DEPARTMENT OF THE .INTERIOR UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY GEORGE OTIS SMITH, Director (% A {— ~ Uy VAs BULLETIN 611 GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES PART A. THE NORTHERN PACIFIC ROUTE WITH A SIDE TRIP TO YELLOWSTONE PARK BY MARIUS R. CAMPBELL AND OTHERS WASHINGTON GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 1915 MissouRr! BOTANICSa® GARDEN LISRARY Principat Divisions oF GEeoLocic TIME.4 [A glossary of geologic terms is given on pp. 199-203.] Duration, accord- Era. Period. Epoch. Characteristic life. ing be various estimates, “ ; Millions of years. ecent. Pleistocene | “Age of man.’? Animals and plants of Quaternary. re modem types. ‘ Cenozoic (re- we ASS cent life). § |__| 1to5. Pliocene = ; “‘Ageofmammals.”’ Possible first appear- Tertiary. 2 sexi fe of man. Rise and spain of 8 aa highest orders of plants. “ Age of reptiles.” Rise and culmination Cretaceous. (*) f huge land reptiles ( ), of shell- fish with complexly partitioned coiled Mesozoic (in- ghee ag ste poe: and of sd be termediate Jurassic. () pe gh 2 ibe ig a — . ie) | 4 to 10. )- order of palmlike plants (in riassic); Mich ST tard wead eee Triassic. @) Ls i ¥ « Age of amphib: Dominance mosses = igeopods) ane terre of otal and fe: ive Roweriné Carbonifer- | Pennsylva- lants and earliest con ous, : backboned | a Sahmals (land ve fore tes). —— sarees tag with nautilus-like coile beg she ls (am Mississip-| ites) and sharks abundan pian. > “Age of fishes.” Shellfish (mollusks) also Devonian. (®) ee ag Rise of amphibians and land pl Paleozoic Shell-forming sea animals dominan (old life). cially those related to the nautilus toot y alopods). Rise and culmination of the Silurian. (>) marine animals sometimes mn sea | 17 to 25. lilies (crinoids) and of giant scorpion- like crustaceans Ketan al Rise 0: fishes and of reef-building corals. Shell-forming sea animals, espe anode = ie ts mre Bari Ordovician. (®) — dant, Culmina’ oo of the es First f trace of insect life. Trilobites and Deneitopads ie Cambrian. () teristic animals. Seaweeds (aig) abun ae dant. No trace of land . First life rang has left distinct record. Algonkian. (>) Crustaceans, brachiopods, and seaweeds. Proterozoic a oe ordi: T — sf Archean. ba sae No fossils found. 50+. a The geologic record consists mainly of sedimentary beds—beds deposited in water. Over large areas) a Log of uplift and erosion intervenod t between _— of comiormity. Shad vg in ro, = e sition in any area produces there w! geologists te an unconformi ogc d ra) time os shown above got > aye by such uneoniiomteee tat is, ; the dividing lines in the table represent Ag ee ea or ¥ or depressions of the earth’s surface. : bE common use than those given, PREFACE. By Grorce Oris Suirn. 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 whoeknows thoroughly his own country must have traveled widely and observed wisely. To “know America first” is a patriotic obligation, but to meet this obliga- tion 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 the 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 handbook 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 recognition 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 authoritative information that may enable the reader to realize adequately the * Guidebook of the western United States: Part A, The Northern Pacific Route, with a side trip to Yellowstone Park (Bulletin 611); Part B, The Overland Route, with a side trip to Yellowstone Park (Bulletin 612); Part C, The Santa Fe Route, with a side trip to the Grand Canyon of the Colorado (Bulletin 613); Part D, The Shasta Route and Coast Line (Bulletin 614). 3 4 GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES. scenic and material resources of the region he is traversing, to com- prehend correctly the basis of its development, and above all to 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. Ina 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 Geological Survey brings the accumulated data of decades of pioneer- ing investigation, and the present contribution is only one type of return to the public which has supported this scientific work under the Federal Government. — In the preparation of the description of the country traversed by the Northern Pacific Route the geographic and geologic information already published as well as unpublished material in the possession of the Geological Survey has been utilized, but to supplement this material Mr. Campbell made a field examination of the entire route in 1914. Information has been furnished by others, to whom credit is given in the text. Cooperation has been rendered by the United States Reclamation Service, railroad officials and other citizens have generally 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 presentation of each part of his route, the accom- panying maps, 27 sheets in all, 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 topographic surveys necessary to complete these maps of the route were made by J. G. Staack, C. L. Sadler, J. L. Lewis, N. E. Ballmer, and W. O. Tufts. GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES. PART A. THE NORTHERN PACIFIC ROUTE, WITH A SIDE TRIP TO YELLOWSTONE PARK. By Marius R. Campsey and others. INTRODUCTION. If his journey to the Pacific coast begins at one of the great cities on the Atlantic seaboard, the traveler, when he reaches St. Paul, the eastern terminus of the Northern Pacific Railway, will have gone nearly halfway across North America. He will have traversed or perhaps gone around the Appalachian Mountain region and then crossed the prairie States, which, in wealth and population, form in themselves an empire. St. Paul is in the prairie region, but the boundary between the prairies and the Great Plains is vague and undefined, and the tray- eler will at no place perceive the change from prairie to plain or from the East to the West. On leaving St. Paul he first passes across rolling prairies, interspersed with forests of pine and hardwood trees, and within a short distance these prairies give place to the vast tree- less plains which, stretching a thousand miles west of the Mississippi, rise almost imperceptibly to the foothills of the Rocky Mountains. The annual rainfall diminishes in the same direction from 28 inches at St. Paul to only half that amount in central Montana, and the traveler, as he goes westward, will note more and more of the features that he has habitually associated with the West. Prairie dogs and jack rabbits are seen; one by one the flowers and shrubs of the Mis- Sissippi Valley disappear and are replaced by those of a semiarid country; trees grow only on the moist bottom lands along the streams; intensive cultivation is possible only in the valleys, though the up- lands are being brought into use by dry farming and are yielding fair crops of the more hardy grains. Throughout much of the region traversed the face of the country has been greatly modified by the vast ice sheets of the glacial period which covered the northern part of the continent and left immense deposits of loose material on the surface of hard rock in the northern 6 ~ 6 GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES. part of the United States. The history and the phenomena of this glaciation are considered in detail at several places in this book. The general features of the country west of the Mississippi are represented on Plate I. When, after crossing the Great Plains, the traveler reaches the foothills of the Rocky Mountains he will have attained a height of 4,000 feet above the sea, a height reached by few peaks in the Eastern States outside of the Adirondacks and the White Mountains. The Rocky Mountains form a great, irregular, rough- hewn “backbone” for the continent. They comprise many groups of ranges, in which some peaks in Montana and Idaho reach a height of 12,000 feet above sea level and some in Colorado rise more than 14,000 feet. The western mountains, like the eastern, are the worn remnants of upward folds or crumplés or of upheaved blocks of the fractured earth crust, but, unlike the eastern mountains, which are geologically old, the western mountains are geologically very young. They are therefore higher, for since they were uplifted there has not been time for ice, rain, heat, frost, and wind to wear them down to lower levels. West of the Rocky Mountains lies a broad interior basin, in the northern part of which, with its inclosing mountains, there is sufficient rain and snow to maintain the flow of the great Columbia River; but in the southern part, in what is known as the Great Basin, the mountain streams find no outlets to the sea, their waters, so precious for irrigation, being soon lost in the thirsty lowlands, and the feeble or intermittent rivers of the valleys carry their waters down to be evaporated in alkali marshes or on saline deserts. The part of the Columbia River basin or plateau that is traversed by the Northern Pacific Railway is made up of lava flows, among the greatest in the world, which in comparatively recent geologic time spread like a fiery flood over hundreds of thousands of square miles; and a wide expanse of hard, dark volcanic rocks, whose sur- face is here and there cut deeply by streams, shows the enormous extent and volume of these eruptions. The part of this old lava plain that is crossed by Columbia River is the most arid region tray- ersed by this route. The precipitation in this region is sometimes not more than 6 inches annually, but despite the small rainfall the uplands have become the great wheat-raising country of the Northwest. The last great natural feature to be crossed by the traveler is the Cascade Range, which separates the interior basin from the region of Puget Sound. This range is a broad upland that stands from 6,000 to 8,000 feet above the sea, and here the evidences of voleanic activity continue to be conspicuous. On the flanks of the range rise the snow- covered peaks of Mount Rainier, Mount Adams, and other cones, which were once active volcanoes, pouring forth streams of lava and BULLETIN 611 PLATE | U. S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY : . ic : . i ey ar Ss an! ee oe — 7 1. ay A . ae F emx ie ok \ ea FE ng el oe: /* es QS —— 2 a “] {F a. oe ‘SY % — ye: RELIEF MAP SHOWING SURFACE FEATURES OF Areas shown on the sheets of the route map are indicated in red. THE WESTERN PART OF THE UNITED STATES. THE NORTHERN PACIFIC ROUTE. vi showers of rock fragments. Of these great conical masses, built up by successive lava flows and by the accumulation of rock fragments blown from the craters, the highest is Mount Rainier, towering 14,408 feet above Puget Sound, from which it presents a magnificent spec- tacle, its upper slopes eovared by great streams of moving ice, the largest glaciers in the United States south of Alaska. On emerging from the Cascades the traveler enters a broad lowland, which is separated from the Pacific Ocean by the Olympic Mountains, but which contains Puget Sound with its many branching waterways, one of the most remarkable bodies of salt water on the globe. Nore.—For the convenience of the traveler the sheets of the route map in this bulletin 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 Kone sheet at the Paige where it should be so unfolded, and the areas covered by the n Plate I. A list, of these sheets and of other auctions, showing wwlaibe athe one is placed in the book, is given on pages 205-207. A glossary of geologic terms is given on pages 199-203 and an index of stations on pages 209-212, ITINERARY. The traveler who is interested in the geologic history of this country—a history that reaches back into the dim and misty past, to a time long before Father Hennepin first saw the Falls of St. Anthony and the Mississippi Valley in 1680—will find much to attract his attention about St. Paul and Minneapolis. If he has only a few hours at his disposal he can easily obtain a general view of the valley of the Mississippi and the rocks composing its bluffs from the Robert or Wabasha Street Bridge in St. Paul, both of which are within a few minutes’ walk of the Union Station. If he chooses the Wabasha Street Bridge, which in some respects affords a better view, he will see that the Mississippi is flowing in a broad valley from 100 to 200 feet deep. In some places the walls of the valley are composed of solid rock, but in others they are made up of loose material, such as clay, sand, or gravel, which forms either large masses or is spread as a thin coating over the rocky slopes. As the valley has been cut in the hard rock by the river, it is a record of stream carving and of the climatic and geographic conditions under which the carving was done. Not only are the recent events of 2e0- logic history recorded in the size and shape of the valley, but the much earlier events in the history of the globe have left a record in the solid rock itself—a record that, when correctly read, tells of the presence of a sea in which limy muds were accumulating or along the shore of which sand was washed back and forth by the waves or drifted into heaps by the wind. Every one is more or less familiar with the history of Minnesota during the last 250 years, or since the white man first visited the region, but few know anything of the far more ‘ancient history recorded in the rocks and in the hills and valleys of .the region. It is to this ancient history, dealing with the time before man is supposed to have existed upon the globe, that the reader’s attention is now invited. The bluff upon which the Wabasha Street Bridge rests is com- posed almost entirely of white sandstone (St. Peter‘), which is very, very old, but despite its great age is so soft that it can be crushed in the hand. Streams of water flowing through the rock have carved great underground channels in it, and more recently boys have dug caves in the soft sand along the river front directly below the bridge. ? The rocks exposed at the surface in the vicinity of St. Paul and those revealed by deep drilling are shown in the table on page 9. The natural order of the forma- tions named in the table, from top to bottom, is shown by the order in which the 8 ee % . SOE SES ORI SND as oe JP eae a a THE NORTHERN PACIFIC ROUTE. | 9 Jonathan Carver, in describing his journey to this region in 1766, mentions a large cave in the St. Peter sandstone about 30 miles below the Falls of St. Anthony, a cave called by the Indians the “Dwelling of the Great Spirit.’ In this cave they held religious ceremonies, and near it they buried their dead. When the sandstone is examiied under a magnifying glass it is found to be composed of beautifully white translucent grains of quartz, resembling rock candy except that the fragments are round instead of angular. The even lines of bedding, which can be seen from either of the bridges mentioned, show that the sand must have been laid down in water, but the forms of the individual grains show with equal cer- tainty that the sand before it was washed into the ocean and deposited along the shore was blown about by the wind and perhaps heaped into large dunes, such as are now seen around the head of Lake Michigan south of Chicago. The St. Peter sandstone, on account of its purity, is well adapted to glass making and in many places it is used for that purpose. It extends from St. Paul southward as far as central Arkansas and east- ward as far as Detroit, and probably once extended much farther north, but in that direction it has been eroded—worn away by frost, rains, and streams—auntil all trace of it is lost. On account of its wide distribution and the purity of the materials that compose it, this deposit of sand is one of the most remarkable in the world. Above this sandstone, if stone it may be called, lies a thin-bedded limestone known as the Platteville, which can be seen at the entrance to the Wabasha Street Bridge and which was formerly used about the ‘‘twin cities’’ for building material. The stone occurs, however, in thin layers and does not stand the weather well, so that very names are printed. The place of each of the larger units of rock or of time (as Cam- brian, Ordovician) in the general geologic column is shown in the table on page 2. : Thickness Ordovician: in feet. Galena limestone (exposed) ps bs rah shale ( exposed) Sse Platteville limestone ceo etl ee 30 t Peter \ / 150 Shakopee dolomite 60 Oneota dolomite "3060 oe OEE Cambrian joa ae sandston j St. Lawrence formation 100 Franconia ee Dresbach sandstone, and under- lying roc i —— 675 Red clastic series (Algonkian?)............--------+++-+--++-+* 1, 125 ranite. pels ies 10 GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES. little of it is now used. This limestone contains here and there fossil sea shells, which show clearly that the sandy shore of the St. Peter epoch finally sank and was covered by the sea. The shells of the animals that inhabited this sea sank to the bottom when the animals died and were buried in the limy mud that later became hardened into limestone, which preserved not only the shells but all the beautiful ornamentation on their surfaces. If the traveler can spend a day or two here instead of a few hours, he may take many pleasant rides by trolley or automobile into the surrounding country to places of historic and scenicinterest. Whether his visit is one of business or one of pleasure, he should not fail to see old Fort Snelling and the Falls of Minnehaha. Fort Snelling stands on the green, tree-shaded bluffs that overlook the peaceful valley of the Mississippi, and it is hard to realize that when it was established, only a few years after Zebulon M. Pike made his journey to the source of the Mississippi,’ it was in the heart of the Indian country. It is doubtful if at that time anyone dreamed that near its site would rise such cities as St. Paul and Minneapolis. In the early days Fort Snelling was the starting point of several military expeditions that were sent out to explore the great Northwest. The Falls of Minnehaha, which are about 24 miles farther north, offer none of the sinister suggestions of war that still linger round the fort; on the contrary, they have an atmosphere of love and romance, and the journey of Hiawatha and Minnehaha, as related by Longfellow, is fittingly commemorated by a bronze group at the head of the falls. (See Pl. II.) 1 Soon after the acquisition from France of Louisiana, which included most of the territory west of Mississippi River, Lieut. Z. M. Pike was commissioned by Presi- dent Jefferson to explore the new terri- tory and to find the source of the river. When Pike reached the mouth of St. Peter (now Minnesota) River, in 1805, he recognized the strategic importance of the point for military purposes and pro- cured from the Indians title for the Gov- ernment to the land from the mouth of St. Peter River to and including the Falls of St. Anthony. In his report on the explorations he recommended that a fort be established on the bluff between St. Peter and Mississippi rivers. Nothing came of his recommendation until Feb- ruary 10, 1819, when John C. Calhoun, Secretary of War, ordered the Fifth In- fantry, under Col. Henry Leavenworth, to establish headquarters at this place. Col. Leavenworth reached the mouth of St. Peter River on September 24 of the same year, but instead of occupying the bluff recommended by Pike he camped across the river, where the village of Co. . The corner stone is sup- posed to have been laid on September 10, 1820, and the post was occupied by the troops in 1822. The fort was originally called St. Anthony, but the name was changed to Snelling at the recommenda- tion of Gen. Winfield Scott, who visited it while on a tour of inspection in 1824. Fort Snelling has been continuously oc- cupied as a military post from 1822 to the resent time. U. S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY BULLETIN 611 PLATE Il Ec ca meeeiin onan cone esl MINNEHAHA, ‘LAUGHING WATER.” ty a @ Height of fall, 54 feet. Water tum bles over St. Peter sandstone, erg s gradually being cut back toward La Minnetonka. ig decal 1 by Haynes, St. Paul, Minn. U. S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY BULLETIN 611 PLATE A. VALLEY CITY, N. DAK., FROM THE “HIGH LINE.” The river meanders broadly on the glacial drift which partly fills the old rock-cut valley. Photograph by Johnson & Olson, Alexandria, Minn B. THE “HIGH LINE” ACROSS THE VALLEY OF SHEYENNE RIVER, N. DAK. Height of trestle (150 feet) indicates depth of valley. Photograph by Johnson & Olson, Alexandria, Minn. THE NORTHERN PACIFIC ROUTE. 11 Fort Snelling and the Falls of Minnehaha can be reached from St. Paul by several routes, but whoever wishes to see the rocks and the way they have been carved by the streams should take the Snelling car, which follows the Mississippi upstream for about 6 miles directly to Fort Snelling. The roadway is on a bench or terrace nearly half a mile wide, which stands about 100 feet above the river and on a part of which the business portion of St. Paul has been built. The terrace is underlain by the Platteville limestone, which may be seen at a number of places, and it is evidently a remnant of a valley that existed there before the present channel of the river was excavated in its floor. The accompanying diagram (fig. 1) is a cross section of the valley as it appears to-day. If the channel of the river should be filled to the broken line it would represent the valley floor as it was before the present channel was cut, when the river was flowing at the level of the terrace. As the rocks are not exposed at any place in the bottom of the valley it is evident that the old rock-cut valley has been nlled by sediment (alluvium) brought down by the stream, but the depth of this filling has not been accurately deter- Ws YH FiGURE 1.—Section across Mississippi Valley between St. Paul and Fort Snelling, Minn., looking east. The broken line represents the bottom of the valley before the present channel was cut. mined. A deep well sunk in St. Paul northeast of the Union Station struck solid rock 100 feet below river level. At some remote time the river channel was therefore at least 100 feet deeper than it is now, and since that time it has been filled by mud and sand up to the level of the present river bottom. At Fort Snelling -he main valley continues to the southwest, but it is occupied only by Minnesota River,’ a stream manifestly too— small for the valley in which it is flowing; and, on the other hand, Mississippi River above Fort Snelling is out of proportion to the narrow gorge in which it is confined. To even the most casual observer the streams appear to be misplaced; the larger stream is flowing in the smaller valley and vice versa. The size and relation of the river valleys about St. Paul show clearly that they have under- gone many changes which do not occur in streams developing under normal conditions. Changes of this kind have taken place in many of the streams in the northern part of the United States. They are " Featherstonhaugh says that the In- | white settlers the name St. Peter was dian name of this river was Minnay Sotor, | applied to it; but later woe ee ” meaning turbid waters. By the early | was revived, with the 12 GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES. due to the invasion of this country at various epochs in the past by great glaciers which filled existing valleys with the mud, sand, and gravel that they brought in from the north. (See footnote on pp. 26-30.) When the ice vanished the streams found different courses, developing lakes and falls, features characteristic of a newly estab- lished drainage system. Thus the original drainage about St. Paul consisted of a stream flowing southeastward through the city and following the present course of Mississippi River to a point 10 or 12 miles below St. Paul, where it was joined by a large stream from the west, which crossed the present river valley 4 or 5 miles above Fort Snelling. At that time there was no stream flowing from Fort Snelling to St. Paul. This area was then a rocky upland. When the western ice sheet (see route map, sheet 1, p. 20) melted back from this region, all these old stream channels were filled with glacial materials, and the principal streams were developed along their present courses. After a time the glacier, which came from the north or northwest, melted back into the Red River valley, and Lake Agassiz (ag’a-see) came into existence. (See footnote on p. 32.) Warren River, the outlet of this large body of water, occupied the present valley of Minnesota River and received Mississippi River as a tributary from the north. This great river flowed across the rocky upland between Fort Snelling and St. Paul and cut a broad valley, upon the floor of which St. Paul has been built. Where it joined the old valley, at the site of St. Paul, there was a waterfall many times the size of St. Anthony. This fall gradually receded upstream until it reached the other old valley above Fort Snelling, and thus the inner rock gorge shown in the diagram was cut. The gorge of the Mississippi from Fort Snelling to the Falls of St. Anthony, which are a short distance below the station in Minneapolis, shows from its extreme narrowness that it is new and that it has only recently been carved out of the solid rock by the swiftly flowing stream. In fact, the process of carving the gorge of the Mississippi is still in operation, or was before it was arrested by the hand of man. 1 Many take it for granted that the sur- face features of the earth have always been the same as they are to-day, that the val- leys have always been valleys and the hills and mountains always eminences overlooking them. The incorrectness of * such an assumption, however, can realized by watching: any small stream or rill after or during arain. It will be seen that the stream is busily engaged in cut- ting the sand or clay over which it flows and carrying it down the valley to be dropped where the current slackens in some pond or lake. Every > as it is loosened from the bed of the is carried or rolled along by . water a few be | because ek farther, as a tired man lays down his bur- denamomenttorest. By dropping many grains the power of the water is restored and the grain of sand is again picked up, THE NORTHERN PACIFIC ROUTE. 13 Rivers always deepen their channels toward the head of the stream, and the Falls of St. Anthony have doubtless receded slowly from a point near the edge of the main valley at Fort Snelling to their present position, As the rate of recession of this fall has apparently been fairly uniform, and as the distance which the fall has retreated is well known, it has been used in making estimates of the time that has elapsed since the river first started to cut its gorge near Fort Snelling. According to the best estimate, the fall has been 12,000 years in traveling from the vicinity of Fort Snelling to its present position, and it has been 8,000 years since glacial Warren River ceased to flow and the present river system came into existence. When the receding Falls of St. Anthony reached and passed the mouth of Minnehaha Creek that stream plunged into the deepened gorge and the Falls of Minnehaha originated. Since that time they have been worn back about 400 feet to their present position. Each day some particle of rock is dislodged or worn away, and gradually the falls are working back up the stream. In the course of time they will reach Lake Minnetonka, and then this beautiful sheet of water will be drained, but that catastrophe will occur so far in the future that the owners of the hotels and summer cottages that line its shore need not be alarmed. westward journey. Lake Minnetonka is easily reached by trolley from both St. Paul and Minneapolis, and an afternoon or evening spent along its beautiful shores makes a most acceptable break in a long transcontinental journey. White Bear Lake, about 6 miles north of St. Paul, bears the same relation to that city as a summe resort that Lake Minnetonka bears to Minneapolis. ; The site of the present city of St. Paul is said to have been a favorite gathering ground for the Sioux Indians long before white men invaded — as the man recovers strength and resumes | alone has no cutting power. The grains his burden, and is carried or rolled along | of sand and the pebbles that are swept for a short distance farther. This opera- | along by the current act as a great rasp, the grain of sand is finally transported to | which they are carried. Thus grain by the sea and finds a resting place upon its in the rocks are worn away and grain sandy shore. y grain the material is carried to the sea. b The method by which a stream cuts The process, though slow, never stops; h: ocks is not so obvious as that by | and in time it carves such gorges as that which itcutssand and clay. The cutting | of the Mississippi and even the deeper 1s not done by the water itself, for water canyons found in the western mountains, 14 GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES. their hunting grounds, and it is probable that for many generations Indian villages stood within what are now the city limits. When the white men came they located at Mendota, on the south side of Mis- sissippi River near the mouth of the Minnesota, and this was the first settlement in the State. What is now the city of St. Paul was settled more recently, and its origin and the manner in which it received its name are interesting events in the history of this region.' The State of Minnesota has a gross area of 84,682 square miles, of which 3,824 square miles is covered with water. It was admitted to the Union in 1858, and its population according to the census of 1910 was 2,075,708. The earliest set- — tlements were made along Mississippi River, which was then the main artery of commerce in this part of the country. From this valley the incoming people spread to other valleys and to the general upland between the principal streams. This was essen- tially an agricultural population, and it has covered all the southern and western parts of the State. The northeastern part was origi- nally a land of swamps and heavy timber, not at all inviting to the man in search of-a farm, and for this reason all of that part except a small area about the head of Lake Superior remained for a long time comparatively unknown. While the agricultural lands of southern Minnesota were being converted into prosperous farms, the natural water power at the Falls of St. Anthony attracted the attention of millers, and great flour mills sprang up to grind the wheat that came pouring in from the surrounding region. At the same time the pine forest began to be utilized, and soon the great mills were denuding the country of its valuable timber. The last great industry to develop was the mining of iron ore in the northern part of the State. Though the output of the mines is of less value than the products of either agriculture or manufacturing, it has probably brought the State into public notice to a greater degree than either of the others, for Minnesota is now the greatest producer of iron ore in the country, having in 1913 an output of nearly 39,000,000 long tons, out of a total for the entire country of 62,000,000 tons. The first iron mines in the State were opened in the Vermilion Minnesota. * When the military post of Fort Snell- | evicting all the roughs and in demolish- ing was established, in 1820, the bounda- ing their cabins. The evicted ries of the reservation had not been deter- mined and consequently the post was overrun with all sorts of camp followers. In 1839 the limits of the reservation were fixed and efforts were made to eliminate the undesirable element, but not until May 6, 1840, were the troops successful in crossed the river and started a ham near the spot where the Union Station at St. Paul now stands. This was soon graced by a Roman Catholic chapel called St. Paul’s, which gave its name to the village. From such inauspicious begin- nings the city has developed. ba THE NORTHERN PACIFIC ROUTE. 15 range*in 1884. The great Mesabi range was opened in 1892 and the Cuyuna range in 1911. The values of the products of the State are approximately as fol- lows: Manufactures (1909), $409,000,000; agriculture (1909), $275,- 000,000; mining (1913), $70,000,000. The locations of the centers of commerce and industry in this State, as in many others that were settled in the early days, were determined largely by the availability of water transportation. Thus St. Paul, which stands at the head of navigation on Mississippi River, and Duluth, which is at the upper end of Lake Superior, were the principal points. The use of Mississippi River as a commercial highway has gradually diminished, until to-day it has little or no effect on the com- merce of the Northwest; but St. Paul and Minneapolis still continue to form a center for all the northern transcontinental railroads and also for those that connect central Canada with the United States. Lake Superior still holds its own as a water route for heavy freight— iron ore and grain going east and coal and manufactured articles going west—and the places at which most of this traffic concentrates are Duluth and Superior, at the extreme western point of the lake. On leaving the Union Station at St. Paul (see sheet 1, p- 20) the Northern Pacific Railway follows a small ravine almost due north for about 2 miles, gradually climbing from an altitude of 732 feet at the station to more than 900 feet at the highest point within the city limits. In passing over this part of the road the traveler unacquainted with glacial topography will have an opportunity to become familiar with some of its peculiarities—its knobs and basins composed of mate- rials which the moving ice carried or pushed along and deposited near its margin. The region was at one time covered (as shown on the map of Minne- sota on sheet 3, p. 32) by what is here called the middle ice sheet, which, as it came down from the north, brought into this region clay and fragments of red rock from the country north of Lake Superior. This body of ice extended southward beyond St. Paul and on melting left its load of reddish clay, sand, gravel, and bowlders, commonly known as drift, spread over the surface like a blanket. Later another St. Paul. Elevation 732 feet. Population 214,744,2 ‘The term range, as applied to a de- posit of iron ore or to the ore and the rocks with which the ore is associated, is lim- ited to the Lake Superior region. It doubtless resulted from the fact that in the first districts developed the rocks as- sociated with the ore are hard and form ridges or low ranges. From these districts the term has been carried to the other deposits of iron ore in the region, until now they are all known as ranges, even if the surface is flat and swampy. 2 The figures for population in this book are those of the United States Census of 1910. For unincorporated places the fig- ures give the population of the election precinct, township, or like unit; such figures are marked with an asterisk ¢*). 16 GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES. large glacier, the western ice sheet, invaded Minnesota from the north- west and spread a mantle of gray drift over part of the area already covered by red drift. The boundary between these two drift sheets passes through St. Paul but is not a sharp line of separation. When the front of the western ice sheet rested on the hills about St. Paul streams of water issued from the ice and carried with them vast quantities of sand and gravel, which they deposited beyond the ice front. One of these streams left the ice mass in the vicinity of Minneapolis and spread a great sheet of sand and gravel over the country upon which St. Paul has been built. It is mainly these ~~ outwash materials that can be seen from the Northern Pacific trains | as they pass from St. Paul to Minneapolis. The gravel was deposited —_ irregularly and now forms knobs that are separated by kettle-like | 4 ee Me st ee OT depressions. Lake Como, on the right (north)! of the railway, lies in a basin of this character. Descending somewhat from the high land the railway crosses the y gorge or canyon cut by Mississippi River in the Platteville limestone and St. Peter sandstone. These rocks were formerly well exposed : here, but they have been obscured by the construction of mills and = the slumping in of soil from the top of the bluffs. While crossing - the river the traveler can see on the right what remains of the Falls of St. Anthony, after a large part of the water has been diverted for the development of power. Further erosion of the rock has been prevented by the building of a low dam at the crest of the fall, and about 35,000 horsepower has been generated for running the great flour mills that line the river bank for some distance. On the left are the buildings of the University of Minnesota, which occupy a commanding position on the east side of the river. The rocks rise toward the north, as shown by fig- Minneapolis. ure 2 (p. 17), even more steeply than the grade of | Elevation 854 feet. the stream, and the top of the St. Peter sandstone So Patiomke: nd the overlying Platteville limestone appear higher in the canyon wall than they do at Fort Snelling. Immediately after crossing the river the train entersthe UnionStation at Minneapolis, to receive other travelers bound for the far West. a North of Minneapolis the railway again crosses Mississippi River, but here there is no gorge, the river flowing in a shallow valley in : the drift-covered pla* ,, ust beyond Northtown, on the right (east), the St. Peter sandstone is visible for the last time. This outcrop lies at considerably higher level than any outcrop of the sandstone in the gorge below the Falls of St. Anthony, indicating that the beds of rock rise northward more steeply than the surface of the Sa oo eae ies! 4 re See te Pe Se eee eee SD Teta Gece bet, Bie caee A ay See ! The terms right and left refer to the westbound journey. - * The figures giving distance from St. Paul are taken from the Northern Pacific Railway folder of 1915, EAN a nah te cs THE NORTHERN PACIFIC ROUTE. 17 ground. As this northward rise continues up the Mississippi until the underlying granite is brought to the surface about St. Cloud it is probable that in the past the St. Peter sandstone and associated beds extended farther northward than at present. They were, how- ever, worn away by the weather, the streams, and the ice, until now the railway passes over their beveled edges onto lower and lower formations toward the north, as shown by figure 2. The Great Northern and Northern Pacific railways operate the line from Minneapolis to St. Cloud jointly. At Coon Creek a branch of the Great Northern turns nearly due north and Coon Creek. joins a line of the same system from St. Cloud to -- ©@=3=—sS Duluth. In this part of the valley the surface is St. Paul 23 miles. composed largely of sand and grevel washed out from the glacier when its front lay a short distance to the north- west. The fine part of this material when dried was picked up by the west winds and carried over the country to the east, forming sand dunes which, with intervening marshes, still characterize this part of the country, as shown on the map. The succession of events during the several invasions of this country Ficure 2—Diagram showing northward rise of the rocks in by the ice and the various the vicinity of Minneapolis, Minn. materials deposited by the ice sheets are described in the footnotes on pages 26-30. For nearly 100 miles the railway follows the valley of the Missis- sippi, here a broad and flat depression much of which has the appear- ance of a level plain; but in places the low hills on Anoka. both sides approach the river and the valley is con- Elevation 904 feet. fined by fairly definite bounding walls.. About St Paton Anoka the floor of the valley consists of a gently undulating plain. The river has cut its channel but little below the general surface, and it seems to wander over the plain without plan or purpose, except to discharge its waters southward. The valley is well cultivated, and the glacial hills and wooded banks of the river are just sufficient to break the monotony of its even surface. Although no rocks are exposed about«GLaska, deep drilling for water has shown that the glacial drift there is about 80 feet thick and that the underlying rock is probably a part of the Dresbach sand- stone. (See footnote on p. 9.) About Anoka flowing wells obtain water from this sandstone, and in the southeastern part of Anoka County millions of gallons are pumped from it daily to St. Paul for the city supply. 95558°—Bull, 611—15——_2 18 GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES. The route followed from Minneapolis through Dayton and beyond is rich in historic association. The first white man to traverse it was Father Louis Hennepin, who in 1680 named the Dayton. Falls of St. Anthony and St. Francis River. There Elevation 911 feet. is some doubt about the stream to which Hennepin Population 343. : ; = Se pat ov sais applied the name St. Francis. Some think it was the stream now bearing that name; others think it _ was Rum River, which joins the Mississippi at Anoka. Hennepin | traversed part of the Indian trail to Lake Superior, which is gen- erally supposed to have passed by a portage from St. Francis River to Mille Lacs, thereby saving greatly in distance over the route up Rum River. At the village of Elk River the stream visible from the train is Elk River, and this is in sight for several miles west of the station. St. Francis River enters Elk River nearly due north Elk River. of Big Lake station, but can not be seen from the allies et et railway. At the town of Elk River a branch of the St. Pauli miles, Great Northern turns to the right (north) and joins the St. Cloud-Duluth line at the town of Milaca. - The second white man to traverse this part of the valley was Jona- than Carver, who visited the region in 1766 in order to claim it for the British sovereign. Carver ascended the Mississippi as far as St. Francis River in an endeavor to reach the Pacific coast, but owing to lack of supplies he was obliged to abandon the expedition and return to the East. Of the American pioneers, Lieut. Zebulon M. Pike, for whom Pikes Peak was subsequently named, was the first to visit the newly acquired territory in his search for the source of Mississippi River in 1805. An account of his journey will be found in the foot- note on page 20. Later the route up the Mississippi from Fort Snelling to Sauk Rapids became widely known as a part of the Red River trail. Over this trail several exploring expeditions went into the Big Lake. Northwest, but probably the most important, at least A sea eth Me ket = GD far as its influence on the location and building of - a teal ans- 4) 4ho Northern Pacific Railroad was concerned, was the party of Government engineers under the leadership of Gov. I. I. Stevens, which made the first surveys for a Pacific rail- Toad in 1853. This expedition followed the Red River trail by the sites of Big Lake, Becker, and Clear Lake to Sauk Rapids, and thence westward to Bois des Sioux River, which it crossed Becker. just below the outlet of Traverse Lake. Although —— = the country traversed by this expedition in Minnesota St. Paul57mils. | and a part of North Dakota was well known, even at that early date, its route farther west lay in large part over virgin territory, and the results of its explorations have been of THE NORTHERN PACIFIC ROUTE. 19 great value in the subsequent development of the region. The engi- neers of this expedition explored most of the prominent passes through the Rocky Mountains in Montana and the Cascade Mountains in Washington, and practically outlined the route that was followed by the Northern Pacific engineers some 20 years later. In the vicinity of the village of Clear Lake the railway passes from the gray drift that was brought into this region by the western ice sheet from the Red River valley to the red drift of Clear Lake. the middle ice sheet. The exact point of change from Elevation 1,016 feet. one of these drift sheets to the other can not be deter- py seaneey: nisaees mined from the train, but close ebservation will show that there are more fragments of red rock in the drift north of Clear Lake than there are in the drift south of that place. Although the glacial drift covers this country so completely that the hard rocks are hidden from view, deep drilling for water has shown that all the sedimentary rocks ' underlying the drift in the country farther south have been eroded from this region and that nothing is left but the granitic rocks which are supposed to form the basement or foundation of this part of the continent. Fortunately these rocks are exposed at several places along the line, so that the traveler may see them and realize how different they are from the stratified sand- stone and limestone that show at the surface in the vicinity of St. Paul and Minneapolis. After passing milepost 71, beyond Cable, the train runs close to the State reformatory, which stands to the left of the railway. The walls and buildings of this institution are constructed of blue-gray granite quarried on the premises. The granite is an excellent building stone, bemg durable and of pleasing appearance, and beyond the reformatory it is quarried commercially. The stone can be obtained in fairly large blocks, and it has been used extensively in St. Paul and Minneapolis and shipped to different parts of the country.? a 1 9 5 16Miles —— PO ee mens 1 Scale 500,000 Approximately 8 miles to | inch Contour interval 200 feet ELEVATIONS IN FEE 11 fi St. Paul, Minnesota. hy iO The crossties on the railroads are spaced | mile apart Bethel 45) = 50" THE NORTHERN PACIFIC ROUTE. 21 Between Watab and Rice the railway runs in a flat valley that extends as far as the eye can reach. It is well cultivated, and the fields of grain and potatoes are broken only by some mall lakes that are to be seen on the right of the track, but these have low shores and are not par- ticularly attractive. As the train glides through mile after mile of waving grain or pasture fields, with here and there a farmhouse nestling beneath the shadow of some ancient oak, it is hard to realize that a little more than a century ago this was a wilderness in which roving bands of Indians found only a scanty subsistence and trappers and traders made journeys with the greatest hardship and discomfort. Although there are no exposures of rock between Rice and Royal- ton, the route map opposite page 26 shows many isolated outcrops of granite and slate; and it will be noticed that all the areas of granite ‘be east of a line passing nearly through Royalton and that all the hard rocks which appear at the surface west of that line are slates or schists (for definition see footnote on p. 155) with the exception of one exposure of Cretaceous shale on the west side of the river nearly opposite Royalton. A short distance beyond milepost 95 a branch of the Soo Line (Minneapolis, St. Paul & Sault Ste. Marie Railway), extending from Brooten to Duluth, crosses the valley and the Northern Pacific track by a long, high fil. North of Royalton, on the right, some rather _prominent morainic hills give a pleasing variety to the landscape; and at Gregory the traveler is about opposite the point where Pike’s party spent the winter of 1805-6. Rice. Elevation 1,086 feet. Population 262. St. Paul 90 miles Royalton. Elevation 1,103 feet. ion 676. St. Paul 97 miles. finally reached the vicinity of Little vates. He found settlements and vil- iri Falls, but here the river was so rough that lages as far up the river as Prairie du Chien, but above that place there was He reached the mouth of St. Peter (Min- nesota) River on Espiner 21, and ‘spent some time visiting the Indians and acquiring for the bvaishon: the title to 100,000 acres of land, including the site of Fort Snelling and the Falls of St. Anthony. He then portaged around the falls and proceeded up the river, but at many places he had considerable difficulty in getting his boats over the rapids. He he decided it was useless to take the boats farther, so on October 16, 1805, he went into winter quarters on the west bank of the river about 4 miles below the present town of Little Falls. Pike with a few companions pushed on afoot and endeavored to find the source of the great river. He succeeded in a general way in settling the question, though he did not discover Lake Itasca. Pike returned to Little Falls on March 6, 1806, and on April 10 the = party embarked once more, reaching St. Louis on the 30th. 929 GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES. Taken all in all, the Mississippi Valley, in which the train runs from Minneapolis to Little Falls, is one of the richest and most attractive valleys in the State. From Little Falls lead two branch lines of the Northern Pacific, one running up the east bank of Mississippi River to Brainerd and thence to International Falls, on the northern Little Falls. boundary of Minnesota, and the other turning to the Elevation 1,134 feet. eft and running to Morris, near the western edge of Sc Paul 107 mies, the State. The falls in the river are produced by hard slate and schist and by diorite (molten mate- rial that was forced up and into the sedimentary rocks and that has since been consolidated, forming a hard, dense, dark rock) of Archean age. (See table on p. 2.) These rocks are not massive like the granite at St. Cloud and so they do not make good building material, but they are as hard or harder and form a persistent obstacle to the easy flow of the river. The falls are of great commercial importance, as they furnish 10,000 horsepower, which is utilized by sawmills having a capacity of 70,000,000 board feet of lumber annually, flour and paper mills, and an electric-light plant. Here once lay the margin of a great evergreen forest that stretched wild and unbroken to Duluth and the falls of Sault Ste. Marie, but now only a few pine trees can be seen here and there along the railway, for most of them have disappeared in the insatiable maws of the great lumber mills. Little Falls is noted among archeologists as a place where a large number of flint implements, belonging to an early race of men, have been found. At Little Falls the traveler crosses Mississippi River for the last time in his westward trip; he will soon pass out of the Mississippi drainage basin and enter another whose waters find an outlet to the north. After leaving the river the train passes through a country that is typically glacial in all its features. The hard rocks are covered by drift varying in thickness from 35 to 400 feet. Owing to this thick cover the present surface of the ground gives no indication of what is beneath, and for many years it was supposed that this swampy coun- try, covered only with brush and scrub oak, was of no value whatever. After some of the great deposits of iron ore in Minnesota and Wiscon- sin had been exploited it was found that the best way to prospect for iron ore in this region was with the magnetic needle. Many parts of Minnesota were tested unsuccessfully, but in 1895 it was found that the magnetic needle was affected in this area, and drilling has shown that it is underlain by a large body of iron ore. This deposit is now known as the Cuyuna (ki-you’na) iron range and is one of the three important iron ranges of the State. This range (see map of Cuyuna THE is scieiegsomgag! PACIFIC ROUTE. 23 range on sheet 2, p. 26), as now prospected and developed, extends fro m Aitkin, Randall. ae 1 om feet. Populatio: Bi. Peal 118 olla mined. ca iediiated to the vicinity of Randall. 55 miles long, but its width has not been fully deter- No mining is done near this line of the about 27 miles northeast of Brainerd, Itis hat Northern Pacific Railway, but several mines are operated some 40 miles to the northeast. Little farming is carried 1 Whoever wishes to see something of iron mining in Minnesota should make a short trip from Little Falls or Staples to Crosby or Ironton, on the Duluth line. The Pennington mine, which is within easy walking distance of either of these towns, consists of a large open pit from which the glacial drift was first stripped shovels. The o oxide, and has resulted from the deep weathering or decomposition of a slaty sedimentary rock that was originally rich in iron carbonate. closely, and dip at high angles. The workable deposits are vertical or steeply dipping lenses, which generally have a maximum width of 400 or 500 feet and an average depth of about 300 feet, but the maximum known depth is about 1,000 feet. Some of the lenses extend for more than half a mile along the strike. The ores, some of which are soft and some hard, are in the main non-Bessemer—that is, they contain too much phosphorus to be converted into steel by the Bessemer pro- cess, which is one of the processes gener- ally used. Some of the ores contain con- siderable man; The traveler wishing t tended excursion into the iron country may go from Little Falls or Staples to Duluth and take either the Duluth, Missabe & Northern Railway or the Duluth & Tron Range Railroad to one of more er. Rust open pit at Hibbing is the largest iron mine in the world, producing in 1913 nearly 3,500,000 long tons of ore. scription of the iron ranges is given by . H. Emmons, State ae - Minne- sota, in the following paragraphs The iron ore of the oe (me-sah’be) and Cuyuna ranges is contained in the Biwabik (be-wah’/bick) font, rer from one of the iron -minii n the Mesabi range. This peatoas ea pair of ferruginous cherts, iron ores, slates, iron silicate, and carbonate rocks, ‘ees a poe amount of coarse detrital niateeial at its t grades upward and in places laterally into more slaty rocks, known as the Virginia slate; snd it is underlain by : quartzite bat pining a conglom- rate at its bas are generally Mies as the Animikie (a-nim’i-kee) group and belong in the upper part of the Algonkian system as exposed in this region. All these rocks were laid down after the close folding which affected the lower 'Algonkia n rocks, Animi kie group are not on edge but ae dip at low an The Biwabik or r iron-bearing formation extends along the Mesabi range (see map onsheet 2, p. 26) for itsentirelength. Its average thickness is about 800 feet, but owing to the prevailing low dips ae exposed varies from a quarter ile to 3 miles. The great bulk of the scantian is ferruginous (iron-bearing) chert, ne bestos some lime and iron carbonates, a bands and shoots of iron ore. Associated with the chert, mainly in the middle zone, is the iron ore, which occupies about 5 per cent of the total reece area of the forma- tion. Throughout the iron-bearing for- mation, Boe a in its upper part, 24 GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES. on in this region, and the country is covered with a dense growth of scrub oak. For some distance beyond Randall the country consists largely of Swamps and scrub-oak uplands, but north of Cushing the surface becomes rougher, consisting of knoblike hills with swamps or lakes between them. When seen from some commanding eminence the country appears to be a maze of more or less regular conical hills among which the railway turns and twists to find a level path- way. As the traveler proceeds he will note that the depressions be- tween the hills become more pronounced, and when he is within a mile of Lincoln, or at milepost 126, he can see on his right one of the largest depressions i in the region, eobapied by Lake Alexander. Evidently the character of the submerged surface is much the same as that around the lake, for the surface of the lake, although extensive, is broken by morainic islands that add greatly to the charm of the scene. The rough topography reaches its culmination near Lincoln, where the hills range in height from 100 to 150 feet and are very steep. As described in the footnote on pages 26-30, the morainic material forming these hills was brought by a great glacier (the middle ice sheet) that pushed into this region from the northeast. It extended only a little beyond Mississippi River, and the rough topography about Lincoln is due to the deposition of a part of its terminal moraine. Lincoln is mainly a summer resort and is an attractive place for those who enjoy boating and other aquatic sports. The wooded Cushing, Elevation 1,288 feet, Population 313.* St. Paul 123 miles. Lincoln. Elevation 1,304 feet. St. Paul 129 miles, are thin layers of slate and paint rock, the paint rock usually resulting from the alteration of the slate. At the east end of the range, near Birch in consequence of the intrusion of granite to the north and of gabbro to the south. As a result con- siderable amphibole has been developed in the ferruginous rocks, magnetite has segregated into layers, and the rocks have become hardened. Thin beds of conglomerate and shale — The basal beds of the Creta- us | y carry detrital iron ore de- rive from the weathered Biwabik forma- prea portions of the Biwabik formation are rich enough to constitute iron ore. These occur in isolated masses along the eroded surface of the formation and are generally not over 200 feet thick, although some are thicker. The work- ba Pe - J 4 id due to the action of surface waters, which have leached out the silica and some other elements and have left the iron in a more highly concentrated form. Con- centration of this nature, in places to which water solutions have found more of — pebbles. The geologic conditions in the Cuyuna range appear to be sn identical with those in the Mesabi range, described above, but as the Sivan range has been only slightly developed its geology can not yet be described in detail. THE NORTHERN PACIFIC ROUTE. 