TE COUN-CIL BLUFFS TO OGDEN. 45 - 



¥ 



cgs 



may be seen to advantage, and a tunnel is driven 1,800 feet through 

 a spur of the same granite 3 miles west of Dale Creek. One hill 

 near this creek, known as Gibraltar Cone, 100 feet high above the 

 grade line, was drilled and loaded with about 1,0' 

 powder and 1,000 pounds of dynamite, and on July 4, 1900, this 

 charge was exploded, blowing out the whole hill. The cuts are 

 equaled by some of the great fills. The fill across Dale Creek is 900 

 feet long and 120 feet high in its deepest part, and 500,000 cubic 

 yards of rock was used in constructing the embankment. 



The name of the next station, Hermosa, which is Spanish for beau- 

 tiful, seems appropriate, as may be realized by a glance to the left, 

 Hermos toward the west. Across the broad Laramie Basin,^ 



ermosa. which the road enters at this point, the mountains 



?rha"S/r ■ ^^"^ ^^ ^^gged grandeur, and near by may be seen 



natural monuments carved from red sandstone in 



many forms. Some of these are illustrated in Plate IX. 



From a point near Hermosa the road has two lines to Laramie. 



The westbound trains run by way of Red Buttes, and the eastbound 



trains come from Laramie over an easier grade by wat^ 



Red Buttes. ^f porelle and Colores. Red Butt. 



Elevation 7 300 feet, than a scction house and takes its 



Population 110.* , 



Omaha 564 miles. natural monumeuts or buttes of red sandstone that 



are numerous in this vicinity (PI. IX). From 

 Hermosa to Red Buttes the route has lain on gently sloping red beds 

 of Carboniferous age, consisting of the Casper formation, which was 



moi 



name 



mount 



limestone. These strata are overlain in 



some places by deposits of grav 



of Red Buttes station, by g^^psite. (For description see p. 48.) 



psum 



manufactured into cement 



plaster of Paris. It is of the form known as rock gyp 



* The Laramie Ba^in as usuaUy defined 

 is 90 miles long and 30 miles in maxiznimx 

 width, and has a surface elevation of 7,000 

 to 7,500 feet. It is a hollow whose form is 

 due to the general structure of the rocks 

 that underlie it. It is overlooked by the 

 Laramie Mountains on the east and the 

 Medicine Bow Mountains on the west. 

 These mountains are the northward con- 

 tinuation of the Rocky Mountain 

 of Colorado, the Laramie representing the 

 Front Range and the Medicine Bow the 

 north end of one of the inner ranges of the 

 Rocky Mountains. The baf=in was formed 





by the warping and tilting of the rock^ 

 diu-ing the several periods of upheaval, 

 and has later been modified by erc^ion. 

 The Big Hollow, a depression in the gen- 

 eral basin a few miles west of Laramie, is 

 9 miles long, 3 miles wide, and 200 feet 

 deep. Other similar depressions are Big 

 Basin, northwest of Laramie, Cooper Lake 

 Basin, and many smaller hollows occu- 

 pied by alkali lakes. The ba^in is partly 

 drained by Laramie River, wliich cro-^^es 

 the Laramie Mountains through a deep 

 ravine and finally joins North Platte 

 River. 



