102 



GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES. 



here show how much these rocks have been turned from their original 

 flat-lying position. The nearly Tertical slitting or gashing of the 

 rocks is merely the result of weathering between the original beds of 

 sand as laid down on the sea bottom. The passage is narrow bocause 

 of the great hardness of the rocks, for the whole valley, like most other 

 valleys, has been made by the gradual wasliing away of material by 

 its stream and is narrowest where the rocks are hardest. Above the 

 narrows the valley walls are limestone and shale, which are more 

 easily worn away than the quartzite. A limestone quarry and kilns 

 are situated just above the narrows on the south side of the river. 

 Farther up Ogden River (which, by the way, would be called a 



some 



stream 



The verandas of this hotel 



In 1911 the trolley line ended 7 miles fr 

 a rustic hotel built of logs and stone, 

 afford a vantage point for enjoying the rugged canyon scenery.* 



About a quarter of a mile cast of The Hermitage, in the south 

 of the canyon, a few feet above the river, the limestone is fol 

 The position of the thin strata, once nearly horizontal througl 

 but now turned abruptly back on themselves, susfcrests some thin 



forming these mountains 



A 



m the road cut, near 

 "inct S fold in black s 



vividly the complexity of the mount ain-makin, 

 this black shale contains phosphate.^ 



Some 



was 



rock by the river which now flows throuurh 



It. Kuniiii 

 gravel acts 



time enoug] 

 rocks. Ost 



carry 



satch 



Ogdeii River was flowing west 

 ita present course before the Wa- 

 Alountains came into existence. 

 The raising of the mountains went on 

 slowly for ages, so slowly that the river 

 kept its place by cutting down its ever- 



carving a deep and narr< 



strai 



earth 



3 crust as it rose. In no other way 

 caa we account for a river rising on one 

 side of the range and flowing directly 

 across it. Movement of the mountain 

 mass has continued down to the present 

 time — at lea^t there has been recent dis- 

 turbance along the base of the Wasatch 

 Range, as is shown by faults which trav- 

 erse the lake deposits and the modern 

 alluvial aprons. Some of the breaks are 



so new as to be devoid of vegetation. 

 Furthermore, the main stream channels 

 crossing from the uplifted fault block to 

 the undL^urbed rocks on the west have 

 abnormal profiles. Ogden Kiver has a 

 high gradient within the canyon, but on 

 crossing the fault and emerging on the 

 gravel fan at ita mouth at once loses 

 grade. The upward movement of the 

 moxmtains has been so continuous that 

 the river has had no opportunity to widen 

 its valley, a task which it will begin as 

 soon as the mountains cease rising. 



^ In a roadside ledge about 2 miles 

 below the upper end of Ogden Canyon 

 there is some black shale and limestone, 

 which proves on analysis to be decidedly 

 phosphatic. The richest material is con- 

 tained in two beds of black shaly rock, 

 each about 2 feet thick. Analysis of a 

 random sample gives 42.5 per cent of 

 bone phosphate. This deposit is too low 

 in grade and too broken to be of value. 



