DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY

GEORGE OTIS SMITH, DIRECTOR

BULLETIN 612

GUIDEBOOK

OF THE

WESTERN UNITED STATES

PART B. THE OVEKLAND ROUTE

WITH A SIDE TE1P TO YELLOWSTONE PARK

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

AND OTHERS

WASHINGTON

GOVERNMENT FEINTING OFFICE 

1915
75

PRINCIPAL DIVISIONS OF GEOLOGIC TIME.«

[A glossary of geologic'terms is given on pp. 232-236.]

Era.

Cenozoic CreMesozoic (intermediate 

life).

Paleozoic 

(old life).

P r o t erozoic

life).

Period.

Quaternary.

Tertiary.

Cretaceous.

Jurassic.

Triassic.

Carboniferous.

Devonian.

Silurian.

Ordovician.

Cambrian.

Algonkian.

Archean.

Epoch.

Recent. 

Pleistocene 

(Great 

Ice Age).

Pliocene. 

Miocene. 

Oligocene. 

Eocene.

(6)

(6 )

(6 )

Permian.

Pennsylvanian.

Missi s s i ppian.

(6)

.<*)

(0)

(6)

.:!b)i / '

Qrys^Uine . 

 recks. 

V I * 

Characteristic life.

"Age of man." Animals and plants of 

modem types.

X

"Age of mammals." Possible first appearance of man. Rise and development of 

highest orders of plants.

"Ago of reptiles." Rise and culmination 

of huge land reptiles (dinosaurs), of shellfish with complexly partitioned coiled

shells (ammonites), and of great flying 

reptiles. First appearance (in Jurassic) 

of birds and mammals; of cycads, an 

order of palmlike plants (in Triassic);

and of angiospermous plants, among 

which are palms and hardwood trees 

(in Cretaceous).

"Age of amphibians." Dominance of club

and fern types. Primitive flowering 

plants and earliest cone-bearing trees. 

Beginnings of backboned land animals

with nautilus-like coiled shells (ammonites) and sharks abundant.

"Age of fishes." Shellfish (moUusks) also 

. abundant. Rise of amphibians and land 

plants.

Shell-forming sea animals dominant, especially those related to the nautilus (cephalopods). Rise and culmination of the 

marine animals sometimes known as sea 

lilies (crinoids) and of giant scorpionlike crustaceans (euryptcrids). Rise of 

fishes and of reef-building corals.

Shell-forming sea animals, especially cephalopods and mollusk-like brachiopocls, 

abundant. Culmination of the bugliko 

marine crustaceans known as trilobites. 

First trace of insect life.

Trilobites and brachiopods most characteristic animals. Seaweeds (algae) abundant.. No trace of land animals found.

FJrst.life t'hat Jrjasi left* distinct record. 

 CrJistaceSp.s/brjcljianpds, and seaweeds.

.J^oJessilsfounek . « j 

.*:..' v ! ; I *. .*

Duration/according to various 

estimates.

Millions of years.

Ito5.

4 to 10.

-

17 to 25.

50+.

o The geologic record consists mainly of sedimentary beds beds deposited in water. Over large areas 

long periods of uplift and erosion intervened between periods of deposition. Every such interruption in 

deposition in any area produces there what geologists term an unconformity. Many of the time divisions 

shown above are separated by such unconformities that is, the dividing lines in the table represent local 

or widespread uplifts or depressions of the earth's surface.

6 Epoch names omitted; in less common use than those given.
PREFACE.

By GEORGE OTIS SMITH.

The United States of America comprise an area so vast in extent 

and so diverse in natural features as well as in characters due to 

human agency that the American citizen who knows thoroughly his own 

country must have traveled widely and observed wisely. To "know 

America first" is a patriotic obligation, but to meet this obligation 

the railroad traveler needs to have his eyes directed toward the more 

important or essential things within his field of vision and then to 

have much that he sees explained by what is unseen in the swift 

passage of the train. Indeed, many things that attract his attention 

are inexplicable except as the story of the past is available to enable 

him to interpret the present. Herein lie the value and the charm of 

history, whether human or geologic.

The present stimulus given to travel in the home country will 

encourage many thousands of Americans to study geography at first 

hand. To make this study most profitable the traveler needs a handbook that will answer the questions that come to his mind so readily 

along the way. Furthermore, the aim of such a guide should be to 

stimulate the eye in the selection of the essentials in the scene that 

so rapidly unfolds itself in the crossing of the continent. In recognition of the opportunity afforded in 1915 to render service of this 

kind to an unusually large number of American citizens as well as to 

visitors from other countries, the United States Geological Survey 

has prepared a series of guidebooks 1 covering four of the older railroad 

routes west of the Mississippi.

These books are educational in purpose, but the method adopted is 

to entertain the traveler by making more interesting what he sees 

from the car window. The plan of the series is to present authoritative information that may enable the reader to realize adequately 

the scenic and material resources of the region he is traversing, to 

comprehend correctly the basis of its development, and above all to

1 Guidebook of the western United States: Part A, Northern Pacific Route, with a 

side trip to Yellowstone Park (Bulletin 611); Part B, Overland Route, with a side trip 

to Yellowatone Park (Bulletin 612); Part C, Santa Fe Route, with a side trip to Grand 

Canyon of the Colorado (Bulletin 613); Part D, Shasta Route and Coast Line (Bulletin 614),

3
4 PREFACE.

appreciate keenly the real value of the country he looks out upon, 

not as so many square miles of territory represented on the map in a 

railroad folder by meaningless spaces, but rather as land real estate, 

if you please varying widely in present appearance because differing 

largely in its history and characterized by even greater variation in 

values because possessing diversified natural resources. One region 

may be such as to afford a livelihood for only a pastoral people; 

another may present opportunity for intensive agriculture; -still 

another may contain hidden stores of mineral wealth that may 

attract large industrial development; and taken together these varied 

resources afford the promise of long-continued prosperity for this or 

that State.

Items of interest in civic development or references to significant 

epochs in the record of discovery and settlement may be interspersed 

with explanations of mountain and valley or statements of geologic 

history. In a broad way, the story of the West is a unit, and every 

chapter should be told in order to meet fully the needs of the tourist 

who aims to understand all that "he sees. To such a traveler-reader 

this series of guidebooks is addressed.

To this interpretation of our own country the United States Geological Survey brings the accumulated data of decades of pioneering 

investigation, and the present contribution is only one type of return 

to the public which has supported this scientific work under the Federal Government.

In preparing the description of the country traversed by the Overland Route the geographic and geologic information already published as well as unpublished material in the possession of the Geological Survey has been utilized, but to supplement this material 

Messrs. Lee, Stone, and Gale made a field examination of the entire 

route in 1914, Mr. Lee working between Omaha and Ogden, Mr. Stone 

between Ogden and Yellowstone, and Mr. Gale between Ogden and 

San Francisco. Information has been furnished by Profs. J. C. 

Merriam and G. H. Louderback, as well as by others to whom credit 

is given in the text. Cooperation has been rendered by the United 

States Reclamation Service and by bureaus of the Department of 

Agriculture. Railroad officials and other citizens have also generously given their aid, and other members of the Survey have freely 

cooperated in the work.

For the purpose of furnishing the traveler with a graphic presentation of each part of his route, the accompanying maps, 29 sheets in 

all, have been prepared, with a degree of accuracy probably never 

before attained in a guidebook, and their arrangement has been 

planned to meet the convenience of the reader. The special topographic surveys necessary to complete these maps of the route were 

made by C. H. Birdseye and J. L. Lewis.
' GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES.

PART B. THE OVERLAND ROUTE, WITH A SIDE TRIP TO 

YELLOWSTONE PARK.

By WILLIS T. LEE, RALPH W. STONE, HOYT S. GALE, and others.

INTRODUCTION.

The westbound traveler over the Union Pacific Railroad will view 

in the course of his journey some of the most conspicuous geographic 

features of the North American Continent. These are shown in the 

accompanying illustration (PL I). The east end of the route lies in 

the broad, well-watered Mississippi Valley, where an abundance of 

rainfall is indicated by the numerous branching streams. On leaving 

Omaha the traveler crosses the Great Plains, which rise gradually to 

the west oand become progressively drier, merging into the relatively 

barren region formerly called the Great American Desert. This 

change in character is not very apparent to the traveler, because the 

railroad follows a valley whose bottom lands in the arid part of the 

Great Plains are irrigated and do not differ in general appearance 

from those farther east, where the rainfall supplies sufficient moisture 

for growing crops. On both sides of this valley in western Nebraska 

the land is utilized for grazing and for dry farming. The cultivation 

of the Great Plains by dry farming is rapidly spreading as new methods become more widely understood, and the region can no longer be 

called a desert. In eastern Wyoming the route is in a belt of grazing 

country.

West of the Great Plains lies a general mountainous country, known 

as the Cordilleran region, which extends westward to the Pacific 

coast. At Granite Canyon, Wyo., the railroad reaches the eastern 

margin of the Cordilleran region, marked by a spur of the southern 

Rocky Mountains the Laramie Range and thence westward it 

winds around detached mountain groups and through the intervening 

basins. The traveler may not realize that he is in a mountainous 

region, for most of the lofty mountains of southern Wyoming stand 

at considerable distances from the railroad. The mountainous part 

of the route is not well populated. Many of the stations are little 

more than section houses, and some consist only of a post on which 

is painted the name, to indicate the location of a sidetrack. This

5
part of Wyoming is used mainly for stock raising, but in the irrigated 

valleys farther west, in Utah, there are orchards and well-tilled fields.

Soon after entering Utah the traveler crosses the Wasatch Mountains, one of the great ranges of the continent, through the canyon 

cut by Weber River, and then enters the valley of Great Salt Lake.

Leaving Ogden on the westward journey the traveler is fairly 

within the Great Basin, one of the major natural divisions or physiographic provinces of the United States, and he will be passing through 

it for more than 16 hours. The Great Basin is called a desert and 

as a whole gives an impression of dreariness and desolation, but it has 

a peculiar interest not possessed by any other part of the transcontinental route. It is one of the most productive mining regions of the 

world. That it is not all a desert is shown by the fact that large numbers of cattle and sheep are raised within its limits. It is developing, 

moreover, to an increasing extent in agriculture.

Beyond the Great Basin lies the Sierra Nevada, which on this route 

marks approximately the boundary between Nevada and California. 

Through the forest zone of the Sierra the traveler descends into the 

Great Valley of California and, crossing its broad plains, passes, by 

way of the one tidal outlet through the Coast Ranges, to the metropolis of the Pacific coast.

NOTE. For the convenience of the traveler the sheets of the route map in this bulletin are so arranged that he can unfold them one by one and keep each one in view 

while he is reading the text relating to it. A reference is made in the text to each 

map at the place where it should be so unfolded. The areas covered by these sheets 

are indicated on Plate I, and a list of the sheets and the other illustrations is given 

on pages 237-240. A glossary of geologic terms is given on pages 232-236, and an 

index of stations on pages 241-244.
U. S. QEOLOGICAL SURVEY BULLETIN 612 PLATE I

' L yeiV»««'W ^-WC/* . ..-* 

^TlWiV

.SOUTH DAKOTA

I?4 Ttunid.aa ._]_____.._

Vat:?1 *'" ~"~ r f^* v*

 Satipie^o

RELIEF MAP SHOWING SURFACE FEATURES OF THE WESTERN PART OF THE UNITED STATES.

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

COUNCIL BLUFFS, IOWA, TO OGDEN, UTAH.

Abraham Lincoln established the eastern terminus l of the Union 

Pacific Railroad on the east side of Missouri River, so that the Overland Route begins at Council Bluffs, Iowa (see 

sheet 1, p. 18), although the offices, shops, and 

Elevation 980 feet. general terminal facilities of the road are west

Population 29,292. ° .

oi the river, at Omaha. Council Bluns is on 

the broad flood plain of Missouri River, at the foot of high bluffs

Council Bluffs, Iowa.

1 President Lincoln's Executive order 

of March 7, 1864, was issued under the 

law of July 1, 18G2, which created the 

Union Pacific Railroad Co. and which 

authorized the President of the United 

States to establish its eastern terminus on 

the western boundary of Iowa. This required the company to provide for the 

difficult crossing of Missouri River.

The passage of this law authorizing the 

building of a road to the Pacific coast was 

preceded by a long debate. The northwestern region acquired by the Louisiana 

purchase of 1803 had been explored by 

Lewis and Clark, whose expedition started 

in 1804. Their report aroused great 

interest and stimulated many military, 

trading, and exploring expeditions, but 

there was great opposition to the holding 

of the'' western wilderness "in the Union. 

This was voiced in 1819 in "Universal 

geography," by Morse, who said: "All 

settlers who go beyond the Mississippi 

River will be lost forever to the United 

States;" and in 1843 by Daniel Webster, 

who said, in the United States Senate: 

"What do we want of that vast and worthless area that region of savages and wild 

beasts, of deserts, of shifting sands and 

whirling winds, of dust, of cactus, and 

prairie dogs? To what use could we ever 

hope to put those great deserts and those 

endless mountain ranges? * * * What 

could we ever do with the western coast, 

a coast of 3,000 miles, rock-bound, cheerless, and iminviting." Another ingenious argument may be appeciated by 

transcontinental travelers of the present

day. Senator Dickerson, of New Jersey, 

in opposing the bill providing for the construction of the Union Pacific Railroad, 

said: "A Member of Congress traveling 

from his home to Washington and return 

would cover a distance of 9,200 miles; at 

the rate of 30 miles per day, and allowing 

him 45 days for Sundays, 350 days would 

be consumed, and the Member would 

have 14 days in Washington before he 

started home; it would be quicker to come 

around Cape Horn, or by Bering Strait, 

Baffin Bay, and Davis Strait to the Atlantic and so to Washington. True, the 

passage is not yet discovered, except upon 

the maps, but it will be as soon as Oregon 

is made a State."

But when California was acquired by 

the United States, and especially after the 

discovery of gold, the Pacific coast became of great importance.to the citizens 

of the East, and routes leading to it were 

carried across what had been a trackless 

wilderness. The western migration, which 

received its greatest impetus in the gold 

rush of 1849, developed some famous 

trails, one of which, the "Overland 

Trail," was the forerunner of the Union 

Pacific and Central Pacific railroads. The 

convincing arguments in favor of its construction seem to have been military and 

political rather than commercial. President Lincoln advocated it not only as a 

military necessity but also as a means of 

keeping the Pacific coast in the Union. 

The name Union Pacific probably resulted from the belief that the road 

would bind the Union together.

7
GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES.

composed mainly of a claylike material known as loess. According 

to tradition these bluffs were used for centuries by the Indians as a 

common meeting ground; here the several tribes held their powwows, smoked then- pipes of peace, or declared hostilities, as their 

inclinations moved them. The name Council Bluffs was originally 

applied to a locality about 20 miles north of Omaha, where Lewis 

and Clark held council with the Indians. Later it was transferred to 

the site of the present city.

The loess 1 north of Council Bluffs lies above loose sand and gravel 

known as the Aftonian gravels (fig. 1). The outcrop of these gravels 

is marked by a line of springs, for the underground water passes 

through them more readily than it passes through the less porous mal£00

 1,100'

FIGURE 1. Sketch profile of river bluffs near Omaha, Nebr., showing the Aftonian gravels lying between 

two beds of glacial till and covered with thick deposits of loess.

terial above and below. From these gravels in some parts of Iowa 

have been collected the bones of mastodons, camels, and many other 

animals no longer found in North America. 2 (See PI. II, p. 10.)

1 Loess is a peculiar silt, claylike loam, 

or fine-grained sand, which strongly resists weathering. The name is supposed 

to be derived from the German word 

losen (to loosen), because of the tendency 

of the material to split off in vertical 

columns. In color loess is generally buff 

or yellowish brown. It covers large areas 

in North America, where its beds were 

probably formed after the ice of the glacial 

period had disappeared. Its mode of 

origin is not certainly known. Some 

beds of it consist of material lifted by the 

wind from the valleys where it had been 

deposited by streams. Others probably 

were deposited in water along stream 

courses or in temporary lakes. In places 

it contains bones and teeth of animals and 

shells of snails. If properly watered it 

makes good soil.

2 The animals of the Pleistocene (plice'- 

toe-seen) epoch (see table on p. 2) are interesting because they are nearer to us in 

time than others of the past and therefore

most nearly like some animals now living; 

yet those that lived in North America during this epoch were very different from 

those living here" to-day. To find the descendants or near relatives of the Pleistocene animals of North America we must 

go to other continents, for some of them 

as far away as India. The North American animals were doubtless scattered by 

the changes in climate that resulted in the 

advances and retreats of the continental 

ice sheet during the Great Ice Age.

The fauna, or assemblage of animals, of 

early Pleistocene time was varied in character. The animals were adapted to the 

mild climate that then prevailed and remained until after the southward advance 

of the ice sheet,,but were driven away or 

exterminated before the close of the ice 

age, and their place was taken by animals 

such as are now found only in the frozen 

areas of the North. When the ice melted 

away and a climate as mild as that of 

the present day was established, these
THE OVERLAND ROUTE COUNCIL BLUFFS TO OGDEN.

The Aftonian gravels separate two glacial deposits known as till, 

consisting of sandy clay in which are fragments of rock ranging from 

grains of sand to bowlders 2 feet or more in diameter. These fragments are of limestone, sandstone, quartz, and other rocks, but the 

largest and most conspicuous are of quartzite and granite, including

arctic species followed the retreating ice 

front northward, and their place was 

taken by animals adapted to life in a 

temperate climate.

One of the effects of the climatic 

changes and the resulting migration of 

animals was a radical change of fauna. 

Could one of the Pleistocene men return 

and view the present-day animals they 

would seem as strange to him as those of 

an African jungle are to an inhabitant of 

the Great Plains. Prof. W. B. Scott, in 

his history of land mammals, says of 

the Pleistocene fauna:

" It is probable that the Pleistocene fossils already obtained give us a fairly adequate conception of the larger and more 

conspicuous mammals of the time but no 

doubt represent very incompletely the 

small and fragile forms. With all its gaps, 

however, the record is very impressive. 

* * * The fossils have been gathered 

over a very large area, extending from 

ocean to ocean and from Alaska to Central 

America. Thus their wide geographical 

range represents nearly all parts of the 

continent and gives us information concerning the mammals of the forests as well 

as of the plains.

"Those divisions of the early and middle Pleistocene which enjoyed milder 

climatic conditions had an assemblage of 

mammals, which from one point of view 

seems very modern, for most of the genera 

and even many of the species which now 

inhabit North America date back to that 

time. From the geographical standpoint, 

however, this is a very strange fauna, for 

it contains so many animals now utterly 

foreign to North America, to find near relatives of which we should have to go to 

Asia or South America. Some of these 

animals which now seem so exotic, such 

as the llamas, camels, and horses, were yet 

truly indigenous and were derived from a 

long line of ancestors which dwelt in this 

continent but are now scattered abroad

and are extinct in their original home, 

while others were migrants that for some 

unknown reason failed to maintain themselves. Others again are everywhere extinct.

"Most surprising, perhaps, in a North 

American landscape is the presence of the 

Proboscidea, of which two very distinct 

kinds, the mastodons and the true elephants, are found together. Over nearly 

the whole of the United States and southern Canada, and even with sporadic occurrence in Alaska, ranged the American 

mastodon (Mastodon americanus), which 

was rare in the plains but very abundant 

in the forested regions, where it persisted 

till a very late period and was probably 

known to the early Indians. This animal, while nearly related to the true elephants, was yet quite different from them 

itf appearance. * * * The tusks were 

elephant-like, except that in the male 

there was a single small tusk in the lower 

jaw, which can not have been visible externally; this is a remnant of an earlier 

stage of development, when there were 

two large tusks in the lower as well as the 

upper jaw. The creature was covered 

with long, coarse dun-colored hair; such 

hair has been found with some of the 

skeletons.

"Of true elephants, the North American Pleistocene had three species. Most 

interesting of these is the northern or 

Siberian mammoth (Elephas primigenius), 

a late immigrant from northern Asia, 

which came in by way of Alaska, where 

Bering Land (as we may call the raised 

bed of Bering Sea) connected it with Asia. 

The mammoth was abundant in Alaska, 

British Columbia, and all across the 

northern United States to the Atlantic 

coast. Hardly any fossil mammal is eo 

well known as this, for the carcasseo entombed in the frozen gravels of northern 

Siberia have preserved every detail of 

structure. It is thus definitely known
10 GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES.

blocks of a pink rock known as Sicux quartzile, because the rock 

mass from which they came is exposed near Sioux Falls, S. Dak. 

Many of the granite bowlders were carried by the glaciers hundreds 

of miles, for the nearest native rock of this kind occurs far to the 

north. (For description of glacial deposits see note on pp. 21-23.)

that the mammoth was well adapted to a 

cold climate and was covered with a dense, 

coat of wool beneath an outer coating of 

long, coarse hair, while the contents of the 

stomach and the partly masticated food 

found in the mouth showed that the animal fed upon the same vegetation that occurs in northern Siberia to-day. * * * 

This is the smallest of the three Pleistocene species 9 feet [high] at the shoulder. The mammoth was not peculiar to 

Siberia and North America, but extended 

also into Europe, where it was familiar to 

paleolithic man, as is attested by the 

spirited and lifelike carvings and cave 

paintings of that date. Thus, during 

some part of the Pleistocene, this species 

ranged around the entire northern hemisphere."

Two notable contemporaries of the 

mammoth were the Columbian elephant, 

Elephas columbi [PI. II, B], which attained 

a height of about 11 feet, the size of the 

largest African elephants, and the imperial elephant, Elephas imperator, the largest of the American forms, which attained 

a height of 13 feet 6 inches.

"This great creature [the imperial elephant] was characterized not only by its 

enormous stature but also by the proportionately very large size of its grinding 

teeth and was a survivor from the preceding Pliocene epoch; it is not known to 

have passed beyond the middle Pleisto- 

' cene and was thus the first of the species 

to become extinct. In geographical 

range the imperial elephant was a western 

form, extending from the Pacific coast 

almost to the Mississippi River, east of 

which it has never been found, and from 

Nebraska south ward to the City of Mexico. 

The meaning of this distribution is probably that this elephant shunned the 

forests and was especially adapted to a 

life on the open plains. * * *

"Many hoofed animals, far more than 

now inhabit North America, are found

in this Pleistocene fauna. The Perissodactyla were represented by horses and 

tapirs, but not by rhinoceroses; it might 

seem superfluous to say that there were 

not rhinoceroses, but, as a matter of fact, 

that family had a long and varied American history and became extinct only 

during or at the end of the Pliocene epoch. 

The horses were extremely numerous, 

both individually and specifically, and 

ranged, apparently in great herds, all over 

Mexico and the United States and even 

into Alaska. All the known species (at 

least 10 in number) belong to the genus 

Equus, but the true horse (Equus caballus) 

to which all the domestic breeds are referred, is not represented. The smallest 

known member of the genus is the pygmy 

Equus tau, of Mexico. [These ranged in 

size from ponies as large as a Shetland to 

horses that exceeded in size the heaviest 

modern draft horses.] * * * The Great 

Plains must have been fairly covered with 

enormous herds of horses, the countless 

bones and teeth of which, entombed in 

the Sheridan formation, have given to it 

the name of'Equus beds.' * * *

"To one who knows no tiling of the geological history of North America it would 

be natural to suppose that the Pleistocene 

horses must have been immigrants from 

the Old World which failed to establish 

themselves permanently here, since they 

completely disappeared before the discovery of the continent by Europeans. 

This would, however, be a mistaken inference, for North America was for long ages 

the chief area of development of the 

equine family, which may here be traced 

in almost unbroken continuity from the 

lower Eocene to the Pliocene. On the 

other hand, it is quite possible that some 

of the species were immigrants."

Tapirs, which are now confined to 

southern Asia, Central America, and South 

America, were abundant east of the Mississippi but are not known west of that river.
U. S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY BULLETIN 612 PLATE I

ANIMAL3 THAT LIVED IN CENTRAL NORTH AMERICA DURING PLIOCENE AND PLEISTOCENE TIME.

A, SABER-TOOTHED TIGER AND GIANT WOLVES ON THE CARCASS OF A PLEISTOCENE ELEPHANT; B, PLEISTOCENE ELEPHANTS (ELEPHAS COLUMBI), MUCH LARGER THAN THE

'' MODERN ELEPHANTS; C, GLYPTODONTS, PLEISTOCENE ARMADILLO-LIKE ANIMALS (SOUTH 

AMERICAN FORMS); 11, PLEISTOCENE MUSK OX, AN ANIMAL AS BIG AS A SMALL COW: 

E, PLIOCENE HORNED GOPHERS, ANIMALS ABOUT THE SIZE OF WOODCHUCKS. 

After Scott. Published by permission of The Macmillan Co.
U. S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY BULLETIN 612 PLATE III

J.. FIFTY YEARS AGO.

11. NOW COVERED WITH CORN.

D, SUPPORTING HERDS OF DOMESTIC CATTLE.

THE PLAINS OF NEBRASKA.

- Photographs furnished by Union Pacific Railroad Co.
THE OVEBLAND ROUTE COUNCIL BLUFFS TO OGDENT. 11

On leaving Council Bluffs the train gradually rises on a filled 

incline, about 2 miles long, to the bridge, which is about 60 feet

above the ordinary water level of Missouri River. 

Missouri River. From this incline a good view may be obtained of

the broad flood plain over which the river winds in a 

constantly changing course and upon which at times of flood it 

deposits the rich loam gathered from the vast areas it drains. The 

productive fields that present so pleasing an aspect during the growing season and give the appearance of opulence at harvest time are 

the direct result of this constant activity of the river. But neither 

these fields nor anything else on the bottom lands can 'be regarded 

as permanent, for the great river is continually eating away the plain 

in some places and building it up in others. This action causes the 

stream to assume a winding course that is, to meander in loops and 

bends that are called oxbows. In this process of shifting its course, 

when these bends become very sharp the river tends to straighten 

itself by cutting across the narrow necks, and it thus abandons parts

Wild hogs, camels, and llamas were abundant. The hoofed animals, such as deer 

and bison, were numerous, and also the 

carnivores or flesh eaters. Conspicuous 

among these were the saber-toothed tigers 

(see PI. II, A), which were contemporaneous with primitive man and doubtless 

were his formidable enemies. They have 

appealed so strongly to the imagination 

and have been referred to so often in 

literature that they are among the best 

known of the extinct animals.

The Pleistocene fauna was not without 

its grotesque features. Among the most 

curious animals of the time may be mentioned the ground sloths and the giant 

armadillos (PL II, C), of which Prof. Scott 

says:

"The ground sloths were great, unwieldy herbivorous animals covered with 

long hair, and in one family there was a 

close-set armor of pebble-like ossicles in 

the skin, not visible externally. They 

walked upon the outer edges of the feet, 

somewhat as the ant bear uses his fore 

paws, and must have . been very slow 

moving creatures. Their enormous claws 

may have served partly as weapons of 

defense and were doubtless used also to 

drag down branches of trees and to dig 

roots and tubers. Apparently, the latest 

of these curious animals to survive was 

the very large Megalonyx, which it is

interesting to note was first discovered 

and named by Thomas Jefferson. The 

animals of this genus were very abundant 

in the forests east of the Mississippi River 

and on the Pacific coast, but much less 

common in the plains region, where they 

would seem to have been confined to the 

wooded river valleys. The still more 

gigantic Megatherium, which had a body 

as large as that of an elephant and 

much shorter though more massive legs, 

was a southern animal and has not been 

found above South Carolina. Mylodon, 

smaller and lighter than the preceding 

genera, would seem to have entered the 

continent earlier and to have become 

extinct sooner. ~ It ranged across the continent but was much commoner in the 

plains region and less so in the forested 

areas than Megalonyx, being no doubt 

better adapted to subsisting upon the 

vegetation of the plains and less dependent upon trees for food.

"The glyptodonts [armadillos, see 

PI. II, C] were undoubtedly present in 

the North American Pleistocene, but the 

remnants which have been collected so 

far are very fragmentary and quite insufficient to give us a definite conception of 

the number and variety of them.'' They 

were abundant, however, in the South 

American Pleistocene and hence are well 

known.
12 GUIDEBOOK OP THE WESTERN UNITED STATES.

of its former channel, which become bayous, or oxbow lakes. Cutoff 

Lake, which can be seen to the right, 1 3 miles north of the bridge, is 

one of these abandoned oxbows. At the time the river was agreed 

upon as the boundary between Iowa and Nebraska Cutoff Lake was 

a part of its channel, but in 1870 it straightened its course, so that 

the land partly inclosed by Cutoff Lake, although a part of Iowa, now 

lies west of the river and is almost surrounded by territory belonging 

to the State of Nebraska. This shifting of the river's course can be 

prevented to some extent by building levees, or embankments. 

North of Council Bluffs an embankment has been thrown up and faced 

with a hard quartz rock (Sioux quartzite) which was shipped for this 

purpose from Sioux Falls, S. Dak., 160 miles away. The necessity 

for this protection is obvious, for some of the lowland near Council 

Bluffs lies below river level.

The building of the bridge 2 was regarded as a notable feat of engineering, and its present importance is indicated by the fact that the 

traffic of seven railroads passes over it. It spans one of the longest 

rivers in the world, the Missouri and Mississippi combined, 3 ; 820 

miles long. The bridge crosses this great river 669 miles above the 

junction with the Mississippi, and the drainage from 323,000 square 

miles, including large parts of Montana, North Dakota, and South 

Dakota, passes under it. The water surface has a known range of level 

of 25 feet at this point: the lowest water recorded was in 1867, and the 

highest in 1881. The discharge at Omaha averages about 50,000 

second-feet; that is to say, on the average, 50,000 cubic feet (374,000 

gallons) of water passes under the bridge every second.

1 The terms right and left as employed 

throughout this book apply to the westbound journey.

2 The first bridge built at Council Bluffs 

was begun by the railroad company in 

1869 and completed in 1872 at a cost of 

$1,750,000. It carried a single track, consisted of 11 spans, each 250 feet long, and 

was about 60 feet above ordinary flood 

level, or 50 feet above the highest recorded level. This height served two 

useful purposes it brought the track to 

the level of the bluffs west of the river 

and allowed boats which were formerly 

used on the river to pass under it, thus 

obviating the necessity of a drawbridge. 

The two eastern spans of this bridge were 

wrecked by a tornado in 1877, but the 

bridge was used with temporary repairs 

until 1886, when it was replaced by the 

present double-track structure.

The river here during low water is 

about 900 feet wide. The bridge over the

main channel rests on five piers, 250 feet 

apart, that extend to bedrock at a maximum depth of 76 feet below the level of 

the flood plain. These were built midway 

between those of the old bridge. (See 

diagram on sheet 1, p. 18.) They carry 

the four main spans, and on each end 

are three additional deck spans, making the total length of the bridge 1,750 

feet. Although the records give no intimation of the kind of rock on which the 

piers rest, it is supposed to consist of 

limestone and sandstone of Carboniferous 

(Pennsylvanian) age, which are known 

from well borings to underlie the glacial 

drift in the vicinity of Omaha. These 

rocks are exposed in the river bluffs near 

South Omaha but can not be seen from 

the train.
THE OVERLAND ROUTE COUNCIL BLUFFS TO OGDEN. 13

Although designed to accommodate foot passengers and wagons, 

the bridge has never been so used. Local traffic passes over the 

bridge of the Omaha & Council Bluffs Street Railway Co., half a 

mile farther north, and beyond this is a drawbridge of the Omaha 

Bridge & Terminal Co., over which pass the trains of the Illinois 

Central Railroad.

The Missouri is the muddiest river in the Mississippi Valley; it 

carries more silt than any other large river in the United States 

except possibly the Rio Grande and the Colorado. For every square 

mile of country drained it carries downstream 381 tons of dissolved 

and suspended matter each year. In other words, the river gathers 

annually from the country that it drams more than 123,000,000 tons 

of silt and soluble matter, some of which it distributes over the flood 

plains below to form productive agricultural lands but most of which 

finds its way at last to the Gulf of Mexico. 

It is by means of data of this kind that geologists compute the 

rate at which the lands are being eroded away. It has been shown 

that Missouri River is lowering the surface of the land drained by 

it at the rate of 1 foot in 6,036 years. The surface of the United 

States as a whole is now being worn down at the rate of 1 foot in 

9,120 years. It has been estimated that if this erosive action of 

the streams of the United States could have been concentrated on 

the Isthmus of Panama it would have dug in 73 days the canal 

which has just been completed, after 10 years' work, with the most 

powerful appliances yet devised by man.

Nebraska lies mainly in the Great Plains province of the western 

United States, in altitudes ranging from 842 to 4,849 feet above 

sea level, and is drained to the Missouri through the 

Nebraska. Niobrara, the Platte, and many minor streams. The 

annual rainfall in the State ranges from 13.30 to 

31.65 inches and averages 23.84 inches. Dry farming is general and 

large crops of corn, wheat, and oats are raised. Nebraska claims 

a greater variety of native grasses than any other State in the Union, 

their number amounting to more than 200, of which 150 are valuable for forage. In the western part of the State some irrigation is 

practiced.

Nebraska is primarily an agricultural State and has been called 

"a State without a mine," but it does contribute to the country's 

mineral production by some utilization of its clay resources, by a 

considerable output of sand, gravel, and building stone, and by a 

practical monopoly of the country's production of volcanic ash, or 

pumice. The packing industry is large.

The State includes 77,520 square miles and in 1910 had a population of 1,192,214,
14 GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES.

Omaha, Nebr.

Elevation, 1,024 feet. 

Population, 124,096. l

The name Omaha is derived from that of a tribe of Indians that 

once inhabited this region. The first white settlement was made in 

1854, but not until railroad construction began, about 

10 years later, did it become a town of importance. 

Here ground was broken December 1, 1863, for the 

construction of the road, although little real construction work was done before the spring of 1865; here the first transcontinental train started for San Francisco on September 13, 1870; 

here occurred on November 1,.1897, "the world's greatest auction," 

when the Union Pacific, which had cost $115,214,587.79 to construct, 

was sold for $57,564,932.76; and here are situated the offices, shops, 

and general terminal facilities of the Union Pacific system.

The station at Omaha is built in a depression eroded in loess (see 

p. 8), and good exposures of this peculiar material may be seen on the 

left as the tram leaves the station. Thence westward to Elkhorn it 

lies on either side of the track, through the entire length of the Lane

cut-off, which 

is one of the 

notable engineering features on the 

Union Pacific

route. Prior to 1908 the trains passed through South Omaha and 

thence up Papillion Creek to Elkhorn. To avoid this circuitous route 

a line was built nearly due west from Omaha, cutting to a maximum 

depth of 85 feet straight through the numerous hills and building 

across the broad valleys, making, at a cost of $3,000,000, a level roadbed nearly 12 miles long, which shortened the line by about 9 miles.3 

The city of Omaha is built on loess, and wherever grading has been 

done or excavations have been made the characteristic steep walls of 

this material may be seen. The loess is fine grained, massive, and 

compact and carries numerous small light-colored limy concretions.

. ^

FIGURE 2. Sketch profile showing relation of loess to underlying beds of clay and 

glacial till in railroad cuts west of Omaha, Nebr.

1 The figures given for population 

throughout this book are those of the 

United States Census for 1910. For unincorporated places the census figures give 

the population of the election precinct, 

township, or other similar unit; such figures are marked with an asterisk (*).

2 The material visible in these cuts is 

mainly loess and clay. In some places 

the glacial till under the clay is exposed, 

but the two can not be distinguished from 

the train. In nearly all the cuts, however, 

the division between the loess and the 

clay is readily discernible. The upper

part of the bank in each cut consists of 

buff-colored loess 30 to 50 feet thick and 

is rather sharply separated from the lower 

part, which consists of brick-red clay. A 

somewhat singular relation may be observed in these cuts. The red material is 

exposed only in the center of each cut, and 

its surface in cross section has practically 

the same outline as the surface at the top. 

(See fig. 2.) , The overlying loess is of 

nearly the same thickness in all places, as 

if it were a uniform blanket spread over an 

older surface that had the same shape as 

the present surface.
THE OVERLAND ROUTE COUNCIL BLUFFS TO OGDEN. 15

Nearly vertical walls of it have stood practically unchanged for 30 

years, and other equally precipitous walls have the appearance of 

being much older.

The blanket of glacial debris and loess (see fig. 2) overlies limestone 

and sandstone of Carboniferous age/ which have be'en penetrated by

1 The only Paleozoic rocks which come 

to the surface in eastern Nebraska belong 

to the.Carboniferous system, deposited at 

a time when most of the coal beds in the 

eastern part of the United States were in 

process of formation from vegetal deposits. 

(For types of Carboniferous vegetation see

PI. IV, C, p. 20.) They are economically 

the most important rocks in the State. 

Most of the building stone, clay, and 

lime produced in Nebraska come from 

them. Their relations to other rock formations exposed in eastern Nebraska are 

shown in the following table:

Geologic column showing relations of rocks exposed in eastern Nebraska.

Age.

Quaternary.

Tertiary.

Cretaceous.

Carboniferous.

Formation.

Loess.

Kansan drift.

Aftonian gravels.

Pre-Kansan or Nebraskan drift.

Niobrara limestone.

Benton shale.

Dakota sandstone.

Character.

Glacial till.

Sand and gravel; locally conglomerate.

Glacial till.

Sand and clay.

Chalky limestone and shale.

Blue shale with limestone concretions. 

(Carlile shale.)

Hard slaty limestone and blue chalky 

clay. (Greenhorn limestone.)

Dark sandy shale. (Graneros shale.)

Soft massive yellow sandstone.

Limestone, sandstone, and shale of Permian and Pennsylvania!! age.

In eastern Nebraska the Carboniferous 

beds that appear at the surface comprise 

200 feet of Permian and 1,200 feet of Pennsylvaniau rocks. The lowest series of the 

Carboniferous, the Mississippian, does not 

outcrop here. The Pennsylvanian rocks 

consist of alternating limestones and 

shales. The rock formations below the

Pennsylvanian in eastern Nebraska are 

of interest because they include certain 

strata that supply water to artesian wells. 

Several of these wells drilled in and near 

Omaha found water at depths of 1,200 to 

1,800 feet under pressure sufficient to flow 

at the surface. The lowest stratum yields 

the strongest flow.
16 GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES.

numerous wells bored for artesian water, but which can not be seen 

from the train. The Carboniferous period was so named because in 

many parts of the world its rocks contain an abundance of carbon in 

the form of coal. In the central and eastern parts of the United 

States much coal is interlayered with rocks of this age, but only one 

coal bed has been found in th.e Carboniferous rocks of Nebraska, and 

that one is not of much economic value under present conditions. 

Attempts to mine it have not proved successful.

Elkhorn is the first station west of the Lane cut-off and is located 

on one of the branches of Papillion Creek. East of 

this station the railroad crosses the eastern margin of 

the widespread Dakota sandstone, but the rock is so 

completely covered by glacial drift and loess that in 

no place can it be seen from the train and, indeed, 

its exact position is not known.

Elkhorn.

Elevation 1,164 feet. 

Population-291. 

Omaha 28 miles.

Waterloo.

Elevation 1,124 feet. 

Population 402. 

Omaha 31 miles.

FIGXTRE 3. Cross section of the rock formations from the Rocky Mountains to Omaha, Nebr., showing how 

some of tho older rocks that crop out near Omaha extend westward underneath the younger formations 

and crop out again in the mountains, where all the stratified rocks have been upturned and eroded. 

(After N. H. Darton.)

At Waterloo the railroad crosses Elkhorn River, which, unlike most 

other streams, does not here flow in a valley of its own 

making but for 25 miles or more meanders over the 

bottom lands of the Platte.

Between Elkhorn and Waterloo great differences 

are noticeable both in the character of the surface and 

in the soil. To the east the surface is diversified by low rolling hills 

and broad shallow valleys completely mantled with loess. The loess 

forms a fairly good soil, but its inferiority to the dark-colored loam 

of the bottom lands is obvious to the most casual observer of the 

vegetation. West of the hills, in Platte Valley, the surface is flat and 

unbroken and the soil is more productive. (See PI. Ill, p. 11.) 

Valley is the center of an agricultural district in the rich bottom 

lands of Platte Valley. Large quantities of garden 

seeds are grown here. About 3»> miles west of Valley the traveler will obtain his first good view of 

Platte River. The railroad follows this river as far 

upstream as Julesburg, in northeastern Colorado, a 

distance of about 350 miles.

Valley.

Elevation 1,139 feet. 

Population 810. 

Omaha 35 miles.
THE OVERLAND ROUTE COUNCIL BLUFFS TO OGDEN. 17

Fremont.

Elevation 1,196 feet. 

Population 8,718. 

Omaha 46 miles.

Although Fremont, the seat of Dodge County, is on the flood plain 

of Platte Valley, where few exposures of rock can be seen, it stands 

near the contact of the Dakota sandstone and the 

overlying Benton shale, a fact determined by observations made both north and south of the valley. 

The sandstone * may be seen in the bluffs at the south 

end of the wagon bridge south of the city, but the 

shale is not exposed. These bluffs consist mainly of glacial till mantled by loess.

Fremont is on the main line of the old trail from Missouri River to 

California and Oregon, which before the .Union Pacific was built was 

known as the Overland Trail.2 In front of the station stands a rough1 The rocks in eastern Nebraska referred 

to the Dakota or basal sandstone of the 

Upper Cretaceous series are about 300 feet 

thick and consist of sand with clay and 

local beds of conglomerate. The sandstone was named for Dakota City, S. Dak., 

where collections were made of fossil 

plants that were described by Profs. Heer 

and Lesquereux and later became known 

as the characteristic Dakota flora, for 

many years the oldest deciduous-leaved 

flora known in North America. This flora 

comprises large and well-preserved leaves 

of poplars, willows, oaks, alders, birches, 

beeches, sycamores, persimmons, tulip 

trees, magnolias, and sassafras and shows 

that many of the familiar and still dominant types of plants had already been 

firmly established at this remote time. 

However, none of the particular species 

of Dakota plants here discovered are 

known to have survived in this region 

beyond the close of the Dakota epoch.

The Dakota is exposed in places in 

the bluffs of Platte River from Fremont 

to Plattsmouth. It is one of the greatest 

water-bearing formations in America. It 

rises gently toward the west, ^although 

covered by younger rocks, and crops out 

again in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains (see fig. 3), where the surface waters 

enter it. These waters slowly percolate 

through its sands for about 450 miles to 

supply the numerous wells in the Platte 

Valley and elsewhere. The Dakota sandstone extends 400 miles or more north of 

the Union Pacific Railroad and an equal 

distance to the south and underlies the 

« 92213° Bull. 612 15 2

surface of the country from the Rocky 

Mountains eastward to a maximum distanc e of 1,000 miles or more. It furnishes 

excellent water to the citizens of 11 

States.

2 Although four transcontinental railroad routes were surveyed by the Government, the results being published in 11 

large volumes, the first line built, the 

Union Pacific, was explored and located 

by private enterprise. The Overland 

Trail seemed to offer the best advantages 

for railroad construction, inasmuch as it 

utilized the most feasible passage over the 

mountains. Gen. Grenville M. Dodge, 

the chief engineer of the Union Pacific 

during the period of construction, says of 

it: "This route was made by the buffalo, 

next used by the Indians, then by the fur 

traders, next by the Mormons, and then 

by the overland immigrants to California 

and Oregon. It was known as the great 

Platte Valley route. On this trail, or 

close to it, were built the Union and Central Pacific railroads to California and the 

Oregon Short Line branch of the Union 

Pacific to Oregon." Its history as a definite route seems to have begun in 1804, 

when Lewis and Clark visited and described the locality that became its eastern terminus. A fur-trading company 

sent out by John Jacob Astor in 1810, 

which founded Astoria, Oreg., at the 

mouth of Columbia River, the following 

year, returned by a route which had never 

before been traversed, but which corresponded essentially with that later known 

as the Oregon Trail. Astor had planned
18 GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES.

hewn monument of red granite with the inscription: "This boulder 

marks the overland emigrant trails through Fremont to Oregon, California, Utah, and Colorado. Erected September 23, 1912, by LewisClark Chapter, Daughters of the American Revolution." Similar 

monuments have been placed at many other railroad stations on the 

line of the old trail.

From Ames may be seen a gap in the line of bluffs south of Platte 

River that marks the course of an old valley occupied by the river 

at an early stage of its development, when its bed 

was about 100 feet higher than at present. The river 

then flowed southeastward past Wahoo and thence 

eastward to the valley which it now occupies south 

This old channel is 5 or 6 miles wide and consists of 

a valley floor covered with loam and sand like the floor of the present 

valley. Also like the present valley it is bordered along most of its 

course by steep banks of loess.

Ames.

Elevation 1,230 feet. 

Omaha 53 miles.

of Waterloo.

a line of trading posts extending from the 

Great Lakes to the Pacific, the Sandwich 

Islands, and China, but the War of 1812 

put a stop to this scheme. About 1824 

William H. Ashley and Etienne Provost, 

of the Rocky Mountain Fur Trading Co., 

discovered South Pass, which made permanent the mountain-crossing route of 

the Oregon Trail and later attracted the 

Union Pacific locating parties. Gen. 

Dodge says further:

"In 1843 the pathfinder, Gen. John C. 

Fremont, began to spy out the military 

ways across the West, and the same year 

the Oregon pioneers took the first wagons 

westward to the Pacific. The trail that 

began with the journey of these early 

pioneers was widened and deepened by 

the wheels of the Mormons in 1847, and 

when the herald of the first California 

Golden Age sent forth a trumpet call in 

1849, heard around the world, the trail'was 

finished from Great Salt Lake across the 

mountains to the sea.

"That era had its great men, for great 

men make eras. Ben Holladay, William 

N. Russell, and Edward Creighton gave 

to the trail the overland stage line, the 

pony express, and the telegraph.

"Dating the beginning of transcontinental wagon travel from the days of fortynine, it was 20 years before the railroad 

reached California. The period was one

of great out of door men and women the 

last of American pioneers. When the 

old trail was in full tide of life it was filled 

with gold seekers from the Missouri to the 

Pacific; 100,000 travelers passed over it 

yearly. Towns stirring and turbulent, 

some now gone from the map and some 

grown to be cities, flourished as the green 

bay tree. Omaha, Salt Lake, San Francisco and such lesser places as Julesburg, 

Cheyenne, Laramie, Carson, Elko, and 

Virginia City were picturesquely lively.

"The traffic of the old trail was of long 

wagon trains of immigrants; the great outfits laden with freight for the mines; of 

Holladay's coaches, six teams in full gallop; of the first riders of the pony express; 

and of all other manner of moving men 

and beasts. The protesting savages have 

no place upon it but, perceiving in it an 

instrument to alienate their domain, 

burned its wagon trains and destroyed its 

stages as opportunity offered. At times 

great herds of buffalo obliterated great 

sections of the trail, yet it held its own 

until the golden spike was driven and 

passed away as a wagon road only when 

the need for it had passed. But the railroad lines that took up the burden of 

stage coach and pony express and ox team 

have marked the way of the trail upon the 

map of the West so that it shall endure aa 

long as the West endures."
BULLETIN 612 SHEET Mo. 1

GEOLOGIC AND TOPOGRAPHIC MAP

OF THE

OVERLAND EOTJTE

From Omaha, Nebraska, to San Francisco, California

Base compiled from United States Geological Survey Atlas Sheets, 

from railroad alignments and profiles supplied by the Union Pacific 

Railroad Company and the Southern Pacific Company and from additional information collected, with the assistance of these companies

UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY

GEORGE OTIS SMITH, DIRECTOR 

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

1915

Bach quadrangle shown on the map with a name in parenthesis in the 

lower left corner is mapped in detail on the U. S. C. S. Topographic 

sheet of that name.

IOWA - NEBRASKA

DIAGRAM OF UNION PACIFIC BRIDeE OVER MISSOURI RIVER AT OMAHA

1

1 0

Scale 500.000 

Approximately 8 miles to 1 inch 

5 10 is 20Miles

10 15 20 25 soKilometers

^^

Contour interval 200 feet

ELEVATIONS IN FEET ABOVE MEAN SEA LEVEL

ty,,. The distances from Omaha, Nebraska, are shown every JO miles

The crossties on the railroadstore

^f^^^in f i mf-J

'"' «1 ^r2'S?$^lUM'rOaW ., '^""7] 

. IfiJK"-^^, 2<^^V<*£-,<8JM*-^ ^

^&sfe ^li^!^,

EXPLANATION

The rock formations indicated on this map ca 

They are covered by recent stream deposits (al 

and till) deposited duriner the ice aere (Plei* 

thei

96°3o"

The rock formations indicated on this map can not be seen from the 

ley are covered by recent stream deposits (alluvium) or by material 

d till) deposited during- the ice age (Pleistocene), information 

em is derived largely from distant exposures and from well borings

from the train, 

material (loess 

bout

96°
THE OVERLAND ROUTE COUNCIL BLUFFS TO OGDEN. 19

North Bend.

Elevation 1,274 feet. 

Population 1,105. 

Omaha 61 miles.

The town of North Bend (see sheet 2, p. 22) takes its name from 

the northward bend of Platte River at this point, west of which the 

railroad follows the river in a southwesterly direction 

for a long distance. South of the river, opposite North 

Bend, the bluffs are conspicuous, especially west of 

Morse Bluff, and consist of loess and glacial drift 

overlying shale of Benton (Cretaceous) age. 1 This 

shale was formed as a mud deposit at a time when Nebraska was at 

the bottom of a sea. It contains many fossil shells of extinct species 

of marine mollusks, such as oysters (see PI. IV, A, B, p. 20), clams, 

and snails, as well as many fossils of types not represented by living 

forms, such as ammonites and scaphites. It underlies the superficial 

glacial deposits between Fremont and a point a few miles west of 

Schuyler.

In the vicinity of Schuyler, the seat of Colfax County, little other

than the cultivated fields on the alluvial plain can be seen from the

train. The Dakota sandstone, which here lies a little

Schuyler. below the surface (see fig. 3, p. 16), is of economic

Elevation 1,348 feet, importance because of the artesian water it contains,

Population 2,152. * . . > Omaha 75 miles. and this water is held in confinement by the overlying 

shale. About 6 miles west of the town, between 

Lambert and Riahland, the traveler passes from the Benton shale to 

the Niobrara limestone, 2 although he would not suspect the change 

from anything he can see.

The westbound traveler is here passing directly toward the center 

of the ancient sea in which the sedimentary rocks of Cretaceous age 

were formed. He has crossed in the order of their deposition or age 

two formations of the Upper Cretaceous series the Dakota sandstone 

and the Benton shale and now enters upon the third, the Niobrara,

1 The Benton shale lies conformably on 

the Dakota sandstone, that is, the beds 

of the Dakota were not affected by erosion 

before those of the Benton were laid down 

upon them. In Nebraska and some other 

areas athin limestone'( Greenhorn) near the 

middle of the Benton separates a lower 

shale (Graneros) from an upper shale 

(Carlile). The lowest beds crop out near 

Fremont, where the Dakota passes underneath it not to reappear at the surface 

again toward the west for a distance of 

about 450 miles. It is a marine shale 

representing the first deposits formed 

after the sea invaded the interior of North 

America in the Upper Cretaceous epoch.

2 The Niobrara limestone, so named because of its good exposures on Niobrara

River in northeastern Nebraska, appeal's 

to extend across the eastern part of the 

State in a broad band under Tertiary and 

later deposits. It is exposed for 125 miles 

along the valley of Republican River, but 

to the north is seen only in Loup Valley 

near Genoa until Missouri and Niobrara 

rivers are reached, in Holt, Knox, Cedar, 

and Dixon counties, where it can be seen 

in large exposures. The material is mainly 

a soft limestone, chalk rock, or limy clay, 

presenting considerable variation in composition from place to place. The geologic 

age of this formation is shown in the table 

presented 011 p. 15. It is the youngest 

Cretaceous formation that is exposed near 

the Union Pacific Railroad in eastern 

Nebraska.
20 GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES.

which differs from the others in that it contains chalk similar to that 

of the well-known chalk cliffs of England. Some of the deep wells 

of this region encounter salt water in the shale and chalk rock. This 

is excluded from the wells by the casing, so that it does not mingle 

with the fresh water from the underlying Dakota sandstone. Other 

evidence of the former presence here of sea water are fossil shells of 

oysters and other animals that live in salt water and the bones of 

sea monsters such as Mosasaurus. (See PI. V, B, and map on stub 

of sheet 2, p. 22.)

A comparison of these ancient conditions with those of the present 

day indicates the slow, continuous change that is now and always 

has been in progress. Where the tourist now travels comfortably 

over a dry plain, these monsters sported in the water of the sea long 

ages ago. On the shores of this ancient sea lived equally strange 

beasts and birds of types that have long been extinct, and over its 

water sailed great flying dragons the pterodactyls. The animals 

of that day were strikingly different from those of the present. The 

birds, unlike any now living, had jaws armed with teeth. The 

monarchs of the air then were not birds but flying reptiles, whose 

fore limbs had been modified into wings by the enormous elongation 

of fingers between which stretched thin membranes like the wings 

of a bat. (See PI. V, (7.) These flying dragons, some of which had 

a stretch of wing of 18 feet, were carnivorous; they were animated 

engines of destruction that somewhat forcibly suggest the modern 

war airplanes, of which they were in a sense the prototypes.

Columbus, the seat of Platte County, stands in the center of a

fertile agricultural district. In 1864 it was a frontier town consisting

of a few scattered shacks; but, with total disregard for

Columbus. things as they are and with true western confidence

Elevation 1,444 feet. m things as they should be, George Francis Train, one

omana gTmiies. °'f its citizens, then announced that Columbus was the

geographic center of the United States and therefore

the proper place for the national capital. Half a century has

elapsed, however, and the seat of government is still at Washington.

Columbus is on Loup River, or Loup Fork, as it is usually called, 

near its junction with the Platte. The Loup is a stream of considerable volume and nearly constant flow, draining 13,540 square miles 

of the sand-hill region of northwestern Nebraska. West of the mouth 

of the Loup the Platte usually consists of small irregular streams 

among the sand bars, forming a lacework of small channels, whose 

pattern changes with every flood. Although the Platte is normally 

a large river, draining 56,900 square miles and having a maximum 

discharge near Columbus of 51,000 cubic feet a second, there is little 

or no water in it above the Loup during the dry season, the water 

being diverted for irrigation farther upstream.
U. S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY lULLETIN 612 PLATE IV

MARINE FOSSILS OF CRETACEOUS AGE. 

A, Oysters (Ostrea congesta); B, Inoceramus labiatus.

C. CARBONIFEROUS FOREST. 

From vegetation of this sort the great deposits of coal were formed.
U. S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY BULLETIN 612 PLATE V

A. SKELETON OF THE HEAD OF HESPERORNIS. 

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

Jl. RESTORATION OF A MOSASAUR (TYLOSAURUS). 

A sea monster about 30 feet long. (After Hutchmson.)

C. RESTORATION OF A PTERODACTYL (ORNITHOSTOMA). 

A flying dragon measuring 1 8 feet from tip to tip of wings. (After Lucas.)

ANIMALS THAT LIVED IN CENTRAL NORTH AMERICA IN CRETACEOUS

TIME.
THE OVERLAND ROUTE COUNCIL BLUFFS -TO OGDEN. 21

Here and elsewhere in central and eastern Nebraska large quantities 

of grain are raised. Much of it, especially the corn, is fed to live 

stock. Animals raised on the western ranges are shipped here for 

fattening before they are sent to the market.

In the river bluffs along Platte Valley southeast of Columbus are 

the westernmost deposits made by the continental glaciers. East of 

a north-south line passing a little east of Columbus the superficial 

deposits consist of loess and of glacial till containing bowlders and 

fragments of rock brought from the north by the glaciers during one 

of their first southward advances in the Great Ice Age, some features 

of which are described below by W. C. Alden. 1 These deposits make 

relatively high rolling plains. West of this line the surface of the

1 Many of the physical features of eastern Nebraska were produced by sheets of 

ice that invaded the region during and 

after the earlier stages of the Great Ice 

Age. The deposit best exposed, in the 

street cuts and river bluffs in and near 

Omaha and along the line of the Union 

Pacific to the west, is a dustlike clay or 

loess. Beneath this lies the glacial drift.

Another feature is the great Missouri 

River, which swings majestically back 

and forth across its broad valley bottom 

as it gathers in the waters of the Great 

Plains on their way to the sea. In late 

Tertiary time, before the advent of the 

earliest continental ice sheet, Missouri 

River as now known was not in existence. 

The Dakotas were drained to Hudson 

Bay, and northeastern Nebraska was 

probably drained southeastward across 

Iowa. Platte River may have joined 

Grand River in Missouri. The bedrock 

east and west of the present lines of bluffs 

lies relatively low in the Omaha region, 

so that before the coming of the glaciers 

there was probably only a valley of 

moderate size with low slopes instead of 

bluffs.

The close of Tertiary time and the beginning of Quaternary time was marked 

in the northern part of the United States 

by the formation and spreading of vast 

sheets of ice similar to the great ice cap 

that now envelops all but the marginal 

parts of Greenland. From the mild and 

equable climate of the Tertiary period 

there was a change, not necessarily sudden 

or violent perhaps only the lowering of 

the average annual temperature a few

degrees so that a large part of the precipitation came in the form of snow, which 

was not all melted away in the summer. 

As this snow remained from season to 

season a vast amount finally accumulated 

and formed great glaciers. There were 

three main centers of accumulation and 

dispersion of this glacial ice, one on the 

.Labrador Peninsula, a second west of 

Hudson Bay in the district of Keewatin, 

and a third in the mountains of western 

Canada. (See fig. 4, p. 22.)

At the opening of the glacial epoch the 

great Keewatin glacier spread southward 

and covered large parts of the Dakotas, 

Minnesota, and Iowa and extended thence 

into eastern Nebraska, where it was 

probably several hundred feet thick. 

The dark-blue clay containing pebbles 

and small bowlders which is exposed 

near the base of the river bluffs in South 

Omaha and near Florence, several miles 

north of Omaha, is a part of the deposit 

made by this earliest ice sheet. It is 

known as pre-Kansan, sub-Aftonian, or 

Nebraskan glacial till. As the front of 

the great ice sheet invaded the Dakotas 

and Nebraoka the eastward-flowing 

streams were blocked and their water was 

turned southward. This water must 

have formed a stream somewhere west of 

Omaha.

This first stage of glaciation was brought 

to a close by the melting of the ice in a 

warmer interglacial time or stage the 

Aftonian. During this stage the streams 

of the region swept great quantities of 

sand and gravel down their valleys. 

Remnants of these sand and gravel
22 GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTEE.N UNITED STATES.

plains is less uneven and slightly lower, and the superficial deposits 

consist of fragments of rock brought from the Rocky Mountains. 

These differ from the glacial drift in containing rounded pebbles, 

none of which bear evidence of glacial origin. They seem to have 

been brought from the mountains by streams which through long 

ages were engaged in leveling the Great Plains, much as Platte River 

is now grading its broad bottom lands, cutting away the higher 

places and building up the lower ones.

deposits, deeply weathered and in places 

cemented to hard conglomerate by lime 

or iron oxide, overlie the pre-Kansan 

glacial till at several places in the river

 The late Prof. Samuel Calvin identified 

the remains of horses, camels, stags, elephants, mastodons, mammoths, and sloths. 

When these animals lived in western Iowa

FIGURE 4, Map of North America showing the area covered by the Pleistocene ice sheet at its maximum 

extension and the three main centers of ice accumulation,

bluffs. A remarkable assemblage of animals invaded the region after the ice had 

disappeared, and the bones and teeth 

of many of these animals have been found 

in the Aftonian deposits of western Iowa.

the climate there must have been comparatively mild and vegetation very abundant. Prof. Calvin says: "To supply 

these great herbivores with food required 

an abundance of vegetation such as could
BULLETIN 612 SHEET No. 2

MAP OF NORTH AMERICA, SHOWING DISTRIBUTION OF LAND

AND SEA IN UPPER CRETACEOUS (BENTON) TIME

Area not shaded indicates land, shaded area indicates sea

9730' 97 NEBRASKA

Scale 50OOOO

Approxip Jtely 8 miles to 1 inch 

s 10 is 20Miles I

i o

I.ml .

10 15 25 3oKi!ometers

Contour interval 200 feet

ELEVATIONS IN fSST ABOVE MEAN SEA LEVEL

The distances from Omaha, Nebraska, are shown every 10 miles 

The crossties on The railroads are spaced ! mile apart

41'

(Uppar Cretaceous)

EXPLANATION

The rock formations indicated on this map can not be seen from the train. 

They are covered by recent stream deposits (alluvium) or by material (loess 

and till) deposited during the ice age (Pleistocene). Information about 

them is derived largely from distant exposures and from well borings

97°3G' 97°
THE OVEELAND ROUTE COUNCIL BLUFFS TO OGDEN. 23

West of Columbus the railroad is close to Platte River, whose bed 

is only a few feet below the track level. The flood plain is here 10 

to 12 miles wide and is confined between bluffs 100 feet or more 

in height. It thus lies about 100 feet below the level of the Great 

Plains, which extend far to the north and to the south. The small 

towns of Duncan, Gardiner, Silver Creek, Clarks, and Thummel are 

passed before the next city is reached.

Near Central City (see sheet 3, p. 26), the traveler passes from 

the Niobrara limestone, of Cretaceous age, to the formations of 

Tertiary age.1 (See table on p. 15.) If the younger 

Cretaceous formations, the Pierre shale, Fox Hills 

sandstone, and Laramie formation, were ever deposited here, they were eroded away before the Tertiary 

beds were laid down. The contact therefore denotes

a very long period of time during which the older sedimentary 

formations were being eroded.

Central City.

Elevation 1,699 feet. 

Population 2,428. 

Omaha 132 miles.

not be developed until some time after 

the pre-Kansan ice and all its climatic 

effects had disappeared from southwestern 

Iowa."

The character of the shells of the freshwater and land mollusks found in the 

Aftonian beds shows that the climate was 

 similar to that of the present time.

After this mild stage the Keewatin 

glacier again spread southward and invaded the region. The ice reached at this 

stage its greatest extension in northern 

Missouri and northeastern Kansas, whence 

'this is known as the Kansan stage of glaciation. As shown on the accompanying map (sheet 2) the western limit 

of the glacial drift crosses Platte River 

near Columbus, Nebr. The Kansan 

glacial drift that was uncovered in the 

cuts made in South Omaha for the Lane 

cut-off is bluish-gray clay containing reddish and purplish bowlders of quartzite, 

popularly known as "Sioux Falls granite," brought by the glacier from the 

ledges exposed near Sioux Falls, S. Dak. 

This drift is not now well exposed in these 

cuts, but it may be seen at a place 1£ 

miles west of Papillion Creek, where it 

forms the lower 10 feet of the section exposed. Long exposure after the melting 

of the Kansan ice has changed the original 

blue-gray color of the upper part of this 

drift to rusty red, dissolved out the soluble calcareous ingredients for a depth of

8 feet, and caused many of the granitic 

pebbles to decay.

After the melting of the Kansan glacier 

the continental ice sheets did not again 

reach as far as the line of the Union 

Pacific Railroad. At the last or Wisconsin stage one lobe of the Keewatin glacier 

invaded north-central Iowa, extending to 

Des Moines, nearly as far south as the 

latitude of Omaha, and another lobe 

covered the northern and eastern parts 

of the Dakotas southward to a point about 

90 miles north of Omaha, but Nebraska 

was not again invaded.

An interesting deposit overlying the glacial drift is exposed about 7£ miles north 

of Omaha and at several places farther 

west. It consists of volcanic ash which 

must have accumulated after the melting 

of the Kansan glacier, at a time when the 

air was filled with volcanic dust from 

eruptions, possibly those of the Quaternary volcanoes of northeastern New 

Mexico.

1 In marked contrast with the Cretaceous formations, which were laid 

down in shallow marine water and 

which are regular in thickness and 

character over vast areas, the Tertiary 

deposits of this region are irregular in 

thickness and character, are nonmarine, 

and were deposited along streams or in 

shallow lakes. During the Cretaceous 

period Nebraska and certain other parts
24 GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES.

Grand Island.

Elevation 1,861 feet. 

Population 10,326. 

Omaha 153 miles.

Grand Island, the seat of Hall County, is a railroad center, a 

division station of the Union Pacific, where extensive 

shops are maintained, and a city of considerable commercial importance, having numerous factories and 

mills. It is in an agricultural district where the raising 

of sugar beets is one of the principal industries. About 

7,000,000 pounds of granulated sugar is produced here every year.

The first known reference to Grand Island is contained in the 

account of Robert Stuart, an employee of John Jacob Astor, who 

left Astoria in 1812 and traveled eastward over what was later 

known as the Oregon Trail. The greater part of this journey was 

made through a country then wholly unknown. "Le Grande Isle" 

was the first place he was able to recognize on his way east. Grand 

Island, a strip of land about 42 miles long, included between two 

channels of the Platte River, had previously been visited by trappers, 

most of whom were French Canadians, but white people did not 

settle here until 1857. In 1866 the Union Pacific was built north 

of the north channel and the site of the city of Grand Island thus 

determined.

of central North America lay beneath 

the sea, but with the Tertiary period 

began a new order of things. The sea, 

which had extended from Iowa to Utah, 

was expelled by uplift from the interior 

of North America, and in the midst of 

the region the sea formerly covered the 

Rocky Mountains began to rise. It is 

this change from a quiescent sea to 

mountainous uplands, with all the disturbances attending it, that marks the 

division in geologic time between the 

Cretaceous and the Tertiary period. If 

at the present time the waters were 

expelled from the Gulf of Mexico and 

high mountains raised in their place, the 

resulting changes in climate, geography, 

etc., would be less conspicuous than 

those which marked the change from 

Cretaceous to Tertiary in the interior of 

North America.

The earth movements that formed 

the Rocky Mountains also brought the 

Great Plains and the intermontane basins 

above sea level, so that the region now 

traversed by the Union Pacific from 

Omaha to the Wasatch Mountains, which 

had formerly lain under the water of the

sea, was changed to dry land and, so 

far as is known, has never since been 

covered with sea water. The plains were 

doubtless very low not much above 

sea level at first. Rivers heading in the 

newly upheaved mountains washed sediment out upon low-lying plains, where 

it accumulated because the streams were 

too sluggish to carry it away. This 

newly emerged land became inhabited 

by animals, some of which were doubtless developed from ancestors that lived 

in North America during Cretaceous 

time, though others immigrated from 

other continents. The skeletons of these 

animals were buried in the sands and 

muds deposited by the streams, and from 

the fossil remains of their bones the paleontologist is able to determine to some 

extent their forms, appearance, and habits. 

Great changes took place also in the 

climate, a fact indicated by the character of the plants, a critical study of which 

shows that although the same general 

types of vegetation that had flourished 

throughout the Cretaceous continued into 

the Tertiary the species were nearly all 

different.
THE OVERLAND ROUTE COUNCIL BLUFFS TO OGDEN.

Grand Island is in the midst of what was formerly known as the 

great buffalo range. Gen. Dodge says:

When the railroad reached this point, in 1866, buffalo were numerous. In the 

spring these animals were wont to cross the Platte from the Arkansas and Republican 

valleys, where they had wintered, to the northern country, returning again, sleek 

and fat, late' in the fall. Gradually their numbers decreased on this range until 

1873, when they disappeared. But at Julesburg, 219 miles farther west, a small 

band was seen to cross the river as late as 1876. In 1860 immense bands were on 

these plains. On the south side of the Platte, on the old emigrant road, the number 

was so large that emigrant teams often had to stop while they were crossing the road. 

At Fort Kearney, on the south side of the river, in 1860, an order was issued by the 

post commander, forbidding the soldiers to shoot the buffalo on the parade ground.

Some attempts have been made in the region of Grand Island to 

sink wells to the Dakota sandstone to obtain artesian water. A well 

put down for the city some years ago penetrated 220 feet of sand, 

gravel, and clay, consisting of river deposits and probably also of 

some Tertiary material, and then went through shale to a depth of 

935 feet without finding the sandstone. The artesian stratum therefore lies at some greater depth. At Hastings, about 25 miles farther 

south, a well 1,145 feet deep entered sandstone that may be the 

Dakota.

On leaving Grand Island the train passes through the middle of 

the valley, which is here 22 miles wide. From anything the traveler 

can see from the train he might imagine himself to 

be passing over a boundless plain, for the bluffs on 

either side of the valley are too far away to be distinguished. The surface looks level, but as a matter 

of fact it rises toward the west about 10 feet to the 

mile. No surface depression, such as the term "valley" might lead 

one to expect, can be seen. The river flows in many interlacing 

channels that frequently shift their position.

Over this part of the route there are long stretches of straight 

track. West of Silver Creek the train runs for 40 miles in a nearly 

straight line. The roadbed is remarkably smooth and free from 

dust, being ballasted with Sherman granite. (For description see 

p. 43.) This part of the route is on the typical Great Plains, 1 which

Wood River.

Elevation 1,963 feet. 

Population 796. 

Omaha 169 miles.

1 The Great Plains constitute that part 

of the continental slope which extends 

from the Rocky Mountains eastward to 

the prairies of the Mississippi Valley. 

Smooth surfaces characterize most of this 

area, but in some parts of it there are 

buttes or flat-topped hills and long bluffs 

or escarpments. In other places there 

are large areas of bad lands and sand hills.

The origin and development of the 

Great Plains are difficult to determine. 

From Omaha westward to the Laramie 

Range, a distance of more than 500 miles, 

the surface rises with a regular inclination that is imperceptible to the eye 

but amounts to more than 5,000 feet. 

The rocks of this area, aside from the thin 

Tertiary formations and the superficial
GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES.

Kearney.

Elevation 2,146 feet. 

Population 6,202. 

Omaha 196 miles.

rise gradually but regularly from the prairies of Mississippi Valley 

to the Rocky Mountains.

West of Wood River are Shelton and Gibbon, agricultural and 

stock-feeding centers. Two small towns, Optic and Buda, are next 

passed by the train before it enters Kearney.

Kearney (see sheet 4, p. 28) takes its name from old Fort Kearney, 

which stood south of the river, a few miles east of the city, at the 

junction of the emigrant trail from Kansas City and 

the Platte Valley trail. It was a center of turbulence 

during the time of Indian warfare. Here during 

the construction of the Union Pacific Railroad, 

according to Gen. Dodge, there were more desperate fights and literally hair-raising adventures than James Fenimore Cooper ever dreamed of, and here Maj. Frank J. North, 

with his four companies of Pawnee Indians, made history defending the Overland Route against hostile Indians. The Plum Creek, 

Ogalalla, and Summit Springs campaigns under Maj. North's direction did much to prove conclusively to the Sioux and Cheyenne 

that he was their absolute master. The same writer says that every 

mile of the railroad had to be surveyed and built within range of 

the rifle and under military protection, and much of the success 

of the enterprise he attributes to the active support of Gen. Grant 

and Gen. Sherman.

The bottom land, which farther east is about 22 miles wide, here 

narrows to a width of 6 miles. The river bed is very wide and shallow 

and the wagon bridge over it south of Kearney is nearly a mile long. 

Except at times of high water broad stretches of sand in this bed are 

exposed to the strong northwest winds, which pile it up south of the

deposits, are of marine origin; they were 

formed below sea level. Later they were 

tilted, but without notable warping, 

through this great distance and beveled 

by erosion, so that the surface of the plains 

region extended across the eroded edges 

of the Cretaceous formations from oldest 

to youngest. On this surface were later 

spread out the stream deposits of Tertiary 

and Quaternary age, and at the extreme 

east the glacial deposits.

A good illustration of this grading process is furnished by Platte River, which 

flows in a shallow valley cut slightly 

below the surface of the plains and has 

the same gradient or slope as the plains 

themselves. This gradient is in nice 

adjustment to the load of sediment that 

the river carries, so that although during 

past ages the Platte sometimes cut its

channel deeper than it is at present and 

sometimes built it up, as it seems to be 

doing now, it has on the whole spent its 

energy in widening its valley and forming remarkably even bottom lands. If 

this process goes on long enough the 

Platte and its neighboring streams will 

form new Great Plains, slightly lower than 

the present plains but having essentially 

the same eastward inclination. On the 

other hand, should some condition arise 

whereby the sediment supplied to these 

rivers would be increased in volume not 

only might the present valleys be filled 

with sand, gravel, and clay, but the whole 

surface of the plains might be built up, 

the conditions thus supposed to exist simulating the conditions that prevailed in 

this region during middle and late Tertiary time.
BULLETIN 612 SHEET No. 3

GEOLOGIC AND TOPOGRAPHIC MAP

OF THE

OVEELAND EOUTE

From Omaha, Nebraska, to San Francisco, California

Base compiled from United States Geological Survey Atlas Sheets, 

from railroad, alignments and profiles supplied by the Union Pacific 

Railroad Company and the Southern Pacific Company and from additional information collected with the assistance of these companies

UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY

GEORGE OTIS SMITH, DIEECTOR ' 

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

1915

Each quadrangle shown on the map with a name in parenthesis in the 

lower left corner is mapped in detail on the U. S. G. S. Topographic 

sheet of that name.

98°NEBRASKA

500.000 

Approximately 8 mites to 1 inch

Contour interval 200 feet

ELEVATIONS IN FEET ABOVE MEAN SEA LEVEL

The distances from Omaha, Nebraska, are shown every 10 miles 

The crossties on the railroads are spaced 1 mile apart

The rock formations indicated on this map can not be seen from the train. 

They are covered by recent stream deposits (alluvium). Information about 

them is derived largely from distant exposures and from well borings

I *e>W

1 $ 

-'if '

°°«b-'

xJpTOi, PK^

A \X,.

ie train.

n about 

?s

V?,,:;^5~J

ft. -

_>-URORA !

^

4030'

98"
THE OVERLAND ROUTE" COUNCIL BLUFFS TO OGDEisT.

river, destroying much productive land. The sand-dune areas are 

characterized by irregular, hummocky surfaces, some of the higher 

mounds rising 100 feet or more above the general surface. The 

largest bodies of sand extend for 50 miles along the south side of the 

Platte Valley south and west of Kearney. The width of the wider 

parts of this sand-dune belt is about 3 miles.

The Overland Route here reaches its southernmost point and turns 

again toward the north. On leaving Kearney the traveler may see 

the buildings of the State Normal School on the lowland north of the 

road and an industrial school on the highlands.

West of Kearney the bluffs, consisting of loess overlying rocks of 

late Tertiary age,1 are about a mile from the railroad.

Could the traveler restore the landscape of late Tertiary time, he 

would find himself surrounded by scenes greatly different from, those 

of the present. The swampy lowlands were covered with vegetation 

similar to that now growing in moist climates farther south. He 

would recognize few of the animals, for there were camels, mastodons, rhinoceroses, saber-tooth tigers, and other strange beasts, some 

like those riving now only in far-distant lands. (See PI. VI., p. 40.) 

There were numerous horses, but none of them were like the horses 

of to-day. In place of the one hoof or modified toe on each foot 

which the modern horse possesses, his Pliocene ancestor had three. 2

1 A large part of the central Great Plains 

is covered, according to N. H. Darton, by 

deposits of Miocene and Pliocene age, 

underlain to the west and northwest by 

formations of the White River group, of 

Oligocene age. All these formations lie 

mainly on the Pierre shale but overlap 

other formations to a greater or less extent. 

The average thickness is 200 to 300 feet 

in eastern Colorado and western Kansas 

but increases to nearly 1,000 feet in parts 

of western Nebraska and southeastern 

Wyoming. Probably the entire region 

was originally covered by later Tertiary 

deposits that extended far up the flanks 

of the Rocky Mountains, the Bighorn 

Mountains, and the Black Hills, as indicated by the occurrence of outliers at 

high altitudes.

2 The Pliocene of western North America is not well known, but along Snake 

Creek in western Nebraska there are some 

deposits referable to this epoch, and from 

fossils found in them and in rocks of the 

same age in other parts of the country a 

considerable number of the animals that 

lived on the Great Plains during Pliocene

time are known. Though these animals 

form an assemblage very different from 

that of to-day, they much more closely 

resemble the living animals than those of 

former ages. Camels and llamas were 

abundant (see PI. VI, p. 40) and great 

ground sloths and glyptodonts (see PI. II, 

C, p. 10), whose relatives now live in 

South America, inhabited western Nebraska during Pliocene time. Mastodons 

with tusks on both the upper and the 

lower jaws, much like those of the Miocene 

epoch, still persisted. Short-legged rhinoceroses remained abundant, and there 

was a great variety of wolf-like carnivora. 

Saber-toothed tigers and true cats, some 

of them considerably larger than the modern tigers, were also abundant. Threetoed horses were still numerous, but the 

modern genus Equus was not among them. 

One of the most curious animals of the 

time in Kansas and Nebraska was a 

gopher-like rodent that had two large 

horns on its nose. (See PI. II, E, p. 10.) 

Its enormous claws indicate good burrowing powers, and its horns also may have 

been used in digging.
28 GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES.

After passing the relatively small towns of Odessa, Elm Creek, 

Overton, and Josselyn, the train reaches the city of Lexington, formerly known as Plum Creek. This was once noted 

Lexington. as a favorite locality for depredations by the Southern 

Elevation 2,387 feet. Cheyenne Indians under Chief Turkey Leg, who capomahS^et tured and burned a freight train here in 1867. It is 

now more famous for its irrigation system. Farther 

east the farmers depend on the rainfall to water their crops, but 

from this point westward the river waters are diverted through large 

ditches and distributed over the cultivated land. 

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

a Cincinnati capitalist who purchased a 40,000-acre 

Cozad. tract of land and laid out the town on it. The vilEievation 2,485 feet, lage of Willow Island takes its name from one of 

Population 1,096. the so-called islands included between old channels of

Omaha 245 miles. , . . . , , , , .

the river that are now occupied by water only during

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

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

Elevation2,520feet. Col. W. F. Cody ("Buffalo Bill") started with Alexis, 

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

and others for a buffalo hunt over the prairies. 

Just before entering Gothenburg the train crosses a large irrigation 

canal, and farther west such canals are seen in many places. The

bottom lands are devoted to the cultivation of crops, 

Gothenburg. and the higher land or general surface of the Great 

Elevation 2,561 feet. Plains, at considerable distances both north and south

°f the road> is used largelJ for grazing. Here, as at 

almost every other town along the railroad, may be 

seen elevators, tall buildings used for storing grain.

West of the town is a prominent ridge of sand hills, which the road 

skirts for many miles. Their barren aspect is in strong contrast with 

the appearance of the productive bottom lands. This is a part of the 

great sand-hill district which covers nearly a fourth of Nebraska. 

The sand is probably derived by disintegration from the Tertiary 

beds and was heaped into hills by the wind at a tune when the surface 

was not well protected by vegetation. The movement of the sand 

is checked by the spread of vegetation, especially the bunch grass 

that grew here generally before the advent of the white man. Where 

this protecting cover has been destroyed for any reason, such as 

overstocking, and the sand is exposed, movement begins again and 

dunes and blow-outs are produced by the winds.

South of the river, about 5 miles from the railroad but plainly 

visible from the train, are steep slopes and bluffs rising .abruptly to a 

plain that lies 200 feet or more above the bottom lands. There is 

a notable contrast between the lands along the river and these bluffs, 

which parallel the railroad for many miles. The slope is notched
GEOLOGIC AND TOPOGRAPHIC MAP

OF THE

OVEBLAND EOTJTE

From Omaha, Nebraska, to San Francisco, Californ.a

Base compiled from United States Geological Survey Atlas Sheets, 

from railroad alignments and profiles supplied by the Union Pacific 

Railroad Cozupanj' and the Southern Pacific Company and from additional Information collected with the assistance of these companies

UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURYEY

GEORGE OT1S SMITH, DIRECTOR 

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

1915

Each quadrangle shown on the map with a name in. parenthesis in the 

lower left comer is mapped in detail on the U. S. G. S. Topographic 

sheet of that name.

BULLETIN 612 SHEET No. 4

100° 99V NEBRASKA

Lr'

Scale 500,000 

Approximately 8 miles to 1 inch 

5 10 15 20 Miles

10 15 20 2.6 aoKilometsrs 

Contour interval 200 feet

ELEVATIONS IN FEET ABOVE MEAN SEA LEVEJTke distances from Omaha, Nebraska, are shown every 10 miles 

The crossties on the railroads are spaced 1 mile apart

40

100°

EXPLANATION

The rock formations indicated on this map can not he seen from the train. 

They are covered by recent stream deposits (alluvium). Information about 

them is derived largely from distant exposures and from well borings

__________________ I _________

, _;-,__ _
THE OVERLAND ROUTE COUNCIL BLUFFS TO OGDEN. 29

deeply by canyons with precipitous walls of loess nearly 200 feet 

thick, which is overlain by sand and gravel containing pebbles of rock 

brought by the streams in past ages from the Rocky Mountains.

West of Gothenburg the train passes Vroman, Brady Island, 

Hindrey, Maxwell, Keith, and Gannett before entering North Platte.

The city of North Platte (see sheet 5, p. 30), the seat of Lincoln 

County and the chief commercial center of western Nebraska, stands 

at the junction of North Platte and South Platte 

North Platte. rivers. It is hi the middle of an irrigation district, 

Elevation 2,800 feet, where sugar beets, hay, and other farm products are 

om^a? miles. raised. About 1,000,000 tons of hay is shipped 

annually from this town to the mountain markets. 

Here are a United States land office and a station of the United States 

Weather Bureau, and 4 miles south of the city there is a State experimental farm.

North Platte is a railroad division point. Here the railroad maintains extensive shops and an icing plant, said to be one of the largest 

in the United States, where more than 10,000 cars of fruit and other 

edibles are iced annually. The plant may be seen to the left by the 

westbound traveler as he leaves the station. At tjiis station the 

change is made from central time to mountain time, one hour earlier.

Just before entering the city the train crosses North Platte River, 

which generally carries a considerable volume of water. The 

South Platte is dry except during times of floods, because its water 

is used for irrigation farther upstream. The North Platte is 650 

miles long and drains about 28,500 square miles. At North Platte 

it has a maximum discharge of about 20,000 cubic feet a second and a 

minimum discharge of 70 cubic feet a second. Its average volume of 

flow during the nine months from March to November is 3,490 cubic 

feet a second.

Southeast of the city are prominent bluffs of loess, rising abruptly 

400 feet above the bottom lands. The loess is about 350 feet thick 

and lies on the "mortar beds" described on page 30.

West of North Platte there are many small towns and stations concerning which no information need be given except that shown on the 

accompanying maps. Many of the stations in Wyoming consist only 

of section houses, and some are nothing more than signposts.

Beyond North Platte the valley widens considerably, being the 

double valley of the two rivers, and the train passes for several miles 

through an irrigated district, in the center of which 

Hershey. stands Hershey. The fields in the bottom lands are 

Elevation 2,901 feet, called farms, but similar fields on the highlands are 

Omaha sos miles, called ranches. This'district is in the transition zone 

between the East, where each plot of rural ground is 

a farm, and the West, where each plot other than a town lot, regardless of size or uses, is a ranch. Although the term "ranch" is too
30 GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES.

dear to the heart of the western man to be easily replaced by the more 

homely term, the tendency in intensive development under irrigation 

is to speak of'' farms.''

Near Sutherland, between the rivers, about 6 miles west of Hershey, 

begins a narrow ridge which toward the west gradually develops into 

a broad table-land. From Dexter to Ogalalla the South Platte and 

the railroad are close to the bluffs bordering, this table-land. This 

stretch of the river bed is dry most of the year, all the water being 

used for irrigation farther upstream.

Here and at other places where the bluffs come close to the river 

many travelers in the days of the Overland Trail suffered from attacks 

by Indians and white outlaws, who would swoop down unexpectedly 

from their hiding places in the hills to murder and plunder. It is 

difficult for the modern traveler surrounded by the luxuries of the 

railway train to realize the hardships and dangers endured by the 

men and women of indomitable courage and energy who under such 

conditions invaded and finally conquered the West.

Beyond Dexter the train passes the station called Paxton before 

reaching the town of Ogalalla.

Ogalalla (see sheet 6, p. 34) is a name used by the Brule Sioux, a 

powerful and warlike tribe which under Chief Spotted Tail is said 

to have included 10,000 warriors. About 25 miles 

northwest of the town is Ash Hollow, where Gen. 

Harney defeated these Indians in 1859. In the early 

days of the Union Pacific Railroad Ogalalla was notorious for its lawlessness and for.the pranks of cowboys. It was the point to which great herds of Texas cattle were 

driven across Oklahoma, Kansas, and Colorado, to be loaded on the 

cars for shipment to the eastern markets.

The town lies between the river channel and the rocky bluffs, which 

are well exposed for several miles to the east. Although the river 

bed is dry most .of the year water can always be found in the sand 

just below the surface. This supply has been utilized for irrigation 

at Ogalalla by means of an underflow channel or underground drain 

into which the water finds its way, to 'emerge farther downstream 

upon the lands to be irrigated. The bluffs consist of beds of sand 

and gravel cemented together in some places into a relatively hard 

rock, locally known as "mortar beds." This name is expressive of 

the appearance and character of the rock, which resembles masses 

of sand and pebbles mixed with mortar. In these rocks are found 

fossil bones and teeth of extinct mammals. The rocks constitute 

the Ogalalla formation. 1

1 The Ogalalla formation consists mainly Union Pacific Railroad as far west as Pine

of sand and gravel, cemented in some Bluff and occurs in large areas in western

places by carbonate of lime into a resistant Kansas and Nebraska and eastern Coloconglomerate. It crops out along the rado. This formation is widely distribOgalalla.

Elevation 3,211 feet. 

Population 643. 

Omaha 341 miles.
BULLETIN 612 SHEET No. 5 

_______ NEBRASKA

GEOLOGIC AND TOPOGRAPHIC MAP

OF THE

OVERLAND ROUTE

From Omaha, Nebraska, to San Francisco, California

Base compiled from United States G-eological Survey Atla,s Sheets, 

from railroad alignments and profiles supplied by the Union Pacific 

Bailroad Company and the Southern Pacific Company and from additional information collected, with the assistance of these companies

UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY

G-EOBaE OTIS SMITH, DIBECTOR 

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

1915

Bach quadrangle shown on the map with a name in parenthesis in the 

lower left corner is mapped in detail on the U. S. G. S. Topographic 

sheet of that name.

EXPLANATION 

Tertiary rocks covered in valley of the Platte by recent river 6

500.000

Approximately 8 miles to 1 inch 

IO 15

Contour interval 200 feet

ELEVATIONS IfJ FEET ABOVE MEAN S&l LEVEL

The distances from Omaha, Nebraska, are shown eveiy 10 miles 

The crossties on the railroads are spaced 1 mile apart
THE OVERLAND ROUTE COUNCIL BLUFFS TO OGDEN. 31

Brule.

Elevation 3,286 feet. 

Population 410. 

Omaha 352 miles.

The village of Brule is named for the Brule Sioux Indians, who once 

inhabited this region. The French word brule, which means burnt, 

seems to have been applied by the early French Canadian trappers to these Indians because of the burnt 

appearance of their painted faces. Also, for some 

reason not now known, the Indians called themselves 

"The Burned Thighs."

- Four miles west of the town is California Hill, where the original

California trail left the

South Platte and crossed

the low table-land to

North Platte River.

^ Until 1860 the emigrants

1 went up this river around

the north end of the Laramie Mountains and over

the Continental Divide

at South Pass. But when the United States soldiers were called

east at the beginning of the Civil War the northern Indians became

f so aggressive that emigrants chose the less dangerous route up the

FIGURE 5. Sketch profile of the bluffs near Brule, Nebr., showing relation of the Ogalalla formation to the overlying beds of 

coarse sand and gravel, on which rest thick beds of loess.

uted over the Great Plains. Along the 

Union Pacific it lies on the Brule clay, a 

formation of Oligocene (Tertiary) age,

the intervening formations heing absent 

here. Its relations are indicated in the 

following table:

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

Period.

Quaternary.

Tertiary.

' Epoch.

Recent.

Pleistocene. 

(Great Ice Age.)

Pliocene.

Miocene.

Oligocene.

Life.

Age of man.

Age of mammals.

Group and formation.

Flood-plain deposits.

Loess and gravel.

Ogalalla formation.

Arikaree formation.

Gering formation.

White River group: 

Brule clay. 

Chadron formation.

The Ogalalla formation is overlain by 

coarse sand and gravel similar to that in 

the river bed at the present time, and

this in turn is covered with the loess that 

clothes the highlands. The relations are 

indicated by the sketch profile, figure 5.
32 GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN" UNITED STATES.

South Platte Valley and through southern Wyoming. It was this 

southern fork of the Overland Trail that the Union Pacific followed 

and that recently has been chosen for the Lincoln Highway. 1

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

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

Here in 1877 there was a bold train robbery, after

Big Springs, Nebr. wnjcnj by an equally bold movement of the authori*

Elevation 3,367 feet. ftes. the robbers were overtaken and killed in a fight.

Population 665. ' . . . °

Omaha 360 miles. Geologically the pi ac e is of interest as marking the 

western limit of the thick loess and underlying 

gravels previously described. North of Big Springs these deposits 

terminate by abutting against a sharp rise of the Ogalalla formation, 

and farther west this formation occupies the surface. About 8 miles 

west of this station the road dips southward into Colorado, in which 

it runs for 10 miles before returning to Nebraska.

At Julesburg, in northeastern Colorado, the Union Pacific Railroad 

forks, one branch extending up South Platte River to 

Denver and the other or main line turning northwestward up Lodgepole Creek. At this point passengers 

intending to travel by way of the scenic route of the 

Denver & Rio Grande Railroad through the Rocky 

Mountains take the Denver branch. 

Gen. Dodge writes:

No town on the western plains has had a more checkered or exciting history than has 

Julesburg. It has been built on four different sites. In the days of the overland 

emigration a fort was established here and garrisoned with soldiers to protect travelers 

from the Indians. Old Julesburg, the first, was located about 1 mile east of the fort, 

on the south bank of the river at the old ford crossing. It was sacked and burned 

by the Indians February 2,1865. In July following the great Sioux war broke out, 

and from that time on till peace was declared there was more Indian fighting in this 

vicinity than at any other station along the Platte Valley. During these times Maj. 

O'Brien says buffalo were more plentiful on the plains around Julesburg than the vast 

herds of native cattle were in later years. * * *

A second Julesburg was built 4 miles east of the fort. This was moved to the north 

side of the river, where the town of Weir now stands, and at one time was the terminus 

of the Union Pacific Railroad and contained 7,000 poeple. Here the desperado element held sway until the better class of citizens organized themselves into a vigilance 

committee and by their just but necessarily severe verdicts and punishments rid the 

town of these lawless frontiermen and established a peaceful government.

Julesburg, Colo.

