DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

BULLETIN

OF THE

GEOLOGICAL SURVEY

No. 57

U.S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY. BULLETIN N957. PL.l.

K \ 1 C ',K ;,M<- ]

GEOLOGIC MAP OF SOUTHWEST KANSAS

K.OBERT HAY.

PLEISTOCENE. NEOCENE. CflETACEOUS . JURA TRIAS- CARBONIFEROUS

Sand ' ''Tertiary Marl TerliarvGril"4

UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SUEYEY

J. W. POWELL, DIRECTOR

A GEOLOGICAL RECONNAISSANCE

SOUTHWESTERN KANSAS

BY

ROBERT HAY

WASHINGTON

GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 

1890

CONTENTS..

Page.

Letter of transmittal........................................................ 9

Introduction by W J McGee ............. .................................... 11

General statement.......................................................... 15

The geologic formations.............................. ....................... 18

Carboniferous............................... ............................. 19

Jura-Trias........................................ ...................... 20

Cretaceous.............................................................. 27

The Dakota......................................................... 27

The Fort Ben ton...................... .............................. 27

TheNiobrara ........................................................ 30

The post-Cretaceous erosion ........................................ 31

. Tertiary ................................................................ 31

The Tertiary grit ................................................... 32

The Tertiary marl...... ............................................. 35

The Tertiary erosion................................................ 30

Quaternary............................................................. 38

The gumbo ......................................................... 38

The earlier gravel................................................... 39

The loess ........................................................... 41

The later gravel ..............'.......................... ............ 42

The alluvium....................................................... 43

Conclusion ................................................................. 45

The general results ........................................................ 45

The source of the Tertiary conglomerates............................ 45

The question of Tertiary shores ..................................... 46

The tripartite erosion .... ........................................... 47

Economic geology .............................. ..............'.......... 48

C

ILLUSTRATIONS.

	Page. 

Plate I. Geologic map of southwestern Kansas...'...............Frontispiece.

II. Ideal section from the Arkansas River to Colorado line Section from 

	Wellington to the Cimarron Eiver Section from north to south, 

	through Barber County.......................................... 14

Fig. 1. Section five miles south of Wichita ................................. 19

2. Biscuit shale... ................................................. 20

3. Red rockbuttes, Gypsum Hills....................................... 23

4. Mansard buttes, Gypsum Hills...................................... 24

5. Section of the Dakota strata ....................................... 28

6. Section on Spring Creek, Meade County ............................ 28

7. Section across a small ravine, Harper County ....................... 33

8. Section down the east side of a small ravine in Harper County ...... 33

9. Section near Wichita............................................... 34

10. Section in Meade County ........................................... 34

11. Section on Kiowa Creek, Comanche County......................... 36

12. Section across Saw Log Creek, north of Dodge City ................. 36

13. Section on south side of Saw Log Creek............................. 36

14. Section in Norton County. .......................................... 37

15. Tertiary bluffs on the Arkansas River............................... 37

16. Section in Hamilton County ........................................ 38

17. Section in Hamilton County ........................................ 38

18. Red Bluff on Bluff Creek........................................... 39

19. Section at cutting on Santa Fd Railway, Wellington, Kansas ........ 40

20. Loess Bluffs on Medicine River...................................... 42

21. Section across the Arkansas Valley ................................. 47

	7

LETTER-OF TRANSMITTAL,

DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR, 

U. 8. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY,

POTOMAC DIVISION,

Junction City, Kans., May 24,1889.

SIR : I have the honor to transmit to you, by direction of Mr. W. J. 

McGee, chief of this division, a report of a reconnaissance in southwestern Kansas, made in the summer of 1885, with some additional matter 

incorporated therewith, as the result of other journeys into the same 

region made particularly for the purpose of determining the geological 

relations of the recently discovered beds of rock-salt and of continuing 

the observations into Colorado. The value of the work is enhanced by 

the kind encouragement received during its progress from my immediate 

chief, Mr. McGee. It is also proper to say that valuable aid was received from Hon. J. E. Mead, of Wichita, J. H. Simmons, of Wellington, and other citizens at Harper, Medicine Lodge, Kinginan, Hutchinson, and Dodge City. The Atchison, Topeka and Santa F6, the 

Southern Kansas, and the Missouri Pacific railways gave transportation facilities. Engineers of these roads, and also of the " Frisco 

Road," kindly supplied me with tables of elevations on their newly 

surveyed routes.

The determination of fossils has been made by Drs. C. A. White and 

W. H. Dall.

I am, sir, yours respectfully,

EGBERT HAY, 

Assistant Geologist.

Hon. J. W. POWELL,

Director U. 8. Geological Survey, Washington, D. C.

INTRODUCTION.

By W J McGiEE.

Daring the period of active prosecution of geologic surveys under 

State auspices within the Mississippi Valley, the structure of that region was definitely made out, and its formations were correlated with 

greater or less precision with those of the Atlantic Slope; but these State 

investigations were not carried forward to the region then commonly, 

as now occasionally, known as the Great Plains. During the partly 

contemporaneous and partly subsequent period of active exploration 

and scientific investigation of the western territories by the Federal 

Government, the geologic phenomena of the Kocky Mountain region 

were elucidated, and certain of the formations found there were correlated upon purely paleontologic grounds with those of the East and the 

middle West the broad Mississippi Valley. But although a score of 

geologists traversed the Great Plains from time to time, and although 

half a dozen official and amateur geologists have systematically studied 

different portions of the region, there yet remains a great area, comprising considerable portions of Dakota, Nebraska, eastern Colorado, 

Kansas, Indian Territory, and Texas, within which little is. known of 

the geologic structure through direct observation by trained specialists. 

The indefiniteness of knowledge concerning the formations of this great 

area and their distribution is strikingly indicated by the discrepancies 

in the various geologic maps covering it. There is thus a hiatus in geologic exploration within the Great Plains, which it is desirable to close.

The geologic history recorded in the Paleozoic rocks of the Mississippi Valley and in the degradation of the same region after its emergence, is exceedingly simple: During the Paleozoic, deposition was slow, 

and the formations are thin, remarkably uniform, and approximately 

conformable throughout great areas, and are indicative of slight and 

slow alteration in continental configuration; and the emergence of the 

land at the close of the Paleozoic was a simple vertical movement 

effected without material disturbance of the strata. During the Mesozoic there were occasional eras of quiet deposition of shoal water sediments, probably at one time extending as far east as the Mississippi

11
12 GEOLOGY OF SOUTHWESTERN KANSAS. (BULL. 57.

River from the confluence of the St. Oroix southward; but during the 

greater portion of post-Paleozoic time the region has been above the sea, 

and yet so slightly elevated and so slightly disturbed by tectonic movements that degradation has reached but a small fraction of that suffered 

by most portions of the terrestrial surface. In the Eocky Mountain 

region, on the contrary, the various geologic phenomena record a complex history. During the Paleozoic, sedimentation was rapid but irregular, betokening great concurrent geographic changes; certain of the 

Mesozoic formations are of enormous'thickness, while at other horizons 

occur great unconformities which together indicate 'repeated and important changes of sea and land. During portions of Cenozoic time, deposition was rapid, while during other epochs the land stood at such great 

altitude above the waters into which its debris was carried that erosion 

was wonderfully active; and the latest records inscribed in the rocks 

of the region are of almost unparalleled degradation, which during a 

brief period has removed many times as much matter from the surface 

as has been removed from the Mississippi Yalley during its untold 

ages of slow degradation. There is thus a discrepancy between the 

testimony of the rocks in the Mississippi Valley and that of the Rocky 

Mountain phenomena which it is desirable to harmonize by studies in 

the intervening region, in order that geologic conceptions may be unified and geologic interpretation reduced to a common standard.

In the eastern United States there is a great blank in geologic history at the close of the Paleozoic, for the Triassic rocks of the east 

have not yet been, and perhaps never will be, fully interpreted. In 

the Mississippi Valley there is a great blank in the same portion of the 

geologic record, for the Mesozoic outliers upon the Paleozoic terranes, 

extending far towards the Mississippi River, represent not the commencement, but rather the close, of the Mesozoic. And in the Rocky 

Mountain region the Triassic rocks generally leave unrepresented a 

considerable interval between the Paleozoic and Mesozoic systems, and 

in their structure, composition, color, dearth of fossils, and many other 

respects fairly bristle with problems yet unsolved. So there is a hiatus 

in the American geologic section, and in the time it represents, which 

it is desirable to bridge; and since there occur within the Great Plains 

.extensive rock-masses which have been tentatively referred by some 

geologists to the Paleozoic and by others to the later Mesozoic, it 

seemed probable when this reconnaissance was projected that by investigation there the blank might be filled.

The superficial deposits of the earth are numerous and variable and 

difficult of interpretation. They have generally been classified by 

conditions of genesis. Now the glacial drift of the northern United 

States has been extensively studied and is fairly understood; the 

loess extending from near the margin of the glaciated area towards 

the Gulf presents a riddle yet but partly read; the alluvial and littoral deposits of the Mississippi embaymeut are not fully interpreted;
HAY.] INTRODUCTION. 13

the products of secular rock-disintegration under various conditions 

have only recently begun to receive serious attention; the great alluvial fans and taluses fringing the Eocky Mountain region, which have 

been accumulating ever since the emergence of the land or the birth of 

the mountains, have embarrassed American geologists just as their 

European homologue the "Nagelfluh" etc. has mystified the geologists of the Old World; and the superficial deposits upon the Plains, 

which have some of the characteristics of all these accumulations, present a many-sided problem whose solution will unquestionably facilitate 

the interpretation of each of the clearly differentiated deposits. Thus 

there is an immeasurable blank in our knowledge of composite superficial deposits which investigation in the Great Plains promises to fill.

There have been found in Petite Anse and adjoining islands on the 

Louisiana coast extensive deposits of salt associated with gypsum, the 

extraction of which is rendered difficult by the depth beneath tide. Now, 

reports of the occurrence of salt and extensive beds of gypsum have 

gone out from western Kansas, Indian Territory and contiguous parts of 

Colorado and Texas, and it is important to ascertain whether these reports are well founded and whether the occurrence of the minerals indicates the existence of either the same or equally extensive deposits of 

rock salt in these localities, for the obstacles to ready extraction met 

at Petite Anse Island do not exist there.

Carbonaceous shales and lignites are of frequent occurrence in portions of the Great Plains, and have led to brilliant expectations among 

the citizens of Nebraska, Kansas, eastern Colorado and Texas, and to 

costly prospecting and extensive investments in property, and it is 

desirable that the questions as to the existence within these States of 

lignites or true coals, and of their position, extent and value if found, 

should be definitively answered at an early day.

With the westward extension of settlements upon the plains the 

different occupations to which the various portions of the region are 

adapted agricultural, pastoral, etc. have come to overpass their 

natural limits. Thus agriculture presses upon the zone naturally 

adapted to stock-raising, and stock-raising presses upon the zone of 

variable climate in which the profits of a successful lustrum are swallowed up in the losses of one unsuccessful year. Now, in order that 

either agriculture or stock-raising shall reach the best results, it is 

essential that the character of the soil and its adaptability to given 

products be understood, that the capabilities of irrigation by surface 

waters be considered, that the possibilities of artesian water supply for 

irrigation and for other uses be determined, and that many other relations between the rocks of the earth and present and prospective industries and enterprises be ascertained.

These and other considerations have led to the inauguration of systematic investigation in the region described in the following pages, 

which comprise the preliminary report of a rapid reconnaissance,
14 GEOLOGY OF SOUTHWESTEEN KANSAS. [BULL. 57.

The scientific and economic questions involved have not, however, 

been fully settled by the reconnaissance, but it is believed that Mr. 

Hay's report will be found to contain valuable contributions to our 

knowledge of a region important but little studied.

