COAL FIELDS OF NORTHWESTERN COLORADO AND NORTHEASTERN UTAH. By HOYT S. GALE. INTRODUCTION. NATURE OF THE PRESENT INVESTIGATION. This paper is a preliminary statement of the results of work in the coal fields of northwestern Colorado and northeastern Utah during the summer of 1907.° In 1905 a preliminary reconnaissance of the Yampa coal field, of Routt County, was made.6 In the summer of 1906 similar work was extended southwestward from the Yampa field, and the Danforth Hills and Grand Hogback coal fields, of Routt, Rio Blanco, and Garfield counties, were mapped.6 The work of the past season was a continuation of that of the two preceding years, extend­ ing the area studied westward through Routt and Rio Blanco counties, Colo., and including some less extensive coal fields in^Uinta County, Utah, and southern Uinta County, Wyo. ACCESSIBILITY. At present these fields have no_ railroad connection, although surveys for several projected lines have recently been made into the region. Of these lines, the Denver, Northwestern and Pacific Railway ("Moffat road") is under active construction in .the eastern part of Routt County and bids fair to push westward not far from the lower Yampa and White River fields in the near future. An extension of the Uintah Railway has been surveyed from Dragon to Vernal, Utah, crossing the projected route of the "MofFat road" near Green River. The Union Pacific Railroad has made a preliminary survey south from Rawlins, Wyo., intending to reach the Yampa Valley in the vicinity of Craig. a A more complete report combining the results of the preceding season's work in the Danforth Hills and Grand Hogback fields with those of last season's work as outlined here, together with detailed contour maps of the whole area, will be published as a (separate bulletin of the Survey. 6 Fennernan, N. M., and Gale, H. S., The Yampa coal field, Routt County, Colo.: Bull. U. S. Geol. Survey No. 297,1906. c Gale, H. S., The coal fields of the Danforth Hills and Grand Hogback, Colorado: Bull. U. S. Geol. Survey No. 316,1907, pp. 264-301. 283 284 CONTRIBUTIONS TO ECONOMIC GEOLOGY, 1907, PART II. FIELD WORK. Personnel. The members of the field party engaged in geologic work throughout the season were John A. Davis, Charles W. Stoops, and the author. T. W. Stanton spent about three weeks with the party at the beginning of the season, for the purpose of collecting fossil evidence bearing on the age of the coal-bearing beds. W. H. Beekly and J. Sidney Heil rendered valuable assistance in the manage­ ment of the camp and in the field work. Methods and conditions. This work was planned for the purpose of making a preliminary examination and classification of the public lands upon which valuable coal was supposed to exist, but about which very little authoritative information was available. Much of the field work was based on the recently established lines of the township resurveys in this part of Colorado. In each township or part of a township that contained coal, a large proportion of the section lines were retraced for the purpose of locating the coal. This was done with a pocket compass, the distances being measured by pacing and checked by the corners that were found along the lines. An average of about five working days for one man was devoted to each township, and this may serve as a rough measure of the detail that could be obtained in such a review of the area. In addition to this work meanders were made along roads and trails or in gulches and canyons for the purpose of examining the most favorably exposed geologic sections and procuring such additional data as could not be obtained by other methods. In territory where the new surveys had not been completed it was necessary to pursue a method of traverse, for which both plane table and compass and notebook were used. In the absence of the constant checks on well-established land corners it was not possible to obtain so satisfactory a result as by the other method. By far the greater part of the valuable coal is concealed at the surface, and its presence over much of the region can only be inferred from a study of the sections where it is better exposed. Individual beds can not be traced from place to place for any considerable distance without doing a great amount of development work along the outcrops, and indeed it is extremely doubtful if such work could ever be satisfactorily done in much of the field until all or most of the beds are actually opened in mining or have been prospected by the drill. More and more detailed examinations will doubtless become necessary from time to time as the development