Yuba River (on sheet 23) 214

18. Diagram showing the present relation of the Tertiary auriferous

gravels to bedrock and lavas 208

19. Map showing geologic formations along the south shore of San

Pablo Bay (on sheet 25) 224

20. Section showing structure along the south shore of San Pablo Bay

(on sheet 25) 224

INDEX OF RAILROAD STATIONS.

A. Page. Sheet.

Akbar, Nev 17

Alazon, Nev 17

Alda, Nebr 1

Allen, Wyo 55 10

Almy Junction, "Wyo 14

Alta, Cal 207

Altamont, Wyo 79 14

Ames, Nebr 18 1

Antelope, Cal : 215 24

Antelope, Wyo 76 14

Anthony, Nev 161 17

Applegate, Cal 212 2.3

Archer, Wyo 37 8

Argenta, Nev 170 19

Argo, Nev 185 21

Arimo, Idaho 119 15B

Ashton, Idaho 141 15D

Aspen, Wyo 79 14

Auburn, Cal 212 23

Avenel, Nev 167 18

Avery, Nebr 1

Azusa, Wyo 13

B.

Bach, Idaho 133 15C

Bagley, Utah 150 15

Bakers, Utah 108 15A

Banvard, Nev 159 17

Barth, Nev 169 19

Barton, Nebr 6

Baskin, Utah 14

Batavia, Cal 24

Battle Mountain, Nev 170 19

Baxter, Wyo 70 12

Ben All, Cal 215 24

Benicia, Cal 218 24

Benin, Nev 20

Beowawe, Nev 169 19

Beppo, Utah 155 16

Berkeley, Cal 222 25

Big Springs, Idaho 146 15D

Big Springs, Nebr 32 6

Birdwood, Nebr 5

Bitter Creek, Wyo 68 12

Black Buttes, Wyo 69 12

Blackfoot, Idaho 130 15C

Blue Canyon, Cal 205 23

Boca, Cal 196 22

Bona, Wyo 48 9

Borie, Wyo 39 9

B osier, Wyo 49 9

Brady Island, Nebr 29 5

Bridger, Wyo 77 14

Brigham, Utah 106 15A

Brownson, Nebr 35 7

Brule, Nebr 31 6

38088°— Bull. 612—16 16

Page. Sheet.

Bryan, Wyo 76 13

Buda, Nebr 26 3

Buford, Wyo 43 9

Burns, Wyo 37 8

Bushnell, Nebr 35 8

C.

Cache Junction, Utah 112 15A

Calls Fort, Utah loA

Calvada, Cal 194 22

Cannon, Cal 24

Cape Horn, Cal 209 23

Carlin, Nev 167 18

Carson, Nev 189 22

Carter, Wyo 76 13

Castle Rock, Utah 84 14

Cedar, Nev 161 17

Central City, Nebr 23 3

Chapman, Nebr 3

Chappell, Nebr 33 7

Cherokee, Wyo 65 11

Chester, Idaho 141 15D

Cheyeime, Wyo 38 9

Church Buttes, Wyo 13

Cisco, Cal 204 23

Clark, Nev 187 22

Clarks, Nebr 23 2

Clipper Gap, Cal 212 23

Cluro, Nev 169 19

Cobre, Nev 160 17

Coin, Nev 18

Colfax, Cal 211 23

Colin, Utah 15

Collinston, Utah 110 15A

Colores, Wyo. 46 9

Colton, Nebr 33 7

Columbus, Nebr 20 2

Como, Wyo 55 10

Comus, Nev 171 19

Cooper Lake, Wyo 49 9

Corlett, Wyo 38 9

Cornish, Utah 114 15A

Cotton, Idaho 133 15C

Cosgrave, Nev 20

Council Bluffs, Iowa 7 1

Cozad, Nebr 28 4

Creston, Wyo 65 11

Crystal Lake, Cal 205 23

Curvo,Utah 84 14

D.

Dale Creek, Wyo 44 9

Daleys Ranch, Wyo 65 11

Dana, Wyo 59 10

Darr,Nebr 28 4

Davis, Cal 216 24

241

242

INDEX OF EAILEOAD STATIONS.

Page. Sheet.

Dayton, Idaho 115 15B

Deeth, Ncv 164 18

Derby,Nev 187 22

Desert, Nev * 21

DevilsSlide 88 14

Dewey, Utah 109 15A

Dexter,Nebr 30 5

Ditho,Nev 187 22

Dix,Nebr 35 7

Dixon, Cal 216 24

Dodon, Nev 20

Downey, Idaho 118 15B

Duncan, Nebr 23 2

Durham, Wyo 37 8

Dutch Flat, Cal 207 23

E.

East Ogden, Utah 15

Echo, Utah 85 14

Edson, "SVyo 60 10

Egbert, "\Vyo 37 8

Eglon, Nev 173 20

Elburz, Nev 165 18

EIkhorn,Nebr 16 1

Elkhurst, Wyo 13

Elko, Nev 165 18

Elm Creek, Ncbr 28 4

Elmira, Cal 216 24

Emigrant Gap, Cal 205 23

Emory, Utah 85 14

Estes Spur, Idaho 15D

Evanston, Wyo 81 14

F.

Factory. Idaho 15C

Fairfield, Cal 217 24

Falais, Nev 21

Farrel, Nev 170 19

Fenelon, Nev 161 17

Fernley, Nev 185 22

Ferris, "Wyo 65 11

Firth, Idaho 131 15C

Fishatch, Idaho 145 15D

Floriston, Cal 195 22

Forebay, Cal 206

Forelle, "Wyo 45 9

Fort Hall, Idaho 126 15C

Fort Russell, Wyo 38 9

Fort Steele, Wyo 61 10

Fremont, Nebr 17 1

Frewen, Wyo 11

G.

