44 



GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN TJNITED STATES. 



more 



At tlie quarry the rock is 

 wliich shatter it to small 



shovels. Tliis 



steam.' 



quarry is said to have furnished about 10^000 carloads of ballast 

 every year for the last 14 years and is still in active operation. Bal- 

 last is thus obtained at a cost of about 6 cents a ton, whereas the 

 average cost of crushed rock used for raih'oad ballast is 49 cents, 

 Sliemian, so named in honor of Gen. W. T. Shennan, is the highest 



Laramie 



It is claimed 



Sherman. 



Elevation 8,009 f< 

 Population 115.* 

 Omaha 547 miles 



that from this point on a clear day may 

 Pikes Peak, about 165 miles, and Longs . 

 miles to the south, and Elk Mountain, 100 



60 



the west. 



railr 



mi 



divide at an altitude 237 feet higher than at present. On this old 



e> 



monument 



of Hon. Ohvcr 



Ames and his brother Oakes, to whose energy and perseverance was 



largely due the construction of the Union Pacific Railroad. 



he Laramie 



peneplain.^ 



The road here traverses the 



Range, on what has been described as the 



man 



o 



aramie 



windbreaks. The snow drifts badly in 



from 



HiU 



a point 237 feet lower than the original crossing. This change not 



only saved the expense of climbing the heavy grades 

 but did away with the famous Dale Creek Bridge, 



Dalo Creek, 



Elevation 7,918 feet. 

 Omaiia 550 utiles. 



which was 650 feet long and 135 feet high. 



It also 



involved some notable feats in engineering. Along 

 3re are many deep cuts in which the Sherman granite 



^ The uiiifonii fineness and approxi- 

 mately uniform thickness of the Creta- 

 ceous sedimentary rocks on each side of 

 the Laramie Range indicate that they 

 once extended over the area now occu- 

 pied by these mountains — in other words, 

 that the mountains did not exist during 

 Cretaceous time. At the close of that 

 period the region was uplifted and the 

 Cretaceous as well as the still older strati- 

 fied rocks were steeply upturned on the 

 eastern flank and slightly upturned on 

 the western flank of the mountains. Then 

 followed a long period of erosion during 

 the Eocene epoch* when the sedimentary 

 rocks were worn away from the top of the 

 mountains, except where they were prfe- 

 eerv^ed by being infolded within the gran- 



ite, and the crystalline rocks underlying 

 them were eroded to a nearly level sur- 

 face, or peneplain. 



At the close of the Eocene epoch the 

 range was again elevated and renewed 

 erosion attacked tliis planed surface, de- 

 riving from it in part at least the material 

 of the Oligocene and Miocene deposits 



that border the range on the east. 



These 



deposits could not all have been derived 

 from this area, however, for in some places 

 they extend over parts of this peneplain. 

 The present irregularitiea of the plain 

 were probably produced in large measure 

 by late Tertiary or Quaternary erosion, 

 which developed the canyons and re- 

 moved large parts of the Oligocene ^id 

 Miocene deposits. 



