OREGON SHORT LINE OGDEN TO YELLOWSTONE. 



143 



Horseshoe Creek coal district, which contains several beds of excellent 

 bituminous coal of Cretaceous age.^ 



North of Ashton fields of grain slope gently to the river. Here the 

 Snake River plain ends and the train enters a region of wooded hills. 

 The upland against which the great plain terminates is the edge of 

 the Yellowstone Park plateau, an elevated area of volcanic origin. 

 In geologically recent time (Eocene and Neocene epochs) volcanoes 

 on the east, north, and west of the park poured out enormous vol- 

 umes of molten rock. Flows of rhyolitic lava filled the depressed 

 basin between the encircling mountains and moved down the outer 

 slopes to a considerable distance. It is the outer edge of these lava 

 flows that the train crosses on entering the shallow rock-ribbed can- 

 yon of Henrys Fork. Here outcrops of rhyolite are seen close to the 

 track for the first time on this line. From the entrance of this can^ 

 yon to the end of the railroad the route is across lavas which are 

 older than the basalt underlying the Snake River plain. RhyoHte 

 is the predominant rock in Warm River canyon and on the Conti- 

 nental Divide, but bas^Jt, which is interbedded with the rhyolite, and 

 is much more resistant to weathering and erosion, underhes the mesas 



and caps the canyon cliffs. 



In the canyon of Henrys Fork rounded outcrops of rhyohte stick 

 their heads above the river and form the lower part of the vertical 

 walls. Basalt makes the rim of the canyon, and its columnar joint- 



s 



ing and cellular character may be seen from the train* Tlie tree 



are Douglas fir, outhers of the Targhee National Forest, within whose 



boundaries the route continues to Reas Pass. 



Warm River station is at the junction of Warm River and Henrys 



Fork. The few settlers whose homes are along the valley bottoms 



cultivate the benches above the canyon rim. Warm 

 River is so called because it has a warmer tempera- 

 ture than that of other waters in the region. This 



Warm River. 



Elevation 5,284 feet 

 Population 146.* 

 Ogden 242 miles. 



immediate vicipity fits the description of the country 

 where Owen Wister's ''Virginian" caught and hung 

 the horse thieves. That job was done west of the Tetons and a day's 



ride from Bitch Creek. 



Here the railroad leaves Henrys Fork and follows the canyon of 

 Warm River through the wildest scenery on the entire route from 



^ The coal beds are irregular in tliick- 



ness 



ous faults, and dip at steep angles. The 

 Government geologist who examined the 

 field concltidod that the coal beds are 

 thick enough to be mined profitably if 

 they were horizontal; but the steep dip 



and the breaks in the continuity of the 

 beds render mining expensive, difficult, 

 and uncertain. The district can supply 

 a local domestic trade for a long time, but 

 can not be reckoned as a factor in the 

 great coal industry- of the Rocky Moun- 

 tain region. 



