218 



GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES. 



The railroad follows the boundary between the gray and the red 

 parts of the Wasatch formations for some distance above Kyune, 

 cutting in places into the gray beds and in places into the red ones. 

 A short distance west of milepost 643 the railroad leaves the red 

 beds and for a mile it traverses the light-colored limestones and shales. 

 In these ix)cks the stream has cut a canyon, which bears off to the 

 southwest. On rounding the point of the spur that projects from 

 the north the traveler comes into an open valley that trends north- 

 ward, and on the farther (west) side of this valley lie the bright-red 

 beds of the upper part of the Wasatch formation. These beds are 

 brought down into view again by a northward-trending fault, which 

 has cut the rocks for a long distance on either side of the railroad and 

 has dropped those on the west side at least 200 feet. This fault, which 

 passes a few hundred feet east of the station at Colton, has caused 

 the formation of the north-south valley. From 

 Colton a branch railroad extends southward up 

 the valley of West Fork to the towns of Scofield, 

 Winterquarters, and Clear Creek, where coal of 

 about the same quality as the Castlegate coal is 

 mined. The surface of the plateau, being composed of soft rocks, is 

 not rugged, and it does not seem to be very high, yet several points 

 near Colton stand nearly 10,000 feet above sea level. The plateau 

 is a fine summer range for stock and affords pasturage for thousands 

 of sheep. 



From Colton the railroad runs up a broad but short valley in the 

 Wasatch formation to the crest of the plateau at Soldier Summit, 

 where the main line of the Denver & Eio Grande 

 Western Eailroad reaches its highest point in the 

 State of Utah. The summit of this pass was so 

 named because some soldiers under Gen. Albert 

 Sidney Johnston, who were returning from the Salt Lake Valley 

 at the end of the " Mormon war," were buried here. A brief account 

 of this "war," taken almost wholly from Bancroft's "History of 

 Utah," is given in the footnote.'^^ Eecently the railroad company has 

 built an extensive yard on the summit to facilitate the movement of 

 freiffht. 



Colton. 



Elevation 7,170 feet. 

 Population 49.* 

 Denver 645 miles. 



Soldier Summit. 



Elevation 7,440 feet. 

 Denver 652 miles. 



"' The so-called " Mormon war " was 

 the result of friction and misunder* 

 standing between the Federal judges 

 and other officers of the Territory of 

 Utah and the Mormon people. As the 

 Mormons had settled here before the 

 region had passed into the hands 

 of the United States, and as they had 

 increased greatly in numbers, they 



thought they should be allowed to 

 conduct their affairs as they saw fit. 

 Accordingly the legislature of the new 

 Territory proceeded to pass laws that 

 were acceptable to the church but that 

 were apparently obnoxious to some of 

 the Territorial officers. As the Mor- 

 mons regarded the Federal officials as 

 " carpet baggers " there was increas- 



