UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR 

J. A. Krug, Secretary

GEOLOGICAL SURVEY 

W. E. Wrather, Directer

Water-Supply Paper 969

GEOLOGY AND GROUND-WATER RESOURCES 

OF BOX BUTTE COUNTY, NEBRASKA

BY 

R. C. CADY AND O. J. SCHERER

Prepared in cooperation with the

CONSERVATION AND SURVEY DIVISION

UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA

UNITED STATES

GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 

WASHINGTON : 1946

For sale by the

Superintendent of Documents, U. S. Government Printing: Office, Washington 25, D. C.

Price 70 cents

CONTENTS

Page

Abstract .................................................................. 1

Introduction ............................................................... 2

Purpose and scope of the investigation.................................. 2

Personnel and acknowledgments ........................................ 5

Geography ................................................................ 5

Area and population ................................................... 5

Communications ....................................................... 6

Climate ............................................................... 7

Soils and vegetation ................................................... 9

Topography and drainage .............................................. 10

Land forms ............................................................... 13

Land forms resulting from stream activity.............................. 13

Upland surface ................................................... 13

Fourth terrace .................................................... 14

Third terrace ..................................................... 14

Second terrace .................................................... IS

First terrace ...................................................... 16

Land forms resulting from wind action.................................. 16

Wind erosion ...................................................... 17

Deposits of wind-blown material................................... 18

Geology ................................................................... 19

Cretaceous system ..................................................... 19

Tertiary system ........................................................ 19

Oligocene series ................................................... 19

Miocene series .................................................... 20

Arikaree group ............................................... 20

Gering sandstone .......................................... 20

Monroe Creek sandstone ................................... 20

Harrison sandstone ....................................... 22

Marsland formation ............................................ 26

Sheep Creek formation ....................................... 32

Pliocene series .................................................... 35

Ogallala formation ............................................ 35

Quaternary system .................................................... 42

Character and thickness of the water-bearing formations.................... 43

Porosity and permeability of the water-bearing material.................... 44

Depth to the water table................................................... 47

Movement of ground water................................................ 49

Replenishment of ground water............................................. 51

Natural ground-water discharge............................................. 57

Ground-water storage and specific yield..................................... 61

Effects of pumping wells on water levels considered theoretically.............. 63

Fluctuations of the water table............................................. 69

Fluctuations caused by changes in atmospheric pressure................... 69

Fluctuations due to transpiration........................................ 70

Fluctuations due to precipitation........................................ 72

	in
IV CONTENTS

Page

Utilization of ground water................................................ 73

Domestic and stock supplies........................................... 73

Municipal supplies .................................................... 74

Industrial supplies ..................................................... 75

Irrigation supplies ..................................................... 76

Types of wells and well-drilling methods.................................... 79

Chemical quality of the water.............................................. 81

Water analyses............................................................. 82

Records of test holes and wells............................................. 83

Index ..................................................................... 101

ILLUSTRATIONS

PLATE 1. Geologic map of Box Butte County ........................In pocket

2. A, Undrained depression produced by wind erosion in western 

part of Box Butte County; B, Monroe Creek sandstone in 

northwestern part of Box Butte County..................... 26

3. House in the western part of Box Butte County that has been

undermined by wind erosion................................ 27

4. A, Contact of Monroe Creek and Harrison sandstones in north-

'western part of Box Butte County; B, Harrison sandstone in

northwestern part of Box Butte County; C, Characteristic

sediments of the upper part of the Marsland formation in

northwestern part of Box Butte County...................... 42

5. A, Box Butte member of the Sheep Creek formation in northwestern part of Box Butte County; B, Wild Horse Butte, an 

outlier of the Ogallala formation in eastern part of Box 

Butte County ............................................... 43

6. A, Sandstone of the Ogallala formation in southern part of 

Box Butte County; B, Dyer irrigation well (No. 132), in 

western part of Box Butte County........................... 42

7. Sections across Box Butte County showing land surface, geology,

and water table ........................................Inpocket

8. Map showing contours of the water table, depth to water level,

and location of wells and test holes in Box Butte County. .Inpocket

9. Hydrographs of observation wells in Box Butte County for the

years 1923-39 ...........................................Inpocket

FIGURE 1. Index map of Nebraska showing areas covered in ground-water

investigations since 1930..................................... 3

2. Map of Box Butte County showing contours and gradients of

the water table............................................. 53

3. Assumed arrangement of pumped wells and observation wells in

which draw-down is theoretically computed................... 65

4. Graph showing effect of changes of barometric pressure on water

level .........,............................................. 71
CONTENTS V

TABLES

Page

TABLE 1. Monthly mean temperature, in degrees Fahrenheit, in Box Butte

County and adjacent areas, 1938.............................. 8

2. Normal monthly temperature, in degrees Fahrenheit, in Box

Butte County,and adjacent areas.............................. 8

. 3. Monthly precipitation, in inches, in Box Butte County, and adjacent areas, 1938............................................ 8

4. Normal monthly precipitation, in inches, in Box Butte County

and adjacent areas .......................................... 8

5. Evaporation, in inches, from a free water surface at the Box

Butte Experimental Farm, Box Butte County, 1938............ 9

6. Computed recharge between sections A through F, in acre-feet a

year, and in inches a year over a tributary area................ 55

7. Computed draw-downs, in feet, in pumped well in eastern part 

of Box Butte County and in observation wells situated in a 

line at stated distances from it, after stated intervals of time 

since pumping began......................................... 65

8. Computed draw-downs, in feet, in pumped well in western part 

of Box Butte County and in observation wells situated in a 

line at stated distances from it, after stated intervals of time 

since pumping began......................................... 65

9. Computed draw-downs, in feet, in a pair of pumped wells, 1 mile 

apart, in eastern part of Box Butte County and in observation 

wells situated in a line between them at stated distances, after 

an interval of 120 days since pumping began.................. 66

10. Computed draw-downs, in feet, in a pair of pumped wells, 1 mile 

apart, in western part of Box Butte County and in observation 

wells situated in a line between them at stated distances, after 

an interval of 120 days since pumping began................... 66

11. Analyses of water from sources in Box Butte County and adjacent areas ................................................. 82

12. Logs of test holes in Box Butte County......................... 83

13. Logs of municipal wells at Alliance, Nebr..'..................... 89

14. Records of wells in Box Butte County and adjacent areas....... QO

GEOLOGY AND GROUND-WATER RESOURCES 

OF BOX BUTTE COUNTY, NEBRASKA

By R. C. CADY and O. J. SCHERER

ABSTRACT

Box Butte County is situated in the northwestern part of Nebraska, on the upland 

divide between the North Platte and Niobrara Rivers. It is adjacent to Sioux 

County, which adjoins Wyoming and South Dakota, and is also adjacent to Dawes 

County, which adjoins South Dakota. The area of Box Butte County is 1,076 

square miles. Within the past few years several areas of farm land have been 

irrigated with ground water obtained from wells, and the study of the possibility 

of expanding the use of ground water for farming has been emphasized.

The northern part of Box Butte County lies in the Niobrara Valley or on its 

upper slopes. Snake Creek crosses the southern part of the county from west to 

east and ends in an undrained depression in the southeastern part. Sand, hills 

border the county on the east and south. Within the valleys of the Niobrara River 

and Snake Creek are some of the terraces and terrace surfaces identified previously 

in the North Platte Valley.

The geologic formations exposed in the county are the . Monroe Creek and 

Harrison sandstones of the Arikaree group, the Marsland formation, and the 

Box Butte member of the Sheep Creek formation all of Miocene age. The 

Ogallala formation of Pliocene age is also exposed and has filled a valley that 

was cut into the older formations in the southern and eastern parts of the county. 

The formations below the Ogallala dip toward the east at a somewhat greater 

rate than the land surface. The aggregate thickness of water-bearing formations 

is 500 feet in the eastern part of the county but only about 200 feet in the western 

part. In the Niobrara Valley it is still less.

Field coefficients of permeability of the aquifers were determined by means of 

three pumping tests, and it was found that the Ogallala is the most permeable of 

the aquifers and that the Marsland formation is the least permeable. The 

Harrison and Monroe Creek sandstones are moderately permeable. The Quaternary alluvial valley fill in the valleys of the Nibbrara River and Snake Creek is 

fine-grained and probably not very permeable.

Ground water is moving at a rate of about 100 feet a year. The water table lies 

at shallow depth below the lowlands, but it increases to a maximum of 275 feet 

in depth beneath the uplands in the western part of the county.

Ground water is entering the county by underflow from areas outside the 

county on the south and west, but most of it is diverted into the areas of groundwater discharge along the Niobrara River and Snake Creek before it reaches the 

eastern part of the county. The conclusion is reached that recharge from the land 

surface on the central uplands of the county is considerable more than 4 inches 

of water a year in some upland areas. In other upland areas it is little more 

than 1 inch a year. Recharge in the lowlands, where the water table is nearer the 

land surface, is greater.

The ground water beneath the southern two-thirds of the county is discharged 

into the atmosphere by evaporation and transpiration from seep areas in the
2 BOX BUTTE COUNTY, NEBRASKA

Snake Creek Valley and from other lowlands in the eastern part of the county. 

It is computed that more than 144,000 acre-feet of ground water a year is so 

discharged from the uplands, in addition to 174,000 acre-feet a year that falls as 

rain and snow on the undrained lowlands and hence is discharged into the atmosphere by evaporation and transpiration. The total amount of water discharged 

into the atmosphere from the seep areas amounts to 2.55 feet a year.

It is estimated that about "31 ,000,000 acre-feet of water, or more than 30 times 

the amount that normally falls in a year on the county as rain and snow, is 

stored within the Miocene and Pliocene aquifers beneath Box Butte County. The 

records of observation wells indicate that this amount is rather constant, for, 

although the ground water is frequently replenished or depleted to a slight degree, 

the water levels have not indicated any notable long-term increase or decrease 

in ground-water storage.

The ground water in the county is a moderately hard calcium and magnesium 

bicarbonate water that is chemically favorable for most uses.

INTRODUCTION 

PURPOSE AND SCOPE OF THE INVESTIGATION

This account of the geology and ground-water resources is in a sense 

another progress report in the long-term cooperative program of study 

that was begun in 1930 by the Geological Survey, United States Department of the Interior, and the Conservation and Survey Division, University of Nebraska, and that has been continued without interruption 

ever since. (See fig. 1.) It is the fourth of the series of detailed local 

investigations to be made by the two agencies.1 Several reports that 

deal with special phases of the investigations have been published separately.2 In addition, hydrologic data obtained in Nebraska during 

these investigations have been treated in a number of other papers 

published by the Federal and State surveys and in technical journals. 

In 1934 several hundred wells scattered over the State were chosen 

for observation and were equipped for periodic measurements of water 

level. Records of these measurements, which are still being made, have 

been tabulated and published by the Federal Survey in its annual watersupply papers dealing with measurements of water levels and artesian 

head in observation wells in the United States.3

Until rather recently, ground water in Box Butte County was used 

chiefly for domestic and stock supplies, and demands for large amounts

1 Lugn, A. L., and Wenzel, L. K., Geology and ground-water resources of south-central 

Nebraska, with special reference to the Platte River Valley between Chapman and Go then burg: 

U. S. Geol. Survey Water-Supply Paper 779, 242 pp., 1938. Wenzel, L. K., and Waite, H. A., 

Ground-water resources of Keith County, Nebr*: U. S. Geol. Survey Water-Supply Paper 848, 

68 pp., 1941. Wenzel, L. K., Cady, R. C., and Waite, H. A., Geology and ground-water resources of Scotts Bluff County, Nebr.: U. S. Geol. Survey Water-Supply Paper 943 (in press).

1 Wenzel, L. K., The Thiem method for determining permeability of water-bearing materials 

and its application to the determination of specific yield results of investigations in the Platte 

River Valley, Nebr.: U. S. Geol. Survey Water-Supply Paper 679-A, 57 pp., 1936; The problem 

of overdevelopment of ground-water supplies with special reference to conditions at Grand Island, 

Nebr.: U. S. Geol. Survey Water-Supply Paper 836-E, 49 pp., 1940.

* See U. S. Geol. Survey Water-Supply Papers 777, 817, 840, 845, 886, 908, 938, 946, and 988.
INTRODUCTION
4 BOX BUTTE COUNTY., NEBRASKA

were not numerous. Ground water is abundant and not hard to obtain, 

although it is deep lying in many localities. Municipal supplies at Alliance 

and other communities and a supply for the* Chicago, Burlington & 

Quincy Railroad shops represented the greatest withdrawal of ground 

water in the area. However, within the past few years a number of 

enterprising farmers have put down irrigation wells and have operated 

them with apparent success. Not many places are irrigated with water. 

from wells on the upland plains of Nebraska, but as Box Butte County 

is likely to be irrigated with water from such wells, considerable interest 

has arisen regarding the geologic and hydrologic conditions there. As a 

consequence, the present report, like others o-f its kind, contains information concerning the nature of the geologic formations, with special 

reference to their water-bearing properties; their distribution over the 

surface of the county; their thickness and depth below the land surface; 

the depth at which the water table lies beneath the ground; the direction 

of the movement of ground water; the places where recharge to 

the zone of saturation occurs and where the ground water finds its 

escape at the land surface; the amount and causes of the water-level 

fluctuations in wells; the uses to which ground water is put, and the 

detailed construction and performance of existing wells; and the chemical 

nature of the ground water in relation to its usefulness. This incomplete 

statement in part means that from the viewpoint of the individual user 

or prospective user of water an attempt is being made to answer such 

essential questions as: Where can ground water of good quality be 

obtained, how much is available, and what will be the pumping lift? 

From the viewpoint of the community an effort is made to provide the 

means, or a part of the means, for evaluating the prospects of utilizing 

an important natural resource. With reference to irrigation, which is only 

a preliminary stage of development, the present study provides base data 

that may prove useful in the future, for the operation of a ground-water 

irrigation project is likely to raise many special quantitative problems. 

Lastly, the ground-water conditions in Box Butte County may be taken 

to represent conditions in other hitherto-unexplored parts of a physiographic subdivision of the State the high western table lands.

The geologic and hydrologic information on Box Butte County was 

collected during the period between mid-June and early October 1938. 

Geologic formations were mapped, sections were measured, and the 

material was carefully described. Detailed records of more than 200 

wells were collected, readings of the water levels in them taken, and the 

approximate altitude of the measuring points above sea level was determined by means of surveying aneroids. Ten test holes were drilled with 

the project-owned drilling rig, and well samples were collected down 

to maximum depths of more than 500 feet. Samples of ground water
GEOGRAPHY 5

from selected wells and samples of- surface water were collected for 

chemical analysis in the laboratory of the Geological Survey. In addition, 

17 wells were selected for close observation, and their water levels were 

measured about every 10 days. Automatic water-stage recorders were 

installed on some of them for a time. Measurements were made of 

the discharge of some of the irrigation ;wells and of the rate of recovery 

of the water levels when pumping was stopped.

PERSONNEL AND ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The cooperative ground-water investigation in Nebraska upon which 

this report is based was conducted under the direction of O. E. Meinzer, 

geologist in charge, Division of Ground Water, Federal Geological Survey, G, E. Condra, director, Conservation and Survey Division, University of Nebraska, and L. K. Wenzel, of the Federal Survey, engineer 

in charge of ground-water investigations in Nebraska. R. C. Cady carried 

on the geologic studies in the field and wrote the chapters on geography, 

land forms, and geology. O. J. Scherer collected most of the hydrologic 

data and collaborated in writing some of the chapters dealing with 

ground-water hydrology. The test holes were drilled by, Howard 

Haworth and Robert Lawrence, of the Nebraska Conservation and 

Survey Division, and by C. S. Osborn, assisted by Messrs. Shannon and 

O'Meara, of the Central Nebraska Public Power and Irrigation District. 

E. L. Marlin assisted in collecting well data for a short time. The water 

samples were analyzed by Margaret D. Foster, of the Federal Survey.

Besides those who have officially contributed to the present investigation are the following, whose voluntary cooperation has been of material 

aid: E. C. Reed, assistant State geologist of Nebraska; A. L. Lugn, 

professor of geology, University of Nebraska; M. K. Elias, of the 

Nebraska Geological Survey; C. B. Schultz, of the Nebraska State 

Museum; Grayson Meade; and Albert Potter. To these men thanks 

are due for assistance and suggestions.

City officials, land owners and tenants, operators of irrigation wells, 

and well drillers have willingly contributed to the progress of the investigation, and their contribution is acknowledged.

GEOGRAPHY 

AREA AND POPULATION

Box Butte County lies in the northwestern part of Nebraska, in 

what is known as the panhandle. It is bounded on the north by Dawes 

County, which is adjacent to South Dakota; on the west by Sioux 

County, which is the most northwestern county of the State; on the 

south by Morrill County and about 2 miles of the north boundary of 

Scotts Bluff County; and on the east by Sheridan County. Box Butte
6 BOX BUTTE COUNTY, NEBRASKA

County is rectangular in shape, with six townships in the east-west 

direction and five townships in the north-south'direction. It has an area 

of 1,076 square miles.

The population of Box Butte County was 11,861 in 1930. Alliance, 

with 6,669 inhabitants, was the largest community and the county seat; 

Hemingford had a population of 1,025; Berea 75; and Nonpareil 20.

Farming and ranching are by far the most important industries in 

Box Butte County. According to the census of 1930 there were 914 

farms of all types in the county, with a total area of 675,210 acres, 

and there were 424 "cash grain" farms. Most farms in the county 

are large a necessity dictated by the semiarid climate. Cattle ranches 

are the largest and average 6,975 acres; animal specialty farms are next 

largest and average 998 acres; general farms average 605 acres; cashgrain farms 657 acres; .and crop specialty farms 375 acres. Farm units 

of all types average 739 acres.

The distribution of the general types of farming follows in a rough 

way the distribution of the geologic formations. (See pi. 1.) On the 

central upland underlain by the Marsland formation and the Box Butte 

member of the Sheep Creek formation, grain and specialty crops are 

mostly raised. Cattle are raised mostly in the southwestern part of the 

county, which is underlain by soft sandstone of Harrison age. This 

sandstone country is rough, and the soil, although not desirable for farming, supports a good growth of grass.

The chief agricultural products are wheat, rye, oats, corn, feed 

sorghum, quality seed potatoes, beans, beef cattle, and dairy products. 

Grass in the main lowlands is cut for hay.

Industry is relatively unimportant. Nine industrial establishments 

employing 138 people produced goods valued in 1929 at $1,060,929. 

Many of the people in Alliance are employed by the Chicago, Burlington 

& Quincy Railroad, of which Alliance is a division point.

COMMUNICATIONS

Box Butte County is traversed by the Billings, Mont., branch of the 

Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad, which enters the county 

directly east of Alliance and, on reaching that town, turns toward the 

northwest and passes through Berea, Hemingford, and Nonpareil. The 

Casper, Wyo., branch starts from a junction point at Alliance and goes 

southwestward toward Bridgeport. State Highway 19 follows the railway into the county from the southwest to Alliance, thence goes northward to Chadron. State Highway 2, which enters the county from the 

east and parallels the railway, continues along the railway to Hemingford, where it goes westward 12 miles and then turns north to the
GEOGRAPHY 7

county line. State Highway 84 crosses the county from east to west 8 

miles south of the north boundary. Highway 19 is paved a part of the 

way across the county, but the other highways are graveled. Many of 

the section lines are marked by roads or trails. These, are best and most 

numerous in the central parts of the county and poor or nonexistent 

about the periphery.

CLIMATE

The climate of Box Butte County is typical of the Great Plains 

rigorous and variable. In summer the heat sometimes becomes extreme, 

exceeding 100°F.; in winter minimum temperatures of zero and lower 

occur rather frequently. Table 1 shows the monthly mean temperature 

at three stations in and near Box Butte County in 1938. Table 2 shows 

that most months in 1938 were warmer than normal, with the greatest 

difference in temperature in the winter. In the summer a few days 

were very hot, the daily temperature reaching its seasonal maximum 

as usual during the hot dusty winds that sometimes prevail. Table 2 shows 

that the station at Lake Minatare is warmer than that at Alliance. As 

the station at Minatare is on a south slope and is somewhat protected 

from the northerly winds of winter, the greatest difference between 

temperatures recorded at these two stations comes in winter. In 1938 

the last killing frost at all stations came on May 9, and the first of 

the following autumn came on October 18. The interval provided an 

exceptionally long growing season.

Most of the rain in Box Butte County falls during showers of 

high intensity^ chiefly in the warm months of the year. May, June, 

and July are normally the wettest months. Tables 3 and 4 show that 

the year 1938, in addition to being warmer than normal, was also 

wetter. Precipitation in April, May, and September was conspicuously 

above normal. A phenomenon was observed in the summer of 1938 that, 

if common, has a favorable bearing on the climate of Box Butte County. 

On more than six occasions when a southwesterly wind was elevated 

by the topography of southern Sioux County, the writers saw thunderstorms forming from clusters of small cumulus clouds above the north 

slope of the North Platte Valley. Most of these storms were immature 

as they crossed into Box Butte County but attained a stage of high 

intensity as they reached the central meridian of the county. One of them, 

in passing over the west boundary of the county, failed to drop rain 

but caused floods in the vicinity of Hemingford that were large enough 

to make travel impossible. If the north slope of the North Platte Valley 

is a breeding ground for summer storms, then the central and eastern 

parts of Box Butte County may be favored localities.
8 BOX BUTTE COUNTY, NEBRASKA *

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GEOGRAPHY 9

Although some recharge of the ground water took place in the summer of 1938 as a consequence of the abnormal rainfall, it is not generally the rains of high intensity that most benefit the ground-water 

supplies. Slow autumn rains and the melting of winter snow are favorable 

for replenishment of the soil moisture and ground water. Table 4 reveals 

the unfortunate fact that the autumn and winter are comparatively dry. 

Snow falls sparsely as a rule and is ablated greatly by the sun and wind 

before it melts.

Evaporation from free water surfaces in Box Butte County far exceeds 

the precipitation during the year. Table 5 shows the evaporation for the 

warm months of 1938, as measured in an evaporation pan of the Bureau 

of Plant Industry.

TABLE 5. Evaporation, in inches, front a free water surface at the Box Butte 

Experimental Farm, Box Butte County, 1938

Month

Mav

July .................................................................

Total for the S months .........................................

Incites

7 «

8.59

7.90 9 45

e 07

39.18

It must be noted, however, that these data are a measure only of total 

evaporation from a limited area of exposed free water surfaces. They 

are not a measure of loss from the ground-water reservoir, and they are 

not a basis for comparison of total loss and recharge of the ground water.

SOILS AND VEGETATION

As the soils of Box Butte County have already been mapped and 

described,* there is no need to paraphrase those descriptions in this 

report.

In a general way the soil series conform to the outcrop areas of some 

of the geologic formations in the area. Soils of the Rosebud, Dunlap, 

and Scott series, in order of descending area, have been developed on 

the outcrop areas of the Harrison sandstone, the Marsland formation, 

and the Box Butte member of the Sheep Creek formation. (See pi. 1.) 

Those areas that are underlain by sands of Ogallala age are characterized 

by Valentine soils or by dunesand. Soils of the Tripp, Yale, and Laurel 

series have been developed in the bottoms of the valleys of the larger 

streams. This is only the roughest kind of generalization, for soil boundaries cannot be used to define geologic boundaries, nor are the soil 

series rigidly limited to the formations on whose outcrops they abound.

The vegetation in Box Butte County tends toward uniformity because 

most of the county is a high treeless plain. Sandgrass, grama, needle-

* Hayes, F. A., and Agee, J. H., Soil survey of .Box Butte County, Nebr., U. S. Dept. Ayr., 

Bar. Soils., advance sheets of Field Operations for 1916, 1918.
10 BOX BUTTE COUNTY, NEBRASKA

grass or Stipa, red-topped bunchgrass, bluestem, western wheatgrass, 

buffalo grass, blackroot, a sedge, and wire grass cover much of the top 

of the plain, but they vary somewhat with the type of soil. Although 

many of these species grow lush in the moist lowlands as wild hay, the 

most important hay grasses are grama, bluestem, western wheatgrass, 

buffalo grass, and wire grass. In the sand hills of Box Butte County 

and adjacent areas the longleaf reedgrass, redfeldia, and needlegrass 

are most abundant. Yucca grows on sandy soils and rough land; sage 

covers some of the sand hills; and willow, ash, cottonwood, aspen, 

hackberry, elm, chokecherry, and scrub pine grow on the rough land 

or along the larger streams of an otherwise treeless country.

TOPOGRAPHY AND DRAINAGE

Box Butte County lies almost entirely on the upland divide between 

the North Platte and Niobrara valleys. This upland is a part of the 

western Nebraska High Plains that is called the Box Butte Table. The 

rest of the Box Butfe Table is mainly in southern Sioux County. The 

Niobrara River cuts across the northwest corner of the county and, after 

leaving the county, runs parallel with the north boundary. The northern 

part of the county is rough and slopes steeply toward the Niobrara Valley, which in the western part of the county is between 300 and 350 feet 

deep. The drop from upland plain to river takes place over a linear 

distance of about 4^ miles, but as the grade of the valley is less than 

that of the surface of the plain, the relief decreases eastward.

The edge of the Niobrara Valley limits the Box Butte Table on the 

north. The Box Butte Table is limited on the east by the sand-hills 

region, the west limit of which almost coincides with the east boundary 

of the county. Another area of sand hills extends across northern Morrill 

County, and its north limit nearly coincides with the south boundary of 

Box Butte County. The tableland has been dissected by many streams 

and possesses a diverse topography. Snake Creek, which crosses the 

southern part of the county from the west-northwest, has eroded a lowland to a depth of about 150 feet below the surface of the upland. The 

Snake Creek lowlands extend far out from the confines of the inner 

stream valley. Because the courses of Snake Creek and the Niobrara 

River diverge, the upland plain surface in the central part of the county 

is roughly triangular, with its apex to the west. The highest part of the 

upland plain is the northwest corner, about 10 miles south of the Dawes 

County line. Here the highest altitude recorded 4,612 feet is at a 

United States Coast and Geodetic Survey bench mark. The surface slopes 

approximately southeastward to an altitude of about 3,900 feet near 

the Sheridan County line in the east. The grade of this slope is thus 

about 700 feet in a linear distance of a little less than 40 miles, or 17.5 

feet to the m,ile. However, the grade is not everywhere the same and
GEOGRAPHY H

ranges from a maximum of 21 feet to the mik on the upland to a mini 

mum of 11.5 feet to the mile along Snake Creek Valley.

Most of the central upland plain is rolling, because of the dissection 

by small, ephemeral streams. These streams are not very closely spaced. 

They have cut gullies that are from 20 to 50 feet deep except near the 

larger valleys and that have flat, rather wide floors, and sides that in 

most places are graded and covered with sod. A resistant "cap rock" 

at the top of the Marsland formation imparts a rigidity and angularity 

to the topography in the central upland. The top of the plain is likely to 

approach a gully with only a slight slope and then break abruptly at the 

point where the ledgelike cap rock intersects the gully wall. Most of 

these gullies drain toward the southeast so that the depth of the dissection 

diminishes in their headwaters region toward the northwest.

The outer valley of Snake Creek is hilly and rough near its axis but 

smoothes out somewhat as it rises toward the central upland. The lowland along Snake Creek is 5 to 8 miles wide but involves much more 

territory in the western part of the county, where the creek branches 

This lowland is separated from the central upland by a perceptibly steeper 

slope that is not properly an escarpment.

The eastern part of the county is underlain by soft sandstone and 

has been eroded into a lowland. In the vicinity of Alliance this lowland 

is 6 to 8 miles wide, but it grows narrower toward the north. It is separated from the central upland by a definite escarpment. Buttes and 

hillocks, which are numerous, reach upward to about the level that would 

be attained by the central upland. Wild Horse Butte and Box Butte 

are prominent examples.

The few sand hills in the county possess a distinctive topography. 

Their outlines are smooth and graceful, but the small, steep hills give a 

jumbled appearance and in the distance they resemble mountains 

Between many of them are undrained depressions where lakes may 

form, or swales, or salt flats. Although many of the sand hills are 

dunes, the perfect dune shape has been modified in most places. Except 

where blow-outs have been formed, they are now sodded over and 

inactive.

The drainage has been discussed incidentally with the topography. So 

numerous are the streams and so few are the names for them that no 

detailed catalog of them is possible, even if it were desirable. However, 

certain features about the drainage must be noted. The Niobrara Rivet 

in Box Butte County is a small stream in a large valley. At Dunlap, 

due north of Alliance, in Dawes County, its mean monthly discharge 

varied between 70 second-feet in March 1938 and 11 second-feet in 

August 1938. In June of the same year its daily discharge reached a 

minimum of 3 second-feet. During such periods of low flow, its supply

694487 46 2
12 BOX BUTTE COUNTY, NEBRASKA

comes from underground sources, and the water is clear. In September 

1937 it reached a flood discharge of 1,060 second-feet. The stream 

meanders over a flood plain that is about ^-mile wide.

Snake Creek is a perennial stream with a small discharge except 

during floods. Near Alliance it loses itself on a broad lowland 3 or 4 

miles wide. Its flood plain varies in width. Halfway to the west boundary 

of the county it is about 1 mile wide, but west of Kilpatrick Lake 

it is only a few yards wide. Near the west boundary of the county Snake 

Creek and its valley break up into three tributaries. Box Butte Creek 

originates east of Hemingford, flows toward the southeast for a distance 

of 10 miles or more, and then turns toward the northeast. It continues 

in this direction as far as the county line, but beyond it turns northward 

toward the Niobrara. In the extreme eastern part of the county Box Butte 

Creek becomes an intermittent stream, but in certain moist years 5t may be 

even perennial. Dry Creek occupies a deep rugged valley that is parallel 

to the Niobrara River across the county. It rises in the northwestern 

part of the county, not over 5 or 6 miles from the river, trends almost 

due eastward past Hemingford, then turns more and more toward the 

north, and enters the Niobrara Valley in sec. 4, T. 28 N., R. 48 W. 

As it crosses the county line it is trending almost directly northward. It 

is a perennial stream, or at least intermittent, in this stretch.

The great maze of small ephemeral streams on the central upland of 

Box Butte County trend from the northwest toward the southeast. 

Apparently this arrangement is very ancient, for a glance at the geologic 

map (pi. 1) will show that the central upland is not a stratigraphic surface, but one that cuts across the geologic formations. Streams in the 

vicinity of Hemingford have removed Ogallala sediments and flow upon 

sediments of the Sheep Creek formation; streams south of Hemingford 

have removed Sheep Creek sediments and flow upon Marsland sediments. 

A drainage with a southeasterly trend probably has long been flowing 

from the old erosional surface developed on the Box Butte Table. The 

streams from the northwest antedate those that, flowing in another 

direction, have modified this ancient arrangement by piracy. Box Butte 

Creek, for instance, must certainly have been intercepted by a younger 

stream that worked southward from the Niobrara Valley. The stream 

that enters Snake Creek from the north in sec. 32, T. 25 N., R. 49 W., 

probably modified its course from southeast to south as Snake Creek 

widened its valley. Some of the creeks north of Kilpatrick Lake seem 

to be situated on a land surface younger than the top of the plain, and 

it is believed that their northwesterly alinement is due to the action 

of wind, as will be pointed out later. Dry Creek is probably younger 

than these southeastward-trending streams. The streams flowing north-
LAND FORMS 13

ward into the Niobrara River are obviously more recent than those 

on the upland whose headwaters will some day be pirated.

