NRLF
B M 170 7142
I) i'ATES
C A SIR VI
82 SURVEY OF COLORADO AND NEW MEXICO.
From the summit of Berthoud's Pass, at a height of eleven thousand
eight hundred and sixteen feet, we can look northward along the line of
the main range, which gradually flexes around to the northwest, while
the little streams seem to flow through the rifts. The general appear-
ance of the western slope of this great range would indicate that it is a
huge anticlinal composed of a series of ranges on each side of a common
axis, and then smaller ranges ascend like steps to the central axis. The
western side of this ridge slopes gently, while the eastern side projects
over abruptly. This main range also forms a narrow dividing line, or
" water-divide," between the waters of the Atlantic and Pacific. I stood
where the waters of each side were only a few feet apart, and felt a real
joy in passing down the western slope of the mountain by the side of a
pure crystal stream whose waters were hastening on to the g'reat Pacific.
All down the western slope is a great thickness of superficial material,
loose sand, decomposing feldspar, with partially worn rocks of all sizes.
This is due quite evidently to local influences, ice and water wearing
down the sides of the mountains and depositing the material adhering
to the masses of ice along the slopes.
The springs of water are very numerous, and the water seems to col-
lect in the thick grass and moss-covered earth, forming large bogs. It
is also interesting to watch the growth of a stream from its source, re-
ceiving in its way the waters of myriads of springs, until it becomes a
river too formidable to ford easily. The little stream which rises in the
pass we followed to the Park, where it is fifty yards wide, and contains
an abundance of fine trout. *
The Middle Park is really made up of a number of smaller parks,
which are somewhat independent of each other. Each one may present
different geological formations. The little park on the south side, which
we first enter, is a very beautiful one. The grass is luxuriant, and the
timber excellent. None of the older sedimentary rocks were seen along
the flanks of the mountains, but a recent tertiary deposit seemed to
cover the country. On the east side of Eraser Creek there is a long,
high ridge, which is cut by the stream in several places, formed of the
white and yellow sands and marls which mark the pliocene tertiary on
the east side of the mountain. I have no doubt that it is a formation
of the same kind as that of the Arkansas marls, and coteniporaneous
with it.
Along this creek there are some massive walls of this formation, mostly
yellow marls, but some layers of sandstone. This ridge extends from
the mountains far northward, and is about two miles wide: and between
it and the immediate base of the mountains is situated a beautiful valley
of considerable width.
The Middle Park is apparently a quaquaversal, surrounded by the lofty
snowy ranges ; and the lower ranges descending like steps to the valley
which constitutes the true park. The park does not appear to be more
than from ten to twenty miles wide from east to west, and from fifty to
sixty long from north to south. In this park also the ranges of moun-
tains so surround it that the slopes seem to form a sort of quaquaversal
inclining toward a common center.
Viewed from Middle Park, Long's Peak, and the range immediately
connected with, has a rugged, saw-like edge, as if composed of eruptive
rocks, and ridge after ridge inclines from it in regular order.
About ten miles north of our camp, in the first park, we come to low
ridges of massive red feldspathic granite, and parallel with these granite
ridges are a series of sedimentary beds, commencing with the brick-red
beds. The strike is nearly north and south, and the dip west. These
SURVEY OF COLORADO AND NEW MEXICO. 83
ridges are all so grassed over that the true nature of the underlying
rocks is not easily determined. Then comes ridge after ridge until all
the beds Jurassic and cretaceous are shown.
On this stream we have a fine system of terraces. On the north side
are three distinct terraces above the bottom, and the lowest one has a
bed of cretaceous sandstone, nearly horizontal, cropping out at its base.
This is a low one, not more than fifteen feet high; the next one is fifty
feet high, and the third, which descends from the high hills, is two hun-
dred feet. A little west of south, at the junction of Grand River with
Fraser Creek, five high peaks are visible, which form in that direction
a part of the main range. All around us, in every direction, we could
see the snowy peaks, and the beds which form the ridges of upheaval
inclining in every direction.
To the south of the park the older sedimentary rocks dip north in
lofty ridges, at least two thousand feet high, presenting high escarp-
ments when split by streams, and reaching almost the highest margin
of the mountains.
About ten miles above the hot springs, Grand Eiver flows through an
enormous gorge cut through a high ridge of basalt, which seems to be
an intrusive bed, for above and below, the sedimentary rocks are well
shown, but partially changed. Underneath are the cretaceous shales of
Nos. 4 and 5, and above are the lignite tertiary beds. These beds all
dip west twenty-three degrees.
These eruptive rocks are very rough, as if they had been poured out
without much pressure. Much of it is a very coarse conglomerate, the
inclosed masses appearing to be the same kind as the paste; that is, orig-
inally, of igneous origin. Some of the inclosed rocks are very compact,
close, and all were, more or less worn before being inclosed. This rock
is a true dolorite. I did not see any inclosed masses that I could call
unchanged. This basalt extends a great distance, continuing a nearly
uniform thickness, and inclining in the same direction with the cretaceous
beds below and the tertiary beds above.
On both sides of Grand Eiver, but especially on the east and north-
east sides, extending up nearly to the foot of Long's Peak, are quite
large exposures of the recent tertiary beds. They are nearly horizontal,
and have much the appearance in color of the Fort Bridger beds, of
which Church Buttes is an example. These beds are composed, for the
most part; of fine sand and marl, but there are a few small rounded
boulders scattered through it. Below the gorge, on the north side of
Grand Eiver, these outflows of basalt have formed some well-defined
mesas; at least three beds ascending like steps from the river. Below
the gorge the river flows through what seems to be a rift of basalt, that
is, on the north side. The basalt lies in horizontal beds, but on the south
side is the sloping side of a basaltic ridge. The dip is nearly northwest,
though the trend of this basaltic ridge is by no means regular. One
portion of it has a strike northwest and southeast, and another north
and south. The tertiary rocks reach a great thickness, and are elevated
high up on the top of the basaltic ridge, eight hundred to one thousand
feet above the river. They are mostly formed of fine sandstone and pud-
ding-stone. These fine sandstones contain some well-marked impres-
SIODS of deciduous leaves, among which are good specimens of Platanus
haydeni. On the north side of Grand Eiver, in some localities, the tertiary
beds are elevated so high, on many of the eruptive mountains, that they
are covered with perpetual snow. These eruptive beds are certainly
among the most remarkable examples of the overflow of igneous matter
that I have ever seen in the West.
/ BERKELEY
LIBRARY
UNIVERSITY OF
V CALIFORNIA
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA.
FROM THE LIBRARY OF
DR. JOSEPH LECONTE.
GIFT OF MRS. LECONTE.
PRELIMINARY FIELD REPORT
UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY
\\
OF
COLORADO AND NEW MEXICO,
CONDUCTED
UNDER THE AUTHORITY OF HON. J. D. COX, SECRETARY OF THE INTERIOR,
F. V. HAYDEN,
UNITED STATES GEOLOGIST.
. WASHINGTON:
GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE.
1869.
UBRABY
LETTER TO THE SECRETARY.
DENVER, COLORADO TERRITORY,
October 15, 1869.
SIR : In accordance with your instructions dated Washington, April 1,
1869, 1 have the honor to transmit my preliminary field report of the
United States geological survey of Colorado and New Mexico, con-
ducted by me, under your direction, during the past season. A portion
of your instructions is as follows :
41 You will proceed to the field of your labors as soon as the necessary
arrangements can be made and the season will permit, and your attention
will be especially directed to the geological, mineralogical and agricul-
tural resources of the Territories herein designated ; you will be required
to ascertain the age, order of succession, relative position, dip, and com-
parative thickness of the different strata and geological formations,
and examine with care all the beds, veins, and other deposits, of ores,
coals, clays, marls, peat, and other mineral substances, as well as the
fossil remains of the different formations ; and you will also make full
collections in geology, mineralogy, and paleontology, to illustrate your
notes taken in the field."
In accordance with the above instructions I proceeded to Cheyenne,
Wyoming Territory, where my preparations and outfit were made.
My assistants were selected as follows :
1. James Stevenson, managing director and general assistant.
2. Henry W. Elliott, artist.
3. Eev. Cyrus Thomas, entomologist and botanist.
4. Persifer Frazer, jr., mining engineer and metallurgist.
5. E. C. Carrington, jr., zoologist.
6. B. H. Cheever, jr., general assistant.
Five men were also employed, three of them as teamsters, one as
laborer, and the other one as cook.
As soon as my preparations were completed, my field labors com-
menced, June 29, at Cheyenne. Limited somewhat as to time and means,
I arranged my plans so as to cover as much ground as possible and secure
the greatest amount of geological information. On the plains the
geological structure is very simple, and frequently over large areas the
basis rocks are concealed by superficial deposits. It seemed best, there-
fore, to make my examinations southward along the eastern base of the
Eocky Mountains for the purpose of studying the upheaved ridges, or
" hog backs," as they are called in this country. These ridges afford
peculiar facilities for working out the geological structure of the country.
Indeed, they are like the pages of an open book upon which the geolo-
gist can read what the Creator has written upon each formation known
in the country from the granite mass that forms the nucleus of the
loftiest mountain range to the most recent tertiary formation inclusive.
Often in a little belt, from half a mile to four or five in width, one may
travel over the upturned edges of nearly all the formations in the geolo-
gical scale, and the opportunity was presented, in this way, for tracing
4 SURVEY OF COLORADO AND NEW MEXICO.
out their relations by studying the junction of the changed with the
unchanged rocks.
From Cheyenne to Denver we examined with some care the mines about
the sources of the Cache a la Poudre Eiver and the coal mines at South
Boulder. From Denver we visited the silver mines at Georgetown, and
the gold mines of Central City, thence to the Middle Park, where we
found much of interest geologically. We then returned to Denver and
pursued our way southward, passed the " divide r? to Colorado City, Soda
Springs, Canon City, Spanish Peaks, Eaton Hills, Fort Union, Mora
Valley, Santa Fe\ Placiere Mountains, &c. Along this route the
scenery was grand beyond description. At Colorado City there is an
area of about ten miles square that contains more material of geological
interest than any other area of equal extent that I have seen in the
west.
The coal formation along the base of the mountains was studied with
great interest. With these coal beds are associated valuable deposits
of brown iron ore. The coal and iron deposits of the Eaton Hills extend
from the Spanish Peaks to Maxwell's, and the supply of both is quite
inexhaustible and of excellent quality. The future influence of these
two important minerals at this locality, on the success of a Pacific rail-
road, cannot be over-estimated. It is believed that the coal and iron
mines of the Eaton Hills will be of far more value to the country than
all the mines of precious metals in that district.
The next locality for coal was at the Placiere Mountains. In one
locality here, the coal has been changed into anthracite by the eruption
of a basaltic dike, the igneous material of which had poured over the coal
strata. Vast quantities of brown iron ore are associated with this coal,
and magnetic iron ore is found in the gneissoid rocks of the mountain.
The gold mines here are very rich and are now wrought upon a true
scientific plan.
From Santa Fe we proceeded up the Eio Grande through the San
Luis Valley, Poncho Pass, Arkansas Valley, through the South Park to
Denver again. We could only give a glance at the salt springs and
gold mines of the South Park, but we gathered much valuable informa-
tion in regard to this interesting region. To the geologist Colorado is
almost encyclopedic in its character, containing within its borders
nearly every variety of geological formation. The portion of. the
country examined by me this summer, comprises a belt about five hun-
dred and fifty miles in length from north to south, and almost two
hundred in width from east to west.
The collections in all departments are very extensive and valuable,
comprising geological specimens, fossils, minerals, plants, birds, quadru-
peds, reptiles, and insects, all of which are to be arranged and classified
in the museum of the Smithsonian Institution according to a law of Con-
gress.
My report, herewith transmitted, has been written under circum-
stances of great pressure at odd moments, in traveling from point to
point, or in camp after the labors of the day were completed, far away
from books or any opportunities for careful elaboration. It may there-
fore be regarded as little more than a transcript of my field-notes.
Accompanying my own report will be found those of my assistants.
Mr. Persifer Frazer, jr., on the mining resources of the route passed over,
and Mr. Cyrus Thomas on the agricultural resources. I regard these
reports as of great practical value to the country.
I take this opportunity of tendering my thanks to all of my assistants
for their cordial co-operation throughout the entire survey. The reports
of Messrs. Thomas and Frazer will speak for themselves. Mr. Elliott,
SURVEY OF COLORADO AND NEW MEXICO. 5
the artist, has labored with untiring zeal, and has made more than four
hundred outlines of sketches, and about seventy finished ones for the
final reports. Each one of these sketches illustrates some thought or
principle in geology, and, if properly engraved, will be invaluable. My
principal assistant, Mr. James Stevenson, who has been associated with
me in my western explorations for many years, has rendered me indis-
pensable services throughout the entire trip.
I beg permission to state here that my appropriation was so limited
that had it not been for the kindness and generosity of the military
authorities of the country, I could have accomplished but a small
portion of the work that I have performed during the present season,
and I take this opportunity to say that the West is very largely indebted
to them for whatever benefit my labors have been or may be to the
country.
Before leaving Washington, I made application by letter to General
Sherman, commanding the armies of the United States, for such assist-
ance from the military authorities of the West as could be aiforded to
me without manifest injury to the public service. On my letter of appli-
cation, General Sherman placed the following indorsement :
" This application is referred to the commanding officers of the depart-
ments, districts, and posts, who will extend to Professor Hayden's party
the usual courtesies, and the privilege of purchasing a limited quantity of
provisions on the same terms as officers."
Similar indorsements were made by Generals Sheridan, Schofield, and
Augur. The greater part of my outfit was supplied to me by Colonel E.
B. Carling, United States army, depot quartermaster at Fort D. A. Kus-
sell, Wyoming Territory ; and I cannot express too cordially my grateful
acknowledgments to him -for his generous aid, not only for this season,
but also for two previous campaigns. I am also under equal obligation
to General William Myers, United States Army, chief quartermaster
department of the Platte, at Omaha, for invaluable aid in several past
years. When we came in the vicinity of a military post, at Fort Union,
Santa Fe, or Fort Garland, we received all the aid we needed.
I would also extend my grateful acknowledgments to the press and the
citizens of Colorado and New Mexico, but more especially to Colorado
for their cordial aid and sympathy in all my explorations.
If my labors have added anything to the sum of human knowledge and
the honor of pur country, I shall be content.
I remain very respectfully, your obedient servant,
F. Y. HAYDEtf,
United States Geologist.
Hon. J. D. Cox,
Secretary of the Interior.
REPORT OF F. V. HAYDEN
r nr/" / ii
GEOLOGICAL REPORT.
INTEODUCTION.
In crder that the relation of the different geological formations re-
ferrgd to in this report may be more clearly understood, I have thought
it best to commence with the upper coal measures as exposed along the
Missouri Eiver near Omaha and the mouth of the Platte.
Omala, which is well known to be the eastern terminus of the Union
Pacific railroad, is built upon the northwestern rim of the coal* meas-
ures as seen along the Lower Missouri. These rocks occupy a consid-
erable portion of the State south of the Platte Eiver, but north of that
point they cover only a small portion of Sarpy and Douglas Counties.
The last exposure of any importance is near the point decided upon as
the location for the railroad bridge across the Missouri. The limestones
at this pwnt have been quarried for many years, but the amount of
labor required to remove the vast thickness of marl and drift above it,
will dimirish greatly the importance of this quarry. Near Florence
these limestones are seen in the bottom of the river at very low water,
and near De Sofo, obscure exposures have been detected. From that
point to tlw foot of the mountains these rocks are not again seen. Along
the Platte Eiver for about eight miles there are extensive quarries of
limestone that are very useful for building purposes. Scattered over
the surface of the country in the two counties of Douglas and Sarpy, are
exposures of the rusty sandstone of the Dakota group ; and at the mouth
of the Elktorn Eiver all traces of the coal measure rocks have disap-
peared, and do not reappear again until we reach the very margin of
the mountains, over five hundred miles to the westward. After leaving
the mouth of the Elkhorn very few exposures of rocks are seen for the
next hundred miles, but there are enough to show that the underlying
rocks are of cretaceous age. Near the mouth of Elkhorn Eiver the
sandstones of the Dakota group are seen, while on the distant hills
traces of the yellow, chalky limestone, No. 3, ocur. After reaching a
pointalong the Platte about one hundred miles west of Omaha, the light,
yellovish marls and sands of the White Eiver group overlap the older
rocks and occupy the country to the very margins of the Rocky Mountains.
But the most important formation, and one that has a more favorable
influence on the State of Nebraska than any other, is of very recent date
in geological history. In the valley of the Missouri Eiver, extending
up nearly to Fort Pierre, and also to the mouth of the Missouri, and
probaMy southward to the valley of Mexico, is a deposit of yellow marl
varying in thickness from a few feet to several hundred. It has been called
" the biuff formation/' for it constitutes the picturesque bluffs or high hills
which form the most conspicuous features in the scenery along the Mis-
souri Eiver. This yellow marl also enters largely into the composition
of the soil of the vast bottom lands of the river which are so justly cel-
ebrated for their fertility. It is, however, in the immediate proximitv
to the water-courses that this yellow marl deposit is the thickest, and it
gradually diminishes in depth as we recede from them j still, it is to this
10 SURVEY OF COLORADO AND NEW MEXICO.
deposit that a very large portion of the West is indebted for its unsur-
passed fertility and productiveness. It covers the country with such
uniformity that it conceals almost entirely the basis rocks from v:ew.
Underlying this marl is a considerable deposit of drift material, as
rounded pebbles or boulders and coarse sand, often presenting the most
singular illustrations of oblique layers of deposit. The marl is usially
quite homogeneous in its composition, and almost or entirely destitute
of stratification, and the materials seemed to have been deposited in
very quiet waters, and to have settled to the bottom of a fresh-water
lake like gently-falling snow. The drift materials, as a rule, exhibit the
irregular Iamina3 as if they had been deposited by currents of water.
The exceedingly great importance of this yellow marl deposit is lot yet
well understood or appreciated, but it seems to me that the woaderful
fertility of the soil of the western States and Territories, and its perma-
nent productiveness for all time to come, is due to it.
The eastern portion of Nebraska is already quite thickly settled, and
is susceptible of cultivation, but the western part must be inhabited, if
settled at all, by a pastoral people.
These broad, level prairies are covered with a thick growth of short,
nutritious grass, but the scarcity of water for the purpose of irrigation,
and the almost entire absence of forest trees, must ever prevent settle-
ments to any great extent. In the autumn nearly all the smaller streams
dry up entirely, and several seasons the Platte has been kn<>wn to be-
come so low as to have no continuous current. It is a peculiar feature
of these western streams, at times to be larger toward their sources than
at their mouths. The Platte in its various branches always has an
abundant supply of water, as their heads issue from the mountain sides,
but in traversing the plains there are few or no springs or branches en-
tering into it, or the water is entirely absorbed by the arid earii or thirsty
air, until the bed becomes as dry as the dusty road. Hence all over the
Rocky Mountain regions in the autumn are what are called dry creeks,
with beds which, when full in the spring time, form large risers.
The Platte Eiver flows, for a distance of over four huidred miles,
through the southern portion of what I have termed the White Eiver
tertiary basin, in contradistinction to the great lignite tertiary basin.
The former has been separated into two formations, the White Eiver
group and the Loup Eiver beds, on account of the organic remains char-
acterizing each. The two former are entirely distinct, not a species pass-
ing from one to the ot^er. I have supposed hitherto that the Platte
Eiver flowed through strata belonging to the Loup Eiver group. They
ar.e certainly of quite recent age, but the pliocene remains that I col-
lected on the Niobrara Eiver came from loose gray sands which rested
with a certain kind of unconformability on the eroded surface of the
White Eiver group. It is plain also that the valleys of the more inport-
ant streams have been worn out, to some extent, prior to the deposition
of the pliocene sands.
In the valley of the Niobrara and Loup Fork the pliocene sands are
quite thick, and the line of separation between them and the White Eiver
group is very irregular, while on the hills the sands occur in many places,
on and in, isolated hills.
The details of the geology of this most interesting region still remain
to be worked out, and its geographical extent will be found to le much
larger than has hitherto been supposed. The soil composed of the ero-
ded materials of this basin is of moderate fertility, but owing to a want
of water cannot be cultivated to any great extent. The greater portion
of the surface underlaid by these beds is covered with a fine growth of
SURVEY OF COLORADO AND NEW MEXICO. 11
grass which is especially adapted to the raising of sheep, and I am glad
to see that some enterprising persons are making the experiment. The
healthfulness of the climate, the nutritious character of the short grass,
and the dryness of the ground, not unfrequently covered with small
pebbles, must act favorably on sheep.
That portion of Wyoming east of the Laramie range, and south of the
line of the Union Pacific railroad, is entirely covered with the upper
beds of the White Eiver tertiary basin. The valley of Lodge Pole, Crow
Creek, and Chugwater, show the formations of this basin very distinctly
from mouth to source. The Union Pacific railroad ascends the eastern
slope of the Laramie range on a sort of bench of this formation, which
seems to be unusually developed, and to extend without much interrup-
tion up to the very margin of the mountains, sometimes concealing all
the rocks of intermediate age and resting on the syenites.
About twenty miles south of Cheyenne these beds disappear entirely
along the eastern flanks of the mountains, and the lignite tertiary beds
are exposed to view.
CHAPTER I.
FROM CHEYENNE TO DENVER.
I commenced my labors at Cheyenne, Wyoming Territory, and pro-
ceeded southward along the eastern flanks of the Rocky Mountains.
My preliminary report will be little more than a transcript of my journal
from day to day. It will be, therefore, impossible to systematize it as I
would wish, or avoid in many cases repetition. There is great uniformity
in the geology of the country, and when one has become familiar with the
different geological formations over a small area, he can trace them with
great rapidity over long distances. This will account, in part, for the
large extent of country which 1 have been able to examine in a single
season. The geological formations immediately underlying Cheyenne
are of tertiary age. probably pliocene or very late miocene. The beds
have been slightly disturbed by the upheaval of the mountain range, but
their position in relation to the older tertiary beds shows their deposition
to have been of late date. They are found deposited in the valleys and
sometimes high on the mountain sides, and it is very seldom that they dip
at an angle of more than five degrees. These beds can be traced far north-
ward to the Black Hills of Dakota, a distance of three hundred and fifty
miles, and they are thus shown probably to be the upper beds or most re-
cent formation of the White Eiver tertiary. Along the base of the moun-
tains the rocks are mostly pudding-stone, or an aggregate of small water-
worn pebbles, mostly very small, but sometimes several inches in diame-
ter. These pebbles grow smaller and fewer in quantity as we recede
from the mountains until they entirely disappear, and fine sand or inarl
takes their place. Xear Cheyenne there is a bed of fresh- water lime-
stone which is much used as lime, and seems to answer an excellent pur-
pose in mason work and for whitewashing, and I have no doubt that
such beds or layers occur in this basin everywhere. Along the line of
the Union Pacific railroad, just before reaching Granite Canon, a bed
of the most excellent limestone crops out, on the margin of the range, of
carboniferous age. This is burned into lime of snowy whiteness and is
a great favorite with masons. It contains some fossils of well known
carboniferous forms, as Athyris subtilita, Product us pratteniana, and
crinoidal fragments. The red sandstones are exposed iu a narrow belt
12 SURVEY OF COLORADO AND NEW MEXICO.
along the margins of the mountains, but all rocks of more recent date
are concealed by the tertiary deposits. In order that I may make my
description of the different formations in their southern extension more
clearly understood, I will describe them in as brief a manner as pos-
sible, as they have been studied in the regions to the northward.
The granites and metamorphic rocks do not differ in many respects from
those which form the nucleus of the mountain ranges generally. Reddish
and gray granites form the central portions, and on the sides is a series of
stratified metamorphic rocks of a great variety of structure and com-
position. At the north the igneous rocks do not seem to predominate ,
in the eastern ranges, but as we proceed southward toward New Mexico
they increase in extent and force.
The Potsdam sandstone is the only member of the Silurian that I have
ever observed along the margins of the mountains. It was first dis-
covered west of the Missouri River in the summer of 1857, during the
exploration of the Black Hills of Dakota, by a United States expedi-
tion under the command of General G. K. Warren, United States Army,
and it has been observed in several other localities since that time.
The following section of the Potsdam sandstone in its relation to the
carboniferous beds, as observed by me around the margins of the Black
Hills, shows the typical characters of each, where they are well exposed
arid have been clearly identified by organic remains :
1. Hard, compact, fine-grained, yellowish limestone of an excellent
quality; passing down into a yellow calcareous sandstone, quite friable.
Fossils : Rhynconella rocky-montana, Athyris subtilitctj Cyrtoceras, &c.
50 feet.
2. Loose layers of very hard yellow arenaceous limestone with a red-
dish tinge, underlaid by a bed, six or eight feet in thickness, of a very hard
blue limestone. The whole contains great quantities of broken crinoi-
dal remains with cyathopylloid corals and several species of brachio-
poda 40 feet.
3. Variegated sandstone of a gray and ferruginous reddish color, com-
posed chiefly of grains of quartz and particles of mica, cemented with
calcareous matter. Some portions of the bed are very hard, compact,
siliceous; others a coarse friable grit; others conglomerate. Fossils:
Lingula prima, L. antiqua, Obolella nana, and Arionellus oweni 50 feet.
4. Stratified metamorphic rocks in a vertical position for the most part.
Eocks about the same as those above described, sometimes very much
thicker and sometimes thinner, have been seen, more or less, all along the
margin of the Rocky Mountains, on both sides the main axis from the
north line to Cheyenne.
About the sources of the Missouri Biver, along the flanks of the Big
Horn and Wind River Mountains, these rocks are particularly devel-
oped. Now and then they all disappear for a considerable distance, and
then, at the first favorable opportunity, reappear from beneath beds of
more recent date. A series of arenaceous beds, which we have called
the " red arenaceous deposits, or triassic, 77 form one of the most con-
spicuous features of the geology along the flanks of both sides of the
principle ranges of mountains and are almost always present. They
were first observed by me, forming a narrow belt or girdle around the
granite nucleus of the Black Hills of Dakota, in the summer of 1857.
These rocks are sometimes called saliferous or gypsum-bearing beds, from
the fact that they contain both salt and gypsum, the latter mineral
oftentimes in great quantities. There are also mingled with these beds
several layers of bluish siliceous limestone, which at the far north at-
SURVEY OF COLORADO AND NEW MEXICO. 13
tain a considerable thickness, but southward thin out to a few feet, or
are entirely concealed by the debris which everywhere prevails.
These red beds, when they make their appearance, often give the most
unique and remarkable features to the scenery, and any development of
them, however small, never falls to attract even the commonest observer
on account of their brick-red appearance. No well-authenticated fossils
have ever been found in them, yet they are regarded as of tnassic age
by the common consent of geologists. I am inclined to believe that a
portion of the upper light-red beds, with the included layers of flinty
limestone, are Jurassic, but I have never been able to find any well de-
fined line of separation between what are well known to be Jurassic and
the supposed triassic beds.
lasting above these red beds is a series of marls and arenaceous marls
of a light or ashen gray color, with harder layers of limestone or fine
sandstone, which were also first discovered around the margin of the
Black Hills of Dakota in 1857. Since the discovery in the Black Hills,
Jurassic fossils have been found over a very wide geographical area, and
yet I have never seen them so well developed, or the peculiar fossils so
abundant, as at the locality where they were first observed. Although
I have traced this Jurassic belt by its organic remains over many hun-
dreds of miles, I have been able to discover scarcely a well-defined
Jurassic fossil south of Deer Creek, a point one hundred miles north of
Fort Laramie, or south of the Lake Como, on the Union Pacific railroad.
I believe that a thin remnant of this belt extends far south to New
Mexico, but it is often so obscured, or so easily concealed, that I have been
continually in doubt in regard to its existence. Coextensive with all
the mountain ranges is a large series of beds above the Jurassic belt
which belong to the cretaceous period, the upper and middle portions of
which are everywhere indicated by characteristic fossil remains, as seen
on the Missouri River, where they were first studied by Mr. F. B. Meek
and the writer. The cretaceous rocks present five well-marked divisions,
Nos. 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5, or Dakota group, Fort Benton group, Niobrara
division, Fort Pierre group, and Fox Hill beds. On the Lower Missouri
No. 1, or Dakota group, is characterized by several species of marine
shells and a profusion of impressions of deciduous leaves; but along the
margins of the mountain elevations I have never been able to discover
a single specimen of organic remains that would establish the age of the
rocks. I only know that there is a series of beds of remarkable persist-
ency all along the margin of the mountain ranges, holding a position
between well-defined cretaceous No. 2 and Jurassic beds, and in my pre-
vious reports I have called them transition beds, or No. 1. They consist
of a series of layers of yellow and gray, more or less fine-grained sand-
stones and pudding-stones, with some intercalated layers of arenaceous
clays. In almost all cases there is associated with these beds a thin series
of carbonaceous clays, which sometimes becomes impure coal, and con-
tains masses of silicified wood, &c. On the west side of the Black Hills
they assume a singularly massive appearance, nearly horizontal, two
hundred to two hundred and fifty feet thick, and are called Fortification
Eocks. Here also occurs a thin bed of carbonaceous clay. On the east-
ern slope of the Big Horn Mountains I observed this same series of beds
in the summer of 1859, holding a position between cretaceous No. 2 and
the Jurassic marls, with a considerable thickness of earthy lignite, large
quantities of petrified wood, and numerous large uncharacteristic bones,
which Dr. Leidy regarded as belonging to some huge saurian.
There are very few points of resemblance between these beds and
those which form the Dakota group, as seen in Kansas and Nebraska.
14 SURVEY OF COLORADO AND NEW MEXICO.
All the evidence therefore that I have had to guide me in regard to
these beds along the margin of the mountain ranges has been their
position.
No. 2, on the Missouri River, is composed of very black plastic clays,
with some thin layers of limestone and sandstone, and is quite well sepa-
rated from No. 1 below and No. 3 above. No. 3 is composed of massive
layers of chalky limestone, always containing Inoceramus problematicus
and Ostrea congesta.
Along the Kansas Pacific .railroad, at Hayes City and Fort Wallace,
No. 3 occurs in such massive layers that it is sawed into building blocks
with a common saw. No. 4 is a dark ashen steel-colored laminated clay,
with bluish calcareous concretions filled with shells. No. 5 is a yellow-
ish ferruginous arenaceous clay, with the greatest abundance of mollus-
cous fossils. At various localities all along the margin of the mountain
ranges these divisions of the cretaceous are far less distinctly separated,
and vary more or less in their structure and composition, and yet in
tracing them carefully and continuously from the Missouri Kiver they
always retain enough of their typical character, so that I have never
been at a loss to detect their presence at once, although after leaving
the Missouri Eiver we do not find any well-defined lines of separation,
either lithologically or paleontologically.
With the commencement of the tertiary was ushered in the dawn of
the great lake period of the West. The evidence seems to point to the
conclusion that from the dawn of the tertiary period, even up to the
commencejnent of the present, there was a continuous series of fresh-
water lakes all over the continent west of the Mississippi Kiver. As-
suming the position that all the physical changes were slow, progressive,
and long-continued, and that the earlier sediments of the tertiary were
marine, then brackish, then purely fresh water, we have through them
a portion of the consecutive history of the growth of the western conti-
nent, step by step, up to the present time. The earliest of these great
lakes marked the commencement of the tertiary period, and seems to
have covered a very large portion of the American continent west of
the Mississippi, from the Arctic Sea to the Isthmus of Darien.
As I have before stated, the first sediments were marine, then came
brackish water, and soon purely fresh water, as is plainly indicated by
the organic remains. The lower beds of the great lignite basin every-
where contain layers, varying from a few inches to two feet in thick-
ness, made up almost entirely of oyster shells, with a few other species
of marine or estuary types. No exclusively marine forms have as yet
been found to my knowledge, but as we ascend in the beds all traces of
the salt sea disappear, and a great profusion of fresh-water and land shells
appear, with vast quantities of the impressions of leaves of deciduous
trees. Numerous beds of coal, varying in thickness from a few inches
to fifteen or twenty feet, characterize this deposit.
About the middle of the tertiary period the second extensive lake
commenced in the West, which we have called the White River tertiary
basin. We believe that it commenced its growth near the southeastern
base of the Black Hills, and gradually enlarged its borders. I am in-
clined to think that this lake has continued on, almost or quite up to the
commencement of the present period ; that the light colored arenaceous
and marly deposits in the Park of the Upper Arkansas, in the Middle
Park, among the mountains at the source of the Missouri Kiver, in Texas
and California, and Utah, are all later portions of this great lake. The
upper miocene or pliocene deposits in the Wind Kiver Valley, near Fort
Bridger, and on the divide between the Platte and the Arkansas Rivers,
SURVEY OF COLORADO AND NEW MEXICO. 15
were undoubtedly synchronous, though perhaps not connected with this
great basin. Every year, as the limits of my explorations are extended
in any direction, I find evidences of what appear to be separate lake
basins, covering greater or less areas, and bearing intrinsic proof, more
or less conclusive, of the time of their existence. I have given in this
place the above brief description of the various geological formations
as 1 have studied them in the West, in order that my subsequent remarks
on these formations in their southern extension may be more clearly
understood. Constant reference will be made to rocks as they have
been seen in the far North and West, in order that the story of their
geological extension may be linked together.
June 29, 1869. Left Fort D. A. Eussell about 10 o'clock in the morn-
ing with my entire party, consisting of twelve persons and eighteen
mules and horses, with two large covered wagons and an ambulance.
By the kindness of Colonel E. B. Carling, the depot quartermaster, at
Fort D. A. Eussell, 1 was provided with everything needful for inde-
pendent camp life, and I at once commenced my explorations in earnest.
We traveled to-day thirteen miles southward from Fort Russell. Our
entire route was over the more recent beds of the White Eiver tertiary
basin. The lowest bed exposed by the cuts in the streams, is a thick layer
of flesh-colored indurated marl, much like that containing so many ver-
tebrate fossils on White Eiver, Dakota. It contains some thin layers of
very fine gritty rock. Overlying this is a thick bed which appears more
recent, yet apparently conforms to the marl beds below. It is composed
of water- worn pebbles of various sizes, forming a real pudding-stone.
Near the margins of the mountains this bed gives the characteristic
features to the scenery, as it is cut through by the myriad small streams
that issue from the mountain side. It is at least three or four feet in thick-
ness. Most of the pebbles are from the granite rocks that form the cen-
tral portions of the Laramie range. The beds all dip from the mountains
eastward at a moderate angle, and it is evident that this entire forma-
tion was deposited after the mountain ranges had nearly reached their
present height. The strata seldom dip at an angle of over 5 and rest
unconformably on the older beds when they are seen in apposition.
Near the junction of the metamorphic rocks with these modern pud-
ding-stones the pebbles or bowlders are not much worn, and of mode-
rate size, six to twelve inches in diameter, but the sediments grow finer
and finer as we recede from the foot of the mountains until the pudding-
stones pass into a fine-grained whitish sandstone. We can see, therefore,
that these deposits formed the proper rim of the fresh-water lake, that
the sediments were derived from the erosion of the feldspathic granites,
and that the forces that were in operation acted from the direction of
the mountain ranges.
There are also vast quantities of drift material which I regard as local.
It seems to me that the evidence is clear that all this modern drift-action
had its origin in the mountain ranges in the immediate vicinity; that in
earlier times the snow and ice gathered on the summits in vastly greater
quantities, and that in melting, from year to year, in the form of water
and ice, they brought along vast quantities of rocks from the mountains
and distributed them over the surface.
The waters, with the masses of ice, would naturally follow the chan-
nels of the streams if they had been marked out, or they would mark out
new channels, for nearly or quite all the valleys that extend down from
the mountains become shallower, the further they extend eastward from
the flanks of the range. This superficial deposit at the very margins of
the mountains is composed of very coarse materials, sometimes immense
16 SURVEY OF COLORADO AND NEW MEXICO.
masses of granite of all kinds, but slightly worn ; but proceeding from
the base of the mountains, the rocks become smaller and more rounded,
until they pass into small pebbles, mingled with loose sand.
The phenomena of erosion, as seen at the present time, all along the
flanks of the mountains, in the plains, in the channels of streams, point
clearly to a vastly greater quantity and force of water than exist any-
where at the present time.
The surface of the country along the base of the mountains is ex-
tremely undulating worn into hill, valley, ridge, or rounded buttes.
The strata in these ridges and hills show that the entire surface was
much higher than it is at present, and that these ridges and buttes are
only remnants of beds left after the erosion, and how great a thickness of
strata was originally deposited above these remnants, and is now en-
tirely swept away, it is impossible to determine, though we believe it
was very great.
Now, on these hills are the greatest numbers of large, rounded stones,
of all kinds, granite and sedimentary, as if they had been left there by
the melting masses of ice which had lodged on the hills. These stones
are also accumulated in long lines or belts, as if they had been driven by
currents so as to form shore Hues, or lodged-in eddies. The evidence is
clear that great bodies of water, in which were probably mingled masses
of ice, swept over the plain country within a 'comparatively recent
geological period.
Opposite Camp Carling, in the bluffs of Crow Creek, a good thickness
of drift is seen filling up the irregular surface of the modern tertiary
beds, so that we have evidence of quite extensive erosion of the surface
prior to the deposition of this drift.
Along all the main water-courses are high ridges showing the rocky
strata perfectly. A little lower is a second ridge, mostly grassed over,
but more or less parallel with the higher ridge ; then we have a gradu-
ated series of terraces, from one to three, extending down to the water's
edge. This description applies to all the main water-courses along the
base of the mountains, whether there is running water in them at this
time or not ; and they all seem to give evidence that they once contained
far more water than at present. This configuration of the surface aids
much in giving a sort of picturesque appearance to the plains, inasmuch
as we cross these undulations at right angles in traveling north to
south.
The soil in the valleys of the streams is rich enough, and when it can
be irrigated, will produce good crops ; and not until the farmers and
stock-growers begin to settle about Cheyenne will it have a permanent
and substantial growth.
June 30. The distance from Cheyenne to Laporte, on the Cache la
Poudre, is forty miles. The tertiary pudding-stone beds extend along
the immediate flanks of the mountains for twenty-five miles, but disap-
pear from the plains within ten or fifteen miles of Laporte.
I have estimated their entire thickness here at from twelve hundred
to fifteen hundred feet. The high hills near the station are capped with
coarse sandstone, with horizontal strata, and are eight hundred feet
above the bed of the creek that flows near their base. From beneath
these recent beds arise the more sombre-hued beds of the lignite tertiary.
We have then broad grassy plains, dotted here and there with buttes
like truncated cones, and long narrow belts of table-lands, with perfectly
plain surfaces to the eye, from a distance. Why these more modern
tertiary beds are so persistent along the immediate sides of the moun-
tain, but have been entirely swept away ten miles to the eastward, I can-
SURVEY OF COLORADO AND NEW MEXICO. 17
not tell. This narrow belt, about ten or fifteen miles wide, extending np
to the granite rocks, and for the most part concealing all the intermedi-
ate rocks, forms a sort of bench, with a gently ascending grade for the
Union Pacific railroad.
Either above or below this bench the ascent to the mountains would
have been very difficult, expensive, and perhaps impossible.
About twenty miles south of Cheyenne a bed of coal has been opened
and wrought to some extent. The outcropping repealed a bed of im-
pure coal four feet eight inches thick, with an inclination 12 east.
The coal became more valuable as it was worked further into the earth ;
and by following the direction of the dip, the coal was found to be five
feet four inches thick. In nearly all instances coal beds increase in
thickness, rather than diminish, the further they are explored. The
whole plain country is covered with such a thickness of superficial drift
that it is next to impossible to obtain a connected section of the under-
lying rocks. Sometimes a stream will cut so deep that a portion of
them is exposed, and by following it a great distance, the order of super-
position may be obtained with some degree of correctness.
A section across the upturned edges of the strata, from the direction
of the mountains eastward, is as follows :
7. Drab clay passing up into areno-calcareous grits composed of an
aggregation of oyster-shells, Ostrea subtrigonalis.
6. Lignite 5 to 6 feet.
5. Drab clay 4 to 6 feet.
4. Eeddish, rusty sandstone, in thin lamina 20 feet.
3. Drab arenaceous clay, indurated 25 feet.
2. Massive sandstone 50 feet.
1. No. 5, cretaceous apparently passing up into a yellowish sandstone.
The summits of the hills near this bed of coal are covered with loose
oyster shells, and a stratum four feet thick, or more, is composed of an
aggregation of them. This species seems to be identical with the one
found in a similar geological position in the lower lignite beds of the
Upper Missouri, near Fort Clark j also at the mouth of the Judith, and
at South Boulder, and doubtless was an inhabitant of the brackish
waters which must have existed about the dawn of the tertiary period
in the west. It would seem, that in these lower coal beds the molluscous
life was almost entirely confined to this genus, (from three to five species
having already been discovered.) Near Medicine Bow Creek there is a
thin seam of oyster shells, quite minute, and at Point of Bocks, on the
Union Pacific railroad, above several beds of coal, there is a layer two
feet or more in thickness, made up of the shells of a fine large species,
about the size of our common edible oyster.
On the Upper Missouri a great variety of well-known fresh-water
types of shells are found in the strata connected with the coal, especially
toward the middle portion. But southward I have never met with any
other shells than oysters, in direct connection with the coal beds.
During the summer of 1859 I traced this lignite formation uninter-
uptedly from the Upper Missouri Valley to a point on the North Platte,
about eighty miles northwest of Fort Larainie. It is there overlapped
by the modern tertiary deposits previously described, but reappears
(about twenty miles south of Cheyenne, and extends with some inter-
ruptions far southward into New Mexico. During the summer of 1868
I traced these coal beds, on the other side of the mountains, westward
nearly to Salt Lake City ; and in the Middle and South Parks there are
quite extensive developments of them.
I make these remarks as confirmatory of a statement which I made
18 SURVEY OF COLORADO AND NEW MEXICO.
in an article in Silliman's Journal, March, 1868, " that all the lignite
tertiary beds of the west are but fragments of one great basin interrupted
here and there by the upheaval of mountain chains, or concealed by the
deposition of newer formations."
As soon as the lignite beds reappear southward the aspect of the
country changes. The distant hills that flank the mountains on the
right are still the pebbly conglomerate beds. And in the valleys of the
little streams, about four miles south of Spotswood Springs, are several
exposures of beds which are undoubtedly older tertiary. There is here
shown a deep yellow arenaceous indurated clay layer, passing down into
an ashen-brown grit, with rusty yellow concretions. All over the hills
are scattered the greatest number of water- worn boulders. The lignite
strata incline in the same direction as those of the more modern deposits.
The dip of the former is about five degrees to ten degrees, the latter one
degree to three degrees east, from the mountains. There are many
other localities where the evidence of non- conformity of the two deposits
is perfectly clear.
A little further eastward on the Dry Creek the ridge is capped with
gray, loosely laminated sandstone; while in the indurated arenaceous
bed below are beds of massive rusty sandstone, the same as those that
compose the natural fortifications about thirteen miles southwest of
Cheyenne. The ridge extends far eastward into the plain, with the beds
nearly horizontal.
Near a high conical butte a little further southward we find the lig-
nite beds dipping 85 with a strike nearly north and south. And in the
south and southwest we can see the upturned ridges of cretaceous and
older sedimentary formations composing the flanks of the mountains.
The modern tertiary and the superficial drift deposits have been so re-
moved from the mountain side about ten or fifteen miles north of
Cache la Poudre that all the unchanged sedimentary rocks in this
region are revealed in the form of inclined ridges, which gradually die
out in the plains eastward like sea waves.
A bed of the laminated chalky marl of No. 3 with Ostrea congesta and
Inoceramus problematicus is particularly noticeable. In the lignite beds
harder layers of rusty sandstone, with loosely laminated arenaceous
clay, and the softer materials are worn away by erosion, leaving the
harder rocky layers projecting above the surface in long lines like walls.
Near Park station, about twelve miles north of Cache la Poudre, the
upheaved ridges begin to spread out, revealing very clearly to the
scrutiny of the geologist all the sedimentary rocks, to the tertiary in-
clusive. Commencing in the plains about ten miles east of the margin
of the mountains we find a series of gently inclined tertiary sandstones,
dipping from 5 to 10. Then come the complete series of cretaceous
strata in their order, inclining from 20 to 35. Underneath the ridge
capped with the sandstone No. 1 is a thin belt of ashen-gray marls and
arenaceous marls, with one or two layers, two to four feet thick, of hard
blue limestone, which I regard as of Jurassic age. These pass down
into light reddish, loose arenaceous sediments. Further toward the
mountains, come one to three ridges of brick-red sandstone, and loose
red sandy layers, sometimes variegated. Close to the margin of the
mountains, sometimes forming the inside ridge, is a bed of whitish lime-
stone, underlaid by dull purplish sandstone and pudding-stones, which
are probably of carboniferous age. These beds dip at various angles,
from 30 to 60, and, as far as I can determine, conform generally to
the inclination of the nietainorphic rocks which compose the mountain
nucleus.
SURVEY OF COLORADO AND NEW MEXICO. 19
The opening in the foot-hills of the mountains through which Box
Elder Creek flows exhibits the red beds and Jurassic in full development.
The whitish-gray sandstones, which lie between the red beds and the
well-marked cretaceous strata, contribute much toward giving sharp-
ness of outline to the hills, and the broken masses of rock from this bed
are scattered over their sides.
The valley of the Box Elder is very beautiful, and, like the valleys of
most of the little streams here, makes its way through the ridges and
flanks of the mountains, nearly at right angles to the trend of the strata.
All these ridges, or " hog-backs," as they are called by the settlers of
the country, vary much in the angle of dip. It not unfrequently occurs
that the outer and more recent ridges incline at a very high angle, or
stand nearly vertical ; and there are many examples inhere they have
been tipped several degrees past vertically ; while the inner sandstone
ridges, lying almost against the metarnorphic rocks, incline at a small
angle or are nearly horizontal ; and again this may be reversed. These
mountain valleys are not only beautiful, but they are covered with ex-
cellent grass, making the finest pasture grounds for stock in the world.
The animals are so sheltered by the lofty rock-walls on each side that
they remain all winter in good condition without any further provision
for them.
The Box Elder separates into two branches in the foot-hills, and be-
tween the forks there is a large circular cone with nearly horizontal
strata of the red beds. A section, ascending, would be as follows:
1. Brick-red sandstone with irregular Iamina3 and all the usual signs
of currents or shallow water. Some of the layers are more loosely lami-
nated than others, thus causing projecting portions 300 to 400 feet.
2. The red sandstone passes up into a yellow or reddish-yellow sand-
stone, massive 60 feet.
3. Passing up into a bed of grayish yellow rather massive sandstone
50 feet.
4. Ashen-brown nodular or indurated clay, with deep, dull purple
bands ; with some layers of brown and yellow fine-grained sandstone,
undoubtedly the usual Jurassic beds with all the lithological characters
as seen near Lake Como, on the Union Pacific railroad 150 to 200 feet.
Near the base of these beds are thin layers of a fine grained grayish
calcareous sandstone, with a species of Ostrea and fragments of Penta-
crinus asteriscus. Scattered through this bed are layers er nodules of
impure limestone.
5. Above this marly clay there is at least two hundred feet of sand-
stone and laminated arenaceous material, varying in color from a dirty
brown to grayish white, with layers of fine grayish-white standstone.
I do not hesitate to regard the beds described as 4 and 5 as of Jurassic
age, and they are better shown here than at any other point between
Fort Laramie and the south line of Colorado on the eastern slope of the
Rocky Mountains. Usually the most abundant and most characteristic
fossil in the Jurassic beds, when exposed, is Belcmnites densus, but that
has not been observed south of Lake Corno, west of the Laramie range.
As we proceed southward these Jurassic beds become thinner and more
obscure, so that it often t)ecornes a matter of doubt whether they exist
at all.
We have, also, in this vicinity an illustration of the difference of in-
clination in the same series of upheaved ridges. In the plains some of
the lower lignite tertiary beds and cretaceous No. 5 stand nearly ver-
tical, or 85 east. No. 4 fills the intervening valley with its dark shale,
and the next ridge west cretaceous No. 3 inclines 30. Then come
20 SURVEY OF COLORADO AND NEW MEXICO.
the Jurassic beds capped with the sandstones of No. 1, inclining 8.
Then comes a series of red beds dipping 1 to 3. The inner ridge, or
" hog-back," is the largest of all one hundred and fifty to two hundred
feet high is partly covered on the east, or sloping side, with the loose
red sand of the triassic ; and on the west or abrupt side, is revealed a
considerable thickness of limestone, which I suppose to be of carbonif-
erous age. This ridge is remarkably furrowed on the eastern slope by
streams, but is too high up on the mountain side to be divided by the
currents into the peculiar conical fragments, as the lower ridges are.
And hence it presents an almost unbroken flank for miles. There is
no better exhibition of the sedimentary rocks, with all their peculiar
characteristics and irregularities, than from the head of Box Elder Creek
to Cache a la Poudre, where the belt of upheaved sedimentary rocks
varies from five to fifteen miles in width. No one could stand on the
summit of one of these ridges and turn his eye westward over the
series, rising like steps to the mountain summit, and then looking
eastward across the broad level plain where the smaller ridges die out
in the prairies, like waves of the sea, without arriving at once to a clear
conception of the plan of the elevation of the Eocky Mountain range.
The main range of the mountains is really a gigantic anticlinal, and
all the lower ranges and ridges are only monoclinals, descending, step-
like, to the plains on each side of the central axis. There are some vari-
ations from this rule at many localities, which I shall attempt to explain
from time to time in the proper place.
One of these ridges is quite conspicuous to the eye, from the fact
that it is capped with a heavy bed of sandstone which I have always re-
garded as transition or No. 1 (?) because it holds a position between
the well-defined cretaceous beds Nos. 2 and 3, and the Jurassic.
Not a single well-marked fossil, animal or vegetable, has ever been
found in this group of strata along the flanks of the inoun tains j yet I
do not hesitate to regard them as lower cretaceous.
On the summits of all these ridges are numerous piles of rocks which
have been erected by Indians in years past as monuments or land-marks.
Inside of the sedimentary ridges are the metamorphic rocks, mostly
red feldspathic granites, disintegrating readily, and easily detected by
the eye at a distance by their style of weathering. Still further west-
ward are the lofty snow-capped ranges, whose eternal snows form the
sources of the permanent streams of the country.
It seems clear to me that the more recent sedimentary formations, up
to the lignite tertiary, inclusive, once extended over the whole country.
Perhaps no finer locality exists in the West for the careful study of the
different sedimentary formations and their relations to the metamorphic
rocks than along the overland stage road from Laramie to Denver.
Before reaching Laporte the road passes for twenty miles or more
through ridge after ridge remarkably well exposed. After emerging
from the mountains eastward it runs south for four or five miles along
the cretaceous beds with their upturned edges on the east side, and the
Jurassic and triassic (?) on {he west forming a slope much like the roof
of a house. The valley between the two ridges through which the road
runs is a beautiful one.
South of Big Thompson Creek the belt of upheaved ridges, or un-
changed rocks, becomes quite narrow, and continues so to Denver, and
even beyond.
The cretaceous rocks in this region, though plain to one who has
carefully studied them on the Upper Missouri, are not separated into
well-marked divisions. If they had first been studied along the foot of the
SURVEY OF COLORADO AND NEW MEXICO. 21
mountains only from Cheyenne southward, it is very doubtful whether
the five distinct groups of strata would have been made out. The three
divisions, upper, middle, and lower cretaceous, are more natural south
of the North Platte, inasmuch as Nos. 2, 3, 4, and 5 pass into each other
by imperceptible gradations. Though very few organic remains are ob-
served in them, yet I have never found the slightest difficulty in detect-
ing the different divisions at a glance by their lithological characters,
but I find it quite impossible to draw any line of separation that will be
permanent. Quite marked changes occur in the sediments of these
divisions in different parts of the West, but by following them continu-
ously, in every direction, from their typical appearance on the Upper
Missouri, the changes are so gradual that I have never lost sight of
them for a mile, unless concealed by more recent deposits.
As I have before stated, I regard the group of sandstones which are
always found between well-defined cretaceous No. 2 and the Jurassic
beds as No. 1, or transition. No. 2 is certainly well shown, with many of
its features, but it is a black shale, often arenaceous, containing many lay-
ers of sandstone with some concretions; but so gradually passing up into
No. 3 that it is quite impossible to separate the two. Only in thin portions
of either Nos. 2 or 3 do we find any resemblance to the same groups as
shown on the Upper Missouri. No. 3 is a thinly-laminated yellow
chalky shale with some layers of gray, rather chalky limestone, always
containing an abundance of Inoceramus, doubtless I. problematicus, and
Ostrea congesta. Kemains of fishes are almost always found in the dark
shales of No. 2. The black shales of No. 4 are quite conspicuous and
well marked, and have been quite thoroughly prospected for coal, but
to no purpose. These black shales pass gradually up into yellow rusty
arenaceous clays which characterize No. 5 ; and No. 5 passes up into the
i lignite tertiary beds, where they can be seen in contact, without any
Iwell-defined line of separation that I could ever discover. But few
species of fossils are found in Nos. 4 and 5 in their southern extension,
but Baculites ovatus and several species of Inoceramus Ammonites, &c.,
are common. Another feature is well marked here, and that is, there
are no beds that indicate long periods of quiet deposition of the sedi-
ments. Nearly all the sediments indicate either comparatively shallow
water or currents more or less rapid.
Sometimes a single ridge will include all the beds of one formation,
or even those of two or three. I have often seen the sandstones of No. 1.
the Jurassic, and a portion of the triassic included in one ridge and the
adjoining valley. Again, a single formation will be split up into two or
more ridges.
On the Cache a la Poudre, about a mile above Laporte, on the south
side of the river, the sandstones of No. 1 are separated into four success-
ive ridges, inclining, respectively, 18, 21, 35, and 46 about southeast.
Much of this sandstone is a fine-grained grayish white, and rusty yellow
color, sometimes concretionary, or like indurated mud. Here all the divi-
sions of the cretaoeous extend eastward in low ridges until they die out
in the plains or are concealed by the overlying tertiary. Along the Cache a
la Poudre and its branches is a series of terraces which are quite uniform.
This valley is one of tlfe most fertile in Colorado. The present year
there has been so much rain that irrigation has been unnecessary. The
bottom lands are about two miles wide, and thickly settled from mouth
to source. The grass is unusually fine this year everywhere.
July 2. In company with Dr. Smith, of Laporte, I visited the sup-
posed gold and copper mines at or near the sources of the Cache 4 la
Poudre Eiver. This stream makes its way through what might be called
22 SURVEY OF COLORADO AND NEW MEXICO.
a monoclinal rift, or between two ridges, whether of changed or unchanged
rocks which incline in the same direction. We ascend to the axis
of the main Eocky Mountain range by a series of step-like ridges, each one
inclining in the same general direction at some angle, with their counter-
parts on the opposite side of the main axis. Speaking of these ridges
locally, I have called them in this report monoclinal, from the fact, that
as a rule their counterparts, although they have once existed on the west
side of the range, are in most cases swept away. We passed up a beau-
tiful valley with the red beds on our left, and a few remnants of the red
beds and the metamorphic rocks on our right, for about fifteen miles. We
then came to the red feldspathic granites, in which the mineral lodes are
located. W r e first examined a local vein of black rock, in which horn-
blende predominates. It contains some mica and iron, so that it might
be called a local outcrop of black hornblende syenite. Masses of it
have a rusty look from the decomposition of the iron in the rock, and
sometimes it is covered with an incrustation of common salt or potash.
Iron in some form is one of the prpminent constituents of all the rocks
of this region, changed or unchanged. So far as I could determine, the
inclination of the metamorphic rocks is in the same direction as the sed-
imentary. I have assumed the position that all the rocks of the West
are, or were, stratified, and that where no lines of stratification can be
seen, as in some of the massive granites, they have been obliterated by
heat during their metamorphism. Therefore all the metamorphic rocks,
whether stratified or massive, that form the nucleus of the Eocky Moun-
tains, must have some angle of dip, equally with the sedimentary rocks.
