THE  RED  LOlHiE  COAL  FIELD,  MONTANA. 
By  E.  G.  Woodruff. 
INTRODUCTION. 
The  paper  here  presented  is  a  preliminary  report  of  a  detailed  sur- 
vey of  the  Red  Lodge  coal  field  of  Montana/'  This  field  receives  its 
name  from  the  town  of  Red  Lodge,  which  was  the  place  of  original 
development  of  the  field  and  still  continues  to  be  the  chief  mining 
center.  The  investigation  of  this  field  was  made  by  the  writer  under 
the  general  supervision  of  C.  A.  Fisher  and  with  the  assistance  of 
J.  E.  Carman  and  E.  L.  De  Golyer.  The  primary  purpose  of  the 
survey  was  to  determine  the  amount  of  land  in  the  area  underlain 
by  workable  coal  and  to  segregate  and  classify  such  land  in  plats  of 
40  acres  each.  In  this  investigation  the  method  adopted  in  the  field 
was  to  traverse  each  township  on  the  east-west  section  lines,  locating 
land  corners  wherever  possible.  The  outcrops  of  the  various  coal 
beds  were  meandered  in  order  to  locate  them  with  respect  to  section 
corners,  and  their  thickness  was  measured  at  short  intervals.  The 
location  of  the  coal  outcrops,  the  sections  measured,  and  the  principal 
mines  in  the  field  are  shown  on  PI.  VI. 
The  first  account  of  this  coal  field  was  given  by  J.  E.  Wolff  b  in 
1886,  and  later  it  was  described  by  W.  H.  Weed  c  and  by  G.  H. 
Eldridge.d  More  recent  statements  concerning  it  have  been  written 
by  L.  S.  Storrs,'  J.  P.  Rowe/  C.  A.  Fisher,*  and  N.  H.  Darton.^ 
LOCATION  AND   EXTENT. 
The  Red  Lodge  coal  field  is  situated  at  the  foot  of  the  Beartooth 
Mountains,  in  Carbon  County,  Mont.  It  lies  northeast  of  the  Yellow- 
stone National  Park,  between  Yellowstone  River  and  Clark  Fork,  one 
a  A  detailed  report  is  now  in  course  of  preparation,  to  be  issued  as  a  separate  bulletin  of  the  United 
States  Geological  Survey. 
b  Rock  Creek  coal  field:  Tenth  Census,  vol.  15  (report  on  mining),  1886. 
c  Coal  fields  of  Montana:  Eng.  and  Min.  Jour.,  vol.  53,  1892,  pp.  520-522. 
d  A  geological  reconnaissance  in  northwest  Wyoming:  Bull.  U.  S.  Geol.  Survey  No.  119, 1894,  p.  53. 
*  The  Rocky  Mountain  coal  fields:  Twenty-second  Ann.  Rept.  U.  S.  Geol.  Survey,  pt.  3,  1902,  pp. 
402-463. 
/  Montana  coal  and  lignite  deposits:  Bull.  No.  37,  Univ.  Montana,  1906,  p.  23. 
if  Development  of  the  Bear  Creek  coal  field,  Montana:  Bull.  U.  S.  Geol.  Survey  No.  285,  1906,  pp. 
269-270. 
ft  Coals  of  Carbon  County,  Mont.:  Bull.  U.  S.  Geol.  Survey  No.  316,  1907,  pp.  174-193. 
92 