95 islands in Lake Alexander afford an almost unlimited number of camping places and sites for summer cottages. The strong morainic topography continues for several miles be- yond Lincoln but gradually becomes more su gently rolling ground that is noticeable around Phil- brook soon gives place to a country that is flat and swampy as far as the eyecan see. Philb posed to stand on the dividing line between the red Philbrook. Elevation 1,269 feet. St. Paul 135 miles, dued, and even the rook is sup- drift of the middle ice sheet and the gray drift of the western sheet, but no distinction between the two drift sheets can be observed from the car window From Philbrook the land continues flat and swampy to Staples, which is a division point and one of the main junctions on the Staples. railway. Here the line from St. Paul joins the origi- nal main line of the Northern Pacific from Duluth. Elevation ye feet. Population St. Paul 141 ene country west of Staples is as flat as that to the south, over which the traveler has just passed, ’ As early as 1853 the Government made a survey to determine the best location for a Pacific railroad, and one of the routes examined and recommended is practi- cally that which the Northern Pacific fol- lows, but after the survey was made the undertaking seemed so great that capital could not be found with which to make even a beginning. On the completion of the Union Paciiic Railroad in 1869 the faith of the public in the success of trans- continental roads seems to have revived, and in 1870 th truction of the North- ific line was actually begun. Work was started at the two extremities— near Duluth, which was to be the eastern terminus, and between Kalama, on Co- lumbia River, and Tacoma, the western terminus in Washington. In Minnesota the rails were laid in 1870 as far as Brain- erd, on ppi River, 30 miles east of Staples, and in De were extended entirely across the S At that time Si on account of its location on one of the Great Lakes, was considered the most desirable place to connect with the East. Duluth is a ail dernte. without railway communi- cation and at the head of a lake closed to navigation by ice for five months of the was in the future St. Paul, with its unlimited pos- sibilities ee y i Accordingly negotiations for a line to St. Paul were undertaken. Sometime between 1864 and 1870 a rail- road was built from St. Paul up Missis- sippi River to Sauk Rapids by an inde- pendent company. is line was pur- chased by the Northern Pacific Co. in 1870 with the understanding that the road was to be completed to Brainerd, where it would connect with the main line of that system. In the panic of 1873 the North- ern Pacific could not fulfill its obligations and so lost control of this line. was completed to Brainerd on November 1, 1877, by other persons, and it afforded ns fast railroad connection between the purchase of its capital stock. Still oo the company built the road from Little Falls to Staples, giving it the through connection desired. 26 GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES. and as far as the eye can see there are no hills to break the monot- ony of flat and swamp. The railway follows, in general, the valley of Leaf River, which lies north of the track. Like Aldrich, re ; most of the other valleys of this region, this one Elevation 1,351 feet. a P Population 586. has not been carved by the stream that occupies St. Paul 148 miles. it but is merely a chain of low places along which the water finds an outlet. Such valleys have no definite shape or plan; and consequently at one place the railway may be in a fine rolling country that is well farmed and prosperous, as it Verndale, ; : , is at Verndale, and at another place it may be in Elevation 1,369 feet. . Population 538 the most dismal expanse of swamps and shallow St. Paul 152 miles. lakes. In a general way the country becomes more rolling toward the west, and about the town of Wadena (see sheet 3, p. 32) there are fine farms on both sides of the railway. When the crops wave green in the breeze or take on the golden tints of harvest time this country affords the traveler a pleasing contrast with the swamps and scrub oaks of the region to the east. Just east of the station at Wadena the Northern Pacific is crossed by a line of the Great North- ern which runs from Sauk Center to Cass Lake, and about 2 miles west of Wadena a branch line of the Northern Pacific turns to the left and runs to Fergus Falls and Breckenridge. Near milepost 169! the railway approaches Téaf River on the right, and near the valley there is more decided evidence of morainic topography than there is between this point and alee. Staples. The hills are not high, but they have the a oan peculiar conical or sugar-loaf shape that characterizes opulati St Paul 16 miles, morainic hills, and they are separated in many places by marked kettles or depressions. The hills in this region are formed of material that the ice brought i in from the Red River valley. A brief history of the several invasions of Minnesota by the ice and a description of the drift deposited by them is given below by Frank Leverett. Wadena. vation 1,372 feet. Population 1,820 St. Paul 159 miles. ? Mileposts on the Northern Pacific are numbered from division points and not from the ends of the system. ? Before the glacial epoch, or Great Ice Age, Minnesota presented a very different appearance from that which it presents ‘o-da that it has an uneven surface and is composed chiefly of old crystalline rocks in which there are differences of altitude of at least 500 feet. In the northeastern part of the State the iron ranges and their associated rock forma- tions stood out much more prominently than they do to-day. This old surface is now so deeply buried under glacial material in the greater part of the State se it is not possible, with our present wledge, to outline the position and courses of even the principal streams of that time the eastern southern BULLETIN 611 SHEET No. 2 94° MINNESOTA Brainerd 9 $ nw ® < i Scale 500,000 ie pophsed Wing Approximately 8 miles to | inch | eee 10 ma \5 you 20Mi ’ 10 5 10 1S 20 25 30Kilom : =e ate, il oo a a a Oe a Sh Er ae a ee eel pone - Mo eed ee a q : { Cantons ater 200 fee — 33 Fae? eS cat Sar 3 ie ake | , ne A elevanions in Fe MEAN ie LEVEL — L ee RANSE . eee. +, LD e ae u % ae at ik Z yD 5 : £% A he di. fi St. Paul, Minnesota. A 10 om, ite © te eee a : he s % : The crossties on the railroads are spaced |! mile apart jetties : a™ si oe 5 ABE bE Sy | S ~ nN S . oat GQ % B A Bemidji a is \ £y pe hus” € 6 au INST) oO jiss iw : on, For, : 5 Ir) Yy - <= le eos 47 2 7 B ke alee LSA gre 2a \ bY A, 46" % is y TE © v i He Fails | ome ; a iy ee erior pac 74 8 : AZ . g > Rich Prairie i Brainerd ~ z R Pe ay x aree a =) B ) ittle Fy ae 5 hah ° ws gle 50 MILE: bs 35° x 93° . Fey MAP OF CUYUNA IRON RANGE, SHOWING ITS GEOGRAPHIC RELATION off crite TO THE MESABI AND VERMILION RANGES OF MINNESOTA oy ( N - Loose CC. x D A ng drift of weste “a Quat ~ B Red drift of middle ice gee syewertes “a Holding ford 1277 Underlying rocks » \4 C . Shale Cretaceous “¢ . D~ Granite and gneiss j E Slate and schist Algonkian A Yo : “es z ! VE ' Se a A SColtegevile w a3. WA t Joseph ; 95° : 94°30" Ss = 94° (Sheet No// ENGRAVED ANG PRINTED SY THE U.S. GEOLOGICAL SUFvE THE NORTHERN PACIFIC ROUTE. 27 West of Bluffton the morainic character of the topography con- tinues for some eeyeice but gradually gives place to the rolling country about New York Mills. The less broken New York Mills. oes here is well suited to agriculture, and fine Elevation 1,433 feet. farms may be seen on both sides of the track. bhi onions ett The railway is here on the divide between the Hudson Bay and Mississippi River drainage systems. It is not at all certain that before the glaciers covered this country the divide was at this place, as all the stream courses have been either materially modified or completely rearranged by the ice sheets that invaded the State. The present divide is not made evident by any well-marked ridge, and the appearance of the country will not probably show the traveler that he is crossing.from one of the great drainage basins of the continent to another. The figures given for the slovatii of the towns show that New York Mills is a little higher than the towns on either side and hence that the water part- ing is near that place. At milepost 187 the railway crosses Otter Tail River, the first large stream passed i in the Hudson Bay drainage basin. This stream has its origi in a number of beautiful lakes near the Northern Pacific line and flows southward through Rush Lake to Otter Tail Lake, the largest body of water in the region. Thence it flows westward and joins the Bois des Sioux at Breckenridge, forming Red River. After crossing Otter Tail River, which meanders broadly in a swampy bottom about a mile in width, the railway traverses a roll- ing plain of rich agricoltaral land near the center Perham. of which stands the prosperous town of Perham, so Elevation 1,390feet. named for the first president of the Northern Pacific see etianits, Railroad Co. The surface of this plain is formed of sand and gravel washed out from the front of the western ice sheet as the big moraine to the west and north was being deposited. Pine, Little Pine, and Marion lakes lie a few miles from the track on the right, and ihe cottages and hotels along their parts, however, enough is known to war- rant the statement that the positions of the preglacial stream courses were not widely different from those of to-day. The Mississippi flows locally in a new course past St. Anthony Falls, at Little Falls, and at Sauk Rapids; but drilling has shown that a deeply buried valley, which is 200 feet or more below the pres- ent stream, lies near the river and in places crosses it. glacial epoch did not consist simply in the growth and disappearance of a single great continental glacier; there were stages of great extension of the ice, separated by stages in which it was greatly reduced if not entirely melted away. There were also several centers of exceptionally great snowfall and snow and ice accumulation, from which the ice epee or flowed outward. From 3, p. 32.) The western parts of the State were covered by ice 28 GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES. shores offer many inducements to the sportsman or to the summer visitor who is in search of relaxation from the breathless hurry of modern city life. The plain extends along the railway to a point 4 miles northwest of Perham, where it gives place to rough, hummocky land that marks an eastern point of the great morainic ridge on the west of the track. When this moraine was formed the ice had disappeared from the country to the east but covered all that part of the State lying to the west. From Luce to Frazee the ground is generally swampy or dotted by small lakes or ponds. At milepost 196 the railway crosses Otter Tail River, here flowing to the east. On account of the numerous ridges this stream wanders about from lake to lake, finding an outlet by an exceedingly round- about course. Only a fow of these lakes are visible from the train, (western ice sheet) which came from central Canada. The eastern part as far south as the vicinity of St. Paul was covered by ice (middle ice sheet) from the region south of Hudson Bay, and a small area on the border of the Lake Superior basin was covered by ice (Supe- rior ice sheet) which came in from the ugh that basin. The western sheet brought in fragments of limestone and shale, the middle sheet carried south- ward much material from the iron ranges and also red sandstone from the west end of Lake Superior, and the eastern or Superior sheet transported to the limits of its advance large amounts of the red sandstone bordering that basin The effect of these invasions was to fill up and obliterate the valleys or to block posi of the border of each of the ice sheets. Sand and gravel were spread out termed outwash aprons. In places where the ice border melted back rapidly no moraines were formed, but i nearly level surface, composed of epider clay or till. The moraines of the Superior sheet en- circle the west end of the Lake Superior basin ina series of concentric ridges, each | ing later tha one without & formed by the western icé sheet lie in the high country along the valleys of Red River and Minnesota River. These streams are bordered by broad plains which owe their form to the fact that they lay under the deep part of the ice sheet and along its axis of movement. The moraines of the middle ice sheet are well developed south and east of St. Paul and in central Minnesota. The Northern Pacific Railway traverses one of the most prominent moraines of this ice sheet, between Little Falls and Staples. The three advances of ice, though oc- curring in a single glacial stage, did not take place at the same time. After the middle sheet reached its maximum and melted back nearly if not quite to the Canadian line, 1 the; okher shoots sini te: ere aneeean its drift with their decane The western ice in places extended 75 miles or more into the district the middle sheet had abandoned. The map on sheet 3 (p. 32) is intended to show the toni pr invasions of Minnesota durin, nsin stage, but as the three fete did not invade brought in later by the western sheet its limit on the west can be only conjectured but it probably covered much of the northern part of the State. THE NORTHERN PACIFIC ROUTE, 29 but the map shows that great numbers of them lie on both sides of the road. The kettle-like depressions in a moraine, many of which FIGURE 3.—Diagram showing isan origin of aliens Kettle holes. A, Bloc from a glacier; B, same block after part has mud; C, der NAT ENE of ice recently broken i melted and the ine poe, with sand and are filled with water and become ponds or lakes, are due either to irregularities in the deposition of the drift along the front of a glacier or to the melting of detached blocks of ice.1 The map is supposed to represent the State as it was when the western ice sheet extended southward along the Red River valley and deployed to the east into the open lands of Minnesota. Part of this great glacier found an outlet eastward into the upper Mississippi Valley and the val- ley of St. Louis River, but the main mass of the ice pushed southeastward along the valley of Minnesota River. A part over- flowed northeastward, forming a lobe that covered much of the territory north of St. aul. The main lobe swept on south- ward across the boundary of the State and as far as Des Moines, Iowa. After a time the melting at its front exceeded the sup- ply of fresh ice coming from the teens and then the glacial in began retreat, and teeta the ice disap’ When the ice 2 the Superior sheet melted back into that basin the ponding of water between the ice front and the formed between the front of the elect oe Se north and the Browns Valley Over sini aii ae tie eatin ans drift of Minnesota there has been little change since the ice disappeared except the formation of soil and a slight leaching and weathering; but in some places nota- ble changes have of Minnesota’s show beaches at higher levels than the present, their outlets having been cut down by the water at various stages. Many lakes have been so filled with sedi- ment as to become marshes or even dry land, and many have been filled by the growth of peat. St. Anthony Falls, on the Mississippi, has retreated a few feet a year until recently checked by an arti- ficial retaining wall. Minnehaha Falls, mi stream erosion since the last glaciation is slight, and on many it is scarcely enough to be measurable. 1 When a glacier reaches its greatest extension and begins to retreat, its pause and recession mean that the supply of fresh ice or snow back at the gathering ee where. it receives most of its mate- prin that goes on over - its entire sur- face, but more particularly at its outer . The result is that the ice near the extremity moves forward very slowly and finally ceases to move at all. The edge of the ice sheet becomes thin and , and, owing to more rapid melting along cracks or crevasses, of ice become separated from the main B Pek ech 4: ok as shown at A in figure 3, above, may be uncovered, but 30 GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES. Near Frazee the surface is rough and broken and there are man deep valleys containing lakes, ponds, or swamps. A notable depres- sion or old channel is crossed by the railway just Frazee. southeast of the town. This channel extends north- Elevation 1,410 feet. westward from Murphy Lake, 2 miles southeast of rar on.. Braces, and-it-is generally occupied by swamps or long, narrow lakes. The railway follows it for 3 miles beyond the town, and some of the views of the little lakes on both sides of the track are very pretty. Town Lake, close to Frazee, and Harold Lake, farther on, are in this channel on the left (south) of the track; and Chilton and Brink Lakes are irregular bodies of water on the other side. Frazee is in the heart of a lake region, where large lakes abound on all sides of the town, but none of them are visible from the train for several miles beyond Harold Lake. It is also in a great morainic belt, which was formed by the ice sheet (western) that invaded this country from the Red River valley. The hills are steep and conical, and the depressions between them are very pronounced. To this glacier is largely due the lake region of central-western Minnesota, we own as a summer resort and as a paradise for sportsmen. The largest and best-known sheet of water that is visible from the train in this vicinity is Detroit Lake, which can be seen on the left as the train skirts its banks between mileposts 208 and 209, a short time before reaching the station at Detroit. From Detroit Lake a river channel leads southward into and through a series of other lakes of equal beauty. This channel has been made navigable by a system of locks, and small steamers ply from lake to lake, passing the finest scenery of the lake region. The drinking water used on Northern eae Pacific dining cars comes from Pokegama Spring, Elevation 1,386 feet. 00 the shore of Detroit Lake. Population 2,807. Detroit i i i Ppt: 3 000-: etroit 1s one of the most important towns in the lake region, and is a point of departure for many of a aed possibly the larger part will be buried in If the material surrounding the kettle sand and gravel washed out from the front | is open and porous, and if there is of the glacier. In the course of time the underground drainage, the kettle may the surrounding sand and gravel fall into | theresult. Some of the lakes of this region the hole left by the ice. This leaves such | are many miles across, and if their basins a depression as that shown in the dia- were formed in this gram—a kettle, as it is generally called | that itl _ Ina glaciated country. THE NORTHERN PACIFIC ROUTE. Si its resorts. Just west of the town the Northern Pacific is crossed by a branch of the Soo Line (Minneapolis, St. Paul & Sault Ste. Marie Railway), which runs from Alexandria to Plummer. The roughest part of the moraine seen from the railway, a part known as the Leaf Hills, lies east of Detroit, but west of that place the surface features become more and more subdued. Audubon. As the morainic topography disappears farming Elevation 1,332 feet. becomes more general, and at Audubon field after = hi reaps field of grain stretches away over the rolling upland as far as the eye can see. Although the traveler may have enjoyed the ever-changing panorama of lakes, hills, and plains of the morainic belt, he may find it a relief to emerge into the fine farming region about Audubon and Lake Park. Lake Park is another important town of the lake region, and although no water is visible from the train there are one or two ponds near by, and some of the finest lakes of Lake Park. the region lie a short distance to the south. Lake Elevation 1,341 feet, Park is on the edge of the prairies. The trees are Population 740. ll | fined 1 ly to th rat Se. Penk tiesidies: small and are confined largely e watercourses. Almost all the land is under a high state of cul- tivation, and fields of wheat and hay abound on every side. The country here is a gently rolling upland with the valleys cut to a depth of 50 feet or more below the general level. At Manitoba ; ' Junction the Northern Pacific line running to ee mies pases: Crookston, Minn., Grand Forks, N. Dak., and Win- egekors —— nipeg, Canada, turns to the right (north). At thise place the traveler enters the valley of Buffalo Creek and can not see the upland country, which, however, is much the same in character as the country east of the junction—that is, it is rolling, but is cut by the valleys of the larger streams. Hawley. The railway follows Buffalo Creek through the Elevation 1,174 feet. village of Hawley, but the valley grows deeper —— toward the west, and little of the country outside St. Paul 228 miles. of the immediate valley can be seen from the train. If the traveler had been attempting to cross the continent in the closing stages of the glacial epoch by the route which he is now fol- _ lowing, he would have been confronted, when he Muskoda. reached the place where Muskoda now stands (see Elevation 1,087 feet. sheet 4, p. 40), by a vast lake which then occupied — the valley of Red River. The only passageway around it would have been by a wide detour to the south, for the lake extended into Canada for several hundred miles and was bounded on the north by the impassable front of the great continental glacier. As the lake has completely disappeared the reader may be skeptical about its existence or wonder upon what evidence its presence in a 32 GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES. former age has been determined. Unfortunately the track is so far below the general surface of the upland that there is little oppor- tunity to observe details, but if the traveler could carefully examine the ground, he would easily recognize the shore of this ancient lake just before he reaches the station at Muskoda. This old shore con- sists of a ridge of gravel which was heaped up by the waves that beat upon its western side. The large gravel pit which the railroad has excavated in this ridge to procure ballast can be seen from the Muskoda station. e lake was named by the geologist Warren Upham in honor of Louis Agassiz, who was the first to make a systematic study of glaciers and glacial phenomena. The beach at Muskoda is called” ' Lake Agassiz was a body of fresh water pansion was about 110,000 square miles, exceeding the present aggregate area of the five great lakes tributary to the St. Lawrence. The shore of this ancient lake is marked by well-defined beaches, and it is from these that the existence and the extent of the lake are known. The beach ridges sare built upon typical bowlder clay or till that was deposited by an ice sheet, and hence it is known that the lake either followed the invasion of the ice or marked the closing stages of that episode. The next question that arises is, What were the conditions that led to the forma- tion of such a lake? It could not have been held in a landlocked basin, for no held in place by the retreating front of the glacier, which blocked the natural outlet of the water to the north and forced it to accumulate in this basin. The pond- ing of the water in the Red River valley as soon as the ice front retreated across the divide at the head of Minne- sota River. Lake Agassiz thus began as a small body of water, and expanded northward as the ice melted until it be- came of great extent. The water found an outlet southward (known as Warren River) Minnesota River through Browns Valley, which extends from Lake Traverse to Lake Big Stone along the boundary between South Dakota and Minnesota. The water of Lake Agassiz continued to flow through Warren River until the Keewatin (ke-wah’tin) glacier had _re- tired northward far enough to permit an outlet direct to Hudson Bay. As the barrier which held the lake in place was composed of ice, its gradual retreat af- forded outlsts at different levels, and at ess distinct. Thirty-one such beaches are known, all of which except the lowest ex- tend into the United States. Fourteen of them were formed by the lake when its outlet was to the south, and seventeen after it gained an outlet into Hudson Bay. In comparison with the irregularities of the topography of the region outside of the lake the shore lines are inconspic- uous, but on the smooth slopes of the. lake bed they are generally easily trace- able. The best-developed beach ridges of the lake commonly rise 10 to 20 feet above the adjoining land on the side that was next to the water and from 3 to 10 feet on the opposite side, They vary in width from 10 to 30 rods and are composed of interstratified gravel and sand, the BULLETIN 611 EO: =] SHEET No. 3 a 1 7 Hitterda}, B Cs Sheet No. + ev moe MINNESOTA ffalo Collawa a ie Oe 5 V MINNESOTA, SHOWING THEIR RELATIONS TO THE DRIFT _ PREVIOUSLY DEPOSITED BY THE MIDDLE ICE SHEET ‘eperec by MAP OF WESTERN AND SUPERIOR ICE SHEETS OF ie Scale 500.500 Approximately 8 miles to | inch eee og te ey ~*~ Prone aes a P20 30Kilometers Contour interval 200 feet ABOVE MEAN SEA LEVEL Paul. Minnesota. a - The crossties on the railroads are spaced | mile apart v4 ) ‘at “eee alias! . ENGRAWEtVAND PRINTED-BY THE U-S.GEDLOGIGAL SUTEY THE NORTHERN PACIFIC ROUTE. 33 the Herman beach. It was formed when the water of Lake Agassiz stood at its highest level and consequently marks the line between the unmodified glacial topography above and the smooth surface of the old lake basin below. The difference in the topography may not be noticeable on the east side of the valley because of the unfavor- able outlook, but on the opposite side of the valley west of Fargo the difference is very striking and can readily be seen from the train. Between mileposts 242 and 243 the railway emerges from the now shallow valley of Buffalo Creek, and the traveler may obtain his first view of the famous Red River valley, which has been referred to frequently as the ‘‘granary of the world,” but which was once a lake about 50 miles wide at this gravel prevailing, including pebbles 2 to. 4 inches in diameter. The development of the beaches varies greatly from place to place, depending apparently upon the abundance and the valley is crossed by the main line of the Northern Pacific Railway three beach ridges are clearly visible on the east side of the valley and two on the west. At Wahpeton (waw’pe-ton), on the Fergus Falls branch of the same road, there are four well-developed ridges on each side of the valley. At Grand Forks there are four ridges on the east, where they are crossed by the Great Northern Railway, and twelve on the west. Not only does the number of ridges vary from place to place, but ridges disappear and other ridges, either higher or lower, a i their places, so that the identification of the various ridges is a matter of consider- able difficulty. The Herman beach, which marks the highest stage of the lake and which is the one most easily recognized, has been traced for a long dist 1 the south and west sides of the lake, but the lower beaches are not so well marked and can not be traced continuously. Sand vel deltas, so extensive _as to be notable features of the topography, ormed by several streams tha flowed into the lake while it stood at its highest stages. The Buffalo River delta, down which the Northern Pacific Rail- 95558 °—Bull. 611—15——_3. point and nearly 700 miles long. way runs immediately west of Muskoda, covers an area about 7 miles long from north to south and 2 to 33 miles wide from east to west. As the average thickness of the material laid down in this delta is about 50 feet, its volume is probably one- sixth of a cubic mile. The delta plain, as shown in figure 4 (p. 34), is terminated about 3 miles west of Muskoda by a steep slope, like the face of a terrace, 25 to 40 feet high. The floor of this ancient lake is appar- ently a level plain, although it really has a slight slope toward the middle and a gentle northward inclination of about a foot to the mile. The several shore lines are not el with one another or with sea level, but all show an ascent toward the north or northeast. beach rises 17 Traverse, the lower end of Lake Agassiz, and the international boundary, but the grade is not regular, being 35 feet in the first 75 miles, 60 feet in the second, and 80 feet in the third. The lower beaches show a similar though less pronounced tise. As these beaches must have been horizontal when they were formed, it is evident that the crust of the earth has ence and continued for some time after it 34 GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES. The silt deposited in this lake gives the valley its wonderfully smooth surface and its great fertility. During the highest stage of the lake Buffalo Creek built just below Muskoda a delta of considerable size, and it is from this delta that the first view of the valley may be ob- tained. At a later stage, when the water of the lake was at a lower level, the waves cut away the front of the delta and greatly increased the natural slope of the valley side, as shown in figure 4. The rail- way engineers found difficulty in getting down this slope without loops and curves, so a long, high fill has been made which gives a uniform grade from top to bottom.! The weight of the fill, however, proved to be too great for the soft mud at the bottom of the old A_. Lake Agassiz ___ B YY ee UMA 5 UW i YY, -- JUL AN GHALELPELL es) LLL GUMS Spl Ee® SELL WUE FigurE 4.—Section of Buffalo River delta, Minn. AB, Surface of Lake Agassiz at the Herman stage; EFB, delta profile; CD, level of water at Campbell stage; EDF, part of delta cut away by the waves, leaving the steep westward front (DF). lake bed, and it is still settling and throwing up a-ridge of the soft material on each side. From the high fill the traveler can see something of the great extent of the valley—its level floor stretching mile after mile without the least eminence or depression to break its regularity—and some of the fine farms that have made it famous. Drilling for water has shown that originally the surface of the valley was uneven, much like the country on both sides. At a later date the valley was filled by a great glacier that came down from the north, grinding and scouring away many of the projections and filling the depressions with the waste material; and then as the last smoothing process the fine mud carried by the streams settled in the lake, giving the valley its present smooth surface. ‘In the original construction of the | the original grades at man Northern Pacific Railway the standard volving a 1 maximum grade adopted was 52 feet to the mile except on the mountain sec- was found necessary, for economy of | of these reductions of grade. except upon the mountain sections. tive. Man This c y similar examples of grade necessitated a reduction in . oe reduction will be observed along the line.» THE NORTHERN PACIFIC ROUTE. 35 The material laid down in the waters of Lake Agassiz is so soft and fine that it is washed away with great rapidity when it is exposed to the action of the elements. Ordinarily the surface Glyndon, vegetation protects it, but when this is removed dis- Pee astrous results follow. In 1895 a wagon road was St. Paul 242 miles, graded east of Red River and a short distance north of the railway near Glyndon for about 6 miles. The farmers at once began to drain their fields into the roadside ditch, which was deepened and widened so rapidly by the consequent erosion that in four years the road had been destroyed for nearly a mile and in its place there was a channel 80 feet wide and 25 feet deep. Dilworth is a division terminal of the railway, established to relieve the congestion of the yards at Fargo, where the terminal was formerly ocated. In the Red River valley may be seen some of the magical effects of the mirage that is so striking Se eatoeawt a feature of an arid or semiarid region. Warren Upham describes it as follows: Dilworth. The mirage, typical of plains country or the ocean, may be seen in the Red River valley almost any sunshiny day in spring, summer, or autumn, This queer phenome- non makes the high land at-the sides of the valley, the tops of the distant trees, and houses appear to be raised a little above the horizon, with a narrow strip of sky between. The more complex and astonishing effect of mirage may be seen from the highland on either side of the lake-bed floor. There, in looking across the valley from one and one-half to two hours after sunrise on a hot morning following a cool night, the groves and houses, villages, and grain elevators loom up to two or three times their true height and places ordinarily hidden by the curvature of the earth are brought into view. Oftentimes, too, these objects are seen double, being repeated in an inverted image close above their real positions and separated from it by a foglike belt. In its most perfect development the mirage shows the upper and topsy-turvy portion of the view quite as distinctly as the lower and true portion. These appearances are due to refraction and reflection from layers of air of different density, such as are often formed above a wide expanse of level country in warm weather. The last town in Minnesota through which the train passes is Moorhead, named in honor of William G. Moorhead, a former director of the railway company. Between this town and Moorhead, Minn. Fargo, N. Dak., runs Red River, the boundary line - sz feet. between the two States, a deep, sluggish stream that St. Paul 251 miles. | 18 generally heavily charged with mud derived from : soft materials deposited in the ancient lake. This mud gives to the water a brownish-red color. 36 GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES. North Dakota comprises an area of 70,837 square miles. It was admitted to the Union in 1889, and at the census of 1910 it had a population of 577,056. It is primarily an agricultural North Dakota. State, but from time to time, as conditions have changed, there has béen a corresponding change in its leading industries. At the time of the first permanent settlement the whole State consisted of one vast open range which furnished grazing in abundance for the herds of wild animals that roamed over it. The white man saw the natural fitness of the region for grazing, and soon cattle, horses, and sheep were feeding in place of the deer and buffalo. In the Red River valley farming early received a great stimulus from the officials of the Northern Pacific Railway, and before many years this valley, from its head to the Canadian line, was one vast sea of wheat. Farming was also carried on in other valleys to a minor extent, but for a long time the region west of Missouri River was considered suitable only for grazing, as the annual rainfall (16 inches) was thought to be too small for raising crops. The discovery in recent years that by proper methods of cultivation most of the moisture in the soil could be conserved and rendered available for agriculture has worked a wonderful change in the appearance of this country, for now almost all the land is under fence and the region west of Missouri River contains many fine farms and thriving towns. The principal crops are wheat, oats, and flax, and the raising of domestic animals is still an important industry. According to the census of 1910 the value of all farm products for the year 1909 was $205,000,000, of which $180,000,000 was produced directly from the crops and $14,000,000 from domestic animals. During the same year the value of manufactured products amounted to $19,000,000. North Dakota is well supplied with lignite. This is a low-grade fuel, but it is of very great value for domestic use on these treeless plains. Almost every section of land in the part of the State lying west of Missouri River is underlain by lignite, and it is estimated that the State contains 697 ,900,000,000 tons of this fuel. In 1913 Fargo is the most important town in the Red River valley and the largest in the State of North Dakota. It was named for William G. Fargo, of Wells, Fargo & Co.’s Express. Fargo is the Fargo,N.Dak. — seat of the North Dakota Agricultural College and crs “ne. Experiment Station and is noted as one of the great St. Paul 252 miles, farm-machinery markets in the United States. The climate of Fargo is about the same as that of the Red River valley as a whole. The winters are frequently severe, the mercury registering 40° below zero, and the summers are hot, ranging ees THE NORTHERN PACIFIC ROUTE, 37 from 90° to 105°. The mean annual precipitation is about 20 to 24 inches, compared with 28 inches at St. Paul and 15 or 16 inches in the western part of the State. The Red River valley, including that part which lies in Canada, was one of the first to be explored in this part of the country. Lake Winnipeg, at its mouth, in Canada, was part of the great highway by which the French voyageurs penetrated the country west of Lake Superior in the early days of the trapper and trader. The earliest authentic record of exploration is that of Verandrye, who made an unsuccessful attempt to cross the continent in 1738-1742. French traders doubtless followed in his footsteps, but they left few if any records of their experiences or of the country traversed. In the early years of the nineteenth century David Thompson and Alexander Henry, of the Northwest Fur Co., pushed their way up the Red River valley into what is now North Dakota and Minnesota; and in 1812 the Karl of Selkirk made the first settlement in the vicinity of Winni- peg. Many French traders probably found their way south into that part of the Red River valley lying in North Dakota, for Lewis and Clark mention their presence on the Missouri as early as 1804. Not much is known of the rocks underlying the Red River valley, for they are effectually concealed by the glacial drift and by the sediment deposited in Lake Agassiz, but their presence here and there has been revealed by deep drilling. The deepest well which was sunk near Moorhead penetrated lake sediment and glacial drift to a depth of 220 feet, Cretaceous shale with some sandstone for 150 feet, and the underlying granite to a depth of more than 1,500 feet. This region is therefore near the eastern edge of the great mass of Cre- taceous strata which extends as an unbroken sheet to the Rocky Mountains and which can be seen at many places along the Northern Pacific Railway. The sea in which these materials were laid down must at some stage of its existence have extended farther east than the Red River valley, for a few exposures of these rocks have been found in the valley of the Mississippi. (See route map, sheet 2, p. 26.) A few years ago a traveler crossing the old lake bottom just before the wheat harvest would have seen mile after mile of grain, which on a clear breezy day would have looked much like the waves rolling across the water, and he could almost have imagined Lake Agassiz to be still in existence. In recent years the crops in this region have become more diversified and now instead of the unbroken stand of wheat that stretched to the horizon line, the traveler sees interspersed with the wheat other grains and flax, and only here and there is the wheat grown in large areas. The rich black soil extends in almost unbroken regularity across the valley and it is under a high state of cultivation, even to the very edge of the railroad track. Probably ere are few regions in the world in which the soil is more fertile than 38 GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES. that of the Red River valley. The silt where it is wet and compacted has much the character of clay, but it differs from clay in that it contains fine sand, powdered limestone, and carbonaceous matter, which make it less coherent. There are some tracts of very compact and heavy soil upon the level bottoms, ranging in area from a few square yards to a few square miles, that are known as ‘‘gumbo spots.’”’ On account of the imper- meable character of the clay, drainage is difficult and in places alkaline salts tend to accumulate. West of Maple River, which the railway crosses near the village of Mapleton, the land rises steadily westward, but the surface of the old lake bed is so smooth and the ascent so regular that it is scarcely perceptible to the eye. This is a region of great Mapleton, farms, and one of the largest and most noted of these Elevation 929 feet. 18 the Dalrymple farm, between Mapleton and Cassel- Soe ee, ton, which comprises 21,000 acres of cultivated land. As these big holdings were the pioneers in the Red River valley and led directly to its agricultural development, their history may prove to be interesting at this place. About 1870 the banking firm of Jay Cooke & Co. became the financial agent of the Northern Pacific Railroad Co. and advertised widely the great agricultural possibilities of the region to be traversed by the railway. Its glowing statements were attacked through the press and otherwise, and much skepticism was expressed as to whether or not the country was of any value for agriculture. In order to meet these criticisms, certain members of the Northern Pacific direc- torate determined that they themselves must furnish incontestable proof that the land could be farmed to advantage. T. H. Canfield purchased 5,500 acres at Lake Park, Minn.; Charlemagne Tower, 3,000 acres at Glyndon, Minn.; and Benjamin P. Cheney and George W. Cass, 6,000 acres at Casselton, N. Dak. These farms were at once put under expert cultivation, and the result of the experiment showed the Lake Park region and the Red River valley to contain some of the finest wheat lands in the world. The demonstration of this fact caused a large and steady immigration to this region in the years immediately following. The town of Casselton is situated in the heart of the great wheat belt and was named for George W. Cass, a former president of the Northern Pacific Co. In the vicinity of Casselton and Casselton. westward for some distance many flowing water wells Elevation 961 feet. have been drilled. These wells derive their supply from Population 1,553. St.Paul 272 mites, 'Wo sources—the glacial drift and the underlying Cre- taceous rocks. The water obtained from the glacial drift is of fairly good quality and can be obtained at depths ranging from 40 to 200 feet, but the amount of water varies considerably THE NORTHERN PACIFIC ROUTE. 39 and several of the wells have ceased to flow. The water from the Cretaceous rocks is slightly salty and not suited for irrigation, but can be used for domestic purposes. The depth of the producing wells ranges from 250 to 500 feet, and the flow of water is more con- stant than that from the glacial drift. The water-bearing rock is supposed to be the Dakota sandstone, which belongs at the base of the Upper Cretaceous. The water is supposed to enter the Dakota sandstone in Wyoming, where the sandstone is upturned against the Rocky Mountains, or in the region of the Black Hills. It follows the sandstone bed beneath the Great Plains and appears where the sand- stone rises and approaches the surface in eastern North Dakota. The village of Wheatland, appropriately named, is situated at the place where the railway crosses the lowest prominent beach of Lake Agassiz, the houses in the eastern part of the village Wheatland. and a cemetery north of the track being situated on glamor font. the beach ridge. When the surface of the lake stood St. Paul 278 miles, 2b this level the water was 90 feet deep at Fargo, in the center of the valley, and it remained at this height long enough for the waves to heap up a distinct ridge of sand and fin- seavelk: This is known as the Campbell beach, from the town of that name in Wilkin County, Minn., through wltick: it extends. West of Wheatland there are, here and there, traces of similar beaches, showing that Lake Agassiz stood at different levels above Herman Beach FiqurE 5.—Section of Herman beach ridge west of Magnolia, N. Dak., showing the oe of the sand and gravel beds composing the beach to the surface of octal Lake Aga that of the Campbell stage, but at none of them long ak to form a decided and well-marked beach, except at the highest of the series. This is known as the Herman beach. It can easily be seen from the train just 5 miles west of the Campbell beach, or three-fourths of a mile west of Magnolia. (See fig. 5.) This beach ridge is even better developed than the Campbell beach and is marked by an old gravel pit on the right (north) of the track. The ridge is 15 feet high and about 150 feet wide ontop. In the pit the beds of gravel dip about 20° to the west, or away from the open water of the lake, showing that the waves carried the sand and gravel over the top and deposited them on the back slope of the ridge. When Lake Agassiz stood at this level the water at Fargo was about 175 feet deep, but it rose no higher, because at that stage it found an outlet to the Mississippi through the valley of Minnesota River. From the Herman beach a comprehensive view can be had of the broad expanse of the Red River valley. Above the level of the beach 40 GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES. the old surface of till and outwash gravel is in its original condition, not having been smoothed and covered by a coating of mud, as was that of the submerged area. West of the Herman beach the railway crosses a low, broad ridge by a deep cut in glacial tiil and sand. This cut is 4 Buffalo. Elevation 1,226 feet. Pop ion 241. St. Paul 288 miles. miles long, extending as far as the village of Buffalo, and it affords excellent exposures of the materials transported by the ice. Theow ridge through which the cut is made is a faint moraine, marking the posi- tion of the front of the glacier! that occupied the valley of Red River before it became a lake, as described on page 32. 1 The glacial features of North Dakota are the result of the invasion of the ice sheet that originated west of Hudson Bay. At the time of its greatest expansion this glacier _ all of North and South t of Missouri River with ice Bae pls and AS Se thou- ds of feet in thickn A study of the materials beak down from the north shows that glaciation was not confined to a single stage of growth and decadence of the ice sheets, but that there were several advances and retreats, _ and that the amount of movement ac- complished in the various stages differed greatly. These fluctuations appear to - have been due to the fact that at times the climate was favorable for the devel- opment and advance of the ice, and that at other times it was milder and the ice wasted away until large tracts previously covered were again in condition for the return of and vegetable life. During the warmer epochs soils were de- veloped, and the glacial materials spread over the land were sculptured by newly drainage systems. The re- turn of colder weather and the advance of the ice over most of the area previously glaciated destroyed many of the new surface features and buried the whole under a new deposit of drift. The extent of the several ice sheets which in Dakotas during the Wisconsin gs of glaciation is shown on pes at mapon sheet 5 (p. ee North- ice that saci m the direction of pf ectaa Sirsooking 4 southwestward and southward around the west end of this ice mass came another great glacier from the region west of Hudson Bay, which divided at the head of the Coteau des es (for meaning of the word “‘ coteau’’ see p. 45), or just south of the South Dakota line, into two great lobes, one of which, known as the Minnesota Glacier, passed southward up the broad valley of Red River and across Minnesota into Iowa as far as the present city of Des Moines, and the other, known as the Dakota Glacier, mey ed down the James River valley t read- ° ing westward upon the flanks of ae Co- teau du Missouri. The farthest extent of these lobes is marked by a well- oe bale ridge, called the Altamont nior I tamont moraine is Manos by the Northern Pacific Railway between Sterling and Driscoll and from this point recedes far to the east, crossing the line between North and South Dakota about miles east of Missouri River. In South gg its outline is somewhat showing that small lobes of ice a bad: ee here and there far beyond the principal mass. In general, however, the on the east, and it is probable that the front of the ice and its accompanying moraine were largely instrumental in de- termining the course of that stream. The Dakota lobe of the glacier filled all the coun i the map, nearly to the North Dakota line. The marginal deposit indicating the first halt in the glacial wasting and re- treat is the Gary moraine, which is BULLETIN 611 SHEET No. 4 ATES A POND li ME OES ATE A CRNA LEP RELI REO ET TITLE Se ET POT A | | Es pee oT ‘MINNESOTA - NORTH DAKOTA 1 Approximately 8 miles to | inch 9 . |: fk 8 ee ee eee Be Patt 10 'S 20 = 2S 30Kilometers* Contour interval 200 feet ELEVATIONS IN FEET ABOVE MEAN SEA LEVEL The i. ti St. Paul, Minnesota. A 10 The crossties on the railroads are spaged ! mile apart '*7O HUDSON BAY Pa te ney Prosper é : 0° igs \o g AD ea Bie : L, Wy ” < yy) $ S v es on, S 3 , 3 GLACIAL LAKE AGASSIZ ‘ THE TIME or ITs "GREATEST EXPANSION PAlice, ee Addison 16 THE LAKE. CAUSED B sy BLOCKADE ON THE NORT! seer WAS 700 MILES LONG MORE THAN 200 MILES BRO - Williams mA we vet On be) » oe ge s leek | oy 97's0 : ae : 96'30' ENGRAVED AND PRINTED BY THE 2:.S-GEOLOGICAL sufWE THE NORTHERN PACIFIC ROUTER. 41 Just beyond Buffalo the traveler can obtain on the left the first extended view across the prairies and lowlands of the valley of Sheyenne River. This broad stretch of country is well farmed, and the fields of grain are a sure indication of its prosperity. Near Tower City (see sheet 5, p. 44) the railway is located in a broad flat that is only imperfectly drained by the headwaters of Maple River, as described on page 43; and then Tower City. Elevation 1,194 feet. Population 452. St. Paul 294 miles. begins the long, steady ascent to the summit of Alta Ridge, which can be seen in the distance from Oriska. This ridge, one of the most pronounced topographic features that will be seen between the Red River valley and Missouri River, is capped by drift which represents the crossed by the Northern Pacific Railway just west of Crystal Springs. It lies upon the Coteau du Missouri and is closely as- sociated with the Altamont moraine, the high coteau front serving as a wall or dam which held back the ice in its forward movement. The great amount of material in these outer moraines and the large size of the hills indicate that the edge of the great ice sheet probably remained against the coteau for a considerable time. South of the Northern Pacific Railway the Gary pias raed ica with the Alta- mont e some places they cine but in ‘ers they are nearly The glacier at the time the 08 moraine was built extended as far south as it did during the greatest ex- tension, but the lobe was narrower, aver- not more than 80 miles in width, and the point of division between this lobe and the Minnesota ~ had receded to the North Dakota The next stage in i recession of the ice front is not marked by a single large and well-defined moraine, but by a belt ridges indicates that the ice front fluctu- ated back and forth across the belt. The ridges of the Antelope moraine are crossed by the Northern Pacific line between S. Dak., but the point of division ieee. a the two great lobes had not changed its position appreciably from that which it occupied in the Gary substage. The Antelope moraine is here regarded as in- cluding the Kiester moraine, which has been recognized only for a few miles south of the Northern Pacific Railway and east of James River. next important moraine, which has been called the Waconia, is crossed by the railway between Eckelson and Fox lakes and forms the divide between Hud- the formation of the Gary morain glacier at this stage of the retreat extended only a few miles across the State line into South Dakota, and its lobe, which at one time extended to the mouth of James iv as so reduce e scarcely iécupnisable and Seleed the next halt had disappeared. o more halts in the recession of the western margin of the ice are recorded along the Northern Pacific line, but these were doubtless of slight duration and did not produce separate moraines south of the railway. The moraine marking the earlier of these halts is supposed to be the same as a moraine at Fergus Falls, Minn., and therefore is called by that name. It is well developed in Alta Ridge, 6 miles east of Valley City. The second moraine is the low ridge east of Buffalo. When the southern part of Red River valley became flooded with water, and Lak Agassiz was formed. 42° GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES. Fergus Falls moraine. Its summit, which is crossed by the railway near milepost 59, attains an altitude of 1,454 feet, or 528 feet higher than Fargo on the east and 209 feet higher than Valley City on the west. On the west there is a sharp descent from Alta Ridge down to a broad plain formed by the outwash of material from the glacier when it lay just east of the ridge. It is supposed that at the time the moraine was formed Sheyenne River was flowing at the same level as this plain and that the present valley of that stream had not been cut. West of Alta Ridge the old line of the railway turned slightly to the south and descended into the valley of Sheyenne River, crossing the stream but little above the general level of the valley bottom. Recently a new “high line” has been carried across the valley on a steel trestle 150 feet high. From this trestle a fine view of Valley City and the river can be had. (See Pl. III, p. 11.) Here the rock underlying the glacial drift is exposed, and it is the first exposure of this kind that can be seen from the train west of the Mississippi Valley. Soft dark shale may be seen in either bluff from the ‘‘high line’’ or in the sides of the coulee? as the train descends by the “low line” to the bottom of the valley. This shale contains fossil shells, which are similar to those of animals living in the ocean of to-day; hence it is believed that it was deposited when this part of the country was beneath the waters of a sea. At Valley City the Northern Pacific is crossed by the branch of the Soo Line that connects Moose Jaw, on the main line of the Cana- dian Pacific Railway, with St. Paul. 1 This is the altitude at the old station, which is near river level. tion is about 150 feet higher. ? The term ‘‘coulee’’ is generally applied throughout the northern tier of States to any steep-sided gulch or water channel and at times eyen to a stream valley of considerable length. The term was doubtless derived from the French verb couler, signifying to flow. This meaning | the silt covered up the sand; the sand of “ coulee”’ should not be confused with | was cemented together as sandstone and the geologic meaning of the word, which signifies a solidified stream or sheet of lava. ’ During the later half of the Creta- Valley City. Elevation 1,245 feet.1 Population 4,606. St. Paul 310 miles. this area was due to the relative sinking of the land. As the land sank the waters advanced, and the waves and currents washed and sorted the sediments brought down by the streams. The coarser sand mingling and interbedding of sand and silt, so that numerous beds of sandstone ceous period the sea covered what is now the region of the Great Plains and the Rocky Mountains as far west as the Wasatch Range in Utah and extended from the Gulf of Mexico to the Arctic Ocean. The incursion of the sea over and of sandy shale are now encountered in drilling into the ancient deposits. The long duration of the period in which these beds were laid down is indicated by the great thickness of fine sediment which then accumulated. THE NORTHERN PACIFIC ROUTE. 43 West of Valley City the surface is more or less irregular and hum- mocky, but no definite moraine has been recognized along the line of the railway. In this part of North Dakota many of the glacial features are not clear and distinct. It is supposed that this is due to the fact that the older ice sheets had left pronounced features that were only slightly modified by the Wisconsin glacier, and the result to-day is that one system of moraines is superimposed on others hav- ing different patterns, the features being therefore very much confused. n the vicinity of Sanborn there are a number of lakes which can be seen from the train, but they are not so attractive as the lakes of Minnesota, for they are shallow and highly charged with alkali, which in seasons of drought is deposited around their margins as a white powder. This powder is composed largely of such substances as baking soda, washing soda, and other materials having similar properties. The water of these lakes is unsuitable for drinking but is not too strongly alkaline to be used for watering stock. The lakes are generally long and narrow, occupying depressions that resemble stream valleys, but the mode of formation of these depres- sions has not been determined. At Sanborn a branch line turns to the right, leading northward to Cooperstown and McHenry. The Waconia moraine, crossed by the Northern Sanborn. Elevation 1,468 feet. Population 390. St. Paul 320 miles. Eckelson. Elevation 1,487 feet. Population 327,.