The minor streams on the upland are entirely dry except after heavy 

rains; then they quickly flood, but they quickly subside after the rain has 

ceased. There are three destinations to which nearly all of them carry 

their runoff. The Niobrara River, either directly or by way of Box Butte 

and Dry Creeks, is the destination (of the northern streams; and Snake 

Creek is the destination of the streams in the southern and central parts 

of the county; but a few streams in the eastern part of the county 

simply carry their water to the lowland at the end of the sand hills and 

empty it into small lakes. Some of the larger lakes are shown on maps 

of the county. (See pis. 1 and 8.) In this respect, however, Snake Creek 

is similar to the smaller streams, for it ends in the southeast corner 

of Box Butte County and only under exceptionally moist conditions 

does water ever spill over the divides into basins of the sand hills. But 

when this happens it is merely a lake at the end of Snake Creek that 

is spilling and not Snake Creek itself. Other streams empty into very 

local undrained depressions of which Bronco Lake is an example. Small 

streams in the western part of the county a few miles north and northwest of Kilpatrick Lake also empty into local small undrained depressions.

LAND FORMS 

LAND FORMS RESULTING FROM STREAM ACTIVITY

The Niobrara River and Snake Creek possess terraces that reveal 

something of the history of the development of their valleys. The terraces of these streams, and hence their histories, correspond to some 

of the terraces of the North Platte River in Scotts Bluff County, as 

has been pointed out in an earlier report.5 The correlation of the terraces 

from one valley to another can be made by comparison of the elevation 

of their surfaces above the valley floor. In western Nebraska, however, 

the terraces .have certain characteristics that might be called stratigraphic, which thus substantiate the correlation. In the North Platte 

Valley the terraces were numbered from the lowest to the highest, and 

the lowest, most recent terrace was called number one. The same system 

is followed in Box Butte County.

Upland surface. The highest and most ancient land surface in Box 

Butte County is the central upland plain. It slopes toward the east and 

southeast at a rate of about 17 feet to the mile, and transects the outcropping Tertiary formations in the north-south direction and also in 

the east-west direction. (See pi. 1.) The cap rock at the top of the 

Marsland formation in places defends the upland surface, but the upland

5 Wenzel, L. K., Cady, R. C., and Waite, H. A., Geology and ground-water resource* of 

Scotts Bluff County, Nebr.: U. S. Geol. Survey Water-Supply Paper 943, ISO pp., 1946.
14 BOX BUTTE COUNTY, NEBRASKA

surface as a whole is not related to the position of the cap rock. However, too little is known of the surface to assign it a number with the 

implication of a correlation. No doubt it is continuous with one of the 

erosion surfaces on the north wall of the North Platte Valley. A careful 

study of the topography of the upland surface was not possible, as no 

topographic map exists for Box Butte County; hence it is not certain 

that the upland is a simple erosion surface developed in a single cycle. 

It is suspected that the 6th and possibly the 7th erosion surfaces of the 

North Platte Valley are present on the central upland and its peripheral 

areas.

Fourth terrace. The highest of the identifiable terraces in the valleys 

of the Niobrara River and Snake Creek is the fourth. In T. 28 N., R. 

51 W., near the point where State Highway 2 crosses the Niobrara, this 

terrace can be seen plainly on the south valley wall. Spurs or interstream divides slope down toward the river, steeply farther up, but 

flattening out to a gentler grade near the bottom of the slope. Because 

of the gradient of this terrace surface the height of the remnants above 

the flood plain is indefinite, depending upon the distance from the 

river of the part measured. However, it is more than 100 feet at its 

lowest points. No trace of alluvial gravel was found on any remnants 

of this terrace. In Snake Creek Valley the long slope down from the 

central upland levels off near the edge of the inner valley to form a terrace that in several localities is well preserved. Near Kilpatrick Lake it 

is possible to ascend the scarp from the third terrace and see across 

the dissected fourth surface to the uplands in the distance. In an area 

3 to 5 miles northwest of Kilpatrick Lake the fragments of this dissected 

surface conform to a slope that is concave upward and that levels off 

near the stream into a definite terrace. The terrace stands more than 

100 feet above the flood plain of Snake Creek.

In the Scotts Bluff County report 6 it was shown that the fifth and 

fourth terraces of the North Platte Valley possibly belong to the same 

erosion cycle. One of the reasons for considering such a possibility was 

that topographic profiles across the Niobrara Valley in Sioux County 

showed no sufficient vertical interval to accommodate the fifth erosion 

surface. A somewhat similar situation prevails in the headwater region 

of Snake Creek, in eastern Sioux County, where the Quaternary valley 

of Snake Creek was cut directly into the seventh erosion surface during 

the fourth or combined fourth-fifth terrace cycle.

Third terrace. The third terrace can be recognized in both the 

Niobrara and the Snake Creek Valley. Along the former stream it 

exists as a bench cut on Tertiary sandstone and runs back into the 

reentrants between the remnant spurs of the fourth terrace. Its slope

* Wenzel, L. K., Cady, R. C, and Waite, H. A., op. cit.
LAND FORMS 15

is less than that of the fourth terrace, and upstream on the tributaries 

of the Niobrara it becomes a narrow terrace. Where State Highway 2 

crosses the Niobrara the third terrace stands about 70 feet above the 

flood plain. In many localities it can be seen unmistakably, but in others 

it is likely to be poorly preserved. It is not well preserved on the north 

side of the Niobrara River near Marsland, in Dawes County.

Gravel, composed partly of local sandstone and partly of crystalline 

pebbles, is scattered over the terrace surface in the valley of Snake 

Creek. In the northern part of sec. 22, T. 24 N., R. 52 W., a channel 

that was cut to a depth of 60 feet into the terrace runs parallel with the 

present stream but several tens of yards south of it. This channel has 

been filled with loose sand and gravel. The terrace surface slopes gently 

but unmistakably toward the channel both from the north side and from 

the south. The slope toward the old channel makes it very probable that 

the channel was cut into the surface of the terrace and then refilled 

before the third terrace was finally dissected. It has been shown that 

the third terrace in the North Platte Valley in Scotts Bluff County was 

trenched by channels that were later refilled in a similar manner, and 

the third terrace in the two valleys are thus correlated.

Second terrace. The second terrace is well preserved in certain localities in both the Niobrara and the Snake Creek Valley. Along State 

Highway 2 it stands 47 feet above the flood plain of the Niobrara 

River. It is composed of gray silt with stringers and beds of gravel made 

up of Tertiary sandstone pebbles. At other points along the river the 

elevation of the terrace above the flood plain is less where it extends 

farther out toward the axis of the valley.

In Snake Creek Valley the second terrace is well preserved and variously developed. Near Kilpatrick Lake and west of it, it is a bench cut 

upon the Harrison sandstone and covered with gravel. This gravel is 

composed largely of Tertiary sandstone of local origin. On the north 

side of the Lake the Kilpatrick ranch buildings are seated upon the broad 

second terrace. Where the North and South Branches of Snake Creek 

join, the valley is wide, and the terrace is broadly developed. In the 

divide between the two branches a small creek was cut during the 

second-terrace cycle but has not been active since, so that the bottom 

of its valley merges with the second-terrace surface in the main valley.

East of Kilpatrick Lake the second terrace has been broadly developed 

on the outcrop area of the easily eroded sands of the Ogallala formation. 

(See pi. 1.) As nearly as can be ascertained, in the area south of Snake 

Creek in T. 24 N., Rs. 49 and 50 W., the second terrace extends back 

southward almost to the sand hills. North of Snake Creek in the vicinity 

of Alliance it broadens out and extends northward along the margin of 

the eastern lowland of the county. Alliance itself is situated on the
1(J BOX BUTTE COUNTY, NEBRASKA

second terrace. The sands of the Ogallala formation have been covered 

with a few feet of silt and gravel. The gravel is composed of local sandstone pebbles from the Marsland formation and the Harrison sandstone. 

Thus in the southern and eastern parts of the county the second terrace 

is many square miles in extent where the streams flowed over sands of 

the Ogallala, whereas farther west it is a bench only a few yards wide 

in most places, cut on the more resistant Harrison sandstone and Marsland formation.

The second terrace contains ancient flint implements of the Yuma 

type in some places in western Nebraska. This fact was discussed and 

certain speculations as to the age of the terrace were made in the Scotts 

Bluff County report.7

First terrace. The first terrace in Box Butte County is a minor land 

form. It is a deposit of dark silt that stands 20 feet or slightly more above 

the flood plain of the Niobrara River and Snake Creek. It can also be 

detected in some of the smaller valleys on the central upland. Along 

State Highway 2 near the Niobrara River it is typically developed, 

standing 20 feet above the flood plain and containing dark-brown silt. 

Along Snake Creek it contains more gravel, but gray or dark silt makes 

up most of the sediment. Near Kilpatrick Lake and westward the first 

terrace is obscure. Eastward from the lake it seemingly becomes less high 

above the flood plain, and it disappears southeast of Alliance.

This terrace is not very ancient. It contains relics of Indian culture 

of no great antiquity and was probably deposited during a period of 

aridity 2,000 to 4,000 years ago.8

Snake Creek at present flows toward the sand hills at the east end of 

Box Butte County, where its further progress is obstructed. The fact 

that a full complement of stream terraces was developed on it must 

therefore have some bearing on the time when sand was moving in the 

sand-hills region. During the latter part of the Pleistocene, Snake Creek 

must have been capable of keeping its valley free of drifting sand. In 

fact its flood plain may have been an important source of loose sand for 

the winds .to transport.

LAND FORMS RESULTING FROM WIND ACTION

Running water has been the chief agent in producing the topography 

of Box Butte County, but the wind has modified the stream-wrought 

scene. Like water, the wind has created both erosional and depositional 

forms, and the scale of operation has been local enough for these forms 

to be in a visibly complementary relation. For instance, sand dunes 

border terrains that are vulnerable to wind erosion. The exposed rock 

surfaces in the county were once protected from wind erosion by limy

7 Wenzel, L. K., Cady, R. C., and Waite, H. A., op. cit.

8 Idem.
LAND FORMS 17

cap-rock zones of the nature of caliche. Such a zone once capped the 

sediments of the Marsland and Ogallala formations. Wind erosion, 

therefore, operated along lines determined by stream erosion, which 

breached the protective caps. Wind erosion has created significant land 

forms in two areas. One area contains the outcrop of the Ogallala in 

the east-central, southeastern, and southern parts of the county; the 

other contains the outcrop of the Harrison sandstone in the western 

part of the county, chiefly north of Snake Creek.

Wind erosion. The eastern lowland of Box Butte County, nearAlliance, is separated from the upland plain to the west by an escarpment. 

Streams approach the lowland from the northwest and west and have 

cut small valleys, well graded but only a few yards wide, into the upland 

plain. These valleys merge in the eastern lowland. The lowland is a 

fairly open, level, poorly drained area containing lakes and marshes.

The eastward limit of the lowland is defined by the sand hills of the 

central Nebraska sand-hills region resting upon a platform of Tertiary 

sands. No sharper boundary of a physiographic province could be 

imagined. Much sand must have been carried from the eastern lowland 

by westerly winds, and deposited as dunes in the adjacent sand-hills 

region.

The terrace that extends southward from Snake Creek to the sand 

hills along the Morrill County line, underlain by sand of the Ogallala 

formation, was once an important source of wind-blown sand. Undrained 

depressions, a thicker and thicker cover of eolian sand, and an increasing 

tendency for dune formation characterize a gradational boundary zone 

with the sand hills to the south. Probably the principal dune building 

took place during or before the second-terrace stage while Snake Creek 

had a broad flood plain, from whence much sand was swept and piled 

into dunes.

In the region north of Kilpatrick Lake winds from the northwest have 

modified some of the valleys that are alined in the same direction. In 

the northwest corner of T. 25 N., R. 51 W., the floor of a valley has 

been deepened about 20 feet by wind deflation. (See pi. 2, A.) Remnants 

in the form of hillocks mark the level of the former stream grade, and 

incoherent sand of the upper part of the Harrison sandstone has been 

removed down to a zone of giant pipy concretions. The valley is not now 

drained. Another undrained depression is in sec. 34, T. 27 N., R. 52 W. 

It, l|ke the first depression mentioned, has a small local centripetal drainage system that is independent of the direction of the former stream 

flow. A mantle of wind-blown sand on nearby upland slopes is probably 

the resting place of much of the sand scooped from these depressions. 

Stream valleys, or parts of valleys that do not trend northwestward do 

not shpw any marked effect of wind erosion.
Ig BOX BUTTE COUNTY, NEBRASKA

In the northwest corner of sec. 8, T. 25 N., R. 51 W., the wind has 

undermined a small house by removing the earth upon which it rested. 

Plate 3 is a photograph of the house. It is near a stock well, and the 

sod was killed by the cattle that gather there. The house is situated on 

an outcrop of the Harrison sandstone.

Deposits of wind-blown material. The constructional forms created 

by the winds have already been mentioned. The dark-brown eolian sand 

that mantles most of the older lands in the county is the most prevalent 

but not the most conspicuous. This sand is impure, with much silt and 

organic matter mixed in it. It is thickest near the source of loose sand, 

such as the Harrison or the Ogallala outcrop, where it shows a hummocky surface, as dunes have begun to form. Part of it at least is of 

recent origin, because it may be found on the lower terraces and perhaps 

even on the flood plain of the larger streams. It is not found, however, 

in the rough country along the valleys of Dry Creek and the Niobrara 

River.

In the broad sand-hills region, which extends into Box Butte County, 

dunes are locally common. Plate 1 shows them in the southern and 

southeastern parts of the county. Isolated dunes are not common. The 

sand hills are a great jumble of dunes from a few feet to more than 

100 feet high and all are more or less modified from the typical forms 

they may once have had. Their history is not well known, but it has 

certainly been complex. Buried soil zones show that there have been 

periods of quiescence followed by renewed movement of sand. The last 

considerable movement which blocked Snake Creek and other streams 

at Jhe east was probably more recent than the first terrace. Before the 

last movement, the dunes probably moved whenever the sod that covered 

them was weakened or removed. This could happen when the climate 

became dry or cold. During intervals of nonglacial climate the present 

is a glacial climate the sod might have been weak, but so would have 

been the winds. Thus, the most likely time for greatest movements of 

sand must have been during the early stages of glacial accumulation and 

the late periods of glacial wastage. Dry, cold northwest winds seem to 

have.been responsible for most of the wind erosion in Box Butte County, 

and probably also for the wind deposition that must have accompanied 

the erosion. Northwest winds are anticyclonic and are characteristic of 

glacial climatic regimes. It is concluded, therefore, that in response to 

early Pleistocene glacial climate the Ogallala sands were eroded by 

active streams on the plain east of Box Butte County and that from 

the flood plains the sand of the sand hills moved up and over the divides 

aerially and by dune migration. Since then, renewed stream and wind 

activity accompanying strongly glacial climate has caused recurrent major 

dune movements, and any other climatic change toward aridity has
GEOLOGY 19

caused minor movements. In this latter class would fall movements 

taking place during warm dry interglacial periods.

GEOLOGY 

CRETACEOUS SYSTEM

The Tertiary sediments in Box Butte County, which have an aggregate 

thickness of nearly 1,000 feet, rest upon a floor of Cretaceous sediments, 

probably the Pierre shale. At Agate, Sioux County, the Pierre shale was 

encountered between depths of about 800 and 3,700 feet in the Cook 

well.9 The Pierre shale is dark to black, plastic, and in some places sandy. 

It does not bear water in any useful quantities except in certain localities, 

and what water is found is likely to be of poor quality. The Lance formation, which overlies the Pierre shale in parts of Scotts Bluff County, 

may have pinched out along a line southwest of Box Butte County. So 

far as is known, no wells in Box Butte County have been drilled to the 

Cretaceous formations. This is not surprising, because, although the 

Lance is water bearing in Scotts Bluff County, some of the overlying 

Tertiary beds in Box Butte County yield water in great abundance, and 

there has been no need for deeper wells.

TERTIARY SYSTEM

OLIGOCENE SERIES

The White River sediments, of Oligocene age, rest unconformably 

upon the Cretaceous surface. These sediments are chiefly clay and silt, 

with some sand, ash, and miscellaneous clastic and chemically precipitated 

material belonging to the Chadron and Brule formations. As these formations are generally low in permeability, the top of the Brule formation 

might be considered the lower limit of profitable drilling for water. 

The Chadron and Brule formations are discussed .at some length in the 

Scotts Bluff County report and in other publications dealing with the 

geology of western Nebraska.10 These publications also deal with the 

Miocene and Pliocene formations described in the present report.

It is believed that test hole 4, drilled a half mile east of Alliance, 

encountered the Brule formation at a depth of 478 feet below land 

surface.

 Condra, G. E., Schramm, E. F., and Lugn, A. L., Deep wells of Nebraska: Nebraska Geol. 

Survey Bull. 4, 2d series, pp. 265-267, 1931.

10 Wenzel, L. K., Cady, R. C., and Waite, H. A., Geology and ground-water resources of 

Scotts Bluff County, Nebr.: U. S. Geol. Survey Water-Supply Paper 943 (in press). Darton, 

N. H., Preliminary report on the geology and water resources of Nebraska west of the one 

hundred and third meridian': U. S. Geol. Survey Prof. Paper 17, 69 pp., 1903; U. S. Geol. 

Survey Geol. Atlas, Scotts Bluff folio (No. 88), 1903; U. S. Geol. Survey Geol. Adas, Camp 

Clarke folio (No. 87), 1903. Lugn, A. L., Classification of the Tertiary system in Nebraska: 

Geol. Soc. America Bull., vol. 50, pp. 1245-1276, 1939.
20 BOX BUTTE COUNTY, NEBRASKA

MIOCENE SERIES

ARIKAREE GROUP

According to the usage of the Nebraska Geological Survey the 

Arikaree group contains the Gering sandstone (the basal formation), 

the Monroe Creek sandstone, and the Harrison sandstone.11 These three 

formations have evolved from the subdivision of Darton's Gering and 

Arikaree formations. The Nebraska Survey places the Marsland and 

Sheep Creek formations in a "Hemingford group," at the top of the 

Miocene series. Darton mapped the areas underlain by the Marsland 

formation as Arikaree; but, as Schultz points out, he refers to the 

Daimonelix zone as being in the upper beds of the Arikaree. The Daimonelix occurs in the upper part of what is now called the Harrison sandstone. Hence, it seems that Darton did not recognize the Marsland formation as being a considerable rock unit overlying the Harrison. It is also 

true that the Marsland formation resembles the Sheep Creek lithdogically 

more than it does the Harrison, although the contrast between analogous 

facies of the Harrison sandstone and the Marsland formation is not so 

great as one might suppose. In this report the Arikaree group is taken 

to include those beds that Darton seems originally to have named the 

Gering and Arikaree formations, and it includes the Gering, Monroe 

Creek, and Harrison sandstones but not the Marsland formation.

GERING SANDSTONE

The Gering sandstone, where exposed, can be seen to occupy broad 

channels cut into the upper surface of the Brule formation. It consists 

of gray sand, mainly of fine to medium grain, which is laminated. It is 

thin- and regular-bedded in most places, but locally it is cross-bedded. 

It contains a few pipy concretions. It is difficult to distinguish the Gering 

from overlying sandstones in well cuttings, and, so far as known, no 

wells or test holes in Box Butte County have encountered it. The nearest 

outcrops of Gering are in the North Platte Valley in Morrill and Scotts 

Bluff counties to the south, and along Pine Ridge, in the White River 

Valley to the north. The Gering sandstone in most places contains beds 

of greenish-white bentonitic diatomaceous earth. This material weathers 

into hard white layers with a fine-grained calcareous matrix and with 

opaline silica radiating out from centers which usually are siliceous 

shells. These layers are not restricted to the Gering, but would be useful 

in identifying it in drill holes.

MONROE CREEK SANDSTONE

The Monroe Creek sandstone crops out on the lower slopes of the 

Niobrara Valley in the northwestern part of Box Butte County, in the

« Schultz, C. B., The Miocene of western Nebraska: Am. Jour. Sci., vol. 35, pp. 441-444, 

June 1938. Lugn, A. L., Classification of the Tertiary System in Nebraska: Geol. Soc. America 

Bull., vol. SO, pp. 1245-1276, 1939.
GEOLOGY 21

northern part of T. 28 N., Rs. 51 and 52 W. (See pi. 1.) It is not 

extensively exposed, but along State Highway 2 the top of the sandstone 

is 123 feet above the surface of the Niobrara River at the highway 

bridge. In T. 28 N., R. 52 W., the top is about 80 feet above the river. 

As it is very improbable that the base of the Monroe Creek sandstone is 

above the river level in Box Butte County, this sandstone is probably 

more than 123 feet thick possibly about 175 feet. According to Hatcher, 

who defined the formation,12 it is about 300 feet thick at Monroe Canyon, 

Sioux County. As the top of the Monroe Creek was eroded prior to the 

deposition of the channel fill of the Harrison sandstone, the total thickness could be determined only by test drilling, and it would probably 

vary somewhat.

Primarily the Monroe Creek is composed of very fine grained homogeneous sandstone, loosely cemented with lime and containing concretions. The sandstone is light tan, but abundant dark minerals tend to 

give it a grayish tint; lime or ash may also locally impart a whitish tint. 

So homogeneous is the formation as a whole that only in the concretions 

can local peculiarities be detected. These concretions, which were discussed at some length in the report on Scotts Bluff County, were formed 

during the accumulation of the formation. The orientation of the pipy 

type of concretion seems to be related to ground-water movement from 

the ancient boundaries of the Miocene basin. From the .available information it seems that pipy concretions are confined to the northern and 

southern parts of the present outcrop areas of the Monroe Creek sandstone. Between these two areas, as in Box Butte County, it seems that 

the concretions are either roundish or elongated in the vertical direction. 

(See pi. 2, B.) At an exposure along a creek 1 mile west of the town of 

Marsland, about a mile north of the Box Butte County line, the Monroe 

Creek consists of typical brown or tan sandstone. The small pitted and 

convoluted concretions coalesce into solid ledges about 2 feet thick, among 

which they are scattered and not numerous. Where weathered they tend 

to fracture horizontally, but where fresh they are not fractured and seemalmost to blend into the matrix. In one part of the outcrop the concretions are absent. Three breaks that resemble bedding cross the outcrop 

horizontally, and laterally it can be seen that concretions are associated 

with the breaks, coming in immediately below them. Above this outcrop 

is a poor exposure of brown fine sandstone containing small, round 

concretions scattered with great regularity throughout it. At a road cut 

on State Highway 2, 2l/2 miles south of the Niobrara River, the same 

development of numerous evenly spaced small "potato" concretions can 

be seen immediately below the Monroe Creek-Harrison contact, as well

18 Hatcher, J. B., Origin of the Oligocene and Miocene deposits of the Great Plains: Am. 

Philos. Soc. Proc., vol. 41, No. 169, pp. 115-119, 1902.
22 BOX BUTTE COUNTY, NEBRASKA

as zones containing pebbles or balls of ruddy sandstone. These zones 

resemble those in the massive silts and silty sandstones in the Marsland 

formation.

The uppermost 45 feet of the Monroe Creek sandstone can be seen 

in an unnamed gully in sees. 16-17 and 20-21, T. 28 N., R. 52 W. Here 

the convoluted, somewhat irregular potato concretions are irregularly 

distributed in the massive tan-gray fine-grained sandstone. Their ten 

dency to fracture horizontally gives them an angular or blocky appear 

ance. They coalesce into solid ledges 2 to 3 feet thick, which are about 

15 feet apart in the vertical direction. These concretionary ledges have 

smooth upper surfaces but very irregular lower surfaces that suggest 

dripstone on the roofs of caverns. Perhaps they were deposited by 

descending waters. Here again the Monroe Creek contains the regular, 

evenly distributed potato concretions immediately below the Harrison 

contact. . /

These detailed descriptions of the concretions in the Monroe Creek 

are important because of their close resemblance to the flood-plain phase 

of the Marsland formation, which has been mistaken for the Monroe 

Creek sandstone. The repetition of sediments will be discussed later 

under the description of the Marsland formation.

As the Monroe Creek sandstone is well-sorted, wells penetrating a considerable thickness of this fine-grained sandstone obtain copious supplies 

of water. For instance, it is believed that some of the water yielded by 

the Dyer irrigation well (No. 132) in sec. 10, T. 26 N., R. 52 W., comes 

from the Monroe Creek sandstone. Its total yield is 722 gallons a minute, 

with a 32-foot draw-down. Many stock and domestic wells in the northwestern'part of the county obtain much smaller supplies from this formation. Drilling through the concretionary sandstone is somewhat 

difficult, not only because the concretions, which are hard and irregular 

in shape, deflect and jam the bit, but because the associated softer sandstone under impact has an elastic or a cushioning effect.

HARRISON SANDSTONE

This sandstone crops out on the middle slopes of the Niobrara Valley 

in the northwestern part of the county and in a large area in the 

southwest corner of the county. (See pi. 1.) It rests unconformably upon 

the Monroe Creek sandstone, although the amount of erosion outside 

the stream channels was probably not great. Its thickness in most parts 

of Box Butte County is about 130 feet, but along the Niobrara Valley 

it is 85 feet thick or less. The Harrison sandstone shows a gradual 

change from a purely channel phase in the Niobrara Valley to a floodplain deposit toward the south, in which primary depositional features 

are rare or absent. The Monroe Creek-Harrison contact is visible in 

Box Butte County only on the slopes of the Niobrara Valley. In sec.
GEOLOGY 23

5, T. 28 N., R. 52 W., the channel deposits of the Harrison /sandstone 

rest upon Monroe Creek. A small limy band and a system of blocky 

fractures in the Monroe Creek near its upper surface dip under the 

Harrison channel fill in a direction parallel with the sides and bottom 

of the channel. In the northwest corner of sec. 21, T. 28 N., R. 52 W,, 

the contact is different. Here the smooth massive more indurated Monroe 

Creek sandstone, containing evenly spaced small potato concretions, is 

separated from the Harrison sandstone by a weathered surface. At the 

top of the Monroe Creek is a 1^-inch zone of cemented sandstone 

containing dislocated potato concretions, which therefore must antedate 

the erosion of the Monroe Creek sandstone, and on which rest a few 

scattered pebbles; above this are 3 to 4 inches of lime-white slabby 

sandstone; a white bed of "agate," which is a limy altered bentonitic, 

diatomaceous earth, more or less impregnated with opaline silica; 3 or 

4 inches more of the limy slabby sandstone; a hard concretionary sandstone layer 8 inches thick; and then a gray loose sandstone of the 

Harrison. (See pi. 4, A.) This contact descends northward toward the 

Harrison channel at a rate of about 1°. The same sort of contact can 

be seen in sees. 17 and 18, T. 28 N., R. 51 W., in a gully and road cut 

along State Highway 2.

The channel deposit in the Niobrara Valley, sec. 5, T. 28 N., R. 52 W., 

rests in a steep-sided channel that is cut about 85 feet into the Monroe 

Creek sandstone. The deposit varies in composition, but it is chiefly coarse 

sand and gravel, heavily impregnated with lime. Some layers are fairly 

loose, but others are firmly indurated. The color is gray. A curious development of concretions has resulted in the formation of zones of small 

knobs of coarse sandstone 1 to 2 inches in diameter. After the loose 

sand between them has been weathered away, they resemble an orderly 

heap of balls. The lime cement shows crystal faces. The bedding of the 

deposit dips toward the center of the channel. Above the coarser sandstone and gravel is a finer-grained brown sand capped by a zone of iron 

oxide, and above the iron zone is a fine-grained white silty laminated 

slabby slack-water deposit of sandstone containing abundant shells of 

gastropods.

A half mile southeast of this exposure is a 6-foot bed of limy sandstone containing volcanic ash. It is white but contains a 1-foot layer of 

green opaline silica. The ash bed dips 22° toward the west. West of the 

channel deposit the Harrison is very coarse-grained and contains large 

concretions, but it shows loss of the cross bedding and more uniformity 

than the channel deposit.

At Agate Springs the Harrison channel and associated Monroe Creek 

have been described by Schramm and Cook.13 The channel deposit of

13 Schramm, E. F., and Cook, H. J., The Agate anticline: Kanoka Petroleum Co., Bull. A, 

38 pp., 1921.
24 Box BUTTE COUNTY, NEBRASKA

the Harrison includes both coarse sand and gravel and finer-grained 

limy sandstone, volcanic ash, and the channel cut into the Monroe Creek 

sandstone. Whereas in Box Butte County these features are obviously 

a result of erosion and sedimentation, they are attributed in the Agate 

district to structural deformation of the Tertiary formations. The structural interpretation was probably based largely upon a dip in the Monroe 

Creek of about 8° toward the Harrison channel at the Agate fossil 

deposits. This seeming dip may be analogous to the weathering fractures 

observed following the bottom surface of the channel in Box Butte 

County but involving a greater thickness of sediments.

The Harrison that crops out along the south wall of the Niobrara 

Valley consists mostly of fine-grained to medium coarse gray limy sandstone, with numerous concretions of several varieties. The outcrops are 

not numerous, for the loosely cemented matrix is easily eroded by both 

running water and wind. In sees. 21 and 28, T. 28 N,, R. 52 W., the 

lowest part of the Harrison can be seen resting on the Monroe Creek 

sandstone. The Harrison is a fine-grained loosely cemented gray limy 

sand with flat, elongated concretions 3 to 5 inches thick. From 20 to 40 

feet above the base the concretions are irregular in size and range from 

6 inches to 3 feet thick. (See pi. 4, B.} They are tabular in form, but 

pitted, and full of root impressions. Near the top of the sandstone a 

15-foot zone of gray fine-grained well-sorted sand teems with a great 

variety of concretionary forms. These include large white vertical root 

impressions one-half inch in diameter and 3 to 4 inches long, small irregular potato concretions, thin long horizontal root impressions, small pitted 

and convoluted tabular concretions with many limy stems or roots 

attached, pipy concretions 8 inches in diameter and 3 to 4 feet long 

arid ornamented by tubercules, knobs, and a few regular tabular concretions. Above this is an 8-foot zone containing pipy and irregular potato 

and vertical concretions. This is overlain by 4 feet of massive concretions 

formed by the aggregation of a multitude of root impressions filled with 

lime, and numerous tabular forms %-inch thick and 4 inches wide. One 

foot of massive sand with numerous root impressions is overlain by 

another concretion 1 to 3 feet thick composed of coalesced lime-filled 

root impressions. This zone can be traced laterally a few hundred feet, 

and the concretions become pipy, although they are coalesced into a 

continuous layer. Ten to twelve feet of these tabular and root concretions are overlain by a zone of giant pipy concretions, irregular in form, 

and 4 feet thick by 10 feet wide by 12 feet long. They are alined in a 

southwest-northeast direction. Over all the western part of the tableland 

of Box Butte County the giant concretions mark the upper part of the 

Harrison. These concretions occupy a 20-foot zone in which they are 

scattered discontinuously. The sand is otherwise massive and featureless
GEOLOGY 25

except for a few root impressions. The topmost 10 feet of the Harrison 

is a gray massive sand with a few small coalesced pipy concretions. The 

basal beds of the Marsland formation succeed the Harrison with no 

visible break' in sedimentation.

The character of the Harrison sandstone along the north wall of the 

Niobram Valley in Dawes County is much like that described above. 

In the western part of Box Butte County between the Niobrara and 

Snake Creek Valleys the giant concretions may be overlain by 10 to 20 

feet of gray to grayish-brown sand with irregular roundish concretions 

and root impressions. The brown tinge becomes stronger toward the 

south.

Along Snake Creek Valley and its headwater tributaries the Harrison 

sandstone is widely exposed. At the south side of Kilpatrick Lake a 

40-foot section exhibits material that is typical of the Harrison in this 

part of the county. The lower 20 feet is made-up of gray massive sandstone with smooth pipy concretions, but in the next 20 feet the 

concretions become tabular but irregular in form and contain many 

coalesced lime-filled root impressions, and the matrix becomes more and 

more filled with limy root impressions and small plates of limy sandstone. Near the top the concretions are tabular, with a smooth upper 

surface'and a convoluted "dripstone" lower surface. In most other exposures in the Snake Creek lowland the Harrison is composed either of 

pipy concretions associated with a finer-grained massive somewhat 

browner matrix, or of the tabular type of concretion with coarser more 

limy and grayer sandstone matrix. Higher in the section the giant pipy 

concretions can be found in numerous localities, overlain by 10 to 20 

feet of gray sand containing somewhat round concretions about 6 inches 

in cross section, grading upward into smaller potato cpncretions in a 

browner matrix near the contact with the Marsland formation.

