The Fargo forum and daily republican. [volume] (Fargo, N.D.) 1894-1957, 1910-11-05

During the summer of 1910 two par
ties were engaged in field work for
the state geological survey, one IN
Morton county and adjoining area, the
other in the Devils lake and Stump
lake region.
The work west of the Missouri river
was undertaken for the purpose of
lextending the Investigations begun the
previous year in the area included in
| the topographic map Of the United
States geological survey known as the
Bismarck quadrangle. During the field
season of 1909 that area was studied
| i'm detail under a cooperative arrange
ment between the federal and state
geological surveys, and a geological
map was prepared showing the differ
ent rock formations and the location
Of >the coal seams. During the past
summer the field work was extended
so as to include all of Morton and por-
tions of adjoining counties
The party, which consisted of DR.. A.
G. Leonard of the state university and
two students, William Greenleaf and
r. 3. F'arrow, Quilted at Dickinson
and travelled southeast through Mott,
beginning work near Haynes and Lem
mon, on the Milwaukee road. The
boundary of the Laramie formation,
which contains only few workable
coal beds, was mapped and 1t was
found that fully one-half of Morton
county, including the Standing Rock
Indian reservation, is underlain by this
| formation. Workable beds of Ignite
occur in it on the Little Heart river
and a few other points on the Cannon
Ball river and Cedar creek above their
confluence. With the exception of these
| few beds practically all the workable
coal of Morton and Adams counties is
| i'm the Fort Union formation. The
eight-foot coal bed mined for so many
years at Sims, lies near the base of
! the latter formation. and the same is
true of the thirteen-foot coal bed near
Haynes. The coal seams worked at
New Salem and Glen Ullin are from
| 200 to $50 feet above the base of the
Fort Union.
Workable coal was found to occur
at fifteen or twenty localities in the
area examined and all these seams
were located on the map, their thick
ness and So far as possible, their eX-
tent DelnS determined.
Heart River Course Changed.
| The Heart river was found to have
| formerly emptied into the Cannon Ball
river instead of entering the Missouri
at Mandan as at present. It's old
abandoned valley extends in a south
easterly direction from the sharp bend
! at DuVaul passes about two miles
north of Flasher, and it's lower portion
| is now occupied by Louise creek for
some miles above it's junction with
Dogtooth creek. The Heart river was
compelled to leave this broad and well
developed valley OF its earlier years
and through the process of stream cap
ture or piracy, it was forced to take
it's present course to the northwest.
Another interesting discovery was
that the basin of the Little Heart river
was occupied during the glacial period
| by an ice lobe from the continental
glacier which covered most of North
Dakota. The evidence of this is found
in the typical boulder covered morain-
al hills which occur about the margin
of the basin, being composed of the
debris dumped off the edge of the ice
The valley of the Little Heart and it's
tributaries were filled to a great depth
with outwash silt from the melting
glacial ice, forming the rich soil of the
Little Heart flats and vicinity.
! Prof. Howard E. Simpson, assisted
by w. r. Holgate, spent about a month
in study Of the Devils lake and