Although no attempt has been made to finally classify the formations 

examined or to trace their distribution in detail, the provisional cartography of the region is a substantial addition to American geology: 

The limits of the Carboniferous group of rocks, within which valuable 

coal beds unquestionably exist, have been defined; the structure, mineral contents, stratigraphic relations, and geographic extent of the 

puzzling gypsiferous tl Eed Bocks," which have been variously referred 

to the Permian, the Dakota formation of the Cretaceous, and to several 

intermediate horizons, have been ascertained, and the uncertainty as 

to their age and position has been materially narrowed; the character 

of the lignitiferous Cretaceous deposits has been made out, and the 

different formations have been correlated tentatively with those of the 

montanic region j the Tertiary formations have been defined j and several distinct superficial deposits have been discriminated, and their 

genesis has been determined in part.

Practical considerations prevented the extension of the reconnaissance into the montanic region, within which the geologic agencies 

have been so much more active than in the little disturbed Mississippi 

Valley; but throughout the investigation the agencies and processes 

have been considered as the products were studied, the significance of 

unconformities has been appreciated, and some progress has been made 

in reconciling the discrepant records of the two widely diverse geologic 

provinces.

The correlation of the formations and the final interpretation of the 

early Mesozoic passage beds were unfortunately impeded by the dearth 

of fossils, and little has been done in this direction.

Although the questions as to the character of the soils, the extent 

and value of the salt, gypsum and lignites, the irrigation problem, the 

artesian well problem, and the various other economic questions considered, have not been specifically answered, the salient mineral characters of the rocks have been ascertained j and with the profiles of the 

country and the fall of streams, the composition and attitude of the 

strata upon which the artesian flow depends, etc., have been set forth 

in general terms, and a substantial foundation for more detailed future 

investigation has been laid. 

It may be mentioned that Mr. Hay has been engaged in amateur geo. 

logic studies in Kansas for some years, and thus has brought; to his 

task general familiarity with the phenomena of the region and many 

valuable data which could have been gained otherwise only at the cost 

of much time and labor; and it is just to add that although the expenses of the journeys were borne by the United States Geological Survey ^ 

fei$ own, labor and that Pf his assistant were performed gratuitously, '
U. S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY

BULLETIN NO. 57 PL. II

IDEAL SECTION FROM THE ARKANSAS RIVER TO COLORADO LINE.

Pratt Co Line:

SECTION FROM WELLINGTON TO CIMARRON.

1100

SECTION FROM NORTH TO SOUTH THROUGH BARBER CO.

PLEISTOCENE. NEOCENE NIOBRARA. BENTON. DAKOTA, JURA-TRIAS.lCARBONIFEROUS.

LOESS. GRAVEL. TERTIARY, MARL. TERTIARY GRIT
A GEOLOGICAL RECONNAISSANCE IN SOUTHWESTERN KANSAS.

By EGBERT HAY.

GENERAL STATEMENT,

This report relates to a reconnaissance which was made under instructions from the chief of the Potomac Division, dated May 27,1885. 

Those instructions, as far as they directly relate to the work to be done, 

were as follows:

We need a section through Kansas from east to west which shall exhibit the relations of the various formations of the State, particularly those of post-Carboniferous 

age. I think it possible to construct such a section along the Arkansas Eiver from 

the border of the Carboniferous in about longitude 98° W. to the eastern line of, or 

perhaps one or two hundred miles within, the State of Colorado. In case there are 

not sufficient exposures there, some other line might be chosen. In the collection of 

material for the section it is desirable that attention should be given not only to the 

eastern margins of the Mesozoic and Cenozoic formations as they now exist, but to 

the erosion that the formations have suffered about their peripheries, in order that 

the positions of the successive shores of these ages may be determined. The formations themselves and the contained fossils should also be subjected to careful examination in order to ascertain, if possible, whether they were deposited in saline, 

brackish, or fresh waters. The physical condition of the sediments should also receive attention, since such condition may indicate the depth of the waters in which 

they were laid down and the positions of the shores.

The phenomena due to post-Pliocene agencies should also be studied. There is in 

Texas and in Indian Territory, and, so far as I can learn, in Kansas, a superficial deposit of gravel and siliceous pebbles. A related gravel also occurs in the northern 

portion of the great plains in western Nebraska. The origin of this gravel (including the sources of the material and manner of its distribution) should be ascertained, 

and also its relations to present drainage, to "second bottoms." and to any other 

fluvial or littoral terraces that may exist in the region.

. Certain limitations as to cost accompanying these instructions, the 

journey made could be only a reconnaissance. It lasted seven weeks. 

Since then I have spent ten days in the neighborhood of Pueblo, and 

have also made another brief trip to Barber County, Kansas, and several trips have since been made into different parts of the region. All 

of these have added to the material used in this report. The actual 

routes taken will appear farther on and are indicated on the map.

The region explored has been somewhat of a terra incognita, geologically. Though several statements have been made concerning it, 

some of them semi-officially, yet no definite account of its geology has 

been made public, and it is not known that any reliable geologist has 

done morp than majj§ a. hasty trip to some part Of it,
16 GEOLOGY OF SOUTHWESTERN KANSAS. [BULL. 57.

There has been a general impression among scientific men in Kansas 

that an irregular line slanting from east of north to south of west, and 

crossing the thirty-ninth parallel near its intersection with the Sixth 

Principal Meridian, approximately indicates all across the State the 

eastern boundary of the Cretaceous formations, the lowest of which in 

Kansas the Dakota has been found particularly rich in fossil leaves 

of dicotyledonous plants. This formation is seen in many places resting directly on rocks well known to be of Carboniferous age. Carboniferous strata, yielding good building stone the so-called magnesian 

limestone appear all across the State from the fortieth to the thirtyseventh parallel, and are known to be continuous both north and south 

beyond the boundaries of the State. It has been presumed that the 

Dakota was also continuous southward across the Arkansas Eiver to 

and beyond the State line, this opinion having been formed without 

actual observation by geologists, mainly because red sandstone rocks 

were reported to exist in southern Kansas and Indian Territory.

It was also assumed that the Benton and Niobrara epochs are represented with a still wider development south of the Arkansas. In the 

Northwest it has been known that Tertiary deposits have covered the 

Cretaceous, and these deposits have usually been referred to as Pliocene. Prof. B. F. Mudge many years ago suggested that some part of 

this Tertiary covering was possibly Miocene, as also did Prof. E. D. 

Cope, but they gave no stratigraphic descriptions upon which distinction of the rock masses could be based. From the trend of the 

Tertiaries in the northwestern counties north of east to south of 

west it was inferred that there could be little or no development of 

these formations south of the Arkansas Eiver, where it was supposed 

the Cretaceous deposits extend to and beyond the Colorado line. As 

will appear later, these assumptions as to both Cretaceous and Tertiary were erroneous.

In the years 1884-'85 numerous mammalian fossils were found in 

northwestern Kansas (Aphelops, Camelus, etc.) and the Tertiary beds 

yielding them were thereby identified as the Loup Fork, which Prof. 

Cope has pronounced to be of Miocene age. A little later, in a " Preliminary Keport on the Geology of Norton County," 1 made to the Kansas 

Academy of Science, November 21,1883, I gave a description of the 

stratigraphic relations of the Loup Fork to the newer Tertiary above 

it and the Cretaceous (Niobrara) below it. It was then shown verbally and by diagrams that the Cretaceous strata had been extensively 

eroded before the deposition of the Loup Fork, and that the Loup 

Fork had in its turn been eroded, largely on the same lines, before the 

deposition of the later Tertiary, which was pronounced provisionally to 

be the Equus beds of Cope. The erosion since has also been nearly on 

the same lines as the pre- and mid-Neocene. This report will show that 

these distinctions obtain extensively south of the Arkansas River.

l Trans, Kaaeas Aead, Sci., Vol. IX, 1885, ppt 17-24; and also published separately.-
HAY.] THE ROUTES TRAVEESED. 17

In 1866 Prof. G. C. Swallow described as "Triassic" what is now 

known as the Dakota, and F. H. Bradley's geologic chart of 1875 marks 

the same area as Jurassic. As this is now known to be erroneous for 

the region north of the Arkansas River to the Nebraska line, it was 

assumed that it was also wrong for the territory south of that river, 

where the Jura-Trias has been affirmed to exist both by Le Coute and 

Dana. The explorations of this summer verify the statements of these 

last authors, which were probably made on the authority of Dr. George 

G. Shumard's descriptions of the gypsiferous deposits of the Red River 

in Marcy's Report of the Exploring Expedition of the year 1852, the 

extension of those deposits north of the Canadian being known and 

referred to as reaching to the Arkansas. By reference to the map it 

will be seen that the Jura-Trias covers a large, irregular triangular area 

extending over several counties.

The routes actually traveled in this investigation lie mostly within 

the great bend of the Arkansas River, i. e., south and west of it. Some 

examinations of outliers of the Tertiary formations and of the loesa 

were made on the east of the river near Wichita. In this neighborhood the Tertiary deposits hereinafter called the Tertiary marl and the 

Tertiary grit were found over a limited area resting on rocks apparently of Permian age. Some exploration was also made from Winneld, 

where the so-called maguesiau limestone is extensively quarried for 

building purposes, along the line of the Southern Kansas Railway westward to the river. Crossing the river, the line of railway was followed 

through the counties of Sumner and Harper, with some divergence 

north and south at the county seats, Wellington, and Harper. From 

Attica, then the terminus of the railway, the route taken was circu tous to Medicine Lodge, where bad weather occasioned some delay, 

though a portion of the time was utilized in short journeys to tlie 

northern part of Barber County and southwest to the Gypsum Hills, 

and southeast to the so-called Cedar Mountains. Resuming the forward route, the western part of Barber County was passed through, 

and northern Comauche (since organized as Kiowa County), Edwards 

and Ford Counties, to Dodge City. The investigations thence were 

north of the river to the Colorado line, the last thirty miles, however, 

giving a mere glance at the geology, as immediate return from this 

point became a necessity. It will be seen from the map that the Cretaceous formations appear in this region as a fringe of bluffs, the higher 

ground behind being of Tertiary age. The river was crossed at Lakiu 

and passing through the sand hills which bound the south side of the 

river valley we crossed the high prairie to the North Fork of the Cimarron. Passing down the stream for some miles we crossed the divide 

to the South Fork, or main river, down which the route led for about 

twenty-five miles to the new town of Fargo Springs, in Seward County. 

In all this region south of the river the Tertiary deposits and sand hills 

composed the entire geological phenomena, Proceeding eastward, outBull. 57 2
18 GEOLOGY OF SOUTHWESTERN KANSAS. [BULL.57.

crops of Cretaceous formations were found when the middle of Meade 

County was reached. The return journey through Clarke County 

touched the former route at Cold water, in Comanche County, and came 

back by a more southerly route to Medicine Lodge, whence the journey 

to Wichita was made more rapidly through Kingnian and Sedgwick 

Counties by stage.aud railway.

The basis for the accompany ing map is the United States Land Office 

map of Kansas. For the topography, as shown in the sections, elevations furnished by the engineers of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa 

Fe, and the Southern Kansas Railways have been used. Some observations with the aneroid barometer, where return to a starting point 

was possible, as in Barber County, have given results which may be regarded as approximately correct. For the other districts away from 

the railways estimates, only were possible, but these were made with 

as much accuracy as the nature of the circumstances permitted.

The geology of the northeast parts of the region, as shown in the map, 

is taken from maps of the Kansas State Board of Agriculture, prepared 

by Prof. B. F. Mudge and Prof. O. H. St. John; but my own explorations and observations partially confirm them. The extreme southwest 

and parts north of the Arkansas Eiver in the west, marked Tertiary, 

are so indicated for the first time, as a legitimate inference from the 

observations and inquiries made during the reconnaissance.

The region of the exploration as shown on the map is included between the ninety-seventh and one hundred and second meridians, and 

covers little more than a degree of latitude, its southern limit being 

the southern boundary of the State, 37° N., and extending in the Arkansas Valley north of the thirty-eighth parallel.