The upper surface of the Harrison seems to have been originally 

uneven or to have been eroded before the deposition of the overlying 

Marsland formation. On plate 1 the Harrison is shown exposed along 

the unnamed creek that enters Snake Creek Valley in sec. 34, T. 25 N., 

R. 50 W., from the northwest. In sec. 20, same township and range, 

the altitude of the Harrison-Marsland contact is about 4,171 feet above 

sea level; in sees. 27 and 34 the altitude of the contact is about 4,140 

feet above sea level. Marsland sediments crop out south of this locality 

at an altitude more than 20 feet lower. Moreover, the giant pipy concretions that are associated with the top of the Harrison sandstone over so 

wide an area in the county follow this surface and are found along the 

creek just referred to at lower and lower altitudes downstream. As good 

evidence indicates that the concretions were formed while the sandstones 

were being deposited, the conformance of the giant pipy concretions
26 BOX BUTTE COUNTY, NEBRASKA

with the uneven upper surface of the Harrison sandstone seems to indicate either an originally uneven upper surface of the Harrison sandstone, 

or, more likely, a brief period of dissection at the end of the Harrison 

depositional cycle. Such a period of dissection, if it took place, must have 

been followed promptly by the formation of the giant pipy concretions. 

Ground water in the Harrison sandstone exists under much the same 

conditions as in the Monroe Creek sandstone. Essentially a well-sorted 

but medium to fine-grained sandstone, the Harrison is capable of yielding generous amounts of water if the wells penetrate a great thickness 

of saturated material. On the average, the Harrison is coarser than the 

Monroe Creek sandstone. However, stock, domestic, and even irrigation 

wells in the central and western parts of Box Butte County obtain supplies of ground water from the Harrison sandstone that are satisfactory 

in quality and quantity for local needs. Seemingly small supplies can be 

developed at any desired point in the outcrop area of the Harrison, 

and the Johnson irrigation well (No. 113) obtains about 750 gallons a 

minute chiefly from a large saturated section that contains Harrison 

sandstone. Drilling wells into the formation, however, is difficult because 

of the numerous thick and hard concretions. As in the Monroe Creek, 

concretions are difficult to break by impact owing to the elastic yielding 

of the matrix.

MARSLAND FORMATION

The Marsland formation crops out in four areas. The largest area 

extends from near Alliance toward the northwest in the form of a 

parallelogram whose base extends westward from Alliance almost to 

Kilpatrick Lake; the north edge of the area practically coincides with 

State Highway 87. The next most extensive area is along the Niobrara 

Valley and along Dry Creek. The other two areas are small, the first 

following an unnamed creek in the northeast corner of the county and 

the second being at the county line south of Kilpatrick Lake. (See pi. 1.)

The Marsland formation contains an abundance of two types of material that are not found in the formations previously described. One such 

material is an impure sandstone that is bound with clay and not cemented 

with lime. It presents a blocky appearance on some outcr6ps owing to 

the vertical fractures and regular horizontal bedding planes. On other 

outcrops it tends to break up into roundish lumps generally 2 to 3 inches 

in diameter. This sandstone is very characteristic of the Marsland. Lime 

impregnations have formed coatings and intermeshing seams throughout 

these blocky and lumpy sandstones, which, in weathered outcrops, tend 

to disintegrate and leave hard ledges of the fine mesh of lime in the 

form of a honeycomb. These layers are called honeycomb ledges in the 

descriptions of the formation. Much of the lumpy sandstone may have 

been blocky originally and then redeposited as pebbles, for zones of
GEOLOGICAL SURVEY WATER-SUPPLY PAPER 969 PLATE 2

A. UNDRAINED DEPRESSION PRODUCED BY WIND EROSION IN WESTERN PART OF BOX

BUTTE COUNTY.

B. MONROE CREEK SANDSTONE IN NORTHWESTERN PART OF BOX BUTTE COUNTY.
GEOLOGICAL SURVEY WATER-SUPPLY PAPER 969 PLATE 3

HOUSE IN THE WESTERN PART OF BOX BUTTE COUNTY THAT HAS BEEN UNDERMINED

BY WIND EROSION.
GEOLOGY 27

scattered discrete lumps can be found in outcrops of other types of 

material in the Marsland formation. The other characteristic material is 

a featureless massive sandy silt, generally light-colored and very limy. 

Much of the Marsland formation consists of alternating zones of beds 

of massive silt, generally 4 to 10 feet thick, and blocky or lumpy sand-, 

stone 1 to 4 feet thick, which may have weathered to a honeycomb 

ledge. (See pi. 4, C.)

Without doubt the Marsland formation rests upon an uneven surface 

developed on the Harrison; but examination of the contact between 

them does not reveal any evidence of weathering or of the accumulation 

of weathering products. Along the Niobrara Valley, where the lower 

beds of the Marsland formation are channel or near-channel deposits, 

the gray or brownish-gray sands of the Harrison are succeeded by blocky 

sandstone and limy gray or tan silt and impure sand. On the upland 

south of the Niobrara, the actual contact is difficult to recognize, for 

instead of an abrupt change in the nature of the sediments, there is 

merely a gradational change from a concretionary coarser grayish-brown 

sand of the Harrison to a finer fluffy silty sandstone of the Marsland. 

The concretions at the top of the Harrison sandstone are somewhat 

more massive and are rounder than those of the basal Harrison but the 

change to the smaller vertically elongated concretions of the southern 

facies of the Marsland formation is also gradational. The actual contact 

must be chosen arbitrarily within a section of 10 feet or more.

The Marsland formation is rather complex. Systematic changes in the 

nature of the sediments can be recognized in the vertical section, so that 

the formation can be roughly divided into two parts; and a progressive 

change cart be recognized in the lower division from a channel or nearchannel phase along the Niobrara Valley to a quite different flood-plain 

phase in the upland south of the valley. The upper part of the Marsland 

formation, which is comparatively uniform in its entire outcrop area 

is composed of a succession of blocky and lumpy sandstone layers and 

beds of limy sandy silt or silty sand of light color. The lower and upper 

parts of the formation are in many places separated by a thick and 

rather massive concretionary zone that is likely to be the thickest of the 

'zones in the Marsland section. In most exposures where this concretionary zone crops out, its upper surface is 25 to 50 feet from the top 

of the Marsland formation. Along the Niobrara Valley the part of the 

formation that lies below the thick concretionary zone contains channel 

deposits of coarse sand and gravel. But in the central tableland the 

lower part of the formation represents the flood-plain phase of the 

Marsland formation and consists of buff to tan fine-grained silty sand 

with round or vertically elongated potato concretions. Several tens of 

feet above the base of the formation these concretions tend to coalesce

694487 46 3
28 BOX BUTTE COUNTY, NEBRASKA

into continuous zones and become thicker and closer together and finally 

form the thick concretionary zone above which the type of sediment 

changes into the widespread succession of silt and blocky sandstone.

The sediments of the Marsland formation exhibit a gradual change in 

color from west to east. At Agate Springs, in Sioux County, the forma-. 

tion is mostly red or reddish brown; in the northwest corner of Box 

Butte County all the sandstones in the Marsland are gray, green, or 

gray-brown except those in the upper 15 feet or so that are red. Along 

State Highway 2, on the south wall of the Niobrara Valley, most of the 

red color has disappeared from the upper beds of the Marsland. East 

of Hemingford the predominant colors of the sandstone are gray, green, 

and brown. The color of the flood-plain phase on the tableland to the 

south is uniformly light buff to tan.

The thickness of the Marsland is variable. Along State Highway 2 

near the Niobrara, the thickness measured with a surveying aneroid from 

a channel deposit of the Marsland to the top of the formation was 

160 feet. Four and one-half miles west of the highway the thickness is 

about 185 feet. In test hole 8, in the northeast corner of sec. 19, T. 26 N., 

R. 40. W., apparently about 180 feet of Marsland formation was encountered. On the average, it is believed that the formation is thickest near 

the Niobrara Valley, where Marsland sediments fill channels that were 

cut deep into the underlying Harrisori sandstone. The nature of the 

sediments indicates that channel deposits occur only in the vicinity of 

the Niobrara Valley; hence the Marsland formation should be expected 

to be thicker there than under the upland plain in the central part 

of the county.

In the following section the outcrops along the walls of the gully 

entering the inner valley of the Niobrara River from the south-southeast 

are described. The total thickness measured in the section by hand level 

is about 10 feet greater than the thickness of the formation indicated 

by a surveying aneroid. As the outcrops extend along the gully walls 

for a mile and a quarter, it is probable that the hand-leveled thicknesses 

are in error.

Section along walls of a gully entering the inner valley of the Niobrara River 

from the south-southeast in sec. 8, T. 28 N., R. 52 W.

Feet

"Cap rock," limy, slabby, with honeycomb structure; inclusions 

of red sandstone near base, and near top of red clay........ 4

Silt, rich, red-brown, massive; zone of lumpy sandstone near 

middle; upper 4 feet composed of blocky sandstone intermeshed with coatings and mazes of lime.................. 10

Silt, green, massive, sandy, with irregular zone of green lumpy 

sandstone near middle; capped by 2-foot bed of green blocky 

sandstone .......................... i...................... 8
GEOLOGY 29

Sjlt, light-green, sandy, with local clusters of concretionary

material; irregular concretionary zone at top up to 2 feet thick. 8 

Silt, light grayish-green, massive, sandy; large limy root impressions and scattered lumps of gray-brown sandstone; concretionary zone about 6 feet below top, and one at the top 

that is massive in structure but stemmy locally; it is as 

much as 4 feet thick and dips toward the south............ 12

Silt, light grayish-green, massive, sandy, with limy root impressions .................................................. 3

Mostly covered slope; isolated outcrops of massive sandy silt.... 35

Sand, loose, coarse, bright yellow-green, with numerous large 

pitted and irregularly shaped concretions that are composed 

of the same material as the matrix........................ 18

Covered slope; some poor exposures of green blocky sandstone.. 30 

Sandstone, green, blocky...................................... 2

Silt, light-tan, sandy, with large irregular concretions scattered 

through it................................................. 6

Channel sand, brown, coarse, well-sorted, containing abundant 

dark minerals and some beds of green sandy clay............ 10-12

Sandstone, bright-green, blocky............................... 1

Silt, light sandy, with zones of lumpy brown sandstone.......... 4

Silt, light-green, limy, with lumps and blocks of light-green 

sandstone that weather into honeycomb ledges............... 3.

Sandstone, blocky, contorted, light-green..................... 1

Sand, light-brown, green, fine, with a few stems; it pinches 

out and is replaced laterally by a concretionary mass of limy 

root impressions........................................... 1

Sandstone, blocky, green...................................... 3

Silt, sandy................................................... 1-2

Sandstone, lumpy, light-green, partly weathered to honeycomb 

ledge ..................................................... 2

Silt, light-greenish, sandy, small lumps of sandstone scattered 

sparsely through it......................................... 2

Covered slope................................................ 10

Sandstone, blocky, brown..................................... 3

Stems or roots, limy, vertical, impressions coalesced or discrete, 

but connected by horizontal slabs of lime. Individual stems 

several inches long; matrix weathered out. Pinches out 

laterally in clean brown cross-bedded medium-grained sand... 3-4 

Sand, soft, silty, tan-colored.................................. 1-2

Sandstone, contorted, blocky, brown........................... , 2

Silt, massive, light-tan,- sandy, containing a few light-colored 

limy root impressions and other small limy fragments........ 8

The foregoing section is perhaps the best in the county for revealing 

the most typical materials that make up the channel and near-channel 

phases of the Marsland formation. Another good section can be seen on 

the north wall of the Niobrara Valley near Marsland, Dawes County, and 

also on the south wall at the Box Butte-Sioux County line. Similar materials are exposed in scattered exposures along State Highway 2 in 

T. 28 N., R. 51 W. Here, however, the color of the sediments in the
30 BOX BUTTE COUNTY, NEBRASKA

upper part of the Marsland formation is less red. The following exposure is on the upper slopes of the Niobrara Valley.

Section on the upper slopes of the Niobrara Valley north of Hemingford, 

in sec. 5, T\ 28 N., R. 49 W.

Feet

Sandstone, fine, light-green, containing numerous limy root impressions overlain by "cap rock" of the Marsland formation.. 10± 

Sandstone, lumpy, containing fractures filled with red sandstone. 9 

Sandstone, lumpy, weathering to honeycomb ledge, growing 

platy near top.............................................. 8-12

Sandstone, green, coarse, blocky............................. 8

Sandstone, gray, with numerous limy root impressions.......... 4

Sandstone, light-buff, containing potato concretions, some coalesced into tabular form.................................... 10

Sandstone, light-buff, very limy, containing thin tabular but 

irregular concretions........................................ 8-10

Sandstone, light-brown, massive, containing some concretions 

and lumpy sandstone. Blocky green sandstone in beds that 

are contorted into whorls and waves 3 feet high and which 

thicken and coalesce upward until a 2-foot bed is formed. 

Above this is a honeycomb ledge............................ 15

About 7 miles farther east the following section can be observed: 

Section in sec. 8, T. 28 N., R. 48 W.

Feet

Cap rock of slabby white limy sandstone; weathered and rubbly 

near top, grading downward into blocky zone; concretions in 

material below coalesce upward into same blocky cap rock.... 4

Silt, light-gray, massive, sandy, limy, with limy root impressions 

and abundant poorly defined flannel buff concretionary zones 35

Sandstone, blocky, coarse, buff-gray........................... 15

Concretionary zone; honeycomb form, pitted, but massive near 

base ...................................................... 10+

Silt, uniform, limy, sandy, of gray color showing buff cast, with 

layers of gray-green blocky and lumpy sandstone............. 60

Fossil-bearing channel deposits in the vicinity of the section just 

described lie at a lower elevation than the massive concretionary zone. 

They are composed chiefly of gray sands, more or less cemented, containing very numerous limy root impressions.

The foregoing descriptions show the nature of the Marsland formation 

as it appears in the channel and near-channel phase along the Niobrara 

Valley. The gradual disappearance of the red sandstones toward the east 

is indicated but not so well as if sections occurring farther west in Sioux 

County were described. The following section is typical of the Marsland 

formation as it is seen in the southwestern part of the large central 

outcrop area. Here the channel deposits are not present in the lower 

part of the formation; their position is occupied by the flood-plain phase. 

The upper part of the formation, however, is essentially uniform over
GEOLOGY 31

the entire county. The following section was observed and measured in 

sect 18, T. 25 N., R. 49 W. The lowest exposure in the section is not at 

the base of the Marsland formation.

Section in sec. 18, T. 25 N.t R. 49 W.

Feet

"Cap rock," white, limy, slabby; top of the formation........ 5

Sandstone, slabby, brown..................................... 3

Sandstone, blocky, brown, associated with layers of limy gray 

silt ....................................................... 12-15

Silt, gray-brown, here and there containing blocky sandstone... 5 

Layer of pipy concretions, not everywhere continuous........... 0-2

Sandstone, blocky, brown..................................... 4

Concretion, large, massive, featureless where fresh, honeycomb 

in form where weathered. Concretionary masses become 

smaller, 'isolated farther down, and near bottom the material 

consists of brown fluffy sandy silt containing small "potato" 

concretions ............................................... 25

The lower beds of the Marsland formation that are exposed in the 

central upland are fluffy brown silt with long, upright concretions. The 

change from the channel and near-channel phase to flood-plain phase 

occurs by lensing out of the channel deposit, and thickening of the 

flood-plain deposit.

The existence of a brown silt or locally fine sand containing "potato," 

or vertically elongated, concretions in the Marsland formation duplicates 

the Monroe Creek sandstone exposed in the Niobrara Valley. The concretions in both formations are much the same, except that possibly those 

in the Marsland formation tend to be somewhat more elongate in the 

vertical direction. Also, the sandy matrix of the Monroe Creek seems to 

be slightly less silty than that in comparable beds of the Marsland formation. The field relations and vertical changes in lithology of the Marsland 

flood-plain sediments are the best criteria for distinguishing these similar 

materials.

On the average the Marsland formation is finer-grained than the 

formations of the Arikaree group, which it covers. The silts and blocky 

sands undoubtedly are of low permeability, and the channel deposits of 

coarse sand, although permeable to a high degree, are of limited extent if 

not wholly absent from the greater, part of the county south of the 

Niobrara Valley. The relatively low permeability of the formation as a 

whole doubtless facilitates the fluctuation of the water level in some of 

the deeper wells in response to variations in barometric pressure. However, wells entering it encounter and obtain supplies of water, as in the 

district northwest of Alliance. Here some of the wells are only of 

moderate depth, but evidently they are satisfactory as sources of farm 

or stock supplies. Wells in this district that obtain large supplies of 

water must pass through the Marsland formation into more permeable
32 BOX BUTTE COUNTY, NEBRASKA

sands of the Harrison and Monroe Creek. In much of the north-central 

and west-central parts of the county the bulk of the Marsland strata 

lies above the water table.

SHEEP CREEK FORMATION

After the Marsland had been deposited the land surface evidently 

remained for a time undisturbed, subject neither to much erosion nor 

to further deposition. It was then that the cap rock at the top of the 

Marsland formation was developed, probably as a result of the precipitation of lime at the land surface by shallow-lying ground water. Following 

this interval of quiescence the streams in the region including Box Butte 

County eroded channels. So far as is known, the channels cut in Box 

Butte County at this time were narrow and shallow, but larger channels 

have been found in Sioux and Dawes Counties. After this necessarily 

brief stage of down cutting, the streams filled the channels with sand 

and silt. These deposits contain numerous vertebrate fossils. One channel fill of this kind is situated in sec. 11, T. 28 N., R. 49 W. It consists 

of brick-red massive silt and is strictly limited to the single small channel. This fill is the valley-fill phase of the Sheep Creek formation and 

is rather complex in Sioux and Dawes Counties. Except for this one 

outcrop no Sheep Creek valley fill has been definitely identified in Box 

Butte County. The upland phase of the Sheep Creek, which is widely 

distributed in Box Butte County, is newly recognized and will be referred to as the Box Butte member of the Sheep Creek formation.14

During the early Sheep Creek channel-cutting cycle a deep valley was 

eroded across the southern part of Box Butte County. In the east half 

of its course it coincides closely with the present valley of Snake Creek 

but swings toward the northeast beneath Bronco Lake and Alliance. It 

lies south of the modern stream in the western part of the county and 

passes a short distance south of Kilpatrick Lake. The channel cuts 

through the whole thickness of the Marsland formation. This ancient 

valley, so far as is known, does not contain sediments belonging to the 

valley phase of the Sheep Creek formation; however, the Box Butte 

member has been found in patches on the slopes of the channel, and it 

probably was deposited on the floor of the channel.

The Box Butte member of the Sheep Creek formation occupies the 

northern part of the central upland. Its outcrop area widens considerably 

in the vicinity of. Hemingford and eastward, so that it covers much of 

the eastern part of the county north of Alliance. At the east margin of 

its outcrop it is covered by the younger Ogallala sediments. (See pi. 1.)

The Box Butte member consists of three parts. The lowest zone is a 

red clay, friable when dry, with a mottling of green. White limy concre14 Cady, R. C., The Box Butte member of the Sheep Creek formation: Am. Jour. Sci., rol.

238, pp. 663-667, 1940.
GEOLOGY' 33

tions are scattered through it, often in horizontal zones. (See pi. 5, A.) 

The concretions have a vertical axis that is as much as 6 inches in length, 

whereas they are only 3 to 4 inches in diameter. They are cleanly separated from the matrix. They are so numerous as to give the whole 

material a white color from a distance. In most exposures this subdivision 

is from 30 to 40 feet thick. The middle 15 feet of this basal zone in some 

localities is more silty and less plastic than the upper and lower portions. 

The basal clay zone is well exposed near the top of the south slope of the 

Niobrara Valley in the northwestern part of Box Butte County. On the 

upland plain small exposures of it are common in the valleys of the 

smaller streams.

The middle zone of the Box Butte member consists chiefly of successive layers of brown and green blocky and lumpy impure sandstone. 

Most layers are from 6 inches to 2 feet thick. These sandstones weather 

into honeycomb ledges. In all respects they are similar to the sandstones 

in the Marsland formation.

The top zone, which is a clay containing a white limy concretion, is 

similar to the lowest, but its color is predominantly green with minor 

mottlings of red. It also seems slightly more silty. Its thickness is not 

definitely known but is probably about 15 feet.

Tlje following is the type section of the Box Butte member of the 

Sheep Creek formation:

Section in sec. 27, T. 28 N., R. 49 W. ' Feet

Covered slope, at the top of which the top zone of the Box 

Butte member can be found by digging through the turf..... 40

Sandstone, lumpy and blocky, brown, in beds less than 2 feet 

thick. At two levels, about 20 and 30 feet above the base of 

the sandstone, there are two honeycomb limy ledges.......... 25

Sandstone, lumpy, brown, that weathers into a honeycomb ledge. 2

Silt, limy, sandy, containing thin beds of brown blocky sandstone ..................................................... 8

Clay, red, with white concretions of the lowest subdivision of 

the Box Butte member.................................... 30

At an exposure in sec. 26, T. 28 N., R. 52 W., the following section 

may be seen:

Section in sec. 26, T. 28 N., R. 52 W. ' ' Feet

Covered slope................................................ 4

Ash, volcanic, fresh, gray-white, parts of which are consolidated. It is very similar to the lower, lighter-colored ash in 

the gully west of Aphelops draw in the Sheep Creek section 

of Sioux County........................................... 2

Silt, salmon-colored, limy.................................... 3

Sandstone, green and gray, lumpy, impure, grading toward bright 

olive green near the top; weathers into honeycomb ledges.... 23

Clay, red, with white concretions of the lower zone of the Box 

Butte member.
34 BOX BUTTE COUNTY, NEBRASKA

The lateral extent of the volcanic ash is not known. It may be absent 

from the first section, or it may be present but covered.

The exposures of the Box Butte member that show the three zones, 

or, more specifically, the exposures showing the middle sandstone zone, 

are limited to the northern part of Box Butte County, near the Niobrara 

Valley. Hence, it is believed that the middle zone is local and does not 

extend very far south of the Niobrara Valley. Elsewhere the Box Butte 

member seems to consist wholly of clay with the conspicuous concretions.

The Box Butte member, composed chiefly of clay and silt and blanketing as it does the rolling pre-Ogallala topography, is probably a loess. 

The concretions are of the kind that might form-in a loess. Evidently 

late in the Miocene the climate turned more arid. The deposition of loess 

appears to have been the culmination of the arid cycle and the last recorded event in the Miocene of Nebraska. The lower Ogallala deposits 

probably indicate a return to a somewhat wetter climate.

Three points of stratigraphic evidence justify the separation of the 

Box Butte member from the Marsland formation, on which it generally 

rests. (1) The 4-foot limy cap rock at .the top of the Marsland implies 

an extended interval of subaerial weathering and calcification of a 

calichelike nature. (2) In sec. 33, T. 25 N., R. 50 W., on the lower slope 

of Snake Creek Valley, a remnant of the Box Butte concretion-bearing 

clay rests upon sediments of the lower part of the Marsland formation, 

showing the unconformable relation between the Marsland formation 

and the Box Butte member of the Sheep Creek. (3) In Dawes County 

northeast of the hamlet of Dunlap, in sec. 33, T. 30 N., R. 47 W., the 

Box Butte member overlies a channel fill of Sheep Creek sediments. The 

Sheep Creek channel was cut into the Marsland formation and later 

filled with brick-red silt and sand from which Sheep Creek vertebrate 

fossils have been taken.15 At the top of the channel fill the silt has been 

cemented with lime, indicating a halt in deposition. The red clay of the 

lower zone of the Box Butte member rests upon this cemented zone.

There seems no reason to doubt that the Box Butte is definitely 

younger than the Marsland formation, and, indeed, younger than the 

channel fill of the Sheep Creek. It is not so easy to determine whether 

it belongs to the Sheep Creek formation or to the Ogallala, or whether 

it is a separate formational unit. The final answer must await a careful 

appraisal of the faunal and floral relations. Stratigraphically there are 

two opposing lines of evidence. On the one hand, the Box Butte was 

deposited near the bottom of the ancestral valley of the present Snake 

Creek. This old valley was cut through the Marsland formation before

" One of the writers was taken to this outcrop by Grayson Meade, a paleontologist then 

collecting for the Nebraska State Museum, and by Albert Potter, then a collector for the 

American Museum of Natural History. Both were familiar with fauna taken from this channel 

and are the authority for its age.
GEOLOGY 35

Ogallala time. Through it the Ogallala sands were later transported, and 

some were deposited in it. But nowhere does the field evidence indicate 

that the Box Butte was eroded greatly before it was covered by the 

Ogallala. This suggests, but does not prove, a close geographic and 

chronologic relation between the Box Butte and Ogallala units. On the 

other hand, the type of sediment of the Box Butte, particularly the 

blocky and lumpy sandstone of the middle zone, is very much like that 

of the Sheep Creek and Marsland formations. The volcanic ash in the 

Box Butte is similar to an ash in the Sheep Creek of Sioux County. This 

line of evidence suggests that the Box Butte was deposited under physical 

conditions approximating those of Marsland and Sheep Creek times. 

But it does not offer any sure guidance as to whether the Box Butte 

should be regarded ^as a member of the Sheep Creek formation or as a 

formation in its own right.

C. B. Schultz, of the Nebraska State Museum, has informed the 

writers that vertebrate fossils of Sheep Creek age were taken from the 

Box Butte sediments during the summer of 1939. M. K. Elias, of the 

Nebraska Geological Survey, is preparing a memoir on fossil grass seeds 

of the Tertiary, in which he shows that grass seeds taken from the Box 

Butte sediments are of Sheep .Creek age. It appears, therefore, that 

these sediments should be regarded as a member of the Sheep Creek 

formation.

Although the tentative classification of this rock unit as a member in 

the Sheep Creek formation is plausible, it is necessary to reserve the 

possibility that the Box Butte unit is a member of the Ogallala formation.

The Box Butte member is made up of materials that have low permeability. Even the middle sandstone zone contains much fine-grained 

material mixed with the coarser. The two clay layers are so fine-grained 

that water could move through them very slowly under-ordinary head. 

However, the clay fractures and shrinks when it is dry and thus might 

allow passage of water until it becomes wet. In the south-central part of 

T. 28 N., R. 47 W., and in the southwestern part of T. 28 N., R. 48 W., 

the clay layers support a perched zone of saturation in the thin Ogallala 

sands that lie above them. No wells are known to obtain their supply from 

the Box Butte member, not only because of its tightness, but also because 

it lies above the water table in much of the county.

PLIOCENE SERIES 

OGALLALA FORMATION

The Ogallala formation was originally defined by Darton16 to include 

the well-known "mortar beds." The Ogallala was believed to occupy the 

stratigraphic column of the Great Plains between the Arikaree forma19 Darton, N. H., Preliminary report on the geology and water resources of Nebraska west of 

the one hundred and third meridian: U. S. Geol. Survey 19th Ann. Rept, pp. 732-742, 1898.
36 BOX BUTTE COUNTY, NEBRASKA

tion, which with the Gering sandstone was then thought to represent 

all the Miocene sediments and the Pleistocene glacial and alluvial sediments. The Ogallala formation is a complex sedimentary unit. In the first 

place, its lithologic diversity has long been a challenge to stratigpraphers, 

who, if the diversity proved to be consistent and systematic, would 

subdivide the formation. In the second place, the Ogallala sediments in 

the Niobrara Valley region are very different from the Ogallala sediments in the North Platte Valley and regions south in Nebraska and 

Kansas. Furthermore, some paleontologists regard the lower faunas of 

the Ogallala to be Miocene in age, rather than Pliocene, which is the 

age of the upper faunas. The whole problem of subdividing the Ogallala 

formation is intricate and is based on evidence collected far afield from 

Box Butte County.

Since Barton's work, three studies of as many vertebrate faunas have 

been made of the Ogallala formation. The oldest of these faunas was 

collected from the Niobrara Valley region and was called the Valentine 

fauna, and the sands from which the vertebrates were taken were named 

Valentine by Barbour and Cook.17 Two later faunas were collected and 

studied, one of which was called the Republican River fauna18 and the 

other the Snake Creek.19 Simpson20 cgnsiders them both to be about 

equivalent in age, but Lugn believes that the Republican River fauna 

is composite. AH in all, geologists of Nebraska have not found that the 

vertebrate fossils have been very helpful in their studies of the Ogallala 

formation, partly because correlations based' upon them are perforce 

general, and partly because some of the zones of the Ogallala are nearly 

or entirely barren of vertebrates. It was not until the work of Elias21 

on fossil grass seeds in the Tertiary sediments of the Great Plains became generally known that some of the finer correlations in the Ogallala 

formation became possible. Using fossil seeds, Lugn22 proposed the 

following subdivision of the Ogallala formation: 

Ogallala group:

Kimball formation: "25-50 feet thick; contains EchinocJdoo, 

Panicwm, and Biorbia seeds, and algal limestone (after 

_______ Elias).

17 Barbour, E. H., and Cook, H. J., Skull of Aefarodon platyrhinus sp. nov.: Nebraska Gcol. 

Survey, 1st ser., vol. 7, pt. 19, pp. 173-180, 1917.

18 Osborn, H. F., and Matthew, W. D., Cenozoic mammal horizons of western North America, 

with fauna! lists of the Tertiary Mammalia of the West: U. S. Geol. Survey Bull. 361, 138 pp., 

1909.

* Matthew, W. D., and Cook, H. J., A Pliocene fauna from western Nebraska: Am. Mus. Nat 

History Bull., vol. 26, pp. 361-414, 1909.

90 Simpson, G. G., Glossary and correlation charts of North American Tertiary mammalhearing formations: Am. Mus. Nat. History Bull., vol. 67, art. 3, pp. 79-121, 1933.

11 Elias, M. K., Tertiary grass seeds and other prairie vegetation: Am. Jour. Sc!., 5th- ser.; 

vol. 29, pp. 24-33, 1935. Also earlier publications referred to therein.

** Lugn, A. L., Classification of the Tertiary system in Nebraska: Geol. Soc. America Bull., 

vol. 50, pp. 1245-1276, 1939.

ss Snake Creek channel deposits of Sioux County up to 75 feet thick are considered to be 

equivalent to the Sidney gravel and Kimball formation.
GEOLOGY 37

Sidney gravel: "15-50 feet thick; includes the upper part

of the Biorbia seed zone. 

Ash Hollow formation: 100-250 feet thick; includes main

part of the Biorbia seed zone and several faunal hori"

zons; Krynitzkia seed zone in lower part. 

Valentine formation: 175-225 feet thick; contains Stipidiwm seeds.

A series of controversial papers by Stirton, McGrew, and Meade 

relating to faunal and lithologic subdivisions of the "Valentine beds" 

of the Niobrara Valley region has been summarized by Johnson.2* He 

presents stratigraphic tables showing not only that the Valentine of the 

foregoing classification possesses distinct subdivisions that can be shown 

on a map, but also that the Valentine beds are overlain by younger sands 

of the Ogallala, which are Hthologically different from the mortar beds 

south of the sand-hills region and which are designated the Ash Hollow 

division of the Ogallala. Lugn has found that Krynitzkia coronlformis, 

which is limited to the lower zone of the Ash Hollow in the North Platte 

Valley and regions to the south, is present in the cap-rock zone above 

the channels bearing the Burge fauna in the Valentine beds of the 

Niobrara Valley region. Moreover, he states that the sands above the 

cap-rock zone contain Biorbia seeds, which are characteristic of the Ash 

Hollow beds farther south. These correlations have led Lugn to consider 

that part of the Ogallala of the Niobrara Valley region which lies below 

the cap-rock zone to belong to the "Valentine formation", and the 

cap rock, together with the sands lying above it in the Niobrara Valley 

region, to be the correlative of the "Ash Hollow formation" of the regions 

to the south. It is important to note that the Ogallala sediments of the 

Niobrara Valley facies are different Hthologically from the Ogallala of 

central and southern Nebraska, although parts of them may be contemporaneous. No doubt they were deposited by different streams that 

obtained their loads of detritus from widely separated areas.