In many cases I have to be guided by the intercalated beds of mica or
talcose slates. I am of the opinion that there are anticlinals and syn-
clinals among the metamorphic rocks of this region, and that the mount-
ain valleys are thus formed for the most part.
We examined a number of lodes which were moderately rich in copper.
All the lodes have a trend about northeast and southwest, and are two
to four feet wide, with well-defined walls. Much of the gangue rock is
spongy like slag, owing to the decomposition of iron pyrites ; and there
are large masses of the casts of cubes, evidently cubes of iron pyrites.
Our examinations were not very thorough, but I was not favorably im-
pressed with this district as a rich mineral region. Some of the copper
mines, at some future day, may yield a fair return, but it will be many
years before the country will be built up by its mineral wealth.
July 3. Our route to-day was along the flanks of the mountains, from
Cache a la Poudre to Big Thompson Creek. Lying over the red beds
and appearing to form a dividing line between the red beds and the
ashen-gra> marly clays above, is a well-defined bed of bluish semi-crys-
talline limestone, two to four feet thick, somewhat cherty, though sus-
ceptible of a high polish, too brittle and liable to fracture in any
direction to be valuable for ornamental purposes probably useful for
lime only. I regard this as of Jurassic age, although I was unable to
find in it any well-marked organic remains. The same bed occurs in the
Laramie plains, where it contains many fragments of crinoidal stems,
which Professor Agassiz referred to the well-known Jurassic genus
Apiocrinites.
On the summit of the first main "hogback" is a bed of massive
sandstone, immense blocks of which have fallen down on the inner side
of the ridge, adding much to the wildness as well as ruggeduess of the
scenery. These rocks are made up almost entirely of an aggregation of
small water- worn pebbles. The layers of deposition are very irregular,
inclining at various angles. This irregularity in the laminae is a marked
SURVEY OF COLORADO AND NEW MEXICO. 23
feature of this sandstone* It forms a portion of the group which I have
called transition, or No. 1. They are certainly beds of passage from
well-marked cretaceous to the Jurassic, and the lower portion being
almost invariably a pudding-stone, they may well mark the boundary
between the two great periods. In many places along our route this
group forms lofty perpendicular escarpments, varying from thirty to sixty
feet in height, indicating a considerable thickness of the massive sand-
stone. For fifteen miles we can pass along behind this hog-back ridge par-
allel with the mountains, through a most beautiful valley with fine grass,,
and over an excellent natural road. On our left are the upturned,
edges of a ridge capped with No. 1, passing down into the limestone and
ashen marly clays of the Jurassic, with a few feet of the red sandstone
at the base, while the valley, which may be three hundred to five hun-
dred yards wide, is composed of the worn edges of the loose red beds of
the triassic, and on our right are the variegated sands and sandstones of
the formation.
South of Cache a la Poudre there seem to be but two principal ridges
between the transition group No. 1 and the metamorphic rocks,
although at times each one of these ridges will split up into a number of
subordinate ridges which soon merge into the main ridge again. In
most cases the inner ridge includes all the red beds proper, and there is
a well-defined valley between it and the metamorphic rocks, but some-
times the sedimentary beds flank the immediate sides of the metamor-
phic ridge. Through these ridges are openings made by the little streams
which issue from the mountain's side. Sometimes these openings are cut
deep through to the water level, and at other times for only a few feet from
the summit. Sometimes there is a stream of water flowing through
them, but most of them are dry during the summer. These notches in
the ridges occur every few hundred yards all along the foot of the
mountains.
The cretaceous and tertiary beds generally form several low ridges
which are not conspicuous. The principal ridge outside, next to the
plains, is composed of the limestones of No. 3, which is smoothly
rounded and covered with fragments or chips of limestone. Between
this and the next ridge west, there is a beautiful concave valley about
one-fourth of a mile wide. The line between the upper part and the foot
of the ridge proper is most perfectly marked out by the grass. The east
slope of this ridge is like the roof of a house, so steep that but little soil
can attach to it, and in consequence of this it can sustain only thin grass
and stinted shrubs. These ridges are sharp or rounded, depending upon
the character of the rocks of which they are composed. Cretaceous
formation, No. 3, yields so readily to atmospheric agencies, that the ridges
composed of it are usually low and rounded, and paved with chipped frag-
ments of the shell limestone. The harder sandstones give a sharpness of
outline to the ridges which has earned for them the appellation of "hog-
backs," by the inhabitants of the country. In No. 3 I found Ostrea con-
gesta very abundant, and a species of Inoceramus identical with the one
occurring in the limestone at South Boulder, and the same as the one
figured by Hall in Fremont's Report, Plate IV, Fig. 2, and compared
with Inoceramus involutus, (Sowerby,) page 310. The lower part of No.
.3, containing the Inoceramus, is a gray marly limestone, which passes up
into a yellow chalky shale, which weathers into a rusty yellow marl that
gives wonderful fertility to the soil, while the dark shales of Nos. 2 and
4, as well as the rusty arenaceous clays of No. 5, are distinctly revealed
at different localities. The light-colored chalky limestones of No. 3 are
24 SURVEY OF COLORADO AND NEW MEXICO.
more conspicuous at all times along the foot-Mils of the mountains, even
to New Mexico, than any other portion of the cretaceous group.
The valley of Thompson Creek is very fertile, varying from half a
mile to a mile in width, is filled up with settlers, and most of the land
is under a high state of cultivation. The creek itself is one of the pure
swift-flowing mountain streams which have their source in the very
divide or summit of the water-shed, and are rendered permanent by the
melting of the snows. All these mountain streams would furnish abund-
ant water-power, most of them having a fall of thirty feet to the mile.
There seems to be a decided improvement in the soil as we go south-
ward. The geological formations are the same, but the climate is more
favorable.
On a terrace on the north side of Big Thompson Creek there is a bed
of recent conglomerate, quite perfect, and belonging to the modern drift
period. It is very coarse, and the worn boulders are held together by
sesquioxide of iron. I note it here as an example of very recent conglom-
erate. There is much line sand, and the rounded stones are exactly
like those which pave the bottoms of streams. The thickness of this
boulder deposit is considerable, and it seems to underlie the whole val-
ley portion of the country.
The cretaceous beds of No. 3 pass down into a yellowish sandstone
which forms a low ridge on the north side of Big Thompson Creek.
Two or three low ridges of cretaceous appear east of this point, but die
out in the prairie. This ridge inclines 15, then comes a valley about
one-fourth of a mile wide, and a second ridge of rusty reddish fine-
grained sandstone, evidently No. 1, or the transition group. This ridge
inclines 25. Underlying the sandstone, which forms a large part of
this ridge, we find the ashen-gray marly and arenaceous clays of the
Jurassic, including some thin beds of sandstone and one layer of lime-
stone four to six feet thick, which has been much used for lime among
the farmers. These beds pass down without any perceptible break into
the light brick-red sandstones which form the next two ridges west-
ward. These beds have a dip of 30. About the middle of the red
beds there is a layer of impure limestone standing nearly vertical 65,
two to four feet thick, which has also been used somewhat for lime.
The next ridge west has a rather thick bed ten to fifteen feet of very
rough impure limestone looking somewhat like very hard calcareous
tufa. T,he intermediate beds are loose brick-red sands.
There is here a somewhat singular dynamic feature a local anticli-
nal. One of the ridges flexes around from an east dip to a west dip, from,
the fact that one of the eastern ranges of mountains runs out in the
prairie near this point, forming at the south end originally a sort of
semi-quaquaversal, the erosive action having worn away the central
portions. This forms a short anticlinal of about a mile in length. On
the east side of the anticlinal valley the principal ridges are shown, inclu-
ding nearly all the red beds ; and on the west side, only the upper portions
of the red sandstones with the Jurassic beds and the transition sand-
stones. The latter rocks form the nearly vertical wall in which is
located a somewhat noted aperture called the "Bear's Church." In the
west part of this anticlinal, within twenty feet of the brick-red sand-
stones, is a blue, brittle limestone layer about six feet thick, inclining
seventy-eight degrees. This west portion of the anticlinal might be
described across the upturned edges thus, commencing at the bottom:
1. Bather light brick-red sandstones in three layers estimated 200
feet.
SURVEY OF COLORADO AND NEW MEXICO. 25
2. The red bed passes up into a massive reddish- gray rather fine sand-
stone 20 feet.
3. Then conies a thin layer of fine bluish-brown sandstone 2 feet;
then the bluish limestone 4 feet.
4. Then about twenty-five feet of ashen clay, with six to ten feet of
blue cherty limestone, with some partings of clay.
5. About two hundred feet of variegated clays.
6. A bed of quite pure limestone, blue, semi-crystalline four to
eight feet. The grass prevents definite measurements, and all the beds
vary in thickness in different places, as well as in dip, which is from 60
to 800.
7. This intermediate space is covered over with a loose drab yellow
sand, doubtless derived from the erosion of the edges of the beds beneath,
which are supposed to be Jurassic. There is one bed of limestone about
two feet thick, similar to that before described. All these limestones
appear to contain obscure fragments of organic remains.
8. A nearly vertical wall of sandstone ; dip 60 to 65. This bed is
formed of massive layers, in all, one hundred and fifty feet thick or
more, and is composed largely of an aggregate of small water-worn
pebbles of all kinds. Most of the pebbles are of inetamorphic origin, but
some of them appear to have been derived from unchanged rocks.
There are also layers of fine-grained sandstone. The prevailing color is
a rusty yellow and light gray. Most of the sandstones in this country
are of a rusty yellow color ; No. 1, cretaceous.
9. A broad space, three hundred to four hundred feet, grassed over.
The slope is complete, but it is undoubtedly made up of the sands and
sandstones at the base of the cretaceous group.
10. A fine sandstone passing up into a close compact flinty rock. This
is a low ridge, appearing only now and then above the grassy surface.
The slope then continues down to the stream which flows through the
synclinal valley about a mile wide, and then we come to the grassy slope
on the mountain side inclining east again. A little below this point the
creek cuts through the sandstone and black clays of No. 2, conforming
perfectly to the wall of sandstone No. 1.
It is now well known that the great Rocky Mountain system is not
composed of a single range, but a vast series of ranges, covering a width
of six hundred to one thousand miles. There are also two kinds of
ranges, one with a granitoid nucleus, with long lines of fracture, and in
the aggregate possessing a specific trend j the other has a basaltic nucleus,
and is composed of a series of volcanic cones or outbursts of igneous
rocks, in many cases forming those saw-like ridges or sierras, as the Sierra
Nevada, Sierra Madre, &c. Along the eastern portion of the Rocky
Mountains, from the north line to New Mexico, the ranges with a gran-
itoid nucleus prevail. Each one of the main ranges is sometimes split
up into a number of fragments, which locally may vary somewhat from
a definite direction, but the aggregate trend will be about northwest
and southeast.
As I have before stated, each one of the main ranges seems to me to
form a gigantic anticlinal with a principal axis of elevation, and the lower
parallel ranges descending like steps to the plains, or to the synclinal
valley. If, for example, we were to study carefully one of the minor
mountain ranges, as the Black Hills of Dakota, or the Laramie range,
where the system is very complete and regular, we should find a central
granitic axis, and on each side a series of granitic ridges parallel with it,
and in the aggregate trending nearly north and south. And on the east-
ern portion of the anticlinal, the east side of the minor ridges slopes
26 SUEVEY OF COLORADO AND NEW MEXICO.
gently down, while the west side is abrupt; and on the western portion
vice verm. But if we take the ridges singly and examine them, we shall
find in most cases that the aggregate trend is nearly northwest and south-
east. The consequence is, that as we pass along under the eastern flanks
of the mountain from north to south, these minor ranges or ridges pre-
sent a sort of "en echelon" appearance; that is, they run out one after
the other in the prairies, preserving the nearly north and south course
of the entire system. Not unfrequeritly a group or several of these
ridges will run out at the same time, forming a huge notch in the main
range. This notch in most cases forms a vast depression with a great
number of side depressions or rifts in the mountains, which give birth to
a water system of greater or less 'extent. Such, for example, is the notch
at Cache a la Poudre, Colorado City, Canon City, on the Arkansas Eiver,
and other localities. If we were to examine the excellent topographical
maps issued by the War Department, which are beyond comparison the
most correct and most scientific of our Eocky Mountain region in exist-
ence, we should at once note the tendency of all the minor ranges, with
a continued line of fracture and a granitic nucleus, to a southeast and
northwest trend ; sometimes it is nearly north and south, and then these
ranges pass out or come to an end without producing any marked in-
fluence on the topography, except, perhaps, some little stream will flow
down into the plain through the monoelinal rift. But when several of
these minor ranges come to an end together, an abrupt jog of several
miles toward the west is caused. Then frequently as the range dies out,
a local anticlinal or a semi quaquaversal dip is given to the sedimentary
beds. Between the notches or breaks in the mountains, the belt of
ridges or " hog-backs" becomes very narrow, sometimes even hardly
visible, and sometimes entirely concealed by superficial deposits. But
at these breaks the series of ridges split up and spread out so as to cover
an area from half a mile to ten or fifteen, miles in width. It is in these
localities that the complete geological structure of the country can be
studied in detail. I do not know of any portion of the West where there
is so much variety displayed in the geology as within a space of ten
miles square around Colorado City. Nearly all the elements of geological
study revealed in the Eocky Mountains are shown on a unique scale in
this locality. The same may be said, though in a less degree, of the
valley of the Arkansas as it emerges from the mountains near Canon
City. I am inclined to believe that it is only in these localities that
rocks older than the triassic or red beds are shown along the eastern
flanks of the mountains south of Cheyenne. I have looked in vain for
a single exposure of well-defined paleozoic strata from Big Thompson to
Colorado City, a distance of over one hundred miles. I am now con-
vinced that in the north, the paleozoic rocks are often concealed for long
distances, although I have usually represented them by colors on a geolo-
gical map by a continuous band along the mountains. That they exist
continuously along the eastern margius in Colorado and New Mexico I
cannot doubt, but only at these specially favored localities do they
appear from beneath the triassic or red beds. They are, however, far
more frequently exposed further northward, and I think much more
largely developed.
Between Big and Little Thompson Creeks the ridges are very numer-
ous and bold, and it would seem as if the massive fine-grained sandstones
predominated, for they cap all the ridges, and the broken masses, often
of large size, are scattered in great profusion everywhere. In one valley
the abrupt side, which was composed of red sandstone, presented an
SURVEY OF COLORADO AND NEW MEXICO. 27
unusually massive front, and in many places, are weathered into the gro-
tesque forms so well shown southwest of Denver.
Near the head of Little Thompson the ridges are admirably well shown.
Two beds of sandstone, belonging to the lower cretaceous group, seem to
have broken off in the process of elevation, and so tipped over that the
upper edges are past verticality. The upper cretaceous beds really form
but one principal ridge, although made up of three or four subordinate
ones. The sediments of these beds are so soft and yielding that they
have been easily worn down smoothly or rounded off and grassed over
for the most part. But by looking across it, it is not difficult to detect
the black shales of No. 4, the yellow laminated chalky marl of No. 3 pass-
ing into the alternate layers of light-gray limestone and black plastic clays
of No. 2. As the little streams cut through these ridges at right angles,
they reveal not only the different beds, but also the dip very distinctly.
The Little Thompson begins to show evidences of enormous drift
agencies in the thick deposit of gravel, the high table lands on each side
of the creek, with here and there a butte with the top planed off, and
over the surface is strewn a vast quantity of loose material which has
been washed down from the mountains. Each one of the little streams
has worn its way through the ridges of upheaval, usually making enor-
mous gorges, but sometimes producing wide open valleys. The valley
of St. Vrain Creek is one of these valleys of erosion, with broad table
lands or terraces on each side, leaving the divide in the form of a con-
tinuous smooth bench, extending far down into the prairie, giving to the
surface of the country a beautiful and almost artificial appearance.
The banks of the St. Train seem to be composed of an upper covering
of yellow marl, which soon passes down into gravel. The soil appears
to derive its fertility from the eroded calcareous sediments of No. 3, but
it rests upon a great thickness of a recent conglomerate, cemented, in
part at least, with oxide of iron. The greatest width of this valley is
over ten miles, gradually sloping down to the bed of the creek from the
north. The abrupt side is on the south, where a bank fifty feet high is
cut by the channel of the stream. This bank increases in height toward
the mountains, but becomes lower further down the stream eastward.
Above this bank, southward, is a broad level plain about two miles in
width, and then a gentle rise leads to another broad table plain which
forms a bench or divide.
On the north side of St.*Vrain Creek, near the foot of the mountains,
there is a long ridge of rather rusty yellow and gray sandstone, with a
trend about north 5 east, or nearly north and south. There are also
two other ridges, with a dip varying between 45 and 55 east. The first
ridge is about one hundred feet across the upturned edges, and there is
then westward a grassy interval of three hundred feet, and then another
ridge of about the same thickness, the harder layers projecting above
the grassy plain from two to thirty feet. It presents the appearance, in
the distance, of a high, rugged, irregular wall, or broken-down fortifica-
tion, and is about three-fourths of a mile in length. These are the lower
sandstones of the lignite tertiary projecting above the grassy plain.
Near the foot-hills of the mountains, about four miles south of St.
Vrain's Creek, are some high cretaceous benches, extending down from
the base of the mountains. They usually do not extend more than one
or two miles in length before they break off, sometimes abruptly and
sometimes gradually. Not imfrequently a sort of truncated cone-shaped
butte is cut off from the end of some of the benches. On the summit is a
considerable thickness of a recent conglomerate which has been
cemented so as to form a tolerably firm rock. In this drift some frag-
28 SURVEY OF COLORADO AND NEW MEXICO.
merits of the red sandstone are found, but the rocks are mostly granitic.
Sometimes there is a valley scooped out between these benches and the
foot of the mountains ; and again, they ascend gently up to the base
and lap on to the flanks. Sometimes in the interval between these
benches there is a low, intermediate level or terrace about fifty feet
above the valley. The higher benches are about two hundred feet above
the bottom. It is to this peculiar configuration of the surface into bench
and terrace, that the wonderful beauty of this region is due. In the
distance southward can be seen a continuation of the ridges of tertiary
sandstone as they project above the surface far in the plains, five to
eight miles from the base of the mountains. There are some of these
sandstone ridges from one hundred to three hundred yards apart ; the
intervals level and completely grassed over, so that the laminated clays
or coal beds are entirely concealed from view. These ridges continue
to appear above the surface now and then, nearly to Denver. Where
they pass across the valleys of streams, or even dry branches, openings
are made of greater or less depth and width, which give the irregular
outlines to the sandstone ridges.
Between St. Vrain Creek and Left-hand Creek there is a broad plateau,
about ten miles wide, which is as level to the eye as a table top. It is
covered over with partially worn boulders. Near the base of the foot-
hills, behind this plateau, there is a most beautiful valley scooped out,
about two miles wide, which must have been the result of erosion in past
times, for there is very little water in it at present.
Further southward those long narrow benches extend down into the
prairie from the foot-hills. As we come from the north to the south
side of the plateau, we can look across the valley of Left-hand Creek
to near Boulder Valley, at least ten miles, dotted over with farm-houses,
fenced fields, and irrigating ditches, upon one of the most pleasant
views in the agricultural districts of Colorado. These plateaus and
benches are underlaid by cretaceous clays, only here and there passing
up into the yellow sandstones of No. 5, with Inoceramus and Baculites.
The plateau on the north side of Left-hand Creek comes to the stream
very abruptly and seems to have presented a side front to the later
forces which transported the boulder drift from the mountains, the sides
being covered thickly Avith worn rocks of all sizes. This district is
very aptly called Boulder County, but the culmination of this boulder
drift is to be seen in the valley of Boulder Creek.
From. Left-hand Creek to Golden City the flanks of the mountains
seem to be formed of the transition sandstones, or cretaceous No. 1,
with all the older sedimentary rocks lying against the metamorphic
rocks in such a way as to render them very obscure and the scenery
quite remarkable.
Indeed, south of St. Train Creek the change in the appearance of the
belt formed of the ridges or "hog-backs" is very marked.
As I have before stated, I believe that the agencies which produced
the present configuration of the surface of the country are local and
came from the direction of the mountains ; and I have seen no evidence
that among the later geological events there was any drift agency uni-
versal in its character as that attributed to the drift action in Canada
and the Atlantic States. The forces may have acted synchronously
and all over the continent west of longitude 100, from the Arctic Ocean
to the Isthmus of Darien, but the mountain ranges were the central
axes from which the eroding agencies proceeded. The agency which
produced the erosion and deposited the drift in the valley of a stream
originated in the mountain range at the source of that stream. I shall
refer to this subject from time to time, and it is one fraught with the
SURVEY OF COLORADO AND NEW MEXICO. 29
deepest interest to the student of geology in this country, and one
around which there is no small degree of obscurity. The effects are
universal, however, the evidences of erosion and the worn drift mate-
rials being found on the summits of the highest ranges as well as in the
lowest valleys, and each district pointing out the source of these eroding
and transporting agencies in the immediate vicinity.
Since leaving St. Vrain Creek, the tertiary beds containing the coal
have been aproaching nearer the mountains. North of this point the
belt of cretaceous rocks has been quite wide, varying from two to five
miles, but in the valley of the Boulder the belt becomes quite narrow,
and forms a part of the foot-hills themselves, while Nos. 4 and 5 are
entirely concealed from view.
In the Boulder Valley the tertiary coal beds are enormously developed.
The Belmont or Marshall's coal and iron mines, on South Boulder Creek,
are the most valuable and interesting, and reveal the largest development
of the tertiary coal-bearing strata west of the Mississippi.
In the autumn of 1867 I had an opportunity of examining these mines,
under the intelligent guidance of J. M. Marshall, esq., one of the owners
of this tract of land, and I wrote out the results of my examinations at
that time in an article in Silliman's Journal, March, 1868. In July, 1869,
I made a second examination of this locality under the same auspices.
The following vertical section of the beds was taken, which does not
differ materially from the one hitherto published :
48. Drab clay with iron ore along the top of the ridge.
47. Sandstone.
46. Drab clay and iron ore.
45. Coal, (No. 11,) no development
44. Drab clay.
43. Sandstone, 15 to 20 feet.
42. Drab clay and iron ore.
41. Coal, (No. 10,) no development.
40. Yellowish drab clay, 4 feet.
39. Sandstone, 20 feet.
38. Drab clay full of the finest quality of iron ore, 15 feet.
37. Thin layer of sandstone.
36. Coal, (No. 9,) nearly vertical, where it has been worked, 12 feet.
35. Arenaceous clay, 2 feet.
34. Drab clay, 3 feet.
33. Sandstone, 5 feet; then a heavy seam of iron ore; then 3 feet of
drab clay ; then 5 feet sandstone.
32. Coal, (No. 8,) 4 feet.
31. Drab clay.
30. Sandstone, 25 to 40 feet.
29. Drab clay, 6 feet.
28. Coal, (No. 7,) 6 feet.
27. Drab clay, 5 feet.
Sandstone with a seam of clay, 12^tol8 inches, intercalated,
26.
25.
24.
23.
25 feet.
Drab clay, 4 feet.
Coal, (No. 6,) in two seams, 4J feet.
Drab clay, 3 to 4 feet.
22. Yellowish, fine-grained sandstone in thin loose layers, with plants,
5 to 10 feet.
21. ) , ( Drab clay, excellent iron ore. )
20. I Coal, (No. 5,) 7 feet. 15 feet.
19. Jg J Drab clay. $ f
30 SURVEY OF COLORADO AND NEW MEXICO.
18. Sandstone, dip. 11. This sandstone has a reddish tinge, and is
less massive than 14.
17. Drab clay. )
16. Coal, (No. 4.) > 20 feet, obscure.
15. Drab clay. )
14. Sandstone, massive, 60 feet.
13. Drab clay.
12. Sandstone.
11. Drab clay.
10. Coal, (No. 3.)
9. Drab clay.
8. Sandstone, 25 feet.
7. Drab clay.
6. Coal, (No. 2,) 8 feet.
5. Drab clay.
4. Sandstone, about 25 feet.
3. Drab, lire clay, 4 feet.
2. Coal, (No. I,)*!! to 14 feet.
1. Sandstone.
In bed No. 23 there are three layers of sandstone, which contain a
great variety of impressions of leaves. Below coal bed No. 6 there is a
bed of drab clay, seven feet thick, with a coal seam at the outcrop, three
feet thick ; but the coal appears to give out or pass into clay as the bank
is entered, so that there are ten feet of clay above coal bed No. 6.
Much of the iron ore is full of impressions of leaves in fragments, stems,
grass, &c. The ore is mostly concretionary, but sometimes it is so
continuous as to give the idea of a permanent bed. There are several
varieties of the ore of greater or less purity. Above coal bed (5) there
is a seam of iron, with oyster shells, apparently Ostrea subtrigonalis,
or the same species found so abundantly near Brown and O'Bryan's
coal mine, about twenty miles southeast of Cheyenne. Nearly a dozen
openings have been made here for the coal.
These coal beds are the more valuable, and can be more easily wrought
than any in Colorado. The great thickness of the coal strata has been so
uplifted, and the surface worn away, that the beds are all easily accessible,
and one can walk across the upturned edges of from 1,200 to 1,500 feet in
thickness and then they incline eastward, and die out in the plain. I find it
somewhat difficult to give a satisfactory reason why they have not been
swept away or concealed by debris, as they have been in most other locali-
ties. Leaning against the sides of the mountains between South Boulder
canon and that of the main Boulder Creek, are immense walls of sandstone,
possibly paleozoic or the lower beds of the trias, partially metamorphosed
by heat. These walls rise to the height of 1,500 to 4,000 feet above the
valley, and thus seem to have protected these formations from the erosive
action, which, according to the position that I have taken in this report,
is local, and must have come directly from the mountains.
A beautiful valley has been scooped out by the South Boulder, leav-
ing a bench covered with debris between the two Boulder Creeks.
Eefore reaching these huge sandstone walls, we pass over a portion of
the cretaceous, and a great thickness of the red beds, inclining at a high
angle.
Immediately south of the South Boulder Creek there is a high bench
that extends up close to the base of the mountains, and is covered with
drift and boulders, three miles in width, entirely concealing all the un-
changed rocks. But in the valley of Coal Creek, seven beds of coal are
revealed by the scooping out of this valley. These beds all incline at a
SURVEY OF COLORADO AND NEW MEXICO. 31
high angle, about 45, and are not easily worked. The sandstones pro-
ject up above the loose material like irregular walls, and the creek itseli
forms a narrow passage or gorge through one of these ridges.
Between the sandstones, and apparently with very little clay either
above or below, is one bed of coal four to six feet thick, which was
wrought for a time, and then abandoned.
It seeins to me the coal here will never be worked with profit. Above
the sandstone there is another bed of coal, and above that, fire-clay ; all
the strata conforming and inclining between 35 and 45. The sand-
stone ridge on the north side of Coal Creek becomes more nearly verti-
cal 68. All the beds of coal are so badly crushed together that they
are rendered somewhat obscure. There are here two or three feet of
clay between the layers of coal, and above the coal the clay is very irreg-
ular; sometimes thinning out entirely, so that the sandstone comes
directly upon it. A large number of the sandstone ridges may be seen
far out in the plains, east of the mountains, at intervals, all having the
same general trend, and inclining at various angles. They rise above
the grassy plains in isolated piles, like broken-down walls. These sand-
stones indicate the existence of coal beneath, but it would be utterly
impossible to work out the sequence of these beds only at the most
favorable exposures. In almost all cases the tertiary beds are so worn
down and covered with superficial deposits that they are detected only
in the channels of streams, or by the sandstones projecting above the
grassy surface of the plains.
July 6. With Mr. Marshall as guide, I attempted to penetrate through
the sandstone beds to the nietamorphic rocks up Bear Caiiou, a sort
of separation in the immense sandstone wall between the two Boulder
Creeks. So far as I could ascertain in this canon, the sedimentary beds
lie fairly against the metamorphic rocks, and the latter incline in precisely
the same direction, and at about the same angle as the former, a little
north of east. There is another point that seems to me to be well shown
in the range; and that is, that the metamorphic rocks are thrown up in
distinct anticlinals, the same as the sedimentary beds. As soon as we
pass the junction of the unchanged and changed rocks we find the granites
inclining in the same direction, and a little further up there is a ridge
inclining in the opposite direction, forming in the interval a valley.
The angle of dip on the west side of the granitic anticlinal is 44, a little
south of west. This anticlinal feature may be local here, but I regard
it as a common occurrence in the metamorphic rocks of the mountain
ranges.
Here tremendous uplifts of the sandstones appear about 4,000 feet
above the Boulder Valley in the plains below, and their rugged summits
project far over on the granitic rocks westward, so that along the little
stream immense masses have fallen down from the broken edges, a half
a mile above the junction of the two kinds of rocks. I think this illus-
tration alone furnishes sufficient evidence that the sedimentary beds once
continued uninterruptedly across the area now occupied by the mountain
ranges, and that these beds only form a part of what was once a gigantic
anticlinal, the eastern portion of the unchanged beds remaining, while
the western portion has been worn away and mingled with the debris
of the plains. Further up toward the central axis of the mountain we
pass ridge after ridge of granite, inclining eastward about 36.
The process of disintegration of the rocks by exfoliation is here shown
quite clearly, without regard to stratification. Immense masses of rock
are weathered into rounded forms by these coatings or layers falling off.
I have observed that all kinds of rocks, granites, igneous rocks, sand-
32 SURVEY OF COLORADO AND NEW MEXICO.
stones, limestones, &c., have a tendency to weather by this process of
exfoliation, and the hills and mountain-peaks follow the same rule. It
would seem that nature abhors sharp angles and corners, and com-
mences at once to smooth and round them off, so that nearly all peaks
and hills have this rounded appearance when closely examined. The
huge masses of granite or basalt on the summits of the highest moun-
tains are now undergoing this process of exfoliation.
The first bed of granite that lies west of the high ridge of sandstone
inclines 58, and has much the appearance of sandstone completely met-
amorphosed. It is of various degrees of fineness, but mostly an aggre-
gate of coarse crystals of feldspar and quartz. There is also a bed of
mica schist inclining with it at an angle of 48. I have made use of
these gneissic beds to aid me in forming a clearer idea of the true strat-
ification or bedding of the granite, which is often obscure.
The massive beds of sandstone which form the high walls are evi-
dently partially metamorphosed by heat. The bottom beds, which lie
next to the granites, are composed of a rather coarse aggregate of
crystals of feldspar and quartz, inclosing multitudes of well water-
worn pebbles of all kinds, from a minute size to several inches in diam-
eter. There are also fragments of unchanged reddish sandstone, but
the inclosed pebbles are mostly metamorphic, among which quartz peb-
bles are conspicuous.
The inclination of the first ridge is about 33. A portion of it is so
fine and compact that it has somewhat the appearance of imperfect jas-
per. It varies much in texture. A most interesting feature is the sep-
aration of this inner ridge from the one just east of it. It has evidently
been broken oft* from the summit of the next one east of it, and the
whole mass carried forward westward, yet retaining nearly the same
angle of inclination. This is shown by the fact that the granite rocks
are thrust up under and between the ridges, showing most distinctly
that this is an immense fragment of the second ridge from the inside,
elevated upon the edges of the granitic rocks ahd carried two hundred
or three hundred feet to the westward. Yet the agency that performed
this movement acted so quietly that it did not disturb its position in rela-
tion to the other ridges.
The second or main ridge from the inside varies in dip from 30 to
45. It is largely composed of pudding-stone or fine conglomerate, with
layers of sandstone of various degrees of fineness. The upper beds
are composed of fine-grained sandstone. The entire ridge must have
had a thickness of eight hundred to twelve hundred feet.
The scenery along the flanks of the mountains at this point is won-
derfully unique, and I have never known a similar example in the
Rocky Mountain region. The uplift is on an unparalleled scale.
Toward the outside, or, more properly, the upper layers of this ridge
become close-graiiied, much of it breaking into cubical blocks and
forming a great accumulation of debris on the sides of the mountains.
The outermost layer of this ridge, which has been worn off so as to be
a low one, inclines 54. All the beds exhibit less and less the influence
of heat from the inner to the outer side, and much of the upper part is
a compact, close-grained quartzose sandstone, divided into layers with
smooth surfaces, and most excellent for building purposes.
The next bed is a loose red sand, so soft that the upturned edges
have been worn down and completely grassed over. The upper edges
of this bed are at least twelve hundred feet below the summit of the
high sandstone ridge. The dip is 31. At the foot of the slope of these
red beds is a grassy valley, and then a very abrupt ascent to the edges
SURVEY OF COLORADO AND NEW MEXICO. 33
of a thick bed of yellowish sandstone. At another locality a few yards
distant a small stream, in cutting its way through this ridge, revealed
alternate layers of ash-colored and yellow arenaceous clay, with some
hard beds of sandstone, inclining 55. A portion of these beds are
probably Jurassic. We have here an interv.al in the harder beds between
the high sandstone ridge and the sandstones of No. 1, filled up with
yielding clays and sands, which I estimated at from six hundred to
seven hundred feet in thickness. Then come the sandstones of No. 1,
and the gray limestones and shales of No. 2, and the chalky marls of
No. 3, which are plainly visible with about the same dip. Although the
grass covers the surface to such an extent that the upper cretaceous
beds are not exposed, yet it is safe to suppose that the entire series of
cretaceous formations, as known along the flanks of the mountains,
exist here.
There is ample room, also, for a great thickness of the tertiary beds,
and the evidence is quite clear that a large portion of the sandstones,
clays, and doubtless beds of coal, of the tertiary period exist in the
enormous plateau or table-like bench which extends down the Boulder
Valley from the foot of the mountains.
The amount of loose drift material is enormous, scattered not only
over the surface, but concealing to a great extent the underlying basis
rocks. There is, therefore, some reason to believe that the coal may
yet be found in the valley under South Boulder Creek and between it
and the foot-hills of the mountains.
We find, therefore, that we have at this locality a somewhat narrow
belt of the unchanged rocks, packed close together, and inclining at
about the same angle, and perfectly conforming with each other, and
the metamorphic rocks also. In passing up the caiion of the little
stream from the Boulder Valley we cross the visible edges of creta-
ceous formations Nos. 3, 2, and 1, the Jurassic red beds, and the paleo-
zoic sandstones, to the metamorphic rocks. While I believe that the ex-
tensive series of coal strata all perfectly conform with the older forma-
tions, yet as we pass eastward from the Boulder Valley the dip becomes
less and less until it ceases in the plains.
An important question arises as to the cause of the change in the sedi-
mentary rocks of this region. That the sandstones forming the huge
ridges have been partially metamorphosed is clear, though the traces of
their sedimentary origin are as plain as ever.
The limestones of cretaceous formation No. 3 are more compact at
this point than I have ever observed them northward ; and the coal,
along a narrow belt, is far superior to that which is found farther east-
ward in the plains. I am inclined to believe that the area from which
first-class coal will be obtained in Colorado is very restricted, and will
be comprised in a moderately narrow belt along the base of the moun-
tains south of Boulder Creek and north of Golden City.
These changes might be attributed, wholly or in part, to the influences
of igneous action in the vicinity. In the valley of the Boulder, near
Valinont, there is a prominent dike of very compact basalt, which rises
up like a wall, but does not seem to have disturbed the tertiary sand-
stones in the vicinity. Near Golden City, about twenty miles south-
ward, close to the base of the mountains, are two large mesas, or table-
lands, covered with a thick layer of basalt, which must have passed up
from below in the form of a dike, and flowed over the tertiary rocks.
These are the only instances of eruptive rocks observed by me from.
near the South Pass to the Arkansas, a distance of nearly four hun-
dred miles. In the Middle Park, just west of Long's Peak, and in the
3as
34 SURVEY OF COLORADO AND NEW MEXICO.
South Park also, are numerous examples of the outpouring of igneous
material. That internal heat connected with these igneous outbursts
may have affected the sedimentary rocks in the Boulder district, and
rendered the coal more compact and anthracitic, under pressure, seems
to me possible, at least. The rocks which appear to have been affected
by heat are seen only for a few miles south of the Boulder from five
to ten miles. South of that no effects whatever have been observed.
The next finest exhibition of coal in Colorado to Marshall's mine is
that of the Murphy mine, on Ralston Creek, five miles north of Golden
City. The coal bed is nearly vertical in position, and varies in thick-
ness from fourteen to eighteen feet, averaging sixteen feet from side to
side. There are nine feet of remarkably good fire-clay on each side of
the coal, and above and below, or on the west and east sides, are the
usual beds of sandstone. This mine is very near the foot of the moun-
tains, and the belt of sedimentary rocks, which are all nearly vertical,
is very narrow here not more than half a mile in width and are
mostly concealed by debris.
Mr. Murphy thinks that there are eleven beds of coal within the dis-
tance of one-fourth of a mile, all nearly or quite vertical in position, of
which the one opened is probably the oldest. The mine is opened on
the north side of the creek, and may doubtless be followed above water
line several miles to the northward, toward Coal Creek.
On the south side of Ralston Creek the same bed has been opened,
and the indications are that it may be followed the same way south-
ward toward Golden City. The entire surface is so covered with super-
ficial deposits, and grassed over, that it is impossible to work out these
beds in detail, and the artificial excavations afford us the most reliable
knowledge. A hundred yards or more west of the coal bed there is a
high ridge running parallel with the mountain range, capped with lower
cretaceous sandstones No. 1.
This ridge extends southward, with some interruptions, beyond
Golden City.
At Golden City the upheaved sedimentary rocks are so swept away
that the metamorphic foot-hills are plainly visible. No rocks older than
the red beds or trias are exposed, and these somewhat obscurely. The
red and gray sandstones lie close on the sides of the metamorphic rocks,
inclining 30 and 54. In the trias there is a bed of silica or an aggre-
gation of very fine grains of quartz which has attracted some attention,
and close to it a layer of bastard limestone or calcareous sandstone. All
the beds dip at a high angle and lie side by side, so that one can walk
across the upturned edges of them all, from the metamorphic to the
summit of the tertiary. Outside of the cretaceous beds there is a small
valley of erosion, and then come the tertiary beds. The strike of the coal
strata is very nearly north and south, and, so far as I could ascertain, the
sequence of the beds from within, outward, is as follows :
1st. Rusty, yellow, soft sandstone. 2d. A bed of fire-clay. 3d. Coal
about eight feet thick. 4th. Fire-clay. 5th. Rusty, yellow sandstone.
The clay underneath the coal appears to be ten or fifteen feet thick,
with one or two unimportant seams of coal. These beds have been so
elevated that the upper edges have passed vertically 5 to 10. The clay
is much used for fire-brick and potter's ware. In the bed of sandstone,
above the coal, we found several impressions of leaves of deciduous
tree's, among them a Platanus, probably P. hay dent. From these we
pass across the edges of a series of beds of sandstone, with intervening
strata of iron ore. The thickness of all the tertiary beds here must be
1,200 to 1,500 feet, Near the outside is a bed of pudding-stone, and
SURVEY OF COLORADO AND NEW MEXICO. 35
outside or above this, the bed of potter's clay, which supplies the pot-
tery at Golden City. About midway in this series of beds an entrance
has been made exposing a second bed of coal. The surface is so grassed
over that it is quite impossible to make out the full series of beds
clearly, but the softer strata are well shown by the depressions between
the beds of sandstones.
The north mesa is two and one-half miles long and about one mile
wide. The south one is four miles long and about a mile wide. This
one has an irregular surface and gradually slopes down eastward until
it becomes a low ridge of tertiary sandstones and clays. The wall of
basalt that surrounds the top is nearly perpendicular most of the way
round, from fifty to one hundred and fifty feet in height. The lower por-
tion of the basaltic bed on the north side of the south mesa is very vesicu-
lar, full of rounded porous masses somewhat like slag, and rests upon the
slightly irregular surface of a bed of fiue fire-clay, which contains traces
of vegetable remains. Below the fire-clay are alternate beds of sand-
stone and arenaceous clay, inclining slightly east, and evidently pro-
tected from erosion by the hard cap of basalt. These beds are plainly
tertiary lignite, and must be six hundred to eight hundred feet thick.
The lowest bed of vesicular basalt is evidently more recent than the
columnar bed above.
Golden City is a thriving little town, located near the embouchure of
Clear Creek from the mountains, which is called the " Golden Gate."
Clear Creek Valley is very fertile, and, in looking down upon it from the
top of the mesa, it appears like a finely cultivated garden. The ridges
of upheaval or " hog-backs" near Golden City are small and unimport-
ant, owing to the erosion which has worn them down. But proceeding
southward a short distance they increase in size. The tertiary ridges
are most conspicuous until we reach Mount Vernon, about five miles
south of Golden City, where the older formations are largely displayed.
Here the tertiary beds are tipped past a vertical position and seem to
incline toward the mountains; but this is more apparent than real;
the top portion leaning over, while deeper in the earth the strata incline
at a high angle from the mountains.
Green Mountain is a lofty, grass-covered hill, and is entirely com-
posed of the coal strata, while to the west of it is a nearly vertical ridge
of sandstone. Just inside of this ridge, or beneath it, is a coal bed
which has been opened by Mr. John A. Roe. The entrance to this mine
is the finest I have seen in Colorado, and is 170 feet in length, through
141 feet of sandstone with a slope of 45. The sides and roof of the
entrance are not protected. The bed of coal is nearly vertical in position
at this point, though at some places where it is not wrought it inclines
east 70. There are three seams of coal, 4 feet each, in thickness with 3 J
feet of clay intervening. Below the coal there is a bed of clay 5 feet thick,
and above 3 J feet aren aceous clay. The coal is close, compact, and makes an
excellent fuel, and Mr. Roe, who is an old Pennsylvania miner, considers it
better than the bituminous coals for all domestic purposes, but for generat-
ing steam and smelting ores he regards it as inferior. The ash is
white, resembling pine- wood ashes, and the quantity is small. The coal
at Murphy's, on Ralston Creek and Golden City, leaves a red ash. There
are no cinders, and in burning it gives a bright, clear flame ; and although
it burns iron, it does not give sufficient heat to weld it. I believe this
to be a continuation southward of the Golden City bed. It is also the
lowest of the coal strata in this region, for in the valley immediately
west and on the sides of the ridge can be seen the dark clays of the cre-
taceous beds. This ridge is very high at this place, and is composed of
36 SURVEY OF COLORADO AND NEW MEXICO.
the sandstones of No. 1, and a portion of the red beds or triassic (?).
Still further west are two or three rather low ridges of yellowish-gray
and red sandstones, which cover the gneissoid rocks of the foot-hills
of the mountains. By far the largest ridge here is the one containing
the sandstones of No. 1, but it soon splits up into smaller ridges
in its southern extension.
About four miles further south, in the canon of Bear Creek and Tur-
key Creek, there are fine exhibitions of the beds of upheaval. The
chalky shales of No. 3, with abundant specimens of Inoceramus proble-
maticus and Ostrea conc/esta,form a low rounded ridge; then comes a nar-
row valley worn into the black shales of No. 2; and then a high ridge
of massive sandstone No. 1 inclining 30 to 35. On the western
side of this ridge we see the projecting edges of the sandstone capping
the ridge, and underneath the variegated marls and sandstones, with
some of the brick-red beds. Then comes a series of rather low, rugged
ridges ; first a layer of sandstone and loose brick-red sand with gyp-
sum ; dip 29. Second ridge, a light gray sandstone with a rusty, yel-
lowish tinge ; dip 34. Then come three or four small ridges of deeper
brick-red, or almost purplish red sandstone; dip 29. The intervals be-
tween these ridges are composed of arenaceous shale. Among the red
sandstones are two thin layers of bluish limestone, which is burned into
lime.
The foot-hills of the mountains are composed of gneissoid rocks. They
form a wide belt or range below the main or Snowy Kange, rising 1,500
to 2,000 feet above the unchanged rocks. These metamorphic ridges or
hills are well grassed over in many instances, and rounded, and so cov-
ered with debris that it is almost impossible to see the layers in position.
On the little creek there is a small mill for grinding the gypsum into
plaster for various economical purposes, and also for sawing the sand-
stone into forms for architectural purposes. The gypsum is amorphous,
but very white and pure, and would make the finest of casts and
moldings. Some of the layers are susceptible of a high polish like
the California marbles, only they are of a more uniform white color.
Up among the foot-hills, good crops are raised, especially all kinds of
garden vegetables. As fine wheat as I have ever seen was growing on.
Mr. Morisson's farm, at an elevation of at least one thousand to fifteen
hundred feet above Denver.
At Harrirnan's, on Turkey Creek, is an excellent place to observe the
junction of the sandstones and the gneissoid rocks, and I could not de-
termine that there was any discordance, the dip of all being 25 to 35.
The slopes of the hills, as well as the rocks themselves, show the incli-
nation very clearly. The metamorphic rocks are distinctly stratified as
any sandstones, and we find alternate beds of syenite, mica schist, horn-
blende slate, coarse aggregated quartz, feldspar, and mica, regular gneis-
soid rocks, inclining at a high angle in the same direction as the sand-
stones.
For a long distance there is an apparent conformability of the sedi-
mentary rocks to the metamorphic ; but I am inclined to think that it
is not real or permanent. Both north and south of this point the two
classes of rocks do not conform.
Near the summit of the sandstone ridge No. 1, on Turkey Creek, there
is an asphaltum spring, which has been wrought for oil. A consider-
able thickness of the sandstone seems to be thoroughly saturated with
the pitch or bitumen, and between the layers of the sandstone are ac*
cumulations of the tar. This spring is located on the east side and near
the summit of the " hog-back."
SURVEY OF COLORADO AND NEW MEXICO. 37
About twelve miles southwest of Denver, between Turkey and Bear
Creeks, are some remarkable soda lakes, which are of unusual interest.
They are the property of Dr. Burclsall, of Denver, in whose company I
made as careful an examination of them as my time would permit. There
are four of these little lakes, and are all located on middle cretaceous
rocks. The principal one lies just east of a low rounded ridge of creta-
ceous shale, No. 3, and is surrounded on the other sides by low ridges of
superficial sand and gravel. A little west of this cretaceous ridge there
is a lake, a fourth of a mile in length, but on account of the springs flowing
into it from the sloping sides of the sandstone ridge No. 1 the water is not
strong. The black shales of No. 2, cretaceous, underlie this lake. The
soil for twenty feet in depth is fully impregnated with the soda; and on
the surface of one of the lakes is a crust which looks like dirty ice. A
shallow ditch which Dr. Burdsall has made out into the lake a few feet,
has a deposit of sulphate of soda at the bottom in a partially crystalline
state, one and a half inches thick. Three and a half barrels of the water
make one barrel of the sulphate of soda, and three pounds of the soil, well
leached, makes one pound of the salts. The salt, by analysis, contains
sixty-three per cent, of the soda, and the water about thirty-three per cent.
It contains carbonate of soda, sulphate of soda, chloride of sodium, sul-
phide of calcium, and a trace of magnesia. It would seem that these
deposits of soda must at no distant period play an important part in the
industrial operations of Colorado. These soda salts ' can be manufac-
tured into bicarbonate of soda, can be used in refining gold and silver,
also for the manufacture of glass with silicic acid. There is an unlimited
amount of soda at this locality, and it can be procured at a mere nominal
cost.
Within a few yards of these lakes, and located in the black, shaly
clays of cretaceous formation, No. 2, are considerable quantities of brown
iron ore of superior quality as good as the best observed in the boulder
coal strata. It occurs in the form of concretions, and occupies a very
limited area.
CHAPTEE II.
FROM DENVER TO COLORADO CITY.
The city of Denver is located on the tertiary rocks which contain the
coal beds of the west, about ten to fifteen miles from the base of the
mountains. The surface is so thickly covered with superficial drift de-
posits that the basis rocks are seldom seen; bat we have every reason
to suppose that the same beds of coal that are exposed by the uplifting
of the formations along the immediate flanks of the mountains, extend
eastward into the plains, and of course underlie, at certain depths, the
city of Denver.
As we pass southward, up the valley of the South Platte, we find the
tertiary sandstones exposed occasionally in the banks of the river; and
near the canon a seam of coal has been opened and worked to some
extent. The tertiary beds extend quite close up to the foothills of the
mountains, leaving a comparatively narrow space for the exhibition of
the older, unchanged rocks. Still, we may walk across the upturned
edges of them all and study them with care.
The valley of the South Platte presents a fine display of the terraces ;
and the drift, filled with water- worn rocks, is very thick. The sand-
stones of the tertiary formation are also plainly seen, appearing to be
38 SURVEY OF COLORADO AND NEW MEXICO.
nearly horizontal, although, not more than ten miles in a straight line
from the metamorphic rocks. The whole prairie country has been so
planed off that it is finely and gently rolling, and the drainage is excel-
lent. The streams which flow from the sides of the mountains are fed
by perpetual springs, and are consequently persistent and uniform in
their amount of water, affording the best water-power in the country.
From the soda lakes to the great "divide" the cretaceous and tertiary
beds, outside of the No. 1 sandstone ridge, are smoothed down and
grassed over so that they are not conspicuous, though there are expos-
ures enough to guide the geologist. They are so concealed by superfi-
cial gravel and sand that they present no good sections either to show
the strata or dip. This regularity of the surface renders the Platte
Valley, as well as those of its branches, remarkably fine for farming
and grazing, and vast herds of cattle already cover the grassy hills and
plains. The terraces and benches which extend down from the foot of
the mountains are well shown.
Along the Platte Eiver, near the caiion, a coal bed was opened at one
time, but now it is covered with loose material which has fallen from
above, so that it is entirely concealed. The strata here are nearly ver-
tical. There are two beds of coal, in all about five feet thick, separated
by about two feet of clay. The coal is not very good, and has not been
used for three years. It is probably the same bed seen at Golden City,
thinning out southward.
Along the Platte and Plum Creeks, the streams cut heavy beds of
boulder gravel and fine sand, and it is under this deposit the coal is
found. The valleys of the South Platte, and its branches, between Den-
ver and the mountains, are exceedingly fertile and productive, and at
this time they are covered with splendid crops. Nearly or quite all of the
available bottom lands are already taken up by actual settlers, and are
under cultivation. The present season has been unusually favorable for
farming throughout the west.
The plain country south of Denver comes close up to the foot of the
mountains, so that the belt of upheaved sedimentary rocks grows nar-
rower and narrower until, a few miles south of the Platte canon, they
cease entirely for a time. The ridges are very high, ranging from four
hundred to six hundred feet above the bed of the Platte. To the south-
west can be seen, rising like a range of mountains, the high "divide"
between the waters of the South Platte and Arkansas Eivers, covered
quite thickly with pines.
The first main ridge contains a few layers of No. 2 j alternations of
clay and sand passing down into the sandstones of No. 1. This ridge
is quite massive and inclines 43. In the channel of the South Platte,
the distance from the outside of the ridge containing the sandstones of
No. 1 to the metamorphic rocks, is not more than half a mile. From
this point to the "divide" the ridges are split up and much crowded.
The reddish and variegated sands are worn, by atmospheric agencies, into
the most wonderful and unique forms, equal to the " Garden of the
Gods," only on a much smaller scale. Here also the red and variegated
sandstones jut up against the metamorphic rocks as if the continuity
was unbroken. Indeed, the apparent conformity is complete.
The hills of the first range, composed of metamorphic rocks, are curi-
ously rounded and grassed over, and are made up of a reddish, decom-
posing granite. But, as we ascend, these peaks or rounded cones become
Bharper, the sides more rugged, and the rocks more compact.
As we go southward the indications of beds of Jurassic age become
more and more feeble. Under the massive sandstones of No. 1 are a
SURVEY OF COLORADO AND NEW MEXICO. 39
series of yellow and white sands and sandstones passing down into
brick-red sands. Among this series of variegated beds are two thin
beds of limestone. One of these is a very white rock, and on its weath-
ered surface are small masses of chert, which appear to have the struc-
ture of corals. This bed is six or eight feet thick. Separated by eight
or ten feet of sandstones is another layer of bluish limestone, which is
much used for lime. I have never been able to detect any well-defined
organic remains in these beds, but I believe a portion of them, between
the lower cretaceous No. 1 and the true red beds, are of Jurassic age;
and it is even possible that a portion of the red beds are of that epoch.
From the point where the Union Pacific railroad crosses the Laramie
Mountains to Colorado City, I have been unable to find any well-marked
carboniferous or silurian rocks. The red sandstones, which I have been
accustomed to regard as triassic, jut up against the metamorphic rocks,
or are the only .exposures that meet the eye of the geologist. I do not
believe that the carboniferous beds are altogether absent, for limestones
of considerable thickness, and containing characteristic fossils, occur at
Granite Canon, on the Pacific railroad, high up on the margins of the
mountains ; and also at Colorado City, about two hundred miles to the
south. In this long interval I have been unable to discover any well-
defined carboniferous or silurian rocks, yet I am inclined to think that
the carboniferous beds, at least, exist underneath all the other sedimen-
tary rocks, but are not exposed by the upheaval.
About five miles south of the Platte Canon the upheaved ridges come
close up to the mountains, and are not worn away, but form the north-
ern side of the divide, so that the entire series of unchanged rocks known
in this region are exposed in regular continuity. A little further south
we come to a series of variegated beds of sands and arenaceous clays,
nearly horizontal, resting on the upturned edges of the older rocks.
These beds form the northern edge of an extensive tertiary basin of com-
paratively modern date, either late miocene or pliocene age. From the
point of their first appearance, about five miles south of the South Platte
Canon to a point about five miles north of Colorado City, these beds jut
up against the foot-hills of the mountains, inclining at a small angle,
never more than five to eight degrees, and entirely concealing all the
older sedimentary rocks. The upheaved ridge entirely disappears. Far
off to the eastward stretches this high tertiary divide, giving rise to a large
number of streams, as Cherry Creek, Banning Water, Kiowa, Bijou, and
other creeks. Through this basin also flows Monument Creek, which
has become so celebrated for its unique scenery. The beds of this forma-
tion are of various colors reddish, yellow, and white and of various
degrees of texture, from coarse pudding-stones to very fine-grained
sands or sandstones. There is very little lime in the entire series of
beds. There is much ferruginous matter in all the beds, to some of
which it gives a, rusty brown color. The valley of Plum Creek is scooped
out of this basin. The high ridge to the eastward is capped with coarse
sandstones and pudding-stones. Along the immediate sides of the
mountains the rocks are mostly coarse pudding-stones, the water-worn
pebbles varying in size from a grain of quartz to a mass several inches
in diameter. But as we recede from the mountains, eastward, the sedi-
ments become finer and finer until the coarse pudding-stones disappear.
I am of the opinion that the materials composing the beds of this group
have been derived from the mountain ranges and vicinity. In their
general appearance the rocks of this group resemble the prevailing rocks
which cover the country from Fort Bridger to Weber Canon, and also
a series of sands and sandstones along the Gallisteo Creek below Santa
40 SURVEY OF COLORADO AND NEW MEXICO.
Fe\ which I shall call the Gallisteo sand group. To this group of
modern tertiary deposits I have given the provisional name of the
Monument Creek group, and they occupy a space of about forty miles
in width from east to west, and fifty miles in length north and south.
Continuing our course southward, we find some curious mesas in the
valley of West Plum Creek. We ascended one lofty butte, with a flat
table summit, situated west of the Plum Creek road. The top of this butte
is about one thousand feet above the road, and is capped with a rather
close-grained, cream-colored rock, which looks quite porphyritic, fifty to
one hundred feet thick, and plainly of igneous origin. It fractures
into slabs which have a clinking sound. The beds below are quite
variegated, of almost every color and texture, mostly fine sand, brick
red, deep yellow, rusty red, white-ash colored, dull black, &c. The rusty
iron layers sometimes form a sort of liinonite, but are composed largely
oi an aggregate of water-worn pebbles cemented with the silicate of
iron. There are also thick beds of quartzose sandstone, or an aggregate
of crystals of quartz and feldspar, so compact as to look like a coarse
granite. These large masses afford good illustrations of the process of
weathering by exfoliation.