THE GEOLOGIC FORMATIONS.

The first investigations of the reconnaissance were made in formations of Tertiary and Quaternary age, but the general development of 

strata on the journey westward being in the ascending geologic order, 

it is deemed best to discuss their development in that order. In their 

natural relations the formations examined are 

^ The Alluvium. 

I The Later Gravel.

1. Quaternary .... <j The Loess.

The Earlier Gravel. 

[The Gumbo.

2. Tertiary ...... J The Tertiary Mar1'

J I The Tertiary Grit.

( The Niobrara formation.

3. Cretaceous ..... J The Fort Beuton formation. 

I The Dakota formation.

4. Jura-Trias.

5. Carboniferous.
HAY.] THE WESTERNMOST PALEOZOIC ROCKS. 

CARBONIFEROUS.

19

The Carboniferous strata (sometimes denominated Permian or PermoCarboniferous) were observed only as a starting point. Near Wichita 

they were found dipping westward towards the river at an angle of 

about 15°. The following section shows this dip with the louss resting 

on the eroded surface.

^"'"~

FIG. 1. Section 5 miles south of Wichita. 

«, loess; b, sandstone; c, shale; d, limestone: e e, level of river.

 Northeast of Wichita a ravine and a cutting in the line of railway 

show Carboniferous shales and limestone covered by Tertiary formations, which is the only case of the kind yet recorded in this State. 

Near Winfield the Carboniferous limestones make valuable building 

stone, being in the massive ledges fine grained and entirely free from 

fossils. Thinner and more friable strata as well as shales, however, 

yield characteristic remains which, though rarely perfect, indicate the 

Carboniferous age of the formation. These are Chonetes, Athyris, Hemipronites, Pecten and Productits. On the ridge between the Walnut and 

the Arkansas the Carboniferous is mostly covered up by loess, and in 

the valley the alluvial sands are extensively deposited. From near 

Wellington westward, formations are extensively shown in thin ledges 

of limestone and thick shales which, while having some Permian (Carboniferous) resemblances, have also a different general appearance and 

a notable absence of fossils, giving them closer affinities with higher 

rock groups, as will appear further on.

The Carboniferous shale has been penetrated by well-borings to a 

depth of 180 feet. It is interbedded at intervals of from three to ten feet 

with hard ledges from two to six inches thick. It contains sulphate of 

lime, and the water from it is strongly impregnated. One of the hard 

ledges is of a peculiar shaly structure. It outcrops in ravines over an 

area of several miles. The slabs of it have a notable resemblance to a 

pan of biscuits fresh from the oven, only its surface is more regular in 

the smoothness of its domes. If a single dome be examined it is found 

hollow beneath. Both its surfaces are smooth, and it is thickest at the 

top of the dome. It will also separate into several thin concentric 

domes as would the layers of half an onion. Single layers of these 

have locally been taken for fossil shells, That this was a shore forma-
20 GEOLOGY OF SOUTHWESTERN KANSAS. [BULL. 57.

tion seems certain. Was the mud thus shaped by escaping gases 

modified by the action of the waves ?

FIG. 2. Biscuit shale (one-third natural size).

The heaviest Carboniferous shale is dark colored the so-called 

"slate " of coal mines. Farther west we find bands of buff and greenish 

clay-shales, and one, over a foot thick, of rich maroon color. On the 

west line of Sumuer County the Carboniferous, or, as we shall see reason hereafter to call it, the Saliferous series disappears under the extensive sands of the Chikaskia, whose broad valley is a mere depression in 

the high prairie. This concealment by alluvial deposits is very extensive both south and north, so that the indication in the map of the 

western border of the Carboniferous development must be taken as 

only approximately correct.

Only incidental attention was given to the Carboniferous deposits, 

and no effort was made to ascertain their systematic relations. They 

are indeed only denominated Carboniferous by me in accordance with 

general usage.

JURA-TRIAS.

An extensive region, triangular in shape, whose northern apex is near 

the northern part of the Great Bend of the Arkansas River and whose 

base in Kansas runs on the southern boundary of the State from the

ninety-eighth to beyond the one hundredth meridian, would be called by

superficial observers the region of red rock. The area of the formation 

expands across the Indian Territory to the Bed Eiver and Texas.

This red rock, being overlain on some of its borders by dark brown 

and reddish ferruginous sandstones of the Dakota period, has been by 

many regarded as of Cretaceous age. It will be apparent, however, on 

a consideration of the facts which have been observed by me, that those 

geologists who have attributed the red rock to an earlier portion of the 

Mesozoic era are correct. In places these red rock strata present appearances which are similar to those which elsewhere have been called 

Permian. But though the relation of these to the uppermost Carboniferous (Saliferous). of their eastern border was not made out in the first 

reconnaissance, yet the stratigraphic differences of the beds themselves, 

as compared with deposits east of the Arkansas Eiver, are on the whole 

so marked, that it is not possible for the writer to consider them as of 

Paleozoic age. On the other hand, in three places, at considerable distances from each other, strata of Dakota age were observed resting with 

erosive unconformity on the red rock series, which is the .case with un-
HAY.J THE EASTERNMOST MESOZOIC ROCKS. 21

doubted Permian strata in northern Kansas. The striking characteristics of the stratification of this formation, described later, appear to 

give sufficient reason, until paleontological considerations set it aside, for 

naming this formation the Jura-Trias, or it may be better to say only 

Trias. If a descriptive name were wanted we should call it the Red Rock 

Formation. The whole country is red. The soil, even where it contains 

much carbonaceous matter, is ruddy, the sedentary soil, just forming on 

the steeper slopes is ruddier, flooded rivers glance in the sunlight like 

streams of blood, steep bluffs and the sides of narrow canons pain the 

eye with their sanguine glare.

Some buildings in the town of Harper are built of a brownish redstone, which is obtained from quarries south and southeast of the city. 

Here and elsewhere the harder ledges are from two to eighteen inches 

thick, and they are intercalated with arenaceous clays and clay shales 

and clays of richer color. The hard ledges are persistent for long 

distances and give a definite contour to weathered bluffs and ridges. 

The clays are frequently of such toughness as to resist the weathering 

agencies as well as the harder ledges, which are sufficiently laminated 

and jointed to prevent their overhanging. Hence there are red walls 

by the streams, which are absolutely perpendicular. A specimen of one 

of the harder laminated layers from eastern Barber County, and a specimen of sedentary soil formed from that and adjacent ledges have been 

submitted to GK H. Pailyer, professor of chemistry at the Kansas State 

Agricultural College, who says: " Both are strongly ferruginous, both 

rich in calcium carbonate. The stone is an impure limestone, containing ferric oxide, clay and sand. Of course the soil contains the two latter 

in excess." The ledges hard enough to supply building stone are comparatively rare. The thinner laminae very frequently exhibit ripplemarks, raindrops and other signs of a littoral formation. Not unfrequeutly the upper surface of a lamina is brightly glazed, and at the foot 

of the bluff out of which a glazed specimen is taken may be found occasionally an illustration of the method of its formation in the glazed 

surface of dry red mud recently deposited from the overflow of a little 

stream washing the material both of the deposit and the glaze from the 

cliffs where it has so long been solidified.

The whole country increases in elevation westward and northward. 1 

There is an undulation of the dip which is not often perceptible, with 

an average inclination westward of very small amount, while in some 

parts of the western half of the area there are local depressions southward as well as eastward. The elevation of the country combined with 

the average dip gives increasing thickness to the Jura-Trias as we proceed westward.

x TMs is well illustrated by the fact, given by the engineers of the Southern Kansas Railway, that Medicine Lodge, in the deep trough of the Medicine River, is fifty 

feet higher than Harper, which is situated on the high prairie. The descent southerly from Medicine Lodge to New Kiowa is 150 feet.
22 GEOLOGY OF SOUTHWESTERN KANSAS. [BULL. 57.

It will be seen from the map that the Medicine Biver at Medicine 

Lodge turns suddenly southward. The reach of the river above that 

place gives a section from the Cretaceous formations above far down 

into the red rock. The lower reach of the river, to the State line and 

beyond, exhibits a section across the red rock. The eastern side is 

flanked by the Cedar Mountains or Hills, whose sides are scored by 

canons not deep but narrow, with sides perpendicular, and with ridges 

and amphitheatres carved and pinnacled like oriental temples. West 

and south of the river are the Gypsum Hills.

The Gypsum Hills form the striking feature of the red rock country. 

Throughout the entire region the laminated arenaceous ferruginous 

limestone has in it globose spots of greenish white. This is apparently 

a fine sand. The spots, in many places regularly distributed and like 

small peas in size, sometimes aggregate into streaks. Occasionally the 

streak becomes a layer. One of these layers south and west of the 

Medicine Eiver becomes persistent over a considerable area. The erosion of the valley has left this layer nearly at the top of the area in 

which it appears, which shows as an irregular plateau sloping east and 

north to the river. The layer is, in its outcrop, bleached and in places 

has the consistency of stone. We therefore call this the White Sandstone Plateau. This plateau is cut by deep canons and its spurs occasionally terminate at the river as perpendicular red walls from twenty 

to thirty feet high. The upper reach of the river valley narrows' westerly and the plateau narrows with it. The lower valley broadens southerly and the plateau increases with it. In neither direction is the plateau very wide. In the lower valley the western boundary of the White 

Sandstone Plateau is a solid wall of red rock, rising above it nearly two 

hundred feet, surmounted by a great white coping of gypsum from 

twelve to fifteen feet thick. The wall runs southward for several miles 

with some openings and terminates abruptly by a turn directly west. 

Northward its termination is a bold promontory, and the neck, with 

gypsum absent from it in places, is only wide enough on the top for one 

person to walk. From this point the wall retreats, forming a huge 

amphitheatre with isolated buttes and towers and caps, and all up the 

western valley towers, pinnacles and buttresses are repeated, advancing 

towards or retreating from the river. Approached nearer, the lights 

and shadows on the gypsum have the appearance of quaint gables and 

mansard roofs. Where the gypsum has disappeared single peaks are 

capped by projecting layers of the red rock. The butte I have called 

" Mansard " is within the amphitheatre on its western side. Some of 

these features are shown in Figures 3 and 4.

In ascending to the gypsum, we find that the red rock gives way 

frequently to seams of selenite and laminated layers of greenish sandstone. Again are found harder layers of the red rock, and anon seams 

of nearly transparent satin spar (fibrous gypsum), one of which is persistent for a great distance and two inches thick. These are in strata
HAY.] THE GYPSIFEROUS MESOZOIC STRATA.

of clay or shale. Both the sandstone and satin spar layers are ripple 

marked. The top reached, we find all these pinnacles and buttes are 

but the remains of another plateau whose floor was this solid gypsum, 

which stretches away to the south and west, broken by broad valleys 

and profound canons, reappearing beyond the Cirnarron, on the Canadian and Eed Eivers, and on the edges of the Llano Estacado. Views 

in Marcy's Eeport of the Eed Eiver Expedition in 1852 would serve to 

illustrate this region of southern Kansas. Over the gypsum westward 

are fragments of a hard gray limestone stratum, and again red rock. 

The gypsutn has caves and underground channels, in which the sound 

echoes and reverberates when horse or vehicle passes over.

FIG. 3. Eed Rock buttes, Gypsum Hills. 

The lower view represents the northeasorn promontory of the Gypsum Hills, a, the gypsum cap.

"Neither gypsum nor any of the red rocks or shales or clays have 

hitherto yielded any fossils. The constant evidence of littoral formation, however, suggests the expectation that sometime reptilian or 

other tracks may be found in this formation that will serve to synchronize it with undoubted Mesozoic formations.

