Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1894-10-03

DOlOW W. give SOm6 interesting T0-
marks ON irrigation by Profs. Hay and
Steffee.
BARBER COUNTY WATER SUPPLY.
The source of the water supply of the
county is the rainfall.
One of the most important circum
stances governing the distribution of
the supply is the geology of the county
The geology has also largely determined
the topography of the county. The
topography also helps in the distriDu-
ton Of the water.
The main facts of the geology may be
briefly stated.
The bedrock of the county or for
much the greater part is the series of
clays, clay states and limy sandstones
which are known collectively as the
"redbeds." They are of the geologic
age known as permian. Even when
there is other rock above, they are
found as the base all over the county.
They thin out easterly and disappear
finally in Sumner county. Their ex-
tent northerly is to beyond the Arkan-
sas river and south and west to Texas
and Colorado. The layer of gypsum
Is to 80 feet thick divides them natur-
ally into upper and lower redbeds. The
lower constitute probably three-fourths
of the whole thickness, which in the
western part of the county probably
reaches eight hundred or a thousand
feet.
In the west of the county from some
distance east of Turkey creek, and ex-
tending south of Deerhead. beds of fine
grained colored sandstones lie uncon-
formally on the anciently eroded sur
face of the redbeds. And on the sand
stones are some limestone shell beds
conformable to the sandstones. The
sandstones and shell-beds belong to the
meZozOlc period and are much younger
than the redbeds.
In the north and western parts Of the
county another formation is found on
the surface both of the redbeds and the
mezozoic rocks. II is of less uniform
structure than either the redbeds or to
other formations mentioned. 1t is
composed largely of lime with much
gritty matter either as sand or fine or
coarse gravel. When lime predomi-
mates, its appearance justifies the name
mortar beds, by which it is often
known. In other places it is a con-
glomerate Of wayworn pebbles-quartz,
felspar. quartzite. diorite, etc. Where
1t has been broken up by exposure to
the weather it has yielded the gravels
and sands, so abundant in the valleys
OF the the north and west part of the
county. 1t is large deposit extending
from Nebraska to Texas.
Near the north line of the county and
also on the highland of the west there is
still another formation. 1t is a light
fawn-c0lored earth from two or three
to fifty or sixty feet thick, which forms
the s1bsoil Of the high prairie and gives
the general smoOthness to the plains
stretching away into Pratt, Klowa and
Comanche counties. 1t has been called
the plains mari.
The mortar beds are not conformable
with the beds below and the plains
mari is also unconforpable,e rosions of
long ages having rOughened the sur
faces on which each was laid down.
How all these formations have been
worn by the weather into all conceiya-
BILE forms Is we'll known. 1t is not so
we'll known that the springs that feed
the streams nearly all have their origin
in or just under the mortar bed forma
ton or the grayels that have been made
from it.
The absence of the gravels on the
eastern part of the Gypsum hills and
on the slope thence to the Medicine
river is a noticeable fact by those who
have seen the abundant gravels of the
north and west. The absence of strong
springs is quite as remarkable.
Elm creek, Turkey creek and all the
spring fed streams rising in the county
have their origin from the stores of
water contained in the mortar-bed for
nation or, asI have elsewhere called it.
the Tertiary grit. This is also true of
the Medicine itself in the county to the
west. This geological formation then
is very important as water holder. Ii
supplies the constant running water of
these streams and also it is the reser
yoir into which are sunk all the wells
on the high prairie of this and the
neighboring counties. Most of those
wells are abundantly supplied. The
water has to be raised through the
plains mari to the surface, q distance of
1fty or eighty feet. But in these wells
there Is sufficient water that may be
lifted at comparatively small cost, to
irrigate several acres of every upland
farm.
The waters from spring fed feeders
OF Elm creek are sufficient for the irrI-
CATION Of scores OF acres in each little
valley. Dry. sandy beds OF the south
'nors at Worlds Fair.