Gannett, Nebr 29 5

Gardiner, Nebr 23 2

Garner, Idaho 116 15B

Gartney, Utah 17

Gateway,Utah 91 15

Gerald, Nev 169 19

Gibbon, Nebr 26 3

Gibson, Idaho 129 150

Gilpin, Nev 187 22

Golconda, Nev 172 20

GoldRun,Cal 209 23

Goodyear, Cal 24

Gorge, Cal 206

Gothenburg, Nebr 28 4

Page. Sheet.

Grand Island, Nebr 24 3

Granger, Wyo 76 13

Granite Canyon, Wyo 43 9

Granite Point, Nev 180 21

Green River, Wyo 73 13

Grenville, Wyo 62 11

Groome, Utah 16

H.

Hafed,Nev 188 22

Halleck, Nev 165 18

Hallville, Wyo 69 12

Hammond, Utah 113 15A

Hampton, Wyo 76 13

Hanna, Wyo 57 10

Harney, Nev 169 19

Harper, Wyo 50 10

Harrisville, Utah ". 104 15A

Hazen, Nev 183 21

Henefer, Utah 87 14

Herdon.Nebr 35 7

Hermosa, Wyo 45 9

Herrin, Nev 171 19

Hershey, Nebr 29 5

Hillsdale, Wyo 37 8

Hillside, Wyo 67 12

Hindrey, Nebr 29 5

Hogup, Utah 16

Holborn, Nev 101 17

Honeyville, Utah 108 15A

Hot Springs, Utah 105 ISA

Howell, Wyo 48 9

Humboldt, Nev 176 20

I.

Icarus, Nev 161 17

Iceland, Cal 196 22

Idaho Falls, Idaho 134 15C

Imlay, Nev 176 20

Inkom, Idaho 122 15B

Iron Point, Nev 171 19

Island Park, Idaho 145 15D

J.

Jacinto, Nebr 35 7

Jackson, Utah 155 16

Josselyn, Nebr 28 4

Julesburg, Colo 32 6

K.

Kanda,Wyo 71 13

Kaw, Nev 161 17

Kearney, Nebr 26 4

Keith, Nebr . 29 5

Kimball, Nebr 35 8

Knight, Wyo 80 14

Knobs, Wyo 11

Kodak, Nev 179 21

Korty, Nebr 6

L.

Ladoga, Nev 170 19

Lahkota, Wyo 11

Lake Tahoe, Cal 198 22

Lakeside, Utah 152 16

Lambert, Nebr 19 2

Lander, Cal 211

INDEX OF EAILEOAD STATIONS.

243

Page. Sheet.

Lane, Nebr 1

Laramie, Wyo 47 9

Latham, Wjo 11

Lava Hot Springs, Idaho 121 15B

Lawton, Nev 193

Lemay, Utah 154 16

Leroy,Wyo 77 14

Lexington, Nebr 28 4

Lincoln, Idaho 15C

Little Mountain, Utah 149 15

Lockwood, Nebr 3

Lodgepole, Nebr 33 7

Logan, Utah 113 15A

Lookout, Wyo 49 9

Loomis, Cal 213 23

Loray, Nev 17

Lorenzo, Idaho 137 15C

Lovelock, Nev 179 21

Loy, Utah 154 16

Lucin, Utah 155 16

Luva, Nev 185 21

M.

McCammon, Idaho 120 15B

Madsen,Utah 109 15A

Magra, Cal 209

Maxe Island Navy Yard 219 25

Margate, Nebr 35 7

Marsh Valley, Idaho 15B

Marston, Wyo 13

Massie, Nev 21

Maxwell, Nebr 29 5

Medicine Bow, Wyo 54 10

Megeath, Nebr 6

Mesa, Idaho 144 15D

Midas, Cal 206 23

Midlake,Utah 152 15

Mill City, Nev 175 20

Millard, Nebr 1

Millis, Wyo 81 14

Miriam, Nev 181 21

Moleen, Nev 167 18

Monell, Wyo 12

Monroe, Idaho 133 15C

Montello, Nev 158 17

Moor, Nev 162 17

Morgan, Utah 89 15

Mosel, Nev 170 19

Mote, Nev 19

Mystic, Cal 22

N.

Nardi, Nev 164 18

Natchez, Nev 164 18

Nenzel, Nev .178 21

Nerv^a, Utah 15A

New England MUls, Cal..... 211 23

Newcastle, Cal 213 23

Newfoimdland, Utah 154 16

Nichols, Nebr 5

Nobel, Cal 222

Noble, Nev 159 17

North Bend, Nebr 19 2

North Platte, Nebr 29 5

O.

Oakland, Cal 223 25

Ocala, Nev 182 21

Odessa, Nebr 28 4

Page. Sheet.

O'Fallons, Nebr 5

Ogalalla, Nebr 30 6

Ogden, Utah 93 15

01iver,Nebr 35 8

Olney, Utah 153 16

Omaha, Nebr 14 1

Omar, Nev 159 17

Onyx, Idaho 122 15B

Optic, Nebr 26 3

Osino, Nev 18

Otto, Wyo 39 9

Overton, Nebr 28 4

Oxford, Idaho 116 15B

Ozone, Wyo _ 43 9

P.