* St. Paul 326 miles. Pacific Railway west of Eckelson (see p- 41), consti- tutes the divide between the Hudson Bay and Missis- sippi River drainage basins.! ‘This divide iltustrates the poorly drained character of the glaciated prai- ries and the delicate balance between the drainage systems. Although Shey- enne and James rivers, the two principal streams of this region, flow in nearly par- allel courses for 180 miles, and the relief of the land between them is generally not more than 20 feet, yet the Sheyenne ultimately discharges into Hudson Bay and the James into the Gulf of Mexico. These rivers are very small in proportion to the valleys in which they flow, there being barely sufficient water to maintain them as running streams during the sum- mer season. embraces approximately 10,000 square the volume of water it dis- tion as the stream meanders sluggishly over the broad, flat bottom of its valley. Several broad and deep coulees enter the valley of the Sheyenne from the n times of heavy rain; and the only land that is really drained is that com- prised in short, deep gorges which broad- en out rapidly toward the Sheyenne as they deploy upon its flood plain. The drainage basin of James River is was abandoned because there was not, for a part of the year, sufficient current to turn a water meter. i In periods of heavy rains and melting shows a system of ancient channels is occupied by Maple River and its tribu- 44 GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES. Between the Waconia moraine and Spiritwood there are no marked features. From Spiritwood westward for a distance of 48 miles no distinctly morainic ridges are visible from the train, but it is believed that the various ridges constituting the Antelope moraine are present in this region, for they have been identified in the country north and south of the railway. Jamestown is a district terminal, and here a branch turns to the right to Pingree and Devils Lake, and another to the left down the valley of James River to La Moure and Oakes. The country is so thoroughly covered with glacial drift that the underlying rocks are not visible along the railway, but deep drilling for water showed that in general on the upland the drift is merely sufficient to conceal the rocks below, and in some of the larger stream valleys it is more than 100 feet deep. This indicates that the valleys of such streams as James River were in existence before the glacial epoch, that during the occupation of this region by the ice they were deeply filled with glacial material, and that since then the streams have succeeded only in partly clearing them of this material. A deep well at the North Dakota Insane Hospital, in the southern part of Jamestown, passed through 118 feet of glacial drift, 1,330 feet of Cretaceous shale, and about 200 feet of sandstone that is supposed to be the Dakota sandstone, at the base of the Upper Cretaceous. The top of this sandstone is about at sea level, and rises eastward at the rate of about 84 feet to the mile. The chief occupation in the country around Jamestown is agricul- ture, the crops being wheat, oats, flax, barley, and vegetables. West of Jamestown the railway follows the valley of Pipestem Creek as far as milepost 94.1. At this point the main valley followed by the branch road leading to Pingree and Devils Lake comes in from the north, but the main railway line keeps directly ahead up a small ravine and reaches the upland near Berner, about 2 miles farther on. In this ravine there are many cuts, which afford excellent opportuni- ties to study the composition of the drift or till, beneath which in some of the cuts a few feet of Cretaceous shale may be seen. In this vicinity the railway is supposed to cross parts of the Antelope moraine, but nothing resembling a definite ridge is in sight. Spiritwood. Elevation 1,500 feet. Population 264.* St. Paul 333 miles. Jamestown. Elevation 1,429 feet. Population 4,358 St. Paul 344 miles. ?The mileposts about Jamestown are Evidently about 7 miles has been dropped nfusi py See DS Pie +h as 1 train enters the yards, nearly a mile east of the depot, is 99, and the one mentioned above, where the branch leaves the main line and turns up Pipestem Creek, is 94. out of the count, but the figures given for each town in the side notes in this bulle- tin represent the distances from St. Paul that are given in the Northern Pacific Railway folder for 1915. MORAINES FORMED BY THE ICE SHEET THAT CROSSED NORTH DAKOTA IN WISCONSIN TIME BULLETIN 611 SHEET No. 5 "98°30" ei Se vias 1 Scale 500,000 Approximately 8 miles to | inch 10 he 30Kilometers The di. Sb SS A SEL, 3 eS ae Contour interval 200 feet ELEVATIONS IN FEET ABOVE ME es fi St. Paul, Minnesota. he The crossties on the railroads are spaced | mile apart NORTH DAKOTA 47) % i © Bs + $ ° oe ow is * | Sse oS 9 |. Senbor Past ro og + Ap ates oe ag |t 5 SSS SS pipes a 5 Me 52 ais 230 een Ree ‘°o 33 eS Werte ‘ Com ‘QP gS o 1 aaa 2 - C e \ S. Silanti pase 2 Fingal ae .\ - a x° 9 oe wo e G ? © ee 98°30° 98° OAR i aS ENGRAVED AND PRINTED BY THE U.S.cEQLOGIGL SURVEY THE NORTHERN PACIFIC ROUTE. 45 A few miles west of Eldridge (see sheet 6, p. 46) is the eastern front of a low plateau known as the Coteau du Missouri,! which is mentioned in all the accounts of early explorations in this part Eldridge. of the country. Doubtless in passing across the Elevation 1,563 feet. Country on foot or with a wagon train the Coteau StPaul scl eas, loomed up as a formidable obstacle, but the railway _ traveler of to-day, unless his attention is particularly directed to it, would probably cross it without realizing that it is a prominent topographic feature. At milepost 103 the train begins the ascent of the east front of the Coteau, and it reaches the summit just east of Windsor. A compari- son of altitudes shows that this summit is almost ex- Windsor. actly 300 feet above Eldridge and 435 feet above Elevation 1,864 feet. Jamestown. In a mountainous region a ridge 300 St Paulawanies, feet high is hardly worth considering, but in eastern North Dakota a plateau of this height is of the first magnitude. The commanding position of the Coteau can better be appreciated by a view eastward from milepost 108, at the east end of the deep summit cut. This view commands a wide expanse of undu- lating plain, which is backed in the distance by the low swell of Alta Ridge, east of Valley City. As shown on the sketch map on sheet 5 (p. 44), a small moraine marks the face of the Coteau north of the railroad. It is probable that this is represented by the deep till in the summit cut east of Windsor, but the features visible from the train are not strikingly morainic in character. The glacial features along the line of the railway are not well marked, but from Cleveland nearly to Medina there are many Cleveland. indications, in the form of hummocks and undrained basins, of the morainic character of the topography. Beyond this belt the country is gently rolling. scarcity of ranch houses is an indication that this Elevation 1,874 feet. Medina. is what was formerly called the ‘‘short-grass coun- Elevation 1,816 feet. try,” but now, in the days of successful dry farming, 1 laf ‘ - iy Na “Fort Union § formation B 3 v De. S R - Ve " . © aie: é \. Se) j 34) A New Salem < & 222135 ee 3 wt SPAMS Hn SY ele { , Py FN : é en a Vy ly \ } } es ead AREY 0 Si “a = “iat 3 | — 5 qt - (i eee CARES A > ) \ Blue Grass A sie BSS) a ~~ Ee £4.206/ / USS ae ¥v 8 } \ Jf Fort Unidn formation B [(Y = \ Q Pn ae L } \ a \ 1 i. ~ Scale 500,000 } Approximately 8 miles to | inch i im. ‘rer \ Fk de oe are e. bho ees \ 20Miles VAL ce \ ia wet - NN "ited A ° . a — LBs 30kitometers CAVE Aa Contour interval 200 fee wi ELEVATIONS IN FEET AN nde LEVEL Th from St. Paul, Minnesota h ue" The crossties on the ra:iroads are spaced } mile apart a 30 ee 102°30 Oe" ¢ 1010’ cad SESSA THE NORTHERN PACIFIC ROUTE. 61 The railway rises steadily up the regular slope by Belfield to the divide between Knife River and Little Missouri River. The valley of the Little Missouri is noted for its scenery, but it is Belfield. : of even greater interest on account of some of the preheat sabe a distinguished people who inhabited it in the days of e open range, when the ‘‘cow puncher” was in his glory. Col. Theodore Roosevelt resided for a number of years on a ranch in this valley about 20 miles south of the railway, and here he acquired that knowledge of and sympathy for the free life of the plains that has so endeared him to the western people. : Fryburg is situated on the summit between the drainage basins of Knife River and Little Missouri River. The descent to the Little Missouri is made through amaze of badland forms that Fryburg. stand out in striking contrast to the gentle rolling Flevation 2,790 feet. surface of the upland east of the divide. Little Mis- Population, 288*. s A : St. Paul 587 miles, Souri River has cut its valley about 500 feet deep, and all its tributaries have made similar sharp cuts in the upland, so that the main stream is bordered by a belt of rough coun. try from 10 to 15 miles in width. As the early French explorers and traders had difficulty in crossing these belts they called them ‘“‘mauvais terres 4 traverser” or bad lands to cross. From this has come the common appellation ‘‘badlands.” The change from the grassy upland east of Fryburg to the badlands of Pyramid Park on Sully Creek is very abrupt, and the traveler is likely to be bewildered by the seemingly endless Sully Springs. variety of form, arrangement, and color. There is ages gs an apparent lack of plan in the arrangement of the : ' forms, as if some giant hand had fashioned these mon- uments and then strewn them about without plan or purpose. Views of the badlands are shown in Plates VI-[IX. The natural color is a somber gray, but this is enlivened by bands and splotches of red where beds of lignite have burned. In some places, as at Scoria siding, the burning has been so intense that all the rocks are deep red and huge blocks of half-fused material are abundant. From the evidence on every side one might imagine that at some previous time this place had been an inferno rivaling that of Dante’s most vivid imagination, but it is probable that the burning took place so slowly that the gen- eral temperature was no greater than it is to-day. It is reported that one of the lignite beds is now on fire at no great distance from the track. If the traveler should come this way on a hot day in August he might well believe that he felt the added heat of the burning lignite, for there is no place hotter than badlands of this character on a hot day, but a cold day in winter would give him a different impression. 62 GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES. Ta the badlands many beds of lignite can be seen outcropping as black bands along the faces of the buttes and ‘‘temples,’’ and petrified stumps and logs are especially abundant about Sully Springs and near the lower end of the valley. (See PI. VI, A.) The reason why some of the stumps and logs are petrified is that when the trees fell they were covered by mud before they could decay and for ages were soaked with water charged with silica. This silica replaced the vegetable tissues, preserving even the most minute structures of the plants, so that it is possible to tell to what kind of tree the wood belonged. The petrified logs give a good idea of the size of the trees composing the forests of that day. The village of Medora is situated on Little Missouri River at the point where it is crossed by the Northern Pacific Railway. The river flows here in a deep, rugged canyon, which seems to be about the last place in which to establish a settle- ment. The village was founded in the early eighties by the Marquis De Mores, who named it after his wife. On an eminence on the west bank of the river he built a‘ ‘chateau,” which can be seen on the left (south) from the passing train. The marquis evidently expected that Medora would become a busy center, for he built a large packing house, the remains of which can be seen on the right. He left the country and met a tragic death a few years ago in the Far East. There are two prominent beds of lignite in the bluff at Medora, one 40 feet above river level and the other 30 feet higher. The upper bed is 4 feet 6 inches thick and the lower one 9 feet 4 inches, with 3 inches of clay near the bottom.! After crossing the river the road follows Andrews Creck and climbs to the upland in about 16 miles. For most of this distance the rocks of the Fort Union formation are well exposed, and near the river there are exposed the same thick beds of lignite that were seen at Medora. (See Pl. VII, B.) Medora. Elevation 2,290 feet. St. Paul 601 miles. * The log of a deep well at Medora, sunk by the railway company for water, records the occurrence of a lignite bed thick at a depth of 120 feet. Although beds of lignite from 8 to 9 feet thick are known farther up the river at nearly the same depth and may extend under the town, too much confidence should not be placed on the thickness given in the log of the Medora well, as drillers are not always careful to distinguish dark shale from lignite. As reported in this log, there is altogether 29 feet of lignite in beds 3 feet or more thick. The lignite here has been mined only for local use, but when improved methods for the utilization of this kind of fuel have been devised, the canyon of Little Mis- souri River will offer exceptional oppor- tunities for cheap mining on a large scale. U. § GEOLOGICAL SURVEY BULLETIN 611 PLATE VI Co a re, A, SILICIFIED STUMP IN PYRAMID PARK, N. DAK. A remnant of one of the big trees of the Fort Union forest, now a mass of stone resting on a pedestal cf soft clay. Photigresls by Haynes, St. Paul, Minn. Be THE “PROW: OF THE eden! ONE OF THE BUTTES OF PYRAMID PARK, N. DAK. over tne gr —. long after the main mass has Note the concretior hich weather ou and c been muon: pr sSovctnasor by aves St. Pau! U. § GEOLOGICAL SURVEY BULLETIN 611 PLATE VII A, VIEW OF THE BADLANDS OF NORTH DAKOTA. Away from the ip ghee berg the small side branches and headwater streams are just beginning to cut into the level upland. The wealth of geal in such natural sculpture is ts beyond description. B. A BED OF LIGNITE 15 FEET THICK IN THE CANYON OF LITTLE MISSOURI RIVER, N. DAK. Some of the beds are as much as 35 feet thick. U. & GEOLOGICAL SURVEY BULLETIN 611 PLATE VIII VIEWS OF THE BADLANDS OF NORTH DAKOTA. As shown in the upper view, fantastic shapes abound in every valley and ravine. support the slender columns and gargoyles may be seen Legs from beneath the ae <—- rainfall, of this regi ion, iy evety st ream has carved for itself a es for the large stream s for the tiny rivulets that trickle down he s| lope—as shown in the lower view. U. S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY BULLETIN 611 PLATE Ix VIEWS OF THE en OF owers and pinnac sandstone a NORTH DAKOTA AND MONTANA. f hills or buttes or of este material a THE NORTHERN PACIFIC ROUTE. 63 Near milepost 160 (Demores station) a flat-topped butte can be seen on the left (south) that stands far above most of the other surface features. This is known as Square Butte. An irreg- Sentinel Butte. ylar, two-crested butte, which is about as high as ras Square Butte and visible on the right (north), is called ; ‘Camels Hump. The most prominent and best known of the high knobs in this vicinity is Sentinel Butte, which has an altitude of 3,350 feet, or 620 feet above the town of the same name, and is the highest point of land in North Dakota. These buttes are composed mainly of the Fort Union formation, but they are capped by a thin bed of shale that is supposed to belong to the White River formation, of Oligocene age. The land about the base of Sentinel Butte was a few years ago only a sagebrush plain, but is now divided into farms that in appearance resemble those of the older farming regions farther east. Beach (see sheet 10, p. 68) is one of the towns that have recently grown up as a result of the successful farming of this Beach, N. Dak. ‘ : Tievasion 2.770 met. . 2O8108- West of Beach the railway crosses the State Population 1,003. line into Montana, a little west of milepost 176. The St, Paul 626 miles. hosition of the State line is indicated by a sign on the left of the track. - The State of Montana has an area of 146,572 square miles, or a little more than that of the States of New York, New Jersey, Delaware, Pennsylvania, and Ohio. It was admitted to the Montana. Union in 1889 and according to the census of 1910 had a population of 376,053. Montana has long been known as a metal-producing State, and many have thought of it as being entirely mountainous and as suited only for mining. As a matter of fact, the western half alone is mountainous; the eastern half, an area nearly as large as North Dakota, is in the Great Plains. Although placer gold was discovered in Montana in 1852, it was not until 10 or 12 years had elapsed that the ‘‘gold rush’’ began and the outside world was made acquainted with the wondrous wealth of its mountain gravel. Many persons starting for the new gold diggings stopped in the more promising valleys, such as the Gallatin and the Bitterroot, and farming began almost as soon as the panning of gold. The mining industry of the State has passed through a number of changes from placer mining to lode mining of gold and silver and, finally, of copper as the leading metal. Before the development of the great copper mines at Butte, Michigan was the leading State in the production of copper, but it soon gave place to Montana, which for a number of years stood at the head. Recently Arizona has forged to the front and Montana has dropped to second place in the rank of copper producers. Despite the fact that Montana ranks second in 64 GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES. the amount of copper produced annually, it still is first in the total amount produced. The total for the three leading States up to the close of 1913 is as follows: Montana, 3,214,775 tons; Michigan, 2,759,721 tons; Arizona, 2,324,719 tons. At first agriculture flourished only in the mountain valleys, where ~ there was protection from the frost and the wind, and the plains portion of the State was devoted to the grazing of stock. Immense herds of cattle roamed the plains, and for a number of years Montana held first place in the number of sheep and the value of the wool shipped out of the State. Irrigation was finally undertaken in many of the valleys, and large crops of wheat, oats, alfalfa, and sugar beets are now being raised. The most recent change has been the influx of the dry-land farmer and the taking up and fencing of most of the land in the eastern and central parts of the State. This has mate- rially decreased the number of live stock, and in the sheep industry Montana has dropped to second place, Wyoming taking the lead. Dry farming has not been universally successful, but sufficient has been accomplished to demonstrate that it is feasible when rightly carried on and with sufficient capital to enable the farmer to tide over years of drought and crop failure. The most important crop in the State is forage, amounting in 1909 to-over $12,000,000. Probably few persons realize that the value of manufactured articles in Montana exceeds that of the output of the mines, but such is the case. The smelting and refining of copper are the leading industries, but the value of the manufactured product is not given in the census reports. It is, however, roughly the same as the output of the mines. Aside from the manufacture of copper, the leading manufacturing industry is that of lumber and timber, which in 1909 amounted to over $6,000,000. The values of the products of the State, exclusive of the copper smelted and refined, are about as follows: Manufactur- ing (1909), $73,000,000; mining (1913), $69,000,000; agriculture, (1909), $63,000,000. The country continues to be rolling to the valley of Beaver Creek, a tributary of Little Missouri River, on which is situated the town of Wibaux (we’bo), in the midst of an excellent farming Wibaux, Mont. district. Four miles west of Wibaux the railway sence Si feet. crosses the summit between the drainage basin 0 : Little Missouri River on the east and that of Yellow- stone River on the west, and then begins a long de- scent down Glendive Creek to the Yellowstone. This valley was a famous hunting ground in early days, and the name Glendive was applied to it by Sir George Gore, an Irish nobleman, who hunted buffalo here in the winter of 1855-56. GEOLOGIC AND TOPOGRAPHIC MAP OF THE NORTHERN PACIFIC ROUTE From St. Paul, Minnesota, to Seattle, Washington — “gg scm from United States Geological Survey Atlas , from railroad alignments and profiles supplied by the Ne rthern Pacific Railway Company and from additional information collected with the assistance of this compan UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY GEORGE OTIS SMITH, DIRECTOR R. B. Marshall, Chief Geographer 1915 David White, Chief Geologist Each quadrangle shown on the map with a name in parenthesis in the lower left corner is mapped in detail on the U. S. G. S. Topographic Sheet of that name. BULLETIN 611 SHEET No. 9 ee a EA NORTH DAKOTA a 103 30° TO MISSOUA? Ave ‘-” PO ad EXPLANATION Thickness in feet A Shale (White River formation) 40 Oligocene B Sandstone and shale, with beds of lignite (Fort Union formation) 850 Eocene | Tertiary [> Green \_ PP, te : Sheer No. /O T ¢ ' A Santis / SDE some Oo Ze ay ie sHump fort union formation de etemine inne Fort . Urffan : forffiation 1 Scale 500,000 Approximately 8 miles to | inch ra ; sl ; Ste 2 Bey ee aisacine Gh es ZoMiles Fe SUI EGR, SEW, « hs Eo PAPO O TG ap strsstbpecie Contour papain Beha: feet ELEVATIONS IN FEET MEAN SEA LEVEL Paul. Minnesota. fy s re “a The crossties on the railroads are spaced | mile apart Fort. tS dae Saba ik _ 71 : ASr Be Sheet No.8 46 3 103° ENGRAVED AND PRINTED @Y THE LS GEOLOGICAL SUMVEY 103°a0' THE NORTHERN PACIFIC ROUTE. 65 The rocks, which to the eye appear to be horizontal, in reality rise steadily toward the southwest as part of a broad and gently curved arch in the strata, more fully described on page 68. The rise of the rocks in this direction brings to the surface those crossed in the badlands east of Medora and others that lie below the level of Little Missouri River at that place, but the country is so generally grass covered that the traveler can not see them all. At Hodges there is a bed of lignite which is supposed to mark the base of the Fort Union formation, and may be the same as the bed reported to be 23 feet thick under Medora. The rocks below this bed, which are scarcely distinguishable from the rocks above, belong to the Lance formation, in which the valley of Glendive Creek is cut from Hodges to Yellowstone River. In riost places the valley is bounded by bare walls of somber-colored rocks and subdued bad- lands, but they are neither so imposing nor so picturesque as those of Pyramid Park. The Lance formation carries some beds of lignite, but generally they are too thin to mine. Below Allard the Lance formation constitutes the valley walls as far as Yellowstone River. Along this part of the valley no two of the topographic forms are the same, but there is a simi- Allard. larity of type and color that soon becomes extremely i —— monotonous. There are, however, some well-defined terraces which in a measure tend to relieve the dull- ness of the landscape. The upper terrace probably records an epoch when the stream was flowing at a higher level than it is to-day, these terraces being remnants of the old valley floor. The lower terraces, which are well developed near the river, may record flood stages of the Yellowstone, when slack water from the river backed up into all the tributary valleys and caused sand and mud to be deposited. At milepost 213 the train swings out from the mouth of Glendive Creek into the broad valley of the Yellowstone and in a few minutes reaches Glendive, the end of the division, the county Glendive, seat of Dawson County, and one of the largest towns Elevation 2,091 feet. in eastern Montana. In building the main line of the St Paul soy niks, Northern Pacific Railway in 1879-80 this was the most important town between Missouri River and Helena, for it was the point from which construction was carried on in both directions. This was made possible by the transportation of supplies from Bismarck by way of Missouri and Yellowstone rivers. When through travel was established, however, Glendive lost most of its importance, and for a long time its growth was slow, as the ‘country roundabout was but sparsely settled and its principal busi- ness was that of a division terminal of the railroad. Recently, with the impetus given to agriculture by the introduction of dry-farming 95558°—Bull. 611—15——_5 66 GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES. methods and with the completion of the Lower Yellowstone irriga- tion project by the United States Reclamation Service,’ settlers have flocked in, and the country which 10 years ago was an open range is now almost all cut up into small farms. This change has removed from this region one of the picturesque types of western life—the “‘cow-puncher” of the early days. The traveler may still see a few poor imitations or caricatures, but the real article—the fearless, dare- devil rider who was an equally fearless ‘booze fighter” when he came to town—is no more. The big herds are gone, and with them the men who tended them. At Glendive the railway route again touches the trail of Lewis and Clark, for in their homeward journey Capt. Clark with a small party descended Yellowstone River.2. As nearly as can be determined, they passed the site of Glendive on August 1, 1806. South of Glendive there can be seen on the left (east) badland bluffs and on the right the muddy river, which, ashort distance above the town, is crossed by the new branch railway leading to Intake and other towns established under the Lower Yellowstone irrigation project. Still farther south the railway passes through deep cuts in massive white sandstone and skirts a prominent pinnacle of the same rock, ‘In the Yellowstone Valley in eastern | from 30° below to 100° above zero. The Montana, tributary to the Northern Pa- cific and Great Northern railways, the Government has built an irrigation sys- tem to cover a strip of land 70 miles long lying on both sides of the river and ex- tending over the boundary line into North Dakota. The irrigable area con- sists of about 60,000 acres of land lying in the midst of one of the best and largest grazing areas in the United States, The soil is a deep sandy loam and when properly cultivated produces abundant crops of hay and grain. -Alfalfa, the great forage crop of the West, grows to perfec- tion here, and dairying and the winter feeding and fattening of stock are profit- able industries. The towns of Intake, Burns, Savage, Crane, and Sidney are located at short in- tervals through the middle of the area covered by the project. easy terms and at reasonable prices. The cost of water right is $45 an acre, payable The general elevation is 1,900 feet above sea level, and the temperature ranges locations in the Northwest. ? The name Yellowstone was doubtless given to the river because of some outcrop of yellow rocks along its banks; but where do such rocks occur? The traveler in passing up the valley sees no distinctly yellow rocks between Glendive and Liv- ingston, and if he goes to Yellowstone Park he will see none as far as Gardiner, the northern entrance to the park. With- in the park the conditions are different. dominating tint is yellow. Here is the only place on the river where the rocks are so distinctly yellow as to have suggested a name for the stream, and the conclusion seems inevitable that here the name originated. the evidence available seems to indicate that the name did not originate with the English explorers, it must have been given by some early French traveler | THE NORTHERN PACIFIC ROUTE. 67 known as Eagle Butte. This white sandstone with a buff layer at the bottom is known to geologists by the local name of Colgate sand- stone. The lower part contains in places casts of sea weeds and marine shells, so that it is believed to represent the sandy shore of an ancient sea. It is supposed to be in part equivalent to the Fox Hills sandstone of South Dakota. The rocks overlying the Colgate sand- stone in this region are all of fresh-water origin. At Eagle Butte the sandstone appears to be nearly horizontal, but it rises gently toward the southwest and near milepost 7 it is high in the hills, and the shale below it appears at railroad level. The hill near milepost 7, known as Iron Bluff, is noted for the beauty and abundance of the fossil shells that occur in limestone concretions‘ in the dark shale. The shells are so perfectly preserved that they retain their pearly luster. From the kinds of shells occurring in the shale and from its character it is known to be the same as the dark shale that is poorly exposed in the river bluffs at Valley City, N. Dak. It is called the Pierre shale and is of Upper Cretaceous age. The fossil shells show clearly that the sea must have occupied this part of the country when the shale was deposited. At that time, instead of rolling prairies across North Dakota and eastern Montana, there were rolling waves and abundant marine life. or by the Indians who inhabited the region. The only Frenchman who is thought to have seen the upper part of the Yellowstone Valley before the time of = and Clark was Verandrye, son be- tween the years 1738 and ae penetrated ty wilderness far to the west of Lake Wi Sees and who BE for a long ng the mountains in an ineffec- tual a to reach the Pacific slope. It is said that he reached the headwaters of the Missouri and even penetrated as far south as the central part of Wyoming, where he was so beset by hostile Indians that he was forced to return to the east. None of the points described by Veran- | i drye have been recognized, so the iden- tity of the country which he traversed will ys some of po wonderful geysers and hot people to apply the name. !The term concretion is applied to rounded bodies of rock that are somewhat harder and more resistant than the main mass of the formation in which they are contained and for that reason remain on the surface after the rest of the formation has decayed. In many places they are nearly spherical, but as a rule they are irregular in outline, either elongated in a mass resembling the trunk of a tree or flattened like a disk. The material composing concretions differs greatly; in sandstone or sandy shale it is generally sand, or sand contain- The concretions of Iron Bluff are eoeee interesting because they are made up almost exclusively of fossil shells. It seems probable that the shells grew in colonies and thus provided the lime of might inspire another Holmes to write a poem on the chambered nautilus of the ancient sea. 68 GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES. The Pierre shale continues to Cedar Creek, 11 miles beyond Glen- dive, where, if the traveler looks ahead on the left at milepost 11, he will see on the far side of the valley a large ridge in which the rocks dip as much as 20° in the direction in which he is going, the opposite direction from their dip between Glendive and Cedar Creek. In other words, the train has crossed a great arch or anticline in the rocks, the highest point of which is at Cedar Creek. The Glendive anticline is the most pronounced fold in eastern Montana. It extends from Yellowstone River in a straight line southeastward into the extreme northwest corner of South Dakota. It brings to the surface the Pierre shale on the center of the arch, and as this shale is softer than the rocks on either side, it gives rise to a belt of country having little relief. For this reason it was followed by the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railway from Marmarth, N. Dak., to Baker, Mont. The shale is everywhere rimmed about by the hard Colgate sandstone, and this in turn by the Lance and Fort Union forma- tions. The form of this fold is shown in figure 7, which represents — ----~ —— = cael as MATION _-— ~ fr UNION FORRO- re roRMATION Bes : ieee oe ene 2 Y the strata as they would appear if the observer were in an airplane hovering over the flat on the far side of the river and looking up the valley of Cedar Creek to the southeast. A short distance beyond the mouth of the creek the steep dips die out and the rocks are so nearly flat that they seem to be horizontal. At milepost 17, between Hoyt and Marsh, there is a large gravel pit on the left from which ballast has been hauled as far east as Richardton, N. Dak. This gravel, as well as that occurring at other places along the river, contains many moss agates which have been washed down from the mountains in the vicinity of Yellowstone Park, and many fine specimens have been picked up along the track. Just beyond the village of Fallon (see sheet 11, p. 72) the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railway enters the valley of Yellowstone River from Fallon Creek, and near milepost 36 it Fallon. crosses the Northern Pacific tracks by an overhead — feet. bridge. In this vicinity, as elsewhere in the Yellow- St. Paul 697 miles, Stone Valley, two plants characteristic of the semi- arid West are very abundant, the cottonwood tree (Populus) and the sage (Artemisia). The courses of the river and its tributaries can be followed across the prairies where the bluffs BULLETIN 611 SHEET No. 10 105° NORTH DAKOTA-MONTANA GEOLOGIC AND TOPOGRAPHIC MAP THE NORTHERN PACIFIC ROUTE From St. Paul, Minnesota, to Seattle, Washington Base compiled from United States Geological Survey Atlas Sheets, from reageik ad alignments re profiles supplied by the Northern Pacific Railway Company and from additional inforraation iw with the cama of this company UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY GEORGE OTIS SMITH, DIRECTOR David White, Chief Geologist B. Marshall, Chief Geographer 1915 rs h quad he on the map with a name in parenthesis in the wer left corner igs mapped in detail on the U. S. G. S. Topographic pens of that name. ~ 3 Sheet No.// Sheet No.9 mation Union formation B 1 EXPLANATION Scale , 500000 Thickness a cana 8 miles to } inch ou tae 2 ? UL A. MO, oe A Stream deposits (alluvium) Quaternary Here ars Aer ‘\ B Sandstone and shale, with beds of lignite (Fort oe. § LD Union formation) 1,200 Tertiary Contour geo 200 feet Sandstone and shale, oO be — of lignite ELEVATIONS IN FEET ABOVE MEAN Aoi LEVEL — mS Lance 500 The di 4) St Paul Minnesot: Wf formation). reer at its Tertiary () The crossties on the railroads are spaced | mile apart sandstone of Por Hills, Cretaceous, age 175 ; E Dark shale (Pierre) 2,500 Cretaceous ae ‘ ; | | | Os” 104° a0 104" THE NORTHERN PACIFIC ROUTE. 69 are low by the lines of cottonwood trees, and even in the lower part of the mountains these trees are generally found where there is running water. Sagebrush originally covered most of the bottom land of the valley, but it has been removed in many places to make room for valuable crops. Many people suppose that the growth of sagebrush is indicative of poor soil, but such is not the case, and a person familiar with the habits of the plant will always prefer a plot of land on which the sagebrush grows to large size. The village of Terry, named in honor of Gen. Alfred H. ad who commanded the expedition of 1876 in what is commonl as the Custer campaign, is served by both the tee Terry. ern Pacific and St. Paul roads. The light-colored ~ Soasrtinnges sandstones which give to the Fort Union formation soe its distinctive color are well developed between St. Paul 706. find Cedar Creek and Terry, but at Terry, in the lower part of the formation, there begins a change in color and composition that will become more evident as the traveler proceeds westward. . About 2 miles above Terry the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railway crosses Yellowstone River, and it remains on the far side nearly to Miles City. The big coal bed at the base of the Lebo shale may be observed on both sides of the valley as far as the mouth of Powder River and on the opposite side of the river for some dis- tance beyond that point. The rocks rise gradually upstream, and within a short distance the Lebo shale, which is only a little above river level at Terry, rises so high that it disappears from the adj acent bluffs and the underlying Lance forms all the hills that are in sight between Powder and Tongue rivers. In the vicinity of Miles City is Signal Butte, a high knob about 4 miles southwest of the railway, which can be seen from passing reduced to fine mud or sand. This band of dark material has been followed west- ward nearly to its source, which must have been somewhere in the vicinity of eginning a short distance down the | Yellowstone Park. In that region t — below ey: there appears just formation is much thicker than it is k shale which | farther east and the materials composing increases in thickness up. the river to 50 | i feet in the bluff opposite the town and to . 200 feet a mile or so farther west. The traveler, if he looks closely, can recognize more somber-colored belt. It is ' The large lignite bed on the west side of the river, which can readily be seen from the train near Terry, is regarded as the base of the Fort Union formation. 4 E 5 iH a S are coarser, as expected of material dropped near the shore. South or southwest of Livingston there were at one time great volcanic outbursts, and the material thus thrown out was swept away by the currents of made up of dark shale and sandstone, which, when examined under a micro- These particles have been washed and rolled over in water until all have been water and deposited in a layer that ex- tended for a great distance toward the east. This widespread sheet of volcanic sedimentary material is known as the Lebo shale member of the Fort Union formation. 70 GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES. trains. It is reported that in the early days, before the railway had been built into this region, officers from Fort Keogh (ke’o) used this butte for sending and receiving messages from the Black Hills, 175 miles distant. The signaling was done with a heliograph, an instru- ment for reflecting the sun’s rays in any desired direction and flash- ing messages in the Morse code. On account of this use the knob received its name. Miles City, at the mouth of Tongue River, was named in honor of Gen. Nelson A. Miles, an experienced Indian fighter, who had already established Fort Keogh on the river bottom Miles City. about 2 miles farther west. Miles City is said to be Elevation 2,377 feet. the greatest horse market in the West, and is also an Seeenttciesies, important wool-shipping point. In the early days the principal industry was the hunting of the buffalo or bison, and it is reported that as many as 250,000 hides were shipped from this place in one season. Such num- bers are almost inconceivable, but it is well known that the buffalo roamed the plains in great herds, and when the slaughter was carried on in wholesale fashion the number killed must have been very great. Capt. Clark and his party, in descending the Yel- lowstone in boats, were forced to wait near Glendive until a herd of buffalo numbering, by his estimate, 80,000 had crossed the river. Now all traces of the buffalo are gone from these plains except an occasional sun-bleached skull or a few weather-beaten roamed these plains. horns. (See fig. 8.) Some distance below Tongue River the St. Paul road crosses the Yellowstone, and Miles City has the advantage of two transconti- nental railways. West of Tongue River, on the right (north), is Fort Keogh, which was built by Gen. Miles in 1877 and named in honor of Capt. Myles W. Keogh, who perished in the Battle of the Little Bighorn the year before. For a long time this was probably the most important post in the Indian country, but now it is used only as a remount station, where horses are trained for cavalry service. The St. Paul road crosses to the north side of the Yellowstone again a short distance above Fort Keogh, and it remains on that side of the stream to Forsyth, where it turns northwestward and crosses the divide to Musselshell River. The Northern Pacific line continues on the south side, running in places along the wide, flat bottoms and in others on the river bank, where it is overhung by cliffs and steep slopes of sandstone, shale, and coal beds of the Lance 71 THE NORTHERN PACIFIC ROUTE. formation. Generally the coal beds are thin or variable in thickness; but in places they thicken, as between mileposts 92 and 93, where four beds are visible from the train. Two or three of these beds are thick enough to work and some day may be mined, although the coal is not of very high quality. It is much better, however, than the lignite of North Dakota or that around Glendive and is classed as subbituminous—a grade between lignite and ordinary bituminous coal. A similar change in the character of the coal or lignite can be found in almost all the fields of the Rocky Mountains and the Pacific coast. In every field the coal improves in quality toward the mountains, in places ranging from lignite to subbituminous coal or from sub- bituminous coal to anthracite within the limits of a single field. Such changes are doubtless due to greater stresses in the rocky crust of the earth in the mountains than in the plains, and as the coal is the weakest member of the rocks forming that crust it was most compressed and changed. The chief interest in the trip from Miles City to Rosebud lies in the fact that the railroad was constructed along the same route as that followed by Custer in his approach to the great battle that terminated his career." ' In the spring of 1876 the Sioux Indians | ter proceeded from the mouth of Tongue exhibited signs of unrest, and some of the | River (Miles City) June 19, supposing the more adventurous spirits among them de- | Indian force to be a small one which he serted their reservations and b could overcome in a single daring charge. assemble a force which the Government feared might at any time take the war- path and cause pillage and slaughter | along the frontier. Sitting Bull was the leader of the insurrection. Gen. Crook with 1,000 men at Fort Fetterman (near Douglas), on North Platte River, Wyo.; Gen. Terry with another 1,000 at Fort Abraham Lincoln, near Mandan, N. Dak.; and Gen. Gibbon with 450 men at Fort Ellis, near Bozeman, Mont., were ordered to force the Sioux back to their reserva- The command of Gen. Crook, the great- est Indian fighter of his time, was de- feated by the Indians in a battle on the headwaters of Rosebud River June 17, before he could effect a junction with the other parts of the expedition. He tried to notify Terry and Custer of his defeat and to warn them of the great number of Indians engaged in the campaign, but his scouts failed to reach them, and Cus- Custer had just returned from Washing- ton, where he had had difficulty with his superior officers, and, doubtless smarting under the charges made against him and the indignity of a threatened court-mar- tial, he was in the ea ERIE SI the chance of i te and brilliant victory. Maj. Bent; of be com- mand, had been on a scou into the Rosebud Valley, where fv found abundant indications peer ott mama Abavuywee the Little Bighorn On June 21 Chistes? 3 command camped 72 GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES. West of Fort Keogh the railway follows the river past the small villages of Hathaway and Joppa to Rosebud, at the mouth of Rose- bud River. (See sheet 12, p.78.) The scenery along this part of Yellowstone River is not particularly striking, but many interesting views may be obtained, especially if the trip is made late in the season, when the water is low, for at that time it is generally clear, whereas in June the stream, swollen by the melting snow in the mountains, becomes a muddy torrent. Streams in this condition may be interesting as vehicles for the wil ee of edeed ma- terial, but they are certainly not attractive. Where the river swings close against the rocky bluffs the traveler may obtain through the soft foliage of the willows and cottonwoods vistas of deep, quiet pools that reflect all the colors of the clouds and sky, or of tumbling rapids where accumulated bowlders — with the progress of the stream. These views have for a setti side bold and rugged cliffs and on the other the upland Geetchine away to the horizon in a monotonous expanse of dry and dusty plain. In other places the outlook is over the wide valley bottom, which irrigation has made an oasis in the desert of sagebrush hills and Rosebud. Elevation 2,501 feet. Population 370.* St. Paul 778 miles. broken cliffs. the north side of the Yellowstone to the mouth of Bighorn River, and there Terry and Gibbon were to meet them on the steamer Far West and ferry them across the river. Gibbon was im to: lead his com- Man p > J £. +1 pay, + +} made his attack on the east and aN 2 4b +1 + Rosebud but was away the next mornin on his march up that stream. After fol- lowing it for about 70 miles he found the great trail that the Indians had made across the ridge toward the Little Big- horn. He did. not wait fo give Gibbon of 8 River but pressed on until the Indians were actually sighted i in an per end of the camp and sweep down the valley, while he scouted along the hills on the east, apparently intending to at- tack the Sioux from that side simulta- neously with Reno’s charge and put them to flight. Reno failed in his effort to drive the Indians down the valley and early in the action took to the hills on the east, where after considerable fighting he managed to secure a position that he held throughout the engagement. The whole force of the Indians was then directed against Custer, and he, as well as his entire command, with the exception of an Indian guide, wereslain. Reno was besieged in thehills until he was rescued by the force under Gibbon, which arrived, however, too late to take an active part in the battle. When Gibbon’s troops arrived the In- dians left the valley and after some skirmishes with _ soldiers returned to their reservatio: The soldiers killed i in this battle num- bered 265. They are buried in a national cemetery on the spot. where they fell, with fitting monuments commemorating the bravery * their last fight against overwhelming numbers. GEOLOGIC AND TOPOGRAPHIC MAP OF THE NORTHERN PACIFIC ROUTE From St. Paul, Minnesota, to Seattle, Washington Base compiled from United States Geological Survey Atlas Sheets, from railroad — — profiles supplied by the Northern Pacific Railw ompany and from additional information collected with the Sabres eo this company UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY GEORGE OTIS SMITH, DIRECTOR David White, Chief Geologist R. B. Marshall, Chief Geographer 1915 Each map with a naine in parenthesis in the lower ‘left napnee is iodeteeceae in detail on the U. S. G. S. Fopographic Sheet of that na. BULLETIN 611 SHEET No. 1 46) 30 10600" Scale 500,00 Approximately 8 miles to 1 inch te ony gn Pg ae a ee en 190 5 10 is 20 25 30Kilometers i i gg PS ee as ae a Contour pears) 200 feet ELEVATIONS IN FEE VE MEAN SEA LEVEL The distances from St. Pau!. Minnesota. are sh ‘y 10 cv Th oe. a } i Ze) N or = + D | ¢ wll 5 EXPLANATION | Thickriess in feet A — deposits (alluvium) ternary d shale, with beds of lignite ee part of Fort Dune foreiation) 850 C. Dark shale with some sandstone and Tertiary of lignite (1 of Fort Union rondo 0 to 340 D Sandstone and shale, with thin beds : of lignite (Lance formation) 140.‘ Tertiary (7) 46" aed 18) ci ay! form ation MONTANA | Sheet No./O By “Union P] ‘Ort a 106 00’ 1 105'30° " SNGRAVED AND PRINTED BY THE U.S.GEGLOSICAL SURVEY 73 The Lance formation makes rugged bluffs along the river from Miles City to Forsyth. This formation extends across North Dakota, Montana, South Dakota, and Wyoming. The coal or lignite beds that characterize it in many places and the fossil leaves and branches that have been found almost everywhere in the sandstone and shale composing it show clearly that it was laid down in lakes and ponds. It is also certain that at the time it was deposited great forests flourished over much of the area of the States mentioned, where are now the treeless wastes of the Great Plains. The trees of that time were similar to those of the Fort Union epoch, as described on page 57. The formation of coal beds means that the land was flat and probably at low level. The plains country and much of that which is now mountainous was at that time low and swampy, supporting a luxuriant tangle of large trees, underbrush, vines, and water plants. The strange creatures that roamed through that ancient forest or THE NORTHERN PACIFIC ROUTE. swam in its shallow lakes are described below by Charles W. Gilmore, of the United States National Museum.! * Where vegetation grew as luxuriantly as in the swamps and lowlands of Lance time there must have been animals to tion is noted for the remains of great rep- tiles that it contains, and all the museums of the country have skeletons or models of these wonderful dinosaurs, as they are called. One of the best-known dinosaurs is called Triceratops (meaning literally three-horned face), so named because h had over each eye a m e horn di- rected forward and terminating in a long, sharp point and a third, but much smaller horn, on the nose, not unlike that of the modern rhinoceros. A mounted skeleton of Triceratops in the National Museum in Washington is about 20 feet long and stands 8 feet high at the hips. Some of skulls that have been found measure more than 8 feet, or nearly one-third of the length of the entire animal, includ- ing the tail. The great length of skull is due to the fact that the neck was pro- tected by a bony frill, which projected backward from the skull like a fireman’s helmet or like the large ruffs that were worn in een Elizabeth’s time. Al- though the brain of this dinosaur is large, it is, when the size of the skull is taken into consideration, relatively smaller than that of any other known land animal. That Triceratops was a fighter is shown by the finding of broken and healed bones. A pair of horns in the National Museum bear mute witness to such an encounter, for they had been broken and then rounded over and healed while the ani- mal was alive. In the earlier restorations or models of this animal, as shown in Plate X (p. 74), the skin was represented as being smooth and leathery, but in a specimen recently discovered the well-preserved skin shows that it was made up of a series of scales of various sizes. Triceratops, as indicated by the struc- _ture of his teeth, was manifestly a plant- shrubs. Hatcher, the most noted col- lector of Triceratops in the United States, 1 = +1 GULLY @bl ile LAC LeSe cil E og 7 animals lived as being made up of vast waters were not too deep, was covered by an abundant = 2 the huge dinosaurs as well as by croco- lil ae di - tir , alligators, turtles, 74 GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES. During Lance time the crossing of the continent must have been attended by dangers beside which those of the African wilds seem trivial indeed. The traveler may be glad that he is safely ensconced in a railway car instead of facing the terrible ferocity of some wan- dering dinosaur as big as a house. But the days of these monsters have passed away, and their former presence is recorded only in the skeletons which here and there are found embedded in the rocks. Just across the river from Forsyth a skeleton of Triceratops was found animals, fossil remains of which are now £ fem = Be BE 41 RT j 341 Pi av the end of the nose to the tip of the tail, was 30 feet, and as he walked erect on his huge three-toed hind feet, the tip of the head, which was nearly a yard long, was from 12 to 15 feet above the ground. The nose expanded into a broad duck-billed beak, which was covered with a horny lived in the water is shown by the webbed fingers of the fore foot and the long, deep, flattened tail, which was a most efficient organ and equall and covered with tubercles of two sizes, the larger ones predomi ting on sur exposed to the sun. One of the Sermon eealil. £ + Pes Mee ret + me i a most the set of teeth with which he was pro- vided. Inthat respect he was much bet- ter off than the human being, for as soon as a tooth was worn out or lost, it was re- placed by another pushed up from below. Each jaw had from 40 to 60 rows on each must have been more than 2 000 +. +} th of individual. There were also flesh-eating and conse- quently armored reptiles in Lance time. oS Aes The most highly specialized of the ar- mored reptiles was Anky was covered by a gre The head was short and blunt, and the eye Ankylosaurus doubtless had need of his armor, for there were many other flesh-eating dinosaurs that swarmed in the forests or swam in the sluggish waters. of these was upon his powerful hind legs, the knee joint of i 43 that the spectator stands before the huge head with jaws 4 feet long, filled with bris- tling rows of sharp-pointed teeth, several ie ae 2 4 +7 aos 1. f. 41 bs socket, and he can not help wondering what part such a creature played in the economy of nature and whether he was as important to his time and place as the animals that live ; U, & GEOLOGICAL SURVEY BULLETIN 611 PLATE x ee = * TRICERATOPS (THREE-HORNED FACE), WHICH IN LANCE TIME ROAMED THROUGH THE FORESTS OF MONTANA AND NORTH DAKOTA, THE GREAT From painting by C. R. Knight, made under the direction of J. B. Hatcher, BULLETIN 611 PLATE XI U. 8 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY A, BLUFFS OF LANCE FORMATION ON YELLOWSTONE RIVER WEST OF HYSHAM, MONT. B, FOSSIL PALM LEAF OF EOCENE AGE FOUND NEAR HYSHAM, MONT, The climate of Montana must have b t f t een warmer and more moist than it is to-day to h of palms and other subtropical plants. ? eee THE NORTHERN PACIFIC ROUTE. 75 several years ago, and bones of these animals may be seen occasionally in riding about the country. Forsyth, the county seat of Rosebud County, a district terminal of the Northern Pacific Railway, is one of the thriving towns in the Yellowstone Valley. It was named for Gen. J. W. Forsyth. Forsyth, one of the military pioneers of this coun- iter ga try. Opposite the town the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul 701 mites. St. Paul Railway, which has followed Yellowstone River from Terry, leaves the valley and goes in a northwesterly direction to the Musselshell Valley in the vicinity of the new towns of Musselshell and Roundup. Beyond Forsyth an anticline crosses the Yellowstone Valley, but it is not so distinct as the one above Glendive. The first indication that the traveler may observe of a change from the Lance formation, which is at railway level from Terry to Forsyth, is that after passing Armells Creek, just beyond milepost 130, the width of the valley suddenly increases and the bluffs lose their rugged character. These features indicate the presence of softer rocks, and while the formation containing them is not visible from the train a close examination of the bluffs would show that they are composed of dark shale—the same dark shale that the traveler saw at Cedar Creek, above Glendive. This shale normally underlies the Lance, and its presence near railway level here means that the rocks rise west of Forsyth and the next lower formation is brought to view. * The dark shale noted near Glendive supposed to represent the cut edges of the is called the Pierre shale, but the dark | formations as they lie in the ground. shale that makes its appearance near In the Black Hills, and so far as known Howard and is said to be the same as the | at Glendive, the Upper Cretaceous rocks Pierre, is called Bearpaw. ‘The change | begin with the Dakota sandstone at the to Billings, Mont. in the Cretaceous formations along an | base, resting upon the Lower Cretaceous. east-west line from the Black Hills to | Over this are two great shales (Benton Billings,- Mont., and the reason for the | and Pierre) and a limestone (Niobrara) introduction of new names for the fcrma- of marine origin, and capping all is the tions are explained by figure 9, which is | Lance, a fresh-water deposit. om 76 GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES. The high hills composed of Lance sandstones (see Pl. XI, A, p- 75), as shown on sheet 12 (p. 78), recede from the river until at Howard they are more than 2 miles from the railway, and Howard. Elevation 2,600 feet. Population 139.