of the field progresses and the coal lands themselves become more valuable. COAL IN NORTHWESTERN COLORADO AND NORTHEASTERN UTAH. 285 GEOLOGY. STRATIGRAPHY. SIGNIFICANCE OF THE ROCK FORMATIONS. The deposits in which the coal was originally formed are a part of a great series of sedimentary strata that were laid clown at a time when this part of the continent was largely submerged. The sub­ mergence probably ranged from deep sea to shallow water and swampy conditions, as well as from salt-water or marine to brackish and fresh water stages. These strata were deposited in an approxi­ mately horizontal position. Subsequent movements of the earth's crust have folded or even broken the originally continuous deposits, so that it is now necessary to study their attitude and order of super­ position in order to explain the relations of one set of beds to another. Their position in the stratigraphic section indicates in a general way their relative geologic age, although there are also evidences that great time intervals have elapsed in which no deposits were being formed, or in which was being laid down material that was subsequently removed, leaving little or no record of its existence. SUMMARY AND DESCRIPTION OF FORMATIONS. The following table is a brief description of evidence that has been collected from this general region, but includes only that part of the stratigraphic column most directly related to a' discussion of the coal-bearing rocks. Rock formations of the northwestern Colorado coal fields. Geo­ Forma­ logic Description of strata. Topographic features. Thickness. Economic value. age. tion. Consists ol loose or Forms low sand hills Not determined. IH R slightly consoli­ or valley country, O '_o p dated sandy ma­ commonly covered fc terial with local sparsely with sage­ ' 03g S harder sandstone brush, greasewood, «wo beds and some beds cedar, or pifion. EH£ en* of gravel. Con­ Typically exposed 03 M 24 tains much cal­ in Axial Basin c3 P 73 careous material about Juniper o P-ia in the form of ce­ Mountain, and sup­ >>>> ment or filling be­ posed to extend ' 1 " P tween the quartz continuously north- ,0 c sand grains. Its westwftrd into s M color is everywhere Browns Park. P* K chalky or limy white. Marked unconformity. 286 CONTRIBUTIONS TO ECONOMIC GEOLOGY, 1907, PAKT II. Rock formations of the northwestern Colorado coalfields Continued. Geo­ Forma­ logic Description of strata. Topographic features. Thickness. Economic value. age. tion. Composed of shale, Characterized by pla­ Measured sections Gilsonite and re­ sandstone,and beds teaus where it is exceed 2,400feet; lated hydrocar­ of oolitic rock. The flat lying; these re­ upper limit not bons in the Uin­ shaly beds pre­ gions being bor­ reached. ta Basin. dominate and are dered by high and very compact and abrupt escarp­ firmly bedded. ments at the mar­ They are generally gins or near the up- d exposed in escarp­ tilted areas. This _o ments and high formation is only a bluffs in which the slightly affected by weathered beds weathering except o have a veiy char­ where broken or ex­ «M acteristic chalky- posed in a tilted h white aspect. The position. It is cut ?t* shales are, how­ by deep canyons 2 ever, of various along the stream d shades of gray, channels, as it read­ FH drab, and light ily gives way to ero­ O brown and are in sion by the attri­ many places hard tion of mechanically and thin bedded. transported harder _ In some districts material. It is well the lower part con­ represented in" the tains much mas­ Roan or Book Cliffs sive white sand­ Plateau, the Cathe­ stone. dral Bluffs, and the Gray Hills. Composed, chiefly of Commonly weathers From 4,000 feet on Oil and asphaltum clay or soft clay to low valley or the eastern side deposits near shale; commonly ridge country, at of t h e U i n t a Vernal, Utah. variegated, but some places scarred Basin to about c various shades of by badland washes. 2,500 feet near £ ',0 £ red and drab pre­ It is usually dis­ the Utah line. o3 o3 dominate. It also tinguished hy the S 0 contains beds of banded or colored 03 t-i C_|~ O pebbles or con­ clays in the bluffs *W s glomerate of very underlying or ad­ -M perfectly rounded jacent to the escarp­ C3 silicious material , ments of the Green such as jasper, col­ River formation. 1 ored vein quart/,, Cactus Valley, on chert, or flint. Grand River, is Sandstones in eroded from these places very mas­ beds. sive and hard. _>> Beds not readily dis­ Forms ridges and Estimated as Workable coal. 3 tinguished from hilly country, es­ about 800 feet '5i the" \Vasatch in pecially where the on Lay Creek O the Uinta .