Wells in the valley of the Medicine are somewhat impregnated with, 

sulphate of lime. Some waters are also saline. But neither from the 

testimony of well sinkers nor from personal observation does it appear 

that there is any seam of gypsum, satin spar or seleuite below the 

horizon of the White Sandstone Plateau, except a little selenite in some 

wells on the town site of Medicine Lodge. Nor does it appear that 

there is any such seam above the horizon of the massive gypsum. I<5
GEOLOGY OF SOUTHWESTERN KANSAS. fUULL. 57.

would therefore appear that there are three well-defined parts of the 

Jura-Trias in Barber County which may be possibly recognized elsewhere. Only the lower one appears in Harper County. The thickness 

is given with hesitation. It may, howe\7 er, be an approximation to-the 

truth.
HAY.] TRIASSIC FEATURES OF THE RED ROCKS. 25

Feet. 

A. Upper red rock, above the gypsum plateau.................................. 100

B. Gypaum series, including the seleuite seams and the massive gypsum........ 200

C. Lower red rock, from the White Sandstone Plateau downward (mostly without selenite seams)....................................................... 250

Total thickness.......................................................... 550

Several of the features described above suggest that the formation 

represents the Jura-Trias. These may be summarized as follows :

(a) The formation is lithologically quite distinct from the subjacent 

Carboniferous strata.

(b) The prevailing color of the formation is dark red, brown, and some, 

times lighter red, like the Triassic generally in Europe and America.

(c) The lithified layers alternate with beds of clay and clay shale, as 

do the stony layers in the Triassic of the Atlantic slope and in much 

of the Jura-Trias of the West.

(d) A massive layer of gypsum and numerous seams of selenite and 

satin spar appear in the formation, in which respects it corresponds 

with deposits farther southwest, which have been referred to the Jurassic or Triassic on both petrographic and paleoutologic grounds.

(e) There are frequent shore-marks, ripple-marks and rain-drops, in 

which the formation simulates the Triassic of the Atlantic slope and 

many other regions.

(/) There is a marked absence of fossils, a characteristic of the 

Triassic generally.

(g) The formation is continuous to Bed Kiver and appears to be stratigraphically connected with similar rocks beyond, which have already 

been referred to the Jurassic or Triassic on various grounds.

(h) The surface of the formation was deeply eroded before the deposits of the Dakota or other Cretaceous formations were laid down.

In brief, the lithologic characters, in so far as they may be regarded 

as criteria in the correlation of formations, and the stratigraphy alike 

suggest that the red rocks of southern Kansas represent the group of 

strata elsewhere found between the base of the Cretaceous and the summit of the Carboniferous; and although the evidence is not sufficient 

finally to demonstrate the age of the rocks, it is sufficient to warrant 

the provisional application to them of the name Triassic.

In 1887 the prospector's drill, boring for natural gas or coal, struck 

rock salt at Kingmau, Ellsworth, Hutchinsou, Lyons and Anthony, 

and in 1888 other places to the west of the more southerly of these 

made the same discovery. At an earlier date a boring at Wellington 

had given a similar result, but the thickness of only a few feet had not 

attracted the attention that the reports of hundreds of feet from the 

other borings did. A great industry has been rapidly developed. At 

all the places named, and at others, fresh water is put down the wells 

to the salt beds and comes up the pumps a saturated solution, from
26 GEOLOGY OF SOUTHWESTERN KANSAS. [BULL.57.

which almost absolutely pure salt is extracted by the usual methods of 

evaporation.

The wells at Kingman and Anthony are in the red rock (Triassic) 

region, and the salt is obtained from strata below the red rock. The 

writer has visited all the localities named, and examination of the drill 

records showed that beneath the alluvia of the Arkansas Valley at 

Hutchinson and beneath Dakota formations at Lyons and Ellsworth 

the drill pierced several hundred feet of red rock, and as at Anthony 

and Kingman the salt was obtained below it. Early in 1888 I found 

outcrop of Triassic (red rock) strata in limited areas just south of the 

southern bend of the Srnoky Eiver in northern McPherson County. 

Borings east and west of Ellsworth showed the absence of red rock at 

Saliria and Eussell. It is thus apparent that the triangular form of the 

Triassic area, as shown in its surface development in southern Kansas, 

is prolonged northward under other deposits, and that Ellsworth is 

near the apex of the triangle. The strata with which the salt beds are 

associated, and which overlie them beneath the red beds, are mostly 

gray shales with some harder ledges. In a map and section illustrating 

a paper on the salt discoveries, read at the American Association for 

the Advancement of Science at Cleveland, in 1888, the writer has denominated these beds the saliferous horizon. The tendency of the evidence is to the effect that the strata of the saliferous horizon are continuous, without break, from the so-called Permo-Carboniferous beds which 

outcrop east of the Arkansas Eiver. Further, these beds are continuous upward, without break, into the Triassic red beds. Thus we have 

a continuous series, absolutely unbroken, from Paleozoic into Mesozoic 

tittie. Eecent investigations show that the shales and other exposures 

around Wellington belong to the saliferous horizon, and they, like the 

red beds, are absolutely without fossils. The deepening of a railway 

cut six miles west of Wellington shows there the superposition of red 

beds conformably on the upper gray shales, with a copper bearing 

horizon in the latter. This sequence is seen also at Caldwell. The results of these last observations would be to bring the eastern boundary of 

the Triassic red beds to the east side of the Chikaskia. A more extensive 

examination of outcrops of the saliferous horizon in Sumner County 

also confirms the writer's opinion, previously formed, that the saliferous 

beds, though probably continuous with the Permo-Carboniferous rocks 

below, have more affinities with'the red beds above, and so justifies him 

in associating them at least provisionally with the Triassic series in estimating the total thickness, which in the southern part of the State 

from Anthony westward must exceed a thousand feet where not considerably eroded. The saliferous horizon differs from the red beds mainly 

in color, but it has what may properly be called a Mesozoic lithologic 

facies, difficult to describe but not difficult to understand by those who 

have worked in both Paleozoic and Mesozoic strata. The absence of 

fossils characterizes, as we have already seen, both the gray shales and 

the red beds. The gypsiferous horizon, which is a marked feature of
HAY.] THE SALIFEROUS HORIZON. 27

the highest beds of the Permo-Carboniferous period in northern and 

southern Kansas, may perhaps be taken as a premonition of the salt 

measures which succeed them in southern Kansas but which are altogether missing in northern Kansas. There the Dakota beds rest with 

erosive unconformity on the Upper Permian. Salt deposits in the 

Oimarrou Valley, below the State line and the Meade County salt pool 

probably indicate another salt horizon above the Triassic gypsum.

In this report I have used the term Permian and also Perino-Carboniferous, for the highest Paleozoic beds, but do not intend to commit 

myself to the final use of the terms, which I will discuss elsewhere in 

connection with other investigations.

CRETACEOUS.

The formations referable to this epoch which came under observation 

in the reconnaissance, as provisionally identified, are in natural order:

(1) The Mobrara.

(2) The Fort Benton.

(3) The Dakota.

THE DAKOTA.

Pebbles and nodules of the dark ferruginous sandstones of this formation are found in the gravels which overlie both the Trias and the 

Carboniferous, and these evidences of the existence of the parent beds 

increase westward, and among the red-rock bluffs north of Sharon a 

small patch of the Dakota was found in situ, manifestly deposited in an 

eroded hollow of the Trias. South of the town of Kingman, in the 

county of the same name, about half an acre of the ferruginous sandstone of the Dakota, that suggests volcanic action to the farmers of the 

Dakota regions, is similarily situate in a hollow of the red rock. Near 

the Barber and Comanche County line the same unconformity was observed, the Dakota being mostly composed of yellow, greenish, white 

and red sandstones. It also contains lignite, the reports of which 

warrant the belief that its beds are somewhat persistent. The brilliant coloring of these sandstones and their weathering into vertical 

cliffs and isolated "pulpit rocks" render the district one of remarkable variety both in color and in form. One stratum of darker ferruginous stain seemed identical with the nodule-yielding Dakota north 

of the Arkansas Eiver, but we found no locality yielding the fossil 

leaves. The accompanying section (not drawn to scale) approximately 

represents the appearance in bluffs about sis miles southwest from Sun 

City, and exhibits the changing conditions under which the lignite was 

found deposited. (See Fig. 5). The lignite itself is largely mixed with 

sand and has in it much pyrites.

THE FORT BENTON.

With reserve we are inclined to place the stratum called the " shell 

bed " in Fig. 5 in the Fort Benton group. A conspicuous feature of the 

lower part of the Fort Bentoii in northern Kansas is an extensive bed
28 GEOLOGY OF SOUTHWESTERN KANSAS. [BULL. 57.

of Inoceramus shells. It is from eighteen to twenty-four inches thick, 

is a white limestone, and can be traced just above Dakota sandstone a 

hundred miles. The shell bed of the diagram is of similar thickness, 

not so white, but also very extensive. Its shells, however, are not 

Inoceramus except to a very limited extent. They are almost entirely 

Qryphcea, mostly of the extremely variable form G. pitcheri, with an occasional Exogyra. We found a small patch of the bed in the hills north 

of Sharou, as well as farther south beyond the Barber and Comanche

,AM*;:!*d%|fe^;;^a.fo^^

FIG. 5. Section of Dakota strata resting on eroded surface of Jura-Trias.

a, slope of prairie; l>, shell bed; c, yellow sandstone; d, red sandstone; e, shale; /, lignite; g, variegated sandstone; h, red rock (Jura-Trias).

line, and specimens of the shells were given to us from localities near 

the northwest corner of Barber County and the neighboring part of

Edwards. The bed at the three localities where we observed it was 

composed almost entirely of small shells in a matrix of a limy conglomerate, the pebbles being very few, the shells making up threefourths of the mass. We found them in all stages of preservation in 

the stream channels more than thirty miles from any development of 

the bed. We afterwards saw strata on Kiowa Creek (see Fig. 11) 

and on Spring Creek in Meade County (Fig. 6) which we refer also to

FIG. 6. Section on Spring Creek, Meade County. 

a, alluvium; b, Tertiary marl; c, Cretaceous.

the Fort Beuton. Again, on the north of the Arkansas Eiver, near the 

head of Saw Log Creek, there are shales and limestone (see Figs. 12
HAY.] THE FORT BENTON AND ITS FOSSILS. 29

and 13), whose fossils Inoceramus, Nautilus and Belemnites seem certainly to proclaim their Benton age. The line of contact between the 

Fort Beuton and the Mobrarain northern Kansas has not been worked 

out, and in the region of this reconnaissance it is scarcely possible to 

do it at all, as the surface deposits cover the Cretaceous formations so 

extensively.

In connection with the statement that the shell beds (Grypkcea) of 

northwestern Barber County and neighboring districts were with reserve attributed to the Benton epoch, it is interesting to know that in 

the same season in which the reconnaissance was made Prof. O. H. St. 

John made a hasty trip through this region and made some paleontologic collections of value. Besides reading so much ot Professor St. 

