TWENTY-NINTH ANNUAL MEETING. 123 
tral New York, from Oneida county to Niagara; near Sandusky, Ohio; near 
Grand Rapids and Alabaster point, Michigan; in Smyth and Washington coun- 
ties, Virginia; in Alabama and Louisiana; in Iowa, Kansas, Arkansas, Texas, 
Oklahoma, Indian Territory, Colorado, Montana, Utah, South Dakota, Wyoming, 
Arizona, Idaho, New Mexico, California. The total amount produced in the 
United States in 1894 was 239,312 short tons. The state of Kansas * produced 
that year 64,889 tons, of which all but 647 tons was calcined, thus standing sec- 
ond to Michigan among the states in quantity mined. The value of this product 
was $301,884, an excess of $112,264 over Michigan, placing this state first among 
the states of the union in value of gypsum products. The value of Kansas gyp- 
sum mined that year was greater than that of all the other states, excepting 
Michigan. There has been an increase in the value of the gypsum products of 
Kansas of $207,649 in six years, which makes a record the state may well be proud 
of, and at the present time a very small percentage of the available supply has 
been taken, so that Kansas gypsum has a promising future. 
LocaTIon AND Division oF AREA. 
The gypsum deposits of Kansas occur in a belt trending northeast-southwest 
across the state. The belt of exposed rock varies in width from 5 miles in the 
north to 14 miles in the central part and 36 miles near the southern line, with a 
length of 230 miles. 
This area is naturally divided into three districts, which are named from the 
important centers of manufacture: the northern or Blue Rapids area, in Marshall 
county; the central or Gypsum City area, in Dickinson and Saline counties; the 
southern or Medicine Lodge area, in Barberand Comanche counties. These areas 
appear to be separate; but careful mapping shows a number of isolated interme- 
diate deposits which serve to connect at least two of the larger areas. Gypsum 
is reported from near Randolph and in the reservoir excavation at Manhattan, 
in Riley county. It is worked for plaster at Longford, in the southern part of Clay 
county; andit is found near Manchester, in the northern part of Dickinson county. 
These smaller areas indicate a connection between the northern and central 
areas. 
Gypsum deposits of economic importance are reported from near Peabody, in 
Marion county, while they appear to be absent through Reno, Sedgwick, and 
Kingman counties, where the extensive salt deposits occur. There is thus a break 
between the central and southern areas which is occupied by salt deposits. 
GEOLOGY. 
The northern area is located in the Permian beds, consisting of fossiliferous 
limestones and shales. The central area lies in the Permian, though higher than 
the northern, while the salt measures to the south occur near the top of the Per- 
mian. The southern Kansas gypsum is found in a series of red, sandy shales, 
called the red beds, which probably mark the transition from the Permian to 
the Cretaceous. The deposits therefore rise geologically from north to south, 
but they are confined to the Permian formation. The deposits to the south in 
Oklahoma and Texas are placed in the Permian, while those at the north in lowa 
are referred to the Cretaceous. 
TorpoGRAPHY. 
The northern area shows the remnant of a plateau of 1,250 feet elevation, now 
indented by the Blue rivers and their tributaries, yielding a somewhat rugged 
topography. The central area lies 70 miles southwest of Blue Rapids. The 
* Statistics from Sixteenth Annual Rep. U.S. Geol. Surv., 1896. 
