402 GEOLOGY OF THE DENVER BASIN. 



although from a depth of 350 feet water rose to within 15 feet of the 

 surface; the quantity was slight. 



In the same year (1880) several shallow wells — from 50 to 200 feet 

 deep — were sunk near Greeley. None yielded water flowing' at the surface. 



In 1881 a second well was drilled at Pueblo for the South Pueblo 

 Steel Works. Its- location is on the mesa 125 feet above the Arkansas 

 River. The depth attained was 1,200 feet. A fair flow of water resulted. 

 In 1888 the supply was reported as 28,800 gallons per twenty-four hours. 

 The strata passed were chiefly shales. The cost did not exceed $5 per foot. 



At the same time that the above well was drilled an experimental 

 attempt to secure artesian water was made under the auspices of the LTnited 

 Slates Department of Agriculture near Fort Lyon, 8-4 miles east of Pueblo, 

 in the valley of the Arkansas. The result was unsatisfactory, a single 

 flow of but ,'i gallons per hour having been obtained at a depth of 430 

 feet, the expenditures to this point amounting to $18,353.55. A commission 

 subsequently appointed by the Department reported unfavorably upon the 

 location of the well, and this, with the unsatisfactory results obtained, led 

 to its abandonment at a depth of 815 feet. 



The commission then made a careful examination of the stratigraphy 

 and structure of the prairie region of Colorado between the Arkansas and 

 Platte rivers. Two sites were selected bv them as favorable for further 

 experimental boring, one at Akron, 112 miles east of Denver, on the 

 Burlington and Missouri Railroad, the other at Cheyenne Wells, 117 miles 

 southeast of Denver, near the Kansas Pacific Railroad. At neither point 

 were the attempts successful, although at the former locality a depth of 

 l,2ti(i feet was attained and at the latter 700 feet. 



ACTIVITY IN THE DENVER BASIN. 



The active prosecution of well-boring in the vicinity of Denver con- 

 stitutes a second period in the history of the development of this industry 

 in Colorado. In March, 1883, Mr. P. P. McCormick, who was boring for 

 coal near St. Luke's Hospital, in North Denver, was forced to abandon the 

 attempt on account of a large flow of water which rendered further progress 

 with the tools in use impossible. This water was characterized bv its 