John's results as were published in the Fifth Biennial Report of the 

State Board of Agriculture, I have had the advantage of personally comparing notes with him and going over his collections. It does not appear that Professor St. John examined the particular section shown in 

Fig. 5, but the shell beds were seen by him in several places, and he says 

in the report just mentioned that they "are charged with fossils, mostly 

belonging to a species of Gryphcea resembling G. pitcheri, an Exogyra, 

Trigonia, Turritella^ etc. The latter also occurs in the upper portion of 

the underlying shales. The association of species and abundance of individuals strongly recall occurrences in Texas. The Gryphcea, however, 

is noticeably somewhat larger, though otherwise very similar to the G. 

pitcheri prevalent in the latter region, offering in this respect specific differentiation, recalling that which to-day obtains with the common oyster 

in passing northward along the Atlantic coast." (Fifth Bien. Kept. Kansas State Board of Agriculture, 1887, part II, p. 144.) These remarks 

relate to beds regarded by the observer as lying above Dakota sandstones, and recognized as different from the Dakota of northern Kansas, 

but not named Benton by him. He also hesitates to use the name Fort 

Benton for beds containing Inoceramus observed at no great distances 

from those described above, apparently on account of the absence of the 

northern Kansas bed of Inoceramus. He also says that these Gryphcva 

beds indicate the northern limits "of this peculiar southern fauna of 

the Cretaceous." I would observe that the specimens of Gryplicea seen 

by me in situ were all smaller than those collected by Prof. St. John 

and by others farther up the Medicine River than he went, and are exactly similar to specimens brought to him from Texas. Since the time 

of this reconnaissance Prof. Robt. T. Hill has located in Texas a lower 

Cretaceous series, to which has been given the name of the Comanche 

series, and the identity of the Barber County beds with the Comanche 

series has been suggested. If it existed it would apply not only to the 

shell beds, but to the sandstones below them, as they could not be Dakota if higher beds were a still lower Cretaceous. Before giving up 

the Dakota age of the sandstones (one bed in particular) I will have to 

reexaurine the region, for it is certain the isolated patches at Sharon
30 GEOLOGY OF SOUTHWESTERN KANSAS. [BULL.57.

and Kingman are Dakota. The sandstones in question are certainly 

uuconformable with the red rock series. It is probable that the red 

rock series is Triassic; and it may be that the sandstones above are late 

Jurassic or early Dakota, and pass upward into Cretaceous shell beds 

without break, and are synchronous with beds elsewhere recognized as 

Dakota or even as Benton. The actual series of stratigraphic succession may possibly be worked out in the denies of this region and the 

Indian Territory, but it will be a work of difficulty, as Tertiary and 

Quaternary deposits cover such large areas. If the stratigraphy be 

satisfactorily determined, it is possible that some paleontologic conclusions may have to be revised. In the shell beds referred to I obtained 

fossils that seemed without doubt to be casts of Inocerami.

Professor St. John found outcrops of Dakota sandstone near the 

Colorado line, and also of higher Cretaceous between the Cimarron and 

the Arkansas in the western counties; and he has since observed strata 

in northern Meade and southern Ford Counties, which he regards as 

Benton as certainly as those on Saw Log Creek north of the river, which 

they greatly resemble, though the characteristic shell bed of northern 

Kansas is missing. These localities, all small in area, have been indicated on the map illustrating the paper on the salt discoveries before 

referred to, which was read for me by Mr. W J McGee at the meeting 

of the American Association for the Advancement of Science at Cleveland, August, 1888. The estimate of their altitudes confirms the conclusions of the foregoing report on the easterly dip of the Cretaceous 

strata of western Kansas.

In Meade County there are indications of a sandstone horizon below 

the Benton which is probably Dakota. An artesian well in the Dakota 

formation on the west line of Clay County in northern Kansas, in connection with the easterly dip just mentioned led, me to suggest that 

artesian, wells might also be made in southwestern Kansas that would 

yield water of fair quality at small depths. This has been verified on 

Crooked Creek, where numerous wells have a good flow of soft water 

from sandstones at depths of little over one hundred feet. These are 

nowhere on the high prairie, but are confined to the valley. They suffice for the irrigation of many farms. At Coolidge, in the Arkansas 

Valley, close to the Colorado line, the Dakota sandstones yield a limitless flow of water from an artesian well less than two hundred and fifty 

feet deep. Like that of other deep wells, this water is considerably 

mineralized.

THE NIOBRARA.

Eocks shales and soft and hard limestones of Cretaceous age are a 

conspicuous feature of the bluffs on the north side of the Arkansas 

Eiver from Hartland west to the Colorado line. The yellow and white 

chalk and blue shale so characteristic of the Niobrara in the valleys of 

the Smoky Hill, Solomon and Prairie Dog Kivers are, however, not 

there. The fossils obtained were imperfect, Ostrea congesta was pleu-
HAY.I LATER CRETACEOUS PHENOMENA. 31

tiful iu spots, and fragments of a large Haploscapha and Scaphites. 

Whether any part of this Cretaceous outcrop should be referred to formations above the Niobrara I will not undertake to say, as I believe 

it will need, much more stratigraphic investigation than I was able 

to give and some careful paleontologic work to determine the point. 

Meanwhile I assume provisionally that the exposures west of Hartland are of Niobrara age. The dip of the Mobrara strata in one place 

was found to be northerly, but generally all the Cretaceous rocks seen 

in the Arkansas valley had an easterly dip nearly corresponding with 

the general slope of the country.

In the sections (PI. II, Figs. 2 and 3) the three Cretaceous formations are distinguished, but on the map they are indicated by one 

convention only. The full showing of all Cretaceous outcrops can be 

made only by a thorough study of the region.

THE POST-CEETACEOUS EROSION.

The main fact with regard to the Cretaceous formations brought out 

in this reconnaissance is that the Cretaceous surface was greatly eroded 

before the deposit of the Tertiary formations that follow. That this erosion was very extensive is evident. Its amount can not be easily determined, but that the result was a contour not very different from the 

present one in its main lines appears to be certain. There seems to bo 

reason to suspect that the Laramie formation has some development 

in tbe northwesterly portion of Kansas, and possibly also in the extreme southwest. If this extended east, then the erosion was during 

the whole of Eocene time, or possibly longer. That the erosion was 

enormous is shown even by the facts observed in tbis reconnaissance. 

Its full elucidation will require much longer time. The presentation of 

the facts observed in relation to the erosion of the Cretaceous strata 

will be best made in recording the observations on the Tertiary formations.

It is further to be observed that west of Dodge City the Cretaceous 

rocks have almost no surface development iu tbe Arkansas Valley. 

The exposures west of Hartland are precipitous bluffs, mostly capped 

by the Tertiary formations. Occasionally these bluffs are terraciform, 

where the floor of one of the steps is a Cretaceous rock. Even the 

mere fringe indicated on the map is therefore an exaggeration if the 

scale be taken into account.

TERTIARY.

Two apparently distinct formations of Tertiary age have been found 

in all parts of the region explored. Occurring in isolated patches in 

the eastern part of the area, they are more largely deyeloped as we 

proceed westward, where they are of such thickness and so related to 

the previous erosion as to completely hide other formations from view. 

Feeling sure of the identity of these formations with similar deposits in
32 GEOLOGY OF SOUTHWESTERN KANSAS. [BULL.57.

northwestern Kansas, I am inclined to use the nomenclature of Professor Cope, and call these respectively the Loup Fork (Miocene) and the 

Equus Beds (Pliocene). But having regard to the extensive area over 

which the beds are developed and the comparative iufrequency of fossils in the latter formation, I doem it best to designate them by purely 

provisional names and leave others to fix them more specifically when 

they have been examined over the whole region of the Great Plains and 

their subdivisions made out. These Tertiary formations then we name 

in ascending order: (a) The Tertiary grit; (b) The Tertiary marl.

THE TERTIARY GRIT.

The term grit is descriptive of this formation everywhere, yet it is of 

varying constitution. In places it encloses a fine powder, but the powder is largely siliceous, is useful as a polishing powder, and appears to 

be volcanic in its origin wind-blown volcanic glass from the Tertiary 

centers of eruption in the west. Elsewhere the grit is an aggregation 

of sand and lime, which we call its mortar-like form. Again the lime 

exceeds the sand in quantity, and it is sufficiently fine to be used for 

inside plastering. Then we have the mortar form, enclosing abundant 

pebbles, quartz, feldspar, diorite, greenstone (hornblende), and more, 

rarely granite with other igneous rocks. Then the limy matrix almost 

disappears, and we have a heavy conglomerate of water-worn pebbles 

of the rocks above mentioned, with jasper, quartzite and agate from 

the size of a nut to that of a large apple. Sometimes also there is a 

bone or a piece of completely silicified wood. The morfcar-like form 

often hardens into a building stone, and its softer beds contain hard, 

tough nodules like indurated not silicified chalk. The conglomerate 

form changes at times into beds of a fair quality of sandstone. In 

some places it shows as a hardened bed of gravel, with well-marked 

cross-bedding. The mortar-like form is often a fossil bed, yielding 

bones of mastodon, Aphelops and turtle. There are in many places 

root-like concretions penetrating the softer forms of the grit, and where 

these softer forms are of considerable thickness they attain in places 

a depth of fifteen to twenty feet they are characterized by harder 

ledges at intervals of from two to three feet, which give very bold 

forms in weathering. The conglomerate is also manifested in abrupt 

breaks and rocky ledges.

Nearly all the foregoing characteristics of the grit were familiar to 

rue in northwestern Kansas, so that there was no difficulty in identifying it in the region of this reconnaissance; but some of its occurrences 

were so far east that my note-book shows that I hesitated at first to 

recognize their identity. The increase of the area covered by the patches 

westward, and traces of remains of it in the form of thin gravel on 

slopes otherwise lacking signs of its presence, and its persistent occurrence as ledges a little below the highest prairie slopes, and, further 

still, its occurrence low in the river courses, indicated it as one of the
HAT.J THE OLDER TERTIARY FORMATIONS. 33

most extensive deposits of the western part of the State. I was further 

enabled to define yjij$ particularly two features of the grit which had 

been indefinite bewr^(a) In the Arkansas valley the conglomerate of 

the grit is mainly |feposed of pebbles of dark red feldspar. This is 

so marked a feature^hat its exposures, covered with the loose pebbles, 

can be recognized at long distances by their ruddy glow in the sun. 

In the valley of the Cimarron and in counties farther east the conglomerate is -more often composed of quartz pebbles and pale feldspar, 

giving a whitish or grayish tint to the exposures. This will appear 

further in the discussion of Quaternary phenomena, (b) In several 

well marked instances I found the mortar form and the conglomerate 

together, indicating that they are not, as I had supposed, local variations of synchronous deposits. I found the mortar form below the conglomerate, the former having in those places its usual scant supply of 

pebbles. Rocky Point, a bold ledge of the conglomerate five miles west 

of Dodge City, gave this juxtaposition of the two forms, the mortar form 

showing only on the eastern or lower slope of the point and disappearing under the conglomerate. Elsewhere I found the mortar form embedding not only the pebbles of igneous rock, but also pebbles, both 

water-worn and angular, of the Cretaceous rocks of the region, these 

fragments being more or less silicified. A small patch of white sandstone, of which there were several near in Harper County (Sec. 5, T. 32, 

E. 5 west) had similar relation to the underlying red rock (Jura-Trias). 

The red rock, a nodular clay, shades upward into the sandstone, the 

intermediate part being a conglomerate of quartz pebbles in a pasty 

matrix of the red rock material. The sandstone itself has some pebbles 

of smaller size, and in the conglomerate the larger pebbles are below 

and the least amount of the coloring matter the pasty matrix above. 

The following sections show the positions of the sandstone and the red 

rock at this place:

FIG. 7. Section across a small ravine in Harper County, 

a, sandstone; 6, red rock (clay and nodules); c, alluvium.

 ^^T t - "~T~ ATl_l. ll_r^_i -==r fr~t: ~-V^^.- -A-T -^ 4^r' - 1 -^^ -^ ~

FIG. 8. Section down the east side of small ravine in Harper County. 

a, sandstone; b, red rock (clay and nodules); c, alluvium.

The above sections show another fact, viz: the erosive unconformity

,of this Tertiary grit with the formation beneath. It is manifest that

the grit was deposited in hollows of the eroded surface of theTrias-

(ski<j, Further, the depressions then, were where there are depressions

Bull, 57 3
34 GEOLOGY OF SOUTHWESTERN KANSAS. [BULL. 57.

now. This feature is seen in every exposure which shows the rock on 

which the grit rests. In places where the underling rock is not seen 

it is observed to follow the slope of a side ravine toward the main 

valley, so that it is manifest that not only was the erosion extensive, 

but it was on nearly the same lines as that of to-day. The grit filled 

up the valleys to a considerable extent and was laid over the top of 

the higher land to a considerable height. Other illustrations I shall 

give when discussing the higher Tertiary formation. I give one other 

section (Fig. 9) which shows that these formations were laid in similar 

manner on Carboniferous (Permian) deposits. It is not far west of the 

ninety-seventh meridian, on the east of the Arkansas Kiver, in a cutting of the Frisco road, three miles northeast of Wichita. The height 

shown is from eight to ten feet, and the length thirty to forty rods.

