68 GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES. 
tanks may be seen on both sides of the railroad. From Florence a 
branch railroad turns to the south (left) and runs through the heart 
of the oil field and to Coal Creek, where there are coal mines that 
ship their product both east and west over the Denver & Rio Grande 
Western Railroad. 
During the early days of mining in the Cripple Creek gold dis- 
trict the entire output of ore was refined at Florence. Nine enormous 
reduction mills were operated in this vicinity until the Golden Cycle 
mill was built in Colorado City, when trouble with labor caused the 
ore to be sent to Colorado City and Denver. The mills continued to 
operate for a number of years but were finally closed. One of these— 
a million dollar plant—is still standing on the north side of Arkansas 
River about half a mile north of Florence. 
About three-quarters of a mile west of the station the railroad 
crosses Oak Creek, and from this crossing the traveler may see off 
to the southwest (left) the distant slopes of the Wet Mountains and 
nearer, but still 3 or 4 miles distant, the white-banded hills that 
mark the outer rim of the Canon City én field,” a basin of Laramie 
for about 3 miles, ae sy: of oil 
produced in this field 918 was 
134,895 barrels, is the load ‘ae 
produced since the field was developed 
se been more than 10,500,000 barrels. 
araffin -base and is a 
oil 
r oil, vials a large percentage. 
f gasoline 
She wisbende oil field is apparently 
different from any other field in this 
country, as the oil is found part way 
down on the east side of a large struc- 
tural basin or syncline. The oil does 
not come from sands, as the drillers 
eall any coarse-grained rock that car- 
ries oil, but from the fine Pierre shale, 
It does not, however, appear to be in 
the pores of the shale but in cracks 
and crevices. In drilling wells in this 
field the tools often drop several feet, 
and sometimes the bailer—a long tube 
by which the oil or water is bailed out 
of the well—has been lost in one of 
> erevices. Altogether, this field 
is an anomaly and is not well under- 
stood by geologists, 
Another curious fact is that the oil 
which flows from the spring noted 
above, as well as from others that have 
been discareree more recently, does 
tion, which underlies the shale and is 
beneath the Dakota sandstone. 
The Florence oil field is the largest 
field of its kind in Colorado and has 
b 
and the oil is piped 
from different parts of the field as well 
as shipped in from other fields in the 
State for refining. 
anon City coal field is a 
small structural basin, or syncline, in 
e 
2 
Denver & Rio Grande Western 
road and extends from a point a short 
distance west of Florence to the foot 
of the Wet Mountains. The coal-bear- 
ing beds on the east side of this basin 
dip westward at angles of 2° to 5° 
except at the northern margin, where 
the dip ranges from 5° to 15°. Their 
outcrop here, which is broader than it 
is on the west side, is 2 to 4 miles 
wide and about 12 miles long. It con- 
tains all the large mines of the field, 
eight in number, that ship their prod- 
