DENVER & EIO GRANDE WESTERN ROUTE. 



221 



river, on the Union Pacific Railroad, and forms the picturesque buttes 

 back of the town. 



The formations in this vicinity are the same as those that the 

 traveler saw in Grand Valley, Colo., between Rifle and De Beque — 

 variegated Wasatch shale at the base and white shale of the Green 

 River formation above it. (See p. 148.) 



At the siding of Scenic, 5 miles west of Soldier Summit, the trav- 

 eler may look down on the north (right) and see not only the old 

 line of the railroad 439 feet below him but also 

 bcenic. ^j^g j^^p over which he will pass in a few minutes. 



The difference between a 4 per cent and a 2 per 

 cent grade is here brought out clearly, even to 

 those who are not familiar with the engineering problems of rail- 

 road construction. Two miles farther on the road makes a broad 



Elevation 6,968 feet 

 Denver 657 miles. 



FIGURB3 58. — Section at Gilluly, showing relation of the northward-dipping red Wasatch 

 to the white Green River formation. 



loop to the right, still in the Wasatch formation, and returns along 



the mountain side at a lower level. A reverse 



loop is made under the old roadbed at the station 



Denver 66i'SLf!'*' ^^ Gilluly, and from this point down through the 



canyon the railroad follows the right wall, but 



far above the level of the old line. 



The rocks which form the mountain side above the tracks and 

 which have been deeply cut in order to provide a roadbed are all 

 in the Green River formation. They are naturally dark, but on 

 weathering they turn intensely white. Experiments have shown 

 that oil in commercial quantity may be distilled from many beds of 

 this shale, and it is possible that gasoline and other grades of oil, 

 as well as fertilizer, may some day be extensively manufactured 

 here.''^ 



"^ As stated on p. 149, the Green River 

 shale Is continuous north of the rail- 

 road from Rifle, Colo., to Soldier Sum- 

 mit, Utah. The beds from which oil 

 may be distilled are not so thick in 

 Utah as in Colorado, but recent work 

 done in this region by D. E. Winches- 

 ter has shown that a great quantity of 



this shale is available in Utah and that 

 it may yet be a valuable source of 

 petroleum when the fields that are now 

 productive approach exhaustion. The 

 white shale which occurs at Soldier 

 Summit will yield on distillation at 

 least 16.8 gallons of crude oil to the 

 ton. 