The Ogallala sediments in Box Butte County are fairly widely distributed. In the southwestern and southern parts of Box Butte County 

they occupy a deep narrow channel, already referred to in the discussion 

of the Box Butte member of the Sheep Creek formation, which crosses 

the county in the vicinity of the present valley of Snake Creek. In the 

middle course of the channel between the east and west boundaries of 

Box Butte County, the Ogallala channel fill seems to have been originally 

about 250 feet thick, although some of the upper part has been eroded 

away. The channel passes beneath Alliance and debouches into a larger 

erosional basin, now filled with Ogallala sediments, that underlies much

23 Snake Creek channel deposits of Sioux County up to 75 feet thick are considered to be 

equivalent to the Sidney gravel and Kimball formation.

* 4 Johnson, F. W., Further comments on the usage of "Valentine": Am. Jour. Sci., 5th ser., 

vol. 36, No. 213, pp. 21S-219, 1938.
38 BOX BUTTE COUNTY, NEBRASKA

of the eastern part of the county northeast from Alliance toward Box 

Butte Creek. (See pi. 1.) In the vicinity of test hole 4, a half mile east 

of Alliance, the Ogallala once was probably more than 400 feet thick, 

but a few feet have been removed by erosion. Northeast of Alliance the 

eastward thickening of the Ogallala sediments is very abrupt, but nowhere 

is the thickness of the Ogallala known to exceed that at test hole 4. Thin 

outliers of Ogallala have been mapped from the area south of Nonpareil 

toward the east, where they become thicker and npore numerous and 

widely distributed. Outcrops are not numerous, and a few expose a great 

thickness or variety of sediments.

Very few fossils are known to have been collected from the Ogallala 

in Box Butte County. A sand in sec. 36, T. 24 N., R. 48 W., that is 

exposed at a higher altitude than the Ogallala sediments in nearby test 

holes, yielded vertebrate fossils. They were deposited in the municipal 

museum of Alliance, and later they were identified by H. J. Cook. 

The age of these fossils was pronounced by him to be "upper Snake 

Creek." This means that the upper sands near Alliance are the equivalents 

of either the Ash Hollow, or post-Ash Hollow divisions of the Ogallala 

as recognized by the Nebraskan geologists. Other Snake Creek fossils 

are said to have been collected from gravels west of Kilpatrick Lake, 

and along the present Snake Creek Valley east of Kilpatrick Lake. A 

Valentine fauna is also said to have been collected in Box Butte County, 

but the information was never made directly available to the present 

workers in the area by the officials of the Nebraska State Museum. 

Probably the most useful biotic evidence of the age of parts of the 

Ogallala sediments in the county were the fossil seeds found in test 

hole 4 and identified by M. K. Elias, of the Nebraska Geological Survey. 

These fossils, with their place in the Ogallala section of the Nebraskan 

geologists and their range of depth in the test hole, are shown below:

Stipidium comtmune, belonging to the "Ash Hollow", 20-367 feet. 

Krynitskia coroniformis, of the lower zone of the "Ash Hollow", 110-

367 feet. 

A primitive Krynitzkia, thought to belong in the "Valentine" beds,

170-367 feet. 

A Stipidiwm, thought to be a "Valentine" form, with about the same

range as the primitive Krynitzkia.

The fossil seeds seem to indicate that much of the Ogallala is present 

in Box Butte County.

Lithologically distinctive zones are found in the Ogallala that conform 

fairly well to the following general stratigraphic sequence: A lower 

zone of fine-grained massive sand, primarily brown to green in color, 

is associated with greenish-white clay beds; above this is a middle zone 

of coarser unconsolidated brown, yellowish-gray, or gray sand, often 

mixed or associated closely with gravel and containing clay beds and
GEOLOGY 39

*

concretionary zones; an upper zone of fine soft sands and beds of clay, 

green or yellow in color, is widely distributed at the top of thick sections 

of Ogallala, and beyond the limits of the channels as well.

Outcrops of the material believed to belong to the lower zone of finegrained Ogallala sands are found in sees. 18 and 19, T. 26 N., R. 47 W. 

The material is fine-grained loose brown sand. In the valley of Box 

Butte Creek just east of the county line is a grayish-green and green 

massive stemmy fairly compact sand of medium grain. The sand is 

associated with thin beds of blocky bright yellow-green sandstone and 

with zones of irregularly shaped concretions. Farther up in the section 

it becomes looser and more brownish. The sand overlies a grayish-green 

clayey sandstone, massive and featureless, which is capped with a 4-foot 

white limy cap rock. This same association can be seen near the bridge 

where the Alliance-Hay Springs highway crosses the Niobrara River. 

The age of the lower material is not definitely known; it may be Marsland, Sheep Creek, or Ogallala. In sec. 24, T. 27 N., R. 47 W., a limited 

exposure of bright yellowish-green blocky sandstone can be seen to 

overlie the Box Butte member of the Sheep Creek formation. In test 

holes Jl, 2, 4, 5, and 6 the lowest material in the Ogallala is described as 

fine brown and green sandstones associated with clay layers. This lower 

fine green compact sand is thickest in test hole 4, where it is about 165 

feet. In other test holes it is not only thinner absolutely but also relatively 

with respect to the other two zones. At test hole 1, near Kilpatrick 

Lake, it is about 25 feet thick, but this test hole may be near the edge 

of the channel.

The middle, coarser-grained zone overlies the lower fine-grained sand 

in sees. 18 and 19, T. 26 N., R. 47 W. The change of lithology is abrupt 

and distinct. The coarser sand is gray with a bright yellowish cast. Much 

of it is uncemented and little compacted, but concretionary zones are 

common. In certain localities it is firmly cemented. At the outcrop in 

T. 26 N., R. 47 W., it consists of loose, coarse yellow-green stemmy 

sand with zones of blocky green sandstone. Across the county line, east 

of sec. 25, T. 26 N., R. 47 W., it is well exposed. Here the sand is bright 

yellowish-gray coarse compact full of stems, half of which are vertical, 

half horizontal. Massive concretions in it resemble somewhat the "giant 

concretions" at the top of the Harrison sandstone, and other smaller 

ones have a honeycomb structure. On Wild Horse Butte pale yellowgreen coarse sand is exposed. (See pi. 5, B.) Similar loose yellow-gray 

sand crops out in the western part of sec. 5, T. 25 N., R. 47 W. In test 

holes 2, 4, 5, 6, and in well 147, coarse sand of a considerable thickness, 

clay beds, and finer compact sandstone are encountered,'but the chief 

constituents of these zones are coarse gray, green, or brown sand with 

gravel. The zone of coarse sand is thickest in test hole 4, where 110 feet
40 B°x BtjrTE COUNTY, NEBRASKA

of it was encountered, but in test hole 5 it is about 80 feet thick. In test 

hole 1 the material is fine sand associated with gravel. Test hole 7 did 

not reach this zone.

The upper zone of fine-grained sand is characterized by green impure 

sand associated with green clay beds, yellow silty sand, and soft gray 

laminated sands. This material, if it all can be properly classified with 

the upper zone, has a wider distribution than any of the other Ogallala 

sediments. It is found at the top of the channel fill in the southern part 

of the county, near the west edge of the Ogallala outcrop in the eastern 

part of the county, and in the outliers in the northern part of the county. 

South of the present valley of Snake Creek and in the northern outliers 

the Ogallala sediments are very thin compared to the full section in the 

channel fill beneath Snake Creek and in the eastern part of the county. 

At well 199, in sec. 24, T. 24 N., R. 50 W., about 35 feet of fine sand and 

clay and 4 feet of gravel at the base (reported by the driller) constitutes 

the Ogallala. At the large outlier south of Nonpareil the Ogallala is 

about 40 to 50 feet thick. But at test hole 4 the upper zone, including 

the nearest outcrop of sand and clay south of Snake Creek, is about 

130 feet thick. In sec. 4, T. 24 N., R. 50 W^ the following is exposed:

Section in sec. 4, T. 24 N., R. 50 W.

Feet

Sand, fine-grained, loose, light yellow-green, with a 2-foot layer 

of green day ............................................. 10

Sandstone, brownish- and grayish-green, massive, stemmy; pipy 

and honeycomb concretions having delicate tubercules; mediumgrained well-sorted sandstone. (See pi. 6, A.). ............... 20

Sand, coarse, light-yellow, with pea-sized gravel, limy stems, and 

bone fragments ........................................... 10-fRubble of white limy concretionary fragments, possibly remnants 

of Box Butte clay; a few inches.

Harrison sandstone, gray.

This outcrop seems to be on the south side of the channel. To the south 

in sec. 23, T. 24 N., R. 50 W., light-yellow loose, coarse sand is exposed 

in a road ditch; in sec. 25, same township and range, is a similar outcrop 

of light olive-green silty clay. In sec. 17, T. 24 N., R. 49 W., yellow-green 

sand has been brought to the surface at gopher burrows near an outcrop 

of lime-white cemented pale-buff to gray sandstone. This sandstone is 

difficult to classify, but it is probably Ogallala, as it is associated with 

the yellowish-green sand. In sec. 36, same township and range, fine 

light-green and light grayish-brown sand and green silty clay crop out 

along State Highway 19. To the northeast along the same highway, 

in sec. 17, T. 24 N., R. 48 W., light-green silty clay and light-green fine 

silty sand crop out. In sec. 36, T. 24 N., R. 48 W., fine and coarse 

yellowish-green sand associated with greenish-white clay, capped by a

limy caliche zone, yielded a fossil vertebrate skull of Snake Creek age
GEOLOGY 41

and also punky fossil wood. North of Snake Creek, in sec. 29, T. 25 N., 

R. 49 W., a kind of material is exposed on the bank of a small creek 

that is difficult to classify. It consists of massive brownish-yellow silty 

sand associated with a thin bed of green clay and a bed of gray-green 

blocky sandstone. It looks somewhat like the lower fine sand in some 

respects but also resembles the upper fine sands. It is described with 

the upper material because it is likely that it is underlain by the channel 

that crosses the county from west to,east. Northeast of this outcrop in 

sec. 22, T. 25 N., R. 49 W., -some light-green sandy silt and silty fine 

sand are exposed in a road cut. Fine sands of the Ogallala are fairly 

well exposed in a pit at the northeast end of Bronco Lake, where there 

is 10 to 12 feet of gray fine loose sand that is thinly laminated. The beds 

are contorted and are otherwise disturbed by large concentric concretionary masses; vertical limy stems are rather abundant and also lumps 

and pockets of yellowish sand and green-white clay fragments. About 

3 miles north of this locality, in sec. 14, T. 25 N., R. 48 W., a thin 

outcrop of yellow-green loose silty stemmy sand containing reworked 

green clay lies only a few feet above the Marsland formation. Loose 

yellow sand is exposed along the same road 2 miles to the north.

In sec. 25, T. 26 N., R. 48 W., yellowish-gray loose stemmy sand 

overlies the Marsland formation. Similar limy yellow-gray sand crops 

out in sec. 4, T. 25 N., R. 47 W., at a higher altitude than a nearby 

outcrop of coarse sand supposedly of the middle coarse sand zone. Green 

and yellow-green sands crop out in the outliers in the northern part of 

the county. Green sand crops out in s«c. 19, T. 27 N., R. 47 W., in sec. 

7, T. 27 N., R. 47 W., and in sec. 31, T. 28 N., R. 47 W. Blocky green 

sandstone is exposed in sec. 14, T. 27 N., R. 48 W. Gray-green lumpy 

stemmy sandstone can be seen along the Chadron Highway in sec. 15, T. 28 

N., R. 48 W. On a hill 2 miles south of Hemingford, in sec. 30, T. 27 N., 

R. 49 W., bright-green sand and a glossy hard green cemented sandstone 

form the cap rock of the butte. The sandstone resembles hard vitreous 

sandstone of the Ogallala south of the Republican River in Franklin 

County. A mile west of Nonpareil, in sec. 30, T. 28 N., R. 50 W., 

yellow fine sand is exposed below the limy cap rock of the Ogallala. 

In sec. 18, T. 27 N., R. 50 W., yellow fine sand containing irregular 

vertical concretions is exposed.

Soft, fine-grained sandstones, green and brown in color, associated 

with beds of green clay, are found in the shallow zones penetrated by 

test holes 2, 4, 5, 6, and 7. Where most of the section is represented, 

this zone.seems to be about 100 feet thick.

On page 38 reference was made to the classification of the Ogallala 

here recognized the lower fine sand zone, the middle coarse sand zone, 

and the upper fine sand zone. There seems to be no reason to doubt
42 BOX BUTTE COUNTY, NEBRASKA

that the lower sands in the base of the channel and in exposures described above are early Ogallala and early Valentine of the Nebraska 

classification, and that the \ipper fine sand zone represents late Ogallala, 

Ash Hollow, and Snake Creek formations of the Nebraska classification.

Beds belonging to different parts of the Ogallala formation are capped 

by a white, limy rubble that can best be called a cap rock. The cap rock 

is present on some of the outliers north of Alliance, south of Nonpareil, 

and on some of the buttes northeast of Alliance. It is not very hard 

but has served to protect the soft sands fjom erosion by rain wash and 

especially by the wind. It is believed that the formation of dunes in the 

region south and east of Box Butte County was inhibited by the cap 

rock until it was removed by stream erosion. This ca^p rock was probably 

formed in late Pliocene and early Pleistocene time.

The zone of coarse sands of the Ogallala is an excellent water bearer. 

Even where it is thin, as at well 199, large supplies of water can be withdrawn from it by wells. For instance, it is reported that well 199, which 

passes through 4" feet of Ogallala gravel overlying fine sands of 

Harrison age, yields about 500 gallons a minyte. Where the coarse zone 

is thicker the wells yield much more water. The Koester well (No. 144) 

yields 1,897 gallons a minute, day and night, during the pumping 

season, and the new municipal wells at Alliance have high rates of 

production. The area where the coarse sand is sufficiently thick for 

successful development of large ground-water supplies is bounded by a 

line running about due east from a point a mile south of Alliance and by 

another line running due northeag: from Bronco Lake. T^he channel that 

trends across the county toward the west is not very wide. It probably 

passes beneath Bronco Lake and thence west-northwestward to the north 

of the inlier of Marsland (see pi. 1) in the northwest corner of T. 24 N., 

R. 50 W., after which it swerves toward the southwest, and then once 

again trends westward about parallel to Snake Creek but centered to the 

south of it. It passes a short distance south of Kilpatrick Lake. However, somewhere between test holes 1 and 2 the coarse zone becomes 

thinner, according to the available information a circumstance that 

probably makes the Ogallala in western Box Butte County accordingly 

less favorable for the production of large water supplies than in the 

eastern part* of the county.

QUATERNARY SYSTEM

Alluvium along the Niobrara River and Snake Creek Js the only 

deposit of post-Tertiary age that would be expected to bear usable 

quantities of water. So far as is known, the alluvium in both valleys is 

fine-grained sand with only small amounts of coarser material associated 

with it. This alluvium doubtless yields water sparingly to wells, but
GEOLOGICAL SURVEY WATER-SUPPLY PAPER 969 PLATE 4

A. CONTACT OF MONROE CREEK AND HAR- B. HARRISON SANDSTONE IN NORTHWEST- C. CHARACTERISTIC SEDIMENTS OF THE 

RISON SANDSTONES IN NORTHWESTERN ERN PART OF BOX BUTTE COUNTY. UPPER PART OF THE MARSLAND FORMAPART OF BOX BUTTE COUNTY. TION IN NORTHWESTERN PART OF BOX

BUTTE COUNTY.
GEOLOGICAL SURVEY WATER-SUPPLY PAPER PLATE 5

A. BOX BUTTE MEMBER OF THE SHEEP 

CREEK FORMATION IN NORTHWESTERN 

PART OF BOX BUTTE COUNTY.

B. WILD HORSE BUTTE, AN OUTLIER OF THE OGALLALA FORMATION IN EASTERN PART

OF BOX BUTTE COUNTY.
GEOLOGICAL SURVEY WATER-SUPPLY PAPER 969 PLATE 6

A. SANDSTONE OF THE OGALLALA FORMATION IN SOUTHERN PART OF BOX BUTTE

COUNTY.

B. DYER IRRIGATION \^ELL (NO. 132), IN WESTERN PART OF BOX BUTTE COUNTY.

CHARACTER AND THICKNESS OF THE FORMATIONS 43

possibly larger quantities of water could be obtained from it if wells 

were properly developed. In some places the sand acts in the manner 

of quicksand and flows into wells. The alluvium %is cased off in many 

wells, and the Tertiary sands beneath are the source of the water. Dune 

sand is generally so fine-grained that only small amounts of water can 

be extracted from it by means of wells.

CHARACTER AND THICKNESS OF THE WATER-BEARING 

FORMATIONS

The water-bearing formations that underlie Box Butte County are 

calcareous sands and silts that belong to the Monroe Creek and Harrison 

sandstones and the Marsland and Ogallala formations. The Sheep Creek 

formation is fine-grained and hence is not a good water bearer. The 

Gering sandstone, which is fairly permeable, is absent from Box Butte 

County or is unrecognized.

The Monroe Creek and Harrison sandstones and the Marsland formation dip toward the east at an average rate of about 19.5 feet to the mile 

in the northern part of the county and of about 23 feet to the mile in the 

central part of the county. The dip as it was determined from logs of 

test holes in the central part of the county is probably representative of 

the greater area, for the formations are more nearly conformable, whereas 

the determination of the dip in the northern part of the area is based 

upon outcrops in an area where the principal channels passed through 

the county, and hence the. formations are less conformable. The general 

eastward slope of the land surface is slightly less than that of the formations. Along the upland, in a line passing east-west through Hemingford the slope of the land surface is about 21 feet to the mile; along the 

lowlands of Snake Creek it is as little as 11.5 feet to the mile. Thus 

the land surface diverges slightly in the eastward direction from the 

dipping formations, and within the width of Box Butte County the 

water-bearing sands of the Miocene thicken eastward. The Ogallala 

formation, being unconformable on the Miocene formations, does not 

fit into this orderly arrangement. Along Snake Creek and in the southeastern part of the county the channel occupied by Ogallala sediments 

has been cut as much as 380. feet below the top of tte Miocene at its 

nearest outcrop, and at test hole 4 the Ogallala rests upon the Monroe 

Creek at the bottom of the channel. Thus the Ogallala thickens toward 

the east, as do the Miocene formations, but at an abrupt and inordinate 

rate. As will be shown later, this circumstance is fortunate hydrologically, 

for the Ogallala is more permeable than the Monroe Creek and Harrison 

sandstones and the Marsland formation. North and east of Alliance, near 

Box Butte Creek, the Ogallala becomes thinner because the channel in 

which it rests becomes shallower. But as the Ogallala thins, the underlying Miocene formations are restored to their normal thickness, and

694487 46 4
44 BOX BUTTE COUNTY, NEBRASKA

the aggregate thickness of water-bearing formations is not changed to 

any great degree.

The thickness of tke Miocene and Pliocene water-bearing formations 

in any given locality can be determined from test holes or the records 

of wells and measured from surface outcrops. In areas far from any 

such source of information the thickness must be estimated from cross 

sections drawn between outcrops, test holes, and wells and extended 

by extrapolation beyond these sources of information. Plate 7 shows 

four cross sections drawn across the county. For the location of the 

cross sections see plate 1. The base of the Tertiary water-bearing formations, which is the upper surface of the Brule formation, was reached 

in only one test hole No. 4. Consequently, the thickness of the Monroe 

Creek sandstone is uncertain. But as the total thickness of the Miocene 

and Pliocene formations is an important item in the consideration of 

the ground-water supplies in Box Butte County, the top of the Brule 

is plotted on the cross sections with a confidence that is apparent but 

not actual in the minds of the investigators. Nevertheless, it is probable 

that the available information indicates reliably the general magnitude 

of the thickness of the Miocene and Pliocene section. For example, the 

cross sections indicate that at Alliance the water-bearing sands are 

about 475 feet thick; of this total thickness as much as 380 feet is 

Ogallala, which contains more coarse sand and even gravel than the 

Marsland formation or the Harrison'or Monroe Creek sandstone. About 

440 feet of this water-bearing material is saturated. Farther north, in the 

southeast corner of T. 27 N., R. 47 W., in the lowlands about Box 

Butte Creek, the water-bearing material is about 430 feet thick, of 

which nearly all is saturated. Farther west the water-bearing material 

becomes less thick, and a smaller portion of it is saturated. Five miles 

west of Berea, in sec. 19, T. 26 N., R. 49 W., it is believed that test 

hole 8 would have passed through about 500 feet of Miocene waterbearing sediments, of which about 375 feet is saturated. Still farther 

west, near well 132, in sec. 10, T. 26 N., R. 52 W., the water-bearing 

material is about 330 feet thick, of which about 235 feet is saturated. 

In the valley of Snake Creek, 4 miles southeast of Kilpatrick Lake, 

the water-bearing material is about 230 -feet thick, and nearly all of 

it- is saturated. In the Niobrara Valley bottom lands, in the northwest 

corner of the county, the saturated water-bearing material is thought to 

be less than 100 feet thick, and hence large supplies of ground water 

cannot feasibly be obtained there.

POROSITY AND PERMEABILITY OF THE WATER-BEARING

MATERIAL

The thickness of the water-bearing material is not .strictly analogous 

to the depth of a surface-water reservoir. Two other characteristics
POROSITY AND PERMEABILITY 45

or properties of the material combine with the thickness to complete the 

analogy porosity and permeability. Porosity is that percentage by volume of the material that is interstitial space. Ground water can be stored 

in the interstices, completely filling them, but owing to capillary 

attraction not all of the interstitial water will drain out through gravitational attraction. Thus, porosity is not the critical property of the waterbearing material in a discussion of the movement and effective storage 

of ground water in the aquifers. Some clays have a greater porosity 

than some gravels, but the gravels are likely to yield water copiously 

and the clays scarcely at all. Porosity of materials of the kind found 

in the Miocene and Pliocene formations in Box Butte County chiefly 

uniformly grained medium to fine sands should be about 35 to 40 

percent. 1 The porosity of four samples of these formations was found 

by test to average 40 percent.

Permeability is a property of water-bearing material that expresses 

the capacity of the material to transmit water through it under specified 

conditions. The capacity of an aquifer to transmit the ground water in 

it is precisely expressed as the field coefficient of permeability and is 

defined as the quantity of water, in gallons a day, that will percolate 

under prevailing conditions through each mile of water-bearing bed 

under investigation (measured at right angles to the direction of flow) 

for each foot of thickness of the bed and for each foot per mile of 

hydraulic gradient.25 The field coefficient of permeability, which is a unit 

quantity1, is multiplied by the appropriate thickness of saturated waterbearing material and by the hydraulic gradient at the locality in question 

to derive the amount of water that will pass through the section of the 

aquifer 1 mile long, oriented normal to the hydraulic gradient.

Coefficients of permeability are easy to use but difficult to determine. 

In general, two broad lines of attack for determining them have been 

devised. One is the laboratory method of testing samples of waterbearing material for their capacity to transmit water under controlled 

conditions. Coefficients of permeability determined by laboratory methods 

can be Applied in- the field only by converting them into field coefficients. 

The conversion involves a correction for water temperature, and sometimes corrections for other factors, such as gravity and the density of 

water. The field method is applied where ground water is being discharged 

either naturally or by pumping or by artificially induced flow. The principle is that if the rate of discharge is known, together with the changes 

in gradient that are produced by the discharge (the time necessary to 

produce, the changes in gradient is required in some methods) and the

volume of water-bearing material through which the water must move

_________|

 ' Wenzftl, L. K., Methods for determining permeability of water-bearing materials, with special reference to field discharge methods: U. S. Geol. Survey Water-Supply Paper 887, 

192 pp., 1942.
46 BOX BUTTE COUNTY, NEBRASKA

to reach the point of discharge, then the field coefficient of permeability 

can be computed. Two of the most widely used of the field methods 

is Wenzel's modification of the Thiem pumping test 26 and Theis' 

analysis of the recovery of the depressed water level in a well after 

pumping has ceased.27 The various field and laboratory techniques have 

been described by Wenzel.28

In the present study only the recovery method of Theis was found 

practicable. The Thiem pumping test requires a line of observation 

wells that intersects the pumping well, an arrangement that could not 

be set up during the investigation in Box Butte County. The recovery 

of the water level in three irrigation wells (Nos. 132, 147, and 199) 

was measured after a period of pumping that lasted from 1 to 17 hours. 

From these measurements the coefficient of transmissibility, which is 

the product of the field coefficient of permeability multiplied by the 

thickness of the saturated water-bearing material, was determined for 

the material entered by these three wells. At well 132, the transmissibility 

of a probable thickness of 240 feet of Harrison and Monroe Creek sands 

was found to be 54,000,29 giving an average field coefficient of permeability of 225. At well 147 a transmissibility of 105,800 was computed. This well penetrates a part of a section that probably consists 

of about 130 feet or more of comparatively coarse Ogallala sand and 

gravel, with clay, fine sand, and silt associated, as well as about 75 feet 

of Marsland fine sand and silt, and about 245 feet of Harrison and 

Monroe Creek fine clean sand and sandstone. The average field permeability indicated is 235. At well 199 the transmissibility is calculated 

to be 144,000. This well penetrates a complex section consisting of clay, 

a bed of gravel that is about 10 feet thick on the outcrop but that was 

reported to be about 4 feet in the well, and about 300 feet of Marsland, 

Harrison and Monroe Creek sediments. The field permeability, calculated 

from a thickness of saturated water-bearing material of about 365 feet, 

is about 394, a value considerably larger than that found at the other 

wells. If the field permeability of the Harrison and Monroe Creek is 

about the same at well 199 as it was found to be at well 132, then the 

field permeability of the gravel is about 14,000 if it is 4 feet thick, as re24 Wenzel, L. K., The Thiem method for determining permeability of water-bearing materials 

and its application to the determination of specific yield results of investigations in the Platte 

River Valley, Nebr.: U. S. Geol. Survey Water-Supply Paper 679-A, 57 pp., 1936.

" Theis, C. V., The relation between the lowering of the piezometric surface and the rate and 

duration'of discharge of a well using ground-water storage: Am. Geophys. Union Trans., 16th 

Ann. Meeting, pp. S19-S24, 1935.

18 Wenzel, L. K.% Methods for determining permeability of water-bearing materials, with special reference to field discharge methods: U. S. Geol. Survey Water-Supply Paper 887, 192 pp., 

1942.

19 A second recovery test was run on this well during the period from November 6 to 

November 8, 1940. The well was pumped continuously for 8 hours. The transmissibility was 

calculated to be 51,500, but the value 54,000 is considered satisfactory and will be used in, 

this report.
DEPTH TO THE WATER TABLE 47

ported by the driller, or 5,000, if it is 10 feet thick, as it is on the 

outcrop .nearest the well. These values for the field coefficient of permeability are not excessive for gravel, although they are higher than 

for that of much of the Pleistocene gravel in the Platte Valley computed 

by Wenfcel.

A considerable measure of uncertainty becomes involved in changing 

the computed value of transmissibility into the field coefficient of permeability. It is only partly due to the lack of exact data on the thickness 

of the water-bearing sediments of the Miocene and Pliocene series. For 

throughout the section numerous concretionary beds of dense, hard limy 

sandstone have been observed, both on the outcrop and in the drilling 

of wells and test holes. As none of the wells from which the transmissibility of the sediments was determined pass through the whole section 

of saturated water-bearing material, the effective thickness of waterbearing material may in some way be diminished by the concretionary 

zones. This is certainly true to the extent that the concretionary beds 

hamper the upward movement of ground water toward the bottom of the 

pumping (or recovering) well. As expressing the transmitting properties 

of the water-bearing materials in terms of the field coefficient of permeability introduces one additional element of uncertainty, it is probable 

that wherever possible the same property should be considered in terms 

of transmissibility in the specific sense, rather than of field permeability.

In conclusion, it may be pointed out that the values of field permeability and of transmissibility seem appropriate to account for the 

specific capacity of the wells that are pumped at a high rate in Box 

Butte County. These wells compare favorably with other irrigation wells 

in Nebraska that tap more permeable but thinner water-bearing materials. 

It must be said, however, that in other areas where, the field coefficient 

of permeability has been determined by several methods the values yielded 

by the recovery method, which is the method used in Box Butte County, 

were 5, 10, or rarely 25 percent larger than the values yielded by other 

methods. Thus, all factors computed from field permeability may be 

excessive to a like degree and by the same percentage.

DEPTH TO THE WATER TABLE

The depth to water table in Box Butte County is determined by the 

configuration of the land surface and the configuration of the water 

table. In general, the water table is high where the land surface stands 

high, and low where the land surface is low. But aside from possible 

local exceptions, the water table shows a more subdued and generalized 

topography than does the land surface. Hence, as a rule, the depth to the 

water table is greatest where the land is highest. In the bottom lands 

along Snake Creek and the Niobrara River and in the lowlands in the
48 BOX BUTTE COUNTY, NEBRASKA

eastern part of the county the water table lies at a depth of less than 

25 feet. Within these areas wells can obtain water and deliver it to the 

land surface with very little pumping lift. But most of these areas are 

also places of ground-water discharge, where vegetation can reach the 

water table or the capillary fringe and thus draw its vital supplies from 

an ever renewing source. Direct evaporation from the land surface 

occurs in parts of these areas. This natural subirrigation is beneficial 

for harvesting fodder crops and for cultivating other types of crop 

but not so favorable for applying ground water for artificial irrigation. 

In such areas of shallow water table there is great risk of the accumulation of alkali after irrigation has been carried on for some time.

In the lower reaches of Snake Creek and in the eastern part of the 

county are broad tracts of land beneath which the.water table lies at 

depths of 25 to 50 feet below the land surface. Topographically these 

tracts are mainly terraces, and some of the most promising irrigable 

lands are situated on them. In the southern parts of the county, where 

the water table lies at depths of 25 to 50 feet, the soil is very sandy. 

In the upper reaches of Snake Creek, where the depth to the water table 

is small and along the Niobrara Valley the land is rough and dissected 

and hence not economically valuable.

A large area beneath which the water table lies at depths of 50 to 100 

feet extends along the south and east sides of the central upland and 

south of Snake Creek. This area is smooth in the east and southeast, 

and its slightly rolling aspect does not restrict the irrigable land seriously, 

but in the south it is rougher and more sandy. The areas where the 

water table lies at similar depths along the Niobrara Valley and the 

valley of Dry Creek are deeply eroded.

In the central and north-central parts of the county, referred to as 

the central upland, the water table lies at depths that range from 100 

to as much as 275 feet below the land surface. The depth is greatest 

in the northwestern part of the county, and in the northern part, where 

the water table slopes off steeply toward the Niobrara Valley. It is 

within this area that the depth to the water table becomes so great that 

successful irrigation becomes problematic, owing to the high pumping 

lift. The yield of stock wells is also generally small because the "winddriven force pumps are taxed by the great pumping lift. The land, however, is mainly very desirable for agriculture.

Land use in Box Butte County is to a great extent controlled by the 

type of soil, which in turn depends considerably on the nature of the 

underlying geologic formation. But depth to water is also an important 

control, which will assert itself more and more as water from underground sources is integrated into the agricultural system in the county. 

Those lands where the water table is at extremely small depths or where
MOVEMENT OF GROUND WATER 49

it is at extremely great depths will probably be changed little. Areas of 

shallow water table are now used as hay flats a very apt use and in 

areas of deep water table the pumping lift becomes an effective limiting 

factor. But in areas where the water table lies roughly from 25 to 100 

feet below the land surface the possibilities of marked increase in the 

use of ground water are excellentIn the Monroe Creek and Harrison sandstones and the Marsland 

formation the numerous dense concretionary sandstones tend to inhibit 

the downward seepage of the water that soaks into the ground and 

passes below the reach of plant roots. It is reported that occasionally 

a little water is detected in the drilling of wells lying on some of these 

concretionary zones above the water table. This water, to the extent that 

it can flow into a well, belongs to a perched zone of saturation and is 

called perched water. The perched water is believed to flow laterally 

along the dense zones of impermeable beds and so to bypass them and 

to reach the water table ultimately. Two localities were discovered 

where the perched zone of saturation yields enough water to be of practical significance. One area is in the northwestern part of T. 27 N., 

R. 48 W., and the other is in the southeastern part of T. 28 N., R. 47 W. 

This perched water exists in a rather thin film of Ogallala sand that 

overlies the clays of the Box Butte member of the Sheep Creek formation. 

