ON THE ORIGIN AND DEFINITION OF THE GEOLOGIC 
TERM “LARAMIE”? 
A. C. VEATCH 
TABLE OF CONTENTS 
Introduction. 
Present usage of the term ‘‘ Laramie.” 
King’s statement. 
Boundaries of the Laramie Plains. - 
Hayden’s investigations. 
Hague’s studies. 
Cross’s redefinition. 
Summary and conclusions. 
INTRODUCTION 
Investigations of the United States Geological Survey during the 
summer of 1906, covering the larger part of the Laramie exposures 
on the Laramie Plains, examined by the King and Hayden surveys, 
have revealed many new and important facts bearing on the Laramie 
problem. 
By detailed areal surveys it was found: (1) that the lignitiferous 
series, which in the Laramie Plains lies between the Montana below 
and the Fort Union above, and has a maximum thickness of about 
12,500 feet, is divided about the middle by an unconformity; (2) 
that this unconformity is in the same stratigraphic plane and continu- 
ous with the unconformity which in the vicinity of Carbon and to the 
southeast separates all the Laramie beds studied by the Hayden and 
King parties from the underlying Cretaceous; (3) that the beds 
above the unconformity rest, often with great divergence of dip, on 
all the underlying beds down to and including the Dakota; (4) that 
the basal conglomerate, locally well developed at the horizon of the 
unconformity, while composed largely of materials derived from the 
underlying Cretaceous rocks, notably the Benton, contains pebbles 
and bowlders from the -pre-Cambrian crystallines now exposed in 
t Published by permission of Director of the U.S. Geological Survey. 
526 