FIG. 9. Section near Wichita. 

a, Carboniferous limestone; b, Tertiary conglomerate; c, Tertiary marl; d. surface soil.

The illustrations of the post-Cretacious but pre-Neoceue erosion are 

so common, that almost every ravine has evidence of it in the Cretaceous district, and it is as common in the Jura-Trias region. Near the 

south line of the State, in the region a little west of the one hundredth 

meridian, several sections like the following could be seen at once in 

the banks of small streams.

FIG. 10. Section in Meade County. 

a, alluvium; 6, Tertiary grit; c, Jura-Trias.

Similar sections may also be found in Barber County, both north and 

south of the Medicine Eiver.

Fossils fragments of turtle bones, as well as foot bones of Aplielops 

and some horse teeth have been found in parts of Barber County. 

Horse teeth and some specimens of Ostrea (the latter apparently worn) 

were obtained from an exposure on Kiowa Creek. (See Fig. 11.) At 

the same place was obtained a fragment of a small mammalian jaw. 

A neighboring exposure also yields pretty specimens of Lymnopliysa 

caperata. Ampler exploration would undoubtedly reveal fossil deposits rivaling those of the bone beds of Phillips and Norton Counties, 

which yield remains of the larger mammalia by the ton. The fossils, 

with the exception of an occasional petrified fragment of bone or wood, 

i are never found in the conglomerate. It is in the softer forms of the 

.mortar grit that they abound.

The upper surface of the grit is much eroded. Its deposition was 

succeeded by a long period, of subjection to sub-aerial agencies which
IIAY.] THE NEWEK TERTIARY FORMATIONS. 35

washed off a large part of its substance, rivers and smaller streams 

cutting it away nearly on the lines of the old valleys and nearly down 

to former levels. Then came another period of submersion and deposition, the material deposited making one of the most extensive and 

homogeneous formations of the Great Plains the widely developed 

later Tertiary marl.

THE TERTIARY MARL.

Superficially this marl is not unlike the loess of the Missouri Valley, 

and in the middle of northern Kansas seems to shade into it, although 

in southern Kansas the loess is sufficiently distinct. The marl is arenaceous, argillaceous and calcareous in its texture. It is not at all like 

the mortar form of the Tertiary grit, except in a very few localities, 

where, owing to each having a predominance of sand, there is some 

difficulty in distinguishing them. Its color is very uniform. It is a 

buff marl everywhere. We saw no place where it was colored by the 

red rock of the Jura-Trias. It is buff on the yellow chalk of the northwest, on the Cretaceous limestones, on the Dakota sandstones, on the 

Jura-Trias, and on the Carboniferous strata. (See Fig. 9.) It contains 

chalky nodules irregular in shape, some root-like, resembling those in 

the Tertiary grit. Its texture is nearly the same everywhere. Where 

its bluffs are high its lateral exposures are wrought into rounded and 

symmetrical pillar-like forms, tapering to the top. Some views of it 

suggest the mauvaises terres of Nebraska.

In this reconnaissance evidence was found in two places of a subdivision of the marl into two deposits, the lower one in each case being 

more arenaceous than the upper one. (See Fig. 15.) The lower arenacious stratum seems also to be indicated in wells where it yields the 

water after the marl has been pierced. But a .later visit to the place 

figured showed considerable wearing in the face of the bluff and the 

sharp line no longer existed, but only a gradual increase downward of 

arenaceous structure.

We find the Tertiary marl resting on eroded surfaces of Permian, 

Jura-Trias, Cretaceous and Tertiary grit formations. It is sometimes 

low down, buttressing the flanks of other formations, but its best development is at the greatest elevations. It forms the dead level of 

the high prairie between the great rivers, thinning off towards their 

valleys, but following the slope of the tributary dales. This thickening on the high prairie is manifest in almost every county Barber, 

Pratt, Edwards, Meade, Ford, Hamilton, Seward, Scott, Graham, Norton from' Indian Territory to the Nebraska line. Wells pierce it in 

most of these counties over one hundred feet, and in Meade County 

and in Graham from one hundred and forty to one hundred and eighty 

feet, before the grit is reached. The grit has a supply of water 5 the 

marl seems quite dry except in its lower stratum. Walls of dugouts 

and cisterns excavated in it may be plastered or cemented without the 

intervention of other material. The Buffalo grass is attached to the 

marl, It remains on it after wire grass and others have taken
36 GEOLOGY OF SOUTHWESTEKN KANSAS. [BULL. 57.

sion of sedentary soils of the grit or other formations. Where the sod 

has been broken by the plow, it has been found that the marl in a few 

years ceases to be so dry. It can then be broken by the spade, where 

before a pick was necessary.

The marl yields comparatively few fossils. Remains of bison and 

horse and other mammals have been found in it. It remains to be 

seen whether Cope's designation of the " Equus Beds" can be justified 

for so extensive a formation.

THE TERTIARY -EROSION.

The greatest fact to which the Tertiary marl bears witness next to 

the one of the immensity of its own existence is that of the erosion 

immediately preceding its deposition. Assuming the grit to be Miocene, 

we may allude to this as the mid-Neocene erosion to distinguish it from 

the pre-Neocene erosion, which we have already described. The following diagrams give evidence of both periods of subaerial agencies. 

They are simply examples that might be multiplied almost indefinitely.

FIG. 11. Section on Kiowa Creek, Comanche County, Kansas.

a, Tertiary marl; b, Tertiary grit; c, light drab and greenish shale; d, ledge of coarse yellowish 

sandstone; e, red iron ore.

^tii|ii^

FIG. 12. Section across Saw Log Creek, north of Dodge City, 

a, Tertiary marl; 6, Tertiary grit; c, Fort Benton limestone; d, alluvium.

FIG. 13. Section on south side of Saw Log Creek. 

a, Tertiary njarlj fc, Tertiary grit ; c, Fort ^enfan li.mestone,
HAY.] CLOSING EPISODES OF THE TERTIARY.

For the sake of comparison I give the following from a " Eeport on 

the Geology of Norton County," made by me in 1884, to the Kansas 

Academy of Science. The locality of the section is in the Solomon 

Valley, south of Edmoud, some distance east of the one hundredth 

meridian. The sections on Saw Log Creek are a little west of that 

meridian, but over one hundred miles south.

FIG. 14. Section in Norton County, Kansas.

a, Tertiary inarl; b, Tertiary grit; c, Cretaceous.

The following section of a bluff about 11 miles west of Dodge City 

shows in a striking manner the mid-Neocene erosion. The railway is 

on a terrace cut into the face of the bluff, and from the river up to this 

terrace the Tertiary grit is in place, and again it shows on the top of the 

next step; but the front of that step is formed of the Tertiary marl, 

which again appears back on the high prairie, thus showing an erosioncontour of the grit before deposition of the marl approximating to the 

form of the present valley. The line s in the diagram shows the position of the line of separation of the two forms of the marl already 

noted, the arenaceous character of the lower one being very marked 

(See p. 35, ante.)

FIG. 15. Tertiary bluffs on the Arkansas Eiver. 

a, Tertiary marl; 6, Tertiary-grit; c, railway terrace; d, river level; a, line of separation of the two 

forms of marl; xx, gravel of tbo conglomerate.
38 GEOLOGY OF SOUTHWESTERN KANSAS. [BULL. 57.

That the pre-Neocene erosion cut the valley of the Arkansas nearly 

to its present form is seen in the fact that small side ravines and other 

lateral valleys show the erosion of the Cretaceous rocks,, with hollows 

partially filled with the Tertiary deposits. The following diagrams represent actual sections as seen from the main valley a few miles below 

Kendall.

FIG. 16. Section in Hamilton County. 

a, Tertiary marl; b, Tertiary grit; c, Cretaceous limestone.

FIG. 17. Section in Hamilton County, 

o, Tertiary marl; b, Tertiary grit: c, Cretaceous limestone.

QUATERNARY.

The Quaternary deposits recognized in the reconnaissance are five

in number. In ascending order they are: The Gumbo, The Earlier 

Gravel, The Loess, The Later Gravel, and the Alluvium.

THE GUMBO.

I take this name from a tough, solid, dark colored clay, which is so 

named in northeastern Kansas by the farmers, who dislike to find it 

near the surface. In my explorations I found it of a lavender color 

where weathered, but under the surface of a blackish brown. It is 

sticky and tough, but when dry breaks with.a cuboidal fracture like 

hardpan. I found it in the Arkansas Valley forming the bottoms of 

pools, where the surrounding alluvium is almost pure sand. It occurs 

apparently beneath the gravel forming a good road-bed in Kingman 

County. In Clarke County I saw a few exposures of it in the faces of 

bluffs. The view at Eed Bluff near the line of Clarke and Comanche 

Counties shows its occurrence overlying the Tertiary marl, and represents characteristic weathering of the red <rock.
EARtY QUARTERNARY DEPOSITS. 39

of the Gumbo aud the Tertiary marl suggests intermethe marl. More extensive exploration of Quaternary

formations will be required before such erosion can be positively affirmed.

THE EARLIER GRAVEL.

An immense deposit of gravel lies under and around the town of 

Wellington, in Sumner County. It has been partially described in the 

Kansas City Eeview by J. P. West, and was by him referred to the
40 GEOLOGY OF SOUTHWESTERN KANSA BULL. 57.

Champlain period. It. has yielded fine teeth and jaws i and

also a fine skull and horns of Bos latifrons, which are no

sion of Mr. John H. Wolfe, of Wellington. Water-womaments of

petrified wood are found in it, and on the line of the railwayto Honuewell, where the gravel is of finer material, it has yielded fragments of a

large Unio and well preserved specimens of Splicerium sulcatum. These

fossils perhaps sufficiently determine the horizon of this deposit.

The gravel is composed of well worn pebbles, not very large but making the deposit in places notably coarse. The pebbles are mostly quartz 

and quartzite with feldspar and other igneous rocks, and an admixture 

of Permian cherts and limestone, granite being rare. Some of the 

mounds are quarried and the material is passed through sieves to obtain building sand. Besides the branch road to Honnewell, the South. 

ern Kansas Eailway also cuts the gravel, and the Atchison, Topeka 

and Santa F6 branch on the west side of the city gives a fine section of 

it. . It is therefore possible to study^the deposit pretty fully. It lies in 

eroded hollows of the saliferous strata, which can be traced over parts 

of the town site by the wells. Those which are in the gravel give good 

water; those in shale are strongly impregnated with gypsum. The relation of the gravel to the loess is distinctly shown, and is well illustrated in Fig. 19. The cross bedding in places is remarkable, evincing 

the presence of powerful and changing currents.

TIG. 19. Section at cutting on Santa F6 Kailway, Wellington, Kansas, 

a, Loess; 6, hard limy ledges; c, dark-colored shales; d, gravel.

Similar deposits of gravel are found occasionally to the west line of 

Barber County. Between Harper and Medicine Lodge they occupy 

large areas. They form the tops of the high prairie at Attica and east 

of that place for miles. They show depths of from five to twenty-five 

feet. The materials are the same as at Wellington, except the local 

material, which is in the western localities a reddish clayey extract of 

the red rock (Trias), which gives a sort of tenacity to the gravel and 

colors it distinctively. West of Attica the mounds are at lower levels. 

Medicine Lodge is on a mound which lies over a low spur of the red rock 

between Elm Creek and Medicine River. The railway cutting shows 

the contact of the gravel and the rock. Good specimens of teeth of 

Eleplias have been taken from the gravel here and at Attica; fragments 

of large bones, shells, and fragments of the matrix containing them 

from the shell bed in Fig. 5 are also frequent in these gravels. North-
SAY.] LATER QUARTERNARY DEPOSITS. . 41

west and west of Medicine Lodge there are frequent mounds of gravel 

apparently synchronous with those already described, and northeasterly 

towards Kiugman they cover large areas. The lower parts of the 

mounds are colored with the red rock, but the surfaces of the mounds 

are light colored, showing preponderance of quartz and buff feldspar 

pebbles. In western Barber County, and increasing west and northwest, there are other mounds of gravel not synchronous in their formation with those already described. I have designated them u the later 

gravel.1' I refer to them here because in western Barber County they 

are distingushable from the gravel mounds under consideration only by 

careful exploration and not always with certainty then. The reason of 

this will appear further on.