 Elevation 3,465 feet. 

Population 962. 

Omaha 372 miles.

1 The Lincoln Highway, designed as a 

memorial to Abraham Lincoln, is to be 

an improved thoroughfare extending 

across the continent from New York to 

San Francisco by the shortest practicable 

route. It will be 3,389 miles long and 

will traverse 13 States. The route was 

laid out and announced by proclamation 

in 1913 by the Lincoln Highway Association, whose headquarters are in Detroit, 

Mich., and the work of improving it is 

progressing rapidly under the direction of 

local committees. The distinctive red, 

white, and blue pole markers now cover 

about 90 per cent of the route, which is 

already used by numerous touring parties. 

Between Omaha and San Francisco it 

follows the Overland Trail.
THE OVERLAND ROUTE COUNCIL BLUFFS TO OGDEN. 33

At that time an Indian would trade a buffalo robe for a cup of 

sugar or a yard of red flannel. Buffalo skulls were used as tablets and 

signposts along the trail. A skull may be seen to-day in the Commercial Club in Salt Lake City with the inscription, "Pioneers camped 

here June 3, 1847, making fifteen miles a day; all well. Brigham 

Young."

Julesburg was an important stage station on the Overland Route 

in 1865 and as a supply point was the subject of much attention from 

the Indians. The station was named after one Jules, agent for Ben 

Holladay's stage line. He was killed by J. A. Slade, a"'noted desperado, who fought both for and against law and order and whose 

career is set forth in Mark Twain's " Roughing it."

FIGURE 6. Typical sand dune with blow-out in its top, illustrating tho depressions formed by the wind in 

the sand-dune country, where the sand is loose enough to be easily shifted.

Just beyond Julesburg the main line leaves tho South Platte Valley 

and, turning northward up Lodgepole Creek, reenters Nebraska. At 

the turn of the road near Weir is a group of sand hills showing 

characteristic blow-outs * or hollows formed by the wind. (See fig. 6.) 

Lodgepole Creek takes its name from the fact that here the Indians 

formerly obtained the poles about which they stretched the skins or 

canvas to form their tents or tepees. Very little timber can be seen 

now in any part of the valley that is traversed by the Union Pacific. 

The train passes several stations and small towns Weir, Ralton, 

Chappell, Perdu, Lodgepole, Sunol, and Colton between Julesburg 

and Sidney.

1 These blow-outs, some of which occut' 

in the tops of the hills like craters in a volcano, are produced by the wind wherever 

it gets a chance to lift the sand. The 

exposed tops of the dunes are especially 

favorable places. The protecting cover 

of growing vegetation becomes broken, 

perhaps by a badger burrowing out a 

92213° Bull. 612 15 3

home for his family or by a coyote digging 

out a gopher for his breakfast. The wind 

blows out the loose sand, the sides of the 

hole cave in and make more loose sand to 

be blown out, and this process goes on 

until the blow-out is so deep that the 

wind can no longer lift the sand over its
34 GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN" UNITED STATES.

Sidney, Nebr.

Elevation 4,090 feet. 

Population 1,185. 

Omaha 414 miles.

Just before entering Sidney (see sheet 7, p. 36) the train passes 

under the tracks of a branch of the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy 

Railroad that runs from Denver to Alliance, in western Nebraska. The valley here is confined between 

bluffs composed at the top of an impure limestone, 

called "mortar beds." These .bluffs are prominent 

near Sidney, where the rock is used as a building 

stone. It has furnished material for the depot and for many of the 

business blocks and public buildings in Sidney and neighboring towns. 

Were it not for the pebbles of harder rock that are embedded in it 

and make ^cutting difficult, it might be a valuable building stone. 

The "mortar beds" constitute the lower part of the Ogalalla formation and rest with uneven base on the Brule clay. Both these 

formations contain fossil bones of extinct mammals.1

1 The fossils found in the Ogalalla 

formation show that western Nebraska 

was inhabited in late Miocene time by 

animals of very different types from those 

living there now, and also that very different physical conditions prevailed at 

that time. In place of the dry, barren 

plains of to-day there were numerous 

streams and swampy lowlands. The fossils of the Ogalalla and Arikaree formations are not greatly different and will 

be described together. Both these formations were spread out over a great plain, 

and it is not surprising to find in them 

the bones of plains or running animals, 

such as camels, horses, and deer, as well 

as of those that inhabited rivers, bayous, 

and marshes. Some of the horses were 

as large as small ponies and were more 

modern in appearance than their diminutive Oligocene and Eocene ancestors. 

They were also more numerous than their 

ancestors, and their fossil forms represent 

several widely different species.

The Arikaree contains great numbers of 

bones of a peculiar type of animals 

called chalicotheres. They were larger 

than a large horse and had a horselike 

head, long front legs, and shorter hind 

legs, but every foot had three toes, each 

of which in place of a hoof bore an 'enormous claw. One of the forms, known as 

Moropus (see PI. VI, C, "p. 40), was 

strangely grotesque. An equally strange

form of Miocene time is a deerlike animal called Syndyoceras (see PI. VI, D), 

whose headdress equaled or outdid in 

grotesqueness that of its Oligocene ancestor Protoceras (see PI. VII, E, p. 41). 

Its head somewhat resembled that of an 

antelope but was longer and had four 

horns, the larger pair, over .the eyes, 

curving inward and the smaller pair, 

nearer the muzzle, curving outward. 

Although these are called horns, they 

were really bony protuberances and were 

probably not sheathed in real horn.

Camels were common in North America 

during the Miocene epoch, and several 

forms have been found. Those of one 

genus (Procamelus) were about the size 

of sheep and are supposed to be the ancestors of modern camels and llamas. 

Others were large and had long necks 

like the giraffe (see PI. VI, E). All these 

ancient camels had hoofs like cattle, 

not cushioned feet like those of the camels of the present day.

Rhinoceroses were abundant in Miocene time. Hundreds of specimens of 

Teleoceras, a very heavy bodied, shortlimbed type (see PI. VI, J.),have been 

found. The proboscidians, of which the 

elephant is the best-known type and the 

only living representative, became prominent during the Miocene epoch, when a 

large mastodon called Trilophodon was 

common.
SULLETiN 612 SHEET No. 6

GEOLOGIC AND TOPOGRAPHIC MAP

OF THE

OVEELAND EOUTE

From Omaha, Nebraska, to San Francisco, California

Base compiled from United States Geological Survey Atlas Sheets, 

from railroad alignments and proflles supplied by the Union Pacific 

Railroad Company and the Southern Pacific Gorapany and from additional information collected with the assistance of these companies

UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY

GEORGE OTIS SMITH, DIRECTOR 

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

1915

Each quadrangle shown on the map un'th a name in parenthesis in the 

lower left corner is mapped in detail on the U. S. G. S. Topographic 

sheet of that name.

102 NEBRASKA-COLORADO

Scale ov"" e500.000 500.000 

Approximately 8 miles to 1 inch

? .... '9 .... l5 .

Th

10 is 20Miles 

o 5 10 15 20 2B soKilometers 

Contour interval 200 feet

ELEVATIONS IN FEET ABOVE MEAN SEA LEVEL

'te distances from Omaha, Nebraska, are shown every JO miles 

The crossties on the railroads are spaced 1 mile apart

!OI V
THE OVERLAND ROUTE COUNCIL BLUFFS TO OGDEN. 35

Kimball.

Elevation 4,704 feet. 

Population 454. 

Omaha 451 miles.

Sidney came into prominence in 1868, when a x military post was 

established here to protect emigrants and railroad builders from the 

Sioux and Pawnee Indians, the two powerful tribes of western 

Nebraska. This post was maintained until 1894. Sidney was the 

point from which freight was hauled to the Black Hills until that 

region was supplied from railroads running much nearer to it than the 

Union Pacific.

Beyond Sidney the trains pass several stations and small towns 

Margate, Brownson, Herdon, Potter, Jacinto, Dix, and Owasco (all 

shown on sheet 7) before reaching Kimball (see sheet 8, p. 38).

West of Sidney the "mortar beds" of the Ogalalla formation, 

which continue to make conspicuous bluffs north of the track in 

many places, contain the fossil bones of many animals. 1 These have been described by Prof. W. B. 

Scott, Prof. H. F. Osborn, and others. In these 

bluffs below the cap rock may be seen the Brule clay, 

the youngest formation of the White River group, 2 

of Oligocene (Tertiary) age. (See table on p. 31.) The exposures 

in the Lodgepole Valley are not so conspicuous as those in the North 

Platte Valley, a little farther north, owing to the covering of grass 

which protects the surface from erosion. In the North Platte Valley 

badlands are developed at many places on the Brule clay, and curious 

buttes, remnants of this clay, have been left by erosion, such as those 

known as The Jail (PL VII, A, p. 41) and Chimney Rock, which 

served as a landmark to many emigrants in the early days.

After leaving Kimball the train passes Oliver and Bushnell 

before reaching Smeed. The "mortar beds" which were observed 

farther east at the top of the bluffs descend .to 

the valley floor west of Kimball and are not conspicuous, but west of Smeed they rise again in bluffs, 

become more prominent, and terminate in Pine 

Bluffs. Just west of Oliver, which is only a signpost, may be seen 

to the left (south of the railroad) a small reservoir for the storage of 

irrigation water, which is used in the valley farther downstream.

Just before entering Pine Bluffs the traveler sees to the right, north 

of the track, a stone monument marking the boundary between 

Nebraska and Wyoming.

Smeed, Nebr.

1 See footnote on, p. 34.

2 The White River group, which has 

been studied mainly in the bad lands 

southeast of the Black Hills, has long 

been a favorite collecting ground of the 

paleontologist. Fossil bones have been 

found in many parts of the group, and

those of certain animals are so abundant 

as to give their names to the rocks containing them, such as Titanotherium 

beds, Oreodon beds, and Protoceras 

sandstone. More complete information 

on these fossils may be found in the works 

of Profs. Scott and Osborn. (See p. 230.)
36 GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES.

Wyoming is a State of large resources, whose development has 

only begun. Within its 97,594 square miles lie the most extensive 

coal fields and the most productive known oil fields 

Wyoming. of the Rocky Mountain region, thousands of acres of 

irrigated and dry-farming lands, and extensive 

areas of splendid stock range; moreover, some of the finest hunting 

and fishing in the United States can be found within its borders. 

Although the precipitation averages only 12^ inches a year, the many 

irrigated areas are highly productive, and the success which dry 

farming has here and there attained seems to indicate that a 

still larger area may be brought under that kind of cultivation. 

An index of the crops that may be raised is the fact that irrigated 

oats running 45 pounds to the bushel are by no means uncommon. 

(The average weight of a bushel of oats is 32 pounds.) The value of 

the State's agricultural crops for 1914 is roughly estimated by the 

Department of Agriculture at $22,000,000.

Noted in the early days as the range of the " cattle king," Wyoming 

has in recent years become even better known as the home of the 

"sheep baron." It has attained first rank among the United Staies 

in the sheep industry, the number of sheep in the State on January 

1, 1915, being estimated by the Department of Agriculture at 

'4,427,000, valued at $20,807,000. It should not be understood, 

however, that the cattle industry has vanished, for the State still 

ranks high as a cattle producer.

Among the mineral products of the State coal is preeminent. Its 

coal fields cover about 41,500 square miles (42 per cent of the State's 

area), and contained originally about 670,723,100,000 tons. Of 

this quantity only 178,000,000 tons (about one-fortieth of 1 per 

cent) has been exhausted, so that there remains in the ground the 

enormous amount of 670,545,100,000 tons. The production in 

1913 was 7,393,066 tons, valued at $11,510,045.

The second in value of production among the mineral resources is 

oil, of which 2,406,522 barrels, valued at $1,187,232, was produced 

in 1913. The production in 1914 amounted to about 4,600,000 

barrels, equal to more than 60 per cent of the production of Pennsylvania for the same year, and places Wyoming, whose oil fields are 

newly discovered and only partly developed, in the ninth place 

among the oil-producing States of the Union.

Other minerals, including gold, copper, iron, gypsum, limestone, 

sandstone, marble, brick clay, and mineral waters, brought the value 

of the State's mineral production in 1913 up to $13,682,091. Among 

the undeveloped resources are bituminous shale, volcanic ash, 

graphite, asphaltum, manganese ores, bentonite, tin, salt, bismuth, 

and, perhaps most important, phosphate rock, on which the future 

of American agriculture may largely depend. It is estimated that
BULLETIN 612 SHEET No. 7

GEOLOGIC AND TOPOGRAPHIC MAP

OF THE

OVERLAND ROUTE

From Omaha, Nebraska, to San Francisco, California

Base compiled fi-om United States Geological Survey Atlas Sheets, 

from railroad alignments and profiles supplied by the Union Pacific 

Bailroad Company and the Southern Pacific Company and from additional Information collected, with the assistance of these companies

UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY

GEORGE OTIS SMITH, DIRECTOR 

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

1915

Bach quadrangle shown on the map with a name in parenthesis in the 

lower left corner is mapped in detail on the If. S. C. S. Topographic 

sheet of that name.

The Tertiary rocks exposed in the bluffs are the Brule clay 

below and the Ogalalla formation above

Contour interval 200 feet

!N FEET ABOVE MEAN SEA LEVEL

The distances from Omaha, Nebraska, are shown every 10 miles 

The crossties or. the railroads are spaced 1 mile apart
THE OVERLAND ROUTE COUNCIL BLUFFS TO OGDEN. 37

more than 1,250,000 acres in Wyoming are underlain by workable 

phosphate deposits, a phosphate area greater than that of any other 

State.

Finally, the scenic resources of Wyoming must not be forgotten, 

the grandeur of the Bighorn and Wind River mountains and the 

Tetons being excelled only by the wonders of Yellowstone Park. 

Thus the State of Wjroming is of interest in its agriculture, stock 

growing, mining, hunting, fishing, and natural beauty.

The town of Pine Bluffs takes its name from the prominent bluffs

of'' mortar beds " near by, on which grow a few stunted

Pine Bluffs, Wyo. pme trees. A tree is so rare on these sun-parched

Elevation 5,043 feet, plains that these pines seem to have been thought

Population 246. r . r . . , ... ^

Omaha 473 miles. WOP thy oi commemoration in naming the ridge. The 

bluffs may be seen for a long distance north and 

south of the road and mark the western edge of the Ogalalla formation.

The Arikaree formation 1 underlies the Ogalalla formation near 

Pine Bluffs and extends thence westward to Granite Canyon, a distance of 62 miles. It consists mainly of sand loosely cemented into 

a soft sandstone that contains limestone concretions. These are 

due to the growth of calcite crystals and usually occur in layers connected to form irregular sheets.

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

and Burns.

Near Hillsdale station the traveler gets his first glimpse of the 

Rocky Mountains. To the west may be seen the dark summits of 

the Laramie Range formerly called the Black Hills 

and farther south, 60 miles away, is visible in ordiEievation 5,034 feet. nariiy clear weather the snow-covered top of Longs

Omaha 496 miles. T* -,-, , P

Peak (altitude 14,255 feet) and other high mountains 

of the Front Range of the Rockies.

Durham and Archer are stations between Hillsdale and Cheyenne.

Hillsdale.

1 The Arikaree formation underlies a 

large part of western Nebraska and eastern 

Wyoming and is widely distributed in 

neighboring regions. These deposits appear to have been spread out by streams 

over the low-lying plains. No place in 

North America now exhibits the physical 

conditions supposed to have existed in 

Nebraska and Wyoming when these sediments were being deposited, but similar 

conditions have been reported as prevailing now in central South America, where

every year a plain of some 60,000 square 

miles is converted during the rainy season 

into a labyrinth of lakes, ponds, swamps, 

channels, and islands. On these islands 

the animals gather and great numbers of 

them perish. Large quantities of fossil 

bones are found in small .areas in the 

White River beds. These areas have been 

called "fossil graveyards" and are supposed to represent'' concentration camps " 

of Tertiary time similar to the isles of refuge of the present day in South America.
38 GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES.

Cheyenne.

Elevation 6,058 feet. 

Population 11,320. 

Omaha 516 miles.

The capital of Wyoming, Cheyenne (see sheet 9, p. 50), is 516 miles 

west of Omaha and nearly a mile higher. It is rich in memories of 

the -"Wild West," memories which its inhabitants 

delight in perpetuating, for every year they hold one 

of the most picturesque gatherings in the country, 

known as "Frontier Days Celebration," at which 

Indians, cowboys, and plainsmen from all parts of 

the West, from Canada to Texas, gather for "broncho busting," 

steer tying, Indian dances, and the exhibition of all the unique and 

characteristic features of frontier life. And here gather from far and 

near spectators to see these performances.

Fort Russell, one of the larger Army posts, may be seen to the right, 

north of the railroad, as the train leaves Cheyenne. The city is supplied with water from reservoirs fed by springs that issue from the 

granite of the Laramie Mountains in Crow Creek canyon. Three 

miles east of the city the Union Pacific crosses the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad, and a mile west of it the train passes under the 

tracks of the Colorado & Southern. A little farther west, at Corlett, 

a branch turns south from the main line, running to Denver, where 

the westbound traveler can connect with the Denver & Rio Grande 

Railroad. 1

From Cheyenne the main line climbs a long, graded incline formed 

by the Arikaree beds, which extend far up the slope of the Laramie 

Mountains, where they abut against the foothills of the older sedimentary rocks or overlap the eroded edges of these rocks and the still 

older granite. (See fig. 7, p. 42.) The Arikaree and the underlying 

deposits were here probably tilted to some extent after deposition, but 

the large bowlders contained in them prove tihat the streams had a 

steep descent and were swift and powerful. The character of the 

Arikaree may be seen in the numerous cuts along the railroad and in 

the bordering bluffs of the valleys, which are plainly visible to the 

right, north of the incline. In these bluffs may be seen below the 

Arikaree the rocks of the Gering formation and of the White River 

group the Brule clay and the Chadron formation which contain 

fossil bones of Oligocene animals.2 The Brule clay may be distinguished from the train as long barren slopes just below the cliffs.

1 The branch from Cheyenne to Denver 

runs parallel with the Front Range of 

the Rocky Mountains, but at so great a 

distance that these mountains do not 

appear particularly impressive. It passes 

through a prosperous agricultural district 

in which are situated Eaton, Greeley, 

Brighton, and other towns. In this district the waters of the South Platte, the 

Thompson, the Cache la Poudre, and other

smaller streams are diverted for irrigation, 

and from it great quantities of potatoes, 

beet sugar, canned fruits, vegetables, and 

farm and dairy products are shipped to 

market.

2 The Oligocene epoch seems to have 

been one of relative quiescence compared with the Eocene, which was characterized by impressive volcanic activity 

and by the building of great mountain
BULLETIN 612 SHEET No. 8

GEOLOGIC AND TOPOGRAPHIC MAP

OF THE

OVEELAND EOUTE

From Omaha, Nebraska, to San Francisco, California

Base compiled from United States Geological Survey Atlas Sheets, 

from railroad alignments and profiles supplied hy the Union Pacific 

Railroad Company and the Southern Pacific Company and from additional information collected, with the assistance of these companies

UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY

GEORGE OTIS SMITH, DIRECTOR 

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

1915

Each quadrangle shown on the map with a name in parenthesis in the 

lower left comer is mapped in detail on the U. S. G, S. Topographic 

sheet of that name.

NEBRASKA-WYOMING

1

The Tertiary rocks exposed in the bluffs east of Tracy belong 

mainly to the Ogalalla formation, those west of the bluffs to the 

Arikaree formation which is older

I

BOUNDARY!

LINE COLORADO

500.000 

Approximately 8 miles to 1 inch

5 10 15

Contour interval 200 fee!

ELEVATIONS IN FEET ABOVE MEAN SKA LEVEL

The distances from Omaha, Nebraska, ere shown every 10 mites. 

The crossties on the railroads are spaced 1 mile apart
THE OVERLAND ROUTE COUNCIL BLUFFS TO OGDEN. 39

Otto.

Elevation 6,946 feet. 

Omaha 530 miles.

The stations Corlett and Borie are passed between Cheyenne and

Otto. 

From several places near Otto station good views of the Front

Range of the Rocky Mountains may be obtained to the left (south). 

Longs Peak is plainly visible, as well as the more 

massive and scarcely less elevated mountains north 

of it. Toward the right (north) the foothills east of 

the Laramie Range form conspicuous ridges that are

plainly visible from the train. They consist of sedimentary rocks

upturned to a nearly vertical position. These rocks range in

systems. The Oligocene formations are 

among the most widespread and most 

regularly distributed of the Tertiary formations of the Great Plains and cover a 

vast area in Nebraska and Wyoming. 

The sediments composing them were 

deposited by streams that meandered over 

low-lying plains and slowly built up the 

surface, much as the lower Mississippi is 

now building its delta or the Platte its 

flood plain, over which the train has just 

passed. Some of the old stream channels 

can be recognized by the filling of consolidated sand and gravel.

The plains country of Nebraska and 

eastern Wyoming was low during Oligocene time and the divides between the 

streams were not high enough to prevent 

flooding during high water. The whole 

country was virtually a great flood plain 

on which accumulated the sediments 

that the rivers brought from the mountains. With these sediments occur beds 

of pure volcanic ash, which must have 

been carried by the wind or floated by the 

streams for long distances. The volcanoes that had been so active in western 

America during the Eocene epoch had not 

ceased their eruptions indeed, they have 

not yet become entirely extinct, as is testified by the recent outburst of Lassen 

Peak, in northern California, although 

throughout later Tertiary and Quaternary 

time their fires have been gradually going 

out.

The lower Oligocene or Chadron formation is .often called the Titanotherium 

beds because' it contains bones of extinct 

mammals of that name. The titanotheres iormed a comparatively short-lived

family and seem to have been confined 

almost entirely to North America. Their 

remains are the most numerous and conspicuous fossils found in the lower Oligocene beds in western America. They 

were clumsy brutes of elephantine size 

having on the front of the skull a pair of 

great bony protuberances, which although 

hornlike in form were probably not 

sheathed in horn. (See PI. VII, D, p. 41.) 

The head was long and large and of fantastic shape. In its thick heavy body 

and short, massive legs the titanothere 

resembled the modern rhinoceros. It 

was doubtless a sluggish, stupid beast, for 

its brain was small in comparison with, the 

size of its body. The brain cavity was 

only a few inches in diameter and was 

surrounded by thick bone, as if to withstand shocks in battle. The titanotheres 

were the most formidable animals of the 

tune, and though, so far as known, there 

were then no carnivores capable of doing 

them serious harm, yet they seem to have 

disappeared suddenly from North America. Their bones are not found in strata 

above a certain geologic horizon. The 

disappearance of a race of animals from 

any locality or even from the face of the 

earth does not necessarily require a long 

period of time. It is easily conceivable 

that the titanotheres were exterminated 

by some disease or that one of the physical 

changes which were so common in the 

West during Tertiary time made their life 

conditions here unfavorable and drove 

them to some other region, in which their 

remains have not yet been discovered.

-The animals of Oligocene time seem to 

have been abundant as well as varied in
40 GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES.

from Carboniferous to Cretaceous; the rocks of the most prominent 

ridge seen toward the north are those of the Casper formation 

and the less prominent ridges are formed by hard strata in the red 

beds .of the Chugwater formation (Triassic or Permian) and by the 

rocks here called the Cloverly formation, the upper part of which may 

represent' the Dakota sandstone of eastern Nebraska.1

kind. They had a somewhat more modern aspect than the animals that preceded 

them, for the processes of evolution had 

been active, and some of the primitive 

animals of Eocene time had developed 

into forms more nearly like those with 

which we are familiar now. Others seem 

to have left no descendants. Great numbers of Oligocene fossils have been found, 

and the life of the time is probably better 

known than that of any other epoch of the 

Tertiary period. Among the characteristic animals of this epoch were'primitive 

forms of rhinoceroses, peccaries, ruminants, camels, insectivores, and opossums. 

Some of the creodonts or flesh eaters of 

Eocene time had developed into true 

carnivores, including many forms of both 

doglike and catlike animals. The sabertoothed cats which later developed into 

the saber-toothed tiger, one of the most 

formidable enemies of primitive man, first 

appeared in the Oligocene.

The horses whose history began with the 

diminutive four-toed Eohippus continued 

in the Oligocene, where they are represented by many three-toed forms which 

were about as large as sheep. Hoglike 

animals were rather numerous, and 

although many of them were smaller than 

the modern swine some of them were very 

large. One of these, Archeotherium ingens 

(see PI. VII, C, p. 41), was a formidable 

beast with curious protuberances on its 

head, the use of which is not known. 

Rhinoceroses similar to those now found

in Africa and India lived in western 

America, and other rhinoceros-like animals known as anymodonts were abundant, but rhinoceroses did not reach their 

culmination in America until the Pleistocene epoch.

In addition to these animals of more 

modern appearance there were many that 

were so unlike anything now living that 

it is not possible to designate them by any 

common names. Among these are the 

animals of the protocerine group, of whose 

history little is known. They seem to 

have appeared suddenly in North America in Oligocene time and disappeared 

from this continent during the early part 

of the Miocene. They were deerlike 

creatures about the size of sheep. The 

head of the male was grotesquely ornamented with short bony protuberances 

and large scimitar-like tusks. Each front 

foot had four toes and each toe had a hoof 

like that of a deer or antelope. The supposed appearance of these curious animals 

is indicated in the restoration of one of the 

forms (Protoceras celer) reproduced in 

Plate VII, E.

1 The table on page 41 shows the geologic 

formations exposed in the vicinity of the 

Laramie Mountains near the Union 

Pacific Railroad in the order of their age, 

the oldest at the bottom and the youngest 

at the top. The position of these formations in the complete geologic time scale 

may be ascertained by comparison with 

the table on p. 2.
U. S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY BULLETIN 612 PLATE VI

ROCKS OF MIOCENE AGE AND RESTORATIONS OF ANIMALS THAT 

LIVED IN NORTH AMERICA DURING THE MIOCENE EPOCH.

A, SHORT-LIMBED RHINOCEROS, KNOWN AS TELEOCERAS, AN ANIMAL ABOUT 5 FEET HIGH 

(AFTER OSBORN); B, (a) MIOCENE MASTODON (TRILOPHODON PRODUCTUS) AND (5) PLEISTOCENE ELEPHANT (ELEPHAS IMPERATOR), AN ANIMAL NEARLY 15 FEET HIGH (AFTER 

OSBORN); C, MOROPUS ELASTUS, AN ANIMAL SOMEWHAT LARGER THAN THE MODERN HORSE 

(AFTER SCOTT); D, A FOUR-HORNED DEER (SYNDYOCERAS COOKI), ABOUT THE SIZE OF 

THE MODERN DEER (AFTER SCOTT); F., GIGANTIC GIRAFFE-CAMEL (ALTICAMELUS ALTUS), 

ABOUT 15 FEET HIGH (AFTER SCOTT); ! ', MIOCENE BEDS (ARIKAREE FORMATION) RESTING 

UNCONFORMABLY ON OLIGOCENE BEDS (BRULE CLAY) IN PAWNEE BUTTES, COLO.
U. S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY BULLETIN 612 PLATE VII

D. K.

ROCKS OF OLIGOCENE AGE AND RESTORATIONS OF ANIMALS THAT 

LIVED IN CENTRAL NORTH AMERICA DURING THE OLIGOCENE 

EPOCH.

A, JAIL ROCK, NORTH OF SIDNEY, IN WESTERN NEBRASKA, THE LOWER PART OF WHICH 

CONSISTS OF BRULE CLAY; B, AN AMERICAN RHINOCEROS (AFTER OSBORN); C, "GIANT 

PIGS," 3 OR 4 FEET HIGH (AFTER SCOTT); D, TITANOTHERES, ALMOST AS LARGE AS THE 

MODERN ELEPHANT (AFTER OSBORN); E, PROTOCERAS CELER, ANIMALS THE SIZE OF THE 

MODERN ANTELOPE (AFTER SCOTT).

B-E published by permission of The Macmillan Co.
THE OVERLAND ROUTE COUNCIL BLUFFS TO OGDEN. 41

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

of the Laramie Mountains.

Period and 

system.

Tertiary.

Tertiary (possibly including some 

Cretaceous).

Cretaceous.

Jurassic or Cretaceous.

Jurassic.

Triassic or Permian.

Carboniferous.

Archean.

Epoch and series.

Pliocene.

Miocene.

Oligocene.

Upper Cretaceous.

Lower Cretaceous.

Pennsylvanian.

Groups and formations.

East of Laramie Mountains.

Ogalalla formation..

Arikaree formation.

Gering formation.

White River group : Brule clay. 

Chadron formation.

Montana group: 

Fox Hills sandstone. 

Pierre shale. 

Colorado group: 

Niobrara limestone. 

Benton shale, including Mo wry 

shale.

Clover] y formation.

Morrison formation.

Sundance formation.

Chugwater formation.

Casper formation.

Granite (including Sherman granite), gneiss, 

and schist.

West of Laramio Mountains.

Not represented.

"Upper Laramie" formation.

' ' Lower Laramie " formation. 

Montana group: 

Lewis shale. 

Mesaverde formation. 

Steel e shale. 

Colorado group: 

Niobrara limestone. 

Benton shale, including Mo wry 

shale.

Cleverly formation.

Morrison formation.

Sundance formation.

Chugwater formation.

Forelle limestone. 

Satanka shale. 

Casper formation.

Granite (including Shermati granite), gneiss, 

and schist.
42 GUIDEBOOK OP THE WESTERN UNITED STATES.

On reaching the foothills the train passes through a cut made in gray 

massive limestone and red quartzose sandstone of the Casper formation, which inclines steeply toward the east. Another aspect of this 

formation may be seen to the left (south) of the railroad, where it 

makes a steep cliff above the granite against which it is inclined. On 

Mesa Mountain, a flat-topped table-land which may be seen to the 

right, the Casper formation is nearly horizontal and forms the top of 

the mesa.

The limestone of the Casper formation at Granite Canyon furnished 

lime that was used by the railroad during the period of construction. 

This limestone is nearly pure calcium carbonate (98 per cent CaC03 ), 

and on Horse Creek, 20 miles farther north, about 55,000 tons is 

quarried every year to be burned for lime at the beet-sugar factories 

in eastern Colorado, where it is used in refining the sugar.

FIGUKE 7. Tertiary sand and gravel overlying the truncated eroded edges of older rocks and forming the 

approach to the Laramie Mountains between Cheyenne and Granite Canyon utilized by the Union 

Pacific Railroad.

The ridge up which the train climbs in approaching the mountains 

is a remnant of the broad plain that once extended uniformly along 

the mountain front. The streams have made relatively little impression on the hard mountain rocks but have eroded away large 

parts of the soft Arikaree and other Tertiary beds of this plain, leaving the ridge as the one practicable route by which the railroad can 

ascend to the high table-land at the top of the Laramie Range.

The Tertiary sands and gravels of the 

ridge up which the train approaches the 

mountains form a thin covering over edges 

of older formations that range in age from 

Carboniferous to Cretaceous. The edges 

of the older formations are truncated 

that is, the originally flat strata were 

tilted and their edges cut off obliquely by 

erosion before the Tertiary deposits were 

laid down upon them. Such a relation is 

called an angular unconformity. The 

attitude of these older rocks is known 

from exposures in the valleys both north 

and south of this ridge, and the relations 

are shown in the accompanying sketch 

section (fig. 7). The oldest sedimentary 

formation here is the Casper, consisting of 

gray to white limestone and red sandstone. Next is the Chugwater formation,

which consists of red sandstone, red sandy 

shale, thin beds of limestone, and thick 

beds of gypsum. Unconformably on this 

lies the Sundance formation, consisting of 

sandstone and shale and containing 

marine fossils that denote Jurassic age. 

This is followed with apparent conformity 

by the Morrison formation, which is noted 

for its huge fossil reptiles. Upon the 

Morrison, and apparently conformable 

with it, lies the Cleverly formation, consisting of two sandstones separated by 

shale. The upper sandstone is probably 

equivalent in age to the Dakota sandstone 

and is therefore the base of the Upper 

Cretaceous series. Above the Cloverly 

in conformable succession lie the Benton 

shale, the Niobrara limestone, the Pierre 

shale, and the Fox Hills sandstone.
THE OVEEIAND ROUTE COUNCIL BLUFFS TO OGDEN. 43

This easy approach to the mountains was discovered in a peculiar 

manner. For more than two years engineers had searched in vain 

for a practicable grade by which the railroad might reacji the summit 

of the range. On one of their excursions in the valley of Crow Creek 

they discovered Indians between them and their escort of mounted 

soldiers. In their attempt to find a point where the cavalry could 

see their- signals for help the engineers reached the ridge, and in order 

to get to a place of safety they traveled down the ridge and found that 

it joined the plain east of the mountains without a break, This was 

just such a grade as they had been looking for, and further exploration 

showed that it was suitable for the road.

The station at Granite Canyon is built on granite porphyry, a

crystalline rock of igneous origin. This particular granite porphyry

is the oldest rock yet encountered on this route, being

Granite Canyon. of pre_Cambrian age. West of the station is a steep

sl°Pe cut ^ the Bmle clay> which Hes directly on the 

granite porphyry. This is the westernmost exposure

of this formation along the Union Pacific line. About 4 miles west of 

the Granite Canyon station, near Ozone, the road crosses a narrow 

strip of dark-colored granite gneiss, intruded ages ago into the older 

crystalline rock which constitutes the core of the Laramie Range.

From many points in the vicinity of Buford good views may be 

obtained of the high peaks of the Rocky Mountains far away to 

the left (south) and of the relatively low but rugged 

Sherman Mountains, a part of the Laramie Range, to 

Elevation 7,858 feet. foe* right. Two prominent points seen to the north

Omaha 543 miles. °, . \ * , 11,1

are called Iwm Mountains and are celebrated as one 

of the strongholds of the notorious desperado Slade.

At Buford is the quarry that-has furnished ballast for the Union 

Pacific from Omaha to Rock Springs, Wyo., a distance of more than 

800 miles. The quarry is in the crystalline rock of the Laramie 

Range, known as the Sherman granite. 1 At Buford this granite has

Buford.

1 The Sherman granite forms a great 

mass intruded into older rocks in preCambrian time. It is normally a coarsegrained rock composed chiefly of pink 

feldspar, glassy-looking quartz, black 

hornblende, and mica, which in mass give 

it a spotted appearance. According to 

report it contains some gold at Buford but 

not enough for profitable extraction; It 

shows considerable variation in texture, 

color, and composition. One of the commonest varieties is coarsely porphyritic, 

the feldspar standing out in crystals 1 to 

2 inches in length. Where the Union

Pacific Railroad crosses Dale Creek, west 

of Sherman, the granite is rich in epidote, 

a green mineral, which together with the 

red feldspar imparts to it a mottled red 

and green color. Although hard when 

unaltered the Sherman granite breaks up 

readily into a coarse gravelly soil under 

the influence of heat, cold, and the action 

of water, so that it forms smooth, round 

hills. Where the rock is firm it weathers 

along widely spaced joints and forms heaps 

of rounded bowlders, many of which may 

be seen from the train (PI. VIII, A), particularly west of Buford.
44 GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES.

Sherman.

Elevation 8,009 feet. 

Population li5.* 

Omaha 547 miles.

weathered to a depth of 50 feet or more. At the quarry the rock is 

loosened by heavy, charges of explosive, which shatter it to small 

fragments, and it is then loaded on the cars by steam shovels. This 

quarry is said to have furnished about 10,000 carloads of ballast 

every year for the last 14 years and is still in active operation. Ballast is-thus obtained at a cost of about 6 cents a ton, whereas the 

average cost of crushed rock used for railroad ballast is 49 cents.

Sherman, so named in honor of Gen. W. T. Sherman, is the highest 

point on the Laramie Range reached by the railroad. It is claimed 

that from this point on a clear day may be seen 

Pikes Peak, about 165 miles, and Longs Peak, 60 

miles to the south, and Elk Mountain, 100 miles to 

the west. The railroad was originally built about 2 

miles north of its present location and crossed- the 

divide at an altitude 237 feet higher than at present. On this old 

line a great stone monument was erected in honor of Hon. Oliver 

Ames and his brother Oakes, to whose energy and perseverance was 

largely due the construction of the Union Pacific Railroad.

The road here traverses the relatively flat summit of the' Laramie 

Range, on what has been described as the Sherman peneplain. 1 

Along the track here and elsewhere in the Laramie Mountains there 

are numerous board fences or windbreaks. The snow drifts badly in 

the winter, and these fences prevent drifts from forming on the track. 

Dale Creek is a point on the new line that crosses Sherman Hill at 

a point 237 feet lower than the^origuial crossing. This change not 

only saved the expense of climbing the heavy grades 

Dale Creek. but fa^ away with the famous Dale Creek Bridge, 

Elevation 7,918 feet, ^jch was 650 feet long and 135 feet high. It also 

Omaha 550 miles. . , i ,110,- n

involved some notable teats in engineering. Along 

the new line there are many deep cuts in which the Sherman granite

1 The uniform fineness and approximately uniform thickness of the Cretaceous sedimentary rocks on each side of 

the Laramie Range indicate that they 

once extended over the area now occupied by these mountains in other words, 

that the mountains did not exist during 

Cretaceous time. At the close of that 

period the region was uplifted and the 

Cretaceous as well as the still older stratified rocks were steeply upturned on the 

eastern flank and slightly upturned on 

the western flank of the mountains. Then 

followed a long period of erosion during 

the Eocene epoch, when the sedimentary 

rocks were worn away from the top of the 

mountains, except where they were preserved by being infolded within the granite, and the crystalline rocks underlying 

them were eroded to a nearly level surface, or peneplain.

At the close of the Eocene epoch the 

range was again elevated and renewed 

erosion attacked this planed surface, deriving from it in part at least the material 

of the Oligoceiie and Miocene deposits 

that border the range on the east. These 

deposits could not all have been derived 

from this area, however, for in some places 

they extend over parts of this peneplain. 

The present irregularities of the plain 

were probably produced in large measure 

by late Tertiary or Quaternary erosion, 

which developed the canyons and removed large parts of the Oligocene and 

Miocene deposits.
U. S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY BULLETIN 612 PLATE VIII

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

THE SHERMAN GRANITE.

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

The bed of the " lake," which contains water only in wet weather, is when dry covered with a white incrustation of salts, mostly alkali, left by the evaporation of the water.
U. 6. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY BULLETIN 612 PLATE IX

NATURAL MONUMENTS ON THE PLAIN NEAR RED BUTTES, WYO., ERODED FROM RED SANDSTONE OF THE CASPER FORMATION.

These monuments are 20 to 50 feet high.
THE OVERLAND ROUTE COUNCIL BLUFFS TO OGDEN. 45

Hermosa.

Elevation 7,862 feet. 

Omaha 554 miles.

may be seen to advantage, and a tunnel is driven 1,800 feet through 

a spur of the same granite 3 miles west of Dale Creek. One hill 

near this creek, known as Gibraltar Cone, 100 feet high above the 

grade line, was drilled and loaded with about 1,000 kegs of black 

powder and 1,000 pounds of dynamite, and on July 4, 1900, this 

charge was exploded,' blowing out the whole hill. The cuts are 

equaled by some of the great fills. The fill across Dale Creek is 900 

feet long and 120 feet high in its deepest part, and 500,000 cubic 

yards of rock was used in constructing the embankment.

The name of the next station, Hermosa, which is Spanish for beautiful, seems appropriate, as may be realized by a glance to the left, 

toward the west. Across the broad Laramie Basin, 1 

which the road enters at this point, the mountains 

rise in rugged grandeur, and near by may be seen 

natural monuments carved from red sandstone in 

many forms. Some of these are illustrated in Plate IX.

From a point near Hermosa the road has two lines to Laramie. 

The westbound trains run by way of Red Buttes, and the eastbound 

trains come from Laramie over an easier grade by way 

Red Buttes. Of Forelle' and Colores. Red Buttes is little more 

than a section house and takes its name from the 

natural monuments or buttes of red sandstone that 

are numerous in this vicinity (PL IX). From 

Hermosa to Red Buttes the route has lain on gently sloping red beds 

of Carboniferous age, consisting of the Casper formation, which was 

seen.east of the mountains; the Satanka shale, made up of red shale 

and gypsum; and the Forelle limestone. These strata are overlain in 

some places by deposits of gravel, and at one place, a mile southeast 

of Red Buttes station, by gypsite. (For description see p. 48.)

About a mile south of Red Buttes is a deposit of gypsum, 20 or 30 

feet thick, which is-being manufactured into cement plaster or impure 

plaster of Paris. It is of the form known as rock gypsum and is a

Elevation 7,300 feet. 

Population 110.* 

Omaha 564 miles.

1 The Laramie Basin as usually defined 

is 90 miles long and 30 miles in maximum 

width and has a surface elevation of 7,000 

to 7,500 feet. It is a hollow whose form is 

due to the general structure of the rocks 

that underlie it. It is overlooked by the 

Laramie Mountains on the east and the 

Medicine Bow Mountains on the west. 

These mountains are the northward continuation of the Rocky Mountain ranges 

of Colorado, the Laramie representing the 

Front Range and the Medicine Bow the 

north end of one of the inner ranges of the 

Rocky Mountains. The basin was formed

by the warping and tilting of the rocks 

during the several periods of upheaval, 

and has later been modified by erosion. 

The Big Hollow, a depression in the general basin a few miles west of Laramie, is 

9 miles long, 3 miles wide, and 200 feet 

deep. Other similar depressions are Big 

Basin, northwest of Laramie, Cooper Lake 

Basin, and many smaller hollows occupied by alkali lakes. The basin is partly 

drained by Laramie River, which crosses 

the Laramie Mountains through a deep 

ravine and finally joins North Platte 

River.
46 GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES.

Elevation 7,637 feet. 

Omaha 560 miles.

part of the Forelle formation. The most extensive gypsum deposits 

of this region occur at Red Mountain, 25 miles-farther southwest.

Other natural products of commercial importance in this region are 

volcanic ash/ bentonite,2 and soda.3

On the track used by eastbound trains between Laramie and 

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

the Carboniferous formations that are exposed near 

Colores. by The eastbound trains pass over these red rocks 

for about 10 miles. The rocks contain water under 

pressure, and many large springs issue from them 

along the foothills. A spring near Colores furnishes water to fill 

a 4-inch pipe. Another spring east of Laramie furnishes the city 

supply 3,000,000 gallons a day. About 4 miles south of the city 

spring there is another large spring, which supplies a fish hatchery.

Toward the southwest, across the Laramie Basin, good views are 

obtained of the Medicine Bow Mountains, which constitute the north 

end of one of the main ranges of the southern Rocky Mountains and 

are so high that they are covered with snow during much of the year. 

Jelm Mountain, the nearest of this group, is a mass of ancient schist

1 Beds of volcanic ash occur about 4 

miles south of Bed Buttes. They are 

reminders of the volcanoes that were 

formerly so active in the Rocky Mountain 

region, but the location of the particular 

volcanoes that furnished this ash is not 

known. The material is pure white, soft, 

and fine grained. It occurs in beds that 

are comparatively young that is, Tertiary or Quaternary. (See table on p. 2.) 

Volcanic ash is sometimes used as an 

abrasive, for scouring, polishing, or cleaning kitchen ware and other articles.

2 About 6 miles west of Red Buttes, on 

the northwest shore of Creighton Lake, is 

a bed of bentonite, 3 or 4 feet thick, 

which appears as a white band in the 

black Benton shale, from which bentonite 

derives its name. Bentonite is a variety of 

clay used chiefly to give body and weight 

to paper, but to some extent in a dressing 

for inflamed hoofs of horses, in antiphlogistine (a proprietary remedial'dressing), 

and as an adulterant of candies and drugs. 

It has notable powers of absorption, taking up about seven times its own volume 

of water. It absorbs twice as much 

glycerine as can be absorbed by diatomaceous earth, and for this reason has been 

suggested as a substitute for that material

in the manufacture of dynamite. Other 

beds of bentonite occur farther west. It 

was first mined in this region in 1888, but 

with the closing of the western paper 

mills in 1905 its production practically 

stopped.

3 Soda lakes occur near the Union Pacific line in Laramie Basin and at many 

places farther west. The waters of these 

lakes are strongly charged with sodium

sulphate, and along their edges lie thick 

deposits of this salt that has been precipitated from the water. (See PL VIII, B, 

p. 44.) Three of these deposits were 

worked prior to 1895. The lakes lie in 

depressions in Cretaceous shale that contains a variety of salts, some of which were 

derived from the sea water in which the 

shale accumulated. Waters issuing as 

springs from this shale take the salts into 

solution, and rain falling on the surface of 

the shale dissolves them and carries them 

into the lakes. Water can escape from 

the depressions only by evaporation, so 

the salts accumulate in them. The soda 

deposits near Laramie have received more 

attention than any similar deposits in 

Wyoming. They cover about 60 acres, 

and the soda ranges in thickness from 

1 foot to 16 feet.
THE OVEKLAND ROUTE COUNCIL BLUFFS TO OGDEN". 47

Laramie.

Elevation 7,145 feet. 

Population 8,237. 

Omaha 573 miles.

and granite gneiss brought up by faults and contains some minerals 

of special interest, among which are bismuth ores, allanite, and 

sperrylite.1

Laramie is the second city in population in Wyoming and is the 

center of large stock and manufacturing interests. The University 

of Wyoming, including the State Agricultural College, 

the School of Mines, the United States Experiment 

Station, the Wyoming State Normal School, the 

Wyoming State School of Music, and the University 

Preparatory School, is located here. The city, as 

well as the river, the mountain range, and the county, derives its 

name from Fort Laramie, which stands at the mouth of Laramie 

River. This most famous fort on the old Overland Trail was named 

directly or indirectly for Jacques La Ramie, a French fur trader of 

the early days. The old maps show the river as La Ramies Fork. 

Stansbury, Sublette, Bonneville, Parkman, and many others have 

described the old fort in its various stages from the small trading 

outpost of a fur company to a United States Army post.

Laramie was the home of Bill Nye, and here he founded the Boomerang, a journal of somewhat fitful existence, and wrote the articles 

for the Cheyenne and Denver papers that brought him into prominence as a humorist. It is worthy of notice that some 30 years ago 

Nye and James Whitcomb Riley published a railway guide. "What 

this country needs," they say, "is a railway guide which shall not be 

cursed by a plethora of facts or poisoned with information. In 

other railway guides pleasing fancy, poesy, and literary beauty have 

been throttled at the very threshold by a wild incontinence of facts, 

figures, and references to meal stations. For this reason a guide 

has been built at our own shops and on a new plan. It will not 

permit information to creep in and mar the reader's enjoyment of 

the scenery."

The city of Laramie rests on the red beds of the Chugwater formation, which may be seen at several places north of Red Buttes and 

are conspicuously exposed just north of the city. Cement plaster is

1 Bismuth, which is used extensively 

in the manufacture of drugs and of alloys 

that melt at low temperatures, occurs in 

Jelm Mountain in the form of carbonate 

and oxide. Sperrylite, or platinum arsenide (PtAs2), has been found at Centennial, near Jehn Mountain. It is very 

rare, and this is the only place where it 

occurs in quantity so large that serious 

attempts have been made to work it for 

platinum. At Albany, in this same 

region, is found allanite, a black mineral

containing cerium, yttrium, thoriiim, and 

other rare elements. In some places the 

ore is nearly pure allanite; in others it 

contains numerous impurities. Cerium, 

which is now obtained as a by-product 

in the reduction of thorium from monazite, is alloyed with iron to make the 

"sparker" in the modern "flint and 

steel" mechanisms used as gas lighters. 

Cerium oxide is used sparingly in glass 

making to produce clear glass free from 

any greenish tint.
48 GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES.

Howell.

Elevation 7,113 feet. 

Omaha 580 miles.

manufactured from an impure gypsum known locally as gypsite, 1 

which occurs near the city. Pressed brick are made from the 

Benton shale for constructing buildings in the city and elsewhere. 

Beyond Laramie is the station Bona.

The red beds of the Chugwater formation extend as far north of 

Laramie as Howell, although for most of this distance they are not 

visible, being covered with beds of gravel. West 

of Laramie is a low ridge where the Morrison (see 

pp. 41,42) and Cleverly formations are exposed. The 

railroad passes over them just north of Howell, but 

they are covered with surface debris and can not be seen from 

the train. About 2 miles north of Howell and also at Wyoming 

the traveler passes through deep cuts in the Benton shale.2

From Wyoming station the train passes northward over the 

Niobrara limestone, which, however, near the track is covered with 

beds of sand and gravel. Outcrops of it appear as 

light-colored bands southwest of the station on both 

sides of the river. Northwest of this station the 

road crosses a thick deposit of marine shale of middle 

Upper Cretaceous age, but the shale is here covered 

with the alluvial deposits of Laramie Valley.

At many places in this region during the summer there are large 

fields of gorgeously colored wild flowers. - In some places the plain 

is colored red with the blossoms of a variety of loco weed, which is 

poisonous to horses, and in others large areas are covered with the 

deep-blue blossoms of the larkspur. Evening primroses are also

Wyoming.

Elevation 7,138 feet. 

Population 194.* 

Omaha 584 miles.

1 Gypsite is finely divided gypsum 

mixed with other matter, which does not 

interfere with its use for cement plaster. 

It is baked in ovens, its calcium sulphate 

remaining as a dry powder, which is 

mixed with water in plastering and then 

becomes hard.

2 The Benton formation in Nebraska 

consists of three members, two of shale 

and one of limestone, which are recognizable as far west as the east slope of the 

Laramie Mountains. West of the mountains the limestone is represented by shale 

indistinguishable from the other members. Near the base of the Benton on both 

sides of the mountains there is a hard 

sandy shale, called the Mowry, which 

weathers almost white and which contains numerous fish scales. Higher in 

the Benton is a sandstone, about 50 feet 

thick in the Laramie Basin, which seems

to correspond to the Frontier formation of 

localities farther west. At some places 

indications of oil have been found in this 

sandstone.

In general there is no material difference in the Benton on opposite sides of the 

Laramie Mountains, either in physical 

character or in age, so that it is believed 

that when these beds were formed the 

Laramie Mountains did not exist and 

that the sea in which the sediments 

accumulated extended uninterruptedly 

over the area now occupied by the 

mountains. Some differences in nomenclature result from the fact that two 

standard geologic sections have come into 

use one for the general region east of the 

mountains and the other for the region 

west of them. (See p. 41.) The Laramie 

Basin is in the transition zone between 

the two regions.
THE OVEBLAND BOUTE COTJlirCIL BLUFFS TO OGDEN. 49

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

the road.

For a few miles north of Laramie the train follows more or less 

closely Laramie River, here a placid meandering stream. Not many 

miles farther down its course, to the north, the river has cut squarely 

across the main Laramie Range, below which it flows out. into the 

Great Plains country and empties into the North Platte. A large 

storage reservoir has been built near the mountains, and here the 

flood waters of the river are stored to irrigate the Wheatland tract, 

east of the mountains. This irrigation project was put through 

under the Carey Act by its author, ex-Senator Carey, later governor 

of Wyoming. Mr. Carey showed that he not only could draft a law 

but could operate under it, for the Wheatland project is said to be 

very successful.

Just after crossing Laramie River, before reaching Bosler, the 

route leaves the marine Cretaceous shale and enters an area underlain 

by the sandstone of the Mesaverde, a coal-bearing 

Bosler. formation of Upper Cretaceous age. The Mesaverde 

Elevation 7,077 feet. is of great economic importance west of the Rocky 

Omaha 592 miles. Mountains because it contains valuable beds of coal. 

This sandstone near Bosler is soft and has disintegrated so deeply that its character can not be readily discerned from 

the train. It is well exposed, however, at many places a little farther 

west.

Near the station of Cooper Lake a small alkali lake surrounded

with white incrustations of sodium carbonate is visible near the

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

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

Elevation 7,031 feet. jg about 4 miles long and 2 miles wide and occupies

Omaha 597 miles. 4. t \. j j T-I the lowest part ot a broad depression. Like many 

of the smaller lakes of the Laramie Basin it has no outlet, and the 

considerable quantities of water entering it through the two creeks 

that head in the Medicine Bow Mountains to the south escape only by 

evaporation. For this reason the size of the lake is variable, depending on the balance between rainfall and evaporation.

From Lookout station westward to Medicine Bow the railroad is 

relatively new. The road was originally built north of the line now

operated, crossing Rock River about 10 miles northLookout. east of the present crossing and following that river 

Elevation 7,120 feet. nortk of Como Bluff to Medicine Bow. The new route

Omaha 600 miles. shortens the line 20 miles.

The station at Lookout is built on a sandstone that lies unconformably on the Mesaverde. About a mile west of the station this 

rock is exposed in railroad cuts and consists of soft yellow sandstone

92213° Bull. 612 15 4
50 GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES.

containing pebbles of quartz and other varieties of hard rock ranging 

from grains of sand to pebbles 2 inches in diameter. In a cut about 

1£ miles east of-Harper this conglomeratic sandstone 1 (see fig. 8) 

rests with uneven base that is, unconformably on a yellow shaly 

sandstone that contains marine shells.

The section house called Harper (see sheet 10, p. 62) is built on a

sandy shale in which have been found numerous fossil shells of

Cretaceous marine mollusks. In the deep rock cut

Harper- just west of the station may be seen a bed of coal

Elevation 7,073 feet. about 3 feet 6 inches thick. This coal thickens

Omaha 606 miles. . .

toward the southwest, where it has been mined to 

some extent for local use.

iiiilllllliiiiilniliniiimiimNiiil.iNiiiiilliiil.illl||i|||||||Ui.^iuiiumiiu- iiliniinmi|i|Ji|U|Uij;ijnll5iHlJllJ"||iJ''[^ fy^j^^^^^^^/^y^^'^^'/^y^^f/^/rf^j'/^-i r^i F7! /^ J±±J

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

Pine Ridge, so named because of a few scrubby pinons, or nut 

pines, that grow on the sandstone cliffs, consists of a light-gray cliffmaking sandstone that forms a prominent northward-facing ledge 

and belongs near the base of the Mesaverde formation. West, of the 

cut are two prominent ridges formed by large reddish-brown limestone concretions that contain great numbers of marine shells. 

These are in the transition beds between typical Steele shale and the

1 The conglomerate contains near the 

base sandstone concretions in which 

have been found fossil plants that seem 

to indicate Tertiary age, although these 

rocks have usually been regarded as a part 

of the Montana group of the Upper Cretaceous. These plants indicate that here, 

as elsewhere in this region, Tertiary beds

lie unconformably on older rocks. The 

significance of this relation is discussed in 

the footnote on p. 2 and also in the footnote on p. 42. The conglomerate caps the 

hill south of Harper station, where it 

rests on rocks containing marine shells, 

but the contact is not easily determined 

owing to surface debris.
BULLETIN 612 SHEET No. 9

GEOLOGIC AND TOPOGRAPHIC MAP

OF THE

OVERLAND ROUTE

From Omaha, Nebraska, to San Francisco, California

Base compiled from United States Geological Survey Atlas Sheets, 

from railroad alignments and profiles supplied by the Union Pacific 

Eaiiroad Company and the Southern Pacific Company and from additional information collected, with the assistance of these companies

UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY

GEORGE OTIS SMITH, DIRECTOR 

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

1915

EXPLANATION

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

A J (Arikaree and Geiing formations)

Sandy clay; fresh-water deposit (Erule clay)

Sand and gravel; fresh-water deposit (Chadron formation)

Thickness 

in feet

200-250

250

20-100,

Sandstone, conglomerate, shale, and coal; 

B fresh-water deposits ("Upper Laramie" and younger 

formations)

j Sandstone; marine deposit (Fox Hills sandstone eastof Sherman) 

C -, Sandstone, shale, and coal; marine and brackish water 

deposits (Mesaverde formation west of Sherman)

10,000

YOO-t 

2,000

Tertiary

Tertiary

possibly including 

some Cretaceous

Cretaceous

Shale; marine deposit (Pierre shale east of Sherman) 5,000 

Shale: marine deposit (Steele shale west of Sherman) 2,500-3,000 

Limestone and shale; marine deposits (Niobrara limestone) 325-400 

Shale: marine deposit (Benton shale) 700-1,000

Sandstone and shale, probabiy includes equivalents of Dakota 

E sandstone, Fuson formation, and Lakota sandstone; fresh

and brackish water deposits (Cloverly formation) 70-100

F Sandstone and shale-fresh-water deposit'Morrison formation) 150-200 Jurassic or Cretaceous 

G Sandstone and shale; marine deposit (Sundance formation) 30-60 Jurassic

H Red sandstone, shale, and gypsum: fresh or brackish 

water deposits (Chugwater formation)

{

Limestone; marine deposit (Forelle limestone) 

Sandy shale and gypsum; marine or brackish water 

deposits (Satanka shale) 

Limestone and red sandstone; marine deposits 

(Casper formation)

Triassic or 

1,100 Permian

0-201

0-2301 Carboniferous 

800-l,OOoJ

J Gi"anite. gneiss, schist, igneous rocks (mainly Sherman granite) Pre-Cambrian

PROFILE SECTION SHOWING FORMATIONS CROSSED BETWEEN RED BUTTE5 AND HARPER

O F E 

PROFILE SECTION SHOWING FORMATIONS CROSSED BETWEEN CHEYENNE AND RED SUITES

500,000

Approximately 8 miles to 1 inch 

s 10

Contour interval 200 feet

ELEVATIONS 1N FRET ABOVE MEAN SEA LEVEL

The distances from Omaha, Nebraska, are shown every 10 miles 

The crosstics on the railroads arc spaced 1 mile apart

COLORADO
THE OVERLAND ROUTE COUNCIL BLUFFS TO OGDEN. 51

massive sandstone of the Mesaverde formation that lies on it. These 

transition rocks become gradually more sandy toward the west, and 

west of Rawlins they form a part of the Mesaverde formation.

Pine Ridge is the divide between the Laramie River drainage and 

that of Rock River. The waters of its eastern slope pass eastward 

through the Laramie Mountains and enter Platte River at Fort 

Laramie, 80 miles to the northeast. Those of the western slope flow 

through Rock River and Medicine Bow River to the Platte and thence 

through the Seminoe Mountains around the north end of the Laramie 

Mountains and after a circuitous route of about 250 miles, join those 

of the eastern slope at Fort Laramie.

Just before reaching Rock River station the train crosses the river

of the same name, and good exposures of the Steele

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

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

. Population 123. , j i r j ,1 <-, i i

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

About 10 miles from Rock River the road crosses a 

low, sharp hogback of Niobrara limestone. This chalky-white bed, 

5 to 10 feet thick, forms a crest because it is harder than the shale 

above and below it.

Ridge takes its name from the prominent hogback ridge north of

the station, formed by a hard sandstone in the Benton shale. The

railroad parallels this ridge for a mile or more and then

Ridge- cuts through it west of the station. The lower part of

Elevation 6,692 feet, the Benton shale is well exposed north of this sandOmaha623 miles. . , . . J , . ,. ., , ,

stone ridge, in the center 01 the anticline formed by 

the arching of the strata. The route traverses this shale for about 

a mile before recrossing the sandstone and the Niobrara limestone and 

finally returns to the Steele shale in the northern limb of the arch.

Near Ridge the sandstone disappears because the fold that extends 

westward from the Laramie Range here plunges beneath the surface. 

Como Bluff, which lies north of Ridge station and which constitutes 

a part of this fold, consists of the Cloverly formation, the lower conglomeratic portion of which forms the crest of the bluff because of its 

superior hardness and forms also the long southward slope seen to the 

right from the train. Underneath this conglomerate occur in descending order the pink and blue shales of the Morrison formation, which, 

because of the numerous shades of color, are often called the variegated 

beds; the Sundance formation, containing numerous vertebrate and 

invertebrate fossils which prove its Jurassic age; and the Chugwater 

red beds.

The Morrison formation is probably the most interesting of those 

exposed here, because of the fossil bones of huge reptiles that it contains. The dinosaurs are described below by C. W. Gilmore, of the
52 GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES.

United States National Museum. 1 The largest animals that have 

ever been found lived at a time when reptiles were the ruling types 

of animals in the sea, on the land, and in the air. Flying reptiles

1 Como Bluff is classic ground to those 

interested in the fossil remains of animals 

that inhabited this region long ages ago, 

for it was here that the first dinosaur bones 

were discovered in the Rocky Mountain 

region. In 1876 Mr. W. H. Reed, now a 

professor in the University of Wyoming 

but then in the employ of the Union Pacific Co., found in the bluff above the now 

abandoned station of Aurora a large petrified limb bone, which he sent to Prof. 

0. C. Marsh, of Yale University. Prof. 

Marsh at once recognized the fossil as belonging to some unknown extinct animal 

and immediately enlisted the services of 

Mr. Reed. Collecting was actively carried on here for a period of ten years or 

more, and as a result of this work Prof. 

Ma,rsh was able to publish the remarkable 

series of restorations of dinosaurs which 

appeared from time to time in several 

publications.

So famous did these fossils become that 

in 1899 the officials of the Union Pacific 

Railroad invited the geologists of the 

country to visit the places where the 

bones were found. An expedition consisting of geologists from universities and 

museums in many parts of the United 

States visited Como Bluff, the Freezeout Hills, and other famous fossil localities. So well known are the bone beds at 

Como Bluff that some have called the beds 

the Como formation. However, in the 

same formation at Morrison, Colo., similar bones were found, and the formation 

was named Morrison a name which is 

now generally accepted. Some of the 

dinosaurs were the largest land animals 

that ever walked the earth, and some 

were very diminutive. They differed 

greatly in size, shape, structure, and 

habits. Some were plant eaters; others 

fed on flesh. Some walked on four feet; 

others with small, weak fore limbs walked 

entirely upon the strongly developed hind 

legs. Some had reptile-like feet; others 

were bird footed. Some had toes provided with long, sharp claws; others had 

flattened hoof-like nails. There were dinosaurs with small heads and others with 

large heads. Some were large and cumbersome; others were small, light, and 

graceful and so much resembled birds in 

their structure .that only the skilled 

anatomist can distinguish their remains. 

Some of enormous size were clad in coats 

of bony armor, which gave them a most 

bizarre appearance.

The largest herbivorous or plant-eating 

dinosaur whose fossil remains have been 

found in Como Bluff was the huge Bron-. 

tosaurus, or thunder lizard, as it was 

called by Prof. Marsh. It was 70 feet. 

long, stood 16 feet high at the hips, and 

had a long tail, an equally long neck, and 

a head that was only a little larger than 

that of a horse. The weight of such a creature has been variously estimated at 18 to 

20 tons. This animal doubtless lived on 

the luxuriant tropical vegetation, but how 

its enormous bulk could be sustained by 

such food as could pass through its ridiculously small mouth has caused much 

wonder. It is not certain whether the 

name thunder lizard was given to it because of its size or because of the large 

sum over $10,000 which Prof. Marsh 

spent in excavating and preparing it.

Some dinosaurs that are even larger 

than the brontosaur have been found 

more recently. A Diplodocus now in the 

Carnegie Museum in Pittsburgh had the 

enormous length of 84£ feet. The size of 

the fossil bones is indicated in the accompanying figure 9.

At the time these animals flourished the 

Rocky Mountain region was a low, nearly 

level country, covered with tropical vegetation, with many wide, shallow streams 

and swampy areas, thus furnishing a congenial place for these sluggish swampinhabiting creatures to wade lazily about 

or float in the water, for it has been 

deemed improbable that the enormous 

bulk of some of them could be sustained 

without lateral support such as would be 

obtained in water.

One of the most striking of the vegetarians of this period was the Stegosaurus,
U. S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY BULLETIN 612 PLATE X

A. AN ARMORED DINOSAUR (STEGOSAURUS). 

The bones of this animal, which was about 1 0 feet high, were found in the Morrison formation.

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

DINOSAURS.
U. S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY BULLETIN 6t2 PLATE XI

A. A HORNED TOAD (PHRYNOSOMA CORNUTUM).

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

B, THE LAST OF THE DINOSAURS.

This restoration illustrates the appearance of Triceratops, showing the great bony frill over the reptile's neck. 

From painting by C. R. Knight, made under the direction of J. B. Hatcher.
THE OVERLAND ROUTE COUNCIL BLUFFS TO OGDEN. 53

similar to the one represented in Plate V, G (p. 21), were common, 

and the birds were so much like the reptiles that their remains can 

scarcely be distinguished.

or plated lizard, so named because of the 

bony plates and spines with which its 

back was adorned. (See PI. X,A) Some 

of these plates, although very thin, were 

from 2 to 3 feet in diameter. They were 

held in upright position in two parallel 

rows on each side of the middle region of 

the back, extending from the base of the 

skull well down1 on the tail, the tip of

may not have required other means of protection. Some passive protection, through 

repulsive ugliness or otherwise, seems to 

have been necessary, for its ludicrously 

diminutive brain suggests a mentality insufficient for conscious efforts at selfpreservation. The want of brain capacity 

was compensated to some extent by an 

enlargement of the spinal cord near the

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

which was armed with two pairs of long 

bony spines. In some individuals these 

spines were over 3 feet in length. All the 

plates and spines during life were covered 

by a thick, horny skin. The stegosaurs 

were about 20 feet long arid stood about 

10 feet high at the hips. The head was 

extremely small and lizard-Like in shape, 

with a small brain, large eyes, and nostrils that indicate a considerable power of 

smell. The great disproportion in length' 

between the fore and hind legs, the small 

pointed head, and the skin ornaments of 

plates and spines, made it so ugly that it

hips that was about ten times as large as 

the brain.

The life of these peaceable plant-feeding animals, however, was not always 

serene, for there lived at the same time 

dinosaurs whose powerful jaws armed with 

long, sharp teeth indicate that their food 

was flesh. These animals are called allosaurs. (SeePl.X, JS.) That they fed upon 

large brontosaurs and smaller animals of 

their kind is indicated by the discovery 

of teeth of the carnivorous species together with the bonj3s of their herbivorous 

contemporaries and of a skeleton of one
54 GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES.

Medicine Bow.

Elevation 6,560 feet. 

Population 127. 

Omaha 630 miles.

The stratified rocks in this region have been greatly affected by 

the disturbances that formed the mountains surrounding it. The 

region lies between the Laramie Mountain uplift on the east, the 

Medicine Bow uplift on the south, and the Seminoe and Shirley 

mountain uplift on the north. The strata between these mountains 

have been thrown into a series of folds and domelike arches, and in 

some localities profoundly displaced. A small dome that brings to 

the surface the Morrison and younger formations lies south of the 

railroad, but can not be recognized from the train.

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

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

their laughable pranks, and the name of the novel 

has been taken by the hotel near the station. The 

name Medicine -Bow is of Indian derivation, but 

how it came to be applied to the mountains from 

which the town takes its name is not certainly known. 

It is known, however, that some of the tribes annually visited the 

mountains that now bear this name to procure a certain kind of wood 

for their bows. In Indian talk anything that serves its purpose well 

is "good medicine," and according to report the mountains and 

streams where this timber was found became known as places where 

"good-medicine bows" were obtained.

The Flattop uplift, north of Medicine Bow, is a large, irregularshaped dome, truncated by erosion and broken or faulted, as it is 

called, on the northwest side since it was formed. Carboniferous rocks 

appear at the surface in .the center, and around these the younger 

formations crop out in concentric rings. The Freezeout Hills form a 

similar dome but expose granite in the center. Some of the smaller 

domes from whose crests the Cretaceous formations have not been 

removed by erosion may contain important oil pools.

The town of Medicine Bow is on a rolling; plain formed by the erosion 

of the Steele shale. In this plain are numerous depressions in which 

water accumulates in wet weather, and as they have no outlet the 

water becomes alkaline, because it takes up the salts dissolved from the 

shale and left in the basins when the water previously collected there 

evaporated. These basins are similar to the alkali lakes of the Laramie 

Basin and are formed on the surface of the same shale formation. Such 

intermittent lakes are found in many places in Wyoming.

of the herbivorous dinosaurs with bones 

scarred with tooth marks and grooves corresponding exactly to the sharp, pointed 

teeth of the allosaurs. The accompanying picture (PI. X, B) depicts the remnants of such a prehistoric feast.

The allosaur was a most powerful animal, and skeletons over 20 feet long have

been found. The large bones of the limbs 

were hollow, as were many other parts of 

the skeleton, this structure affording 

greater power of rapid movement. The 

feet were armed with long, sharp claws, 

especially the fore feet, which were well 

adapted for catching and holding prey or 

for tearing and rending skin and flesh.
THE OVERLAND ROUTE COUNCIL BLUFFS TO OGDEN. 55

At Alien station, which is only a section house, the railroad passes

from the Steele shale to the Mesaverde formation, which is here

upturned and dips steeply toward the east. The

Allen- softer layers, consisting of loose-textured sandstone

Elevation 6,601 feet. an(j snale have been eroded, leaving the harder layers

Omaha 634 miles. 7 i i

to lorm sharp-crested ridges that are prominent along 

the road for a distance of about 4 miles west of Alien. The Mesaverde 

here has its full thickness, whereas at Pine Ridge the upper part had 

been eroded away before the Tertiary beds were laid down upon it.

Although the Mesaverde farther west is an important coal-bearing 

formation, little coal occurs in it here. A few thin seams less than afoot 

thick crop out near the road, but none of economic value have been 

found. The formation is characterized by two zones of hard sandstone separated by softer beds of shale containing fossil oysters and 

other shells of marine and brackish-water origin. These softer rocks 

have been eroded to f orm the depression which was crossed 'about 2 

miles west of Allen, and which contains, north of the track, a small 

lake fed by sulphur springs at its west end.

From the crested ridges of the Mesaverde formation the traveler 

passes westward over a relatively smooth surface formed on the Lewis 

shale. The Lewis is a marine shale, somewhat sandy in places, and 

contains limestone concretions and great numbers of fossil shells, which 

belong to the Pierre fauna and indicate Upper Cretaceous age.

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

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

south of Como. The new line not only shortens the

omo' distance and eliminates sharp curves and heavy

Elevation 6,7o> feet. grades but passes through Hanna, the center of an

Omaha 639 miles. *=> r , . . ? . /-< important coal-nuning district. At Como the road 

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

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

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

rather common in southwestern United States and in Mexico, where 

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

the scientific name is Amblystoma mavortium.

About a mile east of Como the road passes from the Lewis shale to 

a younger formation, called "Lower Laramie," consisting of soft, 

easily eroded sandstone and shale containing fossil plants and shells 

of fresh-rwater invertebrates. West of the section house may be seen 

the yellow sandstones of the "Lower Laramie" overlain unconformably by the conglomerate at the base of the Tertiary the "Upper 

Laramie." Thence westward for 5 miles the road is built on conglomerate, which is well exposed in a prominent hill to the left (south) 

of the track. It reaches the coal-bearing portion of the "Upper 

Laramie" in the Hanna Basin, a depression formed by mountain 

uplifts at the beginning of the Tertiary period and filled with conglomerate, sandstone, and coal-bearing shale. (See table on p. 56.)
56 GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES.

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

and Fort Steels, Wyo.

System:

Tertiary 

(possibly 

includes 

some Cretaceous).

Cretaceous.

Formation.

"Upper Laramie" formation.

"Lower 

Laramie" 

formation.

Lewis shale.

Mesaverde 

formation.

Steele shale.

Thickness (feet).

10, 000?

6,200+

3, 200+

2, 700+

3, 000+

Character.

Alternating beds of shale

and sandstone, of drab,

gray, and yellow colors. The sandstone is

conglomeratic at the

base and in a zone

about 7,000 feet above

the base. The pebbles of these conglomerates -represent older 

rocks, now exposed in 

the mountains surrounding the basin.

The formation contains well-preserved

fossil plants, shells of

fresh-water animals,

and in the lower part,

bones of huge dinosaurs.

Drab and. gray shale, alternating with brown

to gray sandstone.

Fossil plants, shells of 

fresh and brackish 

water invertebrates 

(also marine shells in 

the lower part), and 

bones of turtles, dinosaurs, and other animals occur in these

rocks.

Dark-gray shale with

intercalated . sandy

beds. The fossils in

this formation consist

entirely of marine

shells.

White to brown sandstone and drab shale.

Marine shells and the 

marine plant Halymenites major occur in 

the lower part, and

fresh and brackish

water shells in the

upper part.

Drab shale and thin beds

of sandstone. Contains marine fossils;

ridge - making sandstone layers near the

top.

Economic features.

The most productive coal formation 

in this coal field. 

The coal beds are 

in places 30 feet in 

thickness but are 

commonly from 5

to 10 feet thick.

Contains several thin 

irregular beds of 

coal, but none of 

them are now 

mined.

Contains a few thin 

irregular coal beds 

of little economic value. '
THE OVERLAND ROUTE COUNCIL BLUFFS TO.OGDEN. 57

Hanna is a coal-mining town hi the south-central part of the

Haima Basin. Two beds of coal are worked here, one 24 feet and

the other 36 feet thick, according to the mine superHanna. intendent. They are separated by about. 1,500 feet

Elevation 6,769 feet, of strata in which one coal bed 18 feet thick has

0^^650 miles keen °Peiled and several thinner ones are known to

occur. There are other coal beds below the lower or

36-foot bed that will be valuable sometime, but nothing has yet been

done toward developing them.

Coal was discovered in this region by Fre"mont in 1843 on Platte 

River. The beds were opened there in 1856 and some of the coal 

was used in a forge. From 1862 until the Union Pacific Railroad was 

built these openings supplied coal for emigrants and for the Overland 

Stage Co. The presence of coal here was one of the reasons why the 

Union Pacific was built along the southern branch of the Overland 

Trail rather than along the northern branch up Platte River and 

over South Pass. Production of coal for the railroad began at Carbon 

in 1868, after the completion of the railroad westward to this point, 

and the coal of this field has furnished power for operating the road 

ever since that time.

The mines at Hanna were opened in 1890. Until 1902 this town 

was reached by a branch line, and Carbon, 10 miles to the southeast, 

furnished much of the coal for the road. But when the main line was 

diverted to pass through Hanna the town of Carbon was deserted 

and the mines there were closed.

The higher coal bed at Threetown, east of Hanna, lies rather close 

to the surface, and the falling of the roof in the abandoned parts of 

the mine makes bad surface sinks. One such hole about 150 feet 

across may be seen to the right, on the north side of the track, south 

of Threetown.

Hanna has a daily coal output averaging about 2,500 tons. The 

coal is subbiturninous and is rather light and free burning. Under 

the forced draft of the locomotives cinders are thrown out and start 

numerous fires along the track. Burning grass and smoking ties are 

familiar sights along this part of the route, and even station buildings 

are sometimes set on fire. It is estimated that 500 square miles in 

this basin is underlain by coal and that 33,000,000,000 tons of coal is 

available for mining.

West of Hanna are several deep cuts in which the coal-bearing 

rocks may be seen to advantage. Conglomeratic sandstones which 

appear in two of these cuts dip eastward under the coal beds mined 

at Hanna. Farther west and lower in the formation there are a great 

number of coal beds, many of them thick enough to be of value for 

mining. These are all inclined about 20° toward the center of the 

basin and are warped and faulted in some places. The rocks here
58 GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES.

contain many fossils, including impressions of leaves, shells of freshwater clams and snails, and bones of dinosaurs, described below by 

C. W. Gilmore. 1 . These fossils indicate a period of transition between 

the old Cretaceous life, in which reptiles were the dominant forms, 

and the newer Tertiary life, in which the mammals, the familiar 

class of vertebrates of the present time, predominated. The dinosaurs found here are the last known representatives of their type, 

and the mammals are primitive and inconspicuous. The plants, 

however, are of types not greatly variant from those of the present 

time, although the species are all different.

1 Dinosaur bones belonging to the genus 

Triceratops (which, means "three-horned 

face"), so named in allusion to the three 

horns with which the skull is armed, are 

found in the coal-bearing rocks of the 

Hanna Basin and other formations of the 

same age. Over each eye was a massive 

horn directed forward and terminating in 

a long, sharp point, and the nose usually 

bore a third but much smaller horn. (See 

PL XI, B, p. 53.) A mounted skeleton 

of a Triceratops in the National Museum 

at Washington is about 20 feet long and 

stands 8 feet high at the hips. Some 

skulla that have been found measure 

more than 8 feet, over one-third the 

length of the entire animal. This great 

length of head is due largely to the 

remarkably bony development called the 

frill, which projects backward over the 

neck like a fireman's helmet.

That Triceratops, although a plant 

eater, was a fighter and often engaged in 

combat appears to be shown by the 

broken and healed bones that have been 

found. A pair of horns in the National 

Museum bear witness to such an encounter. One of them has been broken 

and has healed to a rounded stump. 

Although Triceratops had an enormous 

head, it had a smaller brain in proportion 

to its size than the least intelligent land 

animal of the present time. In the 

earlier restorations of this animal as 

shown in the accompanying picture its 

skin has been represented as being 

smooth and leathery, but a recently 

discovered specimen, in which impressions of the skin are preserved, shows 

that it was made up of a series of hexagonal scales of various sizes.

Triceratops probably lived on leaves 

and branches of low trees or shrubs. At 

the time these animals existed, this part 

of the country was covered with vast 

swamps in which peat accumulated and 

wide watercourses that were constantly 

shifting their channels, the region presenting an appearance similar to that of 

the Everglades of Florida. Where the 

waters were not too deep the region must 

have been covered by luxuriant vegetation and was inhabited by great numbers 

of the huge dinosaurs, as well as by 

smaller crocodiles, alligators, turtles, and 

diminutive mammals, all of whose fossil 

remains are now found embedded in the 

deposits of that time.

Contemporary with the Triceratops 

was a great duck-billed reptile related 

to Trachodon, which, was the commonest 

dinosaur of an earlier period. An average-sized individual measured 30 feet 

from the tip of its nose to the end of its 

tail, and as it walked erect on its huge 

three-toed hind feet the top of the head 

was 12 or 15 feet above the ground. 

The head was nearly a yard in length, 

and the fore part of the skull was 

expanded to form a broad beak that was 

covered with a horny sheath, as in birds 

and turtles. This was admirably suited 

to the pulling up of the rushes and other 

water plants that constituted the food of 

this great creature. These trachodont 

reptiles lived in the swamps and rivers. 

The webbed fingers of the fore foot indicate swimming ability, and the long, 

deep, compressed tail must have been 

an efficient swimming organ, and was 

also useful as a counterbalance to the 

weight of the body when the aaimal
THE OVERLAND ROUTE COUNCIL BLUFFS TO OGDEN. 59

Percy.

Elevation 6,932 feet. 

Omaha 655 miles.

East of Percy the train enters a cut 65 feet deep and 1$ miles 

long through beds of coal, carbonaceous shale, and sandstone. It 

is reported that the coal taken up here by the steam 

shovel was used in the engine and furnished the 

power for making the cut. The best bed thus 

exposed contains coal 8 feet thick. 

Elk Mountain, which is visible from many points on the route, 

is seen to best advantage to the left (south) from Percy station. 

This great mountain of granite, conical in form and 7 miles in 

diameter at its base (PI. XII, B], rises to an altitude of 11,162 feet 

and is at the north extremity of the Medicine Bow Range. To 

the west of it is a relatively small peak of irregular outline called 

Sheephead Mountain. Farther southwest can be distinguished on 

a clear day the Sierra Madre, near the northern boundary of Colorado. 

About 1$ miles west of Dana the traveler passes from the rocks of 

the "Upper Laramie" to those of the underlying "Lower Laramie" 

formation, but the change is inconspicuous from the 

train because the rocks are obscured by surface 

material near the road. The ""Lower Laramie" consists of sedimentary rocks more than 6,000 feet thick, 

mainly coarse-grained sandstone, in which are a few thin beds of coal.

Dana.

Elevation 6,782 feet. 

Omaha 659 miles.

walked on its hind legs. From specimens showing impressions of the skin it 

ia known that the animal was covered 

with an epidermis made up of tubercles, 

or knoblike plates, of two sizes, the 

larger ones predominating on the back 

and sides. One of the most remarkable 

features about this reptile was its mouth, 

which was armed with 2,000 or more 

separate teeth arranged in vertical rows. 

Each jaw has from 45 to 60 rows and from 

10 to 15 teeth in each vertical row. 

These were self-adjusting, and as one 

was lost or worn out another pushed up 

to take its place.

As in Morrison time, so in the very 

much later Lance epoch there were 

armored and flesh-eating reptiles, and 

some of these were even more ugly than 

their Morrison progenitors. Aukylosaurus was an armored dinosaur whose entire 

back was covered by flattened ridgedskin plates of bone. The animal was low 

of stature, had a short, blunt head, and 

carried on the end of its stout, heavy 

tail a great triangular club of bone. Even 

the eyes were provided with a cupshaped bony shutter, like the visor of a 

helmet, which could be closed over the 

eyeball, so that all the vulnerable parts 

of this animated fortress were protected 

by bony armor. The "horned toad," 

one of the small modern lizards of the 

western plains, is not very different from 

the armored dinosaurs except in size. 

(See PI. XI, A, p. 53.)

The most striking of the flesh-eating 

dinosaurs Avas the Tyrannosaurus, or 

tyrant lizard, the largest carnivorous 

animal that ever lived on land. It was 

40 feet in length, and when it stood 

erect the top of its head was 18 to' 20 

feet above the ground. The fore limbs 

were small, and it must have walked 

entirely upon its powerful hind legs. A 

perfect skull of this animal is exhibited 

in the American Museum of Natural 

History in New York City. The jaws 

are 4 feet in length and bristle with 

sharp-pointed teeth, several of which 

project 6 inches from their sockets. It 

is with a feeling of awe that one standing 

before the huge head contemplates a 

beast of such terrible ferocity.
60 GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES.

These rocks contain fossil plants and shells of fresh-water mollusks, 

although brackish-water and marine fossils occur near their base.

Between Dana and Walcott the strata are bent up in one of the 

great arches or anticlines of this much-disturbed region. Edson is 

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

formation (Tertiary) extend to the railroad from the

south- A mile farther southwest, beyond a short 

tunnel, is a deep cut through the crest of the St. Mary 

anticline, which consists of the arched sandstone of the Mesaverde 

formation. The crest of the ridge is formed of this sandstone, which 

is harder and has therefore resisted erosion better than the shaly 

beds that originally covered it.

South of the tunnel the tram again crosses the Lewis shale and the

"Lower Laramie" formation before it reaches. Walcott. The town

of Walcott is built on the North Park formation,

Walcott. which here covers the older strata. This formation

^?ton 6,618 feet' takeg fa name from North papk Colo ^ it Omaha 669 miles. ' ' ;

occupies an extensive area and contains thick beds 

of coal. From Walco°tt a branch road runs south to Saratoga and 

Encampment. Saratoga is on Platte River and is well known to 

sportsmen for its hunting and fishing. Here are some hot sulphur 

springs and a well that furnishes a mineral water sold under a distinctive name. Encampment, 43 miles, south of Walcott, at the end 

of the branch line, is the center of a copper-mining district which formerly produced considerable ore but is not now very active. This 

district is in the Sierra Madre. Copper was discovered here in 1868, 

but not until 1881 did the district become productive. Altogether it 

has yielded over 20,000,000 pounds of copper. Gold, silver, and 

other metals have been found in small quantities. The mines are 

in crystalline and metamorphic rocks, of pre-Cambrian age, cut by 

intrusive rocks, including gabbro, which is supposed to be the source 

of the copper ore.

About 2 miles due north of Walcott is a prominent hill known as 

St. Mary Peak, which rises 7,496 feet above sea level. This peak and 

the ridge extending northwestward from it are composed of upfolded 

beds of the Mesaverde formation. The strata, during the process of 

folding, were broken and thrust upon one another in such a way that 

those east of the fracture were pushed up over those west of it, so 

that certain beds of the Mesaverde formation now rest upon younger 

beds that were originally laid down on top of that formation.

Two miles west of Walcott the railroad leaves the nearly horizontal 

beds of the North Park formation and reaches the steeply inclined 

massive yellow sandstones of the Mesaverde formation, which are 

carved by erosion into a great variety of forms. These sandstones 

make a conspicuous ridge that extends northwestward for many
U. S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY BULLETIN 612 PLATE XII

A. PLATTE RIVER AT FORT STEELE, WYO.

A characteristic^ view of the Cretaceous rocks in centra! Wyoming. Photograph furnished by Union Pacific

Railroad Co.

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

This mountain may be seen during nearly 1 50 miles of the journey over the Union Pacific Railroad. Photograph 

furnished by Union Pacific Railroad Co.
U. S- GEOLOGICAL SURVEY BULLETIN 612 PLATE XII

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

AFTER LEAVING RAWLINS, WYO. 

. . . Sagebrush in the foreground.

B. CHARACTERISTIC VIEW OF THE RED DESERT.

The plain is formed on Tertiary beds and covered with sand and sagebrush. The distant buttes are capped with 

harder beds, which have prevented the rain and wind from wearing them down to the general level of the 

plain. Photograph furnished by Union Pacific Railroad Co.
THE OVERLAND ROUTE COUNCIL BLUFFS TO OGDEN. 61

Fort Steele.

Elevation 6,505 feet. 

Population 699. 

Omaha 675 miles.

miles. The part of the ridge between Walcott and the point where 

North Platte River crosses the formation is known as the Rattlesnake 

Hills; the part north of the river is called the Haystack Hills.

Three miles east of Fort Steele the railroad leaves the Mesaverde 

beds and reaches a formation which has been named the Steele shale, 1 

from its occurrence here. This shale is the same as that which crops 

out near Medicine Bow and extends westward from that place beneath 

the coal-bearing rocks of the Hanna Basin.

The town of Fort Steele derives its name from Fort Fred Steele, an 

army post established here in 1866 to guard the Union Pacific Railroad against Indians. At the time of the Meeker 

massacre, in the early eighties, it was from Fort Fred 

Steele that the unfortunate force commanded by Maj. 

Thornburg was sent to put down the uprising. Maj. 

Thornburg and most of his command never returned. 

That any of them survived was due to the dispatch of a second expedition from the fort to their relief. There is little about the town 

now to suggest the troublous Indian times. It serves as a place of 

supply for sheep herders and for the farms scattered up and down 

North Platte River wherever the valley is wide enough to be cultivated. The North Platte, from which the railroad diverged at the 

city of North Platte, 291 miles west of Omaha, is reached again &t 

Fort Steele, 384 miles west of North Platte and 3,705 feet higher.

From its source in North Park, Colo., the North Platte follows a 

circuitous route to the north- until it reaches a point nearly halfway 

across the State of Wyoming. In this part of its course it cuts through 

the Seminoe Mountains and passes completely around the north end 

of the Laramie Range. In the Seminoe Mountains the river has cut 

some remarkably picturesque gorges. Across one of these the United 

States Reclamation Service built the Pathfinder dam, 218 feet high, 

creating a reservoir having a capacity of'1,100,000 acre-feet that is, 

enough water t'o cover that number of acres to a depth of 1 foot. In 

this reservoir flood waters that formerly went to waste are stored, to 

be relea'sed as needed to irrigate 130,000 acres in eastern Wyoming and 

western Nebraska. This project, which is not yet completed, will 

cost nearly $7,000,000.

To the left (south) as the train crosses the bridge over the North 

Platte at Fort Steele may be seen a sawmill which works timber cut 

in the mountains. and floated down the river. This mill produces 

many railroad ties and mine props from timber grown in the Medicine Bow and Hayden national forests.

1 The upper part of the Steele shale is 

much more sandy near Fort Steele than 

it is farther east, and several prominent

sandstones lie below the massive sandstone that is here mapped as the base of 

the Mesaverde.
62 GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES.

North of Fort Steele the Rattlesnake Hills rise from the river level 

by a series of escarpments, and about 2£ miles south of the town 

there is another series of escarpments, composed also of the Mesaverde formation and the sandstones of the transition beds between 

the Steele shale and the Mesaverde, which are illustrated in Plate

XII. ' A. If the traveler i were to make an excursion to these two

ridges he would observe that the strata in the Rattlesnake Hills dip 

toward the northeast, whereas those in the ridge south of Fort Steele 

dip toward the south. If the strata of these two ridges were projected 

upward along their dip till they met, they would form an arch whose 

crest would be a little south of Fort Steele. As a matter of fact the 

Mesaverde formation did at one time extend over such an arch. 

When these beds were bent up by the development of the fold they 

were probably fractured at its crest. Along this line of fracture the 

hard sandstones were more easily eroded than elsewhere and were 

finally cut through by the streams. The underlying soft shale was 

then rapidly eroded along the crest of the fold, so that in time the 

axis of the arch, which was originally a ridge, was reduced to a valley 

bordered on either side by flaring walls of sandstone. This valley, 

now several miles wide, is followed by the railroad from Fort Steele 

to Rawlins.

.The station at Grenville (see sheet 11, p. 68) is little more than a 

pump house. Water from the wells that furnish the domestic supply for the town of Rawlins is not suitable for use 

in locomotives because it contains mineral matter 

that incrusts the boilers. Consequently water for 

generating steam is pumped to Rawlins from North 

Platte River at Fort Steele, a distance of 15 miles, with a lift of 

236 feet.

Far to the north may be seen the Seminoe Mountains, named for 

Seminoe Lajeunesse, 1 a French trapper and fur trader. In plain

Grenvilte.

Elevation 6,580 feet. 

Omaha 683 miles.

1 It is said that Lajeunesse's real name 

was Basil and that the name Seminoe 

was corrupted from a French nickname, 

"Cimineau," although some reports have 

it that Seminoe was the name given to 

him by his Snake squaw. Lajeunesse 

established a trading post on the Overland Trail above Devils Gate. Early in 

the sixties, with two men and fifteen pack 

animals loaded with goods, he started out 

to trade with the Sioux. On the way the 

party was attacked by Indians in Bates 

Hole, southwest of Casper, and Lajeunesse 

was killed. Lajeunesse was a successful 

hunter and trapper, and the old settlers 

who remember him say that the mountains were called Seminoe to perpetuate

the name of one of the'bra vest and truest 

pioneers of Wyoming. He accompanied 

Fr6mont on the first expedition into 

Wyoming, and was one of those chosen to 

make the ascent of Fremont Peak. He 

is reported to have accompanied United 

States troops as a scout on a number of 

expeditions. His uncle, Gabriel Lajeunesse, was, so tradition says, the hero 

of Longfellow's "Evangeline." 

° It is interesting to note that some recent 

maps show these mountains as the Seminole Mountains, the compilers of the maps 

evidently assuming that they were named 

for the Semiuole Indians and that the "1" 

had been omitted by mistake from the 

maps on which they were shown as Seminoe.
BULLETIN 612 SHEET No. 10

GEOLOGIC AND TOPOGRAPHIC MAP

OF THE

OVERLAND ROUTE

From Omaha, Nebraska., to San Francisco, California

Base compiled from United States Geological Survey Atlas Sheets, 

from railroad alignments and profiles supplied by the Union Pacific 

liailroad Company a-nd the Southern Pacific Company and from additional information collected -with the assistance of these companies

UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY

GEORGE OTIS SMITH, DIRECTOR 

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

1915

Each quadrangle shown on the map with a name in parenthesis in the 

lower left corner is mapped in detail on the U. 5. G. S. Topographic 

sheet of that name.