The evidence is clear in a number of localities that at a late period in
geological history there were dikes or protrusions of igneous material
which flowed over these Monument Creek sandstones in broad sheets
or beds; and these broad, table-top buttes and mesas are the evidences
that are now left after erosion.
This modern tertiary basin is very interesting as the introduction of
a new feature in the geology of this region. The appearance of the
country also undergoes a decided improvement. The great divide is
covered rather thickly with pine timber. It is full of excellent springs
and fertile valleys which give origin to numerous streams. The grass
is excellent and abundant, even upon the summits of the table lands.
For a distance of ten miles about the sources of Plum Creek the red
beds or triassic jut square against the sides of the metamorphic foot-
hills of the mountains. The projecting summits of the upturned ridges
gradually fade out in importance. They have also lost their usual regu-
larity, and are split up into an indefinite number of fragments of ridges,
varying in dip from ten to forty-five degrees. Near the water divide
these ridges gradually close up again toward the foot of the mountains
and are entirely concealed by the sands and arenaceous clays of the
Monument Creek group.
la the valley of West Plum Creek and its branches, as they emerge
from the mountains, we have a fine exposure of the sedimentary beds.
The coarse, yellowish-gray sandstones and pudding-stones of the Monu-
ment Creek group incline slightly, perhaps three to five degrees. Then
come the sandstones of the lignite tertiary, inclining twenty-five degrees.
Then west of West Plum Creek are some ridges of cretaceous rocks.
The first ridge is made up of a rather impure limestone, filled with well-
defined species of Inoceramus and other shells, of No. 3 or middle creta-
ceous. The next ridge west is composed of No. 1, and the intermediate
valley is underlaid with the shales of No. 2. Among the brick-red
ridges is one low ridge composed almost entirely of gypsum an unusual
development of this material to the thickness of thirty or forty feet.
There is an extensive series of low ridges of red and gray sandstones
extending up the base of the mountains.
The high portion of country, which is plainly visible from Denver when
looking southward, and from the Arkansas Eiver looking northward,
would seem to have been protected from erosion by causes which Lean-
SURVEY OF COLORADO AND NEW MEXICO. 41
not yet well explain. The water divide is the long bench which extends
down from the very base of the mountains eastward, and forms the line
of separation between the sources of the streams which flow southward
into the Arkansas on the one side and into the South Platte on the other.
This water divide is well worthy of especial notice, inasmuch as it is
composed of the Monument Creek formation, and juts up against the
almost vertical nietamorphic rocks, retaining its nearly horizontal posi-
tion, and perfectly concealing all the older rocks for at least five miles
north of the line of separation.
The valleys of Plum Creek and of its branches are quite wide, and
are scooped out of the modern deposits so as to form a most beautiful
and fertile lands, while on each side a bench extends down from the
mountains like a lawn. The series of older rocks are exposed by the
stripping off of the newer tertiaries in the valley of Plum Creek. The
bench on the north side conceals them, for the most part, close up to the
foot of the mountains, while on the south side they are entirely concealed
until they reappear near Colorado City.
The divide forms a high ridge with a mesa-like top, stretching far east-
ward beyond the horizon, covered with pines. On each side the beds of
whitish-yellow and reddish sandstones appear like fortifications, holding
a nearly horizontal position. Near the foot-hills there is a narrow val-
ley, perhaps one-fourth of a mile wide, and lying against the sides of the
mountains are remnants left after the erosion. I at Arst mistook them for
the red triassic beds, but on a close examination I found them to be a coarse
aggregate of feldspar and quartz, colored extensively with iron. There
are inclosed in the rock various water-worn pebbles of all sizes and
textures. This rock decomposes readily, especially by the process of
exfoliation. The whole rock is so massive and compact that it might
easily be mistaken for a metamorphic sandstone.
Just south of the first branch of Monument Creek there is a fine ex-
hibition of the erosion of the sandstones. At one locality they lie snug
up against gneissoid rocks, showing the discordant relations perfectly.
These illustrations seem to show plainly that the sediments of this recent
tertiary deposit have all been derived from the disintegration or erosion
of the metamorphic rocks and perhaps the older sedimentary beds in the
immediate vicinity.
In a beautiful little basin near Monument Creek, which leads to the
creek, is a lone pillar or column of sandstone, three-cornered, with the
strata perfectly horizontal, about thirty feet high. The sands compos-
ing this are coarse and of a yellowish or whitish color. It has been for
a long time a favorite object for the photographer.
At one point on Monument Creek the red granites, high up on the
mountain side, show the perpendicular lines of cleavage in a marked
manner. Some of the openings are several feet wide. The strike of
these lines of cleavage is about southwest and northeast.
For a considerable distance, some ten or fifteen miles, along the imme-
diate base of the mountains, on the west side of Monument Creek, the
long, smooth, grassy benches slope down toward the creek, sliced as it
were or cut by the numerous little branches. These lawn-like slopes or
benches vary in height. Sometimes on the side of a little branch, where
the valley is deep, there is an intermediate terrace or step to the higher
ridge.
All these valleys seem to be occupied by farmers and stock-raisers.
Almost every available spot is taken up by actual settlers.
The first range of mountains on the east side, from the divide to a
point near Colorado City, appears to me to present a fine illustration of
42
SURVEY OF COLORADO AND NEW MEXICO.
what I have called an abrupt anticlinal ; that is, only the abrupt side of
the western slope appears here. The eastern side has either been worn
away or was never elevated to a great height, and is now concealed
by the recent deposits. The summit of the metamorphic ridge projects
far over the base of the mountains, and the western side of the monocli-
nal shows a gentle slope. That this eastern portion of the metamorphic
anticlinal may have been elevated and then fell back, or may not have
been elevated at all and still exists beneath, is shown from the fact that
the sedimentary ridges or " hog-backs" gradually diminish in dip to the
point of concealment.
The little streams which flow into Monument Creek, as well as the
creek itself, cut through a coarse material of various colors with irregu-
lar layers of deposition. Sometimes a layer is hardened into a coarse
sandstone, and then comes a thin layer of ironstone or impure limonite,
but the whole is a quartzose material and rather coarse. There are now
and then thin seams of fine sand or clay. Near the stage station there
is a bluff of rather massive whitish sandstone, with some thin beds of
clay at intervals. There is much iron in these rocks, and this aggregates
in the form of a rusty layer, quite hard. The light-colored sandstones
below are weathered into most singular columnar or monument-like
forms, with this layer of rusty sandstone as a cap protecting the summits.
Tnere are some dark bands of arenaceous clay, and in the sandstone a
few rounded concretions.
About six miles north of Colorado City the upheaved ridges or "hog-
backs" reappear from beneath the quartzose sandstones of the Monu-
ment Creek group. The white massive sandstones of the lower creta-
ceous lie high on the mountain side. The first ridge that we pass through
along the road is a whitish brown, rather yielding sandstone, with rusty
yellow portions, with very irregular laminae of deposition. The strike
is southwest and northeast, and the dip 32. This is a bed of the lig-
nite tertiary.
High up on the sides of the mountains, for ten miles or more about
the Soda Springs, there is a great thickness of red porphyritic granite,
inclining from the mountains in well-defined ridges, like sandstone.
From their very deep rusty red color, I regarded them as sandstones
until I made a close examination of them. They have a well-marked dip
of forty-five to fifty degrees, somewhat less than the massive granite
rocks which form the nucleus. All these ridges rise like steps toward the
range of which Pike's Peak forms a part, with the sloping sidv*;S toward
the northeast and the summits leaning over toward the axis of elevation.
These very red granitoid rocks have formed a very conspicuous fea-
ture on the eastern side of the mountains for thirty miles or more north
of Colorado City ; and, as they readily decompose, the hills and roads
are paved with the crystals of feldspar and quartz. The constituent
which predominates is feldspar, which gives the red color. This rock is
composed of a coarse aggregate of quartz and feldspar with a little black
mica, and now and then a little pencil-like crystal of hornblende. The
rock itself does not seem to be so red, but the debris has a dull rusty -
red color in the distance. Upon the summits of the mountains about
Pike's Peak are columns of massive granite immense rounded masses,
standing one upon the other, giving a most picturesque appearance to
the scenes, and affording fine illustrations of the style of weathering.
The unchanged rocks are here seen resting directly upon these dull
reddish granites. The lower beds are composed of a more or less fine-
grained sandstone, with some small pebbles, variegated in color, passing
up into rocks of a semi-crystalline texture. Most of the rocks appear as
SURVEY OP COLORADO AND NEW MEXICO. 43
if they had been partially changed by heat. There is every variety of
texture, mostly silicious, but some layers appear to be an impure lime-
stone.
For a space of about ten miles from north to south, and an average
width of five miles from east to west, about Colorado City, all the
unchanged rocks are displayed in a unique and remarkably clear man-
ner. The ridges of upheaval are spread out over an unusually wide
space. Here every formation known in this region is distinctly revealed
to the scrutiny of the geologist.
Beginning in the plain country we have the sands and sandstones
of the Monument Creek group in a perfectly horizontal position, and
separated from the older rocks by a valley about half a mile wide. It is
through this valley, which runs neaily north and south, that the road
passes. The Monument Creek group is seen on the east in the form of
a rounded grassy range of hills j while on the west side the cretaceous
formations are exposed in the form of upheaved ridges. I have no
doubt but that this intervening valley is underlaid by lignite tertiary
beds, for as we enter it from Monument Creek valley we have an expo-
sure of the sandstones of this group for a little distance, revealed by the
stripping off of the Monument Creek sands by erosion. They very soon
pass beneath the more recent deposits. On the west side of the road,
near Camp Creek, which flows through what is called the second " Gar-
den of the Gods," we find the chalky shales of No. 3 with Inoceramus and
Ostrea congesta in great abundance. All the cretaceous rocks, including
the massive sandstones of No. 1, are finely displayed in this region, and
No. 1 forms a most picturesque and nearly vertical wall for six to ten
miles, as it were inclosing the " Garden of the Gods." There is one
peculiar feature presented by these nearly perpendicular walls of sand-
stone, and that is, two quite distinct lines of cleavage, but not quite as
regular or as well defined as in the gneissoid rocks of the mining regions.
These lines cross each other, one set with a direction northwest and
southeast, and the other southwest and northeast.
The rocks included in this wall-like ridge are layers of fine black shale,
fine sandstone with bits of vegetable matter, and a thin seam of earthy lig-
nite. Then come beds of whitish sandstones, with thin layers of limestone
made up of indistinct fragments of fossil shells, with bed of snowy
gypsum ; then a series of whitish, yellow, and brick-red sandstones, with
intervals ofioose, laminated sands, which form a kind of grassy valleys*
In passing up the Fountain Creek valley we cross the upheaved edges
of twenty or thirty of these fragmentary ridges, all inclining at various
angles, from ten degrees to sixty degrees. It is to the peculiar weath-
ering of these variegated upturned ridges of sandstone -that the wonder-
fully unique scenery of the "Garden of the Gods"' is due. In some
localities some of these beds seem to pass over beyond vertically 3
to 5. The composition of these sandstones is mostly fine sand, but
often it is an aggregate of minute particles of quartz, with some small,
rounded pebbles. All the beds exhibit the indications of ripple
marks, irregular lines of deposition, and in most, the water -worn pebbles
are small, but sometimes they are from six to ten inches in diameter.
The upper portions of the variegated beds are a light brick red, with
spots and irregular layers of whitish sandstone.
As we pass to older beds this red color deepens until it becomes a dull
purple hue. There are in all these sandstones a great many irregular
seams of gypsum. Everywhere among these curious projecting ridges
of sandstone are beautiful grassy intervals. To show the irregularity
of the dip of these rocks, the ridges that give the most marked features
44 SURVEY OF COLORADO AND NEW MEXICO.
to the picturesque scenery incline eighty to eighty-five degrees, and then
immediately west are several low ridges dipping fifteen to twenty degrees.
There is a somewhat extensive cave in the north portion of the sand-
stone ridge that forms the entrance to the "Garden of the Gods." It is
caused by the washing away of a soft layer, about three feet thick, by a
little stream of water that trickles down from the summit of the ridge.
These vertical ridges of red sandstone rise above the surface about two
hundred and fifty feet. Just east of the entrance or gate, about fifty yards,
is a wall of white sandstone, with seams of impure, gritty gypsum run-
ning through it in every direction, forming a kind of net- work. The
strike of these ridges is nearly north and south.
At Crater's Falls, above the soda springs on Fountain Creek, there
is a remarkable canon, in which the unchanged sedimentary rocks are
seen to rest directly on the red porphyritic granites. At no point along
the eastern base of the mountains, from Laramie Peak southward, have
1 seen the two classes of rocks so fairly in apposition. The metamorphic
rocks beneath are quite massive a deep rusty red; an aggregate of crys-
tals of feldspar and quartz, with some black mica. The cleavage lines
a*e shown with great distinctness, but the lines of stratification in the
two kinds of rocks do not precisely correspond. I think that the strata
of both groups incline in the same direction, but the granites seem to be
more steeply inclined. As I have before remarked, there seems to be a
conformity in very many localities, and sometimes extending over large
districts, between the unchanged and changed rocks, but I am inclined
to regard this conformity as more apparent than real.
The rock which rests directly upon the granites at this locality is a
sandstone, totally unchanged, as if it had been deposited on them in cool
and rather quiet waters. It is composed of minute crystals of quartz,
considerably rounded by attrition, and cemented with silicate of iron.
This sandstone is quite massive, with streaks or seams of small pebbles.
We have them resting upon the granites, then alternate layers of light
gray, and rusty reddish sandstone forty feet; then a very deep dull
purplish sandstone with dark spots two hundred feet. Above this a
thinly laminated yellowish- white limestone, of various degrees of fineness,
with vast quantities of crinoidal remains, some corals, small univalves
&c. This limestone must be from three hundred to four hundred feet
thick. The dip of the rocks is distinct, as the little streams have cut
the most perfect sections. Sometimes masses of these rocks are lifted
high on the summits of the mountains, in an almost horizontal position,
then again they dip ten, twenty, or thirty degrees in different directions.
A few hundred yards to the northeast of the Crater Falls, on Foun-
tain Creek, there is a little branch which flows down from the mountains,
and has cut out of the rocks a most remarkable caiion. The limestones
and sandstones are here shown most perfectly in the vertical walls, for a
mile or more resting on the granites below, and inclining not more than
50 to IQo.
About four miles northwest of Colorado City is what is called the
second "Garden of the Gods," through which flows Camp Creek. The
area is much smaller than that of the first Garden of the Gods, but the
scenery is even more remarkable. The entrance is through a kind of
gateway, cut by the creek at right angles to the ridge of lower creta-
ceous sandstone No. 1. This ridge forms high walls, with a dip to
the east of 55 to 60. Then comes, inside of this wall, a narrow belt
of what must be Jurassic limestone, some portions being of a bluish color
and brittle, filled with indistinct animal remains. Then comes the gyp-
siferous sandstone, with a bed of snowy gypsum, gradually passing into
SURVEY OF COLORADO AND NEW MEXICO. 45
light brick-red, and deep, dull, purplish sandstones. Here again the
sandstones are worn into wonderful shapes columns, peaks, &c. All the
sedimentary rocks are reduced to a narrow belt, and the ridges are
crowded together into a space of hardly a mile in width, and on the foot-
hills of the mountains are the deep, dull, red sandstones and limestones
of the carboniferous resting upon the red granites. The walls of the
Camp Creek canon show all the carboniferous beds in their relation with
the granites most perfectly. Upon the weathered surface of the reddish
limestones I found a number of specimens of brachiopodous shells.
A short distance north of this canon, the Jurassic and carboniferous
beds are seen in a nearly vertical position, and lying in perfect apposi-
tion, showing complete continuity. It is therefore my opinion that there
is no discordancy in the unchanged beds, from the granites up to the
Monument Creek group. The latter never conform to the beds below,
while I am inclined to regard all the instances of apparent conformity
of the sedimentary rocks with the metamorphic as not real but accidental.
As the ridges emerge from beneath the Monument Creek group at the
north end of the second Garden of the Gods, the trend is a little east of
south, and they finally bend around so that they jut up against the
base of the mountains a little way south of Colorado City, with a trend
nearly east and west.
About five miles east of the base of the mountains, and four miles
northeast of Colorado City, Mr. Gehrung has a land claim where a coal
bed crops out of the bank of a creek. Above the coal is about eight or
ten feet of clay, and below there is also a bed of clay, and the coal
above and below gradually passes into the clay. This clay is filled
with fragments of vegetable matter, some seeds and plants. The clay
passes up into fine sand. In the distant hills, the beds of whitish mas-
sive sandstones are weathered into fortification -like bluffs. The coal is
very light, varies much in thickness, from a few inches to five or six feet,
and seems to be a sort of jet. There are several other localities where
the carbonaceous clay crops out in the valleys of the little branches, and
it occurs in the Monument Creek group, and therefore must be of very
modern date. There are also, in the clays above and below the coal, con-
siderable quantities of impure brown iron ore.
Perhaps the feature of the greatest general interest in this region is
the Soda Springs, which are located about three miles above Colorado
City, in the valley of Fountain Creek. The water issues from the ground
very near the junction of the sedimentary and metamorphic rocks, close
by the base of Pike's Peak. The scenery around them is grand beyond
any that I have ever seen in the vicinity of any other medicinal springs.
There are four of them. The first one is close to the road and within fifty
feet of the creek, and perhaps at this time ten or fifteen feet above its
bed. The violent bubbling up of the water would indicate the issue of
a large supply, but there can hardly be a gallon a minute. For a
distance of sixty feet or more around the spring there is a deposit or
incrustation in thin layers. Its thickness I could not determine,
though it is probably not more than six or eight feet. About twenty-
five feet west of the present opening there is another which formerly
gave exit to the water. It is about five inches in diameter. The sediments
deposited around these springs seem -to be filled up with foreign mat-
ter, introduced during deposition. Portions of the deposit are very
hard and filled with small cavities, lined with a whitish, partially crys-
talline material, probably carbonate of lime or gypsum.
About one hundred yards above the first spring is the second one,
on the right side of the creek. This is much the
46 SURVEY OF COLORADO AND NEW MEXICO.
has formed a basin six or eight feet across, from the center of which
boils up a most violent current, so that one would suppose there was
water enough to make a good-sized trout brook, and yet not more than
five or six gallons a minute issue from it. A small stream about four
inches wide, and an inch deep, passes off into the creek. About this
spring, also, there is a large deposit, which is rounded off on the side
toward the creek by the overflow of the water from the spring.
On Jthe opposite side of the creek, not more than twenty feet from it,
and located about ten feet above it. is a third small spring. The water is
stronger than that of the others and is used principally for drinking
purposes. The cavity in this deposit is about twelve inches in diameter
and the water twelve inches deep, and the bubbles rise continually and
energetically, but not more than half a gallon of water a minute passes
off. There is now a constant deposition of a whitish substance from
the spring, and it extends to the margin of the creek. Between the sec-
ond and third springs are two massive red felspathic granite boulders,
a coarse aggregate of feldspar, quartz, and some black mica. One of these
boulders, which lies on the left side of the creek, must be at least twenty-
five feet in diameter, and is partially rounded by atmospheric influences.
The other is perhaps six feet in diameter and lies in the middle of the
stream, and between the two, in a space of three feet, the greater part
of the water of the brook rushes down with considerable force.
The fourth spring is perhaps fifty feet above the second, on the right
side of the creek, and within four feet of the water's edge. There is no
sediment deposited around it, and, although the water bubbles up some-
what, it is rather chalybeate than otherwise. The taste is scarcely
perceptible, and but little notice is taken of it by tourists.
The basin of the second spring is about four feet deep and is used for
bathing. The first three springs are strongly impregnated with car-
bonic acid gas and are the true springs.
These springs must necessarily have their origin in the nietamorphic
rocks, although the waters may pass up through a considerable thick-
ness of the older sedimentary beds. On both sides of Fountain Creek
there is a considerable thickness of the carboniferous beds, but the creek
seems to run through a sort of monoclinal rift, though at the falls above,
the stream cuts through the ridges nearly at right angles. At any rate,
there cannot be a very great thickness of the unchanged rocks below
the surface at the springs.
As these springs must at some period become a celebrated and popu-
lar resort for invalids from all parts of the world, I will add an analysis
of a fragment of the incrustation mentioned above, as given in Fremont's
report, page 117.
Carbonate of lime
Carbonate of magnesia
Sulphate of lime, chloride of calcium, chloride of magnesia. : . .
Silica
Vegetable matter
Moisture and loss
100. 00
"At 11 o'clock, when the temperature of the air was 73, that of the
water in this was 60.5 ; and that of the upper spring, which issued from
the flat rocks more exposed to the sun, was 69. At sunset, when the
temperature of the air was 66, that of the lower springs was 58, and
that of the upper 61." FREMONT.
SURVEY OF COLORADO AND NEW MEXICO. 47
CHAPTER in.
FROM COLORADO CITY TO SPANISH PEAKS.
Looking toward Colorado City from the south, it would seem that the
rift, or pass in the mountains through which Fountain Creek ("Fontaine qui
louille) flows, formed a line of separation between the ranges of moun-
tains ; that the north range died out suddenly, in its southern extension,
at this point. There is a plain valley of separation visible.
A little below the city, the ridges, or " hog-backs, 7 ' flex to the southwest
and jut up against the base of the mountains and disappear. These
mountains are of that abrupt type which I have before referred to ; that
is, they form the west portion of an anticlinal, the east half of which is
not visible. These mountains I call abrupt because the summits are
formed of projecting masses of rocks leaning over eastward beyond the
base, where this class of mountains occur. The sedimentary beds jut up
against the base without any special dip, or, at any rate, there is no wide
belt of upheaved ridges, but the most recent formations in the region
lap on to the base of the mountains. The immediate eastern range north
of Colorado City, and the one south, are, it seems to me, fine illustrations
of this statement, and I am more and more convinced that it is correct.
Passing over that portion of the country south of Colorado City, be-
tween Fountain Creek and the base of the mountains, the upper creta-
ceous beds, No. 4,'^ire quite extensive, with Baculites ovatus and Inoce-
ramus in great quantities. The cretaceous rocks are well shown, espe-
cially the upper portions, in the valley of Fountain Creek, from Colorado
City to its junction with the Arkansas River. A number of species of
fossils, especially shells and saurian remains, are found quite abundantly.
There are also scattered about, remnants of the Monument Creek group;
and below Colorado City these recent tertiaries occupy considerable area,
and reach a good thickness.
But the most conspicuous feature that we observe is the vast quan-
tity of granite boulders scattered over the surface near the base of the
mountains, extending at least to Fountain Creek. They diminish in size
as they recede from the mountains, and are not much vvorn.
About ten miles below Colorado City the " hog-backs" appear again
faintly in the form of one or two narrow ridges. The lofty mountain,
rising up abruptly two thousand or three thousand feet above the base,
stops suddenly, and lower granite ridges, with their eastern sides sloping
and covered with grass, come in.
About fifteen miles south of Colorado City a little wooded stream that
issues from the mountains seems to form the northern limit of a high
ridge, which at first extends from the foot of the mountains in the form
of a pretty high "hog-back," but soon passes down southeast into the
variegated sands of the Monument Creek group. From this point to
within a few miles of the Arkansas, the recent tertiary beds are quite
prominent. The mountains seem also to be composed largely of igneous
rocks.
About fifteen miles south of Colorado City the road to Canon City
passes among the upheaved ridges which form a very narrow belt at
first, but continues to increase in width until we come to the valley of
the Arkansas, where they spread out to a great breadth.
At the point south of Colorado City where the upheaved ridges reap-
pear, the mountains begin to break up into low hills and fragmentary
ranges which continually run out in the plains. Indeed, the entire
eastern flank of the mountains, as we pass from the north southward,
48 SURVEY OF COLORADO AND NEW MEXICO.
exhibit an irregular but distinct "en echelon 77 arrangement; and at a
number of localities, the ranges will pass off in the prairies, south or
southeast, in groups, thus causing an abrupt notch or bend in the range.
There is also in the canon of the Arkansas an extensive bow or notch,
where the upheaved ridges are very conspicuous and numerous, where
the complete series of formations, in their regular order of sequence, are
thrown up to the vision.
After entering among the upheaved ridges we find the lower creta-
ceous sandstones forming a conspicuous ridge, inclining thirty degrees
to forty degrees about northeast. Then come the variegated sandstones
and the brick-red beds inclining at various angles as heretofore described.
Before reaching the Arkansas some of the ridges become very large and
high, from five hundred to six hundred feet. In very many localities,
for a long distance, the red sandstones lie distinctly against the granite
hills. Not unfrequently for fifty miles or more along the eastern base
of the mountains, all the unchanged beds have been worn away from the
metamorphic, and a smooth, grassy valley intervenes, so that it is some-
times difficult to find the two classes of rocks in contact.
About ten miles north of the Arkansas we have an immense ridge, at
least eight hundred feet high, capped with lower cretaceous sandstones,
and below them fine arenaceous sands, clays, thin beds of limestone pass-
ing down into variegated layers, with a heavy bed of gypsum, from
fifteen to thirty feet thick, at its base. This bed of gypsum seems to
form a sort of dividing line between the brick-red beds and the varie-
gated sandstones above. Passing Beaver Creek we come into a fine oval
park, with the large ridge on the east side, and the low red sandstones,
which lie on the granite, on the west side. This park is about four miles
long and half a mile wide. The bed of gypsum is very conspicuous.
In the vicinity of the Arkansas Valley the cretaceous formations be-
come quite apparent, and while there seems to be no marked line of sep-
aration between the divisions, yet portions of Nos. 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 can
be distinctly seen. On Oil Creek, near Canon City, there are high iso-
lated hills which show the black shales of No. 4, gradually passing up
into the rusty arenaceous clays of No. 5. High on the flanks of the
mountains can be seen the carboniferous beds, inclining at large angles.
The hills are covered with small pines, mostly the piiion, (Pinus eduUs^J
but all the lumber has to be brought from a distance of thirty or forty
miles.
High up in the foot-hills of the mountains, in the valley of Oil Creek,
a branch of the Arkansas, are the celebrated Oil Springs. There are
four of them from which oil is taken, but they are near together, and
probably all come from the same source. The oil seeps out through
sandstone seventy or eighty feet beneath the surface. A hole has been
bored down three hundred feet, but no regular reservoir has been found.
About four thousand gallons of refined oil have been made here per
year, for the past three years. There are many impurities in the crude
oil: twelve per cent, benzine; fifty per cent, heavy oil ; the remainder is
tar and nitrogenous matter ; much of it is paraffine, and paraflme oil. There
is also about fifteen per cent, of useless matter. I saw more than twenty
barrels of refuse oil at the spring, which had been rejected from the
refinery. This is used for greasing wagons, &c. Specific gravity 38.
The lower cretaceous rocks rise in vertical cut bluffs, four hundred
to six hundred feet above the oil springs, and the creek cuts through
the upper part of the variegated beds. The course of Oil Creek is nearly
south. A range of mountains extends down along the east side of the
creek, and runs out before reaching the Arkansas, and on the .west side
SURVEY OF COLORADO AND NEW MEXICO. 49
the various formations are shown in a nearly horizontal position, or
inclining southwest at a small angle. Indeed, Oil Creek flows through
a sort of synclinal valley in part, and near the source of it the red or
triassic beds rest upon the granites. All along this creek, where the
unchanged rocks are well shown, the lower cretaceous beds seem to
pass down into a narrow belt of ashen gray sands and sandstones, which
continue down into a variegated series of beds, a part of which I regard
as Jurassic.
Near the oil springs there are, above the reddish beds, six layers of
massive sandstones, varying from ten to twenty feet thick, with seams
of arenaceous clays, from a few inches to ten feet in thickness. These
rocks exhibit all the indications of shallow water deposition in places,
but not a fossil of any kind could be found, and, therefore, it is dif-
ficult to determine whether they are lower cretaceous or Jurassic.
As to the sources of this oil, I could gain no reliable information. The
borings have gone down into the pudding-stones of the lower triassic,
and yet no reservoir has been found. It is not known but that the oil
may come up from the granites. Great quantities of salt water issue
from the springs with the oil, and the oil is taken from the surface of
the salt water.
At Canon City, where the Arkansas comes out of the mountains,
on the south side of the river, the principal ridge or " hog-back," which is
composed of No. 1, dips 34, and has a trend about southwest; while on
the north side the long ridge, of wiiich there is a very high one, like a
lofty wall, composed of the sandstones of No. 1, while a lower outer ridge
is made up of the line calcareous sandstones of No. 2, filled up with
Inocemmus. It is from this low ridge that the stone for building pur-
poses is obtained. It is not very durable, but works easily and makes
handsome structures. This regular wall extends northward, bordering
the plain in a straight line for five or six miles, and is very conspicuous.
Issuing from the ground, bet ween the ridges of cretaceous No. 1 and No.
2, in the valley, about a mile above Caiion City, is one of the finest mineral,
springs we have seen in the West. It is quite small, but the water is de-
licious. It is doubtless the same, essentially, as the springs at Colorado
City.
Just back or inside of this sandstone wall No. l,is an ashen gray bed
of arenaceous layers, with a bed of fine silicious limestone, containing
what seems to me to be indistinct fragments of fresh water shells. This
belt passes down into the red pudding-stones below. Passing up the
Arkansas a few hundred yards further, we come to the metamorphic rocks.
About four miles below Canon City, on the Arkansas Eiver, are some
isolated hills, looking in the distance like fortifications, composed of Nos.
4 and 5 cretaceous, capped with a rusty yellow sandstone, which I regard
as the lowest bed of the coal formations.
Both the cretaceous and tertiary beds seem to dip southwest live to ten
degrees, while on the south side of the Arkansas the tertiary beds incline
rather northeast, so that there is an obscure synclinal which shows the
influence of the ranges of mountains on each side of the valley. The coal
strata have all the characteristics of the older tertiary sandstones, as
shown in the Laramie Plains.
Between Canon City and Hardscrabble Creek, the tertiary beds jut
up against the Wet Mountain range, concealing all the older *rocks.
About half a mile east of Canon City, the higli cretaceous ridges are seen,
and then they disappear beneath the tertiary beds, and reappear at the
head of Hardscrabble Creek, about thirty miles to the eastward.
High up the foot of the granite hills of Wet Mountain,' an obscure syn-
408
50 SURVEY OF COLORADO AND NEW MEXICO.
clinal valley can be seen, through which flows a small branch called Oak
Creek. The dip of the tertiary beds on either side is nowhere more
than ten degrees, seldom more than five degrees. The coal crops out in
many places. In the sandstones are the peculiar concretionary forms
which are common in these beds everywhere. Their general appearance
points out their age to the eye at once.
About ten miles below Canon City a coal bed has been opened and
wrought to some extent. I obtained here the following section of the
strata :
9. Sandstone and clay to the summit of the hill - 30 to 40 feet.
8. Carbonaceous and arenaceous clay 10 feet.
7. Yellowish, gray, soft, fine-grained sandstones 10 feet.
6. Carbonaceous clay, passing up into laminated clay - 20 feet.
5. Coal - 1 foot.
4. Drab carbonaceous clay - - - - 10 feet.
3. Coal - - 5 feet.
2. Drab clay 4 to 8 feet.
1. Yellow ash-colored arenaceous clay, passing down into a yellowish
gray sandstone.
In the clay are nodules of iron ore, which are full of impressions of
deciduous leaves, like Salix, Platanus, Thuya, and a broad flag-like plant
are abundant.
All through the clay there is a yellow powder, oxide of iron, and seams
of gypsum. Much selenite is scattered through the beds of clay and
coal. The plants^ so far as I have seen, are found in the clays just above
the coal.
The yellow arenaceous clays of No. 5, in the Arkansas Valley, pass up
into a somewhat extensive series of what I call mud beds, composed of
alternate thin layers of clay and mud sandstones, with all kinds of mud
markings, sort of transition beds or beds of passage. In the upper
portion of these layers I found an imperfect specimen of Inocemmus.
This group of beds is from fifty to one hundred feet in thickness. Resting
upon them is a thick bed of rusty yellow sandstone, which I regard as
the lower bed of the tertiary deposits, and marks their commencement in
the Laramie Plains, on the Arkansas Eiver, and the Baton Mountains.
Below these Jbeds of passage there is a yellow, arenaceous, marly clay, full
of iron-rust concretions, with an abundance of small bivalves and other
shells, with Bacidites ovatus plainly No. 5.
It is now clear that the Caii on City coal formation occupies a very
restricted area; that the entire thickness of the beds cannot be more
than six hundred to eight hundred feet; and that it is an isolated portion,
protected from erosion in a manner not easily explained, and that it was
once connected with the same formations in the Laramie Plains, about
Denver; southward in the Baton Mountains, and most probably also
with those containing coal in the valley of the Bio Grande. The area
occupied by the coal beds lies east of Canon City, between Wet Moun-
tain and the Arkansas Biver, with the eastern limit three or four miles
before reaching Hardscrabble Creek. It is about twenty miles from
east to west, and five to eight miles Avide from north to south ; and only a
small portion of it will furnish coal. The coal itself is quite good for
the purposes of fuel, but the beds are not thick, and the quantity is not
great. There is the usual quantity of brown iron ore connected with
these beds.
The Arkansas Biver flows through the synclinal depression, below
the mouth of Hardscrabble Creek.
SURVEY OF COLORADO AND NEW MEXICO. 51
It may be that the older rocks are elevated under the debris close to
the foot of Wet Mountain, but no beds older than the cretaceous can be
seen. The upper cretaceous beds extend up close to the mountains,
oftentimes capped with the tertiary, inclining not more than five to ten
degrees.
At the head of Hardscrabble Greek the ridges of upheaval or " hog-
backs" begin to show themselves again in a narrow belt which rapidly
widens out, so that before reaching Greenhorn Greek they have spread
out to a width of several miles.
On Eed Creek, which is about eight miles south of Hardscrabble,
there is the finest exhibition of the yellow massive chalk passing down
into the gray marl of No. 3 that I have seen south of the Upper Mis-
souri. In the channel of this stream and its branches there are vertical
walls eighty to one hundred feet high, looking much like irregular mason
work. Some of the gray portion is a very hard limestone, and contains
a large, apparently undescribed species of Inoceramus. Between Ked
Creek and St. Charles there are other exhibitions of the cretaceous
rocks, but especially of the quartzose sandstones of No. 1, which, at the
foot of the mountains, are cut through by the numerous little branches
in a most picturesque manner. The little streams run through vertical
walls eighty to one hundred feet high, forming most interesting canons,
and revealing all the peculiarities of structure of this sandstone. Some
of it is coarse and friable, other portions are compact silicious rocks;
others, a pebbly conglomerate. All the illustrations of irregular layers
of deposition, ripple or wave markings peculiar to sandstones, are found
here; also, admirable examples of slickensides. The jointage, which is
very marked, is vertical, at right angles to the lines of stratification, and
most essentially assists atmospheric agencies in wearing it away, so that
the sides of the walls are often very rugged, and immense cubical blocks
have fallen down by the water's side.
The diiferent formations all along the flanks of the mountains are
exposed by the upheaval of the mountains, and lie in belts or zones,
w r hich are sometimes concealed for a distance by recent tertiary deposits
or by debris; or they are narrow or wide at diiferent points, and their
conditions are only to be determined by personal inspection.
At the head of St. Charles Creek all the rocks incline gradually down
from the mountain side. No. 1 dips thirty degrees and slopes gently
down until it reaches a nearly horizontal position in the plain. West
of this first high ridge is a fine valley in which are beautiful, cultivated
farms. The red beds are well shown, and I have no doubt but that the
carboniferous limestones are exposed on the sides of the mountains.
Just before reaching Greenhorn Creek all the small ridges and the
first high one run out in the plain, and the mountains fiex around
toward the southwest to form the notch for the Sangre de Christo Pass.
The ridges of elevation and the side ranges, like Wet Mountain, have a
general trend about northwest and southeast, and all the lower ridges
run out in the prairie, and Wet Mountain ceases at the pass.
On the north side of Greenhorn Creek, near Hicklin's Kanche, No. 2,
is a rusty arenaceous limestone, full of shark's teeth, mingled with a
small species of Ostrea. The arenaceous limestone is attached to a gray,
fine grained sandstone, and is rather concretionary in form. Just on
the opposite side of the creek, and apparently holding a higher position,
are the quartzose rocks of No. 1. Around the south end of the Wet
Mountain, the cretaceous beds, Nos. 2 and 3, in the form of dark clay,
and yellow, chalky shales, present bench-like hills, extending down at
52 SURVEY OF COLORADO AND NEW MEXICO.
right angles to the strike of the range or eastward, and present an east
front with nearly horizontal strata.
All the ridges along the flanks of Wet Mountain have a general strike
of northwest and southeast, and run out in the plain. Wet Mountain
also flexes around slightly so as to end nearly or quite in a south trend,
while the ridges appear again on the southwest and west side, running
up into Huerfano Park. Here we see on the west side of the Wet Mount-
ain range, the red beds and cretaceous formations, corresponding to
those on the east side. The park is largely occupied with the calcareous
shales of No. 3.
Just before reaching Badito, in the Sangre de Christo Pass, there is a
long ridge, extending down westward from the Wet Mountains, which is
composed mostly of the red and white sandstones of the triassic, inclin-
ing twenty-five to thirty degrees. At Badito we find mostly a reddish-
gray quartzose sandstone like No. 1, and it forms the foot-hills of the
mountains. As usual the dip of the bed is in various directions and at
different angles. The Huerfano Creek is a fine stream with a moderately
wide valley which is all cultivated by Mexicans. Huerfano Park is
about fifteen miles long and from three to five wide, and is already filled
with settlers. It is surrounded on all sides by mountains composed of
igneous and metamorphic rocks. Black Butte, the principal peak of Wet
Mountain range, appears perfectly round or mammi-form and is basaltic.
Scattered over the area of the park are several outbursts of basalt. The
cretaceous beds dip south in some places ten to twenty-five degrees ; in
others they are nearly horizontal. As we ascend the pass by the road
we can see three considerable ranges called the Yeta Mountains one
range on the north side and two on the south side all igneous rocks.
They all have sharp sierra-like summits.
These dikes have so heated the sedimentary rocks in their vicinity
that we have here every variety and grade between unchanged and
changed rocks. The summits and sides of these mountains are covered
with a continuous mass of debris of broken rocks, and this mass has the
appearance of being just ready to fall down, like an immense land-slide.
On the sides of the mountains near the pass are belts of quartzose sand-
stone, some of it a pudding-stone really forming a portion of those seen
on the west side, for I do not think we come to the axis here until we
find the granitic belt, some eight or ten miles west of the immediate
summit of the pass. We therefore have the cretaceous rocks, limestones,
and sandstones, and then the reddish sandstones at the summit, and
then farther west the full series of carboniferous limestones. From the
divide between the Greenhorn and Cuchara creeks, looking southward,
is one of the most extended and beautiful views on our route. The long
level benches extend down from the mountains, apparently breaking off
from point to point, and appearing high at the place broken. These
benches are planed off so as to look like long tables, and, with the valleys
between them, seem to me to show clearly the direction of the eroding
force. All these benches are underlaid by the soft sandy marls of Nos.
2 and 3, cretaceous.
Huerfano Butte rises up in the midst of the plain in the valley of
Huerfano Creek. The rocks are basaltic, some portions a true syenite.
It is evident that it is a portion of a dike which has extended north-
east from the mountains. Much of the rock is massive igneous granite.
Fragments of cretaceous clays, changed by heat, are scattered around the
butte. It seems to me that this is a dike, thrust up before the super-
incumbent beds were swept away, and that the igneous material never
reached the surface in a melted state. The butte is about two hundred
SURVEY OF COLORADO AND NEW MEXICO. 53
feet high, the rocks being of a dark steel-gray color. There is no evi-
dence that the underlying strata have been disturbed by this butte.
The evidences of igneous protrusions are everywhere abundant, south
of this point, for two hundred miles. The Spanish Peaks I regard as a
gigantic dike, with the strike about northeast and southwest. The entire
surface of the country, from the Spanish Peaks to the Eaton Mountains,
is penetrated with dikes, which often reacli far across the country with
. a trend about northeast and southwest. The cretaceous rocks are in
many places much changed by contact with the fluid mass, and in some
cases the strata are somewhat disturbed. The clays are turned into
slates and the sandstones into dark steel-colored rocks, much like the
basalt itself. In No. 2 1 found a species of Inoceramus^ very distinct, and
a Modiola.
About ten miles before reaching the Apishpa Creek the tertiary sand-
stones begin to show their abrupt bluffs on our right. I am convinced
that beds of this age entirely surround the Spanish Peaks and the
mountains in the vicinity. This abrupt front continues north of the
Eaton Mountains until we come to Trinidad, and presents a singular feature
in the scenery. It would seem to form a sort of a shore line of a won-
derful basin, as if a body of water had swept along and washed against
these high bluffs, as along some large river. That these beds once ex-
tended far out into the plains eastward, seems clear, and the evidences
of erosive action are enormous. Here, abrupt bluffs which form these
different shore lines are four hundred to six hundred feet high above the
creeks, and the dip of the strata is about five degrees west or southwest.
In the plains to the eastward are isolated mesas, which are left as monu-
ments to show that thesebeds, with the igneous outpourings, once extended
over a large part or all of the space to the eastward, which now looks so
finely leveled off like a meadow. This wall-like front extends sixty or
eighty miles in a nearly direct line southward, capped with a thick bed
of basalt, for the most part.
Just east of the Spanish Peaks a distinct synclinal can be seen in the
tertiary beds. They dip slightly from the peaks, and from the bluffs
they dip gently toward the peaks, enough to produce a distinct depres-
sion of considerable length. I do not know why the tertiary strata
incline toward the mountains, unless they have been partially elevated
by the dikes.
As far to the southward as the eye can reach, the country looks rugged
and mountainous, with some curious mesa-like summits covered thickly
with the pinon. These tertiary beds are composed as usual of alternate
beds of rather yielding sandstones of all textures and composition, with
clays, some of which are carbonaceous. The harder beds project out
from the sides of the hills, while the softer beds ai^e smoothed off and
covered with grass or other vegetation.
Near a stage station, about ten miles south of Apishpa Creek, the creta-
ceous clays, No. 2, are cut through by a small creek, so as to reveal three
dikes within the space of thirty feet. The first is well defined ; four inches
wide, vertical, looking like a stratum of dark brown sandstone standing
perpendicular; strike twenty degrees north of east. Second dike, strike
northeast and southwest; four feet wide. Third dike, northeast and
southwest, from twelve to eighteen inches wide. The clays are not dis-
turbed, and are perfectly horizontal, but so changed on each side of the
dike that the cleavage has the appearance of stratification. I am con-
vinced that in the case of these small dikes the melted material has been
thrust up through the cleavage openings. There are very many dikes
in this region, all of which have a similar direction. I suspect that in
54 SURVEY OF COLORADO AND NEW MEXICO.
all cases of dikes these cleavage openings are lines of least resistance, and
form the apertures for the exit ol melted material, and that the sur-
rounding strata are not disturbed only where the pressure from beneath
is too great. I would simply suggest, however, that it is quite probable
that as there are in nearly all rocks two sets of cleavage lines crossing
each other at certain angles, so there are two sets of gigantic cleavage
lines for the earth's surface, which have formed the lines of least resistance
to the elevation of the mountain ranges the basaltic ranges in most
instances having a strike northeast and southwest, while the metamor-
phic ranges trend northwest and southeast. The eruption of the igneous
rocks is an event subsequent to the elevation of the metamorphic ranges.
Sometimes the eruptive rocks seem to trend northwest and southeast, or
nearly so.
On the hills surrounding Trinidad arc great quantities of impressions
of deciduous leaves in the rocks. The most conspicuous, as well as
abundant, fossil, is a species of fan palm, undoubtedly Salal campbellii,
which occurs in the lignite beds 011 the Upper Missouri. This plant
would seem to have formed the dominant tree in ancient times, much like
the palmetto of South Carolina. In some places the calcareous sand-
stones are filled with this plant for miles. There are also, in considerable
abundance, leaves of the Magnolia, Platanus, Laurus,&c., and, so far as I
can determine, identical with the species found on the Upper Missouri. I
do not doubt for a moment that all the coal beds of the Eaton Mountains
are tertiary and belong to the great coal system which has already been
traced over such a wide area. In a little dry creek I observed an out-
crop of coal, about two feet thick, with drab clay above, filled with brown
iron ore, and above this a gray laminated sandstone. In this sandstone
a huge specimen of the 8abal was found.
About four or live miles up the Purgatory Elver, above Trinidad, 011
the south side of the creek, I examined two openings that have been
made for coal. It is the same bed in both places, and is about four or five
feet thick at the outcrop. Underneath it, is a sort of indurated sandstone
with very irregular Iamiua3, with thin layers of vegetable matter.
Immediately beneath the coal is four to six feet of drab arenaceous clay,
with large concretionary masses of iron ore of excellent quality; above
the coal is drab clay passing up into sandstone. These openings for
coal are about fifteen feet above the bed of the creek, and the strata are
nearly horizontal. The clay above the coal at the other opening, not
far away, is, perhaps, eight feet thick, and full of iron ore, with leaves
like willow and nuts and small filiform leaves like grass. The clay is
a drab steel color passing gradually up into a very rugged sandstone with
projecting hard layers, which give a wall-like appearance to the bluff-like
sides. From the Spanish Peaks to Trinidad, and along the Purgatory-
Creek for four miles above, the black shales of the cretaceous are visi-
ble. Usually in this region these drab shales pass into a series of
alternate clays and sandstones in thin layers, and upon them rests a
conspicuuso bed of rusty yellow sandstone, which I have regarded as the
lowest bed of the tertiary series. A bed of sandstone precisely similar to
this, and holding the same geological position, occurs at Canon City and
the Laramio Plains. But at these localities the intermediate cretaceous
beds, Kos. 3, 4, and 5, are not absent, while in the Eaton Mountains the
sandstone seems to rest directly upon the lower cretaceous formation,
No. 2. I have searched this sandstone over an area of many miles for
fossils, and I only succeeded in finding one obscure fragment of a marine
bivalve like the clam, while in the mud beds and shales below, speci-
mens of Inoceramus are common. I make this sandstone, therefore, the
SURVEY OF COLORADO AND NEW MEXICO. 55
line of separation between the tertiary and cretaceous formations in this
region. If this is true and I am confident that it is there is an entire
want of continuity in the sequence of the beds.
In a dry gulch, about two miles west of Trinidad, there is a bluff with
about thirty feet of black cretaceous shales, No. 2, with an irregular
surface, on which is deposited ten to fifteen feet of partially worn pebbles,
held together by a carbonate or silicate of lime. Much of it looks like
tufa. In this place there is quite a deposit of what appears to be the
excrement of birds or bats, but which has been oftentimes mistaken for
the indications of petroleum. This deposit of piu 7 ding-stone seems to
be quite common, and is well shown in the banks of all the dry creeks.
Eaton Teak is the highest point in this region, and I have estimated
it to be about eight hundred to a thousand feet above Purgatory Creek.
It is capped with a huge mass of basalt, and underneath it is a great
thickness of the tertiary strata, some layers of which are full of impres-
sions of leaves. I distinctly recognized Sabal, Platanus, Gary a, Cornus,
and Populus. In the muddy sandstones, just underneath the coal bed, are
an abundance of a species of pine cone in the form of casts.
Crossing the road, about four miles west of Trinidad, is a beautiful
illustration of a dike, about twelve to fourteen inches wide, with a strike
twenty degrees south of east, and a slight inclination southward. It is
thrust up through a considerable thickness of the lower tertiary beds. The
rock seems to be very heavy, though full of cavities, filled with a whitish
substance which cuts easily with a knife calcite or carbonate of lime. The
hills north of Fischer's Peak, through a bed of coal. A little further the
mass of the rocks has a rather bright, black color. This dike runs along the
road and passes over another dike, which is more obscure and not as well
defined. On the east side of the road are several outcroppings of coal
in the sides of the hills. The coal is about four feet thick, with arena-
ceous clay above, passing up into sandstone.
About five miles south of Trinidad, on the east side of the road, is
another exposure of the coal iu the banks of a little creek, which is
worthy of notice. From the water's edge up there are layers of tine-
gr ained sandstone filled with bits of vegetable matter. Above this comes
a bed of black shale, four feet, passing up into a gray sandstone, rather
concretionary and irregular in its line of deposition. This bed is fifteen
or twenty feet, sometimes solid sandstone. Then in a little distance it
will be separated by a bed of shale or black slate. Above the sandstone
is shale with iron ore ; then about two feet of mud sandstone ; then very
black clay, nodular in some places the middle portion impure, earthy
coal five feet ; then two feet laminated bluish gray sandstone, with stems
and bits of vegetable matter scattered through it; then black coaly shale,
eighteen inches ; passing up into a layer of good coal twelve inches;
black shale four feet; then a layer of sandstone three inches; then black
shale passing up into arenaceous clays ; then black shale six feet; then
a bed of coal six or seven feet. Immediately above the coal bed, without
any clay, is an irregular gray, rusty sandstone, full of concretionary
layers, and readily yielding to atmospheric influences. Then conies drab
arenaceous clay three feet ; good coal four feet ; drab arenaceous clay,
with very large concretionary masses of brown iron ore. This clay bed
must be fifteen or twenty feet thick, passing up into a soft yellow sand-
stone, fifteen or twenty feet thick, and capping the first hill. Then
alternations of sandstone and clays continue far up the distant hills for
hundreds of feet, until we reach the mesa or basaltic cap. Here some
coal beds show plainly along the road for six or eight miles above Trin-
idad, and still higher up on the hills, now concealed by vegetation, I
56 SURVEY OF COLORADO AND NEW MEXICO.
have no doubt that there are beds of coal. The mesa, of which Eaton
and Fischer's Peaks form parts, is undoubtedly the overflow of a dike,
which seemed to take a general direction northeast and southwest, and
toward the northeast appears to incline about ten degrees.
In ascending the Raton Mountains by the road the cretaceous beds
soon disappear; the tertiary come in with coal and soon disappear in
turn. The dip of these beds I found difficult to determine, and, I think,
when there is any, it is local, and that in the aggregate they may be re-
garded as nearly horizontal. Just before reaching the toll-gate, near Mr.
Wooten's, the sandstone inclines northward about fifteen degrees. Near
the toll-gate, by the side of the road, a bed of impure coal, two feet thick,
has been exposed. In a ravine further south there is an opening from
which coal is taken for fuel, the bed being four feet thick and of excellent
quality. This bed has some impure coal above and below, and when
opened I think that it will prove to be from six to eight feet thick, good
coal. The grass and debris so cover these hills that it is impossible to
get a connected section of the beds, but the usual clays and sandstones
occur above the coal.
Toward the southern end of the pass there are some perpendicular walls
of sandstone which show a vertical cleavage, strike southeast and north-
west. In this sandstone are two or three small seams of coal, two to four
inches thick, which break the lines of cleavage and interrupt them. This
sandstone is from one hundred to one hundred and fifty feet thick, and
immediately beneath it is an irregular bed of the alternate thin layers
of the mud sandstone arid clay, which I have called a bed of passage
between the cretaceous and tertiary of this region. I call it a sort of
mud shale, as the sediments seem to indicate a foutinuous mud flat,
Avith the surface of the sandstones and shales covered with all sorts of
mud markings. As we emerge from the Raton Mountains southward to
the plains we find a large thickness of this mud shale with the sandstones
above. There seems to be three hundred to four hundred feet of sand-
stone, with a cap of basalt. At the foot of the hills there is a dike with
a strike northeast and southwest, with a width of about six feet. This
dike is shown on the west side of the road in the form of a pile of hori-
zontal columns, like cordwood, fifty feet high or more. Some of the
columns are five-sided, but mostly four-sided.
All along our right hand the high hills are precisely as they were from
Spanish Peaks to Trinidad. These bluff-hills continue like an irregular
wall as far as Maxwell's. They are cut up by side streams into cones and
ridges, giving a wonderful picturesqueness to the scenery. Thifc range
of hills presents the same kind of shore-line as is seen north of the
Raton Hills, with the lower cretaceous shales and the sandstone in juxta-
position, On the east side of the road, broken portions of these ridges
extend down southward or southeast. Scattered over this broad plain
are buttes and mesas isolated exhibitions of the basaltic rocks. The
tertiary beds soon cease in the plains to the eastward, and the cretaceous
beds occupy the country. That all this beautiful valley or plain on the
cast side of the Raton Hills has been carved out of the tertiary strata
appears to me most probable. Why the eroding agency left such a belt
of hills as the Raton it is difficult for me to determine, but I am dis-
posed to believe that it acted from the northwest toward the southeast,
and was local. The direction of all the benches of cretaceous material
left in the valley, as well as that of the mesa tops, has this general trend,
and the map will show the numerous branches which flow from the moun-
tains into the Canadian River through these tertiary hills. I have called
the bluff-hills on the west side of the road a shore line, because they pre-
SURVEY OF COLORADO AND NEW MEXICO. 57
sent almost vertical sides like tlie bluft's along the Missouri River. These
hills show first lower cretaceous shales, from one hundred to one hundred
and fifty feet thick, then fifty to one hundred feet of sandstone, the coal
beds overlaid with sandstones again. When any of the little streams cut
these beds, they reveal the coal, as in the Vermejo Creek and others,
ascending toward their sources.
Near the Yerniejo Creek I obtained the following general section
ascending:
1st. Cretaceous shales, with Inoceramus and Ostrea.
2d. Massive heavy bedded sandstone, yellowish gray, rather concre-
tionary in its structure, and weathering by exfoliation.
3d. Three thin seams of coal, with clay above and below, in all twenty
feet in thickness.
4th. Busty gray sandstones, fifteen feet.
5th. Clay, passing up into a thick bed of coal, apparently from six to
ten feet thick.
6th. The coal is overlaid immediately by a soft sandstone, which passes
up into a heavy bedded sandstone, fifty to eighty feet thick.
7th. One hundred and fifty feet of arenaceous clays, two beds of coal
about midway, one twelve inches the other four feet thick, with a few
thin beds of sandstone.
8th. Capping the hills is a bed of sandstone of indefinite thickness.
In the sandstone are immense rounded masses of a deep, dull reddish,
rather fine-grained sandstone, which is evidently concretionary. Many
of these masses have fallen down on the sides of the hill, and are now
disintegrating by the process of exfoliation. From these high hills one
can look with a field-glass fifty to one hundred miles into the plains
southeast, along the valley of the Canadian River. A long, mesa-like
ridge extends down from the mountains and finally dies out in the
plains. I am confident that the conical hills on the north side of the
Vermejo are six hundred feet above the bed of the creek.
I am now satisfied that these tertiary strata extend close up to the
mountains from the Spanish Peaks to Maxwell's, and the only way I
can account for the very slight disturbances of the sedimentary beds is
the fact that the mountains to the west of them are mostly basaltic.
The miners in the Moreno Valley regard it as very strange that gold
mines and coal beds should be found in the immediate vicinity of each
other. From the fact that these hills or mountains are composed
almost entirely of horizontal strata of comparatively recent date, I
think they should be called simply hills. They occupy quite an
extensive area, and contain a vast quantity of coal and iron
ore, practically inexhaustible, however great the demand in future
years. The brown iron ore of this vicinity is the richest I have
ever seen in the West, and the coal is equal to any ever discovered
west of the Missouri river, except that in thePlaciere Mountains of New
Mexico. Between the Cimarron and Rayada Creeks, a lofty ridge, one
thousand feet or more in height, extends from the mountains with a
trend a little south of east, the dip north about forty-five degrees. North
from this ridge, which is composed of altered sandstones, the tertiary
beds dip gently about five to ten degrees. Between these and the al-
tered sandstone ridge is a cretaceous ridge, five hundred feet high, in-
clining at a moderate angle. This ridge of altered sandstone seems to
be a sort of side elevation or spur, prolonged eastward from the main
range, and soon ceases.
