The Monteagle Limestone 

of South-Central Kentucky

By RICHARD Q. LEWIS, SR.

CONTRIBUTIONS TO STRATIGRAPHY

GEOLOGICAL SURVEY BULLETIN 1324-E

Prepared in cooperation with the 

Kentucky Geological Survey

Stratigraphic terminology is given for 

rocks of Late Mississippi an age in 

south-central Kentuckyp , and a new 

name, the Kidder Limestone Member, 

is introduced
UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR 

ROGERS C. B. MORTON, Secretary

GEOLOGICAL SURVEY 

William T. Pecora, Director

Library of Congress catalog-card No. GS 77-609940

U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 

WASHINGTON : 1971

For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office 

Washington, D.C. 20402 - Price 10 cents (paper cover)
CONTENTS

Page

Abstract ...................................................................................... El

Introduction ....................................................................................................... 1

Acknowledgments ............................................................................................. 2

Monteagle Limestone ....................................................................................... 2

Ste. Genevieve Limestone Member ........................................................ 4

Kidder Limestone Member ...................................................................... 6

Type section of the Kidder Limestone Member......................................... 7

References cited .................................................... ....................................... 8

ILLUSTRATIONS

Page

FIGURE 1. Index map of Kentucky showing location of area................. E3

2. Generalized section of the Kidder Limestone Member of the

Monteagle Limestone................................................................. 4

in

CONTRIBUTIONS TO STRATIGRAPHY

THE MONTEAGLE LIMESTONE OF SOUTH-CENTRAL

KENTUCKY

By RICHARD Q. LEWIS, SR.

ABSTRACT

Geologic mapping and stratigraphic studies show that nomenclature for 

rocks of Late Mississippian age in Alabama and Tennessee is generally applicable in south-central Kentucky and that the Monteagle Limestone of 

Late Mississippian age is divisible into two mappable members. These are, 

in ascending order, the Ste. Genevieve Limestone Member and the Kidder 

Limestone Member (new name).

INTRODUCTION

Geologic mapping and stratigraphic studies show that the 

Monteagle Limestone of Late Mississippian age is divisible into 

two mappable members. This paper describes those members and 

proposes a name for the upper member.

The St. Louis Limestone and other underlying rocks of Mississippian age can be traced into south-central Kentucky from western Kentucky in nearly continuous outcrop. The Ste. Genevieve 

Limestone Member the lower part of the Monteagle Limestone 

crops out in small isolated areas across the Cincinnati arch and 

can be traced into south-central Kentucky from the western part 

of the State. Upper Mississippian strata overlying the Ste. 

Genevieve Limestone Member of the Monteagle Limestone cannot 

be physically traced into the area from western Kentucky.

The Upper Mississippian rocks in south-central Kentucky east 

of the Cincinnati arch are represented by a thick sequence of 

limestone interbedded with lesser amounts of sandstone and 

shale. Though these are similar to the Upper Mississippian rocks

El
E2 CONTRIBUTIONS TO STRATIGRAPHY

of western Kentucky, correlation between the two areas is difficult. Several Upper Mississippian sandstone units that belong to 

the Chester Series of western Kentucky and Indiana are missing 

in south-central Kentucky. Most of the previous workers in 

south-central Kentucky have applied formation names of the 

Chester Series to Upper Mississippian strata in the south-central 

part of the State, correlating the previously mentioned thin beds 

of shale in south-central Kentucky with the sandstone formations 

of the Chester Series. The tenuous nature of these correlations is 

indicated by the several names applied to the same units (Stokley 

and McFarlan, 1952, p. 48; McFarlan and Walker, 1956, p. 13).

The Upper Mississippian rocks of south-central Kentucky can 

be traced in continuous outcrop into Tennessee and Alabama 

where geologists have developed a nomenclature for the Upper 

Mississippian rocks independent of the names used in western 

Kentucky, Indiana, and Illinois. In Tennessee, the Upper Mississippian limestones have been referred to by a variety of names 

including the "Mountain Limestone" (Safford, 1869), Bangor 

Limestone (Hayes, 1892; Campbell, 1893), Newman Limestone 

(Campbell, 1894, 1899; Keith, 1896), Monte Sano Limestone 

(Ulrich, 1911; Bassler, 1932), and the Ste. Genevieve and Gasper 

Limestones (oolite) (Butts, 1919, 1922). A complete history of 

the names applied to the rocks of Late Mississippian age in 

Tennessee and adjacent areas is in a report by Stearns (1963).

