GLACIAL FEATURES ON THE SOUTH SIDE OF 

 BEARTOOTH PLATEAU, WYOMING^ 



C. L. DAKE 



School of Mines, Rolla, Missouri 



During the summer of 191 6 the writer spent a number of days in 

 the basin of Clarks Fork, along the southern margin of the Beartooth 

 Plateau. In the course of the work there several interesting glacial 

 features were noted. The general situation, together with the local- 

 ities mentioned, are shown on the accompanying map, compiled 

 from the Shoshone National Forest Map and from the Crandall 

 Quadrangle. 



That portion of the Beartooth Plateau lying between Clarks 

 Fork and the Wyoming-Montana state boundary has been severely 

 glaciated. The plateau averages over 10,000 feet in elevation and 

 consists of bare, rounded knobs of granite, interspersed with lakes 

 and swamps. Several of the northward-flowing streams that rise 

 south of the state line head in typical cirques, occupied by small 

 lakes. Glacial striae were noted at several points. The valleys of 

 Line Creek and Bennett Creek, near where they emerge from their 

 canyons in the granite on to the plains of the Bighorn Basin, are 

 occupied by well-marked moraines. Little Rock Creek shows 

 distinct evidences of glaciation but has a less pronounced moraine 

 at the canyon mouth. There are slight evidences of a moraine 

 at the mouth of the Clarks Fork canyon itself. On the south wall 

 of that canyon numerous granite bowlders are to be seen several 

 hundred feet above the contact of the Cambrian on the pre- 

 Cambrian granite. 



It is, however, in the valleys of Dead Indian Creek, Elk Creek, 

 Sunlight Creek, and Russell Creek that the most interesting con- 

 ditions obtain. In the Sunlight basin, a well-defined moraine 

 occurs along the line between sections 15 and 16, T. 55 N., R. 105 W. 

 It is referred to by Hewett, who says of it, "Sunlight Basin appears 



^ Published by permission of the Wyoming state geologist. 



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