From Maxwell's to Fort Union the plain country is occupied by creta-
ceous rocks, mostly the dark shales of No. 2, though the sand-
58 SUEVEY OF COLOEADO AND NEW MEXICO.
stones of No. 1 appear now and then, especially in the vicinity of
Fort Union. Scattered all over this broad space are a vast number of
conical buttes and mesas, so that the surface would seem to be pierced
everywhere by dikes or outbursts of basaltic rocks. Since leaving the
Arkansas Eiver southward, the cretaceous formations seem to have in-
creased greatly in importance, and here No. 2 seems to be enor-
mously developed. After leaving the Ciniarron southward, a peculiar
configuration of the surface commences, which has been gradually un-
folding ever since we left the Spanish Peaks. From this point to the
Ciinarron there was a commingling of features, those that result from
the outpouring of the igneous rocks, and those from the weathering of
the tertiary strata. South of the Cimarron, the rallies are more narrow
and more sharply defined, as are the cones and mesas, and the only form-
ations involved, so far as the plains are concerned, are the igneous
rocks and the lower cretaceous. The grass is excellent in the vallies,
and the hills are covered with pinon. No good timber is found any-
where, so that the adobe method of building houses adopted by the Mex
icaus would seem to have arisen from the natural deficiencies of the
country. The mingling of the eroded material of the igneous rocks
with the cretaceous clays, sands, and marls, seems to have produced a
good soil. The vallies appear to have been carved out of the basaltic me-
sas, sometimes with wonderful regularity and beauty. There are sev-
eral sets or series of mesas, as it were. The higher mesas are covered
with a great thickness of basalt with vertical sides, the basalt breaking
into columnar masses. The lower mesas seein to be more level or table-
like, and are covered thickly with fragments of basalt. It is quite possi-
ble that these different mesas represent different levels of the surface,
prior to the outpouring of the fluid material. Between Sweetwater Creek
and Ocate, I found near the road some yellow sandstones, filled with
fragments of Ostrea, which I think belong to the upper part of No. 2.
Near Ocate, the peculiar carving out of the valleys by erosion is seen,
presenting to the eye the most beautiful views that can be conceived
of in the natural world. They seem to have been formed by the hand
of art. No other condition of the surface could have admitted of their
existence. The fluid material seems to have been poured out over the
surface in one continuous and almost uniform sheet or layer, and these
valleys are thus carved out of the mesas. The little streams cut narrow
channels through these basaltic plains, sometimes very deep and often
for miles without a bush to mark the water course, so that they are not
observed by the traveler until he is in close proximity to them.
From Ocate' Creek to Fort Union, the surface is covered with volcanic
rocks, many of which are so porous as to seem like pumice. These masses
are so light that they must have been scattered by the wind. There are
great numbers of hills and ridges scattered in every direction, covered
thickly with these igneous fragments.
CHAPTEK IV.
FEOM FOET UNION TO MOEA.
Through the kindness of Dr. Peters, United States Army, the surgeon
of Fort Union, I made a short journey to Mora Valley, about eighteen
miles west of Fort Union, and I am also indebted very much to him for
his knowledge of this country.
SURVEY OF COLORADO- AND NEW MEXICO. 59
About due west of the fort is a long ridge which runs nearly north
and south, and is underlaid by the quartzose sandstones of No. 1. This
ridge ia cut through in every direction by dry creeks, which show that
the strata are quite horizontal. The plateau or mesa-like summit is
about five miles across, when we descend into a park-like area eroded
out of the brick-red beds in the Cayote Valley. The rocks of the plateau
are here seen to incline east from five to ten degrees, just revealing the
upper portion of the brick-red beds. This valley is about three miles
wide and perhaps five to ten miles in length, and at the south end the creek
cuts through the cretaceous plateau, forming a narrow gorge. On the
west side we have the red upheaved ridge well shown, and all through
the valley are fragments of low ridges inclining at moderate angles.
Between the little branches of the creek and all around the borders of
the valley are well defined terraces. This valley or park is beautifully
grassed over, and the benches or terraces are as smoothly rounded off
as they well can be. The surface is covered with water- worn bowlders
and drift. On the west side of this valley the road passes through the gorge
of the Mora Creek, and for nearly ten miles we travel across the upturned
edges of the sedimentary rocks. There seem to be here two well defined
series of red sandstones; the upper series we have described as under-
lying the park-like valley of the Cayote Creek, about three miles wide,
and separated by lofty ridges of yellowish, gray sandstone on the east
side; and then, west of the gorge, a second series of rather dull
purplish or dull brick-red sandstones, all inclining in the same direction
but at different angles. The low ridges of the upper series of red beds
incline west fifteen, twenty, and thirty degrees. The highest ridge is
composed of the yellowish gray sandstone that separates the two series
of red beds, and is about one hundred and fifty feet high, and inclines
thirty-three degrees.
Passing up the valley of the Mora the sandstones are of all colors and
textures, some of the ridges very fine, compact ; others coarse-grained,
and yielding readily to atmospheric influences ; others composed of an
aggregate of particles of quartz and small water- worn pebbles. Among
the pebbly sandstones there is a thin layer, perhaps a foot thick, of an
ashen-gray brittle limestone. This second or lower series of reddish
sandstones extends nearly two miles, dipping fifty to sixty degrees; in
a few cases nearly vertical. The intervals between these ridges, which
are usually from ten to one hundred yards wide, are grassed over and
sometimes reveal the fact that they are underlaid by soft shale. Neither
in the first or second series of red beds was I able to detect any organic
remains.
Within about three miles of Mora Valley we come to a series of alter-
nate ridges of sandstones, limestones, and shales, inclining forty to fifty
degrees. The first bed of limestone is full of fossil shells, Productus,
several species, Spirifera subtilita, 8. triplicata, &c. Then comes a bed
of micaceous sandstone, full of vegetable impressions of the genus
Calamites, and large fruits or nuts. These beds incline sixty-five degrees.
After this comes a coarse reddish sandstone, an aggregate of particles
of quartz and worn pebbles, most of it a fine pudding-stone. Then comes
about three hundred feet of reddish sandstone, then cherty limestone,
with Productus, Spirifera, and other species of true carboniferous types.
Alternate beds of sandstone, limestone, and shale continue nearly to the
Mora Valley the beds of sandstone forming about nine-tenths of the
thickness. From Fort Union to Mora, eighteen miles, we pass directly
west, at right angles, to the mountain ranges, and over the upturned edges
of the sedimentary beds from the lower cretaceous to the metamorphic
60 SURVEY OF COLORADO AND NEW MEXICO.
rocks. The sedimentary rocks all incline in the same direction, at various
angles, from five to seven degrees. I cannot see that in this vast series of
ridges, any beds have been repeated, and, therefore, there must be exposed
here in a curiously consecutive manner from eight thousand to ten thou-
sand feet, at least, of sedimentary rocks. The junction of the unchanged
rocks with the gneissic beds is rather obscure, but a bed of limestone
seems to incline against them. From my observations from Las Vegas
to Santa Fe, I am satisfied that all along the mountains the carboniferous
limestones rest directly on the granitic rocks. The valley of the Mora,
in which the town of that name is situated, is one of the most fertile
and beautiful that I have ever seen in the West. It is almost entirely
surrounded by mountain ranges, and in the aggregate it forms a high
quaquaversal that is, the rocks seem to incline from all directions
toward a common central point. It is about ten miles long from east
to west, and two miles wide from north to south. It is in the form of a
cross. At the east side is a long valley extending five miles or more
in each direction north and south from it. Either one of these valleys,
taken separately, would form a synclinal. The whole valley is in part
worn out of the gneissic rocks. Mora Creek runs directly through it
and every acre of it is under cultivation, and with the rude Mexican
style of farming, produces most abundant crops.
All around this valley the slopes of the mountains show clearly that
the metamorphic rocks incline from it at very high angles; and all
around the borders are foot-hills or low ridges, the remnants that are
left after erosion, which show distinctly the direction of the dip. But
the series of gneissic beds on the east side of the valley are very interest-
ing, consisting of alternate beds of black banded gneiss, and a coarse
aggregate of feldspar and quartz. Some of the beds are composed of
mottled gneiss. These beds all incline to the west or northwest, at various
angles from twenty degrees to thirty degrees. This series of gneissic
strata extends nearly half a *mile, and is plainly a remnant left after
erosion. They incline in an opposite direction to the unchanged rocks
that is, there is no conformity. This is one of the most interesting points
on our route in a geological point of view, and I regretted very much
that I could not remain a longer time.
About northeast from Fort CJnion there is a small range of mountains
of some interest, called Turkey Hills. They seem to form a regular up-
heaval with a line of fracture nearly northwest and southeast, and appar-
ently independent of the volcanic forces that have once operated all around
it. This mountain is well covered with timber, and the highest points rise
fifteen hundred to two thousand feet 'above the level of the plain at Fort
Union. Entering the mountains nearly north of the fort, we pass up a sort
of anticlinal valley; the beds inclining in each direction at a small angle*
Kone but the lower cretaceous sandstones and a portion of the upper
series of red-beds are exposed anywhere in this range, which is about
twenty-five miles long and ten miles wide. Among the red-beds are two
or three layers of bluish limestone, and underneath the cretaceous is a
bed of fine-grained whitish sandstone, which I am inclined to regard as
Jurassic. From the summits of these mountains we can see the Spanish
Peaks, Raton Mountains, and, indeed, the whole country round about
for a radius of one hundred to one hundred and fifty miles. About nine
miles east of Fort Union there is an old volcanic crater of great interest.
This is the, nearest approach to recent volcanic indications that I have
ever seen,* or known on the east side of the mountains. The rim of
the crater is circular and well defined, though the depression is very
shallow. Yet, as we ascended the high volcanic mountain, we found the
SURVEY OF COLORADO AND NEW MEXICO. 61
sides covered with masses of rough basalt, so much so as to render travel-
ing difficult and very laborious. But inside of this crater there is
scarcely a rock to be seen, and the slightly concave surface is thickly
grassed over. The immediate sides of this mountain all around are covered
with longitudinal ridges of the rock which was evidently poured out of
the crater and ran down the sides. The circular crater is about fifty
yards in diameter, and is now filled up with earth. This rounded moun-
tain must have been built up by the continued overflow of melted rock,
and at this time its summit is at least twelve hundred to fifteen hundred
feet above Fort Union. In the vicinity are what seemed to be rifts,
which have now formed valleys or gulches, and on each side of which
are thick borders or walls of the basalt.
About fifteen miles north of Fort Union there is another of these cra-
ters which has attracted attention. The depression is about two hun-
dred and fifty feet deep and five hundred yards in diameter, and the rim
is broken away on the north side. The borders of the crater are elevated
about twelve hundred feet above the fort. This vast mountain mass
must be the accumulation of the outpoured melted rocks. All over the
sides are immense ridges or banks, as it were, of the melted rock which
has flowed out of the crater. The summit is covered with lava, some of it
black and some of it of a red color, but very porous and light, like pumice,
so that the wind has distributed great quantities for a long distance over
the plains below. This melted material has been poured out over the cre-
taceous beds, often concealing them over large areas, i am convinced that
at one period a very large portion of this country was covered with these cra-
ters, but none of them seem now to be so well defined as those described.
About four miles north of the fort is a mesa capped with basalt, which
is underlaid by cretaceous rocks. Sometimes the basalt is worn away
over large areas, uncovering the rocks below. The mesa is about three
hundred feet above the fort. The valley in which Fort Union is located
is a very beautiful one, and is plainly carved out of the cretaceous
plateau. On the west side the abrupt walls can be seen for miles, but on
the east the ascent up to the foot of the tertiary mountains is gradual,
though here and there the cretaceous rocks crop out.
Before closing this chapter I wish to offer my most cordial thanks to
the officers of Fort Union, for courtesies and aid which enabled me to
perform the work of a month in a few days. Under the intelligent
guidance of Captain W. E. Shoemaker, I spent two most profitable days
examining the country in the vicinity of Fort Union, and with Dr. D. 0.
Peters, United States Army, visited the beautiful Mora Valley. The
entire party were the recipients of favors at this post, which showed
more clearly than I can express it in words the deep interest which the
officers of the army everywhere take in the development of the material
interests of that portion of the West where they are stationed. We could
also measure the amount of life in the citizens of any tosvn we visited, by
the interest they took in our efforts to study the resources of the country.
Mr. C. W. Kitchen, especially, and the citizens of Las Vegas generally,
extended every attention to us in their power, and I am convinced that
at no distant day this must be the most pleasant and prosperous town in
New Mexico.
62 SURVEY OF COLORADO AND NEW MEXICO.
CHAPTER Y.
FROM FORT UNION TO SANTA FE\
We left the hospitable post of Fort Union with regret and pur-
sued our way southward towards Las Vegas. The first eight miles we
passed over quartzose sandstones of No. 1, and then appeared above
them a hard bluish limestone, which belongs to No. 2. The sandstones
o : No. 1 gradually disappear, and the limestones take their place.
Several species of Inoceramiis occur, and Mrs. General Grier has in her
possession an Ammonites that came from this region, which is tubercu-
lated like A.pcrearinatus. All the way to Las Vegas we have a fine view
of the country along the base of the mountains. The exposures of the
sedimentary rocks are wonderful in their extent along the eastern base of
the mountains, from Fort Union to the point below Santa F, where the
range passes out and is lost in the plains. The belt of upheaved ridges
is from four to eight miles wide. All around Las Vegas, in the plains,
the blue limestones, passing up into an enormous thickness of the black
shales of No. 2, is everywhere seen. The little streams cut deep chan-
nels through it.
The finest section of the sedimentary rocks of this region, that I have
ever seen, may be found between Las Vegas and the Hot Springs, on
Gallinas Creek. The beds from the metamorphic to the cretaceous,
inclusive, are so regularly and clearly exposed along this creek that it is
not possible to mistake their continuity, and I would call the attention
of all travelers visiting this country, who have any interest in the
geology, to it.
The Hot Springs, which have already become so celebrated for their
supposed curative qualities in certain diseases, are located about five
miles northwest of Las Vegas, just at the junction of the carboniferous
and the gneissic rocks. The lowest spring issues from the granite just
underneath a mass of limestone. The bed of limestone that rests directly
on the granites is quite hard and cherty, with a dip nearly southeast 40
to 45. The metamorphic rocks below are rotten gneiss. From this point
outward towards the plains I made the following section, passing over
the upturned edges as they were exposed with wonderful clearness and
consecutiveness to the eye :
1. Hard grayish cherty limestone, resting, directly on the gneiss.
2. Micaceous sandstone full of iron, partly a very micaceous rotten
shale.
3. Yellow limestone with less chert, excellent for lime, containing
Productus, two or three species, Spirifera subtUita. Between the beds of
limestone, that vary from four to twenty feet thick, are two beds of
rusty clay, each four to six feet thick, the whole dipping 50.
4. Black shale with thin layers of a sort of arenaceous mud, from
one-quarter of an inch to four inches in thickness.
5. Limestones with Productus, Spirifera, corals and crinoidal stems, pass-
in gup into a very cherty limestone, one hundred and fifty feet thick;
dip 60 to 75. Among the layers of limestone are thin seams of shale.
6. Grayish brown arenaceous limestone passing up into a somewhat
micaceous sandstone 30 feet.
7. Variegated greenish, reddish, ashen, and yellowish shaly clays
20 feet,
8. Variegated sands and sandstones of all degrees of fineness. The
prevailing color red, varying from bright brick-red to purple, with some
SURVEY OF COLORADO AND NEW MEXICO. 63
whitish, yellowish, &c.; dip 45 to 55 ; thickness two hundred and
thirty-five feet.
9. Rather fine grained grayish sandstone. This bed has passed a
vertical position so that the dip is southwest 75 ; thickness fifty feet.
10. Variegated sands, light brick-red, dull purple, reddish brown
and light gray. The dull purplish sands, ten feet thick, are amygdaloidal,
full of almond- shaped nodules and cavities.
10. Alternate beds of light yellowish, grayish sandstones, and arena-
ceous shales, very much variegated. 1st. Sandstones, fifty feet; 2d.
Variegated arenaceous shaley clays, sixty feet ; 3d. A curious wall of
sandstone which forms a conspicuous point by turning the current of
the creek at a right angle and running across, in a nearly vertical posi-
tion, but having the natural dip northeast ; dip 85. This curious wall
will always be noticed by travelers. It passes up gradually into the
variegated sandy shales or laminated sandstones that form No. 12.
12. Among these laminated sandstones is a sort of silicious mud
layer that is filled with the casts of a species of Mytilus, which leads me
to suspect them to be j urassic. There is also a layer filled with fragments
of fossils a saurian tooth, &c. The beds continue with a reddish tinge
varying from a greenish brown to a duU purplish tint, with every degree
of texture. Some of the layers of laminated sandstone are a light ashen
gray, some of nodular and pebbly sandstone, also with a tendency to
lamination 300 feet.
13. A rather massive gray sandstone, some portions amygdaloidal
or nodular, some fine grained and some slightly calcareous. Some of it
is good for building purposes, flagging stones, &c. Two layers of ashen
gray clay first six feet, second three feet.
14. Very dull purplish clays, with some harder layers of sandstone,
thin, of an ashen gray 30 feet.
15. Like bed 13, only more laminated, portions massive and fine;
some layers a rusty yellow, with impressions of woody stems and trunks,
not jointed but ribbed (!) ; passing into a dull purplish red massive
sandstone, with a very irregular laminae of deposition, some of it pebbly
and nodular 200 feet to 300 feet.
16. Reddish laminated shale, with some greenish or ashen spots,
some nodules, but slightly variegated with seams of fibrous gypsum fol-
lowing cleavage 300 feet.
17. Yellowish gray, rather fine grained, massive sandstone; por-
tions of it with a reddish tinge ; cleavage joints shown well 100 feet.
18. Reddish brown shales slightly gypsiferous 25 feet.
19. Massive sandstone, like 17 ; dip 75 to 80 100 feet.
20. Very dull purplish drab, somewhat nodular, arenaceous clays with
some hard layers of sandstone, mostly dark brown, and very variable
in texture. This bed belongs to the lower cretaceous, or is a bed of pas-
sage 200 to 300 feet.
21. The sandstone " hog-back," regarded as lower cretaceous No. 1.
A very conspicuous formation in this region. A portion of No. 1 stands
quite vertical, while other portions incline from 60 to 80. It is in part
a coarse sandstone and fine aggregation of pebbles, passing up into a
fine grained whitish sandstone, two hundred feet thick, passing to a series
of alternate thin layers of dark laminated clay and mud sandstones,
with all sorts of markings, indicative of shallow water, mud flats, &c.
The dip of some of the layers passes a vertical at the top.
22. Then come the dark clays of No. 2, slightly arenaceous at first,
passing up into black shales, then into the blue marly limestone with an
abundance, of Inoceramw. Some of the layers of blue limestone have
64 SURVEY OF COLORADO AND NEW MEXICO.
passed a vertical position, 30 to 40. No line of demarcation can be
found between^ he divisions of the cretaceous. They all pass into each
other imperceptibly.
The cretaceous beds are well shown, No. 2 continuing up into blue marly
limestone, which maybe regarded as No. 3; this passing up into the dark
shales of No. 4, which gradually passes up into a rusty yellow clay with
numerous calcareous concretions with Ostrea, Baculites, &c. This bed
contains calcareous sandstones filled with a small Turritella and bi-
valves. The cretaceous rocks of this region are best divided into upper
and lower cretaceous. These beds become suddenlyhorizontal in the plains,
but the conformity is complete. The conformity of the entire series of
the sedimentary beds is more perfect than I have seen it at any other
locality in the West. Here, for the first time, I notice the two sets of red
beds mentioned by Dr. Newberry, in his report of the Colorado River.
They are well defined. The cretaceous beds are well marked. In the
section, from beds 11 to 19 inclusive, I am inclined to regard as Jurassic;
the second series of reddish beds, as triassic ; then some reddish per-
mianf?) sandstones, passing down into the carboniferous.
Above the springs there is an extensive series of gneissoid rocks, in-
clining northwest. The changed and unchanged beds do not conform.
These gneissic rocks vary much in texture and color. The dominant
constituents are reddish feldspar and quartz, but there are thick beds of
the banded gneiss. For about two miles up the Gallinas Creek, above
the springs, these rocks rise up in grand mountain masses, nearly ver-
tical, and then for ten miles or more we find the limestones, sandstones,
and shales of the carboniferous, resting in a nearly horizontal position
over the vertical edges of the gneiss. About four miles above the springs
I found two distinct species of lepidodendroii in sandstone, one of them
twelve feet long. They leave a cast in the sandstone perfectly round.
Still further up the creek we see the limestone resting directly on the
gneiss for half a mile. Usually these beds are so covered by debris
that they are obscured. As we pass up the creek the carboniferous beds
come down to the water's edge. Three beds of limestone, from ten to
thirty feet thick, are exposed on the sides of the hill.
About eight miles above the springs the valley expands out, and the
gueissic and basaltic rocks form the lower mountain ridges. At the
head of the valley there is a very striking basaltic mountain, with nearly
perpendicular sides, which forms a land-mark in this region.
The hot springs are most beautifully located in the valley of Galliuas
Creek, just as it emerges from the mountains on the south side. The
springs are twenty or thirty in number, and some of them are quite
large. They vary in temperature from 80 to 140. The spring from
which the water is taken for the bath is quite hot, at least 140. The
supply is Yei T abundant, enough to meet the demand for all time to come.
There is no deposit aboiit the spring, and the water is as clear as crystal.
It was analyzed by Mr. Frazer, and found to contain carbonate of soda,
carbonate of potash, and chloride of sodium, the potash in excess.
It will be seen at once upon what its medicinal qualities depend.
Every day in the week all the springs are occupied by women, in washing
clothes. The water makes most excellent suds, and the ease with "which
the dirt is extracted from the clothes renders these springs great favor-
ites. There is every facility for the proprietors to establish a place of
resort for invalids and pleasure-seekers, when there shall be a sufficient
demand.
West of the town of Vegas there is an almost vertical wall of creta-
ceous sandstone, running nearly north and south. Passing south along
SURVEY OF COLORADO AND NEW MEXICO. 65
the east side of this wall about five miles below Vegas, we enter the
hills through a gorge in this sandstone, called the Puerto cito del Padre.
West of this we can see the complete series of the sedimentary beds in
the form of upheaved ridges, rising like steps to the main mountain
range. Our course to Santa Fe was nearly south, through a very rugged
country ; the formations thrown up into lofty ridges. In a few miles
we came out into open valleys quite broad, and nearly all the beds are
older than the cretaceous, and nearly horizontal in their position, and the
valleys have been carved out of the Jurassic and triassic beds; the
very singular castellated hills on the left looking much like mesas, cap-
ped with sandstone, probably cretaceous in part, showing the red beds
beneath. Sometimes the entire series of red beds are clearly shown, and
even the carboniferous limestones are well exposed, but the Gallinas
section is so complete that I need not repeat it here. On the San Jose
Creek and the Kio Pecos are some fine exposures of the triassic rocks,
showing their peculiar features and their variable texture. The prevail-
ing color of the upper series of variegated beds is brick red, and that of
the lower, or supposed triassic, is dull purplish. Close to the village of
San Jose the beds are all nearly horizontal. The high hills around
retain their mesa-like form. Nearly all the way to Apache Caflon, on
the crossing of the mountain, the road runs along a valley with a lofty
ridge or "hog-back" on one (the east) side, which forms a sort of outer
wall and a conspicuous feature. The upper series of red beds are well
shown, and a portion of the second series, but the bed of sandstone
which caps the ridge, I am inclined to regard as a part of the Jurassic
group. At any rate I have not been accustomed to include these yel-
lowish-gray, fine-grained sandstones among the cretaceous beds. The
ridge of sandstone which forms the outer wall at Vegas must still con-
tinue outside of this ridge.
In the lower red series are beds of gypsum. I saw gypsum at a num-
ber of localities on our route. At Vegas, it is used for building purposes.
I was informed that a coal mine had been found near Tecalope, and
that the coal had been used for blacksinithing, but I saw no rocks that
could possibly contain coal, on my route, and think that it was a mis-
take. A copper mine has been wrought with some success near San
Miguel in the triassic beds. I did not examine it. Near Pecos Creek, all
the rocks seem to be in contact, from the light-colored sandstones, that cap
the mesa, to the carboniferous. All the beds dip a little from the main
range, and this inclination increases as we approach the mountains.
The width of the belt of upheaved sedimentary rocks, from Vegas to the
southern point of the mountains north of Gallisteo Creek, must average
twenty to thirty miles, and the opportunities for studying them, in their
order of sequence, is excellent.
At Payaritos Springs station, there is a splendid exhibition of the
different groups of strata, as we have seen them since leaving Vegas.
The light-gray sandstones and first and second series of variegated beds
are all shown in their order for six hundred to eight hundred feet.
About six miles north of the old Pecos church, there is a bed of com-
pact reddish limestone, full of fossils, which I am inclined to regard as
permian, containing fossils Myalin-a-j Mytilus, Plcuropliorus, and crinoidal
stems. This limestone belongs to the lowest portion of the second series
of red beds. I would just remark here, that I am inclined to the belief
that in the mesa, which looks so conspicuous on our left, on the road to
Santa F6, we have the first series of variegated beds, or Jurassic, including
the fine-grained sandstones that cap them; and the second series, triassic;
66 SURVEY OF COLORADO AND NEW MEXICO.
and that the remaining sedimentary beds are composed of carboniferous
and possibly some permian exists in this region.
The carboniferous fossils are unmistakable, and I think 1 have collected
some per iniau -like forms, and I suspect that my collections will furnish
the evidence of the age of the upper series of red beds as Jurassic.
The dip of all these beds is slight, not more than five to eight degrees.
From the old Pecos church to the Apache Canon, we pass over the beds
of the lower red series, mostly consisting of sandstones and fine pudding-
stones. But in Apache Canon, we have a good exhibition of the fine-
grained, light-colored sandstones, which have capped the mesas on our
left for thirty miles or more. So far as I could determine, this sandstone
does not belong to the lower cretaceous, but the true cretaceous ridge is
still further east. The inclination of the strata in Apache Canon is
sometimes twenty -five degrees southward.
As we commenced the ascent of the mountains towards Santa Fe, the
surface is covered with a remarkable conglomerate, a paste of sand and
clay holding fast unworn masses of reddish granite. I think that this
is a modern formation, and underneath it we find the dull purplish-
brown sandstones. I did not notice the carboniferous limestones on
the east side of the range, but do not doubt that they exist high up on
the mountain sides. From the summits of the mountains we can look far
south ward. All the ridges of upheaval continue southward along the
flanks of the mountains, and soon run out in the plain, and the moun-
tains slope down to the prairie about twenty miles south of Santa Fe.
About thirteen miles before reaching Santa Fe*, we come to the gneis-
soid rocks, and they continue nearly to that place. They seem to dip
with the sedimentary rocks on each side, only at a higher angle. This
mountain forms a regular anticlinal. On the flanks of the mountains,
(west side,) there is quite a thick deposit of yellow and light flesh-colored
marls and sands extending westward toward the head of the Eio Grande,
and beyond. The mountains themselves seem to be quite peculiar, in
being composed of an aggregate of cone-like peaks of very variable
heights. They seem to be entirely composed of gneissoid rocks.
CHAPTER YI.
FROM SANTA FE" TO PLACIERE MOUNTAINS AND RETURN.
From Santa Fe to the banks of the Gallisteo Creek, eighteen miles,
we pass over the recent marls and sands which seem to occupy the
greater portion of the valley of the Rio Grande, above and below Santa
Fe, which I have called Santa F6 marls. These are mostly of a light
cream-color, sometimes rusty yellow, and sometimes yellowish white,
with layers of sandstones, varying in texture from a- very fine aggregate
of quartz to a moderately coarse pudding-stone. These marls and sands
weather into unique forms north of Santa Fe, like the " bad lands" or
" Mauvais Terres n of Dakota. As we descend the hiU into the valley of
the Gallistee Creek, we have a wonderful exhibition of the variegated
sands and sandstones, which at first appear like the upper series of red
beds on the ^east side of the mountains, but which I at once suspected
were new to me in this region. Descending the Gallisteo, to the west or
lower end of the Cerillos, we find the full series of the cretaceous beds,
with Ostrea eongesta, 0. larva, Inoceramus several species, and fragments
of fish remains. Extending east and west along the south side of the
SURVEY OF COLORADO AND NEW MEXICO. 67
Cerillos is a high wall-like dike, and dipping southward from this, from
the Placiere Mountain, is a great thickness of the cretaceous shales No.
2, passing up into laminated arenaceous shales, with fossils, then the
dark shales of No. 4, apparently. The cretaceous beds incline thirty
degrees to fifty degrees. Inclining at a less angle, a series of coal strata
reveal their upturned edges, conforming perfectly to the cretaceous beds.
Passing up the Gallisteo, eastward, we observed the variegated sands
and sandstones, rising above the coal strata, and concealing them on the
northeast and east flanks of the Placiere Mountain, inclining at all angles
from five degrees to fifty degrees. These sandstones are of varied text-
ure, from a fine aggregate of quartz particles to a rather coarse pudding-
stone. In some of the beds there are irregular layers, of a dull, rusty
brown, concretionary arenaceous limestone, in which I searched in vain
for fossils. One of the most peculiar features of these beds, and one
which I have never seen in any group before, is the great variety of
colors, from a light reddish tint to a deep brick red, sometimes dull pur-
plish light, and very deep yellow, white, brown, drab, &c. The only
fossils I could find were enormous silicified trunks of trees. One of them
was so perfect that it looked much like a recent one, with a cavity run-
ning through it ten inches in diameter. I have named these beds the
Gallisteo sand group, as they are confined, so far as I know at
present, to the valley of the Gallisteo, although they pass under the
Santa Fe marls, and the northern limit is concealed from view. Near
the road is a small dike, apparently thrust up between beds of sand-
stone, and inclining with them. East of the Cerillos, up the Gallisteo,
among the upper beds of that group, are several larger dikes, and the
'basaltic rocks are poured over the recent tertiary beds. One of the
dikes can be seen a long distance, looking like a ridge of upheaval, ex-
tending a little north of east, far across the plain towards the south end
of the Santa Fe Mountains. The Cerillos are merely a dike, or a series
of dikes, forming a small independent range of. mountains composed
entirely of eruptive rocks. On the south and west side, the cretaceous
beds flank them closely, while on the east and northeast side the Santa
Fe marls jut up against them. Occasionally, on the east side, a little
stream will cut through the marls, revealing the sandstones of the Gal-
listeo group.
The outeroppings of coal on the northwest side of the Placiere Moun-
tains are of great interest. They were firot exposed in the center of the
little branches that run into the Gallisteo. The first one is about five
miles south of the Gallisteo. The coal is in the natural condition. The
following section of the strata was taken ascending:
1. Laminated clay, with thin seams of sand passing up into carbona-
ceous clay, as a floor for coal.
2. Coal very compact. The cleavage lines are, in a 'ew instances,
filled with clay 5 to feet.
3. Drab clay, indurated, 15 to 29 feet.
4. Ferruginous sandstone, passing up into a light grayish sand-
stone 30 to 50 feet.
The lower part of this bed is full of deciduous leaves. The debris is
so great that the real character of the beds is somewhat obscured. The
impressions of leaves, appear to belong to the genera Magnolia, Pla-
tanuSj SaliXj and others, some of which appear to be identical with
those found at the Katoii Mountains. Imperfect specimens of a paim
were found. The mine is opened on each side of the dry creek, and the
dip is the same about ten degrees. As in all the rocks of the country,
there are in the coal two sets of cleavage lines, at right angles to the
68 SUEVEY OF COLORADO AND NEW MEXICO.
stratification. In the valley of another branch of the Gallisteo, there is
a dike two feet wide with the strike a little east of south. The clays on
each side are metamorphosed into slates.
At another locality there is a bed of coal, which has been changed by
an enormous dike into anthracite. Section 1st, clay-slate ; 2d, two and a
half to three feet anthracite ; 3d, fourteen to eighteen inches of clay ; 4th,
fourteen inches to two feet of anthracite ; 5th, clay shale, passing up into
alternate layers of sandstone and clay, ten feet ; 6th, dark sandstone.
The dip of all the beds is fourteen degrees east. They are overlaid by
a thick bed of columnar basalt. The dike that covers the coal bed
trends about north and south, or a little east of south.
The influences of the Cerillos on the north side of the Gallisteo, and the
Placiere Mountains on the south, has produced a beautiful synclinal,
while the Cerillos form a sort of imperfect quaquaversal. The beds
dip from two sides of this small range at least, and the indications in
the channels of the little streams are, that the sandstones of the Gallisteo
group dip from a third side, but are now mostly concealed. We have,
therefore, in the valley of the Rio Grande, if my investigations are cor-
rect, three groups of tertiary beds of different ages. 1st. The coal strata,
with abundant impressions of deciduous leaves, lying above well-marked
cretaceous beds. 2d. The Gallisteo sand group, which plainly overlies
the coal strata, but inclines equally with and conforms to them. 3d. The
Santa Fe marls, which are of much later date than either of the other
two, and rest unconformably upon the Gallisteo group, and never incline
more than five or ten degrees.
Although the coal beds lie high up on the sides of the Placiere Mount-
ains, I am inclined to the belief that some portions of the cretaceous
strata, and possibly even older rocks, are revealed on the sides of the
gneissic nucleus. This mountain seems to be penetrated with dikes,
which have given a dark somber hue to all the rocks.
The mountain itself is very rich in minerals, as gold and iron ore.
The Ortiz mine is the most celebrated, although a number of lodes have
been opened. Colonel Anderson, formerly of the United States Army,
is superintendent of the mining interests of this region, and he has
already erected a forty-stamp mill, the most substantial one I have seen
in the West. The Ortiz lode is a very irregular one. It expands some-
times twelve feet or more, and then nearly closes up. It has yielded
very rich ore at times; mingled with this ore are fluorspar, calcspar,
crystallized quartz, blue and green carbonates of copper, a little native
copper, and the sulphurets of iron and copper the latter predominates
in the ore.
The Brehm lode has a strike about northeast and southwest, and by it
I suspect the dip of the gneissic rocks, on the north side of the mount-
ains, to be about northwest. The width of the lode is about three feet,
the inclination of the vein southeast forty-five degrees.
The Placiere Mountain seems to be rich in gold, but the want of water
may prevent the mines from being wrought with great profit. The sur-
face of the country is literally covered with placer diggings, where the
drift gold has been taken out by the Mexicans in oM times by melting
snow. Magnetic iron ore seems to be abundant, and in the clays con-
nected with the coal beds there is the largest supply of excellent brown
iron ore, so that the time is not far distant when -iron works of great
value may be erected in. this region.
SURVEY OF COLORADO AND NEW MEXICO. 69
CHAPTER VII.
FROM SANTA FE" TO TAOS.
On the western flank of the Santa F6 Mountains, near Santa F6, 1
found the foot-hills, which are exposed by the wearing away of the marls,
to be composed of carboniferous beds. These beds of limestone rest
directly on the granite, and are associated with gray and reddish shales
and some beds of sandstone, the whole dipping west at an angle of
thirty-five to forty-five degrees. The limestones were charged with fossils,
as many and as well preserved as I have seen them at any locality east
or west. In many places these beds of limestone are carried high up
on the granite hills; sometimes dipping toward the mountains as if a
portion of an anticlinal. The metamorphic rocks are gneissoid at first
on the flanks, but gradually become massive granites toward the main
axis of the range. In a small creek, which leads down from the mount-
ains, I saw immense masses of granite breccia, mostly angular fragments
of gneiss or red feldspar, with some rounded masses cemented with a
granite paste. The limestones about Santa Fe are converted into excel-
lent lime. The foundations of the jail and court-house are made of it.
The fossils are very numerous, both in individuals and species. Dr.
Newberry has given a list of them. I found several species of Pro-
ductus, Sprifera subtilita, and many others. These limestones do not
seem to extend far along the sides of the mountains. From Santa Fe to
Embudo Creek, and mostly even to Taos, the Santa Fe marls cover the
country. On the east side of the Eio Grande I did not observe a single
dike, from the Cerillos to the mouth of the Chama Creek. North of that
the melted material has been poured over the marl so as to form broad
mesas. On the west side there are numerous outbursts of igneous mat-
ter. These Santa Fe marls reach a great thickness north of Santa F6,
in the Eio Grande Valley, from one thousand two hundred to one thou-
sand five hundred feet, and have a tendency to weather into similar mon
umental and castellated forms, as in the "Bad Lands." The upper por-
tions are yellow and cream colored sandstones, sands, and marls. Lower
down are some gray coarse sand beds with layers of sandstone. All these
marls dip from the range westward three to five degrees. The Eio Grande
wears its way through these marls with a bottom about two miles wide.
On the west side are distinct terraces with the summits planed off smoothly
like mesas. The first one is eighty feet above the river ; the second one,
two hundred feet. These marls extend all the way between the margins
of the Santa Fe Mountains on the east side and the Jeinez Eange on
the west. Most of the Chama Hills, and I think the entire hills, are
composed of it. At the junction of the Chama Creek with the Eio
Grande, a point comes down between the two rivers which is covered
with basalt. This continues into the San Luis Valley nearly to Fort
Garland. Near the mountains the hills are covered extensively with drift,
and sometimes they are composed largely of boulders and marl or
sand. The country is full of the dry beds of creeks or arroyas, us
they are called. All these carve their valleys out of these marl beds.
As we go northward near the mountains, the rounded boulders become
more and more numerous, but near the Eio Grande, where they have
all disappeared, the source of this great thickness of sediment is apparent.
The Ojo Sarca Creek rises in the Sante Fe Mountains and flows into
the Eio Grande, forming a valley which is remarkable for its ruggedness.
The marl beds are nearly horizontal and the harder layers of sand pro-
ject out of the sides of the bluff hills like steps for four hundred to six
70 SURVEY OF COLORADO AND NEW MEXICO.
hundred feet in height. I know of no finer exhibition of these marls in
their thickness, or their architectural style of weathering. On the
north side of the creek, the granites project up through the marls.
The mountains near the source of the Bio Trampas are very lofty,
with some high peaks which are rounded with dome-like tops, one of
which is called "Old Baldy " from its bare summit. Where the foot hills are
denuded of the drift or the marl, the red granites are exposed. Along the
base of the mountains, especially in the valley of the Penasco there is a
great thickness of very coarse conglomerate resting upon the granite
horizontally. It undoubtedly is of the same age as the marl beds. In
the valley of the Penasco there is a vast quantity of worn boulders, scat-
tered everywhere, similar to the valley of Boulder Creek in Colorado.
These worn rocks are of large size next to the mountain, but diminish
the further they recede to the westward.
The valley of the Eio Grande is already settled by Mexicans wherever
there is an available spot. Nearly all the land that can be irrigated is
cultivated by them, and good crops are raised even with their rude style
of cultivation.
CHAPTEE VIII.
FROM TAOS TO FORT GARLAND.
The valley in which Taos is situated may be said to be formed by a
notch or bend in the mountain range. On the southwest is the Pickaris
Eange, with a strike nearly northeast and southwest. The next range
east of this 'trends about north and south, and branching off from this,
north of the Taos Valley, are the Pueblo Mountains, Dos Mountains, and
the Eio Colorado Mountains, all with a strike nearly northwest and
southeast. The course of the Eio Grande is nearly south, and on each
side of Taos the small ranges of mountains run out near the river. The
notch or bow in this group of mountain ranges affords a fine illustration
of the method of flexure in the mountain ranges.
The Taos Valley is about eighteen miles in extent, from east to west,
and about sixteen miles from north to south. It is thickly settled by
Mexicans, and every available spot of ground is taken up.
The valley proper is scooped out of the Santa Fe marls, which must
at one time have prevailed extensively, as in the country north of Santa
Fe,but the surface has been smoothed off, so that nowhere are the marls
conspicuous ; still they can be seen all along the base of the mountains
bordering the valley where portions of the recent deposits lie high on
the mountain side. No sedimentary rocks of older date are seen, and
the Santa Fe marls rest directly on the inetainorphic rocks.
It is plain that the regular metainorphic rocks prevail in these mountain
ranges, but mingling with them in various localites are igneous out-
bursts, which have somewhat tinged the gueissoid rocks. A little south
of Taos Eiver we find beds of beautiful porphyritic breccia, which is
very compact, and is employed for building purposes. Westward,
toward tho Eio Grande, it is probable that the broad level plain is
underlaid with a sheet of basalt, for the Eio Grande itself runs through
a very deep caiion of this material for sixty-five miles, from La Joya to
the crossing of the road to Conijos in the San Luis Park. In all this
distance there is but one crossing for teams, and three others for persons
on foot, and there the passage is made with great difficulty. -Far dis-
SURVEY OF COLORADO AND NEW MEXICO. 71
tant, to the west of the Eio Grande, are numerous isolated mountains
showing the igneous protrusions.
Taos Valley, therefore, forms 'a sort of half circle, and the mountains
which surround it, of which there appear to be ten or twelve distinct
ranges, are expansions of the main range. It is near this expansion
that the Moreno mines are situated, which have already proved unusu-
ally rich, and will probably continue to yield large returns of gold for
many years to come.
On the sides of the mountains immediately opposite the Morena Val-
ley, north of Taos, are located the mines of the Arroyo Hondo Mining and
Ditching Company, of which Mr. Lucian Stewart, of Taos, is the superin-
tendent. Mr. Stewart has already erected a twenty-stamp mill on the
San Antonio Creek, and the supply of water is so great that if the mines
turn out to be rich in gold, the enterprise will prove a complete success.
About twenty lodes have been prospected with more or less encour-
agement, and some of them look well. In most instances the country
rock has a greenish ashen tinge, doubtless due to the influence of heat
from the igneous rocks. The lodes are not very well denned ; one lode
has a strike a little west of north. It contains carbonate of copper, sul-
phurets of copper and iron. It was first prospected for silver, but turned
out to be richer in gold. The cleavage walls are lined with sulphate of
lime. The gangue rock is mostly feldspar and quartz highly ferruginous.
The main lode of the company is situated about half way up the soutk
side of the mountain. Dip of vein, thirty-five degrees, strike nearly
east and west, inclining about south. The country rock is mostly
quartz, quite hard, while the seam, which is pretty well defined, is rotten
quartz. It is eight to twelve inches wide, and is called the " pay streak,"
although the neighboring rock pays well. There may be a very wide crev-
ice here of which the walls have not been discovered. The cleavage lines
are well shown, and are of two kinds, one set dipping south thirty-five
degrees parallel with the ore streak, and the other inclining north twenty
degrees. The principal lines of cleavage contain the rich ore. The
dip of the country rock is plainly south or southeast at a very high
angle. A tunnel has been excavated into the side of the mountain five
feet in diameter, and one hundred and eighty feet deep, two hundred
feet below discovery point.
All along the sides of the mountains are quite thick deposits of recent
material, as clays, sands, and marls, and at one locality, while digging a
ditch, Mr. Stewart discovered a thick bed of aluminous clay which con-
tained much gold, but it was found to be so difficult to extract it that
the placer was abandoned. The sides of the mountains everywhere are
covered with "diggings," where the Mexicans in former times washed
the loose drift with water, obtained by melting the snows.
These mountains are composed largely of gray granite, and the reddish
feldspar is not much seen. Each one of these ranges seems to afford a
good example of an anticlinal axis, the sides being shown by the shape of
their slopes, which are very seldom symmetrical, one side of the anti-
clinal being much more prominent than the other.
From Taos to Eio Colorado the foot-hills of the mountains are covered
with pirionj with a few larger pines which would make excellent timber.
Indeed, I am inclined to the opinion that the basaltic mesas are the
natural habitats of the pirion, which is a low scrubby tree, fit only for
fuel, while the larger species of pine and spruce are found growing on
the metaniorphic rocks.
As we approach the Eio Colorado the outbursts of basaltic material
increase. The Eio Grande and its branches, before they join the larger
72 SURVEY OF COLORADO AND NEW MEXICO.
%
stream, show vast canons with nearly perpendicular sides, and the pecu-
liar dark somber color of the rocks adds to the gloomy picturesqueness
of the scenery. On each side of the valleys of the little streams as they
issue from the mountains are high terraces one hundred to one hundred
and fifty feet high, which are here more conspicuous than usual. These
are composed of the Santa Fe marls and are not unfrequently covered
with a thjck bed of basalt.
The broad intermediate space between the range of mountains which
form the east side of the valley of the Eio Grande and the Sierra Madre
a main range of the Rocky Mountains, which gives origin to the waters
of the Pacific streams is covered with rounded hills, detached ranges,
&c., all of which are basaltic. The two rounded hills, which are very
marked, situated nearly opposite each other on different sides of the Bio
Grande, Cerro de las Utas and Cerro San Antonio, are, it seems to me,
old craters or fissures, out of which issued the melted material which
overflowed the sides, and time has weathered the whole mass into its
present beautiful rounded form. At this time they look like gigantic
mammae.
I am inclined to regard the valley of the Eio Grande as one great
crater, including within its rim a vast number of smaller craters and
dikes, out of which has been poured at some time a continuous sheet or
mass of melted material. All the valleys, small and great, give evidence
that they have been worn out of this vast mesa. The Eio Grande, from its
source in the San Juan Mountains to Albuquerque, flows along its banks
through basaltic rocks to a greater or less extent, and as we go north-
ward from it they disappear in part.
By glancing at a map it will be seen at once that the valley of the Eio
Grande belongs to the eastern side or Atlantic slope of the " great divide,"
and that the ranges of mountains, on the east side of the valley of the
Eio Grande, which run out into the plains near Santa Fe, are a series
of fragments which seem to have broken off from the main rocky range
north of the South Park, and are prolonged southward in a more or less
broken condition for over four hundred miles. It will also be seen from
the map that the parting line or divide flexes over to the west, with a
great bend above Middle and South Parks. Now between the base
of this mountain prolongation on the east, and the Sierra Madre or
western divide on the west, from the head of the San Luis Valley to
Gallisteo Creek, at least, an area of over two hundred miles from north to
south, and one hundred to one hundred and fifty miles from east to west, is
occupied mostly by but two classes of rocks, the basaltic and the mod-
ern tertiary or Santa Fe marls. These recent marls are very conspicuous
about Santa Fe and north of that point to the Pickaris Mountains, but
north of that point they are not largely developed, though at one time
they must have reached a great thickness, but have been removed by
erosion. The valley of the Eio Grande, from Santa Fe to Taos, has the
appearance of an immature region, much like that of the " Bad Lands,"
or the tertiary deposits of White and Mobrara rivers on the Missouri.
But above and north of Taos the wearing and smoothing process has been
applied so that there is a mature appearance of the country, like that of
Eastern Nebraska or Kansas. Still all along the foot of the mountains
below Costilla, underneath the mesa which extends from below Costilla
to the Sierra Blanca Eange, fifty miles, these marls can be seen in places.
At Culebra, the Eio Culebra cuts through the mesa, forming a sort of
gorge nearly half a mile in width. On the sides of the mesa these marls
are most clearly seen underneath a heavy bed of basalt. Along the little
branches of the EioTrenchara, as the Eio de las Utas and the Sangre de
SURVEY OF COLORADO AND NEW MEXICO. 73
Christo and on the south side of the Sierra Blanca Range, are prominent
terrace-like hills which are composed of yellowish-brown marls and sands.
On the south side of the Sierra Blanca, they jut up high and close on the
mountain slope. These marls are only remnants of large deposits which
once existed here, and spread out uniformly all over the valley.
That there are mines of gold and other precious metals, as well as iron
and copper, in the mountains, along the eastern side of the San Luis
Valley, has long been known. Specimens of copper, indicating mines
of considerable richness, have been brought from the sources of the Cos-
tilla and iron ores are scattered all over the valley of the Rio de las Uta s. In
the foot-hills of the mountains are fragments of magnetic iron ore, much
like that in the valley of the Chugwater Creek. Stray masses have been
traced up the mountain sides for about five miles, where a "blow-out" or
an immense mountain mass has been discovered. This iron occurs in the
gneissoid rocks, or what is called the Laurentian group, to which group,
I believe, all the gneissic and perhaps the entire mass of metamorphic
rocks of the Rocky Mountain system belong. I have assumed the posi-
tion, in all my investigations, that there are but two classes of changed
rocks in the West, viz, igneous and metamorphic, and that the oldest
granites which form the nuclei of the loftiest mountain ranges were once
aqueous rocks, deposited in the same manner as the limestones or sand-
stones of our most modern formations. It is on this ground that I have
so often used the terms " changed" and " unchanged" rocks. By igneous
rocks, I always mean those only that I regard as having once been in a
fluid state, and may or may not have been protruded so as to reach the
surface. I also assume that these igneous rocks in the West may have
been thrust up at different geological periods, or at different times during
the same epoch.
The gold mines near the Sangre de Christo Pass are the most import-
ant that have been discovered in the San Luis Valley. From some
notes kindly furnished me by Dr. McClellan, United States Army, sur-
geon of the post at Fort Garland, the history of these mines appears to
be as follows:
During the gold excitement in the San Juan Mountains, west of the
Rio Grande del Norte, in 1862, a large number of miners, or, as they
were called in those days, "pilgrims," crossed the Sangre de Christo
Pass, and camped for rest after a long journey from Idaho, Montana, and
Northern Colorado, on Placiere Creek, one of the main tributaries of
the Rio del Sangre de Christo. Learning from some passing Mexicans,
that in the olden time their people were accustomed to pack dirt from
some of the canons of the mountains to the Placiere Creek, to wash out
the gold, they went to work and prospected the gulch of the Grayback
Creek. The San Juan excitement was, however, so strong that they
started to continue their journey the winter of the same year, many of
whom returned in a starving condition, and went to work in this gulch
with good results.
In 1865 and 1866, Kit Carson with a party x>rospected this region for
placer diggings, and took up many valuable claims. The gold taken
put by sluicing is very valuable and of a pure yellow color, and is what
is called "wire and scale" gold. It usually sells for about $19 per ounce
in gold, much more than the Morena gold or any other in this country.
A valuable lode with a well-defined crevice has been uncovered, but
little or no work has been done on it. In the mountains at the sources
of the Rio Seco, on the west side of Culebra Peak, some lodes have been
found which appear favorable. Most of the foot-hills are covered with
beds of yellow marl inclining slightly. These foot-hills seem to be
74 SURVEY OF COLORADO AND NEW MEXICO.
smoothed off and are covered with a thick deposit of debris. In the
little valleys of the mountains the gneissic rocks are exposed, and about
twenty lodes have been examined to some extent ; the crevice matter on
the surface is entirely rotten quartz. These lodes have in most cases
well-defined walls, varying from three to six feet in width, and a strike
about northeast and southwest. Should these mines turn out to be rich
in gold, the ease with which they can be worked will render them very
celebrated.
From a point not more than twenty miles north of Santa Fe, to the
Sangre de Christo Pass, I was unable to discover any of the older sedi-
mentary beds on the western side of the mountains. Sometimes among
the drift boulders, which were very extensive everywhere, a few masses
of limestone would be found which were evidently carboniferous. In
Taos Valley slightly worn masses of limestone were found, with well-
defined carboniferous fossils. This would seeni to indicate that these
rocks once existed all along the mountains, even if they cannot be found
at this time. I have no doubt that all the sedimentary formations which
are found on the eastern margins of the mountains once extended unin-
terruptedly across the Eio Grande Valley, and some portions may now
exist deep beneath the basalt and Santa Fe marls.
Near the Eio Colorado, the lower ridges or foot-hills of the mountains
exhibit the influence of the igneous rocks to a greater extent than south-
ward, and continue to do so to the Sierra Blanca. Near the point from
which the Eio Colorado emerges from the mountains, the rocks are a
bright brick-red over a small area, and I mistook them for remnants of
the triassic. A closer examination showed me that high up on the sides
of the mountains a great thickness of the recent marls, sands, and clays,
have been so changed by contact with the igneous rocks, that they now
present that peculiar brick-red and variegated appearance which is
noticed for several miles.
At Costilla the main range seems to bend abruptly to the eastward,
and a portion of the lower ridges on the western sides of the mountains
south of Costilla passes off without interruption in a long basaltic mesa,
which extends nearly to Fort Garland. East of this mesa are the " ve-
gas" or meadows, which have been carved out of the mesa between it
and the foot of the mountains and form a portion of the valleys of the
Costilla and Culebra Elvers. North of Culebra the basaltic mesas com-
mence again close to the base of the mountains, and continue quite
largely developed up to the Sierra Blanca Eange. These mesas are
capped with a heavy bed of basalt, which always seems to incline eastward
toward the mountains at least from three to five degrees, and some-
times much more.
On the east side, close to the Eio Grande, near the entrances of the
Trenchera and Culebra Elvers, are a great number of ridges and coni-
cal peaks or hills, called u Cerillos," all of them basaltic. On the oppo-
site side of the Eio Grande these basaltic hills are very abundant, and
occupy most of the country. Just north of the Trenchera this range of
mountains seems to bend abruptly back to the westward in the form of
the Sierra Blanca Mountains, which have a trend nearly east and west.
There is therefore a quadrangular space inclosed on three sides by
mountains the Costilla on the south side, about fifteen or twenty miles ;
the principal range on the east, about sixty miles, and the Sierra Blanca
on the north, about fifteen or twenty miles. The main range continues
northward, bending slightly westward, until it joins the Sierra Madre at
the Poncho Pass. The Sierra Blanca is the grandest and most pictur-
esque range in Southern Colorado. It is apparently basaltic and is, as I
suppose, a gigantic dike. I regard the Spanish Peaks as an enormous
SURVEY OF COLORADO AND NEW MEXICO. 75
dike. In nearly all cases the strike of the axes of these dikes is nearly
northeast and southwest, while for the most part the axes of the granitic
ranges trend about northwest and southeast. It is my opinion also
that the elevation of the basaltic range was an event subsequent to
that of the granitic, for in all cases that I have ever examined the igne-
ous rocks are poured out over the granites, and in some cases conceal-
ing them entirely over large areas. Many of the loftiest peaks in the
granitic ranges are basaltic. The basaltic axis never passes through
the granitic, as is shown by the Spanish peaks on the east, and the
Sierra Blanca on the west. Each one stops abruptly as it comes up
against the principal granitic axis.
As I have before observed, no unchanged sedimentary rocks of older
date than the Santa Fe marls were noticed along the western side of
the main range north of Taos, until we come to the Sangre de Christo
Pass. About the sources of the Costilla or Culebra Rivers there may be
some remnants, but none have been seen after a pretty close examina-
tion. At the very summit of the pass is a series of reddish sandstones
and shales nearly vertical but inclining westward. From the summit of
the pass we descend the beautiful valley of the Sangre de Christo
Creek in a south westerly direction. The sandstone extends for four or five
miles, and is of every variety of texture, from a very fine compact sili-
cious rock to a moderately coarse pudding-stone. In some of these
sandstones are indistinct vegetable impressions, some of which can be
recognized as fragments of Catamites. Further down we come to a series
of limestones and sandstones, with some calcareous sandstones, having
thin beds or partings- of shale. These alternate limestones and sand-
stones extend for about five miles, and then comes a belt of five miles
of gueissoid granites. Near the junction of the limestones with the
granites there is a bed of limestone filled with fossils, Productus, several
species, Spirifer subtilita, Rhynconella roclcymontana, Spirifer tineatus, and
numerous corals and crinoidat stems. Although it is possible that there
are here rocks of older date than carboniferous, yet from the fact that
all along the eastern side of the mountains the carboniferous limestones
have been found resting upon the granites, I have inferred that there
are no sedimentary rocks of older date in this region. At first the Sangre
de Christo Creek passes through a inonoclinal rift for nearly ten miles,
then it cuts through ridges of limestone, bed after bed. The real dip of
all these beds is northeast while the apparent dip is southwest, as if
the granites were more modern than the limestones which are above them.
The belt of granites is about five miles wide, and thence to Fort Garland,
which is ten miles, are igneous rocks. Eight miles east of Fort Garland
are some high ridges of basalt that dip east about eight degrees, and
have a trend north and south, and from the abrupt western face from
four to six distinct beds of igneous rocks can be seen. The cause of
the inclination of the basaltic beds is not clear, though it may have
originated in the Sierra Blanca. We were much indebted for many
favors and information to Dr. E. McClelland, surgeon, and to Colonel
Hart, commander of Fort Garland.
