* 
THE SANTA FE ROUTE. 57 
There are numerous coal mines in all the high hills adjoining 
Trinidad. The principal centers are at Gray Creek and Engleville, 
to the east; Starkville, Sopris, Cokedale, and Primero, to the south- 
west; and Berwin, Hastings, Delagua, and other camps, to the north. 
The coal field occupies a long, narrow basin of about 2,000 square 
miles along the foot of the Rocky Mountains. This region contains 
the largest and best deposits of bituminous coal west of Missouri 
River. 
The most extensive coal bed lies just above the Trinidad sand- 
stone, which crops out prominently in the bluffs about Trinidad. 
This coal averages 6 feet in thickness but varies from place to place. 
In some localities there are several other beds within a short vertical 
distance. Most of the coal is of high rank and cokes satisfactorily. 
The coke is shipped to the smelters at Pueblo and to other places. 
Here and there in this coal field igneous rocks have been injected 
between the beds, and where coal is near by it has been altered to 
“natural coke.” The yearly output from the general Trinidad region 
is given at about 6,000,000 tons of coal and 1,000,000 tons of coke. 
Numerous coal beds also occur at intervals in the rocks above the 
Trinidad sandstone, but they appear to be less widespread than the 
lower coal beds. The coal in this field was discovered in 1851 by the 
exploring expedition under Stephen H. Long, but it was not devel- 
oped extensively until the Santa Fe Railway was built through and 
coal was required for use in the locomotives. This region was the 
scene of the long strike of coal miners in 1914, when serious conflicts 
occurred between the strikers and the State troops and strike breakers. 
At Trinidad two extra locomotives, a helper and a pusher, are 
attached to the heavier trains to haul them up the steep grade to the 
Raton Pass, 10 miles south of Trinidad. The rise is 
Jansen. 1,636 feet and the maximum grade 34 per cent. The 
Elevation 6,058 feet. valley of the Purgatoire is followed for the first 2 
iran miles to Jansen, where the line turns up the valley of 
North Raton Creek to begin the mountain climb. To 
the east, south, and west are cliffs or steep slopes (see PI. IX) and a 
few miles to the southeast is Fishers Peak. In the valley occur scat- 
tered outerops of the black upper shales of the Pierre formation, sur- 
mounted by cliffs of the massive gray Trinidad sandstone, about 100 
feet thick, which underlies the coal measures. About 14 miles west 
' The coal-bearing rocks occur in two | of the Vermejo being of Cretaceous age 
formations. The lower one, known as the | and those of the Raton of Tertiary age. 
Vermejo formation, is generally from 200 | There was an interval of time between 
to 400 feet thick, and the upper one, the | the deposition of the Vermejo and that of 
Raton formation, is nearly 2,000 feet | the Raton, with slight uplift and consid- 
numbers of the remains of plants, those | was removed over a considerable area, 
