THE O^TEELAXD EOUTE COUNCIL BLUFFS TO OGDEX, 69 



r 



Just before reaching Black Buttes station the train crosses the 

 youngest of the three groups of Cretaceous coal beds that are exposed 



around the Rock Springs dome. This is called the 

 Black Buttes. glack Buttes coal group. The coal of the Black 

 Elevation 6,610 feet. Buttcs group has bccu mined to some extent. An 



Omaha < 73 miles. , , . , , . 



abandoned mine may be seen to the right (north) of 

 the railroad half a mile east of Black Buttes station, where also a 



name 



m 



Lewis (Upper Cretaceous) shale. The rocks 



Hailville. 



placed by faultmghere, so that individual beds are 



assui; 



.554 



Omaha 778 mnes^^*' ^* HallviUo sidiTig tlic road crosses one of the faults 



or displacements of the strata that are so numerous 

 in tliis region and enters a narrow canyon whose steep, craggy walls 

 display the hard rocks of the upper part of the Mesaverde forma- 

 tion. From tills siding is obtained a good view of the Almond coal 

 group/ which crops out north of the railroad (to the right) and is 

 underlain by the white sandstone of the middle part of the Mesaverde. 



■» 



3d sandstone near the middle of the Mesaverde i 

 eminent chffs at the town of Point of Kocks. (See 



XIV, B.) It is an important water-bearing sandstone 

 Point of Rocks. ^j^^ yields mineral waters. This sandstone is slightly 

 Elevation 6,503 feet, coiiglomeratic, is irrcgiJar in texture and liardness. 



and has been eroded into many fantastic and curious 

 forms. To some of the cavernous hollows in it have been given names^ 

 such as *^ Hermit's Grotto,'^ ^^Cave of the Sands," and '^Sancho^s 

 Bower/' Thi^ee wells that have been drilled here to depths of a little 



more 



sulph 



soon escapes oris oxidized on exposure to the air. From Rawlins 

 Green River, a distance of 134 miles, there is scarcely a place whe 

 water fit to drink can be found at the surface. The sprhigs ai 

 the streams are alkahne, and water from the wells at Point of Rocks 



much 



-bnond group 



fos 



brackish-water shells are abundant in the rocks above the coal. The 

 coal was mined about aniile east of -the to^vn, where the dip of the strata 

 brings the coal beds to the level of the valley' floor. 



^ The coals of the Almond coal group are 

 of poorer quality than those of the Rock 

 Sprii^s coal group and as they occur 

 close to the abundant supply of high- 



.nng 



have not been much exploited. The 

 only place where they have been mined is 

 Point of Rocks J formerly called Almond. 