Difficulties in arriving at precise results with regard to the Quaternary gravels lie in the fact of their immense area of distribution and 

in the large size of single deposits, combined with their position at the 

tops of the prairie. Currents of considerable force were required to 

move the material. It seems difficult in many cases to consider them 

river currents; more difficult still to consider them lake currents. A 

littoral current in the Irish Sea is, however, depositing just such gravel 

now. .Further study is required.

The fragments of petrified wood in the gravel being mostly waterworn, they appear to be of greater age as petrifactions than the deposit 

of the gravel. At least one silicified log seems, however, to be of wood 

of the gravel period. The log is of the color of the red rock.

THE LOESS.

The loess of the Missouri Valley is found as far up the Kaw Valley 

as the east line of Dickinson County. It extends up the Neosho to its 

source, but nowhere in northern Kansas does it appear to have passed 

much if any beyond the ninety-seventh meridian. At Wichita, however, it is strongly developed, and the water-shed between the Arkansas and the Walnut is mostly crowned by a heavy deposit of it. (See 

Fig. 1.) In the lower part of the Neosho Valley the loess is frequently 

much darker (orange brown) than in the Kaw, taking its color from 

the iron of various local deposits. But in the Arkansas Valley it becomes darker still, of a rich maroon. Farther west on the Miuuesquah 

and the Medicine it becomes redder still. It is stained through and 

through, like the red rock, from which it is derived. In these valleys 

it attains its most westerly extension in Kansas. The comparative 

proximity of the Tertiary marl makes it easy to compare it with the 

loess. As compared with the later gravel, we have noticed that at 

Wellington the loess overlies the gravel; I infer a similar condition at 

Medicine Lodge, but I did not find the loess in any of the places (e. g., 

Attica), where the gravel is at relatively high levels. The bluffs of loess 

on the Medicine River show a characteristic that seems to have been inherited from the red clays of the Jura-Trias, i. e., they are more abrupt
GEOLOGY OF SOUTHWESTERN KANSAS. [BULL. 57.

in their contour than the Kaw Eiver bluffs. The dry material has a 

cuboidal fracture, and the bluffs have a more precipitous appearance.

I have seen no fossils certainly referable to the loess of this district, 

but at Kiowa I was shown the humerus of a mastodon, which, from the 

stain and from its friability, I judged came from the red bluff formation. 

At Manhattan, in the Kaw Valley, the loess has yielded Elephas teeth 

and tusks at a depth of thirty-five feet.

. 20. Loesa bluffa on Medicine Elver.

THE LATER GRAVEL.

A very conspicuous feature of the Arkansas Valley from Dodge City 

to the mountains is found in the frequent mounds of gravel. They 

stand out as rounded bluffs from the high lands that bound the main 

valley. Our specific description is from the occurrences within the 

state of Kansas.

Approaching one of these mounds, we find that very rarely does the 

gravel reach the bottom. There is frequently a well defined line, below 

which but few pebbles are found, and above which the gravel is plentiful. Again, there are mounds where the gravel does not reach the top. 

The top in such case is formed of the Tertiary marl. The pebbles, of 

which this gravel is largely composed, are of igneous rocks, hornblende, 

greenstone, granite (rare), quartz, quartzite, diorite, chalcedony and 

feldspar. The feldspar is mostly dark red, and it is so conspicuous by 

quantity as to give a ruddy tint to the whole surface of the mound. 

This ruddy tint can be distinguished at long distances in the sunlight. 

The pebbles vary from the size of a hand downwards.
WAY.] UECEN'T DEPOSITS. 43

I have elsewhere referred to the fact that pebbles of the same kind 

are scattered over the tops and at the bases of bluffs of the Tertiary 

conglomerate, and that such bluffs have the same ruddy tint. The fact 

is that the gravel mounds are simply the disintegrated conglomerate 

bluffs of the Tertiary grit. The bluffs and mounds are the two extremes 

of a series of great interest, every intervening term being found in the 

valley. We may state them thus: 

1. A beetling, craggy rock of conglomerate with a few loose pebbles.

2. A craggy ledge of conglomerate with a considerable talus of pebbles and sandy soil.

3. A flat ledge of conglomerate just snowing above a sloping talus of 

gravel and a surface sprinkled with pebbles.

4. A rounded gravel mound.

The inner side of a mound (No. 4) sometimes shows its base of conglomerate not all gone but connecting it with a conglomerate ledge 

farther back.

The discovery of this series shows that these mounds are not, per se, 

transported gravels like the earlier gravels already described. As 

gravel, they are in situ and were produced by agencies at present in 

operation. Some of the mounds are thinly sprinkled with vegetation. 

Some have their structure almost hidden by a vegetable humus. There 

must be such mounds entirely buried by both alluvial and eoliau deposits 

of sand, for traces of such are revealed by recent floods. The formation 

of such mounds, then, has been going on ever since the Tertiary conglomerate arose from the waters in which it was deposited, but the 

mounds which are now conspicuous I regard as of recent origin, synchronous with deposits which are called alluvial. Like alluvium, they 

are forming now and have been since the last upheaval from lake or sea. 

Hence the. designation The Later Gravel. Many mounds in Comanche 

and Barber Counties belong to this later gravel, and possibly some in 

Kingman. They may be looked for wherever a fragment of Tertiary 

conglomerate is left. These more eastern mounds are of paler hue, like 

the conglomerate of which they are formed. The pebbles of quartz are 

more numerous and the feldspar is decidedly paler.

Tins ALLUVIUM.

The alluvium of the region covered by this reconnaissance includes a 

class of deposits important because of their extent. The valleys of 

many of the streams are broad and comparatively shallow, giving large 

areas of both past and present flood plains.

A conspicuous feature of most of the river and creek bottoms is 

their arenaceous character. The immense beds of sand in the valleys 

of the Chikaskia, the Medicine, the Cimarron and the Arkansas are 

merely larger examples of what is shown in the bottoms of Elm Creek, 

Crooked Creek, Kiowa Creek, and numberless others whose beds in the 

dry season swallow up their streams entirely. The sources of this sand.
44 GEOLOGY OF SOUTHWESTERN KANSAS. [BuiL.57.

are not far to seek. In the Jura-Trias region the decomposing red rock 

yields some sand. But the main source of all is the wearing away of 

the two Tertiary formations, both of which are rich in arenaceous material. So abundantly do they yield it that the quantity of sand in the 

eastern part of the region may be taken as evidence of their former 

existence in localities where they are not now observed. Where they 

do exist the ravines below their outcrop are mere sand beds.

Another characteristic of the arenaceous deposits is that they are 

sometimes found in places where they can not strictly be called alluvial. No river ever ran there. They have been formed in situ from the 

breaking up of the Tertiary marl by atmospheric agencies.' Wind, rain 

and carbonic acid have broken and leached out the calcareous and argillaceous parts where the slope has not been sufficient to carry away 

the sand to any great extent, and the wind has helped to arrange the 

material as hills or low dunes both before and after the growth of vegetation. I regard the extensive sandy region east, southeast, and 

southwest of Cold water as having been formed by agencies of this kind. 

It is an occasional feature of this region that at the base of a hill is a 

talus of the later gravel, and sometimes the sand all blown away leaves 

exposed a gravel mound or even a ledge of the Tertiary grit. These 

features are found in Barber, Ford and Hamilton counties, and probably 

to a much larger extent than our reconnaissance showed.

The sand dunes of the Arkansas Valley merit distinct notice. The 

entire river bottom is more or less arenaceous, but in places there is 

below a few feet of sand, or, at the surface, when the sand is blown or 

washed away, a deposit of stiff clay or gumbo. At Wichita this clay 

has been pierced for wells, and sand is found again at a considerable 

depth below. Farther up the broad valley, a little elevated above the 

level of the stream, is simply a sand bed, carpeted with the grasses of 

the region. From Cimarron west into Colorado, on the south side of 

the river and in places coming down to the edge of the channel, is a 

vast range of sand hills. Opposite Syracuse they attain a height of 

fifty feet, bare, glaring sand dunes, changing with the changing wind. 

Often, however, they are covered with some vegetation, and are assuming a more stable character. The tops of a large part of the range are 

from one hundred and fifty to two hundred feet above the river, and the 

range attains a breadth of six to eight miles. The sand brought down 

the river from Colorado is large in quantity, and its eolian distribution 

when the water is low is certainly extensive; but we can not regard the 

sand hills referred to as owing all their substance to the sands transported from the west. Their apparent height is not their real height 

as sand hills. They are buttressed against the sides of the valley, and 

passing through them southward we emerge, without diminution of altitude, on the prairie, whose level is formed by the Tertiary marl. On 

the river front of the dunes we occasionally find the red mounds of the 

later gravel, and pools within the hills have a bottom of gumbo. It 

appears certain, then, that much of the material of the dunes is of
HAY.] THE RESULTS OF THE RECONNAISSANCE. 45

strictly local origin, increased by the amount that the ever flowing 

stream may bring from the west. The sands absorb much of the rainfall, and what should be water courses are mere sand beds. Bear Creek 

in wet weather is a series of pools, but it never reaches the river as a 

surface stream. Two of the pools are what are known as " sunk wells5" 

one of them is said to show no bottom at two hundred and forty feet, 

and the other is over one hundred and fifty feet in depth. It is certain 

that alluvial deposits are very deep in the Arkansas Valley. It is possible that the depth of these sunk wells represents the depth to which 

side ravines and, approximately, the main valley were excavated by 

Eocene or mid-neocene erosion.

The Arkansas Valley has also an argillaceous alluvium. This is 

found in places as much as 50 feet above the present level of the river. 

At Hartland and below Cimarron ledges of rock approach the river 

from both sides, These are probably the remains of barriers which existed before the river was reduced to its present base level, and above 

which alluvium may have been deposited iu exceptional quantity, but 

the period of the excavation of the short gorges between the barriers 

is unknown.

The alluvial deposits of the Medicine and tributary valleys claim a 

passing notice. I have referred to those of an arenaceous character. 

There are others decidedly argillaceous. These are red. They are finer 

grained than the red loess of the valley. The loess is finer grained 

than the red rock clay of which it is mainly formed. It wo'uld be interesting to. examine these three forms with respect to the physical 

and chemical conditions of their materials and their relation to the 

fertility of the soil. The red rock soils both sedentary and transported are fertile.

 CONCLUSION.

THE GENERAL RESULTS.

Among the results of this reconnaissance has been the distinct recognition of various formations in the region explored. It is not to be 

expected that a hurried reconnaissance should enable the geologist to 

delineate the formation boundaries of a considerable area with much 

exactness j and accordingly the boundaries indicated on the accompanying map are to be regarded as provisional, excepting in the immediate vicinity of the route traversed. The determination of the great 

easterly and southerly extension of the two Tertiary formations is an 

addition to American geology; the discrimination of the two Quaternary gravel deposits is believed to be new j and the tracing of both 

gravel beds to their sources in the Tertiary conglomerates is of local 

and general value as a means of ascertaining the origin of certain superficial deposits.