CHAPTER IX.
FROM FORT GARLAND TO SOUTH PARK.
The Rio Grande del Korte River rises in the Park of the Aniinas, flows
east about one hundred and fifty miles to the San Luis Valley, then bends
abruptly south through the middle of the San Luis Valley. The north-
76 SURVEY OF COLORADO AND NEW MEXICO.
ern portion of the valley is called the San Luis Park proper. This
northern portion, above the bow of the Eio Grande, is about sixty miles
in length, and has an average width of fifteen to twenty miles. About
the center of this park is a singular depression, about ten miles wide
and thirty miles long ; it looks like one vast thicket of " grease wood,"
Sarcobatusvermicularisj and other chenopiaceous shrubs. Into it flow some
twelve or fifteen good sized streams, and yet there is no known outlet,
neither is there any large body of water visible. It seems to be one vast
swamp or bog, with a few small lakes, one of which is said to be three
miles in length. Although entirely disconnected from any other water
system the little streams are full of trout.
On the south side of the Sierra Blanca the foot-hills are composed of
the light-colored marls, and on the west side of the mountain, and near
Mosca Pass, are the sand hills, which are composed of the loose materials
of this formation.
Here also is another conspicuous remnant of it left after erosion. On
the west side, just below Sawatch Creek, and in the Eincon, are
some rather high hills of this marl at the base of the mountains. The
materials thrown out of the excavations of prairie dogs show that the
valley is entirely underlaid with it. I am convinced therefore that this
fresh-water deposit occupied the whole of this valley from Poncho
Pass to the mouth of Gallisteo Creek, and how much further southward
I cannot tell, but there is evidence that it extends, either continuously
or with interruptions, through New Mexico, and even further.
From Fort Garland to the Poncho Pass no sedimentary rocks of older
date than the marls are seen along the margins of the mountains on
either side until we reach Kerber's ranche, at out ten miles below the
summit of the pass. On the west side of the valley, on the foot-hills,
is a large thickness of carboniferous limestones, lifted high on the summits,
and dipping east at an angle of fifty degrees. This limestone continues
only a few miles, and is another of the remnants that are left of the sedi-
mentary rocks among the mountains.
Commencing at Fort Garland, the range of mountains that wall in the
San Luis Park on the east side is grand in its proportions. From the
Sierra Blanca nearly to the Poncho Pass it appears to be purely eruptive,
and to be composed of a series of ranges or axes trending nearly northeast
and southwest. At the northern end the eruptive portion ceases, and
the lower metamorphic mountains flex around so as to trend northwest
and southeast. On the west side, the mountains are far less lofty, but
they seem to form a nucleus of metamorphic rocks, with a vast number of
dikes, from which the basalt has poured over nearly the entire region.
All the foot-hills south of the Sawatch are composed of eruptive rocks,
but north of that point the gneissic rocks are seen. This range of moun-
tains seems to be made up of a number of smaller ranges, with a general
trend northwest and southeast. It would seem that where a range of
mountains is purely eruptive the minor ranges trend northeast and south-
west, but that where there is a metamorphic nucleus the eruptive mate-
rials follow the strike of the minor ranges.
At the summit of the pass the hills are grass-covered and the road
excellent, but the nucleus of the mountains on the east side is meta-
morphic, with dikes of eruptive rocks everywhere. The little stream, the
valley of which we descend, flows through a rnonoclinal rift or interval
between the ridges of metamorphic rocks.
About two miles from the summit this little branch is joined by the
main fork, and the whole continues to flow through a monoclinal valley
until it empties into the South Arkansas. The main Poncho Creek rises
SURVEY OF COLORADO AND NEW MEXICO. 77
in one of the loftiest peaks in Colorado. This peak lias a large depres-
sion on the east side, which may once have formed a portion of the crater.
At the junction of the forks commences one of the most remarkable
examples of what appear to be igneous rocks I have ever seen in the
West. On the east side of the creek we have the steep slopes, and on
the west the projecting edges. We have here eight hundred to one
thousand feet of eruptive rocks with a somber hue, but with a stratifi-
cation as perfect as in any sedimentary rocks. It is composed of layers
never over one to four inches in thickness, inclining south of west forty-
five degrees. Some of the layers would make good flagging stones.
A little further down we come to the gneissic rocks, inclining north-
west fifty to sixty degrees. Some of the black-banded gneiss has zig-
zag seams of feldspar and quartz running through them.
About three miles before reaching the Arkansas there is a curious junc-
tion of the massive red feldspathic granites, inclining northeast seventy
degrees, with the dark-banded gneiss, inclining northwest twenty-five
degrees. At the point of synclinal junction all is confusion ; the two
kinds of rocks are crushed together, and yet there is no break in the
mountain. As we emerge from the pass to the South Arkansas we have
the finest exhibition of banded gneiss I have seen in the West. The
rocks are of various colors, red, yellow, white, and black, and the layers
are quite thin, and their appearance is very picturesque. The general
course of the Poncho Creek, from its source in the snow peak to the
Arkansas, is north.
The gneiss is very varied in its texture ; some of it contains garnets ;
some of it is very close feldspathic, micaceous, or whitish quartzose.
On the east side of Poncho Creek, about one hundred and fifty
feet above the Arkansas, on the side of the mountain, is a hot spring
surrounded with a large tufaceous deposit. There is also near the foot
of the pass, on the side of the mountain, an extensive deposit of the
yellowish marl, filled with water- worn boulders.
Between the South and North Arkansas there are some remarkable
terraces or benches extending the whole breadth of the valley from moun-
tain to mountain. On the north side of the South Arkansas are three
terraces, beside the rounded hills near the base of the mountains, which
rise in succession like steps.
The high eruptive range which seems to cross the South Arkansas,
and to pass up along the west side of the North Arkansas, appears to be
composed of a series of enormous dikes in a chain merging into each
other, and having a strike about northeast and southwest. The general
trend of the aggregate is about north and south.
On the west side of the Arkansas Valley the recent tertiary beds run
up to and overlap the margins of the mountains. They are composed
mostly of fine sands, arenaceous clays, and pudding-stones, cream-col-
ored arenaceous clays, and rusty yellow marls, fine sand predominating.
These beds weather into peculiaV architectural forms, somewhat like the
" Bad Lands" of Dakota. Indeed they are very nearly the same as the
Santa Fe marls, and were doubtless cotemporaneous, and dip at the
same angle, three to five degrees, a little west of north. The tops of
the hills have all been planed down as if smoothed with a roller. I have
called this group the Arkansas marls. They occupy the entire valley of
the Arkansas. This valley is about forty miles in length, and on an
average about five to ten miles in width. It might properly be called a
park, for it is completely surrounded by mountains. On the west side
is one of the grandest ranges of eruptive mountains on the continent.
On the east side is also a lofty range with a metamorphic nucleus, but
78 SURVEY OF COLORADO AND NEW MEXICO.
intersected everywhere with basaltic dikes. The first and lowest range
runs parallel with it, and is sometimes cut through by it. It seems to
be composed of massive feldspathic granite of igneous origin.
Near the mill, on a little branch just below the mouth of Trout Creek,
there is a high rounded peak with a crater-formed depression at the
summit which is grassed over, while all around the rim there is a fringe
of pines. I am inclined to think it is an old volcano.
At the point where Chalk Creek emerges from the eruptive range, the
sides of the canon present a singular white chalky appearance. This
seems to be due to the decomposition of the eruptive rocks, which ap-
pear to be true dolerite.
The drift evidences in this valley are very conspicuous. All along
the Arkansas and in the valleys of the little branches are very thick
beds of water- worn boulders of all sizes. The last of the eroding forces
seems to have come from the range of mountains on the west side.
The granite on the east side of the river possesses, in a wonderful de-
gree, the tendency to disintegrate by exfoliation. There is a kind of
bedding which breaks the exfoliation or confines it. In these massive
granites there are two sorts of cleavage besides the lines of bedding; one
of these is usually vertical and has a strike northeast and southwest,
and the other southeast and northwest, inclining twenty to forty degrees.
On the summit of the mountains is a series of beds, one above the
other, of what appears to be basalt, and these beds with the granites
beneath them incline each way from Trout Creek Valley northeast and
southwest, forming what appears to be an anticlinal.
As we ascend Trout Creek Pass, we find granites of all textures from
very fine compact feldspathic to a coarse aggregate of crystals. There
arc also many intrusions of trap. All the rocks seem to weather in
the same way, by exfoliation, as if it were the desire of nature to round
off all sharp points or corners. I think it may be said that Trout Creek
Valley is a true anticlinal.
Some time before reaching the top of the pass, we find on the sides of
the valley low foot-hills of carboniferous limestone, remnants of a once
continuous bed. As we emerge into a little park, just before reaching
South Park, we pass through a sort of canon, with walls of carbon-
iferous limestone on each side, inclining -northeast at an angle of
eighteen to twenty degrees. This limestone rests directly upon the
massive granite, and the bedding of the granite inclines in the same di-
rection and at the same angle. The limestones are from three hundred
to four hundred feet in thickness. There is one bed, about thirty feet
thick, of rusty quartzose sandstone about the middle of the limestone.
The lower beds are very hard, bluish, and cherty; but the upper ones
are yellow, purer, and contain imperfect fragments of fossils.
There are here also several examples of the outbursts of basalt, assum-
ing very marked castellated forms.
As we pass into this small park, which is about five or six miles long
and two wide, we have on the north side of the road a bed of very thinly
laminated black shale, passing up into a great thickness of laminated
sandstones, all inclining northeast fifteen degrees, and on the summits of
the mountains, four hundred to six hundred feet directly above, are beds
of limestone and quartzite inclining in the same direction. The black
shales have been prospected for coal. Toward the upper end of this
little park is a series of beds, some of them with a reddish tinge,
composed of alternate thin beds of shale, sandstone, pudding-stone, and
arenaceous limestones, which belong underneath the black shales before
mentioned.
SURVEY OF COLORADO AND NEW MEXICO. 79
It seems to me that these beds are Jurassic, or much newer than the
carboniferous, but in the upheaval have fallen clown below the carbon-
iferous limestones, which have been lifted far up in the ridge beyond.
As we ascend the ridge which forms the southwestern rim of the South
Park, we meet with what appears to be the same black shales and sand-
stones on the summit, which we saw some hundreds of feet lower in the
small park.
The South Park is completely surrounded with gigantic ranges of
mountains, and inside of them the sedimentary rocks, when exposed,
seem to dip toward the center of the park. Indeed, I should regard the
South Park as one immense quaquaversal.
Around the salt works is a group of laminated sandstones, mostly
brown and gray, overlaid by a great thickness of light gray gypsiferous
marl with a bed of crystallized gypsum four feet thick. The valley in
which the salt springs are located is covered with an efflorescence of
what is usually called in this country "alkali." On the east side of the
creek which runs past the salt works is a high isolated balsatic butte.
About a fourth of a mile east there is a hill composed of the gypsiferous
marls, on the surface of which are numerous deposits of calcareous tufa,
as if a number of springs had issued from it in former times.
These salt works are quite extensive and costly. The springs are two in
number, but the brine is not abundant or strong. Salt has been manu-
factured here in considerable quantities, and a large portion of Colorado
has been supplied with it. These springs are very interesting in a geo-
logical point of view, though their origin is somewhat obscure to me,
yet I believe they belong to the triassic or saliferous sandstones.
About four miles north of the salt works is a high ridge, inclining
northwest twenty degrees, composed of a series of variegated sandstones
and shales three hundred to four hundred feet thick. These are, with-
out doubt, the group which 1 have usually called triassic, or red beds.
Still further north we find them inclining southeast, with several thin
beds of blue, very hard, cherty limestone, which is characteristic of the
red beds. Near Fairplay the brick-red beds are well shown. It seems,
therefore, certain that the principal sedimentary rocks which are found
in the South Park are triassic.
About ten miles south of Fairplay several thin beds of blue, close, brit-
tle limestone appear, intercalated among the red sandstones, dipping a
little east of south, forming a sort of synclinal 5 that is, the dip is nearly
opposite that of the beds near the salt works. These limestones, with
the red sandstones, may possibly be of permian age. No fossils could
be detected in them. The sandstone is in some cases micaceous, or
composed of mica and small crystals of quartz ; in others, a fine aggregate
of worn pebbles, a sort of fine pudding-stone. These variegated or red
beds continue close up to the eruptive ranges for five miles. North arid
west from Fairplay we come to a high ridge of sandstone with a reddish
tinge and slightly calcareous, the dip being north of east, or nearly east,
and the ridge forming a marked' line running nearly north or south
through the middle of the park, from the mountains nearly to the salt
works. Just east of this ridge is another ridge of quartzose sandstone or
cretaceous. Then comes a very large thickness of the laminated creta-
ceous clays, covering the country for about fifteen miles. Near McLaugh-
lin's, twelve miles northeast of Fairplay, the lignite tertiary sandstones
and clays overlie the cretaceous and jut up against the mountain side.
About a mile north of the ranch Mr. McLaughlin has opened a coal mine.
He sunk a shaft eighteen or twenty feet through a bed six to ten feet of
very impure coalj some portions of it can be used for fuel. The dip of the
80 SURVEY OF COLORADO AND NEW MEXICO.
coal bed is forty-five degrees northeast from the base of the mountains,
which are not more than a quarter of a mile distant. Mr. McLaughlin in-
formed me that he had found "oak leaves" in the shale above the coal.
These beds occupy the entire north end of the park, and no older rocks are
seen between them and the eruptive foot-hills of the mountains. It seems,
therefore, that the source of the elevating forces that upheaved these
sedimentary formations was in the range of mountains that form the
western rim of the park, and, so far as I could ascertain, there are no
true ridges of upheaval on the eastern side. Exposures of eruptive
rocks are seen everywhere all over the park.
There are several localities where these rocks are thrust up through the
cretaceous and tertiary beds, and in the middle and southern portions of
the park are quite lofty isolated buttes and mountains of eruptive rocks.
But one of the most conspicuous formations and greatest in extent
and importance is the boulder drift. Tbis seems to be mostly confined
to the northern and northwestern portions of the park where the princi-
pal placer diggings occur. In the valley of the South Platte, especially
near Fairplay, there is a prodigious exhibition of the boulder formation.
The rocks are well rounded by attrition, and apparently have been swept
down from the mountains. Wherever the drift occurs, there are long
table lands or terraces, especially in the vicinity of the little streams, and
they seem to be planed down with such wonderful smoothness that it must
have been done by the combined action of water and ice.
Along the west and north sides of the park are a large number of lofty
eruptive peaks, which seem to me old volcanic cones. One of the peaks in
the range west of Fairplay seems to have a crater-like summit, the rim
broken down on the east side. All around the inside of the remainder of
the rim the layers of basalt appear like strata, inclining from the opening
in every direction as if the melted material had been poured out and had
flowed over the sides in regular -strata. There are also tremendous
furrows down the sides of others. In the mountains n6rth of the park
are huge depressions in these volcanic ranges, the sides of which
are quite red, as if they had been in active operation at a comparatively
modern period. I am, therefore, inclined to believe that the magnificent
range of mountains on the west side of the Arkansas Eiver, extending
far northward, is one series of old volcanic cones. As we leave the
plains and ascend the mountains at the northeast side of the park, we
pass immediately from the older tertiary beds, covered thickly with drift,
to the metainorphic rocks mingled with outbursts of eruptive rock. To-
ward the summit there was a great series of gneissic beds of all varieties
and textures. All these mountains east of the park have a gneissic and
granitic nucleus. As we descend the valley of a small branch of the
Korth Fork of the South Platte from the Kenosha House, we pass down
a monoclinal rift. On the west side is the slope covered with a thick
growth of pine and spruce, while on the left side are the projecting edges
of the massive red feldspathic granites with two sets of cleavage lines;
the vertical with a strike northeast arid southwest, and the other inclin-
ing at an angle of thirty degrees j the strike, southeast and northwest ;
while the bedding inclines with the hills. The bedding is so regular
and massive that it looks like massive sandstone stratification. The
Platte, with all its little branches, flows through these rifts or intervals
between the ridges ; one side of the stream, a plain gradual slope ; the
other, extremely abrupt, with the rugged ends of the gneissic or granitic
rocks projecting out in a most remarkable manner. After passing
along massive granite walls about five miles, we go through four or five
miles of singularly banded gneiss, and then massive granite again of
SURVEY OF COLORADO AND NEW MEXICO. 81
every degree of texture, from a fine, close feldspathic rock with no mica,
to a coarse aggregate of quartz and feldspar and fine particles of mica.
One of the interesting features of these mountains is the fact that all
the little streams find their way through these monoclinal valleys. We
see also the main axis of the range, composed of massive granite with a
distinct bedding, which is sometimes inclined and sometimes horizontal
with the banded gneiss inclining from each side. It seems quite clear
that each one of these great ranges of mountains is a grand anticlinal
with a massive granite axis, with the gneissic granites inclining from each
side in the form of ridges, among which the various streams find their way.
The trend of these ranges is in the most cases northwest and southeast,
or nearly so. Some of the gneissic rocks in the Platte Valley look like
laminated sandstone with a regular dip eighteen to thirty degrees*
The tops of the highest ranges are, in some cases, covered very thickly
with loose fragments of rocks.
Passing down from the junction to Denver we have some of the finest
examples of jointage structure in the gneissic rocks that I have ever
seen ; there are two lines of fracture one with a direction northeast and
southwest, the other northwest and southeast, with the lines of bed-
ding making a fine study for the geologist. Some of the beds are thus
broken into nearly square blocks, and others in diamond-shaped masses.
On reaching the base of the mountains the usual ridges of sediment-
ary rocks are passed over red beds, Jurassic, cretaceous, and tertiary.
The tertiary beds commence within a mile of the foot of the mountains,
soon becoming horizontal in their position, and before reaching Denver
they are scarcely seen on account of the superficial deposit of drift and
alluvial which covers them.
CHAPTER X.
TRIP TO MIDDLE PARK.
Our route to the Middle Park was v through the Berthoud Pass, from
the valley of Clear Creek. The range of mountains in which the pass
is located is composed of gneissic rocks as are all the ranges in the
mining districts. The ascent was very steep on the south side, up to the
region of perpetual snow; but the descent on the north side is quite
gradual.
Great quantities of loose materials from the basis rocks are scattered
thickly over the summits, of every variety of the metamorphic class.
Most of the peaks are well rounded, and covered with soil and vegeta-
tion. Grass and flowers grow far up above the limits of arborescent
vegetation. As we ascend, the pines, spruces, and cedars dwindle down
in size until they become recumbent and trail on the ground. Some of
the highest peaks are very sharp and covered with loose rocks, as if only
the usual atmospheric influences had ever affected them. Their sides
are often massive escarpments of rocks down which an infinite quantity
of fragments have fallen, making a vast amount of debris at the base.
Of course their rocky sides are entirely free from vegetation, and the
oxide of iron gives them a rusty reddish appearance. One mountain at
the head of Clear Creek is called Bed Mountain, from the fact that the
rocks have a bright red color in the distance. The evidences of the out-
pouring of igneous rocks in this mountain are very marked; indeed, it
may be called an eruptive range.
82 SURVEY OF COLORADO AND NEW MEXICO.
From the summit of Berthoud's Pass, at a height of eleven thousand
eight hundred and sixteen feet, we can look northward along the line of
the main range, which gradually flexes around to the northwest, while
the little streams seem to flow through the rifts. The general appear-
ance of the western slope of this great range would indicate that it is a
huge anticlinal composed of a series of ranges on each side of a common
axis, and then smaller ranges ascend like steps to the central axis. The
western side of this ridge slopes gently, while the eastern side projects
over abruptly. This main range also forms a narrow dividing line, or
" water-divide," between the waters of the Atlantic and Pacific. I stood
where the waters of each side were only a few feet apart, and felt a real
joy in passing down the western slope of the mountain by the side of a
pure crystal stream whose waters were hastening on to the g'reat Pacific.
All down the western slope is a great thickness of superficial material,
loose sand, decomposing feldspar, with partially worn rocks of all sizes.
This is due quite evidently to local influences, ice and water wearing
down the sides of the mountains and depositing the material adhering
to the masses of ice along the slopes.
The springs of water are very numerous, and the water seems to col-
lect in the thick grass and moss-covered earth, forming large bogs. It
is also interesting to watch the growth of a stream from its source, re-
ceiving in its way the waters of myriads of springs, until it becomes a
river too formidable to ford easily. The little stream which rises in the
pass we followed to the Park, where it is fifty yards wide, and contains
an abundance of fine trout. *
The Middle Park is really made up of a number of smaller parks,
which are somewhat independent of each other. Each one may present
different geological formations. The little park on the south side, which
we first enter, is a very beautiful one. The grass is luxuriant, and the
timber excellent. None of the older sedimentary rocks were seen along
the flanks of the mountains, but a recent tertiary deposit seemed to
cover the country. On the east side of Fraser Creek there is a long,
high ridge, which is cut by the stream in several places, formed of the
white and yellow sands and marls which mark the pliocene tertiary on
the east side of the mountain. I have no doubt that it is a formation
of the same kind as that of the Arkansas marls, and cotemporaueous
with it.
Along this creek there are some massive walls of this formation, mostly
yellow marls, but some layers of sandstone. This ridge extends from
the mountains far northward, and is about two miles wide: and between
it and the immediate base of the mountains is situated a beautiful valley
of considerable width.
The Middle Park is apparently a quaquaversal, surrounded by the lofty
snowy ranges ; and the lower ranges descending like steps to the valley
which constitutes the true park. The park does not appear to be more
than from ten to twenty miles wide from east to west, and from fifty to
sixty long from north to south. In this park also the ranges of moun-
tains so surround it that the slopes seem to form a sort of quaquaversal
inclining toward a common center.
Viewed from Middle Park, Long's Peak, and the range immediately
connected with, has a rugged, saw-like edge, as if composed of eruptive
rocks, and ridge after ridge inclines from it in regular order.
About ten miles north of our camp, in the first park, we come to low
ridges of massive red feldspathic granite, and parallel with these granite
ridges are a series of sedimentary beds, commencing with the brick-red
beds. The strike is nearly north and south, and the dip west. These
SURVEY OF COLORADO AND NEW MEXICO. 83
ridges are all so grassed over that the true nature of the underlying
rocks is not easily determined. Then comes ridge after ridge until all
the beds -Jurassic and cretaceous are shown.
On this stream we have a fine system of terraces. On the north side
are three distinct terraces above the bottom, and the lowest one has a
bed of cretaceous sandstone, nearly horizontal, cropping out at its base.
This is a low one, not more than fifteen feet high; the next one is fifty
feet high, and the third, which descends from the high hills, is two hun-
dred feet. A little west of south, at the junction of Grand liiver with
Eraser Creek, five high peaks are visible, which form in that direction
a part of the main range. All around us, in every direction, we could
see the snowy peaks, and the beds which form the ridges of upheaval
inclining in every direction.
To the south of the park the older sedimentary rocks dip north in
lofty ridges, at least two thousand feet high, presenting high escarp-
ments when split by streams, and reaching almost the highest margin
of the mountains.
About ten miles above the hot springs, Grand Eiver flows through an
enormous gorge cut through a high ridge of basalt, which seems to be
an intrusive bed, for above and below, the sedimentary rocks are well
shown, but partially changed. Underneath are the cretaceous shales of
Nos. 4 and 5, and above are the lignite tertiary beds. These beds all
dip west twenty-three degrees.
These eruptive rocks are very rough, as if they had been poured out
without much pressure. Much of it is a very coarse conglomerate, the
inclosed masses appearing to be the same kind as the paste; that is, orig-
inally, of igneous origin. Some of the inclosed rocks are very compact,
close, and all were, more or less worn before being inclosed. This rock
is a true dolorite. I did not see any inclosed masses that I could call
unchanged. This basalt extends a great distance, continuing a nearly
uniform thickness, and inclining in the same direction with the cretaceous
beds below and the tertiary beds above.
On both sides of Grand' Kiver, but especially on the east and north-
east sides, extending up nearly to the foot of Long's Peak, are quite
large exposures of the recent tertiary beds. They are nearly horizontal,
and have much the appearance in color of the Fort Bridger beds, of
which Church Buttes is an example. These beds are composed, for the
most part; of fine sand and marl, but there are a few small rounded
boulders scattered through it. Below the gorge, on the north side of
Grand Kiver, these outflows of basalt have formed some well-defined
mesas ; at least three beds ascending like steps from the river. Below
the gorge the river flows through what seems to be a rift of basalt, that
is, on the north side. The basalt lies in horizontal beds, but on the south
side is the sloping side of a basaltic ridge. The dip is nearly northwest,
though the trend of this basaltic ridge is by no means regular. One
portion of it has a strike northwest and southeast, and another north
and south. The tertiary rocks reach a great thickness, and are elevated
high up on the top of the basaltic ridge, eight hundred to one thousand
feet above the river. They are mostly formed of fine sandstone and pud-
ding-stone. These fine sandstones contain some well-marked impres-
sions of deciduous leaves, among which are good specimens of Platanus
haydeni. On the north side of Grand Eiver, in some localities, the tertiary
beds are elevated so high, on many of the eruptive mountains, that they
are covered with perpetual snow. These eruptive beds are certainly
among the most remarkable examples of the overflow of igneous matter
that I have ever seen in the West.
84 SURVEY OF COLORADO AND NEW MEXICO.
At one locality I saw a remarkable intrusive layer between the red or
variegated beds Avhich are supposed to be triassic and the Jurassic. It
is a very compact, heavy syenite, and forms a ridge of upheaval, and
dips in the same direction and t the same angle with the unchanged
beds above and below.
About four miles below the first basaltic caiion on Grand Eiver,
apparently the same ridge comes close to the river again. On the north
side there is a high basaltic uplift, which shows well marked lines of
stratification, as if the melted material had been poured out in thin reg-
ular sheets or layers. The dip is about north. In many places the
entire mass is made up of a coarse conglomerate, and has the peculiar
steel color which seems to characterize modern eruptive rocks. The dip
of this basaltic ridge, at this point, is thirty-six degrees. On the oppo-
site side of the river there is an isolated portion cut off from the main
ridge, with a dip about south or southeast twenty-four degrees.
Continuing our way west down Grand Eiver we pass over a series of
upturned ridges of sedimentary rocks, inclining in the same direction
with the basaltic ridge trending parallel with it, composed of cre-
taceous and older tertiary beds. Looking eastward from the Grand
Canon, below the hot springs, this remarkable basaltic ridge seems to
form a semi-circle with a general dip about north.
Immediately below the hot springs the Grand Canon commences,
and the river cuts its way through an upheaved ridge of massive
feldspathic granite for three miles between walls from one thousand to
one thousand five hundred feet high. The south side is somewhat sloping
and covered thickly with pines, while the north side is extremely rugged,
the immense projecting masses of granite forbidding any vegetation to
gain a foothold. It would seem that the river had Worn its way through
a sort of rift in the granite, but at the upper end it has cut through the
uplifted sedimentary ridges nearly at right angles. In some places the
north side is gashed out in a wonderfully picturesque manner, so that
isolated columns and peaks are left standing, while all the intermediate
portions have been worn away. This granite ridge will average perhaps
five miles in width, and extends an unknown distance across the park
northeast and southwest, and it is from the southeast side that the
ridges of upheaval above described incline.
The granite ridge seems to form a sort of abrupt anticlinal. On the
southeast side the rocks are all bare or covered with a superficial deposit
of recent tertiary marls. None of the older unchanged rocks are seen
on this side, but the modern sands and sandstones are exposed in a
horizontal position in the channel of the river.
The hot springs are located on the right bank of Grand Eiver, at the
juncture of the sedimentary rocks with the granites. Just east of the
springs is a high hill, Mount Bross, one thousand to one thousand two
hundred feet above Grand Eiver, which seems to be composed mostly of
the older tertiary strata, alternate yellow and gray sandstones, and lamin-
ated arenaceous shaly clays. The whole is so grassed over that it is diffi-
cult to take a section. The beds incline east of north at a small angle.
I regard the beds as of the age of the coal formations of the West, older
tertiary. I found excellent impressions of deciduous leaves, among
which are those of the genus Magnolia. Just opposite the springs, the
left bank of the river shows a perfect section of all the layers from
the cretaceous to the Jurassic. The bank is not more than ten
feet thick above the water, and yet it shows that the river itself rolls
over the upturned edges of all these beds.
SURVEY OP COLORADO AND NEW MEXICO. 85
The section in descending order is as follows:
1. Tertiary strata forming the greater part of the hill known as Mount
Bross.
2. Gray laminated sandstones passing down into arenaceous clays
with Baculites ovatus, &c.
3. Black clays of No. 4. v These are of great thickness and every variety
of texture. As shown in a cut bank of the river it is yellow arena-
ceous clay with layers of sandstone, in which the impressions of deciduous
leaves were observed. These layers project up, a distance along the
bank, of seventy paces.
4. Dark plastic clay with cone in cone, seams of impure clay, iron ore.
Then comes an interval in which no layers could be seen, sufficient to
include No. 3 two hundred and fifty paces.
5. Dark steel-black laminated slate, with numerous fish scales ; dip,
twenty-seven degrees. This slate passes down into alternate layers of
rusty sandstone and shaly clay.
In the upper bed of sandstone and shaly clay are obscure vegetable
impressions, leaves, stems, nuts, &c., evidently deciduous. In the upper
bed of sandstones are two or three thin seams of carbonaceous shale, and
the intervening layers of sandstone are almost made up of bits of vegetable
matter. Toward the lower, it becomes a hard mud rock passing down
into rusty yellow sandstone with all sorts of mud markings. Then comes
a bed of bluish plastic clay with sulphur and oxide of iron ; dip, thirty-
three degrees. Then rusty fine-grained gray sandstone passing down
into a very close massive pudding-stone, composed of very smooth
nicely-rounded pebbles, cemented with silica. This stone would be
most excellent for building material and is susceptible of a very fine
polish. A fracturetpasses directly through the pebbles, the paste being
harder, if anything, than the inclosed pebbles; dip, thirty-one degrees.
This is a very thick bed and is a portion of No. 1, cretaceous, or a sort of
transition bed between the cretaceous and the Jurassic.
The red and variegated beds lie fairly upon the gneissic granites, and
although they are shown very obscurely here, yet I think they must
exist, inasmuch as they are so well revealed not more than fifteen miles
east of this point, so that I have no doubt they are lost beneath the mass
of superincumbent material. I think the light-colored clays lying under-
neath the bed of chalky clay, are Jurassic. There is a bed of fine
gritty clay underneath the pudding-stone which would make excellent
hones.
In the intercalated sandstones above the pudding-stones are plants
just like those observed in No. 1 at Sioux City, on the Missouri Eiver,
and the composition of the strata is the same; there is a Salix, a con-
iferous plant, the cones of a pine, &c.
I have given this detailed description of the cretaceous rocks to show
the exceeding variableness of their texture, and also to call the atten-
tion of scientific men, who may hereafter visit this interesting locality,
which will soon become celebrated, to a section of the rock through
which the waters of the spring must pass in reaching the surface. Now
in whatever rocks these springs may originate, the water must pass a
long distance through the almost vertical strata of the cretaceous period,
in the sediments of which are found in other localities nearly all and
perhaps all the mineral constituents found in these springs. The deposits
around these springs are very extensive. No analysis has as yet been
made, but large masses of gypsum and native sulphur can be taken out
at any time from the sides of the large basin-like depression into which
86 SURVEY OP COLORADO AND NEW MEXICO.
the water flows. They are properly " Hot Sulphur Springs," varying in
temperature from eighty to one hundred and twelve degrees.
About fifteen miles west of the springs is the valley of the Troublesome
Creek, a small branch of the Grand Kiver, flowing from the basaltic
mountains on the northern side of the park.
I visited this region under the guidance of Mr. Sumner, an old resident
of the park. The surface of the country along our road was strewn with
eruptive rocks. We saw several localities where the basaltic rocks
protruded, and one place in Corral Creek, about eight miles west of
Grand Bi\ 7 er, whore the little stream has cut a deep channel through
the red granites. The older tertiary beds appear from time to time.
Troublesome Canon, at' the head of the creek bearing this name, is
entirely basaltic, and the rugged walls not only of the main stream but
also of the little branches, form a most picturesque view.
Below the canon, the valley of Troublesome Creek, and also that of
Grand Eiver near the junction, is occupied by belts of modern tertiary
sands and marls like those observed at the entrance to the park, by
Berthoud's Pass. Where the little stream cuts the terraces, horizontal
strata of whitish and flesh-colored sands and marls are exposed. I looked
in vain for fossils and found only specimens of silicified wood. There
are cold sulphur springs in this valley. All through the park, the
benches or terraces are conspicuous in the vicinity of streams, as at the
base of mountain ranges. In the park through which Frazer's Creek
flows, these benches or terraces are most beautifully carved out from the
modern marls.
I regret that my visit to the Middle Park was so short that I could
not explore the entire area with care, for few districts in the W^est can
afford more material of geological interest, and an^entire season could
be spent studying its geology and geography with great profit.
The agricultural resources of the Middle Park are as yet unknown. To
attempt has been made to cultivate any portion of it. Grass and graz-
ing are excellent and the soil good, and if the climate will permit, all
kinds of garden vegetables could be raised in abundance, and some
varieties of the cereals. Timber is abundant both for lumber and fuel.
In summing up the geology of the Middle Park, we find that all the
sedimentary rocks known in this country are found there. I did not see
any beds that I could define as carboniferous, but the triassic, Jurassic,
cretaceous, and tertiary are well developed. I have no doubt as to the
existence of true carboniferous limestones in the Middle Park.
The tertiary deposits of this region may be divided into two groups,
viz, the lignite or older tertiary, and the modern pliocene marls and
sands which seem common to the parks and mountain valleys. The for-
mer conform perfectly to the older beds, while the latter seldom incline
more than three to five degrees, and do not conform to the older rocks.
The marl group is undoubtedly contemporaneous with the Arkansas and
Sante Fe marls.
The geological structure of the Middle Park is more varied, compli
cated, and instructive than that of any other of the parks.
SURVEY OF COLORADO AND NEW MEXICO. 87
CHAPTER XI.
THE GOLD AND SILVER MINES OF COLORADO.
I will confine my remarks mostly to the geological features connected
with these mines, inasmuch as Mr. Frazer, in his report appended, has
fully treated this subject.
The gold and silver lodes of this Territory, so far as they are observed,
are entirely composed of the gneissic and granite rocks, possibly rocks of
the age of the Laurentian series of Canada. At any rate, all the gold-
bearing rocks about Central City are most distinctly gneissic, while those
containing silver at Georgetown are both gneissic and granitic. The
mountains in which the Baker, Brown, Coin, Terrible, and some other
rich lodes are located, is composed mostly of gneissic and reddish feld-
spathic granite, while the Leaven worth and McClellan Mountains,
equally rich in silver, are composed of banded gneiss, with the lines of
bedding or stratification very distinct.
There is an important question that suggests itself to one attempting
to study the mines of Colorado, and that is the cause of the wonderful
parallelism of the lodes, the greater portion of them taking one general
direction or strike, northeast and southwest. We must at once regard
the cause as deep-seated and general, for we find that most of the veins
or lodes are true fissures and do not diminish in richness as they are
sunk deeper into the earth. All these lodes have more or less clearly
defined walls, and some of them are quite remarkable for their smooth-
ness and regularity. We assume the position that the filling up of all
these lodes or veins with mineral matter was an event subsequent to
any change that may have occurred in the country rock. Now, if we
look carefully at all the azoic rocks in this region we shall find more or
less distinctly defined, depending upon the structure of the rock itself,
two planes of cleavage, one of them with a strike northeast and south-
west, and the other southeast and northwest. Beside these two sets
of cleavage planes there are in most cases distinct lines of bedding.
The question arises, what relation do these veins hold to these lines of
cleavage ? Is it not possible that they occupy these cleavage openings
as lines of greatest weakness ?
I have taken the direction of these two sets of cleavage planes many
times with a compass, over a large area, and very seldom do they diverge
to any great extent from these two directions, northeast and southwest
or southeast and northwest. In some instances the northwest and south-
east plane would flex around so as to strike north and south, and the other
one so as to trend east and west, but this is quite seldom, and never occurs
unless there has been some marked disturbance of the rocks. There are,
however, a few lodes which are called " east and west lodes," and some,
" north and south." A few have a strike northwest and southeast, but
are generally very narrow and break off from the northeast and south-
west lodes, are very rich fora time and then "pinch" out. It would
seem therefore quite possible that the northeast and southwest veins
took the lines of cleavage in that direction as lines of greatest weakness,
and that the northwest and southeast lines cross the other set, and
that a portion of the mineral material might accumulate in that cleavage
fissure. I merely throw out this as a hint at this time, which I wish to fol-
io w out in my future studies. I am inclined to believe that the problem of
the history of the Eocky Mountain ranges is closely connected with
these two great sets of cleavage lines. As I have before stated, my own
observations point to the conclusion that the general strike of the met-
88 SURVEY OF COLORADO AND NEW MEXICO.
amorpliic ranges of mountains is northwest and southeast, and that the
eruptive trend northeast and southwest. The dikes that sometimes
extend long distances across the plains, in all cases trend northeast and
southwest, or occasionally east and west. The purely eruptive ranges
of the northern portion of the San Luis Valley seem to be composed
of a series of minor ranges " en echelon" with a trend northeast and
southwest. But as soon as this range joins on to a range with a meta-
inorphic or granitic nucleus, the trend changes around to northwest and
southeast. Many of the ranges have a nucleus of metamorphic rocks
though the central and highest portions may be composed of eruptive
peaks and ridges. In this case the igneous material is thrust up in lines
of the same direction as the trend. It becomes therefore evident that
all the operations of the eruptive forces were an event subsequent to
the elevation of the raetamorphic nucleus. This is shown in hundreds
of instances in Southern Colorado and New Mexico, where the eruptive
material is oftentimes forced out over the inetarnorphic rocks, conceal-
ing them over large areas.
All over the mining districts are well-marked anticlinal, synclinal, and
what I have called monoclinal valleys. Nearly all the little streams flow
a portion or all their way through these monoclinal valleys or rifts. In
most cases the streams pass along these rifts from source to mouth, but
occasionally burst through the upheaved rid-ges at right angles, and
resuming its course again in some monoclinal opening. There are a few
instances of these streams flowing along anticlinal valleys, and by anyone
these remarks will be at once understood by studying the myriad little
branches of Clear Creek or South Platte, which flow for long distances
through the mining districts.
In these valleys are oftentimes accumulated immense deposits of
modern drift. Sometimes there are proofs that these valleys have been
gorged for a time, and a bed of very coarse gravel and boulders will ac-
cumulate, hundreds of feet in thickness. Near Georgetown there is a fine
example of this modern drift action.
It would seem that the valley of that branch of Clear Creek, in which
the Brown and Terrible silver lodes are located, was gorged at one time,
perhaps, with masses of ice, and the fine sand and coarse materials
accumulated against the gorge, and at a subsequent period the creek
wore a new channel through this material. The upper side of this drift
deposit is fine sand, but the materials grow coarser as we descend, until,
at the lower side, there are immense irregular or partially worn masses
of granite. On the sides of the valley the rocks are often much smoothed
and grooved as if by floating masses of ice. We assume the position, of
which there is most ample evidence all over the Rocky Mountain region,
that at a comparatively modern geological period the temperature was
very much lower than at present, admitting of the accumulation of vast
bodies of ice on the summits of the mountains. The valley of the South
Platte, as that stream flows through the range east of the South Park,
show, not only these accumulations of very coarse boulder drift, but when
this drift is stripped off, the underlying rocks are found smoothed, and,
in some instances, scratched, as if by floating icebergs.
In regard to the character of the gold and silver mines of Colorado,
much information of practical value has been secured, but my limited
time will not permit me to present it in detail in this preliminary report.
It will be more fully elaborated during the coming winter. I would
simply remark that my observations indicate to me that the silver mines
of Georgetown are very rich and practically inexhaustible, and that,
under the present system of working them, they are becoming daily
SURVEY OF COLORADO AND NEW MEXICO. 89
more and more important. The amount of labor that is continually
expended in opening mines and driving tunnels is immense, and their
future importance as a source of wealth to the country greatly in-
creased. The same remarks will apply to the gold mines of Gilpin
County. There are some remarkably rich lodes which have yielded the
enterprising miners untold wealth, and some that will continue to do so.
In the majority of cases, where proper management and economy have
been employed, the mines have been a great source of profit to the
miner. It is not necessary to enter into the causes of the wonderful
failures and swindling operations which have brought Colorado into
such disrepute in the past. It is sufficient for me to state my belief that
the mining districts of Colorado will yet be regarded as among the richest
the world has ever known.
CHAPTER XII.
REVIEW OF LEADING GROUPS, ETC.
This final chapter to my report, which I have added here, will contain
a brief review of the leading groups of strata noticed in this and my
previous reports, as well as a few additional observations and chemical
analyses. The details of my labors will be presented in my final reports
at some future period.
I have already alluded to my belief that this western country during
the tertiary period was covered to a greater or less extent with a chain
of brackish or fresh-water lakes 5 that the tertiary period began its
existence with brackish water deposits, which gradually became fresh
water, and thus continued up to the present time. It is hardly possible
to synchronize all these groups of strata with our present knowlege ;
but in order that our efforts in that direction may be facilitated, I have
thought it best to give them specific names, which may be regarded
provisional for the present. Each one of these groups will doubtless
afford a flora and fauna to a certain extent peculiar to itself, and a
greater importance will be attached to it when grouped around some
specific names.
Proceeding southward from Cheyenne we pass over the coal forma-
tions of the tertiary period, which have already been called, on the
Upper Missouri, the Fort Union group. This group I regard as marking
the dawn of the tertiary age in the West, and as covering a far more
extended area than any other group of this epoch. It is continuous
southward from the Missouri Valley to Colorado, interrupted only by a
belt of White Eiver beds about two hundred miles wide. I think these
beds also extend far northward into the British possessions, probably
nearly or quite to the Arctic Sea.
About forty miles south of Denver we have a high divide, or ridge,
which forms a sort of water-shed between the Platte and Arkansas
Rivers. This is composed of a group of 'strata, mostly sandstones and
sands jutting up against the mountains in a slightly disturbed position
and not conforming to the older rocks. These beds are undoubtedly
middle tertiary, and I have called them the Monument Creek group.
I do not think that such terms as eocene, miocene, pliocene, &c., are
at all applicable to the tertiary deposits of the West, and I therefore
designate them as lower, middle, and upper tertiary. I regard all the
coal beds of the West as lower tertiary. It is true that some of these
90 SURVEY OF COLORADO AND NEW MEXICO.
beds of lignite, or impure coal, or carbonaceous clay, are found in groups
of strata which should be classed as middle tertiary ; but these do not
seem in any case to be of any economical importance.
Near Hard Scrabble Creek, a small branch running into the Arkansas
Biver just below Canon City, there is a small area, about eight miles
square, occupied by coal strata, for which I propose the provisional
name of Canon City group. I have but little doubt that careful study
will show that it is a fragment of the great lignite group of the North.
The next group comprises the coal beds of the Eaton Hills, which
I suspect is also a portion of the great lignite group, and will event-
ually be found to be synchronous with it. I have called it the Eaton
Hills group.
The next group of coal strata occurs in Placer Mountains, New Mex-
ico, about thirty miles south of Santa Fe. The lithological character of
the beds or rocks are very similar to those of the lignite group further
north, but the evidence in regard to their age, or parallelism with the
lignite group, is not so clear. While I regard the true coal beds of the
West as lower tertiary, yet these Placer Mountain beds present the
appearance of greater antiquity than the coal beds further north. Still,
the numerous varieties of deciduous leaves which I have obtained from
rocks just overlying the coal beds indicate that they are lower tertiary ;
and with this belief I have named them the Placer Mountain group.
Overlying the Placer Mountain beds, in the valley of Gallisteo Creek,
is a vast thickness of exceedingly variegated sands, sandstones, and
calcareous sandstones, characterized mostly by containing an abundance
of silicified wood ; but no other fossils have, as yet, been discovered.
I have given this series of beds the name of Gallisteo sands, and they
are doubtless middle tertiary.
In the valley of the Eio Grande, at least from Albuquerque to the
north end of San Luis Valley, a series of marly sands of a light color
prevail to a greater or less extent. They exhibit their greatest thick-
ness north of Santa Fe. To this group I have given the name of Santa
Fe marls ; and they are doubtless of the age of upper tertiary, and
synchronous with the upper beds of the White Eiver group as, seen
along the North and South Forks of the Platte and near Cheyenne.
In the valley of the Arkansas, north of the Poncha Pass, is a fine
development of the light-colored marls, doubtless of the same age with
the Santa Fe marls, which I have designated by the name of the
Arkansas marls. I have as yet obtained no well-defined fossils from
either the Santa Fe or Arkansas marls ; yet bones of some large ani-
mal, probably mastodon or elephant, have been found in them. I have
no doubt that more careful explorations will show that a fauna and
flora of greater or less extent will characterize all these groups.
Along the Union Pacific railroad we find in the Laramie Plains a most
extensive exhibition of the great lignite group. The first coal beds of
great economical value occur near Carbon and at Separation. From
Creston to Bitter Creek there are a series of purely fresh-water beds,
with some beds of impure lignite, with vast quantities of fossils be-
longing to the genera Unio, fiZclania, Vivipara, Helix, &c. This group I
regard as middle tertiary, and the strata are very nearly horizontal. I
have regarded these beds as separated from the lower tertiary or true
lignite group, and have designated them by the name of the Washakee
group. A little east of Rock Spring station a new group commences,
composed of thinly laminated chalky shales, which I have called the
Green Eiver shales, because they are best displayed along Green Eiver.
They are evidently of purely fresh- water origin, and of middle tertiary
SURVEY OP COLORADO AND NEW MEXICO. 91
age. The layers are nearly horizontal, and, as shown in the valley of
Green Eiver, present a peculiarly banded appearance. When carefully
studied these shales will form one of the most interesting groups in the
West. The flora is already very extensive, and the fauna consists of
MelaniaSj Corbulas, and vast quanties of fresh-water fishes, preserved in
much the same way as those in the Solenhofen slates of Germany.
There are also numerous insects and other small undetermined fossils
in the asphaltic slates. One of the marked features of this group is
the great amount of combustible or petroleum shales, some portions of
which burn with great readiness, and have been used for fuel in stoves.
The next group commences not far west of Bryan, and is doubtless a
prolongation upward of the Green Eiver shales, and may be regarded
as of upper tertiary age.
The sediments are composed of more or less fine sands and sandstones,
mostly indurated, sometimes forming compact beds, but usually weath-
ering into those castellated and dome-like forms which have given such
celebrity to the " Bad Lauds " of White Eiver. Church Buttes, near
Fort Bridger, is an example of this group, and shows the style of
weathering to which I refer. I have called this series of beds the
Bridger group, from the fact that it is best developed in this region. It
has already yielded remarkably fine species of Unio, Melania, Planorbis,
Vivipara, HeliXj &c., with a great variety of turtles and mammalian re-
mains. There are indications that when this group is thoroughly ex-
plored it will prove to be second only to the " Bad Lands " of Dakota in
the richness and extent of the vertebrate remains.
Immediately west of Fort Bridger commences one of the most re-
markable and extensive groups of tertiary beds seen in the West. They
are wonderfully variegated, some shade of red predominating. This
group, to which I have given the name of Wasatch group, is composed
of variegated sands and clays. Very little calcareous matter is found
in these beds.
In Echo and Weber Canons are wonderful displays of conglomerates,
fifteen hundred to two thousand feet in thickness. Although this group
occupies a vast area, and attains a thickness of three to five thousand
feet, yet I have never known any remains of animals to be found in it.
I regard it, however, as of middle tertiary age.
After passing Eock Springs station, Union Pacific railroad, the next
exposures of coal are at Bear Eiver City, and at Evanston, and also at
Coalville, near the entrance of Echo Creek into Weber Eiver. The coal
beds at Evanston are the finest known in the West, and reach a thick-
ness of twenty-six feet at one locality. These coal beds seem to be sep-
arated from those at Separation and Carbon, and to present some feat-
ures different from those in any other portion of the West. I am in
doubt as to their precise position, but I am inclined to regard them as
of lower tertiary age, possibly on a parallel with the oldest beds of the
great lignite group in other localities. On Bear Eiver we find several
species of Ostrea, both above and below the coal, and in a cut just west
of Bear Eiver City is found the greatest profusion of molluscous life
that I have ever seen in any of the tertiary beds of the West. There
seems here to be a mingling of fresh and brackish water fossils. At
Evanston, impressions of deciduous leaves are abundant in beds above
the coal. No portion of the fauna seems to be identical with anything
found in other places. The flora seems also to be distinct, although
some of the forms may be identical with species elsewhere. I have
named the group of coal strata which is exposed from beneath themid-
92 SURVEY OF COLORADO AND NEW MEXICO.
die tertiary beds by upheaval art Bear River City, Evanston, and Coal-
ville, the Bear Eiver group.
In the valley of Weber Eiver, from Morgan City to Devil's Gate,
there is a thickness of one thousand to twelve hundred feet of sands,
sandstones, and marls, of a light color for the most part, which I regard
as of upper tertiary age. These newer beds must have not only occu-
pied this expansion of the Weber Valley, but also all of Salt Lake Val-
ley, for remnants of it are seen all along the margins of the mountains
inclosing Salt Lake Valley. I have obtained one species of helix near
Salt Lake City from this group, which very much resembles a species
obtained from the Wind Eiver deposits, near the source of Wind Eiver.
I found this series of beds so widely extended and so largely developed
in Weber Valley and Salt Lake Valley, that I regard it as worthy of a
distinct name, and in consequence have called it the Salt Lake group.
Some years ago, in a paper published in the proceedings of the Acad-
emy of Natural Sciences, at Philadelphia, Mr. Meek and the writer pro-
posed names for certain groups of tertiary strata, which might be added
to the list already given :
First. The Fort Union or great lignite group, which occupies the whole
country around Fort Union near the mouth of the Yellowstone, extend-
ing north into the British possessions to unknown distances, also south-
ward on the Missouri Eiver to Fort Clark. It also extends along the
eastern flanks of the mountains, probably to Denver, Colorado, and
perhaps further.
Second. The Wind Eiver deposits are limited, so far as we now know,
to the Wind Eiver Valley. The sediments are composed of indurated
sands and clays, with a few layers of sandstones and some calcareous
concretions; and the prevailing color is very light gray, sometimes
brown with reddish bands. The fossils thus far found are fragments of
Trionyx, Testudo, Helix, Vivipara, petrified wood, &c., doubtless of middle
tertiary age.
Third. The White Eiver group, best shown on White Eiver, Dakota,
but covering a very extended area at least one hundred and fifty
thousand square miles. The sediments are composed of white and light
drab indurated sanfls, clays, and marls, with some beds of sandstones
and limestones ; is purely fresh water, and remarkable as one of the
most wonderful deposits of extinct mammalia on the globe middle
tertiary.
Fourth. The Loup Eiver beds, which certainly form a most sin-
gular and remarkable group. They are composed for the most part of
fine, loose gray or brown sands, with some layers of limestone contain-
ing a distinct and most remarkable fauna, composed of wolves, foxes,
tigers, hyenas, camels, horses,' mastodons, elephants, &c. There are also
numerous fresh-water andland shells^ perhaps of recent species, upper ter-
tiary. To these groups might be added the Judith Eiver beds, a small basin
on the Missouri Eiver, near the foot of the mountains, about fifteen to
twenty miles in width and forty miles in length. This group is probably
of lower tertiary age, but I think it was always separated from the great
lignite group. In my final report I hope to be able to illustrate each one
of these groups by the organic remains peculiar to it, and, if possible,
show the relations of each one to the other and to all. Further explo-
rations of the Territories will reveal many more of these lake basins, for
I am now convinced that all over the great area west of the Mississippi
to the Pacific coast the evidence of the existence of these lakes will be
more or less clear.
SURVEY OF COLORADO AND NEW MEXICO. 93
DEPOSITS OF COAL AND IKON ORE.
One of the most important problems to be solved in the West is the
utilization of the vast quantities of iron ore which are scattered all over
the country in a multiplicity of forms. The brown iron ores accompany
the coal beds everywhere, and some good deposits are found in the cre-
taceous formations. At the source of the Chugwater are immense de-
posits of magnetic iron ore in the metamorphic rocks, which are prob-
ably of Laurentian age, while at Eawlings's Springs are most valuable
beds of the red oxide of iron, in rocks which I suppose to be of triassic
age. The latter are evidently local, but the amount of iron ore is con-
siderable.
The following extract is taken from the excellent report of Dr. John
L. Leconte to the Pacific Eailroad Company :
" Deposits of iron ore fit for working are found in the sandstones of
the Vermejo, as described on page 24 of the first part of the report. Veins
of specular, titaniferous, and magnetic ore, occur in the metamorphic
rocks of the mountains; those near Vegas are mentioned on page 29.
Large quantities of magnetic iron are found near the Ortiz mine, and
beds of an argillaceous variety occur near the anthracite of the Placer
Mountain, as mentioned on page 39.
" Should the coal be capable of use for smelting iron, the localities of
the latter will be found ample for all possible demands.
"I have received from Messrs. Williams and Moss the following results
of the examination of some iron ores collected on the journey:
1. Magnetic iron ore, Las Vegas, metallic iron 20.43 per cent.
2. Magnetic iron ore, Placer Mountain, metallic iron.. 65.27 per cent.
3. Carboniferous iron ore, Vermejo Canon 21.91 per cent.
4. Carbonate of iron, near anthracite of Placer Mountain 36.49 per cent.
I take the liberty of introducing in this connection the following
extracts from an article written by me and published in Silliinan's Jour-
nal, March, 1868. This paper has been very extensively copied, and
even now 1 find it necessary to make but few changes:
Mines have been opened on Coal Creek, three miles south of Marshall's mines, hut
they have been abandoned for the present. Another has been opened about twenty
miles south of Cheyenne City, on Pole Creek. The drift began with an outcropping of
about four feet eight inches in thickness, inclination twelve degrees east. The lignite
grows better in quality as it is wrought further into the earth, and the bed, by following
the dip two hundred feet, is found to be five feet four inches thick, and the lignite is
sold readily at Cheyenne City for twenty-five dollars per ton. The beds are so concealed
by a superficial drift deposit, that it is difficult to obtain a clearly connected section of
the rocks. A section across the inclined edges of the beds eastward from the mountains
is as follows :
7. Drab clay passing up into areno-calcareous grits composed of an aggregation of
oyster shells, Ostrea subtrigonalls.
6. Lignite 5 to 6 feet.
5. Drab clay 4 to 6 feet.
4. Reddish, rusty sandstone in thin laminte 20 feet.
3. Drab arenaceous clay, indurated 25 feet.
2. Massive sandstone 50 feet.
1. No. 5 cretaceous, apparently passing up into a yellowish sandstone.
The summit of the hills near this bed of lignite is covered with loose oyster shells,
and there must have been a thickness of four feet or more, almost entirely composed of
them. The species seems to be identical with the one found in a similar geological
position in the lower lignite beds of the Upper Missouri near Fort Clark, and at the
mouth of the Judith River, and doubtless was an inhabitant of the brackish waters
which must have existed about the dawn of the tertiary period in the West. No other
shells were found in connection with these in Colorado, but on the Upper Missouri
well-known fresh- water types exist in close proximity, showing that if it proves any-
thing, it rather affirms the eocene age of these lower lignite beds. These lignite beds
94 SURVEY OF COLORADO AND NEW MEXICO.
are exposed in many localities all along the eastern base of the mountains, and from
the best information I can secure, I have estimated the area occupied by them north of
the Arkansas River at five thousand square miles. According to the explorations of Dr.
John L. LeConte during the past season, which are of great interest, these same lignite
formations extend far southward into New Mexico on both sides of the Rocky Mountains.