* shale. the low hills near by are made up of the Bearpaw The outcrop of the shale crosses the river and then swings far to the northeast around a dome- shaped structure in the rocks that brings this and lower formations up to the surface. The valley ‘increases in width until in the vicinity of Finch the Lance sandstones are so far back from the river that they are hidden Finch. Elevation 2,595 feet. 806 miles, bottom. St. Panl by the low hills of shale at the margin of the valley At milepost 141, a short distance east of Sanders, a massive gray sandstone rises from river level until it attains a height above the railway of about 30 feet. Beyond this point it descends toward the west and within a short distance disappears below railway level. The highest point on this sandstone marks the axis of a large irregular uplift which lies almost entirely north of the railway. This sandstone is known to be the extreme eastern point of the — Judith River, a coal-bearing formation (see fig. 9) that is exposed in many places in the central part of the State. In its best develop- . Ment it is a fresh-water deposit, but the sandstone near Sanders contaims marine sh ells, showing that the shore of the land upon which the fresh-water sediments of the central part of the State were laid down was near this place, and that to the east of that shore line sand was deposited in the waters of the sea. A deep well recently drilled for water at Vananda, on the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railway about 16 miles northwest of Forsyth , Started in this sand- Stone and struck the red shale of the Kootenai formation (sec fig. 9) at a depth of about 3,200 feet. The relatively flat land in the bottom of this valley, although © extensive Westward from the Black Hills the Niobrara fades out as a limestone, and at Billings it can not be identified and sepa- rated from the Benton. The entire mass of shale is called the Colorado, and this is equivalent to both the Benton and the Niobrara. The Dakota disappears west of upon the Kootenai (Lower Cretaceous). In the east the great marine deposit above the Niobrara is known as the Pierre shale. Toward the west this changes in ly only a sagebrush plain, was attractive to farmers, and an private irrigation project has been developed. Water is the river at Myers, between Hysham and Rancher, and character in its lower part, and three more or less sandy formations—the Eagle sand- stone and the Claggett and Judith River formations—have been recognized and The dark shale above the Judith descril U. & GEOLOGICAL SURVEY BULLETIN 611 PLATE xXil VIEWS IN THE SHEEP RANGE OF MONTANA. s shown in the upper view, the watchful herder k ee covered wagon shown in the lower view : hes ‘seg devels ope ed to meet the ean om of a eep herder. It is light in weight and commodious and in bad weather affords protection from the fierce pra which sweep over the Montana plains U. & GEOLOGICAL SURVEY BULLETIN 611 PLATE XiIll A, POMPEYS PILLAR, MONT., AS SEEN FROM THE NORTHERN PACIFIC RAILWAY, The inscription shown below is on the other side of the pillar, INSCRIPTION MADE BY CAPTAIN CLARK ON POMPEYS PILLAR JULY 25, 1806. Now protected by an iron grating. Photograph furnished by the Northern Pacific Railway. THE NORTHERN PACIFIC ROUTE, 77 carried by a gravity system down the valley for a distance of 30 miles. Part of this system has only recently been opened, so that all the land is not cultivated, but in the older parts fine crops are raised, West of the sandstone outcrop the valley floor is again aniooths, showing that the soft shale forms it as well as the low hills that appear far to the left (south). A little beyond Sanders. Sanders the railway crosses Sarpy Creek, one of the Elevation 2,618 feet. well-known places of the early days, for here was co eteeaties, located Fort Sarpy, an important trading post of the American Fur Co. and the headquarters of many of the hunters and trappers of the Northwest. The post was named for if not established by Col. Peter Sarpy, who was an agent of the fur company for 30 years after its organization. At Hysham the valley is very wide, the hills being at least 2 miles back from therailway. Bylooking ie Aare ahead on the left, after leaving this town, the traveler can see the rug- ged sandstone walls of the Lance formation coming in close to the track, and for several miles the road follows the river bank under a towering | cliff that rises to a height of 300 feet. The traveler is now in what was a few years ago the great open sheep range of Montana. Single ranches had flocks ranging from a few hundred to as many FicvRe 10.—Monument built by sheep as 40,000 sheep. These were not kept in ys a fenced inclosure as is done in the East but were herded in bands of a few hundred or a few thousand each. To each band was assigned one or two herders who with horses to draw a covered wagon and a faithful dog followed the sheep for months at a time without returning to the home ranch. (See Pl. XII.) Hour after hour, day after day, and week after week were spent in watching the sheep, with abso- lutely nothing to break the monotony of the rolling treeless plain except here and there low hills of barren rock. The herder would stand upon such eminences when the sheep were quietly feeding and no coyotes near to cause uneasiness and, to amuse himself, would ld monuments of the loose rocks (fig. 10). In the course of time monuments of this kind were erected on almost every hill and on all the commanding points of the river bluffs, end the traveler can doubtless see them from the passing train. El ? ‘ ic; Population 162.* St. Paul 818 miles, 78 GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES. The dry-land farmer has gradually encroached upon the open range, and before long large flocks feeding upon it will be seen no more. Conditions will become more and more like those in the East, and finally the sheep herder, like his enemy the cowboy, will pass out of existence and will live only on the canvas of some Remington or Russell. The next station is Bighorn, which is only a short distance east of Bighorn River. This is historic ground also, for it has been occupied almost continuously since it was first visited by Capt. Bighorn. Clark July 26,1806. In the year immediately follow- gine eens ing Clark’s visit Manuel Lisa, one of the restless, Sis ' adventurous spirits of the frontier, established a trading post here which afforded a rendezvous for many of the hunters of the region. In 1822 Col. William H. Ashley, president of the Rocky Mountain Fur Co., built a trading post 2 miles below the mouth of Bighorn River which he called Fort Van Buren. It was here also that Gen. Gibbon, in 1876, crossed the Yellowstone and proceeded overland with his detachment of 450 men to cooperate in the Battle of the Little Bighorn, which Custer had already lost. A little beyond Bighorn station the train crosses Bighorn River and, skirting the base of sandstone bluffs for a distancs of 3 miles, plunges into the blackness of the Bighorn tunnel, to Custer. emerge at the town of Custer. This town derived its 2 —— ‘S Ss An SC SYK ee a te ritte. osebud . EL. 250/ 00 C P ‘ ' Fs 2 oo é t 3 to A elects ee r ri B 4 of = ; ' ? a ' 1 K f = noe } B - \ © +: N if : H i 2 ee 4 \ uM i“ | aa Be ai ; 4 ee Hi I | si a 46 46 = t 46 : EXPLANATION . = 7 tm Say Thickness ? LE in feet 5 en = sar ce eee ee as A Stream deposits (alluvium) Quaternary ; $ i j . B Aa { } B Dark shale with some sands’ } t oi &! an and ap of lignite (Lebo tule = ; } a % 2) ‘ | j of Fort Union formation) 150 Tertiary j PS } = / ay eet ig SF C Sandstone and shale, with thin beds ; » (ee STs eee of coal (Lance formation)” 1,100 Tertiary (7?) i Q | 1 ‘e } at! ‘\ at v Vi : \ ee D Dark shale, marine deposit (Bearpaw) 900) f j ; — A 2 = t E White sandstone and shale, marine a Upper eg ‘a ; ey deposits (Judith River formation) 200f Cretaceous s Bad ports + bel | ive ei iy “el : oe F Shale and sandstone, marine deposits | R pa iN Whatcha SC (Claggett formation) 600 | d pats {\ —— ce \j te see / \\ Bae 3 1 R a NN i ey. Scale 500,000 Pe Dy Oi Approximately 8 miles to ! inch Ps = Se AS eae ee. ee / PEE Ss, i) 10 20 3 30Kilometers j yeh f 2 ers Contour —— fap feet Pa Dd = 2 MEAN SEA LEVEL ‘ 4 bl \ a The di: fi St. Paul, Minnesota. 10 ‘ ‘3 The crossties on the railroads are spaced | mile apart ee ¢ CrowAgency So Es Custer e Battlefield ¢ \ Se a « \ Re te ke 106'30° THS NORTHERN PACIFIC ROUTE. 79 to the surface, but because of its softness it soon weathers down to a dark mud that so conesals the rock from which it was derived that the rock can not be seen from the train. West of Bull Mountain the Northern Pacific Railway crosses the northern point of one of the great mountain-making folds of the Rocky Mountains. The rocky layers or formations have been forced up into a great arch which has a breadth, where crossed by the rail- way, of 75 miles and a length of about 180 miles. In the region of its greatest development in Wyoming it forms the Bighorn Mountains, and it is generally spoken of as the Bighorn uplift or anticline, but the northern projection into Montana has a local development in Pryor Mountain and for that reason is known as the Pryor Mountain anticline. As the railway crosses the fold at its north end, where the forma- tions swing around in broad curves, it cuts the outcrops at oblique angles or follows them for a considerable distance. It is because of this fact that the hills on the left are smooth and low, indicative of shale, and the bluffs on the opposite side of the river are rugged, being composed of sandstone. One of the most striking mementos of the early exploration of the Yellowstone Valley is Pompeys Pillar (Pl. XIII, p. 77), a lone butte, 200 feet high, between mileposts 196 and 197. In descending the Yellowston Capt. Clark noted this butte and from its isolated position and vertical walls called it Pompeys Pillar. He states con- cerning it, ‘I marked my name and the day of the month and year.”’ Halfway up on the side near the river is to be seen Clark’s rude inscription, now protected by an iron grating. The sandstone forming Pompeys Pillar is near the base of the Lance formation, and the westward rise of the rocks soon brings up the dark marine Bear- paw shale, but near the railway this shale is covered by soil and can not be seen from the train. From Pompeys Pillar to Huntley the railway line is in the middle of a broad, flat bottom, which is irrigated by water taken from the river a short distance above the mouth of Pryor Nevin. Creek, under the Huntley project of the United rag ta eg States Reclamation Service.t. The underlying rocks are not visible from the train except at a great dis- tance on the right. As shown on sheet 13 (p. 82), the first formation to be passed over beyond Pompeys Pillar is dark shale (Bearpaw) of *The Huntley project covers an area of { formation wrought by Government irriga- 33,000 acres in the broad valley of Yellow- | tion is apparent in the present compact, — stone River. In 1907 this region was a | intensively cultivated farms, in substan- part of the Crow Indian Reservation and | tial farm buildings, and in growing towns. was uninhabited. To-day it contains 400 Be few farms under this Project — amilies and six towns. The trans- h y under the terms 80 GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES. marine origin. Next is a formation (Judith River) which in many places carries coal beds and was laid down on the land or in shallow lakes. It is soft and mostly light colored, but at a distance it can not be distinguished from the overlying Bearpaw shale. At Huntley the Northern Pacific is joined by the Kansas City line of the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad, and the two systems use the same tracks from Huntley to Billings. Pryor Creek, which is crossed by the train soon after leay- ~ ing Huntley, was named by Capt. Clark for one of his party. West of the creek the railway is at the foot of a precipitous bluff of greenish sandstone, in places thick bedded, which is the upper part of the Claggett forma- tion. This underlies the Judith River formation and from the fossils that it contains is known to have been laid down in the sea. Thus, under the influence of the great Pryor Mountain — = and lower rocks are in turn brought to the surface. the bluff — the sandstone rises until near milepost 220 it can be seen on the left” (south) just capping the highest hills. The rock underlying the sand- stone is not exposed here, but it is known to consist of soft shale, the lower part of the same formation. Where it is crossed by the line of the railway, the valley is broad and the slopes on either side are smooth and gentle. West of the open part of the valley just described the hills close in on the river, especially from the south, until it seems as if the stream would be blocked, but on close approach it is apparent that the water has cut a narrow passage through what appears to be a barrier across its path. The railway is crowded close to the bank of the river, and west of milepost 223 hillside cuts show that the constriction of the valley is due to a thick bed of coarse sandstone (Eagle) which crosses the river nearly at right angles and dips 15° or 20° to the east. Immediately west of this outcrop the railway crosses Yellowstone River to the broad flat upon which the town of Huntley. ation 3,038 feet. Population 1,746.* Billings is situated. As the train river the Eagle sandstone can be enters the yards just west of the seen on both sides of the valley. reclamation act, and full particulars may be obtained at Huntley from the project manager. The cost of the water right is $30 an acre, payable in 20 annual install- ments without interest, and there is an the land. The climate is healthful and the soil fertile, producing abundant crops when watered. Cereals and alfalfa are the principal crops, but the growing of sugar beets is becoming profitable. There is a sugar factory at Billings, and an increased acreage has been put into beets each year. Probably no section in the West has experienced the freedom from speculators enjoyed by the area under the Huntley project. Asa result, this is to-day one of the most prosperous and up to date com- munities in the Northwest. Its progres- sive spirit is shown by its centrali graded schools, its churches, the steady substantial growth of its towns, and its clubs and cooperative THE NORTHERN PACIFIC ROUTE. 81 On the south side it forms a prominent cliff and on the north it swings to the west and borders the valley with a precipitous wall. Billings, a division terminal, is the most important city in the eastern half of the State. It was named in honor of Frederick Bil- lings, one of the early presidents of the Northern Billings. Pacific Railway Co. For a long time it was the great- palin ie nage est wool-shipping point in the United States, if not St. P ies. in the world, but in recent years much of the wool from the north has been diverted by the St. Paul road and the dry-land farmers have taken up so much of the open range that the raising of sheep has been greatly reduced and is likely to become one of the vanishing industries of this region. The earliest authentic record of exploration in the vicinity of Billings is that of Capt. Clark, who on his return from the Pacific coast passed the site of the city July 24, 1806. Soon afterward fu traders and trappers explored most of the streams of this country in search of beavers, and in so doing they frequently passed up and down the valley of the Yellowstone, but they left no record except possibly their names attached to some of the old trading posts or to the streams. The first permanent settlement in this vicinity appears to have been made about 1876, when a place called Coulson was established as a stage station and steamboat landing. Coulson con- tinued to be of importance until the railway was built in 1881-82. In 1883 a street railway, the first in Montana, was built connecting this town with Billings, then recently established. The new town soon outgrew its rival, and to-day Coulson has disappeared. Originally the valley outside of the lower land was clothed only with sagebrush, and for a number of years after the completion of the railway but little farming was done. As the annual rainfall is only about 14 inches and the summer season short it was thought that even the hardier grains could not be successfully raised here. About 1892 agricultural development started in earnest, ditches were dug, and water was taken to the land, and to-day there is no more fertile and productive valley in the State than that of the Yellow- stone about Billings. Sugar beets are the principal crop, but alfalfa and grains are also grown in abundance. Farming is now the main occupation of the people about Billings. A large sugar factory has been erected at Billings which manufactures sugar from beets grown in many of the irrigated valleys in this part of the State. Near milepost 3, west of Billings, the traveler may, if the day is clear, catch his first glimpse of the Rocky Mountains, directly ahead, nearly 100 miles away. In midsummer the outline of the mountains may be faint and scarcely discernible, but early in the summer or in the autumn the snow on their summits should cause them to stand 95558°—Bull. 611—15 6 : 82 GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES. i out clear and distinct. If the traveler is fortunate enough to obtain such a view, he will understand why, in the early descriptions, they were always referred to as the “Shining Mountains.’”’ The mountains that can be seen from this point are the ranges that lie just south of Livingston and bound Yellowstone Park on the east. At this point also the setting of the valley can be well seen. Bil- lings has for a background a high bluff capped by massive sandstone or “‘rim rock” (Eagle). This can be followed to the east by the ey until it dips below water level and then reappears on the south side of the river in equal boldness and ruggedness, but instead of follow- ing parallel with the valley it strikes due south across country to Pryor Creek, the next stream in that direction. Its outcrop is every- where marked by an escarpment, and at the last point at which it can be seen it makes an abrupt break in the sky line. On the right (north) the cliff trends nearly due west, as shown on the map (sheet 13), but the railway runs toward the southwest and consequently departs more and more from the cliff. The rim rock is visible as far as milepost 8, but beyond that point it is obscured by the edge of the terrace on the right. The traveler may notice that the river bluffs on the left (south) look very different from the rim rock. There are no ledges on these bluffs and they are composed of dark shale (Colorado shale), which underlies the rim rock. This shale is the lowest and oldest formation that has yet been seen on this trip west of Minnesota. Near milepost 12 a branch of the Great Northern Railway which uses the tracks of the Northern Pacific from Billings to this place turns northward, going to Great Falls and Shelby, where it unites with the Great Northern main line. From Laurel a branch of the Northern Pacific Railway leads to the south across the Yellowstone and up the valley of Clark Fork to the towns of Bridger and Red Lodge. Red Lodge is the largest town in a coal field that supplies most of the fuel used by this railway in its mountain divisions from Butte and Helena on the west to Mandan on the east.? Laurel. Elevation 3,311 feet 806. ‘The Red Lodge coal field, at the foot of the Beartooth Mountains in Carbo County, supplies fuel for the railway, for the big smelter at Anaconda, and for a large domestic trade. In quality the Red Lodge coal is dis- tinctly below most of the eastern coals but compares favorably with many of the Rocky Mountain coals. It shows a tend- ency to slack on exposure to the weather and consequently is classed by the United =] States Geological Survey as subbitumi- nous, but this tendency is so slight that the coal evidently belongs at the top of its class, which is near the dividing line between the bituminous and subbitumi- nous coals. Its heating value ranges from 10,570 to 11,440 British thermal units. The field comprises only about 40 Square miles, but the number and thick- ness of the coal beds compensate in some degree for the small area. According GEOLOGIC AND TOPOGRAPHIC MAP OF THE NORTHERN PACIFIC ROUTE From St. Paul, Minnesota, to Seattle, Washington Base compiled from United States Geological Survey Atlas Sheets, from railroad alignments and profiles supplied by ilway 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 Each quadrangle shown on the map with a name in parenthesis in the lower left corner is mapped in detail on the U. S. G. S. Topographic Sheet of that flame. BULLETIN 611 46 ~ < . 2 .*) Jud} ait < ras th River < ‘ \ = G S Scale 500,000 Approximately 8 miles to ! inch | as, er Os SHEET NO. 13 BPE Re OA TER IEEE DIET 108%30’ 108° MONTANA EXPLANATION Thickness in feet A Stream deposits (alluvium) Quaternary B Sandstone and shale (Lance formation) 1,100 Tertiary (7?) C Dark shale, marine deposit, (Bearpaw) 900) PD Shale with some sandstone, fresh-water deposits (Judith River formation} ad ; J E Shale and sandstone, marine deposits , Upper (Claggett formation) 600f Cretaceous e zs F Sandstone (Eagle) 200 a a Aros ra on \ ~| G Dark shale, marine deposit (Colorad 1,300} oot AE A Se) NS) st Nibbard Oia 78000 iG teal fh MRS PO pe, AES Ror Ss vA SS Sheet No /2 4 : te ep i yt / — mA + ib 20Miles ee | 5 10 1s 20 2 30Kilometers ‘7 | Se Se eee ees, he le i SESE OE Oi eae Uae | Contour interval 200 feet ra v from St. Paul, Minnesota, h -y 10 mi - The crossties on the railroads are spaced | mile apart ie 108°30" 108° ENGRAVED ANG PRINTED BY THE U.S.cE OLOGICAL SURE THE NORTHERN PACIFIC ROUTE. 83 The traveler has now passed the axis of the great Pryor Mountain anticline, which brings to light the Colorado shale south of Billings, and the rocks dip gently and regularly toward the west. Under the influence of this westward dip the shale (Colorado) visible in the bluffs on the south side of the river soon passes below water level, and the cliffs of sandstone (Eagle) on the north begin to approach the rail- way. Near milepost 20 the cliff is about 2 miles distant and consists of three beds of sandstone with intervening shale or soft sand- stone, as shown in figure 11. As the dip is low, only about 10°, the Eagle sandstone approaches the river slowly, but at milepost 25 it can be seen in the hills on the south side of the river. The top of the sandstone passes below water level at a siding called Youngs Point, beyond Park City (see sheet 14, p. 86), and here about 300 feet of shale and another sandstone immediately overlying the Eagle are visible across the river. These beds make up the lower part of the Claggett forma- tion, which dips gently westward and gradually disappears be- neath water level. At milepost 32 all the white sandstone has passed from view and the hill slopes are comprised of the oyer- Park City. Elevation 3,410 feet. Population 903.* St. Paul 915 miles. 11.—Eagle sandstone FIGURE north of Park City, Mont. lying Judith River formation. to a section measured in the bluffs on the east side of Rock Creek in and be- low the town of Red Lodge and in the mine workings there is 90 feet of coal in beds 3 feet or more in thickness. The beds vary greatly in size, being thicker near Red Lodge than in any other part of the field so far explored, but the quality is somewhat better about Bear Creek, in the eastern part. These coal beds (in the Fort Union for- mation) are made up of the same sort of vegetation as the great lignite beds of North Dakota, but being nearer to the mountains the coal is of much better qual- ity, for the reason given on page 71. The coal beds dip from 10° to 20° toward the southwest, or into the mountain, which is separated from the coal field by an im- mense fault. Although mining at Red Lodge was be- gun before 1882, it was conducted on a small scale until 1889, when railway con- nection was established and some large This formation has no decided mines opened. Since then the field has been developed steadily until now it is first in point of production in the State. The coal production of Carbon County, which includes the Red Lodge field, in 1913 amounted to 1,304,524 short tons. It is estimated that the amount of coal in the Red Lodge field before mining be- gan was 1,691,800,000 short tons. If from this is deducted 12,544,796 short tons, the ee | 4 * Lge ea A anf 1012 (‘th . latest statistics yet compiled), and about 4,000,000 tons that was rendered unayail- able through mining operations, there would still remain about 1,675,000,000 short tons. Not all of this can be regard as minable, for in mining some coal is practice only from 60 to 80 per cent of — the coal in the ground is mined, but as methods improve more and more of the coal will become available. 84 GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES. characteristics by which it may be recognized and identified, but it contains fewer beds of sandstone, and consequently makes smoother hill slopes than the underlying Claggett formation. The slopes com- posed of the Judith River formation have a whitish-gray tint and are rather monotonous in color and appearance. The rocks composing the upper part of this formation are well exposed in Countrymans Bluff, between mileposts 37 and 38. Here the rocks are undoubtedly of fresh-water origin, as they contain numerous fragments of fossil plants such as could have been deposited only either on land or Ina bodies of fresh water. The continued westward dip of the rocks brings the next higher formation (Bearpaw shale) to water level in the vicinity of Columbus. It can not be seen near the railway, but is well exposed Columbus. a mile north of the town. This shale crops out in the Elevation 3,624 feet. valley of Keyser Creek north of the railway and along — St. Panl933 mies, the foot of the ridge that begins just across the river from Columbus and extends southeastward as far as LAN FOR: Yy UY LLL set Api INLET TSOP OP —— Bearpaw Shae ——— SSS —————— ———— YM Yudith River formation TPe shafe= ade LLLLLL LL, Claggett farmation <= se Qle serOstonen pie ei eee FIGURE 12. —Cross section to illustrate the change in the formations between Terry and Livingston, Mont. stone of great excellence. This stone has been us tion of buildings in the n Helena. These sandstones cap Bensons Bluff, 24 miles west of Columbus, and come down to water level near milepost 43. The dips here are 6° to 8° to the west, but they flatten within a short distance and the rocks are practically horizontal. The traveler ma ® =¥ — 5 ot Er ® 2 rs) 5 n a cs THE NORTHERN PACIFIC ROUTE. 85 The train is now approaching the place of origin of this material. The gray sandstone of the Lance forms most of the slopes at milepost 50, just beyond Merrill, and about 300 feet above the river the hills have a brownish appearance which indicates that some other forma- tion makes their upper slopes. After crossing the river the same rela- tions may be observed, except that as the train moves westward the brown Lebo shale can be seen at lower and lower levels, owing to the slight westward dip of the rocks. At Reed Point the white beds of the Lance extend up the slopes only 100 to 150 feet, and above that all the rocks are brown. The Lance probably goes under river level near milepost Reed Point. 60, and beyond that point the hillsides are much erp ecg smoother and the general tone of the rocks is brown, indicating that the Lebo shale forms the. hills at least for a height of 800 or 1,000 feet. About three-fourths of a mile beyond milepost 63 a large dike, visible on the right (north), cuts directly through the bedded rocks in a direction nearly parallel with the railway. The dike is composed of a dark igneous rock which was injected in a melted condition into an extensive crack in the bedded rocks. It stands up like a wall, and where it cuts across a bed of light-colored sandstone it is easily recognized, As the train rounds the curve at milepost 66, the traveler looking forward and to the right can get his first good view of the Crazy so thoroughly washed and sorted by water that it is evenly bedded like ordinary shale and friable sandstone, but near the mountains and the source of supply this material is coarser and some of it has the ap- pearance of being only a little modified by water after it was blown out of some old volcanic vent in the vicinity. Such material, known as volcanic agglomerate, is composed of fragments of lava ranging from minute pieces to blocks 4 feet in diameter. The agglomerate beds have in general a warm gray tint, and a mass of such material gave the name of Greycliff to a siding that was formerly located under the cliff but now has been moved 3 miles to the west. The cliff is fully 100 feet high, but the base of the agglomerate is not exposed and hence its full thickness may greatly exceed that amount. As it is reported to be 2,000 feet thick a few miles to the southwest, itseems _ reasonably certain that the old volcano which furnished the material was located in that direction, but no trace of it has been discovered. 86 GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES. At Greycliff an upland stretching far to the north is visible across the river on the right. This is underlain by light-colored sandstones of the Fort Union formation, which show here and Greycliff. there, giving to the surface a light-gray appearance. Elevation 3,40 feet. As these rocks dip slightly westward, they should ap- St. Paul 963 miles. pear near railway level east of Big Timber, but no such rocks occur near the track. This is due to the fact that on ap- proaching Yellowstone Park more and more of the volcanic material is present in the sandstones, giving to them a dark color that makes them indistinguishable from the underlying Lebo.' After passing Big Timber the traveler obtains on the right (north) is best view of the Crazy Mountains,’ an isolated Big Timber. Elevation 4,095 feet. Population 1,022. St. Paul 974 miles. Springdale oe ae 15, p to Hunters H auenaic’ St. Paul 989 miles. group of sawtoothed peaks which rise shavphy to a height of 6,000 feet above the generally even surface ae = cas and 7,000 feet above the level of the . 98) is the stopping place for those going ot Springs, hak are visible on the right at a distance of about 1} miles. These springs are reported to have been well known to the Indians before the advent of the white man. They were discovered in 1864 by Dr. J. unter, who, with his family, was on his way to the newly discovered gold fields of Montana. The springs ?The change in character of the ma- terials composing the Fort Union may not be apparent from the train, but north e Crazy Mountains, on Musselshell River, all the formations from the Colo- Ps | has not yet been explained, but the ap- nNarent moro fat. £. peg a the west is so apparent that it is now generally regarded as established that the Livingston is not a se other formations, produced by a great supply of Moen material from an up- and on the * The Chixy pormece can not in any sense be considered as a range, for in form they are merely a group of peaks and . The highest point, Crazy Peak, has an altitude of 11,178 feet, or about 6,000 feet above the general level of the plateau or bench land at its foot. The Crazy Mountains are therefore higher than many of the more noted mountains of Montana, and they are certainly more conspicuous on account of their compactness and isola- tio RE ERS they have no _— to upturned or feclead strata, whereas the Crazy Mountains are merely the of a great irregular mass, callak cack GEOLOGIC AND TOPOGRAPHIC MAP NORTHERN PACIFIC ROUTE From St. Paul, Minnesota, to Seattle, Washington Base compiled from United States Geological Survey Atlas Sheets, Northern Pacific Railway Company and fro information collected bebe the assistance of this company UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY GEORGE OTIS SMITH, DIRECTOR David White, Chief Geologist R. B. Marshall, Chief Geographer 1915 Cc with a name if parenthesis in the lower ‘left corner is mane in pee on the U. S. G. S. Topographic heet of that nam BULLETIN 611 Sheer No. /5 C95 DEO SHEET No. 14 een OM ha A IT ERC ATE OIE RE # NO" 10930" 109° MONTANA EXPLANATION Thickness in feet A Stream deposits (alluvium) Quaternary B — aeons and shale (upper part of Fort Union ormati C White sandstone and shale (middle part of Fort Union : formation) Tertiary shale and sandstone composed largely of volcanic materials (Lebo shale member of the Lady eres formation) including voleanic agglomera’ 1,500 J F Sandstone and shale (Lance formation) 1,600 =‘ Tertiary(?) AR oe J G Dark shale, marine deposit (Bearpaw) 900) he Shale and sandstone, —_~ water deposits (Judith River formati 600 : : : Upper I Sandstone and shale, marine deposits (Claggett formation) 600f Cretaceous ss Upper and middle parts J Sandstone and shale, with coal beds (Eagle sandstone) 200 i ae Fort. sUnion K Dark shale, marine deposit (Colorado) 1,300, SEA atic > B 507 3 ‘. Formations C. D, F, G, H, and‘i change toward the west into dark voleanic c a materials ai d near the western border of this area a re grouped into the a EE yf tin se ts : a4 Se ae os ‘ef ed ee a ee > eg : ce Y abe, L ¥ Sheet No. /3 ~ se a ee 10 20 2s Spe TS Ae Re Se eo ER EE Sar e Contour mace 200 feet E& MEAN SEA LEVEL dia St. Paui, Minnesota. ~” Ti aiepotiee ius wig: vidlbdede ane jmassit wile sins ENGRAVED AUD SRINTED BY THE U-S.GEQLOGICAL SURVEY 87 THE NORTHERN PACIFIC ROUTE, See 90,000 gallons of water an hour at a temperature of 148° eS Slee Springdale the river through a narrow gorge known as McAdows Canyon. In this canyon the rocks, which are well exposed, show many wrinkles or minor folds that were undoubtedly formed by the upheaval of the great Absaroka Range, on the south. The mountain range is high and rugged, indicating a youthful stage in its development, for if the range were old it would have been worn down by erosion and its rugged features would have been smoothed and rounded off. Another proof that the Absaroka Range has been recently formed is found in the fact that the rocks along its flanks have been wrinkled and upturned by the same forces as those that folded and raised the mountain rocks into their present positions. From this it is evident that the mountains must have been formed since the deposition of the youngest of the plains rocks, and as the Fort Union formation, which is early Tertiary, is involved in the fold- = the mountains must have been formed in middle or late Tertiary Gx the right (north) near milepost 103 a near-by view may be obtained of the Sheep Cliffs, which, as seen from the train, are very prominent. They are the result of an intrusion of molten lava between beds of sedimentary rocks, probably from some of the dikes hard and resists = akscas much more successfully than the diorite. These baked rocks form a zone nearly a mile wide around the core. Through this zone and beyond it the rocks have been cut and hardened by a countless number of dikes that radiate from the central mass in all directions. Here and there the molten matter has found an outlet be- of igneous rock that was forced in molten condition into the soft shale and sand- great mass of ~ soft sedimentary beds, the surface t have been above the present top at ne mountains. J. P. Iddings, who has given the most study to is comustata mass, says that it is not at all certain that the molten material ever poured over or even reached the surface. It is exposed view now because the beds that once covered it have Laphnetgt been washed away by rain and stre The stock is 4 sail ee and 6 miles long. It consists of a very coarse diorite which disintegrates rapidly when to the weather. In this con- dition it is easily eroded, and the slopes are very steep, as can be seen from the train. The present mountains are made up not only of the igneous reck, but also of the shale and sandstone into which it was forced. These rocks were heated so SS oe a porcelain-like mass that is very tween the beds of sandstone, resulting in great sheets or sills of the hardened lava. These are very dense and serve as pro- tecting caps to the softer strata beneath. The forcing of so much material between the layers of the sedimentary rocks has raised them up around the stock until they dip from it in all directions Nearly the last stage in the evolution of ciers during th were so small that they did not even coalesce and form an ice cap, but each little glacier scoured out the valley in which it lay and built a moraine at its cuter end, where it came down nearly to the level of the bench land 88 GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES. connected with the core of the Crazy Mountains. When this sheet of igneous material was forced in between the beds they were in all probability deep in the earth, but the cutting of the streams has revealed the igneous rock, and owing to its superior hardness it stands up almost like a mountain. West of milepost 105 a glimpse can be obtained on the right, ahead, of the highest part of the Bridger Range, which, though small, has a very sharp crest and which separates the valley of the Yellowstone from the headwaters of Missouri River on the west. The structure and character of this range are illustrated by figure 17 (p. 98). _ At Mission station a branch leaves the main line and after crossing Yellowstone River follows up Shields River, so named by Capt. Clark for a member of his party. This valley has the reputation of pro- ducing some of the finest oats grown in the State. Just before the train enters Livingston it crosses Yellowstone River for the last time on the main line. Here the Yellowstone is a clear, rushing mountain stream, very different from the turbid river farther east. The traveler now comes face to face with the great mountain wall that forms the north front of the Absarokas and can look up at the commanding heights, which tower nearly a mile above him and which during much of the year are covered with snow. Livingston, originally called Clarks City, was named in honor of Charles Livingston, of New York, one of the directors of the Northern Pacific Railway. The main line of the road was fin- Livingston. ished to this place on January 15, 1883, and the Elevation 4,510 feet. branch line to Yellowstone Park, which now carries Population 5,359. : . y St. Paul 1,008 mites, 2any thousands of tourists annually, began operation | in August of the same year. Livingston is a division terminal and essentially a railway town. [The description of the route west of Livingston begins on page 94.] LIVINGSTON TO GARDINER (YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK). The train for Yellowstone Park, on leaving Livingston, turns to the left (south) and heads directly for the mountains, through a wide bottom which, though composed largely of gravel brought down by the river, is mostly under a high state of cultivation. For some dis- | tance the rocks are not well exposed, as the railway is built on alluvial material (material laid down by running water) and the rocks can be seen only in the cut edge of a low terrace on the right (west). The formations are upturned against the mountains at an angle of about 20°, and as the railway runs at right angles to their upturned edges the train passes them in quick succession, THE NORTHERN PACIFIC ROUTE. 89 The main outer range which forms the gateway through which the train enters the mountains is composed of very old (Paleozoic) rocks, chiefly limestone, shale, and quartzite. The great mountain mass beyond this outer range is anticlinal in structure;, that is, it once formed an immense arch. The top of the arch is eroded and the traveler can not see the formations rising on one side of the fold, curving over the top, and descending on the other side, but they once formed such an arch, and the flanks and 1 The smooth slopes of the terrace on the. not recognizable fr posite mile- underlie the dark shale of the Colorado. These beds constitute one of the most re- =- tig es i The next formation to attract attention oe £ ee Pee + a es makes the mountain front and which is ons os the — conspicuous sedimen ntary e Rocky Mountain region. It will be seen many times on the trip and be traveler will doubtless learn to recog- ot wherever seen. This thi ck- bedded is known as the Madi ison limes It makes the front of the sar? on Segoe east side of the river as far as the eye can see and on the west side for a distance of eS 7» EIN SESS NY SESS ASS BS ed SS Sec Se SSS BMVVEAY xe SARA ANY NAN NG are SSE S< SPSS N SS) a we a SEN AN Ne = 8 Siok OS — he ie hg wf ore S SEN NS ! ta AS EG Mets 7 IV | PEON SS sxe HSS NSS OSS Ses Mica = HIS SSS SS ae cre ree ales IPN SSE ORS JA a AN bud ys, . a = FIGuRE 13.—C ti the rim of tk tai th of Livingston, Mont. The rocks were sistant formations of the plains and on the de of the river they make a hogback 4 thich is a fine example of its kind. ‘This formation was at one time regal asthe Dakota sandstone, but isnow known to be the Kootenai, of Lower Cretaceous age. At is the same formation as that the coal beds at Sand Coulee and Belt, southeast of Great Falls, but in the icini there are shale and fossil sea shells of Jurassic age. 7 or 8 miles. Its base can be seen about th old : than the wey Peter sandstone, which was Paul. seen at St. 90 GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES. core of it still remain to tell the story to the geologist. There are on the flanks of the large fold a number of small folds, and the rocks that have just been described constitute such a wrinkle. This minor fold, as shown in the section (fig. 13), has been pushed over toward the south beyond the vertical, so that the beds on the south side dip toward the anticline instead of away from it, as they would had they not been overturned. This fold is bounded on the south by a fault (a break in the rocks), and near Brisbin it is succeeded by a smaller fold of the same type. The ppt Meret Madison limestone making the core of this smaller air ' fold forms the high, straight ridge or spur that trends at right angles to the railway. Beyond this ridge there are traces of another kind of fold—a trough or syncline which lies at the base of the limestone ridge and extends far to the northwest where it contains the Trail Creek coal field. Coal is being mined from Cre- taceous rocks in this syncline at the present time, but the product of the mines reaches the railway on the other side of Bozeman Pass. Beyond Brisbin the rocks on the west forming the Gallatin Range are made up of volcanic materials, some of which consist of fine frag- ment (tuffs) blown out of some crater with explosive violence or of coarse angular blocks derived from the same source or from the breaking up of partly cooled lava flows. The rocks on the east side of the valley from Deep Creek, opposite Brisbin, on the north to Mill Creek on the south are very ancient gneiss and schist. This great mass of crystalline rock constitutes the central part of the large anticline already described, from which all the younger sedimentary formations have been removed by erosion. Traces of the sandstones and limestones that once constituted the south flank of the fold are to be found up Mill Creek, but they are so badly faulted and covered with voleanic breccia (rock composed of angular fragments) that they can not be easily recognized from the train. The most prominent peak in this part of the valley is Mount Cowen, which has an altitude of 11,190 feet and stands 6,400 feet above the bottom of the valley. As far as milepost 16 the railway is on the flat surface of a terrace 50 to 75 feet above river level. This was formed by the glaciers that, : long ago, came down Yellowstone and Mill Creek Se valleys and joined near the village of Chicory. The St. Paul 1,028 mies, ®*reams flowing from the melting ice carried large quantities of gravel and sand and dropped them in the open valley, filling it to a considerable depth. Since the ice melted away the river has cut a deep channel in this filling, leaving remnants of it here and there in the form of terraces. As the terrace was built only below the limit of the glacier, the railway is forced, Brisbin. ‘ BULLETIN 611 PLATE XIV U. & GEOLOGICAL SURVE EMIGRANT PEAK, THE SENTINEL GUARDING THE NORTHERN APPROACH TO YELLOWSTONE PARK. view from Chicory, Mont. Elevation of peak 10,969 feet. Height above the railway 6,100 feet, Photograph by Haynes, St. Paul, Minn, BULLETIN 611. PLATE XV U, 8, GEOLOGICAL SURVEY ROCKY GATEWAY WHICH ROCK CREEK HAS CUT THROUGH THE MADISON LIMESTONE BELOW CHESTNUT, MONT., LOOKING EAST. > ‘ iG ti Photograph by Schlechten, Bozeman, Mont. THE NORTHERN PACIFIC ROUTE, 91 opposite the mouth of Mill Creek, to leave the terrace and descend to the valley bottom on which lay the great mass of ice. In the vicinity of Emigrant there is a thin sheet of basalt (a dark massive volcanic rock) capping the terrace on the right. This rock exhibits the vertical columnar structure common to Emigrant, such material, and it is probable that the several Elevation 4887 feet. masses of basalt which can be seen up the canyon are St. Paul 1,031 miles. As ; parts of one lava flow that originated somewhere in the park and extended down the valley as far as this place. It can be followed on the right for 3 miles, but beyond that it has been eroded for some distance, leaving no trace of its presence. In the vicinity of Emigrant the most prominent topographic fea- ture is Emigrant Peak (Pl. XIV), which dominates the entire valley. From the train this appears to be an isolated mountain, but the map shows that it is merely a prominent spur projecting from the moun- tain mass. The peak has an altitude of 10,960 feet, and its summit stands 6,000 feet above the valley. The base of the peak is composed of old gneiss, a rock which the traveler will have a good chance to see at close range farther up the canyon, and its summit of the andesitic breccia and lava flows that at one time probably almost engulfed the range on the east and completely submerged that on the west. At milepost 24 the high, sharp summits of the Gallatin Range show on the right (west), but they are neither so rugged nor so im- posing as the peaks on the east. ; The sheet of basalt capping the terrace on the right in the vicinity of Emigrant disappears for a mile or more, but opposite milepost 28 it reappears on the other side of the river, capping a finely developed terrace at a height of about 150 feet above the river. At Daileys, a little farther on, a complete section of the rocks forming the terrace can be seen, and these rocks record an entirely © new chapter in the geologic history of this region. Daileys. They consist of white marl and conglomerate over- Elevation 4,941 feet. Jain by dark gravel and the whole covered with the St. Paul 1,039 miles. . ; sheet of basalt that was poured out upon the surface as molten lava. The white materials are known, from their compo- sition and the fossils they contain, to have been deposited in a lake or lakes in Miocene or Pliocene time. A brief description of these lake beds is given on page 113. The sheet of basalt capping the terrace can be followed as far as milepost 33, but from that point nearly to the entrance to the park the terrace and the basalt are not present. At Point of Rocks, only a short distance farther on, the traveler can obtain a good idea of the kind of material composing a volcanic breccia, for the railway cuts through a projecting point of the breccia and it can be seen at close 92 GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES. range. Here it is tinted a deep, rich red, which adds a warmth and beauty to the otherwise somber mountain slope. At Miner the river valley makes an abrupt bend to the southeast and the rocks on the right show clearly the smoothing action of the : glacier that once passed over them. Each project- —_— ing mass of rock has been rounded and smoothed, pogo om especially on the upriver side, which the glacier struck first in its course down the valley. A short distance above Miner the stream passes through a narrow rugged canyon, the walls of which are composed of gneiss and show clearly the intricate folds into which this rock has been bent and the character of the different layers composing it. Through most of this canyon the tracks are on the very brink of the river channel, and the traveler can look down on the left into the boiling flood which dashes and foams about the bowlders that have fallen into it from the roc slopes above. The grade through this canyon is very steep, but the gorge is short and the slope of the valley beyond is more gentle. At Corwin Springs is a hotel for the accommodation of those who wish to use the hot waters. Above this place Cinnabar Moun- tain, on the west, is the most conspicuous object, Corwin Springs. byt the wonderful structure of the mountain and rigteaip tye aig its peculiar appearance can not be fully appreciated until the traveler reaches Electric. Cinnabar Moun- tain was named in the early days, when the bright-red streak that marks it from top to bottom was supposed to be due to the mineral cinnabar, a red ore of mercury. It is now known that this red streak, called the Devil’s Slide, is a bed of shale and that there is no cinnabar i in the mountain. Almost the entire geologic column of this part of Montana is here exposed, and the rocks are turned up on edge so that they can be studied without the exertion of making a difficult climb. The oldest rocks are seen first, as one ascends the valley, and then others come in orderly succession, ranging from Cambrian to Upper Cretaceous.! -e Apt sae section exposed at Electric, if placed in its correct position, would as fo Feet. Montana formation (Upper Cretaceous)........................... 955 Colorado shale (Upper Cretaceous). ............................ 2,775 eer sues Sees 277 Quadrant formation PS See ee ies oe eek 200 Madison limestone erupts oe eee -: 1,500 Threeforks shale (Devonian)..................... "240 Jefierson limestone pn 200 Cambrian 700 THE NORTHERN PACIFIC ROUTE. 93 The town of Electric was established and extensive coal mines were opened at this place a number of years ago by the Montana Coal & Coke Co. Some of the mines were opened Electric. directly back of the town and some near the town Elevation 5.185 feet. byt on the other side of the mountain, and the St. Paul 1,057 miles. : P coal was brought to the tipple by an aerial tramway. The coal is of excellent quality, apparently having been improved by the heat of igneous intrusions or by the intense pressures devel- oped when the rocks were thrown into the great folds that are so - apparent to-day, but the cost and difficulties of mining caused the undertaking to be abandoned.' At Electric station Electric Peak (elevation 11,000 feet), one of the highest mountains in the vicinity, may be seen on the right. The peak was so named because of a severe electric storm during its ascent by members of the Hayden Survey in 1872. One of the men was severely shocked, and all the others experienced prickly sensa- tions as if they were receiving the discharge from an electric machine. The station and coal field took their names from the mountain. _1 The coal beds in this field are prob- | sills of igneous rocks as to be scarcely ably the same as those mined in the | identifiable. As shown by the map Trail Creek field and at Bridger, near | (sheet 15) and the section (fig. 14), the Red Lodge, and formerly mined exten- | rocks are nearly flat in the southern part sively at Cokedale, west of Livingston, | of the block, but are sharply upturned at but the coal of the Electric field is | the north end, forming Cinnabar Moun- probably the best in Montana. The coal | tain. The great block of strata consti- eds occur near the base of the Montana | tuting the coal field is bounded on all formation, probably in the Eagle sand- | sides by faults, and within this block ® Devils Stide See > cs ff Sy iy: = eae ee ae + + +4 Cu. } ag, tain: Miant * ? PIGUHL Lt ast > stone. The coal field consists of a great | another and small block has been broken block of the earth’s crust, containing not | from the larger mass and dropped about only the Cretaceous coal-bearing rocks | 1,000 feet. The smaller block contains but also all the older formations known | the coal mine directly : back of the in the region. This block of strata | town of Electric. Practically all the extends from Cinnabar Mountain (Yel- | coal mined in this field was coked, the lowstone River) on the north to Electric | market being chiefly the smelters at Peak on the south, but in the south end | Butte and Anaconda. : The b ting the formation is so altered by dikes and | of the coal is 12,2701 94 GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES. Above Electric bowlders of dark basalt and the outcropping edge of a sheet of similar material on the far side of the river indicate that a stream of basaltic lava once flowed down the river valley at least as far as Emigrant. Since it solidified the river has cut most of it away, leaving the two or three remnants noted. At Gardiner the traveler has arrived at the northern entrance to ellowstone Park. Descriptions of the park and the Gardiner. principal routes through it are given in other Govern- Elevation 5,287 feet. ment and private publications. The railroad route Population $36" to Yellowstone, Mont., the western entrance to the St. Paul 1,062 miles. ' : . park, is described in Survey Bulletin 612 (Guidebook of the western United States, Part B). MAIN LINE WEST OF LIVINGSTON. As the train leaves Livingston for the continuation of the westward journey, an excellent view can be obtained on the south of the entrance to the valley of the upper Yellowstone, sometimes called the ‘gate of the mountains.’’ West of Livingston the railway crosses the northern point of the Gallatin Range at Bozeman Pass. This pass was discovered by Capt. Clark, who crossed the summit on his return journey July 15, 1806. He expressed surprise at the ease with which he passed from the Gallatin Valley on the west to that of the Yellow- stone on the east. Although this is a low summit and an easy one to cross with a wagon or on foot, it offered a considerable obstacle to the railway, as it involved a climb from Livingston of 996 feet in 12.2 miles. Originally the railway followed the creek with an easy grade nearly to its head and then reached the summit by a very steep ascent, but a few years ago a new roadbed having a regular grade from Livingston to the summit at Muir was established. The mountain side on the left (south) presents many interesting features, especially to one not familiar with mountains. Early in the summer light-green grassy slopes interspersed with patches of brush or groves of aspen extend partway up the mountain to the forest of evergreen trees that thrives upon the upper slopes. At the lower margin of the forest the trees appear singly or in groups, but higher up they cover the entire surface with their dense foliage. Here and there are the marks of old burns in which the tree trunks stand out as whitened skeletons that later fall headlong in a hopeless tangle and then are concealed by the second growth of trees. Late in the sum- mer the lower slopes may be brown, but with the coming of the early frosts the woods are bright with color, the soft yellow of the aspens blending with the reds and browns of the scrub maple and the oak. The lower limit of the timber, which seems to be fairly definite, is not THE NORTHERN PACIFIC ROUTE. 95 controlled directly by the altitude but by the greater precipitation on the mountain slopes than on the plains below them. Along the new grade many exposures of the Livingston formation can be seen in the deep cuts. It consists of chocolate-colored shale and sandstone of a lighter shade but still showing a brownish tinge, which is due to the fragments of voleanic matter of which it is com- posed. The beds are somewhat wrinkled and disturbed but generally dip to the right, away from the mountain, at an angle of about 20°.* About half a mile beyond milepost 121, in a deep cut, two dikes of igneous rock are exposed cutting directly across the bedded sand- stone and shale. In places where such dikes have cut through coal beds, or have taken the form of a sheet or sill below the coal, as illus- trated in figure 15, the heat of the molten rock has changed the coal, the resultant material depending upon the conditions attending Figure 15.—Dike cutting coal bed and sill intruded in a position to affect the quality of the coal. the intrusion. If air is present, the coal will burn out completely; if only a moderate amount of air is available, natural coke will be formed; and if little or no air is present, the coal will be baked into anthracite. Anthracite produced in this manner occurs in Colorado, New Mexico, and Washington. After a long climb the summit is reached at Muir, a station at the east end of the Bozeman tunnel, which has a length of 3,610 feet. The summit of the pass is only a few hundred feet yiute. above the level of the railway. Beyond the tunnel Elevation 5,806feet. the Hagle sandstone, which was seen back of Billings and again obscurely at Livingston, carries coal beds which have been prospected and mined at various places west of Livingston. As a general rule the coal crops out along the base of places the formation is only 100 feet thick, but about Livingston the sandstone with i ing shale beds is about 1 As the rocks dip away from the moun- tains, as shown in figure 13 (p. 89), lower formations than those exposed in the rail- way cuts appear toward the south. These lower rocks include the coal-bearing formation which crops out in a continuous band from Livingston across the summit to Chestnut. This formation overlies the Colorado shale and is about equivalent to ee oe NG ge Inent in the rim rock back of Billings. In most ts accompanying 1,000 feet thick. Formerly the Cokedale mine, one of the most productive in the State, was in oper- ation about 7 miles west of Livingston and coke was manufactured from part of the coal, but the mine has been abandoned for a number of years and the railway spur leading to it has been removed. 96 GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES. the mountain on the south, and the remains of old mines can be seen on both sides of the track as far as Chestnut. The coal is of good quality, but on account of the heavy percentage Chestnut. of ash and the expense of mining, all of these opera- Elevation 5,270 feet. tions have ceased. Just east of Chestnut, however, at otiaeen, a branch line turns to the left up Meadow Creek and goes southeastward across the summit to the Trail Creek field, in which mining is still carried on. = About a mile beyond Chestnut the railway cuts through the point of a closely folded anticline in which the Madison limestone forms the core, as shown in figure 16. (See Pl. XV,p. 91.) The exposures are not good enough for the traveler to see all the formations that are involved in the fold, but after passing some coal beds he may see sandstone with red shale (Kootenai, Lower Cretaceous), and then on his right hand a broad band of the same red shale as that which produces the Devil’s Slide at Electric. These rocks are standing vertical. Next comes the Madison limestone (Carboniferous), which is the oldest rockexposed. This massive limestone is dissolved and cut by the streams into. curious towers and pinnacles, and by the exercise of his im- agination the traveler may see resemblances to almost any form he desires. West of this maze of sculptured towers and FIGURE 16.