The Bismarck tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, N.D.) 1916-current, 1924-05-21

! North Dakota presents 4 number of
wonderful lessons to student of
nature. The eastern half of the state
does not differ much from Minnesota.
You find the same prairies, the same
rivers. the same lakes.
Geologically speaking the two land
scapes belong to the same class. They
are IN fact both of the same age.
they are both produced by the same
force. They are both remnants of
The grand old Ice Age But when you
cross the Missouri river YOU enter
into the true North Dakota. The
landscape west of the river is en-
tirely different and it is enormously
Older. The story of this region reads
like fairy tale. geological story
of North Dakota would show some
wonderful pictures. Al times the
state would SINK out of sight. Time
and again the whole state has been
under the ocean. Enormous waves
would roll across her borders in
every direction. There would be
nothing in North Dakota to stop
them. The only animal and vegcta-
bic life that could exist would be
saltwater animals and saltwater
vegetation.
From such Il stage North Dakota
would slowly rise again. She would
form enormous mOuntains-only to
have them carved out again by rains
and rivers. Later on she would sink
once more under the ocean only to
re-appear and sink again. At times
she was covered by enormous
stretches of tropical forests almost
covering the whole state 1t is these
enormous forests which formed the
Ignite bed for which Dakota is fam
Gus.
There is said to be more than twcn-
ty billion tons of Ignite in North
Dakota. This Ignite is nothing but
buried vegetation. Some of the lig-
mite veins are twenty feet thick or
more. Below and above this Ignite
is u layer of shale which is only an
other name for compressed clay.
These layers of shale may be just
few inches thick.
Thee again they may form masses
up to thirty feet or more. The shale
is produced by fine clay being wash
ed down from the mountains into the
oceans. Urder pressure the clay
turns into shalc. There are some
twenty or thirty sucli layers of shale
and Ignite in the state alternating
Altogether they measure about one
thousand feet in North Dakota, in
thickness. This alienation of shalc
and Ignite is due to the different
conditions under which they we're
made. The sbale was made under the
ocean while the Ignite was made in
low swampy jungle.
The alternate layers prove that
North Dakota at that time was hath
err unstable. The land would rise,
then sink, then rise, then sink and
so on a number of times.
Nature has made number of at
tcmpts to produce coal. 1t did so
when the earth was still young. It
still produces coal. What we call
peat is really the beginning of coal.
Peat may be transformed into Ignite,
ignite into bltInlnOus, bltuminous
into anthracite. 1t is all matter
at time and pressure.
The Ignite then is not nearly so
old as the bituminous coal or the
anthracite. But even so it is quite
old. A good idea of the age Of the
Ignite beds may perhaps be had if
we say that the greater part of the
Rocky Mountains was still under the
sea at the time when the North Da-
kota Ignite beds were laid down. In
other words the North Dakota Ignite
fields are older than the Rocky
Mountains,
Naturally wanted to see lig
mite mine, when l had chance. We
learned that there was such mine
near Bismarck. Our old friend Bill