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This report is based in large part on the geologic quadrangle 

mapping of south-central Kentucky by the U.S. Geological Survey 

in cooperation with the Kentucky Geological Survey. Unmapped 

quadrangles have been reconnoitered by the author during the 

period from 1966 to 1969, and sections were measured during the 

spring and summer of 1969. Of special help were the contributions 

of A. R. Taylor, G. W. Weir, J. H. Smith, and E. G. Sable of the 

U.S. Geological Survey and Preston McGrain of the Kentucky 

Geological Survey.

MONTEAGLE LIMESTONE

The name Monteagle Limestone was used by Vail (1959) in an 

unpublished report that describes the rocks between the top of 

the St. Louis Limestone and the base of the Hartselle Formation 

in the Cumberland Plateau of Tennessee and Kentucky. Stearns 

(1963) redefined the names Hartselle Formation and Bangor 

Limestone previously used extensively in Tennessee and Alabama
MONTEAGLE LIMESTONE, SOUTH-CENTRAL KENTUCKY E3

and proposed that the name Monteagle Limestone, as defined by 

Vail (1959), be adopted. Lewis and Thaden (1965, 1966) adopted 

the name Monteagle Limestone for rocks exposed in Wayne and 

Clinton Counties, south-central Kentucky, in the Cumberland 

City and Albany quadrangles (fig. 1).

TENNESSEE

FIGURE 1. Index map of Kentucky showing the location of the area and 

the measured sections (locations 1-11) referred to in text. A, Albany 

quadrangle; C, Cumberland City quadrangle.

The Monteagle Limestone can be lithologically divided (fig. 2) 

into two members, mappable over a large part of south-central 

Kentucky. The lower unit is the Ste. Genevieve Limestone Member of the Monteagle Limestone; the upper unit, which was informally referred to by Lewis and Thaden (1965, 1966) as the 

upper limestone member, is here named the Kidder Limestone 

Member.
E4 CONTRIBUTIONS TO STRATIGRAPHY

Ste. Genevieve Limestone 

Member of the Monteagle Limestone 

\ (limestone and breccia)

i O

L-15 FEET

FIGURE 2. Generalized section of the Kidder Limestone Member of the Monteagle Limestone showing the position of the recognizable subunits (1-4).
MONTEAGLE LIMESTONE, SOUTH-CENTRAL KENTUCKY E5

During 1968 and 1969, the author measured sections along a 

line extending from Golman Mountain, Tenn., just south of the 

Tennessee State line, northeastward to Mount Vernon, in the 

central part of Rockcastle County, Ky. (fig. 1). Within this 

distance the lithology of the Monteagle Limestone remains consistent: individual beds and subunits are recognizable throughout 

the line of sections, and the Ste. Genevieve and Kidder Limestone 

Members can be differentiated.

STE. GENEVIEVE LIMESTONE MEMBER

The Ste. Genevieve Limestone Member is 87 feet thick at 

Golman Mountain, Tenn., and averages about 80 feet in thickness 

throughout Clinton County, Ky. It thins eastward to about 50 

feet in Pulaski County near Somerset and near Mount Vernon in 

Rockcastle County.

The Ste. Genevieve is composed of limestone having a few 2- to 

4-inch-thick clay-shale beds. The limestone is commonly medium 

gray to bluish gray and weathers light gray. Beds range from a 

few inches to several feet in thickness and contain planar crossbeds which range from 2 to 18 inches in thickness. Sets are commonly thick bedded (described according to terminology proposed 

by McKee and Weir, 1953). Oolitic limestone is interbedded with 

fine- to medium-grained calcarenite, coarsely crystalline limestone, and fine- to medium-grained calcilutite (described according to terminology proposed by Folk, 1962, p. 4).

Sparsely scattered megafossils consist of horn corals, blastoid 

heads, crinoid stem fragments, small brachiopods, and a colonial 

coral commonly referred to by previous workers as Lithostrotion 

harmodites. Helen Duncan (written commun., 1966) of the U.S. 