Paddock, Nebr 3

Palisade, Nev 168 18

Papillion, Nebr 1

Parran,Nev 183 21

Patna,Nev 21

Patrick, Wyo 68 12

Paxton, Nebr 30 6

Penryn, Cal 213 23

Pequop, Nev 161 17

Percy, Wyo 59 10

Perdu, Nebr 33 7

Perry, Utah 15A

Perth, Nev 180 21

Peru, Wyo 74 13

Peterson, Utah 90 15

Pigeon, Utah 155 16

Pine Bluffs, Wyo - 37 8

Pinole, Cal 221 25

Piute, Nev 171 19

Pocatello, Idaho 123 15B

Point of Rocks, Wyo 69 12

Polaris, Cal 197 22

Port Costa, Cal 218 25

Portal, Nebr 1

Portneuf, Idaho 123 15B

Potter, Nebr 35 7

Preble,Nev 171 20

Promontory Point, Utah 151 15

Prosser Creek, Cal 22

R.

Ragan, Wyo 78 14

Ralton,Nebr 33 6

Rambo, Utah 152 16

Ramsey, Wyo 10

Ransom, Utah 114 15A

Rasid, Nev 164

Rawlins, Wyo 64 11

Reas Pass, Idaho 147 15D

Red Buttes, Wyo 45 9

Red Desert, Wyo 67 11

Reese, Utah 15

Reno, Nev 189 22

Rexburg, Idaho 139 15D

Richland, Nebr 19 2

Richmond, Cal 222 25

Ridge, Wyo 51 10

Rigby, Idaho 136 150

Riner, Wyo 11

Riview , Wyo 13

Robinson, Wyo 12

Rock River, Wyo 51 10

Rock Springs, Wyo 71 12

244

INDEX OF RAILROAD STATIONS.

Page. Sheet.

Rocklm,CaI 214 23

Rodeo, Cal 220 25

Rogers, Nebr 2

Roscoe, Nebr 6

Rose Creek, Nev 175 20

Roseville,Cal 215 23

Rosny, Nev 19

Rye Pntch, Nev 177 20

Ryndon, Nev 18

S.

Sacramento, Cal 215 24

St.Anthony, Idaho 140 15D

St. Leon, Idaho 135

Saline, Utah 15

Salt Lake City, Utah 93 15

Salt Wells, Wyo 12

Sampo, Wyo 10

San Francisco, Cal 224 25

San Pablo, Cal 221 25

Sarpy, Nebr 1

Satanka, Wyo 9

Schuyler, Nebr 19 2

Seymour, Nebr 1

Shelley, Idaho 133 15C

Shelton, Nebr 26 3

Sherman, Wyo 44 9

Sidney, Nebr 34 7

Silver Creek, Nebr 23 2

Smart, Cal 205

Smeed,Nebr 35 8

Sobrante, Cal 221

Soda Springs, Cal 203 23

Solon, Wyo 11

Sparks, Nev 188 22

Spring Valley, Wyo 79 14

Spruce, Cal 23

Stonehouse, Nev 171 19

Strawberry, Utah 90 15

Steamboat Springs, Nev 191 22

Strong Knob, Utah 16

Sugar City, Idaho 139 15D

Suisun, Cal 217 24

Summit, Cal 201 22

Sunol, Nebr 33 7

Sutherland, Nebr 30 5

Swan Lake, Idaho 116 15B

Swingle, Cal 216

T.

Table Rock, Wyo 68 12

Tamarack, Cal 23

Teck, Utah 155 16

Tecoma, Nev 158 17

Thayer Junction, Wyo 70 12

Thisbe, Nev 22

Thornton, Idaho 138 15C

Thummel, Nebr 23 3

Tioga, Nev 159 17

Tipton, Wyo 67 12

Tobin,Cal 226 25

Tonka, Nev 167 18

Tormey, Cal 220

Toulon,Nev 181 21

Towle,Cal 207 23

Page. Sheet.

Toy,Nev 181 21

Tracy, Wyo 37 8

Trenton, Utah 113 15A

Truckee, Cal 197 22

Trude, Idaho 145 15D

Tulasco, Nev 18

TuIe,Nev 173 20

Twin Grove, Idaho 141

Tyhee, Idaho >. 125 15C

Tyrol,Nev 167 18

U.

Ucor, Idaho 135 150

Uinta,Utah 92 15

Ullin, Nev 159 17

Umbria Junction, Utah 155 17

Union Mill, Cal 197

Upsal, Nev 21

V.

Valery, Nev 177 20

Vallejo Junction, Cal 219 25

Valley, Nebr 16 1

Valley Pass, Nev 161 17

Valmy, Nev 171 19

Verdi, Nev 193 22

Verne, Wyo 13

Virginia, Idaho 119 15B

Virginia City, Nev 189 22

Vista,Nev 188 22

Vivian, Nev 167 18

Vroman, Nebr 29 5

W.

Wahsatch, Utah 84 14

Walcott, Wyo 60 10

Wamsutter, Wyo 67 11

Wapello, Idaho 131 15C

Warm River, Idaho 143 15D

Washington, Cal 24

Waterloo, Nebr 16 1

Weir, Colo 33 6

Wells, Nev 162 17

West Weber, Utah 149 15

Weston, Idaho 115 15A

Wheelon, Utah Ill 15A

White Plains, Nev 21

Wilcox, Wyo 10

Wilford, Idaho 139 15D

Willard,Utah 106 15A

Willow Island, Nebr 28 4

Winder, Idaho 138 15C

Winnemucca, Nev 174 20

Wirt, Cal 209

Wood River, Nebr 25 3

Woolsey,Nev 179 21

Wyoming, Wyo 48 9

Wyuta, Utah 14

Y.

Yellowstone, Mont 147 15D

Yuba Pass, Cal 205

Z.

Zenda, Idaho 117

Zola, Nev : 178 20

GENERAL INDEX.

A.

Page.

