MILES    CITY    COAL   FIELD,    MONTANA.  51 
mining  at  the  mouth  of  Sheep  Creek,  in  sec.  1,  T.  6  N.,  R.  51  E.,  but 
is  not  over  1  foot  thick  in  the  river  bluff  at  the  county  bridge  in 
sec.  30,  T.  6  N.,  R.  52  E. 
LANEY    COAL. 
A  second  zone  in  which  there  is  a  large  quantity  of  coal  that  is 
workable  in  some  places  but  generally  too  impure  for  mining  lies 
from  160  to  200  feet  above  the  Kircher  bed  and  is  marked  C  on  the 
map  and  section  (PL  III).  This  zone  is  not  a  single  bed,  but  usually 
is  made  up  of  two  or  more  beds  within  a  range  of  50  feet  vertically. 
As  a  rule  the  coals  contain  a  great  number  of  thin  sandy-clay  and 
bone  partings.  The  largest  bed  is  10  feet  thick  in  many  places,  but  the 
utter  impossibility  of  separating  the  thin  partings  from  the  coal 
unfits  it  for  mining. 
These  beds  have  been  opened  at  many  places  near  Miles  City,  but 
operations  have  been  discontinued  on  account  of  the  impurities  in 
the  coal.  They  are  also  exposed  on  Cottonwood  Creek,  midway 
between  Tongue  and  Powder  rivers,  where  the  thickest  bed  has  been 
mined  for  local  supply.  The  coal  is  generally  of  better  quality, 
however,  along  Powder  River,  where  it  shows  to  the  best  advantage 
near  Laney's  ranch,  from  which  it  takes  its  name. 
North  of  Yellowstone  River,  in  the  northwest  corner  of  the  field, 
these  coals  are  extremely  variable  in  thickness  and  always  dirty,  and 
in  no  place  seen  do  they  appear  to  be  workable. 
In  the  area  west  of  Tongue  River  and  south  of  the  Yellowstone 
they  are  also  extremely  variable  in  thickness  and  purity,  and  appear 
as  a  conspicuous  dark  zone  in  the  badlands  of  the  Fort  Keogh  Mili- 
tary Reservation.  In  the  western  part  of  the  reservation  and  between 
the  reservation  and  the  boundary  of  the  area  here  mapped,  the 
croppings  of  the  beds  are  almost  completely  concealed  by  bench 
gravel,  but  on  the  divides  east  and  west  of  Lignite  Creek  and  thence 
eastward  to  the  breaks  of  Tongue  River  their  outcrops  are  almost 
continuously  exposed  in  the  bare  bluffs  of  the  badlands.  The 
section  given  below  shows  the  character  of  the  beds: 
Section  of  the  Laney  coal  bed  in  the  southeast  corner  of  Fort  Keogh  Military  Reservation. 
Ft.    in. 
Coal 2 
Clay  and  coal , 3     6 
Coal 2     6 
Sandstone -•  10 
Coal t> 
Sandstone 15 
Coal 2 
< Jlay L5 
Coal,  dirty 2     6 
Clay :: 
Coal,  dirty 3     I 
Total  coal 11 
