ORIGIN AND DEFINITION OF THE TERM “LARAMIE” 543 
rhetorical doubt expressed in the above sentence from Hague’s report 
relates solely to the point whether or not these beds were Cretaceous. 
No one has questioned or could question that they were Laramie, 
since they were the exposures which justified the use of the name. 
The question, as clearly shown by the preceding section and ensuing 
discussion, was solely the one of geologic age. Lesquereux, from 
large collections of plants at this point, had asserted that the beds 
were undoubtedly Miocene. Starting with this rhetorical question, 
-Hague proceeds to ‘‘determine the true horizon of these beds,” 
namely that they are Cretaceous, by “tracing out their relations with 
the great sandstone formation [Fox Hills] which forms all the higher 
ridges of the region,”’ and by comparing “the strata with other similar 
localities.” He then states that the “beds at Carbon occupy a broad, 
irregular-shaped basin, the rocks on the west, south, and east all 
dipping in toward the center, surrounding it completely on three 
sides.” He reports that on the west the beds of Simpson Ridge may 
be traced ‘“‘passing conformably under the level coal-bearing strata 
of the valley;” that on the east the same coal-bearing sandstones are 
underlain by beds preserving the same dip, and to the south the beds 
“appear to be perfectly conformable with the basin strata.” In 
other words, in his opinion the conformability of these Laramie beds 
with the underlying strata at this point is completely demonstrated.* 
locality, as shown by the description of Hayden, extends from Carter, Wyo., to the 
“Narrows, on Weber River, 7 miles below Echo City, Utah. The name is derived from 
Wasatch Station on the Union Pacific Railroad in Summit County, Utah, situated 
about midway between Carter and The Narrows. In this section the beds are very 
fully and completely exposed. See in this connection Professional Paper No. 56, 
U.S. Geological Survey (1907), pp. 87, 88. 
1 Hague’s conclusion is clearly based wholly on the exposures (1) on the east flank 
of Simpson Ridge immediately southwest of Carbon, and (2) those along the railroad- 
just east of town. The basal sandstones of the Upper Laramie outcrop along the east 
flank of Simpson Ridge with so nearly the same strike as the “‘ Fox Hills sandstones” 
of the ridge (which are really Mesa Verde and several thousand feet below the top of the 
Montana) that from the exposures at this point one would certainly not suspect an 
unconformity except from a very critical study of the source of some of the contained 
pebbles. Immediately north and south of these exposures there is, however, a very 
marked angular unconformity between the Upper Laramie and the underlying Cre- 
taceous strata. At the point where Hague reported conformity the upper 2,000 
feet of the Lewis and all of the Lower Laramie is wanting. <A few miles to the south 
the same Upper Laramie beds rest on highly inclined rocks of Cretaceous age, down to 
and including the Dakota. East of Carbon, Hague fixed the base of the Laramie at 