Aftonian interglacial stage, events of 21-23

Alcatraz Island, San Francisco Bay, Cal.,

U. S. disciplinary barracks on. 224,227
Alden, W. C, on glaciation in eastern Ne-
braska 21-24

Alexis, Grand Duke of Russia, buffalo hunt

for 28

Alkali, black and white, nature of 153

Allanite, occurrence of, at Albany, Wyo 47

AUosaurus, description of 53-54

plate showing 52

Almond group, coal of, quality of 69

American River, North Fork of, Cal., plate

showing 207

Ames, Oliver and Oakes, monument to, at

Sherman, Wyo 44

Ammonia, distillation of, from rock of Fish

Cut, Wyo 74

Angel Island, San Francisco Bay, Cal., U. S.

stations on 224

Animals, extinct, kinds of 8-11, 22, 173

extinct, plates showing. 10, 21, 27, 34, 39-40, 40, 41

Ankylosaurus, description of 59

Antimony, deposits of, near Lovelock,

Nev 179-180

Arikaree formation, description of 37, 38

plate showing 40

Armadillos, extinct, few remnants of 11

extinct, plate showing 10

Aspen formation, oil in 78

Aspen Ridge, Wyo. , faulting near 77-78

Aspen Tuimel, Wyo. , construction of 77-78

Astor, John .Tacob, plan of, for trading posts. 17-18

Astor expedition, adventures of 136

Austin, Nev. , ore deposits near 170

AxolotI, where foimd 55

B.

Bancroft, H. H., on early emigration to Cali-
fornia 200

Basalt, columnar, occurrence of, near McCam-

mon, Idaho 121-122

Batholith, definition of 204

Bear River, Cal., capture of upper part of,

sketch maps showing 214

power plants on 203

Bear River, Utah, course of 110

discharge of 114

power from 110

"The Gates ' ' of, plate showing 112

Bear River, Wyo., course and flow of 80

Bear River canyon, Utah, scenery of Ill

Bear R iver formation, nature of 80

Bear River Range, Utah, rocks of 88-S9

Page.

Beaver pond near Mesa, Idaho, view of, 145

Beckrwith formation, nature of 79

Beekeeping in northern Utah 113

in southern Idaho 135

Beets, sugar, growing of, in Nebraska 24

sugar, growing of, in northern Utah . . . 109, 113

Ben Lomond, Utah, view of 150

Benton formation, character of 48

Benton shale, deposition of 19

Bentonite, bed of, near Red Buttes, Wyo 46

Berkeley Hills, Cal. , situation and geology of. 222

Big Butte, Idaho, views of 123, 129, 133

Bingham Canyon, Utah, copper deposits of. . 93

Birds, wild, in northern Utah 105, 107

wild, in southern Idaho 126

Birdseye, C. H. , work of 4

Bismuth, occurrence of, in Jelm Mountain,

Wyo 47

Bison, plate showing 11

prevalence of, in prehistoric time 11

Bitter Creek, Wyo. , cutting of channel by . . . 72

Black Butte, Wyo., situation of 67

Blackfoot River, Idaho, discharge of, at

Presto 130

history of 131-132

Black Hills. See Laramie Range.

Blow-outs, formation of 33

Blue Canyon, Cal., plate showing 207

Bonneville terrace. See Lake Bonneville.

Bowlders, quartz, use of 207

Bridger , James, career of 77

Brigham Young College, Logan, Utah, situa-
tion of 113

Brontosaurus, description of 52

Brown-fly larveo, railroad tracks made slip-
pery by 153

Buffalo skull used as tablet 33

Burbank, Luther, home of 219

C.

Cache Valley, Utah, structure of 112

Calaveras skull, origin of 208

California, emigration to, in 1846 199-200

geography and products of 194-195

University of, description of 223

California Hill, Nebr., fork of Overland Trail

at 31-32

Calvin, Prof. Samuel, on extinct American

mammals 22-23

Cambrian quartzite resting on Archean gneiss
near Willard, Utah, plate show-
ing 105

Camels, prevalence of, in prehistoric time 11, 27

Cape Horn, Cal., railroad curve around 210

Carboniferous forest, plate showing 20

245

246

GENERAL INDEX.

Page.

Carey, Senator, irrigation law and project of. 49

Carson, Nev., situation of 184, 191

Carson Desert, Nev., plate showing 182

situation of 181

Carson Range, Nev., timber on 193

Castle Rock, near Green River City, Wyo.,

plate showing 73

Cattle, fattening of, in Nebraska 21

herd of, plate showing 11

shipments of, from Ogaialla, Nebr 30

Cedar, incense, description of 202

Cement, plant making, at Bakers, Utah 108

plant making, near Devils Slide, Utah.. 88

Cherry Creek mine, Nev., production of 160-161

Chief Spotted Tail, 10,000 foUowers of 30

Chief Turkey Leg, depredations of 28

Chimney Rock, Nebr., situation of 35

Coal, scarcity of, in Nebraska 16

Coast Ranges, Cal., description of 216

Col)alt, deposit of, near Lovelock, Nev 180

Colorado River, canyon of, exploration of 73

Columnar structure, production of 121

Como Bluff, Wyo., fossils of dinosaurs from.. 52-54

Comstock lode, Nev., description of 190

Continental Divide, crossing of 147

Contra Costa HiUs, Cal., situation and geology

of 222

Copper smelters at Garfield, Utah, view of. . . 151

Corn, field of, plate showing 11

Council Bluffs, Iowa, first Union Pacific Rail-
road l^ridge at 12

present Union Pacific Railroad 1 jridge at . 12

Creighton, Edward, telegraph line of 18

Creodont, plate showing : 80

Crook, Gen. George IL, gap, creek, and moun-
tain named for 64

Cutoff Lake, Nebr., an abandoned river chan-
nel 12

D.

