DENVER & RIO GRANDE WESTERN ROUTE. 
149 
studied, tested, and mapped by Dean E. Winchester, of the United 
States Geological Survey, who describes it below.*® 
A moderate 
estimate, made by him, of the quantity of oil that may be obtained 
from the Green River formation in Colorado alone is 40,000,000, 
barrels. 
The oil shale is within view from the railroad for only a short 
distance in Colorado, near Grand Valley, and is not seen again 
by the traveler until he reaches Colton, Utah, but the two areas are 
45 Before ie was discovered 
n Pennsylvania, in 185 e Mormons 
Dittics it, in an Bees * way, 
from shale of ha orma- 
b, Utah, where the ruins 
tion to find how many gallons of oil 
onservative cal- 
one-tenth as much, and with a little 
added se 300,000. of am- 
monium Sulphate would be obtained 
The oe ates 2 an 
r and wou be 
highly valuable to the farmers ad this 
— regions. 
reen River srinsiaiee which 
is so oes exposed in the great white 
cliffs at Grand Valley, consists pre- 
 antly of shale, but in places it 
80697 °—22—11 
includes beds of sandstone, oolite, and 
2 ge emg The general white color 
: ae weathered outcrops is varied 
near ae top of the big cliffs by hard 
bluish beds, which when freshly 
broken are dark brown or black and 
a valuable source of crude oil and its 
refined products, such as gasoline and 
— well as of nitrogen com- 
n d 2 shale is tough and 
i 
shale contains a 
ganic matter, largely vegetal, which 
appears to ree of the crude 
oil that may be produced from it by 
destructive distillation. 
The average oil shale mined in 
Seotland will yield about 25 gallons © 
of crude oil to the ton, but there is an 
abundance of shale in Colorado and 
Utah that will yield a barrel (42 gal- 
lons) to the ton. The crude oil, when 
refined by ordinary processes, will 
yield from 10 to 15 per cent of gaso- 
line. 
Ferling nts are now in progress 
1] 
most successfully produce a emai 
this region in northwestern wn Fi 
will probably be the scene of a 
industry in the production of artificial 
petroleum by the distillation of these 
deposits of oil shale 
