3o6 COUNTY A1SD REGIONAL GEOLOGY. 



character to those seen at Johnson's, beneath the sandstone; 

 and on the banks of a small creek or rivnlet near the 

 abandoned town of Frankford another exposure of similar 

 clay is found with no associated strata. There are some 

 reasons for believing that these clays are of Cretaceons age 

 like the Nishnabotany sandstone; but no positive evidence of 

 it was obtained. Proof, however, of the Cretaceous age of the 

 JSTishnabotany sandstone was obtained at Red Oak in the 

 form of fragments of fossil-leaves of Angiospermous trees of 

 species that characterize Cretaceous strata elsewhere. 



Mineral Resources. The mineral resources of Montgomery 

 county are comparatively small and confined principally 

 to its stone, the local value of which is very great. The same 

 thin bed of coal that has been described as being frequently 

 exposed in the valley of the Nodaway, is also found in the 

 extreme northeast corner of Montgomery county, but although 

 some good coal has been taken out there, the bed is too thin 

 and poor to be worked with profit. With this exception, 

 no other discovery of the kind has been made within its 

 limits, and in view of the evidence we have that the Nodaway 

 valley coal bed is the only one included within the strata 

 of the Upper coal-measures, and that it thins out to the 

 westward, it can hardly be expected that it will present a 

 workable thickness in other parts of Montgomery county 

 if it should be discovered there. Thus we have no present 

 encouragement to hope that a workable bed of coal will be 

 found occupying a position above the level of the bottom 

 of its deepest valleys, and although it may be reasonably 

 inferred that coal actually exists beneath that level, it is 

 probable that a depth of several hundred feet must be passed 

 through before reaching it. 



The sandstone is of comparatively little value, as it is 

 usually too soft for any practical use, but the limestone is of 

 good quality for all ordinary purposes, and much of it 

 makes excellent lime. The most important quarries are 

 those of Mr. Wayne Stennett, about six miles north of Red 

 Oak. The inhabitants of the whole of Montgomery county 



