36 LARAMIE BASIN, WYOMING. 
Character. — The lower part of the Montana consists of 3,000 to 4,000 
feet of dark shales with local thin beds of sandstone and numerous 
nodular sandy concretions. Few of the sandstone beds are more 
than 5 feet thick and they are separated by 100 to 300 feet or more 
of dark shales. Toward the top of this lower part there is a thin but 
prominent bed of hard, nodular sandstone of light-gray color, which 
is somewhat prominent in outcrops 14 miles west by south of Laramie, 
8 miles north-northwest of Laramie, and 3 miles southwest of old 
Rock Creek station. The upper part of the group begins with a bed 
of moderately hard gray sandstone about 60 feet thick, which appears 
prominently in Pine Ridge 2 miles southeast of Rock River station 
and on the bank of Little Laramie River, in sec. 3, T. 16 N., R. 76 W. 
It also constitutes part of the high ridge in the northwestern portion 
of T. 15 N., R. 76 W. Pine Ridge, which is due to this sandstone, is 
a prominent feature on the railroad 2 miles southeast of Rock River 
station and for some distance east and west, having the appearance 
shown in Plate VI, A. A sandstone supposed to be this bed and con- 
taining some fossil plants crosses Laramie River at the Dunn ranch, 
in sec. 30, T. 20 N., R. 74 W. Coal is found just above this heavy 
sandstone in a number of places along the ridge both east and west 
of the railroad. In the S. } sec. 9, T. 20 N., R. 77 W., on the north 
side of Rock Creek, there are outcrops of a massive sandstone dipping 
to the northwest and overlain by coal-bearing beds, which appears 
to be the same as the sandstone of Pine Ridge. A mile farther 
south, in sec. 21, in the bank of Rock Creek, there are outcrops of 
coal which dip 5° to 8° S., but this coal apparently is considerably 
below the sandstone of Pine Ridge. Coal occurs in sees. 4, 8, and 18, 
T. 19 N., R. 77 W., on Coal Bank Creek, not associated with any 
prominent sandstone, but probably to be correlated with the coal of 
Pine Ridge. On Cooper Creek, in the southeast corner of sec. 17,' 
T. 18 N., R. 77 W., a heavy massive buff sandstone appears, dipping 
40° E. This dip indicates that the sandstone is considerably below 
the fossil bed east of Bengaugh's ranch in Cooper Creek Cove and 
therefore probably at the same horizon as the sandstone of Pine 
Ridge. Three miles farther southwest, in the NE. \ sec. 6, T. 17 N., 
R. 77 W., there are coal outcrops in which the beds dip to the west. 
The coal here is underlain by sandy shale or shaly sandstone that 
dips beneath a high north-south ridge which is apparently formed by 
the same sandstone that forms the ridge on the Bengaugh ranch, 
where the fossils were found. South of this point the rocks are mostly 
obscured by Quaternary deposits. 
The following is a section from Lookout Plat to old Miser station: 