—Vertical fold in Madison limestone west of crags the rocks that were seen ee on the east side of the fold are crossed in reverse order. This fold, although small in comparison with those that make up the mountains, may give the traveler some idea of the great forces which have crumpled the rocky crust of the earth like paper. No formation is massive enough to resist them. At milepost 136 the train emerges from the narrow defile of Rocky Canyon and the traveler obtains his first view of the Gallatin Valley. On the left between mileposts 137 and 138 are a few old buildings that — once constituted a part of Fort Ellis, an important military post during the Indian wars. This post was established by order of Gen. Terry in 1867 and abandoned in 1887. A little Bozeman, farther on the train arrives at Bozeman, one of the — re ae oldest and most prosperous agricultural towns in the St. Paul 1,033 miles, tate. Here in the heart of the Rocky Mountains, surrounded on all sides and protected by high ranges, is the Gallatin Valley, which is widely known on account of the fine farms it contains and the excellent and diversified crops it produces. The Montana State Agricultural Colleg , Situated at Bozeman, has THE NORTHERN PACIFIC ROUTE. 97 assisted materially in the prosperity of the region by the introduction of scientific methods of farming and of handling the crops. It seems rather strange that a part of the State so far removed from the regular westward routes of early travel and so walled in by the. mountains should have been one of the first to be occupied by settlers. This was doubtless due to the description of the valley Th given: by Capt. Clark, who discovered it in 1806. e first effort of the whites to obtain a foothold here was made by fur traders in the vicinity of Three Forks, on Missouri River, but that region, like Kentucky in the early days, was the common hunting and fighting ground of many Indian tribes, and the trading posts were soon swept away. The first permanent settlement in the valley was made by John M. Bozeman, for whom the town was named, and a party of settlers whom he led into the valley in 1864. Another pioneer who entered the same year was James Bridger, 1 one of the best-known guides, fur 1Of all the men who renounced the conventionalities of civilization and cast their lot with the fur traders and trappers of the West, one of the most remarkable was James Bridger. He was well known to almost every western explorer and settler in the first half of the nineteenth century, but there are few written records of the man himself St. Louis in 1812, and so the boy grew up in the stirring atmosphere of romance and adventure of what was then the very edge of the t “Wild West.” It is therefore of little rials that at the age of 18 he joined a party under William Ashley to go to the mountains to hunt beaver for the Rocky Mountain Fur €o., which was organized in 1822 at St. Louis. By 1832 he had become a resident partner in this company and was generally and Indian traders of the time. In the years from 1822 to 1870 Bridger roamed the country from Montana to Mexico and from the Rocky eamaes to the Pacific coast, but his headquarters built by him on River, yo., generally known as Fort Bridger. It is 95558°—Bull. 611—15——7 said that he was the first white man to see Great Salt Lake (in the winter of ate but this statement has never been ful Caguenioubly Bridger played a m art in the exploration of the West, and his chief claim for rec will map out any portion of this immense region and delineate mountains, circular valleys, called wonderful accuracy.” in many of the Senedak streams, and feel with i has the hazy distance of a rapidly _— ae ; : Of James Bridger’s last years little is 98 GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES. traders, and scouts of the Rocky Mountain region from 1830 to 1870. His visit here is perpetuated by the names Bridger Range, Bridger Peak, and Bridger Creek. Recently an effort has been made to apply the name Sacajawea Peak to one of the peaks in the Bridger Range, in honor of the Indian woman who accompanied Lewis and Clark in their journey to the Pacific coast and return and who guided Clark through the Bozeman ass. The Bridger Range, which is a conspicuous feature from the vicinity of Belgrade, consists of the upturned edges (see fig. 17) of the rocks of the Great Plains and so is really the Belgrade. Front Range of the Rocky Mountains. On its east Elevation 4,467 feet. side are the Cretaceous and Jurassic formations that St Pani rdw raites, Were seen above Livingston, and the crest of the range is made up of the massive and resistant Madi- son and associated limestones of Paleozoic age. On the western i, > hy Gh YA AYA x \ ~ 7A i — < ; Ape eet ee A \ N ‘ me . = ¥ z - : ve te ‘ SYS 5 FIGURE 17._Upturned Madison limestone and associated rocks, forming the Bridger Range, Mont., king north, slope gneiss similar to that seen on the road to Gardiner and argillite (hard shale) and sandstone of the Belt series are exposed, but within a short distance these rocks are buried beneath the soft clay and sand of the Tertiary lake beds. The Gallatin Valley, like that of the Yellowstone and also other intermountain valleys of Montana, at one time in the past was occupied by a lake. Into this lake were washed clay, sand, and gravel from the surrounding uplands and volcanic ash blown out from the craters of active volcanoes in the vicinity. The ash had the appearance of white dust, being composed of fine particles of glassy lava. On account of the abundance of volcanic ash the sediments deposited in this lake have a light color, which is readily recognized even at a distance of several miles. _ At Central iris Pi ‘aged crosses West Gallatin River and on € lett 1s a beautiful rolling upland count , eve Central Park. acre of which is under Bi adh arid This upland Panation 4,324feet. 18 On the lake beds and rises toward the southwest, St. Paul 1,047 miles,. With the rise of the beds composing it, to a height of at least 500 feet above the railway. Near Manhattan (see sheet 16, p. 112) a branch line turns to the left (south) to GEOLOGIC AND TOPOGRAPHIC MAP NORTHERN PACIFIC ROUTE From St. Paul, Minnesota, to Seattle, Washington Base compiled from United States Geological Survey Atlas eets, from railroad ieee tos ad profiles supplied by rn Pacific Railw mpany and from —— seeks collected with the sseletainee of this comp: UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL sunee GEORGE OTIS SMITH, DIRECTOR David White, Chief Geologist R. B. Marshall, Chief Geographer 1915 with a name in parenthesis in the hicior ‘left cornet is i mapped in Sa on the U. S. G. S. Topographic Sheet of that n Sheet No./6 8b Th 1 Scale 500,000 Approximately 8 miles to | inch 5 a: eae rv . . + Low i. i Sooke ve 200 feet ELEVATIONS | St. Paul, Minnesota. ho: Bisco 611 19 3 40 1S 20 Kilometers” ¢ OR The crossties on the railroads are spaced | mile apart a EL.44 ee Perna @ o Sheet No, /4. EXPLANATION ; Thickness = in feet A Stream deposits (alluvium) and glacial drift Quaternary B White clay and volcanic ash (lake beds) 200 Late Tertiary C Dark sand shale, {Early Tertiary mainly voleanic — if 000 ML LEPC ae fe), a A og AC arfisop Base compiled from United States Geological Survey Atlas 5)\ eZ Sheets, from railroad alignments and profiles supplied by A Stree dépeaite tolltiviaw) OS the Northern Pacific Railway Company and from additional B Gravel, sand, and voleanic ash ; information collected with the assistance of this company dake beds) 000 Late Tertiary | Dark shale, (Colorado) 1,900 Upper Cretaceous UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY ctad teweieny | E 4 (Kootenai formation) 900 Lower Cretaceous } be, iaee 7? | GEORGE OTIS SMITH, DIRECTOR (Ellis formation) _ 400 Jurassic Maeria : : r : A Sandstone and impure limeston -; David White, Chief Geologist R. B. Marshall, Chief Geographer WE} ; The distances from St. Paul, Minnesota. id : Th he railroad: spaced | mile apart 12°s0° i 2° (Sheet Wo /6) THE NORTHERN PACIFIC ROUTE. 127 The Cretaceous beds dip gently in various directions, but in general they lie nearly flat and constitute the bottom of a great sag or syn- cline 15 to 20 miles wide. Although this syncline is flat and broad, it has been subjected to much minor folding or wrinkling, which locally has tilted the beds or even broken them, where the pressure has been more severe. The Cretaceous rocks are much softer than the older rocks, and weathering has reduced them to low hills and rounded slopes that are a marked feature of the topography in the vicinity of Garrison. At this vil- age the old main line is joined by the more recent line through Butte. LINE WEST OF GARRISON. Garrison. Elevation 4,344 feet. St. Paul 1,182 miles. The famous Deer Lodge Valley, which is so conspicuous on the Butte line, continues west of Garrison as far as Drummond, but for some distance it is not apparent from the train. When viewed from some commanding eminence the valley is distinctly outlined, but when seen from the river level the immediate bluffs conceal and obscure the background, so that the traveler will probably fail to recognize the broader, more open valley in the bottom of which the stream has cut its present channel. The broad valley is underlain by soft Creta- ceous rocks similar to those which border it on both lines above their junction at Garrison. As explained on page 115, the bottom of the valley bulged up north of the place where Garrison is now located. Clark Fork had already established a meandering course on the sedi- ments, filling the old lake basin, and when the bulge occurred the stream simply persisted in its old course, cutting deeply into the underlying harder rocks and preserving all its former sinuosities. The railway can not follow the swings of the stream, because they are too short, so it strikes straight through, tunneling wherever necessary. The St. Paul road lies near the Northern Pacific on the left. Halfway between mileposts 53 and 54 there is a sign on the left which calls attention to the fact that here on September 8, 1883, was driven the last spike that established the connection between the eastern and the western ends of the Northern Pacific Railway. The event was celebrated in an elaborate manner, and prominent people, including William M. Evarts (as orator), Henry M. Teller, Secretary of the Interior, and Gen. Ulysses S. Grant, were present. The com- pletion of the Union Pacific Railroad, in 1869, had been celebrated by similar ceremonies at Promontory, west of Ogden, Utah, and the gathering in Montana marked the completion of the second great transcontinental line. Since that time other roads have been con- _ structed across the continent without creating any marked attention, but these two roads were the pioneers and the completion of each was an event of nation-wide importance. 128 GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES. The rocks north of Garrison are mostly of Cretaceous age and cor- respond to the Colorado shale, which is exposed in the bluff south of Billings. At Billings the formation consists of dark shale containing many marine fossils, but about Garrison it is composed largely of sandstone, conglomerate, and tuff, and no marine fossils have been found in it. The kind of material composing the formation and the character of the fossils indicate shore conditions and fresh or brackish water, instead of the salt water that prevailed farther east. North of Garrison the Cretaceous rocks are cut by igneous rocks that have been forced up through them in great masses and in narrow dikes. The most prominent igneous mass that can be seen from the train is one that crosses the track at milepost 56. This rock has been quar- ried for material with which to riprap the slopes of the roadbed where it is washed by the stream. At milepost 57 there is a high, rocky wall on the left composed of sandstone in which there is the standing stump of a tree. It is now silicified but remains as a mute record of a time, long ago, when this country, now so barren of tim- ber, was covered with trees several feet in diameter. About halfway between mileposts 57 and 58 is the mouth of Gold Creek, the creek upon which gold was first discovered in Montana.! The placers are at Pioneer, 5 miles up the creek, and it is reported that at least $12,000,000 has been taken from them. They are still producing ina small way. Cretaceous rocks form the surface here, but they are generally soft and give rise to low hills and gently rounded slopes. At the station of Gold Creek the valley floor merges into the rolling upland that stretches far northeastward to the foot of the Garnet Range, which is composed of Paleozoic lime- stones and quartzites. At milepost 61 the valley widens, and 2 miles farther west the harder rocks disappear and the valley floor and the slopes are composed solely of the lake beds, which mantle all the older formations. The lake beds continue to milepost 68, where the Cretaceous rock is again visible on the north. Litas Population 730.8 St. Paul 1,187 miles. 4 J it 4 » Oe! _. But ered in Montana i in 1852 by a half-breed named Frangois, but better known to his associates as Benetsee. his return from the gold fields of California Benetsee began pr ospecting on on what is now known as Gold Creek, in Powell County. He , but did not obtain with the Indians, visited Gold Creek and found more gold than Benetsee had been able to obtain, but not enough to induce them to remain Desultory pr cspecting was done in the years following the visit of this party, but without any definite result until 1862, placers of Alder Gulch, at Virginia City (1863), and Last Chance Gulch, at Helena (1864), were discovered overshadowed the deposit on Gold Creek that it was almost forgotten. ed, and these so far THE NORTHERN PACIFIC ROUTE. 129 Drummond lies at the mtersection of two very broad, flat valleys, one along the main line of the Northern Pacific and ey en the other leading off to the southwest along a branch Population 383.* line running to the mining district of Philipsburg. St. Paul 1,200 miles. These valleys are filled with lake sediments, which show that a great lake existed here in Tertiary time. In the region above Drummond the rocks form a great flat syncline, with the Cretaceous occupying a wide area in the middle. In this central region the rocks were only slightly disturbed, but near Drum- mond, on the margin of the basin, the rocks are thrown into great folds which carry the limestone and quartzite beds of the Carboniferous and Devonian high into the mountain tops. In fact the Garnet Range consists of a series of such folds, trending in a northwesterly direction, which become more and more complicated toward the northwest. Clark Fork cuts into the foothills of the range west of Drummond, and the great folds can be seen and studied from the moving train. From Drummond the railway follows closely the axial line of a large syncline for a distance of about 7 miles. The youngest rocks exposed Drummond. porte - FIGURE 28.—Diagram of fold west of Drummond, rg Fork flows near the middle of a great basin, and the Madison limestone is folded back upon itself in the hill on the south. in this trough are the bright-red and maroon shale and sandstone of the Kootenai. The rim of the syncline is formed of the Madison lime- stone, which 3 miles west of Drummond forms conspicuous cliffs on the south and can be seen on the north in the tops of the high wooded hills about 2 miles distant from the track. gt To a point about 3 miles below Drummond the valley is still called the Deer Lodge Valley, but at that point the walls close in, especially on the left, and thence down to Missoula it is known as Hell Gate Canyon. It is probable that this name originated in the vicinity of Missoula, but it is now applied to the whole of the canyon. At the entrance to the canyon, near milepost 74, the Madison lime- stone caps the high hill on the south and makes a picturesque setting for the stream and valley at its foot. This cliff can best be seen from & point near milepost 75 late in the afternoon, when the slanting rays of the sun bring out every detail of the towers and pinnacles of the ed cliff. The limestone appears to lie horizontal, just as 1t was laid down on the bed of the ocean, but when studied carefully it 1s found to be turned completely over, as shown in figure 28. The over- 95558°—Bull. 611—15——_9 130 GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES. turning of the side of the syncline was probably produced by a strong thrust from the southwest which not only caused the rocks to fold in the form of a trough, but continued and pushed the rocks composing the side of the fold far toward the middle of the basin. Below the cliff of limestone the stream is very tortuous, winding from side to side of the synclinal basin in which it is flowing. The railway originally followed all the crooks and bends of the stream, but now it pursues nearly a straight course, cutting through the points and bridging the stream, or diverting its course where diversion could be accomplished readily. The deep cuts across the projecting points in the bends of the stream afford an excellent opportunity to see the dark-red shale of the Kootenai formation, which is exposed in the middle of the trough. At milepost 79 the river, accompanied by the railway, turns to the southwest and cuts across the rim of the syncline, which is made up of hard, massive limestones and quartzites (Carboniferous). As these rocks always make rugged and picturesque canyon walls, it is well for the traveler who wishes to obtain a good view to be ready, as it takes only a minute or two to pass through the interesting part of the gorge. Just below milepost 79 the railway crosses the Quad- rant quartzite, which makes little showing on the hill slopes. This is soon passed, and then the massive layers of the Madison come into view. As the course of the road changes more toward the north- west, the limestone beds can be seen rising in great cliffs on the left, but beyond another bend to the west they appear in all their rug- gedness in the wall on the right. The limestone, stained red or rather splotched with red, rises on both sides to a height of 500 or 600 feet; and the rock is carved into the most fantastic shapes, such as pillars, needles, towers, and minarets—in fact almost every form the imagination can*conceive. The combination of rugged forms and striking colors gives to this canyon a character of its own that would be hard to duplicate in any other region. The limestone on the southwest rests against a mass of lava (andesite), which covers much of the country southwest of the river and is exposed in its bluffs in the vicinity of the next station, Bearmouth. Opposite Bearmouth a small stream, Bear Gulch, enters the river from the right. Here gold-bearing gravel was discovered in October, 1865, by a party under the leadership of Jack Rey- Bearmouth. nolds. In the two years following its discovery ae produced $1,000,000, and later the yield was St. Paul 1,210 miles, Inereased to many times that amount. The placers are no longer worked, but it is said that gold-bearing quartz veins have been found which may some day bring new activity to this region. THE NORTHERN PACIFIC ROUTE. 131 West of Bearmouth the lava forms the walls of the canyon for a distance of 2 miles to the mouth of Harvey Creek, a small stream entering the river from the south. Opposite and a little below the mouth of this creek there is a syncline extending to the northwest. The rocks in the middle of this basin are the red shale and sandstone of the Kootenai, rimmed about by lower and older formations, the lowermost of which are the limestones and quartzites of the Carbon- iferous. About Blakeley siding and for several miles west of it the rocks on both sides of the canyon are red shale or argillite and red sandstone belonging to the Spokane shale (Algonkian). ‘This is the first appear- ance in the westward journey down Clark Fork of this red argillite, which makes most of the walls of Hell Gate Canyon from Blakeley siding to Missoula. Blakeley siding is well within Hell Gate Canyon, the principal highway by which the white man in the early days and the Indian before him crossed this mountainous region. The first permanent wagon road in this part of the country was built in this canyon in 1859-1862, and is known from its builder as the Mullan road. Its construction is intimately associated with the early development of the country, and a more extended account is given below.’ Pa ‘al Je Ay es Ye 1 Hell Gate Canyon is one of the great natural thoroughfares of the continent. Through this canyon the Flatheads and other tribes of the West journeyed to the plains annually to hunt the buffalo, and forays against their more peaceful neigh- bors on the west. In 1853, when the Government engi- neers were exploring the various passes 0. the Rocky Mountains to find the most should connect Fort Benton, then the head of navigation on the Missouri and the most prominent post on the east side of the mountains, with Fort Walla Walla, which was of equal prominence on the Pacific slope. Lieut. John Mullan was the most ardent advocate of a military road, but he was ably seconded by Gov. Stevens, the leader of the expedition. The location of such a road east of the so in 1854 Mullan explored three possible in defer to deteemine the best location. These were A) Clark Pork, _— shine Oreille was not then in existence); (2) the St. Regis and Cceur d’Alene valleys; and (3) the = trail. and Clark had already aaa over “the Lolo trail and had give Mullan, who devoted most of his energies to the other two routes. The route first mentioned, along which the Northern Pacific Railway was subsequently built, was partly explored by Mullan in 1854, but unfortunately the attempt was made in May, when the snow in the mountains was melting rapidly, — he had work ble on account of high water, so he rela Mullan then ‘explored the St. Regis and Coeur d’Alene valleys and decided that 132 GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES. Beyond Blakeley siding the canyon walls are composed of the Spokane shale (Algonkian), and its dark-red color is visible at many places. It is well exposed in a cut by the side of the road, at mile- post 87, in a projecting point known as Medicine Tree Hill. Soins. Paleozoic limestone and quartzite are to be observed on the right (north) at intervals for the next. 5 or 6 miles, and then the walls of the canyon are made up almost entirely of he: red Spokane shale. The Algonkian rocks are supposed to be the oldest sedimentary rocks eipoced in the Rocky Mountain region. Very few fossils occur in these afforded the best route. In select- rugged nor difficult of _ access, but he on this exposed mountain pass. That i in later years he regretted this ne is shown by the following statem yi have always exceedingly Fogel that it was my fortune to examine this route [Clark Fork] at so unfavorable a period, for I have been convinced by later data that it possessed an importance, both as regards climate and railroad eenite enjoyed by no other line in the R Mountains b 49°.”” The building of the Northern Pacific Railway down Clark Fork seemed to justify his conclusion, but it must be remembered that at a later date this same company built a branch road over almost e exact route selected by Mullan up St. Regis River, and that only a few years ago the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul ong same route. This all goes to show that railway building since the days of Lieut. Mullan, or even since the build- ing of the Northern Pac changed, and that no may be the controlling condition, bea coe of mountain incident. Although explorations = a military road were made and a route selected in 1854, actual aber tery was delayed several years. Mullan was on the ground ready to begin work in that year, under general orders from the War Department, but trouble with the Indians 3 throughout eastern Oregon and vented, and he passed another year with- out accomplishing any work on his favorite projec In March, =i Congress appropriated $100,000 for the construction of the road, and work was begun by Mullan at Walla Walla to the Coeur d’Alene Valley. The first year the road was cleared, so as to be passable by wagon, from Walla Walla to the headwaters of the St. Regis. The next spring Mullan began work where it was stopped the previous autumn and pushed the construction up Clark Fork to Missoula and then up Hell Gate Canyon ras Garrison. From this point it followed Little Blackfoot River along the original line of the Northern Pacific to Mullan Pass, down on the east side to the vicinity of Helena, and thence north to Fort Benton. By the end of the season the party reached the eastern terminus, bat i: is needless to say that this er and much work was needed betes it was really passable. The summers of 1861 and 1862 were spent by Mullan in going back over the line building bridges, making cuts where the canyons were narrow, and relocating the road about Coeur d’Alene Lake, where the ground proved to be soft and marshy. The road thus built had a length of 624 miles through the roughest part of the Rocky Mountains and cost $230,000. It was never used to any extent for mili- urposes and soon fell into decay, except where it was kept up by the local authorities. About 20 years later it was supplanted by the Northern Pacific ailway. THE NORTHERN PACIFIC ROUTE. 133 ' them, but those that have been found are fresh-water forms, indicat- ing that the sediment forming the rocks was deposited in a lake or lakes. Many of the beds of sandstone are beautifully ripple marked, show- ing that the water in which the sand was deposited was so shallow that the waves piled up the sand in ripples or ridges. They also show cracks, indicating that at times the water receded, allowing the material composing the bottom of the lake to dry and crack irregu- larly, as mud deposited along a stream to-day will crack when it dries. Another indication of shallow water, or of no water at all, is the preservation of the prints of raindrops, which, after the millions of years that have elapsed since these rocks were mud on the shore of some lake, indicate the direction from which the storm came that drove along the coast. This may not be of great importance, but it illustrates how well nature has preserved the record of events of that far-off time, if only we will learn to interpret it. The Spokane shale is well exposed in the portals of the tunnel between mileposts 94 and 95 and can be seen to good advantage from the observation car. From Bonita to Missoula the Bonita. walls of the canyon are steep and high but not particu- Elevation 3,594 feet. arly rugged. They are composed almost entirely of 27 myn rt Spokane shale, which supports a much heavier growth of pine trees than the other formations. This is particularly noticeable on the south side of the canyon, or on the northward facing walls. The difference in the vegetation on the two sides is due to the difference in the amount of moisture conserved. The northward facing slope is not exposed to the direct rays of the sun, and hence the moisture in the soil is not readily evaporated and trees thrive better than they do on the opposite side. Below Clinton the character of the canyon is much the same as it is above that place. The hills range from 1,500 to Clinton. 2,000 feet in height above the stream, and the Elevation 3,490 feet. slopes are everywhere strewn with the débris of the St. Paul 1,231 miles. red shale of the Spokane. Bonner (see sheet 19, p. 144), at the mouth of Blackfoot River, is noted for its lumbering industry, being the location Bonner. of some large sawmills. The river has been dammed Elevation 3,321 feet. elow the mouth of the Blackfoot, affording about oe 4,000 horsepower, which is converted into electricity and transmitted to Missoula and the towns of the Bitterroot Valley. : At Bonner the traveler again comes upon the route of Lewis and Clark, for on his return trip Lewis ascended Hell Gate Canyon as far as this point and then turned to the north up Blackfoot River. Six 134 GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES. miles west of Bonner, Hell Gate Canyon terminates abruptly,’ and a short distance beyond this termination is situated the flourishing town of Missoula From the station at Missoula a good view may be obtained of the steep side of the valley, which rises like a mountain on the east. The knob north of Hell Gate Canyon is Jumbo Mountain, and the larger mass south of the canyon is University Mountain. The slopes of these mountains are free from trees and brush, and on looking closely it will be seen that they are marked by many horizontal lines (fig. 29) which become very prominent when they are covered by a slight fall ofsnow. These lines have attracted gen- eral attention, and many theories regarding their origin have been sug- gested. Some have sup- posed that they are stock trails, but it is now gener- ally agreed that they are undoubtedly beach lines cut by a body of water that occupied the broad valley in which Missoula is situ- ated and also many other valleys in this part of the mountains. According to the markings on the valley walls, the water must have been nearly 1,000 feet deep where Missoula now stands.2 Missoula, one of the most important towns of western Montana, is situated on a broad plain at the lower end of Bitterroot Valley, which extends southward for a distance of at least 75 miles. It is the junc- tion of a branch line of the railway which runs up the Bitterroot Valley to Stevensville, Hamilton, and Darby. At Missoula is located the University of Montana, and a little below the town, on the opposite ' The east wall of the valley at Missoula is so abrupt and regular that it at once Missoula. Elevation 3,223 feet. Population 12,869. St. Paul 1,248 miles. FIGURE 29.—Horizontal beach lines on Mount Jumbo, as seen from railway station at Missoula, Mont. they are continuous along both sides of the valley, is the depression of the block suggests a fault—that is, the mountain has tain have been raised or those on the east depressed, forming the long, straight Bitterroot Valley. The effect of the movement on these. two fault planes, if of strata between them forming the floor. of the Bitterroot Valley, as illustrated in figure 23 (p. 112). As the hard rocks under the valley are poorly or not at all , the evidence of the fault at Missoula is to be found only in the topog- raph: oO y. * The horizontal beach lines that are s0 well shown along the railway at Missoula, in the Jocko Valley, and at Plains, below Trout Creek, in the valley of Clark Fork, BULLETIN 611 SHEET No. 18 MONTANA i Scale 500,000 Approximately 8 miles to | inch 5 \ ff ae 113° 112° me 0° ea ae i 2 15 20Miles os i A. - An ie . - rt ‘ mY - rt “ 5 pip me ce _. lL CANADA | ad] lometers Ms ERE | ote eo el a ! < ‘ — Contour interval 200 feet . %, \ ELEVATIONS IN FEET ABOVE MEAN SEA LEVEL MHelmville oie \ ) The dist from St. Paul. Minnesota h 10 mi . 2 \ The crossties on the railroads are spaced | mile apart ~ s ; o Kalispell - # | Great Falls ike Lae vot Le 7 See Ss i es A WO 7 & o 47 Q Za 4 SS >. o@ ; 3 . 77) - v ' oo PS 2 j mf t : on hale 46 48] es X / a a pe as pe > EXPLANATION y Z eZ i A Stream deposits (alluvium) Z, 2 1 alluvium AZ ee ae B_ Clay, voleanic ash, and sand (lake beds) 158 C_ Shale and sandstone (Colorado formation) eS D Red shale and sandstone (Kootenai formation) 1,500 Lower Cretaceous mpure limestone and quartzite ( se ormation) 430 Jurassic Le j ™~ LLOWwS & ~~ re : Sandstone and impure limestone (Quadrant \ Susp ¢ 23 INATL PARK H formation) 800} Carboniferous ‘oe oe oo \| Massive blue limestone (Madison) 1,000 et wna er Lan I | K Limestone and shale 2,700 oo wonian : — Ti ead se L_ Red sandstone and shale (Spokane oy - formation of the Belt series) 3,000 Algonkian e MAP OF WESTERN MONTANA, SHOWING DISTRIBUTION OF KNOWN TERTIARY LAKE BEDS THESE TE THE FORMER PRESENCE OF MANY SMALL LAKES OR A FEW LARGE LAKES WITH NUMERC ‘poe ; BRANCHES EXTENDING INTO THE MOUNTAIN VALLEYS Q va flows,. basa t R_ Lava flows, rhyolite S Granite, intrusi T Lava flows, andesit d dacit > Diorite, intrusive Ry 0 at z iy Xi - 13°30 ‘moar sod ENGRAVED AMD PRINTED Sy THE US aEmLOciCcA. SURVEY THE NORTHERN PACIFIC ROUTE. 135 side of the river, is Fort Missoula, one of the principal military posts in the mountain region. and also off the railway in the Bitterroot Valley and across the divide north of Ravalli were undoubtedly formed by a continuous body of water that at some recent geologic date occupied these val- leys. On account of the excellent devel- opment of the beaches of this lake at Mis- souls. it has been named Lake Missoula. (See map on sheet 19, p. 144.) Lake Missoula must have occupied the valley at a very recent date, for the faint would have been entirely re ever, although it was geologically recent, it existed many, many years ago, probably long before the eect to roam over these hills and m Lakes are ‘ieee ease and are due to some interference with the normal d + 4 nf} | 4 + of tha region, What then occurred in this region to change the drainage and to cause the ponding of the streams at Missoula to a depth of 1,000 feet? The altitude of the highest beach line that has been observed is about 4,200 feet at Stevensville, in the Bitterroot Valley south of Missoula, and as the altitude of Missoula is about 3,200 feet, the depth of the water must have been about 1,000 feet When the beaches are traced north- ward and westward, they are found to terminate just in front of the southern- thus show a definite relation to the ice front and as they seem to correspond in time with the glacial epoch, it seems alto- gether probable, if not certain, that Lake Missoula was due to the damming of Clark Fork by the ice. The great ea that swept down from Canada at this time are known to have occupied all the mountain pth e which : range from a few hundred to per- haps thousands of feet. One lobe of this mass of ice came down the Flathead Val- ley as far as the Northern Pacific Railway Dixon, and another down the broad valley from Bonners Ferry, on the Koo- not they were also filled with ice, but it seems probable that at least some of them afforded avenues for the southward flow of small tongues of ice nearly or quite to Clark Fork All the evidence points to the conclu- sion that the main valley of Clark Fork in the vicinity of Pend Oreille Lake was effectively blockaded by the ice, and that the low valleys to the north were shut off as avenues of escape for the waters of the upper valleys. Such a dam would nec- essarily be inconstant, allowing the depth of water to fluctuate considerably, and consequently many shore lines would be cut on the rocks; but none of them would y marked, as the water was not held long enough at ag one level to per- mit deep cutting. shifting of the positions of the 5 ice lobes would also tend to produce a — level of the outlet and a correspondi level of the surface of the water, As the grew thinner and thinner and shrank in a co nding at last the present outlet was opened and the water disap Although the gen neral Missoula is about as! sketched, a nae of fications: may be necessary when the > final history of the lake is written. The most difficult to harmonize with the thoary of the beach lines in the several valle eys. Thus at Stevensville, in the Bitterroot Valley, they extend up the valley wall to an altitude of 4 200 feet; north of Dixon to 3.950 feet; at Plains they can be traced up altitude of 3,100 feet, but above ‘hed tral Sa oem Trout Creek they apparently : cease at 3, sol and on St. Regis River 136 GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES. The first permanent settlement in this region was made in 1841, when Father De Smet founded the Mission of St. Mary at the point where Stevensville is now located. He established the mission for the Salish or Flathead Indians, who then occupied the valley but who later were transferred farther north to a reservation which is crossed by the Northern Pacific in the vicinity of the towns of Ravalli and Dixon.’ Father De Smet was joined in 1843 by Father Anthony Ravalli, who labored faithfully with the Indians throughout a long and busy life. These two priests had great influence on the early settlement of this region, and their services have been commemorated by the naming of towns in their honor. It was to the entrance of the canyon above Missoula that the name Hell Gate was first applied. The Blackfeet Indians, residing on the plains east of the mountains, were noted fighters; and many were the forays they made through this canyon on the more peaceful Flatheads on the west. The French traders and trappers, on account of the devastation wrought by the marauding parties that emerged from the mouth of the canyon, called it Porte d’Enfer, which may be translated Hell Gate. The isolation of Missoula in the early days and its distance from the outside world are well illustrated by the slowness of returns from some of the elections; thus it is reported that the settlers in the Bitterroot Valley who voted in the presidential election of November, 1856, did not know the result until April, 1857, when an Oregon paper describing how Buchanan had been elected was brought into the valley. no beach lines have been found, but ex- identified, and it is possible that some of tensive terraces that probably record the height of the water and should be corre- developed at Haugan and Saltese, at an altitude of 3,450 feet. It is true that some of these altitudes have not been accurately deter- mined, but there seems to be a gradual decrease in the altitude of the terraces toward the northwest that indicates a by the recent canyon cut by Clark Fork een ula and the mouth of St. Regis River. Glacial Lake Missoula had so transient an existenca that very little of the sedi- ment deposited in its waters can now be the sand and clay noted as Tertiary lake beds were laid down in Lake Missoula. ? Oregon, which was Missoula, Mont. By an act of Congress approved March 2, 1853, the Territory of County, which had included this region, was divided, and Missoula County was organized, with the county seat at the store of Worden & Co. Mi County remained in Wash- ington Territory until Idaho was organ- ized, on March 3, 1863, when it became ization of Montana, in 1864, Missoula County became a part of that Territory. THE NORTHERN PACIFIC ROUTE. 137 As the train leaves Missoula, the traveler can obtain on the left (south) a good view of Lolo Peak, a high summit of the Bitterroot Range, which lies south of the Lolo trail that played so important a part in the early exploration of this country. He can not, however, see much of the Bitterroot Valley, for the view is obscured by some low hills on the south side of the river. The railway runs through a broad valley, with low, rolling hills on the right composed of Tertiary lake beds in which, near milepost 121, low-grade coal is being mined in a small way. The faint beach lines of glacial Lake Missoula, which are so prominent on the side of Mount Jumbo, can be followed with the eye along the north side of the valley for several miles. At De Smet, 7 miles west of Missoula, the road branches, one line turning to the left (west) and following Clark Fork to Paradise, with a branch across the mountains to the Coeur d’Alene De Smet. mining district, and the other, the old main line, yong sharply to the right and reaching Jocko cca ' Valley through the Coriacan Defile. This narrow pass is reported to have been an Indian highway and it takes its name from Chief Coriacan, of the Flatheads, who was surprised and killed here by the savage Blackfeet. The railway winds around the hills, through cuts in the Tertiary lake beds, and passes over the Marent viaduct, which has a height of 226 feet. It continues up through a narrow gulch Eyare. in the Belt series until finally it reaches a broad flat Elevation 3,971 feet. gt Evaro, near the summit of the ridge. This place St. Paul 205 miles vas formerly on the boundary of the Flathead Indian Reservation. A few years ago each Indian was allotted a certain amount of land, and the remainder of the reservation was thrown open to settlement. On this summit and in the descent on the farther side the road runs through the pine forest that formerly covered much of the country, but it soon emerges into the broad, flat Jocko Valley, in which there are some fairly good farms. At milepost 16 an excellent distant view can be obtained of the terminal moraine which once marked the extremity of a small glacier that descended from the canyon in the range to the right. The plan of the moraine can not be seen from the train, but close inspection would show that the ridge of rocky fragments comes down from the canyon wall on one side and loops around and unites with the wall on the opposite side of the creek. As can be seen from the train, the moraine is built up to a height of about 100 feet. The mountains on the right (east), though not so high as the Mission Range, which can be seen farther on, are steep and rugged, towering above the valley to the height of several thousand feet. 138 GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES. Arlee is one of the towns that have begun to grow since the reser- vation was thrown open to white settlers. It lies in Arlee. a broad valley containing rich agricultural land and Elevation 3,094 feet. will doubtless in time become an important farm- St. Paul 1,276 miles. ek : ; ing center. A familiar scene in this valley is shown in Plate XIX, A (p. 119). Just below Arlee faint beach lines can be seen on the right (east) near the base of the hill, and a short distance farther on a terrace of fine light-colored sediment is prominent on the same side of the road. This terrace can be followed with the eye as far as the canyon by which the river escapes from the valley. It is composed of brownish clay and sand and is supposed by some to be the sediment deposited at the bottom of Lake Missoula, or it may have been deposited by the present Stream when it was ponded by a greater volume of water flowing down Flathead River from the melting glaciers to the north. The broad valley in which the railway is situated is surrounded on all sides by rocky walls, through one of which the stream draining the valley has cut a deep gorge. Such a basin is seldom, if ever, produced in the normal development of a stream, but is common in the moun- tainous part of Montana. It is Supposed to have been formed by the depression of the bottom of the basin, thus leaving the walls standing high above the valley floor. — The rocks exposed in the walls of the canyon belong to the Belt series and consist largely of quartzite and argillite. In many pro- tected places in the canyon the white sand and clay deposited by the flooded Flathead River can be seen, showing that this body of water filled not only the valleys where they are wide, but also the narrow canyons connecting them. At Ravalli the valley is narrow, but the hills are smooth and com- paratively low. A stage line runs from this place north 30 miles to Polson, at the lower end of Flathead Lake, where aa oe connection is made with boats for Kalispell and other St. Paul 1286 mites, Wns on the Great Northern Railway. Ravalli is the distributing point for a large part of the Flathead Reservation. Much of the best land for agriculture lies across the \Ttis ible to account for the forma- i a Pre, tion of ie herta in this manner, but how GEOLOGICAL SURVEY BULLETIN 611 PLATE xXx VIEW DOWN FLATHEAD RIVER FROM KNOWLES, MONT emnants of terraces on both sides of the stream afford a pleasing contrast to the more ipged slopes above. Clark Fork enters tl v f 1 left. Photograph by Haynes, St. Paul, Minr U, S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY BULLETIN 611 PLATE XxI CABINET GORGE, IDAHO, Clark Fork here passes through a chasm whi t has cut in red shale and sandstone (Striped Peak formation). The gorge at its narrowest part is about 100 feet wide. Rocks dip gently to the right. Photograph copyrighted by Haynes, St. Paul, Minn, THE NORTHERN PACIFIC ROUTE. 143 Plains, formerly known as Horse Plains because it is situated in the midst of a broad prairie that was used as a pasture ground for Piiiis horses belonging to the trading posts of the Hudson’s Elevation 2,182 feet, -P2®Y Co., is a sort of oasis in the desert of rocky Population 481. canyons along Clark Fork. Here the valley opens St, Paul 1,825 miles. and terraces are well developed, especially one about 170 feet above river level. East of the station the terrace shows on the north, but west of the town a large remnant of the terrace, equally well developed, can be seen across the river on the south. Fait beach lines also appear on the high, smooth hill slope back of Plains, but it is probable that the lines visible from the railway are not the highest in this region, the others being obscured by the timber and brush growing on the higher hills. One of the most striking features of the valley of Clark Fork is the fairly regular succession of narrow canyons and broad valleys, without any apparent reason so far as the action of the stream is concerned. These changes are not due to differences in the hard- ness of the rocks, for as a rule all the formations of the Belt series have about the same degree of resistance to erosion; but they are due to great breaks or faults in the rocks. These faults have broken the crust of the earth into huge blocks, some of which have been raised, some lowered, and some tilted over so that one edge is very much lower than the other. These dropped or tilted blocks form the broad valleys, and the raised blocks or the upper edges of the tilted blocks have proved to be serious obstructions in the pathway of the river, which has succeeded in cutting only narrow canyons through them. This explains the broad valley at Plains and the narrow canyons which lie directly above and below that place. The breaking into blocks and then the tilting of these blocks into various attitudes seem to have been the movements that gave to this region its distinguishing In some of 1 Rast of the Mission Range the rocks are thrown into great folds or tilted along faults having a general northwesterly trend, but west of that range the struc- ture is less regular and the foldsand faults A ‘ Us , |e Magee ree d : structural features.! directions. As a rule, the rocks are not very severely folded, and most of the due to tension or stretching of the earth’s crust, but some of them are distinctly of ~ SS" Figure 320. do not have a common direction, as they do jarther east. In the area about the structure is broadly simple and yet is rendered complex in detail by faults and folds that trend in minor different | a way the overthrust type, d stresses of compression. 144 GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES. these blocks, as, for example, the one which lies between Plains and Thompson Falls (see sheet 20, p. 152), the rocks are slightly bent into broad, open folds. The structure in this block is repre- sented by figure 31. The rocks in sight east of Plains belong to the Prichard formation, which dips to the west and passes below water level, and at Plains the thin-bedded gray quartzite and argillite of the overlying (Ra- valli) formation come into view. This formation continues with fairly regular dip to a point about one-half mile beyond Weeksville. At this place the Newland limestone, overlying the Ravalli, appears, dipping in the same direction and at about the same angle as the TIT /. 77; Ny oe FIGURE 31.—Great folds in the rocks bet Plains and Thompson Falls, Mont. Ravalli. Within a short distance the dip flattens, and at milepost 15 is reached the point toward which the beds dip from both direc- tions; that is, the axis of the syncline. The beds here are nearly horizontal, but toward the west they begin to rise, and near mile- post 18 the Newland limestone disappears from track level, though still present in the tops of the hills, and the Ravalli Eddy. formation beneath it again comes into view. From =item this place past Eddy and Frost to the mouth of Thompson River, near milepost 26, the cliffs are made up of Ravalli rocks thrown into folds or wrinkles too small to be shown in the diagram (fig. 31). The walls in this part of the can- yon are probably more rugged and more nearly vertical than those of any other part of its course. Beyond Thompson River the dip of the rocks brings the outerop of the Newland limestone down from the tops of the hills (see fig. 31), zontal space after the movement than | In the region west of Missoula there they did before the faulting occurred, as | have probably been two principal move- shown by the diagram. An overthrust | ments—(1) a movement of compression, fault is generally produced by the break- | which threw the rocks into broad folds, ing ofafold. The fold and fault are due | the compression in some places, a8 in to compression in the earth’s crust, and | the Glacier National Park, being 8° the result of the movement is that the intense as to produce a great over- older rocks are shoved upward and for- | thrust fault; and (2) a movement of ten- ward over the younger rocks, thus giving | sion or stretching, by which the some- them an inverted relationship. Another what folded mass of rock was broken by result is that the faulted mass occupies | a great many normal faults, afew of less space than it did before the move- which are shown on the accompanying SHEET No. 19 114°30' m a CL bya RD ° é 25 30MILES a GLACIAL LAKE MISSOULA, HEMMED IN BY A BARRIER OF ICE ON THE NORTH cs OME wy Ba isi Fee Sp Tak boned 3 ANT! mort NOISSIIN ‘\ Lvragph ); \ ee ae wate Hoy, ; ’ sa pk, Ninenileg@n (lS htown Stream deposits (alluvium), Rivuler WS Be OPTED ce Shire, i wi OR owns giacial drift, and sediment SSE fae i at, 4 oe, eposited in glacial Lake Quaternary S Cyr s <8 Xe o Missoula ) SESS Sy SS Glacia! moraine . / + ' Clay, volcanic ash, and sand en (lake beds) 3,000 Tertiary S Red sandstone and shale =o Spokane formation) 3,800 i = Impure limestone (Newland) 4,800 & Q rtoit vA chal A (Ravalli quartzite) 2,500 ea yn Bluish-quartzite and shale Algonkian (Prichard formation) 8,000 f (Belt series) In places formations D, F, , and H, have not been separated an entire mass is called simply 1 Belt series / Scale 500,000 Diorite, intrusive Approximately 8 miles to | inch 10 TRAM FO betel pa Cree TY Re, SEE SA, MRM. cs Cee ous if. s+ » § © BS wiles “TO Contour interval 200 feet Se oe es ai oe * aorta gh ‘ Mt ea - . 2 | The crossties on the railroads are spaced | mile apart ww ns° 116"a0" ENGRAVED AND PRINTED BY THE U.S GEciacica: Sum THE NORTHERN PACIFIC ROUTE. 145 but at this place it extends for only a mile or so and is cut off by a fault that trends about N. 20° W. and crosses the railway near mile- post 29. As shown on the map, this fault separates the Newland limestone on the east from the Ravalli quartzite on the west. On approaching Thompson Falls the traveler can see on his right a hill, and, if his eyesight is particularly good, he may be able to detect on its summit a steel tower erected by the United States Forest Service. On this tower during the summer is stationed an observer, who with powerful glasses watches for forest fires. As he can. see on all sides for a distance of 50 miles, if the weather is clear, he is generally able to detect a fire soon after it starts and to notify the nearest ranger by telephone. Forest fires, especially such as swept through these mountains in 1910, not only burn a great amount of valuable timber but may also destroy towns along their pathway, with considerable loss of life. Under the present system ~ of observers on high stations and an efficient organization for fight- ing fire, the destruction of timber has been greatly reduced and the loss of life nearly eliminated. The town of Thompson Falls took its name from the falls of the same name, which were discovered in 1809 by David Thompson, the explorer and astronomer of the Northwest Fur Co. The water here falls 50 or 60 feet over resistant ledges of the Ravalli formation. It is estimated that with proper installation 40,000 horsepower could be gen- erated at this fall. A dam is now being constructed, and electric power is to be furnished to the mountain division of the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railway, 35 miles to the south. It is reported that any surplus power may be utilized in a similar manner by the Northern Pacific Railway. West of Thompson Falls the bluffs on the right recede so far from the river that the rocks composing them are unrecognizable from the train, but the Ravalli formation’ shows at railway level dipping Thompson Falls. Elevation 2,458 feet. Population 325. St. Paul 1,351 miles. 1 The northern Rocky Mountains are made up largely and in some places wholly of the formations constituting the Belt series. These formations consist of Helena, Mont., and hence are known as the Belt series. 95558°—Bull. 611—15——10 Very few fossils occur in the series, and those that have been found bear very with which they should be most closely related. The only traces of animal life so £ Be $4 aor < ; or ol | lites are a few fragments of a small crusta- cean and the trails of worms. The lime- stones are crowded with peculiar coral- like forms, which Walcott has recently determined to ge similar to ftha lakes the algse now growing i of New York. Walcott concludes from 146 GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES. toward the west, and across the river the Newland limestone is present in the tops of the hills. This formation appears to be flat, but that is because the traveler is looking at the edge of beds that dip directly away fromhim. This relation of limestone and quartzite to the river and railway holds in a general way from Thompson Falls to Noxon. t Kildee, near milepost 37, the railway crosses the river, and from this point to Trout Creek there are two lines; the ‘‘high line” keeps up on the bench away from the river and the “low line” runs near the stream. The latter affords many interesting views of the river, which flows in a gorge cut a hundred feet or so in the floor of the old broad valley. : a study of the fossils mentioned that the were deposited by rivers or in shallow lakes. The appearance of the rocks con- firms this view, for all of them, even in- cluding many of the thick beds of lime- stone, are ripple marked, showing that cracks and prints of raindrops, which could have been made only when the soft material was above water level and ex- posed to the drying effect of the atmos- phere or the beating of the storm. By piecing — measurements made in ed that the n ted and identified in the areas in which they have been stud- ied; but other parts have no character- istics by which they can readily be dis- tinguished, and consequently different workers have classified them in different ways. The two units most easily identified are the Newland limestone, which Wal- cott in the Belt Moun- tains, and se Peagens limestone, which ts occurrence at the cap- tal of the State, The general section orthern Pacific Railway, ac- cording to F, C, Calkinsand J. T. Pardee, is as follows: Formations composing the Belt series along Northern Pacific Railway. Thickness in feet. Helena: Limestone, dark blue or gray, weathering b ca ene greenish gray, or uartzi Spokane: Shale or argillite, with , all deep red... 1,500 Greyson (Striped Peak): Shale, dark gray or 8 See with some hi white quart 3, 000 Newland: SEwumtane: blue, thin bedded, but with some heavy- bedded buff layers , 200 Ravalli: Quartzite, with some dark bluish or shale.. 2,000 Prichard: Shale, dark bluish, in- terbedded with sandstone; base not exposed 8, 000 19, 700 The rocks of the belt series occur along the Northern Pacific Railway from the “aed Mountains on the east to Sand- n the west. In the eastern 1 part ¢ - mountain ranges, bat west of Bonita they are the only hard rocks to be seen, with the exception of a few intrusive masses, to Pend Oreille Lake. They form the tains of Glacier National Park and extend along the Rocky Mountains from the southern boundary of Montana, south of Butte, far into Canada, — a terri- tory about 500 miles long by 200 miles wide at the oe place THE NORTHERN PACIFIC ROUTE, 147 This part of the valley of Clark Fork was not seen by Lewis and Clark, but it was discovered soon afterward by the agents of the various fur companies, then exceedingly active in exploring new terri- tory, and later it was examined in detail by the Government engineers.! 