107°

EXPLANATION

A Sandstone, conglomeratic; fresh-water deposits (North Park 

formation;

B Sandstone, conglomerate, siale, and coal; fresh water deposits 

("Upper Laramie" formation)

C Sandstone, shale, and coal; brackish and fresh-water deposits 

("Lower Laramie" formation)

D Shale; marine deposit (Lewis shale)

E Sandstone, shale, and coal; brackish and fresh-water deposits 

(Mesaverde formation)

F Shale; marine deposit ^includes equivalents of Steele shale 

Niobrara and Frontier formations and Mowry shale)

G Sandstone and shale (probably includes equivalents of Dakota 

sandstone, Fuson formation, and Lakota sandstone); fresh and 

brackish water deposits (Cleverly formation)

106" 30' 

Thickm

WYOMING

less 

in feet

Tertiary

Tertiary, possibly

including some

10,000 Cretaceous , 0

Scaie sooToob

Approximately 8 miles to 1 inch 

5 10 is zoMiles

6,200 =t 

3,200 ±

2,700± 

8,000

70--100 j

1 0 soKilometers

Cretaceous

Contour interval 200 feet

ELEVATIONS IN FEET ABOVE MEAN SEA LEVEL

The distances from Omaha, Nebraska, are shown every 10 miles 

The crossties on the railroads are spaced 1 mile apart

H Sandstone and shale; fresh-water deposit; ''Morrison formation) 150-200

! Sandstone and shale; marine deposit (Sundance formation)

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

deposits (Chugwater formation)

K Limestone and sandstone; marine deposits (Casper formation)

PROFILE SECTION SHOWING FORMATIONS CROSSED OR VISIBLE BETWEEN HARPER AND FORT STEELE

106'
THE OVERLAND ROUTE COUNCIL BLUFFS TO OGDEN. 63

sight also north of Grenville, although about 30 miles away, is a 

range of mountains with striking white scallops on their southern 

flank. These are the Ferris Mountains, lying just west of the Seminoe 

Range. The white scallops are vertical beds of limestone which 

have resisted erosion while the softer beds around them have been 

worn away. These mountains were named for George Ferris, one 

of the early settlers in this region, whose name has been applied to 

several of its natural features and many of its enterprises.

South of Grenville the rocks, which have been domed, are eroded 

so deeply that the Mowry shale is exposed at the surface in the center 

of the dome and the several sandstones of the Frontier formation lie 

in concentric ridges around it. The shale between these sandstones 

contains limestone concretions in which are shark teeth, ammonites, 

scaphites, and other fossils of marine animals that indicate Upper 

Cretaceous (Benton) age. These sandstones contain oil in some 

places, and for the purpose of ascertaining their depth south of 

Rawlins, where a well was started near the base of the Mesaverde 

formation, the shale was carefully measured at a favorable exposure 

south of Grenville, where it was found that the sandstone lies 2,200 

feet below the lowest sandstone ledge of the transitional zone between 

the Mesaverde and the Steele shale. The shale between the base of 

the Mesaverde and the Frontier is therefore somewhat more than 

2,200 feet thick.

A few miles east of Rawlins the outcropping edges of the several 

formations .are passed over in rapid succession. These strata are 

upturned around the Rawlins dome 1 and range in age from Cambrian up to Cretaceous. (See table on p. 2.) Some of these formations can not be seen to advantage from the train. From the 

geologist's point of view it is unfortunate,- though inevitable, that 

railroads are built where the easiest grades can be obtained rather

1 The center of the Rawlins uplift consists of granite which reaches an altitude 

of more than 7,600 feet in the hills north of 

the railroad. Around this granite core and 

sloping away from it are the sedimentary 

rocks. The oldest, the Cambrian quartzite, is very hard and forms conspicuous 

slopes. The railroad is built through a 

narrow gap in these rocks west of Rawlins. (See PI. XIII, A, p. 61.) The Carboniferous limestone lies in general unconformably on the Cambrian quartzite, but 

is separated from it in some places by 

beds of iron ore. Red sedimentary rocks 

that lie above this limestone are separated 

into two parts by a layer of similar limestone. It is possible that the upper part 

represents the Chugwater red beds and 

the lower part the Casper formation of 

the Laramie region.

The Sundance formation comes next, 

with its characteristic marine Jurassic fossils, and.above it lie the variegated Morrisoii. beds. These are succeeded by the 

Cloverly, -which here, as elsewhere, consists of two sandstones, the lower one conglomeratic, separated by dark shale. 

Above the upper sandstone is the Mowry 

shale, the sandstone of the Frontier formation, and a body of shale which includes equivalents of the Steele shale 

and the Niobrara formation.
64 GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES.

Rawlins.

Elevation 6,741 feet. 

Population 4,256. 

Omaha 690 miles.

than where the rocks are best exposed. The sandstone of the Frontier 

formation may be recognized by low ridges through which shallow 

cuts have been made, and the Cloverly forms a prominent ridge seen 

to the right (north) of the track. The pink beds of the Morrison 

formation appear to the south and the brick-red beds of the Chugwater formation to the north.

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

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

President Grant. The town is a shipping point for a 

large area both north and south of the. railroad. It 

is the connecting station for Baggs and Dixon, in 

southern Wyoming, 70 miles to the south, and before 

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

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

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

In the old days a Government road ran southeastward from Rawlins 

to the White River Indian Agency, in what is now Rio Blanco County, 

Colo. Mail service was maintained on this road, and the bridge which 

the Government built across Snake River at Baggs is still in good 

condition.1

The dark-colored Cambrian quartzite is conspicuously exposed north 

of Rawlins, where it is overlain by light-colored Carboniferous limestone. The red oxide of iron at the base of the Carboniferous was 

formerly mined north of the town for paint.

West of Rawlins the formations 011 the Rawlins dome that were 

crossed east of the town are passed over in reverse order.

From points west of Rawlins the Ferris Mountains are again plainly 

visible far to the north, and a noticeable notch, called Whisky Gap, 

may be discerned at the west end of the range. Through this gap 

runs the old Rawlins-Lander stage road. West of this range are the 

Green Mountains, which are terminated on the west by a pass known 

as Crooks Gap,, named for Gen. George H. Crook, a noted Indian

1 When the White River Utes massacred 

Indian Agent Meeker and his family the 

command sent south from Fort Steele 

under Maj. Thornburg followed the Government road as far as Baggs, then swung 

west, crossing Little Snake River about 

12 miles farther down and striking out 

southwest across the great rolling sagebrush country which lies between Little 

Snake and Bear rivers. Their guide 

must have known the country thoroughly, 

for their route, still known as the Thornburg road, takes advantage of every topographic feature and every safe.watering

place. Some miles after crossing Bear 

River Maj. Thornburg decided, it is said 

against the remonstrances of his subordinates, to lead his command through a narrow valley. Here they were ambushed, 

and for three days and nights defended 

themselves as best they could, using the 

few wagons which they could get together 

and the bodies of dead horses as barricades. Two of the number escaped during 

the first night and brought word to Rawlins. When the relief expedition reached 

the scene, Maj. Thornburg and more than 

two-thirds of his command were dead.
THE OVERLAND ROUTE COUNCIL BLUFFS TO OGDEN. 65

fighter, whose name was given also to the creek that flows through 

the gap and to the mountain that lies just west of it.

Near Ferris siding the railroad crosses a low ridge of hills formed by 

the upturned sandstones of the Mesaverde formation, which constitute the eastern rim of the Great Divide Basin, a 

great depression in the older rocks filled with younger

sediment. West of the ridge are the. younger Cretaceous rocks, which are here steeply upturned, but 

which flatten out as they extend westward under this basin. About 

2 miles east of Knobs siding the road reaches Tertiary beds, also 

steeply upturned here, but flattening out farther west. They consist 

of conglomeratic sandstone alternating with dark-colored shale, and 

in some places contain beds of coal. These rocks contain some fossil 

plants and shells of fresh-water mollusks.

Near the station called Daley's Ranch the train crosses the wide

valley of Separation Creek, which, after following an erratic course

for 60 miles, is lost in the Great Divide Basin. North

a ey s anc . Q£ ^ railroad (to the right) may be seen in this valley

the bamS ^ C0rials °f a larSG sheGP ranch' LeSS

than 30 years ago the owner of this ranch was a section hand on. the Union Pacific, but he is now a large property 

owner and has been a member of the State legislature. Many tales 

might be told of sudden rise to fortune in the early days of the sheep 

industry, before the ranges had been overstocked and depleted.

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

consolidated yellow conglomeratic sapdstone resting with uneven 

base on dark-colored shale. This cut was made 

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

hundreds of other places along the Union Pacific, the 

road needs protection against drifting snow. The 

windbreaks for this one cut cost $3,500.

At Creston siding the train crosses the divide between the Atlantic 

and Pacific slopes and a sign south of the track reads: "Divide of 

the Continent." As a matter of fact, the traveler is 

res on. ajg.Q ^^^ ^he Great Divide Basin. The ordinary

conception of a divide is that of a mountain crest, 

but here is the anomaly of a continental divide passing through an undrained basin that is about 60 miles across from north 

to south and 100 miles from east to west. This basin contains numerous 

salt and alkaline lakes, mud flats, and mud springs. Hayden, one of 

the earlier Government geologists, states that in the region between 

the Seminoe Hills and Rawlins he saw an interesting group of mud 

springs, analogous to the mud puffs of the geyser region in Yellowstone Park. About 400 of these curious springs were found and 

examined.

92213° Bull. 612 15 5
66 GUIDEBOOK OP THE WESTERN UNITED STATES.

Throughout this part of the route the strata lie nearly horizontal, 

but there are long stretches of desert on which little can be seen 

except the bunches and tangled growths of stunted 

Red Desert. sagebrush and greasewood. (See PL XIII, B, p. .61.) 

This part of the Great Divide Basin is called the 

Red Desert. Coal beds crop out in it west of Latham siding, about 

5 miles »beyond Creston, but the coal is of poor quality and little 

use has been made of it. West of Creston is obtained the first 

comprehensive view of the Red Desert. A few miles north of the 

track is a great stretch of sand dunes, which extends 100 miles, 

from Green River to North Platte River. The dunes, many of them 

more than a hundred feet high, are constantly traveling with the prevailing winds in a direction a little north of east. If a few camels .and 

an Arab or two were added to the scene, the spectator could easily 

imagine himself in the Sahara Desert. Frequent mirages, endless 

variety of feature, and wonderful coloring make the desert far from 

the monotonous stretch it may seem to be at first glance. As the 

name suggests, the dominant colors are red russet, brick-red, and 

vermilion but there is every tone of gray and brown, with not a few 

shades of green, purple, and yellow. Unlike the colors of an eastern 

landscape, those of the Red Desert are not dependent on the season, 

for there is little vegetation to hide the coloring of the rocks and soil.

Despite the sparsity of vegetable growth, the Red Desert is a winter 

sheep range. The scattered "bunch grass," which looks so meager 

and dry, is in fact excellent forage, curing into hay where it grew and 

having a high nutritive value. In summer, when the desert is dry 

and water holes are few, the sheep are herded in the mountains, where 

water is abundant and grass is green and tender. The early snows, 

falling first in the higher mountains and extending week by week to 

lower altitudes, drive the flocks into the rough fall range between the 

mountains and the desert. Here they are held until the snow falls 

on the desert itself, but with the first heavy snowfall they are driven 

from the foothills to spend the winter in the open, where they find 

pasture in the spaces cleared of snow by the winds. The winds are 

not tempered here, but neither is the lamb shorn, and Wyoming winter 

winds make heavy wool when shearing time comes.

It may be noted that the great problem of stock raising in this 

western country is not so much to find pasturage although the range 

has been greatly overstocked as to find water. This is true not' 

only in the Red Desert but in almost every grazing area throughout 

the semiarid States. Places at which stock may be watered are so 

few that control of them in general means control of the entire pasture 

range. In years gone by it was the custom for large stock owners to 

acquire a number of water holes and so possess themselves of great
U. S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY BULLETIN 612 PLATE XIV

A. TABLE ROCK NEAR BITTER CREEK, WYO.

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

of the benches.

i'. CHARACTERISTIC VIEW OF THE NORTH WALL OF THE CANYON THROUGH WHICH THE 

TOURIST PASSES NEAR POINT OF ROCKS, WYO.

The bluffs are composed of the coarse sandstone which separates the two groups of coai beds of the Mesaverde formation. The Rock Springs coal group lies below this sandstone and the Almond coal group above it.
U. S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY BULLETIN 612 PLATE XV

A. COAL-BEARING SANDSTONE OF MESAVERDE FORMATION IN THE WESTERN PART OF THE 

ROCK SPRINGS DOME EAST OF ROCK SPRINGS, WYO.

12. TRANSPORTATION, OLD AND NEW.

A 14-horse team hauling freight from the railroad (in the foreground). The bluff in the distance is White 

Mountain and is composed of Tertiary beds.

C. NEAR VIEW OF WHITE MOUNTAIN.
THE OVERLAND EOUTE COUNCIL BLUFFS TO OGDEN. 67

grazing areas as effectively as if they owned every acre of them. In * 

recent years the Government has attempted to break up this practice 

by creating public water reserves which are open to the use of all 

comers, thus giving the small stock grower an equal chance with his 

more powerful rival.

In the Indian days the southern Red Desert constituted a more or 

less neutral territory among the numerous tribes. To the north were 

the Shoshones or Snakes, to the northeast the Crows, and to the south 

the Utes, but this territory was the common hunting ground and 

battle ground of all. In 1906, when the Uncompahgre Utes jumped 

the reservation in northeastern Utah and ranged northeastward across 

Wyoming, they held a great antelope round-up in the Red Desert, 

forming in genuine Indian style a great circle of riders which gradually 

drew in until the frightened antelope were concentrated in the center 

and killed. About 400 Indians took part in this round-up. Although 

they traveled several hundred miles from their reservation, and 

although it required a regiment of United States troops to awe them 

into surrender, no one was killed.

Wamsutter, formerly calle'd Washakie, is a division point on the

railroad. It is the site of old Fort Washakie, built for the protection

of railroad employees and emigrants from the Shoshone and Arapahoe Indians. Three deep wells have

o^IharaSe?*' Deen sunk to water here bJ tne railway company, the 

deepest boring going down 1,900 feet. The coal 

beds of the Wasatch group (Tertiary) were penetrated near the surface, and those in the undifferentiated Tertiary at several lower 

levels. The color and lithologic character of the beds penetrated 

indicate that the well probably did not go entirely through the Tertiary beds. Similar beds were struck in a well 1,115 feet deep at 

Red Desert station, 9 miles west of Wamsutter. 

West of Red Desert station is Hillside.

To the left (south), about 4 miles south of Tip ton station is a prominent escarpment known as Laney Rim, formed by the beds of the 

upper part of the Wasatch group. To the right is an 

lp on' uninterrupted view of the Green Mountains, more

SS^ySof*' than 5Q miles away- In tne distance toward the 

northwest may also be seen the Leucite Hills. Toward 

the west is a conspicuous dark-colored knob called Black Butte, which 

has served as a prominent landmark since the days of the earliest 

pioneers.

The stratified rocks, which are nearly horizontal in the center of 

the Great Divide Basin,have here a gentle inclination toward the east, 

The softer layers have been eroded away faster than the harder ones,
68 GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES.

which now appear as prominent shelves. Near Tipton (see sheet 

12, p. 70) the train crosses one of the harder layers of the Wasatch 

beds, a shelf-making sandstone, which may be seen to the left, 

south of the railroad, rising higher and higher toward the west until, 

on Table Rock (see PI. XIV, A), south of Table Rock station, it 

is about 800 feet above the level of the track. These rocks near 

Tipton contain great numbers of shells of fresh-water mollusks and 

some fossil bones.

Toward the east from Bitter Creek station may be obtained a good 

view of Table Rock, a prominent point in the eastward-sloping shelf 

just mentioned. The low hills south of the station 

are covered with gravel deposited by Bitter Creek 

before that stream had eroded to its present depth. 

The gravels contain many agate pebbles, some of 

them beautifully colored. A well drilled at this station years ago to 

a depth of 1,300 feet found water under sufficient pressure to flow at 

trie-surface, but too alkaline to be of much use.

West of Bitter Creek station the railroad crosses the eroded edges 

of eastward-dipping strata that range in age from middle Eocene to 

Cretaceous. At Patrick siding these strata have the same general 

appearance as the Wasatch beds farther east, but west of this siding 

the hard layers are closer together and outcrop in numerous ridges. 

These ridges are parts of the east limb of the Rock Springs dome. 1

Bitter Creek.

Elevation 6,692 feet. 

Omaha 764 miles.

1 The Cretaceous rocks that are covered 

by the Tertiary beds of the Great Divide 

Basin on the east and those of the Bridger 

Basin on the west are exposed between 

Black Buttes and Rock Springs because 

they have been arched up into a great 

dome from the top of which the younger 

beds have been removed by erosion. The 

major axis of this dome is about 90 miles 

long and trends nearly north and south 

close to the west limb of the dome. The 

beds on the west dip 15° to 30°; those on 

the east dip 5° to 10°. The minor axis is 

about 40 miles long and passes through 

the dome south of Rock Springs. The 

oldest rocks exposed are the shales near 

Baxter siding, which correspond to the 

Steele shale 'seen farther east. Around 

this shaly center outcrop in .concentric 

zones (1) a series of non coal-bearing sandstones; (2) the Rock Springs coal group, 

600 to 2,400 feet thick, of lower Mesaverde 

age; (3) a massive sandstone, 800 feet 

thick, of middle Mesaverde age; (4) the

Almond coal group, 900 feet thick, said 

to be of upper Mesaverde age; (5) the 

Lewis shale, 750± feet thick; (6) the 

Black Buttes coal group; and (7) the 

Black Rock coal group, of Tertiary age. 

It has been estimated that the 'amount 

of coal in the Rock Springs field ava liable 

for mining that is, within 3,000 feet of 

the surface and in beds 2£ feet or more in 

thickness exceeds 142,000,000,000 tons. 

As coal is fossilized vegetal matter, the 

traveler, as he views the barren hillsides 

where now scarcely a living thing can be 

seen, may well wonder how all this great 

store of carbonaceous matter came there. 

These coal beds are mute but forceful 

reminders that.desert conditions have not 

always prevailed in this region. Fossil 

.plants, such as palms, figs, and magnolias, 

found at many places in these coal beds 

prove that the carbonaceous matter of the 

coal accumulated in swamps at a time 

when the climate was as mild as that of 

Florida at present.
GEOLOGIC AND TOPOGRAPHIC MAP

OF THE j

OVERLAND EOUTE

From Omaha, Nebraska, to San Francisco, California

Base compiled from United States Geological Survey Atlas Sheets, 

from railroad alignments and profiles supplied by the Union Pacific 

Railroad Company and the Southern Paciflc Company and from additional information collected, with the assistance of these companies

UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY

GEORGE OTIS SMITH, DIRECTOK 

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

1915

BULLETIN 612 SHEET No.11

u_.

!08° _!__ 107V WYOMING

GREAT DIVIDE BASIN

Tertiary

PROFILE SECTION SHOWING FORMATIONS CROSSED OR VISIBLE BETWEEN LAHKOTA AND RED DESERT

^

EXPLANATION

Thickness

in feet

A Sandstone and shale; fresh-water deposits (Wasatch group and older Tertiary formations) 6,000-13,000 Tertiary 

B Sandstone, shale, and coal; fresh and brackish water deposits ("Lower Laramie" formation) 1,000-4,000 ~|

O Shale; marine deposit (Lewis shale) 

D Sandstone, shale, and coal; fresh and brackish water deposits (Mesaverde formation) 

E F G Shale and sandstone; including equivalents of Steele shale (E), Frontier formation, (F),

and Mowry shale (G) 

H Sandstone (Cloverly formation)

Jurassic or 

Cretaceous

Jurassic

500-1,500 

2,000-3,600

6,000 + 

, 100±

Cretaceous Sca!e 500,000 

Approximately 8 miles to 1 inch

5 10 15

I Sandstone and shale; fresh-water deposit 

(Morrisun formation)

ZOMiles

10 15 20 25 3oKi!ometers

J Sandstone and shale; marine deposit (Sundance formation)

K Red sandstone and shale; fresh or brackish water deposits 

(Chugwater formation)

L Limestone and red sandstone: marine deposits (Casper formation') 

M Quartzite 

N Granite

Triassic or 

Fermian

Carboniferous

Cambrian

Archeanf?)

Contour interval 200 feet

ELEVATIONS IN FEET ABOVE MEAN SEA LEVEL

The distances from Omaha, Nebraska, are shown every 10 miles 

The crossties on the railroads are spaced 1 mile apart

108° 107
THE OVEELAND ROUTE COUNCIL BLUFFS TO OGDEN. 69

Black Buttes.

Hallville.

Just before reaching Black Buttes station the train crosses the 

youngest of the three groups of Cretaceous coal beds that are exposed 

around the Rock Springs dome. This is called the 

Black Buttes coal group. The coal of the Black 

Elevation 6,6io feet. Buttes group has been mined to some extent. An

Omaha 773 miles. r j j -. * ^u i.* i ^ \ t

abandoned mine may be seen to the right (north) or

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

spur runs to an active mine a mile farther south.

West of Black Buttes the route follows a valley eroded mainly

in the Lewis (Upper Cretaceous) shale. The rocks have been displaced by faulting here, so that individual beds are 

not easily traceable by one passing rapidly over them.

Elevation 6,554 feet. £$ Hallville siding the road crosses one of the faults

Omaha 778 miles. to 

or displacements 01 the-strata that are so numerous

in this region and enters a narrow canyon whose steep, craggy walls 

display the hard rocks of the upper part of the Mesaverde formation. From this siding is obtained a good view of the Almond coal 

group,1 which crops .out north of the railroad (to the right) and is 

underlain by the white sandstone of the middle part of the Mesaverde. 

The light-colored sandstone near the middle of the Mesaverde formation makes prominent cliffs at the town of Point of Rocks. (See PI. 

XIV, B.} It is an important water-bearing sandstone 

and yields mineral waters. This sandstone is slightly 

Elevation 6,503 feet, conglomeratic, is irregular in texture and hardness.

Omaha 784 mUes, .° ' ? .

and has been eroded into many lantastic and curious 

forms. To some of the cavernous hollows in it have been given names, 

such as "Hermit's Grotto," "Cave of the Sands," and "Sancho's 

Bower." Three wells that have been, drilled here to depths of a little 

more than 1,000 feet have obtained an abundant supply of water. 

The water is strongly charged with sulphureted hydrogen (H2S), which 

soon escapes or is oxidized on exposure to the air. From Rawlins to 

Green River, a distance of 134 miles, there is scarcely a place where 

water fit to drink can be found at the surface. The springs and 

the streams are alkaline, and water from the wells at Point of Rocks is 

hauled for domestic and railroad use over much of this distance.

The coal beds of the Almond group are conspicuously exposed above 

the conglomeratic sandstone, and certain fossil oysters and other 

brackish-water shells are abundant in the rocks above the coal. The 

coal was mined about amile east of the town, where the dip of the strata 

brings the coal beds to the level of the valley floor.

Point of Rocks.

1 The coals of the Almond coal group are 

of poorer quality than those of the Rock 

Springs coal group and as they occur 

close to the abundant supply of highgrade coal mined at Rock Springs they 

have not been much exploited. The 

only place where they have been mined is 

Point of Rocks, formerly called Almond.
70 GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES.

About 2 miles west of Point of Rocks the route leaves the massive 

cliff-making sandstone and comes to the relatively soft yellow sandstone and shale of the Rock Springs coal group/ which contains the 

principal coal beds of this region.

Just east of Thayer Junction the railroad crosses the massive 

sandstones that occur near the base of the Mesaverde formation and 

emerges into an open space occupied by the marine shale which 

farther east is called the Steele shale. This is separated from the 

younger massive sandstones of the Mesaverde formation by a thick 

zone of shaly yellow sandstone that forms prominent benches and 

"badland" slopes.

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

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

are the Leucite Hills, which are made up largely of

Thayer Junction. jgneous r0cks in the form of volcanic necks,, sheets

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

Omaha 791 miles. . . °

across the sedimentary strata. Associated with these 

intrusive rocks are volcanic cones and lava flows. These rock's have 

long been objects of scientific interest because of their unusual character. Lately they have attracted additional interest by reason of 

the potash-rich mineral, leucite, they contain, which may some day 

be utilized if a process can be found for extracting the potash cheaply. 

It has been estimated that the igneous rock of the Leucite Hills contains more than 197,000,000 tons of potash.

Baxter siding is near the center of the Rock Springs dome. 

The several eastward-dipping formations crossed between Bitter

Creek station and Thayer Junction once arched over 

Baxter- the top of this dome and now dip in the opposite 

Elevation 6,303 feet, direction on its western slope, as is indicated in the

Omaha 803 miles. . , AM profile on the accompanying map (sheet 12). A mile 

west of Baxter siding a branch line runs northward 3 miles to Gunn, 

where mines have been opened on the lower beds of the Rock 

Springs coal group. Two miles west of the siding the route enters a

1 The Rock Springs group of coal beds is 

of lower Mesaverde (middle Upper Cretaceous) age and is the most important group 

of coals in Wyoming, for it contains many 

beds of bituminous coal of higher grade 

than that of the other groups of this region. 

The basal portion of the group of rocks 

consists of heavy ridge-making coal-bearing sandstones (PI. XV, A, p. 67), and the 

remainder of brown, .yellow, and white 

sandstones, shale, clay, and interbedded 

coal. The group is about 2,400 feet thick 

and contains at least twelve coal beds

that range from 2 to 10 feet in thickness 

and many other beds less than 2 feet 

thick. These beds are somewhat regularly distributed through the group and 

are fairly persistent along the strike. 

They have been prospected from Sweetwater, south of Rock Springs, northward 

around the end of the dome to Superior. 

Very little prospecting has been done 

south of Superior, as in this locality the 

coal beds are somewhat thinner and are 

fewer in number than between Superior 

and Rock Springs.
BULLETIN 612 SHEET No. 12

GEOLOGIC AND TOPOGRAPHIC MAP

OF THE

OVEKLAND EOTJTE

From Omaha, Nebraska, to San Francisco, Califorria

Base compiled from United States Geological Survey Atlas Sheets, 

from railroad alignments and profiles supplied by the Union Pacific 

Railroad Company and the Southern Pacific Company and from additional information collected with the assistance of these companies

UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY

GEOKGB OTIS SMITH, DIBECTOK 

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

1915

Bach quadrangle shown on the map with a name in parenthesis in the 

lower left corner is mapped in detail on the U. S. C. S. Topographic 

sheet of that name.

A Sandstone, shale, and coal; fresh-water

deposits (Wasatch group and Green River Tertiary 

formation of White Mountain)

B Sandstone, shale, and coal; fresh and brackish '

water deposits ("Lower Laramie", Black

Buttes coal group) 2,300 

C Shale; marine deposit (Lewis shale) 750 

D Sandstone, shale, and coal; brackish and

fresh-water deposits (Mesaverde formation) 5,000 

E Shale; marine deposit (includes equivalent of

Steele shale) ?

F Igneous rocks (lavas and intrusive masses) 

A ^' =i

DIVlt^T BASIN

I

Tertiary/ A

Ai/ Tble HocK

__.___._ ._ 141

500,000 

Approximately 8 miles to 1 inch 

5 10 IB

Contour interval 200 feet

ELEVATIONS IN FEET ABOVE MEAN SEA LEVEL

The distances from Omaha, Nebraska, are shown every JO miles 

__ The crossties on the railroads are spaced J^j
THE OVERLAND ROUTE COUNCIL BLUFFS TO OGDEIST. 71

picturesque gorge eroded by Bitter Creek through the ridge formed 

by the hard sandstone of the Mesaverde formation (PI. XV, A, p. 67). 

Coal is mined from one of the beds that outcrop in the north wall 

of this gorge. From the west end of the gorge, just before the train 

enters Rock Springs, the traveler gets a magnificent view of White 

Mountain (PL. XV, (7), to the right, northwest of the town. This is 

the eastern escarpment of the plateau, made up of beds of Eocene 

(Tertiary) age that occupy the Bridger Basin. The rocks are the 

same as those that will be seen at close range from the town of 

Green River.

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

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

sandstone previously described as occurring between

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

Elevation 6,256 feet, near Point of Rocks. However, water for domestic

Omaha 809 miles'. use as we^ as ^or use a^ the mines in this vicinity is 

pumped from Green River, a distance of 15 miles, 

with a lift of 179 feet.

Rock Springs is one of the most important coal-mining centers of 

the West and ships each year nearly a million tons of high-grade 

bituminous coal. The mines have been operated since 1868, when 

the Union Pacific Railroad reached this point, and some of the older 

workings extend for miles underground. Mine openings may be seen 

to the right (north) of the railroad east of the city. A branch line 

runs north to Reliance and another runs south to mines at Sweetwater. All the mines are in beds of the Rock Springs coal group.

West of Rock Springs the road passes from the Cretaceous formations to the Tertiary beds that occupy the Bridger Basin. The Tertiary rocks are conspicuous to the right (north) of the railroad, in 

White Mountain (see PI. XV, (7), which here forms the eastern 

rim of the basin. The mountain is made up of stratified rocks consisting of the light-pink beds of the Wasatch group and the white to 

light-blue and greenish rocks of the Green River formation. These 

beds are inclined gently toward the west, so that the light-colored 

beds of the middle portion of White Mountain descend to the river 

level at the town of Green River.

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

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

westbound traveler first the pink beds of the lower 

Kanda. ' of the Wasatch group and then the harder sandy

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

made up of a countless number of very thin and sandy

calcareous layers separated by equally thin layers of shale, so that

the cliffs of this formation have a wonderfully banded appearance.
72 GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED .STATES.

The gorge extends to the mouth of Bitter Creek,1 where the train suddenly emerges from its narrow confines directly into the broad valley 

occupied by Green River.

1 In order to understand why Bitter 

Creek established itself in its present 

course, we must consider conditions that 

existed here millions of years ago. This 

stream cuts its way directly across the 

Rock Springs dome instead of flowing 

around it and then, seemingly regardless 

of what would be easy lines of erosion, 

flows across the broad valley west of Bock 

Springs and plunges through White Mountain, in which it has cut a gorge 1,000 feet 

or more in depth. This apparently unreasonable course was established long 

ages ago, when this part of the country 

was lower than it is how and the distant 

mountains, then newly formed and rugged, supplied the streams with more sediment than they could carry. This material was deposited on the lower lands, 

building them up just as flood plains and 

deltas are being built up in some places 

at the present time. The resulting accumulations of sediment constitute the 

Wasatch, Green River, Bridger, and other 

formations of Tertiary age.

There came a time, however, when the 

region thus built up was uplifted so much 

as not only to stop deposition but perhaps also to divert the streams to new 

courses and cause them to cut downward 

into the beds of sediment which they had 

previously deposited. The surface was 

not raised the same amount in all places 

and the uplift was accompanied by 

warping and fracture of the rocks. East 

of Rock Springs the upheaval produced 

a great dome. In other fractured places 

the rocks slipped past each.other and produced faults. These movements were 

very slow, and for this reason Bitter Creek 

maintained itself even while the great 

dome rose across its course. Doubtless 

similar movements are in progress now. 

but they are so slow that the lifetime of a 

man is not long enough to enable him to 

detect a change. The oldest inhabitant 

of Bitter Creek valley would probably 

insist that the creek had not deepened 

its channel during his lifetime, yet it cut

its channel as fast as the dome rose, or it 

would have been deflected.

A similar explanation accounts for the 

behavior of. this stream west of Rock 

(Springs. Its course was established when 

the surface was a thousand feet or more 

higher than it is now that is, higher than 

the present top of Table Mountain. As 

the master stream, Green River, cut its 

course lower and lower, the smaller 

stream, Bitter Creek, cut the narrow 

gorge through Table Mountain. But farther east, where the same sedimentary 

rocks that compose this mountain were 

more steeply upturned and more easily 

eroded. Bitter Creek and its tributaries" 

cut down a vast area to a level much 

lower than the top of Table Mountain.

The volume of rock removed by this 

small stream alone would probably be 

reckoned in hundreds of cubic miles, and 

all of it found its way through the narrow 

gorge to Green River. Hundreds of other 

streams delivered similar amounts to the 

same river, and the question may well be 

asked, What became of it all ? Those who 

have visited the Grand Canyon of the Colorado in Arizona have noted the muddy 

waters of that river and wondered where 

the mud came from. Some of it came 

from Wyoming. Those who have visited 

the. built-up plains and filled basins that 

mark the ancient course of Colorado River 

in western Arizona have wondered where 

the material came from to fill these 

enormous basins. Some of it came from 

the valleys through which the Union 

Pacific Railroad is built. Those who 

have traveled over the Southern Pacific 

line in southern California, where it 

crosses the broad delta which the Colorado built out across the Gulf of California 

so far that the north end of the gulf now 

the Salton Sink was completely cut off 

from the main part of the gulf, have wondered where all the sand and silt of that 

great delta came from. Some of it once 

rested on the arch of the Rock Springs 

dome.
U. S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY BULLETIN 612 PLATE XVI

MAJOR J. W. POWELL.
U. S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY BULLETIN 612 PLATE XVII

A. GREEN RIVER CITY, WYO., AS SEEN fRGM CASTLE ROCK. 

Photograph furnished by Union Pacific Railroad Co,

i'. NATURAL MONUMENTS WEST OF CASTLE ROCK.

Some of these monuments have assumed curious shapes, like the "teapot and cup," shown above. They i 

composed of the regularly laminated Green River shale capped by hard brown sandstone.
THE OVERLAND ROUTE COUNCIL BLUFFS TO OGDEN. 73

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

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

Oregon and Washington change to the Oregon Short

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

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

Omha824rniies. Green River is picturesquely situated between the 

river and the precipitous bluffs which rise 700 feet 

or more above the water. Like most of the other towns along the 

route throughout Wyoming it has little aside from the immediate 

business of the railroad to maintain it. Ail attempt has been made 

here to manufacture soda from alkaline water pumped from wells 

about 250 feet deep, but the long haul to market renders profitable 

operation difficult.

The town of Green River is on one of the most interesting drainage 

systems in America. The river rises about 200 miles farther north 

and at the railroad crossing is a stream of considerable size, having 

an average flow of 2,200 cubic feet a second. About 540 miles farther 

south it joins Grand River to form the Colorado, which, after winding 

through more than a thousand miles of the most wonderful canyon 

scenery in the world, reaches the Gulf of California.

From the town of Green River, Maj. J. W. Powell, afterward Director of the United States Geological Survey, started May 24, 1869, 

with his little company of daring associates to explore the canyons 

of the Colorado. The story of the trip is well known, but from 

the simple, unimpassioned language in which Major Powell (see 

PI. XVI) himself tells it, the reader might not realize that this was 

one of the most hazardous undertakings in the history of modern 

exploration. Few have cared to undertake the adventure since, 

and some of those have paid for their temerity with their lives. The 

journey.has recently been successfully repeated, however, by two 

photographers, Ellsworth and Emery Kolb, who on September 8, 

1911, also started from Green River and, after numerous adventures, 

emerged from the canyons with a valuable collection of negatives 

and moving-picture films.

The Green River beds, which form the bluffs near Green River, are 

carved into many curious and picturesque forms natural monuments 

(PI. XVII, J?) and castle-like structures. The bluffs are light green 

in the lower part and dark brown above. The upper beds are harder 

than the lower ones and form the protecting caps of the pinnacles. 

These bluffs have been a source of interest to geologists and travelers 

ever since they were examined by F. V. Hayden more than 40 years 

ago, and they have been described and illustrated many times. 

Their character is indicated by the accompanying illustrations much 

better than by any word pictures.
74 GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES.

Three miles west of Green River the railroad passes through Fish Cut 

(PL XVIII, A), so named because of the large numbers of fossil fishes 

(Plate XIX,^1), taken from it. Fossils are obtained from this same formation at Fossil, Wyo., a station on the Oregon Short Line, and sold as 

curios. On the side of the river opposite Fish Cut the Green River 

shale has been eroded into a variety of picturesque forms, such as are 

illustrated in Plates XVII, B, and XVIII, B. These may be seen to 

the right from the train.

On the old grade just below the present road in Fish Cut there are 

several oil seeps, where the surface is kept moist by oil that oozes from 

the shale. Little oil occurs in the Green River formation. Its carbonaceous content consists of partly decomposed vegetal matter (see 

Plate XIX, B}, which, when the rock is heated, yields petroleum 

and ammonia. Rock from Fish Cut that gave no outward sign of 

the presence of oil yielded, on distillation, 3 1 gallons of oil to the ton 

and an amount of ammonia equivalent to 34 pounds of ammonium 

sulphate, a product that is nearly as valuable as the oil.

Just above the horizon at which the fossil fishes occur the shale 

gives place to brown coarse-grained cross-bedded sandstone, which 

occurs in such a way as to suggest that it fills old river channels. It 

is this channel sandstone that caps the curious pinnacles which are so 

conspicuous near Green River. The softer shale surrounding and 

underlying the masses of hard sandstone softens and crumbles under 

the influence of the weather and is washed by the ram or blown by the 

wind from the bluffs, the portions that are protected by the hard capping standing as isolated monuments or precipitous cliffs.

From Peru station the traveler may catch glimpses toward the 

southwest of the high peaks of the Uinta Mountains, in northwestern 

Colorado. These appear more conspicuous from 

points farther west.

From Green River the road rises bJ a relatively 

steep grade over strata that dip slightly to the west, 

and at Peru the younger Eocene or Bridger beds 1 occupy the surface. Where they are cut by the railroad these beds consist of 

brown shaly or limy sandstone.

Great numbers of fossil bones, most of them representing primitive 

or unspecialized types of mammals, have been collected from the

Peru1 The Bridger formation takes its name 

from Fort Bridger, which stands in the 

valley of Blacks Fork about 10 miles south 

of Carter station. To the traveler on the 

train this formation is not readily distinguishable from the underlying beds, 

but many of the prominent buttes in this 

vicinity, especially those south of the

track, are composed of rocks belonging 

to this formation. Probably those most 

noticeable from the train are the buttes 

near the station of Church Butte, which 

takes its name from the largest of this 

group.

Most of the formations exposed in 

western Wyoming and eastern Utah are
U. S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY BULLETIN 612 PLATE XVIII

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

Many fossil fishes were found in the Green River formation at this locality. Photograph furnished by Union

Pacific Railroad Co.

B. BLUFFS OF THE GREEN RIVER FORMATION NEAR GREEN RIVER CITY, WYO. 

Photograph furnished by Union Pacific Railroad Co.
U. S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY BULLETIN 612 PLATE XIX

A. FOSSIL FISH {DIPLOMYSTUS DENTATUS), SHOWING THE BONES, FIN RAYS, ETC., EMBEDDED 

IN A SLAB OF ROCK TAKEN FROM THE QUARRY.

.B. FOSSIL LEAF OF THE SWEET-GUM TREE (LIQUIDAMBAR) AS IT APPEARS ON A SLAB OF 

ROCK TAKEN FROM THE QUARRY.

FOSSILS FOUND IN THE GREEN RIVER (TERTIARY) FORMATION.
THE OVERLAND ROUTE COUNCIL BLUFFS TO OGDEN. 75

Eocene beds of the Bridger Basin. It was during the Eocene epoch 

that the great development of mammalian life took place. The small

designated by other names than those 

used for beds of essentially the same age

that lie farther east. The following table 

shows the relations of these formations:

Succession of the rock formations exposed along the Union'Pacific Railroad in western 

Wyoming and eastern Utah.

Period.

Tertiary.

Cretaceous or Tertiary.

Cretaceous.

Jurassic.

Jurassic or Triassic.

Triassic.

Carboniferous.

Devonian.

Silurian.

Ordovician.

Cambrian.

Algonkian.

Archean.

Epoch.

Eocene.

(?)

Upper Cretaceous.

Lower Triassic.

Permian (?).

Pennsylvania!!.

Mississippian.

Group and formation.

Bridger formation. 

Green River formation. 

Wasatch group : 

Knight formation. 

Fowkes formation. 

Almy formation.

Evanston formation.

Adaville formation. 

Hilliard formation. 

Frontier formation. 

Aspen formation. 

Bear River formation.

Beckwith formation (possibly including 

some Cretaceous). 

Twin Creek limestone.

Nugget sandstone.

Ankareh shale. 

Thaynes limestone. 

Woodside formation.

Park City formation.

Weber quartzite. 

Morgan formation.

Limestones.

Granite, etc.
76 GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES.

primitive mammals of earlier epochs were succeeded by a great 

variety of forms, some of which are the ancestors of animals now 

living, though others seem to have left no descendants. Two of the 

common forms are illustrated in Plate XX (p. 80).

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

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

Toward the southwest, 60 miles away, may.be seen

Bryan> the snowy summit of Gilbert Peak, one of the mon-

?mIha08376S!et' archs of the Uinta Mountains, rising 13,422 feet

above sea level, named after G. K. Gilbert, one of

the original members of the United States Geological Survey.

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

the Union Pacific, turning northward up Hams Fork.

Granger. West of this station the Tertiary strata dip slightly

olmlha°8546 £iefseet' *°ward the east, so that the. westbound traveler

passes gradually from younger to older beds.

From points between Granger and Hampton some of the distant

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

the northwest, and the rugged, snowy peaks of the

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

Elevation 6,396 feet. The hm ^ f ^ railroad half a mile W6St of the 

Omaha 8'3 miles. _ _ ;

station, contains great numbers of fossil shells. One 

layer of rock here, about 4 feet thick, consists almost wholly of coiled 

shells, of Eocene age, and another layer just below it contains numerous clamshells in an almost perfect state of preservation.

Carter consists of only a few houses but is the center of an extensive sheep-raising industry. During the summer the 

Carter. sheep are pastured on the distant mountains, but 

Elevation 6,507 feet. ^ fae snow f^ faev are driven down to the

Omaha 882 miles. J .

desert plains, where they pass the winter.

West of Carter the red sandstone and shale of the Wasatch 

(Tertiary) group are again reached. These beds underlie the surface 

rocks that occupy the center of the Bridger Basin. Then1 material 

here is much coarser and of a deeper-red color than it is east of Green 

River. This change in character becomes more and more conspicuous 

toward the west, and near Evanston these rocks are markedly conglomeratic. Farther west, near the Wasatch Mountains, they are 

made up largely of a still coarser red puddingstone.

Between Carter and Bridger is Antelope station, at which the 

traveler will.be nearly halfway from Omaha to San Francisco.
BULLETIN 612 SHEET No. 13

GEOLOGIC AND TOPOGRAPHIC MAP

OF THE

OVEELAND ROUTE

From Omaha, Nebraska, to San Francisco, California

Base compiled from United States Geological Survey Atlas Sheets, 

from railroad alignments and profiles supplied by the Union Pacific 

Railroad Company and the Southern Pacific Company and from additional information collected, with the assistance of these companies

UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURYEY

GEORGE OTIS SMITH, DIRECTOR 

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

1915

Bach quadrangle shown on the map with a name in parenthesis in the 

lower left comer is mapped in detail on the U. S. G. S. Topographic 

sheet of that name.

I 0

500.000 

Approximately 8 miles to 1 inch 

5 10 is 20Miles

10 15 20 25 3oKilometers

Contour interval 200 feet

ELEVATIONS IN FEET ABOVE MEAN SEA LEVEL

The distances from Omaha, Nebraska, are shown every 10 miles 

The crossties on the railroads are spaced 1 mile apart

110° 10930'
THE OVERLAND ROUTE COUNCIL BLUFFS TO OGDEN. 77

Bridger station (see sheet 14, p. 88) was named for James Bridger,1 

the first white man to settle in this section. Near the station the 

rocks of Upper Cretaceous and Jurassic age that 

Bridger. underlie the Tertiary beds of the Bridger Basin begin 

omVaha°8n936Sf *' to aPPear at the surface. About 3 miles north of the 

station, where the railroad turns south, the hills 

formed by these older rocks are visible at the right (west), and the 

ridges formed by them lie nearly parallel to the road as far South, as 

the Aspen tunnel. Throughout this distance the route traverses the 

valley eroded by Muddy Creek, mainly in the Wasatch red beds, 

which here dip gently to the east.

The original route of the railroad from Leroy up the valley of 

Muddy Creek and over the divide near old Bear River City has been 

abandoned. It was difficult to operate because of 

curves and grades that necessitated helping engines 

for all heavy trains. The new route follows the 

valley used by the -Mormon pioneers in crossing 

This ridge is pierced by the Aspen tunnel, which is 

5,900 feet long and is the largest single piece of tunnel work performed by the Union Pacific Railroad Co. In order to hasten

Leroy.

Elevation 6,702 feet. 

Omaha 898 miles.

Aspen Ridge.2

1 James Bridger was a well-known pioneer who did much toward taming the 

"wild West." Although he called Fort 

Bridger his home, he may more properly 

be spoken of as a citizen of the West, for 

he was at 1 home beside the camp fire 

wherever night overtook him, whether on 

the plains or in the mountains, whether 

alone or surrounded by hostile savages.

He was born in Richmond, V-a., in 1804, 

but soon drifted to the West, where he was 

employed by the Bocky Mountain Fur 

Co. So rapidly did he become familiar 

with the wilderness and with its savage 

inhabitants that before he was 30 years 

of age he was known as "the old man of 

the mountains." He discovered Great 

Salt Lake in the winter of 1824-25, and, 

because of the salinity of its waters, 

thought it was an arm of the Pacific 

Ocean. Two years later men under his 

direction explored the lake, passing completely around it in boats made of 

skins.

At his trading post on Black Fork, 10 

miles southeast of the Bridger station, he 

built the fort that bore his name and 

which was later used by United States 

soldiers. Bridger. was long employed

as a guide for the Army in the several 

campaigns against hostile Indians, and 

.also by companies of emigrants, especially by the gold seekers of 1849. He 

was in western Wyoming when the advance company, of Mormons, led by 

Brigham Young, were on their way to the 

"promised land" and urged them not 

.to settle in Salt Lake Valley, because of 

the supposed difficulty of ripening crops 

there. He said to Young: "I will give 

you a thousand dollars for the first ear of 

corn that ripens there." Young, who 

claimed divine guidance, replied: "Wait 

and we will show you."

2Aspen Ridge is the easternmost of a 

series of north-south ridges that are separated by troughlike depressions, of which 

Mammoth Hollow is a type. These ridges 

originated in mountain-making movements which probably began at the close 

of the Cretaceous period and resulted in 

the upheaval of the Uinta and Wasatch 

mountains on the south and the group of 

mountains extending southward from 

Yellowstone Park on the north. These 

ridges connect the groups of mountains 

and may be regarded as incipient mountain ranges. The rocks were broken or
78 GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTEBST UNITED STATES.

the work of construction a central shaft was sunk, the top of which 

was 331 feet above track grade. From the bottom of the shaft 

headings were started east and west to connect with the end headings. 

The greatest depth reached below the surface is 456 feet; the highest 

point above sea level 7,296 feet. The tunnel accommodates a single 

track and is lined with timber and concrete. The new route was 

completed in 1901, at a cost of $12,000,000, and shortens the line 

10 miles:

At the point where the road leaves the main branch of Muddy Creek, 

21 miles south -of Leroy, the traveler may obtain a view, toward the 

left (east), of the edge of the plateau of Bridger beds on which stands 

Bridger Butte. A mile west of Ragan may be seen, to the right 

(north), a group of derricks where oil wells have been sunk into the 

Aspen shale, 1 which includes the oil-bearing rocks of this region. A 

small refinery was built at Leroy, but it was not in operation in 1914.

faulted and upturned in ridges, but the 

movement was arrested before high 

mountains were formed here.

Two main groups of fault lines are 

crossed by the Union Pacific in this general region. The Absaroka fault and the 

Oil Springs faults are crossed at the Aspen 

tunnel and the Almy and Medicine 

Butte faults at Evanston. The Absaroka 

is a thrust fault by which the rocks on the 

west have been pushed eastward and 

raised more than 15,000 feet, some of the 

older sedimentary rocks being brought to 

altitudes much greater than those of the 

younger rocks of this region. This relation is conspicuous west of the Aspen 

tunnel, where rocks of early Tertiary age 

abut against some of Jurassic age. The 

Medicine Butte fault, which the road 

crosses at Evanston, is also an overthrust, but the Almy is a normal or gravity 

fault that is, the rock mass here has 

dropped instead of being pushed upward.

Erosion, which followed the initial 

mountain-forming disturbance, carved the 

older rocks into low hills and shallow valleys, and these in turn were buried by 

accumulations of sediment in early 

Eocene time. Later the rocks were again 

upheaved, erosion was renewed, and other 

hills and valleys were carved out. These 

also were buried by the red sands and 

gravels of the Wasatch group, which recent erosion has removed in some places, 

exposing again the pre-Wasatch hills, 

but which still remain as the surface rocks

over large areas of western Wyoming and 

eastern Utah.

1 The Aspen formation consists of shale 

1,500 to 2,000 feet thick, in which are 

layers of sandstone that contain oil. Near 

the top of the formation occurs the 

"Spring Valley oil sand," which contains the principal oil pools, although 

some have been found in lower sands. 

The formation is of marine origin, and the 

shaly parts contain numerous scales of 

fishes, from which they have been called 

the "fish-scale shales." Certain fossils 

found in the formation prove that it belongs in the lower part of the Upper Cretaceous series.

Although most of the oil of this region 

has been found in the Aspen formation, 

some comes from the Bear River formation, which immediately underlies the 

Aspen. The occurrence of oil in this 

region was known to James Bridger and 

other early trappers, but the first published account of it resulted from a visit 

made by the Mormon pioneers in 1847 to 

the natural oil spring, known as the 

Brigham Young oil well, 6 miles southwest of Spring Valley. Small quantities of oil were collected from this and 

other springs, and prospecting was carried on intermittently until 1900, when 

high-grade oil was struck in a well near 

Spring Valley. Since that time several 

pools have been found, but the yield is 

small, the best wells producing only a 

few barrels a day.
THE OVERLAND ROUTE COUNCIL BLUFFS TO OGDEN. 79

Just west of Spring Valley station the train crosses a small exposure of the Frontier formation.1 These coal-bearing rocks are of 

Upper Cretaceous age and have been exposed beSpring Valley. cause of the removal of the red beds of the Wasatch 

Elevation 7,003 feet, group that once covered them. Several abandoned

Omaha 905 miles. - ° i , .. , , , ,

prospects and old coal mines may be seen on each 

side of the track, but no coal is mined here now.

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

Granger the train has been ascending Muddy Creek and here reaches

the head of one of its tributaries. In going through 

Aspen* the tunnel the train passes from the area drained by 

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

Omaha 909 miles. . . . JT ,

western North America which has no outlet to the 

sea. The waters east of Aspen Ridge find their way down Muddy 

Creek and Black Fork to Green River and thence through the Grand 

Canyon of the Colorado to the Gulf of California. Those west of 

this ridge find their way to Bear River and flow by a circuitous 

route into Great Salt Lake, from which .they can escape only by 

evaporation.

The rocks at the east end of the tunnel are the red beds of the 

Wasatch group, but the Oyster Ridge sandstone may be seen in the 

ridge just above the mouth of the tunnel. The tunnel pierces this 

sandstone and also part of the Hilliard formation of Upper Cretaceous 

age, next younger, than the Frontier.

West of Altamont the route passes for about 2 miles through an 

open valley occupied by the soft Hilliard shale, then crosses the fault 

line that separates this shale from the Beck with formation,2 the oldest formation exposed near the Union 

Pacific Railroad in western Wyoming, and enters a 

narrow gorge carved out of the hard conglomeratic 

sandstone of that formation. This sandstone, upturned to a 

nearly vertical position, now crops out in sharp ridges composed of

Altamont.

Elevation 7,217 feet. 

Omaha 911 miles.

1 The Frontier formation consists of 

coal-bearing sandstone and shale of Benton (Upper Cretaceous) age. Its name is 

derived from Frontier, Wyo., where the 

coals are well developed. The formation contains near the top a prominent 

sandstone about 200 feet thick, which 

usually forms a ridge at the outcrop and 

is characterized by the presence of fossil 

shells of a long, slender oyster (Ostrea 

soleniscus). Since 1858, when Englemann collected fossils from this sandstone on Sulphur Creek, it has been a 

favorite collecting ground for geologists,

and from the time of the Hayden Survey, 

in 1872, it has been known as the Oyster 

Ridge sandstone. Fossil plants also have 

been collected from the Frontier formation. 

2 The Beckwith formation comprises two 

members. The lower member consists of 

conglomerate, sandstone, and sandy clay 

2,500 feet thick, light colored near the 

railroad, but red farther north; the upper 

member consists of light-colored sandstone 

and clay about 3,000 feet thick well exposed west of the railroad from Bridger to 

Leroy and in the ridges west of the Aspen 

tunnel.
80 GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES.

coarse red conglomerate that is seen to best advantage toward the 

right (north). These ridges were formed by mountain-making movements which fractured the once horizontal layers and shoved them 

up to a vertical position, and by erosion, which carved them into 

the present forms.

Beyond this series of sharp ridges and well exposed in the gorge, on 

either side of the road, is the Bear River formation', 1 which is here 

about 1,100 feet thick. In the lower part of this formation north of 

the track were found great numbers of fossil shells of clams and snails.

West of the narrow gorge in the Beckwith and Bear River formations is a small open space in which the Aspen shale 

Knight. crops out. Still farther west the route again enters 

oSS'S!6*' an area occupied by the red beds of the Wasatch 

group. The Wasatch of this region consists of the 

Almy, Fowles, and Knight formations, the last having been named 

from Knight station.

About 2 miles west of the station the train reaches the open valley . 

of Bear River, a broad marshy flood plain over which the river 

meanders in a serpentine course and which'at times of high water is 

completely flooded. Bear River rises in the Uinta Mountains, about 

50 miles to the south, and flows in a circuitous route, first northwestward and then westward, around the north end of the Wasatch 

Mountains, and finally doubles back upon itself in a general southerly 

course and empties into Great Salt Lake. Measurements of its flow 

show that on the average 375 cubic feet of water passed Evans ton 

every second in 1914. The current is swift in some places, and 

from this point in its course to its mouth the river falls about 2,500 

feet. Water from Bear River and its tributaries is utilized for irrigating about 75,000 acres of land.

1 The Bear River formation consists of 

dark shale, some of it carbonaceous, and 

thin layers of sandstone and limestone, 

and in some places it includes beds of coal. 

It may be distinguished from the older, 

unfossiliferous Beckwith beds by its 

darker color and by the fossils near its 

base.

Some parts of the formation contain 

numerous fossil plants, as well as shells of 

fresh-water and brackish-water mollusks, 

unlike those found in Cretaceous beds 

elsewhere. The formation is not widely 

distributed, being known only from Bear 

River City an early construction camp 

of the Union Pacific near Bear River on 

the line now abandoned northward to 

the Salt River Range. Its thickness 

ranges from 500 to about 5,000 feet.

The Bear River beds were formed not 

far from the continental land mass that 

remained above water throughout Upper 

Cretaceous time, west Jof the interior sea, 

£rnd it probably .represents a delta at the 

mouth of a river that drained this old continent. The presence of fossil plants, coal 

beds, and fresh-water invertebrates in the 

Bear River formation, together with its 

stratigraphic position beneath the Aspen 

formation, which is known from fossils 

contained in it to be of Benton (Upper 

Cretaceous) age, has led to the somewhat 

persistent suggestion that the Bear River 

may be the time equivalent of the Dakota sandstone, although its 'maximum 

thickness is about 50 times that of the 

Dakota.
U. S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY BULLETIN 612 PLATE XX

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

MAMMALS OF TO-DAY.

After Osborn. Published by permission of The Macmillan Co.

B. EOBASILEUS, ONE OF THE TYPES OF ANIMALS THAT BECAME EXTINCT AGES AGO. 

After Osborn, Published by permission of The Macmillan Co.
U, S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY 

A. GEOLOGIC FEATURES SEEN FROM EVANSTON

DETAILS OF PROMINENT HILL AT LEFT O

The line of polling between the Evanston and Almy formations lies between the points A and B, Upper beds are 

River are composed of nearly horizontal strata belongin
THE OVERLAND ROUTE COUNCIL BLUFFS TO OGDEN. 81

Near MUlis station may be seen to the right (north) great piles of 

railroad ties that were cut in the mountains many miles to the south

and floated down Bear River at times of high water. 

Millis. TQ tlie left (soutll) are ^ffs f ormed by beds of gravei

^g horizontally over the eroded edges of the upturned red beds of the Knight formation. These 

gravels were deposited by the river ages ago, before it had cut its 

valley down to the level of the present flood plain.

Just before entering Evanston the road crosses the lines of the Almy 

and Medicine Butte faults. Between these two faults the rocks are 

steeply tilted, and to the left (south) may be obtained a glimpse of 

the Almy conglomerates and the Evanston formation, a coal-bearing 

formation that is best exposed north of the city.

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

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

and commercial center and a division point of the

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

Elevation 6,739 feet, plants, and other buildings. A branch road connects

Population 2,583. f ' &. Omaha 925 miles. the city with several mines, some as tar north as 

Almy. The Evanston formation, which contains the 

principal coal beds of this region, is well exposed in a hill that may 

be seen to the right, about 2 miles north of the city. Plate XXI, A, 

shows the relations of this formation as seen from Evanston. The 

type locality of this formation is east of Bear River,' just north of 

the city, at the locality shown in Plate XXI, B. Its rocks consist 

of conglomeratic sandstone, shale, and thick beds of coal. It lies on 

the eroded edges of several older formations, indicating that its deposition followed a long period of erosion. (See table on p. 75.)

Six miles west of Evanston the railroad crosses from Wyoming into 

Utah.

Utah has an area of 82,184 square miles and a population of 373,351. 

The eastern part of the State consists of high plateaus; the western

part, which lies in the Great Basin/ consists of ranges 

Utah. of rugged mountains trending in general from north

to south, sagebrush-covered hills, wide, nearly level 

valleys, clear mountain streams, and fresh and salt lakes. The floor 

of the Great Basin is formed of alluvium washed from the plateaus 

and mountains.

1 As a general rule continental surfaces its character and extent. It lies near the

are drained by streams flowing to the 

ocean, but there are some exceptional 

areas which have no outward drainage. 

The Great Basin (fig. 10) is such an area. 

It was so named by Fre"mont, who was 

the first to gain an adequate conception of 

92213° Bull. 612 15 6

western margin of the continent and is 

surrounded by the headwater divides of 

rivers tributary to the Pacific Ocean.

Roughly, the Great Basin is bounded 

by the Eocky Mountains on the east and 

by the Sierra Nevada on the west. It
82 GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES.

The great mineral wealth of the State is shown by its record of 

mineral production, which in 1913 amounted to more than $53,000,- 

000. The five leading products in that year were copper, $25,024,124; 

silver, $7,903,240; lead, $7,309,579; coal, $5,384,127; and gold,

FIGURE 10. Map showing outline of the Great Basin and the lakes it once contained. Shaded areas 

show Quaternary lakes; dotted lines show boundaries of drainage basins.

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

extends from Oregon on the north to and 

beyond the Mexican boundary, but is 

limited by the drainage system of Colorado River on the southeast. The area 

thus defined is 800 miles long from north 

to south, and nearly 500 miles broad in its 

widest part. It contains 200,000 square 

miles, an area about equal to that of 

France.

The Great Basin is a region of diversified surface features, including flat desert 

valleys and rugged mountain ranges containing lofty, peaks. It is not, as its 

name might suggest, a single pan-shaped

depression, gathering its waters to a common center, but is divided into a large 

number of independent drainage areas. 

Both the mountains and the valleys are 

of types more or less peculiar to the region.

The mountains are long, narrow ridges, 

most of which extend from north to south 

and project abruptly out of the plains, 

there being a noticeable absence of foothills. Many of them terminate at the 

ends as abruptly as their side slopes join 

the surrounding plains.

Arid plains are abundant in this region 

and some are so extensive that they appear
THE OVERLAND ROUTE COUNCIL BLUFFS TO OGDEN. 83

Among the State's nonmetallic mineral resources are coal, which 

underlies large areas, and phosphate rock.

Although the average annual rainfall in Utah is only 11 inches, large 

crops are grown, chiefly by irrigation, and great numbers of live stock 

are raised. The value of the sugar made from sugar beets in 1914 

amounted to more than $10,000,000. Wheat, oats, and potatoes are 

raised in large quantities, the value of these products in 1913 having 

been more than $8,000,000. The live stock in Utah in 1914 was 

valued at $18,000,000, and the value of the wool clip was $7,000,000. 

The value of the manufactures of the State in 1914 amounted to 

about $76,000,000.

To the geologist Utah is an interesting field of work and study. 

Its peculiar mountain ranges, the record of its extinct lakes, the deposits in its present lakes, its coal beds, its possible gas and oil fields, and 

its diverse and abundant mineral deposits, as well as its underground 

water and its available water powers, have long commanded attention 

and have been the subjects of many reports.

almost boundless. They present many 

of the features generally supposed to 

characterize a desert, such as deep drifting sands and broad stretches of wholly 

barren mud plains, and in the heat of the 

midday sun they exhibit all the tricks of 

the mirage.

The climate of the region is very dry, 

the average annual rainfall varying from 

10 or 12 inches in northern Nevada to less 

than 3 inches in the south and southwest. 

In northern Nevada the plains are in 

general covered with scattered clumps of 

brush, of which greasewood (Sarcobatus) 

and numerous varieties of sage (Artemisia) 

are most common. In the spring the 

barren-looking soil brings forth a surprising variety of beautiful and delicate 

flowers, most of which disappear entirely 

as the parching heat of summer comes on. 

Timber or even trees of any kind are, 

as a rule, exceedingly scarce. Cottonwoods and willows grow in patches or line 

some of the more permanent watercourses, and more or less scrubby pines 

and cedars are scattered on some of the 

higher mountain slopes. Herds of small 

wild horses, or mustangs, roam over some 

of the less frequented mountain ranges, 

but, like the ubiquitous coyotes, they 

are shy and are not likely to be seen from 

the train.

Agriculture is almost wholly restricted 

to a few areas that can be irrigated, although dry farming is being tried in some 

localities. A more common industry is 

the grazing of sheep and cattle on the 

bunch grass that grows in the shade of the 

sagebrush.

The mines of the precious metals are 

the principal source of wealth in the Great 

Basin, and in connection with their 

development towns have been built in 

out of the way places, many of them high 

on the bare mountain sides and far from 

water and food supplies.

Since the completion of the first transcontinental railroad, in 1869, settlement 

of the region and development of its 

resources have progressed enormously. 

Now several transcontinental railroads 

cross it and numerous branches extend 

through the desert valleys north and 

south from the trunk lines; towns and 

mining camps have sprung up along these 

highways, and almost every acre of easily 

irrigable land has been appropriated by 

settlers. Herds of cattle and sheep find 

sustenance on the mountains and in the 

sagebrush-covered valleys that were once 

thought to be too barren ever to become 

of service to man. Throughout the 

eastern border of the Great Basin, in 

Idaho and Utah, the followers of the 

Mormon faith have found a "promised 

land" which, by great industry, they 

have reclaimed from its primitive desolation and made the home of thousands.
84 GUIDEBOOK OP THE WESTERN UNITED STATES.

Wahsatch, which consists of little more than a station house, stands 

at the crest of the divide between Bear River and Weber River. The 

name of the station retains the old spelling, which 

' ' has been simplified for the name of the mountains. 

omaha^s6^!66* From many points west of this station may be had 

glimpses of the Uinta Mountains, to the southeast, 

and of the Wasatch Mountains, to the southwest. Toward the west 

may be seen the northward extension of the Wasatch Range. The 

hills near by consist of the red and yellow sandstone, shale, and 

conglomerate of' the Wasatch group, which occurs here in typical 

development. It was from this region that Dr. Hayden, Director of 

the United States Geological and Geographical Survey of the Territories, named these strata.

A short distance west of the station the railroad passes through a 

tunnel in these red rocks and enters Echo Canyon, which is famous 

for the curious forms carved by erosion from the red conglomerate 

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

the route taken by the railroad in its vicinity. Many 

of the sharp curves and steep grades of the Union 

Pacific as first built have been eliminated by recent 

improvements, but it is not easy to smooth out all 

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

valley.

The station of Castle Rock takes its name from the castellated 

Castle Rock. form of the north wall of the canyon which overEievation6,240feet.. l°°ks it. The red beds are here carved by erosion 

population i3i. into many fantastic shapes, and the peculiar forms 

ma a mm. seen here become more numerous farther west and 

culminate in grotesqueness near Echo.

Curvo.

Elevation 6,824 feet. 

Omaha 939 miles.

Some of the most productive gold and 

silver mines in the world have been 

developed in this inhospitable region. 

With all this advancement, however, the 

Great Basin is still very sparsely settled. 

Although not generally attractive to 

the pleasure seeker, the Great Basin 

appeals especially to the geologist, both 

because the absence of vegetation gives 

unusual facilities for investigation and 

because the problems to be solved are 

peculiarly interesting and economically 

important. There is, moreover, an attraction in the region that grows with 

more intimate acquaintance, and that' is 

due partly perhaps to its vastness, its 

clear dry air, and the free and healthful 

life that it seems to induce. Although

the region is generally called a desert, its 

climate compares favorably with that of 

many other parts of the country. The 

low humidity prevents the high temperatures of summer from being oppressive, 

except possibly in some of the low-lying 

southern valleys where the heat is almost 

unendurable. It is true that the wind 

blows fiercely at times, so that the air is 

filled with flying dust and sand, but these 

storms are infrequent. The country 

probably appears to least advantage 

viewed from the windows of a Pullman 

car. From such a position of comfort the 

heat and dust of a summer's day appear 

unnaturally intensified and the apparent 

lonesomeness of a strange and unknown 

country is likely to be repellent.
BULLETIN 612 PLATE XXII

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

Name is applied to rock mass In foreground because seen at some angles it resembles the bow of a steamship. 

It consists of red conglomerate of Tertiary age. ,

I?. THE NARROWS, IN ECHO CANYON, UTAH.

Fortifications were constructed by the Mormons in these narrows during the so-called Mormon war of 1 857. 

The walls are composed of coarse red conglomerate of the Wasatch group.
U. S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY BULLETIN 612 PLATE XXIII

A. NORTH WALL OF ECHO CANYON, UTAH, AT ITS JUNCTION WITH WEBER CANYON, NEAR

THE TOWN OF ECHO. 

The rocks consist of coarse red conglomerate of the Wasatch group.

E. PULPIT ROCK AT ECHO, UTAH. 

Composed of red conglomerate.
THE OVEBLAND ROUTE COUNCIL BLUFFS TO OGDEN". 85

Two miles east of Emory light-colored conglomeratic sandstone 

appears in the canyon wall to the right (north), steeply inclined 

beneath the red beds of the Wasatch group. These 

mory* tilted beds contain fossil plants that indicate Cretaomlha^Sie?*' ceous ag°- . Near Emory station a thickness of several 

thousand feet of these beds is exposed. The conglomerates are very coarse near the top and are colored light red, so that 

they can not always be distinguished from the overlying conglomerates 

of the Wasatch group.

In Echo Canyon west of Emory there is some of the most picturesque scenery on the Overland Route. After passing over the great 

stretches of flat, unbroken desert farther east, where little but sagebrush and sand can be seen, the traveler is here refreshed by seeing 

something that has a vertical dimension. Some of the cliffs are nearly 

1,000 feet high. The canyon has been carved by the stream, the 

rains, and the wind, working through long ages on the red conglomerate, which, because of inequalities in hardness, has been worn into 

many a curious and fantastic shape whose general effect can not be 

adequately described and is only poorly represented by the camera. 

Many of the forms have received fanciful names suggested by their 

shapes, such as "Jack in the Pulpit," "the Sphinx," "the Giant's 

Teapot," "Steamboat Rock," and "Gibraltar." (See PI. XXII, A.) 

The imaginative spectator may be able to distinguish the forms suggested by these names, but the more observant will rather be impressed by the evidences of the working of the great forces of nature 

here so conspicuously displayed.

Echo Canyon is in places very narrow and long stretches of its north 

wall are almost vertical. (See PL XXII, J5.) On top of this wall 

may still be seen the rude fortifications built by the Mormons during 

the so-called Mormon war of 1857 to prevent the entrance of United 

States soldiers into Salt Lake valley. Here the defenders watched 

Nand waited for the battle that was never fought, for the misunderstanding or worse, according to Bancroft's "History of Utah" was 

adjusted before the troops reached the canyon.

Just before entering the town of Echo the train passes close to

Pulpit Rock (see PL XXIII, J5) which may be seen on the right. As

the name implies, this rock bears some resemblance

Echo. to a pulpit, and the story has been somewhat widely

Elevation 5,471 feet, circulated that from it Brigham Young preached his

omaha^eomQes. ^s^ sermon on entering the "promised land" in 1847.

However, those in position to speak with authority

on this subject say that the first company of Mormon emigrants did

not stop at Pulpit Rock and that Young was sick with mountain

fever during this part of the journey. 1

1 Many of the facts relating to the Mormon immigration have been kindly furnished 

by Mr. Andrew Jensen, of Salt Lake City.
86 GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES.

by the 

was " 

d' <ery 

^id io\v 

the .m

At the town of Echo the canyon opens into Weber Valley, up which 

a railropd spiv.. extends through the coal-mining town of Coalville to 

the r ua i district surrounding Park City. 1 Coal was found 

.on settlers near Coalville long before the Union Pacific 

md has been mined more or less continuously ever since its 

The mines of the Grass Creek valley, in the Coalville 

" - ash fuel for the mining operations at Park City and for 

acture of Portland cement at Devils Slide.

At Echo the red conglomerates (Wasatch) form cliffs 500 feet or 

more ia height (PI. XXIII, A). South and west of the town the 

rocl of Cretaceous age reappear at the surface where the Wasatch 

beds have been eroded away. About 2 miles west of Echo a group of 

curious monument-like rocks, some of which are more than 100 feet 

high, may be seen to the right (north) of the track, well up the slope. 

Th.,.0 are " jwn as The Witches (PI. XXIV, A) and arc remnants 

fo* 'd ' ^e erosion of a coarse conglomerate. Although any rock 

that has a ^ancied resemblance to some familiar shape is likely to 

attract greater attention than many a more significant feature of the 

landscape, these bizarre monuments are well worthy of more than a 

p 3Sj T"* -V The name "The Witches" is suggested by the form 

d .a~ . .uuk of one of the monuments, which is shaped something 

like the _-ibled witch's hat. (See PI. XXIV, B.) The caps are 

formed from a light-colored band of conglomerate that is cemented 

into a harder mass than the underlying pink conglomerate. This 

hard cap rock protects the underlying beds from the rain until the 

supporting column, by slow crumbling, becomes too slender to hold it. 

When the cap faJs off the monument soon becomes pointed at the 

i>p c1 is finally reduced to the level of the surrounding country.

1 The mining camp at Park City is 

on the east side of the Wasatch Range at 

an altitude of 7,200 feet, but some of the 

mi es are nearly 2,000 feet higher. The 

red jntary rocks of this district, ranging 

in age from Carboniferous to Triassic, were 

long ago compressed into a series of folds 

and broken by mountain-making forces 

and large portions of them were greatly 

displaced. Masses of molten rock known 

as quartz diorite and quartz diorite porphyry were then forced up into them from 

below. Later other masses of molten rock 

called andesite flowed over the surface.

The ores result from the older intrusions and occur as compounds of lead, 

silver, copper, zinc, and other metals in 

lodes and fissure veins and as bedded 

deposits in the sedimentary rocks. The

more important lode deposits occur in 

two zones about a mile apart, known as 

the Ontario and Daly West zone and the 

Silver King and Kearns-Keith zone. 

These have been explored for several thousand feet (in length), and in the Ontario 

mine a fissure containing much valuable 

ore has been explored to a depth of 2,000 

feet or more.

Ore was discovered in this district in 

1869, but not until 1877 did the camp 

become an important producer. Since 

that time production has been continuous. 

The total reported output to the close of 

the year 1913 was gold $3,959,132; silver, 

$91,336,065; lead, $47,602,156; copper, 

$3,587,247; zinc, $2,606,770 a total value 

of $149,091,370, of which $38,753,126 has 

been distributed as dividends.
U. S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY

A. THE WITCHES, Nc.,...

A group of natural monuments carved by wind and rain from coh^.-mdia^ r 

furnished by Union Pacific Railroad Co.

JJ. SIDE VIEW SHOWING, ON THE BUTTE TO THE RIGHT, THE "WITCH'S CAP," WHICH SUG- 

. . . GESTED THE NAME FOR THE GROUP.
U. S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY BULLETIN 612 PLATE XXV

.1. VIEW OF THE VALLEY OF WEBER RIVER FROM WITCHES ROCKS.

On the monument at the left is a cap which protects the rock under it because its pebbles are cemented 

together more firmly than -those below.

I?. THE DEVILS SLIDE.

These beds consist of layers of hard limestone separated by soft shale of the Twin Creek formation, of Jurrassic 

age, and were originally formed in a horizontal position but during one of the mountain uplifts were upturned 

to a vertical position.
THE OVEBLAND ROUTE COUNCIL BLUFFS TO OGDEN. 87

Henefer.

Elevation 5,409 feet. 

Population 413. 

Omaha 964 miles.

Plate XXIV, A, shows a monument (in the center of the group) that 

is lower than the others and worn to a sharp point at the top. The 

cap that once protected this "witch" now lies in a gulch at her feet. 

The other caps will fall in tune probably after the lapse of centuries 

and The .,Witches, like their mythical prototypes, will disappear 

from the face of the earth.

Near Henefer the first company of Mormon emigrants, for some 

reason that is now hard to understand, left the Overland Trail and 

chose the very difficult route up the creek that enters 

the Weber from the south. After crossing the mountains, they passed down Emigration Canyon to Salt 

Lake City. 1

To the right (north), near Henefer station, may be 

seen a gravel terrace rising 25 feet or more above the level of the roadbed. This was formed by the river at some former stage, probably 

during the time of high water in Lake Bonneville. (See pp. 97-99.) 

Although the gravels here are more than 200 feet above the highest 

terrace of the old lake, it seems likely that the diminished slope of the 

river during high water then caused the stream to deposit in this part 

of its course the beds of gravel that now form the shelf on which the 

railroad is built west of Echo and that form the protecting cap of the 

bluff at Henefer.

The Cretaceous rocks which in Echo Canyon dip steeply toward the 

west under the red beds of the Wasatch group reappear with opposite 

dip west of Echo, but owing to the great quantities of gravel that 

cover the hillsides, derived by disintegration from the older conglomerates, these rocks can be seen from the train at only a few places. 

However, the broad, open valley that the route crosses west of Henefer is due to erosion of the soft Cretaceous shales.

Three miles west of Henefer the coarse red puddingstone of the 

Wasatch beds extends down to the river level, and the broad basin1 It is possible that a.little study of the 

earlier history of the Mormons may throw 

some light on this strange procedure. 

They had been driven from place to place 

in the States until they had decided to 

seek a place so far from settled districts 

that they would not be molested. When 

this first company, consisting of 140 men 

and 3 women, started westward in April, 

1847, one purpose of their leader, Brigham 

Young, was to mark out a trail for the use 

of later emigrants. Rather than follow 

the Overland Trail, which had become 

fairly well known by this time, he chose a 

new and untraveled route that came later 

to be called the Mormon Trail. The

beaten path was avoided for two reasons. 

First, they wished to avoid their enemies, 

some of whom they would be sure to find 

on the older trail, and second, they never 

traveled on Sunday and they made religious worship as much a part of'their daily 

program as the travel itself. In order to 

avoid trouble, as well as for the sake of 

being unmolested in their devotions, this 

first company marked out a new route 

through 1,000 miles of wilderness. The 

Mormon Trail parallels the Overland Trail 

and in some places where a different route 

was impracticable joins it, as, for example, at river crossings and in the mountain 

passes and canyons.
88 GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES.

Devils Slide.

like valley suddenly narrows to a gorge barely wide enough, for the 

river to pass through. The road bed has b'een cut in the side of this 

gorge, and in the cuts may be seen great bowlders of quartzite, some 

of them 4 feet in diameter, with smaller bowlders, pebbles, and sand 

filling the space between them. These materials are cemented into a 

resistant mass by red oxide of iron, which gives a brilliant color to the 

whole mass. At the west end of this short gorge the red conglomerate 

overlaps rocks of Jurassic age, which have been upturned to a vertical 

position.

On emerging from the gorge, just before entering the town of 

Devils Slide, the train passes through a long cut in the shale of the 

upper part of the Jurassic and crosses Weber River 

at the point where Lost Creek enters it from the 

Elevation 5,314 feet. right (north). To the right also, in the Lost Creek

Omaha 969 miles. n -, , , v

valley, may be seen a large mill where limestone 

and shale are manufactured into Portland cement. 1 These stratified rocks are all turned up into a vertical attitude. The soft shale 

is worn away by rain and wind faster than the limestone, which 

is left standing out as ragged vertical walls. The Devils Slide 

(PI. XXV, B] is formed by two of these limestone reefs, about 20 

feet apart, from which the shale has been eroded away, leaving them 

standing about 40 feet above the general slope of the canyon side. 

Many other reefs in this vicinity are equally prominent, but no others 

are so conspicuous from the train.

From Devils Slide westward to Morgan Weber River has cut a 

canyon through the Bear River Range. This broad range is by some 

geographers included in the Wasatch Mountains, into which it passes 

farther south. The sedimentary rocks of the Bear River Range 

consist of steeply inclined beds of limestone and sandstone and a 

subordinate amount of shale, ranging in age from Jurassic on the 

east to Ordovician on the west. (See table on p. 2.) The formations are all conspicuously exposed in the precipitous craggy sides of 

the canyon and may be seen to best advantage toward the right, in 

the north wall of the canyon. West of the town of Devils Slide the 

gray beds of the Jurassic Twin Creek limestone give place to a massive 

salmon-colored sandstone (Nugget sandstone) of Jurassic or Triassic 

age, west of which, and next older, are thin-bedded bright-red shales 

and sandstones (Ankareh shale), fossiliferous shaly limestone (Thaynes

1 The Jurassic limestone and shale of 

this locality are utilized in the manufacture of cement, for which they are well 

adapted and conveniently located. The 

rock is blasted from the mountain side in 

quarries plainly visible from the train to 

the right (north) and passed downward 

through the mills, coming out at the botr

torn in the form of cement at the rate 

of about 2,500 barrels a day. The fuel 

used for the kilns is coal, mined on Grass 

Creek. Electric power is furnished by 

streams on the western slope of the 

Wasatch Mountains and transmitted 

from generating plants near the base of 

the range.
BULLETIN 612 SHEET No. !4

GEOLOGIC AND TOPOGRAPHIC MAP

OF THE

OVEBLAND EOTJTE

From Omaha, Nebraska, to San Francisco, California

Base compiled from United States Geological Survey Atlas Sheets, 

from railroad alignments and profiles supplied by the Union Pacific 

Railroad Company and the Southern Pacific Company and from additional Information collected -with the assistance of these companies

UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY

GEORGE OTIS SMITH, DIRECTOR 

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

1915

Each quadrangle shown on the map with a name in parenthesis in the 

lower left corner is mapped in detail on the U. S. G. S- Topographic 

sheet of that name.

EXPLANATION

Thickness

in feet

A Sandstone and conglomerate; fresh-water 

deposits; includes Knight, Fowkes, and 

Almy formations (Wasatch group) 2,600-6,200]

B Sandstone, shale, and coal; fresh-water "1 

deposits (Evanston formation) 0-1.600J

C Sandstone and shale; brackish and fresh- ^j

water deposits (Adaville formation) 4,000 

D Shale; marine deposit (Hilliard formation) 5,500-6,800| 

E Sandstone, shale, and coal, (includes j Oyster Ridge sandstone member); I

marine and brackish water deposits

(Frontier formation) 2.200-2,600 

F Shale; marine deposit (Aspen formation) 1,500-2.000 

G Sandstone and shale; fresh and brackish

water deposits (Bear River formation) 500-5,000

H Sandstone, conglomerate, shale, and limestone; marine and fresh-water deposits 

(Beckwith and Twin Creek formations) 3.800 - 5,500

1 Sandstone and shale; marine deposits

(Nugget (1,700 ±), Ankareh ; 1,500 ± ),

Thaynes Q,700 ± ), and Woodside

(1,0001) formations; 5,900

/Limestone; marine deposit (Park City formation) l.SOOil 

\Quartzite; marine deposit (Weber quartzite) 4,000±_f

Tertiary

Cretaceous 

or Tertiary

Cretaceous

Jurassic 

possibly some 

Cretaceous

Triassic 

may include 

some Jurassic

Carboniferous

WYOMING-UTAH

DIAGRAMMATIC SECTION SHOWING FORMATIONS CROSSED BETWEEN ASPEN AND WAHSATCH

1_ 

sb'aooo

Approximately 8 miles to 1 inch

& 10 15 Miles

Contour interval 200 feet

ELEVATIONS IfJ FEET ABOVE MEAN SEA LEVEL

The distances from Ow.aha, Nebraska, are shewn every 10 mi 

The crossties on the railroads are spaced 1 mile apart

- .- '' ' ' -..'"',.. ..- Wi|s6n,Pk

n5ft^ .; 'VM i;: ;* ;" ^ [- « * 

> ^T V, Mf-%.,..,:

' .-;-.. . ; Lnvenia ______1 
THE OVERLAND ROUTE COUNCIL BLUFFS TO OGDEN. 89

limestone), and red sandstone and shale (Woodside formation), all 

probably of Lower Triassic age. The purplish-red sandstone layers 

of the Ankareh are beautifully ripple marked.

Still farther west appears the fossiliferous limestone of the Park 

City formation, of Pennsylvanian or Permian age. In the lower part 

of this formation are beds of black phosphate rock interstratified with 

beds of shale and limestone. The traveler can see some old prospect 

openings in the phosphate beds to the left, in the south wall of the 

canyon, just before the train enters the tunnel. These beds are portions of the great phosphate deposits of Utah, Idaho, Wyoming, and 

Montana, which form a large part of the nation's store of material 

available for making phosphatic fertilizers. (See pp. 127-129.)

West of the phosphate beds is the Weber quartzite, a thick formation of Pennsylvanian age which, because of its superior hardness and 

resistance to erosion, forms the crest of the Bear River Range. Most 

of the rounded quartzite bowlders and pebbles in the red conglomerate of Echo Canyon and of the gorge east of Devils Slide were 

derived from this formation.

The river has cut a winding gorge through the quartzite, and two 

of the projecting spurs of the craggy walls are pierced by short tunnels. At the eastern tunnel the strata, which farther east are nearly 

vertical, are bent into a sknee-shaped fold that brings the beds west 

of the axis to an inclination of scarcely 15°.

The second tunnel in the Weber quartzite opens on the west into 

Round Valley, a circular basin hollowed out by the river in the relatively soft red sandstone and shale of lower Pennsylvanian age, known 

as the Morgan formation, because of its occurrence near the town of 

Morgan. These red beds are well exposed in the north wall of Round 

Valley and also south of the railroad between this valley and Morgan.

Morgan is the center of a rich agricultural district that is especially 

noted for the fine quality of the peas which are raised here. From 

Morgan (see sheet 15, p. 102) about 90 carloads of 

Morgan. canned peas are shipped each year. The broad valley 

Elevation s.oso feet, which makes this industry possible is due tp the 

omaha^re miles, presence of soft rocks, in which the river has greatly 

widened its valley while it was cutting the narrow 

gorges in the hard rocks both east and west. These rocks once filled 

a basin lying between the two ranges of the Wasatch Mountains. 

East of Morgan rise the craggy slopes of the Bear River Range, 

through which the train has just passed, and which attains an altitude 

of 9,245 feet in Mount Morgan, north of the town. To the west may 

be seen the rugged crest of the main range of the Wasatch Mountains, 

which in this latitude consist entirely of granitic rocks of Archean 

age that is, rocks which are older than the oldest sedimentary rocks 

that contain remains of plants or animals. (See table on p. 2.)
90 GUIDEBOOK OP THE WESTERN UNITED STATES.

Just before entering Morgan the train passes close to the foot of a 

slope on the right (north) in which dark-colored limestone containing 

fossil corals and shells of early Carboniferous (Mississippian) age is 

well exposed. Farther west rocks of Ordovician and Cambrian age 

are exposed north of the track, but these can not be readily distinguished from the train.

The soft Tertiary rocks that occupy the basin west of Morgan may 

be seen to the right from the train, north of Peterson, where they 

appear as light-green to pink strata, slightly conglomeratic and inclined toward the east.

The station at Peterson is near the center of the basin just described. 

The basin was formerly occupied by a bay of the ancient Lake Bonneville, whose waters backed up through Weber Canyon. (See pp. 97-99.) Along the margin of this bay, 

which was 300 feet or more in depth, sand and gravel 

accumulated in large quantities. When the water 

withdrew from the basin these beach accumulations 

were left as a shelf, remnants of which lie about 300 feet above the 

railroad at many places on the slopes.

Many a "station" along the Union Pacific Railroad consists of

nothing more than a signpost, but at Strawberry not even a post is

visible. It is a switch for sidetracking cars to gravel

Strawberry. pits, -^JQQ^ may be seen to the right, north of the

Elevation 4,842 feet, railroad, and which furnish gravel for ballast. From

Omaha 985 miles. ' &

many places near Strawberry the traveler may get 

good views of Mount Morgan, to the east, and of Observation Peak 

(over 10,000 feet above sea level), which lies to the north (right) 

and is here the most prominent mountain north of the railroad. 

To the left (south) rises the main mass of the southern part of the 

Wasatch Range. 1

Peterson.

Elevation 4,892 feet. 

Population 277.* 

Omaha 983 miles.

1 The Wasatch is the easternmost of the 

b'asin ranges. Although very complex in 

structure, it may be described briefly as a 

great block of the earth's crust that has 

been elevated at its western margin, so 

that it inclines eastward. Its tilting was 

made possible by a break of the crust in a 

north-south direction along what is now 

the western base of the range. The rocks 

that lie east of this line of fracture were 

pushed up many thousands of feet higher 

than those that lie west of the line, thus 

producing a great fault. Later the elevated part of the block was eroded, BO that 

now its surface is a complicated mass of 

rugged mountains, separated from one another by valleys, canyons, and gorges.

The western face of the range which was 

originally nearly straight and might have 

been a single cliff had it not been eroded, 

is still very, precipitous and forms what is 

known as a great fault scarp. It is this 

western fault scarp that is so impressive 

as seen from Ogden and other points in 

the valley of Great Salt Lake.

The Uinta Mountains differ from the 

Wasatch Mountains in that they have resulted from the erosion of a broad arch 

whose axis trends east, nearly at right 

angles to the Wasatch axis. The Uinta is 

the westernmost of the Rocky Mountain 

ranges, which reach their maximum development farther east in central Colorado. The junction of this range with the
THE OVERLAND ROUTE COUNCIL BLUFFS TO OGDEN. 91

Just before reaching Gateway station the route passes abruptly

from the open valley into the narrow V-shaped gorge cut by Weber

River through .this great range of mountains. PreGateway. cipitous, craggy slopes rise on both sides and the

Elevation 4,804 feet. SCenery is varied and impressive. The river descends

Omaha 988 miles. J . r , .

rapidly m this canyon and the power furnished by it 

is utilized by hydroelectric plants. Soon after entering the canyon 

the train passes to the left (south) of a diversion dam at which a 

large part of the water is turned into a pressure pipe 6 feet in 

diameter. From this pipe it emerges about 2 miles downstream, 

at an altitude 172 feet below the intake, at the power house of the 

Utah Light & Railway Co., from which 5,000 horsepower is transmitted 35 miles to Salt Lake City. From the power house the water 

is carried by a canal along the south wall of the canyon to the turbines of a second power house, from which it is distributed for irrigating the lands of the valley below. The once worthless desert has 

thus been transformed to green fields and fruitful orchards which 

support a thriving community.

Toward the lower end of the canyon the river makes a sharp turn 

to the right through a rocky defile called Devils Gate. Instead of 

passing through this defile, the railroad is built through a cut made 

in unconsolidated gravel which fills a former channel of the river. 

Apparently this old channel was filled during one of the stages of 

high water in Lake Bonneville (see pp. 97-99), and when the lake 

water withdrew the river was deflected to the right at this point and 

cut a new channel in the solid rock, making what the physiographer 

calls a young channel due to superimposed drainage. 1

Wasatch constitutes -the transition between the Rocky Mountain ranges modified arches whose axes have a northerly 

trend with a marked tendency toward 

westward deflection and the Basin 

Ranges tilted blocks, whose axes have a 

regular northerly trend.

1 The behavior of the river at this point 

gives the key to an understanding of its 

course across the Wasatch Range. The 

river rises east of this range, but instead 

of taking the seemingly easier course 

around the mountains, as Bear River did, 

it has cut its way directly through them. 

West of Echo it leaves the open basin-like 

valley and enters a narrow gorge nearly 

2,000 feet deep. West of Devils Slide it 

enters a canyon cut to a depth of 4,000 

feet or more through the Bear River 

Range. West of this range it crosses 

another open space and once more enters

a narrow canyon within which it passes 

through the main range of the Wasatch 

Mountains.

In Tertiary time such valleys as may 

then have existed in this region were 

filled with gravel, sand, and silt, and 

practically the whole region was aggraded 

or built up to nearly a common level. 

Over this plain the streams established 

their courses without regard to the kind of 

rock beneath the surface. Weber River 

chose the course of least resistance at that 

time, and when it deepened its channel 

and found itself flowing directly across 

the ridges of hard rock that now form the 

Wasatch Mountains it was too late to 

change. The energy of the stream has 

been sufficient to cut only narrow gorges 

in the hard rock, but in the softer rock it 

has excavated the broad valleys west of 

Echo and near Morgan.
92 GUIDEBOOK OP THE WESTERN UNITED STATES.

On emerging from Weber Canyon the train crosses the line of the 

great fault by which the rocks on the east were uplifted many thousands of feet relative to those on the west. Here we 

Uinta- enter a broad, fertile valley that is well watered by 

Elevation 4,497 feet, the river. If the traveler covered with alkali dust 

993 miles. from the deserts farther east reaches this valley when

the orchard trees are bending to the ground under 

their burden of ripening fruit he will not wonder that some of the 

inhabitants call it "Zion."

