DENVER & RIO GRANDE WESTERN ROUTE. 69 
rocks which lies almost entirely south of the railroad and which 
furnishes fuel for many of the industries of Colorado. At a point 
1} miles beyond the station at Florence the Canon City branch of 
the Santa Fe Railway crosses the Denver & Rio Grande Western 
Railroad by an overhead bridge. This branch, which is one of the 
principal outlets for the coal of the Canon City field, runs to Rock- 
vale, one of the large mining centers. Just beyond the bridge the 
Chandler branch of the Denver & Rio Grande Western Railroad 
turns to the left and enters the same field, for both roads depend 
upon this coal for use in their locomotives, and they also distribute 
much of it throughout the country for domestic and manufacturing 
uses. 
Near milepost 154 two prominent cliffs may be seen across the 
river. The lower 110 feet of these cliffs consists of dark-green shale 
(the upper part of the Pierre shale), and this is capped by about 40 
feet of massive sandstone. This sandstone may be the lowermost 
member of the Laramie or it may represent the Fox Hills sandstone 
of the north. Which sandstone it is has not been definitely settled. 
Nearly half a mile beyond milepost 154 is Brewster, a signal tower 
at the point where the Santa Fe crosses the Denver & Rio Grande 
Western to the left and continues to Canon City on the south side of 
the river, On the south (left) is the dump of an abandoned mine on 
a coal bed directly overlying the sandstone described above. Old 
prospect entries on the same bed show on the north (right) a little 
farther on, and a quarter of a mile beyond milepost 155 the Denver 
& Rio Grande Western crosses Arkansas River and remains on the 
north side to a point beyond Canon City. 
Just before reaching milepost 156 the railroad makes a cut through 
a cliff of sandstone that projects from the right. This sandstone, 
which dips about 10° S., as shown in the accompanying diagram 
(fig. 15), is the lowest eandetone of the coal-bearing rocks and forms 
uct by rail. The west side of the 
basin is formed by a narrow belt of 
nearly vertical or overturned rocks 
than a quarter of a mile wide. 
The coal beds that are worked ra range 
in thickness from 2 to 6 feet. The coal 
is a high-grade domestic fuel, bitumin- 
from 10,500 to 
12,000 British thermal units, 
80697 °—22_¢ 
Mining was begun in this field in 
1872 to supply fuel for the locomotives 
of the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad. 
The production of the field grew stead- 
ily, and in the last four years it 
has averaged about 850, ton 
year. The total quantity of coal mined 
to the end of 1920 was about 23,300,000 
short tons. It is estimated that the 
quantity of coal still remaining in the 
field in beds 14 inches or more thick is 
992,000,000 short tons. 