1 Soon after the return of Lewis and Clark the adventurous agents and ex- plorers of the fur companies were engaged in examining every valley in the North- west for fur-bearing animals and selecting sites for trading posts on almost every navigable stream and lake. these advance guards of white civiliza- tion kept no record of their wanderings, but two of them, Alexander Henry an David Thompson, connected with the Northwest Fur Co., left excellent notes of their explorations and their dealings with the Indians in the northern United States and southern Canada in the early years o thenineteenth century. Alexander Henry was a fur trader with only one ambition, to further the interests of the Northwest country and the location of important places than those of almost any other man who traversed this region in the early days. The territory covered by these men was largely the same, but Thompson explored the region about Clark Fork and Pend Oreille cian while Henry was en- rade with the Indians at the head of the Columbia. In 1806 Thompson descended Kootenai River to about the place where the present Idaho-Montana line crossed that stream and proceeded southward along an old Indian trail across the Cabinet Mountains to Pend Oreille Lake. He reached the outlet of Clark oo into Pend Oreille Lak Sep and built This post he called al House, from the name of an Indian tribe. In the modified form of Kalispell this name to Pend Oreille Lake and Clark Fork. | Kullyspell House Thompson ex- plored the valley down past Sandpoint as far as Priest Rapids and up Clark Fork and Flathead River to Dixon, where the Flathead reaches the railway from the north. On one of these trips up the river he established another trading post near the falls that were subsequently named in honor of their discoverer. This post he eesh House, from the native . Afte E, ae g posts Thompson continued westward to the Columbia, and he was the first white man to pass down that stream from the mouth of Priest River to Pasco, where Northern Pacific Railway now crosses the river. Although the fur traders explored the valley of Clark Fork as early as 1806, their reports were made only to the officials of the companies, who no inte romoting settlement, and consequently the public had little information concern- this interesting region until it w examined by the Government calle ho in 1853-54 explored it thoroughly to find the best route for a Pacific railroad. In 1853 Lieut. R. Saxton passed this way on his route from the Pacific coast to the up Columbia River and across to Pend Oreille Lake, which he reached August 12. He found that, owing to the ~ steep mountains, it was impossible to pass around the south end of the lake, and he had considerable difficulty in Fork, but he found the route very rough and difficult, for the stream in many places swung so close to the bluffs as to make it necessary for the party to find a way over the rough mountain sides. After passing Thompson Falls and ascend- Flathead River to the site of Dixon, he summit 148 GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES. The railway, from the point where it crosses Clark Fork to Trout Creek, follows the outcrop of the Ravalli formation, which dips to the left; and it is probable that the hills on the left are composed of the next higher formation, the Newland limestone, but they are so far distant and so nearly covered with trees that it is doubtful if the traveler will be able to distinguish formations. Just beyond milepost 50 the train crosses Big Beaver Creek, a large stream joining the river from the south, and a little farther on Vermilion Creek enters from the other side. The valley of the Vermilion is particularly interesting, for at its mouth there is a marked delta, visible from the train on the high line, which is 320 feet above the present river level. This delta could have been built outlet, else more material would have been brought down, possibly enough to completely fill the valley of Clark Fork. At Trout Creek the hills on the south are composed of the Newland limestone, which dips toward the river at an angle of 40°. It is probable that this is the same belt of limestone as sevet Greek, that which was seen on the left at a point just below - St Paullgraie, Thompson Falls, and it is undoubtedly the same as the limestone which occurs on the south side of the valley as far as Noxon. A short distance beyond Trout Creek the river makes a decided bend to the left and swings against the bluffs on that side. The railway follows the river and at milepost 59 is close to the mountain side, which is nearly bare, having been swept clean of trees in the great forest fires of 1910. On one of these smooth slopes horizontal beach lines are visible. They can be identified up the slopes to a. height of 1,200 feet above the river, or 3,500 feet above sea level, but beyond that height no trace of such markings has been found. The THE NORTHERN PACIFIC ROUTE. 149 uppermost beach line here probably corresponds with the highest one observed near Missoula and Dixon and, as these beach lines were formed by the same body of water and therefore must have been horizontal, it is almost certain that the crust of the earth has been tilted since the disappearance of the lake, the surface about Missoula having been raised 1,000 feet above that at Trout Creek, as explained on page 134. Just beyond milepost 59 the roadway is cut in the base of a high cliff which is composed of Newland limestone lying nearly horizontal. The argillites and quartzites showing across the river and in the pyramidal island in the stream are vertical, hence there must be a fault between them which coincides in a general way with the course of the river. 4 Near milepost 67 a charming view is to be had of the cliffs on the south, which stand like a huge castle with battlemented walls. The Newland limestone is exposed almost continuously along the river from milepost 59 to Noxon and for some miles beyond. It is generally horizontal or dips slightly to the northwest. Noxon. Nearly opposite milepost 74 Bull River joins Clark eee eee ee seem the north. This tributary valley is con- oer ected by a broad, deep trench directly through the Cabinet Mountains with the valley of Lake Creek, affording in glacial time a direct outlet for the great mass of ice that kept crowding down from the northern country. In this great trench the ice at its maxi- mum was at least 2,000 feet deep. As soon as it emerged into the more open valley of Clark Fork it was reinforced by a large ice tongue that came down by Sandpoint and deployed up the Clark Fork valley. These two masses blended and filled the valley from Pend Oreille Lake to Noxon, forming an effective barrier across the pathway of* the stream. Behind this barrier the body of water known as glacial Lake Missoula accumulated. In its passage up the valley the glacier left abundant evidence of its presence and work by the scouring which the valley received, the scratches on the rocks, and the bowlders of granite and other crystalline rocks which it carried into this area, The bowlders were not only dropped upon the valley floor, but many of them were left stranded on the valley wall up to a height of at least 2,000 feet above the stream. Beyond Bull River there is little of interest for some distance. The valley walls are composed of Newland limestone, Heron, Mont. which dips gently downstream. Just beyond mile- ee post 87, 8 Tew miles west of Heron, the train crosses Paul 1,398 miles. 47, State line into Idaho, the boundary being indi- cated by a signboard. 150 GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES. To those who remember Idaho in their school geographies as a small pink block, shaped like 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 measure. It is divided into 33 counties, the smallest of which is half as large as the State of Rhode Island and the largest exceeds the combined area of Massachusetts and Delaware. Idaho covers an area of 83,888 square miles, divided principally between the Rocky Mountain region and the Columbia Plateau, only a small 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 by the Columbia mainly 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 west of the Idaho line the Newland limestone, which has formed the walls of the valley for the last 10 or 12 miles, dips below water level, and the quartzites of the Cabinet, Idaho: overlying formation (Striped Peak) appear. These Elevation 2,173 feet. rocks are so much harder than the limestone that St. Paul 1,404 miles, the river has succeeded in cutting through them only & nalTow, tortuous passageway known as Cabinet ’ Gorge (Pl. XXI, p. 143). The river pours its whole volume through a crooked defile not over 100 feet wide, and it is estimated that 40,000 horsepower could be developed here with the natural flow of the stream. The gorge is soon passed, so that those who wish to see it should keep a close watch on the right’ as soon as they cross the State line. Beyond Cabinet station as far as milepost 91 there are many a north-south direction. Farther west the rocks dip upstream, and at the railway bridge the top of the Newland limestone may be seen on the north bank of the river. THE NORTHERN PACIFIC ROUTE. 151 The village of Clark Fork is situated at the head of the delta which Clark Fork has built where it enters Pend Oreille Lake. Below the village the track winds about in the broad plain of Clark Fork. the river bottom, skirting shallow bays and swamps vathonsiky isecrs and winding among rocky islands that rise here and St. Paul 1,412 miles, there in the delta plain. The rocks are limestone (Newland), dipping up the stream toward the axis of the syncline, but about 2 miles from the village the whole of the limestone has risen above water level, and the underlying red argil- lites and quartzites (Ravalli) are exposed in the cuts. West of milepost 97 the traveler may get glimpses here and there of Pend Oreille Lake, but it is not until the train approaches Hope that an unobstructed view may be obtained. If it Hope. is a clear day, the waters ripple in the sunshine Elevation 2,087 feet. against a dark background of rugged mountains, ie eet) dl cae but if the air is hazy the lake seems to disappear in the distance between misty walls that rise on either side. One can but wonder what lies beyond that rocky gateway and long to board the little steamer lying at the dock and explore its remotest reaches. The broad expanse of water along the north shore is broken by several wooded, rocky islands that add greatly to the charm of the picture. The French term pend (pendant) d’oreille means literally earring and was doubtless given to this lake by the early French explorers on account of its peculiar shape; but some authorities say that the name was originally given to a tribe of Indians because of their cus- tom of wearing earrings and then was applied to the lake because these Indians inhabited its shores. The lake is about 50 miles long and from 2 to 15 miles wide, and it is said to be very deep. As it is long and narrow and lies between mountains 2,000 to 3,000 feet high, it must, if the reported depth of water is correct, occupy a canyon rivaling in size and depth the Grand Canyon of the Colorado, in Arizona. On the shore of the lake, near the place where Hope now stands, were once the main trails that led into the Kootenai country to the north. Over these trails supplies for the mining camps and goods for trade with the Indians were taken in and cargoes of precious furs brought out, but the traffic has ceased and the trails have become impassable. Hope is built on the side of a mountain so steep that its streets occupy levels 300 feet apart. It is important now as the site of a large sawmill and as a port for the small traffic on the lake. The rocks back of Hope belong to the Prichard formation, which extends for about 7 miles, but they are cut by many dikes of granite similar to the great mass west of Sandpoint. The rocks also show 152 GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES. greater metamorphism (changes due to pressure or to heat) toward this mass of granite, and on this account do not bear a close resem- blance to those of the same age farther east. Beyond milepost 111, west of Oden (see sheet 21, p- 160), the valley between the Cabinet Range on the east and the Selkirk Range on the west is a broad plain. Down this great valley a glacier once forced its way from Canada past Bonners Ferry and extended many miles south along the route followed by the Northern Pacific to Spokane. On approaching Sandpoint the railroad skirts the extreme west end of Pend Oreille Lake, but in this part of the lake the shores are generally low, and the view is not so striking as that Sandpoint. obtained from Hope. From Sandpoint the moun- —— tain slope on the opposite (south) side of the outlet pis panies miles, Of the lake, by reason of its gentleness and smoothness, is so different from those generally seen along Clark Fork, although composed of the same kind of rock, that it calls for an explanation. This long ridge does not rise abruptly from the water level at its north end, like the mountain slopes on the other side of Pe ae FIGURE 32.—Profile of mountain slope east of Sandpoint, Idaho, Ice moved in the direction indicated by the arrow and scoured the slope smooth, the lake, but rises gradually to a height of 2,000 feet above the lake. The profile as seen from Sandpoint is represented in figure 32. The explanation of the gentle slope is that the great glacier which once came down the valley from the north and which probably had a depth of more than 1,000 feet, passed far up on the slope of this mountain and possibly completely overrode it. This mass of ice, with its embedded rocky fragments, ground off all irregularities of the mountain side, leaving it a gently inclined slope from bottom to top. The direction of the moving ice is indicated on the diagram by the arrow. At Sandpoint the Great Northern and the Spokane & Interna- tional (Canadian Pacific) railways approach the Northern Pacific, but the Great Northern at its point of nearest approach is 2 miles from the lake and can not be seen from the train. South of Sandpoint the railway crosses the lower end of Pend Oreille Lake on a steel and concrete viaduct 4,769 feet long. From this viaduct may be obtained, if the day is clear, a comprehensive view of the mountains east of Pend Oreille Lake. The significant feature of this mountain mass is not its height or its ruggedness, GEOLOGIC AND TOPOGRAPHIC MAP NORTHERN PACIFIC ROUTE From St. Paul, Minnesota, to Seattle, Washington Base eee from United States Geological Survey Atlas Sheets, from railroad alignments and profiles supplied by the No orthern Pacific kine: Company and from a information collected with the assistance of this c = UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY GEORGE OTIS SMITH, DIRECTOR R. B. Marshall, Chief Geographer 1915 with a name in parenthesis in the eS. S: Tere David White, Chief Geologist ual tat carmer is oo in cae, on the U Shane of that na BULLETIN 611 SHEET No. 20 a 116 00° ‘-MONTANA-IDAHO | is fe chard = a Se Ke, % ee wi on 4 he ve Ay “TN EXPLANATION Thickness in feet Stream deposits (alluvium) and glacial drift E Red sandstone and shale a, Peak formation); probably equivalent to the — formation farther Quaternary f F jnpase limestone (Newland) 4, 800 G a _ shale (Ravalli craps yuartat 8,000 F (Belt serie H Blush quart sat ae orma = pieces Senna E, F, G, and H, have not been s sepa- fated and the le — is called simply Belt J J Granite, intrusive om i Scale 500,000 Approximately 8 miles to | inch Sheet No./9 4 he) See oh Soomro. eran 30’ _ Sh ee, Pa: Se, 20 % Contour interval 200 feet The di from St. Paul, Minnesota he The crossties on the railroads are spaced | mile apart Oo “oct Ss ae pe <, a ie ee oe eae ‘ e 3 ot aS aie Se 11600 OAD _ exoMayeo ate PRINTER By THe Le GEOLoGIcAL GLEY 153 THE NORTHERN PACIFIC ROUTE. but the evenness of its summits, as if the region were a vast plateau. As this is the country through which the westbound traveler has just come, he appreciates that such is not the case, but the moun- tains are made up of ridges of nearly the same height, the tops of which, at a distance, blend so as to appear like a flat-topped mountain. The even crests of such ridges and mountains are supposed to have been formed when the land was low lying and in fact nearly a plain (a peneplain).1_ At that time there were no mountains in this region and the surface was as flat as the prairies of North Dakota and probably much nearer sea level. For some distance after crossing Pend Oreille Lake the railway skirts the base of the mountain on the left (east), and the cuts through the low spurs reveal the granite in many places. On some of these ledges, even from the moving train, glacial striz (scratches in the bed- rock made by rock fragments embedded in the ice and forced along under enormous pressure) may be seen. The direction of these scratches is parallel with the a and shows that the glacier moved up the valley toward Spokan The railway crosses the valley, ouittinc through many knolls of gravel and sand deposited by a stream which flowed from the end of ' The constant tendency of almost all natural processes going on at the surface of the earth is to wear away the high land and to reduce the continent toward sea level. surface of the land would be reduced to a plain were there no counteracting forces at work. The forces that tend to inter- fere with the reduction of the surface of the earth are those that produce move- ment within the crust, for such move- ments are almost always accompanied by elevation at some point, and when this again. If, however, crustal movements do not occur for a long time, the surface of the earth is reduced nearly to a plain that stands near but not at sea level. Such a surface has been named a pene- plain (meaning ‘‘almost a plain”). In most regions the process of reduction in the past has been interrupted by the pee eg of those particular parts of the surface was greatly ca but in certain places the proc- ess seems to have been carried nearly to its limit and a peneplain produced. If after the formation of such a pene- plain the land is uplifted evenly over a wide area, the peneplain, instead of being near sea level, will form an upland or plateau. As such an elevated tract is always vigorously attacked by streams, canyons will soon be cut back from the edge of the plateau or from the mouths of the streams, and, as time goes on, these canyons will reach farther and farther back into the upland and new the fact that the region has lost its even surface, the hills or mountains will have, for a long time, about the same height,’ and their summits will be but little below the surface of the old peneplain. In other words, the country is a di plateau, but to an rg at a distance the even i the ridges still appear like the level Bal of the plateau. 154 GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES. the glacier during the retreat of the ice from its farthest southward extension. Near milepost 24 can be seen on the west a slope of massive granite that has been laid bare by the ice and has been smoothed and rounded by the same agent. Such bosses of rounded rock have been called by the French ‘‘roches moutonnées’”’ (sheep- back rocks), and this term has now come into common use in this country. All the indications thus far observed point clearly to the occupation of this valley by the ice. The small lakes which abound in the district afford still further evidence of the presence of a Cocolalla. glacier and the consequent rearrangement of all the Elevation 2,228 feet. drainage lines. Cocolalla Lake occupies a depression St Paul 1150 mites, emmed in by hills of gravel that was deposited by the ice or by water flowing directly from the front of the glacier. South of Cocolalla the valley is more or less swampy (another indication of a recently established drainage system), and the granite lies on the west. Farther south the granite can be seen on the east side of the track, hence it probably underlies most of the valley; but, if so, it is well concealed in places by glacial drift. The village of Granite is appropriately named, for the granite is well exposed there. A short distance beyond the station the railway crosses a high bridge over what appears to be a deep, Granite. irregular channel scoured out by the ice, and the es a knobs of granite, scored and rounded, rise about it in St. Paul i4s8imites, ll directions. After passing through a small tunnel in this rock, the train emerges into an open drift- covered plain strewn with bowlders of granite broken from the ledges near the tunnel and carried southward by the ice. Many of these bowlders are 20 feet in diameter, and they occur along the track for a distance of 7 miles from the village of Granite. Although there are many lakes in this general region, they can not be seen from the train for the reason that they are near the margins of the hills, whereas the railway keeps the middle of the valley. From a point near Athol there appears to be an opening in the mountain wall which bounds the valley on the east. In this break lies the upper or south end of Pend Oreille Lake. The lake is easy of access from this direction and small steamboats will take one to almost any place along its shores. Spirit Lake lies on the west side of the valley, and a little farther south is Fish Lake. The largest lakes, Pend Oreille, Hayden, and Coeur d’ Alene, are on the east and south sides of the valley. All these bodies of water have resulted apparently from the damming of the lateral valleys by sand and gravel brought down by the glacier THE NORTHERN PACIFIC ROUTE. 155 The Spokane International Railway approaches the Northern Pacific line on the right near milepost 43, runs parallel with it for some distance, and finally goes under it between mileposts Athol. 46 and 47, beyond Athol, and disappears on the left. Elevation 2,400feet. Originally this valley was covered with a growth of -Sghucepipir yer le scrubby pine and it was not supposed to be suitable for agricultural or horticultural pursuits, but m recent years fruit trees have been successfully grown, and now apple orchards stretch along the railway for many miles. Although the valley is continuous, there is a constriction near Lone Mountain and a division of the drainage. The water north of this place finds its way into the Columbia by way of Clark Fork, whereas that to the south reaches the same trunk stream through Spokane River. Near milepost 51 Lone Mountain is a conspicuous object on the right (west). It rises to a height of about 1,000 feet above the plain. To judge from the bare rocks exposed about its base, the ice has abraded its foot, but whether or not the glacier passed over its summit is an open question. At Ramsey, a station directly south of Lone Mountain, the rail- way is double tracked, the eastbound track diverging to the left, to unite again with the westbound track at Rath- oh apa drum, the next station to the west. In going west- Elevation2,s40feet- ward the train gradually approaches the mountain gic eee) mass on the right, and at Rathdrum it is only a few hundred feet from the foot of the hill. Here the rock is a schist, but whether the schist is of Archean age and therefore older than the Belt series, or whether it is the Belt, or some younger Rathdrum. formation greatly changed, is a question that has not Elevation 2,212 feet. been settled. At Rathdrum the Northern Pacific I raukinbe wake crosses over a new line—the Idaho & Washington Northern Railway. West of the crossing the railway runs near the hills on the north for a long distance, but on the left it overlooks the valley of Spokane River, which is spread out like a map before the eyes of the traveler. Most of the valley bottom is farming land, but some of it is too gravelly to be Hauser,Idaho. of much value for agriculture. The valley is par- ticularly beautiful as seen from a point a little west of Elevation 2,140 feet. Population 382.* Hauser. From Hauser a branch line runs to Post er Falls and Cceur d’ Alene, at the foot of Cceur d’ Alene Lake, and there is steamboatservice on the lake and railway connection 1 Schist is a rock in which a parallel or | in layers parallel to the cleavage. foliated structure has been developed by | may have been sedimen' shearing-or by pressure, a process gener- | igneous ally accompanied by more or recrys- tallization of the material composing it the rock is generally o 156 GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES. from its upper end to the Cour d’Alene mining district, described below by F. L. Ransome, and thence across the mountains to Missoula. Between mileposts 66 and 67 the railway crosses the line between the States of Idaho and Washington, the exact point being indicated by a sign at the roadside. 7 The State of Washington has a land area of 66,836 square miles, It was admitted to the Union in 1889. In 1910 it had a population of 1,141,990. Owing to its position on the coast, the first settlement in what is now Washington was made at a comparatively early date. The places to be occupied first were the posts of the Hudson’s Bay Co. Of these Fort Vancouver, on Columbia River, established in 1824, was the headquarters; and Forts Walla Walla and Nisqually were out- Washington. lying posts to the east and north, respectively. by value, about 85 per cent of Idaho’s annual output of metals, lies high on the western slope of that northward pro- longation of the Bitterroot Range which is sometimes called the Coeur d’Alene Northern ific swings n down the valley of Clark Fork and then westward by Pend Oreille Lake. From the east the district is served by a branch of the Northern Pacific which leaves the main line at De Smet (change at Missoula) and, following the old Mullan wagon road, crosses the range by a high pass at the head of St. Regis River. From Spokane, on the west, the traveler may oose an all-rail route via the Oregon- Washington Railroad & Navigation Co.’s a1 Lake, or he may proceed by one of three sGiLW oa ne, y Coeur d “Alene. at the north end of the lake, and there m Railroad & Navigation Co.’s Vashingto: line to Wallace, in the heart of the district, road across the tains 56 years ago. It contains almost no | arable land, and the timber, while good enough for mining purposes, would prob- ably not have been sufficient inducement to bring railwaysinto the region. Mining is the one paramount industry of the dis- trict, and upon it all others depend. Approximately 5,000 men are employed in the mines and concentrating works, and the total population of the district is estimated at 12,000. Wallace, the principal town and the seat of Shoshone County, contains 3,000 people and is situated at the confluence of Canyon and Ninemile creeks with the South Fork of Cceur d’Alene River. This n-Washington Railroad & Navigation Co.’s line from the west and the Coeur d’Alene branch of the Northern Pacific Railway from the east make it the chief distributing point of supplies for the distri Although the Mullan road passed through what is now the most productive part of the district, 20 years elapsed before anyone realized that the steep, thickly forested hillsides visible from the road concealed great deposits of lead- silver ore. It was not until 1884 that attention was called to the mineral re- sources of the region by the exploitation of the gold-bearing gravel and quartz veins on Prichard Creek, in the’northern part of the district. Discovery of the lead-silver veins on the South Fork of Coeur d’Alene River soon followed, and by 1888 these had overshadowed the gold THE NORTHERN PACIFIC ROUTE. 157 For a number of years the hunting and trapping of fur-bearing animals was the chief occupation, but gradually the forest was cleared away and farms established. From the necessity of getting rid of the heavy forest developed the lumber business, which from the earliest settlement down to the present time has been the leading industry of the State. In 1909 the value of the timber and lumber products was $89,000,000. Agriculture at first flourished only along the Sound, west of the Cas- cade Mountains, where rain is abundant; and the eastern, semi- arid part of the State was utilized only for the grazing of cattle, horses, and sheep. Recently much of the land in the Yakima and Wenatchee valleys and along the Columbia has been reclaimed by the construction of irrigation works, and now it is renowned the world deposits in productiveness and value. Since 1903 the district has produced con- siderable copper and of late years in- creasing quantities of zinc The production of Shoshone County (which is practically that of the Coeur d’Alene district) for 1913 was as follows: Gold, $81,749; silver, 9,337,109 fine ounces; copper, 5,097,894 pounds; lead, 296,740,946 pounds; and zinc, 21,415,565 pounds, valued in all at $20,767,410. The total value of all the metals produced in the district since mining b is ap- ductive of lead-silver ore during the past are the Bunker Hill and Sulli- gross value of about $11,000,000. The rocks in which the Ceeur d’ Alene ores are found belong to the Belt series. These beds in the Cceur d’Alene district ersed by great cracks or fissures along some of the deposits of ore, an uneven layer o rock, probably some thousands of feet in thickness, was gradually removed by the action of weather and s . This erosion exposed the once deeply buried | this district invariably contains some sil- luster associated with sociated with gal of the ore, is siderite (carbonate of iron). The ores, as mined, carry, as a rule, from 5 to 50 per cent of lead and from 3 to 45 ounces of silver to the ton. All but the highest grades are concentrated in the district, by milling, to a product containing about 50 per cent of lead and from 15 to 55 ounces of silver to the ton, 158 GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES. over for the quality of the apples produced. In many districts fruit raising has been carried to the extreme, and now there is a tendency to the greater cultivation of alfalfa and grains. One of the most interesting features of the agricultural development of Washington has been the transformation of the lava plateaus of the central and eastern parts of the State into great fields of wheat that stretch for miles without a break. The success of dry farming in this region made Washington one of the great wheat-raising States of the country. In 1909 its yield of wheat was worth $35,000,000, and its forage crops $17,000,000. Washington produces yearly metals valued at $1,000,000, but the chief mining industry has been and still is the mining of coal. Coal was first mined in 1860 in Whatcom County, and a little later near Issaquah, in King County, but shipment to San Francisco did not begin until 1871. Since that time many mines in several fields have been developed, and the industry of mining grew rapidly until it reached its maximum in 1910. It declined then because Wash- ington coal came into direct competition with the fuel oil of Cali- fornia. It is estimated that in 1913 fuel oil replaced 5,000,000 tons of coal in the markets tributary to Puget Sound. The value of the coal mined in Washington in 1913 was $9,243,137. The products of the State are valued about as follows: Manufac- tured products (1909), $220,000,000; agricultural products (1909), $103,000,000; mining products (1913), $17,000,000. Beyond the State line the railway continues along the north side of the valley, but the valley is not so wide as it is farther east. Apple orchards are numerous and in places extend along the track for miles without a break. Near milepost 76 the hills on the right (north), which are in plain view, take on a different aspect, and a close inspection shows that they are capped by a flat-lying mass of dark rock. This is the Yakima basalt, one of the principal lava sheets of the great Columbia River basalt which, together with that of nearly the same age in the Snake River valley of Idaho, constitutes one of the most extensive — lava plains in the world. The lava flooded all of central and south- ern Washington and large areas in Oregon and Idaho, and the traveler will see little else in the way of hard rocks from Spokane to the east foot of the Cascade Mountains. It flowed against the mountains on the east, and fiery streams extended up the valleys heading in this range. Although some of the lava lies east of Coeur d’Alene Lake, it 1s uncertain how far it went in the Spokane Valley, for it has been covered by the glacial gravel. The exposure just noted is the first to be seen by a traveler coming from the east. THE NORTHERN PACIFIC ROUTE. 159 Between mileposts 77 and 78, west of Irvin, the railway crosses Spokane River, the water of which is so beautifully clear that every object on the bottom is plainly visible. Near this point the military road constructed by Lieut. Mullan crossed Spokane River. This road entered the main valley from the southwest, east of the present city of Spokane, and then extended up the valley to Coeur d’Alene Lake. West of the railway bridge the surface of the country to the south is littered with large bowlders composed of many kinds of hard rock, which the ice brought down from the north. From their abundance it is supposed that these bowlders mark the point of greatest advance of the ice and are in the nature of a terminal moraine, although no distinct ridge or other characteristic topographic feature has been left in the valley, as is usual at the extremity of a glacier. Although the basalt covers most of the country in this vicinity, it did not engulf all the hills, for the highest knob on the north, Little Baldy, composed of schist, stood above the molten flood that rolled into this region from the west. The low hills on the left are com- posed wholly of basalt, which also shows near the river in the out- skirts of the city of Spokane. Here it can be seen at close range as the train passes through the deep cuts on its way to the station." 1 Spokane River has been beset by | time the stream was obstructed and its many difficulties in carving its present | valley greatly modified, but with the channel. At the time the great flood of | disappearance of the ice it again set to lava inundated the region, there was | work to carve a valley suitable for a evidently a deep valley here which was | stream of its size. Work was begun near flooded with the molten material. This | its mouth, but gradually its gorge has inundation did not come as one great | been extended upstream until the fall, wave, but doubtless flood succeeded | which marks the point where active flood with fairly long intervals between | cutting is in progress, has reached its until the lava was piled up to a great | present position in the city of Spokane. thickness, nearly obliterating the orig- | Here the river makes a series of plunges inal channels. over precipitous slopes of basalt. Orig- When the outpourings of lava ceased, | inally this formed a beautiful fall as the the water found an outlet in part along swirling waters broke against al a the old courses, but in most localities the | rocks in their d i plunges, but now eruptions changed the face of the entire the stream has been obstructed for the country, so that the streams were com- | third time by a dam, and the water has pelled to carve for themselves new valleys | been diverted by man for the production in the hardened lava. This process was | of power. The beauty of the falls is gone well along when the great glacier, laden with the rocky fragments it had plucked 4 from the valley walls, swept down the ' D valley. The materials carried by the glacier were distributed by the streams flowing from the ice front and scattered | J over the entire valley, filling it to the | ing mines and height seen to-day. Thus for the second ! district. 160 GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES. Spokane (spo-kan’) is a division terminal of the Northern Pacific Railway, and is the center of an extensive agricultural and mining region that is frequently referred to as the ‘‘inland Spokane, Wash. empire of the West.” A settlement was early estab- Elevation 1,919 feet. lished at this place, and in 1881 it was incorporated Population 104,402. as Spokane Falls, but later the second part of the name was dropped. The city is served by main lines or branches of all the transcontinental railroads crossing the States of Washington and Oregon, including the Canadian Pacific. Fort Wright, one of the more modern military posts of the Government, is attractively situated on the bluffs of the river just below the city limits, but is not visible from the train. On leaving the station at Spokane (see sheet 22, p. 164) the train runs down the broad valley for some distance, but not within sight of the falls, and then turns to the left up the valley of Latah Creek. Here there are extensive hillside cuts on the left, exposing beds of dark sand and gravel, which were evidently derived largely from the basalt and were washed into this side ravine by floods that came down the main valley. This is evident from the way in which the gravel is bedded.' The valley of Latah Creek, as well as that of Lake Creek, up which the railway goes, is marked by a number of well-developed terraces that were doubtless formed at the same time as or soon after the formation of the delta described above, and a correct interpretation of their meaning would throw much light on the conditions prevailing * Careful inspection shows that the sand and gravel is cross-bedded and that the St. Paul 1,505 miles. top of the bed A and laid down as a thin The main stream was then deprived of this dumping ground, for that was filled FIGURE 33.—Cross-bedding in glacial gravel on Latah Creek 1 mile west of Spokane, Wash. was deposited as a delta—that is, the material was washed into the side valley, then occupied by a lake, and at first was laid down on the slope AB. The point A marks the surface of the water, above which the material could not be piled. Additional material was carried along the to the same height as the river channel, so the gravel was dropped in the main valley, building it up to the height of D. At this new height the process was re- peated until the side valley was filled to the line DF and eventually to the high- est point the water reached, GEOLOGIC AND Nii aaa MAP NORTHERN PACIFIC ROUTE From St. Paul, Minnesota, to Seattle, Washington aa compiled from United States Geological Survey Atlas Shee railroad alignments a profiles supplied by the eihach Pacific Railway Company a rem additional information collected with the actin of this company UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY GEORGE OTIS SMITH, DIRECTOR R. B. Marshall, Chief Geographer 1915 David White, Chief Geologist name in parenthesis in the S. G. S. Topographic E. map w lower ‘left corner is nie in aes on “ U. Sheet of that name. SHEET No. 21 BULLETIN 611° ee ° - -_---- 11730 NT iolewi WASHINGTON | Gi? | | EXPLANATION Thickness | in feet | A Glacial outwash gravel and sand tern | B Lava flows (Yakima aoe Tertiary ae i limestone (Newland) 4,800) G Quartzite and shale “aval quartzite) 8,000 H_ Bluish piabaaar ess e (Prichard fo ba 8,000. Algonkian In places formations F, G, and H Spat secies) have not been ted and the — led simply Belt ] J ate gneiss, and schist >» Priest Riv fad { C's Olz ale <_ a Approximately 8 miles to | inch = \ ; _ 20Miles A Ee = i ty 1 o- , aS 10 iS ‘ 20 v4) 30Kilometers Contour interval 200 feet ELEVATIONS IN FEET ABOVE MEAN SEA LEVEL i f St. Pau] Minnesota. The crossties on the railroads are spaced ! mile apart rt { si it CO 4 as FE US .emousetcel suntey BNGRAVERO ANG PRNTES Ay THE NORTHERN PACIFIC ROUTE. 161 at that time, but unfortunately no one has studied them carefully enough to read their history in detail. The bedrock on all sides is the basalt, which consists either of hard, dense rock that represents the interior of a lava flow or the more scoriaceous material of the upper part caused by the expansion of steam.' Although the flows of lava were very extensive, either the molten material did not completely engulf the hills composed of older rocks, cr the lava that buried them has since been removed, uncovering the schist at the surface over small areas. Such an area can be seen on the left (east) just before reaching Marshall (see fig. 34), and there are yee ot de eae . ae el ih MAS 1 Ke er, ! we Tt LI fy) " pai 7 A a LEG re/ss or. caps ren Le etd ots oy) alan SRE? nya 05 ERs of old rocks in the midst of the flood of lava are found only near the mar- gins of the lava plain, where the depth of the once molten mate- rial was never great or where the underlying surface was particu- larly hilly. From Marshall a branch of the Northern Pacific runs southward to the Palouse country. Two other railways that run parallel with the Northern Pacific between Marshall and Spokane The nearer line is that of Figure 34,—Island of gneiss or schist in the lava (Yakima basalt) near Marshall, Wash. Marshall. can be seen on the right. Elevation 2,137 feet. the Oregon-Washington Railroad & Navigation Co. nie tance? geal and the other is the Spokane, Portland & Seattle St. Paul 1,514 miles. Railway. Just beyond milepost 98 the Northern Pacific crosses both these lines and continues on their right to Cheney, the next station. 1 Molten Java, as it issues from the earth, is always charged with steam. While the r lava remains underground the steam can | vertical, is the most universal and strik- not escape, but when the lava reaches the | ing structural feature of the basaltic flow. e pressure is relieved and the tly in size and steam expands and collects in bubbles, which rise to the surface and burst, giving off the clouds of vapor that always rise from a moving flow of lava. Many bub- bles, however, can not escape, and they become, as it were, frozen in the upper part of the flow, giving it a vesicular or honeycombed appearance, as can be seen from the train in many places. 95558°—Bull. 611—15——11 a tule pentagonal (five-sided) or hexag- onal (six-sided), and polygons of four, seven, or eight sides are also common. Columns, such as those described above, may be seen in almost every good ex- posure of the hardened lava. 162 GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES. Near Cheney a branch line turns to the north and runs to Medical Lake and Coulee City, in the heart of the Big Bend country, so called because it lies inside of the great westward bend of Columbia River. The two railways just mentioned lie only a short distance to the left, but beyond Cheney they bend to the east and can not be seen again from the Northern Pacific line, although they parallel this line to Columbia River near Pasco. Cheney is situated on the great lava plain of eastern Washington. Near the railway the traveler sees little but bare rock, but he can catch glimpses here and there of the low rolling hills that constitute the great wheat belt of this part of the State. The railway follows in a general way a slight depression in the surface, but the traveler may Cheney. Elevation 2,345 feet. Population 1,207. St. Paul 1,521 miles. Tyler. be surprised at riding over such a wide stretch of Elevation 2,301 feet. country without seeing any flowing creeks or even Population 421*, creek channels. In humid regions there is a creek channel in every valley. Even in the arid country of the Southwest there are established watercourses, which, though frequently or generally dry, take care of the occasional flood waters; but here there are only shallow irregular valleys, and no stream channels are to be seen. True there may be here and there, strung out in a more or less definite line, a series of shallow basins holding swamps or even shallow lakes, but these have no outlets above ground, and if they are connected at all the connection must be by an underground channel. It is evident that during most of the year there is little running water in this region, as the annual precipitation decreases from 18 inches at Spokane to 7 inches at Pasco. Most of this is absorbed by the soil,’ and the remainder finds its way into the open layers between the sheets of dense lava and reappears as springs in some neighboring canyon or coulee. A possible explanation of the peculiar scouring of the surface rocks into basins without any definite stream channels is that it was done by ice. This subject is more fully considered in the footnote given on page 163. St. Paul 1,532 miles. ‘F. C. Calkins states: ‘It [the soil] is | the water is held in them by adhesion so porous that rain or melted snow is quickly absorbed by it, so that a smaller proportion is | t by run-off or by evapora- tion from puddles than would be lost if it were more clayey and impervious, and, on the other hand, it is not loose enough to allow the water to sink rapidly and become unavailable, as it does in a deep sandy soil. The spaces between the particles of the fine loam are so small that or capillary attraction and yields to the force of gravity only slowly and to a com- paratively small extent.’? Therefore @ large proportion of the slight precipita- tion is kept sufficiently near the surface to be used by the growing wheat, and successful grain culture is possible with a rainfall that would be insufficient in a soil of less advantageous physical consti- tution. THE NORTHERN PACIFIC ROUTE. 163 At Fishtrap there are a number of small hills on both sides of the track which appear, to one familiar with glacial topography, to be of glacial origin. When examined closely they are found to be composed of light-colored clay or shale which is very different from the material deposited by ice. The peculiar hummocky form of the hills is due to the softness and fineness of the material composing them and to the peculiarities of erosion in a semiarid climate. Few if any watercourses are developed in the hills, hence they have no regular pattern or arrangement. ‘The rains are infrequent, only a few gullies are established, and the development of such gullies tends to produce isolated conical mounds rather than low continuous ridges, such as would be produced in similar material in more humid regions. é As the material composing these hills is fine and evenly bedded, it was probably deposited in a body of standing water, and as its age, so far as the evidence has been obtained, corresponds in a gen- eral way to that of similar beds (Ellensburg formation) in the Yakima Valley, it is considered to be a part of that formation. The bulk of the sediment deposited in this great lake was dropped near shore in the vicinity of the Cascade Mountains, and only the finer material was carried as far east as Fishtrap. This was deposited over the basalt in a thin sheet, which has been largely removed, leaving iso- lated outliers like those described above.’ Near milepost 123 there is some rough country that shows on a small scale the effect of erosion on the sheets of basalt. In a more humid region most of the sharp edges of the tables would be rounded off and the slopes would be gentle and regular, but in a semiarid country each remnant of a lava sheet or other hard bed of rock stands up sharp and distinct as steps on the hillside or as isolated tables or mesas on asmallscale. Thus the sheets-of lava were not swept away Fishtrap. Elevation 2,282 feet. St. Paul 1,536 miles. . whether these bowlders were brought di- ‘Although there is litile doubt about the origin of the Fishtrap Hills, there 1s considerable uncertainty in the minds of geologists as to whether there has ever been an incursion of the northern glaciers into this region. The fact which leads to the belief that ice once occupi country is the presence, far southwest of Spokane, of bowlders of granite and quart- zite 12 to 20 inches in diameter. These bowlders are not numerous, but occasion- ally the traveler, if his sight is sufficiently tch glimpses of them, even Generally pation of the country by ice, but it has not yet been satisfactorily de rectly by the glacier and were dropped from its moving mass, whether they were floated along on cakes of ice in a large lake, or whether they were simply washed out over this p it was in the vicinity of Spokane, If the bowlders here were as numerous an) large as the bowlders in North Dakota west of Missouri River there would probably be no question as to their glacial trans- portation, but in the State of Washington that some doubt naturally arises as to whether moving ice was the vehicle by which they were transported to their pres- i laces. ent resting p. 164 GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES. layer by layer, as one peels an onion, but were cut through in many places, leaving rugged remnants here and there that minke a distinct type of badland topography. The railway descends into a pronounced valley and reaches the town of Sprague, named for Gen. J. W. Sprague, a former manager of the Pacific coast division. Rail- way shops formerly here have been removed and the town is now dependent on the dry farming of the adjacent uplands. The train runs down the valley and at a distance of 3 miles from Sprague comes to the upper end of Colville Lake. This strip of water adds a pleasing variety to an otherwise rather monotonous landscape, but it lacks the picturesque setting of trees and mountains that give to the lakes farther east their charm and beauty. The railway curves in and out around the projecting spurs of basalt on the west shore to a point near the outlet of the lake and there turns more to the west and crosses the basaltic plateau. Many bowlders of foreign material such as granite and quartzite may be observed near the south end of the lake and along the line westward at least as far as milepost 138, but it is doubtful if any can be found beyond that point. Ritzville, the largest town between Spokane and Pasco, is the center of a rich agricultural district. This is a part of the great wheat belt of eastern Washington that has been so wonderfully Sprague. Elevation 1,906 feet. Population 1,110. St. Paul 1,546 miles. Ritzville. developed by dry-farming methods. About a mile Benen teat beyond Ritzville a branch line turning to the right Population 1,859. (west) and known as the Ellensburg cut-off has been graded and is said to be ready for the rails. When this line is completed it will not only open up a large area of farming land but also give a line to — west of Columbia River, 100 miles shorter than the present route. St. Paul 1,570 miles. ‘The traveler may wonder why the Northern Pacific, havi Walla Walla River. In order to hasten construction of the main line of the as its objective point, should bend so far ompany was to build a line to Portland down Columbia River, as well asa line to Puget Sound across the ‘ascade Mountains, and a coast line con- necting Portland and Puget Sound. At the time it was decided to recommence from Portland up the south bank of Co. lumbia River to Wallula, at the mouth of Northern Pacific it was decided to utilize this line for the transportation of material for that part of the through line which lies east of Pasco and to postpone for a time the construction of the line along the north bank of Columbia River and that across the Cascade Mountains. Im- mediately after the main line was com- pleted, in 1883, the construction of the line across the Cascade Mountains by way of ae Yakima Valley was begun. The trolling reason for swinging the line oo to the south was to make the connec- tion with the Oregon Railway & Naviga- GEOLOGIC AND TOPOGRAPHIC MAP OF THE NORTHERN PACIFIC ROUTE From St. Paul, Minnesota, to Seattle, Washington Base compiled from United States Geological Survey Atlas Sheets, from railroad alignments and profiles supplied by the Northern Pacific Railway Compan, 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 Ei map with a name in parenthesis in the lower “loft corner is is mapped in detail on the U. S. G. S. Topographic Sheet of that ni BULLETIN 611 18° 17° 30 Sheet No. = Espencle@” \) pF waukon oe” \ Mss W r Nc A 4 eF oy 7 vert Marshailim 2 4 Galena > Sa) A 1S Jamieso rt c tax’ EL. 2127, £ 4 NAY [Seteer . A > 30 7 a a — = 3 *, y 9K : JR (EX S s- \ i = ; ON = oo iM lo a 9 ee Cre& 2 geteng “2000 i) N [ce is} < EXPLANATION x v = E ma é A Glacial outwash gravel and sand Quaternary S Coker . oe Big Swamp. ff Py Cr D_ Light-colored clay (Ellensburg formation) 1. Tertiary +- 20 Ae 9 Rockwell J E_ Lava flows (Yakima basalt) J (Miocene) wy 4 Ee KS ad J Gneiss and schist “4 EL.1822 eg E SE ‘ 4 > § Su. <4 \e) & ane 6? ; e? Ry ‘> Pp 477 pi 0° ) cad ¢ 1 Scale 500,000 Approximately 8 miles to | inch Sh. Sasi: eee eee LSS, BO OR cctp: Pe 8 nes 10 ae 20 25 30Kilometers Contour interval 200 feet Th St. Paul Minnesot: The crossties on the railroads are spaced ! mile apart ne > ’ 18° 117" 30 on SHEEET No. 22 RANE AOR WASHINGTON 2 \ ea 8 30" THE NORTHERN PACIFIC ROUTE. 165 Beyond Ritzville are the stations Essig (see sheet 23, p. 168), Paha, and Ruby, but there is little of interest until, as the train descends a valley at milepost 164, the main line of the Chicago, Lind. Milwaukee & St. Paul Railway i is seen on the left. pte cln 5 feet. This road diverges from the main line of the Northern Pacific at De Smet, a short distance west of Missoula, and crosses the Coeur d’Alene Mountains by a more direct route than that of the Northern Pacific by Pend Oreille Lake. At Lind the two roads are on opposite sides of the valley, but a mile below the town the St. Paul road crosses the Northern Pacific on a substantial steel and concrete viaduct. Below the crossing the St. Paul line keeps down the valley, but the Northern Pacific climbs the slope beyond the creek so as to pass into another valley draining to the south. In ascending this ridge it is interesting to note that in a number of cuts where the rocks are well exposed the basalt is overlain by white silt or clay and fine sand that covers the entire hillside and conceals every irregularity of the hard rock beneath. This material has been taken as indicating the presence of a lake in glacial time, similar to glacial Lake Missoula, but the absence of lines of stratification (bedding) shows that the material has had a different origin. The question of the origin is bound up in the general Tertiary history of this region.' After reaching the summit at Providence the railway begins the long descent of a little valley which leads eventually into the open plain above Pasco. This is one of the least interest- ing stretches, so far as scenery is concerned, along the Northern Pacific, for the valley is so narrow that the views from the train give no idea of the character of the upland. e valley is carved in basalt, which shows in places in rugged ledges, with the white loess mantling everything. St. Paul 1,587 miles. Providence. Elevation 1,549 feet. St. Paul 1,595 miles tion Co.’s railroad, as stated above, but | Co., a corporation owned jointly by the there were other reasons, such as the possibilities of obtaining large traffic in a Valley and the fact that any expensive nay As than the present crossing, construction of the line by the faa i Pacific along the north bank of Columbia River was delayed so long that Congress declared a forfeiture of portion of its charter and of the ac- until 1908 that a railro along the north bank of the Columbia by the Spokane, Pi e Railwa: Nort — Pacific and the Great Northern compani ' The ees history of Oregon = Washington begins before there was ascade Range, at a time when the at tory now occupied by that range, as well as much of the region lying to the east, was a lowland in which shallow estuaries ex- tended for long distances from the coast, while to the east were fresh-water lakes. In these shallow waters and on the low land near them was laid down a thick series of beds of shale, sandstone, and coal, now known as the Swauk and Roslyn for- mations, of Eocene (Tertiary) age. The ; 166 GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES, Near milepost 192 a branch line of the road enters the valley from the right and gradually descends along the valley wall. This branch unites with the main line at Connell and serves to Connell. Elevation 845 — Population 778. St. Paul 1,615 een connect this place with Coulee City and the Big Bend country to the north. Below Connell the valley walls grow more rugged, and at Cactus siding (milepost 200) a very prominent wall of lava is seen on both sides of the valley, but more particularly deposition of these beds was interrupted by a flow of basaltic lava which was the beginning of a great series of flows that reached their maximum development in the succeeding Miocene epoch. Sheet after sheet of basaltic lava was ed out over a territory 250,000 square miles in atte that included the greater part of Washington, all of eastern Oregon, part of Miprse- 5 and a large area in the Snake River valley of Idaho. (See map of Columbia River plateau on sheet 23.) It is probable, however, that the erup- tions in the Washington area began at a somewhat earlier date than those of the Snake River plains of Idaho, which seem to have been in part contemporaneous with the last flows that occurred along Columbia River. It is a generally accepted view that mely mainly on the following evidence: ie The volume and extent of _the la nary craters; (2) the rarity of the frag- mental materials acteristic of crater eruptions; (3) old fis- sures res through which the floods - t lava now ea with the cooled pas Renee es oa, SaaS 1. Lt me me lying sheets of lava. The basalt was not poured forth in one great outburst, but is made up of a great _ Bumber of layers or individual flows which in places are of feet in aggregate thickness. _About 20 such flows bia River. Each one represents a dis- for they are marked by beds of soil in which trees grew to considerable size before being charred and buried by later ows. The eruptions of lava, especially in the later stages of activity, were sepa- rated also by periods in which other materials accumulated, consisting of vol- canic ash and beds of sand, clay, and gravel laid down in Jakes or rivers. In addition to the massive flows that constitute the greater part of the forma- try, or, mixed with hot water, have flowed over the surface as aud The fragmental materials are not sy widely The quantity of cael eS out during this iod was en The greatest thickness of the ee aa asso- ciated deposits is not less than 4,000 feet, but if it averages only 500 feet thick over the avery moderate estimate, it would “make a mass of 24,000 cubic miles, or a cube nearly 30 miles in | height. Even this great volume may be far less than that actually poured out. Coincident with the later stages of the lava eruptions occurred a subsidence of the ara * at at ae 1,2 and a large lake was ‘formed, in whee ie area on the west. Before the basaltic eruptions had ceased a great volcanic dis- turbance occurred in the Cascade region and lava of another kind (andesite) was U. S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY BULLETIN 611 PLATE Xxil Al. WHITE BLUFF OF THE COLUMBIA, 20 MILES ABOVE PASCO, WASH. Composed of white volcanic ash (Ellensburg formation). Man on horseback on top of bluff indicates size of bluff. B. COLUMNAR LAVA AT CACTUS SIDING, 5 MILES SOUTH OF CONNELL, WASH. ‘ y On cooling the lava has formed columns or sf sia which in pla kably regular. The columns stand cooling paris of the flow. ngnt @ U, 8, GEOLOGICAL SURVEY BULLETIN 611 PLATE Xxill MOUNT ADAMS, AS SEEN FROM THE NORTHERN PACIFIC TRAINS NEAR TOPPENISH, WASH. Cold and severe, the volcanic cone stands above the broad platform of the Cascade Range, which is an older feature. Photograph copyrighted by Curtis & Miller, Seattle, Wast THE NORTHERN PACIFIC ROUTE. on the right (west). 