Dakota sandstone, depth of, near Grand Is- ,

land, Nel)r 25

Dale Creek, Wyo., great fill on 45

Daughters of the American Revolution, mark-
ing of Overland Trail by 18

Deer, prevalence of, in prehistoric time 11

Desolation Valley, Cal., plate showing 201

Devils Slide, near Henefer, Utah, description

of 88

plate showing 87

Diatomaceous earth, nature of 192-193

Dinosaurs, descriptions of 52-54, 58-59

plates showing 52, 53

Diplodocus, size of 52

Dodge, Gen. Grenville M., on the former

prevalence of the bison 25

on the history of Julesburg, Colo 32

on the story of the Overland Trail 17, 18

Donner Lake, Cal., description of 201

plate showing 201

Dormer party, monuments to 199

story of 200

E.

Earthquakes, rifts and ridges produced by. 228-229

East Butte, Idaho, plate showing 112

views of 129, 133

Echo, Utah, pulpit rock at 85

Page.
Echo, Utah, pulpit rock at, plate showing. .. 85
Echo Canyon, Utah, north wall of, plate show-
ing 85

scenery in 85

steamboat rock in, plate showing 84

the Narrows in, plate showing 84

Eckley, Cal., situation of 219

Egan Canyon mine, Nev., production of . . . 160-161

Elephant, Columbian, plate showing 10

Columbian, size of 10

imperial, description of 10

plate showing 40

Elk Mountain, Wyo., plate showing 60

Elko, Nev., hot springs near 166

hot springs near, plate showing . 176

Ely copper district, Nev., ore deposits of 160

Encampment, Wyo., mines at 60

Eobasileus, plate showing 80

Erosion, extent of, in the United States 13

Eucalyptus, description of 203

Eureka mining district, Nev., geology and ore

deposits of 168

Evans, John, town founded by 81

Evanston, Wyo., geologic features north of,

plate showing 81

hill northwest of, plate showing 81

Evanston formation, nature of 81

F.

Fallon, Nev., situation of 183

FaU River, Idaho, discharge of, 12 miles above

railroad bridge 141

Fault scarp, recent, at the mouth of Ogden

Canyon, Utah, plate showing 100

Faults in Ogden Canyon, Utah, formation

of 99-101

Ferris, George, featmres named for 63

Fir, red, description of 202

white, description of 202

Fish, fossil, abundance of, near Green River,

Wyo 74

fossil, plate showing 75

Fish Cut, Wyo., plate showing 74

Flowers, wild 48-49

Folds in Ogden Canyon, Utah, description

of 102, 103

plate showing 100

Forebay, Cal., railroad cut near, plate sho^v•-

ing 206

Formations exposed in western Wyoming and

eastern Utah, succession of 75

Fort Hall Reservation, Idaho, Indian inhab-
itants of 127

Fort Kearney, Nebr., site of 26

Fort Russell, Wyo., situation of 38

Franciscan rocks, nature of 221

Fremont, John C, exploration by 18

Frontier Days Celebration, features of 38

G.

Garfield, Utah, copper smelters at 151

Garland, William, town named for 110

Geologic terms, glossary of 232-236

Geologic time, divisions of, chart showing — 2
Geology of the region traversed by the Over-
land Route, publications on. .. 230-231

Giant, Cal. , powder factory at 221

Gibraltar Cone, Wyo., blasting of 45

GENEEAL INDEX.

247

Page.
Gilbert, G. K., on the origin of cemented

gravel 101

Gilbert Peak, Wyo., view of 76

Gilmore, C. W. , on fossil remains of dinosaurs . 52-54

fossils described by 58-59

Glaciation, in eastern Nebraska, record of 21-24

in the Sierra Nevada 197-198

plate showing 201

Glyptodonts, plate showing 10

prevalence of 27

Goat Island, San Francisco Bay, Cal., U. S.

stations on 224

Gold, discovery of, in California 208

early yield of, in California 208

method of dredging, in California 214

methods of washing, in California 209

Golden Gate, San Francisco Bay, Cal., views

of 222,223

Golden Gate Park, San Francisco, Cal., trans-
formation of 225

Goldfield, Nev. , access to 184

Consolidated mill at, plate showing 185

ore deposits at 185

Gold Run mining district, Nev., ore deposits

of 172

Gophers, extinct, plate showing 10

extinct, prevalence of 27

Gosiute mining district, Nev., ore deposits of. 161

Grain, production of, in California 218

Grand Teton, Idaho, view of 133

Granite, varieties of, quarried m California. 213, 214
Grass Valley mining district, Cal., description

of 211

Gravel, cemented, deposit of, in Ogden Can-
yon, Utah 101

gold-bearing, between Gold Run and

Dutch Flat, Cal., plate showing. . 206

present position of 207-208

railroad running on 209

Greasewood, nature of 180

Great American Desert, cultivation in 5

Great Basin, cultivation of 6

geography and products of 81-84

Great Divide Basin, Wyo. , situation of 65

Great Plains, Nebr.-Colo., character and de-
velopment of 25-26

cultivation of 5

Great Salt Lake, Utah, description of 94-96, 99

islands of, descriptions of 152

Green Canyon, Cal. , situation of 226-227

Green River City, Wyo., plate showing 73

Green River formation, bluffs of, plate show-
ing 74

fossils from, plate showing 75

Grove City, a name for Blackfoot, Idaho 130

Gypsum, deposit of, at Kodak, Nev 179

deposits of, near Laramie, Wyo — 45-46, 47-48

II.

Harriman, Mrs. E. H., cattle ranch of 146

Hay, shipments of, from North Platte, Nebr. 29

Heise Hot Springs, Idaho, features of 137

Henrys Fork of Snake River, discharge of,

near Warm River, Idaho 144

lower falls of, plate showing 145

upper falls of, plate showing 144

Page.

