142 GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES. 
has been burning for several years. Such fires may be started in 
many ways, but this particular fire is supposed to have started spon- 
taneously in broken coal. Coal of comparatively low rank, such as 
that mined at Vulcan, is subject to spontaneous ignition, especially 
when crushed and undergoing alternate wetting and drying, by 
which the carbon of the coal is oxidized or combined with the oxygen 
of the air or the water so rapidly as to start a fire. In the old 
Wheeler mine, which was opened years ago in the mountain point 
on the north side of the valley, just beyond the village of Newcastle, 
it was found impossible to prevent the coal from taking fire, and 
many years ago, after repeated and unsuccessful attempts were 
made to extinguish it, the mine was abandoned, and the coal is still 
on fire. Spontaneous ignition of coal has occurred not only in mines 
but on the outcrop of coal beds of rather low rank, and these fires 
have burned as long as air was available, making the adjacent rocks 
bright red and, where the heat was especially intense, melting them 
to slag or clinker. 
The railroad swings to the right along the banks of Colorado River 
and enters Newcastle. This place is well known as a coal-mining 
center and is one of the points for reaching the 
Newcastle. great hunting ground of the White River Plateau 
Flevation 5,562 feet. to the north. It was to Newcastle that Theodore 
sine me Roosevelt came in 1904, while he was President of 
the United States, on one of his famous hunting 
expeditions. From the station may be seen the bottom layers of the 
Mesaverde formation in the hills immediately back of the village, and 
on the north (right) and ahead may still be seen the scars on the 
mountain side and the dump of the old Wheeler mine that was aban- 
doned because of fire. The red color, due to burning, and possibly the 
smoke of the fire may be seen from the train. The Mesaverde is one 
of the greatest coal-bearing formations in the world. In the end of 
the Grand Hogback, on the right (see Pl. LXIT, A), the aggregate 
thickness of coal in beds over 4 feet thick is about 109 feet. One of 
these beds—the Wheeler—is 40 feet thick, and several others are 
more than 10 feet thick.** At the time these coal beds were formed 
The coal-bearing rocks (Mesaverde 
formation) dip toward the west under 
the overlying rocks and then reappear 
between DeBeque and Palisade. These 
two areas of sandstone constitute the 
edges or rims of a great structural 
trough known as the Uinta Basin. A 
section across the trough is shown in 
figure 37. This basin forms one of the 
great reserves of coal in the Rocky 
Mountain region. It extends from 
Crested Butte in Gunnison County 
nearly to the Wasatch Mountains in 
Utah and is estimated to contain 160 
billion tons of coal. The coal is mined 
in the Crested Butte district, at New- 
castle and for several miles to the 
south, at Cameo and Palisade, at 
Thompson, Utah, and at Sunnyside 
of the basin either because the beds 