Geological Survey examined specimens of the coral and suggested 

that they be referred to Siphonodendrenl aff. S. genevievensis 

Easton. The corals are commonly concentrated in a single layer 

about 30 feet above the base of the Ste. Genevieve Limestone 

Member, and a few individual corals are scattered elsewhere in 

the member. Although the corals are abundant in the eastern part 

of Pulaski County, they are absent or rare to the south and west 

where the Ste. Genevieve is thicker. Isolated stem segments of the 

crinoid referred to Platycrinites are common throughout the area, 

but they are less abundant in the north near Mount Vernon. These 

segments, restricted primarily to the oolite beds, are rare or 

absent in calcilutite.

The contact with the underlying St. Louis Limestone is a sharp 

lithologic boundary which, throughout most of Pulaski County
E6 CONTRIBUTIONS TO STRATIGRAPHY

and to the north in Lincoln and Rockcastle Counties, is marked 

by a breccia zone 1 to 6 feet thick. The zone consists of angular 

black and gray chert fragments, 14 to i/£ inch in diameter, and 

well-rounded clear quartz grains, 1/16 to 4 millimeters in diameter, in a matrix of oolite.

The chert breccia, believed to be composed of fragments of 

reworked material from the underlying St. Louis Limestone, has 

been mapped as the lowermost bed of the Ste. Genevieve Limestone Member. The breccia is not in Clinton and Wayne Counties 

nor at the Buck Creek section in Pulaski County (fig. 1, location 

8). In areas where the basal breccia is missing, location of the 

contact is facilitated by a bed of replacement chert, commonly 2 

to 4 feet thick at or a few feet above the base of the Ste. 

Genevieve. Where the chert is above the base, the contact is placed 

below the lowest light-gray oolite. The chert, commonly medium 

to dark-gray, dense cryptocrystalline quartz, contains molds and 

casts of bryozoans, brachiopods, and crinoid stems. Weathered 

chert is white to gray, somewhat friable, and porous. The lithology and geographic extent of the chert has been discussed by 

McGrain (1969), who stated that the chert bed is equivalent to 

the Lost River Chert described by Elrod (1899) in Orange 

County, Ind.

McFarlan and Walker (1956) place the contact between the 

Ste. Genevieve Limestone Member and the overlying Kidder 

Limestone Member at the top of a thin breccia zone, referred to 

by Patton (1949) as the Bryan,tsville Breccia. The contact is well 

exposed only in roadcuts, quarries, and other manmade outcrops. 

The breccia is composed of angular limestone and chert fragments 

in a fine-grained oolitic matrix and, in most exposures, is a single 

layer, 6 inches to 3 feet thick. Locally the breccia is in two or 

three thin layers intercalcated with thin-bedded oolitic limestone 

in a subunit set 1 to 3 feet thick. The breccia is apparently widespread and has been described by McGrain (1943) as present in 

the top of the Ste. Genevieve Limestone in Indiana, Illinois, and 

western Kentucky.

KIDDER LIMESTONE MEMBER

The upper part of the Moneagle Limestone overlying the Ste. 

Genevieve Limestone Member in south-central Kentucky is named 

the Kidder Limestone Member after the village of Kidder (Frazer
MONTEAGLE LIMESTONE, SOUTH-CENTRAL KENTUCKY E7

71/2-minute quad.), Wayne County, Ky. The Kidder Limestone 

Member is well exposed along State road 790 at Kidder, between 

Doublehead Gap and the bridge over Sinking Creek.

The Kidder Limestone Member crops out nearly continuously 

throughout the area of study and extends southward into Tennessee. It ranges in thickness from 190 feet at Golman Mountain, Tenn., 

and 186 feet at Albany, Ky. (fig. 1, locations 1 and 2) to about 

115 feet in Pulaski and Rockcastle Counties, Ky. (locations 7-11). 

Most of the thinning occurs between Golman Mountain (location 

1) and Monticello, Ky. (location 4), where the Kidder thins from 

190 feet to 115 feet in a distance of about 22 miles. The thickness, 

remarkably uniform over the rest of the area, ranges from 110 

to 120 feet between Monticello (location 4) and Mount Vernon 

(location 11).

The following is a generalized description of the member and 

its distinctive subunits, recognizable throughout the area of 

study:

A layer, less than 8 feet thick, of crossbedded medium-gray 

medium-grained partly oolitic limestone is common as the lowermost unit above the contact (fig. 2, subunit 1). It is overlain by 

15 to 20 feet of very fine grained partly oolitic even-bedded thinbedded light-gray to yellowish-brown calcilutite. This unit weathers readily to small irregular slabs on hill slopes and is poorly 

exposed except in quarries and roadcuts (fig. 2, subunit 2).