Specimens of lignite brought from the Raton Mountains by Dr. LeConte, resemble very
closely in appearance and color the anthracites of Pennsylvania. It is probable that no
true coal will ever be found west of longitude ninety-six degrees, and it becomes there-
fore a most important question to ascertain the real value of these vast deposits of lig-
nite for fuel and other economical purposes. Can these lignites be employed for gen-
erating steam and smelting ores ? lu regard to the lignites in the Laramie Plains, I
have as yet seen no analysis, but specimens are now in the hands of Dr. Torrey, of New
York, for that purpose ; specimens from Marshall's mine on South Boulder Creek were
submitted to Dr. Torrey by the Union Pacific Railroad Company for examination, with
the following result :
Water in a state of combination, or its elements 12. 00
Volatile matter expelled at a red heat, forming inflammable gases and vapors. . 26. 00
Fixed carbon 59. 20
Ash of a reddish color, sometimes gray 2. 80
100.00
A specimen from Coal Creek, three miles south, yielded similar results :
Water in a state of combination, or probably its elements, as in dry wood 20. 00
Volatile matter expelled at a red heat in the form of inflammable gases and
vapors 19. 30
Fixed carbon 58. 70
Ash, consisting chiefly of oxide of iron, alumina,*and a little silica 2. 00
100. 00
The percentage of carbon is shown to be in one case 59.20, and in the other 58.70,
which shows at a glance the superiority of the western lignites over those found in any
other portion of the world. Anthracite is regarded as so much superior as a fuel, on
account of the large per cent, of carbon, and also the small amount of hydrogen and
oxygen. The bituminous coals contain a large percentage of hydrogen and oxygen,
but not enough water and ash to prevent them from being made useful, but the calor-
ific power of lignite is very much diminished by the quantity of water contained in it,
from the fact that so valuable a portion of the fuel must be used in converting that
water into steam.
The day of my visit to the Marshall coal mines, on South Bonlder Creek, seventy-
three tons of lignite were taken out and sold at the rate of four dollars a ton at the
mine, and from twelve to sixteen dollars at Denver. This lignite is somewhat brittle,
but has nearly the hardness of ordinary anthracite, which it very much resembles at a
distance.
In some portions there is a considerable quantity of resin. I spent two evenings at
Mr. Marshall's house, burning this fuel in a furnace, and it seemed to me that it would
prove to be superior to ordinary western bituminous coals, and rank next to anthracite
for domestic purposes. Being non-bituminous, it will require a draught to burn well.
It is as neat as anthracite, leaving no stain on the fingers. It produces no offensive gas
or odor, and is thus superior in a sanitary point of view, and when brought into gen-
eral use, it will be a great favorite for culinary purposes. It contains no destructive
elements, leaves very little ash, no clinkers, and produces no more erosive effects on
stoves, grates, or steam boilers, than dry wood. If exposed in the open air it is apt
to crumble, but if protected it receives no special injury. Dr. Torrey thinks there is
no reason why it should not be eminently useful for generating steam and for smelting
ores.
Throughout the intercalated beds of clay at Boulder Creek and vicinity are found
masses of a kind of concretionary iron ore, varying in size from one ounce to several
tons in weight. This iron ore is probably a limonite commonly known under the name
of brown hematite or brown iron ore. It may perhaps be found in the state of carbonate
of iron when sought for, beyond the reach of the atmosphere. These nodules or concre-
tionary masses, when broken, show regular concentric rings varying in color from yel-
low to brown, looking sometimes like rusty yellow agates. It is said to yield seventy
per cent, of metallic iron. The first smelting furnace ever erected in Colorado \vas
established here by Mr. Marshall, and he informed me that for the production of one ton
of pi|
am
tons of
SURVEY OF COLORADO AND NEW MEXICO. 95
abound cannot be less than fifty square miles. Indications of large deposits of iron ore
have been found in many other localities along the line of the Pacific railroads, and if
the mineral fuel which is found here in such great abundance can be made useful for
smelting purposes, these lignite and iron ore beds will exert the same kind of influence
over the progress of the great West that Pennsylvania exerts over all the contiguous
States. When wo reflect that we have from ten thousand to twenty thousand square
miles of mineral fuel in the center of a region where for a radius of six hundred to one
thousand miles in every direction there is little or no fuel either on or beneath the sur-
face, the future value of these deposits cannot be overestimated.
The geological age of these western lignite deposits is undoubtedly tertiary. Those
on the Upper Missouri have been shown to be of that age both from vegetable and
animal remains, and in the Laramie Plains I collected two species of plants, a Populus
and a Plantanus, specifically identical with those found on the Upper Missouri. The
simple fact that cretaceous formations Nos. 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5, are well shown all along the
foot of the mountains, and that No. 5 presents its usual lithological character with its
peculiar fossils, within fifteen miles of Marshall's mines, also that at the mine, 2, 3, and
4 are seen inclining at nearly the same angle and holding a lower position than the
lignite beds, is sufficient evidence that the strata inclosing the lignite beds are newer
than cretaceous. A few obscure dicotyledonous leaves were found, which belong rather
to tertiary forms thaw cretaceous.
The connection of the lignite deposits on the Upper Missouri has been traced unin-
terruptedly to the North Platte, about eighty miles above Fort Laramie.
They then pass beneath the White River tertiary beds, but reappear again about
twenty miles south of Pole Creek, and continue far southward into New Mexico.
Near Red Buttes, on the North Platte, it seems also probable that the same basin continues
northward along the &lope of the Rocky Mountains nearly or quite to the Arctic Sea.
Whether or not there are any indications of this formation over the eastern range in
the British possessions, I have no means of ascertaining, but the Wind River chain,
which forms the main divide of the Rocky Mountain Range, exhibits a great thickness
of the lignite tertiary beds on both eastern and western slopes, showing conclusively
by the fracture and inclination of the strata, that prior to the elevation of this range,
they extended uninterruptedly in a horizontal position across the area now occupied
by the Wind River chain. Passing the first range of mountains in the Laramie Plains,
we find that the Big Laramie River cuts through cretaceous beds, Nos. 2 and 3, con-
tinuing our course westward to Little Laramie, a branch of the Big Laramie, and No.
3 becomes fifty to one hundred and fifty feet in thickness filled with fossils, Ostrca con-
gesta, and a species of Inoceramus. At Rock Creek, about forty miles west of Big Lar-
amie River, the lignite beds overlap the cretaceous, but in such a way as to show that
the more inclined portions have been swept away by erosion, and that the red beds and
carboniferous limestones once existed without break and in a horizontal position across
the Laramie Range prior to its elevation.
I cannot discuss this matter in detail in this article, but the evidence is clear to me
now, that all the lignite tertiary beds of the West are but fragments of one great basin,
interrupted here and there by the upheaval of mountain chains or concealed by the
deposition of newer formations.
When I wrote the article on the lignites of the West, all my own inves-
tigations pointed strongly to the conclusion that no coal beds of any
great value, in an economical point of view, would ever be found in the
West in formations older than the tertiary. When my large collections
of vegetable and animal remains from the coal beds in Wyoming, Colo-
rado, and New Mexico, now deposited in the Smithsonian Institution, are
carefully studied, I can speak with more confidence on that point. 1 can
say just here that I have as yet seen no reason to change that opinion
so far as my own observations are concerned.
In the spring of 1868, Professor Lesquereux, who is so justly celebrated
for his skill in the study of fossil plants, sent me the following valuable
notes as the result of a preliminary examination of some leaf impressions
from the coal deposits in various parts of the West. His conclusions
seem to confirm my opinions that all these coal formations are of tertiary
age.
SPECIES FROM ROCK CREEK, LARAMIE PLAINS.
1. Populus attenuata, Al. Braun. The identity of these leaves with the European spe-
cies is undoubted.
2. Populus IcKvigata, sp. nov., related to P. laUamoides, Gopp., a species which, like
the former, is abundant in the mioceae of Europe.
96 SUEVEY OF COLORADO AND NEW MEXICO.
3. Populus subrotunda, sp. nov. Type of neuration of P. melanaria, Heer, and form of
leaves of P. mutabilis, Heer, both species also common in the miocene of Europe.
4. Quercus acrodon, sp. nov., a fine oval leaf resembling a chestnut leaf, related to
Quercus prinoides, Wild, of our time.
5. Quercus haydeni, sp. nov., lyrate leaf with lobes strongly dentate, "without near
relation to any species either of the tertiary or of our time.
6. Platanus, aceroides, Gopp., one of the most common species of the miocene of Europe.
It i* closely related to, if not identical with, P. octidentalis, L., of our time.
MARSHALL'S MIXE (NEAR DENVER.)
1. Quercus chlorophytta, Ung. Three specimens of this species have been figured and
described in my paper, " On species of fossil plants from the tertiary of Mississippi,"
(Trans. Phil. Soc., vol. 13, pi. xvii, figs. 5, 6, 7.) It is still uncertain if these leaves rep-
resent a quercus, but all belong to the species described and figured by Heer under this
name, and common in the whole thickness of the European miocene.
2. Quercus lyelli, Heer, also figured in the above paper, pi. xvii, figs. 1, 2, 3. Though
the specimen is somewhat obscure, the essential characters which distinguish the species
are well discernible. It is abundant in the Bovey Tracy lignite formations of England,
lower miocene.
3. Cinamomum affi-ne, sp. nov. This species is also found at Raton Pass. The leaf from
Raton Pass is smaller and might belong to a different species, but except the size I do not
find ground for separation ; very near C. mississippiensis, Lesq., and also closely related
to C. buchi, Heer, of the lower miocene of Europe.
4. Cornus incompletus, sp. nov. A part of a leaf apparently round at the top, general
outline uncertain. It is figured merely for future reference. By its peculiar nervation
this leaf appears in close relation to, if not identical with, Cornus rhamnifolius, Web.
Pretty common in the lower miocene of Europe.
5. There are in the Marshall's shales a few fragments of maple leaves (acer) specifi-
cally undeterminable, and also one winged seed of this genus. This seed has a narrow
straight wing like that of Acer trilobatum, Heer, but with smaller nutlet.
6. Ehamnus salicifolia, sp. nov., in soft sandstone ; related to E. marginatus, Lesq., and
and also to E. carolimanus, Walt., now living and abundant in southern swamps.
7. Juglans rugostis, sp. nov., very nearly related to J. acuminata, Al. Braun, a species
extensively distributed in the European miocene.
8. Echitoninm sophice, Web. The leaf has no visible nervation, but it is exactly like
both the forms represented from European specimens. It is found in the whole miocene
of Europe, especially in the lower stage.
9' Phyllites sulcatus, sp. nov. The borders of the leaf are destroyed, but the nervation
is quite peculiar. It is referable either to a Rhodora like E. canadensis of our time, or
re presents merely the lower part of the winged petiole of the fruit of a linden, ( Tilia.)
10. Lygodium compactum, sp. nov. Though many species of lygodiums are described
from the tertiary of Europe, none are related to ours. One lobe of a leaf only is presented,
and the general outline of the leaf is therefore unknown, but the nervation, which is
very close and more like that of a Neuropteris, is of a peculiar character.
LIGNITE BEDS NEAR GOLDEN CITY, COLORADO.
1. Magnolia tenuinervis, sp. nov. Not possible to indicate the general form of the leaf
of which a part only is presented. Its thin and sharp secondary nerves distinguish it
from any other fossil species.
2. Laihr&a arguta, sp. nov. May be a Pecopteris. No relation observed of any known
species to this one.
RATON PASS. SPECIMENS COLLECTED BY DR. LECONTE,
1. Bercliemia parvifolia, sp. nov. Related to B. multinervis of the European miocene,
but still more like our Berchemia volubilis which fills the southern swamps. The basilar
part of the leaf is not seen and therefore a satisfactory determination is not possible.
2. Abietites diibius, sp. nov.
Most of the specimens from Raton Pass have some remains of leaves or branches of a
coniferous species which can be referred, perhaps, as well to the genus Araucaria as to
Sequoia or Abies. As the leaves on the branchlets appear evidently placed around the
stems and not on both sides of it, and as the scars left on the bark are of the same form
as those of an Abies, I place these remains in this genus till they may be studied on bet-
ter specimens. The leaves are pointed as in Taxites dubius, Gopp., from the tertiary of
Europe ; except this, these remains have no analogy with any other, published or figured.
3. EcUtonium sopMce, Web. A small fragment exactly like those of Marshall's coal
bed and a specimen of Cinnamomum affine, already mentioned, from the Marshall's shales.
SURVEY OF COLORADO AND NEW MEXICO. 97
UPPER END OF PURGATORY CASfON, DR. LECONTE.
1. Khamnus obovatus, sp. nov. All the specimens are from the same place, and all con-
tain fragments of the same species, and none of any other. This species is peculiar by
the form of the leaves ; it has the character of a Ehamnm but the secondary nerves are
closer and more numerous than in any other species of the genus, even more so than in
a Bercheniia. I do not know of any fossil plant comparable to this.
From this short report on your fossil plants examined till now, it is easy to draw
some general conclusions.
From Rock Creek we have only six species. Two are identical with species from the
miocene of Europe, and one of them, Platanm aceroides, is not distinguishable from our
P. occidentalis. Two other species are closely allied to European tertiary species. And
of the two others, one is an American type related to Quercus prinoides, still in our flora,
the other a peculiar and lost type. The appearance of this florula is quite modern.
This may be the result of geographical circumstances. Poplars and buttonwoods live
together in the bottoms of rivers, and therefore I may mistake in believing this Rock
Creek formation more recent than that of Marshall's. In any case it is certainly tertiary
and has no plants of an older formation.
In Marshall's (coal beds) we find only ten species of fossil plants, two Quercus and one
Echitoniiim apparently identical with miocene species of Europe, one Rhamnus, closely
related to a living species of ours, and at the same time to a fossil species of the lignite of
Mississippi, one Cornus, one Juglans, and one Cinnamomum, all related to miocene species,
and the last one also closely allied to a species of the Mississippi tertiary; undetermin-
able leaves of maple, seeds of the same genus, a Lygodium and an undeterminable Phyl-
lites complete the list. These plants have, therefore, all of them, the character of ter-
tiary plants. The general aspect of the Marshall coal flora is that of the Mississippi
lignite, which I consider as either lowest miocene or eocene. In this I am much pleased
to find my views so well agreeing with yours.
The materials obtained from the strata of Golden City, Raton Pass, and Purgatory
Canon, are too scanty to permit considerations in regard to the geological positions of the
strata which have furnished them. No Abies has yet been described from tertiary strata,
but with these broken remains of a conifer of uncertain genus, the shale of Raton Pass
has a Bercliemia, which is a tertiary plant, and a leaf of Echitonium, and one of Cinna-
momum identical with specimens found at Marshall's.
In conclusion, I beg leave to say, that while I have the most profound
respect for the labors of my fellow geologists in the same field, I differ
with them somewhat, simply because the evidence, to my mind, points in
a different direction. In various portions of the Laramie Plains, Col-
orado, Eaton Hills, &c., I have observed between the well-defined cre-
taceous and tertiary beds a group of strata composed of thin layers of
clay, with yellow and gray sands and sandstones, which I have called
transition or beds of passage. If in these beds I were to find some purely
marine remains, even inoceramus or baculites, I should then call them
transition beds, in accordance with the evidence of the continuous un-
interrupted growth of the continent from the. cretaceous through the
tertiary period. There is no proof, so far as I have observed, in all the;
western country of true non-conformity between the cretaceous and lower,
tertiary beds, and no evidence of any change in sediments or any catas-
trophe sufficient to account for the sudden and apparently complete de-
struction of organic life at the close of the cretaceous period. In all
my examinations of the coal formations over so vast an area, I have never
yet seen a trace of a cretaceous fossil in any strata above the coal. One
of the most important practical questions for solution in the west is,
whether these coals can be rendered useful for smelting ores. To aid in
the solution of this question, I have appended the following analyses of
the coals from various portions of the West.
Mr. J. P. Carson, my assistant on the United States geological sur-
vey, 1868, made the following analysis of a fair specimen of the coal
from the Carbon min es, Northern Pacific railroad.
Moisture at 100 F 11.60
Volatile combustible matter 27.68
Fixed carbon 51.67
7 &S
98
SURVEY OF COLORADO AND NEW MEXICO.
Ash....
Sulphur.
6.17
2.88
Color of ash, light gray. Specific gravity, 1.37. Weight per cubic
yard, 2,212 pounds.
My assistant, Persifor Frazer, jr., in the United States geological sur-
vey of Colorado and New Mexico during the past season, has made the
following analyses of coals along the line of the Union Pacific railroad.
They were made with great care and I have the most perfect confidence
in their accuracy :
Coal from mine at Point of Rocks :
Carbon
Ash
Sulphur
Water and volatile substances.
Total
Coal from Rock Creek :
Per cent.
64.70
4.40
0.42
30.48
100. 00
Carbon .
Per cent.
61.34
Sulphur 2.00
Ash 1.50
Volatile substances and water 35. 16
Total ... 100.00
Coal from Black Buttes :
Per cent.
Carbon 71.64
Sulphur 2.00
Ash 2.50
Volatile substances and water 23. 86
Total.. 100.00
Coal from the Evanston mine was tested for its carbon alone and found to contain
carbon, 72.16 per cent. All these coals resemble in their physical properties those
met with along the route of the Colorado and New Mexico survey.
I take the liberty of quoting in this connection the following analyses
.of coals from the admirable report* of my friend Doctor J. H. LeConte.
I found this report, as well as that of Doctor dewberry, of great service
to me in my explorations during the past season :
Locality.
Fixed
carbon.
Volatile
material.
Water.
Ash.
1. NEW MEXICO.
Vermejo Canon
59 72
23.73
3.27
13.28
Placer anthracite
88.91
3.18
2.90
5.21
2. COLORADO.
Murphy's near Denver
55 31
29 07
11.70
3.92
Marshall's, near Denver
59.20
26.00
12. 00
8.80
Coal Creekt
57 70
19 30
20.00
2.00
copied from Doctor Hayden's paper in Silliman's Journal for March, 1868
SURVEY OF COLOEADO AND NEW MEXICO.
99
Locality.
Fixed
carbon.
Volatile
material.
Water.
Aah.
3. PACIFIC COAST.
A. Cretaceous.
Bellingham Bay, "Washington Territory. ................
45 69
33 26
o on
Nanaimo Vancouver's Island
46 31
32. 16
B. Tertiary.
Coos Bay, Oregon
41 98
32.59
20 09
r <v*
40 65
40 ffi
Do '
46 84
33 89
14 69
Do
44 92
40 27
13 84
A 0~
Do
44.55
37 38
14 13
Do
36 35
35.62
20 53
7 50
German tertiary coals.
Variety.
Carbon.
Hydrogen.
Combined
water.
Hygroscopic
water.
Fibrous, (faserige)
48
1
31
20
Earthy (erdige)
56
2
22
20
Laminated, (muschlige)
60
3
17
20
The ash is neglected in the foreign analyses, but is stated to average from 5 to 10
per cent. When first mined, the German brown coals contain frequently nearly 50
per cent, of hygroscopic water, which by drying is reduced to 20 or 25 per cent.
The absolute heat effects of the German coals are given as follows :
Variety.
Air-dried.
Kiln-dried.
Fibrous
50
63
Earthy .
62
.76
Laminated
70
84
The data obtained by Professor Brush by the reduction of oxide of lead, when
placed in a decimal form, pure carbon being unity, are :
Vermejo Canon .67
Placer anthracite , 91
Denver, (Murphy's) 60
The following are analyses of water from springs, &c., by Mr. P. Frazer,
chemist and mineralogist to the United States geological survey of
Colorado and* Kew Mexico :
While in Rawling's Springs I was employed by the Union Pacific Railroad Company
to examine the waters from various springs, which incrusted the boilers of locomotives
and stationary engines of the company, as well as of coals from the principal coal-beds
on the line of the road. The result of these analyses I append :
Scale from tlie boiler of an engine in the machine shop at Bawling* 8 Springs. This scale was
of a dark color due to impurities in suspension in the water. It consisted of the
chlorides of potassium and sodium, the sulphates of lime and magnesia and the silicate
of alumina. The major part of the soluble matter was composed of salt and gypsum.
Some water from a salt pond in the Black Hills, some distance from Sherman, was
analyzed and found to contain chloride of sodium, chloride of potassium, the carbon-
ate of soda, and some alumina.
Boiler scale from locomotive running between Eawling's Springs and Bryan. This scale was
of a gray color, but proved to be of the same chemical constitution as that previously
given, viz, chlorides of potassium and sodium, sulphates of lime and magnesia, and the
silicate of alumina. /
KEPOKT OF PEKSIFOR FRAZER, J*.
MINES AND MINEEALS OF COLORADO.
DENVER, COLORADO, October 15, 1869.
SIR : I have the honor to report that the examination of the minerals,
and the means employed to utilize them, in the Territories of Colo-
rado and New Mexico, which you directed me to make, has been con-
ducted as well as the very limited time at my disposal would permit, and
a preliminary report of the results is herewith respectfully submitted.
In the letter accompanying the first report to the Secretary of the
Treasury by the commissioner appointed to collect the same kind of in-
formation from the country lying west of the Epcky Mountains, Mr.
Browne urges that the six months which were prior to the meeting of
Congress would not permit of any but a most imperfect treatment of
the subject, and limits himself to sketching an outline of the work to be
done.
The same is true in a much greater degree of the few weeks in which
I was obliged to gather the materials for this report, especially as the
greater portion of the time was spent on the march, remote from all
points where statistics were accessible.
Any report of the condition of mining affairs in the Territories of
Colorado and New Mexico, (each of which is larger than all the New
England States put together,) and in particular of the former, which
counts its discovered lodes, the varieties of its minerals, and its mining
enterprises, by thousands, and in which energetic capital and intelli-
gence, "ever striving through darkness to the light," are working such
incessant changes, must represent things as a telescope represents the
stars, not as they are or ever were, but this as it was last week and that
as it was last year.
In consideration of these difficulties, I venture to hope that you may
regard all shortcomings more leniently, and that the following, though
far from complete, may not altogether fail to answer the requirements
of Congress.
In conclusion, I would call attention to the great courtesy and kind-
ness I have experienced in the course of my investigations from the
citizens of the two Territories generally, the owners and superintend-
ents of the various mines and mills, the possessors of cabinets of min-
erals, &c., and the officers and their families stationed at Forts Union
and Garland.
Especially do I thank Mr. J. Alden Smith, the mining editor of the
Central City Register ; Mr. D. J. Ball, of Empire City; Colonel An-
derson, of the Eeal Dolores ; and Mr. Cheever, of the Brown Mining
Company in Georgetown, for the assistance, in a professional way, which
they have rendered me ; nor can I forget the kindness of Mr. Marshall,
of Black Hawk, and Mr. Schultz, of Central City.
Where it was not possible for me personally to inspect the mines of
which I have spoken, I have in every case stated that the informa-
tion is given on the authority of others.
I remain, sir, with great respect,
PEESIFOE FEAZEE, JR.,
Mining Engineer.
Dr. F. V. HAYDEN, United States Geologist.
104 SURVEY OF COLORADO AND NEW MEXICO.
A natural division of the subject about which information has been-
sought would seein to be; I, the minerals, and II, the mines of Colorado
and New Mexico; and these again into 1. 1, the minerals of commercial
value, and 1. 2, those of no commercial value, but more or less character-
istic of the rocks or formations in which they occur.
The mining portion of this report would have been better divided into
II. 1, gulch or placer mining, and II. 2, lode or legitimate mining, while
under the latter head the subject would naturally divide itself into a, the
methods in use for getting out the ore and taking care of the mines; &,
the dressing of the ores by mechanical processes ; and c, the chemical
treatment of the ores, their reduction and preparation for the market, or
shipment out of the Territory. This would be a natural division of the
subject, but the time, and, consequently, the opportunities of observation
have been so insufficient for the above thorough treatment of the subject
that I have deemed it better to forward to you, as my part of the pre-
liminary report, only the notes I have made in the field, with a few
observations on various points connected with the subject.
In a belt, of which it would be difficult to define the limits, but which
may be generally stated as lying east and west of the great continental
divide as far as the gneiss or granite extends, and reaching north and
south as far as investigation has made the Rocky Mountain chain known
to us, lie the ores of the precious, and some of the baser, metals. Of the
distribution of this great mineral wealth throughout the hundreds of
leagues of this belt very little is known, the small area which has become
the prize of the gold-seeker furnishing wholly insufficient data upon
which to base general conclusions.
To begin with, the rock in which occur all these lodes is that which
carries the precious metals, with rare exceptions, the world over, and
which is either a granite or a gneiss, or, as in the Central City district,
such an inextricably confused mixture of both that it were impossible to
call it either. This is the country rock. Whether from the great changes
to which this rock has been exposed through countless ages, or whether
from other causes, it shows itself in most various forms at different
places, and passes by imperceptible phases through gneiss, granite, sye-
nite, and porphyry. This porphyry is perhaps more frequently observed
in the neighborhood of veins.
A fine illustration of the irregularity with which these rocks succeed
each other is to be observed along the road from Mount Vernon through
Idaho City to Georgetown. Along Clear Creek, from Fall River to
Georgetown, the inclination and direction of the rocks appear to be as
variable as their structural character, a general northwesterly dip being
perhaps most common, while red and gray, heavy-bedded, and thinly-
laminated gneiss and red and gray granite succeed each other in utter
confusion. Here and there a vein of quartz or quartz -porphyry or sye-
nite (very frequently auriferous) is visible, forming a light-colored streak
usually down the sides of the opposite hills. This composite character
of the country rock has been noticed, as 1 am informed, in most, if not
all, of the mining districts, and on both sides of the Sierra Madre or main
range. The gangue rock is most frequently quartz, which, of course,
assumes very different appearances at different places, both in texture
and in color. In some cases the gangue rock is porphyry more or less
weathered. (Brown Lode, West Argentine, et al)
The minerals of Colorado of commercial value which are most widely
distributed are auriferous iron and copper pyrites, (malachite and the
sulphates of iron and copper from their decomposition, though nowhere
in large quantities, being spread over wide areas,) zincblende, argent-
SURVEY OF COLORADO AND NEW MEXICO. 105
iferous galena, brittle silver ore, fahlerz, specular iron, hematite and
magnetic pyrites, cerussite and anglesite, native gold and silver, horn
silver, embolite, (confined chiefly to the neighborhoods of Georgetown
and Snake Kiver, 1 believe, as far as yet ascertained,) titanic iron ore,
micaceous iron ore, spathic iron ore, Smithsonite, copper glance, coal
and Albertine coal. These comprise the principal ores which I have
observed, but time and more thorough search will undoubtedly disclose
to the mineralogist, if not to the ^metallurgist and miner, many as yet
hidden treasures.
Gilpin County and the region about Empire are rated as gold fields,
and the values of ores from these and some other districts are given in
ounces of gold per ton; whereas the adjacent country around George-
town, abounding as it does in argentiferous galena and silver glance,
(called simply " sulphuret,") has the number of ounces silver per ton as
its standard. In some few veins, as the Whale Lode near Idaho City,
the values of the gold and silver present in the ore are nearly equal.
A more detailed specification of the ores follows:
Iron pyrites, (FeS 2 .) Almost universal in the mines. Occurs in
cubes from the size of a pin's head to those of an inch on the sides. Also
in pentagonal dodecahedra.
Copper pyrites, (Cu 2 S-fFeS 2 .) Is only second to iron pyrites in the
frequency of its occurrence.*
Zincblende, (ZnS.) Is also very common, especially in the Georgetown
region. Fine specimens were obtained from the Baker Lode, West Ar-
gentine and the Griffith Lode, close by Georgetown. Also from Gilbert's
(formerly Commonwealth Mining Company) Lode, near Nevada City.
Galena, (PbS.) Usually argentiferous. In all the lodes in the vicin-
ity of Georgetown. Contains from one hundred to six hundred ounces
silver per ton.t
Brittle silver ore, (Stephanite 5 A g S+ Sb 2 S 3 .) Occurs in the silver mines
of Georgetown. (Terrible and Brown lodes.)
Fahlerz, [(4BS+ 4Cu 2 S) QS 3 .B= Fe, Cu, Zn and often some Ag and
Hg = Q Sb and As.] Also in the region around Georgetown. The
formulae here given are from Naumann's Mineralogy. I am not aware
that Hg has been discovered in this ore, but as it coincides in its phys-
ical properties with- the ordinary fahlerz, I append the above formula.
Light ruby silver, (Proustite,) (3AgS.AsS 3 ); Dark ruby silver, (Py-
rargyrite,} (3AgS. SbS 3 .) Handsome specimens of these two ores were
observed intermixed with the galena from the Brown Lode. Also from
Snake Eiver.
Silver glance, (AgS.) From the Georgetown neighborhood. Equator
and Terrible lodes. A ton of galena, containing much of this ore,
was recently sold by a gentleman of Central City to Professor Hill for
$1,900 cash, and the latter realized a profit of $700 from it.
* Both iron and copper pyrites of this region contain gold in indefinitely fine particles.
The former is, in fact, the gold ore. Where these minerals have been exposed to tho
action of the weather, they have been decomposed and the gold set free. The value of
the gold in a ton varies from nothing to five hundred dollars, and even more. I have
observed small octahedra of gold on the crystal faces of iron pyrites from the Pleasant
View mine near Central City.
t It is somewhat remarkable that these veins of galena generally " pinch up " or grow
smaller as the depth increases. I take this general statement from the best authority I
could obtain on the subject. A gentleman well acquainted with the Georgetown ores
informed me that all attempts hitherto to produce lead for the market had failed from
deficiency in the supply of galena. This statement, which I give for what it is worth,
appears all the more remarkable when one compares it with the experience of miners in
Freiberg, Przibram, and Clausthal.
106 SURVEY OF COLORADO AND NEW MEXICO.
Copper glance. (Cn 2 S.) Bergen district, near Idaho City, Pleasant
View, &c.
Malachite, (CuO.C0 2 ;) Blue vitriol, (CuO.SO 3 +5HO ;) Green vitriol,
(CuO.SO 3 +7HO.) Occur in various mines from the decomposition of
the pyrites.
PyromorpUte, (PbO.PO 5 -f PbCl.) Associated with the galena of va-
rious mines near the surface.
Specular iron ore, (FeO.Fe^Os.) Cache & laPoudre, St. Vrain's, &c.
Red and brown hematite, (Fe 2 6 3 and Fe 2 O 3 -f HO.) Of frequent occur-
rence in the vicinity of the coal.
Coal. Beds of coal occur all along the flanks of the mountains,
but in the property of Mr. Marshall are perhaps the best exposures.
Here are no less than nine outcrops. They make their appearance at
various points along the range as far down as Santa Fe, and are of un-
known extent. Albertine coal, or solidified petroleum, is stated by Prof.
Denton to occur on White Eiver, in the western part of the Territory.
Gold. Occurs in the neighborhood of Central City, in the German
lode, and many others. In the Placer diggings. Some beautiful crys-
tals attached to cubes of iron pyrites in the ore from the Pleasant View
mine.
Silver. In many mines as wire or hair silver, Brown and United
States Coin lodes.
Cerussite, (PbO. CO 2 .) Pleasant-View mine. In small translucent
crystals occurring in geodes.
Anglesite, (PbO . SO 3 .) Freedland lode, Trail Eun.
Horn silver, (Ag Cl.) Georgetown, Snake Eiver.
Embolite, (AgBr+AgCl.) Peru district, Snake Eiver.
Titanic iron ore, (x Ti 2 O 3 +y Fe 2 O 3 .) Quartz Hill, and Eussel Gulch,
near Central City.
Micaceous iron ore, (Fe 2 O 3 .) Elk Creek. In fine crystals like mica.
SpatMc iron ore, (FeO . OO 2 .) Eureka and Griffith lodes, &c.
Smithsonite, (ZnO . CO 2 .) Eunning lode, Blackhawk, &c.
Salt, (NaCl.) From Salt Springs in South Park, twenty miles south-
east of Fairplay. Can produce forty thousand pounds per diem.
By characteristic minerals, I mean to include all those that have no
commercial value. They furnish proof, in most cases, of the presence
of other minerals, of rocks or of formations. Of the characteristic
minerals, among the most common are
Hydrated oxide of iron, (brown ochre, yellow ochre, bog iron ore, &c.)
Occurs with the coal beds at South Boulder, Golden City, &c., &c., and
is frequently regarded as a surface indication of the presence of gold,
silver and the precious ores generally.
Quartz, (SiO 3 .) The most important of the characteristic minerals.
Very widely diffused. Forms the gangue of nearly all the veins of the
precious metals in Colorado. As gangue rock it crops out on the hill
sides in white or colored streaks, usually intersecting the planes of strati-
fication of the rocks. Un crystallized, presenting sharp and jagged edges,
and a broken conchoidal uneven fracture, sometimes weathered by the
disintegration of the minerals it contained. Pebbles and partially
rounded crystals of quartz are abundant in the prairies east of the
Eocky Mountains, whence they have been carried down, and may be
observed hundreds of miles east of the easternmost " hog-back." Indeed,
the abundance of these small pebbles of quartz and of the red feldspar
is very remarkable, occurring as they do in great quantities on the
summits of the little prairie hillocks at such an immense distance from
their place of origin.
SURVEY OF COLORADO AND NEW MEXICO. 107
1. Smoky quartz and black quartz. Elk Creek.
2. Eock or Berg crystal. Near " Dirty woman's Ranch," and in geodes
in various mines.
3. Rose quartz. Quartz Hill.
4. Agate, (moss agate, &c.) Middle Park, Arkansas River Park, &c.
5. Amethyst. Nevada City, Mill City, &c.
6. Aventurine. Elk Creek.
7. Heliotrope, (bloodstone.) Middle Park.
9. Carnelian. South Park and Middle Park.
30. Chalcedony. South Park, Trout Creek Pass, &c.
11. Chrysoprase. Middle Park.
12. Jasper. South and Middle Parks.
13. Onyx. Middle Park, Grand River, &c.
14. Sardonyx. Golden City, Mount Vernon.
Hornstone, flint, milk quartz, prase, catseye, firestone, and other
different varieties of silicic acid, are met with in the above localities, but
have no especial interest.
Opal, (hydrated silicic acid.) Idaho City, Golden City, South Boul-
der, &c.
Feldspar. Very abundant in the mountains and as boulders and
pebbles throughout the Territory. Associated with quartz in the granites,
gneisses, and porphyries of the gold-bearing mountains.
a. Orthoclase (A1 2 O 3 . 3SiO 3 -f KO.SiO 3 ) is largely the predominant
feldspar in the rocks of Colorado.
a 1. Pegmatolite. Flesh-red, orthoclastic, abundant as pebbles, scat-
tered with quartz over the prairies for hundreds of miles. Eorms red
granites and gneisses with quartz and mica, and red syenites with horn-
blende. Very common.
a 2. Adularia. Forms a white porphyry when associated with quartz
in many places along Fall River, and in many veins. Not common.
a 3. Sanidin. Fine crystals of hopper-shaped sanidin from Quartz Hill.
1). Plagioclastic feldspars.
b 1. Albite, (A1 2 O 3 . 3 SiO 3 + NaO . SiO 3 .j Trout Creek Pass.
& 2. Oligoclase. Arkansas River Park, &c.
1) 3. Labrador, (A1 2 O 3 . SiO 3 -f CaO . SiO 3 .) In the basalts and diabases
of the region about the Spanish Peaks, Trinidad, the upper part of San
Luis Park, and the Puntia Pass.
Hornblende, (silicate of lime, magnesia, and suboxide of iron). In the
syenite in and around Idaho.
Diorite. Near Empire City and elsewhere.
Garnet. South Park, twenty miles from Fairplay. Breckenridge.
Mica, (KO . Si0 3 + A1 2 O 3 . SiO 3 + RO . SiO 3 .)
1. Potash mica. Light colored. Frequent in the gneisses of Gilpin
and other counties.
2. Magnesian mica, Dark colored. Frequent in the gneisses of South
Park, Trout Creek Pass, &c.
Lemite, (A1 2 O 3 . SiO 3 + KO . SiO 3 .) In trachytic lava between the
Cuchara and the Apishpa.
Chlorite. In diabase, near Trinidad.
Amphibole, (augite). In basalts, near Trinidad, and diabase near
Apishpa.
Epidote, (CaO . SiO 3 + [A1 2 O 3 + Fe 2 O 3 ] SiO 3 .) Trail Creek.
Tourmaline. Guy Hill.
Cole spar, (CaO . Co 2 .) Very widely distributed. Idaho, &c., &c.
Gypsum, (CaO . SO 3 -f HO.) Interstratified in the new red sandstone
108 SURVEY OF COLORADO AND NEW MEXICO.
or triassic beds. South Park, &c. Also, accompanying the coal in thin
scales.
Anhydrite. Elk Creek.
Salt, (Nad.) In solution in many springs. As deposit on rocks in
their vicinity.
Heavy spar, (BaO . SO 3 .) As gangue rock in many mines. Baker
lode, &c.
Meteoric iron. Found near Bear Creek.
Beryl, (Al 2 O 3 .2SiO 3 + G1 2 O 3 2SiO 3 .) Bear Creek.
Brucite, (MgO . HO.) James Creek.
Idocrase, [(CaO + MgO) SiOJ Bear Creek.
ILAPORTE ON THE CACHE A LA POUDRE.
The town lies on both banks of the above creek. The appearance of
the country is that of a number of superposed layers or strata dipping
from the mountains, and presenting a steep and more or less rugged
basset face toward them. The canon along which the river makes its way
through these " hog-backs" intersects the latter nearly at right angles.
We followed a canon to the north of that of the river, and rode twelve
miles to the extremity of the bluff on the left. The bluff to the right
hand was broken, and exhibited a clearly denned stratified side with
red sandstone, limestone, and conglomerate succeeding each other in
the order named.
On turning the extremity of the bluff to the right we came upon a
very weathered syenite region remarkable for the redness of its talus.
The mineral veins which our guide brought us to see were all situated
within an area of a square mile or so, in these syenite hills.
The first proved to be a dike or vein of syenite intersecting an older
rock of the same, which showed on the surface a very thoroughly decom-
posed rock, containing an excess of iron, which gave it a specific gravity
rather higher than usual and a dark brown color. Hornblende pre-
dominated in the rock. There were here and there traces of various
ores of copper, and lining the walls of the small cavities in the rock
was observed a thin film of gypsum and chloride of sodium. This spot
was situated upon the east bank of the North Fork of the Cache a la
Poudre, and about three hundred feet above that stream.
The next opening we visited was about half a mile northwest, and
was called Maxwell's opening. This was again a dark-colored, not very
distinguishable syenite, coated with malachite, and more or less per-
meated by copper pyrites. The opening was seven feet deep and the
crevice four or five feet wide, and the two pay streaks situated, the one
against the south wall rock, and the other about thirty inches there-
from. The ore becomes harder and more solid the deeper it is found.
Hole No. 3 was three hundred yards from No. 2. It was about four
feet deep, two and a half inches wide, and four feet long: The rock was
silicious and intimately mixed with a yellowish clay, which, with the
reddish tinge due to the oxide of iron, gave the Avliole mass a copper
color, which probably misled the prospectors and caused the digging of
the hole. A little copper pyrites was observable and a very little ma- ^
lachite. i
Hole No. 4 had been sunk by some Frenchmen fifteen feet deep, three
and a half feet wide, and five feet long. The rock described as compos-
ing No. 3 occurs with a curious slag-like silex containing very plain
pseudomorphs of cubes of iron pyrites. In this ore was a little copper
pyrites and malachite.
SURVEY OF COLORADO AND NEW MEXICO. 109
Lastly we emerged upon a precipitous narrow dike of quartz por-
phyry overhanging the before-mentioned creek on its right bank, and
forming an abrupt wall of one hundred and fifty feet above its bed. The
crystals, both of quartz and feldspar, were very large, averaging the
size of a man's hand. The quartz was standing transparent and milky,
while the feldspar was of the true flesh-red color common to typical peg-
matolite.
BOULDER CITY, JULY 5.
Obtained specimens of ores from leads ten miles from this place up
the James Creek. A fine solid specimen of argentiferous galena was
given to me from one foot beneath the surface at the intersection of the
Buckhorn and Big Thing lodes. Mr. Arnett, the owner of the claim,
states that this ore runs from $125 to $200 per ton in silver, and $300
in gold. I also obtained a specimen of very fine-looking ore from the
Horsefall mine, ten miles from Boulder City, in Gold Hill.
Near Boulder City, on the property owned by Mr. Marshall, occur some
fine, exposures of coal, which have been visited by Dr. J. LeConte, and
examined subsequently with much care by yourself, so that a special
report from me upon them would be superfluous. I will confine myself,
therefore, to the mere statement that, in a distance east and west of a
couple of miles, there are eleven exposures of very excellent coal, at least
nine of which would seem to promise rich rewards for the working. The
mining which has as yet been done, was merely to fix the location and
investigate the extent of the veins, as well as that could be done at the
surface. The beds appear to be large enough to yield with proper appli-
ances a thousand tons a day for an indefinite time. The commercial
value of this coal when the country is a little more settled can hardly be
overestimated. The color is a dark brownish or bluish black, with a high
luster and low specific gravity. It breaks, as does all of this recent coal
which I have observed along the flanks of the Eocky Mountains, with
the exception of the rare anthracite, into parallelopipeda. This friabil-
ity is annoying to the smelter, who finds that it chokes up his grate bars
and stops the draught, but it has been successfully combated in the works
of Professor Hill, of Blackhawk, by the use of the staircase furnace.
This coal contains very few impurities, and can be and is used in the
blacksmith's forge without previous coking. Specimens have been pro-
cured from these various veins and will be analyzed at the earliest oppor-
tunity and the results submitted to you.*
GOLDEN CITY.
Golden City is situated nearly west from Denver, on a gently sloping
plain at the inner extremity of the canon between two singular mesas or
table mountains of igneous rock, capped, like the innumerable mesas fur-
ther south, with thick slabs of basalt. The western border of the beau-
tiful valley in which Golden City is built, is formed of the gneissic rocks,
upon which rest the triassic (partly variegated and partfy white) beds,
and then follow the Jurassic and cretaceous, but ill-defined on account
of the unbroken grassy sward which usually conceals them. The dip of the
tertiary beds is here" beyond the vertical, so that they seem to incline
toward the mountains. There is a lead of silica in a state of fine divi-
sion which has been opened on a hill of triassic. On the west side of
* I forward to you as a supplement to this report analyses of some coals from
Wyoming Territory, and hope to add the Boulder coals thereto shortly.
110 SURVEY OF COLORADO AND NEW MEXICO.
a little valley separating the cretaceous and tertiary, occur, in order, clay,
sandstone, clay, coal, (one and a half to two feet thick,) clay, sandstone.
Throughout the beds overlying this coal seam, in the natural order of
deposition, but, in point of fact, underlying it on account of the abnor-
mal dip of the rocks, are many indications of lesser coal beds which as
yet have not been opened. About ten feet below the nethermost sand-
stone (in age above it) occurs a vein of fine brick clay ten to fifteen feet
thick. The limit of this stratum on its east side has not yet been reached,
but the clay grows purer and more and more free from iron in that
direction. On the west side of this bed the clay is not utilizable on
account of the presence in it of iron, which forms a fusible double silicate
and melts out, leaving the mass full of holes. A pottery has been started
and bids fair to compete successfully with the best establishments of
similar character elsewhere. As yet the proprietor confines himself to
the manufacture of earthenware, but contemplates increasing the extent
and variety of the products of this pioneer pottery, and even hopes in
time to be able to rival the best English white ware.
Friday, July 10. From Golden City to a point on the mail road nine
miles east of Idaho City. At Mount Yernon the road enters a canon, *and
after cutting across a red syenite, passes into a region of finely lami-
nated gneiss. From this point the springs become more frequent. A
number of quartz veins crop out on the sides of the road. Visited a
lode situated about two hundred yards south of the road and half a mile
west of the stage station. The crevice was eight feet wide, and the dis-
covery shaft ten feet deep. The quartz (which was very rotten) exhib-
ited iron and arsenical pyrites, copper glance, and galena. The wall
rock on the south side was not much weathered, whereas the proper
north wall-rock had not been reached. Not far from this opening was
another shaft thirty feet deep. The ore from it was rich in malachite,
copper pyrites, peacock ore, and copper glance. Beautiful rhombohedra
of calcite were obtained from the gaugue rock. This claim was to have
been sold in 1863 to parties in New York for $25,000, but owing to the
effect produced by the panic among owners of Colorado mines in that
year, the sale was not consummated, and the claim has lain idle ever
since.
An opening on another lode still further west revealed copper pyrites,
malachite, galena, and silver glance. Fine calc-spar crystals were ob-
tained here also.
July 17. Our route lay through Idaho City, nine miles distant. The
first part of the road wound its way through masses of red and gray
gneiss, intersected here and there by veins of white quartz. Now and
then this gneiss alters its character, both in habitus and color. Two
or three dikes of quartz porphyry cross the road.
The placer mining is carried on extensively on Clear Creek, there being
sixteen sluices between the intersection of the road and creek and Idaho
City. One party of the miners informed me that they averaged $12 per
day per man. They had five rifles in operation.
On the banks of Clear Creek the rocks were much contorted and
flexed ; general dip, northwest.
The hills on the right bank of the creek are much more weathered
and rounded off than those on the opposite bank. Gneiss of all
kinds, heavy and thin bedded, coarse and fine grained, red and gray,
with all possible combinations of these varieties, were observed. Near
Idaho the gneiss becomes somewhat suddenly very micaceous.
There are six sluices in operation between Idaho and three-quarters of
a mile above that city. Beyond this there is no gulch mining attempted.
SURVEY OF COLORADO AND NEW MEXICO. Ill
At Idaho there is a hot soda spring, whose waters, however, I did not
analyze. Just above Idaho is a sluice which once upon a time washed
out one ounce of gold (twenty- three dollars) per hand per diem, but the
best is now washed out. Near Seven-mile bridge the gneiss pitches
almost vertically on the right bank of the creek, and resting upon these
upturned basset edges were huge masses of gray granite.
GEORGETOWN.
The characteristic mineral of the country is zincblende, associated with
galena, iron pyrites, and comparatively little copper pyrites. The most
usual gangue rock is decomposed porphyry, and decomposed granite,
with much quartz. The country rock is composed mainly of gneiss. In
West Argentine there is considerable fluor spar occurring, as gangue
rock.
Baker lode. So far as an approximation to an average dip could be
got, this appeared to be east northeast, but throughout the region the
rocks are huddled together with such irregularity that nothing definite
can be stated about either the general dip or the general strike of the
rocks. The general strike of the veins is east of north, and their pitch
nearly vertical.
Broicn lode. At most of the mines the ore is got out by hoisting, but
at this one there is a tunnel driven in sixteen hundred feet above the
bed of the creek to intersect the shaft. The mouth of this latter is one
hundred and ten feet above the tunnel, and is met by the above-mentioned
cross-cut, (one hundred and eighty feet long,) and by a drift extending
(up to the date of these notes) but thirty feet out from it. The ores found
in the Brown lode are native (wire) silver, antimonial silver, (AgSb 3 ,)
stephanite, copper-fahlerz, polybasite, and the dark and light ruby ores.
The amalgamation works below here are usually supplied with ores con-
taining less than five per cent, of lead.
An engine of thirty horse-power drives the machinery of the mill,
and in winter time warms the water intended for the wet stamps, and
the building itself, by means of a steam-pipe leading to the tank con-
taining the water. The mines are not troubled by water. In last April
the miners had some trifling difficulty to contend against after the spring
thaw ; but this was promptly met and overcome. There are twenty
stamps for wet crushing and four others each of 500 pounds weight. The
ore contains about twenty per cent, lead, but this is insufficient to meet
the wants of the furnace, and lead is bought to supply the deficiency.
Thirty-five per cent, of lead is necessary to the carrying on of the pro-
cess. There are two classes of ore which are dressed or separated by
hand. The first-class ore is crushed dry and goes directly to the furnace.
The second-class ore is crushed wet, and dressed by means of a circular
buddle revolving from fifteen to twenty times per minute. Under one
hundred ounces per ton, the ore is not treated, but is dumped, out and
saved in the hope that the reduced price of labor or some* more econom-
ical process may enable the owners to work it to advantage.*
The ore, after having been dressed and sorted as above-mentioned, is
mixed with ten per cent, lime and fifteen per cent, iron, and is subjected
to a low red heat in a reverberatory furnace to reduce any argentiferous
litharge that may be present. Then high heat is given, and the sulphide
is converted into argentiferous lead and matt, according to the usual
method.
* One per cent, silver equals about three hundred ounces per ton, so that one hundred
ounces per ton equals one-third of one per cent.
112 SURVEY OF COLORADO AND NEW MEXICO.
The roasting requires from twelve to fifteen hours and the smelting
twelve hours more in the reverberatory furnace. The matt, after being
separated from the argentiferous lead, is stored away to be worked over
at the end of every run ; or if the furnace clogs up some of it is added, to
clean it out by its fusibility.
A run occupies usually twenty days, more or less. In regard to the
amount of work done by this company the following statement may be
of interest, as giving the total from January to August of 1869.
Total number tons of ore treated in furnace, 188.
Average assay value of ore per ton, 200 ounces.
Percentage of assay value saved, 90 per cent.
The Terrible shaft is opened four hundred feet below the Brown. In
April last the workmen were shut out from their shaft by the rapid
invasion of water, but since then there has been no trouble. The Ter-
rible ores have already attained a widespread reputation for richness.
The main difference between them and the Brown ores is that they are
richer in brittle, and the Brown in ruby, silver.*
The Baker mine. The mill belonging to this company is situated some
four miles up the canon known as West Argentine, and on the opposite
side of the creek from the Brown lode. It is one of the very finest
structures of the kind ever erected in this Territory, but was not quite
completed at the time of my visit. On the floor of the mill under the
apertures through which the ore is to be delivered, is a drying hearth for
drying the wet ores. After the moisture has been driven off the ore is
crushed in Dubois's breaker and ball-crusher. The former of these
machines resembles the breaker known generally in Europe under the
name of " the American nut-cracker.'- The ball-crusher is a cylinder
formed of strong iron staves, which are attached at their extremities to
two stout iron disks in such a way as to leave a very small crack between
each' two f f them. Three to four hundred pounds of iron balls are then
put in with the ore and the cylinder revolved on its axis. The finely
powdered rock falls through the cracks into a hopper built to receive it,
and through this hopper into an iron cylinder twelve feet long and eight
feet in diameter, with a helix attached to its inner surface for the pur-
pose of continually turning the ore, and thus presenting a fresh surface
for oxidation. Fire is at first applied, and this cylinder is made to rotate
slowly, and in a short time the sulphur of the ore is ignited, whereupon
the extraneous fire is withdrawn and the oxidation continues with the
assistance of the heat from the burning sulphur. The supply of atmos-
pheric air to the interior is regulated by means of a door to an opening
at one extremity of the cylinder's axis, while the volatilized oxides of lead
and zinc and silver are led through a pipe connecting with the other
extremity of the axis to condensing chambers and thus saved.
After a thorough roasting the ore is let out upon cooling floors, and
from that transferred to the amalgamating barrels.
The Baker ores contain much ziucblende and will average perhaps sixty
ounces silver per ton, though occasionally rich pockets are met with in the
mine, the ores from which have given remarkably high results. Eed and
white varieties of fluorspar occur largely as gangue rock of the lode.
The Eurleigli tunnel. This is about half a mile distant from the Brown
lode toward Georgetown. The object had in view by the proprietors of
this tunnel is to intersect all the lodes whose strike is with the trend of
the mountain in which it is being driven. The rock is quite hard, and
only one hundred feet had been bored when it was inspected. The boring
* The average assay value of brittle silver is five thousand ounces per ton.
SURVEY OF COLORADO AND NEW MEXICO. 113
is done by means of steel drills worked by compressed air, the machine
for driving them being mounted on a car running on rails. A steam
engine outside compresses the air and forces it through pipes to the
machine in the interior. It is expected that a lode will be intersected
about one hundred feet further in.
The Snowdrift mine. This mine is three quarters of a mile below the
Brown lode, on the same side of the creek, and is five hundred feet higher
up the mountain than the same. The ores are chiefly sulphuret, (silver
glance,) and galena. Very little iron or copper pyrites or zincblende is
met with. The vein is five feet in thickness, and the pay streak, (one-
half of which is said to be composed of silver glance,) six inches IB
width. The cost of getting out five tons (including wages, &c.) was
seventy dollars, and the ore averages one hundred ounces per ton.
The Griffith lode. This lode, like the Gregory, near Central City, is
the oldest as well as one of the richest in the vicinity of Georgetown.
It is situated in a high hill or mountain on the right bank of Clear
Creek. The shaft opening is about half way up this hill. The shaft is
one hundred and twenty-seven feet deep, from which a drift has been
struck fifty feet east, and ten feet west. The dip of the vein is a trifle
south, though it is nearly vertical. The crevice averages perhaps four
to five feet, and its north wall-rock is a syenite, while the south wall
rock appears to be a weathered granite. Assays show values of from one
hundred to seven hundred ounces per ton. The ore will average per-
haps one hundred and fifty ounces per ton. The expectation was, when
the improvements in progress had been made, to tajie out fifty tons of ore
per Mem. Some little trouble was experienced from water in the early
spring, but not enough to hamper the efficient working of the mine.
This company owns twenty-five feet each side of the lode and three
hundred on the lode each side of the discovery shaft.* The upper part
of the north wall-rock consists of a decomposed, yellowish coarse-grained
mixture of gneiss and quartz porphyry, but below it is a hard, compact
syenite. The south wall-rock appears to be, above, a reddish ferruginous
weathered granite, and, below, a white, compact quartz porphyry.
The following is as accurate a list as could be obtained of the princi-
pal lodes worked at the present time in the vicinity of Georgetown :
Baker, (worked for three years;) Brown and Coin, Terrible, Lily, Men-
dota, Snowdrift, White, Elijah Hise, Win. B. Astor, Cliff, New Boston,
B. Nuckles, Belmont, Continental, Equator, Gilpin, Griffith, Comet,
Magnet, Anglo-Saxon,* Young America, and Wall Street.
There are seven mills and dressing works in the vicinity.
From the Equatpi and Terrible the first-class ores are hand-dressed,
(from the former simply broken and boxed, from the latter crushed and
sacked,) and sent to the East for further treatment. The lead is not paid
for. I am informed that in the New Boston mine there is in one place
fifteen feet of solid galena. The same authority states that a shaft was
sunk on the vein one hundred and seventy-five feet before it was dis-
covered that the crevice, instead of five, was fifteen feet in breadth.
J. 0. Stuart's mill. This mill stands on the left bank of Clear Creek,
just below Georgetown, and is built for custom ores. The greater part
of the business of this mill is derived from the Equator and Terrible
second-class ores. The average amount of ore put through the mill is
about three tons a day, or one thousand tons a year. The process is
* See Mining Laws of Colorado.
t In the Anglo-Saxon, I am informed that native silver predominates over all other
metals, but the pay streak is very narrow.
8 as
114 SURVEY OF COLORADO AND NEW MEXICO.
the same used in California and Nevada. Ores are never sent here for
treatment which assay less than $60 per ton, and the average is about
$100 per ton. These ores are roasted with salt in a reverberatory fur-
nace and amalgamated in pans. They consist chiefly of silver glance,
zinc blende, and copper (and iron) pyrites. They are first dried in an iron
pan and then crushed dry in a six-stamp mill. After this they are sub-
mitted to a chloridizing roasting in a reverberatory furnace with salt. The
pyrites contained in the ore is sufficient in amount to react on the cloride
of sodium and set free tl e chlorine without the necessity of adding sul-
phate of iron, which is usually done. The material is then amalga-
mated in iron pans and filtered through cloths, after which it is retorted,
assayed, melted, run into bricks, and stamped. The ore from the Whale
lode contains about equal values of silver and gold, and will be run into
bars as auriferous silver and sent East for separation.
EMPIEB CITY.
The principal mines in the neighborhood of Empire City are the
Conqueror, Silver Mountain, Tenth Legion, Empire, Livingstone, At-
lantic, Gold Dirt, Eosencranz, Eupp and Cross, Tom Benton, and Star,
the Curtis, and Ellsworth, (the former close to Mr. Ball's mill, and the
latter almost in the town,) and the Bay State. Many others look favor-
ably, but are not mentioned, because the shafts are not yet sunk deep
enough to render an intelligent opinion of their capacity possible.