This valley has been eroded from a broad delta of gravel, sand, 

and silt built up by the river during the Pleistocene epoch, when the 

waters of Lake Bonneville covered the region. The form of the delta 

is not visible from the tram, because the railroad follows the trench 

that the river subsequently cut in the old delta. The accompanying 

map (sheet 15, p. 102) shows that a gently sloping surface with Ogden 

near its center extends from Farmington nearly to Brigham, a distance of 30 miles, and from the foot of the mountains westward to 

the lake, a distance of 17 miles. This is the delta built by Weber 

and Ogden rivers and several smaller streams.

Two prominent beach lines are plainly visible on either side of the 

canyon. The higher one, known as the Bonneville terrace, is nearly 

1,000 feet above the river and marks the level reached by the water 

when the lake was at its maximum height. The lower one, known 

as the Provo terrace, is 375 feet below the Bonneville terrace and 

denotes a later stage of the lake. From points at a considerable 

distance these so-called " water lines," some made by deposits of gravel 

and others by notches cut by the waves of Lake Bonneville in the 

hard rock, may be seen all along the western face of the mountains. 

(For a description of these terraces and the phenomena associated 

with them see pp. 97-99.)

The valley of Weber River, which appears so attractive in the 

vicinity of Uinta, is a small part of the Great Salt Lake valley, which 

includes a large part of northern Utah. This is the home land of the 

Mormons, and according to the historian Hubert H. Bancroft it is 

*' a new Holy Land, with its Desert and its Dead Sea, its River Jordan, 

Mount of Olives, and Galilee Lake, and a hundred features of its 

prototype of Asia."
THE OVERLAND ROUTE COUNCIL BLUFFS TO'OGDBN. 93

Ogden.

Elevation 4,301 feet. 

Population 25,580. 

Omaha 1,000 miles.

Ogden is the western terminus of the Union Pacific system. 

Through passengers on the Overland Route here pass without 

change of cars to the Southern Pacific line which 

connects Ogden with San Francisco. Passengers for 

Yellowstone Park change to the Oregon Short Line, 

and those for Salt Lake City * have the choice of the 

Salt Lake & Ogden electric road, the Oregon Short 

Line, or the Denver & Rio Grande. The railroad time changes here 

from mountain to Pacific time, and the westbound traveler should 

set his watch back one hour.

Ogden is the county seat of Weber County and the second largest 

city in Utah. It is said to have been named for an old trapper and 

was laid out under the direction of Brigham Young in 1850. Ogden 

has a variety of industries, owing in part to its good transportation 

facilities and cheap electric power. Canning is one of the most 

important. In 1913 canneries adjacent to the city made an output 

of nearly a million cases (approximately 24,000,000 quarts) of fruit 

and vegetables, of which more than half was tomatoes.

Ogden lies at the foot of the Wasatch Mountains, which rise 

abruptly just east of it, and is on the border of the flat floor of Great 

Salt Lake valley,, stretching away to the west. The business part 

of the city is on one of the later terraces cut by the waves of the

1 Salt Lake City, 37 miles south of Ogden, is the capital of Utah and the seat of 

government of the "Church of Jesus 

Christ of Latter-Day Saints," whose adherents are commonly called Mormons. 

It is a city of 92,777 inhabitants, beautifully situated between the shore of Great 

Salt Lake and the lofty and precipitous 

front of the Wasatch Mountains. Many of 

the natural features are unique, especially 

the great lake of brine so salty that no fish 

can live in it and so dense that the bather 

floats on it like a cork on ordinary water. 

But this city is of interest mainly as the 

headquarters of the Mormon Church, 

which has grown so rapidly that in place 

of the 40 who organized it in 1830 it now 

has a membership of about 500,000. 

Here are the Temple, the Tabernacle, 

and many other objects of interest. The 

city was founded in 1847 by the first company of Mormon emigrants under Brigham Young and was the point to which 

later companies came and from which

they went out to possess the land. The 

story of this migration and the establishment of the new sect in the wilderness is 

of absorbing interest. The fortitude with 

which these people endured hardships and 

suffering and their unwavering devotion 

to a fixed purpose compel admiration.

Bingham Canyon, the principal copper 

district of Utah, is easily reached from 

Salt Lake City. The ores occur mainly 

in limestone of Carboniferous age and in 

an intrusive igneous rock (monzonite porphyry) which cuts the limestone. The 

low-grade disseminated ores in porphyry 

are now more important than the ores in 

the limestone. In 1913 the disseminated 

ore mined, chiefly by steam shovels, 

amounted to 8,300,000 tons, yielding 

about 0.75 per cent of copper and some 

gold and silver.

The Park City and Tintic. districts, 

which produce large quantities of ores 

carrying chiefly lead and silver, can also 

be visited from Salt Lake City.
94 GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN" UNITED STATES.

ancient Lake Bonneville, described below by G. K. Gilbert/ in an 

apron of mountain waste; the main residence section rises eastward

1 At Ogden the traveler is fairly within 

the Great Basin, and for 590 miles, until 

he reaches the crest of the Sierra Nevada, 

his course traverses a series of closed valleys valleys which resemble basins in 

the fact that all parts of their rims stand 

higher than their middle parts. All 

streams of this region either lose their 

water by direct evaporation or discharge 

it to some lake that serves as an evaporation pan. Some of the lakes have 

outlets, but every such outflowing stream 

flows into another lake, and the final 

receptacle has no outlet, all the water it 

receives escaping upward, into the air. 

No stream in the Great Basin finds its 

way to the ocean.

Great Salt Lake has no outlet. Jordan 

River, which enters it from the south, 

is the outlet of Utah Lake. Bear River, 

coming from the north, carries the outflow from Bear Lake. The waters of 

Utah and Bear lakes and of Jordan and 

Bear rivers are fresh, and so is the water 

of Weber River, the third great tributary 

of Great Salt Lake, but the lake into 

which the three rivers flow is saline. It 

is saline because it has no outlet. The 

fresh waters of the rivers contain some 

saline matter, but the quantity is too 

small to be discovered by taste. As 

stated by the chemist, in parts per million, the quantity seems minute, but 

when account is taken also of the total 

volume of water brought by the streams 

to the lake in a year their burden of 

saline matter is found to be really great, 

amounting annually to more than 500,000 

tons. Year by year and century by 

century the water which they pour into 

the lake is evaporated, but the dissolved 

solids can not escape in that way and 

therefore remain.. They have accumulated until the lake water is approximately saturated, holding nearly as 

much mineral matter as it can retain 

in solution. The lake contains over 

5,000 million tons of common salt and 

900 million tons of Glauber's salt, or 

sodium sulphate, as well as other mineral 

matter.

Another consequence of the lack of 

outlet is that the lake varies from time to 

time in size. Whenever the gain from 

inflow is greater than the loss from 

evaporation the level of the water surface 

rises; when the loss is greater it falls. 

Each year there is a rise, beginning in 

winter, when the cool air has little power 

to absorb moisture, and continuing 

through spring, when the rivers are 

swollen by the melting of snows in the 

mountains. Each year there is a fall, 

beginning in summer, when the hot air 

rapidly absorbs the water, and continuing in autumn, when the rivers are 

smallest. This annual oscillation amounts 

on the average to about 16 inches.

In some years the rainfall and snowfall 

are greater than in others, and then the 

lake usually receives more water than it 

parts with, so that the surface is left 

higher than it was before. In a series of 

wet years the lake level progressively 

rises; in a series of dry years it progressively falls; and as the rainfall is irregular the fluctuations of the lake are conspicuous. Since definite knowledge of 

the lake began, in 1850, there have been 

five periods of increase and four of decrease. (See fig. 11.) The summer levels of 1868 and 1877 were more than 10 

feet above the summer level of 1850, and 

those of 1903 and 1905 were 4 feet below 

that of 1850. The level of 1914 was 6 

feet above that for 1905.

The land bordering the lake has in 

many places a slope so gentle that a 

small change in the height of the water 

surface makes a great change in the area 

of the lake. On a map completed in 

1850 the area shown is 1,750 square miles; 

on a map made in 1869 it is 2,170 square 

miles. In the interval between the two 

surveys the lake had risen 10 feet, and 

this rise enlarged the area about 24 per 

cent. From the greater surface the 

evaporation was of course greater, and 

the dependence of evaporation on area 

is thus an important factor in regulating 

the size of the lake. The effect of a long 

series of wet years is somewhat reduced
THE OVERLAND ROUTE COUNCIL BLUFFS TO OGDEN. 95

GAGE HEIGHT IN FEET

to COACH o> -j oo <o o £2 'Co Co. 5? 5!

... 

it

 *> 5.

i

i-i

V

t

Lut t-of, comp/eh d,/904
96 GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES.

to the level of the Provo terrace, which was built by this lake when 

its surface remained for a long time at an elevation about*625 feet 

higher than the present lake.

by the resulting increas'e of evaporation 

surface, and the effect of a series of dry 

years is lessened by the resulting reduction of surface exposed to evaporation. 

This natural and automatic control limits the range of oscillation and gives a 

certain permanence to what may be called 

a normal or average level. A change in 

the normal can occur only when some 

new factor is introduced.

Both man and nature have introduced 

new factors and thus have produced 

changes in the normal level. The occupation of the surrounding region by white 

men has recently modified the face of 

the land in ways that have a recognized 

influence on the water level; and the 

ancient history of the lake includes 

enormous modifications in response to 

changes of climate.

Of human influences the most telling 

has arisen from the development of agriculture with irrigation. In irrigation the 

water of rivers and creeks is diverted to 

cultivated fields, which first absorb it 

and then through evaporation feed it to 

the air; and the water thus consumed 

by utilization is lost to the lake. With 

the gradual enlargement of the irrigated 

area the normal level of the lake is 

inevitably being lowered, and engineers 

are already confident that the high-water 

mark of 1877 will never again be reached. 

On the other hand, there is no reason to 

expect the lake's extinction, for there is 

a limit to the possibilities of irrigation.

The fresh water brought by the rivers 

mingles gradually with the brine, and as 

the river mouths are on or near the eastern 

shore, the brine is not so strong at the east 

as at the west. Analyses from samples of 

the brine gathered at different points and 

in different years report the dissolved 

solids as from 13.7 to 27.7 per cent, by 

weight. A .sample taken in August, 1914, 

contained 18.9 per cent of solids. At the 

present time the average salinity of the 

lake is about 5£ times that of the ocean, 

and its density is 14.5 per cent greater 

than that of fresh water. Only with difficulty can the bather keep his feet from 

rising to the surface, and if he balances 

himself in an upright position his head 

and shoulders are above the surface.

The brine is weakest in the northeastern 

arm, the portion Adsible from the train 

near Brigham. This arm has been partitioned from the main body by the embankment of the Southern Pacific Co. 

and is continuously supplied with fresh 

water by Bear River. Ice can form on 

the stronger brine only in zero weather, 

but this arm is frozen from side to side 

every winter and sleighs have been driven 

across it.

The only climatic element with which 

the lake oscillations have been connected 

by direct observation is precipitation 

the lake rises or sinks as the fall of rain 

and snow is great or small but it is easy 

to understand that the balance between 

supply and loss of water may also be disturbed by any change of climate which 

affects the rate of evaporation. As every 

laundress well knows, evaporation is 

favored by heat, by dryness of the air, and 

by strength of wind and is retarded by 

cold, by moisture in the air, and by calm. 

So there are at least four ways in which 

changes of climate may cause the lake to 

expand or contract. The latest of the 

periods into which geologists divide past 

time witnessed a series of climatic changes 

which affected the whole earth, and 

though all the elements just mentioned 

were doubtless involved, the element 

which recorded its changes most clearly 

was temperature. There were several 

epochs of cold, and they were separated 

by epochs of warmth. During the cold 

epochs the high parts of the Wasatch 

Range held a system of glaciers, and in 

one of them several ice tongues protruded 

so far beyond the mouths of the mountain 

canyons that they heaped their moraines 

on the floor of Jordan Valley, only a few 

miles from the place where Salt Lake 

City now stands. In that epoch of cold 

the rate of evaporation was far slower than 

now, and evaporation was at so great a dis-
THE OVERLAND ROUTE COUNCIL BLUFFS TO OGDEN. 97

' From the station at Ogden may be seen Observation Peak, 6 miles 

to the east, its top over 10,000 feet above sea level and more than a mile

advantage in its contest with precipitation that there was immense- expansion 

of the water surface. When the lake was 

largest it was comparable in area and 

depth with Lake Michigan; it had eleven 

times its present extent. In attaining 

this great expanse the water surface rose 

to a position more than 1,000 feet above 

its present level.

To this great body of water geologists 

apply a distinctive name, Lake Bonneville, and they have given much attention to its history, which is written in 

shore lines, deltas, channels, deposits, and 

fossils. The shore lines appeal most to 

the traveler, and may be seen from car 

windows at several points.

As a matter of definition a shore is 

merely the meeting place of land and sea 

or of land and lake, but as a matter of land 

form it is much more. At the shore the 

lashing of storm waves works changes in 

the land, giving it new shapes. At some 

places the land is carved away; at others 

it is made to encroach on the water. 

Where it is eroded the limit of erosion is 

marked by a cliff, and below the water is 

a shelf of genile slope. Where additions 

are made they take the form of beaches or 

bars, which rise little above the water 

level and are composed of sand or gravel. 

At some places a bar spans a bay from side 

to side; elsewhere it is incomplete, projecting from, a headland as a spit.

The waves of Lake Bonneville were as 

powerful as those of Lake Michigan and 

fashioned the shore into an elaborate system of cliffs, beaches, and spits; and 

when the waters finally fell to lower levels 

they left behind the shapes their waves 

had made. The base of each surviving 

shore cliff is a horizontal line, and so is the 

crest of each beach, bar, and spit, and 

these features in combination trace the < 

outline of the old lake as a level contour 

about the sides of the basin and the faces 

of mountains that were once islands in the 

lake.

In rising and falling the waters lingered at many levels, and so there are

92213° Bull. 612 15 7

many ancient shore lines, but two of 

them are more conspicuous than the rest 

and have been named. The highest of 

all is the Bonneville shore line, and 375 

feet lower lies the Provo shore line. The 

Bonneville line represents a relatively 

short stand of the water and is conspicuous chiefly because it marks the boundary of wave action. All the slopes below 

it have been more or less modified by the 

waves, but the slopes above it retain the 

shapes which had been given them by 

other agencies. The Provo line represents a long stand of the water and is conspicuous because it is strongly sculptured.

In all the early history of the great lake 

its basin was closed, like that of the modern lake. The water surface rose and fell 

in response to climatic changes, like that 

of its modern remnant. The last great 

rising was the highest and terminated the 

series of oscillations by creating an outlet. 

The lowest point of the basin's rim was at 

Red Rock Pass (90 miles by rail north of 

Ogden), and when the water rose above 

that level the stream which began to cross 

the pass descended to Portneuf River, a 

tributary to Snake River, the chief branch 

of the Columbia. Through the creation 

of this outlet the Bonneville Basin, which 

had previously contained an independent 

interior drainage system, became part of 

the drainage system of the Pacific Ocean.

Red Rock Pass was not a mountain 

pass, a notch in a rocky crest; it was 

merely the highest point on the axis of 

a valley between two mountain ranges. 

Valley and ranges ran north and south 

and the valley was floored by alluvium 

washed from the ranges. From the Red 

Rock summit the valley sloped gently 

northward toward the Portneuf and southward toward Bear River. The formation 

at the summit consisted of soft earth, and 

as soon as overflow began a channel was 

formed. The deepening of the channel 

increased the volume of the stream by 

lowering the outlet of the lake, the greater 

stream was more efficient in deepening 

the channel, and these two causes inter-
98 GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES.

above the railroad. This is the culminating peak of the Wasatch 

Mountains (PI. XXVIII, p. 104), a range that came into existence

acted until the stream became a stupendous torrent. The volume of water discharged before the flow became steady 

was enough to supply Niagara River for 

25 years, but the record of the torrent's 

violence leads to the belief that it lasted 

for a much shorter period.

The rapid deepening of the outlet channel was finally checked when the stream 

reached a sill of solid rock beneath the 

soft alluvium of the pass, and upon this 

sill the outlet rested for a long period. 

The lake surface then no longer oscillated 

in response to varying climate but held 

a constant level, and it was the long 

maintenance of this level which enabled 

the waves to carve and construct the 

Provo shore line.

The draining of the lake down to the 

Provo level reduced its area by one-third 

and correspondingly reduced the quantity of water annually evaporated. Twothirds of the inflowing water was then 

disposed of by evaporation and the remainder was discharged through the outlet. Only a great change of climate could 

restore the balance between inflow and 

evaporation, and the change was slow iru 

completion. At last, however, the pendulum of temperature swung far enough 

on the side of warmth. The outlet channel ran dry, the lake basin was again 

separated from the drainage system of the 

Pacific, and the lake began to shrink. 

So long as there was outflow the water 

was fresh, but when the outflow ceased 

there began that accumulation of salt 

which has made the water of the present 

lake a concentrated brine.

At times in the history of the lake, 

especially while the Provo shore line was 

being formed, the tributary streams 

brought down sand and gravel, which 

they dropped at their mouths, building 

deltas. When the water fell these deposits remained as fan-shaped benches 

having steep fronts. The streams that 

built them then dug channels through 

them. Part of the city of Ogden stands 

on a delta bench built by Ogden River.

Between Weber Canyon and Ogden the 

railroad follows the channel that was 

opened by Weber River through its 

former delta.

The climatic revolutions which created 

and destroyed Lake Bonneville wrought 

similar changes in all parts of the Great 

Basin. In Western Nevada the traveler 

sees the shore lines of another ancient 

lake, known to geologists as Lake Lahontan. It did not rise high enough to 

establish an outlet, but its water was so 

nearly pure as to be inhabited by freshwater shells. Some of its shores are 

marked by heavy deposits of travertine. 

When it died away there remained in its 

basin a group of smaller lakes, some salt 

and some fresh, but only one Humboldt, 

a fresh lake can be seen from the train.

The view from Ogden station is obstructed by buildings and trees, but by 

climbing to a near-by viaduct one may 

see the bold face of the Wasatch Range, 

across which the line of the Bonneville 

shore is drawn as a narrow pale band. 

On the shore bench grow the ash-green 

sage and other light-colored bushes, and 

the steeper slopes are mottled by darkgreen thickets of dwarf oak. The westbound traveler obtains a better view by 

looking backward just after leaving 

Ogden, and may probably recognize the 

Provo shore line as well as the Bonneville. These traces of old shores appear 

on Promontory Range and Fremont 

Island; and if the air is clear the traveler 

will have the old shore lines in view until 

he leaves the Bonneville Basin near 

Montello, 130 miles from Ogden.

On the route from Ogden to the Yellowstone National Park the old shore lines 

are prominently and almost continuously 

in sight until the train enters Bear River 

'Canyon and may also be seen on a distant 

range to the left. They reappear in 

Cache Valley, beyond this canyon, and 

are especially conspicuous at the left 

where their terraces surround a range of 

hills. At the Provo stage of the lake 

these hills projected above the water as
THE OVERLAND ROUTE COUNCIL BLUFFS TO OGDEN. 99

in comparatively recent geologic time and that has an interesting 

origin. 1 [For continuation of itinerary to San Francisco, see p. 148.]

a long island, and at the Bonneville stage 

as a chain of smaller islands. Between 

Oxford and Downey the railroad traverses 

/ the Bed Kock outlet channel, one of the 

stations, Swan Lake, being within the 

channel. The modern streamlets, flowing from neighboring hills, have brought 

down enough gravel and sand to build 

alluvial dams and have thus obstructed 

the drainage of the old river bed, so that 

it now contains a series of ponds and 

marshes.

In quality of water and in temperature

Lake Bonneville was as well fitted for 

abundant and varied life as the Bear 

Lake of to-day, and though the only remains yet found in its sediments are 

fresh-water shells, we need not doubt 

that its waters teemed with fish. We 

may confidently picture its bordering 

marshes as fields of verdure $nd its bolder 

shores as forest clad; and we may less 

confidently imagine primitive man as a 

denizen of its shores and an eyewitness 

of the spectacular deluge when its earthen 

barrier was burst.

The only permanent animal inhabitant 

^ of Great Salt Lake is a tiny "brine 

shrimp," a third of an inch in length. A 

more conspicuous temporary resident is a 

minute fly which passes its larval stage in 

the water, and when its transformation 

takes place leaves behind it the discarded 

skin. These flies are so numerous in their 

season that even the passing tourist should 

feel grateful that they do not bite. Their 

brown exuviae darken the water edge and 

often sully broad belts of the lake surface. 

More decorative denizens are gulls and 

pelicans, which find safe nesting ground 

on some of the smaller islands. There 

are no shoal-water plants, and the salt 

spray of the beach is fatal to all land 

vegetation along the shores.

When the lake is low its salt is segregated and deposited in shallow lagoons at 

its margin, to be redissolved when the 

water rises. Each autumn, as the water 

cools, deposits of hydrated sodium sulphate (Glauber's salt) coat piles and other

fixed objects near the water surface, and 

the deposits increase as the temperature 

falls. In the depth of winter large masses 

of this salt may be seen along the embankments and trestles of the Lucin cut-off. 

Calcium carbonate, the mineral constituting limestone, travertine, and chalk, 

is continuously and permanently separated from the water, which is unable to 

retain that which is brought to it by the 

rivers. Along the shores it forms minute 

balls, which together constitute sand, a 

sand quite distinct from the siliceous sand

of ordinary beaches.

Man makes little use of the lake. On 

its shores there are neither fisheries nor 

ports, and commerce finds it an impediment rather than an aid. Its deposits of 

Glauber's salt, which it offers for the 

gathering, are neglected because the 

world's demand is small and is cheaply 

met in other ways. Its common salt is 

harvested with great economy of effort, 

for impurities are easily excluded and 

the work of evaporation is performed by 

the sun. The present annual output of 

40,000 tons must be multiplied fivefold before it can commence to weaken the brine. 

For the rest man is content to resort to 

its shore for bathing and to realize a new 

sensation as he floats upon its surface.

1 Most of the rpcks in the Wasatch 

Range were laid down as sand and mud 

on the bottom of the ancient sea, where 

they became compacted and hardened 

into sandstone, shale, and limestone. 

The sea bottom eventually became land. 

AiT mother earth has aged her skin has 

cracked and wrinkled. In the UtahNevada,, region many long cracks were 

formed and the rocks on one side or the 

other were moved slowly upward or downward, forming long ridges along the 

cracks, steep on one side and gently sloping on the other. Such breaks in the 

earth's crust are called faults. A fault 

may be a few feet or hundreds of miles 

long, and the distance which the rock 

beds on one side slip past those on the 

other may range from a fraction of an inch
100 GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES.

To see the structure of the Wasatch Mountains, the traveler should 

make a side trip to the local scenic attraction, Ogden Canyon, which

can be reached by street car from Ogden station. In 

Ogden Canyon, bright afternoon sunlight it can easily be seen that

the face of the range is divided into bands of different 

rock formations. (See PI. XXVIII, B, p. 104.) Observation >Peak 

itself is a mass of pink rock called quartzite. This rock was a widespread bed of sand which was laid down on the bottom of the sea 

about the time the earliest forms of life appeared on the earth. 

How it reached its present position has been explained in the preceding 

footnote. A dark band of rocks, partly concealed by brush and timber, lies below the peak. In a spur much lower down the mountain is 

another band of pink quartzite which makes a 1,000-foot wall and 

rests on a dark band similar to the one above it. This pink rock is 

a part of the same formation as that at the peak, the repetition 

being due to breaking of the earth's crust and piling up of the fragments. In fact the structure of the mountains at Ogden is not unlike 

that of the cakes of ice in an ice jam.

to thousands of feet. When the rocks on 

one side are shoved up over those on the 

other side. The break is called 'a reverse or overthrust fault. (See fig. 12.)

period of slow earth movement which 

made these mountains flat-lying parallel 

beds of rock were locally turned on edge, 

crumpled, and folded in a wonderfully

a b

FIGURE 12. Diagram showing normal faults (a) and a reverse or overthrust fault (b).

In the region now ^occupied by the 

Wasatch Mountains a number of parallel 

faults were developed close together and 

the broken pieces of the earth's crust between them were pushed up, the rocks on

Cambrian

Carboniferous

intricate manner. These upturned and 

crumpled rocks are well exposed in Ogden 

Canyon. The west face of the Wasatch 

Eange is believed to mark the plane of a 

normal fault (fig. 12) at a nearly vertical

AlgonKian

FIGURE 13. Diagrammatic structure section of the Wasatch Range in Ogden Canyon.

one side of each crack riding up over 

those on the other side until a great mountain range was formed where once lay a 

plain. The accompanying diagram (fig. 

13) illustrates .the structure of the Wasatch 

Range in cross section. During the long

crack in the earth's crust, the rocks on 

the east side of which went up or those 

on the west side went down. The forces 

which have raised these mountains are 

still active, for movement along this 

fault has disturbed the surface recently.
U. S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY BULLETIN 612 PLATE XXVI

A. Z-SHAPED FOLDS NEAR EAST END OF OGDEN CANYON. 

The lines follow "the outcrops of the folded beds.

. RECENT FAULT SCARP AT THE MOUTH OF OGDEN CANYON.
U. S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY BULLETIN 612 PLATE XXVII

VIEW IN OGDEN CANYON BELOW THE NARROWS.
THE OVERLAND ROUTE COUNCIL BLUFFS TO OGDEN. 101

Just before reaching the mouth of the canyon the traveler may see 

a nearly perpendicular bluff or scarp, a few feet high, at the top of 

the bank above a gully a few rods southeast of a single-arch concrete 

bridge. This small bluff, which was made by recent uplift along the 

side of a great fault that parallels the mountain front, is best seen 

from the higher bench land. (See PL XXVI, 5.)

The steep face of the mountain range represents the exposed edges 

of geologic formations whose continuation west of the fault is now 

far below the level of the plain. The mouth of the canyon is in very 

old, greatly distorted rocks (Archean gneiss and schist) which were 

formed before life began on the globe. Warm springs issue near the 

bridge below the mouth of the canyon, and where the trolley road 

passes over a steel bridge just inside the canyon a warm spring in the 

south bank of the river steams forth from the contact between pink 

quartzite and somber-colored gneiss. The water is salty, contains 

iron, and has a temperature of about 136° Fahrenheit. Bounding a 

curve brings into view a waterfall which shoots out from the rocks 

several hundred feet above the track and turns to spray. The water 

collects on the rocks below and cascades into the river. This is an 

artificial f all, made by a hole in a flume that carries water to a hydroelectric plant. Close to the foot of this fall the bedrock wall of the 

canyon is plastered by a deposit of thoroughly cemented gravel, a 

remnant of the material that choked the canyon when Lake Bonneville backed up into it. 1

The canyon at this point is very narrow, and there is barely room 

for the highway on one side and the trolley-car tracks on the other 

side of the river (PL XXVII). The mountain walls that.rise thousands of feet above appear almost insurmountable, and directly ahead 

they seem to completely block further passage upstream. But a 

little turn shows a thin notch cut by the river through a great mass 

of quartzite beds standing nearly on edge. This is the same pink 

formation as that in Observation Peak, and its presence and position

1 G. K. Gilbert describes this material 

as follows:

"The lower part of the canyon through 

its length, but especially near its mouth, 

is more or less lined with heavy beds of 

coarse gravel, thoroughly consolidated by 

a ferruginous cement. In some places 

this forms the bed as well as the banks of 

the stream; but at others it is cut through, 

. and the original well-worn rock bottom 

of the old channel is exposed beneath the 

gravel by the side of the road. It is evident that when this canyon was originally 

excavated the G-eat Salt Lake was not 

far if at all above its present level; so that 

the rushing torrent which wore out this

old rounded bottom met no check until 

it had passed entirely beyond the mouth 

of the canyon. There followed a time 

when the lake filled nearly or quite to its 

highest terrace; and meanwhile the 

Ogden River continued to bring down the 

sand and pebbles which it had before been 

accustomed to sweep out upon the lower 

terrace, but now, checked by the rising 

lake, deposited them in the lower, parts 

of its old channel, until they acciimulated to a very high level, not yet accurately located. Again the lake retired 

and the stream again cut down its channel, sometimes reaching its old level and 

sometimes not."
102 GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES.

here show how much these rocks have been turned from their original 

flat-lying position. The nearly vertical slitting or gashing of the 

rocks is merely the result of weathering between the original beds of 

sand as laid down on the sea bottom. The passage is narrow because 

of the great hardness of the rocks, for the whole valley, like most other 

valleys, has been made by the gradual washing away of material by 

its stream and is narrowest where the rocks are hardest. Above the 

narrows the valley walls are limestone and shale, which are more 

easily worn away than the quartzite. A limestone quarry and kilns 

are situated just above the narrows on the south side of the river.

Farther up Ogden River (which, by the way, would be called a 

brook or run in some parts of the country) city people have built 

summer homes along the stream bank.

In 1914 the trolley line ended 7 miles from Ogden at The.Hermitage, 

a rustic hotel built of logs and stone. The verandas of this hotel 

afford a vantage point for enjoying the rugged canyon scenery.1

About a quarter of a mile east of The Hermitage, in the south wall 

of the canyon, a few feet above the river, the limestone is folded. 

The position of the thin strata, once nearly horizontal throughout 

but now turned abruptly back on themselves, suggests something of 

the stresses that have had a part in forming these mountains. A 

mile farther along in the road cut, near a flume that crosses the river, 

there is a very distinct S fold in black shales that indicates even more 

vividly the complexity of the mountain-making process. Some of 

this black shale contains phosphate.2

1 Ogden Canyon was cut in the solid 

rock by the river which now flows throughit. Running water carrying sand and 

gravel acts as a saw or file and, given 

time enough, can cut through the hardest 

rocks. Ogden Kiver was flowing west 

along its present course before the Wasatch Mountains came into existence. 

The raising of the mountains went on 

slowly for ages, so slowly that the river 

kept its place by cutting down its everrising bed, carving a deep and narrow 

canyon straight through the block of the 

earth's crust as it rose. In no other way 

can we account for a river rising on one 

side of the range and flowing directly 

across it. Movement of the mountain 

mass has continued down to the present 

time at least there has been recent disturbance along the base of the Wasatch 

Range, as is shown by faults which traverse the lake deposits and the modern 

alluvial aprons. Some of the breaks are

so new as to be devoid of vegetation. 

Furthermore, the main stream channels 

crossing from the uplifted fault block to 

the undisturbed rocks on the west have 

abnormal profiles. Ogden Kiver has a 

high gradient within the canyon, but on 

crossing the fault and emerging on the 

gravel fan at its mouth at once loses 

grade. The upward movement of the 

mountains has been so continuous that 

the river has had no opportunity to widen 

i ts valley, a task which it will begin as 

soon as the mountains cease rising.

2 In a roadside ledge about 2 miles 

below the upper end of Ogden Canyon 

there is some black shale0 and limestone, 

which proves on analysis to be decidedly 

phosphatic. The richest material is contained in two beds of black shaly rock, 

each about 2 feet thick.. Analysis of a 

random sample gives 42.5 per cent of 

bone phosphate. This deposit is too low 

in grade and too broken to be of value.
BULLETIN 612 SHEET No. 15

GEOLOGIC AND TOPOGRAPHIC MAP

OF THE

OVERLAND EOUTE

From Omaha, Nebraska, to San Francisco, California

Base compiled from United States Geological Survey Atlas Sheets, 

from railroad alignments and profiles supplied by the Union Pacific 

Kailroad Company and the Southern Pacific Company and from additional information collected with the assistance of these companies

UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY

GEOKGE OT1S SMITH, DIRECTOR 

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

1915

Each quadrangle shown on the map with a name in parenthesis in the 

lamer left corner is mapped in detail on the U. S. G. S. Topographic 

sheet of that name.

BEAR RIVER 

BA Y

R £ A T

LAKE

THE LAKE LEVEL HAS FLUCTUATED THROUGH A ff/IHGf Or ABOUT 16, F£ 

IU THC LAST 65 rCAKS. OH NOV. ?£ I9O9, THE ELEMT/ON WAS 4-103 

WHICH IS /O FECT BfLOW THE HIGHEST KKOHOED LEVEL

A Stream deposits (alluvium) and sediments of 

Lake Bonneville

Tertiary

B Lava (basalt, rhyolite, etc. (probably Pliocene or

C Friable, reddish sandstone, with fine 

conglomerates

JCarboniferou: 

Ito Ordovician D Limestone and quartzite

E Quartzite, shale, and some limestone

F Granite, gneiss, and schist

Highest shore-line of Lake Bonneville indicated thus -^-^-t.-

J Cambrian and 

\Algonkian

Archean
OREGON SHOUT LINE- OGDEN TO YELLOWSTONE. 103

The most prominent rock .folding in the canyon is at the reservoir 

about 2£ miles above The Hermitage. Here a thick bed of limestone 

is crumpled into a Z fold, measuring 1,000 feet between the top and 

bottom bars, which are about half a mile long. It can be seen plainly 

from the south bank of the reservoir. (See PI. XXVI, A, p. 100.) 

This great wrinkle was made by the shoving of one mass of rocks over 

another during the formation of the mountain range.

At the upper end of Ogden Canyon, 10 miles from the city, is 

Ogden Hole or Ogden Valley, which, when Lake Bonneville reached 

its highest stage, was a small bay connected with the lake by a strait 

in Ogden Canyon.'

OGDEN, UTAH, TO YELLOWSTONE, MONT.

The route described in the.following pages covers a distance of 291 

miles on the Oregon Short Line Railroad from Ogden, Utah, across 

southeastern Idaho to Yellowstone, Mont., the west entrance to 

Yellowstone National Park, 1 a public playground covering about 

3,348 square miles. For 40 miles north from Ogden the road lies 

along the boundary between the Wasatch Mountains and the region 

once known as the Great American Desert, following the shore line of 

Lake Bonneville, a great body of fresh water that in geologically 

recent time covered a large part of Utah (pp. 97-99); then after turning 

eastward and passing through the range in a rocky canyon, it goes 

northward across -a flat stretch of country which was the floor of a bay 

of the former lake. This bay was surrounded by mountains, and the 

railroad follows the foot of a north-south range to the head of an arm 

of the bay.

About 90 miles from Ogden the railroad crosses Red Rock Pass, 

through which for a time Lake Bonneville drained to the north, and 

then runs down a valley between two mountain ranges. In this 

valley the track for miles is on the surface or along the edge of a black 

lava flow. Turning west and passing through a notch in the Bannock 

Range, it comes out at Pocatello, 134 miles from Ogden, on the great 

Snake River plain. From Pocatello riorth for 100 miles the way leads 

across another lava flow, once a sagebrush waste, now an agricultural 

paradise. The last 50 miles of the route is through forests and finally 

over the Continental Divide, in mountains of volcanic rock poured 

out in the vicinity of Yellowstone Park.

The northbound trains, on leaving Ogden, cross Ogden River and 

come at once into orchards and into fields of sugar beets, hay, corn,

1 Mileposts from. Ogden to McCaminon 

and from Pocatello to Idaho Falls give the 

distance north of Ogden; from McCammon

to Pocatello, the distance west of Granger, Wyo.; and from Idaho Falls to Yellowstone, the distance north of Idaho Falls.
104 GUIDEBOOK OP THE WESTERN UNITED STATES.

and garden truck. From the outskirts pf the city an uninterrupted 

view of the Wasatch Range can be had (PI. XXVIII). Ogden 

Canyon is seen as a great notch with bare cliffs of pink quartzite on 

both sides, and tier on tier of gray limestone farther up the canyon. 1 

In the distance on the west is the hazy blue outline of Promontory 

Range, a long point extending from the north out into Great Salt 

Lake.

The traveler who is for the first time west of the Rocky Mountains 

and wonders if the melodramatic activities of western life he has seen 

quivering on the "movie" screen really exist to-day along the route 

between Garden and Yellowstone Park should remember Francis O

Parkmarfs introduction to "The Oregon Trail":

The buffalo is gone, and of all his millions nothing is left but bones. Fences of 

barbed wire supplant his boundless grazing grounds. Those discordant serenaders, 

the wolves, that howled at evening about the traveler's camp fire have succumbed to 

arsenic and hushed their savage music. The wild Indian is turned into an ugly 

caricature of his conqueror. The slow cavalcade of horsemen has disappeared before 

parlor cars and the effeminate comforts of modern travel. The all-daring and allenduring trapper belongs to the past and the cowboy's star begins to wane. The wild 

West is tamed.

The great desert which Fremont explored in 1842 and to which the 

Mormons came in 1847 is still a desert, but orchards, gardens, and 

grain fields now mark its border.

A large brick plant at Harrisville (see sheet 15A, p. 114) is using clay 

that was deposited as sediment on the bottom of /Lake Bonneville. 

This is one of the few mineral industries along this 

route. Many years of prospecting in the mountains 

all the way from Ogden to Yellowstone Park have 

brought to light a few small metalliferous deposits, 

but not one from which ore is being shipped. Among 

the nonmetals clay, sand, gravel, limestone, marl, coal, building stone, 

and water are utilized. Water is the one mineral to which above all

Harrisville.

Elevation 4,297 feet. 

Population 395.* 

Ogden 5 miles.

1 The geologic structure of the Wasatch 

Mountains, from Ogden north to Brigharn, 

has been described by Eliot Blackwelder 

as "shingled structure with overthrust 

slabs or wedges dipping eastward." (S ee 

fig. 13, p. 100.) Although this structure 

can not be seen from the railroad, the 

various formations can be distinguished. 

At the base of the range, showing above 

the lake benches, is the oldest rock formation here exposed, the Archean gneiss 

and schist, making dark-colored ragged 

ledges. (See PI. XXVIII.) Above this 

is 1,000 feet of bare rock cliff of pale 

pink or faded iron-stain color, the Cambrian quartzite. Next higher, under 

brush and scattered trees, are ledges of 

gray limestone; then comes the pink 

quartzite again, and at the top a thick 

band of gray limestone. In the morning 

sunlight the west face of° the range is 

somber and does not reveal the striking 

differences in. these formations, but under 

the light of the afternoon sun they stand 

out in marked contrast.

The Cambrian quartzite can be traced 

by the eye from Ogden Canyon northward 

for several miles, but not continuously, 

for the rocks are broken by east-west as 

well as north-south faults.
U. S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY 

.1. WEST FRONT OF WASATCH RANGE 

,-ei

/R

.

 - 4 <v^ - -

;^E^f^*

B. DIAGRAM SHOWING GEOLOGY OF MOUN

IR = Archean gneiss and schist; -Cq = Cambrian quartzit
U. S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY

A. LAKE BONNEVILLE SHORE AT BRIGHAM, UTAH.

B. CAMBRIAN QUARTZITE RESTING ON ARCHEAN GNEISS NEAR WILLARD, UTAH.
1 OREGON SHORT LINE OGDEN" TO YELLOWSTOKE. 105

others is due the prosperity of the country traversed by this route. 

Rock phosphate is a vast potential asset but is not yet used.

North of Harrisville a low ridge, strewn with many large angular 

blocks of rock, both white and pink, projects from the mountain front 

nearly to the railroad. This ridge is made of a great block of quartzite 

and limestone broken in two, the two parts standing on edge. A

1 stone crusher working on one of the limestone ledges makes macadam 

for the highways. 

The electric-car line between Ogden and Brigharn and the main 

I highway from Utah to Idaho are east of the track. There is a tomato- 

* canning factory near Harrisville. Tomatoes are grown extensively 

all along the foothills between Ogden and Brigham, and in 1913 

y Brigham packed 30,000 cases, 24 cans to the case.

Just before reaching Hot Springs the train passes from Weber to. 

Boxelder County and leaves behind the last saloon on the route, the 

) country from Hot Springs to Yellows tone being "dry."

The Utah Hot Springs hotel and sanitarium is a bathing resort that

has some reputation for the relief of rheumatism. It is equipped with

^\ an open-air concrete pool 125 feet square, two indoor

I Hot Springs. pools 28 by 45 feet, several smaller pools, and private

I Elevation 4,271 feet, baths. Small circular stone walls inclose the springs,

- Ogden 9 miles. \ which are just south of the station. The water, which 

is strongly charged with salt and other minerals, has a temperature 

of 131° F.

In this region there is a close relation between hot springs and lines 

of faulting. The temperature of the earth increases about 1° with 

every 50 feet of depth below the surface. Along the faults rocks 

which formerly were buried deeply and were therefore hot are now 

at the surface and water coning into contact with them a short distance below the surface, where they are still hot, is warmed; or the 

heat of the rocks may be due to friction along the fault plane.

Soon after passing Hot Springs the train runs close to a lagoon on 

the edge of Bear Bay, the northeast arm of Great Salt Lake. This 

lake, as is shown on pages 97-99, is a remnant of the much larger Lake 

Bonneville. Patches of white alkali (sodium sulphate and sodium 

chloride) may be seen along the edge of the lagoon and are due to the 

evaporation of salty water rising by capillary attraction. . 

| A belt of land of varying width west of the railroad is in grain and 

'pasture, but a strip close to the water is too salty to cultivate. The 

lagoon near Willard is often dotted with ducks and a flock of great 

jwhite pelicans may usually be seen on the shore of the bay. The 

| marshes and lagoons along the edge of the lake afford good hunting 

'and many of them are owned by gun clubs.

The steel towers between the track and the lake carry the Utah 

Power & Light Co.'s high-power electric-transmission line, which 

extends from the Grace hydroelectric plant in Idaho to Salt Lake City.
106 GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES.

On the east there are peach orchards, and back of them is the 

Wasatch Range, culminating in Ben Lomond Peak (" Willard Peak" 

of the Fortieth Parallel Survey). The terraces of Lake Bonneville, 

carved in mountain waste deposited along the base of the range, are 

well preserved, and above them is the dark, rough-weathering gneiss. 

The Cambrian quartzite is very conspicuous here, forming a great 

pink band that extends far up the mountain side. The overlying 

limestone and shale, by reason of their softness, have weathered 

farther back than the much harder quartzite.

Willard is a quiet old village, its main streets lined with poplars

and its homes surrounded by orchards. The principal industry is

the growing of peaches and tomatoes. The traveler

Willard. W^Q g0es nor^n to Yellowstone Park from Ogden

Elevation 4,260 feet. W^Q see many villages that were started by Mormon

Population 577. . , « £ ,1 , ,, ,, J ,

ogden 14 miles. emigrants. Some 01 them are at the mouths of mountain canyons, where perennial streams afford water 

for irrigating the arid land near by. Willard was located near such 

a mountain stream, as were also Brigham, Wellsville, Logan, and 

other towns.in this region.

From Ben Lomond northward the pink Cambrian quartzite slopes 

down abruptly (PL XXIX, J5), crosses the mouth of a sharp canyon 

back of Willard, where a stream leaps over it in a beautiful fall, and / 

disappears under the terraces. The crest of the range also becomes 

lower, and the front of the range as far as Brigham shows older rocks 

(Algonkian quartzite and slate) thrust over the Cambrian. A short 

distance north of Willard Canyon the mountain face changes from 

bare crags to a fairly smooth grassy slope because the underlying 

rocks decay, so that the bedrock is covered by rubble in which vegetation soon gains a foothold.

North of Willard the old lake terraces are well preserved and peach < 

orchards become more numerous. Among the trees in the distance 

is seen the white tower of a church in Brigham.

The first permanent settlers came to the mouth of Boxelder Canyon

in 1853 and named the site of Brigham for their leader, Brigham

Young. The Greens, Hunsackers, Johns tones, and

Brigham. Harrises were courageous folk, and although the level

Elevation 4,307 feet, country was a great desert covered with sagebrush. /

Population3,685. ^ J 4. t vu 1 * J- * j ^ 1 ogden 21 miles. they saw the advantages ol the location, diverted the j ^

mountain stream into irrigating ditches, and transformed the desert into a veritable garden.

Brigham stands on a delta built in Lake Bonneville when the 

water was rising to the Provo level. (See p. 98.) When the lake 

was at its greatest height at the Bonneville level, the water extended 

back through Boxelder Canyon, drowned the river and made a bay
OREGON SHORT LINE OGDEN TO YELLOWSTONE. 107

of Mantua Valley, which lies within the range. During this time 

much of the material washed from the mountains around Mantua 

Valley was deposited in that valley and not carried through the canyon, 

which at that time held a quiet strait instead of a rapid stream. As 

the lake dried up the waves on its lowering surface cut terraces on 

the old delta, and a new Boxelder River came into existence and 

wore a channel down through the delta its ancestor had built. In 

summer Brigham, which is sometimes called Peach City, is almost 

completely hidden in peach orchards. The trees grow luxuriantly, 

because practically every street has an irrigating ditch for its entire 

length. About 400 acres of land beyond the reach of ditches from 

the canyon is irrigated from a score or more of wells pumped by 

electric motor. Brigham has celebrated Peach Day early in September annually since 1907. Peach Day is to Boxelder County what 

the 24th of July is to the State of Utah and the 4th of July to the 

Nation. On that day there are free peaches and plums and melons 

for all the thousands of people who visit the city. In 1913 this station 

shipped 467 cars of peaches. Tomatoes also are grown in large 

quantities. A factory near the station cans hi the height of the 

season 60 to 75 tons of tomatoes every day.

The old transcontinental railroad line of the Central Pacific went 

west from Brigham over Promontory Range and around the north 

end of Great Salt Lake. It is little used now, for the trains go from 

Ogden straight across the lake. Brigham is the southern terminus 

of the Malade branch of the Oregon Short Line, which serves the west 

side of the Bear River valley.

As the train leaves Brigham going north the traveler gets a fine 

view of old lake beaches along the face of the mountain. (See PI. 

XXIX, A.) The upper or Bonneville terrace is particularly conspicuous on each side of Boxelder Canyon.

A few miles to the west is Little Mountain, an isolated butte composed of limestone containing abundant fossil coral and shells. This 

butte was a small island when Lake Bonneville was at its greatest 

height. Six miles west of Brigham is Corrine, a station on the old 

main line of the Union Pacific Railroad, from which freight was 

hauled by wagon to the mines of western Montana in the early days. 

Then it had a population of nearly 5,000, but now it is only a small 

settlement. From Brigham to Idaho Falls the railroad parallels the 

road made by the freighters from Corrine. About 4 miles north of 

Brigham the railroad crosses Boxelder Lake, a small area covered 

with 1 inch or 2 niches of water, in which gulls, snipe, and plover are 

usually wading about. A State law prohibiting the killing of sea 

gulls at any tune was passed many years ago, when these birds saved 

the emigrants' first crops from a scourge of grasshoppers.
108 GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES.

a ers*

Just beyond this lake is Bakers sidetrack and the plant of the 

Ogden Portland Cement Co. This company owns a large area which 

was supposed for many years to be worthless on 

account of alkali, but which on testing by drill holes

was found to be ^do*1 "11 by 2 to 8 feet of marl, a 

limy earth, averaging 85 per cent lime carbonate, 

beneath which is a bed of clay an especially valuable combination, 

for the two materials together have the proper chemical composition 

for making Portland cement, and for a number of years the plant 

has been using them successfully. In 1914 it had an average daily 

prbduction of 700 barrels. The company supplied some of the 

cement for the Arrowrock dam, built by the United States Reclamation Service near Boise, Idaho.

The broad brown and gray striping of the rugged motmtain face 

north of Brigham is due to alternating shale and limestone formations.

At the 28-mile post the railroad passes under a steel transmission 

line carrying electric power from the plant of the Utah Power & Light 

Co. hi Bear River canyon.

The residents of Honeyville are principally descendants of Bishop

Abraham Hunsacker, the original settler, who was the father of 52

children. The name of the town is a euphonious

Honeyville. corruption and shortening of Hunsackerville. About

Elevation 4,266 feet. 2 miles north of Honeyville, in fields east of the railOgden 30 miles. , j i f j i i -

road, are some weed-grown pools lormed by hot 

springs that have been known for many years, though no commercial 

use of the water has yet been made. The water is salty, and 

strongly impregnated with iron and is described by a neighboring 

rancher as being "hot enough to scald a pig." Fremont reported

the temperature of these springs at 134° Fahrenheit in 1843, and 

Gilbert found them varying from 121° to 132° in 1872. The discharge from the hot springs, mixed with water from cold springs in 

the same gully, is used for power at a gristmill on the bank of 

Bear River 1£ miles west of Honeyville.

This part of Bear River valley is a former sagebrush desert that has 

been changed by irrigation 1 to a thriving agricultural district in which

1 To readers who are not familiar with 

irrigation a brief explanation may be of 

interest. The common practice is to select a site at the edge of the mountains, 

where, by throwing an inexpensive dam 

across a stream, the current may be diverted a little to one side, into a ditch 

where a headgate is placed and made secure by the use of bowlders or concrete. 

During the winter and high-water seasons 

the gate is kept closed, so that no water

flows into the ditch, but in the dry season 

the gate is opened and a part of the stream 

is diverted from its natural channel. The 

headgate is, of course, far enough upstream to be at a higher altitude than the 

land to be irrigated, and the course of the 

ditch is determined by a more or less careful survey, so that it will have a uniform 

grade of a very few feet to the mile. As 

many of the streams of this region fall 

more than 100 feet to the mile, the height
OREGON SHORT LINE OGDEN TO YELLOWSTONE. 109

large quantities of grain, alfalfa, sugar beets, potatoes, tomatoes, 

onions, and other vegetables are raised. It is said that this land has 

produced, per acre, 15 to 60 bushels of wheat, 65 to 135 bushels of 

oats, 50 to 95 bushels of barley, 6 to 8 tons of alfalfa, and 10 to 40 

tons of beets. Apples, apricots, peaches, and plums are the principal 

fruits raised.

Madsen is only a siding and beet-loading platform. On the west

is the cut bank of Bear River, which has carved a

Madsen. meandering course in the old lake bottom. The river

ogden sTmiies *****" 1S ' smggisn here, having nearly reached the level of

the present lake, though several miles from it. As the

train approaches Dewey prominent lake benches are seen on the

mountain side.

Three excavations on the hill a short distance back of Dewey were 

made in obtaining limestone for a million-dollar beet-sugar factory. 

Lime is used for removing various impurities from the 

beet-sugar juice. The four smokestacks of the factory can be seen about 3 miles to the west. To serve 

this sugar factory was the purpose of the branch railroad from Brigham to Malade. Sugar-beet growing 

is a large industry in this part of the valley, the area cultivated 

being 5,000 to 7,000 acres and the average production per acre 18 

tons of beets. The factory can handle 600 tons of beets daily. It 

is on the edge of Garland, a village with a population of 800, which

Dewey.

Elevation 4,323 feet. 

Population 292.* 

Ogden 36 miles.

of the ditch above the valley bottom increases downstream, and for this reason in 

many ditches the water seems to be running uphill. As the upland inclines in 

the same direction as the stream, it is pos-0 

sible, without using any hoisting device, 

to locate the ditches so that water diverted 

from the stream at a certain point will 

flow out on the upland farther downstream indeed, water can be carried in 

this way from one stream over a divide 

and down into another valley.

At the place where the water is to be 

used an opening is made in the downhill 

side of the ditch and the water is allowed 

to flow out over the land. In grain and 

hay fields care is taken to keep the water 

spread out in very thin sheets, by throwing earth in its pathway wherever there 

are little depressions in the surface and 

the water shows a tendency to get deep. 

In gardens and orchards the water is 

caused to flow down furrows between rows 

so arranged that it does not flow so fast as 

to wash away the soil. The immense

acreage devoted to potato raising along 

this route is irrigated in this way.

On a perfectly level field it would be 

impossible to make use of this method of 

irrigation, but western fields usually have 

more or less slope, and hence it is possible, 

by guiding the water in its natural downward flow, to keep it spread out over the 

land either as a thin sheet or as little rills 

in closely spaced furrows. It is customary to allow the water to flow gradually 

across a field until it reaches the lower 

side, and then to stop up the opening in, 

the ditch and make a new one near some 

other place which it is desired to irrigate. 

The time required for the water to reach 

the downhill side of a field is commonly 

several days, because the land absorbs so 

much of it.

In actual practice the method of irrigating is more complicated than that outlined here. According to the practice 

generally followed the water is not taken 

directly from the main ditch but from a 

branch.
110 GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES.

was named for William Garland, of Kansas City, the contractor for 

the construction of the irrigating canal through Bear River canyon.

The red color on the mountain side opposite Dewey is produced by 

a mixture of blue, gray, red, and pink limestone and limy sandstone. 

Just north of Dewey the traveler gets the first glimpse of Bear River, 

the largest stream draining into Great Salt Lake. This river has an 

interstate habit; it rises in southwestern-Wyoming and is crossed by 

the Union Pacific Railroad near Evanston, flows northwestward into 

Utah, back into Wyoming, crosses into Idaho, and eventually turns 

southward to empty into Great Salt Lake. It also drains Bear Lake, 

a body of water 20 miles long lying across the Utah-Idaho boundary 

near the Wyoming line.1

Irrigation is practiced throughout the length of Bear River valley 

wherever it has been possible to divert water from the stream at a 

reasonable cost.

Between Dewey and Collinston may be seen three conspicuous 

wave-cut terraces 300, 500, and 640 feet above the track; the uppermost one is the Bonneville and the lowermost the Provo terrace. 

Several miles to the west on a clear day the parallel beaches can be 

seen on the lower gentle slope of Blue Spring Ridge. Just before 

reaching Collinston the train leaves the flat lake floor and ascends 

through gravel .cuts in an uneven surface to a slightly higher level.

Collinston is a small settlement surrounded by grain fields. Lake 

terraces, like gigantic music staves engraved on the mountain, are 

beautifully preserved in this vicinity. The rocky 

knob just beyond the station is gray conglomerate 

(gravel and sand cemented together) of Tertiary age, 

carrying an abundance of fossil snail shells. This rock 

is very young in comparison with those found in the 

Wasatch Range and is the remnant of a once extensive body of gravel 

and sand which was deposited in a fresh-water inland sea that covered 

this area just prior to or during the uplifting of the mountains. 

Though geologically young, the rock in this knob is nevertheless hundreds of thousands if not millions of years old, and ever since its formation was completed and the lake was drained it has been subjected 

to the washing of the streams which have crossed it, so that much of 

it has been worn away. It has also been affected by movements 

within the earth, as is shown by the fact that its once nearly horizontal 

layers are now tilted and broken.

Forth of Collinston the railroad climbs by easy grades still higher 

above the plain, across which winds the deep-cut trench of Bear River.

Collinston.

Elevation 4,416 feet. 

Population 114.* 

Ogden 40*kules.

1 The mean discharge of Bear River 

near Preston, Idaho, is 1,290 second-feet 

(that is, 1,290 cubic feet of water a second) . The total estimated possible power

development on Bear River in the State 

of Idaho with the aid of storage is 81,500 

horsepower. Three hydroelectric power 

plants are in operation on the river.
OBEGOF SHORT LIFE OGDEN TO YELLOWSTONE. Ill

The broad valley continues northward and is occupied by Malade 

River, but the railroad turns eastward and goes through a canyon 

cut by Bear River across a low pass in the Wasatch Range.

The Utah-Idaho Sugar Co.'s canal, which irrigates the west side of 

the lower Bear River valley, is seen on the far side of the river and 

the Hammond canal on the near side. Although these canals appear 

to climb toward the west, they actually descend in that direction, for 

the irrigator has not yet learned how to get around gravitation 

without lifting devices, and in Utah, as everywhere else, water runs 

downhill.

The Utah Power & Light Co.'s 4,000-horsepower electric plant, with 

its great flumes taking water from these canals, is on 

the river bank at the mouth of the canyon. The railroad station was named for John C. Wheelon, a civil

engineer who constructed part of the canal.

Such scenery as that for the 2 miles above Wheelon is to be found 

at no other place on the railroad between Ogden and Yellowstone. 

Here is one of the two tunnels on the route ; here are the highest trestles 

and the sharpest curves. With a, great flume of. water just below 

the track and Bear River roaring over bowlders that impede its 

progress along the canyon bottom 175 feet below, this is no place 

for speeding; and yet the time consumed in going through the canyon 

is so short that one can only .glance at the numerous interesting geologic features. It is easy .to see that the narrow canyon, with its high 

precipitous walls, is cut in limestone whose beds dip about 25° to the 

west; but there is little likelihood that the traveler will notice the 

cavities made by solution of the limestone or the numerous small 

faults which break the normal continuity of the rock beds. He will, 

however, be attracted by a waterfall made by the overflow from a 

flunie below the track and by the low falls in the river.

At the upper end of the canyon, just below the dam which diverts 

the water of the river into flumes, pink quartzite is exposed below the 

limestone. Above the dam green Tertiary shales are seen in the 

opposite wall. These shales are the hardened mud which was laid 

down on the bottom of a lake that covered this area before the mountains were formed or while their elevation was in progress. That 

- they are older than Lake Bonneville is shown by their continuation 

j beneath the silts deposited in that lake, and that they are older than 

the mountain uplift is proved by the facts that their original continuity is broken by a mountain-forming fault, and that they were 

hoisted and tilted from their original position along with the mountain 

block.

The steel-tower transmission line that crosses the hill brings electricity from a power plant in the upper Bear River canyon 20 miles 

above Preston, Idaho. On leaving the canyon the train swings
112 GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES.

around a bend and enters the broad Cache Valley/ of which the Bear 

River range, another part of the Wasatch Range, makes the east 

wall. To the northeast is Newton Hill, which was an island in the 

great arm of Lake Bonneville that occupied this valley. Wave-cut, 

shore lines are conspicuous on its sides (see PI. XXX, A),-showing 

conclusively that Cache Valley was once occupied by a great body of 

water several hundred feet deep. It will be easily realized that 

when Lake Bonneville was at its greatest height the strait between 

the body of water in Cache Valley and the larger body on the west 

was about 5 miles wide and was shallow and interrupted by several 

islands. The cliffs of the narrow canyon reach nearly to the level of 

the second conspicuous terrace (the Provo), and north of the cliffs, 

where the highway now crosses the pass, there is a considerable break 

in the upper (Bonneville) terrace, as there is also south of the canyon. 

From this it appears that as the lake surface lowered the outlet of 

Cache Bay dwindled to three channels. One of these whose position 

may have been determined by a fault or line of fracture across the 

pass persisted and now carries all the drainage. While the canyon 

was being cut, the surface of the main lake must have been lower 

than that of Cache Bay. The smaller body of water, besides evaporating less rapidly, was receiving the largest inflow. When the shore 

of the main lake had receded a considerable distance, perhaps several 

miles from the mouth of the canyon, Cache Valley no longer contained 

a bay connected with the main lake by a narrow strait, but instead a 

separate lake which drained into Lake Bonneville by a short river. 

Eventually the lake in Cache Valley was drained out, and the river 

flowing across the abandoned lake bottom west of the canyon has 

gradually deepened its channel.

From Cache Junction the Cache Valley branch of the railroad runs 

to Wellsville, Logan, and Preston. The bottom of Cache Valley 

has an altitude of about 4,500 feet and presents one 

of the most beautiful pastoral spectacles in the State. 

The valley proper is about 35 miles long and in many 

places 10 miles wide. The settlement of this valley 

was begun by the Mormons in 1856, when the town of Wellsville was

Cache Junction.

Elevation 4,444 feet. 

Ogden 49 miles.

1 Cache Valley was formed by faults 

which broke the earth's crust into blocks 

and raised some with relation to others. 

The Wasatch Kange has already been 

described (pp. 99-100). as made of upturned slabs of rock formations shoved 

up one on another. The Bear River 

Range had somewhat the same origin. 

The west face at Logan is believed to be a 

fault scarp like that at Ogden. Whether 

the block under Cache Valley remained

at a fixed altitude while the surrounding 

blocks were raised, or whether it sank 

with relation to them is.not known. The 

surface of the valley block probably was 

not smooth, but when Lake Bonneville 

occupied this basin, the sediment brought 

in by rivers, and the wash from 

the mountain sides, were deposited 

on the lake bottom and smoothed 

over the inequalities, making the present 

nearly level surface.

- r
U. S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY BULLETIN 612 PLATE XXX

A. "THE GATES" OF BEAR RIVER, FROM THE EAST NEAR CACHE JUNCTION. UTAH. 

Horizontal lines indicate wave-cut shore lines of ancient Lake Bonneville.

ti. EAST BUTTE, IDAHO,
U. 8. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY

RED ROCK. PASS AND THE OUTLET CHANNEL 
OREGON" SHORT LINE OGDEN TO YELLOWSTONE. 113

laid out by a colony of six families. White persons had, however, 

been4 here before. J. C. Fre'mont, in the report of his explorations in 

1842, mentions meeting parties of emigrants in this locality, and 

Marcus Whitman traversed the valley in the fall of 1842 on his memorable journey from Oregon to Washington, D. C., with the object 

of saving Oregon Territory for the United States.

Logan, the principal town in Cache Valley, has a population of 

aboiit 8,000 and is the location of the State Agricultural College, 

Brigham Young College, and one of the four great Mormon temples. 

The two towers of this temple, rising above the treetops at the foot of 

the mountains to the east, can be seen from the railroad. Two large 

sugar factories in this valley, at Logan and at Lewiston, contract for 

the yi'eld of several thousand acres of sugar beets, the growing of 

which is one of the principal industries. Dairying is also an extensive 

industry and condensed-milk factories are located at Logan, Smithfield, Richmond, and Franklin.

On leaving Cache Junction the train crosses Bear River and turns 

to the north, giving a broad view of the south end of Cache Valley and 

its encircling mountains. Logan Peak, the highest point on the 

range near Logan, has an altitude of 9,713 feet. The strip of timber 

along the foot of the mountains from Logan north is not natural forest 

but is composed wholly of orchards, shade trees, and windbreaks 

around the farms.

Wave-cut terraces or beaches of old Lake Bonneville are well preserved on the side of Newton Hill, west of Hammond siding. The 

rock cliff here probably is the result of comparatively 

recent uplift along a north-south fault. Between

Hammond and Trenton, at the point where the railroad turns from northeast to north, the white spots 

that look like closely set gravestones on the hillside west of the 

track are about 200 beehives. The bees feed on alfalfa and white 

clover, and the honey industry is growing. Many years ago the 

Mormons attempted to establish a silk industry in the valley but were 

not successful. Some of the mulberry trees they set out are still 

standing.

The principal industry of Trenton is indicated by the grain elevators 

)and large flour mills. Most of the ridge on the west is formed of soft 

\ sandy and limy r.ocks of Tertiary age. Some houses 

pTrenton. jn ^Q vicmity are built of these rocks, which are 

JEievation 4,460 feet, easily quarried and shaped. North of Trenton welldeveloped lake terraces may be seen on the ridge to 

the west, and in the late afternoon sunlight they are 

made particularly conspicuous by the shadows. To the east stretches 

a broad, level plain, the built-up floor of Cache Bay of the ancient 

Lake Bonneville.

92213° Bull. (312 15 8
114 GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES.

Ransom.

Most of the villages in the valley are at the foot of the mountains 

on either side. The settlement of an arid country depends on the 

water supply, and as the best and most usable water was found at the 

mouths of mountain canyons, there the pioneers built then* homes. 

The center of the broad valley is thinly settled, largely because Bear 

River and its tributaries have cut their channels so deep below the 

general level that it is hard to get water from them up on the land. 

Ransom is only a railroad siding. Several miles to the northeast, 

in the broad valley of Bear River,1 is the town of Preston; which has 

a population of about 3,000 and is the terminus of the 

Cache Valley branch of the Oregon Short Line. 

Hidden in the trees to the right of an isolated hill on 

the east side of Bear River is the village of Franklin. 

'This hill, which is 6 miles east of the railroad, is a knob of limestone known as Mount Smart ("Franklin Butte" in Gilbert's report 

on Lake Bonneville; see p. 230) and was an island in Lake Bonneville. 

The story of that lake is carved in unmistakable signs on what was the 

windward side of this island. Cliffs cut by the waves that once beat 

against it and beaches covered with gravel are beautifully preserved 

on the southwest side, toward what was a broad expanse of open lake, 

while the east or shoreward side is comparatively smooth. Lime 

for the beet-sugar factories in this valley has been quarried in this hill. 

At Cornish the train leaves Utah and enters the State of Idaho. 

The station stands on the State line. The irrigation 

canal seen at Cornish is 19 miles long, heads on Bear 

River above Battle Creek, 12 miles to the north, 

and supplies water for 20,000 acres of otherwise desert 

land. The irrigation systems in this valley were 

built and are owned by private companies.

Cornish, Utah.

Elevation 4,522 feet. 

Population 143.* 

Ogden 62 miles.

To those who remember Idaho in their school geographies as a 

small pink block, shaped like an easy chair facing east, it may be of

interest that this State, which in 1890 added the fortyIdaho, fifth star to the'constellation on the flag, is nearly as

large as Pennsylvania and Ohio combined and larger 

than the six New England States with Maryland included for good 

measure. It is divided into 33 counties, the smallest of which is half. 

as large as the State of Rhode Island and the largest greater than the1 

combined area of Massachusetts and Delaware. }

1 The mean discharge of Bear River as 

determined by measurements of its flow 

made at Preston, Idaho, during a period of 

24 years, is 1,290 second-feet that is, 1,290 

cubic feet of water passing a given point 

each second. A maximum flow of 7,980 

second-feet was recorded in 1894, and a

minimum of 164 second-feet in 1905.1 

There are two hydroelectric plants on' 

Bear Eiver above Preston, one under construction in Oneida Narrows, to have an 

installed capacity of 27,000 horsepower, 

and one at Grace, Idaho, with 17,000 

horsepower.
BULLETIN 612 SHEET No.15 A

GEOLOGIC AND TOPOGRAPHIC MAP

OF THE

TELLOWSTONE PAEK KOUTE

From Ogden, Utah, to the Yellowstone National Park

Base compiled from railroad alignments and profiles supplied 

by the Oregon Short Line Railroad Company and from additional' 

information collected with the assistance of this company

UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY

Q-EOEQE OTIS SMITH, DIRECTOR 

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

1915

I!8°30' Sheer No. /SB ||?° UTAH-IDAHO

BOUWAfrtfr'^Pffl

»\ A \ VV^-X//

Ma.dsen Slti -N\\ <s

BEAR RIVER 

BA Y

lg_

' '?

" <

c,.

i, IMapmi Pk

'i

/c T (? ^ fis20

Logan Pk

EXPLANATION

Loose surface materials

A Stream deposits and sediments of Qu-tenarv 

Lake Bonneville " ' 

Underlying rocks

8 Limy sandstone and conglomerate Tertiary 

(lake deposits)

C Limestone, shale and quartzite 

D Limestone

Carboniferous _ 

Devonian

Silurian and 

Ordovician

Quartzites. shales, and limestones undlfferentiated 

Highest shore line of Lake Bonneville indicated thus:_/'i~y

Scale 500560 

ApRroximately 8 miles to 1 inch

5 10 15 Miles

41

25 Kilometers

Contour interval 200 feet

ELEVATIONS IN FEET ABOVE MEAN SEA LEVEL

The distances from Ogden, Utah, are shown every 10 miles 

The crossties on the railroads are spaced 1 mile apart

II2°30' Sheer No. 15
OEEGOST SHORT LINE OGDEN TO YELLOWSTONE. 115

Idaho covers an area of 83,888 square miles, divided principally 

between the Rocky Mountain region and the Columbia Plateau, only 

a small part, in the southeast corner of the State, lying in the Great 

Basin. In elevation above sea level the State ranges from 735 feet, 

at Lewiston, to 12,078 feet at the summit of Hyndman Peak. It is 

drained mainly to the Columbia through Snake River and its tributaries, and has an annual rainfall of about 17 inches, the range in a 

single year at different places being from 6 to 38 inches.

The industries of the State are chiefly agriculture, stock raising, 

and mining. Hay, wheat, oats, and potatoes are the principal crops. 

A large area is cultivated by irrigation. The mineral production 

includes gold, silver, copper, lead, and zinc. The output of lead in 

1913 was valued at $13,986,366, that of silver at $6,033,473.

The population of Idaho in 1910 was 325,924. °

A short distance from Weston the steel-tower electric line, which 

conveys power from the upper canyon of Bear River and which was

last seen by the traveler at Bear River canyon, again 

Weston, Idaho. crosses the railroad. Weston is an old Mormon village 

Elevation 4,604 feet. On the lake terrace west of the station. North of it 

ogdenVmiies. the railroad ascends a slight grade, and the gullies cut

in the lake deposit give the surface an uneven appearance, but on the upper level it is very apparent that the plain is only 

slightly dissected. In the distance to the northeast is a high-cut 

bank of Bear River, but the river is not in view because in this part 

of its course it has sunk its channel in the easily eroded lake deposits 

to a depth of 250 feet below the plain.

The main highway from Utah to Montana follows the foot of the 

mountains on the west side«of Cache Valley to its very head. Along

this road are several old Mormon settlements, among 

Dayton. which is Dayton (see sheet 15s, p. 124), located at 

Elevation 4,745feet, the mouth of Dayton Canyon and the junction of a 

ogden^mues. Ver7 rough road leading over the mountains to Malade.

The big cliff at the mouth of Dayton Canyon is composed of very ancient sedimentary rocks (Cambrian?) dipping westward at a low angle. About half a mile up the canyon these rocks 

have been overridden by much younger (Carboniferous ?) limestone, 

knowing that the mountains west of this end of Cache Valley were 

jformed by the piling up of upturned broken slabs of the earth's crust. 

The foothills back of Dayton are made of sandy and limy rocks which 

were originally deposited as sand and mud in a fresh-water Tertiary 

lake. Such rocks are found in many places around the edge of Cache 

Valley.

The train now approaches on the east a north-south ridge several 

hundred feet high, known as Battle Creek Butte. It is isolated in the
116 GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES.

midst of the valley and takes its name from Battle Creek, the scene 

of an Indian fight near its eastern base. Much of the ridge is made 

up of very old shales (hardened mud rocks), but the south end and 

some of the top are composed of diorite, a kind of granite which, in a 

molten condition, was forced up into these shales from below. This 

molten rock may not have reached the surface, for the surface at the 

time of the intrusion was considerably above the present one, 

Whether this ridge is an uplifted fault block or a remnant left by the 

forces of erosion has not been determined, but it certainly was an 

island when Lake Bonneville stood at its highest level. The north 

end of the ridge consists of soft Tertiary sandstone.

Opposite the middle of Battle Creek Butte is Garner, a station for 

the village of Clifton, which lies at the edge of the flat 1 mile west. 

Clifton is an old Mormon hamlet of about 100 people. 

Garner. Late in the afternoon the mountains on the west ap4,751 feet. pear a hazy blue, details are obscured, and it mav not Ogden 75 miles. * .... "

be possible to distinguish the low rounded foothills 

made by Tertiary conglomerate and sandstone or to see the prominent lake-cut benches which continue along the edge of the valley as 

far north as Oxford.

A large reservoir among the Tertiary ridges just east of Garner isfilled from a ditch that brings water from Mink Creek, several miles 

to the northeast. An inverted siphon carries water from this reservoir across the creek at Garner, and a wooden pipe line that goes under 

the railroad at the first road north of Garner station takes the water 

to Clifton, where it is turned into irrigation ditches. About 31,000 

acres is irrigated from this one system.

A short distance north of Garner a clear view is again obtained of

the Bear River Range, several miles to the east (right), and of the 

low Tertiary hills in front of it. The railroad passes 

Oxford. a big marsh, one of the few areas in this part of the 

Elevation 4,748 feet, valley which is not yet much utilized, and continuing 

along the practically level lake floor comes to the station for a Mormon village, Oxford, which stands among 

the trees 2 miles to the west. The Provo shore line may be seen near 

the village. If Cache Valley should be filled again to the highest 

level of Lake Bonneville, Oxford village would be 400 feet under ' 

water, and the temple at Logan would stand in water 500 feet deep. 

A low ridge just north of Oxford station extends eastward from the 

mountains and makes the valley bottom much narrower. Directly

ahead, about 7 miles distant, there are two prominent 

Swan Lake. rocky pointSj whicll mark Red Rock pass? the old

5leJati0? 4 -72 feet> outlet of Lake Bonneville. West of the track is Swan Ogden 84 miles. . .

Lake, a small body of water on which it is common 

to see many ducks either resting quietly or, frightened by the train,
OREGON SHORT LINE OGDEN TO YELLOWSTONE. 117

skittering away through the weeds. The railroad grade, which has 

been gradually rising to Swan Lake station, now begins to descend. 

By the overflow of Lake Bonneville the drainage divide was moved 

from Red Rock Pass, where it stood before Bonneville time, back 

to this point, nearly 7' miles farther south. Sand and gravel 

dumped by small creeks coming out from the hills have dammed this 

part of the valley, making a marsh which extends most of the way 

from Swan Lake to the pass.. The hills on the east are composed of 

Tertiary sediments, mostly shale, and show the Bonneville shore line 

about 340 feet above the marsh. At Red Rock Pass red limestone 

cliffs appear on both sides (PL XXXI, p. 113). From the road 

crossing just south of the pass may be seen on the right a small valley 

coming down from the northeast. This is the head of Marsh Creek, 

which in pre-Bonneville time probably drained southward into Bear 

River, but which, by the shift of the divide just mentioned, now 

turns at a sharp angle and goes through the pass to join the Snake 

River drainage system. Through this valley went the magnificent 

river made by the overflow of Lake Bonneville.

As most of the water of Marsh Creek is used in irrigation, the natural

channel through the pass and for a short distance north of it may be

dry in summer. The knobs of limestone, 200 to 300 TJ J * - '

en a ' feet high, which overlook the channel from opposite 

Jle;ati°n 4 ' feet" sides leave a maximum width of 600 feet for the river Ogden 90 miles.

that drained Lake Bonneville just before it was drawn 

down to the Provo stage. (See PI. XXXI.) When Lake Bonneville first started to overflow, the lake, level stood higher than the 

tops of these limestone rocks, which had been buried beneath 

mountain waste. Gravel deposited by the stream that drained 

the lake at its highest stage is found on top of the red butte 

along the base of which the train passes. The Hunt ranch, mentioned by Gilbert in his description of this old outlet of Lake Bonneville published in 1890, was at the foot of this rocky citadel. The 

limestone crags bordering Red Rock Pass are conspicuous features of 

the landscape and were well known to the early travelers in this 

region and to the freighters who hauled supplies for the western 

Montana mining camps over the road that follows the course now 

taken by the railroad. The traveler going north from the pass may 

iiotice that although the steep-sided valley is a quarter of a mile or 

more wide, its stream is only a rivulet meandering through the 

meadow. (See PI. XXXI.) The ill-matched stream and valley afford 

evidence that a great river once flowed where now there is only a 

brook. (See pp. 97-98.) Here, then, at or just north of the red cliffs, 

Lake Bonneville overflowed its rim and began the discharge which 

continued until evaporation exceeded inflow.
118 GUIDEBOOK OP THE WESTERN UNITED STATES.

owney.

The valley bottom becomes wider toward the north, and the train 

leaves it and comes out upon a broad bench, from which an extensive 

view may be had of the valley of Marsh Creek.1 On 

^g })en(fil js Downey, a small settlement in the midst 

of an extensive agricultural district. The first homes 

were built here about 1894, but it was not until 1910, 

when water was brought by a large irrigation canal from Portneuf 

River below Lava Hot Springs and it became possible to irrigate the 

land, that the settlement had any marked growth. It was named 

for one of the engineers or officers of the Oregon Short Line. The 

grain elevator and the broad fields of grain that stretch away in all 

directions tell of the principal industry of the people. About 12,000 

acres is irrigated by the Downey Improvement Co.'s ditch and cultivated. When the ditch was completed in 1910 land sold for $35.50 

an acre, $35 for the water right and 50 cents for the land. In 1914 

it was worth about $45 an acre with water right but without improvements.

Oxford Peak (elevation 9,386 feet), which overlooks Red Rock 

Pass, appears from Downey as a mountain mass with two tops of 

about equal height. The front of the mountain range east of Downey 

is made up of Carboniferous limestone dipping to the east; the 

mountains on the west are composed of Ordovician rocks, also dipping 

east. In all directions there is a strong suggestion that the comparatively level valley floor between the two mountain ranges was

1 Marsh Valley, like Cache Valley, is 

inclosed between mountain ranges, and 

has a north and south trend. Its length 

is about 35 miles, and its greatest width 

is 8 or 10 miles. Twenty miles from Red 

Rock Pass the Portneuf River breaks 

through the eastern mountain chain and 

enters the valley, turning northward and 

running parallel with Marsh Creek to the 

end of the valley. There it receives the 

creek and then turns abruptly westward 

and escapes from the valley through a 

deep but open canyon. The upper canyon of the Portneuf has at some time admitted lava as well as water. A succession of basaltic coulees have poured 

through it into Marsh Valley and have 

followed the slope of the valley to the 

lower canyon. The Portneuf River follows the eastern margin of the lava beds, 

and Marsh Creek the western, each occupying a narrow valley sunk from 30 to

100 feet below the level of the lava table. 

A comparison of these valleys illustrates 

the disparity between Marsh Creek and 

its channel. Portneuf River is several 

times larger than Marsh Creek, but the 

immediate valley by which it is contained 

is smaller. Indeed, there is every evidence that the valley of Marsh Creek, having been formed by the ancient Bonneville River, is now in process of filling. 

It abounds in meadows and marshes and 

at one point contains a lakelet.

It appears,, however, that the Bonneville River was not contained during its 

entire existence in the channel Jiow occu-J 

pied by Marsh Creek. The whole upper 

surface of the lava tongue, where it has a 

width of more than a mile, is fluted and 

polished and pitted with potholes after 

the manner of a river bed, and there seems 

no escape from the conclusion that it was 

swept by a broad and rapid current.
OREGON SHOET LIFE OGDEN" TO YELLOWSTQNE. 119

produced by outwash from the mountains. In other words, the 

debris brought down from the surrounding mountains by the numerous streams has spread out as a great apron, filling the valley to 

a considerable depth, and every year, especially at times when the 

streams are high, a little more sand and gravel are added to the 

deposit. The valley of old Bonneville River, now occupied by 

Marsh Creek, is cut in this fill. At Downey the flat floor is composed, 

at least near the surface, of well-rounded sand and partly cemented 

gravel. It is said that a well 600 feet deep west of Downey was 

drilled entirely in hill wash.

Virginia is the station for a considerable number of farmers living 

on irrigated lands in the vicinity. The fine large school buildings

,T . . . here and at Arimo, a few miles farther north, are Virginia. . . /

typical of the school facilities provided for country

Elevation4,790 feet. .-, . ,-, , » T -, , . /., , . TT .

ogden 100 miles. pupils in this part of Idaho. Alter leaving Virginia the train runs down below the level of the 

Arimo. upper bench and at Marsh Valley siding passes 

Elevation 4,736feet, gravel pits from which a great quantity of material 

ogden 105 miles. has been taken for fills and bauast along the railroad.

The gravel shows the character of the valley filling. Arimo is one 

of the numerous little settlements on the main highway between 

Ogden and Pocatello, which parallels the track for many miles.

The valley of Marsh Creek has been flooded with lava in one 

of the later stages of geologic history, probably in Pleistocene 

glacial time. Lava of this kind, a basalt, is widespread in southern Idaho. It is seen first in Marsh Creek valley about 1£ miles 

north of Arimo, between mileposts 106 and 107. The edge of 

the lava first appears as a low vertical wall of. black rock on the 

east side of the creek, just north of some ranch buildings. Marsh 

Creek flows along the west side of the lava and the railroad runs 

along the east edge for a short distance, gradually going up on the 

upper surface, which it traverses to McCammon. The surface appears smooth, but so much of it is bare rock partly hidden by sagebush that the land is not cultivated. Near McCammon, where there 

is more soil on the lava, crops are being raised. Just before reaching 

McCammon the traveler can see on the east the defile which Portneuf 

River has cut through the mountains. In the forties and fifties pioneers from the Mississippi Valley bound for Oregon diverged from 

the Astor route and entere.d the Snake River valley through this 

defile by ox team, where travelers now pass along in Pullmans and 

Packards.
120 GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES.

Elevation 4,763 feet. 

Population 321. 

Ogden 111 miles. 

Granger 191 miles.

At McCammon; the junction of the Granger and Ogden branches 

of the Oregon Short Line, the mountains on both sides of the valley 

M c m are composed of Ordovician shale, limestone, and 

quartzite, dipping. to the east. A cross section of 

the valley at this point (fig. 14) shows a fold in the 

hard rocks which explains how a single formation 

may occur in the same position in two parallel mountain ranges. It also shows the relation of the mountain wash to the 

bedrock and contains in diagram the record of an interesting series 

of events. After the mountains were uplifted and had been somewhat worn down by erosion, there seems to have been a long period 

when the earth's crust in this region remained practically stationary 

and the refuse from the wearing down of the mountains on both sides 

graduaUy filled the valley to a considerable depth.' Subsequently,

FIGURE 14. Cross section of Marsh Creek valley at McCammon, Idaho.

an elevation of this region gave the streams greater fall, which increased their cutting power, so that they gradually washed out deep 

gullies in the fill. Then came a period of, volcanic activity during 

which great quantities of lava welled up through cracks in the earth's 

crust and flowed out from volcanoes. The bottom of the valley 

occupied by Marsh Creek and Portneuf River, from a point near 

Arimo to Pocatello, was filled with black lava, most of which probably 

came up from a crack along the valley bottom. After the lava 

cooled Portneuf River, coming out from its canyon on the east, may 

have flowed for a time directly across the top of the lava to the west 

side 

. of the ^ vallev, »/ / as suggested oo by */ an abandoned channel to be seen

along the railroad just before entering McCammon, and there joined 

Marsh Creek. Subsequently it cut a new course along the east edge 

of the lava tongue to its present position and left Marsh Creek in 

possession of the opposite ledge. Long after the lava had cooled 

Lake Bonneville formed and its outlet stream through Red RockPass poured down Marsh Creek valley, flowed over the top of the 

lava, leaving deposits of sand and gravel in its wake, and carved 

deep channels on both sides of the narrow lava tongue.
OREGON" SHORT LINE OGDEN TO YELLOWSTONE. 121

A place of more than local interest is Lava Hot Springs, in Portneuf Canyon 12 miles east of McCammon, where in 1914 the State of 

Idaho built a natatorium inclosing a concrete swimming pool 33 by 

66 feet for public iise. A number of hot springs issue from the bank 

of the river, and near them is a popular camping place. In the canyon at and above the hot springs there is considerable calcareous 

tufa, a soft cellular limestone deposited by the evaporation of water 

carrying lime in solution.

The gently sloping benches or terraces from McCammon to the foot 

of the mountains on the east and west are composed of outwash 

material which, though deposited by mountain torrents, has nevertheless accumulated so gradually that it makes a good soil. Large 

quantities of grain are raised on it by dry farming. The great white 

ledge seen on the mountain side 5 miles east of the village is a band of 

gray sandy limestone about 100 feet thick. The Harkness ranch, 

just north of the village, was one of the first in this region and was a 

common stopping point for freighters before the railroad was built. 

Mr. Harkness maintained a toll bridge over Portneuf River at this 

point.1 Water power at McCammon runs the local gristmill and 

electric-light plant.

Immediately on leaving McCammon the train runs down off the 

top of the lava into a little canyon, and for a number of miles follows 

the river and the edge of the lava. Toward the north the lava wall 

increases from 10 to 50 feet in height. In most places its upper edge 

is well exposed, but the lower part is concealed by large and small 

blocks broken from the ledge above by frost action and other natural 

forces. Fine exposures of black columnar basalt 2 are almost con1 Measurements of the flow of Portneuf 

River show a mean discharge of 265 

second-feet at Topaz, a station in the 

canyon east of McCammon, during 1913-14 

and of 334 second-feet at Pocatello during 

1897-1899 and 1912-1914. The records at 

Pocatello show from a minimum flow of 

14 to a maximum flow of 1,880 secondfeet. No large power plants are feasible 

on this stream.

2 Columnar structure, or the division of 

a rock into prisms more or less straight 

and parallel to one another, is a common 

feature of basalts. Well-known examples 

of this structure are the Giants Causeway 

and Fingals Cave, in Ireland; the lavas 

in the Auvergne, in central France; the 

Palisades of the Hudson; the Watchung 

Mountains, west of Orange, N. J.; and the 

lavas in the Snake River canyon of Idaho

and the valley of the Columbia in Oregon. 

As in the drying of a mud puddle cracks 

break the surface into figures having five 

or six sides, so in the cooling-of molten 

basalt the prismatic shrinkage cracks 

start at right angles to the cooling surface. 

If the rock were perfectly homogeneous 

and the cooling uniform, the columns 

would all be hexagonal and of uniform 

thickness. The slower the mass cools au/1 

shrinks the larger will be the columns, and 

as the upper and lower surfaces of a mass 

of lava are likely to cool at different rates, 

it is common to find the lower portion 

separated into larger columns than the 

upper portion. As the columns are developed at a right angle to the cooling 

surface it follows that a sag or depression 

in the surface of a basalt sheet is underlain 

by radiate columnar structure.
122 GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES.

tinuous on the west side of the track. Areas a few yards in extent 

showing radiate columnar structure may be seen at several points 

close to the railroad between McCammon and Pocatello.

Onyx is a siding just below a concrete bridge over Portneuf River. 

Near milepost 200 l the river tumbles over falls made by travertine,

a soft cellular limestone deposited from calcareous 

Onyx, spring waters. The small knobs' of limestone in the 

Elevation 4,6i5 feet, valley bottom between the 1-98 and 200 mile posts 

Granger Smiles. were once buried in the lava which spread over the

whole valley floor but have been brought to light 

again through the wearing away of the lava by the river.

Near the 201-mile post the railroad and river turn to the middle -of 

the larger valley, where there are basalt walls on both sides. An 

abandoned channel of Portneuf River continues along the east edge 

of the lava mass, so that the lava east of Inkom is an isolated block 

lying between the abandoned channel and the new channel of Portneuf River.

At Inkom, a small settlement just below the point where Marsh 

Creek enters Portneuf River, the river turns from north to west and

cuts through the range in a deep, narrow valley. The

basalt formerly occupying the present position of

Elevation 4,520 feet. T1 ,, in -, -, ,-, Population 549. Inkom has been gradually removed by the stream 

ogden 122 miles. which comes in from the northeast. Portneuf River 

ranger mi es. ^as worn ^e basaltic lava away from the south side 

of the valley from Inkom to Pocatello, leaving a black columnar wall 

on the north side of the track. In some places it is very apparent 

that there are two thin sheets of lava, one resting upon the other, 

indicating two distinct volcanic outbursts. About 4 miles west of 

Inkom the lava stops short, and there is none in the narrow pass 

through the mountains.

The valley of Portneuf River from McCammon to Pocatello is cut 

in ancient Paleozoic rocks, including limestones, shales, and quartzites, tilted at various angles but for the most part to the east. The 

Bannock Range west of Inkom, through which the train passes so 

quickly, is composed of Ordovician strata which are more or less 

folded, an anticline or upward bend being indistinctly recognizable 

on the south wall of the pass. There is no picturesque canyon here 

only a short, sharp gap. A great fault or break in the rocks along the 

west side of the range crosses the river at the west end of this gap, but 

no trace of it can be seen from the train.

1 In the Portneuf Valley between McCammon and Pocatello the railroad mileposts 

indicate the distance west of Granger, Wyo.
OEEGON SHORT LINE OGDEN TO YELLOWSTONE. 123

As soon as the train leaves the gap a basalt wall is seen again on 

the north. Probably the lava was originally continuous through the

gap, having flowed down the valley from McCammon 

Portneuf (spur). && & grea^ molten tongue, but if so it has been comPletely removed from the gap by the river. Plainly

there are two lava sheets here. The columnar structure is well developed, as shown in the vertical wall at the edge 

of the basalt. At a few places where there were original sags 

in the surface of the mass radiate structure can be recognized. 

The basalt ends in the Portneuf Valley with a gentle slope about 3 

miles east of Pocatello. Near Pocatello the mountains swing away 

to- the west and north, making room for the city.

A low, steep-faced reddish ridge north of the track just east of the

city appears to be a block of Ordovician quartzite uplifted by faulting.

Pocatello,1 another "gateway to the mountains," is the junction

of the divisions of the Oregon Short Line running north to Butte,

Mont., and west to Huntington. Oreg. It was named

j, T J" I,' £ J 1. x j. -A toon for an Indian chief and began as a tent city in 1882, 

Population 9,noeet when the railroad was completed to this point. The 

ogden 134 miles. early history of this locality is a wild one. In the 

ranger mi es. when the overland stage made its way through

Portneuf Valley trouble with Indians and with highwaymen was 

common. The city is built on a town site, of 2,000 acres sold by the 

Indians to the United States. It is divided by the railroad into two 

distinct parts, connected by a viaduct which crosses the numerous 

tracks at the station. It is growing rapidly and already has many 

noteworthy institutions, such as a Federal building, a Carnegie 

library, a hospital, a large railroad' Y. M. C. A., and fine schools, 

including the Academy of Idaho, which bridges the gap between the 

common schools and the State university. The electric light and 

power used in the city is generated at American Falls, 25 miles west, 

on Snake River. The growth of the city is due largely to the railroad shops, which give employment to hundreds of men.

Just west of the city highly tilted Cambrian quartzite is overlain 

by rhyolite, a light-colored siliceous volcanic rock, which flooded the 

surface before the basalt came. As the train leaves the station and 

passes the roundhouses and extensive railroad shops the traveler 

sees to the west the great Snake River plain. Far out in this plain 

a solitary mountain appears in dim outline. This is Big Butte, the 

cone of an extinct volcano, and the westernmost of three buttes 

which for generations have been landmarks in this part of the country.

Farther than the eye can see the Snake River plain stretches away 

to the west. The valley of the ancient Snake River was flooded

1 The railroad mileposts from Pocatello to Idaho Falls give the distance from 

Ogden. 
124 GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES.

with great outpourings of black lava, which spread out sheet on sheet, 

buried the old land surface, and partly filled the valley with molten 

rock, which solidified and has remained to this day undisturbed 

except for the gorges that the streams have cut in it. In some places 

old mountains project through the petrified lava flood as islands project above the surface of the sea, and old ridges stick out into it as 

capes and promontories.

The description of the Snake River plain below given1 is taken 

from a report written in 1901 by I. C. Russell.

1 Southern Idaho is a region composed of 

geologically old rocks, which formed an 

ancient land surface having a rugged' 

relief. In the depressions of this surface, during later geologic time, extensive lake and stream deposits and vast 

lava flows were spread out. The older 

rocks, sharply separated from the younger 

by a long time interval, during which 

extensive movements in the earth's crust 

and deep erosion took place, are mainly 

granite, rhyolite, quartzite, and limestone. The younger of these is probably 

the limestone which is thought to b e of Carboniferous age. These rocks were variously 

folded, faulted, and upheaved into prominent mountains, and deeply dissected by 

a large river, with many tributaries, 

which was long lived. The valley of the 

main stream, the ancient representative 

of Snake Eiver, became broad and had 

many important tributary valleys opening from it and extending far into the 

bordering mountains. The sharp-crested 

mountain spurs between the lateral valleys are in some instances prolonged far 

into the main depression.