The lowest rock to crop out well within the member is a very 

thick bedded oolite that is about 20 to 30 feet above the base of 

the member and contains scarce to abundant plates of the crinoid 

Talarocrinus. The oolite, cemented by sparry calcite, is more resistant to weathering than adjacent units and is well exposed in 

most areas (fig. 2, subunit 3).

A very fossiliferous medium- to coarse-grained fossil fragmental calcarenite is about 70 feet above the base of the member. 

The unit, ranging from about 6 to 12 feet in thickness, is thick 

bedded and is more resistant to weathering than adjacent strata. 

It is characterized by abundant large crinoid stem segments as 

much as 1 inch in diameter (fig. 2, subunit 4). The unit is commonly underlain by olive-green to gray clay 1 to 4 feet thick and 

underlies thin- to thick-bedded fine- to medium-grained limestone 

which makes up the remainder of the Kidder to the base of the 

overlying Hartselle Formation.
E8 CONTRIBUTIONS TO STRATIGRAPHY

TYPE SECTION OF THE KIDDER LIMESTONE MEMBER

[Section measured July 1969 along Stv,teroad 790 at Kidder, between Doublehead Gap and bridge over Sinking Creek, Frazer quad., Wayne County,

Accumulative 

Thickness thickness

(feet} (feet) 

Hartselle Formation (incomplete) :

Shale, calcareous, clayey, greenish-gray; weathers papery; top not exposed ................................ 7.7 0.3-8

Shale, very calcareous, greenish-gray; contains 

abundant thin-shelled productid brachiopods; 

grades into more clayey shale above .................. .3 0-0.3

Monteagle Limestone:

Kidder Limestone Member:

Limestone, dark- to medium-gray, fine- to 

medium-grained; beds 4 to 10 inches in 

thickness, thicker in upper part .................. 21 95-116

Covered ................................................................ 5 90-95

Limestone, light-gray, thin- to mediumbedded, sparsely fossiliferous, partly oolitic 4 86-90 

Limestone, light- to medium-gray, mediumgrained, thick-bedded; few scattered small 

crinoid stems .................................................. 5 81-86

Limestone, light- to medium-gray, thin- to 

medium-bedded, partly oolitic; contains 

sparse scattered crinoid stem fragments.... 4 77-81

Limestone, light- to medium-gray, thickbedded, medium-grained; contains abundant large (1-inch diameter) crinoid stem 

fragments ........................................................ 6 71-77

Limestone, dark- to bluish-gray, fine- to 

medium-grained, thin- to medium-bedded; 

contains abundant blastoid heads .............. 15 56-71

Shale, green to olive-green and olive-gray, 

clayey ................................................................ 2 54-56

Limestone, dolomite (?), yellowish-gray; very 

fine grained calcilutite, massive, thickbedded; contains irregular masses ^ to 2 

inches in diameter of clear, coarsely crystalline calcite .................................................. 6 48-54

Limestone, light-gray; very fine grained calcilutite, massive, irregularly fractured...... 11 37-48

Limestone, dark- to medium-gray; calcarenite, crossbedded, thick-bedded; contains 

abundant small brachiopods; nearly coquinoid in part .................................................... 2 35-37

Limestone, light-gray, very fine grained; 

calcilutite ........................................................ 9 26-35
MONTEAGLE LIMESTONE, SOUTH-CENTRAL KENTUCKY E9

Accumulative

Monteagle Limestone Continued Thickness thickness 

Kidder Limestone Member Continued (feet) (feet)

Limestone, blue-gray to medium-gray, very 

fine grained, massive; in part brecciated 

with limestone fragments in limestone 

cement. Green clay-shale 2 inches thick 

at base .............................................................. 4 22-26

Limestone, light- to medium-gray, mediumto thick-bedded, fine- to very fine grained, 

partly oolitic, very f ossilif erous; contains blastoid and crinoid stem fragments, 

scattered Talarocrinus .................................. 19 3-22

Limestone, medium- to light-gray, fine- to 

medium-grained, sparsely f ossilif erous; 

contains some thin green clay-shale partings; partly covered .................................. . 3 0-3

Total Kidder Limestone Member............ 116

Top Ste. Genevieve Limestone Member:

Breccia; composed of black and gray angular chert fragments and fragments of yellowish-brown calcilutite in matrix of 

poorly cemented oolite .........................-. ..... 0.4 0.1-0.5

Base of measured section.

