THE SANTA FE ROUTE. 67 
bank of the river, a bluff of Dakota sandstone, with Morrison shale ! 
at its base. 
Watrous is the railway town for extensive cattle, sheep, and other 
interests. It dates back to the time of the Santa Fe Trail, the 
Cimarron branch of which passed through the western 
Watrous portion of the village. Eight miles north are the 
Elevation 6,398 feet. ruins of Fort Union, one of the most important mili- 
Population 336.* 
ity 766 miles, *8TY Stations on the Santa Fe Trail, where the two 
principal branches of the trail from the north joined. 
The place may be seen far to the north from points a short distance 
beyond Watrous. The adobe houses are unroofed, most of the walls 
are falling into ruins, and the grounds are overgrown with grasses, 
but the visitor may see that the fort had accommodations for a large 
urison. This fort served not only as a refuge for the settler and the 
traveler, but its storehouse and arsenal carried a large stock of Army 
supplies. Its possession was the strategic object in the Civil War in 
the far West. To its protection Union volunteers rushed over the 
snowy mountains from Denver, while Confederate troops marched a 
thousand miles from Texas to take it. Only the defeat of the Texas 
soldiers at Glorieta Pass prevented the Confederates from capturing 
the Army supplies and ammunition stored in Fort Uni 
ansas C 
Union. 
In the vicinity of Watrous there are wide alluvial flats that have 
long been utilized for farming, mainly by the assistance of irrigation 
from Mora River and a branch stream, Sapello Creek. The Mora 
drains a portion of the east slope of the Rocky Mountains. Gagings 
by the United States Geological Survey at La Cueva (kway’va), 15 
miles above Watrous, found that its average flow was 29 second- 
feet in. 1909 and 20.3 second-feet in 1910. 
On. the south side of the track three-fourths of a mile beyond 
Watrous is a large quarry for obtaining massive blocks of Dakota 
sandstone, which are used for making embankments along portions 
of the railway as a protection from washouts. 
East of the railway at milepost 753 is a granite monument marking 
the location of the Santa Fe Trail from Fort Union to Las Vegas. 
Its course was very nearly the same as that now followed by the 
railway. A short distance beyond Kroenigs siding the upgrade of 
! During the time of deposition of the 
clays constituting the Morrison formation 
th a 4 ety Fey 
+ ¢ 
> i ALICUY 
reptiles of huge size. Restorations of 
some of them are shown in Plates X and 
XI (pp. 64, 65), based on bones exhumed 
from the formation in southern Colorado. 
These bones, which are in places abun- 
dant, are the remains of animals that were 
mired in the soft clay of which the Moiri- 
son formation largely consists. Some of 
these creatures, such as the Brontosaurus 
(Pl. XI, A), were 60 feet long. Many of 
them had remarkably small heads, no- 
tably the Stegosaurus (Pl. X, B), which 
had such a diminutive brain that it must 
have been very stupid. This animal 
was undoubtedly very clumsy also, but 
its huge size and protective armor aided 
in its preservation. 