After the topography had passed maturity that is, after the streams had excavated deep valleys, leaving sharp-crested 

or serrated divides between them the 

main stream was obstructed, possibly 

by lava flows, but more probably by an 

upward movement of the rocks athwart its 

course, in the region now included in 

western Idaho and eastern Oregon, and a 

lake was formed which occupied a large 

part of the country now included in the 

Snake River plains. This water body, 

named by Lindgren Lake Payette, re- I 

ceived the sediment brought in by tributary streams and the dust blown out by, I

volcanoes and became deeply filled. 

These sediments, which have a known 

depth of over 1,000 feet, are now well exposed, particularly in southwestern Idaho. 

In places they contain impressions of 

leaves of trees which grew on .the borders 

of the old lake, the shells of fresh-water. 

mollusks, the bones of land mammals, and 

other remains. The fossils record a Tertiary (Miocene) age.

Before Lake Payette came to an end 

the vast lava flows which now form such a 

conspicuous feature of the Snake River 

basin began to be outpoured. In fact, 

the lava and the sediments of Lake Payette and of a later lake in the same basin, 

were contemporaneous, the lava and lake 

sediments being interbedded. Some of 

the lava flows entered the lake, and the 

occurrence of thick beds of volcanic 

fragments (lapilli) and of scoriaceous, 

glassy lava, with a torn and slaglike

structure, at the base of thick sheets of 

usually compact basalt records the energy 

of the steam explosions that followed. 

Highly liquid lava continued to be pouredout at various intervals from a large number of volcanic vents and spread out in 

the previously formed basin, making, in 

truth, lakes of molten rocks. Besides 

these two processes of upbuilding that 

is, sedimentation in lakes and the outpouring of lava which spread widely 

there was a third, the washing of debris 

from the uplands and its deposition in 

alluvial cover and widely extended sheets 

of sand, gravel, and silt in the valleys. 

In addition, there are widespread eolian 

[wind] deposits. The volcanic eruption 

continued after the lakes were either 

filled or drained, so that by far the larger 

portion of the Snake River plains is
BULLETIN 612 SHEET- No. 15 B

GEOLOGIC AND TOPOGRAPHIC MAP

OF THE

YELLOWSTONE PAKK EOUTE

From Ogden, Utah, to the Tellowstone National Park

Base compiled from railroad alignments and profiles supplied 

by the Oregon Short Line Railroad Company and from additional 

information collected with the assistance of this company

UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY

GEORGE OTIS SMITH, DIRECTOR 

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

1915

FT HALL 1 NO. RES.

T ^^ ^W$t&?3m Approximately 8 miles to 1 inch ;Hi^%m\ 5 10 is

Contour interval 200 feet

ELEVATIONS IN FEET ABOVE MEAN SEA LEVEL

distances from Owaha. Nebraska, are shown every 10 w;'. 

The crossties on the railroads are spaced > mile apart

EXPLANATION 

Loose surface materials

Stream deposits (alluvium) j>

Sediments of Lake Bonnevillej

Underlying rocks 

Basalt

Rhyolite^

I Tertiary

E Outwash from mountains (sand i (Seine of the lava 

and gravel), in places partly i may be Quatercemented nary)

Limy sandstone and conglomerate j 

(lake deposits) j

Limestone and shale 

Quartzite, shale, and limestone

Highest shore line ofl.ake Bonneville indicated thus:
OREGON" SHORT LINE OGDEN TO YELLOWSTONE. 125

At Tyhee (see sheet 15o, p. 138), 1$ miles south of the Fort Hall 

Indian Reservation, the railroad turns more to the north and a view 

is obtained on.the left of the middle and east buttes 

Tyhee, Of ^e three already mentioned. The sagebrush flat 

Elevation 4,458 feet. now being crossed is owned by the Indians. Very 

g en mi es. }^tle land has been cultivated in this part of the reservation, although much of the land is under ditches of the irrigation 

system installed by the Government. Near Tyhee may be seen the 

large upper canal which takes water from Blackfoot River about 15

directly underlain by sheets of basalt. 

The last of the extensive volcanic discharges happened in very recent times, 

and the process of stream deposition still

continues.

The estimated area covered by the 

Snake River lava is in the neighborhood 

of 20,000 square miles. So far as is now 

definitely known, there is but one lava 

field in North America of greater extent, 

namely, the Columbia River lava, the 

estimated area of which is about 200,000 

square miles. In Snake River canyon, 

below Shoshone Falls, nearly 700 feet of 

lava in horizontal sheets are exposed, 

but whether this is the maximum thickness or not can not be told. As a rule, 

the various sheets of lava are relatively 

thin, averaging perhaps 50 to 80 feet and 

widely extended. That many independent outflows of lava have occurred 

is easily seen, but in the walls of Snake 

River canyon, where the best sections 

are exposed, it is difficult to determine 

the number unless lacustral deposits, 

beds of lapilli, etc., occur between them.

Although the soil of the Snake River 

plains has well-marked variations, it may 

be said that in general, and, in fact, almost 

everywhere, it is fertile and needs but 

the requisite moisture to enable it to produce a strong growth of either native or 

cultivated plants. In general, however, 

the soil of the plains is a fine yellowishwhite siltlike material, largely a dust deposit, which mantles the surface not only 

on level tracts, but covers hills and broad 

depressions alike. This material is similar to the celebrated loess of China, except 

that it usually occurs as a comparatively 

thin layer, and resembles also the deposit 

bearing the same name in the Mississippi

Valley. Like each of these formations, it 

is of exceptional fertility if properly 

irrigated.

The ever-present and characteristic 

plant of the Snake River plains is the

sagebrush (Artemisia tridentata), which 

grows abundantly and, we might say, 

luxuriantly in the dry soil from the bottom of the Snake River canyon up to an 

elevation of some 2,000 or 3,000 or more 

feet on the mountains bordering the 

plains. It covers the broad arid valleys 

almost completely and is seldom lacking 

over any extensive area except where 

fires have recently occurred or cultivated 

fields supplant it. On the plains in summer fire sometimes sweeps through the 

sagebrush in much the same manner that 

it does over the prairies and "burns" are 

produced. The "sage" in the localities 

most favorable to its growth attains .a 

height of about 10 feet, but usually is not 

over 3 feet high, the clump of bushes 

being commonly 6 to 8 feet apart. One 

can ride or walk over the sagebrush plains 

with but little difficulty. The light 

grayish-green leaves of this ubiquitous 

plant give color, or perhaps more properly, lack of color, to the plains and enhance their monotony. Although the 

Snake River plains are frequently termed 

a desert, the name is true only in the sense 

that they are practically without water. 

Comparatively little of the surface is destitute of plant life. In fact, the flora is 

found to be abundant and varied if one 

examines it closely. There are many 

lovely plants that blossom early in the 

spring, filling the air with fragrance, and 

in the summer and fall the yellow of 

sunflowers and of the still more plentiful "rabbitbrush" (Bigeloviagraveolens),
126 GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES.

miles to the north. The canal is carried under the track near Tyhee 

by means of an inverted siphon.

East and northeast of Tyhee the old flood plain of Snake River 

terminates against a bluff about 40 feet high, from the top of which 

the land rises gently in long slopes to the hills made of upturned Paleozoic rocks, more or less covered with lava. The gently sloping bench 

lands are themselves composed of marls, sandstone, conglomerate, 

volcanic ash, and lavas. These deposits are geologically very young, 

probably Pliocene. They cloak the older formations over many 

square miles.

Three gray stone buildings with red roofs east of the track belong 

to a boarding school for Indian boys and girls, where the 180 pupils 

are given instruction in practical matters relating to farm life as well 

as the ordinary academic courses.

Fort Hall is the headquarters of the superintendent of the Fort Hall 

Indian Reservation and the engineers on the reclamation project. 

The Indian women seen here are dressed in blankets 

and moccasins, and the men in semicivilized costume. 

Some of the Indian maidens, however, wear gowns of 

the latest styles. Fort Hall, formerly called Ross 

Fork, from the stream on which it is built, takes its 

present name from a fort which was built in July, 1834, about 15 

miles to the northeast, at the junction of the Missouri-Oregon and 

Utah-Canada trails, by Capt. N. J. Wyeth and named for one of his 

partners. It was to the original fort that Dr. and Mrs. Marcus 

Whitman and Rev. and Mrs. H. H. Spaulding came in 1836 on their 

way from Boston to missionary labors among the Indians in Oregon. 

Theirs were the first wagons and Mrs. Whitman and Mrs. Spaulding

Fort Hall.

Elevation 4,458 feet. 

Population 1,672.* 

Ogden 146 miles.

a relative of the goldenrod, here and 

there give broad dashes of brilliant 

color. Beneath the sagebrush in a state 

of nature nutritious bunch grass grows 

abundantly and still furnishes pasturage 

where sheep have not ravished the land. 

Where the plains are broadest that is, 

north of the Oregon Short Line Railroad 

and especially in the vicinity of the three 

steptoes, Big, Middle, and East buttes 

much of the land is without sagebrush and 

in the condition of a rolling prairie, which 

supplies excellent winter pasturage.

On the plains, more especially in the 

broader portions in the vicinity of the 

three prominent buttes that break their 

monotony, big game is still to be found. 

Antelope roam over them throughout the 

year, while deer and elk find there a s'afe

winter range. The mountain sheep is 

also present in winter, and the mountain 

goat is reported to have been met with. 

The great horn cores of the mountain 

sheep are occasionally to be seen bleaching among the clumps -of sagebushes. 

Occasionally also the horns and bones of 

the bison are found, showing that southern Idaho was within the former range of 

that species. Besides the animals just 

mentioned, the plains are visited by 

bears, wolves, lynxes, foxes, and skunks, 

and the coyote is only too abundant. 

Ducks, geese, and other birds visit the 

ponds and streams, particularly along 

Snake River and on the west side of the 

plain to the Lost River country. Grouse 

of several species are common and smaller 

birds are by no means rare.
OREGON SHORT LINE OGDEN TO YELLOWSTONE. 127

the first white women to cross the Rocky Mountains. The party 

forded Snake River near the site of Blackfoot and went bravely west 

over the waterless plain. The old fort was abandoned many years 

ago and practically all vestige of it is lost.

In the Fort Hall Reservation sagebrush seems to cover every acre 

and the traveler may question if the Indians cultivate any land. 

Most of the Indians, however, live near the creeks and their homes 

can not be seen from the train. In 1914 they had 7,240 acres under 

cultivation. The principal crops are alfalfa, oats, wheat, potatoes, 

barley, garden truck, and sugar beets. According to the report of the 

Commissioner of Indian Affairs for 1914 the total Indian population 

of the reservation was 1,797, including 462.children of school age. 

Of these Indians, 1,506 are full bloods belonging to the Bannock and 

Shoshoni tribes. There had been allotted to the Indians 38,280 acres 

of irrigated land and 330,971 acres of grazing land. The old and 

decrepit Indians, 250 in number, get rations. More than two-thirds 

of the Indians live in tepees and tents. Nearly a third of them winter 

on the Snake River bottoms, where there is timber for shelter, fire 

wood, and plenty of pasturage and where snow rarely lies more than 

a few days.

The road up Ross Fork from Fort Hall station leads across the 

mountains to the dam of the great Blackfoot reservoir, about 30 

miles east, built to store water for the Fort Hall irrigation system. 

Phosphate deposits occur about 20 miles east of Fort Hall station 

along this road. The deposits in this reservation contain approximately 738,000,000 long tons and are estimated to underlie 58$ 

square miles at depths of less than 5,000 feet; they doubtless underlie 

a much larger area at greater depths. The main phosphate bed is 

6 or 7 feet thick and is rich in tricalcic phosphate, the mineral constituent in bones. The phosphate beds are relatively soft and are 

exposed in only a few places, although clearly recognizable fragments 

of phosphate rock are scattered more or less abundantly along the 

zone of outcrop. A description of the western phosphate field, by 

G. R. Mansfield, is given below. a

1 A. hard problem for the farmer ia to 

discover the needs of his depleted or unfavorably proportioned soil. Its greatest 

need may be phosphoric acid, one of the 

three substances that are most necessary 

in maintaining fertility, the other two 

being nitrogen and potash. Phosphoric 

acid for use in fertilizers has been supplied for many years in part by the phosphates of Florida and Tennessee and from 

islands in the Pacific Ocean. These deposits can not always supply the demand, 

and therefore the recent discovery that

the Rocky Mountains contain the largest 

known area of phosphate rock in the world 

is of vital interest to future generations, if 

not to the present one.

Albert Bichter claims to be the original 

discoverer of the western phosphate deposits, because he recognized rock phosphate in Cache County, Utah, in 1889 and 

located claims on it. These phosphate 

deposits are said to have been independently discovered in 1897 by K. A. Pidcock in Rich County, Utah, in old diggings in black rock that he mistook for
128 GUIDEBOOK OP THE WESTERN UNITED STATES.

North of Fort Hall station, 1 to 3 miles east of the track, there is a 

group of low rounded hills composed largely of basalt lava but covered 

for the most part with dark sand that was blown out from a volcano, 

the basalt appearing here and there as ledges and bowlders of black 

rock. From Fort Hall station an excellent view may be obtained 

of the highest mountains in the reservation, North and South Putnam, 

situated 15 to 18 miles to the southeast and reaching 8,837 and 8,989 

feet, respectively, above sea level.

North and west of Fort Hall station the surface of the flat is overspread with dark sand, largely of volcanic origin. It is similar to 

volcanic ash except that it is coarser. This sand is piled in low dunes 

west of Fort Hall, and some of the dunes have been utilized as burial 

places by the Indians. These Indian cemeteries are marked by 

high poles, set rather close together, .which may be seen for considerable distances. A cemetery about 2 miles west of the track and 1 

m-ile north of Fort Hall can be seen froin the train in clear weather. 

On close inspection the cemeteries are found to be decorated with 

effects of the departed Indians, including clothing, cooking utensils, 

and implements.

gold prospects. A large sample analyzed 

in 1899, however, proved to be high-grade 

phosphate rock. In 1908, on recommendation of the Geological Survey, Secretary of the Interior Garfield withdrew 

from entry 4,500,000 acres of public land 

in Idaho, Utah, and Wyoming believed 

to be valuable for phosphate, and this 

phosphate withdrawal was continued by 

President Taft under the act of June 25, 

1910. In 1909 and succeeding years these 

phosphate deposits were systematically 

examined by the United States Geological 

Survey, and in 1910 phosphate rock was 

discovered in Montana, near Melroee, by 

Geologist H. S. Gale. On January 1, 

1915, the total area of phosphate lands in 

Montana, Utah, Wyoming, and Idaho 

withdrawn from entry was 2,713,155 acres. 

This phosphate reserve is larger than any 

similar area in the United States; it is, 

indeed, the largest area of phosphate rock 

yet recognized in the world.

A characteristic of the phosphate rock 

of this region is its oolitic texture, the 

roiinded grains, resembling fish eggs, 

ranging in size from the tiniest specks to 

bodies half an inch or more in diameter. 

In its weathered condition these grains 

are more or less distinct and the rock has

a grayish color. When freshly mined, 

however, the rock is dark brown or black. 

In some places where the rock has been 

subjected to great compression during the 

deformation of the inclosing strata it has 

apparently lost the oolitic texture and 

shows a slight increase in density.

The phosphate deposits in the West occur in definite beds that extend over wide 

areas and that are related to the associated 

rocks in the same way as coal beds. The 

associated beds are predominantly shaly, 

but include also sandstones and limestones, the whole ranging in thickness 

from a few feet to 175 feet. Above these 

phosphate shales there is commonly massive chert or cherty limestone, and below 

them in the Utah, Wyoming, and Idaho 

fields a light-colored siliceous limestone. 

These three sets of beds in Utah and western Wyoming are grouped together as the 

Park City formation, of Carboniferous age. 

In Idaho the phosphate shales and overlying chert are called the Phosphoria 

formation. The number of phosphate 

beds distributed through the phosphate 

shales varies from place to place. There 

is, however, usually near the base, a bed 

5 or 6 feet thick in the Idaho field and the 

adjacent portions of Wyoming and Utah.
OREGON SHORT LINE OGDEN TO YELLOWSTONE. 129

Volcanic hills, composed largely of a rhyolite lava, appear to the 

east at a distance of 4 or 5 miles from Gibson siding. On one of the 

nearer hills of this group there is a very symmetrical 

1 son' little cone built of material similar to that which 

oSm4mUeSfeet' makes so large a proportion of the dark volcanic sand 

found abundantly in this vicinity. It seems probable that this little cone is the crater from which the sand was blown 

out and that its eruption marks perhaps the latest chapter in the 

volcanic history of the district.

For many miles north from Fort Hall the three buttes in the Snake 

River plain are visible in clear weather. The westernmost, or Big 

Butte, is an old volcano rising 2,350 feet above the plain, or 7,659 

feet above sea level. East Butte, also a volcano, is 700 feet high, 

and Middle Butte,. an upraised block of basaltic lavas, is 400 feet 

high. Big and East buttes are ancient rhyolitic volcanoes which 

existed previous to the outpouring of the fluid basalt that flowed 

about them, their upper parts rising as islands in this sea of molten 

rock. They are about 25 and 35 miles from Blackfoot, arid Big Butte 

is 15 miles from Middle Butte and 20 miles from East Butte. The 

Lost River and Lemhi ranges may be seen behind the buttes.

North of Gibson there may be a few tepees along the road. At the 

south end of the bridge over Blackfoot River there is a well-appointed, 

ranch, the home of a prosperous Indian who owns an automobile and. 

has several hundred head of horses and cattle in the hills.

This bed is also of uniformly high quality, 

averaging 32 per cent or more of phosphoric acid, equivalent to 70 per cent or more 

of bone phosphate. The total quantity 

of high-grade rock in this main bed, estimated for the areas examined by the Geological Survey in five years (not including 

Montana fields), is approximately 5,000,- 

000,000 long tons. This estimate includes 

only rock that is believed to lie at minable 

depths that is, less than 5,000 feet from 

the surface but does not include a vastly 

greater quantity of lower grade rock.

The raw phosphate rock is not readily 

soluble, so that its action in fertilizing 

land is very slow, but the so-called superphosphate, made by treating the pulverized rock with sulphuric acid, which the 

smelters of the West can furnish in large 

quantity, contains phosphate in more 

easily soluble and available form. At 

present, on account of the cost of trans92213° Bull. 612 15 9

portation to the eastern markets, the demand for western phosphate is confined 

to the Pacific Coast States, and even here 

it is in competition with phosphate rock 

imported from Ocean Island. Of the total 

phosphate rock produced in the United 

States in 1914, the Western States furnished less than one-half of 1 per cent. 

With the growing recognition of the importance of intensive agriculture and the 

consequent need of fertilizers in the great 

agricultural districts that have passed the 

period of maximum fertility, the demand 

for phosphate rock is certain to increase. 

Although at present the deposits in the 

Eastern States are more accessible to markets, these deposits are already approaching partial exhaustion, so that this rich 

and extensive western field, already important as a grazing district, is destined 

to become the scene of another thriving 

industry.
130 GUIDEBOOK OP THE WESTERN UNITED STATES.

Blackfoot.

Elevation 4,502 feet. 

Population 2,202. 

Ogden 158 miles.

Blackfoot River, 1 which the railroad crosses 1 mile south of the 

village of Blackfoot, is the north boundary of the Fort Hall Indian 

Reservation. . Blackfoot city and river are named from a tribe" of North American 

Indians. The name is explained as an allusion to an observation 

by. pioneer whites that their leggins were generally 

blackened by walking over the freshly burned prairie. 

The Indians commonly seen about the station and 

on the streets, however, belong to the Lemhi, Bannock, or Shoshone tribes. Blackfoot is the business 

center of a large, well-settled, and prosperous irrigated agricultural - 

.district, and is sometimes called the "grove city," because all the 

streets in the residence section are well lined with mature shade 

trees. It is noteworthy that the first trees ever planted in upper 

Snake River valley were set out around the Blackfoot courthouse in 

1-886, and a ditch was constructed for irrigating .them. Three grain 

elevators and a flour mill suggest that a large part of the produce of 

the surrounding district is grain. The railroad station, one of the 

finest on the line, is built of pink rhyolite, a lava rock that is abundant 

in the hills to the east. Blackfoot is the junction point for branch 

lines to Mackay and Aberdeen. Gasoline motor trains are run on 

these lines and also to Pocatello. The city water supply is pumped 

from wells drilled to depths of 120 to 150 feet, which reach basalt 

(black lava) at 65 feet. These wells show the depth of sand and 

gravel deposited at this place by Snake and Blackfoot rivers in 

wandering about over the surface before settling in their present, 

courses. .

The electricity used in Blackfoot is brought from a power plant on 

Snake River at American Falls, 40 miles to the southwest.2 Gold 

placers on Snake River about 15 miles below Blackfoot have been 

worked intermittently in former years, but are now idle. In hard 

times a few men wash out a little gold by panning, but here, as 

elsewhere on Snake River, the gold is so flaky and fine that it is 

difficult to recover. Several attempts at large operations with 

dredges have been failures. A beet-sugar factory at Blackfoot, built 

in 1905 at a cost of $500,000, contracts for the beets from about

1 The mean discharge of Blackfoot 

River in 1906-1909, measured at Presto, 

a few miles upstream from the railroad, 

was 415 cubic feet a second. It has a 

recorded range from a maximum of 2,370 

to a minimum of 64 cubic feet a second 

during that period. No hydroelectric 

power plants are in operation or in 

process of construction on this stream. 

Although the fall of the river from the 

Blackfoot dam down to the mouth of the

canyon is comparatively great, the storage 

of water for irrigation makes it impracticable to develop any very large amount of 

continuous power. Besides the 48,000 

acres to be irrigated on the Fort Hall 

Reservation, 6,000 to 10,000 acres are irrigated by independent or private ditches 

taking water from the river.

2 The mean discharge of Snake River at 

Blackfoot during 1911-1914 was 7,930 

cubic feet a second.
OREGON SHORT LINE OGDEN TO YELLOWSTONE. 131

7,000 acres and pays $5 a ton for them. The average yield is about 

12 tons to the acre, but some tracts under skiUful treatment produce 

20 to 22 tons.

The flat extending from Snake River, 3 miles west of the railroad, 

to the foot of the hills on the east is all under irrigation ditches, 

practically every acre being cultivated. The agricultural interests 

of this valley are diversified; no one crop predominates. On either 

side of the track are fields of alfalfa, barley, oats, potatoes, sugar 

beets, timothy, and wheat. Apple orchards are . common. Many 

of the highways are lined by trees, and almost every group of farm 

buildings is shaded and sheltered by Lombardy poplars. This tall 

poplar, a native of Europe, is a favorite because the trees grow rapidly 

and, if planted in rows close together, make excellent windbreaks. 

They are propagated by means of cuttings. While viewing this prosperous and beautiful rural country the traveler should bear in mind 

that' only a few years ago, not further back than 1885, the entire 

Snake River plain was one great sagebrush desert, wholly barren 

of trees and populated mainly by jack rabbits, coyotes, and 

rattlesnakes.

Wapello in 1914 was a new settlement consisting of a store, a

school, and a railroad siding. The trees about a mile to the west

are on the bank of Snake River, the main stream of

Wapello. southern Idaho. The name of the river is said to

be tne translation of the name of a tribe of Indians, 

the Shoshones, who live along its banks. The river 

rises among the high peaks of the Rocky Mountains in Yellowstone 

National Park, flows southward, broadening into Jackson Lake, and 

then northward, and near Rigby, Idaho, is joined by Henrys Fork, 

locally known as the North Fork, which rises 'in Henrys Lake, near 

the Idaho-Montana State line. The portion of Snake River above 

Henrys Fork is locally known as the South Fork. These two streams 

receive numerous tributaries, much of whose water the year round 

is melted snow. Below the confluence Snake River flows in a general 

southwesterly course for 150 miles, to a point a short distance below 

the American Falls, where it turns nearly westward.

The small settlement of Firth, which was started about 1911, is on

the Snake -River flat or first bottom. A three-span steel highway

bridge crosses the river near by. Half a mile north

Firth> of Firth the river itself first conies into sight from the

Elevation 4,564 feet. tram> ^he bluff rising to the second bottom is iust

Ogden 169 miles. . ., J

east 01 the track. Five miles east 01 Firth a second 

bluff rises about 50 feet to a third flat or bottom. This flat is composed of material brought down from the mountains by Blackfoot 

River and deposited on the plain at the mouth of its canyon.

Blackfoot River has had a hard fight for existence. When the 

earth's crust cracked and broke and quartzites and limestones were
132 GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTEBN UNITED STATES.

faulted up across the river's course, it kept its place by grinding down 

its bed. The upturned hard rocks made a mountain range through 

which the river cut a narrow valley. This valley was afterward 

flooded with rhyolitic lava and the river had to grind its bed down 

again. After it had regained its grade through the rhyolite that 

blocked its course a stream of molten basaltic lava flowed down the 

channel, and for a long time all water that came this way was turned 

to steam. When the hot lava became cold rock Blackfoot River 

began a third time the task of sawing its bed down to grade. It has 

now sunk a deep, narrow canyon in the black basalt so deep that the 

road up the river is on a bench 100 to 300 feet above the stream.

The mountains east of Firth and Monroe, rising 7,000 feet above 

the sea, or 2,500 feet above the plain, are mostly made of limestone 

of Carboniferous age or older. They contain also younger rocks, 

but all the beds are so tilted and broken up that their relations are 

difficult to determine. Some of the mountains are included in the 

areas of phosphate land withdrawn, for high-grade phosphate rock has 

been found here by members of the United States Geological Survey.

The belt of irrigated land on the west side of Snake River at Firth 

is very narrow, owing to the fact that'the "lavas" are close to the 

river. By this term is meant the area in which black lava, crumpled 

into low ridges, makes a rough surface with very little soil. Many 

of the ridges are cracked open along their axes as a result of internal 

movement after the surface of the lava had cooled. These cracked 

folds are called pressure ridges. The soil on the "lavas" is too poor 

and thin to be cultivated, and is used only for pasturage. Farther 

downstream the "lavas" recede from the river bank, and irrigation 

projects 1 have made great tracts of desert available for settlement.

1 Water is diverted from Snake River 

at the Minidoka dam, 80 miles below 

Blackfoot, and at the Milner dam, 35 

miles farther west. Jackson Lake, in 

Wyoming, just south of Yellowstone Park, 

has been made into a great reservoir in 

which 380,000 acre-feet of water, or 

enough to cover 380,000 acres to a depth 

of 1 foot, is now stored by the United 

States Reclamation Service for use on the 

Minidoka project. During 1914 work was 

in progress of raising the dam at the outlet of the lake to such an extent as to make 

it possible to store 780,000 acre-feet. 

The expense of this new work is being,, 

borne by the North and South Side Twin 

Falls projects, and the additional water 

obtained will be used on these projects.

The Minidoka project includes 117,090 

acres and during 1913 81,518 acres was

actually watered. The principal crops 

raised here are alfalfa, grain, wheat, 

oats, barley, potatoes, sugar beets, miscellaneous hay crops, and fruit chiefly apples. Stock raising and dairying are 

thriving industries.

At the Milner dam water is diverted for 

irrigating lands included in the North and 

South Side Twin Falls projects. The 

exact area to be irrigated has not been 

definitely determined but will be about 

400,000 acres. During 1913 about 150,000 

acres lying within the South Side tract 

was watered and in cultivation. The land 

is used for alfalfa, wheat, oats, pasture, 

apples, potatoes, and peas. Sheep and 

hog raising are profitable industries. The 

crops raised on the North Side tract are 

similar.
OREGON SHORT LINE- OGDEN TO YELLOWSTONE. 133

Shelley.

Elevation 4,619 feet. 

Population 537. 

Ogden 175 miles.

Two miles north of Monroe siding and 1£ miles east of the track

there is a low sandy hill, on the top of which is the reservoir in which

the water supply of Shelley, pumped from a deep

Monroe. well, is stored. This hill is basalt partly mantled

Elevation 4,605 feet. with drifted sand. Northeast of it there is a series

of moving sand dunes extending for about 8 miles in

the direction of the prevailing winds.

Shelley is the trading point for several small settlements away 

from the railroad and is the center of an irrigation 

district which has been brought to a high grade of 

cultivation.1 A hydroelectric plant on Snake River, 

2 miles north of Shelley, develops about 8,000 horsepower for use in this part of the valley.

West of Shelley the three buttes previously described are plainly 

visible far out on the Snake River lava plain. East Butte (PI. 

XXX, B, p. 112) appears to have two sharp peaks between which 

there is a saddle-shaped depression. Big Butte has a less pronounced 

sag top, and Middle Butte shows a gentle south slope and steep 

north slope, which indicate that it is hot a volcano. To the northeast, beyond the first low range of lava hills, is the crest of the 

Caribou Range. In very clear weather one can see more than 70 

miles away a snowy peak coming into view over the crest of this range. 

This is Grand Teton, 13,747 feet high, the culminating peak of the 

range lying west of Jackson Hole and the largest of the three peaks 

which have been known as the Tetons or the Pilot Knobs since the 

members of the Astor expedition first saw them in 1811. (See p. 1.7.) 

At Cotton, a railroad siding 3 miles south of Idaho Falls, named 

for the owner of an adjoining ranch, an electric-power house may be 

seen on the bank of Snake River. Just north of Bach, 

another siding 1£ miles south of Idaho Falls, is a 

grove in Tautphaus Park. This is the local fair 

ground, where the annual War Bonnet round-up is held. 

Every September for five days Idaho Falls is thronged with visitors. 

They come to see cowboys and Indians with their race horses, bucking 

horses, and wild steers gathered here to amuse the crowd and to contest for prizes in feats of skill in. riding and rope throwing. The War 

Bonnet round-up is to Idaho what Frontier Day at Cheyenne is to 

Wyoming and the round-up at Pendleton is to Oregon.

Cotton.

Elevation 4,661 feet. 

Ogdoii 179 miles.

1 The variety of products of this type of 

laud is shown by the freight shipments 

made from Shelley from July 1, 1913, to 

June 30, 1914. According to the statement of P. J. Bennett, a notary public in

Shelley, the shipments, in carloads, were: 

Wheat, 49; oats, 34; potatoes, 937; beets, 

722; live stock, 104; mill stuff, 37; hay, 25; 

apples, 6; miscellaneous, 31; total, 1,945 

carloads, or more than 74,000,000 pounds.
134 GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES.

The city of Idaho Falls has a significant name and its site has had

an interesting history. Shake River 1 here falls over the edge of a

lava flow, and the incessant wear of the running

Idaho Falls. water has cut the falls back into the lava sheet fully

Elevation 4,708 feet. j^^f a m^e an(j they are now a^ the head of a narrow

Population 4,827. ,, , . , , i i

ogden 184 miles. canyon, the walls oi which are at one point barely 

50 feet apart. Here a toll bridge was built in 1866, 

and the toll money collected from the freighters over the UtahMontana trail started a store and the store started a town. The town 

was called Eagle Rock, because for many years an eagle had a nest on 

the large rock in the stream just above the bridge. The name was 

changed to Idaho Falls a few years ago. Snake River forms the west 

boundary of the city, and the falls, the eagle rock, and the site of the 

original bridge are only three blocks west of the railroad.

Steel was laid on the main line north from Idaho Falls in 1879, and 

the railroad was completed to Silverbow, 6 miles from Butte, Mont., 

in 1881. The .branch line to Yellowstone was completed in 1906. 

In 1914 a loop around the valley was being built from Idaho Falls 

northeastward to cross Snake' River (South Fork) below Heise Hot 

Springs and thence go north to St. Anthony.

Idaho Falls owes its prosperity to the large quantities of farm 

products raised in its vicinity and is the most important shipping 

point between Ogden and Butte. Practically all the land in this part 

of the valley is in a high state, of cultivation under irrigating ditches. 

The average yield of gram to the acre in the upper Snake River valley, 

on irrigated and dry land taken together, is estimated to be as follows: 

Wheat, 40 bushels; oats, 70 to 75 bushels; potatoes, 200 bushels; and 

beets, 14 tons. These averages are far below what the successful 

rancher gets, for oats on irrigated land make from 50 to 120 bushels 

an acre and weigh from 40 to 44 pounds to the bushel. Two hundred 

bushels of potatoes is a light yield, 200 sacks or 400 bushels a good 

yield, and it is reported that as high as 700 bushels an'acre have been 

raised in one 20-acre tract. In 1913 the district between Blackfoot 

and St. Anthony shipped 5,000 cars of potatoes, Idaho Falls alone 

being the shipping point for 2,500 cars. Potato bugs are as yetunknown in this region. Wheat on irrigated land yields from 40 to 

60 bushels, weighing from 60 to 63 pounds to the bushel. It is reported that one tract of 720 acres averaged 38 bushels an acre in 1913, 

and as much as 70 to 75 bushels an acre has been produced in 10-acre 

tracts. It is said that almost no commercial fertilizer is shipped to 

this country. Crop rotation is practiced. When oat fields fail to 

yield 85 bushels an acre, some ranchers sow them with alfalfa or 

clover for a few years. Seed peas and beans for planting kitchen 

gardens from Maine to California are grown in the upper Snake River

1 The mean discharge of Snake River at Idaho Falls from 1890 to 1892, inclusive, 

was 10,300 cubic feet a second.
OREGON" SHORT LINE OGDEN TO YELLOWSTONE. 135

valley, and a seed-cleaning mill stands near the Idaho Falls station. 

Raw land with water right sold in 1914 for $40 to $60 an acre, and 

improved land brought $65 to $160 an acre, depending on the improvements, the lay of the land, and the location.

Red Duroc Jersey hogs are favorite money makers in this region, 

and sheep and cattle are ranged in the mountains in summer and 

pastured at the valley ranches in winter. The honeybee is respected 

and encouraged to greater industry. One man in this vicinity has 

600 colonies of bees and keeps 4 tons of honey for their winter feed. 

Another bee keeper in the valley has 3,000 colonies. A factory at 

Idaho Falls extracts, stores, and ships hundreds of tons of alfalfa and 

sweet-clover honey every year.

A round stone tower (used as a tool house), which stands on the 

lawn at the north end of .the Idaho Falls station shows the fitness of 

the local lavas, rhyolite and basalt, for use as building stone.

Soon after leaving the city 1 the train passes the first beet-sugar 

factory built in Idaho. It was erected in 1903 at a cost of a million 

dollars and has added much to the growth of Idaho-Falls. Lincoln, 

a settlement of 300 people around the sugar factory, is reached by a 

branch line.

St. Leon is a siding at the crossing of Willow Creek. Far to the

east, if the air is clear, two of the three Teton peaks are visible,

and on the west, 12 miles from Idaho Falls, there

is a low, broad, slightly sag-topped cinder cone,

ogden 189 miles. which holds a bowl-shaped depression about a quarter

,of a mile in diameter. Near this cone in 1914 there was a single

tract of about 2,000^ acres of dry-farm wheat.

The sagebrush plain just north of TTcon suggests what the whole 

valley once was, and the fertile fields already passed show what can 

be done by irrigation. Very little of the soil of the 

Snake River plain is derived from the basalt on which 

mnL***' it nes- There is an abrupt change from the soil to the 

lava, and the exposed surface of the lava shows practically no trace of disintegration. The soil near the rivers, on their 

present or former flood plains, is largely river deposit, and that near 

the mountains is mountain waste, but the fine soil that covers the 

plains at a distance from the mountains' is mainly wind-blown dust, 

which has accumulated gradually in the centuries since the basalt 

was poured out The sources of the dust are the naked cliffs in 

the mountains, talus slopes, stream deposits on the margin of the 

plains, and volcanic ashes. The Market Lake Craters (see p. 137), 

truncated volcanic cones 10 miles northwest of the track, and other 

volcanoes of that type threw out large quantities of volcanic dust. A 

vigorous growth of sagebrush attests the good quality of the soil.

1 Mileposts north, of Idaho Falls give the distance from this junction.
136 GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES.

Near Ucon, as elsewhere in the valley, all trees except those along 

Snake River have been planted by the settlers. The main highway 

from Idaho Falls to Yellowstone Park parallels the railroad for several 

miles, but farther north it follows section lines, making the distance 

between towns by the highway somewhat greater than the railroad 

mileage.

North of Ucon the summit of the third and lowest of the three 

Teton peaks comes into view; farther north, at Ashton, they come 

into full view. The Teton Mountains were named from an Indian 

tribe. In "Astoria," Washington Irving's entertaining description of 

John Jacob Astor's expedition which crossed this country in 1811 on 

its way to establish a trading post at the mouth of the Columbia, there 

is the following reference to these mountains:

September 15 one of the guides pointed to three mountain peaks glistening with 

imow, which rose, he said, above a fork of Columbia River. These remarkable peaks 

are known to some travelers as the Tetons; as they had been guiding points for many 

days to Mr. Hunt, he gave them the name of the Pilot Knobs.

The Astor party came into Idaho near Victor, the present terminus 

of a branch of the Oregon Short Line at the west foot of the Tetons, 

and followed down the valley of Teton River, reaching Henrys 

(North) Fork of Snake River near the present site of St. Anthony, 

where there was then a "fort" established by Mr. Henry, of the 

Missouri Fur Co. At the fort they built canoes and started down 

Snake River. The next day they reached some falls about 30 feet 

Mgh, took another day to portage around them, and then pursued 

their journey southward from the present site of Idaho Falls. They 

soon found the river unnavigable, had to abandon their canoes and 

strike across country, and endured terrible privations the following 

 winter, the account of which is told in thrilling narrative by Irving.

A branch railroad running northwest from Ucon passes through 

Menan, 2 miles south of the Market Lake Craters.

Rigby is the largest town in the east end of Jefferson County and 

is the trading and shipping point for an agricultural district having a 

population of several thousand. It was organized in 

1886 by the Mormon apostle John W. Taylor, from 

Elevation 4,851 feet. Utah, and William F. Rigby, of the local church

Population 555. . . rr> v

Ogden 198miles. authorities. 'A post office was established in 1888, 

and the railroad came in 1899. Within 15 or 20 

miles above Rigby, on Snake River, are the headgates of a Hozen or 

more canals in one stretch of the river a canal every three-quarters of 

a mile. These canals, when full, carry every minute enough water to 

flood 8£ acres to a depth of more than 1 foot. This great system of 

canals was built not by the Government or by promoters, but by the 

ranchers whose land they irrigate. The first canals were built between
OREGON SHORT LINE OGDEN TO YELLOWSTONE. 137.

1879 and 1884, when settlement began in this section. Potatoes are 

the leading crop near Rigby and a common yield is 300 bushels an 

acre. Under especially favorable conditions of soil treatment 700 

bushels are said to have been taken from. 1 acre. Wheat is reported 

to average about 45 bushels an acre, oats 65 bushels an acre, and beets 

20 tons an acre.

Heise Hot Springs, 11 miles east of Rigby, is a resort on the north 

bank of Snake River (South Fork), at the foot of the wall formed by 

rhyolite tilted and overlain by horizontal younger lava flows. A log 

hotel that will accommodate about 150 guests and a bathhouse with 

two concrete pools have been built at hot springs which issue from the 

bank of the river. The springs have temperatures of 126° to 140° 

Fahrenheit. The water smells of sulphur and is strongly mineralized. 

Bathing in it is said to relieve rheumatism. Fishing is popular at 

this resort in summer and elk hunting in winter.

For a number of miles north of Rigby the railroad crosses a deltalike deposit built by Snake River. The stream brings great quantities of sediment down from the mountains, and here, on the Snake 

River plain, where the grade o'f the stream is decreased and its 

velocity is slackened, much of its load has been dropped. As a result, 

a low, broad fan has been built up, across which the river now flows in 

a number of channels. Henrys Fork joins Snake River at the base of 

the two craters seen a few miles to the west.

Between Rigby and Lorenzo the railroad crosses the "dry bed" of 

Snake River. This was formerly the main watercourse, but in 1894 

the current shifted to the channel it now occupies, north of Lorenzo. 

At times there is water in the old channel, as part of its upper course 

is used as an irrigating canal.

The beet-loading platform at Lorenzo indicates one of the principal 

crops in this vicinity. Just after passing the station the train crosses 

the main channel of Snake River, which at this point, 

is 500 feet wide.1

The Market Lake Craters, 4 miles west of Lorenzo, 

are two low buttes, broad of base, with gently sloping 

sides and broad tops, rising 500 to 600 feet above the 

surrounding plain. Each, butte has an oval base measuring about 

1 by 2 miles, and each has a well-defined crater in its summit about 

half a mile in diameter and 150 to 200 feet deep. The beds of ejected 

material slope away in all directions at sharp angles around the rims

Lorenzo.

Elevation 4,866 foot. 

Population 379.* 

Ogdon 202 miles.

1 The discharge of Snake River at Heise 

Hot Springs, about 10 miles above this 

bridge, in 1910-1913, averaged 8,920 cubic 

feet a second. The maximum and minimum recorded discharges are 36,000 and 

2,310 cubic feet a second.

The river passes through several canyons where dam sites could be found. 

The fall between Jackson Lake and 

Henrys Fork is about 2,000 feet. A largo 

amount of potential power therefore exists 

along this stretch of Snake River.
138 GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES.

of the craters and flatten toward the base, where they become nearly 

horizontal. Within the crater rim the beds slope toward the center. 

Sand and gravel contained in the strata of which the craters are built 

indicate that these volcanoes were upheaved somewhat explosively 

through an old river or lake deposit. There is npthing to show that 

either cone poured out a lava stream. Material brought into the 

craters by rain wash and wind has given fairly level floors to the 

broad bowl-shaped depressions. The two cones are supposed to be 

of about the same age and are moderately recent. The name was 

derived from their proximity to Market Lake, a former shallow body 

of water so called because ducks congregated on it in such numbers 

that hunters went there regularly for a supply of meat.

A black volcanic tuff, an open-structured rock made of partly 

cemented fragments and dust produced by volcanic explosions, is 

used for building in the vicinity of Rigby and Rexburg. This rock is 

quarried on the bank of Snake River at the base of the Market Lake 

Craters. Houses are built also of the pink rhyolitic lava which occurs 

abundantly in the hills at the east edge of the Snake River plain.

After crossing Snake River the train goes through a grove of native 

cottonwoods along the channels of the river. This is the only natural 

grove on the railroad between Ogden and the Targhee National 

Forest, north of Ashton.

A mile or two east of Thorn ton a bluff rises abruptly 100 feet or

more to a bench. The foot of this bluff is the boundary between the

rhyolite that forms the low hills to the east and the

Thornton. basalt that makes the floor of the Snake River plain.

Elevation 4,869 feet. The relative ages of the two rocks are indicated by

gen m . the fact that, the rhyolite is deeply weathered and in

places its beds are disturbed from their original nearly horizontal

attitude, while the basalt is unweathered and its horizontal beds

.abut against or overlap the older rhyolite.

Several miles to the west there is a low-lying light-colored band of 

sand dunes with a group of hills at its north end.

From Winder, a siding and beet-loading platform, a clear view may

be had of the Market Lake Craters. Concrete tile for culverts is made

here from sand and gravel dug beside the track.

Winder. Near Rexburg the train crosses a large irrigating

ditch > the Water for which is taken fr°m Tet°n Rivei>-

Ricks Academy, a Mormon school, stands near the 

edge of the town. The numerous Mormon schools and churches in 

this region attest the fact that eastern Idaho' was settled with the 

overflow population from Utah. In the late seventies and early 

eighties the fertile spots of northeastern Utah were already occupied 

and the stream of emigrants moved northward into Idaho.
BULLETIN 612 SHEET No. 15

GEOLOGIC AND TOPOGEAPHIC MAP

OF THE

YELLOWSTONE PARK ROUTE

From Ogden, Utah, to the Yellowstone National Park

Base compiled from railroad alignments and profiles supplied 

t>y the Oregon Short Line .Railroad Company and from additional 

information collected with the assistance of this company

UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY

GEORGE OTIS SMITH. DIRECTOR 

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

1915

EXPLANATION 

Loose surface materials 

A Sand dunes , "1

/ ' ! 

Rhyolitfe/

Volcanic sand } 

Stream deposits (alluvium)!

Underlying rocks

Tuft (beds of volcanic 

fragments)

G Sandstone, shale, limestone, conglomerate, and volcanic ash, 

all poorly consolidated

Scale 500.000

Approximately 8 miles to 1 inch 

5 10 is

Contour interval 200 feet

ELEVATIONS IN FEET ABOVE MEAN SEA LEVEL

he distances from Ogden, Uteh, are shown every 10 miles 

The crosstles or, the railroads are spaced 1 mile apart -.fy^
OREGON SHORT LINE OGDEN TO YELLOWSTONE. 139

Rexburg.

Elevation 4,866 feet. 

Population 1,893. 

Ogden 210 miles.

Sugar City.

Elevation 4,890 feet. 

Population 391. 

Ogden 214 miles.

Rexburg (see sheet 15D, p'. 148) was founded in 1883 by Thomas 

Ricks, and the present name is a corruption of Ricksburg. Up to 

1896 Rexburg was composed mostly of one-story dirtroofed houses, but it is now a prosperous and wellappointed village, the county seat of .Madison County, 

and the center of an irrigated agricultural district 

where crops never fail. Seed peas constitute one of 

the important crops. The produce forwarded from Rexburg in the 

15 months between January lr 1913, and April 1, 1914, was: Grain, 

679 cars; flour, 256 cars; sugar beets, 226 cars; livestock, 190 cars; 

miscellaneous, 92 cars; total, 1,443 cars. Rexburg station is built 

of the local rhyolite or pink lava. Soon after leaving Rexburg the 

train crosses Teton River,* which drams Teton Basin and the west 

flank of the Teton Mountains.

Sugar City is a settlement around a beet-sugar factory which was 

built in 1904 at a cost of $750,000. This factory 

contracts for the beets from about 7,000. acres and 

pays $5 a ton for them. A branch of the railroad 

runs west from Sugar City to Piano, tapping the 

lower end of the Egin bench, a celebrated and prosperous farming district on the west side of Henrys Fork.

Four miles northeast of Sugar City is Teton City, a village of a 

few hundred people on the bank of Teton River, in the midst of 

grain and pea ranches. This settlement also was founded by Mormons, in 1883. The gently sloping hills from Teton City east to 

Canyon Creek are made up of rhyolite interbedded with a few thin 

layers of hard .black basalt. The alternate layers of two different 

kinds of lava in these hills show that in the time of volcanic activity 

in this part of the country thick flows of rhyolite were succeeded 

by lesser flows of black lava. That the flows were separated by 

lapses 'of considerable time is shown by the presence of layers of 

soil between them. In a deep well hole sunk in the lava several 

miles east of Teton City the drill passed through a number of layers 

of soil between beds of basalt and rhyolite. One bed of soil was 

encountered at a depth of 400 feet.

A few miles north of Sugar City is a railroad siding known as 

Wilford. St. Anthony, the county seat of Fremont County, is 

hidden in the trees ahead. The building with a white dome" seen 

on the left on entering the town is the county courthouse, and the 

large gray building just beyond the station is a Mormon temple.

1 At the mouth of its canyon, a few miles 

east, Teton River has a mean discharge of 

about 900 second-feet. The maximum

and minimum discharges recorded are 

7,620and 88 second-feet. There isa small 

hydroelectric power plant on this stream.
140 GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES,

The location of St. Anthony, like that of Idaho Falls, was determined by the fact that the river has here cut a narrow canyon 

through basalt, with walls so close together that a 

St. Anthony. bridge was easily built. Previous to 1893 this place 

Elevation4,969 feet. included only "jack rabbits, lava rock, and Old Man

Population 1,238. ,, _. \, \, i i \ n Ogden 221 miles. Moon. C. H. Moon, the onguial settler, came here 

in 1887, built the first bridge and store, and called 

the place St. Anthony because of its fancied resemblance to St. 

Anthonys Falls, Minn. The river in .the canyon has -a, fall of about 

30 feet, and the walls at the highway bridge are barely 50 feet apart. 

Immediately below the bridge the river spreads out to an extreme 

width of 800 feet.

In the spring of 1893, when St. Anthony was made the county 

seat of Fremont County, the settlement consisted of three log cabins 

and one two-story log store building. The population increased 

rapidly from that date and now numbers about 2,000 persons. St. 

Anthony has two large schoolhouses, one of which cost $60,000, a 

$70,000 courthouse, an opera house, a large flouring mill, grain 

elevators, three banks, and a city water system supplied by pumping 

with electric power generated by Snake River.

One of the principal industries in the immediate vicinity of St. 

Anthony is the raising of seed peas. In 1913 there were 26,000 

acres of seed peas in Fremont County. They are grown here extensively because the soil and climate are favorable, and under irrigation they yield heavily. There are nine seed warehouses in St. 

Anthony. The shipments from St. Anthony for the year 1913 

were 396 cars of peas, 470 cars of oats, 259 cars of wheat, 10 cars 

of barley, 50 cars of potatoes, 106 cars of merchandise, 121 cars 

of stock, 52 cars miscellaneous; total, 1,464 cars. Thousands of 

head of stock are wintered in this vicinity each year after summering 

in the mountains.

As the train leaves the station a glimpse is had of Henrys Fork of 

Snake River. Twelve .miles west of St. Anthony a group of hills 

known as the Sandhill Mountains rise about 1,000 feet above the 

plain. From a distance they appear to be two lines of hills with 

nearly parallel tops, but on entering the gap between these lines of 

hills one finds a cultivated valley surrounded on three sides by a 

ridge, the crest of which has rudely the outline of a mule shoe. The 

lava that caps this ridge slopes away on all sides from the central 

valley. This group of hills apparently is the broken-down remnant 

of an old crater. A great mass of yellow sand, drifted in from the 

southwest, is lodged in the north side of the crater.

Sand dunes 8 to 10 miles west of St. Anthony are plainly visible 

from the train. They consist of fine sand, which is drifting north-
OREGON SHORT LINE OGDEN TO YELLOWSTONE. 141

Chester.

eastward, and they cover several square miles. Most of the moving 

dunes are not more than 50 feet high, and between some of them the 

barren basalt bedrock is exposed. A well in the midst of these dunes 

is the source of drinking water for ranchers in the sand hills above.

A short distance north of .St. Anthony there is a siding known as 

Twin Grove. To the west black basalt can be seen along Henrys 

Fork, and there is a broad view beyond the Sandhill Mountains, showing the uneven surface of the lavas in the distance.

Before reaching Chester the train passes through a small cut in 

basalt'and the plain on the east is seen to be less smooth, owing to the 

thinness of the soil on the irregular surface of the underlying black lava. The low and gently sloping hills 

Elevation 5,073 feet, beyond are underlain by rhyolite. Far to the north 

Ogclen 227 miles. ^ the flaUopped ridge wmch forms tne front of ^

great elevated volcanic province around Yellowstone Park and which 

terminates the Snake River plain. Chester is the site of a grain elevator and a few houses. Where the railroad crosses Fall River 1- 

there are exposures of basalt in the banks and bed of the stream.

After crossing Fall River the railroad leaves the flat floor of the 

Snake River plain and heads directly for Ashton over a slightly rolling 

surface of basalt which is exposed in the railroad cuts. The porous, 

cellular, or vesicular character of this black rock can be seen from the 

train. The cavities were developed by expansion of gases (probably 

for the most part steam) contained in the molten rock and are a 

common characteristic of the Snake River lava.

Practically all the cultivated land 'hereabouts is in gram, and four 

grain elevators at Ashton are seen directly ahead. Ashton, which 

was started in 1906 when the railroad reached this, 

point, was named for the original owner of the town 

site. The water supply is pumped from a deep well,, 

and electricity is brought from a hydroelectric plant 

on Snake River. Ashton is an outfitting point for 

the fishing and hunting grounds to the north and east and for camp-, 

ing parties bound for Yellowstone Park.

The view of the Teton peaks from Ashton (fig. 15) is superb and. 

doubtless has been the inducement for many a tourist and sportsman, 

to leave the main line for the Teton Range and the Jackson Hole, 

country in pursuit of elk, sheep, trout, and unsurpassed mountain 

scenery. Owen Wister's "Virginian" was glad to get out of these, 

mountains because, as he explained, "They're most too big."

Ashton.

Elevation 5,256 feet. 

Population 502. 

Ogden 235 miles.

1 The following measurements of Fall 

River were made about 12 miles above 

the railroad bridge in 1904-1909: Maximum discharge, 4,160 cubic feet a second;

minimum, 168; mean, 800. No information is available concerning power sites. 

Water from the river ia used for irrigation^ 

but to what extent is not known.
142 GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES.

The average American, who has only a vague conception of the 

natural beauties of the Rocky Mountains and imagines that real 

alpine forms are found only in Switzerland, must be surprised when 

he first sees the lofty peaks of the Tetons. Even a man who has 

climbed the Matterhorn would hesitate before daring to try Grand 

Teton. According to local report, this peak has been ascended only 

twice, in 1872 and 1894. As the snow-clad mountains along the 

Alaskan Archipelago, rising to cloud-reaching heights, stand with their 

feet bathed in the ocean, so from a viewpoint near Ashton the Tetons, 

towering to the sky, rise from the billowy surface of a sea of golden 

grain. The people who live within the shadow of these mighty 

peaks soon look to them only as barometers of to-morrow's weather; 

they no longer see the grandeur that thrills the traveler, heartens the 

hunter, and inspires the artist.

'S^m.^ow^ai^iS!^.-^-

FIGUBE 15. The Three Tetons, looking east.

Ashton is the junction point of the Victor branch of the Oregon 

Short Line,.which was built to Teton Basin in 1912. On this branch 

1% miles from Ashton is MarysviUe, a small rural settlement that can 

be recognized from a distance by its grain elevator. From MarysviUe to Jenkins all the railroad cuts appear to be in glacial material, 

and probably .a glacier heading in the Teton Mountains once extended 

nearly to Ashton. The canyons of Fall River and Squirrel and 

Bitch creeks, which the branch line crosses on high trestles, are cut 

in rhyolite. It was along Bitch Creek that the "Virginian" iclled 

and fished on the day after Steve and Ed, the horse thieves, paid the 

penalty. Drummond, Driggs, Tetonia, and Victor are the main settlements on the branch. Victor, the terminus, is a small village 46 

miles from Ashton, from which the mail stage road climbs over the 

Teton Range to Jackson Hole. There is a trail over the range from 

Driggs also. On the west side of the Teton Basin, near Victor, is the
OREGON SHORT LINE OGDEN TO YELLOWSTONE. 143

Horseshoe Creek coal district, which contams several beds of excellent 

bituminous coal of Cretaceous age.1

North of Ashton fields of grain slope gently to the river. Here the 

Snake River plain ends and the train enters a region of wooded hills. 

The upland against which the great plain terminates is the edge of 

the Yellowstone Park plateau, an elevated area of volcanic origin. 

In geologically recent tune (Eocene and Neocene epochs) volcanoes 

on the east, north, and west of the park poured out enormous volumes of molten rock. Flows of rhyolitic lava filled the depressed 

basin between the encircling mountains and moved down the outer 

slopes to a considerable distance. It is the outer edge of these lava 

flows that the train crosses on entering the shallow rock-ribbed canyon of Henrys Fork. Here outcrops of rhyolite are seen close to the 

track for the first time on this line. From the entrance of this canyon to the end of the railroad the route is across lavas which are 

older than the basalt underlying the Snake River plain. Rhyolite 

is the predominant rock in Warm River canyon and on the Continental Divide, but basalt, which is interbedded with the rhyolite, and 

is much more resistant to weathering and erosion, underlies the mesas 

and caps the canyon cliffs.

In the canyon of Henrys Fork rounded outcrops of rhyolite stick 

their heads above the river and form the lower part of the vertical 

walls. Basalt makes the rim of the canyon, and its columnar jointing and cellular character may be seen from the train. The trees 

are Douglas fir, outliers of the Targhee National Forest, within whose 

boundaries the route continues to Reas Pass.

Warm River station is at the junction of Warm River and Henrys 

Fork. The few settlers whose homes are along the valley bottoms 

cultivate the benches above the canyon rim. Warm 

River is so called because it has a warmer temperature than that of other waters in the region. This 

immediate vicinity fits the description of the country 

where Owen Wister's "Virginian" caught and hung 

the horse thieves. That job was done west of the Tetons and a day's 

ride from Bitch Creek.

Here the railroad leaves Henrys Fork and follows the canyon of 

Warm River through the wildest scenery on the entire route from

Warm River.

Elevation 5,284 feet. 

Population 146.* 

Ogden 242 miles.

1 The coal beds are irregular- in thickness and extent, are displaced by numerous faults, and.dip at steep angles. The 

Government geologist who examined the 

field concluded that the coal beds are 

thick enough to be mined profitably if 

they were horizontal; but the steep dip

and the breaks in the continuity of the 

beds render mining expensive, difficult, 

arid uncertain. The district can supply 

a local domestic trade for a long time, but 

can not be reckoned as a factor in the 

great coal industry of the Rocky Mountain region.
144 GUIDEBOOK OP THE WESTERN UNITED STATES.

Ogden to YeHowstone. The first bridge above the station crosses 

Robinson Creek.1

Just beyond this bridge the train crosses Warm River and begins 

to ascend along its west bank. The grade of the track is greater than 

that of the stream, so the train is soon well above the dashing, tumbling, noisy brook. From this place to Mesa the angler will mentally 

choose his flies and long for a chance at the trout that must be hidden 

in those pools and rapids. Little will he care that the roadbed is a 

niche cut in rhyolite and that there is a small fault marked by little 

springs in opalescent-colored lava just below milepost 62. Immedi- 

'ately at the milepost the rhyolite is turned on edge, crushed, and clay 

streaked, but the beds .at the top of the cut are horizontal, showing 

that there was considerable disturbance and faulting before the later 

lava flow. The dashing mountain stream, tumbling and jumping 

over bowlders, makes a more vivid appeal to the traveler than the 

evidences of that stream's ancient history, which is recorded in the 

thick beds of finely sorted sand and the thin beds of gravel exposed 

above and below the tracks at milepost 63. This material was deposited in ponded water after the river had cut its channel nearly, to 

the present depth. To the question, What and where was the dam 

that made a pond 100 feet deep in this canyon ? the geologist has not 

yet found an answer.

Near milepost 63 a 561-foot tunnel is to be driven to avoid the 

danger from the scaling off of rocks in the points around which the 

track now winds. A short distance beyond the trestle, at milepost 

66, the train leaves the canyon and comes out on a flat surface underlain by basalt.

Mesa is a siding and Y in a natural park in the forest. The principal timber seen here is Douglas fir. From Mesa the serrate crest of

the Teton Range is again in view,- and a mile or two

esa' away on the right is the front of a great sheet of lava,

now covered with grass and trees, rising 500 feet above 

the flat.

About 4 miles southwest of Mesa Henrys Fork plunges over a 

precipice 96 feet high with a sheer drop, and a mile below there is

1 The discharge of all three streams has been gaged near this station with the following results, expressed in second-feet (cubic feet a second):

Henrys Fork, 1910-1913 ..............................................

Warm River, 1912-13. ...............................................

Robinson Creek, 1912-13 ....................... ^....... ..............

Maximum.

3,300

900

1,140

 Minimum.

705

192

53

Mean.

1,260

295

180

There are no existing power developments on Warm River and Robinson Creek, 

and the water of these streams is not used to any great extent for irrigation.
U. 8. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY BULLETIN 612 PLATE XXXII

UPPER FALLS, HENRYS FORK OF SNAKE RIVER.
LOWER FALLS, HENRYS FORK OF 
OREGON SHORT LINE OGDEN TO YELLOWSTONE. . 145

another fall of about 70 feet. (See Pis. XXXII and XXXIII.) 

The river between these two falls flows rapidly in a canyon about 

250 feet deep. The land in the vicinity is now owned by a Montana 

electric company, which contemplates building a dam 2 miles above 

the upper fall and carrying the 'water to a power house below the 

lower fall, thereby getting a drop of about 450 feet with a force 

sufficient to develop 40,000 horsepower.

About a mile north of Mesa, east of the track, there is a beaver 

pond, recognizable by dead trees standing in a marsh. From Mesa 

to Fishatch the railroad runs in a lane hewn through the forest and 

there is little to be seen. All the rock exposed is dark porous basalt. 

The low ridges through which railroad cuts have been made to depths 

of 6 to 10 feet for example, that just north of milepost 70 show 

either arched structure or a roof -like form cracked along the top. 

These are called pressure ridges and seem to have been produced by 

an internal movement in the lava after the surface had hardened 

and become more or less rigid.

A State fish hatchery built in 1908 is located at the station called

Fishatch, on the bank of Warm River. The main building is a log

structure 40 by 80 feet, equipped with 56 hatching

Fishatch. troughs. These troughs are supplied with water

Elevation 6,119 feet, from' Warm River, which passes under the railroad

Ogden 257 miles. , . . . / , , ,

at this point in a concrete culvert. The hatchery 

breeds trout exclusively, including rainbow, eastern brook, and 

native trout. The hatchery has a capacity of 3,000,000 fry annually. 

Beef liver, ground very fine, is the principal food of trout fry. 

Within the Sta-te reservation of 1,280 acres there are large springs 

of fresh water with a temperature of 42°, which supply the spawning 

pond and several concrete rearing ponds. Black and brown bear 

and moose are hunted successfully in this vicinity.

For half a mile north of 'Fishatch the view from the rear of the train 

shows the distant snowy Teton peaks framed in a lane through the 

evergreen forest. On the west, at milepost 75, an old beaver dam, 

now grown up with willows, is seen in the ponded Warm River close 

to the track. Fishing for native and eastern bro'ok trout is said to be 

good here..

At milepost 78 the train enters the lower end of the Island Park

country. Here are pits from which sand is taken by steam shovel for

railroad ballast. Island Park is an open sagebrush

Island Park. tract several square miles in area, surrounded by a

Elevation 6,2w foot. SOH^ wall of lodgepole pine with a border of aspen.

mies. r^s Droac[ flat, is underlain by sand and fine gravel,

composed largely of disintegrated volcanic rocks with a considerable

percentage of black volcanic glass or obsidian. . This mixed material

92213° Bull. 612 15 10
146 GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES.

is either alluvium deposited by Henrys Fork on its wide valley 

floor or a lake deposit. It may have been laid,down in a lake 

caused by 'the ponding of the river by a glacier in the canyon below 

Mesa. An ice tongue or glacial dam in this canyon would have 

held the water back in a broad lake in which would have accumulated 

a deposit of sand and gravel such as is seen in the ballast pits. A low 

rise indicated by a slightly greater height of the tree tops about 3 miles west of Island Park is said to be an old volcanic crater. Mrs. 

E. H. Harriman has a large cattle ranch on the river 6 miles west.

At milepost 84 the railroad crosses Buffalo River, and a third of a 

mile north of the bridge there is a small cut in rhyolite, the first exposure of bedrock along the track north of Island Park. This stretch 

of straight track heads nearly into the gap below Henrys Lake. On 

the left of the gap is Sauttelle Peak, flat-topped and rising 10,123 feet 

above sea level, or 3,800 feet above the river. Three miles west of it 

is Bald Peak. The mountains east of the gap are called the Henrys 

Lake Mountains.

Trade is a siding for loading lumber and the station for Macks

Place and the fishing clubs on the river. Snow lies so deep here

in midwinter that the residents get about on snowirude. shoes or skis and by dog teams. North of Trude

rny°lite is seen in tne rock cuts- Smoothed rock 

surfaces and large rounded bowlders perched on nearby knolls indicate that this country once was covered by a glacier. 

At milepost 90 Henrys Fork of Snake River is seen on the west. 

The stream crossed at this point is formed by the discharge of Big 

Springs, which are half a mile east of the railroad and *j. C5 *

Big springs. are pga^gd by a Wag0n road that goes through a 

Elevation 6,409 feet. straight-cut lane in the forest to Big Spring Inn and

Ogden 275 miles. -i i r 

a fishing club house. Most of the water issues at two 

places about 300 yards apart, and at each'are several springs. The 

discharge of the two groups joins midway between them and at a 

bridge just below the junction.is 120 feet wide and 3 to 4 feet deep. 

A mile and a half north of Big Springs is a high wooded slope 

trending southeastward, the front of a great flat-topped mass of lava 

which came from Yellowstone Park. As the tram climbs .the mountain soon after leaving Big Springs, rhyolite is seen in the railroad 

cuts and bowlders of black glistening obsidian or volcanic glass 

strew the surface. These bowlders have come from ledges in the 

mountain side above the track.. Beyond milepost 93 there is a wide 

view over a timbered plateau and the alluvial flat of Henrys 

Fork. At the upper end of this'flat is Henrys Lake, which is not 

visible from the train. One of the railroad cuts near by yielded the 

material for building the station at Yellowstone.
OEEGON SHORT LIFE OGDEN TO YELLOWSTONE. 147

At Reas Pass the train stops to test the air brakes before descending the grade to Yellowstone Park. Here the route crosses the 

Continental Divide, going from the Pacific slope 

Reas Pass, Idaho. tQ ^ va]jey of a smali stream that flows into 

Elevation 6,938 feet. Madison River, thence to the Missouri, the MissisOgden 281 miles. ' '

sippi, and the Gulf of Mexico. Where the train enters 

a rock cut just beyond the railroad Y on which the helper engine turns 

before going back, a signboard marks the State line between Idaho 

and Montana. This board says that the boundary is 9 miles from 

Yellowstone and 6,914 feet above the sea. The rock in the cut at 

the divide is light-colored rhyolitic lava, but the ledges 100 feet 

above the track on the east are obsidian or volcanic glass. This 

black glass, which crumbles rather rapidly under the sudden and 

great changes of temperature common at this altitude, is the source 

of a large part of the sand that 'covers the broad flats below.

That glaciers once existed on the mountains around Reas Pass is 

shown by the ice-sculptured surface, by old glacial moraines, and by 

large bowlders which have evidently been transported by ice. Such 

bowlders may be seen as the tram "descends the north side of the 

mountain. The timber at Reas Pass is mostly a dense growth of 

young lodgepole pine, through which it is difficult to travel except by 

the opened roads and trails, because of the intricate network of fallen 

poles killed by fire.

The train runs slowly down the steep grade north of the pass' as it 

follows a small, rapid brook which to a fisherman's eye looks like 

good trout water. Light-colored rhyolite is exposed in the railroad 

cuts. Down a little valley, the train goes/ and the view reaches no 

farther than the wooded flat-topped mountains' near by. In fact, 

there is practically nothing to see but trees from this point to Yellowstone station. At milepost 105 the foot of the grade is reached, and 

from this point to Yellowstone the road bed is on the flat pine-covered 

surface of a wide alluvial deposit, made by Madison River when, it 

flowed over this part of its flood plain.

The sand carried by the river and spread on its flood plain is 

derived from the crumbling of volcanic rocks and owes its dark color 

to a considerable percentage of black volcanic glass. The forest here 

is practically ah1 young lodgepole pine, sometimes called jack pine.

As the traveler alights at YeUbwstone, the terminus of the railroad, 

his eye will turn from the attractive station, built of pink rhyolite,

to the four-horse stage coaches waiting for passen- Yellowstone, Mont. TT , ,. .-, , .-, . . .,, . gers. He may not notice that the engine is within

Elevation 6,669 feet. a few r0(js Of a ]me of blazed trees at the end of the 

station grounds, but those blazed trees are significant. 

They mark the boundary of Yellowstone National Park.
148 GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES.

OGDEN, UTAH, TO SAN FRANCISCO, GAL.

The railroad leaves Ogden (see sheet 15, p. 102) in a northwesterly 

direction and follows for a mile or more the old line of the Central 

Pacific Railway, which made a considerable detour around the north 

end of Great Salt Lake. At milepost 781 1 the present line diverges 

from the original route and, swinging gradually westward, turns 

directly away from the great mountain wall of the Wasatch Range. 

It is 15 miles from Ogden to the eastern shore of Great Salt Lake, 

and for 32 miles beyond this point the way lies directly across the 

lake to its western shore.

As the train goes toward the lake the view from the rear, or observation platform, is one of the finest panoramas of mountain scenery 

to be had from the railroad, especially if the light, and weather are 

favorable. Just back of Ogden appears an almost sheer mountain 

wall of dark and rugged ridges standing above the flat valley in the 

foreground. Such an abrupt face on one side is more or less typical 

of the Great Basin mountains and is- believed to be significant of 

the manner in which they hav» been formed. There is little doubt 

that these mountains have originated by fracture of the earth's 

crust and uplift along one side or settling along the o'ther side of the 

crack. In geologic terms, the mountains are upheaved fault blocks. 

Since the faulting the forces of erosion have more or less rounded 

and scored the original cliff or scarp made by the break. The deep 

notch across the range in the middle background is the canyon of 

Ogden River, which flows into Weber River a few miles below Ogden.

The railroad extends across the level lands that border the east 

side of Great Salt Lake. For several miles most of this land is cultivated and is richly productive after it has been "broken" that is, 

after it has been plowed and partly leached of its alkali salts by irrigation. The common crops are hay, grain, sugar beets, and vegetables. Tomatoes raised here are canned in considerable quantity. 

In certain favorable situations along the foot of the mountains 

peaches, apples, and other fruits are grown.

Near milepost 778 a line of steel towers of an electric-power transmission line crosses the railroad from north to south. This conveys 

current from large hydroelectric plants on Bear River, near Collinston, 20 miles north of the lake, straight across the meadow flats to 

Salt Lake City and beyond to the Bingham mines and to the smelter 

at Garfield.

1 Mileage along the route is marked by and bridges. The figures given represent

milepost boards on telegraph poles and distance from San Francisco and show the

numbers on semaphore signals, culverts, westbound traveler howfar he still must go.
BULLETIN 612 SHEET No. 15 D

GEOLOGIC AND TOPOGRAPHIC MAP

OF THE

YELLOW8TONE PAEK EOTJTE

From Ogden, Utah, to the Yellowstone National Park

Base compiled from railroad alignments and profiles supplied 

by the Oregon Short Line Kailroad Company and from additional 

information collected with the assistance of this company

UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY

GEOBGE OTIS SMITH, DIRKCTOK 

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

1915

IDAHO-MONTANA

Yel I owstone

£L 66 G9

EXPLANATION 

Loose surface materials 

A Sand dunes

B Stream deposits (alluvium) ^ Quaternary 

C Glacial deposits (moraines, etc. )j

Underlying rock

D Tuff (beds of volcanic )

£»n «« A.* *» \

fragments) 

E Basalt

Tertiary 

(Some of the

Rhyolitewith some layers 

of basalt

G Limestone, quartzite, shale, and Paleozoic 

sandstone

500.000 

Approximately 8 miles to 1 inch 

b 10 15

Contour interval 200 feet

ELEVATIONS IN FEET ABOVE MEAN SEA LEVEL

The distances from Omaha, Nebraska, are shown every 10 mile 

The crossties on the railroads are spaced 1 mile apart

Edm,bnd 

/

Pla'noB /
THE OVERLAND ROUTE OGDEN TO SAN FRANCISCO. 149

West Weber (see sheet 15, p. 102) is a farming community in the 

midst of a broad, gently sloping plain, where water for irrigation 

may be distributed by ditches almost anywhere. 

West Weber.Utah. Artesian wells bored along this side of the lake, to a 

Elevation 4,240 feet. depth of 300 or 400 feet, yield natural flows of pure, 

omaka i°oo6 miles. fresh water that has come down from the mountains 

in porous layers of rock that lie -underneath some 

relatively impervious layer. Along the east side of the lake this 

fresh water may even be tapped in wells put down through the salt 

water of the lake itself. Beyond West Weber the ground becomes 

more and more salty on the surface, and the cultivated lands diminish in area, the salty meadows or marshes being used for pasture. 

A few miles farther west the ground, during the dry season, is white 

with crusted salt.

Little Mountain, the name of a railroad siding at milepost 769, refers 

to the low, rounded terraced hill north of the track. The terraces here, 

as on the islands in Great Salt Lake and around Promontory Point, 

mark old shore lines of IJake Bonneville, described on pages 97-99. 

To the south, near the shore-of the lake, are the remains of evaporation vats, formerly used in the manufacture of salt by crystallization from the water of the lake. The industry of this place was 

ended by a general rise in the lake level during recent years (see 

fig. 11, p. 95), but large quantities of salt are still manufactured near 

Saltair, at the south end of the lake.

The building of the Lucin cut-off, completed in 1903, was an epochmaking event in railroad construction. By this great fill and trestle 

straight across Great Salt Lake the main-line route from Ogden to 

San Francisco was shortened about 44 miles and the steep and 

troublesome grades around the north end of the lake, including one 

climb of 680 feet to the old Promontory summit, were eliminated. 

The new line is level for 36 miles and the grade is almost inappreciable for 36 miles more, being nowhere over 21 feet to the mile, or 

less than 0.5 per cent.

The cut-off was constructed at first as a gravel fill across the shallow marginal portions of the lake and as trestle work through the 

deeper part. Much of the trestle work has since been replaced by 

fill. The gravel used at first came from pits near the railroad, the 

largest of which was near the west side of Promontory Point. Rock 

was originally used only on the surface of the embankment, but 

later, in places where reconstruction was necessary, rock was employed 

exclusively. The rock has been obtained from Promontory Point 

and from the immense quarries near Lakeside. The dark-gray, 

almost black limestone from the Lakeside quarries now covers the 

surface of the fill all the way across the lake.
150 GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES.

An unexpected difficulty was encountered after the construction 

was well under way. It was found that the material which was 

dumped into the lake and which evidently sank deep into the mud 

did not at once reach a firm and permanent foundation. Long after 

the roadway had apparently been completed and trains had been run 

by way of the new route, successive " sinks" occurred, especially 

along certain portions of the route. The weight of the filling material, with the added weight and. vibration of passing trains, seemed 

to break through some sustaining layer in the lake bottom and then a 

whole section, track and all, would settle into the lake, and traffic 

would have to be diverted to the old route until the "sink" could 

be repaired. . This happened so frequently that it might fairly have 

discouraged the railroad company, but perseverance finally conquered. With the sinking of the track, ridges of mud appeared on 

both sides, squeezed up from the lake bottom by the subsiding fill. 

Just beyond Bagley, which is only a section house and side track on 

the cut-off, remnants of these mud ridges can still be seen, although, 

naturally, where they rise above the water they are being leveled by 

the waves. The elevation of the track across the cut-off is 4,217 

feet above sea level according to railroad figures; the lake is usually 

10 to 15 feet lower.

A channel of open water 600 feet wide under a trestle at milepost 

762 is now the only connection between Bear River bay and the 

main lake. As Bear River, the largest tributary of Great Salt Lake? 

enters at the north side of this bay, and as more water is evaporated 

from the main lake than from the bay, there is usually a flow of water 

from the bay into the lake through this passage. The water of Bear 

River bay has for this reason become so much fresher that lately it

has frequently frozen over to considerable thickness -during the 

whiter.

The view toward Ogden and the Wasatch Mountains expands as 

the train proceeds. The high summit above Ogden is Observation 

Peak, 10,103 feet above sea level; Ben Lomond, the summit on the 

long, high ridge farther north, is still higher (10,900 feet). The 

upper shore lines of the former Lake Bonneville show distinctly as a 

series of clearly defined terraces on Promontory Point and also 

around Fremont Island. On Fremont Island only a single little 

point like a cap, undercut by wave action on all sides, rises above the 

highest water level of the old lake.

Milepost 759 is just at the west edge of the first section of the fill, 

the section that crosses Bear River bay. This eastern part of the 

cut-off is 8 miles long. The track skirts the south shore of Promontory Point for 4£ miles and then runs out on the second section 

of the fill, which is over 20 miles long.
THE OVERLAND EOUTE OGDEN TO SAN FRANCISCO. 151

The station at Promontory Point (see sheet 15, p. 102) is maintained chiefly for purposes of railroad operation. 

Promontory Point. Rock and gravel for building the embankment across 

Elevation 4,217 feet. the lake were obtained at several places along the

Omaha 1,023 miles. .. L . &

soutli end ol the point. Ihe rock .exposed in railroad cuts and quarries here is a black slate, which weathers rusty 

and brown.

Just west of Promontory Point station, on the north side of the 

track, is a pond cut off from the lake by the railroad embankment. 

At times of high water in the lake this reservoir fills by percolation 

through the embankment, and during the summer this water is concentrated to a brine by evaporation. The deep pink color of the 

brine is a phenomenon that appears in salt ponds generally when a 

certain concentration is reached. In the salt ponds of San Francisco 

Bay this color is due to a certain bacillus which lives in saturated 

brines and also in the heaps of salt as it is piled for drainage and 

shipment. Prohibitive to life as such an environment might be considered, strong natural brines are, in fact, inhabited by a number of 

minute organisms animals as well as plants. The pink color disappears in winter or when fresh water is introduced into the pond. 

The railroad company has done some experimental work on preserving piles and ties by soaking them in this pond.

Beyond the pond the track follows the lake shore along the south 

end of Promontory Point for a mile or two, passing a minor station 

and group of railroad section houses called Saline.

Looking a little east of south from Promontory Point, one can see 

on the south shore of Great Salt Lake the town of Garfield, the concentrating mills of the Utah Copper Co., and the copper smelter of 

the Garfield Smelting Co. A long column of smoke may usually be 

seen trailing away over the mountains from the smelter stack. These 

plants were constructed a few years ago to treat copper ores from 

Bingham Canyon, a short distance to the south, in the Oquirrh Range, 

and the town of Garfield was established to furnish accommodations 

for the men employed at the mills and smelter. The two mills of 

the Utah Copper Co. are among the largest concentrating plants in the 

world and together are capable of treating over 20,000 tons of ore 

daily. The ore treated contains an average of about 1.5 per cent of 

copper in the form of sulphides.

At the semaphore marked 754.5 miles the railroad runs out on 

the fill across the west arm of the lake. Large excavations near by 

are in the " gravel ;; that was at first used in constructing the fill. 

This " gravel" is of a very unusual character. If examined closely, 

preferably with a magnifying glass, it is found to consist of smoothly 

rounded, opaque grains, not like ordinary sand grains. These are 

known as oolites, the word oolite meaning literally fish-egg stone or
152 GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES.

roe stone. Each oolite is built up, onion-like, of one layer over 

another. These layers consist of carbonate of lime chemically 

deposited from solution in the lake water. There is almost no lime 

in the water of Great Salt Lake as a whole, as the brine seems to 

be too strong in other more soluble salts to retain the less soluble 

carbonate. Waters sweeping into the lake around its margin and 

the tributary river waters, however, contain a considerable amount 

of lime, and this on mixing with the lake water is deposited on the 

bottom in the form of these oolitic grains. The grains may be compared to little pearls, which in fact they resemble both in composition and structure. It has been shown that minute plants (algae 

or bacteria) have had much to do with the manner in which ^this 

lime is precipitated; but that is another story, too long to tell here.

A mile and a half farther west the road runs across deeper water, 

the track here being on a trestle, which continues for about 12 

miles. .The surface or deck of the trestle is ballasted with rock, 

so that it is not very different in appearance from the solid fill.

From the railroad the islands in Great Salt Lake come successively into view. Fremont Island has already been referred to.

Antelope Island, a submerged mountain of considerable size, is

.south of Fremont. Stansbury Island (with 'twin peaks on the

summit) may be seen in the distance at the south end of the lake.

Far to the south also are Carrington Island and Hat or Bird Island.

North of the railroad are Gunnison and Dolphin islands and Strong

Knob, which was formerly an island but has lately been connected

with the mainland by a narrow spit. A double

Midlake. track with station and railroad section houses has

Elevation 4,217 feet. been J^ on tne trestje Qut m ^ middle of the 

Oinaha 1,037 miles. lake, where the water is reported to be 42 leet deep.

The station is called Midlake. Between this station and Lakeside 

is Rambo.

Near milepost 735 the railroad reaches the west shore and passes 

through a cut in limestone rock, beyond which is a great cliff of blue 

limestone in thick beds- that dip toward the southeast. These rocks 

are of Paleozoic age, the dark-blue to black limestones near Lakeside belonging to the Carboniferous period. (See table on p. 2.) 

The range lying along the west shore of Great Salt Lake is known as 

the Lakeside Mountains.

Lakeside (see sheet 16, p. 156), a railroad maintenance, construction, and quarry camp, lies at the west end of the great fill across

the lake (PI. XXXIV), only a short distance from

the shore. Here white dune sand which has been

blown back from the beacn is Piled UP along the 

tracks. It is oolitic sand like that already referred

to, and should a stop happen to be made here the traveler may find 

interest in examining a handful of the grains. To the south great
U. S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY 

'

VIEW EASTWARD ALONG THE LUCIN CUT-OFF ACROSS THE 

Photograph furnished by Southern P
PALISADE CANYON, NE

Humboldt River has here cut a narrow channel through the Tertiary lavas. 
THE OVERLAND EOUTE OGDEN TO SAN" FRANCISCO. 153

quarry faces expose the thick beds of dark-blue Paleozoic limestone. 

To the north Strong Kriob, which at the present lake level is almost 

an island, presents a bluff front of conspicuous white and black rock.

Salt marsh lands on both sides of the track are sometimes flooded, 

sometimes covered with a crust of glistening white salt, 1 stretching 

away to the south as far as the eye can see. A 'mirage can nearly 

always be seen on these plains, the distant mountains to the south 

appearing. to be surrounded by water, the ghost of the greater Lake 

Bonneville. (See pp. 97-99.) This area is a part of the Great Salt 

Lake Desert and is so low. and so flat that only a small rise in the 

general level of the lake would reflood the whole area.

A water tank and section house at milepost 730 are at the end of 

a 52-mile pipe line. Drilling for fresh water on the west side of 

Great Salt Lake has not been successful. All the sandy stretches, 

both north and south of the track, are composed of oolitic grains, 

here mixed with some mud and heavily incrusted with salt, therefore 

not so uniform or so clean as those in the dunes at Lakeside.

Brown fly larvae and their cast-off shells pile up along the railroad 

embankment when the water is high, often creating an offensive odor. 

Sometimes they collect in. such masses over the rails that they make 

the tracks slippery, actually interfering with the passage of trains.

Olney, a siding and signboard only, is situated in the midst of a 

bare salt-incrusted desert. Beyond it the railroad rises slightly 

over low gravel ridges, some of which show distinct 

beach terraces and gravel bars, marks of former

*' nigher lake levels- A few isolated outcrops of dark 

limestone project through the valley deposits. The 

railroad descends slightly to the level of the Great Salt Lake Desert

ney'

1 The white incrustation seen for a long 

distance west of Great Salt Lake consists of chemical compounds or salts that 

are more or less soluble in water, all of 

which are popularly included in the term 

"alkali." In its strict sense that term, 

refers only to a certain group of chemical 

compounds that have the power of neutralizing acids and have a corrosive action 

on animal and vegetable tissue. The 

most powerful of these are the lyes, the 

hydrates of sodium and potassium. The 

salts which in crust the desert surface are 

not ordinarily of this character at all. 

For the most part they consist chiefly, 

in places almost exclusively, of common 

salt (sodium chloride). In many places, 

however, they include also other readily 

soluble salts Glauber's salt (sodium sulphate), washing soda (sodium carbonate), 

baking soda (sodium bicarbonate), and

less commonly borax. More rarely in 

this part of the country the soluble calcium or magnesium salts 'are found. 

However, where the soluble (sodium and 

potassium) carbonates occur the salts in 

fact partake of the character of true alkali. 

The carbonates of sodium and potassium, 

being formed by the combination of a 

strong base (sodium or potassium) and a 

weak acid (carbonic), break up (hydrolyze) 

to a c'ertain extent in solutions, and thus 

there is actually liberated a small amount 

of free caustic alkali. The water-soluble 

carbonate of soda, known on account of 

its darkening effect in soils as "black 

alkali," is very destructive of vegetation. 

The less harmful "white alkali" consists 

of a mixture of the neutral soluble salts, 

in large part common salt, and its presence, as the name implies, is indicated 

by a white incrustation.
154 GUIDEBOOK OP THE WESTERN UNITED STATES.

Loy.

again, and the route is bounded on both sides by barren areas of 

white clay, or playas, 1 and low dunelike or lumpy areas of clay soil. 

At milepost 718 is the beginning of a straight piece of track (tangent), 38 miles long, which extends to the junction with the old route 

around the north end of the lake near Lucin.

At Loy, a siding and section house only, the route is still bordered 

by bare mud playas on each side. A dark rocky range, the Newfoundland Mountains, juts out of the flat desert ahead to the 

south. These mountains were formerly islands, as is 

shown by the traces of old shore lines high about their 

rock slopes. The desert here is only a little perhaps 5 

feet above the level of the tracks on the cut-off over Great Salt Lake, 

and a slight rise in that lake would again cover this extensive flat.

Another railroad siding and group of section houses situated in the 

midst of the bare mud desert bears the name Newfoundland. Two 

very distinct benches, marking higher shore lines of 

old Lake Bonneville, may be seen on the front of the 

Newfoundland Mountains (the Rocky Hills of some 

of the older maps) to the south, and the upper bench 

was evidently cut by waves into the solid rock.

At Lemay, a pump station with section houses, a long pipe line

which comes from a spring in the mountains 27 miles to the north,

reaches the railroad. This line furnishes an excellent

emay. supply of clear, freshwater along the route across the

Omaha 1,080 miles. Qreat g^ Lake Degert- About 1903 a well wag bored

at Lemay to a depth of 2,340 feet. For about 1,000 feet the well penetrated desert mud like that at the surface, with intercalated layers .of 

clear crystalline gypsum. Below this material the hole was bored in 

limestone and brown sandstone. This record is interesting in showing 

the depth of the former lake or desert deposits in this part of the valley.

Newfoundland.

Elevation 4,221 feet. 

Omaha 1,076 miles.

1 A playa is a shallow, flat-floored depression, characteristic of valleys having 

no regular drainage to the sea, in which 

storm waters collect and evaporate. It 

may be a shallow lake or a salt-incrusted 

mud flat.

In his description of Lake Lahontan, 

Russell writes:

"The scenery on the larger playas is 

peculiar and is usually desolate in the 

extreme but is not without its charm. 

In crossing these wastes the traveler may 

ride for miles over a perfectly level floor, 

with an unbroken sky line before him 

and not an object in sight to cast a shadow 

on the ocean-like expanse. Mirages, 

which may be seen every day on these 

heated deserts, give strange fanciful

forms to the mountains, and sometimes 

transfigure them beyond recognition. A 

pack train-crossing the desert a few miles 

distant may appear like some strange 

caravan of grotesque beasts fording a 

shallow lake, the shores of which advance 

as one rides away. The monotony of 

midday on the desert is thus broken by 

elusive forms that are ever changing and 

suggest a thousand fancies which divert 

the attention from the fatigues of the 

journey. The cool evenings and mornings in these arid regions, when the purple 

shadows of distant mountains are thrown 

across the plain, have a charm that is 

unknown beneath more humid skies, 

and the profound stillness of the night in 

these solitudes is always impressive."
THE OVERLAND ROUTE OGDEN TO SAN FRANCISCO. 155

\

\ Beyond Lemay the route continues through the barren playas/ 

Beppo is a railroad siding and section house only. The view of the 

mountain ranges to the west, across the State line in Nevada, is 

characteristic of the scenery which will be displayed for several 

hundred miles. Ahead, somewhat to the south, is Pilot Peak (elevation 10,900 feet), at the south end of the Ombe or Pilot Range. This 

was a well-known landmark in the early days. One of the principal 

overland emigrant routes led around the south end of Great Salt Lake, 

then across the barren desert to the low pass south of this peak. The 

Western Pacific Railway follows nearly this same course. The route 

of transcontinental automobile travel now known as the Lincoln 

Highway follows that railway around the south end of Great Salt 

Lake and then swings southwest around the Great Salt Lake Desert.

Jackson (elevation 4,241 feet), Teck (4,289 feet), and Pigeon are 

mere railroad sidings and section houses. The route continues 

through the flat, low-lying desert lands, from this point on more or 

less covered with scattered patches of brush. Owl Butte, an isolated 

peak north of the railroad, is composed of lava (rhyolite), and its 

slopes show jutting ledges, which are probably the edges of lava flows. 

The top is in the form of a cap. Apparently it was a little island 

when Lake Bonneville stood at the higher levels and was sculptured 

into this form by the waves. At Pigeon a spur track leads off to a 

gravel pit, from which material is excavated by the railroad for ballasting along the track. The gravels are ancient beach deposits, 

remnants of the deposits laid down around the shores of the old lake 

at its higher- levels. Generally these gravel beaches extend out from 

some rocky headland, the source of the rock fragments which, worn, 

rounded, and sorted by the action of waves and currents, were distributed as gravel and sand along the adjacent shores. The bedding 

of these deposits is irregular, showing that they were laid down by 

shifting currents. The source of the original material at Pigeon was 

evidently the lava on Owl Butte.

The Lucin railroad station is somewhat beyond the old settlement, 

where there is a store and a post office. Here the route leaves the 

Great Salt Lake Desert and enters a grazing country. 

Lucin, Utah. Both sheep and cattle find sustenance in the sparse 

Elevation 4,474 feet, grass that grows among the sage, and it is said that 

omahaTios miles over na^ a mimon sheep pass Lucin twice annually, 

going south to their winter range and north for the 

summer. Lucin is the point of departure for a stage line to Grouse 

Creek, a settlement 30 miles to the north. Beyond Lucin the railroad begins to climb more noticeably, and the stream beds indicate 

clearly that the surface or storm waters flow toward Great Salt Lake.

The actual junction of the present line with the original route of 

the Central Pacific around the north end of Great Salt Lake is at 

Umbria Junction (see sheet 17, p. 162), half a mile beyond Lucin 

station. Once a week a train is sent over the old route.
156 GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES.

Between Umbria Junction and Tecoma light-colored clay and 

gravels in regularly bedded deposits are exposed along the railroad. 

These are either deposits in the waters of Lake Bonneville or later 

stream deposits of wash brought down by erosion from lake-bed clays 

and beach materials higher up. These beds show a slight tilt toward 

the east, indicating that they were probably left here by running water.

The Utah-Nevada State line, marked by a monument and a fancifully decorative design in set stones at the north side of the track, is 

passed opposite the first ranch building seen west of Great Salt Lake. 

To the south the State line passes over the escarpment capped by 

lava (basalt), the columnar jointing (see footnote on p. 121) of which 

may be distinguished even at this distance.