The Conqueror lode. This lode is located a mile or two above the
settlement of Upper Empire. The shaft is two hundred and seventy
feet deep, and the ore is all pyrites in a fine state of division. There
are, as yet, no drifts commenced, but the ore is shoveled out into buck-
ets and dumped out as a mass, resembling moist sandy clay, inter-
spersed with fine crystals of iron pyrites. The engine, which is of twen-
ty-two horse power, hoists out in forty seconds. They get out two cords
of ore, at from eight to ten tons per cord, in a day. This Conqueror ore
assays very well, but the data of its yield I am unable to find in my
notes.
The Eosencranz ore resembles that of the Conqueror. The crevice of
the Silver Mountain lode is five and one-half feet thick. It had lain
idle for some months previous to the date of my visit, (July,) and there
were ten fee ^ of drift snow in the bottom of the shaft when I descended
it. The roof and walls of the mine were covered with fine crystals of
Green Vitrol.
All these lodes were recorded as striking northeasf and southwest.
Mr. Ball assures me that the general character of the gangue rock in
all this district is granitic.
There are nine amalgamation mills in this (the Union) district.
CEKTEAL CITY.
The Gregory lode. This crops out near the lower end of Central
City, was the first discovered in Colorado, and has been worked ever
since with profit, in spite of the disturbances which have checked the
development of so many other mines. At present there are seventeen
shafts sunk in the lode, only three of which are being worked. The first
class ore of this vein is an iron pyrites in which a tolerably constant per-
centage of gold is found mechanically diffused, (or as some think chem-
ically combined, with sulphur,) but at all events in a state of very fine
pa
dr
SURVEY OF COLORADO AND NEW MEXICO. 115
division. The ore assays from three to six ounces gold per ton, and is
sold to Professor Hill for treatment in his smelting works.
A somewhat singular phenomenon is the occurrence, at No. 4 Gregory
Lode, (Brace's claim,) of three separate veins in a breadth of fifteen feet.
These veins are named the Dead Broke, Gregory, and Foote and Sim-
mons. They are divided from each other by thin walls of country
rock, in some places two inches and less in thickness, but were virtually
regarded and wrought as one vein. A little higher up on Gregory hill
these veins diverge in three different directions, and at a depth of two
hundred and sixty feet in the Smith and Parmelee shaft the latter two
are seventy feet apart.
Smith and Parmelee mine. This claim was wrought for the first
forty feet as one vein. It there divides over a mass of country rock,
and, as above stated, the veins diverge continually at lower depths. At
the surface in many places, the lode in which this claim is situated ap-
pears to dip with the country rock, but deeper the latter becomes almost
horizontal, while the vein continues its course downward as a true fis-
sure vein. At a depth of two hundred and sixty feet work was con-
ducted on the north vein, and a cross-cut was run out to the Gregory
lode in which there are one hundred and sixty feet of good ore which
has not yet been stoped out. The level in the Gregory vein has been
run east and west eighty feet.
The breadth of the vein is, on the average, two feet, and of the iron or
y streak, te*n inches. The average assay value of the ore is one hun-
red and twenty-five dollars per ton. It is sold to Professor Hill. At
a depth of four hundred and fifty feet there is another level run, and
this is as deep as the Gregory vein proper has been wrought. In this
level the appearance of the ore is unchanged. The mill and machinery
had been overhauled and put into better condition than ever before, and
the management having fallen into new hands everything seemed to be
conducted with an energy and attention to details which cannot fail to
make the enterprise a success. Twenty -five five-hundred-pound stamps
were at work, the hoisting machinery was in good order, ventilation
perfect, and the stulls in good condition. The cost of these large tim-
bers is enormous, and out of all proportion to the other appointments of
the mine. One of them, eight to ten feet long, will cost ten dollars
before it is in its place.
Briggs's mine. This claim adgoins the Smith and Parmelee, and is
owned and superintended by the brothers Briggs. Everything about
the mine and mill indicated that work was being conducted with intel-
ligence and care. The condition of ladders and cribbing was good. I
will venture to make one suggestion of an improvement which will
apply to the majority of all the mines here, as well as to this one. In
some cases, where deep shafts or other dangerous places must be passed
by the miners in their passage to and from their work, a proper regard
for their safety should induce the company to see to it that every acci-
dent which could endanger life is guarded against.* In some few cases
this has been overlooked. The Gregory and Briggs veins, together at
the surface, are fifty feet apart at a depth of four hundred and fifty feet.
The distance between the wall rocks varies from four to eighteen feet.
The appearance of the ore improves, the lower the vein has been fol-
lowed.
At the bottom of the shaft, the Gregory vein widens out to eight feet,
* An accident has since occurred in this mine by which three men were killed.
116 SURVEY OF COLORADO AND NEW MEXICO.
and besides the fine look of the iron pyrites, native gold is found, in very
small particles, scattered over quite an extent of the pay streak.
In the mill are fifty eight-hundred-and-eighty -pound stamps.
NEVADA CITY.
Tlie Prize and Copeland lodes. The town of Nevada adjoins Central
City and stretches away some two miles up the gulch in which it is
built. The Prize vein strikes about north 10 west, and the Copelaud
nearly west.
The two veins come together in the shaft at a depth of one hundred
and twenty feet from the surface. The drift on the Copeland has been
run seventy feet west and sixty-five feet east from the shaft. At the
extremity of the western outstope the vein is ten feet in width, and the
ore occurs throughout the whole of it. The ore is principally zinc-
blende, and assays one hundred dollars per ton. The second-class ore
averages six ounces per cord. Mine in excellent condition, and timbers
good. Seventeen men and two horses are employed in and outside the
mine. Back and forward stoping are being carried on at the ;same time
from the extremities of the drift. At the bottom of the shaft the vein
is six feet in thickness, and contains an eighteen-inch pay streak close
to each wall. The average yield per diem is three cords (about twenty-
one tons. Twenty -four stamps are run night and day.
North Star lode. The ore from this lode contains a fahlerz which
will prove very rich. The machinery and appointments of the mine are
the best that I saw around Central City. The hoisting apparatus, which
is provided with an automatic dumping arrangement, works beautifully.
Shaft mouth, dressing works, and blacksmith shop are all under the
same roof. There are eight tables for blanket tailings.
Perrin lode. The shaft house and mill belonging to the Perrin Mining
Company had just been erected under the superintendence of Mr. G. A.
Bradley, but had not been running long enough to enable me to gather
any reliable statistics as to the amount of work which could be done
per diem.
The shaft is situated in Russell Gulch. The ores of this mine com-
prise copper and iron pyrites, copper glance, and fahlerz. The first-
class ore averages $150 per ton, and the second-class three and one-half
ounces per cord. The shaft is one hundred and forty feet deep ; dip of
vein, seventy-eight degrees ; strike north five degrees east at the shaft
mouth, but the strike varies with the distance from the shaft, and the
vein appears to conform to the shape of the hill. Ko good hanging
wall has yet been reached.
The mill owned by this company is located about a quarter of a mile
from the shaft house in Eussell Gulch, and is forty feet square.
There are four companies running mills in the gulch above this one,
which purchase their water from the Consolidated Ditch Company. Mr.
Bradley, however, has a drain to Graham Gulch, two hundred and fifty
feet distant, and leads the water which he obtains from it to a tank of
twelve hundred cubic feet capacity. A large cistern of five barrels
capacity, attached to the rafters of the mill, keeps the stamps supplied
with water, through pipes suitably attached, and derives its supply from
the large tank previously mentioned.
In the event of the water supply failing, there is a second tank, of
two. hundred and eighty-eight cubic feet capacity, which is placed at the
opposite end of the mill, and into which the water from the tail sluices
runs. This tank is divided into a smaller and a larger part by a parti-
SURVEY OF COLORADO AND NEW MEXICO. 117
tion not quite as high as its sides, over which the water pours from the
former into the latter division, thereby clearing itself. An elevator
conveys it from here to the cistern. By this arrangement the same
water can be used two or three times.
One engine of thirty-five horse-power drives two six-stamp and two
five-stamp batteries. The stamps of the former weigh six hundred
pounds each, and those of the latter four hundred and fifty pounds
each.
There is a separate bin opposite each battery for sorting the custom
ores. The four-hundred-and-fifty-pound stamps are intended to drop
thirty-five, and the six hundred pounders twenty-five times per minute.
There are in this mill eight feet of coppers and four feet of blankets ;
but besides this the water runs over four and one-half feet of small
blankets to the tail- sluice. Two pumps keep the water constantly
supplied to the cistern. The blankets are washed, according to circum-
stances, every fifteen to thirty minutes.
These tailings are brought into the Bartola pans and polished by
arastras, nitrate of mercury and cyanide of potassium being added in
small quantities to assist the process.
From this they are brought to the dolly-tub for amalgamation. These
three pans save $15 of the gold, which would otherwise run out and be
thrown away, per day ; and Mr. Bradley hopes to be able, by the use of
three additional pans, which he contemplates adding, to pay the daily
wages of the whole mill personal.
The two five-stamp batteries are always worked together, but the six-
stamp batteries are provided with a clotch, by disconnecting which
fastening they can be worked separately.
Cleveland mine. Excelsior lead.
Trail Creek, a few miles from Idaho City. I visited the mill belonging
to this company for the purpose of witnessing the trial of a new two-
stamp steam stamp, the invention of Mr. Wilson, of Philadelphia. Two
steam cylinders are mounted on heavy framework, the piston-rods pro-
longed below are shod, thus forming the two stamp-rods. The weight
of each stamp is 500 pounds, the impinging force of the steam 1,700
pounds ; which, deducting the necessary amount for friction and other
losses, leaves an available blow of over 1,700 pounds. These stamps
can be run 170 to 212 per minute. This velocity was not attained
during the trial, but the working was so satisfactory as to leave the
impression on all who witnessed it that this kind of stamp mill, with
certain modifications, bids fair to supersede all others. Great attention
must, of course, be paid to the feeding, to avoid throwing upon the
table imperfectly crushed quartz, because from twice to twelve times as
much ore as in an ordinary mill passes in a given time under each one of
these stamps.
The smelting works of Professor Hill. These works are favorably sit-
uated on Clear Creek, half a mile below the western extremity of the
town of Black Hawk. There are two reverberatpry furnaces, a set of
rollers for crushing, and attached to the works is an assay office for
valuing the ore bought.
This ore is of all kinds and comprises the richest produced by the
mines. Seven tons are matted in one day, and this matt is then sent by
Professor Hill to Swansea and sold. The lump ore is roasted in heaps
six to eight weeks, to get rid of the greater part of the sulphur; it is
then crushed in the rolling-mill and mixed with the other ores.
The tailings, consisting mainly of pyrites, are roasted in the reverbe-
ratory furnaces.
118 SURVEY OF COLORADO AND NEW MEXICO.
All the ores are mixed together after roasting, in such a manner as to
produce a slag of the requisite fusibility. The greater part of the zinc,
lead and arsenic is volatilized, a small portion only uniting with the
matt and slag. The matt contains forty per cent, copper, and is the
product obtained by smelting the roasted ores. How rich this matt is
in silver, and how much of it is annually shipped abroad, is known only
to Professor Hill and his assistant.
It is stated that Professor Hill contemplates erecting additional
works for the reduction of this matt on the ground where it is produced,
and the enterprise is generally regarded with satisfaction by the mining
population, among whom the belief is common that the profit which
Professor Hill can realize in treating these ores ought to be sufficient to
enable him to spare himself this great transportation, and at the same
time stop one of the many channels through which bullion flows out of
the country.
COLORADO CITY, AUGUST 9.
About three miles from Colorado City, in a ravine through which
flows the Fontaine-qui-bouille, are the famous soda springs, which
have been from time immemorial regarded with superstitious awe by
the Indians, and which are now attracting persons from all parts of the
country by their beauty and supposed medicinal virtues. Three of
these springs are situated on the right bank of the creek, not more than
fifteen feet from the edge, and one of them (the smallest, and that giving
the strongest water) on the left bank.
The first of these which one meets in going from Colorado City bub-
bles up through the rock into a large basin of seven or eight feet in.
diameter, which it has formed partly by wearing away the sides which
confine it, and partly by continual deposits of its salts. This spring is
called the " Beast Spring," because it is the only one of the four con-
veniently accessible to large quadrupeds, which drink greedily of its
waters.
The next (and largest) spring on the same side of the creek is the
bathing spring, and is distant from the other but a few rods. A rude
roof is erected over the spot whence it issues from the rock, and the
invalids sojourning at this place (of whom there were three at the date
of our visit) bathe in it night and morning. The third spring on this
side is the u lron Spring," and is situated a short distance up the stream
from the last-mentioned, in a thicket, which proves from its little dis-
turbed condition that the curative powers of the water are not held in
as high estimation as are those of the other springs.
The last spring, which I have ventured to christen the "Doctor," from
the strength of its water, is the smallest of all, and on the left bank of
the Fontaine.
A qualitative analysis of these springs with the blow-pipe gave the
results which follow. The manner of conducting the analysis was as
follows :
A large iron camp kettle, of four gallons capacity, was filled with the
water, and the contents evaporated to dryness. The salts deposited
were then collected, and, after the water itself was tested for volatile
substances, analyzed.
The Doctor. Four gallons of the water of this spring were evaporated
to dryness. The salts of the residue would weigh perhaps an ounce.
The mouth of this spring is about one foot in length and eight inches in
width. The water contains much carbonic acid in solution. It emerges
SURVEY OF COLORADO AND NEW MEXICO. 119
quietly from a syenite on the left bank, and flows in a slender stream
into the Fontaine. A few bubbles of gas are rising continually to the
surface, but the excess of carbonic acid is not proportionately so great
as in the other springs. There is a comparatively small deposit of car-
bonate of lime in the bed of the little canal which the water has worn
away through the rock, and none in the vicinity which could be traced
to the overflow of the spring. The water shows no trace of volatile
substances which would escape during the evaporation, except carbonic
acid. Its reaction is feebly alkaline.
The salts held in solution are as follows:
Much ^"aO . CO 2
KO.CO 2
CaO . CO 2
NaCl
A1 2 3
Trace Fe.
The Iron Spring. This showed the presence of that metal from which
it is named by a very insignificant deposit of the familiar brown oxide
in its vicinity. No volatile substances in the water. Reaction alkaline.
The salts in solution were :
*KO.C0 2
NaO . CO 2
*Li0. 2 C0 2
(Probably as carbonate) FeO . OO 2 ;i .
NaCl
A1 2 3
The amount of iron in solution in the Iron Spring was unusually
small ; the amount of alumina being greater and that of lime less than
in "The Doctor."
The Beast Spring. This is next to the largest. A continuous line of
bubbles of carbonic acid is perpetually ascending from the bottom. The
taste of the water is not so pleasant nor pungent as that of the other
springs.
The analysis showed
ISTaO . CO 3
KO.C0 2
Na.Cl
S
A1 2 O 3
The Bathing Spring was not analyzed, but its salts cannot be very dif-
ferent from those of the "Beast." A noticeable feature of this latter is
the small per cent, of sulphur which probably is present in soda or
potash alum. The ebullition of gas in the "Bathing Spring' 7 is enor-
mous and keeps the water in a constant state of agitation.
This spring bursts out from a syenitic rock, but by the overflow of its
waters it has covered the latter with a crust of carbonate of lime seV-
eral feet in thickness and much broader than is the case at the celebrated
High Eock Spring of Saratoga. It is as if a white tablecloth were laid
over the rock. I have never seen so violent an escape of gas except
from the Salina near Kissingen, in Bavaria.
* The potash and lithia reactions with the blowpipe are sufficiently distinguishable
to enable one possessing the requisite experience to recognize them with a little trouble ;
but in the field, where time is short and opportunities meager, it is not always easy to
do this. I venture to give them both without stating which predominates, reserving
the solution of this question for the first opportunity which offers iu the future.
120 SURVEY OF COLORADO AND NEW MEXICO.
The Indians (both those of the mountains and those of the plains)
frequently visit these springs, and, riding around them upon their horses,
do homage to the Great Spirit which caused them to boil forth at this
place, by throwing in offerings of ear-rings, bracelets, beads, and other
objects of value. A gentleman, residing here temporarily for his health,
was upon one occasion alarmed at the approach of a large band of Sioux,
who, he saw, were in their war-paint and on an expedition against the
Utes in South Park. He secreted himself and watched them. They
rode around the "Beast Spring,' 7 chanting some solemn invocation, and
from time to time divesting theinselves of some trinket and casting it
into the bubbling water. When this was concluded they all drank of
the spring, and then pursued their jonrney. It may be interesting to
the believers in the virtues of the water to know that this same band was
badly whipped by the Cites, and on its return was in too great a hurry
to repeat the incantation scene. My informant took over a bushel of
rings and trinkets out of the spring.
CAHON CITY.
Seven miles up the canon, through which runs Four-mile Creek, are
four oil wells, which have been sunk by a Denver company, under the
direction of Mr. James Murphy, who resides by and takes care of them.
The canon runs through cretaceous sandstones and shales. The works
are very primitive as yet. Scaffoldings surmount the mouths of two of
the wells, and the oil is got out by pumping.
One of these wells is three hundred feet deep, but the oil is called by
the superintendent surface oil, and he expresses confidence in reaching
a much larger supply by piercing some distance down. At present he
can only extract a few gallons a day. Some of the oil is stored in bar-
rels about the premises.
An analysis made of the oil by Mr. Murphy gives
Per cent.
Beazine 12
Good clear burning oil 50
Nitrogenous mass, containing much paraffine and paraffine oil 25
Coke and refuse 13
Total 100
Mr. Murphy states that these oil wells have been opened six years,
the half of -which time he has resided on the ground, and estimates the
annual production of oil at about four thousand gallons.
A quarter of a mile west of Caiion City is a soda spring of delicious
water which bursts out from between No. 1 and 2 of the cretaceous. The
spring is small and its strength diminished by a large acequia, the water
of which leaks through an aqueduct, built to carry it around a jutting
point of rock, and trickles into the spring.
The taste of the water is very agreeable, and stronger than that of
any similar spring I have ever seen.
A trace of iodine was discovered in the water of this spring. The (
salts were
NaO . CO 2
U MgO.C0 2
CaO . CO 2
Trace Fe
A1 2 O 3
Trace I
SURVEY OF COLORADO AND NEW MEXICO. 121
A crust of carbonate of lime is observable everywhere in the vicinity
of the spring as a porous tufa-like mass.
NEW MEXICO. LAS VEGAS, SEPTEMBER 5.
Visited the celebrated hot springs, or "Ojos callientes." These springs
make their way through metamorphic rocks on both sides of the creek,
and the women of the country come to wash their clothes in them, for
miles around. The temperature of the water is very high, but not being
able to procure a thermometer in Las Vegas, I cannot state it with any
pretense to precision. I estimate it at over 150 Fahrenheit. A five-
gallon kettle of water, when evaporated, left a very slight sediment at
the bottom not a quarter of an ounce.
In solution were :
KO.CO 2
NaO . CO 2
Na.Cl
Trace Fe
Trace S
Trace Li O
SANTA FE, SEPTEMBER 9.
Visited the old placer mines, which are situated in a short chain of
mountains lying thirty miles or so west from Santa Fe, and on a large
grant belonging to the New Mexico Mining Company, and under the
direction of Colonel Anderson, formerly of the engineer corps, United
States Army.
The land owned by the New Mexico Mining Company in the San Lazaro
mountains is ten miles and sixty chains square. The whole surrounding
country is impregnated with gold from the mountain lodes, and gulch
mining there would pay richly, were it not for the deficiency in the sup-
ply of water. The company has heretofore freely permitted the inhab-
itants in the grant to pan out gold for themselves, and they frequently
obtain in this way six dollars per hand in one day.
The old mill which was formerly here has been replaced by a new
one, now nearly completed, which is situated on the side of a hill, and
by a little brook which supplies water to the boiler of the steam engine.
The great difficulty which lies in the way of the successful working of
these mines a deficiency of water Colonel Anderson hopes to be able
to surmount, either by means of a ditch bringing water from the Pecus,
or by sinking an artesian well. The mill contains forty G50-pound
stamps, intended to drop eight inches seventy-five times per minute.
The principal mines yet opened on the property are, in the order of
their importance and date, the Ortiz and Brahm.
It is highly probable that there are other veins of auriferous and
argentiferous quartz on the grant, but these two being the only mines
as yet opened and worked, a glance at them must suffice.
The Ortiz mine was discovered and opened by a Mexican, whose
name it bears, nigh seventy years ago ; but the work having been con-
ducted in the shiftless, slovenly manner characteristic of the Mexicans,
it was thought advisable by Dr. Steck, Colonel Anderson's predecessor,
to sink another shaft some distance from the discovery shaft (which
marks the center of the gTant.) This new shaft is now two hundred
feet deep, well cribbed and timbered, and supplied with the best of lad-
ders. The country rock is a granite, and the crevice is perhaps four
122 SUEVEY OF COLORADO AND NEW MEXICO.
feet in average. An incline was begun by Dr. Steck, connecting the
two shafts, and was broken through recently under direction of the
captain miner, Mr. McVhee, after whom the new shaft is named.
The ore is composed of iron, copper and arsenical pyrites, galena and
malachite. The pay streak is of good size, and the vein is what is called
a chimney vein, that is to say, it widens out every twenty feet or so
into a chimney, which " pinches up " again a little further on.
There are quite a number of these chimneys connected together by
narrow veins. This is a characteristic feature of this mine, and is con-
sidered a very favorable sign. I would especially notice here the ad-
mirable condition in which everything about the mine is kept. Though
not yet extensive, the work which has been done reflects the greatest
credit on the superintendent and the captain of the mine.
Altogether, about four thousand tons of ore have been taken out and
piled near the mouth of the shaft, against the time when the mill
shall be completed, and it can be transported thither for reduction. Its
average assay value has been $26 per ton, while an ounce of gold
obtained by panning has often reached $19 50.
Since Colonel Anderson's administration, $35, 000 have been expended
on the mines and mill.
The transportation from the mines to the mill will cost seventeen cents
per ton.
The Bralim lode. This was discovered last April by a professional
prospector of Sante Fe, employed by the company, after whom it is
named. The strike of the vein is northeast, and at the surface the dip
is 75, but at a depth of thirty-eight feet it dips but 45 southeast.
There are three shafts upon it, the discovery shaft being now forty feet
deep.
Some fine specimens of ore carrying native gold were obtained from
the extension shaft. Between the discovery and extension shafts is the
air shaft, from which the richest quartz has been obtained.
Levels are being driven both ways, outwards from all these shafts.
The following may be interesting, as giving an idea of the expense of
working mines on this scale in this country : Two engineers, at $90 per
month ; four feeders, at $3 50 per day; two amalgamators, at $5 per day;
forty miners, at $2 25 per day, (Mexicans;) common laborers, at $45 per
month; chief mechanic and foreman of mill, at $205 per month; one car-
penter, at $5 per day ; three carpenters, at $90 per month ; two black-
smiths, at $110 per month ; captain miner. $180 per month.
The true name of the old placer mining district is the Eeal Dolores.
The new placer mines are situated on the north face of the Tuorto
Mountains and should properly be called the Eeal de San Francisco.
Some litigation has arisen between this company and the New Mexico
Mining Company, on account of a dispute as to the boundary of the lat-
ter's part.
The nucleus of the San Lazaro Mountains is a granite, which exhibits
itself in the mountain, to the north of the settlement, in high conical
peaks. To the south of the settlement is a mountain composed princi-
pally of metamorphosed sandstone, which is everywhere intersected by
trap dikes.
Near the mill is an igneous conglomerate. This rock consists of a
matrix of calcareous matter, in which are breccia of various rocks and
large rounded masses of syenite. The boulders of syenite appear to be
of singularly uniform size and are strewed over the rock with remarka-
ble symmetry and regularity.
About three miles north of this settlement is a high hill at the north-
SURVEY OF COLORADO AND NEW MEXICO. 123
era base of which occur several coal seams. The nearest and most
recently opened is a coal of fine quality, and, like all the coal observed
along the flanks of the Rocky Mountains, breaks up into small paraUelo-
pipeda or rectangular prisms.
Near the entrance to the southwest opening of this coal bed are two
irregularly-shaped masses of carbonaceous clay and gypsum, which re-
semble, at a superficial glance, small dikes. Neither of these appear to
be continued above the roof or beneath the sole of the mine, though
they appear on both sides.
Another bed of coal was visited, near which was a large basaltic dike,
the heat from which appears to have altered the former to a modern
anthracite. This coal is harder, blacker, and more lustrous than that of
other veins I have seen in the vicinity of the Rocky Mountains; nor does
it exhibit that singular cleavage which characterizes these beds.
Ores were given me from the San Dia Mountains and mines which
looked well, but proved by a quantitative analysis to contain very little
silver. The ore was a quartz containing lumps and flakes of galena.
Colonel Anderson gave me also a fine specimen of native copper,
found in the bed of the creek, at a short distance above the Real Do-
lores.
Quite fine-looking specular iron, hematite, and some small crystals of
spathic iron ore, were seen on the North Mountain, half a mile or so from
the Ortiz.mine. Specimens of the former were obtained.
TAOS, SEPTEMBER 19.
Twelve miles north from Taos, in the Arroyo Hondo, is a mill erected
quite recently by the " Arroyo Hondo Mining and Ditch Company, 77
under the superintendence of Mr. Stuart, of Taos, but not yet roofed
over, nor in complete running order. There are twenty 430-pound stamps
constructed to drop thirty -five times per minute.
The quartz of the ore is partly a ferruginous and reddish, partly a
white mixture of quartz and mica. The red variety prospects the best,
("shows the best color.' 7 ) On the road from the mill to the sluift from
which the company expects to derive most of its ore, is a lode which
occurs in the granite and bears iron pyrites, green, and a little blue vitriol.
A second opening has been made higher up the mountain into a deposit
of reddish and whitish clay, which shows good color in the pan, but is too
sticky to wash well in large quantities. The company is at present ex-
ceedingly puzzled to know how to treat this material, and is considering
the feasibility of baking it into bricks and then running it under the
stamps, which in its present condition it would only clog. In any case
these gentlemen hope that by sinking deeper they will strike a true
crevice and good wall -rock. " Quien sabe! "
A mile or two around the edge of the mountain is situated the princi-
pal mine of the company, which is being opened by a shaft and tunnel,
the former about twenty-five feet in depth, and opening some two hun-
dred feet above the tunnel, which latter has been driven already 180 feet
and will eventually intersect it.
The dip at surface is 35, more or less, strike about east and west.
A level has been run in at the shaft mouth 65 feet, and drilling pros-
pects well all the way in. The ore is the same as that mentioned ia
connection with the mill.
SAN LUIS PARK, OCTOBER 1.
In the course of a long day's march from the Sawatch to Homan 7 s
Creek, in Hoinan 7 s Park, or the Rincon, we passed a region where a
great number of hot springs boiled up. The first of these (and the larg-
124 SURVEY OF COLORADO AND NEW MEXICO.
est) covered a space of perhaps 600 square feet, and emitted a vapor
which could be seen for a long distance.
Surrounding it was a marsh or swamp in which salts from the evap-
oration were deposited. The temperature at the edges was perhaps
110 to 120 Fahrenheit, and bubbles of gas rise in many places to the
surface, and are caused by the weight of a person walking around the
edges in the immediate vicinity of the soggy soil. Specimens of the
salts, as they lie loosely like an efflorescence, and also of the same ma-
terial in a harder form like California marble, (only not so variegated in
color,) were collected, but no opportunity offered to examine them.
The surrounding country, and our road towards Homan's Creek, is for
miles covered with a white deposit called by the natives "alkali," sim-
ply. It gives the landscape the appearance of being covered with snow.
This "alkali" is probably composed of nitrate of potash, sulphate of
lime, and perhaps other salts in smaller quantities, but has not been yet
analyzed. The same deposit has been observed in the neighborhood
of St. Train's Creek, and in the basaltic region below Trinidad on our
route down to Santa Fe.
Minerals observed in New Mexico.
MINERALS OF COMMERCIAL VALUE.
Iron pyrites, copper pyrites. Mostly auriferous. Widely distributed in veins over the
flanks of the Rocky Mountains, in New Mexico, and in numerous lesser chains of
granitic and metamorphic rocks.
Malachite, green vitriol, blue vitriol. Principally from decomposition of the above,
wherever the ores have been exposed to weathering. Widely distributed in veins
over the flanks of the Rocky Mountains, in New Mexico, and in numerous lesser
chains of granitic and metamorphic rocks.
Zincblende. Often argentiferous. San Dia, &c.
Galena. Often argentiferous. Maxwell's, near Moro.
Brittle silver. Maxwell's, near Moro.
Fahlerz. Maxwell's, near Moro.
Specular iron ore. Real Dolores, near Ortiz mine.
Red and brown hematite. Widely distributed. Old Placer, &c.
Magnetic pyrites. New Placer.
Coal. Raton Mountains, Maxwell's, Real Dolores, &e.
Cerussite. Maxwell's.
Anglesite. Maxwell's.
Native gold. Arroyo Hondo, Morena, Brahm Lode, New Placer, &o.
Native silver. Maxwell's.
Horn silver. Maxwell's.
Titanic iron ore. Real Dolores.
Smithsonite. San Dia.
Silver glance. Morena, New and Old Placers.
Light and dark ruby silver. Maxwell's.
Spathic and micaceous iron ores. Real Dolores.
Turquoise, (2A1 2 O 3 . P0 5 -f5HO.) Cerillos, between Santa Fe" and the San Lazaro
Mountains.
CHARACTERISTIC MINERALS.
Quartz. Forms gangue rock of most of the veins ; common. Agate, chalcedony, and
silicified wood in the bed of the Galisteo. In the granites, gneisses, &c.
Hydrated oxide of iron. Occurs with the coal beds, and colors the rocks near exposed
veins, &c.
Opal. Galisteo beds.
Feldspar. Everywhere among the granitic rocks. Orthoclases predominant. Oligo-
clases also abundant. Albite is found near Moro.
Labrador. Basalt dikes, &c.
Hornblende. Syenites, some basalts.
Potash and magnesian mica. Gneisses and granites, and "in the greissen found near
Moro.
Leucite. Trachytic lavas near Fort Union.
SURVEY OF COLORADO AND NEW MEXICO. 125
Chlorite. Diabase, Real Dolores, San Luis.
Augite. In the basalts and chlorites.
Calc-spar. Very common ; finely crystallized in Real Dolores.
Gypsum. Beds near S \reetwater ; also occurs with coal.
Anhydrite.
Salt. lu springs at Las Vegas and elsewhere.
Heavy spar. As gangue rock in many veins.
Pyrope. Fort Craig.
Chrysolite. Fort Craig.
Obsidian. Found near old Pecos church. Fashioned into tools, as is also chalcedony.
A fine pseudomorph of magnetic iron ore, after the cubes of iron
pyrites, was picked up near Santa Fe\
The fact that I could not visit the Morena mines, which are the most
important in New Mexico, and the short time given for the preparation
of this report, will, I hope, excuse its incompleteness, which a more
careful study of the specimens I have collected will in some measure
remedy.
COLORADO TERRITORY, SOUTH PARK, OCTOBER 4.
Visited the salt springs in this park. Jhe whole country from the
hither side of the Trout Creek Pass to some distance beyond the salt
works is covered with the alkali before spoken of. A small creek
flows northward, and in this creek the spring from which the salt is ob-
tained discharges its water. It is collected in a box and conducted
through a small channel to the buildings. These are two in number,
the one in which the kettles are placed forming a long wing at the ex-
tremity of the other. The works belong to Eawlins & Hall, and the
business of salt boiling was begun by Mr. Eawlins in a small outbuild-
ing, yet standing, in 1861.
In the long wing are one hundred and sixteen large boiling kettles,
and eight iron evaporating pans.
The spring water is first run into the kettles and heated. When the
water has acquired a high temperature, it is drawn off into the first of
two large evaporating pans, (eleven by twenty-eight feet,) and allowed
to evaporate. The sulphate of lime and other impurities are here sepa-
rated from the brine, which is again drawn off into the remaining tanks.
The finest grained salt is obtained from the second evaporating pan,
which is eleven by nineteen feet. The six remaining pans are each five
by nine feet. An analysis of the salt produced was made by A. Fennell,
of Cincinnati, with this result:
Per cent.
Sa.Cl 99
CaO . SO 3 and other impurities 1
Total 100
The strength of the water is about one part by bulk of matter in solu-
tion in nine parts of water. (I have this on the authority of Mr. Eawlins.)
The company has expended over $50,000 on the works, and expects to
commence permanent running immediately. When in full operation
two tons of salt can be produced daily.
Messrs. Eawlins & Hall are sinking an artesian well alongside of
the long wing above referred to, by means of which they hope get a
stronger brine, and also to save the expense of pumping into the kettles.
Solar evaporating vats, similar to those in use at Salina,near Syracuse,
New York, are also to be constructed shortly.
126 SURVEY OF COLORADO AND NEW MEXICO.
The company employs from six to fourteen men. The production of a
ton of salt costs the company from $15 to $20, and they sell it for from
$60 to $100; the miners and smelters getting it at the former price, both
because they do not require it as pure as do the ranchmen, and also
because their orders are invariably larger.
REMARKS. COLORADO.
That which has given Colorado such an unprecedented forward
impetus in her internal development and growth, has undoubtedly been
the discovery of gold and silver in the beds of her streams and in the
recesses of her mountains. A detailed history of these discoveries would
be hardly in place here, especially as this has been pleasantly outlined
by Mr. Hollister in " The Mines of Colorado," but it is interesting to
know that the steps toward the establishment of mills, shafts, and
furnaces in the center of a but lately uncivilized country, have been the
same as in California and elsewhere.
The existence of the precious metals in the mountains was not arrived
at by reasoning on the similarity of the Boeky Mountains to other ore-
bearing chains, nor even by concluding that if gold and silver were
found in one part of their extent, they would be probably also in
other parts; but the rude hunter or ruder savage chanced upon a few
shining grains, which excited the curiosity and cupidity of the dwellers
in the States, and first one, and then two, and then more, girded up their
loins for a journey to the tempting wilderness, until the spark burst into
a blaze, and hundreds of men from all classes of life were drawn together
by the hope of enriching themselves with bags of gold. Many of these
early gold-seekers fondly imagined that they had only to pick the gold
up in the region within the shadow of the great Pike's Peak, and find-
ing that, on the contrary, their employment was one inseparably connected
with vicissitudes and uncertainties, they were discouraged and went
back.
Gulch or placer mining in gold countries precedes the more regular
and legitimate operations as naturally as all crude undertakings precede
the improvements they suggest. The first placer mining which promised
to reward the undertakers or prospectors in Colorado Territory had its
origin in Cherry Creek, in a mining settlement designated Auraria, and
just opposite the present city of Denver. This was in 1858.
By the laws which govern the distribution of eroded materials by the
agency of water, the larger, coarser, and heavier particles are invariably
found deposited nearer to, and the finer, lighter, and more impalpable
wash farther from, the origin of the eroding force. Thus the drying
power and heat of the sun, the oxidation of the atmosphere, and the
eroding force of wind and water, tear off large and small masses of the
mineral veins; gravity precipitates them, along with boulders of the
country rock, into the creek and rivulet beds, and the water of these
streams grinds them up as in a mortar, and finally spreads them out in
beds whose distance from the point of abrasion is inversely proportional
to the weight of the individual particles. In this manner fine gold may
be carried to an enormous distance from its parent vein, but the farther
we recede from it the finer becomes the gold and the more diffused
through the silicious mass, so that the difficulty of obtaining it is in-
creased in two ways : first, there is much less gold, and second ; what there
is is present in a much more finely divided state. To one unacquainted
with the facts, this second difficulty may appear not a real one ; the spe-
cific gravity or gold being the same whether the metal exists in large or
SURVEY OP COLORADO AND NEW MEXICO. 127
small -particles, must render the separation of the dust from the com-
panion rock as easy as that of the nuggets. But experience shows that,
regulate the supply of water as nicely as he may, the miner always
loses a comparatively large percentage of this finely divided gold by its
floating off on the surface. This will be referred to again -when" the
effect of the supply of water on the loss of gold from the tailings is
spoken of.
Where the topography of the country has been such as to cause an
elbow in the stream carrying the debris, or where, from any cause, an
eddy has been formed, and the diminished velocity of the water being
insufficient to keep the larger rocks in motion and the coarser particles
in suspension, there have been deposited at certain points little
islands, as it were, of irregular but generally more or less oval shape,
the gulch miner finds his richest harvest. Tlie discovery of such depos-
its has often led to the erroneous belief that any part of the bed of the
creek will produce equal treasure if the water be but diverted from its
channel, and the construction of flumes or artificial channels in places
where circumstances were not favorable to a deposition of the precious
metals has, in several instances, involved the misguided projectors in
useless expenditure and great waste of time and labor.
The creeks springing from that part of the range opposite .and nearest
to this first settlement were the first to be prospected, and, in the main,
more than fulfilled the expectations which had been formed of them.
The statistics in regard to gulch mining are necessarily harder to obtain
than those of lode mining, for in the first place the operations are con-
ducted by one or two men at innumerable points in various creeks
and streams remote from the miners' settlements, and secondly the
independent conductors of this system of mining have a natural reluc-
tance to stating the true amount of their earnings, from the fear that
other parties may be led to their vicinity and thus reduce their gains.
Statistics of that kind of placer mining which is carried on away from
the beds of the streams and upon the more or less decomposed outcrop
of a lode, by means of water flumed from some higher level of the creek,
are easier to get at and appear to be better known. I append a few facts
drawn from Mr. Hollister's book, page 66.
Zeigler, Spain & Co. ran a sluice three weeks on the Gregory, and cleaned up three
thousand pennyweights, their highest day's work being $495, and their lowest $21.
Sopris, Henderson & Co. took out $607 in four days. Spears & Co., two days, $853, all
taken from within three feet of the surface. John H. Gregory, five days, $942 ; Casto,
Kendall & Co., one day, $225 ; Defrees & Co., twelve days, one sluice, $2,080 ; Leper,
Gridley & Co., one day, three sluices, $1,009.
At the present time there are perhaps twenty points on Clear Creek,
between Idaho and Golden City, where the wheels and sluices of the
gulch miners are standing, but scarcely more than one-half of them are
really in operation. A few such works are to be found in all the creeks
issuing from the range, but their share in the annual production of gold
in the Territory is but insignificant, and their value has diminished, as
is always the case with this kind of mining. "While "no one has ever
yet seen the lower edge of a vein, 77 a little labor will bring one to the bot-
tom of a placer mine, which is formed by the wash of a few fragments
carried from the out-crops of the veins by the rains.
It has already been stated that the valuable ores are found in a broad
belt running along the range north and south. Gold, silver, copper,
lead, and zinc are found abundantly in the granitic and metamorphic
rocks, which form the true back-bone of the Cordilleras, and coal in the
outlying and more recent foot-hills.
128 SURVEY OF COLORADO AND NEW MEXICO.
There appear to be two series of veins in this great mineral belt 3 oc-
curring at least along the eastern slope of the Kocky Mountains ; the
larger, and apparently elder, having a general north and south strike,
and proving in most cases barren,* and the smaller and more recent,
comprising by far the greater number of the gold and silver leads, and
extending down the range as far as I had an opportunity of observing
it, in New Mexico, striking generally about northeast and southwest.
It would be difficult to define sharply the direction or extent of this
great mineral belt, though various writers on Colorado have indulged in
fine generalizations on the subject. The fact appears to be that circum-
stances have been more favorable to the existence of mineral veins in
some rocks than in others, and that whatever may have been the great
geological causes which brought these rocks into being, where the con-
ditions are not totally different, indications of the precious metals may
be expected wherever they occur. The eastern boundary of this belt is
in general terms the eastern boundary of the gneissic and granitic rocks
of the Kocky Mountains, but in almost every instance where outliers of
these same rocks occur, investigation has proved the existence of min-
eral veins : (e. #., Pike's Peak, which lies 150 miles east of the main chaid
of the Kocky Mountains, the San Lazaro Mountains, the Cerillos, in
the valley of the Gallisteo, &c.)
The first lode was discovered in Colorado by John Gregory, May 6,
1859, on claim No. 5, of what is yet called the " Gregory lode," near
Central City. The history of that discovery is very interesting, as an
illustration of what energy and perseverance, guided by sound common
sense, may accomplish for a man.
Gregory worked this lode at first, of course, with a sluice, and got out
$972 from the disintegrated surface. The news spread^ rapidly, and the
country was soon swarming with prospectors and miners, and many
other lodes were immediately discovered and worked. This was the
celebrated Pike's Peak gold fever, from which the growth of this Terri-
tory dates. In almost every case the mines passed into the hands of
different parties, as the getting out and treatment of the ore became
more difficult from the growing scarcity of the decomposed surface ore,
until at last matters were brought to a stand-still by the resistance
offered by the sulphurets associated below with the gold to the process of
amalgamation then in vogue. This behavior, which would have been
foreseen by more experienced miners, seems to have astonished and dis-
pirited them, and an exodus from the region was the result, which has
been repeated at various times since, whenever new obstacles were to be
surmounted. But while this has retarded the unnaturally rapid develop-
ment of the Territory, there is no doubt that the occurrence of these sul-
phurets and the working of them will, in the end, prove a blessing to
Colorado, by giving employment to more persons, and thus hastening
the maturity of this commonwealth.
The counties of Colorado in which as yet the principal mining opera-
tions have been conducted, are, in the order of their present importance :
Gilpin, Clear Creek, Park, Summit, Lake, and Boulder.
To enumerate all the lodes which have tieen discovered, or even those
that have been partially wrought, would be foreign to the purpose of
this report, and a work of immense labor ; nor would such a catalogue
serve the statistician as much as might at first appear, for the object of
all these incipient undertakings having been to realize the greatest pos-
* An exception to this general rule is found in the Hoosier lode, about forty miles
north of Central City. This vein belongs to the north and south class, but is never-
theless rich and profitable.
SURVEY OF COLORADO AND NEW MEXICO. 129
sible amount of gold in the minimum time, and the various enterprises
in any neighborhood having been conducted independently of each
other, by parties whose interests were never the same and often conflict-
ing, no pains have been taken to settle questions which did not concern
the values of the ores obtained ; but, on the contrary, it has not unfre-
quently happened that investigations of the exact positions and extent
of the veins were opposed to the interests of one of the parties, which
thus might be proved to be working somebody else's claim.
To explain this state of things, it will be necessary to state that by a
law of Colorado (see act concerning lode claims) it is provided that
SEC. 5. Any person or persons engaged in working a tunnel within the provisions of
this act shall be entitled to 250 feet each way from said tunnel, on each lode so dis-
covered, provided they do not interfere with any vested rights. If it shall appear that
claims have been staked off and recorded prior to the record of said tunnel on the line
thereof, so that the required number of feet cannot be taken near said tunnel, they
may be taken upon any part thereof when the same may be found vacant, and persons
working said tunnel shall have the right of way through all lodes which may lie in
its course.
SEC. 7. That when two crevices are discovered at a distance from each other, and
known by different names, and it shall appear that the two are one and the same lode,
the persons having recorded on the first discovered lode shall be the legal owners.
SEC. 8. That to determine when the two lodes are one and the same, it shall be ne-
cessary for the person claiming that the two are the same lode to sink shafts at no
greater distance than fifty feet apart, and finding a crevice in each shaft, and forming
a continuous line of shafts from one lode to the other shall be conclusive evidence that
the two are one and the same lode.
It will be evident from this that when two parties are working on
what is suspected of being one and the same claim, those who have
recorded last will be in no hurry to settle the question tor the sake of
the statistics, and that as it costs time and money to sink shafts fifty
feet apart to well-defined walls, over a distance of three hundred feet,
(the legal extent of a discovery claim in each direction from the shaft,)
it is not always that these comparatively recently opened lodes are
thoroughly known.
In my very restricted report of the mines of Colorado, such examples
have been selected as present mining here in its best phase ; or rather, of
the best mines in the regions I visited, such have been selected as I
could personally visit and examine. Much of interest in the details of
mining here has been necessarily omitted, but I hope that what informa-
tion I have been enabled to obtain in the limited time at my disposal
may not be without value, though submitted without attempt at arrange-
ment, and in the form in which the notes were taken in the field.
Many knotty questions have presented themselves to the miners and
smelters, among which, perhaps, the knottiest is the dressing of the
second-class ores and the proper form to which to bring the tailings
before they are ready for the amalgamator or smelter. It is believed
by many able miners, and the complaint is frequently made, that by the
use of wet stamps and careless feeding, the mm-men waste unnecessa-
rily a great deal of gold, and from this it is argued frequently, with less
justice, that the use of wet stamps is pernicious and wasteful. This is
going too far, though it is true that in the treatment of the ores around
Central City and elsewhere, the greatest care and attention are abso-
lutely necessary to prevent great needless loss. Less ore put through
the mills, with correspondingly greater care in its treatment, would
probably be the best remedy, and this plan would very 'likely produce
the owners as much gold as they get at present, and leave them so
much the more in the mine to work.
In conclusion I would sum up the impressions I have received from
9 as
130 SURVEY OF COLORADO AND NEW MEXICO.
the tour as follows : That the valuable ores abound almost everywhere
in the granite and gneiss of the Eocky Mountains, and the economic
question is not to find the material, but the capital and labor with
which to work. That the country over which these investigations were
made is replete with those minerals which by their decomposition are
found by experience to most enrich the soil, as it is with the before-men-
tioned minerals of commercial value.
That the climate is healthful and delightful, the country well sup-
plied with water, which breaks from its rocky reservoir, with few excep-
tions, at distances of from ten to fifteen miles, all along the base of the
mountains ; the communication with the East and West is becoming daily
more easy, and the savages of the plains and those whose headquarters
used to be the gambling hells and drinking saloons are well nigh ban-
ished from this favored domain.
That the land is being tilled and prepared to support the large popu-
lation which must soon settle here, and everything smiles on that man
w T ho brings to the country intelligence and a pair of willing hands.
What stands in the way of the country's progress are the greedy
speculators who wish to use Colorado and New Mexico as mills for
turning money into their pockets, regardless of the interests of the
growing community. The system of grants, also, which gives to one
man or one company a tract of country much larger than any one indi-
vidual or small corporate body can possibly property improve, cannot
fail to exercise a baneful influence on the prosperity of such a country,
by keeping back the tide of hardy and industrious settlers who would
otherwise pre-empt and settle up the land. And wherever such a grant
exists, a backward condition of the country may be expected. To a
certain extent this disregard of the interests of these two sister Territories
may be observed in the manner in which certain mines have been worked.
These mines have been hacked to pieces to produce ore, and the ore has
been rushed through the mill to produce gold. Nothing seemed to have
a claim to the consideration of such owners but the most rapid method of
realizing, in order that the shortest possible time might intervene before,
their fortunes made, they could quit the Territory and enjoy them else-
where. In this way, valuable mines have been ruined, and thousands of
dollars of the Territory's gold thrown away. It were easier to detect this
fault than to suggest the remedy ; but the remedy will present itself, when
Colorado and New Mexico shall be filled with citizens determined to
own and occupy them, and shall have slipped entirely from the grasp
of those who wish merely to hire and use them. The observation above, in
regard to the remedy for the present losses in dressing tailings, has been
made by several persons, and it has been added that even a smaller
profit from more thoroughly and carefully worked ore would in reality
pay the owners better, give a more healthy tone to mining, advance it
as an art, and spare millions of dollars in the end. While the adjust-
ment of such complicated questions as these is one which must await
the lapse of time and the course of events, it would be well for inter-
ested parties to consider in what way to manage their property out here
so as to assure themselves against present possible loss, and of future
increase in its value. To do this without radiating prosperity on all
around them, and building up the wealth and power of the country, is
a problem whiph will tax their abilities to the utmost, however great
those abilities may be.
REPORT OF CYRUS THOMAS.
AGRICULTURE OP COLORADO.
DEAR SIR : Having been directed by you, in addition to iny other
duties, to collect such information as I could in regard to the agricul-
ture of those portions of Colorado and New Mexico through which your
expedition should pass, I have the honor to report to you that I have'per-
formed this duty to the best of my ability and opportunities. And here-
with I present a partial report of my investigations, being unable to pre-
sent even a complete or full preliminary report, for want of statistics,
which I cannot obtain in the field, where this is written ; and, also, be-
cause I have riot yet received answers to some of the most important in-
quiries I have sent out to some of the best informed citizens of these Terri-
tories. I hope to be able, shortly, to present you a much fuller and more
satisfactory report on this very important subject. I trust that even the
imperfect and partial report herewith presented will be sufficient to fully
justify the interest you have taken in the development of the agricultu-
ral resources of the Great West.
Although the chief object of your expedition may be to determine
the geological features of these regions, and thus increase the store of
scientific facts by which the great problems of nature may be solved,
yet the economic value of these investigations will be shown in the in-
creased impetus they give to the development of the agricultural and
mineral resources of the country.
Our line of travel having been along the eastern flank of the Eocky
Mountain range, from north to south, my personal examinations have
necessarily been confined to the margin of the arable lauds of these
territories. And as we were constantly moving, seldom remaining at
any one point more than a day or two, I have been compelled to rely
upon the statements of residents for much of my information in regard
to the climate, seasons, crops, &c., &c. But I have endeavored to con-
sult the best sources of information. Two circumstances have very
much favored my efforts :
First. The proper appreciation of your efforts in this direction by the
citizens, and their willingness to furnish all the information and aid in
their power to facilitate the matter.
Second. The fact that the passage of your expedition through the
country happened to be made during harvest, and in one of the most
favorable seasons, for agriculture, that has been experienced in these
Territories for many years. This enabled me to make a partial compari-
son of the statements received from others, in regard to the yield and
quality of the crops, with my own observations on these points, thus
testing the accuracy of these statements. I am glad to inform you, that
so far as I have been able to make this test, it has confirmed the reports
which I have received from others, showing them to be reliable.
Trusting this may prove satisfactory, I remain yours, truly,
CYKUS THOMAS.
Dr. F. V. HAYDEN,
United States Geologist.
134 SURVEY OF COLORADO AND NEW MEXICO.
Situated between 37 and 41 of north latitude, and 102 and 109 of
west longitude, Colorado Territory extends east and west about three
hundred and ninety miles, and north and south about two hundred and
seventy -five miles, forming a rectangle containing an area of 106,500
square miles, or 68,144,000 acres. Eeaching from near the middle of
the great trans-Mississippi plain up the mountain slope, it laps over the
summit of the great divide and rests its western border on the Colorado
basin. And including, as it does, within its bounds the great system of
mountain parks, and the sources of the four great rivers, the Eio Grande
del Norte, the Eio Colorado, the Arkansas, and South Platte, it has
been appropriately termed "The Gem of the Mountains." And, like
Switzerland in Europe, it may be said to be unique in its geographical
features.
Of the large area contained within its boundary lines, about four-
sevenths are embraced in the true mountain region, whose snowy sum-
mits form the watershed of the continent. The remaining three-sevenths,
situated, chiefly, east of 105 of west longitude, and extending the whole
length of the Territory north and south, consist, in great part, of broad
plains furrowed by shallow valleys, widening and fading away as they
extend eastward j and, with the exception of the parks and some valleys
of the mountains, contain all the arable lands of the Territory.
But since much of this latter portion, lying along the eastern bound-
ary, is devoid of water, excepting the few streams which traverse it,
the agricultural population has, as yet, been confined within a compara-
tively narrow strip along the eastern slope of the mountains.
In order to obtain a more correct and minute idea of the geographical
position and extent of that portion of the Territory which is susceptible
of cultivation, it will be necessary to consider it in separate districts.
And we are not left, in this, to mark out arbitrary lines, for nature has
fixed prominent lines and permanent boundaries to each. Water is the
great desideratum in the agricultural development of this country, and
the method of its distribution we shall find is the true key to the agri-
cultural system of the Territory, and its turning sheds the boundaries of
the districts.
Beginning at the northern part, we find the South Platte Eiver is the
outlet for all the water of this section which flows towards the Atlantic.
Moving up this stream from its point of exit, near the northeast corner
of the Territory, it will be seen that after crossing the 104 of west
longitude it branches rapidly into its numerous tributaries. The portion
of country drained by these numerous minor streams is bounded on the
west by the eastern slope of the Eocky Mountains, and on the south by
a high, broken, irregular ridge called the Divide, which, starting from
the base of the mountains opposite South Park, runs eastward until lost
in the plains. This constitutes the northern agricultural division, which,
for convenience, I shall name the Denver district.
This Divide separates the waters of South Platte from those of the
Arkansas, and forms the northern boundary of the second district, which
is the area lying between it and the Eaton Mountains. This division,
which may be appropriately named the Arkansas district, is drained by
the Arkansas and its tributaries. These two districts contain most of
the tillable land of the Territory lying east of the mountains.
I may as well remark here, that in my use of the terms " tillable,"
" arable," " susceptible of cultivation," &c., I do not intend thereby to
exclude the idea of the future possibility of cultivating other sections,
but simply intend to express the fact, that those sections, so termed, are
now sufficiently supplied with water for farming purposes.
SURVEY OF COLORADO AND NEW MEXICO. 135
The third district, which is the San Luis Park, belongs both to New
Mexico and Colorado, and cannot be divided into parts corresponding
with the arbitrary line of division between these two Territories.
The fourth division I shall make is not a separate district, as each of
the others, but includes the other parks and the small amount of arable
land in the mountain valleys, which, on account of the proximity of some
of them to the mining districts, become important, notwithstanding their
small extent. This may be called the mountain district.
It will be seen that each of these three natural districts has its great
river by which it is drained ; the Denver district finding an outlet for
its waters through the South Platte ; the Arkansas district through the
Arkansas River; the San. Luis Park through the Eio Grande. And as
we descend to the examination of the more minute divisions of these
larger districts, we must follow the natural arrangement of streams and
valleys.
THE DENVER DISTRICT.
This district is naturally divided into two sections j the first includ-
ing the territory north of the South Platte and between it and the moun-
tains ; the second, the territory between the Platte and the Divide.
As the first section presents more definitely and sharply the peculiar
features of this country which bear upon its agriculture than any other
portion, I will give a somewhat minute description of it.
The Platte, leaving the mountains some twenty miles southwest of
Denver, after bearing out a short distance on the plains, runs northeast,
slightly diverging from a parallel course with the east range of mountains,
for a distance of about eighty miles, where it is joined by the Cache a la
Poudre, and then turns eastward ; thus giving the section a triangular
shape, with the north side of the Cache a la Poudre valley as its base,
the mountains for one side, and the Platte the other. Its general sur-
face is a broad plain sloping from the mountain flank eastward to the
river level with valley furrows, and rounded, low ridges traversing it
from west to east.
The various streams which take their rise in the mountains east of
the great Divide, between the waters of the Atlantic and Pacific, run
nearly an eastern course until they unite with the Platte.
The first debris, and all the heavier materials, brought down from the
mountains since their upheaval, have, as a matter of course, been depos-
ited near the base. Hence as we recede from the mountains toward the
east, this local drift decreases in the size of its particles and depth of
deposit. Over this is deposited the alluvial stratum forming the soil,
which, close to the base of the mountain, but thinly covers the
boulder drift, but increases in thickness eastward. The creeks rush-
ing down more rapidly near the mountains, cut deeper furrows through
this deposit near the base than at a distance from it. In consequence
of this, the terraces or ridges, which lie between the streams, are highest
above the water near the mountains, decreasing as they recede from it ;
that is, the distance between the water level of a stream and the top of
the terrace which flanks its valley is more, half a mile from the foot
of the mountain than it is ten mi'les from the foot. This fact in other
parts of our country might have very little bearing upon agriculture,
but it is a consideration of vital importance to the Colorado farmer, who
must irrigate his land or receive but little return for his labor j for when-
ever this is the case it is evident that at some point, the water can be
carried to the top of the bordering terrace.