The depth of the perched water is about 30 feet or less, depending on 

the topography at the land surface. A few wells end at this zone and 

draw the water for small domestic and stock supplies.

MOVEMENT OF GROUND WATER

The topic on movement of ground water includes discussion of the 

direction of movement and the rate of movement in the order .named. 

The direction of horizontal movement of ground water can best be 

visualized on a comprehensive scale by means of a contour map on the 

upper surface of the zone of saturation the water table. Such a map 

(see pi. 8) is constructed by relating the measured depths to water 

level in numerous wells to some fixed datum, as sea level. In this study 

the approximate altitude above sea level of the water-level in the wells 

was determined by means of two surveying aneroids. The levels were 

run from United States Coast and Geodetic Survey bench marks, one 

instrument being carried to the wells in which the water level had been 

measured and the other being stationed at the bench mark to detect the 

changes irt barometric pressure that might render the readings at wells 

in error.

In massive uniform sands, such as the water-bearing formations in 

Box Butte County, the ground water may be presumed essentially to 

move uniformly at right aligles to the contour lines from higher to 

lower contours. Thus as the eye scans the contours, crossing from higher
50 BOX BUTTE COUNTY, NEBRASKA

to lower at right angles, it closely duplicates the flow lines along which 

the ground water is moving. The contour interval is 10 feet. The contours indicate that ground water is entering Box Butte County chiefly 

from two areas from the tablelands to the west, in Sioux County, and 

from the sand-hills area to the south, in Morrill County. A subsidiary 

underflow from the west is also indicated along the valley of the 

Niobrara River and along Snake Creek. In the south the ground water is 

moving obliquely toward Snake Creek, and all of it enters the lowlands 

of Snake -Creek Valley. In the west the water that enters the county 

begins to spread out, as it were, some going southeastward into Snake 

Creek Valley, some going eastward beneath the central upland, and some 

going northward and northeastward to the Niobrara Valley. The destination of the water in the eastern part of the county is one of three 

places: Lower Snake Creek Valley, the undrained lowlands northeast 

of Alliance, or the drainage basin of Box Butte Creek. In Box Butte 

Creek the ground water is ultimately discharged mainly as underflow 

toward the Niobrara Valley, or by phreatic runoff into Box Butte Creek. 

But in the lowlands in the southeastern and eastern parts of the county 

the ground water is disposed of by evaporation and transpiration.

If the transmissibility of the aquifer remains constant from place 

to place then any change in the hydraulic gradient, as expressed by 

the spacing of the water-table contours, means a change in the* rate of 

horizontal movement of the ground water. But in a body of ground water, 

such as'exists in Box Butte County, changes in the hydraulic gradient 

may be caused by a variety of circumstances some of which can be 

identified and some of which are too local, insignificant, or obscure to 

be identified. For instance, in the southern part of the county, in T. 24 N., 

Rs. 49*W. and 50 W., the gradient is unusually steep. The steepening 

is thought to be due to the high rate of recharge that prevails in the. 

sand hills of northern Morrill County; hence, the discharge through 

the sediments at this locality is unusually high, and so is the velocity 

of the horizontal movement of ground water. No change in transmissibility is-indicated by the existing information. Along the edge of 

the Niobrara Valley there is another steepening of the gradient of the 

water table, but for a different reason. Here the saturated material 

becomes restricted in thickness and hence is less transmissible. A greater 

rate of movement is required to hold the discharge to an appropriate level 

in this area. In the eastern and southeastern parts of the county, near 

the Sheridan County line, the gradient of the water table diminishes 

markedly. In this area the ground water from the deeper parts of the 

aquifer is rising toward the surficial points of discharge, such as seepage 

areas and lakes. As the vertical component fof the movement increases, 

the horizontal component decreases in measure, and the contours are
REPLENISHMENT OF GROUND WATER 51

farther apart. One other important area where the gradient of the water 

table changes is in the northeastern part of the county; it is the large 

bodies of perched water here that were previously described. The 

gradient steepens, and the reason is thought to be the decrease in the 

amount of recharge added to the zone of saturation. Thus, anN increase 

in rate of horizontal movement is required to maintain a commensurate 

discharge through the saturated section of water-bearing material. The 

relation of the contours to recharge to the zone of saturation is discussed at length on pp. 51-57. In addition, some local changes in gradient 

are difficult to explain and probably do not indicate any important variation in conditions. It can be stated that the gradient of the water table 

is rather uniform eastward across the axis of the central upland and 

averages about 14.5 feet to the mile. The relative rate of horizontal 

movement of ground water has been mentioned in the foregoing discussion. The average rate of this movement can be computed in absolute 

terms. By the average rate of horizontal movement is meant that rate 

which is required to maintain the indicated discharge through a given 

cross section of the aquifer. On the central upland a coefficient of permeability of 245 was computed for the sediments penetrated by the Dyer 

irrigation well (No. 132). Using this figure for permeability, and 

the average hydraulic gradient of 14.5 feet to the mile, which prevails 

on the upland, and a porosity of 40 percent, which is the average porosity 

of samples taken from the outcrops of the Monroe Creek and Harrison 

sandstones and the Marsland formation, the average rate of movement 

of ground water is computed to be 90 feet a year. The porosity of the 

Monroe Creek, as indicated by the available sample, is higher than the 

porosity of the Harrison sandstone and the Marsland and Ogallala formations, which are 36 to 38.8 percent. If the porosity of 37 percent is used, 

the average horizontal velocity of the ground water is 100 feet a year. 

The range in these calculated values is not great, and it is the magnitude 

that is of interest. As compared with the rate of ground-water movement computed in some other parts of the country, the rate in Box Butte 

County is rather low. Thus, in the Platte Valley near the Grand Island, 

Wenzel 30 computed an average velocity of about 230 feet a year; near 

Kearney, 1,423 feet a year; and near Lexington, 985 feet a year. In 

these localities the, water-bearing material is much more permeable 

than in Box Butte County.

REPLENISHMENT OF GROUND WATER

The ground water that is slowly migrating eastward across Box Butte 

County through the Tertiary aquifers has its origin in one of two sources.

so Lugn, A. L., and Wenzel, L. K., Ground-water resources of south-central Nebraska, with 

special reference to the Platte River Valley between Chapman and Gothenburg: U. S. Geol. 

Survey Water-Supply Paper 779, pp. 132-137, 1938.
52 BOX BUTTE COUNTY, NEBRASKA

A part of it enters the county by lateral percolation from lands to the 

west and south, and a part of it finds .its way to the zone of saturation 

by downward seepage of rain water and snow water within the boundaries of the county. Perhaps a small amount of water enters the county 

as stream flow and contributes water to the zone of saturation by influent 

seepage. The water that enters the county by lateral percolation will be 

discussed first.

Detailed inspection of the water-table contours on plate 8 shows rather 

conclusively that the water that enters the county by lateral percolation 

from the areas to the west and south contributes relatively little to the 

immense reservoir beneath the eastern part of the county. Using the best 

estimates available for the transmissibility of the water-bearing materials, 

together with the hydraulic gradient by which the water is urged into 

movement, it is computed that about 14 million gallons a day, or 15,680 

acre-feet a year, crosses the 4,350-foot water-table contour from the west. 

Of this amount, about 80 percent enters the natural ground-water discharge area in the lowlands of Snake Creek Valley. All the water crossing 

the same contour south of Snake Creek enters Snake Creek Valley rather 

directly; north of Snake Creek the water is deflected toward the valley 

more obliquely. At the north end of the contour an estimated 12 percent 

of the total amount moves northward and northeastward to the Niobrara 

Valley; and about 8 percent moves to the eastern part of the county. 

This 8 per cent represents a little more than one million gallons a day, 

or about 1,120 acre-feet a year.

The implication of the foregoing estimates is important to an understanding of the ground water in Box Butte County, for it means that 

recharge from the land surface must account for a great part of the 

water in the Tertiary water-bearing sediments. If it should be assumed 

that all ground water in the county between Snake Creek and the 

north 'boundary is derived from subsurface percolation from areas 

beyond the boundary, then there should be certain necessary and recognizable criteria. If the criteria are shown not to exist, then the assumption can be considered to be wrong. For the purpose of the discussion 

figure 2 was constructed. It shows fifty-foot contours, somewhat generalized to fit the reduced scale, across which the flow lines have heen 

drawn at right angles to the contours. Areas in which the water table 

lies at a depth of 100 feet or more are enclosed in the broken line, iln 

the central Upland these flow lines diverge from the western area. This 

spreading out of the flow lines shows that if all the ground water in 

the county originated as underflow from the west, then one of two alternative results should obtain: (1) A decrease in the velocity of groundwater movement, or (2) a decrease in the thickness of the saturated 

material above the impermeable platform of the Brule surface. It can
REPLENISHMENT OF GROUND WATER 53

FIGURE 2. Map of Box Butte County showing contours of the water table. Dashed line endoses area in which water table lies at a depth of 100 feet or more. A-F, sections used 

for computing recharge.
54 BOX BUTTE COUNTY, NEBRASKA

be stated definitely that neither of these results has been observed. In fact, 

the contrary condition exists. The thickness of the saturated material 

increases from west to east, and the slope of the water table remains 

about constant across the central upland, at about 14 or 15 feet to the 

mile. This being so, then one of two circumstances must account for it: 

(1) The average permeability of the water-bearing material must undergo a systematic and gradual decline across the county from west to 

east, or (2) much of the ground water beneath the central and eastern 

parts of the central upland must have as its origin recharge from the 

land surface. As for this pair of alternatives, It can be said that such 

a decline in permeability as would be required has not been detected. 

It is true that certain changes in the average permeability of the saturated 

part of the Tertiary aquifers do take place. In the western part of the 

county the zone of saturation involves all the Monroe Creek and a part 

of the Harrison sandstone. In the central part of the county all the 

Monroe Creek and Harrison sandstones and the lower part of the Marsland formation are saturated. In the eastern part of the county all the 

Monroe Creek and Harrison sandstones and all the Marsland formation 

are saturated, and an ever increasing proportion of the Ogallala is also 

water-filled. Thus, up to the point where all the Harrison is saturated, the 

average permeability is gradually increasing; as more and more of the 

Marsland formation is saturated the average permeability declines somewhat; and still farther east, as more of the Ogallala is saturated, the 

average permeability again increases. These changes in the average permeability of the saturated parts of the aquifers must be considered in 

conjunction with the thickness of the saturated material if it is to 

bear on the present problem. It can be shown by computation that the 

increase in the saturated thickness eastward more than compensates 

for the decline in average permeability that accompanies the intrusion 

of the silty Marsland formation into the zone of saturation. This means 

that more water crosses each contour successively toward the east. Thus, 

it may be said without qualification that the logically necessary corollaries of the assumption that the ground-water beneath the central 

upland in the central and eastern parts of the county is all derived 

from percolation from regions to the west are false. This may be 

regarded as proof that much of the ground water in these parts of the 

county is derived from recharge on the upland plain that -has seeped 

down through many feet of unsaturated material to the water table.

The amount of water contributed by recharge from the land surface 

on the central upland can be computed. The procedure used is as 

follows: Sections A through F were selected in such a way that they 

will all lie between one and the same pair of flow lines. (See fig, 2.) 

As the flow lines diverge from west to east, the sections farther east
REPLENISHMENT OF GROUND WATER 55

become longer than those in the west. Section A, the section farthest 

west, is the shortest, and section E, which is in the eastern part of the 

county, is the longest. Because of spatial limitations, section F is compared with only a part of section E, that part being referred to as E1. 

The values for average field permeability of the saturated water-bearing 

material found at wells 132 and 147 were broken down in terms of the 

formations penetrated by tliese wells in order to fit the. materials 

found at each cross section. Thus, the average field permeability of the 

Ogallala found by this method is 423; of the Marsland formation, 67; 

of the Harrison sandstone, 333; and of the Monroe Creek sandstone, 

200. By assigning the average field permeability of the four formations to their appropriate thickness represented at each section, the 

transmissibility was computed for each section. The average gradient 

at each section was measured from the water-table contour map. The 

transmissibility multiplied by the average gradient, multiplied by the 

length of the section, equals the quantity of water crossing each section 

within a given time. When the discharge is determined it is found 

that more water is crossing each section farther east than the one 

immediately to the west. This difference is an increment that necessarily 

has its origin as recharge from the land surface between the sections. 

Thus, more water crosses section C than section B. The difference 

in these quantities is considered to be recharge. This recharge can be 

expressed either as an absolute amount or as inches over the area 

between the two sections and bounded laterally by the pair of diverging 

flow lines. The computed recharge between pairs of adjacent cross sections is set forth in the following table:

TABLE 6. Computed recharge between sections A through F, in acre-feet a year, 

and in inches a year over a tributary area

Section

A

B

C

D

E

E'

F

Daily discharge 

(gallons)

712,800

6,978,100

11,102,100

14,168,000

18,153,500

9,750,200

13,603,800

Daily recharge between

pairs of adjacent 

sections

(gallons)

6,265,300

4,124,000

3,065,900

3,98S,500

3,853,600

Annual recharge 

(acre-feet)

7.011

4,614

3,438

4,469

4,312

Annual recharge

over tributary 

area

(inches)

4.24

1.86

1.82

1.15

2.24

The computed recharge in table 6 exhibits some interesting variations. The greatest amount 4.24 inches a year takes place between 

sections A and B. Much of this land is underlain by Harrison sands. 

As has been pointd out, the wind has excavated large hollows that are 

not only undrained, but that gather to themselves small centripetal
56 BOX BUTTE COUNTY, NEBRASKA

drainage systems that bring storm runoff during rains of high intensity. 

The water thus brought in stands in these hollows until it is disposed 

of by evaporation and by seepage into the ground. The mechanism for 

heavy recharge is certainly present and coincides with the high computed value. Elsewhere in the tributary area between these two sections 

the lower beds of the Marsland formation are exposed at the surface; 

this part of the formation is lacking in continuous limy zones and is 

fine-grained by fairly well sorted fine silty sand. The eastward bulging 

of the contours is very well marked, which is a criterion of recharge. 

Although section A is very short, and the possibility of error is considerably greater than in the longer sections, the central fact of the great 

amount of recharge is probably correct. Between sections D and E the 

recharge is smallest. Between these sections the grea.test proportion of 

area is covered by the Box Butte clay. It was pointed out that in the 

northeastern part of the county this clay upholds a perched zone of 

saturation, and in this area the contours do not bulge eastward. This 

observation also seems to indicate that the Box Butte inhibits recharge 

in areas where it has not been dissected greatly by the upland gullies. 

The recharge between sections Ef and F is greater than that between 

all other sections except A and B. Here is a combination of two favorable factors that operate toward large recharge the outcrop of the 

coarser Ogallala sands at the land surface, and the diminished depth 

to the water table. The 3,900-foot contour bulges eastward much 

more than the 3,950-foot contour, thus indicating the increased recharge. 

It is thought that these variations in the computed recharge, by coinciding with conditions that should produce them, tend to confirm their 

value as indicators of an actual process.

The area between sections B and D may be considered typical of 

much of the central upland, and hence the recharge computed for this 

area is probably typical of much of the central upland. The depth to 

the water table is nearly everywhere more than 100 feet, and the 

Marsland formation is exposed over nearly all of it, although a certain 

amount is covered by the Box Butte clay. It seems, therefore, that an 

annual recharge of about 1.75 inches may approximate the average 

recharge on the central upland of Box Butte County. In this, part of 

the county the recharge would be expected to be the least, whereas in 

the lowlands, where the water table lies at a lesser distance below the 

land surface and where sandstone or dune sand covers the land, the 

recharge would be considerably greater.

Insofar as the depth to the water table affects the amount of recharge, 

a certain indefinite generalization can be made. Where the water table 

lies at greatest depth the recharge is supposed to be least, most delayed, 

and steadiest. In the areas of moderately deep and deep water table the
NATURAL GROUND-WATER DISCHARGE 57

increase in recharge is not offset by an increase in loss from the zone of 

saturation into the atmosphere; but in the areas of shallow water table, 

where recharge is greatest and most immediately responsive to changes 

in precipitation, the losses from the zone of saturation through evaporation and transpiration more than offset the increased recharge. 

Thus, areas into which ground water percolates and from which it is 

discharged by evaporation and transpiration also receive the greatest 

temporary contribution from recharge at the land surface.

Recharge c^in be detected qualitatively by changes in the water level 

in observation wells. Plate 9 reveals that water levels in wells 2, 16, 17, 

and 378 rose after heavy precipitation in the early summer of 1938. The 

water level in all these wells is less than 30 feet below the land surface. 

Well 16 showed two rises one, amounting to about a half foot, occurred 

early in the summer and was followed by a decline to about its previous 

level; another, later in the summer, carried the water level to a stage 

about three-quarters of a foot higher. Wells 16 and 17 are both within 

the outcrop area of the Ogallala formation. It is significant that well 

15, which is not far from 16 and 17 but is in an area where the Box 

Butte clay is exposed at the surface, showed no rise during the summer of 1938. Well 2 showed a slow rise of water level that gradually 

flattened out during the later part of the summer. Well 378, in which 

the water level lies very near the land surface, showed rapid rises and 

equally rapid declines as the precipitation waxed and waned.

The observation wells in areas of deep water table have shown 

only a slight irregular downward trend during the observation period 

of 6 years. As the ground water in those areas is slowly draining 

out into the lowlands, it is evident that the recharge which has been 

shown to take place there must be slow and steady. All the pulses 

characteristic of recharge in areas of shallow water table have been 

smoothed out, and an almost perfect state of equilibrium between outgo 

and income has been attained there.

In conclusion, it has been computed that about 15,680 acre-feet a 

year of ground water crosses the 4,350-foot contour and enters Box 

Butte County from the region to the west. Let it be recalled that all 

but about 1,000 acre-feet a year is ultimately diverted into the lowlands 

of the Snake Creek and Niobrara Valleys. Then this amount of percolation may be compared with the 20,160 acre-feet a year that crosses 

section E in the east-central part of the county (fig. 2), and some idea 

of the importance of recharge from the land surface to the ground-water 

supplies of Box Butte County may be obtained.

NATURAL GROUND-WATER DISCHARGE

It has been pointed out in a previous paragraph that the ground water 

in Box Butte County is migrating slowly from areas of high water
58 BOX BUTTE COUNTY, NEBRASKA

table into areas of natural ground-water discharge. Ground water 

in the northern third of the county drains into the lowlands of the 

Niobrara, either directly or through Box Butte Creek. Once in these 

lowlands, the ground water is dissipated either by evaporation and 

transpiration or by runoff and subsurface underflow down the Niobrara 

Valley. But the ground water in the southern two-thirds of the county 

can be discharged only by evaporation and transpiration. There is 

neither runoff nor subsurface underflow out of this a^rea, although 

during rare floods Snake Creek sometimes pours into the sand hills to 

the east of Box Butte County. The ground water, moving into the areas 

of shallow water table, conies within reach of the plant roots directly, 

or the capillary fringe intercepts the root zone, and transpiration takes 

place during the growing season. Where the water table and capillary 

fringe intercept the land surface, ground water is also evaporated 

directly into the atmosphere; but evaporation probably accounts for 

much less water in a year than transpiration. As the water near the 

land surface is removed, it is replaced by more water moving in from 

the margins of the discharge areas and also by water that moves vertically upward from deeper parts of the zone of saturation. During the 

nongrowing season it must be supposed that evaporation becomes the 

dominant process of ground-water discharge, and hence the total 

amount of ground water discharged is rather small.

The amount of ground water that moves into the natural discharge 

area and that is thence discharged into the atmosphere in the south 

two-thirds of the county can be approximately determined. A point 

was selected on the 3,900-foot contour in the eastern part of the 

county, north of which it appeared that ground water was deflected into 

the drainage system of Box Butte Creek and south of which the 

ground water discharged into the undrained lowlands northeast of 

Alliance. Then from this point westward a gradient line was constructed at right angles to the water-table contours. This flow line is 

the north boundary of the area in which the ground-water discharge 

is to be specifically studied. It is labeled the ground-water divide in 

figure 2. It should be noted that it has no relation to the surface-water 

divide between the Niobrara River and Snake Creek drainage basins 

that lies farther north. It follows that all ground water that 

enters the area south of the ground-water divide from outside and 

all that originates on it from infiltration must be discharged into the 

seepage areas. The underflow from the west has already been computed; and 12,545 acre-feet a year is calculated to enter the part of 

the county under consideration. The amount of underflow from the 

sand-hills region to the south of the county is less accessible for computation because the geologic conditions are not so well known. How-
NATURAL GROUND-WATER DISCHARGE ^|>9

ever, by applying the known transmissibilities found in comparable 

parts of the county and averaging them, a usable value, was obtained. 

The transmissibility at the west end of the south boundary of the 

county is taken to be 56,000, based on fairly reliable values of permeability and thickness of saturated material. In the center of the south 

boundary of the county, the value of transmissibility found at well 

199 was used 144,000. For the east end of the boundary line the 

value of "transmissibility found at section E (see fig. 2) and used in 

the study of recharge was applied, for conditions there are thought 

to be applicable. This value is 82,000. The average transmissibility used 

to compute underflow from the areas south of the county becomes 

94,000. The gradient of the water table was weighted and averaged 

from direct measurement and was 25.5 feet to the mile. The length 

of the section across which the water is moving was determined 

from measurement of the sections of water-table contours arranged 

en echelon. It is 27.5 miles. The product of these values gives an underflow of 73,700 acre-feet a year from the south. As for the ground 

water originating within this southern two-thirds of the county ,as 

recharge, two separate categories must be recognized. The first is the 

recharge on the upland areas, and the second is the rain that falls pn 

the seepage areas themselves, all of which must be discharged from 

them. Recharge on the upland is believed to average about 2.5 inches a 

year over the area outside the points of.natural discharge. This recharge accounts for 60,130 acr&-feet a year. In those lowlands where 

the water table lies at a depth of less than 25 leet below the land surface, it is assumed that all the rainfall on them must be removed by the 

same agencies as those that remove the ground water that percolates 

into them. A part of this precipitation enters the zone of saturation pr 

capillary fringe, before it is discharged; the rest of it -is discharged 

immecjliately or stored at the land surface temporarily. For the seepage, 

areas as a whole this is not a very wrong assumption, because, fixcept 

for about 12 square miles south of Snake Creek in the south-central 

part of the county, the ground water in these seepage areas lies 10 feet 

or less below the land surface. A yearly precipitation of 16.73 inches 

falling on the 195 square miles of discharge area is equivalent to about 

173,970 acre-feet a year. The total computed amount of water discharged by transpiration and evaporation is the sum of all the quantities 

determined, from which is subtracted an estimated 1,900 acre-feet a 

year that is pumped-from the wells in the southern two-thirds of the 

county. The net. computed discharge from these .discharge, areas , is 

31&450 ^acre-feet a year,, or 2.55 acre-feet an acre a year, of wjhich 

144,480 acre/-feet a year, or 1.16 acre-feet a year for each acre, entered 

the. ; discharge areas from outside by grpun4Twater? percolation. Thje r,est

694487 46 5
60 BOX'BtfTTE COUNTY, NEBRASKA

fell on the discharge areas as rain and snow. An unknown but a probably 

unimportant amount of : water enters the county as underflow from 

the east; a small amount may leave the southeast corner of the county 

by underflow; and an indeterminate amount of surface runoff finds its 

way into the discharge areas from the higher lands during rains of 

high intensity. These items are not accounted for. They tend somewhat 

to compensate .and probably are not quantitatively great in relation to 

the quantities that have been accounted for.

The loss of water in the undrained lowlands represents about onehalf of the amount of water that normally falls in 1 year on the 

southern two-thirds of the county. The total precipitation is computed 

to be 606,335 acre-feet a year; the total discharge from the discharge 

areas, 318,450 acre-feet a year. Of the total amount of water dropped 

as rain and snow on the area in question, 173,970 acre-feet a year fell 

on the seepage areas themselves, and 432,365 acre-feet a year fell on 

what are considered the uplands, outside the seepage areas. Of this 

432,365 acre-feet, 60,130 acre-feet a year, or about 14 percent, is 

computed to have reached the zone of saturation as recharge. The 

remaining 372,235 acre-feet a year, or about 14.23 inches (86 percent 

of the total precipitation), is annually lost to the atmosphere or, to a 

small degree, runs off as ephemeral stream flow into the discharge 

areas. The water that does not run off is evaporated from standing water 

on the flat uplands or in undrained wind-scoured depressions and 

from plants and other objects on the land surface; some is readily 

transpired by the upland prairie vegetation; and the rest is temporarily 

stored in the soil of the root zone, to be extracted by plant roots and 

transpired at a later time. A small amount of this water may possibly 

pass below the root zone but later may be delivered to the root zone 

or land surface by capillary force or removed from the soil by evaporation. It seems, therefore, that much of the computed 86 percent of the 

rainfall on the upland is lost and that about 14 percent reaches the 

water table and is ultimately discharged as ground water from undrained discharge areas. It may be of interest to note that the total 

discharge of the Niobrara River at Dunlap, Dawes County, in the 

water year 1936-37 was equal to about 0.36 inches of water over the 

whole drainage area of 1,550 square miles. Thus, of about 12 inches 

of precipitation that fell during 1936-37, only 3 percent appeared in the 

river as runoff.

The discovery through field and experimental investigations of the 

great amount of water that plants can dispose of through transpiration 

has been well-nigh revolutionary in the study of hydrology. If the computed amount of water discharged from areas of shallow water table 

in Box Butte County are of the correct magnitude then about 30
GROUND-WATER STORAGE AND, SPECIFIC YIELD gl

inches of water are evaporated and transpired 'during a normal year, 

and about 14 inches of water are evaporated and transpired each year 

from the upland areas. According to information furnished by W. L. 

Tolstead, of the Conservation and Survey Division of the University 

of Nebraska, 4 feet of water was consumed by arrowhead, wildrice, 

bulrush, and cattail in Cherry County, Nebrf , between July 9 and September 20, 1937. A like amount was consumed by swamp grasses and 

tall meadow grasses during the same period, in areas where the water 

table lay about 3 feet below the land surface. The true prairie grasses 

in areas where the water table lies at depths of 3 to 6 feet below the 

surface were estimated by Tolstead to have transpired about one-half 

as .much water in the same period as the other types of vegetation cited. 

As the water table declines, the grasses obtain .and consume less water. 

These figures cannot be quantitatively applied .to Box Butte County, 

but they illustrate that the lowlands of western Nebraska are tenanted 

with potent agents for getting rid of water. In addition, the evaporation 

from water surfaces, as measured at the Box Butte Experiment Farm 

of the University of Nebraska near Alliance, in May, June, July, 

August, and September, 1938, was 39.18 inches. It seems, therefore, 

that the computed losses of water from the areas of shallow water table 

are not excessive in the light of the above-mentioned information.

GROUND-WATER STORAGE AND SPECIFIC YIELD

Ground-water storage within an aquifer may be construed to be 

one of two quantities the total amount of fixed water within the pore 

spaces of the aquifer, or the amount of the stored water that will move 

out of the pore spaces under the force of gravity. Obviously, the second 

kind of storage that which is available to wells, springs, and perennial 

or intermittent streams is the significant one in a study of water resources. But ground-water storage, thus qualified in terms of availability, becomes a rather elusive quantity, as will be shown.

The relation between mobile water and fixed water in an aquifer 

is expressed by the term "specific yield" of the aquifer. The specific 

yield of an aquifer is defined by Meinzer 31 as the "ratio of (1) the 

volume of water which, after being saturated, it will yield by gravity to 

(2) its own volume." This means that if 1 cubic foot of saturated 

water-bearing material will yield by draining under the force of gravity a volume of water of 0.15 cubic foot, the.specific yield of that 

water-bearing material is 15 percent. Under natural conditions in an 

aquifer that is exposed at the land surface and that has a specific yield 

of 15 percent, a recharge amounting to 0.15 foot over the area of the 

aquifer will produce a rise of the water, table of 1 foot. Conversely, a

81 Meinzer, O. E., Outline of ground-water hydrology, with definitions: U. S. Geol. Survey 

Water-Supply Paper 494, p. 28, 1923.
62 BOX BUTTE COUNTY, NEBRASKA

decline of the water table in this aquifer of 1 foot indicates the loss 

of water equivalent to 0.15 foot distributed over the area of the aquifer. 

In detail, where minute quantities of water are being considered, specific 

yield is a difficult quantity to determine; the length of time for all 

available water to be removed by percolation under gravity is uncertain; the nature of the forces that hold or impede the movement 

of water in a permeable material is still being explored; the accuracy 

of the known methods of determining the value of specific yield in 

a given aquifer is not fully known; and other aspects of it are likewise unclarified. But on a regional scale, specific yield is an adequate 

and necessary factor and marks the effective reclamable storage of 

water in an aquifer. «

In his discussions of the fluctuations of water levels in the observation wells in Nebraska, Wenzel32 has assumed that the average specific 

yield of the water-bearing material in the State is 15 percent. For the 

purpose of certain illustrations concerning the ground water stored in 

the aquifers of Box Butte County, a specific yield of 15 percent will 

be assigned to these aquifers. It is believed that this assumed yield 

is so near enough true average specific yield of these sediments that 

the conclusions arrived at will be essentially correct.

 With a specific yield of 15 percent, an area of 1,076 square miles,, 

and an average thickness of saturated material of 300 feet, the stored 

available water in Box Butte County is 31,000,000 acre-feet. This storage may be compared with the amount of rain that normally falls on 

Box Butte County (assuming that the normal precipitation that falls 

at Alliance prevails uniformly over the county). Thus, 16.73 inches of 

precipitation over the 1,076 square miles amounts to 989,965 acre-feet 

of water a year, which means that more than 31 years' supply of rainfall is stored in available form beneath the surface of Box Butte 

County. This enormous storage, which is in a stable but dynamic 

state, can be depleted by natural and artificial discharge or can be replenished in the long run" at essentially the same rate by underflow 

from areas outside the county and by recharge from precipitation on 

the land surface within the county.

Another application of specific yield can be made for the purpose 

of illustration. If pumping were carried on in a section of land at 

such a rate and for such a duration that the average draw-down of the

 water table would be 1 foot for the whole square mile of area, then, 

with a specific yield of 15 percent, 96 acre-feet would necessarily have 

been withdrawn. Or, stated in the reverse order, the withdrawal of 

96 acre-feet would produce a draw-down, which, if it were evenly distributed over 1 square mile, would be equal to 1 foot. The draw-down

32 See U. S. Geol. Survey Water-Supply Papers 777, 817, 840, 845, 886, and 908.
EFFECTS OF PUMPINQ ^WELLS ON WATER LEVELS

by pumping a Tyell isr not evenly distributed over a large 

area but is greatest at the pumped well. More will be said r of -clqflirdow^s jra Jjie, next section ,of tfcre ; , ->--:r

t%1 r: <^harge.,'in- the eastern part of the -county has. been, computed 

to be 2.24 inches a year under normal conditions. This recharge woti^d, 

in an aquifer having a specific yield of ,15 percent, produce a rise of the 

water table of 1.24 feet; -On the upland the recharge was computed 

to be 1.15 inches a year. This recharge would produce an annual rise 

of the water table of 0.64 foot. It must be understood that this rise, if 

it were plotted, would not be superimposed on a horizontal base; 

it might, and in the recharge on the uplands it probably does, appear 

simply as a nullification of the decline of the water table that would 

take place if recharge were halted. Thus no positive rise of the water 

table would be expected. -

EFFECTS OF PUMPING WELLS ON WATER LEVELS CONSIDERED

THEORETICALLY n

Having computed tt^e transmissibility and permeability of the Tertiary aquifers, and having assumed an apparently reasonable value for 

the specific yield of these aquifers, we can compute the draw-downs 

that a well pumping under certain given conditions would produce at 

any -distance from it, and after any desired interval of pumping. For 

instance, let it be supposed that a well is pumping at a rate of i,000 

gallons a minute without interruption during an irrigation period of 

4 months. The draw-down of the water level at the pumped well can 

be determined theoretically after the first few hours of pumping, or 

after the first day, or week, or month, or at the end of the entire 

4 months. Moreover, the effects of the pumping can be predicted on the 

water level in a neighboring well at a distance of 10 feet, or a quarter 

of a mile, a half mile, or any other reasonable distance from the pumped 

well at any desired time after pumping begins. If the neighboring well 

happens to be also a pumped well, the mutual interference of drawdowns can also be predicted at each well, or the combined draw-down 

of both wells at any point between them can be computed theoretically. 