Hercules, Cal. , powder works at 220

Hesperomis, skeleton of head of, plate show-
ing 21

Hogs, prevalence of, in prehistoric time 11

giant, description of '. 40

plate showing 41

Holladay, Ben, stage line of 18

Horses, ancient three-toed, prevalence of 27,40

extinct, species of 10

Horseshoe Creek coal district, Idaho, char-
acter of 143

Humboldt formation, nature of 159

Humboldt Lake, Nev., description of 180-182

Humboldt Mountains, Nev., snow on, plate

showing 176

Humboldt River, Nev., channel of, near Rye

Patch, plate showing 177

course of 163

cutting of channel by 173

Hunsacker, Abraham, home of 108

Hunter Point, San Francisco, Cal., access to. . 227
Hydraulic mLiing, traces of 207-208

I.

Idaho, geography of 114-115

southern, general features of route in. . . 103-104

Idaho State fish hatchery, description of 145

Independence Valley, Nev., view of 161

Indian cemeteries, mode of marking 128

Inoceramus labiatus, plate showing 20

Iron ore, deposit of, at Barth, Nev 169

Irrigation, practice of 108-109

Irving, Washington, mention of Three Tetons

by 136

Isles of refuge, fossils from 37

J.

Jail Rock, Nebr., plate showing 41

situation of 35

Jensen, Andrew, acknowledgment to 85

Je^sup mining district, Nev., situation of 182

Juniper, western, description of 202

K.
Kansan stage of glaciation, southern limit of

Keewatin glacier in 23

Kearney, Nebr., State Normal School at,

view of 27

Keewatin glacier, area covered by 21

extent of, in the Wisconsin stage 23

Kennedy, Nev., boom and decline of 175

Kolb, Ellsworth and Emery, canyon of the

Colorado photographed by 73

La Ramie, Jacques, river and fort named for. 47

Lajeunesse, Seminoe, career of 62

Lake Bormeville, Utah-Idaho, beach formed

by 90,92,110

history of 96-99

shore of, plate showing 105

Lake Lahontan, Nev.-Cal.-Oreg., beaches of. 177

description of 172

Lake Tahoe, Cal.-Nev., access to 197

Cave Rock on, plate showing 200

description of 198-199

plate showing 197

248

GENERAL INDEX.

Page.

Lake Van Norden, Cal., situation of 203

Lane cut-off, Nebr., description of 14

Laramie, Wyo. , springs near 46

Laramie Basin, Wyo., description of 45

Laramie Moimtatns, Wyo., approach to, how

discovered 43

view of 37

Lava Hot Springs, Idaho, natatorium at 121

Leete, Nev., situation of 185

Leucite, occurrence of, near Thayer Junction,

Wyo 70

Levees along Sacramento and American

rivers, Cal 215-216

Lewis, J. L., work of 4

Lincoln Highway, route of 32

Llamas, prevalence of, in prehistoric time. . . 11,27

Loess, nature of 8, 16

Longs Peak, Colo., view of 39

Louderback, G. H., information supplied by. 4

Lucin cut-off, Utah, benefits from 149

plate showing 152

Lucin mining district, Nev., ore deposits of. . 158

M.

Mammoth, Siberian, description of 9-10

Mansfield, G. R., on phosphate deposits of

the western United States 127-129

Manzanita, description of 211

Market Lake Craters, Idaho, description of. 137-138

Marsh Creek valley, Idaho, history of 118

lava flow in 119

Martinez, Cal., situation of 218

Mastodon, American, description of 9

Miocene, plate showing 40

prevalence of 27

Merriam, Prof. J*. C. , information supplied by. 4

Mesa Mountain, Wyo., view of 42

Mesaverde formation, coal-bearing sandstone

of, plate showing 67

Midas, Cal., railroad cut near, plate showing. 206

Middle Butte, Idaho, views of 129, 133

Mill Valley, Cal., situation of 227

Miller, Joaquin, home of 223

Missouri River, flood deposits of 11, 13

shifting channel of 11-12

Monuments, natural, eroded from Casper

sandstone, plate showing 45

near Echo, Utah, description of 85

near Green River City, Wyo., plate

showing 73

Moon, C. H., St. Anthony, Idaho, founded

by 140

Mormon trail , reasons for making 87

Mormons, increase of 93

Moropus, description of 34

plate showing 40

" Mortar beds," nature of 30, 34

Mosasaur, restoration of, plate showing 21

Moss Beach, Cal., situation of 227

Mother Lode, Cal., description of 210

Mountain Copper Co., sulphur fumes utilized

by 218

Mount Diablo, Cal., altitude of 227

description of 217

views of 213, 217

Mount Hamilton, Cal., altitude of 227

Page.

Mount Rose, Cal., altitude of 198

Momit Tamalpais, Cal., access to 227

Mount Whitney, Cal., altitude of 198

Muir, John, home of 218

Muir Woods, Cal., description of. 228

Musk ox, plate showing lo

Mussel Rock, Cal. , situation erf. 226

N.

National mining district, Nev., ore deposits

of 174

Nebraska, eastern, artesian water in 15, 17

eastern, rocks exposed in 15, 17

geography and products of 13

plains of, plate showing 11

Nevada, geography and mining industry of. 156-157

geology of 157-158

Nevada City, Cal., mining district, descrip-
tion of 211

Nevada State University, situation of 190

Nickel, deposit of, near Lovelock, Nev 180

Niobrara formation, position and character

of 19-20,23

Niter, small deposits of, near Lovelock, Nev. . 180
North, Maj. Frank J., defense of Overland

Route by 26

North Platte River, Colo.-Wyo.-Nebr,,

course of 61

plate showing 60

North Putnam Mountain, Idaho, view of 128

Nye, Bill, home of. 47

railway guide of 47

O.

