THE SANTA FE ROUTE. 47 
Granada is built near the site of the great cattle depot of Trail City 
in the days of the Santa Fe Trail. Here one of the principal trails 
from Texas reached the river and large numbers of 
Granada. southern cattle were delivered to herders, who drove 
aah fy ‘et. them to the northern ranches. In this vicinity the 
Kansas City 501 miles. Tiver is in a wide valley, with level floor and long 
slopes rising on each side to the table-lands of the 
Great Plains. The railway is on the alluvial deposits, only a few feet 
higher than the river. In the adjoining slopes are outcrops of 
various rocks of the Cretaceous period. The relations of these rocks 
are shown in the section on sheet 8 (p. 48). The beds form a basin- 
like sag in the vicinity of Granada, so that the Greenhorn limestone 
lies several hundred feet deep, and the overlying shales and limestones 
constitute the surface. These shales (the Carlile), about 200 feet 
thick, together with the overlying limestone (the Timpas), crop out 
in low bluffs a short distance south of Granada, as well as in the 
slopes on the north side of the valley. The limestone is quarried to 
some extent for building stone and lime. It is soft and chalky and is 
very similar to the Greenhorn limestone in most respects, but occurs 
in somewhat thicker beds.1. A 1,000-foot well at Granada obtains 
water from the Dakota sandstone, underlying the Graneros shale, 
but the pressure is not great enough to afford a flow, as in the many 
borings farther up and down the valley. 
West of Granada the rocks rise gradually. In the vicinity of 
Grote siding the Greenhorn limestone comes up again, although near 
the river it is covered by the alluvial deposits which 
Grote. floor the valley. Near milepost 496 the Dakota 
pe pleseg iad ‘eer <, Sendstone reaches the surface, and except for a short 
: ' distance at Lamar it appears all along the lower por- 
tion of the valley slopes to Las Animas and beyond. The structural 
relations of the strata which result in the cropping out of the Dakota 
sandstone are shown in the section on sheet 8. 
‘The Timpas limestone contains im- | sand in suspension. These conditions 
pressions of shells and large numbers of | were widespread over a great extent of 
Foraminifera, showing that it was de- | the plains country east of the Rocky 
posited by the sea under conditions very | Mountains, for this repeated alternation 
similar to those which prevailed during | of shale and limestone is general through- 
the time of the deposition of the Green- 
horn limestone. 
out the area. During this time there 
was a great variety of life in the waters, 
as shown not only by large numbers of 
shells but remains of fish and reptiles, 
i in the Niobrara beds. A 
restoration of one of the most remarkable 
creatures is shown in Plate V, B. This 
restoration was based on bones found in 
the Niobrara rocks in western Kansas. 
