104 University Geological Survey of Kansas. 
Stanton Limestone.49 
The name Stanton limestone is here used to designate the 
limestone first above the Vilas shales. Swallow®® gives its loca- 
tions as follows: “This limestone is well exposed in the eastern 
bluff of the Marais des Cygnes; in the highest points north of 
‘the Devil’s Backbone’ above Stanton.” There can be no doubt, 
therefore, regarding his exact use of the term at this place. 
However, he may have been led into error in correlating it with 
other limestones in other parts of the state. This is the same 
limestone formation named Piqua by Adams,*! as has been 
abundantly proved by the most careful field-work. 
Thickness.—The Stanton limestone varies from 20 to 40 
feet in thickness. It is a prominent limestone formation, with 
comparatively slight variations from point to point. 
Area.—The Stanton limestone, in connection with the Allen 
lying first beneath, forms one of the most characteristic out- 
croppings in the eastern part of the state. Beginning on the 
southern border of the state in the vicinity of Caney they cap 
the high hills and escarpments, extending from Caney by way 
of Neodesha, Altoona and Benedict to the Kansas river and 
beyond into Missouri. On our surface map, plate VIIa, VIIb, 
Vilc, the two limestones are mapped as one on account of 
their being so close together. Only at one place, Vilas, do they 
separate sufficiently so that this mapping would be incorrect. 
Here, as already explained, the Vilas shales reach a great 
thickness and the two limestones are pushed farther apart. 
West from the outcropping line in some places extensive dip 
slopes cover a zone five to twenty miles wide. This also reaches 
its maximum width opposite Vilas. Here the Stanton lime- 
stone covers the surface almost all the way from Vilas south- 
west to New Albany, making a broad plain with a gentle west- 
ward dip throughout the entire area. The zone lying between 
the outcropping of the Oread limestone and the Stanton lime- 
stone in most places should be looked upon as a dip slope of 
the latter. 
The Stanton limestone also is exposed at the surface at 
Olathe, and the dip slope, with a thin covering of soil and shale, 
extends all the way west to Lawrence, a distance of nearly 
thirty miles. In brief, the upper surface of the Stanton lime- 
49. Swallow, Dr. G. C.: Geology of Kansas, p. 75. Lawrence, 1866. 
50. Swallow, Dr. G. C.: Geology of Kansas, p. 75. Lawrence, 1866. 
51. Adams, Dr. George I.: U.S. G.S., Bull. 238, p. 20. Washington. 