Oak, blue, description of 203

coast live, description of 203

interior live, description of 203

valley, description of 203

Observation Peak, Utah, view of 90, 150

Ogallalla formation, distribution and char-
acter of 30-31

Ogden Canyon, Utah, cutting of 102

description of 100-103

plate showing 101

Ogden Hole, Utah, relation of, to Lake

Bonneville 103

Oil, distillation of, from rock of Fish Cut,

Wyo 74

Olinghouse mining district, Nev., ore de-
posits of 186

Oreana, Nev., early silver-lead smelting at. . . 178

Oregon Trail, early travel on 17, 18, 24

Overland Route, general character of 5-6

Overland Trail, fork of, at California Hill,

Nebr 31

history of 17-18

marking of 17-18

route of, from Great Salt Lake, Utah, to ''

Wells, Nev 162

Oysters, fossil, plate showing 20

P.

Palisade Canyon, Nev., plate showing 153

Taper pulp, making of, at Floriston, Cal 195

Park City mining district, Utah, access to. . . 93

ore deposits and production of 86

GENEEAL INDEX.

249

Page.
Parkman, Francis, on the taming of the wild

west. 104

Pathfinder dam, Wyo., height of 61

Pea cannery at Morgan, Utah, output of 89

Peach Day. celebration of, at Brigham, Utah. 107

Pescadero, Cal., situation of 227

Phosphate rock, deposits of, in the Fort Hall

Indian Reservation, Idaho 127

deposits of,in the western United States. 127-129

occurrence of, in Ogden Canyon, Utah. . . 102

Piedmont, Cal., situation of 223

Pilot Peak, Utah, view of 155, 159

Pine, digger, description of 203

Jeffrey, description of 202

sugar, description of 202

tamrac, description of 202

whitebark, description of 202

yellow, description of 202

Piute Indians at home, plate showing 183

Platte River, discharge of 20

old valley of 18

view of 16

Playas, nature of 154

Point of Rocks, Wyo., coal mined at 69, 70

north wall of canyon near, plate showing . 66

Portneuf River, Idaho, flow of 121

Potash, occurrence of, near Thayer Junction,

Wyo 70

Potrero Hills, Cal., situation of 221

view of 217

Powell, Major J, W., portrait of 72

Power plants, hydroelectric, in California, fea-
tures of 203

Precipitation in the Sierra Nevada 201-202

Procamelus, description of 34

plate showing 40

Protoceras, description of 40

plate showing 41

Provo terrace, formation of 92

view of 110

Pterodactyls, description of 20

plate showing 21

Purpose of this guidebook 3

Q.

Quicksilver, occurrence of 176

R.

Ragtown, Nev. , soda lakes near 184

Ramsay, Nev., situation of '. . . 187

Rawhide, Nev., access to 184

Rawlins, Gen. J. A., spring named for 64

Rawlins, Wyo., gap in Cambrian quartzite

near, plate showing 61

water west of, quality of 69

Red Desert, Wyo., description of 66-67

plate showing 61

Red Rock Pass, Utah, outlet to Lake Bonne-
ville at 97-98

outlet to Lake Bonneville at, plate show-
ing 113

Redwood Peak, Cal. , situation of 223

Reed, W. H., collections of dinosaur remains

by 52

Reno, Gen. Jesse Lee, city named for 191

Rhinoceros, extinct American, plate showing. 41

Page.

Ricks, Thomas, town named for 139

Riley, James Whitcomb, railway guide of. . . 47
Robinson Creek, discharge of, near Warm

River, Idaho 144

Rochester, Nev., ore deposits of 178

Rock Springs coal field, Wyo., mines in 70, 71

origin and extent of 68

quality of coal in 70

Rock Springs dome, Wyo., form and extent of 70
Rosebud mining district, Nev., situation of. . 177

Ruby Range, Nev., description of 163-164

Russell, I. C, on the Snake River plain. . . 124-126
Russell, William N., pony express of 18

S.

Sacramento, Cal., State capitol at, plate

showing 216

Sagebrush, growth of 125

St. Mary Peak, Wyo., situation of 60

Salamanders, where found 55

Salt, making of, on the shore of Great Salt

Lake, Utah 149

Salt brine, bacillus living in 151

San Francisco Bay, Cal., formation of 224

San Mateo, Cal., situation of 227

San Pablo Bay, Cal., south shore of, geologic

map of sheet25

south shore of, structure section along. . . 219-

220, sheet 25

Sand dunes, area of, in Nebraska 28

area of, near Wirmemucca, Nev 174

traveling of 66

Santa Cruz, Cal., situation of 227

Saratoga, Wyo., mineral waters of 60

Sausalito, Cal., situation of 227

Sauttelle Peak, Idaho, situation of 146

Scheelite, deposit of, near Miriam, Nev 181

Scott, W. B., on extinct American mammals 9-11

Sea, ancient, in Nebraska 19, 20

Seed, growing of, at Idaho Falls, Idaho 134

growing of, at St. Anthony, Idaho 140

near Valley, Nebr 16

Seven Troughs mining district, Nev., ore de-
posits of 179

Sheep, herding of 66

Sheep raising, fortunes in 65

Shells, beach deposit of. near Huxley, Nev. . 182

mound of, at Oakland, Cal., origin of 223

Sherman granite, description of 43

use of, for railroad ballast 43-44

weathered, plate showing 44

Sierra Nevada, forest trees of 202-203

how formed 203-204, 205-206

structure of 188-191

surface deposits forming west side of,

plate showing 206

Silver Peak, Nev. , access to 184

Sinks, railroad, in the Suisun Flats, Cal.... 217-218

railroad, on the Lucin cut-off, Utah 150

Skinner's ranch, Point Reyes, Cal., traces of

earthquakes at 229

Slade, J. A., career of 33

haunt of 43

Sloths, extinct, descriptions of U

extinct, prevalence of 27

250

GENERAL INDEX.

