DENVER & RIO GRANDE WESTERN ROUTE. 



69 



rocks which lies almost entirely south of the railroad and which 

 furnishes fuel for many of the industries of Colorado. At a point 

 1^ miles beyond the station at Florence the Canon City branch of 

 the Santa Fe Railway crosses the Denver & Rio Grande Western 

 Railroad by an overhead bridge. This branch, which is one of the 

 principal outlets for the coal of the Canon City field, runs to Rock- 

 vale, one of the large mining centers. Just beyond the bridge the 

 Chandler branch of the Denver & Rio Grande AYestern Railroad 

 turns to the left and enters the same field, for both roads depend 

 upon this coal for use in their locomotives, and they also distribute 

 much of it throughout the country for domestic and manufacturing 

 uses. 



Near milepost 154 two prominent cliffs may be seen across the 

 river. The lower 110 feet of these cliffs consists of dark-green shale 

 (the upper part of the Pierre shale), and this is capped by about 40 

 feet of massive sandstone. This sandstone may be the lowermost 

 member of the Laramie or it may represent the Fox Hills sandstone 

 of the north. Which sandstone it is has not been definitely settled. 



Nearly half a mile beA^ond milepost 154 is Brewster, a signal tower 

 at the point where the Santa Fe crosses the Denver & Rio Grande 

 Western to the left and continues to Canon City on the south side of 

 the river. On the south (left) is the dump of an abandoned mine on 

 a coal bed directly overlj'ing the sandstone described above. Old 

 prospect entries on the same bed show on the north (right) a little 

 farther on, and a quarter of a mile beyond milepost 155 the Denver 

 & Rio Grande Western crosses Arkansas River and remains on the 

 north side to a point beyond Canon City. 



Just before reaching milepost 156 the railroad makes a cut through 

 a cliff of sandstone that projects from the right. This sandstone, 

 which dips about 10° S., as shown in the accompanying diagram 

 (fig. 15). is the lowest sandstone of the coal-bearing rocks and forms 



uct by rail. The west side of the 

 basin is formed by a narrow belt of 

 nearly vertical or overturned rocks 

 less than a quarter of a mile wide. 

 The coal beds that are worked range 

 in thickness from 2 to 6 feet. The coal 

 is a high-grade domestic fuel, bitumin- 

 ous and noncoking. The moisture in 

 the coal as it comes from the mines 

 ranges from 9 to 15 per cent, and the 

 heat value ranges from 10,500 to 

 12,000 British thermal units. 

 80697°— 22 6 



Mining was begun in this field in 

 1872 to supply fuel for the locomotives 

 of the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad. 

 The production of the field grew stead- 

 ily, and in the last four years it 

 has averaged about 850,000 tons a 

 year. The total quantity of coal mined 

 to the end of 1920 was about 23,300,000 

 short tons. It is estimated that the 

 quantity of coal still remaining in the 

 field in beds 14 inches or more thick is 

 992,000,000 short tons. 