Nevada is a Spanish word meaning "snowy" or "white as snow,"

and the name of the State was derived from the Sierra Nevada. The

State ranks sixth in size in the Union. Its length from

Nevada. north to south is 484 miles, its width 321 miles, and

its area 109,821 square miles, of which about 60 per

cent has been covered by public-land surveys and approximately 21

per cent has been appropriated. National forests in Nevada cover an

area of 8,683 square miles, andAnaho Island, in Pyramid Lake, has been

made a bird reservation. The population of Nevada, according to the

latest census, was 81,875, or about one person for each 1.4 square miles.

Nevada is one of the most important metal-mining States of the 

West and has yielded large quantities of gold, silver, and le.ad. Of 

late also it has become a large producer of copper.

The history of Nevada is chiefly the history of her mines. Since 

the discovery of the. Cornstock lode and other famous ore bodies, 

periods of activity and prosperity have alternated with periods of 

depression. Each discovery of high-grade'ore in noteworthy quantity has been followed by rapid settlement in that locality and the 

establishment of one or more towns. Exhaustion of the richer or 

more accessible ores or the bursting of overinflated speculative bubbles 

has been followed by at least local stagnation and depopulation. In 

1890-1893 a sharp decline in the price of silver initiated or accompanied a period of depression in Nevada's mining and general'industrial prosperity. Silver is so important a resource of the State that 

to a large extent even now her prosperity depends upon the market 

for that metal. Of late years, however, an increased production of 

gold, copper, and recently of platinum,has accompanied a gradual 

and, it is hoped, substantial industrial progress. Permanent towns 

have grown up and agriculture and related pursuits are becoming 

firmly established.

The mining districts in the State number about 200 and are widely 

distributed over its area. Almost every one of the larger mountain 

ranges contains some ore. In the following pages emphasis will be
BULLETIN 612 SHEET No. 16

GEOLOGIC AND TOPOGRAPHIC MAP

OF THE

OVEELAND EOUTE

From Omaha, Nebraska, to San Francisco, California

Base compiled from United States Geological Survey Atlas Sheets, 

from railroad alignments and profiles supplied by tee Union Pacific 

Railroad Company and the Southern Pacific Company and from additional information collected with the assistance of these companies

UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY

GEORGE OTIS SMITH, DIRECTOR 

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

1915

A Stream deposits (alluvium), slopes of rock waste along /% t

mountain fronts, and sediments of Lake Bonneville yuaiernary

B Lavas (rhyolite, basalt, etc.); probably Miocene and 

Pliocene

Granite; probably Cretaceous

07 D Limestone , quartzite, and shale. undifferentiated; D I««^«;« 

(- chiefly Carboniferous Paleozoic

Highest shore line of Lake Bonneville indicated thus

II uj -^

W ON.--. i teXitadelpeak ,-*C\.

/f"1 '., ' """/. ^ .tr. JW^-IY- '^OW>,

GREAT SALT LAKE DE1SER

Approximately 8 miles to 1 inch

5 10 15

Contour interval 200 feet

ELEVATIONS IN FEET ABOVE MEAN SEA LEVEL

The distances from Omaha, Nebraska, are shown every 10 miles 

The crossties on the railroads are spaced 1 mile apart
THE OVERLAND ROUTE OGDEN TO SAN FRANCISCO. 157

laid on the record and the development of mining districts adjacent 

or tributary to the railroad. More complete accounts of most of the 

districts may be found in the publications of the United States Geological Survey. . The geology of Nevada is that typical of the Great Basin, in'which 

the two prevalent topographic elements are the basin ranges and the 

intervening valley plains. In the mountains probably the most 

conspicuous rocks are the Tertiary lavas, although a full series of 

. sedimentary beds is also present, as well as great masses of intrusive 

igneous rocks of various types. The rocks may be briefly mentioned 

in the order of age. (See table on p. 2.) The pre-Cambrian basal 

or foundation rocks, on which the younger sedimentary rocks and 

lavas rest, are visible in a few places. East of a line passing somewhat 

east of Winnemucca through Austin to a point a little west of Tonopah 

Paleozoic strata are the predominating sedimentary rocks in the 

mountain ranges, .which include few or no Mesozoic beds. The 

enormous thickness of the Paleozoic section at Eureka (almost 30,000 

feet) suggests that the shore line of the Paleozoic sea was somewhere 

near this place. This is further indicated by the fact that west of 

the line mentioned the Paleozoic rocks disappear and are succeeded 

by a thick series of Triassic and Jurassic sediments. During the 

Paleozoic era western Nevada was apparently a land from which 

sediments were washed into a sea on the east. In Mesozoic time the 

situation seems to have been reversed. The Jurassic and Triassic 

sediments were apparently derived from a land area of uplifted 

Paleozoic strata in the eastern part of the State. The Triassic limestone, slate, and sandstone and the associated lavas of the Humboldt 

Range have an estimated thickness of 10,000 feet. Somewhat similar' 

Jurassic rocks add several thousand feet more to the record of deposition in this region during Mesozoic time. No Cretaceous sediments 

have been found in Nevada, and it is therefore supposed that the 

Great Basin during that period was a land area.

Large and small bodies of granular intrusive igneous rocks, chiefly 

such as may be called granite (including quartz monzonite, granodiorite, and similar rocks), extend from the great masses in the Sierra 

Nevada to the eastern part of the State or beyond. All these bodies may 

be more or less related; they appear to be younger than most of the 

Jurassic sediments but older than the Tertiary rocks and are probably 

of Cretaceous age. The Tertiary lavas (rhyolite, andesite, and basalt) 

are widely distributed and cover large areas, some ranges being entirely 

made up of them. Vast areas in the valleys are covered with the 

gravelly deposits of streams, with material laid down in lakes, or with 

the ash or pumice ejected with the lava during volcanic eruptions.

The movements by which the mountains and valleys have been 

formed probably occurred in different periods, but it is evident that 

most of them broke and shifted the sheets of Tertiary lava, and were
158 GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES.

therefore subsequent to these lava flows in date. The present ranges 

in the Great Basin are therefore young compared with mountains in 

general. They are supposed to have been uplifted by movements 

that lasted at least through a part of Tertiary time and perhaps have 

.extended to the present day. The earth breaks or faults along which 

the mountain blocks were upheaved are still recognizable at many, 

places in the topographic form of the mountains.

As a supply or trading point Lucin is now largely superseded by

Tecoma, a considerable settlement a few miles farther west. Of the

mines in the Lucin district,1 south of Tecoma, only

Tecoma, Nev. faG Copper Mountain mine has lately shipped much

Elevation 4,807 feet. ore> This mine is connected with the railroad by a

Omaha 1.114 miles. _ ., , -, , . 1/ . -iix. 6-mile spur track and an aerial (wire cable) tramway. 

Stock raising is now the principal industry in this region, but north 

of the railroad there are some large land holdings which are to be 

subdivided and utilized under a private irrigation project.

After ascending the drainage channel above Lucin, the railroad 

passes out into a broader and more open valley through which the track 

heads straightaway toward Montello. In this valley the railroad 

reaches the elevation of the uppermost water level of the former Lake 

Bonneville, but traces of the old lake shores are not readily discerned. 

Montello is a railroad town and the first freight terminal west of 

Ogden. The characteristic Nevada or Great Basin scenery is well displayed here, steep mountain ranges with rugged 

declivities contrasting sharply with the broad, gentle 

slopes of rock waste and gravel from which they project. The railroad winds in and out among such 

ranges all the way across Nevada, generally finding 

low passes through them or going around the end of the ranges.

Leaving Montello the road begins the steeper climb by which it 

passes over the divide and out of the Bonneville Basin.

Montello.

Elevation 4,878 feet. 

Population 355.* 

Omaha 1,120 miles.

The highest

1 The Lucin mining district is in the 

Ombe or Pilot Range, a few miles south 

of Tecoma. Ore was discovered in the 

district about 1869, and there was a considerable output of silver and lead until 

about 1876, after which the district was 

nearly deserted. The increasing demand 

for copper in recent years has encouraged 

the development of the copper deposits 

in the Lucin district, and the value of 

the copper produced there from 1906 

to 1912, inclusive, was approximately 

$1,700,000'.

The sedimentary rocks of the district 

are chiefly of Carboniferous age. They 

have been invaded by igneous rocks of 

various kinds, the larger bodies of which

consist of a coarsely porphyritic rock of 

granitic character (quartz monzonite porphyry). The black rocks seen from the 

railroad at the north end of the range are 

basaltic lavas.

The ore bodies, which embrace copper 

deposits and lead-silver deposits, have 

resulted from the replacement of limestone adjacent to faults and fissures. The 

copper ores are oxidized, no sulphides 

having yet been reached. The leadsilver ores are also oxidized. Wulfenite, the yellow molybdate of lead, is 

abundant, and the district is probably 

best known to mineralogists for the beautiful crystalline specimens of this mineral that it has yielded.
THE OVERLAND ROUTE OGDEN TO SAIST FRANCISCO. 159

water level of old Lake Bonneville lay somewhere near Montello, at 

an elevation of about 5,000 feet, probably just above the town, but 

no distinct traces of the old water line can be seen from the train. 

Looking back or down across the valley (southward)> the traveler may 

see Pilot Peak, the highest point at the south end of the Pilot Range. 

Banvard (elevation, 4,976 feet), Noble (5,117 feet), UUin (5,256 feet), 

Tioga (5,597 feet), and Omar (5,640 feet), passed in the order named, 

are mere sidetracks or minor stations.

The surface material of the valley is mostly a light-colored clay 

mingled with pebbles and fragments of rock. The fragments include 

many of light-gray limestone, evidently representing rock that is 

exposed in the adjacent mountains. The valley is covered with a 

fairly uniform growth of brush, and the sparse grass which in less 

arid regions would hardly be noticed affords good grazing for stock.

The mountains appear smooth and rounded as seen from a distance 

and are in part covered with a scanty growth of cedars.

Just beyond Tioga, a sidetrack and signboard near milepost 653, 

the railroad reaches the head of the open valley. Bedrock projects 

in many places, and ridges of rock extend down from the mountain 

front to the north toward the railroad. These are limestones and 

quartzites of Carboniferous age. Similar rocks show as rugged edges 

011 the more distant mountains to the south. In the reports of the 

Fortieth Parallel Survey the pass through which the railroad climbs 

was named Toano Pass, and the mountains to the south were called 

the Gosiute Range and those to the north the Toano Mountains. A 

large part of the high country for a long distance beyond Toano Pass 

is made up of Carboniferous sediments. Phosphate rock is reported 

to have been found in these rocks in the same relative position as in the 

great phosphate fields of southern Idaho and vicinity, but in Nevada 

the beds, so far as known, are too thin to be of commercial value.

From the upper end of Toano Pass, near milepost 649, may be seen 

in .the valleys on both sides beds that are conspicuously exposed as 

chalky-white cliffs or as bare white patches on the rolling plains or on 

low ridges. These beds are composed mainly of friable gray, white, 

and drab sandstone and marly limestone, at many places containing 

a great deal of volcanic material, chiefly the tuff or ash that accompanied lava (rhyolitic) eruptions. These rocks belong to the Humboldt formation * and cover large areas in this part of Nevada.

1 The Humboldt formation was described by Clarence King in 1878 as the 

deposit of a great lake which he thought 

had occupied most of the territory from 

the Wasatch Mountains in Utah to the 

Sierra Nevada, in Pliocene time. He 

named this hypothetical body of water 

Shoshone Lake, and . these sediments, 

which he supposed had been laid down

in its water, he called the "Humboldt 

series." During recent years little attention has been given to the further study 

of this formation, but geologists of the 

present day are much inclined to doubt 

the existence of the extensive lake thus 

conjectured, as well as the necessity for 

assuming that these beds as a whole were 

lake deposits.
160 GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES.

At Cobre (pronounced co'bray, Spanish for copper) is the junction

with the Nevada Northern Railroad, which since 1906

Cobre. nas given access to the Ely or Robinson copper

Elevation 5,922 feet, districts/. 140 miles to the south, und a number

of other less well-known districts, including Cherry

Creek and Egan Canyon.2

West of Cobre the railroad crosses a number of scarcely perceptible 

divides. The old town of Toano, opposite milepost 643, is now 

represented only by a few fallen and deserted stone buildings. These 

were built from blocks cut from the sandstone of the Hurnboldt for1 The first mining locations in the 

vicinity of Ely were made in 1867, three 

years after the organization of the Eureka 

mining district, in the same year in which 

bonanza silver ores were discovered in the 

White Pine district, 60 miles to the west. 

Early operations disclosed a few deposits 

of lead-bearing ores carrying precious 

metals to the value of $10 to $40 a ton. 

Occasionally small bonanzas were found, 

and shallow deposits of rich copper ore 

were mined.

The present copper industry of the district is the outgrowth of explorations that 

began about 1901'. The aggregate quantity of low-grade sulphide ore developed 

is perhaps 80 million tons, in which the 

mean copper content'is a little over 1£ 

per cent. In 1906 extensive reduction 

works were built at McGill, on the east 

side of Steptoe Valley, about 25 miles 

from the mines. t

The sedimentary rocks of the district, 

comprising limestones, quartzites, and 

shales, range in age from Ordovician to 

Pennsylvanian. They have been disturbed by folding and especially by 

faulting and have been invaded by 

masses of igneous rocks (monzonite 

porphyry).

The ore, like the greater part of that at 

Bingham, Utah, consists of monzonite 

porphyry, greatly altered (metamorph'osed) as a result of the igneous intrusions, carrying disseminated grains of 

pyrite and chalcopyrite, and varying 

amounts of chalcocite. Masses of porphyry which, through metamorphism, 

had been almost uniformly charged with 

grains of pyrite and chalcopyrite became

subject to erosion and oxidation. As the 

rock was gradually worn down, surface 

waters attacking the metallic sulphides 

and charged with copper derived from 

them soaked downward into the rock and 

deposited the dissolved copper by chemical reaction with the pyrite and chalcopyrite in the rock. In this way a part 

of the rock Avas gradually converted into 

ore by addition of the copper sulphide. 

Superficial examination of ore samples 

shows a white to gray rock specked 

through and'through with a black mineral, which is the rich copper sulphide 

chalcocite. On close inspection it is 

found that this mineral occurs mainly as 

films or coatings on grains of the paleyellow iron mineral pyrite or the deeper 

yellow copper-iron sulphide chalcopyrite. 

The oxidized capping or overburden has 

an average thickness of about 100 feet.

The underlying t>re blankets are from 

15 to 500 feet thick. Up to the present 

time comparatively little underground 

mining has been done, though caving 

methods were employed in the Veteran 

mine. The Rwth ore body, estimated to 

contain 8 to 10 million tons of ore carrying over 40 pounds of copper to the 

ton, may be mined in a similar way. 

Where the overburden is shallow the ore 

is mined by steam shovels, and between 

1908 and January, 1914, nearly 12 million 

tons of ore averaging about 38 pounds of 

copper to the ton had been produced in 

this way, and in addition some 20 million 

tons of overburden had been removed. 

 2 On the west side of Steptoe Valley, 93 

miles south of Cobre, are the Cherry Creek" 

and Egan Canyon mines, in a low pass
THE OVERLAND ROUTE OGDEN TO SAN FRANCISCO. 161

mation (Pliocene) near by. Valley Pass (elevation 6,072 feet) is the 

highest of the low divides just mentioned. It is marked by a railroad 

station and a water tank. The mountains across the rolling valley 

to the north, grassy on top but more or less thickly covered with 

scrubby cedar trees on their lower slopes, are composed of Paleozoic 

sandstone, shale, and limestone.

Beyond Valley Pass the drainage channels lead off to the northwest 

toward Thousand Springs Valley. The broad brush-covered plains 

adjacent to the railroad have little distinctive character geologically 

or otherwise. They are presumably underlain by the volcanic ash 

beds (tuffs) and other beds of the Humboldt formation, which are 

trenched by shallow gullies. Cuts along the railroad show streamdeposited gravels.

Within the 30 miles west of milepost 637 the train passes Icarus 

(elevation 6,108 feet), Pequop (6,143 feet), Fenelon (6,153 feet), Hoiborn (6,103 feet), Anthony (6,124 feet), Moor (6,166 feet), Cedar 

(5,969 feet), and Kaw (5,831 feet) merely sidetracks, section houses, 

or water tanks maintained chiefly for the use of the railroad. For 

a long distance the coarse white tuffaceous sandstones of the Humboldt formation are the principal rocks seen near the railroad. Just 

beyond Pequop, however, between mileposts 630 and 629, are conglomeratic strata inteiiayered with evenly bedded clays or clay shales 

of a distinct light-greenish color, which are believed to be of older 

Tertiary age (Eocene, Green River formation). Faults displacing the 

clays and conglomerate are visible in the railroad cuts but possibly 

would not ordinarily be noticed from the train.

Between Anthony and Moor an extensive view may be had to the 

south and southeast over the north end of Independence Valley, the 

larger part of which lies beyond the range of vision. This valley constitutes another of the distinct drainage units of which the Great 

Basin is composed. The railroad continues to ascend gradually, 

skirting the slopes at the north edge of the valley. For several miles 

near the summit of this part of the route the road passes through 

groves of cedars, such as are frequently observed from a distance on 

the flanks of desert mountain ranges.

that was used by the Pony Express and 

Overland Stage in pioneer days. Gold 

was discovered here in 1861, and between 

1872 and 1882 the district supported a 

population of about 3,000. The total 

production amounted to several millon 

dollars, but at present comparatively 

little work is in progress. Gold ores and 

silver-lead ores occur here in sedimentary 

rocks, principally in quartzit'e.

92213° Bull. 612 15 -11

In the Gosiute mining district, which 

lies 20 miles south of Cherry Creek, in the 

Egan Range, silver-lead ores have recently been mined from veins occurring 

in limestone. The Spruce Mountain, 

Hunter, Schellbourne, Duck Creek, and 

Ward mining districts, in which work 

has been more or less active during recent years, are also tributary to the Nevada 

Northern Railroad.
162 GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES.

At Moor the divide between the drainage of Independence Valley

and that of Humboldt River is reached, and the traveler enters

the area tributary to the ancient Lake Lahontan, an

extensive body of .water that formerly spread out

omlhaueemuef through most of the lower valleys in northwestern

Nevada. (See p. 172.)

From the summit of Moor the train makes a long westward descent, 

at first down a heavy grade between Moor and Wells. Minor stations 

along the way are Cedar and Kaw. A broad valley extends off toward 

the north, the railroad skirting its southern side. Tulasco Peak, the 

prominent pointed summit in the range across this valley, is formed 

of limestone and quartzite of Carboniferous age, with lava (rhyolite) 

at its base and beds of Pliocene tuff in the valley.

Wells, formerly a more important settlement and trading center 

than it is now, was named from a group of springs called Humboldt 

Wells, an objective point along the branch of the old 

Wells, overland emigrant trail, which here comes from 

Elevation 5,63i feet, the south into the route followed by the Southern 

omaha^m miles. Pacific. From Great Salt Lake to Wells the trail followed in general the route which has been taken by 

the Western Pacific Railway. From Wells to a point a little beyond 

Winnemucca both the Southern Pacific and the Western Pacific run 

in nearly parallel lines down the valley of Humboldt River, beyond 

which they diverge to separate passes across the Sierra Nevada.

The springs at Wells are reported to be from 30 to 150 in number 

and range in size from a few inches to 3 or 4 rods across. They are 

inconspicuous little pools scattered about in a grassy meadow just 

north of the railroad, a short distance west of the town. The flow is 

variable; it reaches a maximum about October, but during a large 

part of the year there is no overflow at all. This variability with the 

season indicates that the springs may originate in the underflow drainage in the valley, rather than from some deeper-seated source, which 

probably would not be so subject to seasonal influences. These wells 

have been called the head of Humboldt River, but that stream has 

longer branches, which enter the.valley below Wells.

Wells is still the center of an extensive cattle and sheep industry, 

which has now largely replaced the mining of earlier days. A large 

private irrigation project is being carried out in the valley beyond 

the high mountains to the north. Near Wells, Humboldt River, 

Willow Creek, Trout Creek, and Meadow Creek supply water for the 

irrigation of 1,900 acres, or about 3 square miles of land, which is 

devoted principally to growing whiter feed for stock, although, 

according to reports, barley, oats, potatoes, and cabbage are also 

raised. Clover Valley, at the foot of the Ruby or East Humboldt 

Range, south of Wells, is a good agricultural and stock-raising valley
BULLETIN 612 SHEET NO. 17

GEOLOGIC AND TOPOGRAPHIC MAP

OF THE

OVERLAND ROUTE

From Omaha, Nebraska, to San Francisco, California

Base compiled from United States Geological Survey Atlas Sheets, 

from railroad alignments and profiles supplied by the Union Pacific 

Railroad Company and the Southern Pacific Company and from additional information collected, with the assistance of these companies

UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY

GEORGE OTIS SMITH, DIRECTOR 

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

 1915

UTAH-NEVADA

A Stream deposits (alluvium), slopes of rock waste along 

mountain fronts, and sediments of Lake Bonneville

B Soft white friable sandstones, conglomerate, and volcanic ash (Humboldt formation,); Pliocene

Lavas (rhyolite. basalt, etcj; probably Miocene and 

Pliocene

D Thin-bedded shales, with bituminous beds containing 

some coal layers (Green River formation); Eocene

Granite: probably Cretaceous

Blue, gray, and almost black limestones; Carboniferous

Quartzite 'Weber); Carboniferous

H Limestone, quartzite, and shale, undifferentiated; 

chiefly Carboniferous but including some Devonian 

north of Wells

OUSANO SPRINGS 

VALLEV

Contour interval 200 feet

ELEVATIONS IN FEET ABOVE MEAN SEA LEVEL

The distances from Omaha, Nebraska, are shown every iO miles 

The crossties on the railroads are spaced 1 mile apart
THE OVERLAND ROUTE OGDEN TO SAN FRANCISCO. 163

that was formerly dependent for its transportation facilities on Wells 

but is now served by the Western Pacific Railway.

Humboldt Eiver, which was so named by Fremont, and which is 

one of the largest river systems in Nevada, heads entirely within the 

desert ranges of the central Great Basin. It rises on the eastern 

border of Nevada and flows westward for about 200 miles. Near 

some of the higher mountains it receives considerable water, but it 

dwindles downstream and finally disappears. It enters the basin 

formerly flooded by the waters of Lake Lahontan near the present 

town of Golconda and from that point continues its course through 

Lake Lahontan beds for nearly 100 miles to Humboldt Lake. In 

the dry season the river water gets no farther than Humboldt Lake, 

but during the winter this lake commonly overflows, the waters passing on to the Carson Sink, where they are evaporated. Throughout 

its course it is almost if not quite destitute of native trees along its 

channel. In its upper course Humboldt River receives a number of 

tributaries, the largest of these being Reese River, which enters it 

from the south. During the summer and fall several of these streams, 

including Reese River, commonly dry up before they reach the main 

channel.

Just below Wells the tram runs along the margin of a strip of 

meadowland and then passes into a narrower portion of the valley 

hemmed in by low bluffs on each side. These bluffs and the cuts 

along the railroad show bedded deposits of white and greenish clays 

or sand, which are classed with the Tertiary Humboldt formation. 

Beyond the narrows lies a broader valley.

As the valley opens out the traveler may see to the south a panorama of the Ruby or East Humboldt Range, the highest and most 

rugged mountain mass in Nevada. The name Ruby Mountains, or 

Ruby Range, is locally accepted in preference to East Humboldt 

and seems to have priority. Old settlers describe the finding of 

"rubies " and "ruby sand" in the gravels of some of the streams 

coming from these mountains. Specimens of these "rubies" are in 

fact red garnet, a rather common mineral developed in rock under 

the influence of the heat accompanying igneous intrusion.

At first only the north end of the range, around which the railroad 

passes, is seen, but farther west the western flank and the lofty 

summits come into view. A number of these peaks attain a height 

of 11,000 or 12,000 feet, and snow lingers along the crest of the 

range late into the spring and conies early in the fall. Owing to 

their height these rugged slopes receive a larger rainfall than the 

surrounding country and supply water to the adj acent valleys, which 

contain some of the most productive agricultural regions in the State. 

On the east slope of the Ruby Range the waters quickly, disappear 

in the beds of the narrow canyons but break out again lower down
164 GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTEBN UNITED STATES.

in cold springs that feed Ruby and Franklin lakes. On the west 

side the descent is more gentle and the waters gather in the South 

Fork of the Humboldt. The crest of the Ruby Range is included in 

the Humboldt National Forest.

The Ruby Range is a typical Great Basin mountain ridge. It 

rises abruptly on all sides from flat valley plains or low, even slopes 

of rock detritus or "wash." The northern part of the range is 

granite, formerly considered Archean but now known to be of postJurassic, probably Cretaceous age. (See table on p. 2.) Flowing 

streams from the Ruby Range reach the railroad in places, and hay 

meadows and grainfields have been established wherever the water 

supply is sufficient to permit irrigation. Wild grasses are cut for 

hay along the flood plain in the main Humboldt Valley, and numerous haystacks are usually visible from the railroad. Beyond Nardi 

(see sheet 18, p. 168) a few ranches appear along the Humboldt, which 

is joined near Deeth by Marys River, from the north. It is said that 

7,000 acres are irrigated in this vicinity, but on account of the scanty 

water supply only native grasses are grown, which are sometimes cut 

for hay and sometimes used for grazing in fall and winter.

The main settled areas in this general region are Starr and Ruby 

valleys, south of the railroad, at the foot of the Ruby Range. Starr 

Valley contains some 3,700 acres of irrigated lands, for which Herders, Starr, Ackler, Deering, and Boulder creeks furnish an ample 

water supply until about the middle of July each year. Nearly onefourth of this valley is "self irrigating" through seepage from higher 

irrigated lands. These "seK-irrigating" lands are usually left in 

native grass, which is cut for hay or used for pasture. 

 From Deeth, which is a trading center for Starr and Ruby valleys, 

a stage line runs north 52 miles to Charleston (Cornwall Basin), whence 

ore and concentrates (gold and copper) are shipped 

Deeth. through this station. Jarbidge, a gold and silver 

Elevation s,341 feet, mining camp in the extreme northern part of the 

om^ufiTgfmiies. State, formerly had its outlet through Deeth but now 

receives mail and supplies from Twin Falls, Idaho, by 

way of the Oregon Short Line.

West of Deeth the view of the Ruby Range broadens as the railroad 

bends southward along the west front of these mountains and at the 

same time gradually leaves them. The range from this viewpoint 

shows a high and rugged crest with approximate north-south 

trend, notched near the north end by a low pass. The highest summits lie north of the pass, among them Mount Bonpland, about 11,300 

feet in elevation, and Clover Peak, just south of it, probably higher.

Natchez and Rasid are unimportant stations between Deeth and 

Halleck. The Humboldt appears as a meandering stream close at 

hand south of the railroad, bordered by narrow meadows of wild grass,
THE OVERLAND ROUTE OGDEN TO SAN FRANCISCO. 165

behind which are low terraces or ridges. These terraces have evidently been formed by the river at an earlier period of its history and 

generally have a surface covering of gravel.

Halleck is a shipping point for cattle and sheep. The station

received its name from old Camp Halleck, a fort and

Halleck. military reservation of pioneer days, close under the

Elevation 5,232 feet, mountain front, about 12 miles away, just south of the

Pass near tne north end of the range - StaS3 lmes run 

from Halleck to several places on the north and south.

Elburz, a water tank, sidetrack, and section house, is just above

the mouth of North Fork, the principal tributary of the Humboldt

from the north. The land watered by the North Fork

Elburz. an(j j^g tributaries is divided into an upper and a lower

Elevation 5,204 feet. vafley by a range Of mountains through which the

Omaha 1,209 miles. J n -i , 41 stream flows midway m its course. Aboul/ 4,500 acres 

of land is irrigated in the upper valley of the North Fork and 1,200 

to 1,500 acres in the lower valley. Hay is the only crop raised.

Just below the North Fork the Humboldt Valley narrows to Osino 

Canyon. For a distance of about 50 miles, extending nearly to Beowawe, the strip of irrigable land along the river is rather narrow in 

fact, in some places there is none. The meadow land is used for hay 

or pasture.

In Osino Canyon the railroad passes through three tunnels and 

crosses the river several times. The walls of the canyon consist of lava 

rock, which, although light colored when freshly broken, is weatherstained to dark or rusty tints.

West of Osino Canyon the valley is broader, and near Elko cultivated fields and ranches come into view. The valley here extends from 

the foothills of the Elko Range on the southeast to the low benchlike 

spurs of the River Range on the northwest. These spurs slope off 

gently toward the middle of the valley and are composed almost 

entirely of volcanic ash, generally of white color, containing fragments 

of lava. < These beds belong to the Humboldt formation (Pliocene). 

Underneath them are steeply tilted strata which contain beds of impure 

coal and are supposed to be of Eocene age.

The origin of the name of Elko, the seat of Elko County, is not certain, for according to some it is an Indian word and according to 

others it was given on account of the abundance of 

Elko. elk in this vicinity. A camp site near some hot 

Elevation 5,001 feet, springs 1£ miles west of the town made this place a 

Omaha i°226'miies. station on the old emigrant route, but the present 

town originated with the building of the railroad in 

1868. The older part of the town, through which the two railroads 

now pass, is built on the river flood plain, but a more recent extension 

of the residence portion may be seen on a terrace north of the river.
166 GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES.

The main industries of this locality are stock raising and ranching. A 

stage line runs from Elko to Tuscarora,1 a mining camp 50 miles to 

the north.

Indians are usually seen about Elko, Lovelock, Reno, and at other 

stations along the route. Several Indian reservations lie wholly or 

partly in Nevada, and Indian schools are maintained at Carson and 

near Fallen. The Indian population of Nevada, about 5,000, consists of Piutes, Shoshones, and the remnants of other tribes.

For many years, there has been much interest in the possibility of 

finding oil in some of the Tertiary shales a few miles south and east 

of Elko.' Several wells have been drilled in this vicinity, but oil has 

not been found in commercial quantity. Some oil appears to be 

disseminated through these shales, but it is questionable whether 

they contain any oil pools. Similar shales in this country and abroad 

have been made to yield oil by distillation, and this industry might 

under favorable conditions be profitable here. Oil-bearing shales of 

Tertiary age occur in other parts of the country, as t in the Book 

Cliffs of Colorado and Utah.

Sandstone from the Tertiary beds near Elko has been used as a 

building stone, and there is a granite quarry some 30 miles to the 

north.

A mile and a half west of Elko, south of the railroad and across 

the river channel, is a group of buildings, including a hotel and bath 

houses, that mark the position of the hot springs above mentioned. 

The maui group of springs is well up on the lower slope, at the upper 

edge of a terrace near the foot of the steep mountain front. Others 

issue lower down, near the river channel. These springs are probably related to the zone of late faulting by which this mountain 

block has been uplifted. Waters derived from great depth may owe 

their heat to the higher temperatures generally found with increase 

in depth, to the fact that they have passed through or near some 

mass of intruded igneous rock, or to direct volcanic action. Faults 

along which there has been comparatively recent movement produce 

openings that allow such waters to reach the surface. Hot springs 

are found in many parts of the Great Basin.

1 Placer gold was found at Tuscarora in 

1867 and rich, silver veins were discovered 

several years later. In the seventies and 

eighties a number of silver mines were 

opened, and for several years a large production was maintained. Most of the ore 

was milled at Tuscarora, and only very 

high grade ore was shipped to smelters. 

The production of the district, chiefly in 

silver, is estimated to have been between 

$25,000,000 and $40,000,000, most of which 

was obtained between 1872 and 1886. In

recent years most of the mines have been 

closed.

Other camps of this general region are 

Bullion and Lone Mountain. Bullion, 

where the mining of silver and copper ores 

began 40 years or more ago, became inactive when the price of silver fell, but in 

1911 mining was resumed, and during the 

early part of 1914 ore was hauled by motor 

trucks to Palisade. Lone Mountain, 28 

miles north of Elko, shipped in 1913-14 

some ore yielding copper and silver.
OVERLAND ROUTE OGDEF TO SAN FRANCISCO.

West of Elko distinct river terraces show on the south side of the 

river. The Southern Pacific follows the upper edge of the meadow 

north of the river; the Western Pacific keeps closer to the stream.

Avenel (elevation 5,021 feet), Moleen (4,982 feet), Tonka (4,958 

feet), and Vivian (4,918 feet) are sidings or unimportant stations. 

After passing Moleen (between mileposts 545 and 544) the train runs 

southwestward down the narrowing valley, passing close to cliffs of 

massive blue limestone. The railroad here is approximately parallel 

with the trend or strike of the beds. At the entrance to Moleen 

Canyon the track turns sharply to the northwest and within the 

next mile or two passes a most interesting exposure of Carboniferous 

limestones and quartzites. The limestone is about 2,000 feet thick, 

although not all the beds are exposed in continuous section. The 

quartzite underlying the limestone is in beds which stand nearly 

vertical. The river here makes a sharp bend to the north, rounds 

a ridge of the quartzite, and returns on an almost parallel course on 

the other side. The railroad passes through this ridge in. a tunnel. 

Beneath the quartzite on the south side of the river lie slaty and 

heavy blue limestones, inclined 45° or 50° E., which extend along 

the south side of the valley as far west as Carlin. One of the shaly 

beds near the top of these lower limestone beds contains a little 

impure coal.

Beyond Tonka there is a tunnel and the Southern Pacific and 

Western Pacific tracks wind down the narrow canyon .together. The 

valley again broadens as Carlin is approached.

Just before reaching Carlin station the train passes an icing plant 

where the ice boxes of refrigerator cars are replenished in summer. 

Som'e of the ice thus used is cut near by, in vats in 

Carlin. which river water is allowed to freeze in. winter, and 

Elevation 4,898 feet, some is shipped from the Sierra Nevada. Carlin is 

a railroa(l division point with shops and engine houses. 

There are some ranches in the vicinity, and several 

mining camps along the east slope of the Cortez Range north of 

Humboldt River and west of Carlin. None of the mines, however, 

is extensively developed or has produced more than a few tons of ore.

The valley below Carlin is narrow and is bordered 011 the south by 

rounded, indistinctly terraced hills, passing into a low rolling country 

to the north. Beyond Tyrol (a sidetrack, elevation 4,876 feet) the 

valley becomes still narrower, and rusty-brown ledges of lava appear 

on both sides. This is the upper end of Palisade Canyon (PI. XXXV, 

p. 153), which within a short distance contracts until there is little 

room for more than the river and the railroads, hemmed in by the 

lava cliffs. Parts of the canyon wall show that the lava consists 

of a number of flows, indicating eruption at several distinct times.
168 GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES.

From the small' town of Palisade the narrow-gage Eureka & Palisade Railroad runs to Eureka/ one of the most famous of the old

mining camps of Nevada, 80 miles to the south.

The narrow-gage line goes up Pine Creek, the mouth

of which is passed just beyond the tunnel at Palisade.

Pine Creek valley trends due north, and irrigated

lands lie along it for 30 to 35 miles. 

Below Palisade the route continues down the canyon, which is 

wider and bounded by less steep walls than east of this town. The 

lavas, which all look much alike in general aspect, are chiefly basalt

Palisade.

Elevation 4,844 feet. 

Population 242.* 

Omaha 1,257 miles.

1 The first claims in the Eureka camp 

were located in 1864, but it was not until 

1869 that the Eureka mine was developed 

on Ruby Hill. From that time until the 

early eighties this was the most active 

mining camp in Nevada and had a population of about 6,000. Between 1869 and 

1883 the district yielded $60,000,000 in 

bullion, about one-third gold and twothirds silver, and about 225,000 short tons 

of lead. After 1878 the production declined. The lead Ores constituted the 

main source of gold and silver until 1910, 

since when the greater part of the precious 

metals has been derived from milling ore 

containing little or no lead.

The Eureka district comprises a rough, 

almost completely isolated mountain 

mass, and it is doubtful if within the 

Great Basin province there can be found 

any region of equally restricted area surpassing it in its exposures of Paleozoic 

formations, especially those of the lower 

and middle Paleozoic systems. The sedimentary formations represent all ages 

from Lower Cambrian to Pennsylvanian 

(see table on p. 2) and have a total thickness of 30,000 feet.

In post-Jurassic time the strata in this 

district, as elsewhere in Nevada, were 

crumpled into a series of folds, some, of 

them with very steep sides. The folding 

was followed by intense faulting. The 

more profound faults had a general 

northerly trend, and there were branches 

or connecting faults of northwesterly 

trend. Next came a long period of erosion. Tertiary time was marked by 

great volcanic activity, lavas (andesite,

rhyolite, and basalt) breaking up to the 

surface along certain of the larger faults.

The Ruby Hill ore deposits were found 

in a roughly V-shaped mass of shattered 

limestone between the main Ruby Hill 

fault and a branch fault which for the 

most part followed the contact of the 

limestone with quartzite. The shapes of 

some of the ore bodies suggest that they 

were formed by replacement along fractures, but as a whole they are very irregular. The minerals originally deposited 

in the limestone were pyrite, arsenopyrite, galena, at*d zinc blende, with minor 

amounts of molybdenite and other minerals, but the bulk of the ore mined was 

oxidized nearly down to ground-water 

level, which ranged from 600 to 1,100 feet 

below the surface. One of the principal 

kinds of ore, known as "red carbonate," 

was composed of a hydrous iron oxide 

mixed with sulphate and carbonate of 

lead and inclosing residual lumps of galena. Most of it carried gold and silver 

to the amount of $25 to $50 of each to the 

ton. In some of the ore, however, the 

gold was worth much more than the silver.

S.everal of the ore bodies in Prospect 

Mountain contained a large amount of 

quartz and a relatively larger proportion 

of gold to silver, with less lead. Some 

contained bismuth and tellurium.

According to J. S. Curtis. who studied 

the deposits in 1881 and 1882, the ores 

were deposited by hot volcanic waters 

which ascended along the fissures after the 

rhyolite eruptions. Curtis assumed that 

these waters had leached the metals from 

some deep-seated rock.
BULLETIN 612 SHEET No. 18

GEOLOGIC AND TOPOGRAPHIC MAP

OE1 THE

OVERLAND ROUTE

From Omaha. Nebraska, to San Francisco, California

Base compiled from United States Geological Survey Atlas Sheets, 

from railroad alignments and profiles supplied by the Union Pacific 

Railroad Company and the Southern Pacific Company and from additional information collected with the assistance of these companies

UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY

GEORGE OTIS SMITH, DIRECTOR 

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

1915

lie- ns'3o ; NEVADA

EXPLANATION

A Stream deposits (alluvium) and slopes of rock waste 

along mountain fronts

B Soft white friable sandstones, conglomerate, and volcanic 

ash (Humboldt formation); Pliocene

C Lavas (rhyolite, andesite, basalt, etc.): probably Miocene and Pliocene

D Thin-bedded shales, with bituminous layers, containing 

some coaly beds (Green River formation); Eocene

E Granite and other coarse-grained intrusive igneous 

rocks; probably Cretaceous

F Limestones, quartzite. and shale, undifferentiated; 

chiefly Carboniferous

Quaternary 

Tertiary

Mesozoic 

Paleozoic

> 

ttJ 

O

4:

500.000 

Approximately 8 miles to 1 inch 

5 10 15 20Miles

10 20 soKilometers

Contour interval 200 feet

ELEVATIONS Ifi FEET ABOVE MEAN SEA LEVEL

7he distances front Ornaha, Nebraska, are shown every 10 miles 

The crossties on the railroads are spaced 1 mile apart

40'

30'

lie- IIS °30'
THE OVERLAND ROUTE OGDEN TO SAN FRANCISCO. 169

Earth.

Omaha 1,262 miles.

and andesite. Not far beyond Palisade the Southern Pacific and 

Western Pacific tracks cross, but both lines still follow Humboldt 

River closely.

Gerald is a station just east of Barth.

Barth (see sheet 19, p. 170) is a sidetrack and shipping station near 

the lower end of Palisade Canyon. (See PI. XXXV, p. 153.) Just 

across the river there is an extensive deposit of iron 

ore, which has been developed for use as flux in the 

smelters in Utah. From 100 to 300 tons of iron 

ore has been shipped daily from this place for a number of years, the 

total shipments being more than 250,000 tons. 1 Besides the iron 

mine there are in the vicinity at least two other mines, the Onondaga and the Zenoli, about a mile south of Barth, which have produced $200,000 in silver from veins in andesite. The ores in addition 

to silver carry lead and copper.

About 2£ miles west of Barth the canyon opens into a broad valley 

with terraced floor. Harney and Cluro are stations in a somewhat 

unpromising looking stretch of country, with hard, white, clayey 

soil, deeply cut by gullies.

The old settlement at Beowawe (be-o-wah/we), which may be seen 

from the railroad, stands south of the station in a group of trees that 

is surrounded by cultivated land. The name, is said 

to be an Indian word meaning gate and was given 

to this place because of the peculiar shape of the hills 

near by, which present the effect of an open gateway 

up the valley to the canyon beyond. The settlement 

at the railroad is comparatively modern. It contains the power plant 

of the Buckhorn Mines Co., from which a transmission line goes to the 

company's mine and mill, about 35 miles to the southeast. The mine 

was opened about 1908 and is reported to be working a large body of 

low-grade gold-silver ore in Tertiary lava. Concentrates from the 

Buckhorn (Mill Canyon) district are shipped.by way of Palisade, 

but some ore from the Tenabo and Cortez districts, south of Beowawe, 

is shipped from this station. It is reported that 6,780 acres are 

under irrigation near Beowawe. The land is used for growing alfalfa 

and native hay and for pasture.

Leaving behind Beowawe, the railroad swings to the north. Across 

Whirlwind Valley to the south may be seen a white line, or terrace, 

against the distant mountain side. This.is a hot-spring deposit and,

Beowawe.

Elevation 4,695 feot. 

Population 155.* 

Omaha 1,274 miles.

1 This deposit of iron ore is mentioned 

in one of the reports of the Fortieth Parallel Survey. The ore is massive hematite, carrying from 60 to almost 70 per 

cent of iron. It is of high quality, its 

content of phosphorus,'though above the

Bessemer limit, being much less than 

that of the Alabama iron ores. The ore 

body, a mass about 200 feet in. diameter 

and about 80 feet deep or thick, has 

been described as a replacement deposit 

in andesite.
170 GUIDEBOOK OP THE WESTERN UNITED STATES.

like so many others in Nevada, is situated just below the steeper part 

of a mountain front. Here, as elsewhere, the spring has probably 

risen along the line of the fault or displacement which blocked out 

the mountains from the valley.

Ladoga, Farrel (elevation 4,626 feet), Mosel (4,583 feet), Argenta 

(4,553 feet), and Rosney are minor stations between Beowawer and 

Battle Mountain. The railroad passes around the north end of a broad 

lava plateau, and similar uplands are to be seen far across the valley 

to the north. As the train skirts the northern foothills of the plateau, 

the dark lava (basalt) may be seen close at hand. Beyond Argenta 

the train runs out into one of the most extensive valley areas along 

the Humboldt, the route traversing a broad expanse of plains far south 

of the main river channel.

The town of Battle Mountain was named after the mountain

to the southwest, where in the early sixties a band of gold seekers

B ttl M t ' attacked by Indians fortified themselves just south

of the prominent eastern ridge. Antler Peak is the

Elevation4,512feet. , ,, , ^ ,,-, ^ f , -i i j- -i Population878.* highest point on Battle Mountain visible irom the 

omaha 1,307 miles. train. The town is a distributing and shipping center 

for a number of well-known mining districts, the principal among 

which are the Austin 1 and Reese River districts. It is the northern 

terminal of the narrow-gage Nevada Central Railroad, which runs 

south 93 miles to the old town of Austin, the seat of Lander County. 

Probably more than $50,000,000 worth of silver has been taken from

.' Austin has a population of about 1,000 

and supplies an extensive grain and stock 

ranching territory along Reese River and 

in the Smoky Valley. It is the starting 

point for a number of stage lines into 

central Nevada.

The discovery of ore near Austin is said 

to date from May 2, 1862, when William 

Talcott, one of the riders of the Pony Express, on his regular trip to Virginia City 

picked up a piece of the rock along his 

route and had it assayed. On his return 

he located the Pony claim. Eight days 

later the Reese mining district was organized, and the fame of Lander and Union 

hills soon brought thousands of prospectors to the camp.

The ore about Austin is in narrow veins 

in granite (a porphyritic monzonite). 

The veins consist of quartz and rhodochrosite through which the metallic 

minerals (tetrahedrite, pyrargyrite, proustite, stephanite, polybasite, galena, sphalerite, pyrite, and chalcopyrite) are distributed. The first five minerals named 

are rich ores of silver containing also antimony or arsenic and copper with sulphur; galena, sphalerite, and chalcopyrite are ores of lead, zinc, and copper, respectively. The veins run northwest and 

dip 15° to 45° NE. They are closely 

spaced, and several may occur in the 

breadth of a claim (600 feet). They have 

been displaced in a remarkable manner by 

parallel north-south faults that dip to the 

west. All these faults are normal that 

is, the ground west of the fault has sunk 

with respect to that on the east side. 

The granite on bofli sides of the veins has 

been decomposed and bleached by the 

solutions that deposited the ores. Mining 

in these small faulted veins has been 

costly, but miles of underground tunneling attest the value of the ore, which has 

been found in rather regularly distributed shoots.
BULLETIN 612 SHEET NO. 19

116*30- NEVADA

GEOLOGIC AND TOPOGRAPHIC MAP

OF THE

OVEKLAND ROUTE

From Omaha, Nebraska, to San Francisco, California

Base compiled from United States Geological Survey Atlas Sheets, 

from railroad alignments and profiles supplied by the Union Pacific 

Railroad Company and the Southern Pacific Company and from additional information collected with the assistance of these companies

UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURYEY

GEORGE OTIS SMITH, DIRECTOR 

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

1915

Each quadrangle shown on ike map with a name in parenthesis in the 

lower left comer is mapped in detail on the U. S. G. S. Topographic 

sheet of that name.

EXPLANATION 

A Stream deposits (alluvium) and wash from hillsides

Soft white friable sandstones, conglome; 

ash ; Humboldt formation): Pliocene

Lava trhyolite and andesite"; probably Miocene or

Pliocene 

Lava (basalt); probably Miocene or Pliocene

ON 

jm

 at*

lillsides

and volcanic

Miocene or

cene 

> rocks ; probably

iting layers '. Star

nterlayered with

tion); Triassic

; Carboniferous

un<

Quaternary

- Tertiary

Mesozoic

Quartzite > Paleozoic (iveber); Carboniferous

/ / / /MS Y/fi\^$M

Scale 

Approximately

Contour interval 200 feet

ELEVATIONS IN FEET ABOVE MEAN SEA LEVEL

The distances from Omaha, Nebraska, are shown every 10 miles 

The crossties on the railroads are spaced 1 mile apart
THE OVERLAND ROUTE OGDEN TO SAN" FRANCISCO. 171

this district alone. Among the producing mining camps adjacent to 

Battle Mountain are those of the Mayesville, Kimberly, and Hilltop 

districts, 20 miles southeast. Deposits of lead, copper, silver, and 

gold occur in the mountains to the southwest and recently placer 

gold has been obtained on the south side of the mountain. Five or 

six million dollars' worth of ore has been taken from the various 

mining camps about Battle Mountain.1

From Argenta, 10 miles east of Battle Mountain, to the canyon 

above Golconda, the river and railroads pass through an extensive 

valley about 45 miles long and from 10 to 20 miles wide. Although 

most of the land along the river has been taken up, several thousand 

acres that lie at some distance from the river and that lack a water 

supply is still under Government ownership.

Piute (elevation 4,509 feet), Valmy (4,507 feet), Stonehouse (4,451 

feet), Herrin (4,408 feet), Iron Point (4,390 feet), Comus, and Preble 

(see sheet 20, p. 178) are minor stations passed in turn. Stock and 

hay raising are the chief industries in this vicinity. Stonehouse was 

a station on the Overland Stage route! The name refers to an old 

stone building near a spring at the foot of the Battle Mountain Kange. 

Conflicts with the Piute Indians occurred hereabouts, and there are 

many graves in the vicinity. Beyond Stonehouse the railroad 

approaches the foothills of lava and cuts through some of the lower 

spurs. These sheets of lava with some interbedded softer rocks have 

been broken by faults, and the resulting blocks have been tilted up 

into ridges having abrupt, broken fronts and gradual back slopes. 

Several such ridges are passed in succession.

At Preble Humboldt River enters another canyon, which extends 

through the Hot Springs Range. Just east of Preble, above the 

upper end of the canyon, may be seen bluffs of black shale with some 

fractured and iron-stained limestone. West of Preble the limestone, 

which is exposed in railroad cuts, is in thick dark-bluish beds with 

veinlets of white calcite, separated by some thick layers of shale. 

These strata dip toward the east, and their general trend is southwest, 

so that the railroad crosses them. The rocks belong, at least for the 

most part, to the Star Peak formation, of Triassic age. Rocks of 

this formation make up a large part of the Humboldt and other 

ranges, to be passed later, though there will be no other opportunity 

to see them so close at hand.

1 The ores of the Battle Mountain dis- deposits. The main vein deposits are of

trict occur in veins in sedimentary rocks, two types pyritic gold quartz veins and

as replacements of calcareous parts of galena-silver-calcite veins. Copper has

dark shales, or in . contact-metamorphic been obtained from veins of both types.
172 GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES.

Golconda.

Elevation 4,389 feet. 

Population 430.* 

Omaha 1,349 miles.

Golconda, another old stage station, is a warm-spring resort and a 

supply point for numerous mining camps. In 1897 a smelter and a 

concentration mill were built at Golconda to treat 

the copper ores from the Adelaide mine * about 12 

miles to the south. The ore proved difficult to treat, 

and the mill, in which several processes were tried, 

is no longer used. It stands north of the track. The 

Pequart mine, an early producer, is about 6 miles south of Golconda, 

and there is a gold mine in the lone conical hill about 2 miles south of 

the station. Ranches stretch along the river below Golconda. The 

crops raised are alfalfa, native hay, and potatoes.

The elevation of Golconda is almost exactly that of the highest 

level attained by Lake Lahontan,2 already referred to as having 

spread over a large part of northwestern Nevada. The history of this 

great lake is analogous to that of Lake Bonneville, in Utah, already 

described (pp. 97-99 and fig. 10, p. 82).

The Overland Route passes across the basin of Lake Lahontan at 

what is nearly its widest part. For 177-miles from a point in the 

Humboldt River valley near Golconda to a point in Truckee Canyon 

about 15 miles beyond Wadsworth or Fernley, the tram passes over 

the bed of this extinct lake, and many of the features of the landscape

1 The Gold Bun district, in which, the 

most important mine is the Adelaide, 'is 

on the east slope of the northern part of 

the Sonoma Range the Ha vail ah Range 

of the Fortieth Parallel Survey reports. 

The district was organized in 1866.

The ore is a replacement of limestone 

and contains copper, zinc, and a little 

lead (pyrrhotite, chalcopyrite, sphalerite, 

and galena with garnet, pyroxene, etc.). 

The general country rock is dark calcareous slate (Star Peak) of Triassic age.

2 The large lake which flooded a number of the valleys of northwestern Nevada 

at a very recent geologic date but has now 

passed away was named Lake Lahontan in 

honor of Baron La Horitan, one of the 

early explorers of the headwaters of the 

Mississippi. The lake covered approximately 8,400 square miles at its greatest 

expansion, and in its deepest part, the 

present site of Pyramid Lake, it was at 

least 880 feet deep that is, its surface 

stood approximately 500 feet above the 

present water surface of Pyramid Lake. 

The ancient lake had no outlet except the 

one that led straight up, its waters being 

dissipated entirely by evaporation.

'Fluctuations of the water level in these 

ancient lakes undoubtedly record climatic changes. It has been generally 

concluded that the periods of lake expansion were related to the stages of ice 

extension in the glacial epoch, or more 

specifically that their waters rose to their 

highest levels during the period when 

the glaciers were retreating from their 

farthest advance.

With the decrease of w.ater supply the 

lake level has fallen, and in many parts 

of the basin the water has almost or entirely disappeared. Traces of former 

levels remain, however, in the form of 

elevated beaches. As the lake fell, 

ridges emerged and separated it into 

smaller units. Some of these minor 

basins are now essentially dry, although 

the lowest parts are periodically flooded 

to shallow depths during rains. When 

these areas dry up they show almost level 

floors with smooth mud surfaces, which 

check or crack in the dry air. These are 

the so-called mud lakes or playas, which 

are in some basins very extensive. The 

basins that are still fed by perennial 

streams contain lakes.
THE OVERLAND ROUTE OGDEN TO SAN FRANCISCO. 173

and some of the rocks seen in the valleys along the route are evidences 

of its former presence. The mountain ranges stood as islands or peninsulas in this body of6 water, and when the eye is trained to recognize them the old shore lines can be traced from point to point along 

the slopes.

Between Golconda and Humboldt Lake Humboldt River flows in a 

trench that it has excavated in Lake Lahontan sediments since the 

last drying up of the ancient lake. For a number of miles below 

Golconda the river is practically a surface stream flowing between 

low banks of marly clay belonging to the upper part of the lake deposits. At Mill City its channel begins to deepen, and at Rye Patch 

the river is a little over 200 feet below the general level of the desert. 

The general appearance of the trench cut by the river in the lake 

sediments is shown in Plate XXXVII (p. 177). The threefold division 

of the strata exposed in the steep banks (upper lake clays, 1 medial 

gravels, and lower lake clays) is easily distinguished where the beds 

are not obscured by d6bris. Below Rye Patch the banks decrease in 

height, and south of Oreana they are in few places over 40 or 50 feet 

high. The total thickness of the section thus exposed is not much 

over 200 feet. Borings in the desert valleys, however, have developed 

the fact that sediments of similar character occupy the rock troughs 

between the mountain ranges, in many places to very great depths, 

probably thousands of feet. No way has been devised of determining 

how mu(5h of this filling was deposited in the Quaternary lake and how 

much may be older, possibly of Tertiary age.

Beyond Golconda the brown, rusty-colored ranges on both sides 

of the railroad, having characteristic sharp and ragged peaks and 

ledgy slopes, afford good exposures of the early Mesozoic shales and 

limestones, very generally associated with lavas.

Eglon and Tule (elevation 4,325 feet) are unimportant stations 

west of Golconda. Beyond Eglon the railroad bends close around the 

foothills on the south and is here far enough above the valley .to afford 

an extended view to the north, over Paradise Valley, which is drained 

by Little Humboldt River. Little use appears to have been made of 

the lower part of this valley except for grazing and for cutting wild

According to I. C. Russell, mammalian bones were obtained at a number of 

localities in the sides of the Humboldt 

and Walker River canyons and, with the 

exception of a single vertebra found in 

the medial gravels, were derived from the 

upper lake beds. So far as determined 

they include an elephant or mastodon, a 

horse, an ox, and a camel. The fossils 

are usually scattered through the sediments, more than one or two bones of the

same individual being seldom found at a 

single locality, though the elephant or 

mastodon bones obtained in the Humboldt Canyon near Rye Patch constitute 

nearly an entire skeleton. Many of the 

bones had been removed as curiosities, 

however, before the collections that were 

submitted to.study were obtained. Recently similar remains have been found 

in the beach or bar deposits of the former 

lake near the north .end of Pyramid Lake.
174 GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES.

Winnemucca.

Elevation 4,334 feet. 

Population 1,786.* 

Omaha 1,365 miles.

grasses for hay. Beyond Paradise Valley the Southern Pacific turns 

and for a long distance pursues a general course to the southwest. 

On the right, ahead, Winnemucca Peak projects like an island from 

the desert plains. A whitish band along its base is the edge of an 

extensive area of sand dunes.1

. The town of Winnemucca, named for a chief of the Piute tribe, is 

the seat of Humboldt County and serves an extensive ranching and 

mining country. It was originally a small trading 

station, established in 1850, on the emigrant route to 

California and was then known as French Ford. Before the Oregon Short Line was built Winnemucca 

was the gateway to the whole of southern Idaho. 

The Southern Pacific and Western Pacific railroads pass through the 

town about a mile apart, and Humboldt River flows between them. 

The agricultural and stock-raising districts tributary to Winnemucca 

include Paradise Valley, to the northeast, and the Quinn River valley, to the north. Of less importance are the narrow bottoms along 

the Humboldt above and below the town, on which the chief crop is 

wild hay.

The National mining district, 2 in the Santa Rosa Range, about 70 

miles north of Winnemucca, is reached from that town by stage. 

The National mine is noted for the occurrence of a remarkably rich 

shoot of ore, which has yielded about $4,000,000.

After leaving Winnemucca the train runs straight down the valley 

of Humboldt River for several miles, in a course parallel to the river

1 A large area a few miles north of Winnemucca is covered with sand dunes 

.formed since the disappearance of Lake 

Lahontan. This belt of drifting sand extends westward from the lower part of 

Little Humboldt Valley to the desert between Black Butte and the Dona Schee 

Hills and is about 40 miles long from east 

to west and 8 or 10 miles wide. The 

dunes are fully 75 feet thick, and their 

steeper slopes are on the east side, thus 

indicating that the whole vast field of 

sand is slowly traveling eastward. This 

progress has necessitated a number of 

changes in the roads in the southern part 

of Little Humboldt Valley during recent 

years. In some places in this region the 

telegraph poles have been buried so 

deeply that they have had to be spliced 

in order to keep the wires above the crests 

of the dunes. The sand is of a light 

creamy-yellow color and forms beautifully curved ridges and waves that are 

covered with a fretwork of wind ripples, 

and many of these ridges are marked in 

the most curious manner by the footprints of animals, which form strange 

hieroglyphics that are sometimes difficult to translate. ~

2 The gold-silver deposits at National 

were discovered in 1907. The most prominent and widespread rock in the district 

is basalt, which occurs in a thick series of 

flows and is probably of Miocene age. 

The principal ore deposits, however, are 

associated with older Tertiary lavas, especially with rhyolite and an andesitic 

rock (latite). The veins were deposited 

by hot waters soon after the eruption of 

the rhyolite. They carry quartz, stibnite 

(sulphide of antimony), free gold alloyed 

with silver, and other less abundant or 

less characteristic minerals. Some veins 

occur also in older rocks.
THE OVERLAND ROUTE OGDEN TO SAN FRANCISCO. 175

but high on the terraces along its south side. Grass Valley, an extensive depression between the Sonoma Range on the east and the East 

Range on the west, opens on the Humboldt Valley from the south 

just west of Winnemucca. From the rear platform the town is seen 

to stand on a broad, flat, brush-covered alluvial slope, leading down 

from the mountains on the east to the river channel at the very foot 

of Winnemucca Mountain. The river bottom lands are but narrow 

strips, where wild grass is cut for hay.

Beyond Rose Creek (elevation 4,324 feet) the two railroad lines 

diverge, the Western Pacific taking a route which lies north of the 

Southern Pacific route and passing out of the valley of Humboldt 

River.

From Mill City, which was for a long time an important supply 

and shipping station, roads lead to Bloody Canyon, 

Star City, Unionville, Chafey (formerly Dun Glen), and 

other camps that were of note in early days. 1 Most 

of these camps are south of the railroad.

The valley of Humboldt River in its course through 

the old Lake Lahontan sediments takes on a more desolate aspect as 

the river becomes more deeply intrenched in these barren clays. Apparently no utilization of the narrow river bottoms is attempted here, 

and the channel, swinging off to the northwest, is soon lost to view 

from the railroad.

Mill City.

Elevation 4,233 feet. 

Population 153.* 

Oinaha 1,393 miles.

1 The discovery of a rich body of silver 

ore close to the surface in the Sheba mine, 

on the east side of the West Humboldt 

Range, due south of Mill City, led to the 

rapid growth of Star City from 1861 to 

1865. The town had two hotels, express 

and telegraph offices, daily mails, and a 

population estimated at about 1,000. 

This was before the building of the railroad, and all supplies were hauled by 

wagon from Marysville or Sacramento, 

Cal. In 1871 the town was reported as 

nearly abandoned. At Unionville there 

are extensive mine workings dating back 

to about the same time. Mills were built 

here at "an early date, and from 1860 to 

1880 Unionville, although perhaps rivaled 

or surpassed for a short time by Star City, 

was on the whole the most important 

town in the region, as it was the local supply point for many smaller communities 

in neighboring mining districts. There 

was considerable activity during the same 

period near Dun Glen (now known as 

Chafey).

The Kennedy district, 50 miles south 

of Winnemucca and about 45 miles by 

road from Mill City, lies on the east side 

of the Stillwater Range, and first attracted 

attention in 1890. Kennedy soon became 

a flourishing town, mills were built, and 

considerable work was done in several 

mines. After the oxidized pay shoots 

were exhausted the amalgamation mills 

proved unfit for coping with the complex 

gold-silver-lead ores, and since 1904 the 

district has sunk into obscurity. The 

total output has been estimated at 

$120,000.

The mines in the West Humboldt 

Range have yielded far more silver than 

gold. Most of them were opened and 

were worked extensively before the completion of the railroad. The great improvement in mining facilities brought 

about by railroad communication was not 

sufficient to offset the diminution in tenor 

of the ore bodies below their enriched 

portions and the decline in the price of 

silver, 
176 GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES.

Imlay.

Elevation 4,197 feet. 

Population 326.* 

Omaha 1,398 miles.

Imlay, a town of recent establishment, is a railroad division point. 

With its growth Mill City has declined. Due south of Imlay is the 

north end of the West Humboldt Range, the northern and higher part of which is also known as the Star 

Peak Range. Here is an excellent example of the 

characteristically abrupt termination of the basin 

ranges. The smooth, gradual slope of the alluvial 

plain sweeps up to the very foot of the mountain front, and foothills 

proper are lacking.

South of Imlay a fairly abundant supply of good water is found 

in springs near the base of the mountains and piped down to the railroad. The natural flow from such springs never reaches far beyond 

the base of the mountain, as the water rapidly sinks in the loose soil 

or rocky detritus of the piedmont plains. From Imlay to Humboldt 

the railroad curves around the north end of the Star Peak Range and 

then, turning almost due south, keeps the west- side of this rugged 

mountain mass in full view. (See PL XXXVI, A.}

At Humboldt station is Humboldt House, an old hotel building 

that was formerly a meal station on the railroad. A good, supply of 

pure water is brought down in pipes from the mountains southwest of Humboldt, making the place an

Elevation 4,238 feet. oasis wjtk treeg an(} green ft^Jg ^Q J^^y quickOmaha 1,405 miles. .. ' . . . _, _ ° -. 1 -i i

silver mine is in Mdorado Canyon, about 8 miles southeast of Humboldt.

The Star Peak Range 1 is rather-regular in outline and is about 

75 miles long. On the south it is separated by a low pass (Cole

Humboldt.

1 The Star Peak Range is made up of 

great masses of Triassic rocks belonging 

to two formations, the Star Peak and the 

Koipato. The Star Peak formation, the 

younger of the two, occupies mainly the 

northern half of the Star Peak Range and 

has an estimated thickness of 10,000 feet. 

It is made up of quartzite, limestone, and 

slates, among which have been found fossil remains of both Middle and Upper 

Triassic vertebrate and invertebrate animals. These rocks are overlain conformably by limestone and dark slates 

containing Jurassic fossils. The underlying Koipato rocks, so called from the Indian name of the west Humboldt Range, 

form a considerable part of the southern 

half of the Star Peak Range. The Koipato 

formation was originally described as 

consisting chiefly of beds of quartzite 

(silicified sandstone) overlain by interstratified beds of limestone, quartzite,

and "felsitic porphyroids"," and as having an estimated thickness of 6,000 feet. 

According to later determinations, however, the Koipato consists chiefly of lava 

flows (rhyolite) with subordinate nonvolcanic sediments, including limestones. 

Much of the rock originally taken to be 

quartzite is actually rhyolite.

The Triassic slates and limestones of 

the West Humboldt Range are noted for 

the abundant and well-preserved fossils 

found in them. These comprise skeletons of ichthyosaurs ("fish lizards," extinct marine animals of large size), spines 

and teeth of extinct types of sharks, and 

numbers of the coiled shells known as 

ammonites.

On the lower slopes of the Star Peak 

Range are considerable bodies of Tertiary 

rhyolite and basalt, with which occur related beds of .tuffs or other water-laid 

sediments of about the same age.
U. S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY BULLETIN 612 PLATE XXXVI

A. SNOW ON THE NORTH END OF THE HUMBOLDT MOUNTAINS. 

View from a point near Imlay, Nev. Photograph furnished by Southern Pacific Co.

B. HOT SPRING NEAR ELKO, NEV. 

Photograph furnished by Southern Pacific Co.
U. 8. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY 

CHANNEL OF HUMBOLDT RIVER NEAR RYE PATCH, NEV., EXCAVATED IN 

Photograph furnished by Southern Pac
THE OVERLAND ROUTE OG0EN TO SAN FRANCISCO. 177

Canyon) from the much lower southern division of the West Humboldt Range, sometimes called the. Humboldt Lake Mountains. The 

Star Peak Range culminates in Star Peak, about 10,000 feet above 

sea level. At its south end is Buffalo Peak, about 8,400 feet in elevation. All along the rugged slopes facing the railroad and also on the 

opposite side of the range are prospects and mines. One mine, the 

Star Peak, which is being worked, is almost at the summit of the peak 

whose name it bears. The Rosebud district, about 28 miles northwest of Humboldt, or 35 miles north of Mill City, was the site of a 

boom that followed the discovery of ore there in 1906. A town was 

rapidly built, to be as quickly abandoned.

Some mounds about half a mile south of Humboldt, on the right 

(west) side of the Southern Pacific track, are composed principally of 

calcareous tufa. Each mound has an opening at the top lined 

with crystallized gypsum and sulphur. These deposits were undoubtedly made by hot springs that are now extinct. Small pits 

and an old retort just west of Humboldt mark the site of some old 

works on these sulphur deposits, but the supply was evidently too 

small to be of economic importance.

Beyond Humboldt the railroad continues down the east side of the 

valley over a broad, gently sloping plain of stony detritus and sand, 

washed down from the mountains. Valery is a sidetrack and loading 

platform for the Star Peak mine. The mining camp may be seen by 

looking sharply at the 'right-hand end of a long, dark rocky ridge near 

the crest of the range. A deep cut along the railroad at milepost 373 

exposes a sand and gravel bar, a beach deposit of Lake Lahontan. 

The old beach lines may readily be traced along the hillsides, particularly late in the .afternoon of a clear day. From the rear platform 

there .is now a fine view of the higher part of the West Humboldt 

Range, which shows a lofty continuous crest with exceedingly steep 

rocky slopes that contrast sharply with the smoothly graded alluvial 

fans that spread out from the canyon mouths and coalesce into a 

gently sloping plain reaching down to the river.

The old hotel building which serves as the station called Rye Patch

is a relic of the boom days of the old Rye Patch mine. The name

Rye Patch refers to the wild rye grass that formerly

Rye Patch. grew abundantly about the place. The Rye Patch

mine' about 5 miles east of the-station, produced 

much silver ore in the early seventies, but has lain 

idle for over 20 years. Lately a cyanide plant has been installed, 

and th'e old dump is being reworked. The ore occurred in limestone, 

probably of Triassic age. 

After passing Rye Patch the train runs nearly due south, the track 

lying well up on the broad, gently sloping alluvial plain between 

02213° Bull, 012 15 12
178 GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES.

Nenzel.

Humboldt River on the west and the West Humboldt Range on the

east. (See PI. XXXVII.) Beyond Rye Patch is Zola. 

Nenzel, which until recently was called Nixon (see sheet 21, p. 184),

is near the site of the old town of Oreana; noted as being the place 

where silver-lead smelting was first successfully 

carried on in Nevada. Oreana has been referred to

Elevation 4,i85 feet. ^ fae birthplace of silver-lead smelting west of the

Omaha 1,424 miles. i >r i / T i

Rocky Mountains, but some lead was produced 

earlier at Argenta, Mont. The Nevada ore that was first smelted at 

Oreana in 1867 came from the Montezuma mine, in the Trinity 

Mountains, west of the railroadNenzel is now a supply station for the new camp of Rochester. A 

branch railroad, the Nevada Short Line, extends from Nenzel for 5 

miles to the mountain foot, but the mines and settlement are high 

up on the Star Peak Range. As late as August, 1912, Joseph Nenzel 

relocated some old claims in this district and discovered the ore which 

has made it a producing district. A small shipment of ore -made in 

August was followed by the discovery of larger bodies later in the 

year. In less than a month the hitherto desolate canyon had a 

population of more than 2,000 people and contained many substantial 

two-story buildings. The total production to September, 1914, is 

reported to be over $1,200,000.* In the early days Rochester 

Canyon and the adjacent ravines yielded considerable placer gold that 

must have been derived from the disintegration of the gold-bearing 

veins on the mountain slopes above.

The West Humboldt Range is divided southeast of Nenzel by a low 

pass, Cole Canyon, which crosses the range obliquely. This pass 

separates the Star Peak division of the range from the lower Humboldt Lake division. The pass probably marks the place where a 

fault, which runs along the west base of the Star Peak Range and 

has caused the elevation of that block, swings across the range to the 

south. If so, the Star Peak and Humboldt Lake ranges are distinct 

in structure as well as in form. Traces of recent fault movement can 

be found also along the alluvial slopes at the west base of the Humboldt Lake Range.

Below Nenzel the train again approaches the river, and the deep 

trench cut by the river into Lake Lahontan clays is well exhibited to 

the traveler. Some of the artificial cuts along the railroad are also 

in these lake-deposited clays, which are capped by gravelly beach

1 The ores of the Rochester district are 

found in rocks which were classed by 

the early geologic surveys as Triassic 

(Koipato) sedimentary rocks, but which 

have now been identified as mainly lavas 

(rhyolite and some other varieties). The

silver-lead ores containing antimony were 

deposited along zones of parallel cracks 

in rhyolite. The valuable metals occur 

with quartz, in the form of argentite, 

cerargyrite, proustite, and pyrargyrite 

(all silver minerals), and native gold.
BULLETIN 612 SHEET No. 20

GEOLOGIC AND TOPOGRAPHIC MAP

OF THE

OVERLAND EOUTE

From Omaha, Nebraska, to San Francisco, California

Base compiled from United States Geological Survey Atlas Sheets, 

from railroad alignments and proflles supplied by the Union Paciflc 

Railroad Company and the Southern Pacific Company and from additional information collected -with the assistance of these companies

UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY

GEORGE OTIS SMITH, DIRECTOR 

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

1915

Each quadrangle shown on the map with a name in parenthesis in the 

lower left corner is mapped in detail on the U. S. G. S. Topographic 

sheet of that name.

11730' NEVADA

500.000 

Approximately 8 miles to 1 inch

"?, . , , '? .

Contour interval 200 feet

ELEVATIONS IN FEET ABOVE MEAN SEA LEVEL

The distances from Omaha, Nebraska, are shou'ti every 10 miles 

The crossties on the railroads are svaced 1 mile apart

EXPLANATION 

(alluvium) and sediment? of Lake

th. volcanic sands and tuft's, an

ith some associated lava flows (Truckee

ocene

andesite): probablv Miocene o

a (basalt); probably Miocene or Pliocene

other coarse-grained intrusive igneous 

bably Cretaceous

massive limestone at bottom: Jurass

Limestone and quartzite, in thick alternating layers (Star 

Peak formation): Triassir

(mostly rhyolitic), interlayered « 

estone (Koipato formation); Triassic

ne of Lake Lahontan indicated thus -
THE OVERLAND EOUTE OGDEN TO SAN" FRANCISCO. 179

Kodak.

Elevation 4,014 feet. 

Omaha 1,433 miles.

deposits. The gravel in places slides down over the clays and conceals them.

Beyond Woolsey, a siding and section house, the upper beaches of 

Lake Lahontan are very distinct, especially in evening light. The 

railroad now begins to descend to the broadening bottom lands of 

Lovelock Valley, with its trees, fields,'and ranch buildings.

Kodak is a sidetrack from which gypsum was formerly shipped 

to a plaster mill at Reno, and fragments of the gypsum rock are 

strewn along the railroad. They are of granular 

texture, like loaf sugar, and some portions show 

distinct lamination or banding. The deposit is an 

immense mass that forms a bare bluff of light-colored 

material in the low slopes of the Humboldt Lake Range opposite 

Kodak. It is evidently an interbedded layer in the Triassic sedimentary series, probably a. chemical deposit formed in Triassic time 

in a comparatively small basin. Deposits of gypsum were laid down 

over very extensive areas during Triassic and Permian time in other 

parts of the country, indicating widespread conditions of aridity in 

those periods.

Lovelock and the adjacent Lovelock Valley, the lower 16 or 18 

miles of the valley occupied by Humboldt River above Humboldt 

Lake, constitute one of the most prosperous agricultural settlements of Nevada. Lovelock is also 

the railroad and supply point for a number of mining 

districts. At present its principal industries are 

connected with the raising of sheep and cattle and 

especially the winter feeding of stock. The river is 15 to 25 feet 

below the general level of the cultivated flood plain, so that it is 

necessary to bring the water for irrigation in ditches from points 

upstream. In 1900 about 14,000 acres were irrigated, and a little 

over half of this area was in alfalfa. Wheat, barley, and potatoes 

are also grown, and the town has a flour mill.

Of the mining camps which are generally reached by way of Lovelock, Seven Troughs,1 a gold camp, is at present the most -important. 

North of Lovelock, in the Trinity Mountains, is the Montezuma 

mine, which supplied antimonial lead-silver ore to the Oreana smelter 

in the sixties. There are a number of antimony deposits in the

Lovelock.

Elevation 3,979 feet. 

Population 1,421.* 

Omaha 1,438 miles.

1 The Seven Troughs district, including 

four little towns, Seven Troughs, Vernon, 

Mazunia, and Farrell, is about 30 miles 

northwest of Lovelock and lie.s on the 

east slope of a minor range now generally 

known as the Seven Troughs Mountains. 

It is one of the more recent camps, not 

much prospecting having been done here 

before 1905 or 1907, The ores are in

Tertiary volcanic rocks and occur in 

veins of soft, crushed material which 

does not crop out at the surface. The 

veins carry native gold containing .a 

considerable proportion of silver, in 

sugary quartz. Some very rich ore has 

been found in this district, and some 

of the mines have yielded considerable 

returns.
180 GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES.

mountains-hereabout, one of them in the West Humboldt Range a 

few miles east of Lovelock. Nickel and cobalt deposits, not now 

worked, occur in the Stillwater Range about 30 miles southeast of 

Lovelock. A little niter has been found in this neighborhood, chiefly 

in the Humboldt Lake Range. 1

From Lovelock the railroad continues down to the west side of 

the Humboldt Valley, at first through broad fields of hay and grain. 

At Perth (a sidetrack) there is a very large pit from which gravel 

has been taken for grading along the railroad. The gravel here, as 

at other places in this part of Nevada, is one of the old beach deposits 

of Lake Lahontan. Shore terraces, which are in many places very 

distinct, may be seen here on both sides of the valley.

Beyond the cultivated region the low irregular valley surface consists of a mixture of clay and sand in dunelike form, the lumpy 

surface being due more or less to the growth of brush and to consequent local protection from the wind. The yellowish-green brush 

that covers the country is greasewood (Sarcobatus), which seems to 

prefer ground that is otherwise unproductive.

Granite Point (elevation 3,973 feet), a railroad siding and group of 

section houses, is named from a rocky bluff that projects into the 

west side of the valley below Lovelock. It is horizontally scored by 

the upper Lake Lahontan terraces. Below this point the valley is 

more barren, the hard white clay in the low-lying ground supporting 

only isolated clumps of greasewood.

Humboldt Lake, a water body of irregular outline and variable 

area which receives the surplus drainage of Humboldt River, comes 

into view at or a little southwest of milepost 334. It is on the left 

(east) of the railroad, at the bottom of a broad, smoothly graded

wash slope. The level and size of the lake vary greatly with the 

seasons. At tunes of high water it overflows into Carson Sink. At 

other times, however, evaporation exceeds the supply and the lake 

decreases in size. The water is not densely saline, as it is partly

1 Saltpeter, or niter, which is a necessary constituent in the manufacture of 

most gunpowders and is also very largely 

used for fertilizers and for other purposes, 

has been found in small quantities in 

many places in the United States, although practically the entire supply of 

these salts now used in this country is 

obtained from Chile. Niter was discovered in the foothills bordering the Lovelock Valley at about the time of the first 

coming of the railroad through this part 

of the country, and the possibility of developing a local supply of these important salts has ever since been a source of 

intermittent interest. Incrustations of 

salt containing in some places a considerable proportion of sodium nitrate are 

found on some of the fractured cliffs and 

ledges of volcanic rock just above the 

edge of the valley land south and southeast of Lovelock. Continued exploration 

and experimentation in these districts 

have, however, failed to discover any 

mass of niter-bearing material of sufficient 

volume and richness to justify or encourage an enterprise for its commercial development;
THE OVERLAND ROUTE OGDEN TO SAN FRANCISCO. 181

freshened by occasional overflow into the final "evaporation pan" of 

the Carson Desert.

Beyond Toulon (a sidetrack) the railroad gradually approaches 

the lake. There is no cultivation of the ground about here, nor any 

settlement other than that represented by the railroad section 

houses. At high water a narrow ridge parallel to the railroad appears 

as a long tongue' of land that extends out into the lake parallel to 

the shore. A telephone line runs down the valley, and very commonly 

the poles here stand well out in the water. These poles were set 

when this part of the valley was dry, but the wire was later put on 

them from boats.

The Humboldt Lake Range, at the east side of the valley, dwindles to a long, narrow ridge extending off to the southwest. Over 

this summit, beyond its southwesternmost point, lies the Carson 

Desert, one of the most extensive of the Nevada desert valleys, and' 

its saline lake, Carson Sink.

Toy (formerly Brown's station), a group of railroad section houses, 

stands just above the edge of Humboldt Lake at high water. A little 

beyond this place the railroad crosses the line between 

Toy- Humboldt and Churchill counties. In the hills northwest of Miriam (a siding) a deposit of scheelite 1 

 was recently found.

The basin of Humboldt Lake is partly closed at its lower or 

southwest end by a remarkable gravel embankment which looks 

like a great artificial dam. Just beyond milepost 323 the railroad 

passes through one end of this embankment in a deep cut that 

exposes well the character and attitude- of the beds of which it is 

built. The embankment is clearly one of the beaches or bars of 

former Lake Lahontan. Such bars are formed by waves and currents in lakes or along the seashore at the present time. This embankment, now high above any recent water level, with even crest 

and smoothly curving front in its sweep across the valley, is a 

striking topographic feature.

The embankment is cut across in one place near its south end by 

the overflow from Humboldt Lake. The breach has been partly 

repaired by an artificial dam which largely increases the area of the 

lake and, it is stated, furnishes power for mining and milling. Humboldt Lake overflows only a part of the time, but at very high water 

a considerable stream passes from it to Carson Sink. The breach 

through which it overflows can be seen from the train by looking 

back after the embankment has been passed. The embankment is

Elevation 3,930 feet. 

Omaha 1,453 miles.

1 Scheelite (tungstate of calcium) is a 

very heavy mineral, which is ordinarily 

found in veins in crystalline rocks. It 

is an ore of tungsten, a metal that is used

to form an alloy with steel, made for uses 

requiring great hardness. Tungsten is 

also employed in making filaments for 

electric lights.
182 . GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES.

more or less concave toward the valleys on both the upper and lower 

sides, but the backward view from the lower side best shows its form.

The railroad crosses and recrosses the overflow channel, traversing 

broad stretches of bare white mud and irregular areas of lumpy 

ground built up from white sand and clay. About 2 miles beyond 

Ocala (a section house at milepost 320) salt vats and a small saltmaking plant lie close to the railroad, in the middle of one of the 

white clay flats or play as. (See p. 154.) -

The station called Huxley (formerly White Plains) is approximately at the junction of the present railroad with the 

Huxley. original line of the Central Pacific, which ran from this 

Elevation 3,908 feet, point due southwest, climbing over a divide of several

Omaha 1,465 miles. £ ' . &

hundred leet and passing a station called Mirage. 

The present line swings southward along the border of the Carson 

Desert.

The Jessup mining district, a gold camp, lies in the mountains 10 

miles northwest of Huxley. Some shipments of gold-bearing ore 

were made during 1908 and later, but the district has not been a 

large producer.

One of the first deep wells drilled in the West was put down near 

this place by the Central Pacific Railway in 1881, in a search for good 

water. The boring reached a depth of 2,750 feet, but the water 

obtained was of very unsatisfactory quality. At 1,700 feet the drill 

encountered a bed of "petrified clams," and the record states that 

at 1,900 feet well-preserved "redwood timber" was found.

Huxley is the shipping point for the small salt plant passed a short 

distance back. An old kiln east of the track has been used in the 

past for making lime from a mass of compacted shells constituting

one of the shore deposits of the former Lake Lahontan. This deposit 

seems to indicate that the lake waters could not have been very 

heavily charged with, salts at the tune when the inhabitants of these 

shells lived, although it must be admitted that the shells might have 

been washed into the lake by Humboldt River. Many of the shells 

are intact and perfectly preserved. The shell deposit is said to be 

continuous for several miles along this part of the valley.

Near Huxley the river spreads out, forming extensive marsh lands 

(the Mopung marshes), and during flood seasons this region is often 

a favorite resort of waterfowl. The small lakes are said to be full 

of carp and other fish at such times, doubtless carried down from 

Humboldt Lake. Pelicans, ducks, geese, snipe, and other waterfowl are found in the vicinity of the Nevada lakes and marshes.

At milepost 315 is the beginning of another long tangent of the 

railroad which heads almost directly south. Along this stretch the 

valley opens out toward the Carson Desert, across which the Stillwater Range may be seen in the distance. From Huxley to a point
U G. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY 

CARSON DESERT AT PARRAN, NEV., THE "SINK" OF CA

Photograph furnished by Southern Pac
U. S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY

PIUTE INDIANS AT HOME. 

Photograph furnished by Southern Pac
THE OVERLAND ROUTE OGDEN TO SAN FRANCISCO.

Parran.

Elevation 3,888 feet. 

Omaha 1,4 70 miles.

a little beyond Hazen the train passes through some of the most 

typically desert country to be seen along the whole route. The overflow channel from Humboldt Lake is crossed for the last time, as it 

turns off to the east toward the lowest part of Carson Sink. The 

railroad passes along the margin of the sink, which has here a lumpy 

dunelike surface consisting of sand and clay soil, the mounds surmounted by isolated patches of greasewood.

Parran is the lowest point on the Nevada portion of the Southern 

Pacific route. The salt-incrusted surface about the station is typical 

of the margins of the large playas that are common 

in these deserts. Water generally stands on the 

surface of the sink, and in the distance on its south 

side may be seen a thin line of dark trees trailing out 

into the desert. These trees are cottonwoods, which border the 

lower channel of Carson River, the principal source of the water 

that flows into the sink. At Parran is an old salt plant which has 

not been operated for several years, but which formerly produced 

a few hundred tons of salt annually for local use at near-by settlements. There is a water tank and pump station at Parran, but all 

the water used at this place is brought in tank cars, being run into 

an underground cistern from which it is pumped into the tank.

Beyond Parran lies a desolate stretch of barren dunes of clay and 

sand with scattered clumps of greasewood. The desert is bordered 

on the northwest by bare hills, whose slopes, in many places even to 

the summits, are covered with white, wind-drifted sand. The 

scenery along this part of the route offers but little variety and suggests extreme desolation. (See PL XXXVIII.) High sand dunes, 

more or less covered with greasewood, and small bare mud plains 

(playas) continue beyond Hazen. Just east of Hazen is another 

gravel pit which, like several already mentioned, is in one of the 

beach-bar deposits of former Lake Lahontan.

An extensive area in Nevada may be considered tributary to the 

main line of the Southern Pacific by way of Hazen. 

Within this area are the Tonopah, Goldfield, Yerington, 

Elevation 4,012 feet. Lunuig. Silver Peak, Rawhide, Wonder, Fairview. and

Omaha 1,494 miles. ,111 . . ,. . '

other well-known mining districts.

Fallen, 15 miles away on the low, broad alluvial fan of Carson 

River, is the center of the Truckee-Carson irrigation project. 1 It

Hazen.

1 On the western border of the Great 

Basin, in the bed of ancient Lake Lahontan, in Nevada, the Government is bringing to completion a project to irrigate 

more than 200,000 acres of land. This is 

one of the driest parts of the United 

States, and was called "Fortymile Desert" by the gold hunters who crossed it

on the way to California. Its average1 

annual rainfall is only 4 inches. To the 

man from the humid region the valley at 

first looks very desolate, but to one 

acquainted with these deserts the Lahontan country presents many attractions. As the train from Hazen nears 

Fallen the possibilities of the region
184 GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES.

is reached by a branch railroad from Hazen which passes the old 

settlement of Ragtown. 1

Another branch line runs south from Hazen to Goldfield, which is 

connected by rail with Las Vegas, Nev., on the Los Angeles, San 

Pedro & Salt Lake Railroad, and with Ludlow, Cal., on the Santa Fe 

system. This line gives access to Yerington 2 by a branch from 

Wabuska, to Rawhide by a branch from the head of Walker Lake, 

to Silver Peak by a branch from Tonopah Junction, to Tonopah, 

and to numerous other mining districts. Connection may be made 

also at Fort Churchill for Virginia City (the Cornstock lode; see PI. 

XLIII, p. 189), Carson, and Reno.

The deposits at Tonopah 3 were discovered in 1900, when the 

mining industry generally in Nevada had sunk to a very low level.

become more apparent. It has all the 

potential resources of the country that 

surrounds Boise, Idaho, and Greeley, 

Colo., and the energetic citizens who are 

settling here will in a few years make this 

district as fertile and fa.mous as those.

The 'soil is sandy loam, clay loam, and 

volcanic ash. The valley will produce 

every variety of crop grown in the North 

Temperate Zone. Alfalfa, wheat, barley, 

and oats grow luxuriantly, and sugar 

beets are a profitable crop. Apples, 

pears, apricots, and cherries, as well as 

garden vegetables, do well and find a 

ready market in the mining towns near 

by. Potatoes, celery, and cantaloupes 

raised here are of superior quality and are 

shipped for consumption on dining cars 

and in first-class hotels. A considerable 

number of farms now await settlers, and 

additional areas will be thrown open 

from time to time to meet the requirements of homeseekers.

The Truckee-Carson project was the 

first of the large irrigation projects undertaken by the Government. The water 

is derived from Carson and Truckee rivers, that from the Truckee being brought 

across the divide at Fernley by means of 

a large canal.

Before the railroad was built overland emigrant travel followed various 

routes, one of which passed north of 

Great Salt Lake and came down Humboldt River. At that time, of course, 

Hazen had no existence, but one of the 

principal stations along the old route was 

Ragtown, a few miles southeast of Hazen. 

It was merely a trading station and derived its name from its ragged and miserable appearance, for about the station 

stood a group of huts of Piute Indians, 

constructed of brush, pieces of old wagon 

covers, ragged remnants of tents, old 

quilts, and Indian mats, a more or less 

familiar sight in parts "of Nevada even 

to-day. (See PI. XXXIX.)

Near Ragtown, not far from the present 

railroad between Hazen and Fallen, in 

the midst of the sand dunes of the Carson 

Desert, there are two remarkable lakes, 

formerly known as the Ragtown ponds, 

now called Big Soda and Little Soda 

lakes. They are believed to be old volcanic craters, whose tops are now almost 

on a level with the desert. They contain a strong solution of sodium carbonate, or washing soda, together with other 

salts, from which soda was for a time 

extracted.

2 Yerington is a copper district. The 

principal ore bodies are of irregular shape 

and occur in Triassic limestone near intrusive masses of granite (granodiorite). 

They belong to the type of contact-metamorphic deposits. The minerals characteristically associated in the deposits are 

pyrite, chalcopyrite, garnet, and pyroxene. There are also some veins in the 

district.

3 The Tonopah deposits are quartz veins 

carrying a number of silver sulphide minerals, particularly argentite, stephanite, 

and polybasite (the last two containing 

antimony as well as sulphur), with some 

gold. The country rocks are trachyte, 

rhyolite, and andesite. The veins have 

been faulted and displaced in a remarkable manner, so that skill is required to 

mine them.
BULLETIN 612 SHEET No. 21

GEOLOGIC AND TOPOGRAPHIC MAP

OF THE

OVERLAND ROUTE

From Omaha, Nebraska, to San Francisco, California

Base compiled from United States Geological Survey Atlas Sheets, 

from railroad alignments and profiles supplied by the Union Pacific 

Railroad Company and the Southern Pacific Company and from additional information collected with the assistance of these companies

UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY

GEORGE OTIS SMITH, DIRECTOR 

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

1915

Bach quadrangle shown on ike map with a name in parenthesis in the 

lower left comer is mapped in detail on the U. 5. G. S. Topographic 

sheet of that name.

EXPLANATION 

A Stream deposits (alluvium), and sediments of Lake

C Granite and other coarse-grained intrusive igneous 

rocks; probably Cretaceous

D Shales with limestone at the base; Jurassic

Limestone and quartzite in thick alternating layers (Star 

Peak formation) ; Triassic

Lavas and tuffs (mostly rhyolitiw interlayered with 

shales and limestone (Koipato formation) ; Triassic > -sv. r*.si' ,\y^.,- i _rx>. \~*-^ A

Highest shore line of Lake Lahontan 'indicated thus ^"fcf. ^M u^ll

/ **s<w

''.'^K 'AVir\ f/r'X^-j (<^Si\^> Tf

Approximately 8 milss to 1 inch
U. S. GEOLOGICAL SURVCY

TONOPAH, NEV., A TYPICAL MINING 

Photograph furnished by Southern P
U. S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY 

CONSOLIDATED MILL, GOLDFIELD

A modern mill where gold ore is crushed and its valuable metallic portion separat
THE OVERLAND ROUTE OGDEN TO SAN FRANCISCO. 185

The discovery greatly stimulated prospecting and led to the revival 

of mining throughout the State. The district has produced silver 

and gold to the total value of more than $60,000,000 from veins in 

Tertiary volcanic rocks. (See PI. XL.)

The discovery of gold at Goldfield 1 in 1902 was a direct outcome 

of the development at Tonopah. The deposits . here also occur in 

Tertiary volcanic rocks, but in form and character they are entirely 

different from the Tonopah veins. The total production from Goldfield to the end of 1913 was over $65,000,000 in gold and silver. Of 

late years considerable copper has been recovered from the concentrates of the Goldfield mills. (See PI. XLI.)

Argo and Luva, west of Hazen, are merely sidetracks, except that 

Luva stands at the junction of the main line with a- now little-used 

branch that connects with a part of the original line of the Central

Pacific, until lately operated as far east as Leete, where there are old 

salt works. Formerly the main line of the railroad followed a more 

direct route through this valley to White Plains (Huxley). The 

present route by Carson Sink, though longer, avoids a steep and 

troublesome hill, where helper engines were employed.