This process cannot be said absolutely to represent reality in the present 

study for several reasons but is presented as an illustration that approximates reality. In the first place no outstanding group of wells collectively 

present a major ground-water problem to which the method under 

discussion could be applied, and in the second place the theory of this 

procedure imposes certain limitations that 'arise from the mathematical 

assumptions inherent in the basic formula. However, the computations 

about to be presented are a kind of summation of the quantitative
64 BOX BUTTE COUNTY. NEBRASKA

hydrological factors that have been searched out in the preceding 

discussions. ...

The theoretical appraisal of the effects of pumping of wells on the 

surrounding water table is based on the nonequilibrium formula of 

Theis,33 which states that

114.< /

CD 

_1.87r*5"

. '

ft

in which

s is the draw-down at any point, in feet,

q is the rate of discharge of the well, in gallons a minute,

T is the coefficient of transmissibility, v

r is the distance from the discharging well to the point

where draw-down is to be determined, in feet, 

S is the specific yield (or, under artesian conditions, the

coefficient of storage), and 

* is the time the well has been discharging, in days.

1 R7V2 C 

The calculation of s involves determining the value of ~ , the reading

of the corresponding value of the integral in a table presented in Theis' 

paper, and the multiplication of this value by 7^*-

The formula will be applied in this discussion as an illustration of 

what may be expected under certain circumstances, arbitrarily chosen, 

and subject to limitations that will be brought out in due course in the 

discussion. In the first case it is assumed that two wells are to be 

pumped continuously for 4 months. One well is assumed to be situated 

in T. 25 N.f R. 47 W., near well 147; the other in T.,26 N., R. 52 W., 

near well 132. A line of observation wells runs out from each well in 

such a way that one well is one-quarter mile from the pumped well, 

another is one-half mile* another is three-quarter mile, and another is 

1 mile from the pumped well. The theoretical draw-down is to be computed at each pumped well at the end of the first day of pumping; then 

the draw-down will be computed at each pumped well and at the observation wells at the end of 4 months of pumping. Then a second case will 

be set up, using the same wells and observation wells, but assuming that 

the observation well 1 mile from the pumped well is to be pumped at the 

same time, for the same duration, and at the same rate as the first 

pumped well. Figure 3 shows the arrangement of wells and observation 

wells at one of the two localities. The combined draw-down at each pair 

of pumped wells at the end of the first day of pumping is computed, and 

the draw-down at each pair of pumped wells and the observation wells 

between them at the end .of 4 months of pumping will also be computed.

88 Theis, C. V., The significance and nature of the cone of depression in ground-water bodies: 

Econ. Geology, vol. 33, No. 8,'to>.'889-902, December 1938.
EFFECTS OF PUMPING WELLS ON WATER LEVELS 65

(toserwt/on wetts

w 1

?

^nnile

Jfcmile \

 4 mile

t mile

o

1

i 

i

9 i

i

i

Pumped Observation we//s Pumped

Jfcmile mile

FIGURE 3. Assumed arrangement of pumped wells and observation wells in which draw-down

is theoretically computed.

In this second case the mutual interference will be shown in the combined draw-down at all points of theoretical observation.

It is assumed that the transmissibility in the vicinity of the wells and 

observation wells in the eastern part of the county is 100,000 and that 

the discharge rate of the pumped wells is 1,000 gallons a minute. The 

transmissibility in the vicinity of the western group of wells and observation wells is assumed to be 50,000; the wells there are to be pumped 

at a rate of 750 gallons a minute. The diameter of the pumped wells is 

assumed to be 36 inches. In both localities the specific yield is assumed 

to be 15 percent. It is also assumed that the aquifers are homogeneous 

in all respects at both localities, that all water pumped has been removed 

from storage, and that all pumped wells pass through the entire thickness 

of the water-bearing material. The computed, draw-downs at chosen 

points and at chosen times, resulting (1) when one well is pumped, and 

(2) when two wells are pumped under postulated conditions in each 

locality, are presented in tabular form:

TABLE 7. Computed draw-down in pumped well in eastern part of Box Butte 

County and in observation wells situated in a line at stated distances from it

Distance from 

of pumped 

(feet)

center 

well

1.5

1.5 

1,320 

2,640 

3,960 

5,280

Interval since 

pumping began 

(days)

1

120 

120 

120 

120 

120

Draw-down 

(feet)

13.1 

18.6 

3.0 

1.6 

.9 

.75

_ ._. _ .._ _ T3gj*_

TABLE 8. Computed draw-down in pumped well in western part of Box Butte 

County and in observation wells situated in a line at stated distances from it

Distance from 

of pumped 

(feet)

center 

well

1.5 

1.5 

1,320 

2,640 

3.960 

5,280

Interval since 

pumping began 

(days)

1 

120 

120 

120 

120 

120

Draw-down 

(feet)

18.4

26.6 

3.4 

1.5 

.6 

.22
;66 , Box

TABLE 9. Computed draw-down after 120 days of pumping in a pair.of Jptmped 

. wells 1 mile apart in eastern part of Box Butte County and in observatlon^wells 

situated in a line between them

Distance from center of pumped well 

(feet)

Dr^w-dowu 

(feet)

1.5

1,320

2,640

19.35

3.9

3.2

TABLE 10. Computed draw-down after 120" days of pumping in a pair of pumped 

wells 1 mile apart in western part of Box Butte County and in observation wells 

situated m a line between them '.',''

Distance from center of p.umped well 

(feet)

Draw-down 

(feet)

1.5

1,320

2,640

26.82 '4.0

3.0

It has been said that the values of draw-down given above do not 

wholly represent reality. In the first place, none of the existing wells of 

which records have been obtained conform to the theoretical demands 

of the Theis formula. The aquifers are riot homogeneous; the cemented 

and concretionary zones and the differences in texture of the Miocene 

and Pliocene sediments introduce heterogeneity. Not all of the water 

discharged from the pumped wells is derived from storage, for recharge 

is thought to be going on much of the time in parts of the area. However, 

these violations of the theoretical necessities are believed to fesult m 

only minor deviations. from actuality. Probably the chief differences 

between the theoretical values given in tables 7-10 and the draw-downs 

that might be observed are the following: (1) The wells in Box Butte 

County of which records have been obtained do not pass through the 

entire thickness of the aquifers. Thus, water in the lower parts of the 

aquifers must rise during pumping from its natural depth toward the 

bottom of the well. This vertical component of the path of motion reduces 

the head of the water about the pumped well and increases the actual 

draw-down in and near it. (2) Most wells have not been developed to a 

high degree of efficiency nor properly screened, and the water may lose 

energy through friction in getting into the pumped well. Thus, the 

water level observed during pumping is not the same inside the well 

casing as it is outside the casing. The entrance loss of head may amount 

to several feet.

In spite of these discrepancies, the values of draw-down have some 

value in practical interpretation of the ground-water conditions in Box 

Butte County. For instance, in the western part of the county, near 

well 132, the minimum lift that must be contended with while pumping 

at a rate of 750 gallons a minute at the end of one day of pumping
EFFECTS OF PUMPING WELLS ON WATER LEVELS 67

would be 18.4 feet plus about 90 feet, which is the depth to the undisturbed water table, or about 108 feet. At the end of a 4-month pumping 

season the minimum pumping lift would be about 117 feet. In the 

eastern part of the county, where the depth to water under nonpumping 

conditions may be 25 feet, the minimum pumping lift while pumping at 

the rate of 1,000 gallons a minute would be about 38 feet at the end 

of one day and about 44 feet at the end of 4 months. The better the well 

is developed and the greater the number of aquifers that the well penetrates, the nearer would the actual pumping lift approximate the theoretical value. Also, recharge might be considerable .during a period of 4 

months and would tend to reduce the pumping lift.

The computed values of draw-down shown in tables 6 and 7 become 

smaller at points more distant from the pumped well. It also takes a 

longer time after pumping begins for the more distant parts of the water 

table to begin their decline. When the cone of depression reaches some 

distant point the water level begins to decline rather rapidly but gradually 

slows down until the rate of decline there equals the rate of decline at 

all other points between it and the pumped well. Thus, after an initial 

period of adjustment the cone of depression attains a stable form and 

maintains it, but it gradually sinks deeper, as it were, into the zone of 

saturation, and in so doing spreads farther out from .the pumping well. 

Its rate of spreading grows ever slower. Barring the effect of recharge, 

which changes nothing but the average rate of decline of the water 

level within the cone of depression, the cone of depression continues to 

enlarge and deepen itself indefinitely until it intercepts and brings to 

the pumped well enough water that had been previously escaping from 

the ground-water body to balance the rate of pumping. This capture 

of wasted ground water by the cone of depression is accomplished in 

two ways either by increasing recharge or by decreasing the preexisting 

discharge from the aquifer. Recharge can sometimes be increased by 

lowering the water table in an intake area where transpiration and 

evaporation are taking heavy toll of the incoming water. The water table 

might be lowered below the root zone of the plants and thus diminish 

their draft, or if the cone of depression caused a lowering of the water 

table in an intake area, springs and streams that had been discharging 

ground water that could not be absorbed by the aquifer would surrender 

part or all of this wastage of recharge. Natural discharge can be diminished by the cone of depression if the water level is lowered in a 

discharge area until springs, perennial streams, and swamp plants are 

deprived of their wonted share of the escaping ground water. Lakes, 

from whose surface water is evaporated, might shrink in size or even 

disappear. Artificial ground-water discharge can be diminished by interference, or robbery, of neighboring wells. When enough water that once
68 BOX BUTTE COUNTY, NEBRASKA

escaped from the aquifer has been captured within the cone of depression to balance the amount being pumped from the center of the cone, 

then and only then the cone of depression ceases to expand.

In Box Butte County the behavior of the cone of depression just 

described has a practical application. The removal of ground water from 

storage by pumping cannot increase the recharge to any great degree. 

But natural discharge can and will be diminished in parts of the county 

by large-scale pumping, and in those localities the cone or cones of 

depression may become stable. In the eastern part of the county and in 

Snake Creek Valley the lowering of the water levels by pumping will 

certainly result in an important salvaging of water that now is lost by 

evaporation and transpiration. It is even possible that the area of some 

of the lakes will be diminished to the point where losses by evaporation 

will be materially cut down. These savings of water should mean that 

as pumping is carried on from year to year the decline of the water table 

will tend to diminish or even to cease at some point. On the other hand, 

wells drilled on the upland far from the areas of natural ground-water 

discharge will create cones of depression that will grow deeper year by 

year for a long time to come. Thus large-scale users of ground water 

will be confronted with an ever increasing pumping lift. Eventually the 

cones of depression would impinge on the distant discharge areas and 

thus bring about a stabilization of the pumping levels, if pumping remains feasible for a long enough time. This fact need not be construed 

as an unfavorable appraisal of the chances of successful pumping on the 

upland areas, however, for the water in storage beneath these areas is 

very great, and its rate of depletion is certain to be very slow under any 

reasonable program of water utilization. The increase in pumping lifts 

from one irrigation season to the next would probably be slight.

Another aspect of the discussion of the behavior of cones of depression is implicit in the foregoing tables. That is the mutual interference 

between nearby pumped wells. Tables 8 and 9 show the draw-down at 

two pumped wells 1 mile apart and in observation wells between them. 

According to these tables, the effect of one pumped well on the waterlevel in another well 1 mile away is slight. The draw-down to be superimposed on the proper draw-down of the second pumping well is only 

0.75 foot in one area postulated and 0.22 foot in the other area. A 

pumped well halfway between them, however, would have imposed upon 

it an additional lowering of the water level of 3.2 feet in the eastern 

part of the county, or 3.0 feet in the western part of the county. At the 

end of a 4-months' pumping season the two pumped wells in the eastern 

part of the county that are 1 mile apart would have draw-downs of 

nearly 21 feet, and the well between them would have a draw-down of 

21.6 feet. The observation wells between each of these pumped wells
FLUCTUATIONS OF THE WATER TABLE QQ

at a distance of one-quarter mile would have draw-downs of 6.9 feet. 

The pumped wells in the western part of the county that are 1 mile apart 

would show draw-downs of 28.32 feet at the end of 4 months, and the 

pumped well midway between them, one-half mile distant from each, 

would show a draw-down of 29.6 feet. Observation wells halfway between 

the outside wells and the middle well would show draw-downs of 7.4 feet. 

Under ordinary circumstances the interference would not lead immediately 

to serious results. Two wells one-quarter mile apart would each draw, 

the water level in the other well down an additional 3.0 feet in the 

eastern part of the county and 3.4 feet in the western part of the county. 

This spacing might be regarded as the closest that could be safely undertaken, for the mutual effects at lesser distance would increase at more 

than a simple arithmetic rate.

FLUCTUATIONS OF THE WATER TABLE

The upper surface of the zone of saturation is the water table. When 

its position can be seen at any one time, as in the contour map on plate 8, 

the nature and direction of the movement of the ground water can be 

inferred from it. When its changes of position are seen through the 

course of time, the state of replenishment and depletion of the zone of 

saturation can be inferred. But before important conclusions are reached 

regarding the fluctuations of the water table, the nature and cause of the 

fluctuations must be examined, for a rise of the water table, as reflected 

in the records of the water level in wells, is not in itself proof that water 

has been added to the ground-water reservoir. Similarly, a decline of the 

water level in wells can be produced at a time when water is actually 

being added to the reservoir at a greater rate than it is being withdrawn. 

Thus, some attention must be given to those forces that have been found 

to be capable of producing fluctuations of the water table.

The actual measurements of observation wells in Box Butte County 

in 1938 have been published.3*

FLUCTUATIONS CAUSED BY CHANGES IN ATMOSPHERIC

PRESSURE

An inspection of the hydrographs of the observation wells in Box Butte 

County in plate 9 will reveal that the successive measurements of the 

water level in any one well are not likely to fall into a smooth line. This 

is particularly true of the wells in which the water level lies at great 

depths, as in observation wells 129 and 338. In the hydrographs of 

these wells, successive measurements of the depth to water level made 

within a comparatively brief period show ranges of a half foot, more or 

less. All that has been said in this report on the recharge, discharge, and

" See U. S. Geol. Survey Water-Supply Paper 845, pp. 169-172.
70 BOX BUTTE COUNTY, NEBRASKA

movement of ground water beneath the upland areas of Box Butte 

County would lead one to believe that the variations of the water level 

in these wells are not caused by sudden changes in recharge or discharge, or by movement of the ground water. On the contrary, it would 

be expected that the hydrographs of such wells as these would be smooth 

lines, in which changes in trend would occur seldom and gradually. 

These sudden changes of the water level are quite certainly due to 

changes in the atmospheric pressure at the time the measurements of 

water level were made.

The exact manner in which the water level in a well -fluctuates in response to changes in atmospheric pressure is probably complex. In part, 

the concretionary zones and tightly cemented layers of sandstone in the 

Miocene sandstone formations probably aid in segregating the air 

trapped in interstices at the top of the water table from the free atmosphere, including the air in the well above the water level. The same 

effect is obtained if a thick zone of aeration is so damp that changes in 

air pressure are transmitted through interstices imperfectly. Many wells 

-show a barometric fluctuation where this condition prevails. It is believed that if recharge is occurring on the uplands of Box Butte County, 

as the evidence indicates, the chief reason for the barometric fluctuations 

of water level is the moisture in the zone of aeration. 

. Figure 4 shows a portion of the hydrograph of observation well 129 

for the period August 18 through August 21, 1938, together with the 

barograph at Chadron, Nebr., for the same period. The barograph has 

been converted from inches of mercury to feet of water and inverted 

for the comparison. The automatic water-level recorder that was installed 

on the well was not operating very satisfactorily, but the chief features 

of the hydrograph are correct. The shapes of the two graphs are similar. 

According to the curves, the range in feet of the water-level fluctuations 

is ab,out one-third of the range of the barometric curve. Thus, the 

barometric efficiency of the well is rather low compared with many 

artesian wells but is decidedly high for water-table conditions.

The water levels in some of the wells in areas of shallower water 

table seem not to exhibit any barometric fluctuations. The hydrographs 

of. these wells are smooth. Other wells in these areas have irregularities 

that cannot certainly be attributed to changes in atmospheric pressure. 

It may be noted that during the summer of 1938 the wells in which the 

water-level is deepest show the greatest response to changes in barometric pressure. Where the water level is less than 100 feet, the barometric fluctuations almost disappear.

FLUCTUATIONS DUE TO TRANSPIRATION

In areas where ground water is being discharged by swamp-loving 

plants the water level in a shallow well shows a diurnal fluctuation,that
FLUCTUATIONS OF THE WATER TABLE 71

Aug.18 Aug.2l

Atmospheric pressure at Ghadron, Nebraska

Hydrograph of observation well 129

FIGURE 4. Graph showing effect of changes of barometric pressure on water level.

is characteristic. The hydrograph on such a well35 shows a decline beginning in midmorning and continuing to late afternoon or early evening. Then, after the curve rounds off, the recovery begins, and it 

continues until the decline of the next morning is about to begin. The 

magnitude of the fluctuation may be as much as several tenths of a foot. 

This type of fluctuation prevails only during the growing season. Where 

it prevails, two conditions may be inferred: (1) That the ground water 

that feeds the plants is being brought to the area of ground-water 

discharge from outside, and (2) that the ground water reaches the 

central parts of the swampy area by vertical movement from below. The 

ground water moves upward toward the ground surface at a nearly 

constant rate, the plants use water faster than it can be supplied from

S5 White, W. N., A method of estimating ground-water supplies based on discharge by plants 

and evaporation from soil results of investigations in Escalante Valley, Utah: U. S. Geol. 

Survey Water-Supply Paper 659-A, 105 pp., 1932. 

694487 46 ^
72 BOX BUTTE COUNTY, NEBRASKA

below, and the daily decline takes place. During the night the consumption is reduced to a minimum, and the feeding in brings the water level 

up above the afternoon low point. In many places the hydrograph will 

show a gradual downward trend during dry periods, but even slight 

rains are likely to result in decided rises of the water level. A cloudy 

day will diminish the rate of transpiration, and a slight rise may occur 

during the day.

In Box Butte County an automatic water-stage recorder was installed 

on a shallow well in the bottom lands of Snake Creek Valley. The casing 

was of so small a diameter that the small float did not impart enough 

sensitivity to the recorder to allow it to detect any fluctuations in transpiration if they took place. However, as the type of grass in the lowlands of the county indicates ground-water transpiration, it is believed 

that the plants in the vicinity of this well use much water. Part of the 

irregularity of the hydrograph of observation well 378 is due to transpiration by plants. This well is situated along State Highway 2 at the 

bottom of the Niobrara Valley.

FLUCTUATIONS DUE TO PRECIPITATION

In a general study of the ground-water resources of an area the 

fluctuations of the water level in wells in response to precipitation reveals 

the most important information. Studies of fluctuations caused by other 

agencies are made chiefly to segregate them from the effects of precipitation on the water level, although they may yield certain special information. Water levels in observation wells in Box Butte County exhibit 

nearly all degrees of responsiveness to changes in precipitation, from 

immediate rises after heavy rains and sharp declines during intervening 

dry periods to slow changes of trend (only partly realized) in response 

to variations of precipitation taking place over a period of several years. 

The difference in the magnitude and promptness of the response among 

these observation wells is largely a function of the depth to the water 

level in them. For example, the water level in observation well 78, which 

lies at a depth of 10 to 12 feet, showed a rise of about 2 feet following 

the heavy precipitation in April and May 1935. The water level in 

observation well 378, which lies at a still shallower depth, also showed 

a rise of water level at that time, although the measurements do not 

cover the period perfectly. On the other hand, observation well 129 

showed no effect of the rains at that time. Instead, the water level remained rather constant, with barometric fluctuations superimposed on 

it, up through 1937, and then the trend seems to be slightly downward. 

Other wells showed a response of the water level to the rather copious 

rains of the summer of 1938. Observation wells 2, 16, 17, and 378, in 

which the water level is less than 30 feet below the land surface, showed
UTILIZATION OF GROUND WATER 73

a rise in water level of as much as 0.75 foot in July and again in August 

and September, whereas the observation wells in which the water level 

lies at a depth greater than 30 feet did not show rises of water level at 

that time. Observation well 15, in which the water level lies about 30 

feet or a little less below the ground surface,. is an exception. It is 

situated in an area where clay of the Box Butte member crops out at 

the surface, which seems to have prevented recharge. The hydrographs 

of the other wells that show no notable rise during the summer of 1938 

either maintain nearly a constant level or show a slight downward trend 

during the summer. One imperfection of the record shown on plate 9 

is that the precipitation at Alliance is not always the same as at some 

of the observation wells. Many of the storms during the summer of 

1938 were local.

The net rise of the water level was not large during the summer of 

1938. Observation wells 2 and 17 had a rise for the summer of about 

0.25 foot; observation well 16 had a rise of about 0.75 foot, but the 

rise amounted to about 1.75 feet by the end of 1938; and observation 

well 378 showed momentary rises but no net rise for the season. No 

great rise should be expected at observation well 378, as the upward 

limit is the land surface and the lower limit is probably determined by 

the' inflow of ground-water from the highlands to the south, which 

tends to be rather constant. The rise of water level in the other wells 

represents an actual gain in the ground-water reservoir.

The shape of the hydrograph of observation well 316 was determined 

in part by pumping from one of the city wells.of Alliance a few hundred yards away. The well was destroyed, and thus a valuable record 

was lost.

UTILIZATION OF GROUND WATER

Ground water is chiefly used in Box Butte County for obtaining 

domestic and stock, municipal, industrial, and irrigation supplies. Wells 

put down for the purpose of obtaining domestic and stock supplies are 

by far the most numerous.

DOMESTIC AND STOCK SUPPLIES

It is estimated that of the 800 to 1,000 wells in Box Butte County, 

probably 800 are in use. All but a few tens of these wells are being used 

for obtaining domestic and stock supplies. The older wells in the county 

were hand-dug, many of them to depths of 100 feet or more, but the 

later wells, which by far outnumber the older, are drilled or driven. 

Domestic and stock wells are generally put down to only a few feet 

below the water table. Thus, their potential yield is limited by the small 

possible draw-down. But as a high rate of yield is not sought and as'
74 BO* BUTTE COUNTY, NEBRASKA

the wells are not equipped for producing water at a high rate, this 

situation is not necessarily unfavorable. Nearly all of the wells of this 

class are provided with either a hand pump or a windmill, and the rate 

of pumping is small. In depth, these wells range from a very few feet 

in the lowlands of the.Niobrara Valley, the valleys of Dry Creek, Box 

Butte Creek, and Snake Creek, and the eastern part of the county, to as 

much as 240 feet deep on the tableland, where the depth to water is 

greater. In the sand hills of the southern and eastern parts of the county 

the depth to water is also small, and wells are of small to moderate 

depth. The dug wells are 3 to 4 feet in diameter, the drilled wells mainly 

from 4 to 6 inches in diameter, the tubular wells mainly 4 inches in 

diameter, and the driven wells mostly 2 inches in diameter. So far as is 

known, there exists no locality in Box Butte County where it is impossible to obtain enough water to provide for a household or numerous 

head of stock. In the western part of the county near the rim of the 

Niobrara Valley, where the depth to water is greatest, drilling for water 

is most difficult and expensive. Exceptionally, powerful windmills and 

stout pumps are needed in this area. In Snake Creek Valley the alluvium 

that underlies the land surface for as much as 50 feet is likely to be so 

fine-grained that it will flow into wells. But this material can be cased 

off where necessary, and the drilling can be carried down to a niore 

satisfactory water-bearing material at greater depth. Drilling in the 

sand hills requires a rather special technique, which has been mastered 

by most of the drillers in the region about Box Butte County. The water 

obtained is satisfactory for all ordinary uses, so far as the records show.

MUNICIPAL SUPPLIES

Two municipalities in Box Butte County possess public water supplies Alliance and Hemingford. Alliance has six wells, of which three 

were in use in 1938 and three were not yet in service. The older wells 

range in depth from about 140 to about 160 feet. They penetrate only 

a very small part of' the water-bearing material that underlies the city. 

Logs of four wells are presented in the section containing the logs of 

wells and test holes. Well 1, which is at Seventh Street and Yellowstone 

Avenue, is 150 feet deep, yields 500 gallons a minute, and has a depth 

to static water level that is said to be 22 feet. Well 2, situated at Seventh 

Street and Hack Avenue, is 140 feet deep, yields less water than well 1, 

and has a static water level said to be 38 feet below the land surface. 

Well 3, situated at the rear of the City Hall, is 158 feet deep, and depth 

to static level is said to be 41 feet. Well 4, situated east of the municipal 

light plant, is 143 feet deep, yields 390 gallons a minute, and the depth 

^o static level is said to be 44 feet. A sample of water from this well 

was analyzed chemically, and the analysis is presented in this report.
UTILIZATION OF GROUND WATER 75

Well 4 is gravel-packed. Very little technical detail is known about the 

municipal wells of Alliance. The consumption of water at Alliance varies 

greatly from day to day and from month to month. In August 1938 the 

total consumption was 42,633,900 gallons; during that month the 

maximum daily consumption was 1,745,700 gallons, and the minimum 

daily consumption was 746,000 gallons. In March 1938 the total consumption was 14,080,000 gallons; the maximum daily consumption during 

that month was 760,000 gallons, and the minimum daily consumption 

was 427,000 gallons. The water is pumped to an elevated tank in the 

northwestern part of town, and from there it is released into the mains 

by gravity or is pumped directly into the mains. The available ground 

water in the vicinity for possible development is great. The pumping at 

the rate that prevailed in 1938 has created a slight cone of depression 

around the town, sufficient to have moved the 3,920-foot water-table 

contour some distance west of its probable original position, and has 

made its effect perceptible in the water level of observation well 316. But 

if any wells that are drilled in the future are spaced widely about the 

town there is no reason to believe that the ground-water reservoir will be 

depleted as a result of any reasonable expansion of water consumption. 

The public water supply at Hemingford is obtained from two wells. 

Both wells are 300 feet deep, are gravel-packed, and the depth to their 

static water level is reported to be about 175 feet. The diameter of the 

well in the upper 100 feet is 14 inches; that in the lower 200 feet is 

12 inches. One well is equipped with a 30-horsepower automatic electric 

motor and a Fairbanks turbine pump with a capacity of 220 to 300 

gallons a minute. It was drilled in 1913 by E. C. Archibald, of Council 

Bluffs, Iowa. The other well is equipped with a Downing Keystone 

double-stroke pump, powered with a 15-horsepower Fairbanks-Morse 

220-volt cage-type motor. The pump delivers 75 gallons a minute at 31 

revolutions a minute. The wells are three blocks apart. They operate 

automatically on a pressure-regulating device set at 45 pounds. The 

water can be pumped directly into the mains or into the stand pipe. The 

stand pipe has a capacity of 41,125 gallons.

INDUSTRIAL SUPPLIES

The Burlington Railroad operates thfc only wells in the county whose 

output is specifically obtained for industrial purposes. At Alliance four 

of such wells have been in use for about 40 years. They range in depth 

from 156 to 163 feet; one is 10 inches in diameter, and the rest are 

12 inches. In the year ending August 31, 1938, they yielded 205,276,186 

gallons of water.

The Burlington Railroad also has a well at Hemingford. It is 

equipped with a 15-horsepower Fairbanks-Morse engine and yields from 

150,000 to 160,000 gallons a month.
76 BOX BTJTTE COUNTY, NEBRASKA

IRRIGATION SUPPLIES

Irrigation in Box Butte County is at present in either a pioneering 

or an abortive stage, depending on its future development. Within the 

county and immediately beyond its boundaries 13 wells were either 

being used for irrigation in 1938 or had been used for that purpose 

previously and are consequently referred to as irrigation wells. Technical 

descriptions of all these wells are presented in the well records at the 

end of this report. Additional information regarding them is set forth 

here.

The first irrigation well drilled in Box Butte County, so far as is 

known, was put down in 1936 on the property of the Koester Bros., in 

the NW14NW14 sec. 29, T. 25 N., R. 47 W., northeast of Alliance. It 

is numbered 144 on the map and in the well tables. The well was cased 

with sheet iron, which, with the drilling, cost $5 a foot. The yield of 

the well was measured by H. H. Odell of the Water Resources Branch 

of the Federal Geological Survey with a current meter. On September 

14, 1938, it was discharging 1,897 gallons a minute. A Worthington 

turbine pump having a capacity of 2,300 gallons a minute is operated 

by a 100-horsepower McCormick-Deering Diesel engine, connected by 

a belt. The well was pumped day and night during the summer and early 

autumn of 1938 and was stopped only for repairs. The well seems to 

penetrate only about two-thirds of the total thickness of saturated material in that area.

Well 146, situated in .the NWi/4NWy4 sec. 7, T. 25 N., R. 47 W., 

on the property of E. W. Purington, derives most of its supply from 

the Marsland formation, which is not the most permeable part of the 

water-bearing section in that locality. The well has 190 feet of perforated casing. As the original depth is reported to be 230 feet and the 

measured depth is 200 feet, it is concluded that the sand has caved and 

filled much of the open hole. The well was pumped much of the time 

during the growing season of 1938. Considering the reported yield and 

the pumping lift of about 100 feet, it may be suggested that this well 

does not penetrate enough of the total saturated water-bearing material 

to attain a relatively high degree of efficiency.

Well 147, situated in the SW%NW% sec. 9, T. 25 N., R. 47 W., on 

the property of Nels Peterson, was pumped intermittently during the 

summer of 1938. Recovery tests for the determination of field permeability of the aquifers at this point were carried out. This well, 130 feet 

deep, passed through 41 feet of sand, 20 feet of gravel, 25 feet of 

coarse sand with thin beds of greenish clay, and 44 feet of coarse sand. 

Seemingly it did not even pass through the entire thickness of Ogallala 

formation and, of course, none of the underlying formations. The Case 

tractor that furnished the power to the pump is reported to consume
UTILIZATION OF GROUND WATER 77

from 2 to 2.5 gallons of tractor fuel an hour while the pump is operating. 

It is said that irrigated corn in 1938 yielded 43 to 53 bushels an acre, 

whereas unirrigated corn yielded 7 to 14 bushels an acre.

Well 149, situated on the property of George Smith, in the SW^NW^ 

sec. 31, T. 24 N., R. 48 W., is said to yield about 500 gallons a minute.

Well 186, situated in the SW%NW% sec. 31, T. 24 N., R. 48 W., on 

the property of O. A. Odd, was drilled by Mr. Odel. The well, 128 feet 

deep, seems to pass through the Ogallala sediments' and into the Marsland formation. It is said to yield about 500 gallons a minute, based on 

the owner's estimate, and the draw-down is reported by him to be only 

5 feet. The configuration of the water-table contours about the well, 

however, indicates that a residual draw-down of much greater magnitude 

than that existed at the time the water level was measured, and it is 

believed that the draw-down while pumping is much greater than the 

owner reported.