136 SURVEY OF COLORADO AND NEW MEXICO.
The portion of country north of the Cache a la Poudre valley, although
affording good pasturage for cattle and sheep, is not generally included
in the estimate of arable land, on account of its lack of irrigating facili-
ties. Yet the Box Elder Valley is quite fertile, and will afford room for
a considerable number of good farms, and the creek, though small, is
probably sufficient to irrigate the red bottom of the valley.
Commencing with the Cache a la Poudre, as the northern limit of the
section, which is some seventy miles north of Denver, and proceeding
south, I will describe briefly the valleys according to the streams which
water them. This stream, from the point where it issues from the
mountains, near Laporte, to its junction with the Platte, a distance of
thirty -five miles, runs through a very pretty fertile valley, which aver-
ages, perhaps, two miles or more in width, being narrow near the moun-
tains and expanding as it recedes from them. The bottom land of the
valley is flanked on the north side by a rolling irregular ridge, and on
the south side by a somewhat level terrace of moderate elevation. The
stream, at Laporte, is about twenty-five yards in width, clear and rapid,
affording a sufficient supply of water and ample descent for irrigating
the bottoms and ridges or terraces which border it.
The next stream, going south, is the Big Thompson, which runs east-
ward nearly thirty miles, and also empties into the South Platte. This
stream, and the valley it waters, are very similar in all respects to that
of Cache a la Poudre. The third, is the Little Thompson, a tributary of
the Big Thompson, but, as this creek is liable to fail in its supply of
water during the summer and autumn, it cannot be relied upon for irri-
gation. Yet its valley affords excellent pasturage for cattle and sheep,
and will furnish a most excellent range for stock when the neighboring
valleys become thickly settled and fenced up. Still moving south, the
next stream we cross is the St. Vrain, about equal in its volume of water
to the Big Thompson. It runs through a very fertile valley of varied
width, reaching the Platte at a distance of about twenty-five miles from
where it leaves the mountains. The bay -like widenings of this valley
afford room for extensive farms, of which the settlers are rapidly avail-
ing themselves. Left Hand Creek, a tributary of St. Yrain, affords a
small valley eleven miles in length. Boulder Creek, the next in order,
issues from the mountains near Boulder City, and, after running some-
what northeast for eighteen miles, unites with the St. Yrain. Some of
the finest farming and grazing lands north of Denver are found along
this stream. At its debouchure from the mountain gorge are gathered
heavy deposits of boulders and pebbles, from which, doubtless, the
creek and city have received their names. Although these deposits are
but scantily covered with soil, yet the fertility seems to be but slightly
impaired thereby, as is shown by the fact that here is a thrifty growth
of willow -and cotton wood.
The bottom of this valley, like that of St. Yrain, widens out at points
to a considerable extent. Continuing our course southward with the
snow-covered peaks rising above the rocky wall to our right, we next
arrive at South Boulder Creek, which, leaving the mountains near Mar-
shall's coal mine, runs a circuit of some eight miles and unites with
Boulder Creek. Here, I may justly say, is found the link that unites
the agriculture of the plains with the mining of the mountains, the two
great interests of Colorado.
Standing on the grass-covered bluff overlooking this little limped
stream, the eye, as it shoots out its glance north and east over the
plains, wearies itself in attempting to mark the boundary of vision.
The valleys over which we have passed in our journey southward,
SURVEY OF COLORADO AND NEW MEXICO. 137
like dim lines, are traced across the broad meadowy expanse. Bounded
ridges, level surface terraces, straight foothills, with green swarded
escarpments and isolated buttes fill up the outline. Sinking into the
bluff on which we have been standing, we pass alternating strata of
coal and iron ore. Here they quietly rest, rich, thick, and abundant
the fuel and the metal. The one to convert the other into instruments
to till the soil, to harvest the grain, to thresh and garner it, to convert
it into food, to make the highway of transportation, and carry it to the
miners of the mountains and the snow-bound dwellers in the far north.
Such a combination is seldom seen. And, though not directly embraced
in the object of this report, yet I feel justified in alluding to it, for the
reason that the opening and development of these mines are intimately
connected with the agricultural development of the country. The ag-
ricultural instruments now in use are brought from the States at an
expense of transportation equal to their original cost. This need not be
so ; Colorado has her coal, her iron, and, in part, her timber. It only
needs to be developed and applied to that purpose for which nature has
so bountifully provided it.
Descending from our elevated position, and continuing our course
southward, after pa'ssing some minor streams, we reach Coal Creek, also
a tributary of Boulder Creek. But this is not an unfailing stream, and
although some farms are found along its valley, yet it cannot be de-
pended upon for irrigating purposes. Clear Creek, which passes within
four miles of Denver, gives a valley of eighteen miles before it empties
into the South Platte. It is already lined with well cultivated farms and
comfortable houses, from which the Denver market is in part supplied
with grain, vegetables, and meat. Finally, in our course southward, we
reach Bear Creek, the last of the series of these transverse streams, which,
after a short run of nine or ten miles from the mountains, pours its
waters into South Platte. A short distance below this we arrive at the
apex of the triangle before described, which contains, including the
Platte Valley, about 800,000 acres of land. Of this amount about one-
third is bottom land, the remainder forming the ridges and terraces
which lie between the valleys. The greater portion of this entire tri-
angular section is susceptible of cultivation, and the remainder well
adapted to grazing purposes. The bottoms along these creeks vary
from half a mile to four or five miles in width, giving, perhaps, an aver-
age width of two or two and a half miles. Between these valleys are
the more elevated portions, forming, sometimes, rounded ridges, at
others, regular terraces or benches, or rolling, gradually descending
prairies, but seldom rising into abrupt hills ; the whole face of the
country being richly carpeted with nutritious grasses. These ridges,
which border the valleys, vary in their elevation above the water level
of the creeks from a few feet, out on the plains, to forty and fifty feet
near the base of the mountain, and, with few exceptions, are in reach
of water sufficient for irrigation.
The valley of the South Platte is undoubtedly the most important, ex-
tensive, and fertile strip of tillable land in the northern portion of the
Territory. But the descent being less in this river than in the smaller
streams we have been describing, ditching, for irrigation, is more expen-
sive. Yet it is rapidly filling up with an enterprising farming popula-
tion ? and is being brought under an intelligent and profitable system of
cultivation.
138 SURVEY OF COLORADO AND NEW MEXICO.
SOUTHERN SECTION OF DENVER DISTRICT.
Passing across the Platte, going south, we enter upon a section where
a considerable change of scenery is at once apparent, and where the
geographical arrangement is entirely different from that we saw north
of the river. There we saw a regular succession of cool, limpid streams
rushing down from the Rocky Mountain gorges, furrowing their way
through the plains eastward to the Platte, the great central artery of
the district. Here we find an irregular arrangement of long, slender
streams, arising chiefly within the space of forty miles along the north-
ern slope of the Divide. Carrying their volumes of water down this
descent, they enter upon the broad, comparatively level, and somewhat
sandy plains, and receiving but few tributaries, they stmggle against
the rapid absorption of the porous soil, growing feebler and feebler, till
finally, in the dry season, they are lost, without reaching the Platte.
Plum Creek, which lies next the mountains, is perhaps the only exception.
It follows, then, that the tillable part of this section is confined to the
valleys along the upper portions of these streams. There is also a
marked difference between the valleys of these streams and those north,
in this : while the latter in most cases have bottoms of greater or less
width on both sides, which are flanked by terraces with graceful, grassy
escarpments, the streams south, cutting through the deep sandy deposit,
generally have on one or the other side steep, bluffy banks of crumbling
sand, reaching the surface of the second bottom. And even the bottoms
which do border these streams very often appear to be irregular flats,
scooped out of the higher land which once pressed close on the central
channel. But these flats, where they can receive sufficient water, are
exceedingly rich and productive, yielding some of the heaviest crops of
the Territory.
In regard to the various valleys of this section, and the extent to
which they can be cultivated, I can at this time give but an approximate
estimate.
Beginning at the base of the mountains, and moving eastward along
the northern slope of the Divide, the first stream we reach is Plum Creek,
which has two branches, East Plum Creek and West Plum Creek, the
one flowing from the mountains, the other from the Divide. This has a
run of some twenty-five miles before reaching the Platte. It furnishes
water most of this distance, and has some fine bottom lands on it, a
good part of which is already under cultivation or occupied.
The next stream in our course eastward is Cherry Creek, which has
quite a number of small affluents entering into it from the rounded hills
on each side. From its source to its mouth is a distance of some forty-
five or fifty miles, affording water for irrigation the greater part of its
length, but drying up near its terminus at the city of Denver. This
valley is quite fertile, and tolerably well settled at the more attractive
points.
The other creeks siicceed each other in the following order: Running
Creek, Kiowa, Wolf, and Bijou ; in regard to which I have received but
little information. They generally dry up on the plains during the sum-
mer and fall, affording water for irrigation from twenty to thirty miles
from their sources. Their valleys are as yet but sparsely settled. On
the immediate slope of the Divide, in the bottoms which flank these
streams, irrigation is generally unnecessary, as a sufficient amount of
rain falls to supply the crops with the necessary amount of moisture to
mature them.
SURVEY OF COLORADO AND NEW MEXICO. 139
SOIL.
The soil throughout this district presents great uniformity in quality,
as is clearly shown by the striking similarity of the plants of its differ-
ent parts. It is chiefly a light loam, in which the silicious and micaceous
ingredients predominate. Yet there is a considerable difference between
the two sections in one respect : while in the northern the particles are
coarse and sharp, in the southern they are fine and rounded, and the
arenaceous portion bears a larger ratio to the whole.
But to form a correct idea of this soil, especially in the northern sec-
tion of the district, it must be remembered that the streams, in passing
from the snow-clad crests of the vast range of mountains to the broad
prairies of the plains, sweep over the upheaved margins of the entire
geological series represented in this region. And as they rush down the
mountain gorges, and along the rocky canons, they bear away with
them the debris from all the strata they touch, from the primary granite
to the most recent tertiary representative, mingling it together and scat-
tering it over the plains they cross ; not only the confined streams of
the present era, but all the waters which have swept the mountain
slope since it was lifted up by the vast subterranean force by which they
were formed. The atmospheric currents clriving to and fro the lighter
and dry particles on the surface, have assisted in the mingling process.
This combination of the various mineral elements gives to the soil an
adaptability to a large variety of plants. The predominance of silicious
matter renders it peculiarly adapted to the growth of wheat and oats, and
the addition of decayed vegetable materials causes it to produce heavy
crops of succulent and bulbous vegetables.
It varies considerably in depth ; near the foot of the mountains, where
the water traveled more rapidly, it has covered the boulders and gravels
with a thin crust, while farther down on the plains it grows thicker as
we recede from the mountains. Although the bottoms along the creeks
contain a greater proportion of decayed vegetable matter than the ter-
races and ridges, yet the latter are equally rich in the primary elements,
and by a sufficient supply of water, will produce the cereals as heavily
as the former. And, as on these terraces vegetation ripens some eight
or ten days earlier than on the bottoms, they possess this advantage.
In the "southern section the case is somewhat different, the Divide
being largely composed of loose conglomerate of well-worn particles ;
when these are carried down by the more slowly running water, they
become more finely comminuted and worn, forming heavier beds of sand
nearer the base. In consequence of this fact the water sinks much
sooner than in the northern section. This deeper deposit of sand is
often very apparent along the margins of the streams where they have
cut aw ay' the banks.
CLIMATE.
This strip of country lying longitudinally north and south along the
east flanks of the mountain, the temperature necessarily varies as the
points recede from each other. And as we descend from the higher por-
tions along the base of the mountain to the valleys of the plains the
isothermal lines bend considerably northward. But the average tem-
perature of the northern section may be compared with that along the
eastern slope of the Alleghenies, in Pennsylvania, with which it very
nearly corresponds. The altitude varying from three to seven thousand
feet above the level of the sea, and the line of perpetual snow not far
140 SURVEY OF COLORADO AND NEW MEXICO.
distant, the atmosphere is salubrious and remarkably free from mias-
matic vapors and impurities. And as we proceed southward, although
there is a gradual increase in the average warmth, yet it is partially
compensated by strong breezes which stir the air during the warmer
season. In the summer the heat, it is true, is often somewhat intense,
especially in the valleys where the air is partially confined. But on the
higher grounds the breezes descending from the mountains render it
more pleasant. The air rarified on the plains rises, while another por-
tion, cooled by the snows of the mountains, sweeps down the slopes and
brings with it a refreshing coolness.
Snow generally begins to- fall in October, and ceases in April, or about
the first of May, in the latitude of Denver $ but, as a matter of course,
beginning later and ceasing earlier in the southern districts.
Although it sometimes, though rarely, reaches a depth of twelve or
fourteen inches, yet it passes off almost as rapidly as it comes, seldom
remaining longer than twenty-four hours. Even in the valleys which
penetrate the first range of mountains in the northern section, this is
also the case. Some winters but little snow falls during the entire season.
As conclusive evidence of this statement, cattle are herded out daring
the entire winter in all parts of the Territory, such a thing as prepara-
tion for winter-feeding being almost wholly unknown. And yet in the
spring they will come out in as good order as those of the States which
have been housed and fed day by day. The Mexican horses or bronchos
will also winter out during the season, like the cattle.
The troublesome factor in the great problem of the development of
the agricultural capacity of the vast western plains is the supply of
water. Furnish this, and the fertile prairies and valleys east of the Mis-
sissippi will soon find a strong rival contending with them in the grain
marts of the world for precedence. Furnish this, and the " Great Amer-
ican Desert n of old geographers will soon become one mighty field of
flowing grain. Furnish this, and the few other minor impeding factors
will soon be eliminated. The streams rushing down from the mountains
slacken their course on the level plains where the great battle between
moisture and aridity begins. Is there any power in the human grasp
to assist nature in this struggle, and turn the scale in her favor ?
Before attempting to give a direct answer to this question, I will state
some facts connected with this matter, and then advance a theory,
which, if correct, is of great importance in developing the agricultural
capacity of this country.
When we reached the Cache a la Poudre, at Laporte, I heard it re-
marked that this stream now, and for a few years past, has been sending
down a larger volume of water than it formerly did. I thought little of
the matter at the time and let it pass, simply noting the statement.
But when I reached the next stream in our journey south, the same thing
was repeated in regard to other streams in that section. And to confirm
the statement certain streams were pointed out, which, up to about 1862,
had been in the habit of drying up annually at certain points, which
since that time at these points have been constantly running. This
caused me afterwards, during the whole length of our journey along the
eastern flanks of the mountains, to make this a special subject of inquiry.
And somewhat to my surprise, I have found the same thing repeated
at almost every point as far south as Las Vegas, in New Mexico, and no
opposing testimony. Streams bearing down heavier volumes of water
than formerly ; others becoming constant runners which were formerly
in the habit of drying up ; springs bursting out at points where formerly
there were none 5 acequias allowed to go to decay because they have
SURVEY OF COLORADO AND NEW MEXICO. 141
not been needed, &c. Even the Arkansas, as late as 1862 and 1863,
was dry, from Pawnee to the Cimarron crossing, bnt such a thing has
not been known since. Seven or eight years ago it was not uncommon
for the Pecos to dry up, but now such a thing would be looked upon as
a strange event. And, in building Denver, a mistake.was made in rely-
ing upon the dry bottom of Cherry Creek, which shortly afterwards
sent down a rush of water to warn them of her slumbering powers. Nor
does this wholly exhaust the testimony on this point, for, in addition
thereto, is the uniform assertion of those who have resided in the Terri-
tory for ten or twelve years or more, that for six or seven years past
there has been a gradual increase of rain. It is a common expression of
the Mexicans and Indians that the Americans bring rain with them.
All this, it seems to me, must lead to the conclusion that since the
Territory has begun to be settled, towns and cities built up, farms culti-
vated, mines opened, and roads made and traveled, there has been a
gradual increase of moisture. Be the cause what it may, unless it is
assumed that theie is a cycle of years through which there is an increase,
and that there will be a corresponding decrease, the fact must be ad-
mitted upon this accumulated testimony. I therefore give it as my firm
conviction that this increase is of a permanent nature, and not periodi-
cal, and that it has commenced within eight years past, and that it is in
some way connected with the settlement of the country; and that, as the
population increases, the amount of moisture will increase.
It may be objected that the population bears so small a proportion to
the extent of the country, that it is unreasonable to suppose it could
have any influence on the climatic conditions. I admit the force of the
objection, but at the same time the facts standout too boldly and clearly
to be passed over, and the coincidence is so striking, that, until the pecu-
liar conditions surrounding the matter have been carefully studied, the
objection ought not to be pressed. That there' are peculiar conditions
connected with the section of country under consideration, cannot be
denied. Hence to know the effect the introduction of an active popu-
lation will have upon the hygrometric conditions of this country, these
peculiarities must be carefully studied. I believe that the great problem
of settling the plains, if ever solved, must be done by commencing with
the eastern slope of the Rocky Mountain range and gradually moving
eastward. This is the plan which nature herself has pointed out. The
perpetual snows of the great central axis are the sources of the various
streams which rush down upon the margin of these plains, but chiefly
sink in their effort to cross it. Let the population gather around the
points where these burst from the mountains, and as it increases push-
ing out on the plains eastward, and I believe the supply of water will
accompany it.
If this theory is correct it is worthy the attention not only of the
scientist but of the citizens and authorities of the Territory, and also of
the national government. A railroad line running along this eastern
slope north and south would doubtless give an impetus to the settle-
ment of this part of the Territory exceeding all that the lines crossing it
at limited points (though necessary) can possibly do. It would set the
great power in motion which, moving onward, would ultimately bring
into use that vast body of land which by common consent has been con-
signed to perpetual inutility.
Such a theory may, and doubtless will by some, be considered chi-
merical, but before it is condemned some effort to confirm or refute the
testimony given ought to be made. And I volunteer the suggestion
that it would be well for the government to make a small appropriation
142 SURVEY OF COLORADO AND NEW MEXICO.
with which the Commissioner of Agriculture could send out an agent to
investigate this matter more thoroughly. Even should a more thorough
examination overturn and reverse the testimony I have adduced, his
labor need not be lost, as he could, while proceeding with this, gather a
host of facts in regard to the agricultural capacity of our Territories,
which would be of great value to the stream of emigrants pressing west-
ward from the States.
I am aware the present season has been an extraordinarily wet one ;
but I have carefully endeavored to prevent its leading me astray, always
extending my inquiries to a series of years, and calling attention to the
unusual amount of rain this year, that it might not unduly warp the in-
formation received.
The excess of rain during this season I find has been felt most sensi-
bly north of South Platte and between the Eaton Mountains and Las
Vegas. In the latter section there are some creek valleys where the
rain last season was so excessive as to injure the crops, as, for instance,
the Kayada. And the present year, crops in many valleys not furnish-
ing water for irrigation have been and are maturing finely, as the
beautiful one in which Fort Union is situated, which is as fresh and
green as the banks of the Susquehanna.
Hail-storms are of not unfrequent occurrence during the summer, and
sometimes do considerable injury to the growing crops. I have frequently,
during our passage through the country, noticed fields of corn torn into
shreds. But, as a matter of course, these storms are always quite
limited in their extent.
POPULATION.
Colorado is pre-eminently a mining country ; its mineral wealth having
recently brought within its bounds most of its present population.
Eagerly searching after the metallic riches which lie buried in its rugged
mountains, but little attention has been paid to the cultivation of the
soil. Therefore the data from which to draw conclusions, in regard to
the adaptation of its soil and climate to the growth of any particular
cereal or fruit, are very meager. Yet enough is known to show that, by
proper cultivation, this Territory will produce as fine and as abundant
crops of wheat and oats as the most favored section of the Union ; and
that the western border of what was once designated " The Great
American Desert " will, at no very distant day, present its broad fields
of golden grain. This is no wild fancy of the brain, but the inevitable
result of the march of events now rapidly moving onward. That the
high anticipations of the most sanguine will be fully realized I do not
claim, but the derogatory reports of disappointed fortune-seekers will,
ere long, be disproved by a multitude of experiments.
At this time not more than one-fifth or, as some contend, one-eight of
the population of the Territory are actually engaged in agricultural pur-
suits, the great portion being in some way connected with the mining
interests or business arising out of them. But the one must draw the
other those who mine must eat and the heavy expense of bringing
food from the States is working out its own cure. The necessity for
moving forward the agricultural interests of the country are being felt
and acted on. A territorial fair has been in operation for a few years,
and is exciting considerable interest among all classes of citizens.
Even while I am writing this portion of my report the annual fair is in
progress at Denver, which, I very much regret, 1 have been unable to
attend, but I will endeavor to ascertain all of general interest connected
therewith.
SURVEY OF COLORADO AND NEW MEXICO. 143
CEREALS.
Of the cereals, wheat, oats, barley, and corn, grow readily and pro-
duce very good crops, when properly cultivated and irrigated.
Wheat grows well throughout the length of the Territory, north and
south, and even as far south as Bernalillo, in New Mexico. So far as I
have seen, and can ascertain, the following portions of these territories
are the best wheat-producing sections, viz : the creek valleys north of
South Platte ; the South Platte and Arkansas valleys in Colorado ; and
in New Mexico, the Moro and Taos valleys, and the south end of San
Luis Park. Besides these, there are, as a matter of course, valleys which
will produce as fine wheat as those named, but these are the most ex-
tensive. The Platte Valley alone can supply, if made to yield all it is
capable of yielding, the whole of Colorado with all the wheat necessary
for her present population. And I am informed by Colonel Charles
McClure, of Santa Fe, that the Taos Valley can be made to produce
sufficient wheat to supply the entire demand of New Mexico. Until a
better method of cultivation is introduced than the rude plan of the
Mexican population, the capacity of the latter Territory will not be
known. But, as I design considering the agriculture of the other sec-
tions of Colorado and New Mexico separately, I will confine myself to
those portions of the former Territory now under consideration.
With the exception of two or three fields, spring wheat is the only
kind raised. But this is not o much because winter wheat fails as it
is owing to the difficulty of preparing the ground in the fall for sowing
winter wheat, the ground being so dry and hard that it cannot be
plowed. And if an attempt is made to soften it by irrigation, the ex-
perimenter soon learns that while one portion of his ground is scarcely
moistened below the surface, the other portion is a mass of soft mud.
But at any point from Clear Creek south, where sufficient rain happens
to fall at the right season to moisten the ground, winter wheat sown
produces a fine yield, and, as a matter of course, ripens much earlier
than the spring wheat.
The usual time of sowing is March and April, though sometimes farm-
ers, even as far north as the Platte Valley, succeed in getting their wheat
in during the month of February, yet the greater portion is sown in
April. Singular as it may appear, when we notice the difference in lati-
tude between Cache a la Poudre and Santa Fe, yet it is a fact that the
harvest season comes on later in the vicinity of Los Vegas, Sante Fe,
Taos, and San Luis Park, than it does in the northern section of Colo-
rado. During the present season, I see from my notes taken as we
passed through the country, that wheat was cut in the vicinity of Den-
ver between the 25th of July and 10th of August, and at Cache a la
Poudre a few days later, while at Los Vegas harvest came on the
latter part of August, and in the Taos Valley it was as late as the 18th
of September, and in San Luis Park some wheat is yet standing, (Sep-
tember 23,) although the frosts set in as early as the 12th of this month.
I am unable, at present, fully to account for this, but suppose it is chiefly
attributable to the cold winds from the surrounding mountains and the
cold nights. The average harvest time, in the sections of Colorado under
consideration, may be set down about the 10th of August.
The amount grown per acre often reaches forty and fifty bushels, and
there are some well-attested instances where the yield has been as much
as seventy bushels. Mr. W. E. Thomas, associate editor of the Kocky
Mountain News, who made, during the harvest of 1868, an extended
examination of the crops in most of the valleys of eastern Colorado, es-
144 SURVEY OF COLORADO AND NEW MEXICO.
timates the average yield at twenty-eight bushels per acre. In this es-
timate, the absolute return when measured is the criterion, no allowance
being made for bad culture, losses, &c. From a careful examination of
his iigures, and his method of obtaining the data upon which they are
founded, as well as from the personal inquiries I have made while pass-
ing through the territory, I am satisfied he does not exceed the true
average, but rather falls below it. Where proper care is given to this
cereal, and it reaches maturity without serious damage from the destruc-
tive grasshopper, or other agency, a yield of thirty-five bushels per acre
may be expected.
From his report for that year, which has already been forwarded to
the Commissioner of Agriculture, in connection with a short report on
the agriculture of the northern section of Colorado, it appears that the
wheat returns from the various valleys of Eastern Colorado foot up (in-
cluding estimates of the valleys omitted) nearly thirty-five thousand
bushels. At an average of twenty-eight bushels, this shows that about
twelve thousand five hundred acres were sown in wheat in 1868. If any
statistics for 1869 are brought out by the present fair, I will try to ob-
tain them in time to append them to this report. Most of this wheat
has been grown on the creek bottoms, yet I have no doubt but that the
ridges, or uplands, within reach of irrigation, will yield as heavy crops
as the bottoms, and, as shown by experience as well as theory, would
ripen some eight or ten days earlier.
All the varieties which have been tried aj)pear to grow well and to
bring out their several peculiarities. But those chiefly sown are the
Chile, Siberian, White Sonora, Blue Stem, Canada Club, and Egyptian or
Seven-head. The White Sonora is most prized on account of the beau-
tiful white flour it makes, and its heavy yield, though it does not weigh
as much to the bushel as some other varieties. In New Mexico, the
Mexicans have but two varieties, the " areno bianco " or white wheat,
and " areno nigra" or black wheat; the white wheat corresponding
very nearly with the White Sonora. The measured bushel of Colorado
wheat, if well cleaned, will weigh from sixty-two to sixty-four pounds as
an average. But in comparing this wheat with that of the States, it
must be remembered that the grain is perfectly dry, having been raised
by irrigation, and as a matter of course having received no moisture on
the ear. In this respect it corresponds with the California wheat, re-
quiring to be moistened before grinding. Therefore a given bulk or
weight of this wheat will yield more flour than the same bulk or weight
of wheat from the States.
I think I am justified in saying that no part of the Union can pro-
duce better flour than Eastern Colorado, in respect to its clear, pearly
whiteness, richness in gluten, and ease with which it is converted into
bread j and, like the flour of the Pacific Coast, it will doubtless bear
transportation to any part of the world without damage from climatic
influences.
As the expedition happened to pass through the Territory during
harvest, I had a very good opportunity of comparing the information I
had received with the appearance of the wheat crop of the present year,
from which I am satisfied the statements I have received are not exag-
gerated.
The wheat crop, so far as I have seen it, is very good, and I suppose
will be one of the heaviest ever known in the Territory, and this is also
true of the part of New Mexico through which we passed.
Although irrigation has some advantages, as that of removing fear of
drought, yet it also has its disadvantages, one of which is, that it does
SURVEY OF COLORADO AND NEW MEXICO. 145
not cause wheat and oats to ripen evenly in the same field. I have fre-
quently noticed fields of these cereals where some spots were fully ripe,
while others were yet quite green. But as the grains do not appear to
shell out as easily here as in the States, this does not cause the same
difficulty here as it would there.
In order to give some idea of the time of harvesting wheat through-
out the section over which the expedition passed, I will give from my
notes the condition of the crop at several points, with the dates at which
we passed those points.
July 2. Laporte, on Cache a la Poudre. Wheat in bloom. Harvesting
generally takes place here about the 1st to 10th of August.
July 1 to 15. Fisher's Ranch, on Clear Creek, four miles from Denver.
Along the valley of this creek and that portion of Platte Valley in the
vicinity, the farmers are cutting wheat, though the fields appear to be
ripening very unevenly. Crops excellent in appearance.
August 6. South bank of Platte, near the mouth of Plum Creek. Harvest
just ended ; standing shocks indicate a very heavy yield.
August 8. On the north slope of the Divide near West Plum Creek.
Harvest nearly closed ; some wheat and oats yet standing.
August 9 to 13. Colorado City.. The farmers in the vicinity of this
place in the midst of the wheat and oat harvest, both these cereals ap-
pearing to ripen simultaneously here.
August 16. On the banks of Arkansas, five miles south of Canon City.
Wheat harvest along the banks of this stream appears to have closed
at least two weeks past, the weeds almost hiding the stubble.
August 17. A few miles icest of the Arkansas River, behind the first high
ridge. Saw the farmers cutting wheat.
August 21 to 23. Trinidad. Wheat harvest in progress.
August 24. Richard Wooton's, on Raton Mountains. Farmers cutting
wheat.
Arigust 25. Rayada, New Mexico. Wheat harvest is over, having closed
about a week previous to our arrival. -
September 2 to 5. Las Vegas. Wheat harvest in progress.
September 17 and 18. Taos. Wheat harvest in progress in this valley.
September 21. San Luis, on the Rio Culebra, Colorado. Wheat not all
cut.
This record presents the strange fact that at the southern extremity
of our route, the harvest season conies in later than at the north
part of Colorado. But it should be borne in mind that this route was
limited to a narrow line along the immediate base of the mountains ; a
similar record of a line further east might present a very different state
of facts, but I have no data upon which to found a comparison.
Oats are grown with ease, and yield abundantly wherever they have
been tried in the Territory; in act there is no part of the Union where
heavier crops of oats can be produced than here. Instances are reported
where as high as one hundred and twenty-five bushels have been raised
to the acre, but these are extreme cases. I have ascertained quite a
number of instances where the yield reached from forty-eight to fifty-
five bushels ; and these not little garden patches which received extra-
care to report to fairs and societies, but crops taken from extensive
farms under ordinary culture : in onjs instance from an aggregate of
7,000 bushels, in another 5,000 bushels, actual measurement. "Volun-
teer" crops will come up year after year from the seed scattered during
the previous harvest.
The statistics gathered by Mr. Thomas give an average of thirty-five
bushels for 1868. The aggregate amount of this cereal raised in the
10 as
146 SURVEY OF COLORADO AND NEW MEXICO.
Territory for that year exceeded that of wheat, but from my observa-
tions I am inclined to the opinion that for 1869 the wheat crop will be
the larger of the two.
The soil and climate of Eastern Colorado seem to be well adapted to
the growth of barley, which, so far as it has been tried, yields a bounti-
ful return for the labor bestowed upon it. But the demand has not been
sufficient to induce the farmers to grow it extensively.
In regard to rye my information is defective, but from all the infor-
mation I could gather in regard to it, I do not think it yields as good
crops as the other cereals named. I have seen but very few fields dur-
ing the course of our journey this season, and even these presented an
inferior appearance.
I find, since I have made a more thorough examination of the corn
crops south of Platte Valley, that I was somewhat mistaken in the
opinion I expressed in the report of the northern section of Colorado,
forwarded through General J. A. Logan to the Commissioner of Agricul-
ture. I there advanced the opinion that the statistics ot the southern
portion of the Territory would show a considerably larger yield than the
northern section, but actual examination has shown me that the portion
over which our expedition passed possesses few if any advantages as a
corn-growing region, over the section north of the South Platte. From
the Cache a la Poudre to Santa Fe I found, with very few exceptions,
but one variety, the Mexican, presenting in the field a very great simi-
larity. Although moderate crops can be produced in almost every tilla-
ble portion of Eastern Colorado, yet I must admit that it falls far behind
the Mississippi Valley as a corn -producing section. Mr. Thomas gives
the average yield as twenty-five bushels, and, contrary to my first im-
pression, I now think this estimate is very near correct. The best fields
I saw in the course of our journey were on the Arkansas, a short dis-
tance below Canon City, and near a little village a short distance north
of Santa Fe, named Santa Cruz. But even these I do not think would
yield more than thirty or thirty-five bushels to the acre ; possibly they
may reach forty as the extreme. I know it is contended by some that
the valley of the Platte can produce as heavy crops as the States; but if
this has ever been done, the instances are rare and cannot be relied upon
in fixing a general average. And this corn is, when produced, of an infe-
rior quality.
I have no desire to underrate the agricultural capacity of the Terri-
tory in the least particular, but must state my firm convictions reached
under the most favorable circumstances.
It may be that by careful experiments some varieties may be found
which will prove adapted to the soil and climate, but I think there are
climatic obstacles in the way of growing this cereal which cannot be
overcome. But it should be remembered these remarks apply only to
the sections lying along the eastern base of the Kocky Mountain Range.
In this part of the Territory and in San Luis Park the nights are very
cold even in the warmest part of the season, and this, doubtless, retards
the growth. Besides this, the frosts set in early and prevent those
varieties from maturing which require a greater length of time to com-
plete their growth.
But, as before intimated, there, are some facts connected with the
maturing of cereal crops in this country which cannot be satisfactorily
explained until the climatology has been more thoroughly studied. Per-
haps when the botany and topography have been more thoroughly worked
up, it may aid in explaining these anomalies, for such they certainly
are.
SURVEY OF COLORADO AND NEW MEXICO. 147
VEGETABLES AND FRUITS.
Irish potatoes seein to be perfectly "at home" in Colorado, growing
readily and abundantly, except in the extreme southern portion, and
even here, until we pass the line into New Mexico, quite good crops are
raised. Not only does this tuber grow well in the valleys east of the
mountain range, but even far up in the narrow denies nine and ten
thousand feet above the level of the sea, wherever space and soil can be
found, they yield quite bountiful returns to the labor bestowed upon
them. The northern section, from Box Elder to the South Platte Valley,
I think is decidedly the best potato region west of the Mississippi and
east of California ; not only in regard to the amount of the crop raised,
but also in respect to the quality of the tuber.
The first new potatoes we met with large enough to eat were at South
Boulder, July 6. Even at this early date in the season they were of quite
good size, rich and mealy. Their rapid growth in very favorable spots
sometimes causes a defect, which is also occasionally seen in the Western
States a vacant space in the center, lined with a dark internal skin.
No finer region for keeping this vegetable through the season can be
found than Colorado ; its pure, dry atmosphere renders it easy to keep
them perfectly sound the entire year; so true is this, where proper
care has been taken, that when cooked it is often impossible to distin-
guish the old crop from the new.
Some of the finest patches I saw growing were along the margin of
Clear Creek, between Denver and Golden City, where the stream bursts
its way through the lofty mesas which here flank the mountain range.
Onions grow finely, except in the extreme northern part of the Terri-
tory. The Mexican variety, which is found south of the Divide, grows
to a very large size, one having been measured by Mrs Colonel Hart, at
Fort Garland, whose circumference was seventeen and a half inches ;
very often they are found weighing two and three pounds.
As we approach New Mexico, going south, they have the finest and
mildest flavor of any onions I have ever tasted, which seems to be pecu-
liar to the climate and soil of this country, for when they are taken from
here and planted in other sections, although they may grow well, they ap-
pear to lose this peculiar flavor. I was informed at Las Vegas that both
seed and onions had been sent to the States, and that, in every case, such
had been the result; hence, it is supposed that this delicious flavor is
peculiar to this country.
Turnips and cabbages also grow quite well throughout the arable por-
tion of the Territory, and especially in the northern section. Instances
have frequently occurred where they have grown to almost fabulous size.
The former grows well and produces quite abundant crops even in the
little valleys far up in the mountains.
Beans are raised in considerable quantities in the southern portion of
the Territory, and are much used. But they are subject to the attack
of a small insect, probably a species of Haltica, which often does much
injury to the crop. Although I did not have an opportunity of seeing
this insect, yet I saw some garden patches in Santa Fe which had been
literally riddled by it.
In regard to fruits, I am not able to speak positively, as sufficient time
has not elapsed since attention has been turned to them to complete the
experiments which are being made. But from all the indications attend-
ing these experiments there is good reason to believe from Platte Valley
south all the hardier, and perhaps other fruits, may be grown success-
fully. Quite a number of orchards have been planted in Platte Valley
148 SURVEY OF COLORADO AND NEW MEXICO.
and the valley of Cherry Creek, on the north side of the Divide ; also,
some in the valley of the Upper Arkansas. The chief trouble in the
northern portion appears to be that the young trees are winter-killed.
But, doubtless, this may be prevented by mulching, which does not ap-
pear to have been properly attended to. On the Arkansas, a short dis-
tance below Canon City, I saw a young orchard, on the farm of Mr. J.
T. Smith, where the trees were growing finely. Among them I saw
some peach trees which have commenced bearing this season, the fourth
from the seed. The apple trees are growing finely, and so far, have had
no protection during the winter. There are quite a number of varie-
ties, all appearing to be doing equally well. The pear trees, also, are
in excellent condition, but the dwarfs appear to be growing the same as
the standards.
Here I also saw watermelons, citrons, &c., growing to a good size.
I was informed by Mr. Smith that he had transplanted to his garden
from the mountains the native currants, gooseberries, and raspberries,
but that the experiment proved a failure, the bushes not growing well
and bearing no fruit. These native varieties appear to be adapted only
to the mountains. It is highly probable that if they were taken east
and planted in the mountains the experiment would prove a success.
The wild strawberries found in the mountains of this Territory, though
small, have the most delicious flavor of any that I ever tasted ; they ripen
about the latter part of July.
Timber for building, fencing and other purposes is a great desider-
atum in many portions of the country. Yet considerable quantities of
pine are found on the hills which occasionally traverse the plains, and
on the foot-hills which flank the mountains.
Further up in the mountains an abundance of this timber of a very
good size and quality can be obtained to supply the present need. And
as in these situations water-power is always close at hand, it can readily
be converted into lumber by saw-mills at a comparatively moderate
cost. Although there are some scrubby species of oak found in the
limits of the Territory, yet in the eastern part there is none of sufficient
size to be of use for domestic purposes. In our journey southward the
first oak I observed was during our ascent of the northern slope of the
Divide. Along the larger creeks moderate quantities of cotton wood of
medium size are found. Sometimes this is seen as much as two feet
through, but as a general thing it is of rather small size.
While Colorado possesses all the iron ore and coal necessary for the
purposes for which these may be used, and sufficient soft timber to sup-
ply the mountain districts and sections under consideration, yet there
is an entire lack of the harder wood necessary in the manufacture of
agricultural and other implements. This, unless it can be grown, must
always be supplied from other sections.
One advantage this Territory possesse sover many other portions of
the Union is the facility with which the most excellent roads can be
made. The natural soil in the streets of Denver forms a better pave-
ment to-day than any of the artificial pavements of the cities of the
Eastern States. Being a coarse silicious sand or fine gravel it forms a
road equal to the best macadamized. In some of the finer sandy bottoms
in the creeks in the extreme southern section sometimes the roads
become heavy. Even in the mountain districts I have been astonished
at the easy ascent of the passes, through the most rugged-looking ridges.
Along the Union Pacific railroad as far up as Cheyenne there are but
very few cuts and none of any considerable depth. And on the road
from Denver back in the mountains to Georgetown there is but one
SURVEY OF COLORADO AND NEW MEXICO. 149
steep point, and even at this, by a little trouble and moderate outlay,
a good road could be made with a very moderate grade. Along the
eastern base of the mountains from Cheyenne to Santa Fe there is not
a difficult point to pass, the road over the Divide and Eaton Moun-
tains being no more difficult than ordinary hills in the Eastern States.
The road from Santa Fe to the San Luis Valley or Park is very rough
and difficult for wagons, and the same is true of the north side of the Pon-
cho Pass, but with these two exceptions the roads to and from, as well
as through the San Luis and South Parks, are very good and easily
traveled with wagons. And for the benefit of those who desire to travel
over any of these routes and camp I may remark that water is to be
found at suitable points throughout the entire length of the Territory.
At a few points, where the road recedes from the mountains, difficulty
may be experienced in obtaining wood, but such places are few, and proper
precaution during the day's travel to secure a supply will prevent all
difficulty.
IRRIGATION.
With a very few exceptions irrigation is necessary throughout Colorado
and New Mexico. There are some points on the slopes of the Divide
and in the mountain districts where the moisture afforded by rains is
sufficient to supply the crops ; and, as I have heretofore remarked, for
the past two years, at some other points irrigation has been unnecessary,
but, as a rule, it is necessary throughout Colorado, and in making up
estimates of the expense of farming in this Territory this item should
always be counted.
This necessity is generally classed among the drawbacks to the
agriculture of these territories, but there is some doubt as to the
correctness of this conclusion, for, when we take into consideration the
fact that where rain is depended upon there are frequently great losses
incurred because of dry seasons, the question arises, "Is the loss by
drought greater or less than the cost of irrigation > The decision of
this question must decide the point as to whether irrigation is really a
drawback or not. That it is inconvenient and imposes a hardship upon
the farmer of limited means, at the opening or settling of his farm, is
true. But when his primary ditch is completed, if properly made, he
may feel himself forever secure from loss through drought.
As heretofore stated, the streams of eastern Colorado, north of the
South Platte, which run from the mountains into the latter stream, have
a rapid fall, varying from ten to fifty feet to the mile. Consequently it
is easy to turn the water into acequias or ditches, and requires but a
short run to carry it to any moderate height.
And as the terraces of this section which flank the creek bottoms
seldom rise higher than fifty feet above the creek level, generally twenty-
five to thirty, they can be irrigated by acequias of moderate length ; in
fact, I am satisfied that there is but a small quantity of land between
Cache a la Poudre and South Platte which cannot be irrigated. And
when these terraces have been irrigated and cultivated for a few years
I feel confident that the soil on them will prove as productive as that of
the bottoms.
I understand that the rule for the fall in these irrigating ditches is
one-fourth of an inch to the rod, and that this carries the water over
the soil with sufficient rapidity to prevent its being absorbed.
After crossing the Platte southward to the Divide and along the
Platte valley, ditching is much more expensive than in the northern
section, as the streams have much less fall, and the soil absorbs the
water more rapidly.
150 SURVEY OF COLORADO AND NEW MEXICO.
Between the Divide and the Eaton Mountains along the valleys of the
Arkansas and its branches, the lands can be irrigated with moderate
cost, though* the streams are not so rapid as those in the northern
section. In this part of the Territory, as well as immediately north of
the Divide, the land between the streams does not assume such regular
terrace forms as those north of the Platte.
Ditching at present is generally done by plowing and throwing out
the dirt, except where very large ones are required. The process is
also often facilitated by using a scraper. But doubtless ditching machines
will soon be introduced.
The largest acequia I know of in Colorado is near Denver, on the
south side of Platte River. It is several miles in length, and cost
about $14,000, and irrigates quite a number of farms.
The cost, when estimated by the number of acres irrigated, is much
lessened by several farmers uniting and making one large ditch suffi-
cient to supply the farms of all entering into the combination. The
smaller side ditches, which lead off to the various fields, are made with
the plow, and hence the cost of these is but nominal.
There appears to have been but little improvement made in this part
of agriculture for centuries past; and, in fact, it is susceptible of but
little improvement. In my more extended report, which I expect to
prepare during the winter, I propose to take up this subject of irriga-
tion more fully, as it seems to hang somewhat as an incubus over west-
ern agriculture, at least in the minds of those living in sections sup-
plied with rain. Yet when it is considered in that broad view corre-
sponding to the vast extent of our country, it will be seen that it is one
item in the series of variety necessary to the complete prosperity of
the nation one link in the grand chain necessary to render us inde-
pendent as a nation.
One advantage of irrigation, which will occur to the mind of any
one, is that the crop can be watered whenever it is needed. But at the
same time irrigation has some disadvantages which are not apparent
until shown by experience. One of these is that the crops do not re-
ceive exactly equal portions of water throughout the same field, and,
consequently, do not ripen evenly. I have seen fields of wheat and
oats presenting every variety of condition in the same field, from quite
green to very ripe. Every farmer will at once perceive the difficulty
arising from such a condition as this. It might be supposed that when
the fields have been overflowed for some days with water, the land, after
the water was drawn off, would assume that condition termed " baked f
but nature generally furnishes a counterpoise to all her apparent aber-
ration; and, following this rule, she has here suited the soil to the cli-
matic conditions, and hence this anticipated state does not follow irri-
gation.
I made an effort to ascertain what the average cost of ditching is to
the acre, but found it next to an impossibility to do this. The difference
in the nature of the ground at different points, the uncertainty in regard
to the price of labor, the difference in the sizes of the ditches, would
render an average, if it could be obtained, worthless.
DRAWBACKS.
As the want of water has already been somewhat fully considered, I
will omit it here.
The scarcity of timber for building, fuel, fencing, and other purposes,
may very properly be classed as one of the drawbacks in this Terri-
SURVEY OF COLORADO AND NEW MEXICO. 151
tory one which very soon strikes the traveler passing through the
eastern section. And this applies to all the sections into which 1 have
divided the country, except the mountain district.
The amount of cottonwood and box elder found along the banks of
the streams is quite small, consisting generally of very narrow fringes
along the immediate borders of these streams. This is inferior timber
at best, and can afford a supply but for a short time, even when we
take into consideration the fact that many of the houses are built of
adobes. The mountains are generally clothed with a growth of pines,
but these are often of a very inferior character, especially along the east-
ern slope nearest the arable lands. But as we penetrate further into the
mountains, these are of a better quality, and saw-mills are being erected
in the interior of the mountain districts which at present are furnishing
a supply of lumber at comparatively moderate prices, as water-power is
easily obtained along the little creeks. But even here, notwithstanding
the repeated assertions to the contrary, I do not think the supply inex-
haustible. The rapid increase of the mining operations and population
in the mining sections, which are in the heart of the pine regions, is
rapidly consuming, for building purposes, fuel, &c., the pines around
these points. And the numerous fires which occur here, and sweep up
the mountain side with a wild fury, like that of a burning prairie, are
destroying vast quantities of this timber. Even now we can scarcely
travel a single mile along the mountain canons where we dp not see the
slopes on either side marked by broad strips of burnt timber, which
appear as somber spots on the otherwise beautiful scenery.
I have no doubt but that this view will be controverted ; yet when we
look at the broad expanse of untimbered lands which sweeps out east-
ward from the mountain base, and compare it with the timbered strip
in reach, it is scarcely possible to arrive at any other conclusion. But,
as 1 am now pressed for time, I will reserve the discussion of this sub-
ject for the more extended report I desire to present on the agriculture
of Colorado and New Mexico. Even now, sawed lumber has frequently
to be hauled for seventy-five to one hundred miles, and even further;
but the building of railroads will greatly reduce the expense of trans-
portation.
I bring this matter forward thus prominently ki order, if possible, to
impress upon the farmers and citizens of this Territory the great neces-
sity of commencing at an early day the work of planting trees. It is
certainly one of deep interest to them, and every effort should be made
to induce not only farmers, but all who have lands and lots, to com-
mence this important work. I am sorry to say that throughout our
journey I saw but few houses surrounded by growing trees.
In regard to the supply of fuel, the difficulty of supplying this want
will doubtless be met when the various coal mines are opened, and
railroads traverse the country. But the supply of fencing material, at
a reasonable rate, is not so easily met. To avoid expense on the larger
farms, that portion intended for cultivation is generally inclosed under
one fence, and corrals are made for the stock which is in use. And I
have noticed some cases where two or three small farmers have combined
and inclosed their farms under one fence. Around Denver wire fences
are being introduced, and will probably prove cheaper than any other
kind, unless hedges can be made. If this latter kind can be made, I
think they will prove the best that can be adopted, not only for the
same reasons urged in their favor in the prairie States, but also because
they will assist in increasing the amount of moisture, and in drawing
birds, thereby tending to decrease the grasshopper pest.
152 SURVEY OF COLORADO AND NEW MEXICO.
Another serious drawback to the agriculture of Colorado, as ^ell as
other portions of the great trans-Mississippi plains, is the destruction of
crops by the migrating grasshoppers. During some years, in different local-
ities, these insects have proved very destructive, sometimes sweeping away
in a few days the result of the hard labor of the farmer during an entire
season. Yet I find, after a somewhat thorough examination, that in this
Territory although occasionally very injurious, yet they are by no means
so destructive as has been represented. And, as has been the case this
season, the papers of this western country often imprudently spread false
alarms. This arises from a neglect to distinguish the ]arva3 of the migra-
tory species from those that are merely local. I am satisfied that there
is but one migratory species the Caloptenum spretum which appears here
in any considerable numbers. The Oedipoda coralipes (Hald.) is found
at certain points in limited numbers, but I do not think it ever proves
destructive east of the mountains.
I have noticed during our trip the former species at various points as
follows:
On our arrival at St. Joseph, Missouri, June 17, we found them very
abundant in the complete state, so much so that the lower parts of the
walls of the hotel at which we stopped were literally covered black with
them, and the hogs, which seemed to have learned the art of catching
them, were enjoying a rich feast. I understood they had been moving
for something over a week previous to the date of our arrival.
At Omaha, Nebraska, the 18th of the same month, I saw none of them.
It is true I did not go out of the city to examine, yet I think if they had
been present in any considerable numbers I should have seen them.
During our stay at Cheyenne, (from 21st to 28th June) I noticed them
in considerable numbers, but in the larva state and scarcely half grown.
At Box Elder Creek, and Laporte, on the Cache a la Poudre, I saw none,
although I made diligent search for them ; but when we arrived at Big
Thompson, two days after, (July 3,) I found them quite abundant in the
perfect state. From here to Clear Creek, Denver, but few were seen. At
the latter place (July 7 to 14) I observed them in moderate numbers, just
entering the perfect state, but the local species were rather numerous, both
in individuals and species. From here we passed westward into the Mid-
dle Park (from July 15 to 27) and all along the mountain valleys, after enter-
ing the first range, and in the park we found them in abundance in the
perfect state, often rising, when the wind was prevailing, in large swarms
and floating before the wind like huge flakes of snow. I traced them even
up into the very midst of the eternal snows, gathering specimens from
the cold surface 5 and, strange as it may seem, even above the snow, on
the naked summits of the peaks, I saw the larvae of this species hopping
about almost as lively as those on the plains.
After crossing the South Platte, going south, although individuals
were occasionally seen, yet at no place during the remainder of the
journey were they seen in abundance.
One conclusion to be drawn from the foregoing facts is that, even
within the limits of the eastern portion of the . Territory, there are
distinct local broods ; for while they were abundant and active, in the
perfect state, at Big Thompson, July 3, yet, on Clear Creek, about a week
later, they were undergoing their last moulting, and between these
points scarcely any were found.
Another important conclusion which I think we may draw from
these facts is, that the mountain canons and valleys are the primary
hives from which these vandal hordes issue upon their destructive mis-
sionimportant because it renders the problem of counteracting them
SURVEY OF COLORADO AND NEW MEXICO. 153
more difficult of solution. In many other sections where this pest was
met at the introduction of population, the opening of farms, and bringing
the soil under cultivation, &c., has gradually brought the destructive
species down to their normal condition. But here, as these mountain
canons and slopes cannot be brought under cultivation, this counter-
acting influence can never.be brought to bear upon them. Yet, even in
this case, nature has not left this evil wholly without a counterbalancing
opposite. While she has made the mountain valleys and sides the hive
from which her destroyers swarm, she has hid within the bowels of these
lofty ranges rich mines of gold and silver, to attract thither an active
and energetic population. Through these the homes of this insect will
be disturbed, and the primitive broods gradually destroyed. Hence
while the mountains send down the evil, they contain the remedy. And
like the little wave made by the pebble dropped in the lake, which swells
in proportion as it recedes until it dashes against the shore, so it is with
each counteracting effect within these mountain sections; it will be felt
in increasing proportion along the whole line of their migration.
I have been unable to ascertain with any degree of certainty the dis-
tance they move in one season. I am aware calculations have been
made on this point from data obtained on the eastern side of the plains.
What reliance is to be placed upon these I do not know.
STOCK RAISING.
I cannot at this time enter upon the consideration of this very impor-
tant branch of agriculture, for the reason that I have not as yet obtained
all the data necessary, and also, because I prefer to defer it until I pre :
sent a report on the agriculture of New Mexico.
But I may now state generally that these Territories possess as fine
grazing lands as any to be found in the west. And although much stock
is raised here, yet the amount falls far behind . what it should. Many
who are rushing back and forth from point to point along the Rocky
Mountain range, seeking for rich lodes, would probably find much more
gold if they would tarn their attention to stock-raising. Not only do
the plains afford good pasturage, but grass of most excellent quality
clothes many of the mountain slopes, and carpets the lofty mesa surfaces
and elevated mountain valleys. On the top of the Divide, there is one
of the most beautiful little grassy plains I ever saw, where a large herd
of cattle or sheep could find rich pasturage.
The finest butter and milk I ever tasted was obtained in South Park.
So delicious was the milk that the members of our party could scarcely
satisfy themselves with it.
There are abundant openings for industrious and energetic stock-
raisers to make money following their occupation in this country. And
for the benefit of such as feel an interest in this matter, I herewith give
a synopsis of the laws of Colorado, respecting non-resident stock-owners.
Revised Statutes of Colorado, chapter 70.
Section 1. Non-residents may herd stock in this Territory for one year
by payment of fifty cents for each animal so herded, in lieu of all other
taxes ; on sheep, twenty cents.
Section 2. Non-residents desiring to herd cattle in the Territory, must
file with the recorder of the county a certificate of the number and
description of such cattle in the following form :
TERRITORY OF COLORADO, County, ss :
" The undersigned, owner (or agent of the owner, as the case may le) of
11 G S
154 SURVEY OF COLORADO AND NEW MEXICO.
the following described animals, proposes to keep and herd the same for
grazing purposes within the county aforesaid, to wit: (describing the
number of animals of each Jcind, respectively, with brands, if any,} from the
day of , A. D. 18 , until the day of , A. D.
18." '
Section 5 prescribes the penalty for herding without filing such certifi-
cate^ which is two dollars for each head of stock, except sheep, and one
dollar for each sheep.
Section 9. Non-residents driving stock from one county to another not
to incur an additional tax.
* Section 10 forbids the importation of Texas cattle.
These are the principal sections which relate to the herding of stock
in the Territory.
The* following is a synopsis of the laws of the Territory relating to
irrigation. Revised Statutes, chapter 45.
Section 1. Claim owners on the bank, margin, or neighborhood of
any stream, entitled to use the water for irrigation.
Section 2. The right of way through claims of adjoining owners for the
purpose of conveying water allowed.
Section 3. Extent of the right of way extends only to ditch, dike, or
cutting, sufficient for the purpose required.
Section 4. Where the water is not sufficient to supply all, the probate
judge to appoint commissioners to app6rtion it.
Section 5. If the right of way is refused by owner of lands through
which the ditch runs, it may be condemned.
Section 6. Persons in the neighborhood of a stream may erect wheel or
other machine for raising water ; right of way therefor may be obtained.
Section 7. Ditch owners required to preserve the banks of their ditches
so as not to flood or injure others.
GENERAL REMARKS.
Although unable to attend the territorial fair held at Denver this
year, September 22 to 26, yet, since my return, I learn that it was well
attended 7 and that the show of stock, farm products, and minerals was
the largest ever presented at any fair held in the Territory, and the
interest taken greater than any previous season. I cannot attempt to
give a list of articles and premiums, but may be excused for stating that
the premium on turnips was awarded to W. H. Berry, esq., of Fairplay.
I mention this because these were raised on the highest part of the sur-
face of South Park, some ten thousand feet above the level of the sea,
almost at the margin of eternal snows. I have procured specimens of
these, which are very large, though inferior to those that received the
premium.
The crop of 1869 is larger than that of any preceding year, and is esti-
mated at the following figures : Wheat, 675,000 bushels ; corn, 600,000
bushels j oats and barley, (nine-tenths oats,) 550,000 bushels ; potatoes
and other vegetables, 350,000 bushels. Which, with the hay and dairy
product, will have a market value of not less than three and one-half
millions of dollars.
In conclusion, we may confidently assert that Colorado, at no very dis-
tant day, is destined to be one of the chief agricultural sections in the
Rocky Mountain regions, yea, we may say the most important. The
* This section is by no means strictly observed or inforced.
SURVEY OF COLORADO AND NEW MEXICO.
155
mining regions affording a home market, it possesses a completeness
within itself not found in any other section of the Union, while New
Mexico will be the great central fruit and wine region.
I have on hand a large amount of notes and items in regard to the
agriculture of the other sections of Colorado and also of New Mexico,
which I hope to present at an early day.
.' vi>, l 7.v;.' 1
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