Fernley (see sheet 22, p. 202) is one of the more recently developed 

agricultural settlements resulting from the Truckee-Carson reclamation project. The ditch from Truckee River runs 

along a hillside a considerable distance south of the 

railr°ad, and from it water is supplied for irrigating 

some very promising bench lands. Good water for 

domestic use is found in wells 100 or 200 feet deep. From Fernley a 

recently finished line of the Southern Pacific, known as the Ferriley-Lassen branch, extends north and northwest into California. 

Here also the traveler crosses the divide between two modern subdivisions of the former Lahontan basin, going from a basin tributary 

to Carson Sink into the valley of Truckee River, whence all natural 

drainage passes northward toward Pyramid and Winnemucca lakes. 

As a part of the Truckee-Carson project, a part of the Truckee 

River water has been artificially diverted over the Fernley divide into 

the Carson and Humboldt basins.

Truckee River, named from the Indian guide of Gen. Fre'mont, 

flows through the old town of Wadsworth just beyond Fernley and 

100 or more feet below the present railroad grade. The original route 

of the Central Pacific passed down into this valley, and Wadsworth

Fernley.

a The Goldfield deposits, which are 

rather irregular in form, occur along zones 

of fissuring in dacite, andesite, and latite, all closely related lavas. A large 

part of the ore consists of silicified portions of these rocks. The gold is partly 

free, partly combined with tellurium. A 

peculiar feature of these deposits is their 

content of alunite, a hydrous sulphate of 

potassium, sodium, and aluminum.
186 GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES.

was one of the important stations on it. Now', however, the railroad 

swings to the south to maintain an even grade on the westward climb 

along upper Truckee River.

Truckee River rises in Lake Tahoe and is of greater purity and 

subject to less fluctuation than any other stream that enters the 

Lahontan basin. At Wadsworth the Truckee makes a bend to the 

north and then flows through a narrow and canyon-like channel for 18 

or 20 miles to Pyramid and Winnemucca lakes, where its waters are 

evaporated. Wadsworth was formerly a trading post and also served 

as an Indian agency and fort. Pyramid Lake is still included in an 

Indian reservation, the present Indian agency being situated at the 

south end of the lake near the mouth of Truckee River. The Indians 

are mostly of the Piute tribe. There are many references to Wadsworth in the history of the early events in this part of the country.

West of Wadsworth a backward view down to the narrow bottom 

lands along the river presents a pleasing contrast to the rocky barrenness of the hills on either side, at least during the summer, when a 

stream of clear water glitters amid green fields and trees. The train 

soon enters the Virginia Range and the canyon of the Truckee, which 

gradually narrows upstream. The rocks exposed in the canyon walls 

are mostly lavas, including volcanic flows and interbedded layers of 

volcanic tuff or ash, representing successive periods of volcanic 

activity. The lavas are of' varied character, including light-gray 

rhyolite, darker andesite, and black basalt. At lower elevations 

along the bottom of the canyon are white, even-bedded clays, lying 

horizontal, which were left by the receding Waters of Lake Lahontan. 

These clays rise to the maximum level reached by the former lake 

waters, about 4,400 feet above present sea level.

Between mileposts 273 and 272 the mining district of OlingllOUSe * 

may be seen, though it is at some distance across the canyon to the 

north or northwest. This district is now .reached by way of Wadsworth.

Opposite milepost 265 are the reservoir and diversion dam (PL 

XLII, p. 188) by which Truckee River water is taken into the ditch of 

the Truckee-Carson reclamation project. Unassorted and unconsolidated deposits of bowlders, gravel, and sand exposed in some of the 

railroad cuts are recent river deposits. The somber coloring of these 

barren rocky slopes is very characteristic of the Nevada desert ranges, 

particularly of the volcanic regions. Rock cuts along the railroad 

expose also some materials of brilliant hues, principally weathered

1 The White Horse or Olinghouse district lies on the east side of the Virginia 

Kange and covers about 6 square miles. 

The prevailing country rock is andesitic ;

lava. The district has yielded fine ore 

specimens and has shipped some good 

ore, but on the whole it has not been very 

productive.
THE OVERLAND EOUTE OGDEN TO SAW FRANCISCO. 187

Derby.

volcanic tuffs belonging to the succession of lavas of which the 

Virginia Range is mainly composed.

Gilpin (a sidetrack) is in the midst of almost continuous rock cuts 

and cliffs, mostly in basalt and basaltic tuffs. The channel here is 

so narrow that little or no cultivation is possible along the stream. 

At low elevations near the river channel the horizontal white lake 

beds are clearly exposed across the valley.

Derby was formerly the junction of the original route, which passed 

by way of Wadsworth, with the present line, but the old track down 

the south side of the river has now been taken up and 

the grade is used as a public road. West of Derby 

Elevation 4,165 feet. ^he canyon narrows and its walls become higher, conOmaha 1,513 miles. ... . TI/VI 11 n

sisting oi continuous bums that show the lava flow 

rocks and interbedded layers of ash, including deposits of white tuff

and diatomaceous earth, which appear as conspicuous white earthy 

bands at a number of places, both high and low, on the slopes. The 

successive flows of dark lava show here in the steep bluffs across 

the river, on the south side of the canyon.

The line between Storey and Washoe counties follows the channel 

of Truckee River, and county-line posts are seen at one end or the 

other of the bridges.

Clark is a minor station in the canyon and is the point of departure 

for the Ramsay mining district, 1 in the Virginia Range, to the south. 

West of Clark the Lake Lahontan clays are exhibited 

in cuts along the railroad. These extend to a siding 

Elevation4,257feet. named Ditho (elevation 4,304 feet), where the last 

remnants of such deposits are found, the track level 

at this point being almost exactly coincident with the uppermost 

level reached by the waters of the old lake. This is therefore the 

western limit of the former Lake Lahontan, whose basin the railroad 

has been continuously crossing from a point at exactly the same 

level in the Humboldt Valley near Golconda.

For several miles beyond Ditho remnants of a very recent though 

prehistoric lava flow may be seen in the river valley. The flow is a 

layer, apparently 10 to 20 feet thick, of dense black basalt, which lies 

chiefly along the very bottom of the valley. It is exposed in cross 

section at several places by the cutting of the river and along the 

old railroad grades, which he slightly above the present route. This 

lava has flowed down since the valley attained practically its present 

form.

Clark.

1 Ramsay, a town of about 100 inhabitants, is 17 miles south-southeast of Clark 

station, with which it is connected by a 

good road traversed by a daily stage. The

country rock is Tertiary lava (andesite 

and a little rhyolite). Several mines 

have shipped some gold ore, but the production has not been large.
188 GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTEEN UNITED STATES.

Hafed.

Vista.

West of Hafed, a sidetrack opposite a ranch on the valley bottom, 

some good examples of columnar jointing in the basalt lava are exposed just above "the railroad track. (See footnote, 

p. 121.) Volcanic tuff, both coarse and fine, appaEievation 4,376 feet, rently underlies the basalt and forms bluffs. To the

Omaha 1,529 miles. ,L ^i ~ i i i ~u i j

west the river channel narrows again and is bordered 

on both sides by steep rocky ridges and spurs.

Vista, an old station and group of section houses, is at the upper 

end of the canyon in the Virginia Range, and immediately beyond

it the Truckee Meadows spread out broad and flat.

The extreme lower part of the meadows near the 

Elevation 4,395 feet, entrance to the canyon is marshy, from a cause

Omaha 1,532miles. t j !. P , -,nr\ rrM explained m the footnote on page 189. Ine many 

prospects of the Wedekind mining district may be seen in the low 

foothills at the margin of the valley to the north. The district has 

never produced much ore.

The city of Sparks was named after John Sparks, governor of 

Nevada from 1903 to 1906. Although the second city in Nevada 

in population, it is primarily a railroad division 

point and contains the Southern Pacific Co.'s shops 

and roundhouses. A stop- of 15 or 20 minutes is 

usually made at the railroad offices and shops, where 

a huge mountain-climbing locomotive is substituted 

for the ordinary one. After another stop at the passenger station, 

three-fourths of a mile farther on, the train proceeds westward 2£ 

miles across the open valley to Reno.1

Sparks.

Elevation 4,225 feet. 

Population 2,500. 

Omaha 1,536 miles.

1 To the westbound traveler the view 

to the rear across the Truckee Meadows

toward the narrow gorge by which Truckee 

River passes through the Virginia Range 

is suggestive of many events in the geologic history of this general region. The 

Virginia Range illustrates the block-fault

Virginia Range

connected with the level plain at its foot 

by short slopes of talus and small alluvial 

fans. These works of erosion and deposition, however, do not obscure the fact 

that the range is essentially an uplifted 

block of the earth's crust, and the valley 

below, now buried by river flood-plain

Sierra Nevada 

(front range)

^_!rTr^oy^^MLava and tuff 

^^^^^^VT^^i

FIGUKE 16. Diagrammatic cross section showing the geologic structure of the Virginia Range in its relation to Truckee Meadows.

structure that characterizes the ranges of 

the Great Basin. Its front stands like a 

great wall along the lower edge of the 

meadows, almost no foothills intervening between mountain and plain. The 

steeper part of the mountain front is 

trenched by gulches or canyona and is

deposits, is a relatively downthrown 

block. (See fig. 16.)

The mountains around the Truckee 

Meadows are broken by a narrow gorge 

through which Truckee River escapes. 

This gorge, now deep and narrow and 

worn into solid rock through the most of
U. 8. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY 

UNITED STATES RECLAMATION SERVICE DAM ON TRUCKEE RIVER IN 

Terraces of Lake Lahontan beds in foreground, a broad, low alluvial fan at the mouth nf the gulch, and 

Photograph furnished by Southern Pac
U. 8. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY 

VIRGINIA CITY, NEV., ON THE FAMOUS CO

This lode is worked through deep shafts, one of which is under the building having four smokestack

Pacific Co,
THE OVERLAND ROUTE OGDEN TO SAN FRANCISCO. 189

The largest city in Nevada is Reno, the seat of Washoe County,

Ren which has long been the principal commercial and

industrial center of western Nevada. From this Elevation 4,497 feet.' . . .

Population 10,867. point the Virginia & Iruckee Railroad runs south 

omaha 1,539miles. to Carson (31 miles), the State capital, and to Virginia City (52 miles), the locality of the famous Comstock lode,

its course, has undoubtedly been cut by 

the river. It seems that such a channel 

may have been developed in one of two 

ways. Either Truckee River, dammed 

by the rise of a mountain ridge across its 

path, formed a lake and, after an outlet 

had been established by overflow at 

some low point on the margin, gradually 

wore this down into a canyon, or else the 

river, having established its channel 

across low-lying plains that existed before 

the mountains were uplifted, simply 

maintained its course by cutting down 

its channel as fast as the mountain barrier rose. That the latter hypothesis is 

the true one appears from the following 

considerations. If the site of the Truckee 

Meadows had ever been dammed to a 

considerable depth by uplift of the Virginia Range, the lake waters would have 

soon found an outlet through a low pass 

to the north, reaching Pyramid Lake by 

 a more direct course than they now take. 

There is, however, no sign of such a channel nor of traces of shore lines about the 

valley to indicate that the lake ever rose 

to this height.

The uplift of the ranges in the Great 

Basin and of the Sierra Nevada, which is 

now near at hand, is a comparatively 

recent event as reckoned on the geologic 

time scale. (The term uplift is used 

only in a relative sense; it does not necessarily imply actual uplift. Some apparent uplifts may be due to a sinking of 

adjacent valley areas.) These mountainbuilding movements began late in the 

Tertiary period and have continued even 

down to the present day. Little by 

little blocks of the surface crust readjust 

themselves, and here and there earthquakes or the opening of fissures at the 

surface signify the gradual slipping of one 

fragment of the earth's crust against 

another. Probably the movements that 

uplifted the higher mountain ranges took

place in the past in much the same gradual manner as to-day. The east front of 

the Sierra is now an earthquake zone, in 

which are felt occasional shocks and tremors due to movements in the earth's 

crust, and these appear to come periodically. ' They may be frequent for a 

period covering several months, which 

may be followed by a period of relative 

quiescence.

The Truckee Meadows may have been 

intermittently a shallow lake and a 

meadow. At present the river is flowing 

over volcanic bedrock at the entrance to 

the canyon, on the east, while the valley 

above is occupied by alluvium and possibly some lake beds. The ground water, 

following the general course of the stream, 

rises as it encounters the natural rock 

dam at the entrance to the canyon, making the lands above the canyon entrance 

marshy.

The mountains around the Truckee 

Meadows are composed of sedimentary 

rocks that are probably Mesozo'ic or 

possibly in part Paleozoic, igneous, and 

metamorphic rocks, and lavas and associated sedimentary deposits of Tertiary 

or later age. The pre-Tertiary rocks were 

exposed for a long period to weathering 

and erosion before the Tertiary sediments 

were laid down upon them. In Tertiary 

time an extensive series of volcanic flows 

was poured out, accompanied by showers 

of volcanic ash and the accumulation of 

fresh-water lake or marsh deposits. These 

materials, with the deposits spread by 

running streams, form the later group of 

geologic formations here represented. 

The geologic column in the vicinity of 

Reno is very incomplete that is, long 

periods of geologic time are unrepresented 

here in the record preserved by rock formations. Although some deposits may 

have been laid down during these periods 

and later entirely worn away, it may be.
190 GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTEBN" UNITED STATES.

with the discovery of which Nevada's mining history began. 1 To 

the north the Nevada-Galifornia-Oregon Railway reaches Alturas 

(184 miles), in the northeast corner of California, and has lately been 

extended to Lakeview (238 miles), across the line in Oregon. Reno 

is the seat of the Nevada State University, which includes the Mackay 

School of Mines. Its manufactures include flour, foundry and machine-shop products, packed meats, and beer. Farming and stock 

raising are important industries in this vicinity, particularly in the

inferred in general that the land surface 

in this vicinty was elevated and that by 

erosion its rocks were contributing to 

sedimentation in other parts of the region.

The lavas are principally andesites of 

varied mineralogic composition, but the 

series includes also much rhyolite and 

some basalt. All the lavas are interbedded with layers of volcanic ash, tuff, 

or tuff-breccia, the last consisting of 

angular lava fragments thrown out from 

the volcanic vents. Most of the lavas 

are Tertiary ^ but some are more recent.

The foregoing summary of volcanic 

activity applies especially to the eastern 

Sierra foothill belt, but it is broadly applicable to the whole western part of the 

Great Basin province. Moreover, the 

lavas here described are undoubtedly 

related directly to the extensive flows 

that spread out over the Sierra, although 

the later sedimentary record west of the 

Sierra divide is entirely distinct from 

that in the Great Basin.

1 Virginia City (PL XLIII) is in the 

Virginia 'Range near its crest, only 12 

to 15 miles south of the canyon through 

which the railroad crosses these mountains. Ten years after the first gold excitement in California prospectors began 

to search the stream channels of Nevada. 

They found "pay dirt" along Carson 

River and traced these gravels far upstream. In January, 1859, prospectors 

followed these gold gravels to their source 

high oh the slopes of Mount Davidson, 

and as washings from the loose surface 

croppings yielded rich returns, they dug 

down to bedrock. Then it was that the 

lode was discovered. A rush of prospectors followed, and Virginia City rapidly 

grew into one of the principal towns of 

the far West. In 1870 a narrow-gage 

branch railroad, 52 miles in length, was

completed from Reno. This has been 

referred to as the most prosperous railroad 

in the country in its day, as it was said 

for a time to have regularly operated 40 

trains a day over its 52 miles of crooked 

track. As the workings were deepened 

the ingress of hot water and the high 

underground temperature made mining 

difficult. The mines were in part drained 

by the Sutro tunnel, a notable engineering feat for that time. Work in the deeper 

levels is rendered possible only by the 

constant forcing of large volumes of air 

through the entries and a liberal use of 

ice water, both for drinking and for bathing, by the men, who work in very short 

shifts.

The Comstock lode is a great fissure 

vein, 4 miles long, along a line of faulting 

in the Tertiary eruptive rocks (chiefly 

andesite) of the Virginia Range. It crops 

out on the east side of Mount Davidson. 

The mountain range but not the summit 

may be seen in clear weather from Reno 

by looking up the open valley to the 

southeast. The ore, which is of high 

grade, carries silver and gold in quartz. 

In the old days it occurred typically in 

great bodies called "bonanzas." The 

district was noted for the large scale on 

which everything connected with the 

mining, including the speculation, was 

carried on. The size of the old dumps 

and the kind of machinery employed 

show even those who are used to mining 

that great things were done here. About 

$400,000,000 in gold and silver, in the 

ratio, by value, of 2 of gold to 3 of silver, 

has been taken out of the Comstock. 

Considerable ore is still being mined, but 

the great bonanzas have been worked 

out, and Virginia City is a melancholy 

wreck of what was once a lively town of 

20,000 people.
THE OVERLAND ROUTE OGDEN TO SAN FRANCISCO. 191

Truckee Meadows and in the broad expanse of open valleys lying to 

the south, in the upper Carson Valley.

Reno lies near the extreme western edge of Nevada and of the Great 

Basin, at the foot of the Sierra Nevada. Here Truckee River emerges 

from the foothills of the high mountains and flows out into the open 

Truckee Meadows. Now, as in the early pioneer days, Reno is a 

landmark in the journey across the continent. Here ends the long 

stretch of desert, and here the high timbered slopes of the Sierra 

Nevada, with their streams of fresh running water, appear near at 

hand. On the site of the present city a road house was erected in 

1859 for the accommodation of travelers and freight teams on their 

way to and from California. By 1863 this place had become known 

as Lakes Crossing, and five years later it was chosen as a site for a 

station by the Central Pacific Railway. The name Reno was given 

to it at that time in honor of Gen. Jesse Lee Reno, a Federal officer 

of the Civil War. It became an important point of distribution for 

this part of Nevada, particularly for the adjacent towns and camps, 

which included the already famous Comstock.

Carson, the capital of Nevada, lies about 30 miles to the south and, 

like Reno, stands in a broad, fertile valley at the eastern base of the 

Carson Range, a front range of the main Sierra. This is the upper 

valley of Carson River, which, like the Truckee, flows eastward into 

the Great Basin.

About 10 miles south of Reno on the road to Carson is a group of 

hot springs known as Steamboat Springs. These and other hotspring waters along the Sierra front have then- origin in the heated 

depths of the earth, and come up along fault fissures generally parallel 

with the Sierra. The ground around Steamboat Springs has been 

built up by silica deposited by the hot waters, as a low ridge of white 

sinter, which is a conspicuous feature in the landscape. Many of 

the pools are actually at boiling temperature, and in cool weather 

clouds of steam rise from them. 1

1 Steamboat Springs, Nev., has figured 

prominently in discussions of the origin 

of ore deposits. The waters of these 

springs contain the precious metals in 

minute quantities, and the sinter deposited by them contains several minerals 

that are common constituents of ores, as. 

well as small quantities of many of the 

rarer metallic constituents of ore deposits, 

including gold and silver. Such springs, 

therefore, suggest that many and perhaps 

most ore-bearing veins have been formed 

by hot Avaters rising from great depths, 

which have brought their metal contents 

up in solution and deposited them in open

spaces or fissures in the rocks through 

which the waters passed, the deposition 

of some ores being influenced by chemical reaction with the surrounding rock. 

Many ore deposits are. undoubtedly 

formed in other ways, for some are unquestionably of sedimentary origin and the 

metal content of some others has been carried down, redeposited, and concentrated by rain water that descended into 

the earth's crust; but the "hydrothermal" 

origin that is, their deposition from 

ascending hot water of many of the more 

valuable ore deposits is indicated by the 

close relation observed at many places
192 GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES.

Leaving Reno the railroad runs west along the north side of Truckee 

River, here again confined in a canyon, which, however, is not so 

narrow or steep as the canyon in the Virginia Range. The river is 

bordered on both sides by a succession of terraces, the uppermost of 

which is several hundred feet above the river bottom. In the outskirts of Reno, on the north side of the track, there is a clay pit and 

brick plant, and beyond them are large pits that have been excavated 

in the river terraces for sand and gravel to be used in construction 

work. The site of Reno and much of the valley to the west is overspread by deposits of bowlder and gravel left by the river during the 

period of terrace building. The open lands at the foot of the high 

mountains permitted the streams to spread out and deposit the load 

of bowlders and finer sediments that they had washed through the 

steeper and narrower parts of their channels above.

Projecting in places from beneath the nearly horizontal terrace 

deposits are regularly bedded, tilted sedimentary rocks, the only 

unaltered sediments of the Reno region known to be older than Quaternary. They belong to a series of fresh-water deposits called 

the Truckee formation, generally considered of Miocene age. These 

beds, which consist of clay, gravel, sand, and a peculiar white earth, 

are finely exhibited in conspicuous white bluffs 2 to 4 miles west of 

Reno, and are worthy of particular notice, for the chalk-white earth 

of which they are so largely composed here occurs in unusual quantity. This chalk-white material consists largely of microscopic 

shells, or frustules, as they are called, of one-celled plants known as 

diatoms,1 once included under the general name Infusoria. These 

remains have collected here in numbers so immense as to form 

deposits hundreds of feet thick and in places make up almost the entire 

mass of the rock. This mass of fossil diatoms, or diatomaceous

between mineral veins and eruptive 

rocks. Thermal waters are believed to 

be, in part at least, given off by slowly 

cooling and solidifying masses of igneous 

rock (magma) deep within the earth.

1 Diatoms are of many different forms 

and inhabit both fresh and salt water. 

They consist of single isolated cells, or 

of strings of cells attached in linear succession or in zigzag chains. Those that 

compose the beds west of Reno are entirely of fresh-water origin. All diatoms 

secrete siliceous shells about their living 

parts, each shell consisting of two valves, 

which fit together like a pill box and its 

cover. Seen under the microscope they 

exhibit marvelous beauty and delicacy 

of structure, The myriads of such shells

that accumulate after the death of these 

plants may form large deposits, although 

the individual shells are so minute as to 

be undiscernible by the unaided vision. 

Diatomaceous earth is used largely as a 

scouring or polishing powder, to which it 

is well adapted because of the hardness 

and sharpness of the individual grains 

and their uniform fineness. It also has 

uses dependent on its absorptive properties and has been so used in the manufacture of dynamite. As it is a poor conductor of heat and very light it is valuable 

as a packing for safes, steam pipes, and 

boilers, and for the manufacture of fireproofing materials. No use seems to 

have been yet made of the deposits near 

Reno.
THE OVERLAND ROUTE OGDEN TO SAN FRANCISCO. 193

earth, formerly called infusorial earth, is white and looks like chalk 

but differs from chalk in that it is composed of silica instead of 

lime carbonate. It has also been called tripolite, from Tripoli, 

where a similar deposit is found. It is so light that it will almost 

float on water.

Near Lawton's hot springs granite projects through the sediments, 

and the fresh rock is exposed in cuts along the railroad. The outcrop 

is characteristic of rock of this type, consisting of 

Lawton. weather-rounded joint blocks that look like big 

Elevation 4,650 feet, bowlders but are really a part of the solid rock in 

omaha 1,545 miles. place Beyond the granite stream banks and railroad cutsx reveal gravel, sand, and bowlder deposits, generally coarse 

and ill assorted but with nearly horizontal bedding. These are old 

river deposits, cut into by later deepening of the river channel.

At the bridges near milepost 234, by which the wagon road and railroad cross the river, and particularly at the wagon bridge over the 

railroad, is an interesting exposure of some of the tilted Tertiary strata. 

Here the beds consist of shale and sandstone and justify their usual 

designation as "lake beds" by their uniform thin bedding or lamination. They contain abundant and well-preserved impressions of 

leaves and grasses. These beds are believed to represent the Miocene 

epoch of Tertiary tune. Beyond the bridge these sediments are again 

covered by terrace deposits.

Verdi is a lumber town whose history dates back to the days of the 

Comstock, before the coming of the railroad, when many of the timbers that went up to the mines were brought from this 

Verdi, Nev. part Q.f the'mountains and hauled by way of Reno. 

Elevation 4,904 feet. West of Verdi, stretching north and south as far as the

Population 543.* .' &

o mim 1,550 miles, eye can see, is the steep iront 01 the Sierra Nevada, 

this part of which is known as the Carson Range. 

The front is determined primarily by faults. (See explanation of 

formation of Wasatch Range, in footnote on p. 100.) The Truckee 

emerges from the mountain front after traversing a narrow canyon, 

steeper and more rocky than any part of its lower course. Scattered 

timber here clothes the mountain flanks, extending down even to the 

railroad and river although, of course, all the older and larger trees 

were long ago cut away. The green pines with then- long needles and 

the growth of underbrush afford a welcome change from the monotonous barrenness of the ranges and plains of the Great Basin. There 

is some cultivation in a small way along the narrow strip of river 

bottom lands.

On leaving Verdi the railroad turns southward up into the Truckee

Canyon which soon becomes so narrow that there is not room for both

railroad and wagon road, the latter diverging northward and crossing

the range 10 miles or more farther north. The wagon road joins the

92213° Bull. 612 15 13
194 'GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES.

railroad again at Truckee. The rocks in the canyon walls are Tertiary 

lavas, mainly andesites, and for some distance the supposedly Cretaceous granite, or a related rock, appears beneath these lavas along 

the river gorge. It is not always possible at a distance to distinguish 

between these two classes of rocks.

A few miles beyond Verdi the train passes a post marking the California-Nevada State line, and about half a mile beyond it is a signboard and railroad siding marked Calvada, a name 

Calvada, Cal. derived from those of the two States. This place is in 

Elevation 5,041 feet. a southward stretch of the canyon, so that the State

Omaha 1,553 miles. . i i - . j- -

line is crossed at a slight angle only a short distance 

west of the longitude of Verdi.

California, known as the Golden State, is next to the largest State 

hi the Union. It is 780 miles in length and about 250 miles in average 

width, and has a total area of 156,092 square miles, 

California. being nearly equal in size to New England, New York, 

and Pennsylvania combined. The population of California in 1910 was 2,377,549, or about one-tenth that of the Eastern 

States named. The area covered by public-land surveys is 123,910 

square miles, or nearly 80 per cent of the State, and 21 per cent of the 

State was unappropriated and unreserved July 1, 1914.

Along the State's 1,00.0 miles of bold coast line there are comparatively few indentations. The bays of San Diego and San Francisco are 

excellent harbors, but they are exceptional.

The climate of California varies greatly from place-to place. Along 

the coast in northern California it is moist' and equable. Around San 

Francisco Bay a moderate rainfall is confined almost wholly to the 

winter, and the range in temperature is comparatively small. In 

parts of southern California typical desert conditions prevail. The 

great interior valley is characterized by moderate to scant winter rainfall and hot, dry summers. Snow rarely falls except on the high mountains, where as, for example, in the Sierra Nevada so much of it 

may accumulate as to interfere with railway traffic.

Forests cover 22 per cent of the State's area and have been estimated to contain 200,000 million feet of timber. They are notable 

for the large size of their trees, especially for the huge dimensions 

attained by two species of redwood Sequoia wasJiingtoniana (or 

gigantea), the well-known "big tree" of the Sierra Nevada, and 

Sequoia sempervirens, the "big tree" of the Coast Ranges. Some of 

these giant trees fortunately have been preserved by the Government 

or through private generosity against the attacks of the lumberman.

The 21 national forests in California have a total net area of 

40,600 square miles, or about one-fourth of the State's area. The 

national parks in the State are Yosemite (1,124 square miles), Sequoia
THE OVERLAND BOUTE OGDEN TO SAN FRANCISCO/ 195

(252 square miles), and General Grant (4 square miles). The national 

monuments in the State are the Cabrillo, Cinder Cone, Devil Postpile, 

Lassen Peak, Muir Woods, and Pinnacles, and there are bird reserves 

at Klamath Lake, East Park, Farallon, and Clear Lake.

Agriculture is a large industry in California, and with the introduction of more intensive cultivation its importance is increasing 

rapidly. In the variety and value of its fruit crops California has 

no rival in the United States, if indeed in the world. Its products 

range from pineapples and other semitropical fruits in the south 

to pears, peaches, and plums in the north, but it is to oranges and 

other citrus fruits and to wine grapes that California owes its 

agricultural supremacy. During the season from November 1, 1913, 

to October 31, 1914, California produced 48,548 carloads of citrus 

fruit, 42,473,000 gallons of wine, and 12,450 tons of walnuts and 

almonds.

Of its mineral products, petroleum ranks first in total value and 

gold next. In 1913 California's output of petroleum was valued at 

$59,581,948, nearly 16 per cent of the world's yield, and its output 

of gold at $20,241,300. In the production of both petroleum and 

gold California leads all other States in the Union.

California was formerly a part of Mexico but in 1848 was ceded 

to the United States and on September 7, 1850, was admitted to the 

Union as a State. Its history is full of stirring and romantic episodes 

and should not be neglected by the visitor desirous of understanding 

the spirit of the land.

One of the power houses where electricity is generated from the 

Sierra streams, an industr}^ that has now reached great magnitude 

on both sides of the range, is seen in Truckee River near milepost 225. 

The ledges of volcanic rock exposed in the canyon in many bluffs 

and cuts along the railroad present varied forms of lava, breccia 

(cemented fragments of volcanic material), and tuff or ash. The 

exposures are of many hues, light gray, rusty, purplish, and greenish.

At Floriston is a pulp mill, situated near the source of the wood

from which the paper pulp is made. The wood is brought down from

1 Hobart Mills by way of Truckee and nearly 100 cords

Floriston. of WOO(J four or five carloads are used here daily.

Elevation 5,350 feet. Floriston is in the narrowest and steepest part of the

Omaha 1,559 miles. ~ _ v i T,

canyon. (See PI. XLIV, A.) Reservoirs have been 

built in the river above the town to store water for developing 

power and for making ice hi winter. No natural ice is obtained 

at lower elevations in California, and as the winters in the Nevada 

desert country are not very severe thick ice is rarely formed there. 

Consequently an extensive business has grown up in the production
196 ' GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES.

of ice on reservoirs built along the Sierra streams near the railroad. 

From this town onward many ice plants and storage houses will be 

observed, as ice cutting is the principal industry of many of the 

small places along the route. Iceland, a small station just beyond 

Floriston, has a name suggested by this industry.

Boca is an ice station and seems to consist principally of a picturesque little hotel and a store. It is the starting point of the 

Boca & Loyalton Railroad, primarily a lumber road, 

Boca- running north to Loyalton (26 miles) and thence to 

Elevation5,534 feet. port0la (45 miles), where it connects with the Western

Omaha 1,565 miles. . .1 mi i

racmc Railway. I he canyon opens somewhat at 

Boca, and to the rear may be seen the high continuous crest of the 

Carson Range,- just passed. West of the Carson Range and between 

it and the main summit of the Sierra there is a broad and relatively 

depressed area, the southern part of which is occupied by Lake 

Tahoe and the northern part by Sierra Valley. A belt of relatively 

low though mountainous country connects the basin of Lake Tahoe 

with Sierra Valley. This depressed belt, like the mountain scarps, is 

of structural origin. The area corresponds to a block bounded by 

faults, that has sunk or has been less uplifted than the adjacent ranges.

During the uplift of the Carson Range the upper portion of Truckee 

River was occasionally dammed to form a lake, but in the main the 

river kept its course by cutting down its channel across the hard 

rock as the mountains rose. West of Boca terraces built at former 

higher levels of the stream channel are represented by benchlike 

remnants along the sides of the valley, but the unmistakable 

evidence of the damming of Truckee River is found in certain distinctly and evenly bedded or laminated deposits of clay, sand, and 

gravel, which are interpreted as laid down under standing water. 

A glance at the geologic map will show that these deposits spread 

over an extensive area west of the Carson Range. It is supposed 

that after the close of the andesite eruptions there followed a long 

period of erosion, during which Truckee Canyon was cut to very 

nearly its present depth. Then came a basalt eruption, covering 

large parts of the valley and damming the river afresh. The resulting 

Pleistocene lake probably persisted during a large part of the 

glacial period, gradually diminishing in size as Truckee River cut 

down its outlet. Its beach gravels are found all around this upper 

Truckee basin.

Low terraces overflowed by basalt may be seen along the river, at 

one place (milepost 214) showing a good illustration of columnar 

joint structure, which is a characteristic shrinkage phenomenon frequently exhibited by such lava flows.
GEOLOGICAL SURVEY

.1. TRUCKEE RIVER CANYON NEAR FLORISTON, CAL.

View of the narrower part of the canyon through the Carson (or front) Range of the Sierra. Shows volcanic 

breccia in the ledges in the foreground and sparsely timbered lower slopes. Photograph furnished by the 

Southern Pacific Co.

B. TRUCKEE, CAL., LOOKING EAST TOWARD THE CARSON RANGE.

View taken from the lower end of the glacial moraines found in Truckee Valley, the upper part of the town 

being built on the terrace-like surface. Photograph furnished by Southern Pacific Co.
U. S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY BULLETIN 612 PLATE XLV

LAKE TAHOE, CAL.

Shore and road near Tahoe Tavern, Rubicon Peak in the distance. Photograph furnished by Southern

Pacific Co.
THE OVERLAND ROUTE -OGDEN TO SAN FRANCISCO. 197

Truckee River from Lake Tahoe down to Boca or beyond is a

favorite resort of fishermen in summer. Camps and a number of

small hotels afford stopping places that are easily

Union il . reached from the California side of the mountains.

Elevation 5 623 feet. The t f polaris (milepost 211) to a point near

Omaha 1,568 miles. . \ i i

Emigrant Gap and Towle, on the west side oi the 

Sierra, lies in the Tahoe National Forest.'

Exposures of the thinly and regularly bedded lake deposits continue and may be seen in a cut just west.of Boca. Here is a layer 

of white diatomaceous earth, which includes fragments of leaves and 

stems and is believed to have been laid down in quiet water.

Near the town of Truckee the valley broadens considerably and the 

river terraces become very distinct. To the north a branch lumber 

railroad climbs the edge of one of the terraces, exposing in deep cuts 

loose white bedded gravels and other stream deposits corresponding 

in age to the Pleistocene lake beds observed lower down the range.

From Truckee, the last town passed on the climb to the summit, a

narrow-gage railroad runs up the main river valley to Lake Tahoe

(15 miles) and a short lumber road goes north to

rue ee. Hobart Mills, but the latter does not carry passengers,.

Elevations 820feet. ^h ig ^ f interest.from almost every point of

Omaha 1,574 miles. . . J *

view to be seen in crossing the Sierra Nevada, and 

many features of geology, physiography, forestry, and history which 

can here be only briefly noted. Beyond Truckee the evidences of 

glacial action become apparent. The Sierra down to an elevation of 

5,000 feet was long buried under ice. The grinding of this moving ice 

mass widened the bottoms of the canyons, smoothed off and steepened 

their sides, and removed enormous amounts of loose rock and soil. 

To a large extent, however, the ice protected from water erosion 

the area that it covered. Moraines composed of rough and angular 

but -not water-rounded bowlders of all sizes, mixed with finer 

detritus and sand, were deposited by the ice tongues that projected down the valley, particularly at their ends and along their 

sides. The lower valleys which the ice did not reach differ in form 

from .those that were glaciated. Below the glaciated region the 

valleys are narrow and V-shaped in cross section, but the glaciated 

valleys are broader and U-shaped and many of them are characterized 

by nearly level stretches occupied by meadows (filled-in lakes), 

separated by rocky portions of steeper grade. At Truckee. lake 

beds and stream terraces of the lower river course, the records of work 

by water, join moraines, the records of work by ice. The upper part 

of the town is built on the lowest identifiable portions of these glacial deposits. (See PI. XLIV, B.) The canyon of Truckee River 

between Truckee and Lake Tahoe has evidently never been glaciated,
198 GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTEEN UNITED STATES.

though, the glaciers extended down the tributary valleys from the 

west, just reaching the river at one or two points.

To the traveler in the heat of summer there is probably no more

refreshing and on the whole delightful side trip on the journey across

the continent than that to Lake Tahoe. The trip to

Lake ahoe. . ^ ja^e - g usuajiv taken by the branch railroad from

T ckee, but it may also be readily made by automobile. The railroad terminus is at the northwest side of 

the lake, where its waters overflow to form the head of Truckee River. 

From this point a circuit of the lake may be made by a small steamer, 

the trip occupying most of a day. The steamer stops at many summer camps, hotels, and permanent settlements. During the winter 

most of the resorts are closed, as the snowfall is heavy at this elevation.

Lake Tahoe is not a natural wonder, as that term is applied to the 

Yellows tone or the Grand Canyon, but the lover of nature can 

probably get no truer satisfaction .than can be had from a quiet and 

restful sojourn along its beautiful shores. (See PL XLV.) There 

is much in the history of its origin and that of the ranges surrounding 

it that is full of interest.

The lake is 21 £ miles long from north to south and about 12 miles in 

its greatest. width. Its surface, which stands 6,225 feet above sea 

level, covers 190 square-miles. The water is of unusual depth, Crater 

Lake, in Oregon, being said to be the only deeper mountain lake in 

America. A sounding of 1,635 feet was obtained a short distance 

south of Hot Springs, in what is perhaps the deepest part, but the 

contour of the bottom is not accurately known. According to a 

generally accepted statement this lake never freezes over in winter, 

probably on account of its great depth. The mountains around the 

lake rise abruptly and culminate in Mount Rose, in the Carson Range, 

at 10,800 feet. It has already been noted that the Sierra Nevada is 

here a double range of almost parallel north-south ridges and that the 

lake lies in a part of the depression between the two. The mountains 

of the Carson Range, east of the lake, though they do not seem 

unusually high or rugged as viewed from the lake, present an exceedingly bold escarpment when viewed from the Nevada side. The 

mountains to the west form the main watershed between the streams 

flowing to the Pacific and those flowing to the Great Basin. Near 

Tahoe the peaks on this divide do not attain°so great a height as those 

of the Carson Range, but farther south the main Sierra becomes 

higher and culminates in Mount Whitney (14,502 feet).

One of the chief beauties of Lake Tahoe lies in the clearness and 

purity of its water and its wonderful coloring, varying from the deep 

blue of the main lake on a clear day to the crystal green of Emerald 

Bay. The lake abounds in fish, which include several species of 

trout. Shoals of the smaller fish may be seen from boats or along
THE OVERLAND ROUTE OGDEN TO SAN FRANCISCO. 199

the shore and may be watched even at considerable depth through 

the clear water as they dart over the bowlder-strewn bottom.

There is a dam and headgate at the outlet into Truckee River by 

which the lake level is raised a few feet during the spring, the surplus 

water being released during the dry season, when it is most needed 

for maintaining a full flow at the power plant below and for irrigation 

in Nevada.

The statement sometimes made that "Tahoe is an old volcanic 

crater" is not true. The region about the lake shows evidences of. 

volcanic activity of various kinds, and the lake waters themselves 

have probably been dammed at times by outpourings of lava. A lava 

flow appears to have temporarily filled the outlet channel below 

Tahoe City. The lake, however, lies in a structural depression a 

dropped block of the earth's crust.

During the Neocene epoch and the earlier part of the Pleistocene 

epoch the waters of Lake Tahoe stood much higher than now, probably on account of lava dams which have since been cut through. 

Distinct beaches that mark former higher levels are found up to about 

100 feet above the present lake, but it is believed that the waters formerly rose to still greater heights. At Tahoe City the most distinct 

of these old beaches is a terrace 35 to 40 feet above the level of the 

lake, and it is this terrace that makes the level ground on which Tahoe 

Tavern is built. Similar terrace levels may be distinguished from 

point to point almost all the way around the lake. (See PL XLVI.)

West of Truckee the main line of the railroad follows Truckee River 

for a little over a mile to the mouth of Donner Creek and then runs up 

along the south side of the broad glaciated valley of that stream. 

Here morainal deposits and forms characteristic of glaciation are 

conspicuous. Huge bowlders of granite, brought here on the moving 

ice during the glacial epoch, strew the surface on all sides.

At milepost 206, by looking Across Donner Creek, the traveler may 

see a large white cross at the forward edge of a low terrace on the 

opposite side of the valley. This is a monument to the Donner party, 

whose tragic story is told at length in most of the histories of early 

California emigrations. About half a mile above this cross, in the 

woods near the lower end of Donner Lake, is a cube of granite 

inscribed as follows:

This stone marks the site of the Donner party cabins, where a monument will be 

erected under the auspices of the N. S. G. W. [Native Sons of the Golden West] to the 

pioneers who crossed the plains.

Donner Lake and the pass now used by the railroad are particularly 

dentified with one of the emigrations that preceded the great gold 

rush to California in 1849. Of these earlier emigrations to the Pacific 

coast there were two. The first was that to Oregon in 1843, during
200 GUIDEBOOK OP THE WESTERN UNITED STATES.

.which some parties turned off and entered California, guided along 

Humboldt River by the renowned mountaineer, Joe Walker.. The 

second was that to California in 1846 during hostilities between the 

United States and Mexico. Bancroft says:

These adventurers were assured that California was a most delightful country one 

every way desirable to settle in; that it was thinly peopled and except along the seaboard almost unoccupied; and that now the Nation was roused to arms, engaged in a 

hand to hand conflict with the weaker power, it would probably result in the acquisition of all that territory by the stronger. * * * The result proved as had been 

anticipated; scarcely hadx the emigrants of 1846 arrived in the valley of California 

when the whole magnificent domain fell a prize into the lap of the United States.

It was during the second of these migrations that the Donner 

tragedy 1 occurred. . 

1 In the spring of 1846 some 2,000 emigrants were gathered at Independence, 

Mo., waiting for the grass of the plains to 

attain sufficient growth for feed for their 

cattle before commencing the long journey to the Pacific coast. Some of these 

were bound for Oregon and the rest for 

California. Among the parties that were 

finally formed for the journey was one 

known as the Donner, or Reed and Donner party. It consisted of the brothers 

George and Jacob Donner and their families and others, making in all about 88 

persons; 24 were men, 15 women, and 

43 children. It was a well-equipped 

party, and George Donner, a man of some 

wealth, who was at its head, was carrying 

a stock of merchandise for sale in California. For a time all went well. Most of 

the emigrants of those,-days followed the 

Oregon Trail northward as far as Fort 

Hall, Idaho, and then, turning southwest, crossed to Humboldt River in Nevada and so went west to the Sierra. At 

Fort Bridger, Wyo., however, the party 

met a man whose advice was to cause 

their ruin. Lansford W. Hastings, who 

had led a party of emigrants across to 

Oregon in 1842 and had returned and pub- 

' lished a guide to Oregon and California, 

now claimed to have discovered a shorter 

route which would save 200 miles over 

the old route by Fort Hall. After deliberating several days the emigrants 

divided. The greater part, going by 

Fort Hall, reached California in safety, 

but the Ponner party, who had elected 

George Donner captain, decided to try

the Hastings cut-off. Both parties left 

Fort Bridger on July 28.

At the start the Donner party followed 

approximately the present route of the 

Union Pacific Railroad and had little difficulty until they reached Weber Canyon, 

where the roads seemed impassable for 

wagons. Making a detour to avoid this 

canyon, they did not reach Salt Lake 

until September 1. From September 9 

to 14 the party were crossing Salt Lake 

desert, going around the south end of the 

lake by the route which is approximately 

that of the Western Pacific Railway today. Here disaster began to overtake 

them. Some of the oxen died of thirst, a 

part of the wagons and goods had to be 

abandoned, and some of the party were 

forced to walk. Rations were short and 

the first snows of the season commenced. 

The cattle were attacked and stolen by 

Indians and the situation gradually became desperate. Slowly they made their 

way westward across Nevada.

On October 19 the starving emigrants 

met a relief party with some provisions at 

the lower crossing of Truckee River (site of 

Wadsworth). After resting a few days the 

party proceeded up by Truckee Meadows 

(Reno) and finally, on October 31, reached 

the vicinity of Truckee. Here the winter 

snows overtook them. On December 16 

some of the party attempted to escape by 

crossing the summit on snowshoes. A 

few succeeded in reaching Sacramento 

and told of the plight of their companions. 

When the rescue parties reached Donner 

Lake they found that 36 of the 81 who 

had camped at the lake had perished.
U. S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY 

CAVE ROCK, LAKE TAHOE, 

The bench in the foreground is a remnant of a former higher shore and is now utilized by the road that 

and down to Carson City. Photograph furnished by 
U. S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY BULLETIN 612 PLATE XLVI1

A. DONNER LAKE. 

Glaciated ledge of granite in the foreground. Photograph furnished by Southern Pacific Co.

B. DESOLATION VALLEY, NEAR LAKE TAHOE.

Characteristic view of the higher Sierra even in midsummer. The bare and more or less rounded surfaces of the 

rock ledges testify testify to the scouring action of the ice that has moved over them. Photograph furnished by

Southern Pacific Co.
THE OVERLAND ROUTE OGDEN TO SAN FRANCISCO.' 201

Just beyond the Donner cross and before the first snowsheds are 

entered, a bit of the lower end of Donner Lake may be seen by looking 

through the trees up the valley ahead. From this point the train 

turns southwestward, going up one side of the valley of Cold Creek, 

and then doubles back again, still climbing, on the other side. As 

the train rounds the loop in Cold Creek valley the rear platform 

affords a view of the Sierra crest, culminating in Tinker Knob (9,020 

feet), only 2 or 3 miles distant. Along the north side of Cold Creek 

the snowsheds are almost continuous. They extend from this valley 

along about 40 miles of the railroad, the last shed being just beyond 

Blue Canyon, on the west slope. It is unfortunate that no satisfactory plan has yet been devised to protect the tracks from snow 

without marring the most beautiful part of the route over the 

mountains.

Hounding the point of the ridge at the left (north) and passing 

through a curved tunnel, the train comes out just above Donner 

Lake. The basin of this beautiful mountain lake is apparently of 

glacial origin, as the water occupies a hollow, evidently once filled 

by a glacier, with bare granite cliffs at its upper end and a heavy 

terminal moraine at its lower end. This moraine holds back the 

water of the present lake, but the basin is believed to have been 

originally dammed lower down by flows of basaltic lava which spread 

across the valley just west of Truckee and through which Donner 

River subsequently cut its way. Near the head of Donner Lake the 

train runs back into another southward loop and, crossing some 

heavy deposits of morainal debris, comes out above the upper end of 

Donner Lake. (See PI. XLVII, A.) From this point it is but little 

more than a mile to the long tunnel through granite by which the 

crest is pierced.

Donner Pass, the highest point along the railroad, is just above the 

tunnel. The elevation of the tunnel is 7,012 feet; the pass above 

the tunnel is of course somewhat higher. Just beummi . yond the tunnel is a flag stop known as Summit

Omaha 1,589 miles. jj^ and h&]£ & ^^ or SQ farther ig ^ station m

the snowsheds called Summit. Although it is difficult to see out of 

the snowsheds, glimpses to the south disclose the west side of the 

main Sierra crest, usually with at least a few snow patches throughout 

the summer. The 150-mile trip from Sacramento to this point, a 

climb of nearly 7,000 feet, and down the east side of the range into 

Nevada is mentioned in the Sacramento papers in the unimpassioned 

phrase "going over the bill." And yet they say that the westerner 

exaggerates.

The annual precipitation is veiy high over the west slope, ranging 

from a mean of 52 inches at Cisco, at about 6,000 feet, to 48 inches at
202 GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES.

Summit, 1,000 feet higher. 1 At the higher elevations a'large proportion of this precipitation is snow, as it rarely rains much during 

the summer. Near the summit the snow may accumulate to a depth 

of 20 feet on the level during a single winter. (See PI. XLVII, B.) 

On the west slope of the range, between the elevations of 6,000 

and 7,500 feet, is the great Sierra forest zone, although the full 

grandeur of the forest is not displayed along this particular route. 

A note on the principal trees to be seen between the summit of the 

Sierra and San Francisco Bay has been kindly supplied by Prof. 

W. L. Jepson, of the University of California.2

1 The mean annual precipitation at sev-. 

era! places along the route is shown by 

the following table compiled from records 

of the United States Weather Bureau extending over periods of 30 years or more:

Mean precipitation on Sierra slopes along 

line of Southern Pacific Railroad.

Inches. 

Reno, Nev........................ 8. 65

Boca, Cal. .......:............... 20. 84

Truckee, Cal...................... 27.12

Summit, Cal...................... 48. 07

Cisco, Cal........................ 52.02

Blue Canyon, Cal........;....... 74. 22

Towle, Cal........................ 59. 38

Colfax, Cal........................ 48.94

Auburn, Cal...................... 35.13

Sacramento, Cal.................. 19. 40

2 At the summit of the Sierra are found:

Jeffrey pine (Pinus jeffreyi), a near 

relative of the yellow pine having a red, 

rusty, or wine-colored bark and a large 

cone suggestive by its outline of an oldfashioned beehive.

Whitebark pine (Pinus albicaulis), a 

timber-line tree, dwarfed and often prostrate, commonly associated with the 

Jeffrey pine.

Tamrac pine (Pinus contorta var. murrayana), found chiefly at the higher altitudes and especially abundant in swampy 

meadows, but grows also on the granite 

ridges and is frequently a timber-line 

tree. It is characterized by its short 

foliage consisting of two needles in a place 

and by its small burrlike cones. This 

tree is not the eastern tamarack.

Western juniper (Juniperus occidentalis), a very characteristic tree of granite 

ridges and cliffs.

On the middle western slope the four 

prevailing species, which can probably 

be recognized from the train, are:

Yellow pine (Pinus ponderosa), the 

dominant tree of the Sierra forest belt and 

on the average the largest tree, except the 

big tree (Sequoia washingtoniana or gigantea), which is not of general occurrence. 

The yellow pine is distinguished by its 

yellow bark, which is checked into large 

plates 1 to 3 feet long and 6 inches to 1 or 

2 feet wide, slightly resembling the back 

of an alligator. The cones are ovoid and 

about 3 to 5 inches long.

Sugar pine (Pinus lambertiana), usually 

associated with the yellow pine, occurs 

in the main forest belt; distinguished by 

its finaly checked bark, by its cones 12 

to 16 inches long, and by the very noticeable feature that the branches in the very 

top run out into a few unequal horizontal 

arms.

Incense cedar (Libocedrus decurrens), 

the only cedar-like tree at middle altitudes; has a reddish fibrous bark and for 

that reason is sometimes mistaken for the 

Sequoia by the amateur. 

. White fir (Abies concolor), a common 

tree on the lower slopes below the main 

summit, mostly associated with the yellow 

pine. These trees will probably attract 

attention because of the beautiful symmetry of their crowns,. gently tapering to 

a pointed top. Their branches expand 

horizontally and impart a stratified or 

layered appearance to the crown. On 

the higher slopes of the Sierran axis this 

species is replaced by the red fir, which is 

similar in appearance but has a reddish 

instead of a whitish bark.
BULLETIN 612 SHEET No. 22

GEOLOGIC AND TOPOGRAPHIC MAP

OF THE

OVERLAND ROUTE

From Omaha, Nebraska, to San Francisco, California

Base compiled from United States Geological Survey Atlas Sheets, 

from railroad alignments and profiles supplied by the Union Pacific 

Railroad Company and the Southern Pacific Company and from additional information collected with the assistance of these companies

UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY

GEOEGE OTIS SMITH, DIRECTOR 

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

1915

Bach quadrangle shown on the map with a name in parenthesis in the 

lower left corner is mapped in detail on the U. S. G. S. Topographic ' 

sheet of that name.

EXPLANATION

Stream deposits (alluvium), sediments of Lake Lahontan, and, in upper valley of Truckee River, other lake 

deposits

B 

C

Glacial deposits, moraines; Pleistocene j

Lavas (rhyolite, andesite, basalt, etc.), probably Miocene, Pliocene, and later; with some interbedded volcanic ash and diatomaceous earth (Truckee formation). 

Miocene

D Granite and other coarse-grained intrusive igneous rocks'] 

< granodiorite, gabbro, etc.); late Jurassic or early 

Cretaceous

E Slate, schist, and quartzite (including Sailor Canyon! 

formation, Triassic) j

Highest shore line of Lake Lahontan indicated thus -'""'

Quaternary

Tertiary and 

Quaternary (?)

Mesozoic

M9°3o NEVADA-.CALIFORNIA

500.000 

Approximately 8 miles to 1 inch

Contour interval 200 feet

ELEVATIONS IN FEET ABOVE MEAN SEA LEVEL

The distances from Omaha, Nebraska, are shown every JO miles 

The crossties on the railroads are spaced 1 mile apart
THE OVERLAND ROUTE 06DEN TO SAN FRANCISCO. 203.

Soda Springs.

Elevation 6,748 feet. 

Omaha 1,592 miles.

For about 2 miles from the summit the route follows an upland 

meadow, undoubtedly of glacial origin, the lower end of which is now 

submerged in a reservoir called Lake Van Norden, 

after a family of eastern capitalists who have taken 

a prominent part in the water-storage, water-supply, 

and hydroelectric power developments that have been 

so largely extended in the Sierra during the last few years. The 

mountain streams thus utilized supply light and power throughout 

much of California and Nevada. 1

Below Soda Springs (see sheet 23, p. 214) the railroad follows the 

south side of the upper valley of South Fork of Yuba River, a typical 

glacially scoured valley, its broad and smoothly rounded bottom worn 

down to bare granite. Along the sides of the valley is scattered more 

or less morainal debris.

An especially noticeable feature of the western slope of the Sierra 

Nevada is the general evenness of its sky line. In any extensive view 

it is not difficult to overlook the deep canyons and imagine oneself 

looking over a great forested plain sloping gently westward. The 

ridges between the canyons are in fact remnants of a former surface of

In the foothills there occur:

Digger pine (Pinus sabiniana), a lightgray dusty long-needle pine, having a 

foliage so thin that it scarcely casts a 

shadow. It has a large, heavy cone and 

is sometimes known as bull pine.

Blue oak (Quercus douglasii), almost 

always associated with Digger pine, recognizable by its white trunks and bluish 

foliage.

In the Sacramento Valley the scattered 

oaks and groves are composed of:

Interior live oak (Quercus wislizenii), a 

symmetrical evergreen tree, frequently 

with a hemispherical top, set low to the 

ground.

Valley oak (Quercus lobata),.sk deciduous 

tree which is taller than the live oak and 

has long, drooping, cordlike branchlets 

pendant from the great crown. .

Near San Francisco -Bay the interior 

live oak is replaced by the coast live oak 

(Quercus agrifolia), of similar appearance. 

A marked feature of Coast Range scenery 

is the considerable groves of the eucalyptus, an introduced tree, various species 

of which have been set out in this country 

within the last 30 or 35 years. They 

come mostly from Australia. Of the

many species probably 120 are now represented in the State. They are rapid 

growers and produce exceedingly hard 

wood, which is difficult to cure for utilization as lumber but which is of very 

great strength when it can be properly 

seasoned.

1 There are in California about 75 developed hydroelectric power plants, 

most of which, including the largest, are 

in the Sierra. Along the route of the 

Southern Pacific the principal developments are those of the Pacific Gas & Electric Co., which consist of a system of 

storage reservoirs, conduits, and power 

houses for the utilization of the flow of 

Yuba and Bear rivers. Most of the 

structures visible from the railroad, as at 

Lake Van Norden and in the vicinity of 

Colfax, have been built in connection 

with the recently completed Drum plant, 

which hag an ultimate capacity of 40,000 

kilowatts, or 53,600 horsepower. The 

further utilization of the power of Bear 

River will involve the construction of 

five additional power plants extending 

from Lake Spalding to Newcastle, the 

total power capacity of the completed 

system to be 160,000 horsepower.
204 GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTEBN UNITED STATES.

low relief. By the elevation and westward tilting of this surface the 

Sierra Nevada was formed.

The rocks near the summit are principally granite (or granodiorite),1 

lavas (andesite, rhyolite, and basalt), tuffs, and breccias. The volcanic rocks generally cap the ridges, the canyons being cut through 

them into granite or into sedimentary rocks which have been invaded 

by the granite. In general, throughout the western slope of the Sierra 

Nevada, the lavas, the associated gold-bearing gravels, and the other 

Tertiary rocks lie nearly horizontal on the worn surface or eroded 

edges of a much older tilted set of rocks. These older rocks comprise 

altered sediments, such as slates and schists, altered lavas and tuffs, 

in part rendered slaty or schistose by pressure, and intruded igneous 

masses. The various sedimentary formations are not readily distinguishable from one another from the train. The most widespread 

and characteristic are the Calaveras formation, of Carboniferous age, 

and the Mariposa slate, of Jurassic age. Both consist chiefly of slaty 

rocks, although the Calaveras is less uniform than the Mariposa and 

contains some limestone. The dip of the older rocks varies, especially 

near intrusive masses, but in general it is 60° to 70° E.

Near Cisco the older sedimentary formations of the Sierra begin to 

take the place of the granite and volcanic rocks. North of the 

railroad, on the summit of a high ridge known as Signal Peak, the railroad company maintains a lookout 

station, from which a watch is kept for fires in the 

snowsheds, many miles of which are in view from this 

one point. The ridge on which the signal station is situated is composed of metamorphosed slates (Sailor Canyon formation) of Triassic

age, like those that occur at Cisco. The brown talus from these slates

 

is in decided contrast with the white granite outcrops previously

passed. ft

Cisco is an old railroad-construction camp, now a small settlement 

for the railroad employees. Here also is a summer hotel and camp. 

In the valley of the South Fork of the Yuba below the railroad, on the 

right, is a favorite summer automobile road which crosses the Sierra 

and forms a section of the recently named Lincoln Highway.

There are openings in the snowsheds here and there at bridges and 

at places where one part of the shed is made to telescope into 

another, being mounted on wheels for that purpose. These teleCisco.

Elevation 5,940 feet. 

Omaha 1,602 miles.

1 The granodiorite of the Sierra Nevada 

is an enormous mass of intrusive rock only 

partly bared by erosion. Such a mass 

that extends to unknown depth is called 

by geologists a batholith. The batholith 

of the Sierra Nevada is merely one member of a chain that comprises many such 

masses, which extend along the western 

coast of North America. These immense 

bodies of igneous rock were intruded in 

late Jurassic or Cretaceous time and may 

all be connected at great depth.
THE OVERLAND ROUTE OGDEN TO SAN FRANCISCO. . 205

scoping -sections are rolled back in summer, as a precaution against 

the spread of fires. Crystal Lake (elevation 5,758 feet), Yuba Pass 

(5,614 feet), and Smart (5,351 feet) are unimportant stations in the 

snowsheds. The block-signal system in use on this part of the road 

is interesting, and an account of it may be obtained by conversing 

with those who are socially inclined among the railroad, crews.

Just beyond Smart, near milepost 173, a glimpse forward on the

right shows the South Fork of Yuba River in its now rapidly deepening

valley far below. The river here turns sharply north

Emigrant Gap. an(j immediately disappears into a very narrow and

Elevation 5,225 feet. jeep r0cky gorge. This is a striking. example of what

Omaha 1,610 miles. . -^ J to & , . , & r

is known among physiographers as stream capture. 

The part of the river already passed is the former headward portion of Bear River, which now rises near this point and flows 

southwestward through a smooth, grassy gap, known as Emigrant 

Gap. Another stream on the north, the original South Fork of 

the Yuba, working backward at its head in the manner common to 

streams, cut its canyon faster and deeper than that of the ancient 

Bear River was cut and finally worked back into the Bear River valley, and, tapping that stream, drained off its water through the narrow 

canyon to the north. (See fig. 17, on sheet 23, p. 214.) The present 

Bear River approaches within a quarter of a mile of the railroad just 

beyond Gold Run. The evidence of this interesting bit of ancient 

river history remains in view but momentarily, for the railroad plunges 

through a short tunnel and emerges on the opposite side of the ridge, 

in one of the upper tributary valleys of the American River system.

Emigrant Gap is the first station on the descent which suggests a 

surrounding agricultural or fruit-raising country. The railroad cuts 

expose slates and micaceous schists (Calaveras formation) which 

belong to the Carboniferous system. Here may be noted a change 

from the upper region where glaciers have scoured the rocks clean of 

all loose material to the lower region where a mantle of soil and disintegrated rock gives better opportunity for forest growth.

The station of Blue Canyon is situated on the timbered hillside in a

deep reentrant curve of the railroad, which is here high above the

North Fork of American River, near the crest of one

Blue Canyon. Of fae characteristic flat-topped, lava-capped ridges

Elevation 4,701 feet. Of ^ mid-Sierra slope. (See PI. XLIX, B, p. 207.)

Omaha 1,615 miles. . \. j . i j 4, (

The last ol the snowsheds is near at hand. Beyond 

them, as the road winds in and out on the mountain side, distant 

views bring out with great distinctness the evenness of the sky 

line that is significant of the smoothness of the older (early Tertiary) topographic surface by whose uplift and westward tilting in 

late Tertiary time the Sierra Nevada came into being as a mountain
206 . GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES.

range. The depth to which the modern river canyons have been 

cut below this surface is an index of the amount of erosion that has 

been accomplished since this uplift. The old plateau surface has been 

deeply dissected, but it is yet far from being destroyed. The stream 

channels are considered as still in the "youthful" stages of their 

development. When they attain "maturity/' perhaps thousands of 

years from now, the ridges between them will have been worn down 

to low, rounded divides, and the streams themselves, instead of roaring through rocky canyons, will glide in leisurely meanders through 

broad green meadows. The canyons are thus evidence of the geologic 

recency of the elevation of the Sierra Nevada.

Beyond Blue Canyon the train skirts a thickly wooded steep slope, 

above the gradually deepening canyon of Blue Creek. This part of 

the railroad follows closely the bottom of the lava that caps the ridge, 

the canyon below being cut in the slaty rocks of the Calaveras formation. The main cap rock of the ridge is andesitic tuff-breccia. Under 

this in places is some lighter-colored rhyolite tuff. For a while there 

are few distant outlooks. The hillsides are, for the most part, thickly 

covered with small timber and underbrush, which is evidently second 

growth, the original forest having been destroyed long ago by lumbering or by forest fires. At Forebay (milepost 162), which is a sidetrack and water station, there is again a partial view across the canyon to the distant level sky line. West of this are several deep cuts 

along the railroad, showing the character of the deposits that were 

formerly spread out over the old plateau surface, composed largely 

of fragmental volcanic materials ranging from fine tuff to coarse 

blocks of lava. (See PI. XLVIII, B.} Just beyond Midas (elevation 

4,142 feet, milepost. 161) appears a seemingly almost sheer drop into 

the deep gorge of the North Fork of American River, here 2,000 feet 

below the track. "The evenness of the ridge tops to the south, due 

largely to the fact that they are capped with volcanic rocks, chiefly 

andesite tuff-breccia, is again clearly apparent. Beyond Gorge station (elevation 3,904 feet) the railroad again skirts the 2,000-foot 

gorge, just above a constriction in the canyon known as Giant Gap, 

also as Lovers Leap. The canyon is narrow here because it cuts 

across a belt of altered igneous rock (amphibolite) that is harder, than 

the slates above it. The raikoad here'turns northward through a 

little gap in the ridge into a small upland valley. The rock in the 

gap itself is white rhyolite tuff, but above and below the gap the 

railroad crosses some serpentine (an altered magnesian igneous rock) 

which is a part of a north-south belt of this rock that extends along 

this part of the Sierra slope.
U. S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY BULLETIN 612 PLATE XLVIII

A. VIEW OF TERTIARY GOLD-GRAVEL DEPOSITS BETWEEN GOLD RUN AND DUTCH FLAT

LOOKING BACK OVER THE GOLD GRAVELS FROM GOLD RUN. 

Mote the flurne in which water is conducted, formerly used in the washings but now employed for irrigation.

B. VIEW IN A RAILROAD CUT BETWEEN FOREBAY AND MIDAS.

Shows the character of the deposits laid down over the old plateau surface, which, now uplifted and tilted to 

the west, forms the west side of the Sierra. The cut exposes rounded stream bowlders, coarse angular blocks 

of lava, and layers of finer volcanic ash and sediment.
U. S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY BULLETIN 612 PLATE XLIX

A. VIEW DOWN CANYON OF NORTH FORK OF AMERICAN RIVER FROM CAPE HORN, CAL.

The even sky line in the distance represents the former surface by whose elevation and western tilting the Sierra 

Nevada was brought into existence. Photograph furnished by Southern Pacific Co.

7?. BLUE CANYON, CAL.

This village is near the lower limits of the snowsheds. Trees are white firs. Photograph furnished by Southern

Pacific Co.
THE OVERLAND ROUTE OGDEN TO SAN FRANCISCO. 207

Towle.

Omaha 1,623 miles.

Alta.

At Towle are some of the higher orchards of the Sierra, and here 

again, close at hand, is the Lincoln Highway. In the woods hereabouts are summer camps and small hotels. In the 

bed of the little stream just below the railroad station on the left have lately been found some magnesite (a carbonate of magnesium) and also some asbestos. So far as known the deposits are not of sufficient extent to be of 

value. They occur with the serpentine, the usual association for magnesite deposits. Dark ledges of amphibolite (the same belt that occurs 

at Giant Gap) and of serpentine show along the railroad.

Just below Towle is a railroad cut in some of the white volcanic 

tuff (rhyolitic) already referred to as occurring below the andesite 

tuff-breccia. These volcanic deposits are mere remnants, and once extended across the areas now occuJievations 602feet. ied b the canyons. The andesite tuff-breccia parOrnalia 1,624 miles. , i » i

ticularly covered enormous areas of the west slope of 

the Sierra before that slope was tilted by earth movements and cut 

into by the streams. At Alta are summer camps and a sanitarium. 

The surrounding country is rather thickly timbered, but there are 

clearings planted as orchards or cultivated in other ways.

Just beyond Alta is a sidetrack where round bowlders of white 

quartz, obtained from the old gold diggings a short distance away, 

are shipped. These bowlders are used in the furnaces of the railroad 

repair shops at Sacramento. They come from a placer mine which is 

called Nary-a-Red, referring to the absence of the usual red bowlders 

in these gravels. The pure white cobbles remain behind after the 

finer materials nave been washed away by the hydraulic method of 

mining for gold.

Beyond a bend on the north side of the ridge the town of Dutch 

Flat, almost surrounded by the great pits made by hydraulic washing for gold, comes into view a short distance away 

from and below the railroad. The railroad station 

of the same name is about a mile south of the town, 

at a former settlement of Chinese miners that was 

known as Chinatown. Here the, view from the railroad embraces 

a region that was prominent in the early mining days of California 

for its yield of placer gold. The gold of Dutch Flat came chiefly 

from the upper or bench gravels, deposited by the rivers of Tertiary time 1 and now high above the present streams. Hydraulic

Dutch Flat.

1 The Tertiary streams that flowed 

down the western slope of the Sierra occupied wider valleys than the present ones 

and accumulated extensive deposits of 

gold-bearing gravels along their channels. 

These gravels were later covered by lavas

and flows of stony mud (tuff-breccia) 

erupted from volcanoes near or east of the 

present summit. When the grade of the 

slope was increased by the tilting of the 

range in later Tertiary time the rivers cut 

new canyons, and many of the old chan-
208 GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES.

mining, in which the gravel is attacked by powerful jets of water, is 

no longer in progress near Dutch Flat, partly because the rich parts 

of the deposits have been worked out but chiefly because laws enacted 

for the protection of the agriculturists along the lower courses of the 

rivers prohibit the washing of silt and sand and other mining debris 

into the streams. The general character of these old hydraulic workings can be well seen from the railroad.

The historically important discovery of gold in California was made 

in January, 1848, at John Butter's mill on South Fork of American 

River near Coloma, a point only 10 or 15 miles southeast of the town 

of Auburn, through which the train will soon pass. From 1850 to 

1853 the greatest yield was derived from the gravels, and the largest 

annual output for this period was more than $65,000,000, in 1852. 

There was some reaction in 1854, due to previous wild speculation, 

but a production of about $50,000,000 a year, chiefly from placer 

mines, was maintained up to 1861.

 At first the gold was won chiefly from the gravels along the present 

streams. Those who first got possession of the rich bars on American, Yuba, Feather, and Stanislaus rivers and some of the smaller 

streams in the heart of the gold region made at times from $1,000 

to $5,000 a day. In 1848 $500 to $700 a day was not unusual luck; 

but, on the other hand, the income of the great majority of miners 

was certainly far less than that of men who seriously devoted themselves to trade or even to common labor.

nels with their lava caps now lie on the 

ridges. (See fig. 18.)

Of interest in connection with the Tertiary river gravels is the story of the 

Calaveras skull. For a time this skull 

attracted much attention not only from 

people in California, but from scientific

that man had been in existence in North 

America very much longer than had been 

supposed. Strange to say, the skull is 

of a higher type than skulls which, although known to antedate historic times, 

are known also to be much younger than 

the Tertiary. Although Prof. J. D. Whittertiary

. auriferous gravel . Lava

FIGUEE 18. Diagram showing the present relation of the Tertiary auriferous gravels to bedrock and 

lavas, also the position of the gravel remnants high on the ridge summits.

men the world over. It was reported to 

have been found in 1866, near the town of 

Angels, Calaveras County, at a depth of 

130 feet, in Tertiary gold-bearing gravels 

underlying Tertiary lava. The finding 

of a human skull embedded in such deposits was for a time believed to indicate

ney, then State geologist, accepted the 

skull as a bit of genuine scientific evidence, it is generally believed by students of the antiquity of man that the 

Calaveras skull, while undoubtedly old, 

probably did not come from the aurifer~ 

ous gravels at all.
THE OVEELAND ROUTE OGDEN TO SAN FBANCISCO. 209

The gold pan, the "rocker," the "torn," the sluice, and the hydraulic "giant" or "monitor," named in the order of increasing efficiency, 

were the tools successively used by the miners. Into the "roeker" 

and the "torn" the miner shoveled gravel or "dirt," rocking the 

machine as he poured in water and catching the. gold, often with 

the aid of quicksilver, on riffles set across the bottom of his box. 

Sometimes a stream was diverted into a flume to lay bare the gravel . 

in its bed so that the miner could get at it. In sluicing, the gravel 

was shoveled into a similar but much longer box through which a 

stream of water was allowed to run. The hydraulic giant was em- 

 ployed to wash into long riffle-set sluices immense quantities of 

gravel, especially from the higher (Tertiary) deposits, much of which 

was too lean to work out by hand. Water was brought for many 

miles in ditches and flumes from the high Sierra and conducted 

under great head to a nozzle from which it was projected with tremendous force against the .gravel. It was the vast quantity of refuse 

< washed into the streams by these hydraulic operations that brought 

about the conflict between mining and agricultural interests, finally 

decided in favor of the farmers. Of late years the gold obtained 

from quartz veins in California has exceeded that won by placer 

mining.

Half a mile beyond Dutch Flat station the railroad track rests on 

Tertiary gold-bearing gravel, the right of way having been preserved 

from attack by the miners. (See PL XL VIII, A.) The lower part 

of the gravel under the railroad is said to be worth about $8 a cubic 

yard, and it is worthy of note that elsewhere gravels yielding only 

SI or $2 a yard are now being worked with profit by tunneling or 

drifting. The bedrock on which the gravels at Dutch Flat rest is a 

dark-green, somewhat altered intrusive igneous rock (gabbro).

Just beyond the hydraulic washings is Gold Run, which like Dutch 

Flat was formerly a flourishing placer town. Beyond Gold Run the 

railroad for about 6 miles crosses a north-south belt 

0 un' of slate or slaty schist of Carboniferous age (Calaveras

formation). These rocks are cut by dikes of dark, 

altered igneous rock (amphibolite). Patches of Tertiary lavas, outlying remnants of the former plateau surface, cap the 

highest hills along the summit of the ridge near this part of the route. 

On the right is Bear River, already mentioned as having lost its 

original upper portion, above Emigrant Gap, through capture by the 

South Fork of the Yuba.

Magra (elevation 2,899 feet), Cape Horn (2,656 feet), and Wirt

(2,442 feet) are unimportant stations. From a point near milepost

148 can be seen placer pits at Iowa Hill and Michigan Bluff, high on

the ridges across the canyon of the North Fork of American River,

92213° Bull. 612 15 14
210 GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES.

far away to the southeast. These places, busy mining centers of the 

early days, are now quiet little back-country settlements.

Just beyond Cape Horn station the train turns south along the 

side of a wooded ridge and suddenly, at the south end of the ridge, 

rounds a point known 'as Cape Horn. Until this year (1915) the 

road skirted the point at the summit of a precipice 1,500 feet above 

,the North Fork of American River, which afforded the superb canyon 

view shown in Plate XLIX, A. Now the old line " around Cape 

Horn" has been abandoned, and railroad traffic goes through double 

tunnels built to eliminate what had seemed like a dangerous curve 

around the point. Turning back along the other side of the spur, 

the railroad crosses a deep ravine up which runs the narrow-gage 

road from Coif ax to Grass Valley and Nevada City. This ravine, 

which opens on the North Fork of American River, is cut in slate of 

Jurassic age (Mariposa slate). This formation and some of the 

altered slaty or schistose volcanic rocks associated with it (amphibolite schist, greenstone, etc.) contain some of the principal goldbearing quartz veins of California, including the series of veins 

known as the Mother Lode.1

1 The Mother Lode, so called because 

the early miners imagined it had some 

sort of ancestral relation to smaller'lodes, 

extends from the vicinity of the Middle 

Fork of American River southward for 

fully 120 miles, past the towns of Placerville, Amador, Sutter Creek, Jackson, San 

Andreas, Angels, Jamestown, Jacksonville, Coulterville, and Mariposa. It is 

not, as the name implies, a single great 

vein, but a remarkable linear system of 

closely parallel and overlapping veins, 

some of which are many miles in length. 

The lode has the same general trend as 

the belts of slaty or schistose rock that are 

characteristic of the western mid-Sierra 

slope and follows in the main a very persistent belt of Mariposa slate, although it 

is not confined to that formation. In 

places the Mother Lode veins are in altered schistose igneous rocks (amphibolite schist or greenstone schist), in slaty 

rocks of the Calaveras formation, or even 

in serpentine.

The slaty rocks of the Mother Lode region generally dip 60° to 75° E., and 

most of the veins are a little less steeply 

inclined than the rocks in their vicinity. 

The veins cpnsist chiefly of quartz carrying free gold, auriferous pyrite, and other 

minerals that are less constantly or less 

abundantly present. They were deposited in early Cretaceous time by hot 

waters probably given off, in part at least, 

by deep-lying, slowly cooling masses of 

granite (granodiorite).

A few of the principal mines along the 

Mother Lode are the Plymouth, Fremont, 

Bunker Hill, Original Amador, Keystone, 

Lincoln, Wildman-Mahoney, Eureka, 

Amador, Central Eureka, South Eureka, 

Oneida, Kennedy, Argonaut, Zeila, Gwin, 

Gold Cliff, Lightner, Utica, Melones, 

Rawhide, Dutch, App, Eagle-Shawmut, 

and Princeton. Not all of these are now 

active. The deepest mine and one of the 

most productive is the Kennedy, which 

has a vertical shaft 4,000 feet deep:

The ore of the Mother Lode is treated 

in stamp mills, and the gold is recovered 

partly by amalgamation and partly by 

^concentration and cyanidation of the 

pyrite and other sulphides present. The 

gold quartz mines of California produce 

annually gold valued at from $10,000,000 

to $12,000,000. The greater part of this 

comes from the mines along the Mother 

Lode,
THE OVERLAND ROUTE OGDEN TO SAN FRANCISCO. 211

Colfax.

Elevation 2,422 feet. 

Population 621. 

Omaha 1,639 miles.

Beyond the ravine is Colfax, first known as Illinoistown but later 

renamed for Vice President Colfax. The Central Pacific Railway, 

being built up from the. Sacramento Valley, reached 

this place on September 1,1865. The Nevada County 

Narrow Gage Railroad runs from Colfax to the important mining districts of Grass Valley and Nevada 

City, where there are many lode mines that have 

long been productive.1

After leaving Colfax the train passes through shallow cuts.in yellow 

soil derived from the deep decay of the Jurassic slates. The road 

continues the descent along a ridge between canyons, although, the 

traveler will hardly recognize this fact without reference to the map. 

The upper slopes near the railroad have been largely cleared of timber and are now covered with a dense underbrush, including manzanita,2 scrub oak, and other shrubs and dwarf trees. The Jurassic 

rocks in some places carry a few distinctive fossils, but the numerous 

outcrops of slate as seen from the train do not look very different 

from the rocks of Carboniferous age (Calaveras) that occur east of 

Cape Horn.

About 2 miles below Colfax the tracks separate, the westbound 

route turning off to the north side of the ridge. From this point to 

Rocklin the two lines are in general some distance apart, although 

here and there they run together and at two places even cross each 

other. The older line, used by the westbound trains, affords the 

better views, as the newer, more uniformly graded track passes 

through deep cuts and many tunnels.

Lander (elevation 2,282 feet), New England Mills or Weimar 

(2,278 feet), and Applegate are all small settlements along the route.

1 The Nevada City-Grass Valley district is second only to the much larger 

Mother Lode district as a source of vein 

gold in California, and probably nowhere 

else in the State has there been so great a 

concentration of gold in a small area. 

The veins occur in many kinds of rock, 

including granodiorite, slates of the Calaveras formation, altered volcanic rocks 

(greenstones, amphibolite schist, etc.), 

and serpentine. They vary much in 

trend and dip, are generally rather narrow, and yield ore of higher grade than 

the Mother Lode veins. The veins are 

similar in general character to those of 

the Mother Lode, although they show 

some mineralogic differences. A famous 

mine of the district is the North Star, the 

most productive gold mine in California.

From 1884 to the end of 1913 this mine 

has 'yielded gold to the value of over 

$15,000,000. Its main shaft, an incline, 

is 5,850 feet long and attains a vertical 

depth of 2,200 feet.

2 The manzanita (Arctostaphylos patula) 

is a shrub having a smooth bark of rich 

chocolate color, small pale-green roundish 

leaves, and berries that resemble diminutive apples. It is this resemblance that 

gives the shrub its common name, Spanish 

for little apple, by which it is known 

everywhere on the Pacific coast. Bears 

are very fond of these berries. The 

manzanita covers many of the hills in 

California with a stiff, almost impenetrable growth. Its wood is hard, and the 

blaze from an old gnarled root cheera 

many a western fireplace.
212 GUIDEBOOK OP THE WESTERN UNITED STATES.

From several points in this vicinity a very fine view to the rear may 

be had across the level-topped upland surface which slopes up to the 

now distant summits of the main range near the south end of Lake 

Tahoe.

The route crosses -obliquely the outcrops of Jurassic (Mariposa) 

slate and after running for a few miles near the western edge of this 

belt of rocks enters, near New England Mills, a belt of the Calaveras 

formation. This change, however, is not readily recognized from a 

moving train, as both formations consist largely of similar slaty and 

schistose rocks.

Fruit growing is obviously the principal industry of the country

about Applegate, and evidences of it increase as the journey continues.

The train, still following the crest of a broad ridge,

Applegate. passes through a country of rolling hills covered with

n16^1?^965 -!66*' orchards, fields of grain, and patches of timber. It Omaha 1,647 miles. . . , e

is said that some of the settlements along this part of 

the route specialize in certain fruits. For instance, Applegate raises 

pears chiefly, New England Mills prunes, and so on. Snow falls 

occasionally here and may lie for a few hours, and there is some frost. 

Consequently this country is not suited to the growing of oranges 

and other semitropical fruits.

Clipper Gap, a little settlement on the narrow^ridge.followed by the 

railroad, is surrounded by orchards and cultivated ground. A few

miles beyond it, between mileposts 128 and 127, the 

Cupper Gap. slates of the Calaveras formation are succeeded on the 

Elevation 1,757 feet. west W altered greenish igneous rocks (diabase, amOmaha 1,650 miles. J i -i 'T i i

phibohte, and amphibolite schist), in places slaty or 

schistose and decomposing in general to a reddish soil. These rocks

are the record of volcanic activity in Jurassic time and perhaps also 

in Carboniferous time.

The westbound traveler passes along the east side of the thriving

town of Auburn, the seat of Placer County, named by settlers from

the city in New York. The eastbound trains go west

Auburn. Of ^ne town. The older part of Auburn, dating from

Elevation 1,360 feet, the early mining days, is built in the valley of the

Population 2,376. ' / . ? , J. ' . , . J ,, Omaha 1,657 miles, small stream called Auburn Kavine, but since those 

days the settlement has spread over the surrounding 

hills and fruit growing has largely taken the place of mining. The 

principal fruits raised here are peaches, plums, prunes, raisin and table 

grapes, and olives. Many of the ranchers have a few orange trees, but 

these are more numerous at Newcastle, the next station, 400 feet 

lower, where the soil and temperature are better adapted to citrus 

fruits. From the suburb of Aeolia Heights, just east of the railroad, 

may be obtained fine views of the deep1 canyon of American River, 

similar to those seen from the train near Cape Horn (PI. XLIX, A) ;
THE OVERLAND ROUTE OGDEN TO SAN FRANCISCO. 213

and from the hills west of Auburn may be seen on a clear day the summit of Mount Diablo, on the other side of the Great Valley of California, more than 80 miles away.

About 2 miles west of Auburn, north of the railroad, is the Ophir 

mining district, where gold and silver veins occur in granite (granodiorite) and greenstone (amphibolite) schist. Beyond Auburn the 

route continues for about 2 miles farther across amphibolite schist, 

which, as exposed in railroad cuts, looks like dark-colored slate and is 

in places rusty. The railroad winds along the south side of Dutch 

Ravine, keeping approximately to the general slope of the former 

plateau surface. Here again are remnants of the Tertiary lava cover, 

and at one place the railroad passes through a deep, narrow cut in the 

andesitic tuffs and breccias. These beds rest on granite (granodiorite), which is the prevalent rock from this vicinity down to Sacramento Valley.

Just beyond a tunnel on the westbound track is the station of Newcastle, in the center of an orchard country. Pears, 

peaches, and prunes are grown here, and also some 

oranges and lemons. Fig trees and palms may be 

seen near the station. Beyond Newcastle a rolling 

timbered lowland comes into view to the south. 

Granite is exposed in the cuts along the road and as bowlder-like outcrops in the fields.

Penryn, like all the other stations along this part of 

the route, ships great quantities of fruit. Granite 1 

was formerly extensively quarried here for use in railroad construction and hi public buildings. A small 

production is still maintained. 

At Loomis is another large granite quarry. The stone is intermediate in color and texture between that quarried at Penryn 

and at Rocklin. It is coarser and darker than the 

Loomis. Rocklin granite but is finer and carries less biotite 

than the Penryn stone. Loomis is, however, principally a fruit-shipping point, and the fruit-packing 

houses maybe seen near the station. It is said that fruits, especially 

oranges, ripen early hi this section, and that injurious frosts are unknown. The soil in this locality is decomposed granite, and beyond 

the station bowlder-like granite ledges crop out here and there on the 

soil-covered plain.

Newcastle.

Elevation 970 feet. 

Population 755.* 

Omaha 1,662 miles.

Penryn.

Elevation 635 feet. 

Population 240.* 

Omaha 1,666 miles.

Elevation 391 feet. 

Omaha 1,668 miles.

1 The Penryn stone is a dark biotite 

granite, rather uniform in color, but varying somewhat in texture in the different 

quarry openings. Dark blotches where 

the biotite crystals have segregated are

avoided as far as possible in the selection 

of the stone. About a mile east of Penryn 

a gabbro, or "black granite," is quarried. 

This stone is used chiefly for monuments, 

as it takes a brilliant polish.
214 GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES.

Rocklin.

Elevation 249 feet. 

Population 1,026. 

Omaha 1,671 miles.

Rocklin, also in the fruit belt, is the principal granite-producing 

locality in California, whence its name. In the vicinity of the town 

20 or 25 quarries are in operation, and some of them 

may be seen from the railroad. The first quarry was 

opened in 1863, and the stone was used in construction work on the Central Pacific Railway. The stone 

for the State Capitol at Sacramento (PL L, p. 216) and 

for many buildings in San Francisco came from Rocklin.1

The traveler has now practically reached the Great Valley of 

California. The country spreads out to the north and south in low 

undulations and ahead are plains as far as the eye can see.

The great gold-dredging fields of California lie along the belt of 

country where the Sierra slope merges into the valley plain, but 

none of these fields is crossed by the Overland Route. One productive district is near Folsom, about 10 miles south of Rocklin, on 

American River. This district produced gold to the value of 

$2,498,603 in 1913. The Marysville dredging district, on Yuba River 

about 30 miles northwest of Rocklin, produced $2,420,455 in 1913, 

and the Oroville district, on Feather River about 25 miles north of 

Marysville, $1,918,050. The gold is obtained by powerful electrically driven dredges 'huge floating scows, some of them 150 feet long, 

provided with great buckets, linked together in an endless chain, for 

scooping up the gravel and with complete machinery for screening 

and washing the gravel and recovering the gold. Once floated in a 

pond the dredges dig their way through fields, vineyards, and 

orchards, filling in behind them with washed gravel. The gold was 

brought down from the slopes of the Sierra and deposited in recent 

geologic time by the rivers near which the dredges are working. 

Of late years the hard bowlders left by the dredging have been 

crushed and utilized as broken rock for road building. Some effort 

has been made also to restore the dredged ground to arable condition. "Where this has been successfully accomplished in the Sacramento region vineyards and olive groves occupy areas from which f 

gold and road metal have been mined.

At the west base of the Sierra, but not continuously exposed all 

along it, are beds of brown Upper Cretaceous sandstone (Chico formation) and of lighter-colored Eocene sandstone and clay, containing 

thin coal beds (lone formation).2 All these beds are younger than

1 The rock is of light-gray color and of 

medium fine grain. Grayish quartz 

grains, white feldspars, black or darkbrown biotite, and silvery muscovite in 

small scales may be readily distinguished 

with the unaided eye. In composition

the rock is a normal granite, but a short 

distance from Rocklin the country rock 

grades into a granodiorite.

2 The lone formation has been described 

as Miocene, but recent investigations indicate that it is Eocene.
BULLETIN 612 SHEET No. 23

GEOLOGIC AND TOPOGRAPHIC MAP

OJ? THE

OYEELAND EOUTE

From Omaha, Nebraska, to San Francisco, California

Base compiled from United States Geological Survey Atlas Sheets, 

from railroad alignments and profiles supplied by the Union Pacific 

Railroad Company and the Southern Pacific Company and from additional information collected with the assistance of these companies

UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY

GEORGE OTIS SMITH, DIRECTOR 

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

1915

Each quadrangle shown on the map with a name in parenthesis in the 

lower left corner is mapped in detail on the U. S. C. S. Topographic 

sheet of that name.

1012345 MUeS

FIGURE 17.-SKETCH MAPS SHOWING CAPTURE OF UPPER PART OF BEAR RIVER BY SOUTH 

FORK OF YUBA RIVER. -A, BEFORE CAPTURE; B, AFTER CAPTURE. RAILROAD SHOWN 

TO IDENTIFY LOCATION.

!20°3o'CALIFORNIA

EXPLANATION

A Modern stream deposits (.alluvium) 

B Glacial deposits (moraines) ; Pleistocene

C Lavas i.chiefly andesite but including rhyolite, basalt,! 

p _ etc.), flows, tuffs, or tuff breccias (shown by stippled 

pattern); Neocene

D Auriferous (gold-bearing) gravels ; Neocene

E Clays, sand, and gravel, with some coa! beds (lone formation) : Eocene

F Granite (chiefly granodiorite but including granite por-j

phyry, gabbro, peridotitea. serpentine, etc.); late|

Jurassic or early Cretaceous

G Slates, sandstone, and conglomerate (Mariposa state), [ Mesozolc 

Jurassic; calcareous slates and limestones (Sailor Canyon formation), Triassic, Locally changed to schist 

and otheijjfnetamorphic rocks j

H Slates and schists with some quartzite, sandstone, and 

limestone (Calaveras formation) ; Carboniferous

Approximately 8 miles to 1 inch 

> to is

Contour interval 200 feet

ELEVATIONS IN FEET ABOVE MEAN SEA LEVEL

The distances from Omaha, Nebraska, art shown every 10 miles 

The crossties on the railroads are spaced 1 mile apart
THE OvMlAtfD ROUTE OGDEfr $0 SAtf FRAtfClSCO. 215

the rocks forming the mass of the Sierra and have not been squeezed 

or altered. They dip gently westward and are covered by gravels, 

silts, and muds washed into the Great Valley of California by streams. 

Remnants of the lavas that were poured down the Sierra slopes 

during Tertiary tune cap some of the foothills along this part of the 

route. West of them all is open plain.

At Roseville the main line is joined from the north by the Southern Pacific Co.'s line to Marysville, Chico, and Teharna. At

Tehama this line joins the main Shasta Route of the

Roseville. same company, which south of Tehama lies along

Elevation 164 feet. the west side of Sacramento Valley. Beyond RosePopulation 2,608. 111 * 1- n n 4- T.- i, Omaha 1,675 miles, ville is a nearly level country, practically all 01 which 

is under cultivation, chiefly in grain but partly in 

orchards. The scattered oak trees in this part of the valley include 

two species, the live oak and the valley oak. (See footnote on p. 203.) 

Antelope (see sheet .24, p. 218) is a few miles beyond Roseville. 

Beyond Ben All, a siding about 12 miles from Roseville, there is a 

tile and brick yard north of the track.

As it approaches Sacramento the train runs on an embankment, 

a part of a rather extensive system of levees which hold the flood 

waters of Sacramento and American rivers in check. After crossing American River the train skirts the north side of the city to the 

station, which is close to Sacramento River.

Sacramento, the capital of California, is on the east bank of Sacramento River 61 miles above its mouth, just below the mouth of

American River. The city is on the low flood plain

Sacramento. of Sacramento River, about 30 feet above mean sea

Elevation 30 feet. level. It is a distributing point and wholesale center

Population 44,696. °*. v

Omaha 1,693 miles. for the vast and lertile Sacramento Valley and has 

numerous manufactures, of which flour is the chief. 

As boats drawing 7 feet of water can come up to the city, freight 

can be transported by water to and from San Francisco Bay. Electricity for lighting, for street railways, and for power is furnished by 

hydroelectric plants at Folsom, on American River, 22 miles away, 

and at Colgate, in the Sierra, on Yuba River, 119 miles away.

The first settlement on the site of Sacramento was a fort built in 

1839 by John Augustus Sutter, a Swiss military officer in the service 

of Mexico. In 1841 Sutter was granted 11 square leagues of land by 

the Mexican Government, but the real history of the town begins 

with the discovery of gold in 1848. In December, 1849, the population was 4,000, and a year later it had increased to 10,000. The city 

was made the State capital in 1854. Before 1862 destructive floods 

were frequent, but since that date the city has been protected by 

levees. The lower portions of the main streams in the Sacramento 

Valley, overloaded with silt and, especially since 1849, with the debris 

from the placer mines in the Sierra, have built their channels above
216 GUIDEBOOK OP THE WESTERN UNITED STATES.

the level of the adjacent valley lands. Thus it has become of great 

importance to the farmers to confine the flood waters within the river 

channels, and to this end the banks have been raised by levees. There 

are many channels, usually dry, which lead out into the valley, particularly from the Coast Range. The flood waters of these channels 

can not reach the main river at all and therefore spread out over the 

lowlands on either side, to be eventually dissipated for the most part 

by evaporation. This accounts for the numerous areas of low marshy 

lands that border the river.