The Source of the Tertiary Conglomerates. One of the most interesting problems suggested by the reconnaissance relates to the origin of 

the materials, particularly the coarse gravels, composing the Tertiary
46 GEOLOGY OF SOUTHWESTERN KANSAS. lnuLL.57.

formations. It has, indeed, already been inferred by geologists familiar 

with the region that the materials of the Tertiary conglomerates were 

originally derived from the Eocky Mountains; but investigations of the 

reconnaissance confirmed by more recent explorations have placed the 

inferences on a firmer basis than ever before. There is a series of 

mounds of gravel and of conglomeratic deposits along the western 

margin of the Great Plains in Colorado, well exhibited from north of 

Denver to below Pueblo; these deposits are apparently the westward continuation of the Tertiary grit of Kansas, and their materials 

are so similar to those of the deltas and alluvial fans built by the 

mountain streams at the mouths of their canons as to prove identity of 

source. It is true that in the Tertiary grit of Kansas, the physical 

condition of the materials and the proportion of the various elements 

are different from those found in the graveUnouuds, conglomerates and 

alluvial fans at the immediate base of the mountains; the materials 

are universally finer and better rounded, and there is a predominance 

of quartz and other obdurate minerals; but the differences in the 

coarseness and in the mineralogic character of the materials observed 

between the ninety-eighth meridian and the Colorado boundary are 

even greater than those occurring between the Colorado boundary and 

the Rockies.

It is probable that the Wichita Mountains of Indian Territory, 

which are composed of igneous rocks, have contributed material for the 

Tertiary formations of Kansas ; but the character of the pebbles and 

the direction of the mountains with respect to slopes alike indicate that 

this source was unimportant.

The manner of transportation of pebbles so coarse as those found in 

the Tertiary conglomerate in southwestern Kansas over the four hundred miles intervening between the localities described above and their 

original source, remains a problem. The Tertiary deposits were laid 

down in lakes or inland seas in which the currents could have been of 

but limited strength probably too limited to permit of transportation 

of such coarse materials. It may be suggested that the period of deposition of the Tertiary grit of western Kansas and eastern Colorado witnessed the progressive elevation of the Eocky Mountains either by 

steady uplift like the coast of Sweden, or by a succession of sudden 

upheavals like the Andes, and that during this period the shore of the 

lake with its attendant shingle and littoral debris and the mouths of 

the mountain-fed affluents from which the debris was derived, were 

progressively shifted farther and farther to the eastward, and that the 

coarser and finer phases of the Tertiary conglomerates throughput the 

Avhole area thus represent successive littoral deposits.

The Question of Tertiary Shores. A second problem suggested by 

the reconnaissance relates to the eastern shores of the water bodies 

in which the Tertiary deposits were laid down. Little progress has 

been made in the solution of this problem. No unmistakably Tertiary deposits were found a.s f^r eastward as the, ninety-seventh meri-
HAY.] THE REPEATED EROSION. 47

dian either in situ or in the form of residuary sands and gravels, and 

there is nothing in the topography or in the behavior of the rivers to 

suggest that the formations ever extended much farther eastward. It 

is significant, however, that the course of the Arkansas liiver is suddenly changed above Wichita, and that a prominent ridge the Flint 

Hills which attains an elevation of sixteen hundred feet and which 

might have formed a barrier for the Tertiary sea, occurs just eastward. 

It is possible that evidence of the coincidence of the old shore with 

this ridge may ultimately be found, but such evidence has not thus far 

been brought to light.

The Tripartite Erosion. The most striking facts developed by the 

investigation of the Great Plains are connected with the three periods 

of erosion. The profound depths of the Grand Canon of the Colorado 

give a visible exhibition of erosion, that from the direct evidence of the 

senses affects the imagination of even the illiterate. But on the plains 

it is only after painstaking observation, during a long time and over 

extended area, that the great fact of the erosion is made out. But 

when it is made out, and the mind grasps it, it is as striking a fact as 

the Colorado chasm. Here is an area whose dimensions are not less 

than the whole State of Colorado, which has been cut first into great 

valleys from the Platte to the Canadian and its general level lowered 

several hundred feet after the close of the Cretaceous period. Next it 

was submerged, and a deposit, the Tertiary grit, laid over it to a depth

.w

FIG. 21. Section across tho Arkansas Valley.

m, Tertiary marl; g, Tertiary grit; c, contour at commencement of post-Tertiary erosion; q, Quaternary deposits; a, assumed coutoar-at close of pro-Neocene erosion; b, assumed cuutour at commencement of mid-Neocene erosion.

of probably fifty feet. Then after emergence so uniform that the new 

waterways followed the old, it was again eroded, the grit almost entirely 

disappearing in the valleys, and being certainly much thinned elsewhere. 

Another submergence spread over all the area a deposit which on the 

highest points is yet two hundred feet thick, and must have been thicker 

in the valleys. And this has again been eroded, generally along the old 

lines, and cut down to and below the depth of the first cutting into tho 

Cretaceous rocks. The mean total erosion for the whole region can not be 

less than three hundred feet, as it must much exceed that in the valleys. 

The generalized section in Fig. 21 shows the observed facts of the 

Arkansas Valley, commencing with the close of the pre-IsTeocene erosion. 

The broken line a shows an approximation to the eroded surface of the 

Cretaceous strata at the commencement of the deposition of the grit. 

The line I represents the completion of the grit. The line c may be taken
48 GEOLOGY OF SOUTHWESTERN KANSAS. [BULL. 57.

as the probable level at the post-Tertiary emergence of the marl. At 

present there are no data for estimating the original height of the Cretaceous strata. Sections like this, differing only in detail, can be constructed for the Smoky Hill Eiver, the Saline, the Solomon, the Prairie 

Dog, and the Sappa, and, in smaller areas, the valley of the Cimarron. 

The Tertiary grit forms in parts of Seward county the bed of that stream.

The average dip of the strata in the region of Carboniferous formations is to the west; the dip of the higher Cretaceous rocks in the Arkansas Valley is certainly towards the east. Both northerly and southerly local dips have been noticed. It has not been easy to decide 

how to represent the observed facts, but in the sections forming PI. II 

the dip is believed to be approximately correct.

These varied phenomena of the plains, then, are all the results of this 

complex application of the force called erosion. Its manifestation is 

on every hand. It has carved the weird forms and the deep canons of 

the Gypsum Hills. It has cut out the broad valleys of the great rivers 

and the narrow ravines of the torrents. It has spread out vast sheets 

of sand and piled up mounds of gravel which it has brought from 

higher regions, and it is, day by day and year by year, still degrading 

the solid rock and sapping away the solid body of the high prairies-of 

the west.

ECONOMIC GEOLOGY.

It is not possible to give proper discussion here to the facts of economic value in this region, mainly because they could not have the investigation their importance warranted. They have been incidentally 

touched in preceding pages, and here I will note only that observations on the water-holding capacity of the Tertiary grit have been published by me in a bulletin of the State Board of Agriculture, and, being 

extensively copied in the newspapers, have been useful to the settlers 

of the Southwest. Similar observations were also made by Professor 

St. John. It is interesting to note that recent examinations in northern 

Kansas have revealed traces of the Tertiary formations east of the 

ninety-seventh meridian.

The gypsum deposits are being practically utilized in the manufacture of stucco and plaster-of-Paris, and some beds yield marble and alabaster that may take a place in ornamental architecture. Some of the 

red beds at Kingman are yielding a fine quality of mineral paint. The 

Cretaceous formations are in places yielding building stones that are of 

great value to the increasing population of southwestern Kansas.

The salt rock on the confines of the Permian and Triassic formations is of great thickness and is being extensively utilized at Hutchinson and elsewhere. At Kingman it has been reached by a shaft which 

has already passed through 24 feet of solid salt in four layers, and 

thicker veins are expected at a somewhat greater depth than that now 

reached (700 feet).
INDEX.

Page. 

Alluvium of Kansas....................... 43^5

Arkansas River, Tertiary bluffs on........ 37

Arkansas Valley, sand dunes of............ 44-45

Section across, showing repeated erosion.................................. 47

Artesian-wells...........................13,30,48

Atchison, Topeka and Santa F6 railway,

aid by................................ 9

Biscuit shale............................... 19,20

Bradley, F.H., cited........................ 17

Goals and lignites in the Great Plains, questions concerning..................... 13

Conglomerates, Tertiary, source of......... 45

Cope, E.D., cited........................... 10

Carboniferous strata of southwestern Kansas................................... 19,20

Cretaceous formations................... 1C, 27-31

Dakota formation.......................... 10,27

Dall, W. H., determinations of fossils by... 9 

Dodge City, Kans., exposures near......... 33,37

Economic geology.......................... 48

Equusbeds.................... ........... 30

Erosion of the Great Plains................ 47

Failyer, G. H., cited on chemical composition of Kansas rock and soil......... 21

Fort Benton formation..................... 27-30

"Frisco " railroad, aid by .................. 9

Geologic formations of southwestern Kansas 18 

Gravel (The Earlier) of Kansas............ 39-41

Gravel (The Later) of Kansas ...........41,42-43

Gryphaea beds of Kansas, significance of... 29 

Gumbo (The) of Kansas............. ...... 38,39

Gypsum deposits, economic value of....... 48

Hills, location and structure of......... 22-24

Hamilton County, sections in .............. 38

Harper County,sections in ................ 33

Hill, Robert T., cited....................... 29

Jura-Trias in Kansas ...................... 20-27

Kendall, Kans., sections seen near.......... 38

Kingman, Kans., exposures of the Dakota

formation at......................... 27

Kiowa Creek, Kans., exposures on ...... 28,34,36

Loess of Kansas ........................... 41,42

Loup Fork formation ...................... 10

Map, basis of .............................. 18

McGee, "W. J., acknowledgments to ........ 9

Mead, J.R., aid by......................... 9

Meade County,section in .................. 34

Medicine Eiver, alluvial deposits of........ 45

Mesozoic history of western Mississippi

Valley............................... 11,12

Mississippi Valley, summary of geologic

history of............................ 11,12

Page. 

Mississippi Valley and Eocky Mountain

region, contrast of geologic history .. 12 

Missouri Pacific Kail way, aid by .......... 9

Madge, B.F., cited......................... 16

Acknowledgments to.................. 18

Niobrara formation of Kansas ............. 30,31

Norton County, Kans., section in .......... 37

Paleozoic history of the Mississippi Valley. 11,12 

Petit Anse Island, La., salt deposits at.... 13

Quaternary deposits of Kansas ............ 38-45

Red beds, economic value of............... 48

Ked Bluff, Kans., exposure at.............. 38,39

Red rocks of Kansas ...................... 14

Red rock, region of........................ 20-20

Rocky Mountain and Mississippi Valley

geology, discrepancy between ....... 12

Rocky Point, Kans., exposures at.......... 33

St. John, 0. H., acknowledgments to ...... 18

Cited.................................. 29,30

Saliferous horizon, extent and geologic

place of.............................. 20-27

Salt deposits of Petit Anse Island, Louisiana, and elsewhere.................. 13

Salt rock, utilization of .................... 48

Salt wells of Kansas ....................... 25,26

Sand dunes of the Arkansas Valley........ 44,45

Satin spar................................. 22.23

Saw Log Creek, exposures on............ 28,29,30

Sharon, Kans., exposure of Dakota formation at..............................; 27

Shores,Tertiary ........................... 46,47

Shumard, G. C., cited....................... 17

Simmons, J. H., aid by...................... 9

South ern Kansas Railway, aid by.......... 9

Spring Creek, Kans., exposures of Fort

Benton formation at.................. 28

Superficial deposits, review of ............. 12

Swallow,G.C.,cited ....................... 17

Tertiary grit............................... 32-35

Tertiary formations of Kansas............. 31-38

Tertiary marl.............................. 35-36

Tertiary conglomerates, source of.......... 45

Tertiary shores in Kansas ................. 46-47

Triassic rooks, review of.................;. 12,25

Triassic red beds of Kansas, boundaries of. 20 

Wellington, Kans., deposit of gravel at.... 39

"Wells, Artesian..........................13,30,48

West, J. P., described gravel deposits at

Wellington,Kans.................... 39-40

White Sandstone Plateau .................. 22

White, C. A., determination of fossils by.. - 9 

Wichita, Kans., exposures near........... 17,19,34

Deposits of loess at.................... 41

49