Page.

Smith, George Otis, preface by 3-4

Snake River, Idaho, course of 131

discharge of, at Blackfoot, Idaho 130

at Heise Hot Springs, Idaho 137

irrigation projects on 132

Snake River plain, geology of 124-125

plants and animals of 125-126

Snow sheds, extent of, in the Sierra Nevada . 201

telescoping sections of 204

watch for fires in 204

Soda lakes near Laramie, Wyo., description of 46, 49

plate showing 44

South Putnam Moimtain, Idaho, view of 128

Sparks, Gov. John, city named for 188

Spaulding, Rev. H. H., and wife, missionary

post of 126-127

Sperrylite, occurrence of, near Jelm Moim-

tata, Wyo 47

Spring Valley, Cal., traces of earthquakes at . 229

Star City, Nev. , boom and decline of 175

Star Peak Range, Nev. , geology of 176

Steamboat Springs, Nev., origin of ore de-
posits indicated by 191-192

Stegosaurus, description of 52-54

plate showing 52

Stream capture, example of 205

Stuart, Robert, overland journey of 24

Suisun Flats, Cal., description of 217-218

Sutro Baths, San Francisco, Cal., large pool of 225
Sutter, John Augustus, Sacramento, Cal., first

settled by 215

Sutter's mill, near Coloma, Cal., gold discov-
ered at 208

Sweet-gum tree, fossil leaf of, plate showing.. 75
Syndyoceras, description of 34

plate showing 40

T.

Table Rock near Bitter Creek, Wyo., plate

showing 66

Tank farm at Krieger, Cal 221

Tapirs, ancient range of 10

Teleoceras, description of 34

plate showing 40

Tertiary deposits, distribution and character

of 23-24

Teton City, Idaho, products of 139

Teton River, Idaho, discharge of, at the

mouth of its canyon 139

Tetons, Three, Idaho, description of 142

views of 136, 141

Thomburg, Major, expedition of 61, 64

Thousand Oaks, Cal. , situation of 222

Tiger, saber-toothed, an enemy of primitive

man 11

saber-toothed, plate showing 10

prevalence of 27

Tinker Knob, Cal., view of 201

Tintic mining district, Utah, access to 93

Titanotheres, character of 39

plate showing 41

Toad, horned, plate showing 53

Tobm, Cal., situation of 226

Tonopah, Nev., access to 184

ore deposits at 184-185

plate showing 184

Page.
Train, George Francis, on the proper place for

the national capital 20

Transportation, old and new, plate show-
ing 67

Triceratops, description of 58

plate showing 53

Truckee, Cal. , plate showing 19C

Truckee-Carson irrigation project, Nev., dam

of, plate showing 186

description of 183-184, 185

Trucliee Meadows, Nev., structure of 188-190

Truckee River, Nev. , ancient lake on 196

canyon of, plate showing 196

course of 185-186

Tule, growth of 216

Tuscarora, Nev., silver production at 166

Tyrannosaurus, description of 59

U.

Uinta Range, Utah, structure of 90-91

Union Pacific Railroad, auction sale of 14

eastern terminus of 7

public need for building 7

Unionville, Nev., boom and decline of 175

United States, western, relief map of 6

United States Reclamation Service dam on
Truckee River, Nev., plate show-
ing 186

Utah, geography and products of 81-83

northern, general features of route in... 103-104

Utah State Agricultural College, situation of. 113

Ute Indians, antelojie round-up of 67

V.

Vallejo, Cal, situation of 219

Vallejo, Gen. Mariano Guadalupe, town

named for 219

Vallejo, Senora Bcnicia, towTi named for 218

Vigilance committee, work of 32

Virginia City, Nev., access to 184

history of 190

plate showing 189

Virginia Range, Nev., structm-e of 188-191

Volcanic ash, beds of, near Red Buttes, Wyo. 46

W.

Wadsworth, Nev., situation of 186

War Bonnet round-up, description of 133

Warm River, discharge of, near Warm River,

. Idaho 144

Wasatch Range, Utah, geology of west front

of, plate showing 104

structure of 90, 99-100, 104

Water holes, control of 66-67

Waterfowl, Nevada lakes inhabited by 182

Weber River, Utah, cutting of channel by . . . 91

valley of, near Uinta, Utah 92

plate showing 87

Weber River canyon, Utah, power plant in . 91

Wedekind mining district, Nev., situation of. 188

Well, deep, near Huxley, Nev 182

West Humboldt Range, Nev., view of 177

Wheat, production of, in California 218

Wheatland irrigation project, Wyo., manage-
ment of 49

Wheelon, John C, town named for Ill

Whisky Gap, Wyo., view of 64

GENEEAL INDEX.

251

Page.
Wtiitehorse mining district, Nev,, ore deposits

of 186

White Mount ain, Wyo., plates showing 67

White River group, fossils in 35

Whitman, Dr. Marcus, and wife, missionary

post of 126-127

Windbreaks, use of 46, 65

Wister, Owen, localities referred to by, in The

Virginian 54,141, 142, 143

Page.
Witches, The, near Echo, Utah, description of. 86-87

near Echo, Utah, plates showing 86

Wolves, giant, plate showing 10

Wyoming, products and scenery of 36-37

University of, situation of 47

Y.

Yerington, Nev., access to 184

ore deposits at 184

Yuba River, Cai., power plants on 203

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