REFERENCES CITED

Bassler, R. S., 1932, The stratigraphy of the Central Basin of Tennessee:

Tennessee Div. Geology Bull. 38, 268 p. 

Butts, Charles, 1919, Geology and oil possibilities of the northern part of

Overton County, Tennessee, and of adjoining parts of Clay, Pickett, and

Fentress Counties: Tennessee State Geol. Survey Bull. 24, Ann. Rept.

1919, pt. 2A, 45 p.

 1922, The Mississippian series of eastern Kentucky; a regional interpretation of the stratigraphic relations of the Subcarboniferous group 

based on new arid detailed field examinations: Kentucky Geol. Survey, 

ser. 6, v. 7, 188 p.

Campbell, M. R., 1893, Geology of the Big Stone Gap coal field of Virginia 

and Kentucky: U.S. Geol. Survey Bull. Ill, 106 p.

 1894, Description of the Estillville sheet [Kentucky-Virginia-Tennessee]: U.S. Geol. Survey Geol. Atlas, Folio 12.

1899, Description of the Standingstone quadrangle [Tennessee]: U.S.

Geol. Survey Geol. Atlas, Folio 53.

Elrod, M. N., 1899, The geologic relations of some St. Louis group caves and 

sinkholes: Indiana Acad. Sci. Proc., 1898, v. 8, p. 258-267.

Folk, R. L., 1962, Spectral subdivision of limestone types, in Hamm, W. E., 

ed., Classification of carbonate rocks A symposium: Am. Assoc. Petroleum Geologists, Mem. 1, p. 62-84.
E10 CONTRIBUTIONS TO STRATIGRAPHY

Hayes, C. W., 1892, Report on the geology of northeastern Alabama and

adjacent portions of Georgia and Tennessee: Alabama Geol. Survey

Bull. 4, 85 p. 

Keith, Arthur, 1896, Description of the Briceville quadrangle [Tennessee]:

U.S. Geol. Survey Geol. Atlas, Folio 33. 

Lewis, R. Q., Sr., and Thaden, R. E., 1965, Geologic map of the Cumberland

City quadrangle, southern Kentucky: U.S. Geol. Survey Geol. Quad.

map GQ-475.

 1966, Geologic map of the Albany quadrangle, Kentucky-Tennessee: 

U.S. Geol. Survey Geol. Quad. Map GQ-550.

McFarlan, A. C., and Walker, F. H., 1956, Some old Chester problems correlations along the eastern belt of outcrop: Kentucky Geol. Survey Bull. 

20, ser. 9, 36 p.

McGrain, Preston, 1943, The St. Louis and Ste. Genevieve Limestones of 

Harrison County, Indiana: Indiana Acad. Sci. Proc., v. 52, p. 149-162.

 1969, Extension of Lost River Chert across parts of Kentucky: Am.

Assoc. Petroleum Geologists Bull., v. 53, no. 7, p. 1506-1507. 

McKee, E. D., and Weir, G. W., 1953, Terminology for stratification and

cross-stratification in sedimentary rocks: Geol. Soc. America, Bull., v.

64, no. 4, p. 381-390. 

Patton, J. B., 1949, Crushed stone in Indiana: Indiana Div. Geology Rept.

Prog. 3, 47 p.

Safford, J. M., 1869, Geology of Tennessee; Nashville, Tenn., 550 p. 

Stearns, R. G. 1963, Monteagle Limestone, Hartselle Formation, and Bangor

Limestone a new Mississippian nomenclature for use in middle Tennessee, with a history of its development: Tennessee Div. Geology Inf.

Circ. 11, 18 p. 

Stokley, J. A., and McFarlan, A. C., 1952, Industrial limestones of Kentucky 

No. 2: Kentucky Geol. Survey, ser. 9, Rept. Inv. 4, 94 p. 

Ulrich, E. 0., 1911, Revision of the Paleozoic systems: Geol. Soc. America

Bull., v. 22, p. 281-680. 

Vail, P. R., 1959, Stratigraphy and lithofacies of Upper Mississippian rocks

in the Cumberland Plateau: Evanston, 111., Northwestern Univ., unpub.

Ph.D. dissert.

U. S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE : 1971 O - 415-721