167 This cliff is about 150 feet high and in the lower part shows beautiful columnar structure (see PI. Mesa. cderem 687 feet. Populat. St. Peat 1 625 miles. XXII, B), but the columns are small, and they may not be visible from the train. The rugged walls con- oe as far as Mesa, but beyond that station the val- opens and the walls are lower and have lost much of their rugged shavastbe: poured forth. The eruptions were accom- panied by explosions, which produced large quantities of tuff, volcanic ash, and pumice. While the volcanic eruptions what uplifted, and the streams, made more powerful by the increase in grade due to the uplift, carried vast quantities of the andesitic material eastward to the lake basin previously described. In thisbody of fresh water the waste material was de- posited as mud, sand, or gravel, together with some sheets of basaltic lava that apparently marked the last expiring gasp of the giant forces which had previously poured forth such In the Yakima Valley the beds thus laid down have been named th Ellensburg formation. Here the sedi- ments are coarse, indicating nearness to the margin of the lake and to the source of supply, reg farther out in the basin, ac- . ©. Russell, the material nas in this lake is largely white silt, composed chiefly of volcanic dust and ash that were blown out of the new set of volcanoes which then were active to the west. This material is exceedingly fine and forms the White Bluff on Columbia River some distance above Pasco (PI. ag A) and the isolated hills at Fish- “Tp to the close of the lake period of cen- tral Washington the Cascade Range, as it - known to-day, did not exist. During 7 area now occupied by the eg worn down by streams, and finally it reached that state of low relief that is was then _ Shomabs eee aan 3% ee The oe uplift of the Cascade Range tyes opel’ ee or the opening chapter in at Qua- rnary. These mountains not portent by a volcanic outburst, "Mesa ee events were of common occurrence n this country, but they are the result of a peta uplift of this part of the earth’s crust, which produced a great arched pla- teau about 5,000 feet above sea level. Volcanic activity was not entirely sus- pended in this region, and here and there vents were formed from which poured forth lava and volcanic ash, and large cones were built upon the surface of the - deeply eroded plateau. These are the great conical which are such ma- jestic features of the Cascade Range. The next great epoch in the geologic ogan (o-kan-og’an) River and then across the immediate canyon of eo Columbia_ That great river in this Sa of flood was temporarily divert lee City, but on the retreat of the ice 5 it resumed its original channel. The great cold of the wlacial epoch left large parts of this region without a cover of vegetation, and much of the soft material laid down 168 GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES, If it is a hot day in midsummer when the traveler passes down the coulee, he may wonder whether the great flows of basalt are not still heating the surface. The plain of the Columbia, Eltopia. which he is rapidly approaching, has a reputation for Elevation 598 feet. great heat in the summer, but as it does not show a Population 252.* corresponding high temperature in the other parts of the year it seems obvious that the great heat is caused by the configuration of the mountains and their effect on the movye- ment of the atmospheric currents. South of Eltopia (see sheet 24, p. 172) the canyon followed by the railway becomes shallower and finally merges with the broad plain of Columbia River. The lava underlies the plain but dips more rapidly toward the south than the slope of the surface, and at Pasco, as shown by drill records, it lies more than 200 feet below river level. This plain is composed of soft clay and sand (Ellensburg formation) and back from the river, where irrigation is impossible, it is nothing but a sagebrush desert. In places the regular surface of the plain is interrupted by low dunes of sand which have drifted up the slope from the channel of the Columbia. The traveler may wonder what can subsist in so desolate a land if he has not yet learned that in many places water can be procured by digging and that the soil stores up enough moisture to raise fair crops when properly cultivated. The climate of the region is semiarid, the precipitation being from 6 to 12 inches a year. The temperature ranges from a minimum of 10° below zero in winter to 110° above zero in summer. Pasco is a division terminal of the railway and the center of a large irrigated district lying above the town and on the east side of theriver. The shade trees and green lawns of the town are in ‘striking contrast to the brown sagebrush of the sur- rounding country. Immediately after leaving the station at Pasco the train is upon the great bridge that spans the swirling waters of the Columbia,‘ one of the great rivers of the continent—a St. Paul 1,634 miles. Pasco. Elevation 389 feet. Population 2,083. St. Paul 1,651 miles, ‘One of the most interesting parts of the history of the exploration of the north- western part of the United States is the story of the discovery of the mouth of the Columbia, or rather of the failure to find it by the many navigators who sailed up the western shore for the very purpose of discov ery. In 1788 an English captain discovered and named Cape Disappointment, just _to the north of the river’s mouth, without _ recognizing in the inlet to the south the mouth of the greatest river on the coast, In 1789 two Boston trading ships, the Washington and the Columbia, under the command of Capt. Robert Gray, visited the coast fora cargoof furs. Gray thought he saw indications of the mouth of a large river in latitude 46° 10’ but did not stop to investigate, and after completing a voyage around the world his vessel, the Columbia, was again dispatched to the Pacific coast in 1791. He spent the win- terat Nootka Sound, on Vancouver Island, and in the spring cruised south from the Strait of Fuca in search of the river which he thought he saw three years before. On his way he met the English SHEET No. 23 WASHINGTON | BULLETIN 611 EXPLANATION D Clay and sand (Ellensburg formation)| Tertiary } (Miocene) ie ty E. Lava flows (Yakima basalt) er ms Lea ee o— Mieanar Pia emmer & 120° 1s? Hi6® T/ PKR SS, ae.'S 7 ii \ . rr | } y | 2 ae 8 . rio NAS Se ~ WOR _.# SS Rispokene | | if ~ Ge. Schrags ING” SW ee ine pyr” i WAS 23! 7 \ or SEL ARR eA 1" 7 BS | om SSS MW Wwe AA : + nee cates \ ; Syn bitio Fes RENT ’ ‘5 ~ Le } ce aha 2) ; NS = tvipgstox D \ per ELS STE = \ | 4] ae eS Ee age ly \\ ip 4! es 4ag & & se PPAUl g oxboro oe Fon + We 6 EL. 422 ry = \ LAs Pym ™ rovidence / 0° L/S%3 : a 4 os 1 + . ic 2 Dt pene NEL iY 1600 a Dei ve \ Pn . be 7 a : pice Hit oes ae / iB \ i h Vv VW / ( unningham ~ : : 1 VBP ELr7s — : Scale 500,000 f A a } / ' Approximately 8 miles to | inch q ye . are: a) 1 5 i) 165 iH e Le it ed ee Pe ee Hy lHattor : } Lh, at , £L./072 see J : a) 1 20 2 A & THE GREAT LAVA PLATEAU OF COLUMBIA RIVER, STRETCHING SOUTHWARD ACROSS OREGON a | ee ME Fics scion Or a ft we AND EASTWARD NEARLY TO YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK Contour interval 200 feet * Af ee ELEVATIONS IN FEET ABOVE MEAN SEA LEVEL Weioss * a7 —— The di ft St. Paul, Minnesota. h 10 ee ea The ¢rossties on the railroads are spaced | mile apart | egal wu Fe ‘BConnell “ 40 EL.845 a P -- - alr’ Shins rox 16 actus 720 & & Se Ae 19°30" seco THE NORTHERN PACIFIC ROUTE. 169 river that is fed from the melting snows on the mountains of most of the northwestern part of this country and a large part of the mountain region of Canada. Although the Northern Pacific crosses Columbia River only a few miles above the mouth of Snake River, the junction of these two streams can not be readily seen from the train, but the Oregon- Washington Railroad & Navigation Co.’s bridge which crosses just below the Snake is clearly visible. When the traveler reaches this point in his westward journey he has been out of St. Paul only 48 or 50 hours, but when Lewis and Clark camped at the mouth of the Snake in October, 1805, they had been gone from St. Louis 18 months. At that time the ownership of Oregon Territory was uncertain and ' most of the men, if not the leaders themselves, believed that they were on foreign soil, as many entries in their journals refer to what they expected to do when they returned to the United States. The first white man to explore the Columbia above the mouth of the Yakima (yak’i-ma), which enters a few miles west of Kenne- wick, was David Thompson, who made a trip down the river from Spokane in the year 1811. Soon after passing Kennewick, a thriving town grown up in the center of a rich irrigated district on the south side of the river, the train crosses a branch line of the Oregon-Washington Railroad & Navigation Co. that runs up the valley of Yakima River as far as North Kennewick. Elevation 372 feet. Population 1,219. St. Paul 1,654 miles. Yakima. After the dull, monotonous sagebrush plain above Pasco, the orchards and fields of green alfalfa are a pleasing sight. The fields first seen are those on the lowest bottom of the river, but as the railway reaches Vista it is running on a second terrace which is also irrigated and under a high state of cultivation. Vista. Elevation 576 feet. St. Paul 1,659 miles. expedition under Capt. Vancouver going north to explore Puget Sound. Gray in- formed the commander of one of these vessels of his belief that a large river arver to th in 1778, was employed, t was soon abandoned and Columbia came into general use. Gray’s discovery and the careful and Lol entered the ocean near latitude 46°, but as the English captain had just passed that point in clear weather and had seen no indication of a river he gave no cre- dence to Gray’s report. Gray persisted in his search and was rewarded by finding the river’s mouth as he had expected and by sailing over the bar on May 11, 1792. Gray named river after his ship, and although for a time the name Oregon, given by Jonathan ® accurate entry in his log book of the cir- umstances connected with it were largely instrumental in later deciding in favor of the United States the controversy with Great Britain over the ownership of Oregon Territory. Gray’s services to his country are commemorated by the names of Grays Bay and Grays Point, on the river nearly opposite Astoria, and of Grays Harbor, a commodious bay on the Washington coast farther north. i) 170 GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES. Although the Northern Pacific Railway in a general way follows the valley of Yakima River, it does not adhere closely to that stream, but cuts across country, thereby avoiding a big bend. Along this cut-off there is no irrigation and the country is desolate in the ex- treme. Before water was put upon the Yakima Valley it was a sagebrush plain just as extensive and just as desolate as the one here traversed. Water is the wizard that has transformed this desert into a land of blossoms, and as time goes on more and more of the waste places of the earth will be redeemed in this manner. Not only is the surface of the country from Vista to Kiona monot- onous, but the rocks, while interesting in so far as they record the past history of the region, are monotonous and poorly exposed. As explained on page 165, the rocks in this part of the valley consist of sandstone and shale formed from sediment laid down in lakes or on the surface of the land, interspersed with great sheets of lava (basalt) that covered most of the country. The lava was not poured out in a single flow, but the entire region is underlain by a succession of lava sheets. The shale and sandstone are soft and in only a few places show at the surface, but the outcrops of the shects of basalt are marked by dark ledges along the hill slopes and the streams of rock fragments that descend from them. At Kiona the railway approaches Yakima River, Kiona. and just after passing the station the traveler can Elevation 525feet. obtain a good view down the valley, which includes St. Paul 1,675 miles, Well-cultivated farms and the bridge of the Oregon- Washington Railroad. A short distance west of Kiona the valley is much restricted and all irrigation ceases, The river is bordered by rugged walls of basalt, 2 a good view of which can be jj, obtained from milepost 31 Y by looking back from the rear 1 YY 7, of thetrain. From this point Mj, f vantage it will be seen that Frau 85.—Gection of Yakisna Valley wat of Prog, tHe Valley is not smooth and Wash., a valley within a valley. regular, sloping gently from : the tops of the ridges to the river bank, but that it is compound, consisting of a rather broad outer or upper valley and an inner rocky gorge cut in the floor of the large valley. The shape of the valley is represented by the accompany- THE NORTHERN PACIFIC ROUTE. 171 here the forms have not been studied with sufficient care to make a determination possible. There is so great a difference in the hard- ness of the basalt and the soft sandstone associated with it that the inner valley may be due to a harder and much more massive bed of basalt near the bottom and not to different conditions of erosion. About Prosser there is a large area of land under irrigation and in a high state of cultivation. It is a pleasing change from the dark or dull-gray color of the barren areas to the brilliant green of the fields of alfalfa, grass, or oats; from the stunted vegetation of the sagebrush plains to the thriving orchards which stretch away in the distance almost as far as the eye can see. It is no less pleasing to pass from the dry plains of the sun-scorched desert, where clouds of dust fill the air, to a land where running water is seen in every irrigation ditch and the land is so covered with rich vegetation that there seems no chance-for it to become dry and parched." The railway runs some distance back from the river through irri- gated fields, but gradually climbs to a terrace which shows on the left about a mile beyond Byron. This terrace is Prosser. Elevation 671 feet. Population 1,298. St. Paul 1,691 miles. pres. doubtless built of the soft material washed into the ~ grermpbemensy valley by the streams, but the amount of such mate- rial is variable, as the basalt appears at railway level in a number of places. On a clear day the high peaks of the Cascade Range, 100 miles away, can be seen from the vicinity Mabton. Elevation 725 feet. Population 666 St. Paul 1,703 raties. of Pasco, but the distance is so great that at first sight the traveler may be disappointed in them. A better view can be obtained near milepost 58, 6 miles beyond Mabton, but even from this place the peaks are not as striking objects as they are from the region about Top- penish, farther northwest. 1The Yakima Valley has been aptly characterized as ‘‘Washington’s vale of plenty.”’ It is a region of small farms intensively cultivated and contains some of the most valuable agricultural lands in the world. Its farm homes are attractive, and in variety of crops and profitable yields it ranks fayorably with southern alifornia. A number of lakes on the headwaters of the streams of the Yakima e basin are being converted into storage reservoirs, and it is estimated that when the work is completed the water supply will be sufficient to irrigate about _ 900,000 acres. The land lies in a suc- cession of valleys, and its reclamation will te be accomplished by units. At the pres- ent time two units are practically com- pleted—the Tieton, embracing approxi- mately 34,700 acres near North Yakima, and the covering about This valley is the home of the big red apple, and its fruit lands range in value m $300 to $1,200 an acre. The soil consists of voleanic ash and gravel. Hop and vegetable growers vie with the neigh- boring fruit growers, and forage crops and arbi are play very: profitable. a pane ie an acre, pal on the Tieton unit it $93 an acre. The Government land has all been filed upon, and farms can be acquired now only by purchase from private owners. 172 GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES. After passing Empire (see sheet 25, p. 176), Satus, Toppenish Ridge, and Alfalfa the traveler can get a full view of Mount Adams, far to the west. Although it is here more than 50 miles distant, its great height (12,307 feet above sea level) makes it conspicuous. (See Pl. XXIII, p. 167.) To one unaccustomed to judging of the magnitude of dis- tant mountains, the first view of Mount Adams may be disappointing, but after watching it for some time and comparing it with objects near by the observer will find that its enormous bulk be- comes more apparent. How cold it seems in its eternal pall of white! The mountain looks like some patrician of old, holding himself erect and aloof from all surroundings! Long ago it was an active voleano emitting molten lava, but its activity ceased, and for unknown ages the mountain has stood the cold, calm, rugged peak it is to-day. Just beyond Mount Adams and from many points of view hidden by it is Mount St. Helens, which within the memory of the white man has showed signs of volcanic activity. It is apparent that the vol- canoes of the Cascade Range, while possibly extinct, have not been so for a great length of time. That they may be only smoldering is indicated by the recent outburst of Lassen Peak, in California, which stands along the same line of voleanic disturbance.t Mount Adams remains a magnificent spectacle, until the view of it is shut off by the Atanum Ridge, north of Parker. Although Alfalfa. Elevation 723 feet. Population 81.* St. Paul 1,717 miles. Toppenish, the country about Toppenish lies within the Yakima Elevation 765 feet. Indian Reservation, it is well watered by ditches that Population 1,598, receive their supply from the river in the vicinity of the next ridge, which can be seen in the distance. The land is well cultivated, though not so intensively as that covered by the Sunnyside reclamation project across the river. ile enjoying the beautiful spectacle of Mount Adams, the traveler should look a little farther to the north where, if the atmos- phere is clear and no cloud banners intervene, he may be fortunate enough to catch a view of the summit of Mount Rainier (Tacoma), St. Paul 1,721 miles. ' The view from Alfalfa or Toppenish gives to the traveler an excellent idea of the height and character of the Cascade Range and of the volcanic cones which project above its apparently even crest i In order, however, to understand fully the relations of these cones and the character of topography of the platform upon which they are built, it is know something of the history the region was subject to the action of the elements, and the rain and streams reduced the surface to a nearly uniform plain only a slight distance above sea level. From this plain the present Cas- cade Range was formed by a gradual up- lift of the surface along the axis of the . This upward movement con- tinued until the surface was raised to a height of 4,000 feet above sea level in the south and about 8,000 feet in the north, In this uplifted mass the streams carved deep channels or canyons, almost de- stroying the plateau and leaving only the GEOLOGIC AND ba lartattaee MAP NORTHERN PACIFIC ROUTE From St. Paul, Minnesota, to Seattle, Washington Base compiled from United States Geological Survey Atlas Sheets, from oe ad alignments and profiles supplied by e Northern Pacific Railway Company and from ition sthoatebian sates with the assistance of this company UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY GEORGE OTIS SMITH, DIRECTOR David White, Chief Geologist B. Marshall, Chief Geographer 1915 d. with a nur in parenthesis in the aah “left corner. is cpieaty in cen on the U. S. G. S. Topographic Sheet of that name. BULLETIN 611 SHEET No. 24 120° 1/5" s0! Sheet No.23 WASHINGTON C Re | | [20 " gesi b ‘| - a eet \\ ic : ie * ! i D E fhe A f fp 600 / f 0} a ee Fl sits. \) & , yekins gbasalt : = F & Pe fsogemoat ra J e user fA E ’ ise Lo ees ‘ ~ : \ \ | & \ fi o x oe) ‘ \\ \ J sé a / (seh r mg ies. Ni \\> > ) : oN NG \\ plLichty. a See mi < <= | tL EK Nakina. taba ¥ YS ote // Clensburg,, 1 ee = “*S f Fie ldvale 2 Nee Yeap, a i ae Ee A E ‘ d or Rico \ £Gon fo : "= = Ne Nn Eig <— —s i ~ Passed, = £1.90 a ma Z aa XD cs) <-> ig Sih, rf ~ \ > \ ™~ hover ® \ Attala 3 ‘ oc res \ ‘\ v Me : sure 2 | 5 ' 4 Le se eat WE Bi vie mes ha { AN Lf N ey ak iam 1 Scale 500,000 : EXPLANATION Approximately 8 miles to | inch Our 3 Dei Pea, ZOMiles Lanse ators in feet ob ti ee: _ 10 15 Bo a 30Kilometers A Stream deposits (alluvium) Quaternary a —— See rigeie D Clay, sand, and gravel (Ellensburg formation) 300) ‘Tertiary A LEVEL E Lava flows (Yakima basalt) 2,000 - 4,000 f (Miocene) The di fi Paul, Min The crossties on the railroads are spaced | mile apart 120° 19°30" 9° ENGRAVEO AND PRINTED By THE U-S-GEQLOGICAL SURVEY 173 14,408 feet in altitude, the highest peak of the Cascade Range, but this view gives him little idea of the magnitude and grandeur of the mountain. The great sheets of basalt that underlie the Yakima Valley are in places thrown into low folds by pressure in the crust of the earth exerted in a north-south direction, and consequently the folds trend at right angles to that direction, or nearly east and west. As these folds bring up ithe hard basalt, they make ridges or mountains across the country, the length of the ridge depending on the the extent of the fold. The big ridge lying to the south of the rail- way from Kennewick to Mabton is supposed to be of this character, although its structure has not been accurately determined. This broad upland, from its original cover of abundant and nutritious unch grass, is known as Horse Heaven. The next ridges to the north are Toppenish Ridge west of the river and Snipes Mountain on the east. These appear to be parts of one general line of disturbance but are separate folds. In Snipes Mountain the arch is so low that the basalt is scarcely visible under the cover of the Ellensburg formation. The next pcidhene to the north, which hes north of Toppenish, is known west of the river as Atanuni Ridge and east of the river as Rattlesnake Ridge. The Yakima has made a deep, THE NORTHERN PACIFIC ROUTE. Wapato. Elevation 865 feet. Population 400. St. Paul 1,729 miles. Parker. narrow cut, called Union Gap, through this ridge Elevation 930feet. north of Parker. At the south entrance to the gap Population the Northern Pacific crosses the North Yakima branch of the Oregon-Washington Railroad. The gap is about a mile in length, and the sheets of lava at the south entrance dip toward the south at an angle of about 20°. The oppo- site dip on the north side of the fold is not so apparent, for it is much steeper and in some places the layers are crushed and over- turned, so that the dip is toward the south. St. Paul 1,733 miles. high summits to mark its once even sur- face. When seen from a distant point, as from Toppenish, the tops fall into line and have ha appearance of an unbroken upland m At x Sag same time that the streams were on the platform of the range. As lava flow succeeded lava flow,.and showers of ash fell upon the area surrounding the vent, a cone was gradually built up, orming the present high peaks. These voleanic cones between Canada ‘and Co- lumbia River are Mount Baker, Glacier Peak, Mount Rainier (Tacoma), Mount Asians: and Mount St. Helens. The view from Alfalfa or Toppenish shows clearly that Mount Adams rests on the platform called the Cascade Range, but that it is not really a part of that range, but rather an excrescence upon the apparently rounded, tree-covered surface of the plateau. Ln) 174 GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES, In a region in which the annual precipitation is so small (8.9 inches) as it is in the Yakima Valley the quantity of water flowing in the streams and available for irrigation is of the utmost importance, In order to determine the volume of water in Yakima River the United States Geological Survey maintained for a number of years a gaging station in Union Gap, but for the last six years the station has been near Wapato, a few miles below the gap. By means of a small car swinging from a steel cable the engineer is able to measure the velocity of the current at a number of points across the stream, and from these measurements, together with other measurements of the cross section of the river, compute the volume of water avail- able for irrigation and the development of power.’ North of Union Gap the valley broadens into a parklike country, all of which is under irrigation and highly cultivated, except near the river, where the land is excessively wet. The original Yakima City was situated just above Union Gap, and the station, the only remaining structure on the site, can be seen near milepost 86. Trouble arose between the railway and the town promoters and the station was abandoned, and a new station, called North Yakima, established about 4 miles north of the old one. With the growth of the new town of North Yakima the older settlement soon died out. North Yakima is the largest town in central Washington and is the commercial and social center of the Yakima Valley, one of the largest areas of irrigated land in the West and one North Yakima. _— that is noted the world over for the fine fruit which it Flevation 1,076 feet. produces. The valley, although semiarid, is well a pe ‘ni, Supplied with water from Yakima River and its tribu- : tary, Naches River, both of which head in the Cascade Range, where the snowfall is abundant. Fruit raising is the principal occupation, but there are also broad fields of grain, alfalfa, and hops, indicating that the farmers feel the necessity of a diversity of crops, ' A gaging station has been maintained portance in developing the water re- in this vicinity since November, 1896. | sources of the country and are used in- It shows a mean annual flow of 4,640 designing and operating power and irri- second-feet (a second-foot means 1 cubic gation plants, city waterworks, and other foot per second), which equals 3,360,000 | works whose establishment and s eet (an acre-foot is 43,560 cubic | ful operation depend on a knowledge of feet, or the quantity required to cover 1 | the quantity of water flowing in surface About 1,500 river-measuring stations | According to the United States Gap now maintained by the United States Geo- cipitation in the Yakima Valley from logical Survey on the more important | 1893 to 1903 was 8.9 inches, divided as freams in the United States and in the | follows: Winter. 4 inches; spring, 2 _ Hawaiian Islands. The data collected inches; summer, 0.7 inch; autumn, — at these gaging stations are of prime im- | 2.2 inches, BULLETIN 611 PLATE XXIV U. &. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY YAKIMA CANYON, WASH. the weather, and the broken fragments A, The hard basalt rapidly breaks down under the influe e of conceal the eb rocks, COLUMNAR ANDESITE NEAR YAKIMA CANYON, WASH be . GEOLOGICAL SURVEY BULLETIN 611 PLATE xx < BEAUTIFUL LAKE KEECHELUS, WASH The heavy forest covers the mountain slopes down to the water's edge, y | g 175 THE NORTHERN PACIFIC ROUTE. so that in case of an oversupply of one they will have another to fall back upon. The volcanic rocks that border the Naches Valley and extend within a few miles of North Yakima furnish an interesting example of a recent lava, flow. The hummocky surface of this plateau between Naches River and Cowiche Creek, although in places covered by sage- brush and bunch grass, exhibits the essential features of a cooling lava flow, and at many points on its borders the characteristic jointing due to contraction on cooling is shown in rare perfection. (See Pl. North of North Yakima the railway crosses Naches River and then passes through Yakima Ridge in a short canyon cut in the thick layers of basalt, which have here, as in the other ridges to the south, been folded into a low anticline.’ 1 After having traveled up Yakima River for nearl miles and passed through a number of basalt ridges, the traveler may be surprised at the apparent disregard of the stream for the ridges and valleys. As stated previously, the prin- cipal arches and troughs into which the ave been bent trend in a nearly _ nari and if the streams fol- ourses they would encoun- a little difficulty, j in reaching their des- tinations. But instead of following the of its course no less than seven ridges of arched or upturned basalt. What made the stream select its present course, and why did it persist in this course across the arches of hard rock when it might have found an outlet to the Columbia on the, east by an open synclinal valley? In order to answer this question it will the lake was filled or there was an uplift e region which changed it to a land Columbia rivers were formed, before the great in the rocks had been pro- duced. After the streams were well es- tablished, in about the same courses that they follow to-day, a great north-south pressure wrinkled the rocks into a series of broad, shallow troughs and rather short arches. Many persons think of such a movement as having occurred suddenly and as having crumpled the rocky layers as leaves of paper may be crumpled in the hand. Ii the movement had been sud- den, then the southward-flowing stream would have been dammed wherever one of the arches crossed its pathway, and Yakima River, instead of flowing as it does to-day, would have been broken into a number of separate streams, each which would probably have found an out- let to the east into Columbia River. this did not happen, it seems evident that the movement was not rapid, but was so slow that the stream cut the rock away as fast as it was forced up. As the down- ward cutting of a stream in hard rocks is done very slowly, it follows that the arch- ing of the strata must also have been a very slow process, probably occupying thousands of years. Although the move- ment was slow, it sear ual nine of non a or zk til! LL yy through structure or topography of the region. 176 GUIDEBOOK. OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES. The canyon is short and north of the ridge lies Selah Valley, one of the prettiest valleys in this part of the country. The land is rolling or even hilly along the sides of the valley, but water Selah, is carried in a high-line canal, so that all the hills and eerste slopes below it are highly cultivated, and orchards cael extend as far as the eye can see. The basalt dips under the valley, but a little farther north it rises above water level, and the river has cut a sharp canyon with vertical walls from 50 to 70 feet high. The main canyon, which begins near milepost 99 (see Pl. XXIV, A) is cut through three separate but parallel ridges of basalt, each of which was produced by a low up- arching of the lava, as shown in figure 36. At the entrance to the deeper part of the canyon the great sheets of lava, each representing an individual flow, rise more steeply toward the north, their dip (20° or 25°) corresponding in a general way with the south slope of the ridge. The walls of the canyon increase in height until at mile- post 103, where the railway crosses the river, they are nearly 2,000 feet high. Here the rocks are about horizontal, indicating that this FIGURE 36.—Fold in basalt north of Roza, Wash., as seen from a point near Wymer, looki theast. is the middle (axis) of the fold, from which the beds dip in opposite directions. North of the axis the layers of basalt dip 30° or 35° to the north. The northward dip continues to Roza, near milepost 106, where two lateral valleys entering on opposite sides of the river mark the depression or trough between the ridges. Toward the east the ridge south of Roza extends for a long distance, but in the other direction it dies down rapidly, and in a distance of 5 or 6 miles has disappeared. Beyond Roza the beds of lava rise northward about 30° up the slope of Umptanum Ridge, which is a few hundred feet higher than the one ce south of Roza. The axis of the fold is reached about 7 milepost 109, and beyond this point the beds can be bt Petre et seen to bend over in a great arch; but the traveler is : so close to the rocky wall that it is impossible for him to obtain a satisfactory idea of the size or shape of the fold until he | has gone some distance past it. At Wymer siding, between mileposts 110 and 111, a good view of the fold on the east side of the river can be obtained by looking directly back from the rear of the train. (See fig. 36.) From this point the fold is seen to be unsymmetrical, with the steepest dips on the north side. BULLETIN 611 SHEET No. 25 aeettineiaihetereniiiaemmidietine WASHINGTON Poe. Slt oa ae ee SE GEOLOGIC AND TOPOGRAPHIC MAP OF THE : NORTHERN PACIFIC ROUTE From St. Paul, Minnesota, to Seattle, Washington Base compiled from United States Geological Survey Atlas Sheets, from railroad alignments and profiles supplied by the Northern Pacific Railway Company and from additional information collected with the assistance of this company UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY . Rec GEORGE OTIS SMITH, DIRECTOR : 3 David White, Chief Geologist ‘ R. B. Marshall, Chief Geographer x ‘ 46) OF | e = po 1915 301 £6 Each quadrangle sh he map with a name in parenthesis in the : % r left corner is mapped in detail on the U. S. G. S. Topographic P 500.006 ‘Be: Shea - it tat e 3 scale a : ; H BS e ; Approximately 8 miles to | inch t . s o a a _20Miles : ee 5 ie Contour interval 200 feet ‘ ELEVATIONS IN FEET ABOVE MEAN SEA LEVEL The distances from St. Paul, Minnesota hi 10 mi. \ ' ¥ i é The crossties on the railroads are spaced | mile apart 3 wie side Ju EL ion = A AMetta i ia Se a creek (eryve3 ‘i N e Empire EXPLANATION Eure? Thickness in feet A Stream deposits (alluvium) 7} He Quaternary f C Laya flows (Tieton andesite)} D Gravel, sand, and clay (Ellensburg formation) 1,500) Yertiary E Lava flows (Yakima basalt) 2,000 - 4,000} (Miocene) ») \? oO | 4 \ lec 21° THE NORTHERN PACIFIC ROUTE. 177 All the lava folds crossed so far in the Yakima Valley are either steepest on the north side or overturned, like that of Atanum Ridge at Union Gap. This overturning toward the north indicates that when the folds were produced the thrust came from the south, and it continued not only until the beds were arched but until the arch was pushed over, so that the beds on the north side stand nearly vertical or dip steeply toward the south. The northern limit of this fold is marked by the valley of Umptanum Creek (see sheet 26, p. 186), which enters the river near milepost 114. North of Umptanum Creek lies Manastash Ridge, which, like the others already crossed, is an arch in structure; but the fold is much flatter than those down the river, and its shape is not apparent from the train. The layers of basalt rise gradually northward from the mouth of Umptanum Creek, and they appear to be nearly horizontal in the great Beavertail Bend between mileposts 115 and 118. The axis of the fold is more than a mile north of this bend and not far from milepost 120, where the railway again crosses to the east side of Yakima River. From this crossing the layers of rock descend rapidly northward, and the great sheets of basalt that form the walls of the canyon for more than 20 miles dip below water level and the train emerges upon another broad flat that seems to be even more extensive than the one at North Yakima. This also is mostly under cultivation, and the view on the right as the train leaves the canyon is particularly charming, as one looks off to the distant mountains across a wide stretch of fertile fields and orchards, crossed here and there by lines of tall trees planted as windbreaks. Although much hard rock is exposed in the Yakima Valley stone suitable for building material is very scarce. The basalt is a lasting material, but its dark color renders it unsuitable for — buildings and it is used only for foundations and Bt Para eae teet- for road metal. For the latter use it is admirably adapted. On the north slope of Manastash Ridge, about 2 miles east of Thrall, the sandstone of the Ellensburg forma- tion has been hardened by the pressure that arched and overturned the basalt so as to make it a very good building stone, and it has been utilized in some of the business blocks of Ellensburg. Ellensburg is the end of a division and a prosperous town in the broad Kittitas Valley, which stretches far to the Ellensburg. east along Manastash Ridge. It is served not only Elevation 1,518 feet. by the Northern Pacific but also by the Chicago, Fico rele al Milwaukee & St. Paul Railway, which gives it an advantage over most of the other towns of the Yakima Valley. Owing to the altitude, the land is much better 95558°—Bull. 611—15——12 | 178 GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES. suited to the raising of hay and to dairying than that of the lower valley. A little north of Ellensburg Mount Stuart, far to the north, stands up as a narrow, jagged crest carrying much snow. This view is not so imposing as that of Mount Adams seen from a point farther down the valley, but the summits here are much narrower than that of Mount Adams and the mountain has a more rugged outline. The railway is bordered by broad meadows of timothy or clover and by fields of oats or wheat that roll in great billows under the strong wind that at times sweeps down the valley from the mountains. About a mile from the station the St. Paul Railway is visible on the right, having crossed Columbia River by a route leading directly west from Connell. The bluff on the right near milepost 4 is composed of the Ellens- burg formation, which overlies the great flows of basalt and is com- posed of white clay (in most places volcanic ash), sand, and oravel. This material is only partly consolidated, but it stands in steep bluffs, as can be seen on the right. The material is so soft and the slope so steep that in carrying water along the bluff to irrigate lands lower down the valley a timber flume had to be built along the entire face of the bluff a distance of more than 2 miles. This gives an idea of the elaborate and expensive work that must be done in many localities in order to obtain the necessary water for wrigation. Not only is the first cost of such a flume great, but the maintenance is a considerable item of expense which must be met every year. Just after passing milepost 7 the train crosses Yakima River, here a small stream but beautifully clear and pure, and then it follows the river bottom, in some places on the bank er ee te) of the stream and in others back at the foot of the St. Paul 1,785 miles, Dluff as the river swings from side to side of its flood plain. Near milepost 10 the railway again crosses the river, and the St. Paul road is on the other side under a high bluff, in which is exposed a prominent band of white volcanic ash. At the first sharp curve north of the river crossing the basalt is at track level, but it rises up the stream with the soft, stratified — beds of the Ellensburg formation which rest upon it and which rise in the same direction and at the same rate. The canyons south of this place have been cut by Yakima River through low rolls or folds in the basalt, but none of these folds have been of sufficient magnitude for the river to reach the base of the lava sheets; but north of Ellensburg the whole series of rock forma- tions has been turned up like the rim of a basin, and the canyon which begins at Dudley, 10 miles above Ellensburg, is the cut made 179 by Yakima River through the basalt of this rim. Figure 37 shows the gradual rise of the basalt northward and its final disappearance THE NORTHERN PACIFIC ROUTE. % in the hilltops far above river level. In some parts the canyon is bounded by rugged walls of basalt which makes it somewhat picturesque, but in general there is little to attract attention except the interesting geologic Bristol. Elevation 1,803 feet. St. Paul 1,794 miles. section that is exposed here. opens out and the sides are covered with scattered pine trees that are but the fringe of the great mantle In places the canyon of forest that covers all of the Cascade Range except the highest FIGURE 37.—Section showing structure of Yakima basalt north of Ellensburg, | pai The — rises from a level below Yakima River near Dudley summits and that once extended unbroken to the shores of the ~ Pacific Ocean. The basalt rises steadily and near milepost 18 the whitish sandstone and clay of the underlying older formation makes its appearance in cuts along the St. Paul road, on the opposite shore of the stream. The traveler should be prepared to see Mount Stuart on the right (north) as the train emerges from the canyon, for the view, if the Weather is clear, is superb and lasts for only a few minutes.' The white sandstone of the Roslyn formation is visible in a low bank on the right near the old station of Teanaway. It rises toward * Mount Stuart is the culminating peak of a spur which extends eastward from the main crest of the Cascade Range. The. summit of the peak rises to an altitude of 9,470 feet, or 7,600 feet above the railway at Teanaway station. This granite peak, with its deeply carved spires and crags, more or less covered with snow throughout the summer, is the most striking feature in the varied scenery of the region; but its wildest and grandest scenery lies hid- den within its own fastnesses. The southern face of the mountain is a precipitous slope, rising 5,000 feet or more above the creek which flows at its foot. The lower part of this wall can be scaled at several points, but by only one route has the highest peak been attained by the mountain climber. This peak is so acute that the greater part of the available space is taken by the United States Geo- logical Survey triangula ation monument which crowns its summit. On the north side of Mount Stuart are broad and deep amphitheaters, in which ‘ trai only a few hundred these exhibit most of the features of larger ice streams. It is apparent that Mount Stuart is different from Mount Adams, which, as seen from a point near Toppenish, con- sists essentially of a gigantic cone resting upon the broad platform of the Cascade Range. Mount Stuart, as can be seen from Teanaway, is rugged in the extreme and consists of a serrate ridge with one 180 GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES. the north, like the formations observed in the canyon, and it forms the southward-facing slope of the great ridge on the right. The red rocks on the mountain side on the left are the Teanaway basalt, which underlies the Roslyn formation and is of Eocene age. The layers of basalt in this mountain are not horizontal but are turned up on edge, so that the relation of the Teanaway to the Roslyn is not apparent. The valléy here was formerly covered with dense forest, in striking contrast to the valley lower down, where there were few trees of any kind until the country was settled. Near Clealum a heavy-bedded white sandstone, underlying some coal beds, dips to the south with the same slope as the side of the val- ley, and consequently it covers the entire hillside. Clealum, Three coal tipples are in sight from the train. Some Elevation 1,920feet. coal is produced here, but most of it comes from St Pauli svi, mines farther from the main line of the railway, From Clealum a branch line leads to the right to Roslyn, where are situated the mines of the Northern Pacific and also of companies that are mining coal for sale. The Roslyn coal field is one of the most valuable in the State. It has made its reputa- tion largely because of the cleanness of the coal and its good quality for steam raising and for domestic use. The Northern Pacific Co. uses the coal mined here for all its locomotives and stationary engines between the Stampede tunnel on the west and Butte and Helena on the east. Clealum has also been the supply point for the three principal gold-mining districts in central Washington. high point. The difference in the form of | eroded in the uplifted mass, and the pin- the two peaks is due to differences in | nacles and towers of the jagged crest of d in mode of i Mount Stuart have been formed merely Mount Stuart consists of a grea by the removal of adjacent material. granite which long ago was rae up through the rocks from below but prob- i never r reached t the surface. ore | mountain of erosion. No better repre- Tertiary ti this great mass, together | sentatives of the types could be found with the surroun 0 and | than these two peaks of the Cascade ding sedime: igneous rocks, was deformed by earth movements and possibly was uncovered e coal-bearing rocks of the Roslyn and carved into mountains, though the | field lie in an open trough or syncline, the axis of which extendsin a northwesterly direction parallel with the main valleys owing to its hardness was left projecting about 1 000 feet above the plain, cas Tertiary time the Cascade Range w formed by a great uplift of the rocks, 860 _ then the streams began their present work of cutting it away. Great can yons were 3,000 feet thick, but the coal occurs in the upper part alone, and for this reason th, 7% 9 ee 4 ra than the formation which carries them. So far as known they are restricted to an area about 7 miles long by 34 miles wide, THE NORTHERN PACIFIC ROUTE. 181 West of Clealum the railway follows the north bank of the river under the cut bank of an extensive terrace of gravel, which is doubt- less the outwash from the glacier that once occupied Clealum Valley. The road then bends sharply to the south around a narrow point of the terrace that has been protected from erosion by a projecting boss of the Teanaway basalt. In the early days of railroading in the Yakima Valley this was known as Deadman’s Curve, from the number of fatal accidents that occurred here, but now with the use of block signals the danger has been removed. About a mile west of this curve the railway crosses Clealum River, which drains a large valley heading far to the north and containing Clealum Lake, a body of water 4 miles long and nearly a mile wide. At the outlet of this lake the Reclamation Service has constructed a low dam to raise the level of the lake and make a storage reservoir. It is proposed to increase the height of this dam and thus impound a much larger volume of water for use in the lower valley. As the railway rounds the next point of the terrace and crosses the river a corresponding point is seen on the left, as if at one time there had been a continuous ridge across the valley at this place. This ridge has many of the characteristics of a terminal moraine, including a steep face upstream against which the ice front may have rested, a hummocky surface in that part lying to the left (south) of the track, and bowlder clay at the bottom of the cut near the railway. These features, together with the flat, smooth floor of the valley above, indicate that at a certain stage of the glaciation of this region a large body of ice came down the tributary valley now occupied by Kachess extending from a point just a little east of Clealum northwestward nearly to Clea- lum Lake. Along the northeastern limb of the syncline the coal beds are well known, as the principal bed has been mined out throughout most of that area, but on the southwest side the rocks are badly covered, and although considerable drilling has been done the extent of the workable coal is somewhat problematic. So far only one bed, the Roslyn, been worked; another bed of workable thickness underlies the Roslyn, but its extent and value have never been de- termined. The Roslyn bed is remarkably in thickness and composition throughout the district, but the quality ly from Clea- not all clear coal but contains a number of partings of bony coal. Government analyses show that the heating value of the coal ranges from 11,950 to 12,980 British thermal units. The Roslyn district contains some of the largest mines west of Mississippi River, and the field as a whole is the most productive in the State. Its output for the year 1913 was 1,334,155 short tons, or more than one-third of the coal pro- the Swauk is particularly noted for the coarseness of the gold. Large nuggets have been found here, one being worth $1, 100. Oo was discovered in this in 1860, and at least $2,000,000 worth fa been produced. 182 GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES, Lake and extended down Yakima Valley to this point. Here it rested for a while, pushing out in front the clay and rock fragments that it had ground off the rocky bed over which it had moved, and then the water flowing from the ice carried sand and gravel and spread them in a somewhat irregular sheet above the till. Besides the moraine just described, one lies at the lower end of Kachess (ka-chess’) Lake and another just below Keechelus (kee’che- lus) Lake. These show that the glacier, after retreating several miles up the branching valley, came to a halt and probably readvanced a little, piling up the rocky material in each valley as a terminal moraine. Kachess Lake, the largest lake in the region, is a beautiful sheet of water nearly 6 miles long and a mile wide. .A wagon road extends to the lower end of the lake, but the upper part is still encir- cled by unbroken forest, which covers the inclosing mountain slopes to a height of 3,200 feet above the lake. The deep basin in which the lake lies was scoured out by the glacier that once occupied this valley. The outlet of the lake has been dammed by the Reclamation Service and the level of the water raised several feet, thereby increas- ing the amount of stored water available for irrigation. The mountain side on the left (south), which can be seen to good advantage in the journey up the broad valley above the moraine, consists of schist (the Easton schist), which is the oldest geologic formation that will be seen in the Cascade Mountains. Its exact age has not been determined, but it is supposed to be Carboniferous or older. It is a part of the great foundation upon which the Ter- tiary sediments and lavas were laid down. The rocks on the right (north) are the Teanaway basalt, which covers large areas east of the summit of the range. Near milepost 36 the sheets of lava that make up this formation are well exposed in the high mountain sum- mit just north of Silver Creek. The sheets of lava here dip away from the valley and they make a rugged mountain front, the steep- ness of which has been greatly accentuated by the scouring that the old glacier has done along the bottom of the slope. Easton, which lies at the foot of the steep climb up to the Stampede tunnel, is mainly a place for helper engines to wait until their services are needed in pushing up the grade. The broad valley scmumicas which the railway has been following for some distance sagheerd bod aga continues directly ahead to Kachess Lake, but just St. Paul 1,815 miles. ond Easton the road swerves to the left and appears to plunge directly into the hillside. From the bottom of the valley the reason for this change of route is not apparent, but from any commanding summit in the neighborhood it may be seen that Easton is situated at the junction of two valleys, each of which has a width of nearly 2 miles. The chief difference in the valleys is that they are not at the same level. The Kachess Valley has an alti- THE NORTHERN PACIFIC ROUTE. 183 tude of 2,150 feet, whereas the old floor of the Yakima Valley, repre- sented by the tops of the hills above Easton, is 350 feet higher. It is clearly evident that for some reason the Kachess Valley has been deepened below that of Yakima River, and that the latter is now cutting a narrow trench in its old valley bottom in order to reduce its grade to that of the stream which it joins near Easton. These changes seem to be connected in some way with the occupation of the valleys by glacial ice, but the manner in which it has been accomplished has not been worked out. Both the Northern Pacific and St. Paul roads follow the river through the narrow gorge above Easton, where the stream boils and tumbles over the rocky ledges toward the open valley below. The sand and gravel carried down by the stream are constantly grinding away the hard rocks, but it is a slow process, and many generations will pass before the obstruction is removed. The narrow gorge is short, and beyond it the railway enters the relatively open valley above. As the Northern Pacific crosses the summit of the range near Stam- pede Pass, about 9 miles from Easton, it climbs at a steep grade. The St. Paul road, which is here on the right, crosses at Snoqualmie Pass, 11 miles farther north. A short distance beyond Easton the railway enters the great mass of andesitic lava flows and tuffs that in this region make up the great bulk of the Cascade Range. From a scenic point of view the climb to the pass is not striking, for the traveler sees only rounded: mountain slopes thickly covered with timber and the broad valley equally well protected by a tangle of dense vegetation. It is reported that bowlders of granite and similar rocks have been found perched on the mountain sides from 1,200 to 1,700 feet above the bottoms of the valleys. These indicate that at some early stage of the glacial epoch the glaciers were much more extensive than they were at a later stage when the moraines previously described were formed. One of the most striking features of the valley is the low pass on the right, leading to the upper end of Kachess Lake. This pass has an altitude of about 2,500 feet and doubtless was an outlet for either the drainage of the upper Yakima Valley or that of Kachess Valley, on the east. Its cutting and aband nt are doubtless connected with the trenching of the old valley of the Yakima above Easton, but the conditions which resulted in these changes have not been determined. This valley, like the two next east, is occupied by a lake (Keechelus Lake) which doubtless had its origin in the erosive action of the gla- cier that evidently lay for some time in the lake basin and built the moraines around its lower end. . Many beautiful views of Keechelus Lake may be obtained, either from the wagon road that follows the eastern bank or from the St. Paul Railway, which overlooks it on the west. (See Pl. XXV, p. 175.) 184 GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES. After a long climb the railway reaches Martin, the last station on the east side of the range, and a short distance beyond turns sharply to the left and faces the east portal of the Stampede Martin. tunnel. At this point there are visible on the right Plevation2,781feet. remnants of the old line, which wound up to the St. Paul 1,823 miles, top of the mountain before the tunnel was built. The Stampede tunnel is nearly 2 miles long. So many trains pass through it that great difficulty has been experienced in keeping it free from smoke and gas, but now an enormous fan has been installed at the west end, in a building which the westbound traveler will see on his right as the train emerges from the tunnel. It is expected that this fan will free the tunnel of smoke and gas in a very short time. Stampede Pass has an elevation above sea level of about 3,600 feet, but the long tunnel enables the railway to cross the range at a much lower level. In order to maintain a regular grade down the west side of the range, the track winds in and out and around spurs in a most confusing man- ner to one who is endeavoring to keep directions or to see the mountains. From Stampede two lines of rails are visible far below on the left, which seem to belong to another road, but later it appears that they are parts of a large loop which the Northern Pacific 4s forced to make in order to get down the mountain side. The mountain slopes are generally smooth and round, and the thick mantle of trees and brush covers all except here and there a lava cliff or an old scar that marks the passage of some forest fire.’ The out- look is confined generally to the valley of Green River, which the railway descends, but at one place, if the weather is favorable, a fleeting glimpse may be caught of the towering white cone of Mount Stampede, Elevation 2,852 feet. St. Paul 1,826 miles. ‘The traveler from the train can get only a very imperfect idea of the charac- ter of the country, for he is looking at it from a position below the level of the mountain tops and hence can not see its upper surface. Although it is not possi- ble to see much of the Cascade Range, a study of the contours on sheets 26 and 27 . same elevation, ing from 4,000 to 6,000 feet above sea level. It will show also that the range is not sharp crested, ike those in the vicinity of Helena and Butte, buta broad plat hich has bee so cut into by the streams that its origi- er Se BS SG REN Shae ae Rages GE ERS ee Sheet 26 also shows the location, about 12 miles south of the Stampede tunnel, of Naches Pass (altitude 4,923 feet) and the old Naches trail, which was the first road to be opened across the Cascade Range north of Columbia River. The early ex- plorers learned of this route from the In- dians and utilized it in their wanderings around the headwaters of Yakima River. It was not, however, used to any great extent until the rush of homeseekers about 1850 made it desirable to find a shorter route to the Puget Sound ports than that by way of Fort Vancouver, on Columbia River. Accordingly in 1853 wagons, though probably a pretty rough road, and many settlers found their way — to the Sound by this route. THE NORTHERN PACIFIC ROUTE. 185 Rainier. This view may be had on the right while rounding the extreme pomt of the loop about 2 miles west of Stampede. The mountain is in view only for a moment and then is hidden by the nearer slopes. The rocks in the valley of Green River are the same as those seen on the east side. They consist of lava flows and beds of voleanic tuff that have been tilted in various directions. These rocks are known as the Keechelus andesitic series and most of them are of Miocene age. They represent the great floods of lava and fragmental material that were poured out before the Cascades were formed. They now form part of the broad platform upon which the great volcanic cones of Mount Rainier, Mount Adams, and Mount St. Helens are reared. The train runs down the mountain slope on the left side of Sunday Creek to the junction of that stream with Green River, which comes from the south. At present the road makes a long loop up Green River, but a new line is being constructed that will cut off this loop. The valley of Green River, as well as that of Sunday Creek, is broad and rounded and shows clearly that it has been cleared and modified by a glacier. The development, maximum extension, and retreat of the glaciers of this region are described below by Bailey Willis. from the Olympic Mountains, on the west; a larger one gathered along the base of the Cascade Range, on the east; the lar- ‘Glacial development began in the high mountains climate, at one time milder than that now existing, grad- ually though not continuously increased in severity. As cold seasons grew longer d warm ones shorter, snow banks in the shadows of high peaks increased in volume and drifts accumulated in hol- lows less protected fromthesun. As they grew, the snow banks consolidated to ice, and, flowing downward, became glaciers. Each canyon received an onward-moving ice stream proportionate in size to the tributary area above it. The air was chilled, precipitation increased, and gla- ciers extended, and thus the effect of Th except over sharp, ogo peaks and ridges. Issuing from the foothills, the glaciers spread and oo ones coal- esced, forming broad piedmont glaciers. at the foot of the mountain) is to the mountain or alpine glaciers which feed it as a lake is related to its tributary —~ great ee pees met in the sieges Sound One was fed Sound. Tongues of these piedmont gla- ciers advanced along the valleys until opposing ice streams met and coalesced Then the ice mass deepened, as water may deepen in a lake. Land divides became peninsulas and isolated hills Hills of the Puget Inlet, the main channel leading to Puget Sound, and the southern extremity of the ice sheet spread beyond — and Olympia on the south and wes a change ach like those that brought on glacia- tion, are not understood. Then followed 186 GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES. Although the railway is steadily descending as it follows Green River, the canyon grows no deeper, for the reason that the westward slope of the top of the plateau in which it is cut is Lester. about the same as the grade of the stream. In the Elevation 1,626feet. vicinity of Lester the stream flows about 3,000 feet st Paul 1839 miles, elow the tops of the highest hills on either side, and this depth is maintained for a considerable distance. Hot Springs (see sheet 27, p. 196) was once a noted resort, with a large hotel on the right of the track; but a number of years ago the hotel was destroyed by fire, and it has not been Hot Springs. rebuilt. Green River is now utilized by the city of Blevation 1,545 feet. "Tacoma for its water supply, and great care is exer- St. Paul 1,841 miles. : . : : cised in keeping the stream free from pollution. The intake of the waterworks will be seen lower down the stream. Below Hot Springs the timber was originally very heavy, but most of it has been cut off or burned, and the traveler can obtain a very inadequate idea of a virgin Washington forest from Maywood. what he sees along this route. In many places, how- ee ever, the second growth is very dense, and it would : : be difficult to force one’s way through it. In this vicinity the traveler gets his first good view of the luxuriant growth of ferns that characterizes the forests of the coastal belt of Oregon and Washington. (See Pl. XXVI, p. 194.) The rocks, although much obscured by vegetation, are similar to the lava flows and breccias that occur near the summit of the range and also on Humphrey. the east side.. In the Green River valley the rocks pe Pad sar ea have been smoothed and rounded by the glaciers that formerly flowed down the valley and spread out on the plain below. The smooth and open character of the valley continues down as far as Eagle Gorge, but beyond that place the river enters a narrow, steep-walled canyon that in no Eagle Gorge. respect resembles the valley higher up. The contour an ‘1110 feet. map shows that a broad valley continues below Eagle St. Paul 1,854 miles. Gorge to Barneston, but that neither the river nor the railway follows it. From the arrangement of the valleys it is evident that Green River, at some time in the an epoch during which the ice melted hardy vegetation may have flourished in earlier and more rapidly in the lowlands, | soil upon the ice. Rivers flowed on the later and lingeringly in the canyons of | glaciers, through tunnels in them, and the The piedmont glaciers | from beneath them. Ice-bound lakes till they parted, and each man- | were formed in embayments of the hills. tled the foothills of its parent range. The | Changes succeeded one another fre- Pee eal i. os eee a =e fee gm of stagnant ice buried beneath accumu- | and lake left a meager record of its exist- lations of gravel, sand, and loam, and | ence in deposits of detritus. SHEET No. 26 i2¥ 120° 30° WASHINGTON BULLETIN 611 or older EXPLANATION A Stream deposits (alluvium) and glacial drift Quaternary GEOLOGIC AND TOPOGRAPHIC MAP . B_ Granite (Snoqualmie) OF THE C Lava flows (mostly Keechelus andesitic series)| Tertiary : D Sandstone, shale, ete. (Ellensburg and Guye | (Miocene) NORTHERN PACIFIC ROUTE formations) i) E Lava flows (Yakima basalt) i i F Sandstone and shale, with coal beds (Ros From St. Paul, Minnesota, to Seattle, Washington - indstone and shale, with coal beds (Roslyn ; 4 SSR aa eee ree cara ean ee - nearene . Base compiled from United States Geological Survey Atlas ” ge G Lava flows (Teanaway basalt) and dikes Tertiary wt Sheets, from rai ignments and profiles supplied by & RS ce H_ Lava flows (Kachess rhyolite) (Eocene) the Northern Pacific Railway Company and from additional ma te SS Mr Stuart 1 Sandstone (Swauk and Naches formations), : information collected with the assistance of this company ng older Eocene & J Metamorphic rocks, probably Carboniferous 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 Jeft corner is mapped in detail on the U. S. G. S. Topographic Sheet of that name. Sheet No 27 ~ “ty t 1 ale 500,000 Approximately 8 miles to | inch Aete A Pe. nai Pee a Pa ee es IS 20 ee ELEVATIONS IN FEET ABOVE MEAN SEA LEVEL ; Pa The di from St. Paul, Minnesota. b 10. mi f As The crossties on the railroads are spaced | mile apart wh ~ (€ A : - 12i° Sheet No.25 : : : : iz = ENGRAVED AMG PRINTED &Y THE U.SGEDLOGICAL SURIEY * THE NORTHERN PACIFIC ROUTE. 187 past, flowed in this valley instead of in its present course below Eagle Gorge.! 1The old and new valleys of Green River afford an excellent example of changes that may take place in the drain- age system of a country as a consequence of the invasion of a glacier. The river valleys on the west slope of the Cascade Mountains are in general well developed, showing that the streams have occupied them foralongtime. The original course of Green River below Eagle Gorge was doubtless north by way of Page Mill and Barneston, for the present canyon below Eagle Gorge is so narrow that it must have been formed comparatively recently. The relative size of the two valleys is shown in figure 38, which representsa cross section about 3 miles below Eagle Gorge. To divert a stream intrenched in a valley from 2,000 to 3,000 feet deep must have required a formidable barrier. Such a barrier could have been produced only + ry Soot The exact manner in which the ice blocked this outlet of Green River is a matter of speculation, but probably the glacier came down the Sound after the local glaciers in Green and Snoqualmie valleys had melted back from the moun- tain front and crowded up the valley of Green River until it completely blocked that valley with a great dam of ice, hun- eds and possibly thousands of feet in thickness. This barrier seems to have been sufficient to raise the water of Green River until it flowed over a low divide River valley and a small stream flowing to the west past Palmer Junction. Beyond this divide the river found an unob- donsntond Wnt eth te ke +4 to deepen and which it finally cut below the level of the former outlet by Barnes- By the time the ice had disappeared ton. Abandoned valley S of Greer Fiver YY y Ficurr 28 —Sacti URE 55, g Eppa Feige C f the valley of Green River below Eagle Gorge, Wash., com- ca aes Sega. ae" vhen it y 1, +} ety : pareGa Witil LUO Valley i in one of four ways—(1) by a landslide which filled the valley below the point of diversion; (2) by a lava flow occupying ment of the land below the fault; or (4) by the blocking of the valley by ice. If were due to any one of the remain in the old valley some traces of the barrier, but, as no such features have been observed, it must be concluded that ice was the agent that caused the change. Ice would leave no permanent barrier, and so no surface indications would be expected, except the ordinary deposits are made by a glacier. Evidence —s 4s 7 j ee I eRe ice at a recent geologic date. Green River had become so deeply in- trenched in its new course that it per- sisted, and it remains to this day in the new valley it was thus compelled to occupy. ; Although this change occurred during the Great Ice Age, geologically it was valley in the vicinity of Eagle Gorge into the dim shadows of the narrow canyon below, in which there is barely room for the track between the river and the bluffs, and even to make this passage / deep rock cuts and many crossings of | the stream are necessary. 188 GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES. That part of the Green River valley below Eagle Gorge has all the features characteristic of newly cut gorges in fairly hard rocks. It is narrow and tortuous and the stream abounds in tumbling cascades and pools of deep water. It is a beautiful glen in which the rocks are covered with delicate mosses and draped with ferns whose graceful fronds sparkle with mist from the numerous cascades. Just after passing milepost 81 the traveler can see the head gate of the Tacoma waterworks, and the deep-blue pool above, which certainly looks as if no polluting substances had ever affected it. After being accustomed to the water supplied to some of the eastern cities the traveler may envy these Pacific coast towns their nearness to mountain sources and the never-failing water supply they can pro- cure there. Seattle also draws its supply of water from the Cascade Mountains, but as it is taken from Cedar River, the next stream on the right (north), neither the intake nor the conduit are visible from the train. At Palmer Junction the Northern Pacific divides into two branches, the older line turning to the left (south) and going by way of Buckley to Tacoma, which at the time of the completion of the railway was its western terminus, and the other turning slightly to the right and going to Seattle by way of Auburn." 1The original plan of the Northern Pacific was to build on the north side of Columbia River from the mouth of Snake River to Kalama and thence northward to Puget Sound. That part of the road from Kalama to Tacoma was the first to be constructed, the first train reaching Tacoma on December 16, 1873. Finan- cial difficulties forced a suspension of operations for some time, but in 1880 building was resumed teres from Mandan, N of Snake River could be : ee service on the river would se napo t the traffic until a undertake the building of that line. a tion of a road along the south bank of the Columbia had been obtained by the Ore- eS Navigation Co., and = arrangements had been entered - between this tiations were ape way the construction - of the main line was carried on rapidly, and the last ite. connecting the eastern and western sections was driven a little west of Garrison in September, 1883. As early as 1876 a line was built from Tacoma up Puyallup River to the Wilke- son coal mine for the immediate of procuring coal, and ultimately as a part of the Cascade branch, which the Northern Pacific, even at that early date, wi msideri i of local capitalists, but later it was taken over by the Northern Pacific. The last cut-off constructed was the road from Pal- mer Junction to Auburn, which now gives a direct line from St. Paul to Seattle. THE NORTHERN PACIFIC ROUTE. 189 About a mile cast of Palmer Junction the railway enters one of the productive coal fields of the State, though little coal or evidence of coal mining can be seen from the train. Several mines have been developed, however, south of the river, within a distance of 3 or 4 miles, and one or two mines to the north. Between Palmer Junction and Kanaskat the Northern Pacific is crossed by a branch of the St. Paul road which leads to several mining towns along the mountain front and _ter- minates at Enumclaw, on the Tacoma line of the northern Pacific, 10 miles to the south. The moun- ; tains end abruptly at Kanaskat and give place to a glacial plain. The glacial drift on this plain is underlain by shale, sandstone, and coal beds, which belong to the Puget group and which are of about the same age as the Roslyn Palmer Junction. Elevation 869 feet. St. Paul 1,862 miles. Kanaskat. Elevation 859 feet. St. Paul 1,862 miles. Ravensdale. (Eocene) formation on the other side of the Cascade Elevation 628feet. Range, but fewof the rocks are exposed at the surface. Population 726.* There are two large coal mines at Ravensdale, one of which can be seen on the left (south) as the train passes through the village.’ - As the presence of coal beds means that swamps prevailed at one time in this region, it is reasonable to suppose that vegetation flour- ished in that far-off time much as it does to-day. Careful search has shown that plants did grow luxuriantly then, and their fossil forms are so well preserved that the botanist has been able not only to dis- tinguish the species that grew here, but to determine from the kind of plants the climate that must have prevailed. In the note below F. H. Knowlton compares the fossil flora with that living in Washington at the present time.’ St. Paul 1,867 miles. of the coal ranges British thermal uni 1 The large coal tipple which the trav- eler can see on the left is used for hoist- ing coal up a slope about 1,500 feet long | |The McKay coal bed, which is worked m the workings below. Three coal | in a mine some distance away from the beds are being worked in this mine. | main line of the road, is about 5 feet The main slope leads down one bed and | thick and is all clear coal without part- a rock tunnel has been driven from it to | i i the other two. e main bed ranges in thickness in | this the mine from 4 feet 4 inches to 10 feet rom 11,290 to 11,850 ts. tions of the coal beds, for the rocks are thrown into numerous folds and broken feet 10 inches thick, but contain much impure or dirty coal. The heating value in many places. 2 The State of Washington now exhibits great diversity in soil and climatic condi- tions, with the result that it supports a # 190 GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES, West of Ravensdale the railway pursues a westerly course, cross- ing under the Columbia & Puget Sound Railroad and then follow- ing in a general way a slight depression in the drift without any marked features of relief. Beyond Covington the valley deepens and becomes more restricted, and the railway cuts show that the valley has been excavated in a thick deposit of glacial gravel. This material, Covington. known as the Orting gravel, was deposited by Rieration 36h foots trope flowing from the ice front of the Admiralty 0) on St. Paul 1, oH pom arther north. glacier (see p. 192) after it had retreated to a position f At milepost 102 is the State fish hatchery, which supplies fish fry for many of the streams on this side of the mountains. Soon after passing this point the train crosses Green River and is once more ina large and varied flora of not less than 2,500 species of the so-called higher plants alone. As these soil and climatic condi- tions vary from place to place, there are many sharp, almost abrupt changes in the character of the vegetation. rite the Cascade Range, although only 7,000 feet high, constitutes an mathe’ barrier which relatively few plants are able to cross. On the east side of the mountains there is an arid transition area where the sagebrush plains of Columbia River give way to the slightly higher, ered zone known as the - posed mainly of the yellow or bull pine, with such undershrubs as the pinebark, buck- brush, roses, and a tall huckleberry. On the western slope of the Cascades the change i in the character of the vegeta- ominant forest tree of oak growing in the State, as well as the black pine and, until the middle of July, a carpet of brilliant flowers. The fossil flora of this = found in more or less close association with the numerous coal beds, was also an exceedingly rich and diverse one, num-_ bering, as at present understood, about 350 species, with the probability that it may reach 400 or 500 species when fully known. Not a single a of these fossil species is now known to be living, al- though many of them beltug & gener make up the present flora. In view of the so-called accident of preservation, it is probable that the total fossil flora may have equaled the living flora in number of species The almost complete change in the character of the flora bereniad the Puget epoch (Eocene) is well y the coni- fers. This group is now dominant in con- spicuousness and number of individuals, whereas in Puget time it was almost neg- ligible, being represented by only three kind ress, cedar, and juniper—and these very ~ scarce that less than twenty udpaliGd mens have been “Gbecrved: Another marked difference between the two floras is shown by the presence of palms in the Puget flora. Two very distinct kinds of palms have been found, one with rather small, feather-like leaves, and a huge fan palm, with leaves that must have been at — THE NORTHERN PACIFIC ROUTE. 191 broad valley in which the timber has been cleared away and farms established. To one not accustomed to the thick forests of the Pacific slope, it is a relief to emerge from their dense shade and enter open country. After crossing Green River and the broad valley in which it flows the train passes under a high bluff of gravel (Orting) on the south. The origin and geologic age of this gravel, as well as of the other formations of the drift in Washington, are discussed below by W. C. Alden.‘ This gravel has been extensively used by the railway for bal- asting the track. At Auburn the railway line across the mountains unites with the line from Portland to Seattle. The rest of the route is directly north down the valley to its junction with Black River, which is the natural outlet of Lake Washington. Auburn. Elevation 100 feet. Population 957. St. Paul 1,883 miles. least 5 or 6 feet across. At present palms do not grow wild within a thousand miles of the Puget Sound region The traveler will dcabilets be struck by the abundance of beautiful ferns now growing along the forest borders in the open, partly shaded locations. Ferns were also present during Puget time, though none that have been found are very closely related to the living forms. = bushy — (Equisetum) are places, and the ersity. They included figs of several kinds, hackberries, mul- berries, many willows, alders, birches, and oaks, a number of poplars, two spe- cies of pepper tree, elms, ashes, maples, magnolias, cinnamons, laurels, plums, service berries, dogwoods, custard apples, chestnuts, crab apples, roses, and others nies are without well- kacwn vernacular n The Sound ec ae hington, at the time of deposition of the lower beds of the Puget group, is supposed, on account of the abundance of ferns, gigantic palms, figs, and a number of forms now found in the West Indies and tropical South Amer- ~~“ ica, to have enjoyed a much warmer cli- mate than it does to-day; but the pres- ence of sumachs, chestnuts, birches, maples, dogwoods, sycamore, etc., in the upper beds of the group would seem to indicate an approach to the climatic con- ditions prevailing at present. A number of fossil plants have been found to be common to the east and west sides of the Cascades. This would indi- cate that approximately similar condi- tions of climate and topography prevailed throughout this general area during the Puget epoch. The Cascade Range, as it now exists, did not then intervene 1 At a time which probably corresponds to the last or Wisconsin stage of glaciation in the eastern part of the United States, the mountains of Washington were largely covered with ice, and the Vashon lobe of the Cordilleran ice sheet extended south- The ice filled the depressions composing the Sound, from the foot of the Olympic Mountains on the west to the base of the Cascades on the east. On the south it reached and covered much of the plains south of Olympia. The ice of this glacier probably coalesced on the the slopes and valleys of the Cascades. The melting of these glaciers left depos- its of clay, sand, gravel, and bowlders betw around gah ae which were not thick enough 192 GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES. Below the point of junction the stream is known as Duwamish River, and this the road follows to the tidal flats of Elliott Bay at Seattle. The broad valley at Auburn is distinctly different from the ordinary stream valleys of this region, in that it is wider than is required by such streams as now occupy it, it is flatter than valleys excavated by erosion, and it is open to tidewater at both ends—Elliott Bay (Seattle) on the north and Commencement Bay (Tacoma) on the west. The floor of the valley is so flat that streams entering it build delta-like accumulations of sediment upon which the stream channel shifts from place to place. White River, next to Green River on the south and named because of the milky color of its water, derived from the glaciers of Mount Rainier, enters the valley a few miles above Auburn. Part of the stream at times turns south into Puyal- lup (poo-yal’up) River and reaches tidewater at Tacoma and the other part flows north and unites with Green River. The arrangement of the valleys and their peculiar connection with bays and similar in- dentations of the coast line strongly suggest that at one time this entire valley from Tacoma to Seattle was an arm of the Sound simi- lar to but smaller than Admiralty Inlet and that it has become a land valley simply by being filled with sediment brought down by the rivers from the Cascade Mountains. Bailey Willis, who has made a careful study of the Puget Sound region, is of the opinion that the peculiar branching channels of the Sound could have been produced only by the submergence of a land on which a branching river system had formerly existed. If this view is correct, it is evident that many modifications must have been made, for a peculiarity of the channels of the Sound is that they not only unite as the tributaries of a river system unite, but they separate ina most intricate fashion. Taken as a whole, the conclusion appears well founded, but there are many minor points that still remain to be explained. to fill the deep depressions, so that when free of ice these were occupied by marine ntorg'! and covered by the deposits of ie phe. ciers mentioned above. Beneath these sands and gravels lie deposits of stiff blue clay, mostly strati- fied but locally filled with subangular posits, deposited by the Admiralty glacier, were laid down during an earlier stage of glaciation, when the Puget Sound asin was occupied by a lobe of the Cordilleran ice sheet, as at the Vashon stage. There are some suggestions that still earlier glaciers occupied the basin, but these are too indefinite to be given much weight. f THE NORTHERN PACIFIC ROUTE. 193 The White River valley is largely given up to truck farming and dairying. The dairying industry centers about Kent, where there is a large plant for the manufacture of condensed Kent. Elevation 53 feet. Population 1,908. St. Paul 1,888 miles. milk. On the left (west) are the lines of the Oregon- Washington Railroad & Navigation Co., the St. Paul road, and the Interurban Electric Co.; on the right the town of Renton, perched partly on the hillside, about 2 miles distant. This is another coal-mining town—in fact, coal mining is the chief business in many parts of the country back from the Sound. Renton is nearer tidewater than the other mining towns of the State, and the coal mined here has a fine reputation in the cities on the Sound as a clean fuel for domestic use.' Between mileposts 11 and 10 the Black River branch on the right leads to Renton and other towns in that direction, and at milepost 10 the Renton branch of the interurban trolley line crosses the St. Paul road and then crosses Black River, which is the outlet of Lake Washineton. Beyond the crossing of Black River the railway is at the foot of the bluffs on the right side of the valley, and the hillside cuts expose, in several places, sandstone and shale (Puget group), but no coal beds occur in this part of the formation. This part of the valley is known as the Duwamish Valley. At its lower end the stream is actively engaged in filling the bay with the sediment which it car- ries. ‘The work of the stream has been supplemented in recent years by civic activity in cutting down some of Seattle’s hills and in reduc- ing the grades in the business part of the city. On some of the streets the grade was lowered as much as 30 feet, and on others there was a corresponding fill. As the material on which the city is built is glacial drift, steam shovels were largely used for the excavation, but the methods used in hydraulic mining were employed to get rid of the large hill upon which the old Washington Hotel was situated. The rail- way crosses the wide tidal flats, which are being more and more utilized for business purposes, and reaches the Union Station at Seattle. : Renton. is one of the oldest coal- mining centers of this part of the country, to the quality of the coal, for that is of a much lower rank than those already described, but it is probably due to the nearness to tidewater, the cleanness of the coal, and its suitability for domestic use, Two coal beds are worked, and, like most of the other coal beds of this region, they are not lying flat, but dip at an angle of ee: 12° to the southeast. Th 95558°—Bull. 611—15——13 coal is brought to the mato through a a slope on one of the beds, and a rock tun- nel in the mine connects with the other. Each bed is over 8 feet thick every- where, but this is not all merchantable The average heating value of the and 10,060 coal, coal of these tv British thermal units. 143 FP O68 Roslyn and Ravensdale. 194 GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES. The most important natural feature at Seattle is the wonderful harbor, with deep water at the very door of the city. The depth of water is shown on the small map on sheet 27. Other features of interest are the steep water front and the way in which it has been modified and shaped for the use of man, and Lake Washington, which bounds the city on the east and is soon to be thrown open to the commerce of the world by the construction of a ship canal from Salmon Bay through Like Union and across the narrow neck of land south of the State University. This will greatly increase the harbor facilities, and the fresh water of the lake will afford an efficient means of freeing ocean-going vessels of barnacles. The State University is beautifully situated on the shore of Lake Washington, and its campus was utilized for the site of the Alaska- Yukon-Pacific Exposition in 1909. The city is well supplied with parks and connecting-boulevards, and one of the finest views about the city is that of Mount Rainier! from the boulevard that follows Seattle. Elevation 24 feet. ~ arene 237,194, St. Paul 1,904 miles the shore of Lake Washington. * Of all the mountain masses and rugged snow peaks in the region described in this book, none will compare with the beauti- ful majestic cone of Mount Rainier (Pl. Pacific slope. There may be other snow- clad peaks that seem to pierce the sky, such as ada Baker, and St. Helens, but these are dwarfed beside the mighty symmetrical cone of Rainier. Mount Rainier (14, 408 feet) is of about the same height as es Peak, in Colo- rado (14,108 feet), or Mount Whitney, in California (14,502 feet), but it is superior in beauty to Ana for it is not only a symme ne but it can be seen from sea level mre ‘a close range, so that it stands out in all its massive grandeur. Mount Rainier when it comes into view from Tacoma, Seattle, or any other point along the winding channels of Puget Sound or from Lake Was , reveals oo as there are no other peaks to t the view or to detract from its st better known by his Spanish sobriquet Juan ae Fuca, claimed to have discov- ered t. in entrance to the Sound about 1660, but grave doubt has been cast upon his narrative and many believe that his account was pure fiction. The first reliable account of the Sound was written by Capt. George Mongetis of the British Royal Navy, who in = tS region, including Mount Rainier. It is said that the original Indian name was Tacoma or Tahoma, me “bi show mountain,” but Vanecaver disre- garded or did not know of the Indian usage and named the peak after Rear Admiral miral Rainier, of the British Navy. even though usage has given it great tere and the aboriginal name Tacoma Rian. the high peaks of the Cas- cade attracted the attention of everyone of mountain climbing was the ascent of Mount St. Helens in 1853. Duriag OLOGICAL SURVEY GE BULLETIN GLE | LMOST IMPASSABLE TAN THE A U. 8 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY BULLETIN 611 PLATE XXVIil Paes ae i: 2, ‘‘MONARCH OF THE CASCADES,” AS SEEN FROM THE BOULEVARD ON THE SHORE OF LAKE WASHINGTON, SEATTLE, WASH. MOUNT RAINIE This mighty volcanic cone rises 14,408 feet above tidewater and ne arly 10,000 feet above the general level of the Cascade Range, Photograph copyrighted by Curtis & Miller, Seattle. THE NORTHERN PACIFIC ROUTE. 195 Although Capt. Vancouver mapped and named Puget Sound in 1792, there was no permanent settlement or even trading post in the region until 1833, when Fort Nisqually was built by the Hudson’s Bay Co. on the ground now occupied by the city of Tacoma. This post was for many years, even up to the time it was purchased by the United States Government in 1869, the leading commercial place on the Sound and was surpassed only on the northwest coast by Fort Vancouver, on the Columbia, which was the headquarters of the Hudson’s Bay Co. Capt. Wilkes, when on his exploring expedition of 1840, landed at Fort Nisqually and sent a party inland to explore the country tribu- tary to the Sound and to Columbia River. One party traveled south- ward and explored the Willamette (Wil-lam’et) Valley of Oregon, and another, under Lieut. R. W. Johnson, on May 29, 1840, crossed the Cascade Mountains by way of Naches Pass. This seems to have been the earliest passage by white men across the Cascades. At that time it was only an Indian trail, but in 1853 a road was cleared so that emigrants over the old Oregon Trail could make a short cut to the Sound instead of having to keep to the south along Columbia River. following year parties reached the sum- mits of Mount tempts were made to climb Mount Baker, but not until 1868 did a party reach the top. Lieut. A. V. Kautz made an almost successful ascent of Mount Rainier in 1857, reaching within 1,000 feet of the summit. His trip, however, proved to be very im- portant, for he established the existence of glaciers here, which up to that time had not been known in this country. The first expedition to reach the top of the mountain was that of Gen. Hazard Stevens and P. V. Van Trump, who at- tained the summit on August 17, 1870. In the same year 8S. F. Emmons and A. D. Wilson, at that time members of the Fortieth Parallel Survey, made a brief study of the geology of the mountain and of the glaciers on its side and reached the top October 17, just two months after it had been attained by Stevens and Van Trump. Since that time numerous as- cents have been made, and each year the trip is gaining in popularity, espe- cially since the mountain and some of the adjacent territory has been set aside as the Mount Rainier National Park. The base of the mountain can easily be reached from either Seattle or Tacoma, and the views obtained on such a trip will amply repay anyone for the journey. Mount Rainier, like Mounts Adams, St. Helens, and Baker, and Glacier Peak, is a great volcanic cone built upon the sum- mit of the Cascade Range by successive layers of material thrown out of its crater. The great height of these peaks has not been materially reduced by erosion, for long enough to permit very effective work by the elements. Steam escai most of these old volcanoes, showing that the rocks are still hot at some distance below the surface. It is noted in the rec- ords of old Fort Vancouver, on Columbia Pasa of mountains, i is another indication ion is not o sess extinct. The heights of the great volcanic peaks of Washington are as follows: Mount St. Helens, 9,697 feet; Glacier Peak, 10,436 feet; Mount Baker, 10,750 feet; Mount Adams, 12,307 feet; and Mount Rainier, 14,408 feet. 196 GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES. The first settlement in the vicinity of Seattle was made at Alki Point in 1851. This was named New York, to which somebody face- tiously added the Chinook word “‘alki,” meaning ‘‘by and by.”’ On February 15, 1852, the claims which became the town site of Seattle were staked, but up to 1860 there were not more than 20 families in the town. The town of Tacoma was laid out in 1872, and since that date there has been the most intense though friendly rivalry between the two places. The Puget Sound basin lies in what is called the moist district of Washington. It has an annual precipitation of 25 to 60 inches, three- fourths of which occurs in the “‘ wet season,’”’ from November to April. It is therefore intermediate between the extremely wet country of the coast, having an annual precipitation of 60 to 120 inches, and the dry belt east of the Cascade Mountains, where the annual precipitation is only 8 or 10 inches. The Puget Sound region is regarded by many unfamiliar with it as a region of excessive rainfall, but the figures given by the Weather Bureau show that the precipitation here is about the same as in southern Ohio. The mean annual temperature of Seattle for December, 1894, to December, 1903, was 52°. The maximum for that time was 96° and the minimum 3°. Although the great forests that have made this part of the north- west coast famous are fast disappearing, lumbering continues to be the chief industry along the Sound, and millions of feet of lumber are each year sent east by the railways or shipped by vessel to various parts of the world. Seattle has one of the finest deep-water harbors on the coast. As shown by the sketch map of Elliott Bay on sheet 27, the water deepens rapidly to 100 feet and then the depth increases gradually and some- what irregularly to 600 feet where the bay opens into the Sound. The harbor facilities of Seattle and its position near the Strait of Juan de Fuca and also the inland passage to the north have made it the most advantageous place on the northwest coast for the center of the Alaskan trade and also for a large part of the oriental commerce to the United States. GEOLOGIC AND TOPOGRAPHIC MAP NORTHERN PACIFIC ROUTE From St. Paul, Minnesota, to Seattle, Washington 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 in parenthesis in the , lower left corner is mapped in detail on the U. S. G. S. Topographic Sheet of that name. ; 2 £ ae . 2 ‘ MILES MAP SHOWING DEPTH OF WATER IN ELLIOTT BAY , SEATTLE Th diet: Scale 300,000 S Approximately 8 miles to 1 inch 1 re BULLETIN 611 SHEET No. 27 mt _ 19 Miles ms io 3 10 ib Kilometers Contour ELEVATIONS IN F) "7 ce, Paul, intery EET A Min. BOVE MEAN SEA LEVEL al 200 feet hy a The crossties on the railroads are spaced ! mile apart ee ON Tr ee rN Ss Ny “ye eke | 1A uy ie ofS 22° WASHINGTON EXPLANATION Loose surface materials A . Stream deposits (alluvium) B Outwash (Steilacoom gravel) from retreating Vashon Glacier 4 ol, ed) C Glacial drift (Vashon and Osceola), Wisconsin an Ves stage - Quaternary ee a D Outwash (Orting gravel and Puyallup sand) ae from Admiralty Glacier, shown by stippled bee ee —\ pattern } ee. E. Glacial drift (Admiralty), pre-Wisconsin 5 ~ stage, represented by heavy line Pe i 2 SE Underlying rotks c \ i fon ; 2 Sammamish § Lava flows, andesite Quaternary ‘oe By Inglewobd G Lava flows (andesite of Cascade Range), _} a = neces Miocene NN HOO \ H_ Shale, Miocene Tertiary with coal beds (Puget| Sandstone and shale, group), Eocene J | JK7 tat"; ENGRAVED AMD PRINTED @y THE U.S. GEOLOGICAL SUNY EY IMPORTANT PAPERS ON THE GEOGRAPHY, GEOLOGY, AND HISTORY OF THE REGION TRAVERSED BY THE NORTHERN PACIFIC RAILWAY. MINNESOTA. ; Coves, Exuiorr, The explorations of Zebulon M. Pike, vol. 1, New York, 1895. NORTH DAKOTA. t, ©. M., and Wrtarp, D. E., U. 8. Geol. Survey Geol. Atlas, Casselton-Fargo “folio (No. iy 1905. Lronarp, A. G., U. 8S. Geol. Survey Geol. Atlas, Bismarck folio (No. 181), 1912. Lzonarp, A. G., and Surrs, C. D., The Sentinel Butte — field, North Dakota and Montana: U.S. Geol. Survey Bull. 341, pp. 15-35, 1 Topp, J. E., The moraines of the Missouri Coteau and their aden deposits: U. 8. Geol. Sarvey Bull. 144, 1896. Urnam, Warren, The glacial Lake Agassiz: U. 8. Geol. Survey Mon. 25, 1896. Wrtarp, D. E., U.S. Geol. Survey Geol. Atlas, Jamestown-Tower folio (No. 168), 1909 MONTANA. seen Josep, Geology of the Marysville mining district, Mont.: U. 8. Geol. y Prof. Paper 57, 1907. CALKINS, “P. C., and MacDonazp, D. F., A geological reconnaissance in northern Idaho and northwestern Montana: UW: s. Geol. Survey Bull. 384, 1909. Catvert, W. R., Geology of eed ages fields in eastern Montana: U. 8. Geol. Survey Bull. 471, pp. 187-201, 1 The Livingston and Trail eck coal fields, Park, —— and Sweetgrass counties, Mont.: U. 8. Geol. Survey Bull. 471, pp. 384-405, The Electric coal field, Park County, Mont.: U.S. Geol. coe Bull. 471, pp. 406-422, 1912. Se H. M., The Yellowstone National Park: Cincinnati, The Robert Clarke Co., OorizER, oe as and Smrrx, C. D., The Miles City coal field, Mont.: U. 8. Geol. Survey Bull. 341, pp. 36-61, 1909. Hacue, ArNnotp, WEED, W. H., and Ipp1ves, J. vt U.S. Geol. Survey Geol. Atlas, a: National Park folio (No. 30), 18 Hance, J , The Glendive — field, oe County, Mont.: U. S. Geol. Sur- vey A Tl, pp. 271-283, 1912 Ippines, J. P., and Weep, W. H., U. S. Geol. Survey Geol. Atlas, Livingston folio Kworr, Apotrn, Ore deposits of the Helena mining region, Mont.: U.S. Geol. Survey Bull. 527, 1913. Parper, J. T., Coal in the Tertiary ne beds of southwestern Montana: U. 8. Geol. — The glacial Lake Missoula, Jour dintiey vol. 18, pp. 376-386, 19 Prate, A. C., U. 8. Geol. Survey ers Atlas, Threeforks folio (No. 24), ts — R. W., and eagle W. R., Stratigraphic relations of the veka io for- wysete cy, eeaetnguietiied of noeth Bull., vol. 17, pp- 1-28, 1906. ambrian fossiliferous us formations: Geol. Soc. America Bull., vol. 10, pp. 199-244, 1899. 197 198 GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES. Weep, W. H., Geology and ore deposits of the Butte district, Mont.: U. 8S. Geol. Survey Prof. Paper 74, 1912. ——— The glaciation of the Yellowstone Valley north of the park: U.S. Geol. Survey Bull. 104, 1893. The Laramie and the overlying Livingston formation in ge with report on flora, by F. H. Knowlton: U.S. Geol. Survey Bull. 105, 1893. WEED, W. H., Emmons, S. F., and Tower, G. W.,jr., U.S. Geol. yom Geol. Atlas, Butte special folio (No. 38), 1897. Wooprurr, E. G., The Red Lodge coal field, Mont.: U. 8. Geol. Survey Bull. 341, pp. 92-107, 1909. IDAHO. Ransome, F. L., and Cauxms, F. C., The geology and ore — of the Coeur d’Alene district, Idaho: U. 8. Geol. Survey Prof. Paper 62, 1 WASHINGTON. Brevz, J. H., Glaciation of the Puget Sound region: Washington Geol. Survey Bull. Cauxins, F. C., Geology and water resources of a portion of east-central Washington: . 8. Geol. Survey Water-Supply Paper 118, 1905. oT 7 rie The coal fields of King County, Wash.: Washington Geol. Survey Bull. 3, 1 108, 1893 Russet, I. C., and Suara, G. O., Glaciers of Mount Rainier, with a paper on the rocks of Mount Rainier: U. 8. Geol. Survey Eighteenth Ann. Rept., pt. 2, pp. 349- 424, 1898. ik : C., A geological reconnaissance in central Washington: U. S. Geol. Sur- vey Bull. Surrn, E. E., Coals of the State of Washington: U. S. Geol. Survey Bull. 474, 1911. Suiru, G. O., Geology and water resources of a portion of Yakima County, Wash. : U.S. Geol. Survey Water-Supply Paper 55, 190 ——— U.S. Geol. Survey Geol. Atlas, Ellensburg felis (No. 86), sagas —— U.S. Geol. Survey Geol. Atlas, Mount Stuart folio (No. 106), 1: Smiru, G. O., and Catxiys, F. C., U. S. Geol. Survey Geol. Atlas, Pete e eS folio (No. 139), 1906. Smiru, G. O., and Wiius, Barer, Contributions to the geology of Washington: U. 8. Geol. Survey Prof. Paper 19, 1903. WarinG, G. A., Geology and water resources of a opng of south-central Washington: U.S. Geol. Survey Water-Supply Paper 316, 1913. Wuus, Barey, and Sarru, G. O., U. S. Geol. Survey Geol. Atlas, Tacoma folio (No. 54), 1899. GENERAL. Cougs, Exuiort, History of the Ss aaa under the command of Lewis and Clark, 4 vols., New York, Francis P. Harper, 1893. GANNETT, Hanes; Boundaries of the ae States and the several States and Territories, with an outline = Fo history of all important changes of territory: U.S. Geol. Survey Bull. 22 SMALLEY, oth V., History of the odcas Pacific Railroad, New York, G. P. Putnam’s wea D.,, The trail of Lewis and Clark, G. P. Putnam’s Sons, New York, 1904. GLOSSARY OF GEOLOGIC TERMS. Alluvial fan. The outspread sloping deposit of alee. gravel, and sand left by a stream where it passes from a gorge out upon a plai Andesite. A lava of widespread occurrence, DN of darks ned color and inter- mediate in chemical composition between’ rhyolite and basa Anticline. Arch of bedded or layered rock suggestive in 3 of an overturned canoe. (See fig. 20, p. 102.) (See also Dome and Syncline. 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. (See Pls. VI-IX, pp. 62-63. asalt. 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 Breccia (pronounced bretch’a). A mass of naturally cemented angular rock frag- talline 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 es Its principal con- stituent minerals are feldspar, hese and usually olivine. Olivine is easily changed by weathering, and in ognizable. Augite is a mineral containing iron wend ia sehen and is similar % 5 nib ieasdi: Dike. A mass of igneous rock that has solidified in a wide fissure or crack in the earth’s crust. (See fig. 15, p. 95.) 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 fig. 2, p. 17. 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 in- verted basin The rock fragments—soil, gravel, and silt—carried by a glacier. Drift i cludes the unassorted material known as till and deposits made by streams flow- ing from a glacier. oe a : s . The Wear Way f materials abu - tion idl Fistiniing wate, waves, moving ice, or winds, which use , rock pe grains as tools or abrasives. Erosion is aided by weathering. (See west 200 GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES. 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 down 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 nes ag plane of the break, the ree is t d a reverse fault. (See fig. 20, p. 102; fig. 23, p. 112, and fig. 30, p. 1 Fault block. A part of the earth’ 8 crust bounded wholly or in nls by faults. Fault scarp. Thecliffformed bya 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 overtiowes Flora. The assemblage of plants growing at a given time or in a given place. Fold. A bend in rock layers or beds. Anticlines = synclines are the common types of folds. (See fig. 28, p. 129, and fig. 31, p. 1 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 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 haa been preserved in the rocks or the impression left by a plant or animal. This preservation is in- variably accompanied by change in substance, and from some impressions the original substance has all been removed. (See Pls. VI, A, p. 62; XI, B, p. 75.) Gneiss (pronounced nice). A rock resembling granite, but with its mineral con- ituents 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 known as orthoclase, and may be distin- Seep from quartz by its pale-reddish tint and its property of breaking with ining surfaces (cleavage), for quartz breaks irregularly. The micas are ache — by their cleavage into thin, flexible flakes and their bril- liant lus’ Horizon. a Sa any distinctive plane traceable from place to place in oe exposures of strata and marking the same period of geologic time. A partic 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 known as intrusive sive 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, ee ash, and other fragmental materials or ejecta thrown out from volcan Lithologic. a to lithology, or the ae of rocks. (See also Petrology.) Pertaining to k character. dept in Git Mainsipg® Volley and in China. It is generally regarded as in lac se i ata GLOSSARY OF GEOLOGIC TERMS. 201 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 Pl. III, A, p. 11.) 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. Monzonite. An even-grained intrusive igneous rock intermediate in character — go and granite. It resembles granite. Moraine. A mass of drift deposited by a glacier at its end or along its sides, Oil ours An canis or body of oil in sedimentary 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 2 the surface. The appearance of a rock at the surface or its projection above the soil. Paleontology. The study of the world’s iat life, either plant or animal, by means of fossils. Peneplain. A region reduced almost toa plain by the long-continued normal ero- sion of aland 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, studied 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 aye valuable minerals, which have been derived from roc eins by e Playa (pounced playa). The shallow central basin of a desert plain, in which water gathers after a rain and is evapora Porphyry. rie ny igneous rock in which certain crystal constituents are distinctly visible in contrast with the — substance of the roc Quartzite. A rock composed of sand grains cemented by silica fete an extremely hard mass —— 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 erystal- lize less completely as rhyolite. Schist. A rock that by subjection to heat and pressure srisbaias the earth has under. gone a change in the character of the particles or minerals that compose it ‘ind has these minerals arranged in such a way that the rock splits more easily in certain directions than in others. A schist has a crystalline grain roughly com- parable with the grain of a piece of wood. Sedimentary rocks. Rocks formed by the accumulation of. sediment in water - the remains or products of animals or plants pores limestones and coal); of the isan materials. Some its ( blown from volcanoes and PR on wien or in wate. A @haractoristic fea- ture of sedimentary deposits is a layered structure known as bedding or strati- fication, Each layer is a bed or stratum. Sedimentary beds as deposited lie flat or — flat. : Shale. A rock consisting of hardened thin layers of fine mud. 202 GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES. 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. trike. 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 produced mechanically on neighboring rocks by the intrusion. Folds (anticlines and synclines) and faults are the principal mechanical effects considered under c Schistosity and cleavage are also structural features. cline. An inverted arch of bedded or layered rock suggestive in form of a canoe. (See fig. 28, p. 129.) Talus (pronounced tay’lus). The mass of loose rock fragments that accumulates at the base of a cliff or steep slope. (See Pl. XXII, B, p. 166 Terrace. A steplike bench ona hillside. Most terraces along rivers are remnants of valley bottoms formed when the stream flowed at higher levels. Other ter- races 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. (See Pl. XX, p. 142.) 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. Unconformity. 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 record. 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 li t . on. Volcanic bomb. A rounded mass of lava thrown out while in a hot and pasty con- dition fromavolcano. 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. foleanic 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, hee age Lava that has cooled and solidified before it has had time to crys- GLOSSARY OF GEOLOGIC TERMS. 203 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 isolate 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 ee had traveler the sheets of the t Dp folded and placed = he can untold them one by one he i ding tt referen & tateach point wh sheet sk d be unfolded. Page. Sueet 1. St. Paul to Cable, Minn 20 2. St. Cloud to Verndale, Minn. (with map of Cuyuna iron range)..... 26 3. Wadena to Hawley, Minn. (with map of western and Superior ice sheets of Minnesota) 39 4. Hawley, Minn., to Buffalo, N. Dak. (with map of glacial Lake ssiz) . 40 5. Tower City to Berner, N. Dak. (with map showing moraines formed by the ice sheet that crossed North Dakota in Wisconsin time).... 44 6. Eldridge to Geneva, N. Dak 46 7. Driscoll to Sedalia, N. Dak. - 54 8. New Salem to Gladstone, N. Dak. - . 60 9. Lehigh to Sentinel Butte, N. Dak 64 10. Beach, N. Dak., to Fallon, Mont. 68 11. Fallon to Joppa, Mont 72 12. Rosebud to Custer, Mont 78 13. Waco to Laurel, Mont 82 14. Park City to Dehart, Mont 86 15. Carney to Central Park, Mont 98 16. Manhattan to Stuart, Mont 112 17. Townsend to Elliston, Mont 126 18. Warm Springs to Clinton, Mont. (with map of western Montana show- ing distribution of known Tertiary lake beds). 134 19. Turah to Weeksville, Mont. (with map of glacial Lake Missoula).... 144 20. Eddy, Mont., to Hope, Idaho. 152 21. Oden, Idaho, to Spokane, Wash 160 22. Marshall to Ritzville, Wash 164 23. gee: to Vale, Wash. (with map of the great lava plateau of Columbia ver). . 168 24. ea to Mabton, Wash. . -. 172 25. Empire to bid dager th Wash ee 26. Indio to Lester, W: 186 27. Lester to Seattle, Wash. (with map showing depth of water in Elliott y, Seattle). . 196 205 206 ILLUSTRATIONS. PLATES. Puate I. Relief jhowing surface feat f the western part of the United af. ae ‘‘Laughing Water” III. A, Valley City, N. Dak., from the ‘‘high nt B, The “‘high line” across the valley of Sheyonne River, N. D IV. A, Badlands in the vicinity of Mandan, N. as B, Cracks produced he burning of a bed of lignite . A; B, Erosion forms of North Dakota VI. A, Silicified stump in Pyramid Park, N. Dak.; B, The ages of the pat ttleship,’’ one of the buttes of Pyramid Park, N VII. A, ite of the badlands of North Dakota; B, A bed of a 15 feet in the canyon of Little Missouri River, N. Dak Viil. © z Views of the badlands of North Dakota IX. A-D, Views of the badlands of North Dakota and Montana.......... X. The great Triceratops, which in Lance time roamed through the for- ests of Montana and North Dakota XI. A, Bluffs of Lance formation on Yellowstone River west of Hysham, Mont.; B, Fossil palm leaf of Eocene age found near Hysham, ont XII. A, B, Views in the sh f Montana XIII. A, Pompeys ae Mont., , as seen from the Northern Pacific Rail- way; B, Inscription made by Capt. Clark on Pompeys Pillar, July 25, 1806 XIV. Emigrant Peak, the sentinel guarding the northern approach to Yellowstone Park XV. Rocky gateway which Rock Creek has cut through the Madison limestone below Chestnut, i ont XVI. View looking west from H it, Mont XVII. Silver Bow Canyon, Mont XVIII. Cliffs of Madison limestone at Lombard, Mont XIX. A, Summer camp of the Flathead Indians, a familiar scene in the Jocko Valley, Mont.; B, Glacier on the north slope of McDonald Peak, Mont... XX. View down Flathead River from Knowles, Mont.................--- XXI. Cabinet Gorge, Idaho XXII. A, White Bluff of the Columbia, 20 miles above Pasco, Wash.; B, oluinnne lava at Cactus siding, 5 miles south of Connell, Wah - XXIII. Mount aon as seen from the Northern Pacific trains near Toppen- ish, W; aly. A, seta Canyon, Wash.; B, Columnar andesite near Yakima ‘Canyon, W XXV. Beautiful Lake Keechelus, W ash XXVI. The almost impassable tangle of a Washington forest XXVII. Mount Rainier, ‘‘monarch of the Cascades, ” as seen Sg the boule- vard on the shore of Lake Washington, Seattle, W: ILLUSTRATIONS. 207 FIGURES. FieurE 1. Section across Mississippi Valley between St. Paul and Fort Snell- Page. ing, Min 11 2. Diagram Se ta lear rise of the rocks in the vicinity of Minneapolis, Min 17 3. Di showing pro sae origin of many kettle holes 29 4. Section of Buffalo River delta, Minn 34 5. Section of Herman beach ridge west of Magnolia, N. Dak. ......- 39 6. Gingko leaf 58 7. Diagram of Glendive anticline, Mo 8. Sun-bleached skull near Miles City, a ont 70 9. Diagram showing the thinning out and coming in of formations from Black Hills, 8. Dak., to Billings, Mont 75 . Monument built by sheep herdes 77 11. Eagle sandstone north of Park City, Mont 83 12. Cross section to illustrate the change in the formations between Terry and Livingston, Mont.........-..---------+------------- 13. Cross aie showing the rim of the mountains south of Livingston, Mon jo Oo 89 14. eye showing the structure of Cinnabar Mountain, Mont...... 93 15. Dike ong coal bed and sill intruded in a position to an the of the coal 95 16. vata fold in Madison limestone west of Chestnut, Mont.......- 96 17. Upturned Madison limestone and associated rocks, forming the Bridger Range, Mont.....-...--------------++---0e2crere cee 98 18. Southeast side of the great synclinal basin north of Logan, Mont.. 99 19. Diagram to fess the course of Jefferson River west of Willow Crdeke, MONG. oi. .+ 30 ®t Gentpuint, Tesla. <-.. 22 ocks 2-2 21 : Sappington, Mont--.....--.----------- : 4 Tale Minn oo a ks Sartell, Minn lh Pa Aa s: Re ee eet nein 25 _ O’Brien, Wash 27 | Satus, Ws : ~ Oden, Ik 152 Sauk Rapids, Minn.....-.------------- 2 212 INDEX OF RAILROAD STATIONS. Page. Sheet. Page. Sheet. Schley, Mont 19 | Trout Creek, Mont 148 20 Scoria, N. Dak 61 9 urah, 19 Seattle, Wash 194 27 | Tuscor, Mont MESS ge 6) ep eae beara ee teers 7.| Tusler, Mont il Selah, Wash 176 25 Was. 162 Sentinel _ Nua ee 63 9 U spit tg 11 | ‘Ulmer, Mont ul hoshikin, 'W ash Vi SIRE Sifton 6 Silver Bow, Mont iit 16 Vis Sims, N. Da 8 , Wash 23 Skon ‘ont 16 Valley City, N. Dak 42 5 Skyline, Mont 17 | Velox, Wash 21 Smeads, Mont 20 | Vermilion, Mont. 20 Bout Beart, 6: Dake. ic ccc 60 91 Verndale, Minn. co.5cccc0 ses ccc ieee os 26 Sonthndown, N. Dak. ooo. eee 6 | Vista, Wash 169 24 Sphinx Mont 15 w Spire Rock, Mont 105 16 Waco. Mo 7 13 Ppritwhod, Ni Dako. cece 44 5 lw BUG MIE iy cab Anis ceaccls teak 26 Spokane, Wash 160 21 | ow. Dak 9 in MS ecr ines Kode sie esaee ® . *! Wa sh 173 25 m e, Wraeh 184 26 pel sie one Mont 113 18 Staples, Minn 2 AGE pee ps ¢ | Watago, Mont 14 tex ir Daihen heen eee 48 7 ccapiraahias Mont 144 19 Stockwood, Minn 35 4 elch t iS Bincac Mant 15 West End, Mont 15 Stuart, Mint atl 16 ~ mond, Idaho a Sully Springs, N. Dak................. 61 g | Weston, Wash ss ‘ yside Junction, Wash............ 25 Whea' f d, N. Dak 39 4 Sweetbrier: N. Dak........... ts. > White Pine, Mont 20 Mth: Monb si ccs. 105 16 . Wibaux, Mont 64 19 Talmage, Wash. 26 | Willis, Mont 18 Pappel, MaKe so. oes 46 6 | Willow Creek, Mont 101 15 Taylor, N. Dak 8 | Windsor, N. Dak 45 6 Teanaway, Wash 179 26 | Winston, AoA 120 17 Terry, Mont. 11 | Woodlin, Mont 29 Thorp, Was 178 26 | Worden, Mont 13 Palle, Miata 145 20 | Wymer, Wash 176 25 Thrall, Wash I 26 Threeforks, Mont 100 16 Y. Tokio, Wash 29 Yakima, Wash 174 5 Toppenish, Wash 172 25 — Mont 10 Toston, Mon tte: 2 endeadpope - Tower City, N. Dak 41 5 Youngs Point, Mont 83 lt Townsend, Mont 119 17 Z. ‘Trail Creek, Mont... 0. 22.0. 2.002.2.02. 15 | Zenith, N. Dak 9 t, Mont. 117 16 | Zero, Mont 1k