220 GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES. 
were opened on veins of ozokerite,’* but the operators have had dif- 
ficulty in competing with ozokerite shipped into this country from 
Galicia, and the mines have never been fully developed. 
As originally built the railroad on the west side of the divide fol- 
lowed Soldier Creek from its head to Thistle, where the creek 
joins Spanish Fork. This route made necessary the exceptionally 
steep grade of 4 per cent, or 211 feet to the mile. The operation of 
the road over this steep grade was very expensive, for three or four or 
even five locomotives were required to get a heavy train from Thistle 
to the summit. Recently the railroad company has abandoned this 
steep grade and has constructed an entirely new line which begins at 
Soldier Summit and extends westward for a distance of 15 miles. 
The new line has a grade of 2 per cent, or 106 feet to the mile, and 
one locomotive can haul as many cars on it as three locomotives could 
haul on the old line. The new line also gives the traveler a much 
better opportunity to see the surrounding country than the old line, 
which ran in the bottom of the valley. 
The rocks exposed in the numerous cuts on the new line are gen- 
erally red or at least are banded with red. These red rocks are the 
continuation of those that were seen about Colton and are undoubt- 
edly the upper part of the Wasatch formation. The rocks dip to the 
north (right) at about the same angle as the slope of the mountain 
side, but the rocks across the ravine on the north side of the old line 
of the railroad are very white and carry no trace of red material. It 
is therefore fairly evident, as shown in figure 58, that the rocks 
in the cuts along the new line belong to the uppermost beds of 
the Wasatch, and that the white shale and sandstone across the valley 
are in an overlying formation which geologists have named the Green 
River formation, from its wide distribution in the Green River Basin, 
Wyo. This formation is especially prominent at the town of Green- 
“ Ozokerite, or mineral wax, is a 
mixture of various hydrocarbons, gen- 
erally supposed to belong to the paraf- 
n series. It varies in color from 
black or dark brown to light yellow, 
but some specimens are greenish, 
may be as soft as tallow or as hard as 
posits are of. different thickness, rang- 
ing oe mere films to masses nearly 
3 feet thick. 
Ozokerite is used extensively for in- 
sulating electric conductors, for mak- 
The lighter-colored varieties 
C; 
melting point of ozokerite is consider- 
ably above ue of commercial paraf- 
fin. I rs in fissures in ‘the rocks 
and is dieuet to have been deposited 
from petroleum that formerly circu- 
lated through these fissures. The de 
polishes, to protect metal surfaces, and 
for making wax figures and wax dolls. 
It is reported that the Utah field has 
produced 750,000 pounds | since 1886, 
i this amount is in ificant when 
mpared with We annual imports, 
w Ghich from 1910 to 1920 have ranged 
from 900,000 to more than 8,000,000 
pounds. 
