78 GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES 
the axis of which trends west by north. It extends from Sycamore 
Creek, 2 miles south of Amanda siding, to the San Felipe Valley, a 
few miles north of Del Rio, the axis passing about half a mile south of 
Johnstone siding.® 
Mud Creek, crossed between Standart and Amanda sidings, is 
mentioned in many narratives of travel on the old trail from San 
Antonio west, which was near the present railroad line in this vicinity. 
A mile west of Amanda, on the descent to Sycamore Creek, there is 
a 10-foot cut in gravel and sand, which reveals the character of the 
deposit that covers the wide plains extending to Spofford and far to 
the north and south. The underlying Eagle Ford beds are exposed in 
a small cut 14 miles west of Amanda. As indicated by the extensive 
bridge by which it is spanned, Sycamore Creek is a mighty stream in 
time of freshet. (Turn to sheet 12.) The cap of sand, gravel, and 
caliche begins again west of this creek and covers the plateau to a 
point within 3 miles of Del Rio. It lies on Buda limestone, which is 
exposed in several shallow valleys. On its western edge, a few miles 
east of Del Rio, is a large “tank farm” of the Mid-Kansas Oil Co., 
with a capacity of 80,000 barrels supplied from oil fields far to the north 
by pipe line. Just beyond this place there is a steep down grade on 
buff clays of the Del Rio formation capped by the Buda limestone. 
These strata constitute bluffs 50 to 100 feet high extending far to the 
north and south from the railroad grade and forming the east slope 
of the Rio Grande Valley; it is from the exposures in these bluffs that 
the Del Rio clay was named. In the bottom lands not far west of 
the Buda-Del Rio bluff is San Felipe Creek, which has cut a shallow 
trench in the underlying massive limestone (uppermost Georgetown). 
‘This limestone is overlain widely by gravel, sand, and caliche of the 
alluvial plain on which Del Rio is built, which extends to the Rio 
Grande 2 to 3 miles distant. 
Del Rio is on the frontier, for there are no other large towns to the 
west until El Paso is reached. It is a commercial center for a wide 
i district of stock, sheep, and goat raising, wool, mohair, 
Del Rio. and agricultural interests, and a port of entry from 
ee *~ sig Mexico by way of Villa Acufia (vee’ya a-coon’ya) on 
dt ae 742 miles. the Coahuila side of the Rio Grande, with which it is 
connected by a long bridge. On the alluvial "plain 
about Del Rio there is considerable agriculture sustained b y irrigation, 
* A 2,800-foot boring 3 miles east of | Pennsylvanian age below 2,175 feet. 
Amanda idi is thought to have | This indicat thick f about 2,235 
reached the base of the Edwards lime- | feet for the Comanche series, which 
_ Stone at a depth of about 2,000 feet. | thickens to the west from the Uvalde- 
A boring 6 miles north of Del Rio | Brackettville regi Ww bearin 
_ A boring nies worth. of Del Rio | ion. ater- = 
a started in Del Rio clay and penetrated | beds were found in both holes (Stephen- 