The well on the property of Ferdinand Trenkle, in the SW^SW1^ 

sec. 24, T. 24 N., R. 50 W., was used intensively for irrigation during 

the summer of 1938. Recovery measurements carried on after a day of 

pumping were used to determine the field permeability of the waterbearing material at that locality. It is believed that much of the water 

yielded by the well comes from a bed of gravel belonging to the 

Ogallala formation. The yield of the well as measured with a current 

meter by H. H. Odell on September 12, 1938, was 438 gallons a minute 

in the first measurement but 506 gallons a minute in second and third 

measurements. The second and third measurements are believed to 

be the most accurate. The well is equipped with a Western turbine pump 

which has a capacity of 800 gallons a minute, powered by a 22-horsepower 

International Harvester stationary engine. The soil irrigated is sandy 

and is classified in the soil report as Valentine loamy fine sand. In 

1938, irrigated corn yielded 40 bushels an acre; irrigated watermelons, 

30 tons an acre; and irrigated potatoes, 100 bushels an acre. Twenty 

acres were irrigated at a cost in fuel of $70.

The well on the property of Herman Bauer, in the NE^SE^ sec. 

34, T. 26 N., R. 47 W., was not used in 1938. It is designated as observation well 16.

The irrigation well of Louis Bauer is situated in the center of sec. 

 36, T. 26 N., R. 48 W. Its capacity and draw-down seem to be favorable for irrigation.

Well 113 is on the property of P. L. Johnson, in the NE^NE1/^ 

sec. 19, T. 26 N., R. 49 W., and was completed in the summer of 1938. 

This well, which was tested after drilling had gone to a depth of 200 

feet, had an unsatisfactory yield and was completed at a depth of 250 feet. 

It now passes through the Marsland formation. Its performance would
78 BOX BUTTE COUNTY, NEBRASKA

be more efficient if it penetrated a greater part of the whole waterbearing section below. A farm well with 2 feet of water in the bottom, 

situated about a quarter of a mile from well 113, goes dry when the 

latter is pumped. The well is equipped with a four-stage Pomona turbine 

pump that has a capacity of 1,400 gallons a minute and that is powered 

by a 48-horsepower Diesel stationary engine connected directly with the 

pump by a drive shaft. The yield of the well, as measured with a current 

meter by H. H. Odell on September 12, 1938, was 733 and 765 gallons 

a minute. Although he had a late start in irrigating, the owner of the 

well reported the following results with seed potatoes for the irrigating 

season of 1938, based partly on actual yield and partly on estimated 

yield: 40 acres irrigated three times yielded about 200 bushels an acre; 

30 acres irrigated twice yielded about 200 bushels an acre; 35 acres, 

part of which was irrigated once, yielded 80 bushels an acre. The 

operating cost for the season was $3 an acre. According to an article 

in the Omaha World-Herald of March 25, .1940, Mr. Johnson irrigated 

130 acres of potatoes in 1939 and obtained an average yield of 240 

bushels an acre. His cost, reported in the article, was slightly more than 

2 cents an acre-foot of water for each foot of lift. The average operating 

cost of irrigating in 1939 was $6.60 an acre.

Well 132, on the property of G. E. Dyer, in the SW^NW^ sec. 

10, T. 26 N., R. 52 W., was completed in 1938. The owner and his 

sons operated the drill rig. The yield of the well was measured by H. H. 

Odell on September 12, 1938, and the draw-down was measured by 

means of an air gage during a period of pumping. The recovery of the 

well after a brief pumping test was measured, and from it the field 

permeability of the aquifer was determined. The well is equipped with a 

turbine pump that is powered with an old Buick automobile motor. (See 

pi. 6, B.) Irrigation was carried on in 1938.

Well 37, on the property of L. R. Hughes, in the NE^NE^ sec. 

6, T. 28 N., R. 51 W., in the bottom lands of the Niobrara Valley, is 

classified as an irrigation well. It has a small yield, however, and seems 

not to have been used for irrigation in 1938. The water is thought to 

come chiefly from the Monroe Creek sandstone. The alluvium of the 

Niobrara Valley was reported to be neither coarse-grained nor thick.

Well 8, in Sheridan County, in sec. 32, T. 28 N., R. 46 W., was used 

in 1938 only to water trees.

Another well in Sheridan County, in the NW^NW1^ sec. 30, T. 29 N., 

R. 47 W., is reported to be 227 feet deep, 24 inches in diameter, and 

to yield 1,800 gallons a minute with a draw-down of 21 feet. The static 

water level in it is reported to have been 26 feet. The well was not 

used in 1938.
TYPES OF WELLS AND WELL-DRILLING METHODS 79

Desirable as it would be, it is not possible to end this discussion of 

irrigation in Box Butte .County and adjacent areas with a direct statement 

regarding the areal and other limits within which irrigation is economically possible. There are too many variable factors. The capacity of the 

soil to absorb and hold water, the value of crops, the efficiency of 

various types of pump and power plant, and the ingenuity, industry, and 

skill of the operator would make a joke of any generalization. There 

remains the inexorable fact of yield, pumping lift, and specific capacity 

of wells that must exert their influence in any irrigation project, but 

even these may vary with the strengthening or weakening of wells with 

use, the rise of water levels, or the depletion of the reservoir through 

the years. Certainly irrigation is feasible from the hydrologic point of 

view in much of the eastern, southern, and central parts of the county. 

West and north of a line or zone circumscribing the central upland, 

irrigation is probably impracticable. This line or zone cannot be defined 

here. The area where irrigation is feasible will be larger for some men 

than for others; it is less restricted for those who install and operate 

highly efficient pumps and power plants, for those whose wells pass far 

down into the aquifers, and for those whose wells have been efficiently 

screened and developed. So far as the hydrological requirements of 

irrigation are concerned, it is believed that much helpful information 

can be found in this report that will enter into the problem. Other 

factors must be evaluated by means of information obtained from proper 

and qualified sources.

TYPES OF WELLS AND WELL-DRILLING METHODS

During the settling of the High Plains most wells were dug by hand. 

For those men who had settled on the divide areas where the depth 

to the water table was great, there was no alternative to the laborious 

and hazardous task of digging a hole 3 feet or so in diameter and tens 

of feet or even more than a hundred feet deep. But more recently, wells 

have been put down either by drilling or by driving sand points.

Drilling is accomplished in one of three ways in Box Butte County 

by the percussion or cable-tool method, by the hydraulic rotary method, 

or by the driving of sand points. The cable-tool rig consists essentially 

of a derrick for elevating the bit, a heavy steel bit, and a bailer. The 

earth material is broken and dislodged by raising the bit and letting it 

fall. The loosened material is then brought to the ground surface in the 

bailer. The casing, where casing is needed, is fed into the hole as it is 

deepened. In Box Butte County the cable-tool method is very well 

adapted for breaking through the numerous hard layers in the sandstone but not so well adapted for drilling the fine soft sandstone.

The rotary method of drilling involves a bit that is rotated in order 

to dislodge the earth material. The cuttings are removed from the hole
80 BOX BUTTE COUNTY, NEBRASKA

by means of mud that is pumped down the drill pipe, that squirts out 

of the bit, and that returns to the ground surface outside the drill pipe. 

This drill rig is well adapted for penetrating the soft sands of Box 

Butte County but not so well adapted for drilling through the concretionary beds and zones. For cutting the harder layers in the Tertiary 

formations, a rock bit is needed. This is a sharp rolling bit affixed to 

the end of the drill pipe, and it macerates the rock rather than scrapes 

or pries it, as the ordinary fishtail bit does to soft sand and sandstone.

In finishing some drilled wells a casing is lowered into the hole. If 

the well is drilled by the cable-tool method the casing is generally 

lowered as the well is deepened. If the well is drilled by the rotary 

method the casing is generally put down after the hole is completed. 

After the casing is set the pump is installed, and the pump line is lowered 

inside the casing to a point below the static water level. Cased wells in 

Box Butte County are mostly 4 or 6 inches in diameter, but some are 8, 

10, 12, or even 18 inches. If a large supply of water is needed the 

diameter should be from 12 to 36 inches. In most wells the casing is 

either iron or galvanized iron, but in some of them wood or tile is used. 

Most wells used for domestic or stock supplies in the county are left 

with only the bottom of the casing open to admit the water during 

pumping. But public, industrial, or irrigation wells should be, and are, 

screened, perforated, or equipped with some sort of slotted casing. 

Development of a drilled well involves opening the aquifer near the well 

by pumping and surging to shake loose and carry out the fine particles 

in the aquifer near the well. Gravel packing is also a special method of 

increasing the permeability of the aquifer near the well.

Some wells put down by the rotary or jetting method and some driven 

wells are not fitted with a casing, but rather with a single pipe that is 

both casing and pump line. These wells are called tubular wells. They 

have a check valve at the bottom and are nearly always equipped with a 

piston pump. The pipe cannot be perforated, and thus their yield cannot be large. This type of well is widely used in the sand hills. Waterlevel measurements should not be made in them.

Jetted wells are put down through unconsolidated material by means 

of a nozzle through which a strong jet of water is forced from above. 

The water loosens the earth material and brings it up to the ground 

surface. Jetted wells are usually fitted up to be tubular wells. This 

method of well drilling is used mainly in the sand hills.

Driven wells are found in the valley bottoms, where the water level 

is near the land surface, and in the sand hills. A perforated well point 

is affixed to a 1- or 2-inch pipe and hammered into the ground. The 

well point is pointed and forces the earth material aside, and the perforations in it admit the water when the well is pumped.
BOX BUTTE COUNTY, NEBRASKA , 81

CHEMICAL QUALITY OF THE WATER

Most of the waters analyzed from surface and subsurface sources are 

moderately hard calcium-magnesium bicarbonate waters, with minor 

amounts of sulfate, chloride, and other constituents. The single samples 

taken from the Niobrara River and Snake Creek show that at the time 

of their collection the waters were similar in general chemical character 

to the samples taken from wells. A few wells have moderately large 

quantities of sulfate.

Fluoride is present rather spottily in samples of ground water from 

Box Butte County. Two samples contain 1.8 parts per million of 

fluoride, one sample contains 1.4 parts per million, and one sample 

contains 1.1 parts per million. Several samples contain no measurable 

amount of fluoride. As much as 1 part per million of fluoride is believed 

to be sufficient to cause detectable mottling of the tooth enamel36 of 

children who habitually drink water containing it.

The sample of water from a lake in the eastern part of the county 

contains several thousand parts of sodium carbonate, bicarbonate, and 

sulfate, and is very soft. The high concentration of certain constituents 

is believed to be a result of evaporation of ground water and surface 

water that have accumulated there. The softening of a water that probably was once hard was perhaps accomplished by precipitation of 

calcium by sodium carbonate. It is a type of water that was not met 

with in any of the wells and streams in the county.

So far as is known, the ordinary uses of ground water domestic, 

stock, industrial, municipal, and irrigation are not prohibited by 

limitations arising from the chemical quality. It is possible that most 

of the water is rather hard for laundering.

3 * Dean, H. T., Chronic endemic dental fiuorosis: Am. Medical Assoc. Jour., vol. 107, 

pp. 1269-1272, 1936.
WA1ER ANALYSES

TABLE 11. Analyses of wafer from sources -in Box Butte County 

[Well numbers, where given, correspond to numbers in table of well records, pp. . Analyzed 

Well

No.

11

25

41

45

51

54

65

82

105

113

128

132

164

209

167

*316

Owner or . 

source of 

collection

M. J. Shimek __ ____ - ____

do... ......... ...-..... -

Ollie Ray --.- .. .-

Depth 

(feet)

92

148

168

26

84

72

168

230

103

250

108

198

51±

130

45

109.6

70.96

143

165

300

Date of 

collection

Oct. 3, 1938

Oct. 2, 1938

.---do---.-.

---.do------

----do_--__-.

Oct. 3, 1938

Oct. 2, 1938

__ do __ ...

Oct. 3, 1938

Oct. 3, 1938

Oct. 2, 1938

Oct. 3, 1938

....do _ .--.

__ do ___ ..

Nov. 23, 1936

Nov. 24, 1936

Oct. 3, 19~38~

Oct. 2, 1938

Oct. 3, 1938

Oct. 2, 1938

Oct. 3, 1938

Total 

dissolved 

solids

290

293

234

428

2265

276

243

296

«304

«401

950

"338

Calcium 

(Ca)

53

52

42

72

42

59

44

64

55

61

107

55

Magnesium 

(Mg)

10

9

0

9

10

14

11

11

12

11

17

' 32

14

So- Pota

dium sium 

(Na) (K)

21

26

44

13 6

4.7

8

16-

18

50

152

24 6

1 Approximate.

* Silica (SiOs) 58 parts per million.

* State observation well number.

4 Calculated.

 Silica (SiOa) 63 parts per million.

' Carbonate (COj) 1,692 parts per million; bicarbonate (HCOj) 2,265 p
BOX BUTTE COUNTY, NEBRASKA 83

RECORDS OF TEST HOLES AND WELLS

TABLE 12. Logs of test holes in Box Buite County 

Test hole 1

[Drilled in June 1938. Location, SW%SE% sec. 6. T. 24 N., R, 51 W., approximately 

below Elmore l>am on Kilpatrick ranch.]

mile

Sand, medium-fine (from 80 to 92 feet some gravel and fine

Sandstone, soft, brown; with concretionary hard gray sandstone at 116% feet, 118 feet, 121 to 122 feet, 124% feet; 

two thick zones of hard gray concretionary sandstone from 

127% to 136 feet and from 138 to 147 feet ..............

Sandstone, slightly less cemented, brown; with gray concretionSandstone, brownish, silty, consolidated; on drying assumes a

Sandstone, consolidated, silty, slightly grayish; less reddish

Sandstone, silty, reddish to pinkish, with thin pink clay layers

Thickness 

(feet)

6

2

2

6

8%

10%

15

23

19

11

12

i &

10

1

14

10

40

Depth 

(feet)

6

8

10

16

9C

50

73

103

115

147

165

175

176

190 

200

240

Test hole 2

[Drilling begun July 1, 1938. Location, NW%SW% sec. 31, T. 25 N., R. 50 W., 0.7 mile 

south of section corner, approximately 50 feet east of road on Alex Underwood ranch.]

Gravel ...................................................

Sand, medium-fine; thin layers of greenish clay at 21, 47, 51,

Sand, coarser, compact, cemented; seam of greenish and fleshSand, coarse; seam of clay at 102 feet, and a little volcanic

Clay, greenish, with some soft greenish-brown sandstone ..... 

Sand, fine to medium; greenish clay and greenish-brown sandSand, fine, compact; greenish-white clay at 171-173 feet; layer 

of clay at 182 feet; also thin layer of clay at 200 feet and 

221 feet ................................................

Thickness 

(feet)

2

3

3

55

33

2

11

10 

30

5

70

14

Depth 

(feet)

2

5

63

96

98

109

119 

149

154

224

238
84 BOX BUTTE COUNTY, NEBRASKA

TABLE 12. Logs of test Iwles in Box Butte County Continued 

Test hole 3

[Location, SWy4SW% sec. 10, T. 24 N., R. 48 W., 2% miles south of Alliance, about 100 

yards southwest of house on J. J. Schill farm.]

Sandstone, buff or light-brown, some olive-green; more greenish last 2 feet ..........................................

Sandstone, greenish and buff, becoming more reddish and green 

from S3 feet; scattered concretions of hard limy sandstone; 

harder concretions at 50, S3, 62-65, 76, 80, 81-82, 89-90, 

93-95, 97-98, and 100 feet ..............................

Sandstone, mostly reddish, with fewer concretions; hard gray 

sandstone concretions at 138-140, 143, 146, 148, 149, and 

152-155 feet ............................................

Sand, fine, compact, with much mica; many concretions at 161, 

163, 165, 166, 171, 172%, 174, 175-178, 180-182, and 185- 

186% feet ..............................................

Sandstone, very hard, gray; concretions from 187% to 189 feet

Sand, gray, compact, with hard concretions at 200-203, 205, 

and 207-211 feet .......................................

-'^S

Thickness 

(feet)

4

99

59

27

f>

3

31%

6

1

26

2

Depth 

(feet)

10

14

36 

44

103

130

152

155

186%

189 

195

196

222

224

Teat hole 4

[Location, SE%SWi4 sec. 31, T. 25 N., R. 47 W., just east of overpass about 50 yards south

of railroad.]

Sand, brownish-gray; clayey sandstone; green clay; small pieces

Sand, loose, coarse, brown; slightly compact from 180 feet...

Sand, brown; with concretions at 325-328 and 330-335 feet. . . .

Sand, fine, rounded grains, loosely cemented; concretions from

Sand, brown, compact; some gray sand; concretionary, 354%- 

355 feet ...............................................

Thickness 

(feet)

A^

50

17

50

38 

2

18

54

8

45

13 

1

1?

191A

15

1%

y-jj.

d.y

I

19

7

7t

32

Depth 

(feet)

43

01

110

160

198 

200

218

272

280

325

338 

339

351

«4li

367

382

383%

386

428

429

448

455

478

510
RECORDS OF TEST HOLES AND WELLS 85

TABLE 12. Logs of test holes in Box Butte County Continued 

 Test hole 5

[Location, NW. corner NE% sec. 31, T. 25 N., R. 48 W.]

Clay, sandy .........................................

Clay, medium-hard, greenish ..........................

Clay and sand .......................................

Sand, brownish ......................................

Sand, gray, soft, coarse ..............................

Sand, grayish-brown, soft .............................

Sandstone, hard .....................................

Sandstone, with fine gravel ...........................

Clay, green to olive .................................

Sandstone, hard .....................................

Sandstone, soft, clean, coarse .........................

Sandy clay, hard; greenish gray ......................

Sandstone, hard, brownish ...........................

Sandstone, soft, perhaps with thin beds of clay ........

Sandstone, hard, coarse, clean; some fine gravel .......

Gravel ..............................................

Sandstone, hard, greenish ............................

Sandstone, fine, soft .................................

Clay, sticky, greenish ................................

Clay and sandstone, greenish to gray .................

Sand, well-sorted; some fine gravel ....................

Sandstone and clay, hard, greenish ...................

Sandstone, soft ......................................

Clay and sand, greenish gray ........................

Sandstone, fine; varies in hardness; some gravel .......

Clay, sandy; grades to greenish sand .................

Sandstone, soft, fine .................................

Clay, sandy and greenish .............................

Sandstone, soft, fine .................................

Clay, sandy .........................................

Sandstone, fairly hard, gray; coarser with depth .......

Sandstone, soft, brownish-gray ........................

Sandstone, fairly hard, greenish ......................

Sandstone, soft, grayish-brown ........................

Sandstone, fairly hard,- clean, gray, somewhat cemented. 

Sandstone, soft, fine, brownish ........................

Sandstone, hard, fine .................................

Sandstone, hard, coarse ..............................

Sandstone, hard ......................................

Sandstone, very hard zone ............................

Sandstone, hard, white, and concretionary .............

Sandstone, soft, very fine, brownish ...................

Sandstone, hard, with a few concretions ...............

Thickness 

(feet)

18

7

8

9

13

11

8

4

4

4

6

6

26

4

12

S

7

4

3

S

5

3

4 

4

IS 

7

10 

4 

7 

2 

6 

6

IS 

7 

6 

8 

8 

5 

1 

3 

7

Depth 

(feet)

18

25

33

42

55

66

74

78

82

86

92

98

124

128

140

145

152

156

159

164

169

172

176

180

195

202

212

216

223

225

231

237

252

259

265

273

281

286

287

290

297

305

312
86 BOX BUTTE COUNTY, NEBRASKA

TABLE 12. Logs of test holes in Box Butte County Continued

T*»t hole 6

[Location, SW%NW% sec. 18, T. 25 N., R. 48 W.]

Topsoil and sand ....................................

Sandstone and thin clay zones ........................

Sandstone, greenish, soft; fossil seeds at 35 feet .......

Sandstone, soft, clean, coarse .........................

Qay, sticky .........................................

Sand, soft, fine- to medium-grained ...................

Sandstone, hard, greenish ............................

Sandstone, hard, green ...............................

Sand, clean, coarse; grades to a fine gravel at the base. 

Clay, compact, greenish ..............................

Sandstone, hard, light-greenish .......................

Sand and silt, not cemented v .......................

Sandstone, dirty green, fossil roots ...................

Sand, soft, becoming coarser .........................

Sandstone, very hard, brownish .......................

Sandstone, brownish; uneven in hardness; concretionary. 

Sandstone, soft ......................................

Sandstone, hard, concretionary .......................

Sandstone, soft, brownish-gray ........................

Sandstone, white to gray, with a very hard zone .......

Sandstone, soft ......................................

Sandstone, very hard ................................

Sandstone, soft to hard, concretionary .................

Sandstone, very hard, concretionary ...................

Sandstone, soft, concretionary ........................

Sandstone, very hard, concretionary ...................

Sandstone, soft to hard, concretionary .................

Sandstone, very hard .................................

Sandstone, soft to hard; small concretions .............

Sandstone, very hard .................................

Sandstone, soft ......................................

Sandstone, very hard .................................

Sandstone, dirty brown, hard .........................

Sandstone, very hard .................................

Sandstone, hard; a few small concretions ..............

Sandstone, very hard .................................

Sandstone, light-colored, very hard ....................

"Agate," very hard ..................................

Thickness 

(feet)

8 

18 

15 

12

4

65'

1 

19

6

4 

13

4

9

3 

16 

19

6 

14

5

1

1

9

1

5

1

16

2

10

1

4

1

9

1

8

Depth 

(feet)

8

26

41

53

57

63

68

69

88

94

98

111

115

124

127

143

162

168

182

187

188

189

198

199

204

205

221

223

233

234

238

239

248

249

257 

257%

258 

258%

Test hole 7

[Location, NW. corner SW% sec. 34, T. 25 N., R. 48 W., on SE Side of road intersection.]

Thickness 

(feet)

Depth 

(feet)

Topsoil .................................................

Sand .and clay, greenish ..................................

Sand, coarse, clean ......................................

Sand, fine, clean, soft; a few thin clay zones ..............

Sand, soft ..............................................

Sand and clay ...........................................

Clay, greenish ...........................................

Sand, soft, medium-grained ..............................

Clay, soft, green .........................................

Sandstone, hard ..........................................

Sand, coarse, clean .......................................

Clay, green ..............................................

Sandstone, gray, hard ....................................

Sandstone, hard ..........................................

Sand and clay, green .....................................

Sand, soft ................................................

Sand, brownish-gray, fine .................................

Sandstone, fine, concretionary .............................

Sandstone, hard ..........................................

Sandstone, very hard ..............*....,..................

Sandstone, hard, brown, fine-grained .......................

Sandstone, light-colored, very hard .........................

Sandstone, brown, soft, fine ...............................

Sandstone, brown, hard, with many small hard concretions....

7

16

11

26

7

3

11

11

3

1

4

2

9

4

2

8

8

2

12

2

4

2

8

29

7

23

34

60

67

70

81

92

95

96

100

102

111

115

117

125

133

135

147

149

153

155

163

192
RECORDS OF TEST HOLES AND WELLS 87

TABLE 12, Logs of test holes in Box Btttte County Continued

Test hole 8

[Location, NE. corner sec. 19, T. 26 N., R. 49 W., on property of P. E. Johnson.]

Thickness 

(feet)

Depth 

(feet)

Topsoil, sandy ...........................................

Sandstone and debris, hard and weathered ................

Clay, soft ...............................................

Sandstone, brownish with light spots, hard .................

Sandstone, hard .........................................

Sandstone, less hard .....................................

Sandstone, hard .............................;...........

Sandstone, less hard .....:...............................

Sandstone, light-colored, hard ............................

Sandstone, hard .........................................

Do ...................................................

Do ...................................................

Sandstone, hard, uneven, small concretions, brown .........

Sandstone, very hard .....................................

Sandstone, brownish, hard, many concretions ..............

Sandstone, very hard .....................................

Sandstone, brownish, soft to hard, with hard concretions.....

Sandstone, very hard .....................................

Sandstone, hard with many concretions ....................

Sandstone, very hard with thin, soft, gray to white layers... 

Sandstone, dirty gray and black, soft, with small concretions. 

Sandstone, hard ..........................................

Sandstone, soft ..........................................

Sandstone, hard ..........................................

Sandstone, soft ..........................................

Sandstone, light-colored, very hard ........................

Sandstone, soft ..........................................

Sandstone, hard ..........................................

Sandstone, soft, with a few hard concretions ...............

Sandstone, white, very hard .............,.................

Sandstone, soft gray .....................................

Sandstone, very hard .....................................

Sandstone, hard to soft ..................................

Sandstone, very hard, with two thin soft layers ............

Sandstone, soft ..........................................

Sandstone, very hard .....................................

Sandstone, light-colored, soft, fine .........................

Sandstone, very hard ....................................

Sandstone, white, soft ....................................

Sandstone, very hard .....................................

Sandstone, hard ........................................

Sandstone, hard, uneven, with thin soft spots ..............

Sandstone^ very hard ................................'.....

Sandstone, white, soft ...................................

Sandstone, very hard .....................................

Sandstone, soft ..........................................

Sandstone, very hard ....................................

Sandstone, coarse, hard ..................................

day, white, hard .......................................

Sandstone, brownish-gray to greenish, soft, fine ...........

Sandstone, hard .........................................

Sandstone, soft ..........................................

Sandstone, greenish-brown, hard ..........................

Sandstone, very hard ....................................

Sandstone, brown, hard ...................................

Sandstone, very hard ....................................

Sandstone, soft to hard, coarse ...........................

Sandstone, hard .........................................

Sandstone, soft to hard, coarse ...........................

Silt, sandy, light-buff ...................................

4

5

2

45

1

11

1

2

2

1

2

2

70

2

23

1

9

2

14

9

13

1

4

1

2

4

2

3

12

3

5

1

4

5 

5 

2 

4

% 

4% 

1 

5 

7

2

3

1

4

1

7

8

7

3

6

2

2

9

32% 

% 

4% 

20

4

9

11

56

57

68

69

71

73

74

76

78

148

150

173

174

183

185

199

208

221

222

226

227 

229 

233 

235 

238 

2SO 

253

258

259 

263 

268 

273 

275 

279 

279%

284

285

290

297

299

302

303

307

308

315

323

330

333

339

341

343

352

352%

385

385%

390

410

694487 46 7
BOX BUTTE COUNTY, NEBRASKA

TABLE 12. Logs of test Iwles in Box Butte County Continued 

Test hole 9

[Location, NW%NW% sec. 17, T. 26 N., R. SI W.]

Thickness 

(feet)

Depth 

(feet)

Topsoil, sandy ...........................................

Sandstone, reddish-brown, soft to hard, concretionary, brittle. 

Sandstone, hard ..........................................

Sandstone, dirty-brown, soft ..............................

"Agate," pink, hard .......................................

Sandstone, dirty-brown, soft ..............................

Sandstone, white to gray, very hard ......................

Sandstone, soft ..........................................

Sandstone, very hard .....................................

Sandstone, dirty-brown, soft ...............................

Sandstone, very hard .....................................

Sandstone, hard, with many small hard concretions ........

Sandstone, very hard ....................................'.

Sandstone, hard; small concretions ........................

Sandstone, soft ..........................................

Do ..................................................

Sandstone, white, very hard, fine .........................

Sandstone, hard ..........................................

Sandstone, very hard .....................................

Sandstone, brown, hard, fine ..............................

Sandstone, medium-hard ..................................

Sandstone, white, very hard, fine .........................

Sandstone, white, hard, concretionary ....................

Sandstone, brown, hard, fine, sflty ........................

Sandstone, hard ..........................................

Sandstone, brown, hard, fine, silty ........................

Sandstone, gray, very hard ..............................

Sandstone, brown, soft, well-sorted .......................

Sandstone, very hard .....................................

Sandstone, brownish, hard; a few very small concretions....

Sandstone, very hard .....................................

Sandstone, hard ..........................................

Sandstone, very hard .....................................

Sandstone, brownish, soft ................................

Sandstone, hard, with some gray clay .....................

Sandstone, soft, coarse ...................................

Clay, irregular or concretionary ...........................

Sandstone, greenish-brown, medium-hard, with clay ........

32

3

24

1

13

3

13

2

15

1

4

1

3

3

5

1

2

1

11

2

1

4

22

6

38

41

65

66

79

82

95

97

112

113

117

118

121

124

129

130

132

133

144

146

147

151

173

173%

203

204%

217

218%

230

230%

236

236%

253

257

274

286

305

Test hole 10

[Location, N£i4 sec. 25, T. 27 N., R. 47 W., on property of A. S. Gerdes.]

Thickness 

(feet)

Depth 

(feet)

Topsoil, sandy .................................

Sand, clean ...................................

Sandstone, yellowish-brown, soft ................

Sandstone with clay zones, light-colored ..........

Sandstone, greenish-brown, soft ...............

Limestone, white, very hard .....................

Sandstone, light-brown, hard, fine ...............

Clay, reddish and green, sticky .................

Sandstone, greenish, hard; a few thin clay zones 

Clay, white, sticky .............................

Sandstone, greenish ............................

Clay, white .....................;..............

Sandstone and thin clay beds ..................

Sand, medium-grained, soft, clean ...............

Sandstone, greenish, medium-grained ............

Sandstone, brownish, soft .......................

Sandstone, brownish, hard, concretionary ........

6

14

24

38

48

52

72

84

102

104

109

111

128

153

165

202

208
RECORDS OF TEST HOLES AND WELLS 89

TABLE 13. Logs of municipal wells at Alliance, Nebr. 

City well No. 1

[Location, Seventh Street and Yellowstone Avenue.]

Shale, blue ..............................................

City well No. 2

[Location, Seventh Street' and Hack 2

Sand ....................................................

Shale, blue ..............................................

Shale, blue ...............................................

Thickness 

(feet)

22

43

35

33

5

12

Wenue.]

Thickness 

(feet)

22

21

12

14

13

11

4

9

31

3

Depth 

(feet)

22

65

100

133

138

150

Depth 

(feef)

22

43

55

69

82

93

97

106

137

140

City well Ne. 3

[Location, near City Hall.]

Shale ....................................................

Thickness 

(feet)

7

15

19

19

10

9

12

7

5

4

6

23

10

1?

Depth 

(feet)

7

22

41

60

70

79

91

98

103

107

113

136

146

158

City well No. 4

[Location, east of city light plant.]

Do ....................................................

Thickness 

(feet)

6

6

12

16

22

13

20

4

16

7

13

8

Depth 

(feet)

6

12

24

40

62

75

95

99

115

122

135

143
90 BOX BUTTE COUNTY, NEBRASKA

1

1

1

J1

"lc?fl»|-°l? ||'g'a|5^1^

.s

B »

|-=f

M"

eg 3 C3 O

a> a

ft-sgE-1 a,

|l!^

^.^SQ!§

I«MI

p^daoo^A

1

S

I

fe

a 

O

§

1

=3d

1

rt

' 1

IN

3

o

0

i

"o

-

o

5?

o

5?

CO

o

CO

Q

'a

I

s 

1

^

o 

. eo

CO

1

-

 a

C

3

1 "S

£ *

.Si* a

1 c

oo ot

s s

J»v J

s s

c *

O l>

7 ^

o e

t *

« -

 8 4

4 5

co a

>o c

g :

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«|

 

en ,

t

p*^* p^

^Sv "

^00 ^0

H H

« c

i 1

> 1

f i =

-§ Q

' ^

3 00

I S :

H" e-f 

- -§ 

b cm3 ;

 * cq

><»; *

] M CO

4 t-*

OS <M

- + +

I .s

J~* >, S g-°

o c

; oo oo

£ *

3 S E

5

9 O O

S S g

5 p «

&

^5 i

«!?§: |

Q^CQ a

E-i

0 * <

%

|

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i

a 

0

e

S

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CO

+

 a

to

1 -

S CO

 ^ a 

O

02

Q

^

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o

; cc &

fcfl o

dc

-s

1 6

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<

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! *?

