218 GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES. 
The railroad follows the boundary between the gray and the red 
parts of the Wasatch formations for some distance above Kyune, 
cutting in places into the gray beds and in places into the red ones. 
A short distance west of milepost 643 the railroad leaves the red 
beds and for a mile it traverses the light-colored limestones and shales. 
In these rocks the stream has cut a canyon, which bears off to the 
southwest. On rounding the point of the spur that projects from 
the north the traveler comes into an open valley that trends north- 
ward, and on the farther (west) side of this valley lie the bright-red 
beds of the upper part of the Wasatch formation. These beds are 
brought down into view again by a northward-trending fault, which 
has cut the rocks for a long distance on either side of the railroad and 
has dropped those on the west side at least 200 feet. This fault, which 
passes a few hundred feet east of the station at Colton, has caused 
the formation of the north-south valley. From 
Colton a branch railroad extends southward up 
the valley of West Fork to the towns of Scofield, 
Winterquarters, and Clear Creek, where coal of 
about the same quality as the Castlegate coal is 
mined. The surface of the plateau, being composed of soft rocks, is 
not rugged, and it does not seem to be very high, yet several points 
near Colton stand nearly 10,000 feet above sea level. The plateau 
is a fine summer range for stock and affords pasturage for thousands 
of sheep. 
From Colton the railroad runs up a broad but short valley in the 
Wasatch formation to the crest of the plateau at Soldier Summit, 
where the main line of the Denver & Rio Grande 
Western Railroad reaches its highest point in the 
' State of Utah. The summit of this pass was so 
named because some soldiers under Gen. Albert 
Sidney Johnston, who were returning from the Salt Lake Valley 
at the end of the “Mormon war,” were buried here. A brief account 
of this “war,” taken almost wholly from Bancroft’s “ History of 
Utah,” is given in the footnote.** Recently the railroad company has 
built an extensive yard on the summit to facilitate the movement of 
freight. 
Colton. 
Elevation 7,170 feet. 
Population 49,* 
Denver 645 miles. 
Soldier Summit. 
Elevation 7,440 feet 
Denver 652 miles. 
“The so-called “ Mormon war” was 
thought they should be allowed to 
the result of friction and misunder- 
conduct their affairs as they saw fit. 
Standing between the Federal judges 
and other officers of the Territory of 
Utah and the Mormon people. As the 
Mormons had settled here before the 
region had passed into the hands 
of the United States, and as they had 
increased greatly in numbers, they 
Accordingly the legislature of the new 
Territory proceeded to pass laws that 
were acceptable to the church but that 
were apparently obnoxious to some of 
the Territorial officers. As the Mor- 
mons regarded the Federal officials as 
“carpet baggers” there was increas- 
