SHERIDAN    COAL   FIELD,    WYOMING.  125 
ACCESSIBILITY. 
The  Chicago,  Burlington  and  Quincy  Railroad,  a  single-track  line, 
c  sses  the  Sheridan  field  in  a  general  northwest-southeast  direction. 
It  has  connections  with  trunk-line  roads  in  Nebraska  and  Montana 
to  the  southeast  and  northwest.  Railroad  construction  is  feasible 
through  the  Sheridan  field  northward  along  either  Powder  River  or 
Tongue  River  valley  to  the  Northern  Pacific  Railway  on  Yellowstone 
iver  in  Montana,  and  from  the  Burlington  Railroad  southward  up 
x  owder  River. 
CULTURE  AND  WATER  SUPPLY. 
Sheridan  is  the  commercial  center  of  the  coal  fields  of  northeastern 
Wyoming,  and  is  the  largest  town  in  the  northern  part  of  the  State, 
having  an  estimated  population  of  8,000.  Dietz,  on  Goose  Creek  2\ 
miles  from  its  junction  with  Tongue  River,  and  Carney ville  and  Mon- 
arch, on  Tongue  River,  are  the  three  principal  mining  towns.  They 
have  about  2,000,  1,400,  and  700  inhabitants,  respectively,  and  the 
energies  of  the  people  are  devoted  solely  to  coal  mining,  about  1,600 
men  being  employed  in  the  operations.  Within  a  year  Kooi  and 
Riverside,  farther  up  Tongue  River,  have  been  established  for  coal- 
mining purposes. 
Clear,  Little  Goose,  and  Goose  creeks  and  Tongue  River,  having 
their  sources  in  the  Bighorn  Mountains,  afford  a  supply  of  excellent 
water.  Their  alluvial  bottom  lands,  aided  by  abundant  water  for 
irrigation,  support  thriving  farming  communities. 
TOPOGRAPHY. 
The  Sheridan  coal  field  is  in  the  western  edge  of  the  broad  plain 
that  extends  from  the  Bighorn  Mountains  to  the  Black  Hills.  The 
plains  feature  in  this  field  is  referable,  however,  only  to  the  crests  of 
the  main  watersheds  and  higher  ridges  between  the  principal  valleys. 
The  crests  of  these  highlands  undulate  between  levels  of  nearly  4,200 
feet  in  the  eastern  end  of  the  field  to  4,600  feet  at  the  approach  to  the 
foothills  of  the  Bighorn  Mountains.  Here  and  there  the  headwaters 
of  the  streams  have  reduced  the  highlands  to  zigzag  sharp-crested 
ridges,  which  are  in  places  intersected  by  shallow  gaps. 
The  larger  valleys  are  graded  and  the  streams  meander  in  flat, 
alluvium-filled  bottoms.  The  lowest  point  in  the  mapped  area  is  m 
Tongue  River  valley  at  the  State  line,  and  is  nearly  3,400  Peel  above 
the  sea.  Thick  coal  beds  have  been  burned  in  many  places  near  the 
outcrop,  producing  extensive  clinker  beds  and  metamorphosing  tli<v 
strata  that  overlie  the  coal.  These  clinkers  and  baked  strata  are  very 
resistant,  and,  as  a  consequence,  are  now  found  capping  steep  terraces, 
spurs,  buttes,  and  cones. 