«fe

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w o

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to ^ jJ.g -g

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.8 ^

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(JJ ffc

f g

B 1

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^ S ^

^ §

-1

S S

S S

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+ +

-9 S § C

^3 ° -S

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^ ^

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1C U5

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"5 "^

CO 

1 1

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Box Butte County

11

12 

13 

14 

15

16

17 

18 

19 

20 

21

22 

23

24 

25 

26 

27 

28

29 

30 

31 

32

33 

34 

35

36 

37

38

39 

40 

41 

42, 

43

T. 28 N., R. 47 W.

NEJ|NEM sec.' 17 '.

NW^NW^sec. 18 

NEL^NEi4 ggg 24

SEJ4NEM sec. 27. '.

SEMSEM sec. 32. .. 

T. 28 N., R. 48 W. 

SWMSEM sec. 3... 

NEJiSW^sec. 4.. 

SW^NEMsec. 8.. 

SWjJSEM sec. 10. . NEJ|NE^ sec. n .

NWJ4SWM sec. 25.

T. 28 N., R. 49 W. 

NE^NEMsec. 4..

NW^NW^sec. 5.

SEJiNEMsec. 7... 

T. 28 N., R. 49 W. 

NW^SEMsec. 13.

SWMSWM sec. 15.

SWMSWM sec. 17. 

NWMSWMsec.27. 

BE^SWMsec.31..

T. 28 N., R. 50 W. 

SEMNWM sec. 15. 

SEjiSEJi sec. 26. . 

NWMNWMsec.29.

SWJiSWM sec. 34. 

T. 28 N., R. 51 W. 

NEJ^NEM sec. 6 . .

SEJ^SEM 8ec- 6 ...

SWMNWM sec. 8. . 

NEMNEJfsec.il. 

NWMNWMsec-20. 

NWMNWMsec.23. 

SE^NWM sec. 29.

Fred Gilbert.......

W T ftnea

Leo Fronaple. .....

H. P. Foley........

August C. Deitcher. 

Indiana State Life 

Insurance Co.

Johrt Foltyn .......

IgnatiusE. Kriz.... 

Winnie Keane......

Louis Heinz ....... 

J.R. Hughes......

University of 

Nebraska.

M.J. Schimek..... 

Mrs. E. C. Evans. . .

 Donam .......

J.R. Hughes......

Luther Clark......

1935

Dr 

Dr 

Dr 

Dr 

Dr 

Dr

Dr 

Dr 

Dr 

Dr 

Dr

Dug 

Dr

Dr 

Dr 

Dr 

Dr 

Dr

Dr 

Dr

Dr

Dr

Dr 

Dr 

Dr

Dr 

Dr 

Dug

Dr 

Dr 

Dr 

Dr 

Dr

92.0 

54.0 

118.0 

15.0 

115.0 

108.5

212.0 

78.0 

56.0 

195.0 

128.0

89.0 

164.0

103.0 

148.0 

222.0 

74.0 

158.0 

158.0

152.0

187.0 

170.0 

204.0

206.0 

300.0 

11.2

102.0 

185.0 

168.0 

228.0 

218.0

6 

6 

6 

6 

6 

6

6 

6 

6 

6 

6

48 

6

6 

6

6 

6

6 

6 

6

1

6 

6

""e"

PI 

PI 

PI 

PI

None 

. .do. .

PI 

PI 

PI 

PI 

PI

PI 

PI

PI 

PI 

PI 

PI 

PI

PI 

PI 

PI 

PI

PI

PI 

PI

PI 

C

PI 

PI 

PI 

PI 

PI

W 

W 

None 

W 

None 

..do..

W 

W 

W 

W 

W

W 

W

W 

W 

W 

W 

W

W 

W 

W 

W

W

W 

T

W 

W 

W 

W

V

A

S 

A 

A

D

S 

D.S

S 

S

S 

D.S

S 

8 

D,S

S

b.s

D,S 

S 

A 

D.S

D,S 

A

A

D,S 

I 

0

A 

D.S 

D.S 

D.S 

D,S

Top 

Pum

Top 

.. ..d

Pum

Top 

....d

....d

On pu

. ,. .d

On co

bas

3n p

Top o

On pu

Pop o

... .d

Top o

form

On 2 

bea

On pu

...d

....d

....d

On pl

...d

On st

clam

Top o

On 3 b

bea

Top o

)n pu

Top o

)n pl

Oa pu

On 2 

bea

See footnotes at end of table.
TABLE 14. Records of wells in Box Butte County and adjacent 

Box Butte County Continued x

Well

No.

44

45

4fi

47 

48

49

Location

T. 28 N., R. 52 W.

NW^SWMsec.3..

NWKSW^sec.9..

NE^SW^sec. 26.

SE^NW^ sec. 28. 

NE^NW^sec.31.

SVfHSW^sec. 34.

Owner or name

Robert Orr. .......

Albert Hovorka ....

L. E. Ford. ........

Albert Hovorka....

L. E. Ford. ........

Driller

S

?"* |

 "

S, £'

Dr

Dr

Dr

Dr 

Dr

Hr

Depth

(feet)

90.0

26.0

303.0

152.0 

151.0

340.0

Diameter

(inches)

6

6

*

6 

6

6

.

Type

of

pump

*

PI

PI

PI

None

PI

Size of

pomp

(inches)

Kind

of

power

<

W

W

W

W

Use

of

water

*

A

R

D,R

A 

A

D,R

Meas

po

clam

Top o

clam

Sioux County

SO

J»1

52

T. 28 N., R. 53 W. 

SEJisec. 23.......

SEJiNEM sec. 24. .

NWKsec. 24......

....do............

....do............

Dr

Dr

Dr

136.0

84.0

106.0

6

6

6

PI

PI

PI

W

W

W

R

H

H

clam

Sheridan County

53

54

55 

57

T. 27 N., R. 46 W. 

NWMSWJ^sec. 16. 

NEJiNW}i sec. 18.

SWKNEJisec. 21. 

NW^NEJi see. 30.

G. A. Dilling....... 

Charley Mracek. . . .

G. A. Dilling....... 

PaulR. Taylor.....

G. A. Dilling.......

G. A. Dilling.......

Dr 

Dr

Dr 

Dr

 

22.0 

72.0

60.0

6 

6

6 

6

PI 

PI

PI 

PI

W 

W

W

8

S

8 

A

Top of 

On pla

On pum

Top of 

Box Batte County

58 

59

T. 27 N., R. 47 W. 

SEJiSEJi sec. 10. . . 

SW^SW^sec. 8..

J. A. Sheldon ...... 

First Trust Co., 

Lincoln.

Dr 

Dr

95.0 

132.0

4 

6

PI 

PI W

A 

D. S

Top of 

. ...do
60 

61

62

63 

64

65 

66 

67

68 

69

70

71 

72 

73

74

75 

76

77

78 

79 

80 

81

82 

83

84 

85

86

87 

88 

89

90

91

92 

93

93a

REl^SW^sec. 19.. 

NEJ£NWXsec. 23.

SWJiSEJOec. 25..

RKKNE^sec. 28.. 

SE^SE}£sec.31...

T. 27 N., R. 48 W.

NEJ4NEM sec- 16 - NEJiNWKsec.il. 

NE^NEK sec. 26. 

NWMSWJ4 sec. 27. 

SEMSWJOec. 29.. 

T. 27 N., R. 49 W. 

SWJiNWJisec.9..

NEJ^NWJisec. 13. 

NEKNWJisec. 19. 

NWJiSWMsec.21. 

SWJiSEix£sec.23.. 

T. 27 N ., R. 50 W. 

NEXNEJisec. 6.. 

NEMNE^ sec. 15. 

NEJiNEJi sec. 20.

NEKNEK sec. 27. 

SEJiSWJisec.30.. 

NWJiNEJisec.33. 

SEMSEJ4 sec. 35. . . 

T. 27 N., R. 51 W. 

NEXNEKsec.3... 

NWJiNWK sec. 6.

SWJiSW^sec. 8.. 

SWKSEJisec. 12..

NEJiSWM sec. 15. 

SWJiSWk sec. 21 . 

NEJ£SEJ£ sec. 31 . . 

NWKSEK sec. 35. 

T. 27 N., R. 52 W. 

NEJiSWJisec. 6.. 

T. 27 N., R. 52 W. 

SEJiSEJisec. 10..

NEKSEMsec. 19.. 

SE&SEM sec. 24..

NWJiNEK sec. 32.

R. A. Kittelman.... 

 Reilly. ........

D. H. Fishburn....

T. C. Dowell.......

E. S. Wildy........

Thos. R. Enyeart...

O.E. Phillips......

0. D. Rouse....... 

OllieRay..........

 Leonard....... 

J. M. Wanek......

A. J.Kresl.. ......

JoeM.Kresl.......

W. W. Dyer....... 

KarlSpacht.......

 Talemka ......

Buck Lyman .......

O.D. Rouse.......

Dr 

Dr

Dr

Dr 

Dr

Dr 

Dr

Dr

Dr 

Dr

Dr

Dr

Dr

Dr 

Dr

Dr 

Dr 

Dr

Dr 

Dr 

Dr

Dug

Dr 

Dr

Dr 

Dr

Dr 

Dr 

Dr 

Dug

Dr 

Dr

Dr 

Dug

Dr

111.0 

64.0

74.0 

95.0

168.0 

118.0

114.0

139.0 

126.0

164.0

144.0

156.0 

139.0

220.0 

198.0 

210.0

192.0 

155.0 

164.0

140.0

230.0 

240.0

233.0 

227.0

187.0 

223.0 

256.0 

163.5

158.0 

275.0

"216.0 

154.0

215.0

6 6

24 4

6 6

4 6

""(}' 

6 

40

6 6

48 6

PI 

PI

PI 

PI

PI 

PI 

PI

PI 

PI

PI 

PI

PI

PI 

PI

PI 

PI 

PI

PI

PI

PI

PIPI 

PI

PI 

PI

PI 

PI 

PI

PI 

PI

PI 

Pi

PI i -

W

W W

W WW

W W

"w" Ww

w 

w 

w w

w w

w www

w w

w ww

D, S AI

D,S 

D, S

A

A 

D,S 

D,S A

D,S

A 

D, S 

A A

A 

D,S A

D,S 

D,S 

D, S 

D. S

D,S 

D, S

D,S 

D,S

D,S 

A 

D, S A

S 

D,S

A 

D,S

...

...

...

...

On 

p

Top 

On 

Top 

On 

...

On 

b

On p

....

Hol

Hol

On 

On p

On 

...

....

... 

....

Top 

On 

p

Top 

On 

p

Top 

On 

Top 

On 

Oa 

On 

b

On 

On 

...

See footnotes at end of table.
TABLE 14. Records of uells in Box Butte County and adjacen

Sioux County

Well

No.

Q4

Location

T. 27 N., R. 53 W,

SE^SEMsec. 25..

Owner or name Driller

8

S?

sS

-

o. £'

Dr

Depth

(feet)

Diameter

(inches)

Type

of

pump

s

Size of

pump

(inches)

Kind

of

power

«

Use

of

water

i

A

Me

p

cla

Sheridan County

T. 26 N., R. 46 W.

NEXNEX sec. 8. 

" . sec. 29. 

: sec. 30.

43.0

35.0

25.0

31.0

Top o

....d

....d

....d

Box Butte County

99 

100 

101

102 

103

104 

105

106 

107 

108

109 

110

T. 26 N., R. 47 W.

NWJ^NWM sec. 22 

SEMSEMsec.23...

NWMNWM sec. 29 

NEMSEJisec.34,.

T. 26 N., R. 48 W.

8WJ/SEM*sec.l2!.' 

NWJiSWk sec. 22. 

SWMSWJi sec. 31.

T. 26 N4 , R. 49 W. 

NwtiNWJi sec. 3.

Christy Braet. .....

Herman Bauer. ....

0. A. Davig....... 

Carl Kohrman .....

E. Panawitz. ......

H. Von Bargan..... 

W. H. White. ......

Mm Hoiner'ick .".!.':

H. Von Bargan.....

Dr 

Dr

Dr

Dr 

Dr

Dr 

Dr 

Dr 

Dug 

Dr

Dr 

Dr

50.0

50.0

79.0 

116.0

75.5 

103.0 

152.0 

94.0 

112.0

130.0

6 

6 

6

6 

24

6 

6 

6 

48. 

6

6 

6

PI ' 

PI 

PI

PI 

T

None 

PI 

PI 

PI 

PI

PI 

PI

8

W

W

W 

T

W 

W

W

G 

W

S 

A 

D.S 

D, S

A 

D.S 

8 

A 

D, S

S 

D,S

On 6 b

bea

On 2 

bea

On 2 

bea

Top o

....d

....d

On pl

On pu

On pl

....d

Top o

On 2 b

bea
Ill

112 

113

114 

115

116

117 

118 

119

180 

121 

122

123 

124

125 

126

127

128 

129

130 

131 

132

134 

135 

136

137 

138

T l/NEW s<e 6

NEKBEMsec.il.. 

NEJ4NEM sec. 19.

T.^e'NVRtso^w. "

SEMSWMsec.4...

NWKNWM sec. 19

NWMNWM sec. 22 

NEMSEK sec. 31 . . 

SEKNEM sec. 34 

T. 26 N., R. 51 W.

NWMNWM sec. 13 

SEMSEMsec. 20...

NWMSWM sec. 25.

NWKNWM sec. 32 

NWMNWM sec. 35 

T. 26 if., R. 52 W.

NEMNEM se£ 7'.'.' 

SWMNWM sec. 10.

NWKNEMsec. 17. 

SWMNWjJsec. 18. 

NWMNWM see. 21

NWKNWMsec.33 

SWMNEMsee. 35.

Orville Kidwell. ....

Mrs. Ruth 

Rssmi'ssen. 

P. L. Johnson. .....

Lincoln Land Bank.

Mrs. L. A. Rosenberg

G. M. Jenkins..... 

Bill Kiester. .......

W. M. Roth .......

An unknown land 

company. 

Joe Caha. .........

Royal Highlanders.

P. A. Dyer. ....... 

G.E. Dyer........

Lew Bare. ......... 

V.J.Vesley.......

L. E.Hood........

L. E.Hood. ....... 

W. J. Roes........

H. C. Hansen and 

 Larsen.

G.E! Dyer.!!!!!!!

L. E.Hood........

L. E.Hood........

1938

1938

Dr 

Dr

Dr

Dr 

Dr

Dr

Dug 

Dug 

Dug

Dr 

Dug 

Dug

Dr 

Dug

Dr 

Dug

Dr

Dr 

Dr

Dug 

Dr 

Dr

Dr 

Dug 

Dug 

Dug

Dug 

Dug

160.0 

120.0

250.0

150.0 

163.0

150.0

120.0 

105.0 

144.0

112.0 

46.0 

103.0

115.0 

144.0

75.0 

126.0

108.0

108.0 

124.0

110.0 

105.0 

198.0

103.0 

115.5 

90.0 

66.0

56.0 

71.5

6 

6

30 in. 

to 200 

ft. 

18 in. 

to 250 

ft. 

6 

6

6

42

48 

48

6

48 

48

6

48

6 

40

4 

6

36 

6 

24

'"is"

72 

42

48 

40

PI 

PI

T

PI 

PI

PI

PI 

PI 

PI

PI 

PI 

PI

PI 

PI

PI

None

PI

PI 

PI

PI 

PI

T

PI 

PI 

PI 

PI

PI 

None

8

......

8

W 

W

Diesel

W 

W

W 

W 

W

W 

W 

W

W 

G

W

Hand

W 

W

W

W 

G

W 

W 

W 

W

W

D, S 

A

I

A 

D,S

D,S

V

S

D,S

S

S

V

S 

A

D,S

S

D.S 

D,S

A 

D.S

S 

A

D.S

A

On 

....

On p

On d

On 2 

be

On 

....

On p

On 

....

Oa p

On 

Top 

On 

Base 

On p

Top 

On 

Top 

On p

On 

. . . 

....

On 

... 

Sioux County

139

T. 26 N., R. 53 W. 

NWKSEM sec. 36. Clayton Hendenon Dr 138.0 PI W S On 

See footnotss at end of table.
TABLE 14. Records of wells in Box Butte County and adjacen

Sheridan County

Well

No.

140

141

Location

T. 25 N., R. 46 W.

NWMNWM sec. 5.

NWMNW}£ sec. 6.

Owner or name Driller

 a

-s

"3,

a

S

>

?

£

Dr

Dr

Depth

(feet)

on r\

23.0

Dianir 

eter

(inch4

6

Type 

of

pump

PI

None

Size of 

pump

(inchKind 

of

power

4

W

Use 

of

water

S

A

Me

p

Top o

Box Butte County

142

143 

144

145

146

147

148 

149

150 

151

152 

153 

154 

155 

Iflfi

T. 25 N., R. 47 W. 

NEMNEH sec. 19. 

SE^SEMsec.28... 

NWk'NWJi sec. 29

SE^SWMsec. 1... 

NWJiNW^ sec. 7.

SWJiNWM sec. 9. . 

NE^NWM sec. 8. . NWJiNWM sec. 21

SWKSWK sec. 11.

NEMNE^ sec. 35. 

T. 25 N., R. 48 W. 

SW^NW^sec. 1.. 

SE&SWJi sec. 7. . .

SE&SWJi sec. 15. .

SE^NE^sec. 30..

SWkNEVi sec. 35.

Mary Ackerman. . . .

E. W. Purington . . .

....do............

Charley Bauer .....

Mrs. Eurington ....

Mrs. E. A. Wells...

Mrs. C. E. Devee. .

Harry Minnick.....

L. E. Frye. ........

1936

1938

Dr 

Dr 

Dr

Dr 

Dr

Dr

Dr 

Dr

Dr 

Dr

Dug 

Dug 

Dr 

Dr 

Dr

35.50 

57.0 

340.0

47.0 

200.0

35.0 

150.0

54.0 

71.0

61.0 

94.0 

61.0 

21.0 

56.0

6 

6 

18

6 

16

6

28

6

8

42 

36 

' 4 

6

4

PI

PI 

T

PI 

C

PI 

C

PI 

PI

PI 

PI 

PI

None 

PI

W

W 

Diesel

W 

T

T

W 

T

W 

W

W 

W 

W

W

S 

D,S 

I

S 

I

I

S

I

D,S 

D,S

D,S 

A 

D,S 

A 

A

Top o

On pu

Could 

me

On p

On pu

....d

On pl

Repo

Top o

On pl

....d

....d

....d

Top o

OnDu
157

158 

159 

160 

161 

162 

163

164

165 

166 

167

168 

169 

170 

171 

172 

!73 

174

175 

176

177 

178

T. 26 N., E. 48 W.

T. 25 N., R. 49 W. 

NEUSE^sec. 3... 

SEM8E&sec.5.... 

SWMSEJi sec. 15. . 

SWMSWJi sec. 27. 

NWMSEJ* sec. 30. 

SWMSWM sec. 33.

T. 25 N., R. 50 W. 

SEMSEMsec.ll...

SEMSWMsec. 17.. 

NEWSEMsec. 27.. 

NWj£NEMsec.31.

T. 25 N., R. 51 W. 

SWMSWM sec. 3.. 

NE^NEUsec.7... 

SEMNEMsec. 14.. 

NEMSWM sec. 17. 

NWMSEJi sec. 29. 

NWMSEM sec. 31 . 

SEMSEJ4 sec. 35. . .

T. 25 N., R. 52 W. 

SWMSWM sec. 12. 

NWMNWM sec. 17

Center sec. 21...... 

NEJiNEM sec. 30.

Louis Bauer .......

C. L. Hoshman ....

L. W. Lore........

Platte Valley 

Land Co.

Jacob B. Rohrbauck 

Mutual Trust Life 

Insurance Co.

C. A. Alien ........

Kilpatrick Bros.... .

J.W.Kennedy.....

J.W.Kennedy..... 

Dick Henderson. . . .

L. E. Frye. ........

L. W. Lore........

Jacob B. Rohrbauck

....do............

J.W.Kennedy.....

J.W.Kennedy.....

....

....

1909

Dr

Dr 

Dug 

Dug 

Dr 

Dr 

Dr

Dr

Dug 

Dug 

Dr

Dr 

Dr 

Dr 

Dr 

Dr 

Dr 

Dr

Dug 

Dr

Dr 

Dr

260.0

165.0 

84.5 

45.5 

46.0 

23.5 

51.0

130.0

33.0 

56.0 

109.5

78.0 

68.0 

112.0 

51.0 

101.0 

43.5 

112.0

51.0 

38.0

27.0 

37.0

6 

42 

42 

6 

6 

6

6

40 

60 

6

6 

6 

6 

6 

6 

6 

6

40. 

6

6

8

0

None 

. do

PI 

PI 

PI 

PI

PI

PI 

PI

None

PI 

PI 

PI 

PI 

PI 

PI 

PI

PI 

PI

PI 

PI

......

T

W 

W

W

w

w

w 

w

Hand 

W 

W

w 

w

w 

w

w 

w

w 

w

I

A 

A 

D 

D.S 

D.S 

D,S

D.S

S 

D 

A

D

S 

A 

S 

S 

D, S 

S

s 

s

s

D.S

....d

Top 

On p

....d

....d

. . . .

On 2 

be

....d

On p

On ir

On p

Top 

. . . .

On p

Top 

On c

pla

On c

On p

Top 

On p

Sioux County

T. 25 N., R. 53 W. 

NWMNE^i sec. 24. Dug 42 PI W D,S 

Box Butte County

fin

81

82

T. 24 N., R. 47 W.

SE^SEMsec.5....

NWMNWJ£ sec. 6.

SEliSElisec.23...

Dr

Dr

Dr

69.0

76.0

14.0

6

8

6

PI

PI

PI

W

W

W

D,S

D

A ....d

See footnotes at end of table.
TABLE 14. Records of wells in Box Butte County and adjacent a

Box Butte County Continued

Well 

No.

183

184 

185

186 

187

188 

189 

190 

191

192 

193

194 

195

196

197 

198 

199

300 

201

202 

303 

204 

205 

206 

207

Location

T. 24 N., R. 48 W. 

SWMSW^sec. 8.. 

NWJiNE^sec. 14. 

NW^NEM sec. 28.

SWMNW^sec.31.

NWMNEJisec.31. 

T. 24 N., R. 49 W. 

SWKSWK sec. 5. . . 

SE&NW% sec. 10. 

SW&SW^J sec. 11. 

NW&SE^ sec. 20.

NEMNEMsec. 34. 

SEKNWK sec. 32. 

T. 24 N., R. 50 W. 

SWJ^NW^sec.7.. 

NE^NEM sec. 10. 

T. 24 N., R. 49 W. 

SEKNEJisec.7... 

T. 24 N., R. 50 W. 

NE^SEMsec.20.. 

NWMNWM sec. 24 

SWJiSW^sec. 24.

NWMNE^i sec. 32.

NE^NE^ sec. 36. 

T. 24 N., R. 51 W. 

SW^SE^sec.4... 

SEMSEJisec.10... 

NWMSW^sec. 15. 

NEMSE^secf.20..

SW^NEM sec. 30 . 

NEMNEWsec. 35.

Owner or name

M.Wright.........

O.A.Odel......... 

....do............

H.J. Worley.......

Fred C. Robbing. . .

GoMieMcCulley...

P. J. Kneep. ......

 Robson

Ferdinand Trenkfe. . 

R. W. Reddish.....

KilpatrickBros.... .

....do............

....do............

Burr Underwood . . .

Driller

O.A.Odel......... 

....do............

Lynn Frye. ........ 

Joe Carry .........

"P.

1

1938

S.

_£_

Dr 

Dr 

Dr

Dr 

Dr

Dr 

Dr 

Dr 

Dr

Dr 

Dr

Dr 

Dr

Dr

Dr 

Dr 

Dr

Dr 

Dr

Dug 

Dr 

Dr 

Dug 

Dr 

Dr

Depth

(feet)

3

29.0 

24.0 

35.0

137.0 

100.0

86.0 

22.0 

21.0 

96.0

69.0 

61.0

16.5 

82.0

44.0

45.0 

24.6 

122.0

55.0 

24.0

15.0 

23.0 

71.0 

50.0 

70.0 

34.0

Diameter 

(inches)

6 

8 

6

40 

14

6 

6 

6

8

6

6

6 

12

6

6 

8 

12

8 

8

48 

6 

6 

48 

6 

6

Type 

of 

pump

PI 

PI 

PI

C 

None

PI 

None 

PI 

PI

PI 

PI

None 

PI

PI

PI 

PI 

C

PI 

PI

PI 

None 

PI 

PI 

PI 

PI

Size of 

pump 

(inches)

Kind 

of

power

4

G

W 

W

T 

None 

W

W 

W

W 

G

W 

W

W 

W 

G

W 

W 

W

W 

W 

G 

W

Use 

of 

water

i

D 

D, S 

D,S

I

None

D 

A 

D 

D,S

D 

D

A

D,S

S

D,S 

D,S 

I

S 

S

D 

A

D,S

S

S 

S

Mea

p

Top o

On pl

On 8 b

bea

On 12 

in. 

Top o

On pl

Top o

. . . .d

On co

plat

....d

Top o

....d

On pu

Top o

On pl

On pl

On pu

On 2 

bea

Top o

On pl

Top o

....d

On pl

Top o

On p
208 

209

210 

211 

212

213 

214

T. 24 N., R. 52 W. 

SW^NEK sec. 7 . . Dir-k Hendersnn . . .

NEJ^NEM sec. 12.

NW^SWMsec. 13. 

SEMSW!4sec. 18. 

NWMNWM sec. 21

SEKSEM sec. 22...

NEMNEMsec. 35.

Clearance Kilpatrick 

Dr. G. D. Shepard..

Joe Nerad. ........

Dug 

Dr

Dr 

Dr 

Dr

Dr 

Dr

54.0 

45.0

93.0 

120.0 

95.0

100.0 

120.0

36 

6

6

6

6 

4

PI 

PI

PI 

Pi 

PI

None 

PI

W

W

W 

W 

W

W

S

s

A 

S 

D

A

S

....

On 2 

be

On p

On p

On 4 

be

Top 

On p

Sioux County

215

T. 24 N., R. 53 W.

SE^XWMsec. 15. Nels Worley ......

1 Dr 90 0 24 PI W S On p

Morrill County 

._ . 

216 

217

T. 23 N., R. 51 W. 

NEJiXWJi ser-. 5 . 

T. 23 N., R. 52 W. 

NWl4'\fili sec. 4 .

E. W. Beckcr. ..... -Morion Hatch .....

\

1908

Dr 

Dr

98.0 

175.0

6 

6

PI 

PI

W 

W

D, S 

D,S

On p

On c

pl

Scotts Bluff County 

218 NEJiXKJ.4 sec.6. . . Jurgens ....... Dr 197.0 6 PI W S On 2 

be

Morrill County 

........... 

219 NW^'SWVi sec 11 Dr 155.0 6 PI Hand A On p

Scotts Bluff County

220

T. 23 N., R. 53 W. 

NW^NEJ4sec.2.. .................... Dr 135.0 6 None A Top 

i Dr, drilled.

9 Where measured, given to nearest tenth of foot.

| PI, plunger; T, turbine; C, centrifugal.

1 W, wind; T, tractor; G, gasoline engine.

'A, abandoned; S, stock; D, domestic; I, irrigation; 0, observation.

INDEX

Page 

Acknowle 'gments for aid.............. 5

Alliance, Nebr., logs of municipal wells at 89 

water supply of................... 74 75

Analyses of water. .................... 82

Arikaree group ....................... 20-26

Ash Hollow formation................. 37, 38

Atmospheric pressure, effect of, on water

levels ................ 69-70, 71

Box Butte member of Sheep Creek formation ............. 32-35, pi. 5, A

Box Butte Table. ..................... 10, 12

Brule formation....................... 19

Chadron formation .................... 19

Climate .............................. 7-9

Communications ...................... 6-7

Cone of depression.................... 67-69

Cretaceous system ..................... 19

Domestic water supplies. .............. 73 74

Drainage, relation of, to topography..... 10-16

Draw-down in wells................... 63-69

Dunes ............................... 16-19

Eolian deposits. ....................... 16-19

Fossila, Ogallala formation.......... 36-37,38

Geography ........................... 5-19

Geology. ...... 19-43, pis. 1, 7 (both in pocket)

Gering sandstone. ..................... 20

Grass seeds, fossil. ................. 36-37, 38

Ground water, discharge of............. 57-61

effects of pumping on. ............. 63-69

in Harrison sandstone-.... 26,43-44,49,54

in Marsland formation. 31-32, 43-44, 49, 54 

in Monroe Creek sandstone 22, 43-44, 49, 54 

in Ogallala formation ....... 42, 43-44, 54

movement of ............... 49-51, 61-63

recharge of............... 9, 51-57, 61-63

sources of........................ 51-52

specific yield of................... 61-63

storage of........................ 61-63

utilization of...................... 73-79

Harrison sandstone .... 22-26, 43-44, pi. 4, A, B

Hemingford, Nebr., water supply of.... 75

Hehdngf ord group..................... 20

Hydrographs of wells. ......... 69-70, 71, pi. 9

Industrial water supply................ 75

Industries ............................

Irrigation, wells used for....... 76 79, pi. 6, B

Kimball formation..................... 36

Page 

Lance formation....................... 19

Land forms, resulting from stream activity 13 16 

resulting from wind action......... 16-19

Land utilization, factors controlling..... 48-49

Marsland formation 20, 22, 26-32, 43-44, pi. 4, C 

Miocene series........................ 20-35

Monroe Creek sandstone........ 20-22, 43-44,

pis. 2, B, 4, A 

Municipal water supplies........... 74-75,89

Niobrara River. .................... 11-12, 13

Ogallala formation.. 35-42, 43-44, pis. 5, B, 6, A 

Oligocene series ...................... 19

Perched water......................... 49

Permeability of water-bearing materials 44-47,

54-55

Personnel engaged in the investigation.. 5 

Pierre shale........................... 19

Plants, transpiration by.......... 60-61, 70-72

Pliocene series ........................ 35-42

Population ........................... 5

Porosity of water-bearing materials...... 44-45

Precipitation, replenishment of ground

water by.......... 7-9^60,72-73

Pumping, effects of, on water levels.... 63-69

Pumping lift.......................... 66-67

Purpose and scope of investigation...... 2-5

Quaternary system..................... 42 43

Rainfall ............................. 7-9

Recharge of ground water...... 9, 51-57, 61-63

Sand hills...................... 10, 11, 17-18

Sheep Creek formation......... 32-35, pi. 5, A

Sidney gravel......................... 37

Snake Creek.......................... 12, 13

Snake Creek formation. ................ 42

Snake Creek fossils,................ 38, 40-41

Soils ................................ 9

Specific yield of ground water......... 61-63

Temperature ......................... 7, 8

Terraces ............................. 13-16

Tertiary system................:...... 19-42

Test holes, location of................. pi. 8

records of ........................ 83-88

Topography .......................... 10 19

Transmissibility of ground water.... 46 47,59

Transpiration, losses by.......... 60-61, 70-72

101
102 INDEX

Paj-a 

Valentine fauna....................... 36, 38

Valentine formation ................... 37

Vegetation, types of................... 9-10

water consumed by................ 61

Vertebrate fossils, Ogallala formation 36, 38, 40

Water, chemical analyses of............ 82

quality of......................... 81-82

Water-bearing formations, character asd

thickness of .............. 43-44

porosity and permeability of........ 44 47

Water levels. See Water table; Wells.

Water table, contours and gradients

of .................. S3, pis. 7, 8

depth to...................... 47-49, pl.8

effects of pumping on.............. 63-69

Page 

fluctuations of, due to changes in

atmospheric pressure... 69-70,71 

due to precipitation........... 72-73

due to transpiration........... 70-72

Wells, drilled......................... 79-80

dug .............................. 73-74

fluctuations of water level in.. 63-73, pi. 9 

for domestic and stock supplies..... 73-74

for industrial supplies. ............. 75

for irrigation..................... 76-79

for municipal supplies.............. 74-75

hydrographs of............ 69-70, 71, pi. 9

interference between............... 68-69

location of ....................... pi. 8

records of........................ 89-99

types of.......................... 79-80

Wind erosion, effects of.... 16-19, pis. 2, A, 3

. S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE: 1946-694437

o