Leaving Sacramento the train crosses Sacramento River on a steel 

bridge and runs across flats which lie almost at tide level but which, 

being protected from inundation by levees, are cultivated as market 

gardens and for hay or grain. Farther west the land becomes marshy 

and is covered with a thick growth of tule (pronounced too'ly), a 

bulrush (Scirpus lacustris or californicus) which looks like a coarse, 

high grass. These marshes extend for miles on both sides of the 

track. In places the ground is slightly above the general level and 

its surface is covered with short grass used for the grazing of cattle 

and sheep. Beyond this country the train reaches slightly higher 

and better-drained lands, on which Swingle, a minor station, is surrounded by hay meadows and corn fields.

At Davis the Shasta and Overland routes join. The country in 

this vicinity is a smooth plain, near tidewater level, but nevertheless 

high enough to provide drainage. With its rich 

fields of grain and orchards, it has a distinctly prosperous look. Beyond Davis the Coast Ranges 1 

become more prominent, especially to the right, 

ahead of the train, where one of them appears as a 

low dark ridge broken uy one or more gaps. Valley and live oaks are 

again a common feature through the fields.

Dixon is an agricultural town in Solano County. Beyond it the 

Coast Range now looms larger as the traveler proceeds westward. 

Elmira (elevation 79 feet), a junction whence a 

branch road goes to Vacaville, Winters, and Rumsey, 

is next passed. Beyond Elmira the road approaches 

low foothills of the Coast Range first a bare ridge 

with gaps through one of which the railroad passes over a slight rise.

Davis.

Elevation 42 feet. 

Population 750.* 

Omaha 1,706 miles.

Dixon.

Elevation 61 feet. 

Omaha 1,714 miles.

1 Along the Pacific coast, from the 

vicinity of Santa Barbara on the south to 

Humboldt County on the north, rise the 

Coast Ranges, dividing the Great Valley 

of California from the ocean. These 

ranges are broken by the one great gap by 

which the combined Sacramento and San 

Joaquin rivers find outlet into the Bay of 

San Francisco. The Coast Ranges are

geologically the most recent of the great 

structural features of the State. They 

are built up largely of folded and crushed 

Cretaceous, Jurassic, and Tertiary sedimentary rocks, which are in places broken 

through by andesitic and basaltic lavas 

and by older igneous rocks (diabase and 

other dark, heavy rocks, in part altered 

to serpentine).
U. S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY 

STATE CAPITOL AT SACRAMENT

Photograph furnished by Southern P
THE OVERLAND ROUTE OGDEN TO SAN FRANCISCO. 217

The factory of the Pacific Portland Cement Co. and adjacent shale 

quarries can be seen to the north. The limestone used here to mix 

with the shale is brought from a point near Auburn.

The traveler coming across the Sacramento Valley in the day during 

midsummer is likely to find the trip warm, but on reaching this gap 

l> in the Coast Range he almost invariably notices a change. The cool 

breezes sweeping in from the west and carrying the smell of the salt 

marshes become fresher as the train proceeds, and it is a reasonable 

precaution to have wraps handy from this point on.

Beyond the first spur of the Coast Range the valley again broadens. 

Higher mountains, more or less darkened by scrubby timber on their 

upper slopes, border the valley to the north and far to the south. 

If the air is moderately clear, Mount Diablo 1 and the southern continuation of the Coast Range may be seen. A group of low, round, 

and grassy hills a few miles to the south are known as the Potrero 

Hills. (Potrero, pronounced po-tray'ro, is Spanish for horse pasture.) 

Suisun (suey-soon7 , locally soo-soon', the name of an Indian tribe, 

said to mean great expanse) and the adjoining town of Fairfield (the 

seat of Solano County, population 834) are at the 

edge of another swampy district green with tule. 

From this point the railroad is graded across the 

Suisun Flats, which are so near tidewater level in 

Suisun Bay, to the south, that no cultivation is 

possible under present conditions, though the camps of several 

duck-shooting clubs are situated among the sloughs. The railroad 

has encountered much difficulty in maintaining its grade across this 

soft ground. Certain spots have been continually sulking ever since 

the road was first constructed, and it is seldom, even now, that 

in going over this part of the route the traveler does not see work

Suisun.

Elevation 15 feet. 

Population 641. 

Omaha 1,733 miles.

1 From a point near Benicia, if the day 

is clear, an excellent view may be had of 

the double summit and graceful curves 

of Mount Diablo. Its general outline and 

isolated position have given the impression that this mountain is an old volcano. 

It represents, however, the higher portions of an overturned arch or anticline of 

sedimentary rocks thrust from the northeast toward the southwest. From its 

summit to the sea level at Carquinez 

(car-kee/nez) Strait is displayed a remarkably complete series of typical Coast 

Range formations, including Franciscan, 

Knoxville, Chico, Martinez, Tejon, Monterey, San Pablo, late Tertiary freshwater beds, Pleistocene, and Eecent. 

Although Mount Diablo is of moderate

height (3,849 feet), its isolation and its situation on the edge of the Great Valley 

make it one of the finest viewpoints in 

the State. From its top, on a clear morning, the summits of the Sierra Nevada can 

be traced for over 200 miles. Lassen Peak 

is often visible and sometimes Mount 

Shasta. The Great Valley appears divided into squares like a checkerboard by 

the section-line roads and fences. The 

San Francisco Bay region is sometimes 

hidden by a rolling, snowy sea of fog. 

The mountain is easily reached from San 

Francisco, though at present the actual ascent must be made on foot or by driving. 

It is expected that the road, which goes 

practically to the summit, will be fitted 

for automobile travel.
218 GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN" UNITED STATES.

Benicia.

Elevation 6 feet. 

Population 2,360. 

Omaha 1,749 miles.

trains and grading crews busily engaged in filling and raising some 

sunken portion of the track. Mud ridges have risen along the tracks 

on both sides, and their broken and lumpy surfaces indicate a slow 

flowing mass of mud squeezed out by the weight and vibration of 

passing trams. It is said that as much as 30,000 carloads of coarse 

gravel ballast have been dumped into one of these spots.

Beyond the marshes the railroad meets the rocky headlands that 

here close in upon Carquinez Strait. Some fine exposures of Cretaceous and Tertiary sandstones and shales may be seen in the cliffs 

and road cuts around Army Point.

Near Benicia, on the left, is a United States arsenal and signal 

station. Benicia (named by Gen. Yallejo after his wife) is a manufacturing town with deep-water frontage. It contains, besides the arsenal, tanneries and other commercial establishments. Southeast of Benicia, across 

the strait, is the town of Martinez, near which John 

Muir, California's great naturalist, lived for many 

years. The tall smokestack east of the town belongs to the smelter 

of the Mountain Copper Co., which mines its ore near Kennett, in 

Shasta County. At this smelter sulphur fumes are utilized in making 

sulphuric acid, which in turn is used in treating rock phosphate 

brought .from the company's mine near Montpelier, Idaho, and here 

turned into fertilizer. Just beyond Benicia the train is run onto a 

ferryboat and is carried across Carquinez Strait to Port Costa, a 

distance of a mile.

The geologic section from Benicia and Port Costa to the vicinity 

of Berkeley and Oakland is particularly interesting, as in it are 

represented many of the characteristic sedimentary formations of 

the Coast Range. This stratigraphic section is quite different from 

that of corresponding age in the Sierra foothills.

Port Costa (see sheet 25, p. 224), the western ferry terminus, is a 

shipping point, particularly for grain, which comes from the extensive grain-producing district in the valley * and is 

here loaded into ocean-going vessels. A long line of 

galvanized-iron grain warehouses may be seen on the 

water front.

On leaving Port Costa the train skirts the south shore of Carquinez 

Strait, where the steep bluffs offer many good exposures of folded 

sedimentary rocks. The first rocks seen are Upper Cretaceous

Port Costa.

Elevation 11 feet. 

Omaha 1,750 miles.

1 Agriculture in California had its beginning in wheat raising, and wheat was 

long the State's greatest crop. Its production steadily increased until about 

1884, to over 54,000,000 bushels annually. 

The levelness of the great grain fields 

of the valley led to the utilization of

combined harvesters, steam gang plows, 

and other farm machinery of extraordinary size and efficiency. Recently, 

however, fruit growing has become a more 

important industry than grain farming. 

In the value of its fruit crop California 

leads all the'other States.
BULLETIN 512 SHEET No. 24

GEOLOGIC AND TOPOGRAPHIC MAP

OF THE

OVERLAND ROUTE

From Omaha, Nebraska, to San Francisco, California

Base compiled from United States Geological Survey Atlas Sheets, 

from railroad alignments and profiles supplied by the Union Pacific 

Railroad Company and the Southern Pacific Company and from additional information collected, with the assistance of these companies

UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY

GEOKG-K OT1S SMITH, DIRECTOR 

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

1915

Bach quadrangle shown on the map with a name in parenthesis in the 

lower left comer ;s mapped in detail on the U. S. G. S. Topographic 

sheet of that name.

oodland , EL so ..... \

Fairoaks

500.000 

Approximately 8 miles to 1 incr 

; 10

Contour interval 200 feet

ELEVATIONS IN FEET ABOVE MEAN SEA L£VEi

Tne distances from 0~>naha, Nebraska, are shown every 10 miles, 

The crcssiies on the railroads are spaced 1 mile apart

EXPLANATION

Sierra Nevada 

=««* 

A Modern stream deposits < alluvium!

Gold-bearing gravels ; Pleistocene

Fragmental lavas (chiefly andesite); Neocene

D Clays, sands, and gravel with some coal beds (lone formation); Eocene

E Granite and diabase or amphibolite and related intrusive 

rocks; late Jurassic or early Cretaceous

Slates, sandstone, and conglomerate (Mariposa slate); 

Jurassic

Coast Ranges 

Modern stream deposits (alluvium)

Fresh-water conglomerate, sandstone, clay, and limestone (Orinda formation); stratified light-colored 

pumice (Pinole tuff); Pliocene

Sandstones and shales, mostly light colored. fMontere\

group and San Pablo formation at top); Miocene

Sandstone with some shale and conglomerate (Tejon formation above and Martinez formation below); Eocene

Lava flows (basalt, rhyolile. and rhyolitic tuff 1

Massive yellowish sandstone and clay shale with conglomerate ai bottom 'Chico formation. Upper Cretaceous; underlain by dark shale < Knoxville shale. Lo\ver 

Cretaceous)
THE OVERLAND ROUTE OGDEN TO SAN FRANCISCO. 219

(Chico) sandstone and shale. The rocks have a moderately steep 

westward dip and trend almost directly across the course of the 

railroad, so that as the train 'proceeds successively younger formations are crossed. At Eckley, a short distance beyond Port Costa, 

brick is manufactured from the Cretaceous shale. At Crocket is a 

large sugar refinery. Mare Island, across Carquinez Strait, is the 

site of the United States navy yard, which, however, is not readily 

discerned from this point. The Cretaceous shales and sandstones 

continue to Vallejo Junction and a little beyond.

On the southeast side of San Pablo Bay, near the west end of 

Carquinez Strait, there are wave-cut terraces and elevated deposits 

of marine shells of species that are still living. These terraces and 

deposits do not show south of San Pablo Bay, and therefore seem to 

indicate the recent elevation of a block including only a portion of 

the shore around the bay. This block probably includes the Berkeley 

Hills and a considerable territory to the east, perhaps even extending 

to Suisun Bay.

From Vallejo Junction a ferry plies to Vallejo (val-yay'ho), which 

is on the mainland opposite the navy yard, and from which railroad

lines extend into the rich Napa and Sonoma valleys. 

Vallejo Junction. ganta Rosaj the home of the famous Luther Burbank,

is in the Sonoma Valley. Vallejo was named from 

Gen. Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo, who played a 

prominent part in the early history of California. t It was the capital 

of the State from 1851 to 1853. Beyond Vallejo Junction Carquinez 

Strait begins to open out into San Pablo Bay. 1

Elevation 12 feet. 

Omaha 1,754 miles.

1 The section along the shore of San 

. Pablo Bay between Vallejo Junction and 

Pinole (see figs. 19 and 20, on sheet 25, 

p. 224) includes six of the most widespread 

divisions of the sedimentary series in the 

Coast Range region of California. The 

formations or groups represented are the 

Chico (Upper Cretaceous), Martinez, 

(Eocene), Monterey (earlier Miocene), 

San Pablo (later Miocene), Pinole tuff 

(Pliocene), and Pleistocene. The only 

large divisions of the middle Coast Range 

sequence not represented are the Franciscan (Jurassic?), Tejon (Eocene), and 

Oligocene, all of which are found within a 

few miles to the east and south.

In the San Pablo Bay section all the 

formations below the Pleistocene are included in a syncline, on the northeast 

side of which the strata are nearly vertical, but on the southeast side the dip of 

the beds is lower. The Pleistocene beds

rest horizontally across the truncated 

edges of the Miocene and Pliocene. The 

aggregate thickness of the sediments in 

the San Pablo Bay section is not less than 

8,000 feet. With the exception of the 

Pliocene and a portion of the Pleistocene, 

all the formations are of marine origin. 

A portion of the Pinole tuff was certainly 

deposited in fresh water. The Pleistocene beds were deposited under varying 

marine, estuarine, and fluvial conditions. 

Fossil remains are found in all the formations of the San Pablo Bay section, 

and at least six distinct faunas are represented. Very few specimens have been 

procured in the Chico near the line of the 

railroad, but abundant fossils are found 

in the same formation a few miles to the 

east. The Martinez fauna is represented 

in the cliff opposite the Selby smelter. 

The Monterey and the San Pablo contain abundant remains. The fresh-water
220 GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES.

The dark Cretaceous shales near the railroad station at Vallejo 

Junction are soon succeeded by brown shales and massive sandstones 

belonging higher in the Cretaceous system. The contact between 

the Chico and the Martmez (Eocene) beds is in a fault zone cut by 

the railroad tunnel a short distance west of Vallejo Junction. Just beyond the tunnel the contact between the Martinez and the Monterey 

(Miocene) is clearly shown in a high cliff to the left, opposite the 

Selby Smelting Works, where the buff-colored Monterey sandstones 

and shales rest with marked unconformity upon the black Eocene 

shales. Near the contact the Eocene shale is filled with innumerable 

fossil shells of boring Miocene mollusks. The Monterey beds are 

extraordinarily well exposed in the cliffs to the left, and immediately 

beyond the contact, where they consist of fine buff shales with shaly 

sandstones and thin bands of yellow limestone.

After leaving these cliff exposures the train passes Tormey station, 

crosses a little swamp, and approaches a tunnel cut into vertical 

cliffs of massive gray sandstone; this is the type locality of the 

San Pablo formation (upper Miocene). The refining plant of the 

Union Oil Co., at the east end of this tunnel, is located on the upper 

part of the San Pablo beds. Vertical beds of massive tuff immediately west of the oil refinery represent the lower part of the Pinole 

tuff. Beyond these beds the train crosses another swamp and enters 

a cut in which white volcanic ash beds of the Pinole tuff dip at 

a relatively low angle to the northeast. This change in dip shows 

that these beds are on the southwest side of the San Pablo Bay 

synclme, the axis of which passes through the swamp area. Resting 

upon the tilted ash deposits in this part of the section are horizontal 

beds of Pleistocene shale.

The name Rodeo (ro-day'o), meaning "round-up," indicates that 

the station so called was formerly a cattle-shipping point. Beyond 

Rodeo the train enters a series of cuts. Near the staRodeo. -j.jon are exposures of massive tuffs close to the base of 

the Pinole tuff. Beyond this point the San Pablo 

(Miocene) appears, with low dips to the northeast. 

In the sea cliffs on San Pablo Bay a few yards from the railroad are excellent exposures of the Miocene capped by Pleistocene 

shale. At Hercules, where there are large powder works, the railroad cut is in broken shale of the Monterey group, the same beds 

that were seen near the Selby smelter, on the northeast side of the 

syncline. Beyond Hercules the railroad passes over Monterey shale

Elevation 12 feet. 

Omaha 1,757 miles.

fauna of the Pinole tuff is represented by 

molluscan species. Leaves and remains 

of vertebrates are also present. The 

Pleistocene shale contains abundant

marine shells of a few species, with mammal bones representing the elephant, 

horse, camel, bison, ground sloth, antelope, lion, wolf, and other forms.
THE OVERLAND ROUTE OGDEN TO SAN FRANCISCO. 221

Pinole.

to the town of Pinole (pee-no 'lay, a Spanish term used by the Indians 

for parched grain or seeds), where the Pinole tuff is in contact with 

the Monterey and is covered by a thick mantle of 

the Pleistocene shale. In the cuts southwest of 

Pinole tne rocks exposed are all either steeply inclined Pliocene tuffs or horizontal Pleistocene beds. 

At Krieger, where the tracks of the Santa Fe route may be seen 

approaching the bay front from the south, is a so-called " tank farm." 

The oil-storage tanks, which belong to the Standard Oil Co., are beyond the Santa Fe line. Beyond Sobrante station is Giant, another 

powder factory, and beyond that are pottery works which obtain 

clay from lone, in the Sierra Nevada. The bay shore near Oakland 

is largely given over to industrial uses, on account of its facilities

for rail and water transportation.

Beyond Giant the foothills retreat from the bay shore and the railroad enters the broad lowland on which the cities of Berkeley and 

Oakland are built. Near San Pablo, in the vicinity 

Of gan j>ofo\0 and Wildcat creeks, there is a gravelfilled basin. Many wells sunk in this gravel mav be

, J , , , , fe . J. .

seen near the tracks, and trom tnem a municipal 

water company and both railroads obtain water. West and southwest of San Pablo station a line of hills shuts out a view of San 

Francisco Bay. These hills constitute the Potrero San Pablo, so 

" called because, being separated from the mainland by marshes, 

they were a convenient place in which to pasture horses during 

the days of Mexican, rule, when fences were practically unknown. 

The hills are made up wholly of sandstone belonging to the Franciscan group. 1 On the other side of them are wharves, warehouses, 

and large railway shops belonging to the Santa Fe system. From 

that side also the Santa Fe ferry plies to San Francisco.

San Pablo.

Eievationsofeet.

Omaha 1,765 miles.

1 The rocks of the Franciscan group 

comprisesandstones, conglomerates, shale, 

and local masses of varicolored thinbedded flinty rocks. The flinty rocks 

consist largely of the siliceous skeletons 

of minute marine animals, low in the scale 

of life, known as Radiolaria, and on this 

account they are known to geologists as 

radiolarian cherts. All the rocks mentioned have been intruded here and there 

by dark igneous rocks (diabase, peridotite, etc.), which generally contain a good 

deal of magnesia and iron but little silica. 

The peridotites and related igneous rocks 

have in large part undergone a chemical 

and mineralogic change into the rock

known as serpentine. Closely associated 

with the serpentine as a rule are masses 

of crystalline laminated rock that consist 

largely of the beautiful blue mineral 

glaucophane and for that reason are called 

glaucophane schist. Schist of this character is known in comparatively few parts 

of the world, but is very characteristic of 

the Franciscan group. It has been 

formed from other rocks through the 

chemical action known as contact metamorphism, set up by adjacent freshly intruded igneous rocks. The Franciscan 

group is one of the most widespread and 

interesting assemblages of rocks in the 

Coast Ranges.
222 GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES.

Richmond.

Omaha 1,767 7« miles.

Richmond, on both the Southern Pacific and the Santa Fe lines, 

is becoming a busy shipping, railroad, and manufacturing point, on 

account of the congestion of the water front of Oakland and San Francisco. The hills on the east side 

of the track, ; known to old Californians as the Contra

Costa Hills, but now often referred to as the Berkeley 

Hills, rise steeply from the plain. The most conspicuous summit 

from the west is Grizzly Peak (1,759 feet), but Bald Peak, just east 

of it, is 171 feet higher. The hills are generally treeless on their 

exposed western slopes, although their ravines and the eastern 

slopes are wooded. 1

Beyond San Pablo and Richmond the rocks of the Franciscan group 

outcrop in low hills. At Stege the railroad is still close to the shore 

of the bay. Between this place and the hills is one of the suburbs of 

Berkeley known as Thousand Oaks. The traveler can get here an 

unobstructed view out over the bay and through the Golden Gate. 

Mount Tamalpais is on the right and San Francisco on the left. Just 

to the left of the Golden Gate the white buildings of the Exposition 

grounds can readily be distinguished if the day is at all clear. At 

Nobel station a little wooded hill of Franciscan rocks stands close to 

the railroad on the left. Beyond Nobel an excellent view may be had 

of the hilly portion of the city of Berkeley.

West Berkeley station, also known as University Avenue, is in the 

older part of the city of Berkeley, and the center of the city is now ' 

almost 2 \ miles back toward the hills. Berkeley was 

named after Bishop Berkeley, the English prelate of 

the eighteenth century who wrote the stanza beginnmg "Westward the course of empire takes its way/' 

by those who chose it as a site for the University of 

California. One of them, looking out over the bay and the Golden 

Gate, quoted the familiar line, and another suggested *" Why not 

name it Berkeley?" and Berkeley it became.

The University of California was founded in 1868. It is one of the 

largest State universities in America, including besides the regular 

collegiate and postgraduate departments at Berkeley the Lick 

Observatory, on Mount Hamilton; colleges of law, dentistry, pharmacy, art, etc., in San Francisco; the Scripps Institution for Biological

Berkeley.

Elevation 8 feet.

1 The geologic structure of these hills is 

rather complicated. Along their southwest base, between Berkeley and Oakland, is a belt of the sandstones, cherts, 

and schists belonging to the Franciscan 

(Jurassic?) group and characteristically 

associated with masses of serpentine. 

Overlying the Franciscan rocks are sandstones, shales, and conglomerates of Cretaceous, Eocene, and Miocene age. 

These in turn are overlain by tuffs, freshwater beds, and lavas of Pliocene and 

early Quaternary age. The general structure of the ridge east of Berkeley is 

synclinal, the beds on both sides dipping 

into the hills. The upper part of Grizzly 

Peak is formed chiefly of lava flows of 

Pliocene age.
THE OVERLAND ROUTE OGDEN TO SAN FRANCISCO. 223

Research, at La Jolla, near San Diego; and other laboratories for 

special studies elsewhere. It is a coeducational institution and had a 

total enrollment for 1914-15, not including that of the summer 

school, of 6,202. The members of the faculty and other officers of 

administration and instruction number 890. The university buildings at Berkeley are beautifully situated and have a broad outlook 

over San Francisco Bay. Their position can readily be identified 

from the train by the tall clock tower. Another prominent group 

of buildings occupying a similar site just south of the university 

grounds is that of the California School for the Deaf and the Blind.

Just before reaching Oakland (Sixteenth Street station) the.train 

passes Shell Mound Park. The mound, which is about 250 feet long 

and 27 feet high, is on the shore of the bay close to the right-hand 

side of the track. It is composed of loose soil mixed with an immense

number .of shells of clams, oysters, abalones, and other shellfish 

gathered for food by the prehistoric inhabitants of the region and 

eaten on this spot. The discarded shells, gradually accumulating, 

built up the mound. Such relics of a prehistoric people are numerous 

about the bay, for over 400 shell mounds have been discovered within 

30 miles of San Francisco. The mound just described is one of the 

largest, and from excavations in-it a great number of crude stone, 

shell, and bone implements and ornaments have been obtained. The 

mounds evidently mark the sites of camps or villages that were 

inhabited during long periods, for the accumulation of such refuse 

could .not have been very rapid. Archeologists who have studied the 

mound say that it must have been the site of an Indian village over 

a thousand years ago, and that it was probably inhabited almost 

continuously to about the time when the Spaniards first entered 

California.

The first stop in the city of Oakland is made at the Sixteenth Street

station,.about 1£ miles from the business center of the city. Oakland

is the seat of Alameda County and lies on the eastern

Oakland. shore of San Francisco Bay directly opposite San

Elevation 12 feot. Francisco. Its name is derived from the live oaks

Population 150,174. i T_ 11 j J.T. -j. TA j. ± omaha 1,774 miles, which originally covered the site. It is an important 

manufacturing center and has a fine harbor with 15 

miles of water front. Visitors to Oakland should if possible take the 

electric cars to Piedmont, from which a fine view may be had of San 

Francisco, the bay, and the Golden Gate. This view is especially good 

at sunset. A walk or drive to Redwood Peak takes the visitor past 

the former home of Joaquin Miller, author of "Songs of the Sierras" 

and many other familiar poems, and affords equally fine views.

Leaving the station at Sixteenth Street, the train skirts the west 

side of the city and runs out on a pier or mole 1$ miles long. This 

is the end of the "overland" part of the. route, for the rest of the
224 GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN" UNITED STATES.

journey must be made on the San Francisco ferries. The distance 

across the bay is 4 miles, and the trip is made in the ferryboats in 

about 20 minutes. In crossing the bay the traveler sees Goat (or 

Yerba Buena), Alcatraz, and Angel islands to the right, Marin 

Peninsula beyond them, and the Golden Gate opening to the west of 

Alcatraz.

Goat Island lies close to the ferry course across the bay. Like most 

of the other islands in the bay, it is owned by the Government. On 

the nearest point there is a lighthouse station, and below it the 

rocky cliff is painted white to the water's edge. Just to the right of 

this is the supply station for the lighthouses of the whole coast from 

Seattle to San Diego. Behind this station is the United States naval 

training station, of which the officers' quarters may be seen on the 

hillside and the men's quarters near the larger buildings below. At 

the extreme northeast point of the island is a torpedo station, where 

torpedoes are stored for use in the coast defense.

On Alcatraz, the small island west of Goat Island, is a United 

States military prison, and on Angel Island, north of Alcatraz, are 

barracks and other military buildings, a quarantine station, and an 

immigrant station.'

Few people in viewing the Bay of San Francisco think of it in any 

other way than as a superb harbor or as a beautiful picture. Yet it 

has an interesting geologic story. The great depression in which it 

lies was once a valley formed by the subsidence of a block of the 

earth's crust in other words, the valley originated by faulting. The 

uplifted blocks on each side of it have been so carved and worn by 

erosion that their blocklike form has long been lost. Erosion also has 

modified the original valley by supplying the streams with gravel and 

sand to be carried into it and there in part deposited. The mountains have been worn down and the valley has been partly filled. 

Possibly the valley at one time drained out to the south. However 

that may be, at a later stage in its history it drained to the west 

through a gorge now occupied by the Golden Gate. Subsidence of this 

part of the coast allowed the ocean water to flow through this gorge, 

transforming the river channel into a marine strait and the valley into 

a great' bay. Goat Island and other islands in San Francisco Bay 

suggest partly submerged hills, and such in fact they are.

San Francisco, the chief seaport and the metropolis of the Pacific 

coast, is the tenth city in population in the United States and the 

largest and most important city west of Missouri San Francisco. -. population m 1910 snowe(} a gain of 20

Per cent since 190°- The cit7 is beautifully situated 

at the north end of a peninsula, with the ocean on one 

side and the Bay of San Francisco on the other. The bay is some 

50 miles in length and has an area of more than 300 square miles.
BULLETIN 612 SHEET No. 25

GEOLOGIC AND TOPOGRAPHIC MAP

OF THE

OVERLAND ROUTE

From Omaha, Nebraska, to San Francisco, California

Base compiled from United States Geological Survey Atlas Sheets, 

from railroad alignments and profiles supplied by t>he Union Pacific 

Railroad Company and the Southern Pacific Company and from additional information collected -with the assistance of these companies

UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY

GEORGE OTI.S SMITH, DIRECTOR 

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

1915

Each quadrangle shown on the map with a name in parenthesis in the 

lower left corner is mapped in detail on the U. S. C. S. Topographic 

sheet cf that name.

SW.

FI6URE 19.-MAP SHOWING 6EQLQ6IC FORMATIONS ALON6 THE SOUTH SHORE OFSAN PABLO BAY.

38'

123'

EXPLANATION 

A Stream deposits (alluvium), sand dunes, and beach sands Quaternary

anta Clara for-"] 

); marine clay, I 

formation, Plio-l

B Fresh-water gravels, sands, and clays (San 

mation, early Quaternary and Pliocene); 

sandstone, and conglomerate (Merced formation, _ . . cene); and stratfied light-colored pumice (Pinole tuff, I 

Pliocene) ""

C Light-colored soft sandstone and chalky bituminous 

shale (San Pablo formation and Monterey group); 

Miocene

D Hard sandstone above (Tejon formation); chiefly conglomerate with sandstone; some shale and thin limestone ( Martinez formation) below; Eocene

E Lava flows (basalt and rhyolite)

F Massive yellowish sandstone with conglomerate member 

below (Chico formation, Upper Cretaceous), underlain 

by calcareous and arenaceous shale (Knoxville formation, Lower Cretaceous)

G Chiefly intrusive rocks (basalt, diabase, gabbro, peridotite, pyroxenite, serpentine); Jurassic (?)

H Sandstones with subordinate shales, locally alternating 

with varicolored radiolarian cherts and some limestone; 

 local schists due to metamorphism on contact of 

igneous rocks (Franciscan group); Jurassic (?)

1 Granite (quartz diorite)

Scale 500.000 

Approximately 8 miles to 1 inch

5 10 15

Quaternary 

and Tertiary

Tertiary

Mesozoie

Taylorvtlli

Pre-Jurassic (?)

20Miles

10 20 soKilometers

Contour interval 200 feet

ELEVATIONS IN FEET ABOVE MEAN SEA LEVEL

The distances from Omaha, Nebraska, are shown every JO miles 

The crossties on the railroads are spaced 1 mile apart

123'

FiSURE EO.-SECTION SHOWINS STRUCTURE ALONG THE SOUTH SHORE OF SAN PABLO BAY
THE OVERLAND ROUTE OGDEN TO SAN FRANCISCO. 225

The entrance to the bay lies through the Golden Gate, a strait about

5 miles long and a mile wide at its narrowest point.

The site of the city is very hilly, and a line of high rocky elevations 

run like a crescent-formed background from northeast to southwest 

across the peninsula, culminating in the Twin Peaks, 925 feet high. 

Telegraph Hill, in the northeastern part of the city, is 294 feet abov^e 

sea level. Here stood the semaphore which signaled the arrival of 

ships in the days of the gold seekers. The city has been laid out 

without the slightest regard to topography; consequently many of the 

streets are so steep as to be traversable only by cable cars and pedestrians. The waters of the bay formerly extended westward to Montgomery Street, and most of the level land in the business section of 

San Francisco has been made by filling.

Golden Gate Park, containing 1,014 acres, and extending westward 

from the city to the ocean, was a waste of barren sand dunes in 1870, 

but skillful planting and cultivation have transformed it into one of 

the most beautiful semitropical public parks in the country. At its 

west end is the famous Cliff House, overhanging the sea, and a short 

distance out from the shore are the Seal Rocks, where the great sea 

lions may often be seen. The Sutro Baths, near by, named after 

Adolph Sutro, constructor of the famous Sutro tunnel on the Comstock 

lode, contain one of the largest inclosed pools in the world.

San Francisco Bay is the largest and most active harbor on the 

Pacific coast. Besides the coastwise routes, the port maintains steamship connections with Australia, Hawaii, Mexico, Central 

^^ South America, the Philippines, China, and Japan. 

The direct foreign trade is chiefly with British Columbia, South 

America, China, and Japan. Although the export grain business 

has now largely shifted to the ports of Oregon and Washington, 

San Francisco's permanence as one of the greatest ports of 

the country is assured by its advantageous position, its wealth 

of back country, and its command of trans-Pacific and transcontinental trade routes. Three large railroad systems the Southern Pacific (with two transcontinental lines), the Atchison, Topeka

6 Santa Fe, and the Western Pacific connect it with the East. 

Lines of the Southern Pacific Co. connect the city with different 

parts of the State and with the northern transcontinental lines. 

The Northwestern Pacific serves Mendocino, Sonoma, and Marin 

counties, on the north, and several smaller lines radiate from different ports on the bay. Only one railroad line, the Coast Line of 

the Southern Pacific, actually enters the city. The other roads have 

their terminals in Oakland and other cities around the bay.

92213° Bull. 612 15 15
226 GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES. f

The first settlement on the present site of San Francisco dates 

from 1776. It consisted of a Spanish military post (presidio) and 

the Franciscan mission of San Francisco de Asis. In 

1836 the settlement of Yerba Buena (yair'ba, bway'na) 

was established in a little cove southeast of Telegraph Hill. 

The name San Francisco was, however, applied to all three 

settlements. The United States flag was raised over the town in 

1846, and the population rapidly increased, reaching perhaps 900 * 

in May, 1848. The news of the gold discoveries was followed by 

crowds of fortune seekers, so that by the end of 1848 the city 

had an estimated population of 20,000. From that time on 

San Francisco has grown rapidly. The first regular overland mail 

communication with the East was established by pony express in 

I860, the charge for postage being $5 for half an ounce. In 1869 

the completion of the Central Pacific Railway to Oakland marked 

the beginning of transcontinental railway communication.

The city suffered from severe earthquakes in 1839, 1865, 1868, , 

and 1906. In respect to property loss the disaster of April 18, 1906, 

was one of the great catastrophes of history. The actual damage 

to the city by the earthquake was comparatively slight, but the f 

water mains were broken and it was consequently impossible to 

check the fires which immediately broke out and which soon destroyed a large part of the city, including most of the business section. Some 500 persons lost then- lives, and the estimated damage 

to property was between $350,000,000 and 4500,000,000. Reconstruction began at once, and the city was practically rebuilt in the 

three years following the earthquake.

The Ocean Shore Railroad (station at Twelfth and Mission streets) 1 

and connecting automobile line afford a good opportunity to see 

Excursions *ne ge°l°Sy al°ng the shore from San Francisco to Santa 

from san Cruz. The return trip may be made by rail or stage 

Francisco. across foQ ganta Ouz Mountains. For 4£ miles north

of Mussel Rock (11.9 miles from San Francisco) there is exposed 

in the bluffs along the coast a remarkable section of the Mer- '* 

ced (Pliocene) formation, consisting of about 5,800 feet of highly 

inclined marine clays, shales, sandstones, conglomerates, and shell 

beds. In these beds have been found fossil remains of 53 species 

of marine animals, mostly mollusks, of which three-fourths are still 

represented by forms living in the ocean to-day. The San Andreas 

rift (the fracture along which" displacement occurred in the San 

Francisco earthquake of 1906) passes out to sea at the mouth of 

a little ravine half a mile north of Mussel Rock and is crossed by the 

railroad. The exposures of the Merced formation along the sea cliffs 

were much finer before the San Francisco earthquake, which shook 

down some of the cliffs. From Tobin (18.1 miles) to Green Canvon -
THE OVERLAND ROUTE OGDEN TO SAN FRANCISCO. 227

(21.1 miles) the bed of the Ocean Shore Railroad is cut in bold 

sea cliffs high above the water and affords not only fine shore scenery 

but also an excellent section of rocks that probably belong to the 

Martinez (Eocene) formation. The contact of these rocks with a 

large mass of pre-Franciscan granite (quartz diorite), which forms 

Montara Mountain, a bold ridge that extends southeastward from 

this part of the coast, is crossed by the railroad between Tobin and 

Green Canyon. At the north end of Seal Cove, opposite Moss Beach 

station (24.1 miles), the bowldery and fossiliferous sea-beach beds 

here forming the base of the Merced (Pliocene) and resting on the 

granite of Montara Mountain are well exposed.

This delightful excursion may be extended down the coast to 

Pescadero, and the return made by stage across the range and rift 

zone to San Mateo; or the traveler may continue down the coast to 

Santa Cruz and return across the range on the Southern Pacific line 

either by way of the Big Trees and Los Gatos or by Pajaro and Gilroy.

The characteristic thin-bedded radiolarian chert of the Franciscan 

group is well exposed about Strawberry Hill, in Golden Gate Park. 

There are good exposures of the chert also on Hunter Point, reached 

most readily by the Kentucky Street cars from Third and Market 

streets. The principal rock of the point is serpentine. A mass of 

basalt in the sea cliffs on the south side presents a remarkable spheroidal and variolitic structure.

The summit of Mount Tamalpais is very easily and comfortably 

reached by ferry to Sausalito, electric train to Mill Valley, and a 

mountain railway to the hotel on the top. The ferry trip is one of 

the best to be had on the bay. The steamer passes close to the small 

island of Alcatraz, used as a military prison. To the west may be 

seen the ocean through the Golden Gate. Angel Island, with its 

interesting glaucophane schists, serpentine, and other rocks, lies to 

the right as the boat approaches Sausalito. The sedimentary rocks 

of both islands belong to the Franciscan group and are chiefly sandstone. The trip from Sausalito to Mill Valley by the Northwestern 

Pacific Railroad gives the traveler opportunity to see some characteristic bay-shore scenery and particularly to note how the waters of the 

bay appear to have flooded what was once a land valley. Mill Valley is named from an old Spanish sawmill, the frame of which is still 

standing. The views obtainable from the scenic railway and from 

the summit of Mount Tamalpais are extensive and varied. To the 

south may be seen San Francisco and Mount Hamilton (4,444 feet). 

To the southeast is Mount Diablo (3,849 feet), through which runs 

the meridian and base line from which the publioland surveys of 

a large part of California are reckoned. Nearer at hand is the bay, 

with its dark-green bordering marshes through which wind serpentine tidal creeks. Close under the mountain to the north is Lake
228 GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES.

Lagunitas (an artificial reservoir), and beyond it ridge after ridge 

of the Coast Range. To the west is the vast Pacific.

From the summit of Tamalpais one sees clearly that San Francisco 

Bay is a sunken area in which hilltops have become islands and peninsulas. This area is the northern extension of the crustal block whose 

sinking formed Santa Clara Valley. A later sag admitted the ocean 

into the valley, and the Golden Gate, formerly a river gorge, became 

a strait.

Mount Tamalpais has really three peaks: East Peak (2,586 feet) 

near which the Tavern of Tamalpais is situated; Middle Peak (about 

2,575 feet); and West Peak (2,604 feet). From the grassy hills 1J 

miles west of West Peak there is a good view of Bolinas Lagoon, 

though, which passes the San Andreas rift, but for close views of the 

rift topography the visitor should walk or drive through the valley 

between Bolinas Lagoon and Tomales Bay, where the effects of the 

movement of 1906 are still in many places clearly evident.

Mount Tamalpais is composed wholly of the sediments of the Franciscan group and the igneous rocks usually associated with them, 

though it is chiefly sandstone. A mass of radiolarian chert occurs 

near the tavern, and serpentine may be seen at several places beyond 

West Peak. To one fond of walking and of marine views, a trip on 

foot to West Peak, thence down the main ridge to Muir Woods (redwoods), and back across the hills to Mill Valley may be heartily 

recommended. The distance is probably 8 or 9 miles. The Muir 

Woods, which bear the name of California's greatest nature lover, 

form a national monument, presented to the nation by William Kent, 

now a Member of Congress from the first California district, for the 

purpose of preserving untouched by the lumberman one area of redwoods. No fitter memorial could be dedicated to the memory of John 

Muir, whose writings' have contributed so much to the movement for 

preserving in national ownership, for public enjoyment, some of our 

finest scenic resources.

The geologic event of greatest human interest on the Pacific coast 

in modern times was the San Francisco earthquake of 1906. It 

was produced by a sudden movement of the rocks 

e^.rft qua e (faulting) along opposite sides of a fracture which 

may be traced for many miles in the Coast Range. 

The fissure existed before the earthquake of 1906, and it is evident 

from the relations of hills and valleys along its course that it has 

been the scene of earlier and, for the most part, prehistoric movements. The last movement was mainly horizontal and in places 

amounted to about 20 feet. The San Andreas rift, as this fissure 

has been called, lies just west of San. Francisco, and its course is 

marked on sheet 25 (p. 224).
THE OVERLAND ROUTE OGDEN TO SAN FRANCISCO. 229

The cracks in the soil that mark the line of the last displacement 

and the parallel ridges and valleys that show older displacements 

along the fault zone are well displayed in Spring Valley, 13 miles 

south of San Francisco, and especially near Skinner's ranch, 40 miles 

northwest of San Francisco.

To reach Spring Valley the visitor should take the Southern Pacific 

train to San Mateo (18 miles), where a conveyance may be obtained 

for a trip through Spring Valley along Crystal Spring and San Andreas lakes.

Skinner's ranch can be reached by the ferry to Sausalito and the 

Northwestern Pacific Railroad to Point Reyes station, from which 

the ranch is only 2 miles distant, near Olema. In this region may be 

seen best the earth cracks along the fault line. Near the ranch house 

there is striking evidence of the horizontal character of the movement 

that produced the earthquake. The house formerly had two trees in 

front of it. The fault line, which trends northwest, passes between 

the trees and the house, and the trees were moved 15 feet to the 

southeast with reference to the house. There was no perceptible vertical movement nor any change in the water line along Tomales Bay.
SOME PUBLICATIONS ON THE GEOLOGY OF THE REGION 

TRAVERSED BY THE OVERLAND ROUTE.

BALL, M. W., The western part of the Little Snake River coal field, Wyo.: U. S. Geol.

Survey Bull. 341, pp. 243-255, 1909. 

BECKER, G. F., Geology of the Comstock lode and the Washoe district: U. S. Geol.

Survey Mon. 3, 1882. 

BLACKWELDER, ELIOT, Cenozoic history of the Laramie region, Wyo.: Jour. Geology,

vol. 17, pp. 429-444, 1909.

 See also Darton, Blackwelder, and Siebenthal.

BOUTWELL, J. M., Economic .geology of the Bingham mining district, Utah: U. S. 

Geol. Survey Prof. Paper 38, 1905.

 Geology and ore deposits of the Park City district, Utah: U. S. Geol. Survey

Prof. Paper fa, 1912. 

CALVIN, SAMUEL, Aftonian mammalian fauna: Geol. Soc. America Bull., vol. 20, pp.

341-356, 1909.

CROSS, WHITMAN. See Schultz and Cross. 

DARTON, N. H., Preliminary report on the geology and underground-water resources

of the central Great Plains: U. S. Geol. Survey Prof. Paper 32, 1905. 

DARTON, N. H., and SIEBENTHAL, C. E., Geology and mineral resources of the Laramie Basin, Wyo.: U. S. Geol. Survey Bull. 364, 1909. 

DARTON, N. H., BLACKWELDER, ELIOT, and SIEBENTHAL, C. E., U. S. Geol. Survey

Geol. Atlas, Laramie-Sherman folio (No. 173), D910. 

DODGE, G. M.; How, we built the Union Pacific Railway: Senate Doc. 447, 61st

Gong., 2d sess., 1910. 

.EMMONS, W. H., A reconnaissance of some mining camps in Elko, Lander, and

Eureka counties, Nev.: U. S. Geol. Survey Bull. 408, 1910. 

GILBERT, G. K., Lake Bonneville: U. S. Geol. Survey Mon. 1,1890. 

HAYDEN, F. V., U. S. Geol. and Geog. Survey Terr, (many reports), 1868-1888. 

KING, CLARENCE, U. S. Geol. Expl. 40th Par., Final Repts., 1871 to 1878. 

LAWSON, A. C., U. S. Geol. Survey Geol. Atlas, San Francisco folio, including Tamalpais, San Francisco, Concord, San Mateo, and Haywards quadrangles (No. 193),

1913. 

LINDGREN, WALDEMAR, U. S. Geol. Survey Geol. Atlas, Colfax folio (No. 66), 1900.

 U. S. Geol. Survey Geol. Atlas, Sacramento folio (No. 5), 1894, reprinted in 

Folio Reprint 3, 5, and 11,1914.

U.S. Geol. Survey Geol. Atlas, Truckee folio (No. 39), 1897.

LINDGREN, WALDEMAR, and TURNER, H. W., U. S. Geol. Survey Geol. Atlas, Placerville folio (No. 3), 1894, reprinted in Folio Reprint 3, 5, and 11, 1914.

LOUDERBACK, G. D., Basin Range structure of the Humboldt region, Nev.: Geol. 

Soc. America Bull., vol. 15, pp. 289-346,1904.

LUCAS, F. A., Animals of the past, New York, McClure, Phillips & Co., 1901.

OSBORN, H. F., The age of mammals, New York, 1910.

POWELL, J. W., Canyons of the Colorado, Meadville, Pa., Flood & Vincent, 1895. 

230
REFERENCE LIST OF PUBLICATIONS. 231

RANSOME, F. L., The geology and ore deposits of Goldfield, Nev.: U. S. Geol.

Survey Prof. Paper 66, 1909. 

 Notes on some mining .districts in Humboldt County, Nev.: U. S. Geol.

Survey Bull. 414,1909.

TJ. S. Geol. Survey Geol. Atlas, Mother Lode district folio (No. 63), 1900.

RUSSELL, I. C., Geological history of Lake Lahontan, a Quaternary lake of northwestern Nevada: U. S. Geol. Survey Mon. 11, 1885.

SCHRADER, F. C., The Rochester mining district, Nev.: U. S. Geol. Survey Bull. 580, 

pp. 325-372, 1915.

SCHULTZ, A. R., Deposits of sodium salts in Wyoming: U. S. Geol. Survey Bull. 430, 

pp. 570-589, 1910.

 The northern part of the Rock Springs coal field, Sweetwater County, Wyo.: 

U. S. Geol. Survey Bull. 341, pp. 256-282, 1909.

The southern part of the Rock Springs coal field, Sweetwater County, Wyo.:

U. S. Geol. Survey Bull. 381, pp. 214-281, 1910. 

_} SCHULTZ, A. R., and CROSS, WHITMAN, Potash-bearing rocks of the Leucite Hills,

Sweetwater County, Wyo.: U. S. Geol. Survey Bull. 512, 1912. 

SCOTT, W. B., A history of land mammals in the Western Hemisphere, New York,

1913. 

SHIMETC, B., Aftonian sands and gravels in western Iowa: Geol. Soc. America Bull.,

vol. 20, pp. 339-408, 1909. 

SIEBENTHAL, C. E. See Darton and Siebenthal; Darton, Blackwelder, and Siebenthal. 

* SMITH, E. E., The eastern part of the Great Divide Basin coal field, Wyo.: U. S.

Geol. Survey Bull. 341, pp. 220-242, 1909. 

SPENCER, A. C., The copper deposits of the Encampment district, Wyo.: U. S. Geol.

Survey Prof. Paper 25,1904. 

SPURR, J. E., Geology of the Tonopah mining district, Nev.: U. S. Geol. Survey

Prof. Paper 42, 1905. 

TODD, J. E., Pleistocene history of the Missouri River: Science, new ser., vol. 39,

pp. 263-274, 1914.

TURNER, H. W. See Lindgren and Turner. 

VEATCH, A. C., Coal fields of east-central Carbon County, Wyo.: U. S. Geol. Survey

Bull. 316, pp. 244-260, 1907. 

 Geography and geology of a portion of southwestern Wyoming, with special

reference to coal and oil: U. S. Geol. Survey Prof. Paper 56, 1907. 

WEGEMANN, C. H., The Coalville coal field,^Utah: U. S. Geol. Survey Bull. 581,

pp. 161-184,1915.

V.
GLOSSARY OF GEOLOGIC TERMS.

Alluvial fan. The outspread sloping deposit of bowlders, gravel, and sand left by a 

stream where it passes from a gorge out upon a plain. (See PI. XLII, p. 188.)

Andesite. A lava of widespread occurrence, usually of dark-gray color and intermediate in chemical composition between rhyolite and basalt.

Anticline. An arch of bedded or layered rock suggestive in form of an overturned 

canoe. (See also Dome and Syncline.)

Badlands. A region nearly devoid of vegetation where erosion, instead of carving 

hills and valleys of the familiar type, has cut the land into an intricate maze of 

narrow ravines and sharp crests and pinnacles. Travel across such a region is 

almost impossible, hence the name.

Basalt. A common lava of dark color and of great fluidity when molten. Basalt is 

less siliceous than granite and rhyolite, and contains much more iron, calcium, 

and magnesium.

Bolson (pronounced bowl-sown'). A flat-floored desert valley that drains to a central 

evaporation pan or playa.

Bomb. See Volcanic bomb.

Breccia (pronounced bretch'a). A mass of naturally cemented angular rock fragments.

Crystalline rock. A rock composed of closely fitting mineral crystals that have 

formed in the rock substance as contrasted with one made up of cemented grains 

of sand or other material or with a volcanic glass.

Diabase. A heavy, dark, intrusive rock having the same composition as basalt, but, 

on account of its slower cooling, a more crystalline texture. Its principal constituent minerals are feldspar, augite, and usually olivine. Olivine is easily 

changed by weathering, and in many diabases is no longer recognizable. Augite 

is a mineral containing iron and magnesium and is similar to hornblende.

Dike. A mass of igneous rock that has solidified in a wide fissure or crack in the 

earth's crust.

Diorite. An even-grained intrusive igneous rock consisting chiefly of the minerals 

feldspar, hornblende, and very commonly black mica. If the rock contains 

much quartz, it is called.quartz digrite. Quartz diorite resembles granite and is 

connected with that rock by many intermediate varieties, including monzonite. 

The feldspar in diorite differs from that in granite in containing calcium and 

sodium instead of potassium. Hornblende is a green or black mineral containing 

iron, magnesium, calcium, and other constituents.

Dip. The slope of a rock layer expressed by the angle which the top or bottom of 

the layer makes with a horizontal plane. (See also Strike.)

Dissected. Cut by erosion into hills and valleys. Applicable especially to plains 

or peneplains in process of erosion after an uplift.

Dome. As applied to rock layers or beds, a short anticline, suggestive of an inverted 

basin. . °

Drift. The rock fragments soil, gravel, and silt carried by a glacier. Drift includes the unassorted material known as till and deposits made by streams flowing from the glacier.

Erosion. The wearing away of materials at the earth's surface by the mechanical 

action of running water, waves, moving ice, or winds, which use rock fragments 

and grains as tools or abrasives. Erosion is aided by weathering. See Weathering. 

232
GLOSSARY OF GEOLOGIC TEEMS. 233

Fault. A fracture in the earth's crust accompanied by movement of the rock on 

one side of the break past that jan the other. If the fracture is inclined and the 

rock on one side appears to have slid down the slope of the fracture the fault is 

termed a normal fault. If, on the other hand, the rock on one side appears to 

have been shoved up the inclined plane of the break the fault is termed a reverse

- fault. (See fig. 12, p. 100, and fig. 16, p. 188.)

Fault block. A part of the earth's crust bounded wholly or in part by faults.

Fault scarp. The cliff formed by a fault. Most fault scarps have been modified by 

erosion since the faulting.

Fauna. The animals that inhabited the world or a certain region at a certain time.

Fissure. A crack, break, or fracture in the earth's crust or in a mass of rock.

Flood plain. The nearly level land that borders a stream and is subject to occasional 

overflow. Flood plains are built up by sediment left by such overflows.

Flora. The assemblage of plants growing at a given time or in a given place.

Fold. A bend in rock layers or beds. Anticlines and synclines are the common 

types of folds.

Formation. A rock layer, or a series of continuously deposited layers grouped 

together, regarded by the geologist as a unit for purposes of description and 

mapping. A formation is usually named from some place where it is exposed 

in its typical character. For example, Denver formation, Niobrara limestone.

Fossil. The whole or any part of an animal or plant that has been preserved in 

the rocks or the impression left by a plant or animal. This preservation is invariably accompanied by some change in substance, and in impressions the 

original substance has all been removed. (See PL IV, p. 20, and PI. XIX, p. 75.)

Gneiss (pronounced nice). A rock resembling granite, but with its mineral constituents so arranged as to give it a banded appearance. Most gneisses are metamorphic rocks derived from granite or other igneous rocks.

Granite. A crystalline igneous rock'that has solidified slowly deep within the 

earth. It consists chiefly of the minerals quartz, feldspar, and one or both of 

the common kinds of mica, namely, black mica, or biotite, and white mica, or 

muscovite. The feldspar is the kind known as orthoclase, and may be distinguished from quartz by its pale-reddish tint and its property of breaking with 

flat shining surfaces (cleavage), for quartz breaks irregularly. The micas are 

easily recognized by their cleavage into thin, flexible flakes and their brilliant luster.

Horizon. In geology any distinctive plane traceable from place to place in different 

exposures of strata and marking the same period of geologic time. A particular 

horizon may be characterized by distinctive fossils.

Igneous rocks. Rocks formed by the cooling and solidification of a hot liquid 

material, known as magma, that has originated at unknown depths within the 

earth. Those that have solidified beneath the surface are intrusive rocks, or, 

if the cooling has taken place slowly at great depth, as plutonic intrusive or 

plutonic rocks. Those that have flowed out over the surface are known as effusive 

rocks, extrusive rocks, or lavas. The term volcanic rocks includes not only lavas 

but bombs, pumice, tuff, volcanic ash, and other fragmental materials or ejecta 

thrown out from volcanoes.

lathologic. Pertaining to lithology, or the study of rocks. (See also Petrology.) 

Pertaining to rock character.

Lode. An ore-bearing vein (see Vein); especially a broad or complex vein.

Loess (pronounced lurse with the r obscure). A fine homogeneous silt or loam 

showing usually no division into layers and forming thick and extensive 

deposits in the Mississippi Valley and in China. It is generally regarded as in 

part at least a deposit of wind-blown dust.
234 GUIDEBOOK OP THE WESTERN" UNITED STATES.

Meander. To flow in serpentine curves. A loop in a stream. The term comes 

from the Greek name of a river in Asia Minor, which has a sinuous course. Most 

streams in flowing across plains develop meanders. (See PI. XXXVII, p. 177.)

Metamorphism. Any change in rocks effected in the earth by heat, pressure, 

solutions, or gases. A common cause of the metamorphism of rocks is the intrusion into them of igneous rocks. Rocks that have been so changed are termed 

metamorphic. Marble, for example, is metamorphosed limestone.

Monzonite. An even-grained intrusive igneous rock intermediate in character 

between diorite and granite. It resembles granite.

Moraine. A mass of drift deposited by a glacier at its end or along its sides.

Oil pool. An accumulation or body of oil in sedimentary rock that yields petroleum on drilling. The oil occurs in the pores of the rock and is not a pool or 

pond in the ordinary sense of these words.

Outcrop. That part of a rock that appears at the surface. The appearance of a rock 

at the surface or its projection above the soil.

Paleontology. The study of the world's ancient life, either plant or animal, by 

means of fossils.

Peneplain. A region reduced almost to a plain by the long-continued normal erosion of a land surface. It should be distinguished from a plain produced by the 

attack of waves along a coast or the built-up flood plain of a river.

Petrography. The description of rocks, especially of igneous and metamorphic 

rocks with the aid of the microscope.

Petrology. The study of rocks, especially of igneous and metamorphic rocks.

Placer deposit. A mass of gravel, sand, or similar material resulting from the 

crumbling and erosion of solid rocks and containing particles or nuggets of gold, 

platinum, tin, or other valuable minerals. The valuable materials in placers have 

been derived from rocks or veins by erosion.

Playa (pronounced plah/ya). The' shallow central basin of a desert plain, in which 

water gathers after a rain and is evaporated.

Porphyry. Any igneous rock in which certain crystal constituents are distinctly 

visible in contrast with the finer-grained substance of the rock.

Quartzite. A rock composed of sand grains cemented by silica into an extremely 

hard mass.

Rhyolite. A lava, usually of light color, corresponding in chemical composition to 

granite. The same molten liquid that at great depth within the earth solidifies 

as granite would, if it flowed out on the surface, cool more quickly and crystallize 

less completely as rhyolite.

Schist. A rock that by subjection to heat and pressure within the earth has under- 

. gone a change in the character of the particles or minerals that compose it and 

has these minerals arranged in such a way that the rock splits more easily in certain directions than in others. A schist has a crystalline grain roughly illustrated 

by the grain of a piece of wood.

Sedimentary rocks. Rocks formed by the accumulation of sediment in water 

(aqueous deposits) or from air (eolian deposits). The sediment may consist of 

rock fragments or particles of various sizes (conglomerate, sandstone, shale); of 

the remains or products of animals or plants (certain limestones and coal); of the 

product of chemical action or of evaporation (salt, gypsum, etc.); or of mixtures 

of these materials. Some sedimentary deposits (tuffs) are composed of fragments 

blown from volcanoes and deposited on land or in water. A characteristic feature 

of sedimentary deposits is a layered structure known as bedding or stratification. 

Each layer is a bed or stratum. Sedimentary beds as deposited lie flat or nearly 

flat.

Shale. A rock consisting of thin hardened layers of fine mud.
GLOSSARY OF GEOLOGIC TEEMS. 235

Slate. A rock that by subjection to pressure within the earth has acquired the 

:r property of splitting smoothly into thin plates. The cleavage is smoother and 

more regular than the splitting of schist along its grain.

Stratigraphy. The branch of geologic science that deals with the order and relations of the strata of the earth's crust.

Strike. The direction along which an inclined rock layer would meet the earth's 

surface if that surface were level. The outcrop (which see) of a bed on a plain is 

coincident with its strike.

i Structure. In geology, the forms assumed by sedimentary beds and igneous rocks 

that have been moved from their original position by forces within the earth, or the 

forms taken by intrusive masses of igneous rock in connection with effects produced mechanically on neighboring rocks by the intrusion. Folds (anticlines 

and synclines) and faults are the principal mechanical effects considered under 

structure. (See figs. 12 and 13, p. 100.) Schistosity and cleavage are also structural features. 

I Syncline. An inverted arch of bedded or layered rock suggestive in form of a canoe.

Talus (pronounced tay'lus). The mass of loose rock fragments that accumulates at 

the base of a cliff or steep slope.

Terrace. A steplike bench on a hillside. Most terraces along rivers are remnants of 

valley bottoms formed when the land was lower or when the stream flowed at 

higher levels. Other terraces have been formed by waves. Some terraces have 

been cut in solid rock, others have been built up of sand and gravel, and still 

others have been partly cut and partly built up.

Till. The deposit of mingled bowlders, rock fragments, and .soil left behind by a 

melting glacier or deposited about its margin.

'Tuff. A roek consisting of a layer or layers of lava particles blown from a volcano. 

A fine tuff is often called volcanic ash and a coarse tuff is called breccia.

Type locality. The place at which a formation is typically displayed and from 

which it is named; also the place at which a fossil or other geologic feature is 

displayed in typical form.

Unconformity. A break in the regular succession of sedimentary rocks, indicated 

by the fact that one bed rests on the eroded surface of one or more beds which 

may have a distinctly different dip from the bed above. An unconformity may 

indicate that the beds below it have at some time been raised above the sea 

and have been eroded. In some places beds thousands of feet thick have -been 

washed away before the land again became submerged and the first bed above 

the" surface of unconformity was deposited. If beds of rock may be regarded as 

leaves in the volume of geologic history, an unconformity marks "a gap in the 

record. (See p. 42.)

Vein. A mass of mineral material that has been deposited in or along a fissure in 

the rocks. A vein differs from a dike in that the vein material was introduced 

gradually by deposition from solution whereas a dike was intruded in a molten 

condition.

Volcanic bomb. A rounded mass of lava thrown out while in a hot and pasty condition from a-volcano. A bomb, like a raindrop, is rounded in its passage through 

the air and may be covered with a cracked crust due to quick cooling. 

, Volcanic cone. A mountain or hill, usually of characteristic conical form, built up 

around a volcanic vent. The more nearly perfect cones are composed principally of lava fragments and volcanic ashes.

Volcanic glass. Lava that has cooled and solidified before it has had time to crystallize.

'S
236 GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES.

Volcanic neck. A plug of lava that formerly congealed in the pipe of a volcano. 

When the tuffs and lava flows that make up most of a volcano have been washed 

away by erosion the neck may remain as an isolated hill.

Volcanic rocks. Igneous rocks erupted at or near the earth's surface, including 

lavas, tuffs, volcanic ashes, and like material.

Weathering. The group of processes, such as the chemical action of air and rain 

water and of plants and bacteria and the mechanical action of changes of temperature, whereby rocks on exposure to the weather change in character, decay, 

and finally crumble into soil.
ILLUSTRATIONS.

ROUTE MAP.

For the convenience of the traveler the sheets of the route map are SD folded and placed that he can 

unfold them one by one and keep each one in view while he is reading the text relating to it. A reference 

in parentheses is given in the text at each point where a new sheet should be unfolded.

Page.

SHEET 1. Council Bluffs, Iowa, to Ames, Nebr............................... 18

2. North Bend to Clarke, Nebr...................................... 22

3. Thummel to Buda, Nebr......................................... 26

4. Kearney to Gothenburg, Nebr..................................... 28

5. Vroman to Dexter, Nebr.......................................... 30

6. Paxton to Ralton, Nebr .......................................... 34

7. Chappell to Owasco, Nebr......................................... 36

8. Kimball, Nebr., to Archer, Wyo.......................... '. ....... 38

9. Cheyenne to Harper, Wyo......................................... 50

10. Harper to Fort Steele, Wyo....................................... 62

11. Lahkota to Red Desert, Wyo....................................... 68

12. Hillside to Rock Springs, Wyo..................................... 70

13. Kanda to Carter, Wyo............................................ 76

14. Antelope, Wyo., to Devils Slide, Utah.............................. 88

15. Morgan to Midlake, Utah......................................... 102

15A. Ogden, Utah, to Weston, Idaho................................... 114

15s. Dayton to Pocatello, Idaho........................................ 124

15c. Tyhee to Winder, Idaho......................................... 138

15o. Rexburg, Idaho, to Yellowstone, Mont............................. 148

16. Rambo to Umbria Junction, Utah...................:.............. 156

17. Umbria Junction, Utah, to Alazon, Nev............................ 162

18. Tulasco to Palisade, Nev......................................... 168

19. Gerald to Comus, Nev............................................ 170

20. Preble to Zola, Nev.............................................. 178

21. Nenzel to Luva, Nev............................................ 184

, 22. Fernley, Nev., to Summit, Cal................................... 202

23. Soda Springs to Roseville, Cal..................................... 214

24. Antelope to Port Costa, Cal....................................... 218

25. Port Costa to San Francisco, Cal.................................. 224

PLATES.

Page. 

PLATE I. Relief map showing surface features of the western part of the

United States ................................................ 6

II. Animals that lived in central North America in Pliocene and Pleistocene time: A, Saber-toothed tiger and giant wolves on the carcass of a Pleistocene elephant; B, Elephants; C, Glyptodonts; 

D, Musk ox; E, Horned gophers .............................. 10

III. The plains of Nebraska: A, Fifty years ago; B, Now covered with 

corn; C, When buffalo roamed over them; D, Supporting herds of 

domestic cattle ............................................... 11

237
238 ' ILLUSTRATIONS.

PLATE IV. A, B, Marine fossils of Cretaceous age; C, Carboniferous forest.... 20 ,.,. 

V. Animals that lived in central North. America in Cretaceous time: 

A, Skeleton of the head of Hesperornis; B, Restoration of a 

mosasaur; C, Restoration of a pterodactyl.................... 21

VI. Rocks of Miocene age and restorations of animals that lived in 

North America during the Miocene epoch: A, Short-limbed 

rhinoceros, known as Teleoceras; B, Miocene mastodon and 

Pleistocene, elephant; C, Moropus elastus; D, A four-horned 

deer; E, Gigantic giraffe-camel; F, Miocene beds (Arikaree 

formation) resting unconformably on Oligocene beds (Brule 

clay) in Pawnee Buttes, Colo............................... 40

VII. Rocks of Oligocene age and restorations of animals that lived in 

central North America during the Oligocene epoch: A, Jail 

rock, north of Sidney, in western Nebraska; B, An American 

rhinoceros; C, "Giant pigs"; D, Titanotheres; E, Protoceras / 

celer ...................................................... 41

VIII. A, View near Dale Creek station, Wyo., showing characteristic 

weathering of the Sherman granite; B, Small "soda lake'' on 

the plain near Laramie, Wyo....... ........................... 44

IX. Natural monuments on the plain near Red Buttes, Wyo., eroded

from red sandstone of the Casper formation................... 45

X. A, An armored dinosaur (Stegosaurus); B, A carnivorous dinosaur .

(Allosaurus) preying on one of the herbivorous dinosaurs ...... 52

XI. A, A horned toad, a modern lizard that is armed like some of the

ancient dinosaurs; B, The last of the dinosaurs (Triceratops).. 53

XII. A, Platte River at Fort Steele, Wyo.; B, Elk Mountain, the north

end of the Medicine Bow range............................... 60

XIII. A, Gap in the Cambrian quartzite through which the westbound

tourist passes after leaving Rawlins, Wyo.; B, Characteristic ' 

view of the Red Desert ..................................... 61

XIV. A, Table Rock, near Bitter Creek, Wyo.; B, Characteristic view 

of the north wall of the canyon through which the tourist 

passes near Point of Rocks, Wyo............................ 66

XV. A, Coal-bearing sandstone of the Mesaverde formation; B, Transportation, old and new; C, Near view of White Mountain'..... 67

XVI. Major J. W. Powell............................................ 72

XVII. A, Green River City, Wyo., as seen from Castle Rpck; B, Natural

monuments west of Castle Rock.............................. ' 73

XVIII. A, "Fish Cut," west of Green River City, Wyo.; B, Bluffs of the

Green River formation near Green River City, Wyo........... 74

XIX. Fossils from the Green River formation: A, Fossil fish; B, Fossil plant ................................................... 75

XX. A, A creodont, an ancient doglike animal, one of the ancestors of 

the carnivorous mammals of to-day; B, Eobasileus, one of the 

types of animals that became extinct ages ago................ 80

XXI. A, Geologic features seen from Evanston, Wyo.; B, Details of i 

prominent hill at left of view shown in J. .................... 81

XXII. A, "Steamboat Rock," in Echo Canyon, Utah; B, "The Narrows," in Echo Canyon, Utah ................................ 84

XXIII. A, North wall of Echo Canyon, Utah, at its junction with Weber

Canyon; B, Pulpit Rock at Echo, Utah ...................... 85
GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES. 239

PLATE XXIV. A, The Witches, near Echo, Utah, as seen from the train; B, 

Side view showing, on the butte to the right, the "Witch's 

Cap".................................................... 86

XXV. A, View of the valley of Weber River from Witches Rocks; B,

The Devil's Slide.......................................... 87

XXVI. A, Z-shaped folds near east end of Ogden Canyon; B, Recent

fault scarp at the mouth of Ogden Canyon.................. 100

XXVII. View in Ogden Canyon below The Narrows................... 101

XXVIII. A, West front of Wasatch Range at Ogden, Utah; B, Diagram

showing geology of mountain masses in A .................. 104

XXIX. A, Lake Bonneville shore line at Brigham, Utah; B, Cambrian

quartzite resting on Archean gneiss near Willard, Utah...... 105

XXX. A, "The Gates'' of Bear River; B, East Butte, Idaho.......... 112

XXXI. Red Rock Pass and the outlet channel of Lake Bonneville.... 113

XXXII. Upper falls, Henrys Fork of Snake River... ................. 144

XXXIII. Lower falls, Henrys Fork of Snake River..................... 145

XXXIV. View eastward along the Luc.in cut-off across the west arm of

Great Salt Lake.......................................... 152

XXXV. Palisade Canyon, Nev...................................... 153

XXXVI. A, Snow on the north end of the Humboldt Mountains; B,

Hot spring near Elko, Nev ................................ 176

XXXVII. Channel of Humboldt River near Rye Patch, Nev............ 177

XXXVIII. Carson Desert at Parran, Nev................................ 182

XXXIX. Piute Indians at home....................................... 183

XL. Tonopah, Nev., a typical mining community................ 184

XLI. Consolidated mill, Goldfield, Nev........................... 185

XLII. United States Reclamation Service dam on Truckee River.... 188

XLIII. Virginia City, Nev., on the famous Comstock Lode............ 189

XLIV. A, Truckee River canyon near Floriston, Gal.; B, Truckee, Cal. 196 

XLV. LakeTahoe, Cal............................................. 197

XLVI. Cave Rock, Lake Tahoe, Cal................................ 200

XLVII. A, Donner Lake; B, Desolation Valley, near Lake Tahoe...... 201

XLVIII. A, View of Tertiary gold-gravel deposits between Gold Run 

and Dutch Flat; B, View in a railroad cut between Forebay 

and Midas.........................................'...... 206

XLIX. A, View down canyon of North Fork of American River from

Cape Horn, Cal.; B, Blue Canyon, Cal..................... 207

L. State capitol at Sacramento, Cal............................. 216

FIGURES.

Page.

FIGURE 1. Sketch profile of river bluffs near Omaha, Nebr., showing Aftonian

gravels..................................................... 8

2. Sketch profile showing relation of loess to underlying beds of clay

and glacial till in railroad cuts west of Omaha, Nebr ........... 14

3. Cross section of the rock formations from the Rocky Mountains to

Omaha, Nebr................................................. 16

4. Map of North America showing area covered by the Pleistocene ice

sheet at its maximum extension.............................. 22

5. Sketch profile of the bluffs near Brule, Nebr.................... 31

6. Typical sand dune with blow-out in its top...................... 33

7. Tertiary sand and gravel overlying truncated edges of older rocks.. 42

8. Unconformity in a railroad cut 4 miles west of Lookout, Wyo..... 50
240 ILLUSTRATIONS.

FIGURE 9. Leg bones of a dinosaur, showing size in comparison with that of a

man........................................................ 53

10. Map showing outline of the Great Basin........................ 82

11. Diagram showing fluctuations of water surface of Great Salt Lake,

Utah, 1850-1914.............................................. 95

12. Diagram showing normal and reverse or overthrust faults ........ 100

13. Diagrammatic structure section of the Wasatch Range, in Ogden

Canyon...................................................... 100

14. Cross section of Marsh Creek valley at McCammon, Idaho......... 120

15. The Three Tetons, looking east................................ 142

16. Diagrammatic cross section showing the geologic structure of the

Virginia Range in its relation to Truckee Meadows ............ 188

17. Sketch maps showing capture of upper part of Bear River by

South Fork of Yuba River (on sheet 23)...............'........ 214

18. Diagram showing the present relation of the Tertiary auriferous

gravels to bedrock and lavas.................................. 208

19. Map showing geologic formations along the south shore of San

Pablo Bay (on sheet 25)...................................... 224

20. Section showing structure along the south shore of San Pablo Bay

(on sheet 25)................................................ 224
INDEX OF RAILROAD STATIONS.

A. Page. Sheet.

Akbar, Nev. ............................ 17

Alazon, Nev ...................'......... 17

Alda, Nebr.:............................ 1

Alien, Wyo............................. 55 10

Almy Junction, Wyo .................... 14

Alta, Cal ................................ 207

Altamont, Wyo......................... 79 14

Ames, Nebr ............................. 18 1

Antelope, Cal ........................... 215 24

Antelope, Wyo. .......................... 76 14

Anthony, Nev. ......................... 161 17

Applegate, Cal.......................... 212 23

Archer, Wyo............................ 37 8

Argcnta, Nev... ........................ 170 19

Argo,Nev............................... 185 21

Arimo, Idaho.... ....................... 119 15B

Ashton, Idaho... ....................... 141 15D

Aspen, Wyo ............................ 79 14

Auburn, Cal.. .......................... 212 23

AveneljNev. ........................... 167 18

Avery, Nebr ............................ 1

Azusa, Wyo. ............................ 13

Bach,Idaho.. ........................... 133 15C

Bagley,Utah............................ 150 15

Bakers, Utah.... ....................... 108 ISA

Banvard, Nev. .......................... 159 17

Barth,Nev. ............................ 169 19

Barton, Nebr ........................... 6

Baskin, Utah ................... I ....... 14

Batavia,Cal............................ 24

Battle Mountain, Nev................... 170 19

Baxter, Wyo............................ 70 12

BenAli, Cal.... ......................... 215 24

Benicia, Cal............................. 218 24

Benin, Nev. ............................ 20

Beowawe, Nev .......................... 169 19

Beppo, Utah. ........................... 155 16

Berkeley, Cal........................... 222 25

Big Springs, Idaho...................... 146 15D

Big Springs, Nebr....................... 32 6

Birdwood, Nebr. ........................ 5

BitterCreek, Wyo...................... 68 12

BlackButtes, Wyo..................... 69 12

Blackfoot,Idaho. ............... v ...... 130 15C

BluoCanyon, Cal. ...............'....... 205 23

Boca, Cal ...................-.......:.... 196 22

Bona, Wyo...............:............. 48 9

Borie, Wyo.............................. 39 9

Bosler, Wyo............................. 49 9

Brady Island, Nebr..................... 29 5

Bridger, Wyo........................... 77 14

Brigham, Utah. ......................... 106 15A

Brownson, Nobr. ........................ 35 7

Brule, Nebr............................. 31 6

92213° Bull. 612 15 16

Tage. Sheet. 

Bryan, Wyo..... ..;..................... 76 13

Buda, Nebr............ .......;.......... 26 ' 3

Buford, Wyo............................ 43 9

Burns, Wyo. ............................ 37 8

Bushnell, Nebr.........'................. 35 8

Cache Junction, Utah. .................. 112 ISA

Calls Fort, Utah.. . ...................... ISA

Calvada, Cal... . ......................... 194 22

Cannon, Cal. ............................ 24

Cape Horn, Cal.......................... 209 23

Carlin, Nev... . .......................... 107 18

Carson, Nev. . ........................... 189 22

Carter, Wyo. ............................ 76 13

Castle Rock, Utah;...................... 84 14

Cedar, Nev. . ...................'......... 161 17

Central City, Nebr...................... 23 3

Chapman, Nebr ......................... 3

Chappell, Nebr.......................... 33 7

Cherokee, Wyo.................:........ 65 11

Chester, Idaho.. ......................... 141. 15D

Cheyenne, Wyo......................... 38 9

Church Buttes, Wyo. ................... 13

Cisco, Cal................................ 204 23

Clark,Nev. ............................. 187 22

Clarks, Nebr. ........................... 23 2

Clipper Gap, Cal. .....:................. 212 23

Cluro,Nev. ............................. 169 19

Cobre, Nev. . ............................ 160 17

Coin, Nev. .............................. 18

Colfax, Cal. ............................. 211 23

Colin, Utah ............................. 15

Colllnston, Utah.. ....................... 110 15A

Colores, Wyo......................'...... 46 9

Colton, Nebr.....................:...... 33 7

Columbus, Nebr......................... 20 2

Como, Wyo............................. 55 10

Comus, Nev......................'....... 171 19

Cooper Lake, Wyo...................... 49 9

Corlett, Wyo............................ 38 9

Cornish, Utah. . ......................... 114 ISA

Cotton, Idaho. .......................... 133 15C

Cosgrave, Nev. .......................... 20

Council Bluffs, Iowa. ................:... 7 1

Cozad.Nebr.. ...... ........ ............. 28 4

Crcston,.Wyo............... ............. 65 11

CrystalLake, Cal... ..................... 205 23

Curvo, Utah........ ..................... 84 14

D.

Dale Creek, Wyo .'....................... 44 9

DaleysRanch, Wyo..................... 65 11

Dana, Wyo.............................. 59 10

Darr, Nebr .............................. 28 4

Davis, Cal................................ 216 24

241
242 INDEX OF RAILROAD STATIONS.

Page. Sheet.

Dayton, Idaho.......................... 115 15B

Deeth, Nev.............................. 164 18

Derby.Nev............................. 1S7 22

Desert, Nev .....,... i ................... 21

Devils Slide............................. 88 14

Dewey, Utah............................ 109 15A

Dexter, Nebr............................ 30 5

Ditho, Nev.............................. 187 22

Dix, Nebr............................... 35 7

Dixon, Cal.............................. 216 24

Dodon, Nev............................. 20

Downey, Idaho.......................... 118 15B

Duncan, Nebr........................... 23 2

Durham, Wyo............'.............. 37 8

DutchFlat, Cal......................... 207 23 'E.

East Ogden, Utah....................... 15

Echo, Utah............................. 85 14

Edson,Wyo. ............................ 60 10

Egbert, Wyo............................ 37 8

Eglon, Nev.............................. 173 20

Elburz, Nev............................. 165 18

Elkhorn,Nebr.......................... 16 1

Elkhurst, Wyo.......................... 13

Elko, Nov............................... 165 18

Elm Creek,Nebr........................ 28 4

Elmira, Gal.............................. 216 24

Emigrant Gap, Cal...................... 205 23

Emory, Utah............................ So 14

Estes Spur, Idaho....................... 15D

Evanston, Wyo......................... 81 14

Factory, Idaho.......................... 15C

Fairfleld, Cal............................ 217 24

Falais, Nev............................... 21

Farrel,Nev............................. 170 19

Fenelonj Nev............................ 161 17

Fernley, Nev............................ 185 22

Ferris, Wyo............................. 65 11

Firth, Idaho............................. 131 15C

Fishatch, Idaho......................... 145 15D

Floriston, Cal........................... 195 22

Forebay, Cal............................ 206

Forelle,Wyo............................ 45 9

FortHall,Idaho........................ 126 15C

Fort Russell, Wyo...................... 38 9

FortSteele, Wyo........................ 61 10

Fremont, Nebr.........................; 17 1

Frewen, Wyo........................... .11

G.

Gannett, Nebr.......................... 29 5

Gardiner, Nebr.......................... 23 2

Garner, Idaho........................... 116 15B

Gartney, Utah.......................... 17

Gateway, Utah.......................... 91 15

Gerald, Nev............................. _169 19

Gibbon, Nebr ........................... 26 3

Gibson, Idaho........................... 129 15C

Gilpin,Nev........................... r . 187 22

Golconda, Nev.......................... 172 20

GoldRun, Cal.......................... 209 23

Goodyear, Cal........................... 24

Gorge, Cal............................... 206

Gothenburg, Nebr....................... 28 4

Page. Sheet.

Crandlsland, Nebr..................... 24 3

Granger, Wyo........................... 70 13

Granite Canyon, Wyo.....;............. 43 9

Granite Point, Nev...................... 180 21

GreenRiver, Wyo...................... 73 13

Grenville,Wyo.......................... 62 11

Groome, Utah........................... 16

H.

Hafed,Nev............................. 188 22

Halleck, Nev............................ 165 18

Hallville, Wyo........................... 69 12

Hammond, Utah........................ 113 ISA

Hampton, Wyo......................... 76 13

Hanna, Wyo............................ 57 10

Harney, Nev............................ 169 19

Harper, Wyo............................ 50 10

Harrisvillc, Utah........................ 104 ISA

Hazen, Nev.............................. 183' 21

Henefer,Utah........................... 87 14

Herdon, Nebr........................... 35 7

Hermosa, Wyo........................... 45 9

Herrin, Nov............................. 171 19

Hershey, Nebr.......................... 29 5

Hillsdale, Wyo.......................... 37 ' 8

Hillside, Wyo........................... 67 12

Hindrey,Nebr.......................... 29 5

Hogup, Utah............................ 16

Holborn,Nev........................... 161 17

Honeyville, Utah....................... 108 ISA

HotSprings, Utah..i................... 105 ISA

Howell, Wyo............................ 48 9

Humboldt, Nev......................... 176 20

I.

Icarus, Nev............................. 161 17

Iceland, Cal............................. 196 22

Idaho Falls, Idaho...................... 134 ISO

Imlay, Nev.............................. 176 20

Inkom, Idaho...'........................ 122 15B

Iron Point, Nev......................... 171 19

Island Park, Idaho....................... 145 15D

J.

Jacinto, Nebr............................ 35 7

Jackson, Utah.............'.............. 155 16

Josselyn, Nebr.......................... 28 4

Julesburg, Colo.......................... 32 0

K.

Kanda, Wyo............................ 71 13

Kaw, Nev............................... 161 17

Keamey, Nebr.......................... 26 4

Keith, Nebr............................. 29 5

Kimball, Nebr....:..................... 35 8

Knight, Wyo...:..-..................... .80 14

Knobs, Wyo............................ 11

Kodak, Nev............................. 179 21

Korty, Nebr............................. 6

L.

Ladoga, Nev.................'....'....... 170 19

Lahkota, Wyo.......................... 11

Lake Taboo, Cal......................... 198 22

Lakeside, Utah.......................... 152 1C

Lambert, Nebr.......................... 19 2

Lander, Cal............................. 211
INDEX OF RAILROAD STATIONS. 243

Lane, Nebr...............

Laramie, Wyo............

Latham, Wyo............

Lava Hot Springs, Idaho. 

Lawton, Nev............

Lemay, Utah... ; .........

Leroy, Wyo..............

Lexington, Nebr.........

Lincoln, Idaho...........

Little Mountain, Utah... 

Lockwood, Nebr.........

Lodgepole, Nebr.........

Logan, Utah.............

Lookout, Wyo...........

Loomis, Cal..............

Loray, Nev...............

Lorenzo, Idaho...........

Lovelock, Nev...........

Loy, Utah................

Lucin, Utah..............

Luva, Nev...............

age. Sheet. 

1

' 47 9 

11

121 15B 

193

154 10

77 14

28 4

15C

149 15 

3

33 7

, 113 15A

49 9

213 23

17

, 137 150 

179 21 

. 154 1C 

. 155 16 

, 185 21

M.

McCammon, Idaho...................... 120 15B

Madsen, Utah........................... 109 15A

Magra, Cal............................'... 209

Mare Island Navy Yard................. 219 25

Margate, Nebr......................... 35 7

Marsh Valley, Idaho..................... 15B

Marston, Wyo........................... 13

Massio, Nov............................. 21

Maxwell, Nebr.......................... 29 5

Medicine Bow, Wyo..................... 54 10

Megeath, Nebr........................... 6

Mesa, Idaho............................. 144 15D

Midas,Cal............................... 206 23

Midlake, Utah.............;............. 152 15

Mill City, Nev........................... 175 20

Millard, Nebr............................ 1

Millis, Wyo.............................. 81 14

Miriam, Nev.....'....................... 181 21

Moleen,Nev............................. 167 18

Monell, Wyo............................ 12

Monroe, Idaho........................... 133 15C

Montello, Nev........................... 158 17

Moor, Nev............................... 162 .17

Morgan, Utah........................... 89 15

Mosel, Nev.............................. 170 19

Mote, Nev............................... 19

Mystic, Cal.............................. 22

N.

Nardi, Nev....'.......................... 164 18

Natchez, Nev............................ 164 18

Nenzel, Nev............................. 178 21

Nerva, Utah............................. 15A

New England Mills, Cal.............:... 211 23

Newcastle, Cal........................... 213 23

Newfoundland, Utah.................... 154 10

Nichols, Nebr........................... 5

Nobel,Cal............................... 222

Noble, Nev.............................. 159 17

NorthBend, Nebr....................... 19 2

North Platte, Nebr...................... 29 5

0.

Oakland, Cal............................ 223 26

Ocala, Nev.............................. 182 21

Odessa, Nebr............................ 28 4

Pago. Sheet.

O'Fallons, Nebr......................... 5

Ogalalla, Nebr............................ 30 6

Ogden, Utah............................ 93 15

Oliver, Nebr............................. 35 8

Olney, Utah............................. 153 16

Omaha, Nebr............................ 14 1

Omar, Nev.............................. 159 17

Onyx.Idaho.................'........... 122 15B

Optic, Nebr.............................. 26 3

Osino, Nev.............................. 18

Otto, Wyo....................'.......... 39 9

Overton,Nebr.......................... 28 4

Oxford, Idaho........................... 116 15B

Ozone, Wyo............................. 43 9

P.

Paddock, Nebr.............'............. 3

Palisade, Nev........................... 168 .18

Papillion, Nebr.......................... 1

Parran, Nev............................. 183 21

Palna, Nev............................. 21

Patrick,Wyo........................... 08 12

Paxton, Nebr........................... 30 6

Penryn,Cal............................. 213 23

Pequop, Nev............................ 161 17

Percy, Wyo............................. 59 10

Perdu, Nebr........'..................... 33 7

Perry, Utah............................. ISA

Perth, Nev.............................. 180 21

Peru, Wyo.............................. 74 13

Peterson, Utah.......................... 90 . 15

Pigeon, Utah............................ 155 16

PineBlufTs, Wyo....................... 37 8

Pinole,Cal.............................. 221 25

Piute, Nev.............................. 171 19

Pocatello, Idaho......................... 123 15B

Point of Rocks, Wyo.................... 69 12

Polaris,Cal.............................. 197 22

Port Costa, Cal.......................... 218 25

Portal, Nobr............................ l'

Portneuf, Idaho......................... 123 15B

Potter,Nebr............................ 35 7

Preble, Nev............................. 171 20

Promontory Point, Utah................ 151 15

Prosser Creek,Cal....................... 22

R.

Ragan, Wyo............................ 78 14

Ralton, Nebr............................ 33 6

Rambo, Utah............................ 152 16

Ramsey, Wyo........................... 10

Ransom, Utah.........................: 114 ISA

Rasid, Nev.............................. 164

Rawlins,Wyo........................... 64 II

Reas Pass, Idaho......................... 147 15D

RedButtcs, Wyo....................... 45 9

Red Desert, Wyo....................... 67 11

Rcese, Utah............................. 15

Reno, Nev.............................. 189 22

Rexburg,Idaho......................... 139 15D

Richland,Nobr......................... 19 2

Richmond, Cal.......................... 222 25

Ridge,Wyo............................. 51 10

Rigby, Idaho............................ 136 150

Riner, Wyo............................. 11

Riview, Wyo........................... 13

Robinson, Wyo......................... 12

RockRiver, Wyo....................... 51 10

Rock Springs, Wyo...................... 71 12
244 INDEX OF BAILROAD STATIONS.

Page. Sheet.

'Rocklin, Cal....:........................ 214 23

Rodeo,Cal.............................. 220 25

Rogers, Nebr............................ 2

Roscoe, Nebr............................ 6

RoseCreekjNev....... 1.................. 175 20

Roseville,Cal............................ 215 23

Rosny, Nev............................. 19

Rye Patch, Nev......................... 177 20

Ryndon, Nev........................... 18

S.

Sacramento, Cal......................... 215 24

St.Anthony, Idaho'...................... 140 15D

St. Leon, Idaho......................... 135

Saline, Utah............................. 15

SaltLakeCity,Utah...'................. 93 15

Salt Wells, Wyo......................... 12

Sampo, Wyo............................ 10

San Francisco,Cal........................ 224 25

San Pablo, Cal.......................... 221 25

Sarpy, Nebr............................. 1

Satanka, Wyo........................... 9

Schuyler, Nebr.......................... 19 2

Seymour, Nebr.......................... 1

Shelley,Idaho........................... 133 150

Shelton, Nebr........................... 26 3

Sherman, Wyo.......................... 44 9

Sidney,Nebr.-;.......................... 34 7

SflverCreek,Nebr....................... 23 2

Smart, Cal............................... 205

Smeed,Nebr............................ 35 8

Sobrante, Cal............................ 221

SodaSprings,Cal........................ 203 23

Solon, Wyo.............................. 11

Sparks, Nev............................. 188 22

Spring Valley, Wyo..................... 79 14

Spruce, Cal.............................. 23

Stonehouse, Nev........................ 171 19

Strawberry, Utah....................... 90 15

Steamboat Springs, Nev.................. 191 22

Strong Knob, Utah...................... 16

Sugar City, Idaho....................... 139 15D

Suisun, Cal.............................. 217 24

Summit, Cal............................. 201 22

Sunol,Nebr............................. 33- 7

Sutherland, Nebr........................ 30 5

SwanLake, Idaho....................... 116 15B

Swingle, Cal............................. 216

T.

Table Rock, Wyo....................... 68 12

Tamarack, Cal........................... 23

Teck, Utah.............................. 155 16

Tecoma,Nev............................ 158 17

Thayer Junction, Wyo.................. 70 12

Thisbe, Nev............................. 22

Thornton, Idaho........................ 138 15C

Thummel, Nebr......................... 23 3

Tioga.Nev.............................. 159 17

Tipton, Wyo............................ 67 12

Tobin, Cal............................... 226 25

Tonka, Nev............................. 167 18

Tormey, Cal......................;...... 220

Toulon,Nev............................. 181 21

Towle, Cal............................... 207 23

Page. Sheet.

 Toy,Nev................................ 181 21

Tracy, Wyo............................. 37 8

Trenton, Utah........................ t.. 113 15A

Truckee, Cal............................. 197 22

Trude,Idaho............................ 145 15D

Tulasco, Nev............................ 18

Tule.Nev............................... 173 20

Twin Grove, Idaho...................... 141

Tyhee,Idaho............................ 125 .15C

Tyrol,Nev.............................. 167 18

U.

Ucon,Idaho............................. 135 15C

Uinta,Utah............................. 92 15

Ullin.Nev............................... 159 17

Umbria Junction, Utah................. 155 17

Union Mill, Cal.......................... 197

Upsal, Nev..............:.............. 21

V.

Valery, Nev............................. 177 20

Vallejo Junction, Cal.................... 219 25

Valley, Nebr............................ 16 1

Valley Pass, Nev........................ 161 17

Valmy,Nev............................. 171 19

Verdi, Nev.............................. 193 22

Verne, Wyo.'............................ 13

Virginia, Idaho.......................... 119 15B

VirginiaCity.Nev....................... 189 22

Vista, Nev.............................. 188 22

Vivian, Nev............................. 167 18

Vromafl, Nebr........................... 29 5

W.

Wahsatch, Utah........................ 84 14

Walcott, Wyo........................... 60 10

Wamsutter, Wyo........................ 67 11

Wapello.Idaho.......................... 131 . 15C

Warm River, Idaho..................... 143 15D

Washington, Cal......................... 24

Waterloo,Nebr.......................... 16 1

Weir, Goto................................ 33 6

Wells,Nev..........:................... 162 17

West Weber, Utah...................... 149 15

Weston, Idaho.......................... 115 15A

Wheelon, Utah...:......::.............. Ill 15A

White Plains, Nev...:.................. 21

Wilcox, Wyo............................ 10

Wilford, Idaho.......................... 139 15D

Willard,Utah........................... 106 ISA

Willow Island, Nebr:.................... 28 4

Winder,Idaho.......................... 138 15C

Winnemucca, Nev....................... 174 20

Wirt, Cal................................ 209

WoodRiver, Nebr....;................. 25 3

Woolsey, Nev............................ 179 21

Wyoming, Wyo.....;...;............... 43 9

Wyuta, Utah'.......;.................... 14

Yellowstone, Mont...................... 147 15D

Yuba Pass, Cal........................... 205

Z. 

Zenda, Idaho........................... .til7

Zola,Nev.................;............. 178 20

o