USA > Colorado > History of the State of Colorado, Volume II > Part 4
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44
HISTORY OF COLORADO.
EXTENT OF THE LARAMIE COAL MEASURES.
The amount of exact information available, regarding the extent and development of the Laramie, is very insufficient, and rather a matter of surprise considering its importance as a coal-bearing formation, to Colorado and the prairie States. Of the area of available measures still less is known, so that the tabulated estimates given beyond are approxi- mative only, and liable to considerable modification whenever systematic surveys shall have demonstrated the full extent of what is doubtless destined to become the most valuable and lasting of our mineral resources.
While the workable measures throughout the State, excepting a few isolated areas in the Dakota, are probably of contemporaneous origin, they are not continuous, but are divided by areas of denudation, and by the main range of the Rockies, into six distinct fields; viz., the Grand River field,-the Yampa field,-the La Plata field,-the Raton field,-the North Park field, and the Northern Colorado field; besides three small but important districts, hereafter mentioned, and a limited area in the Dakota Cretaceous of Southwestern Colorado, which is like- wise included in the estimates.
GRAND RIVER FIELD.
This field is so named for the reason that the most valuable, as well as the most accessible, part of the measures is situated on the drainage of Grand River, and its tributaries in Gunnison, Pitkin, Garfield and Mesa Counties ; although a large, but less accessible, part of the field lies on the drainage of White and Yampa Rivers.
Beginning at the southern extremity of the field near Crested Butte, where valuable beds of anthracite and coking coal are worked, the out- cropping measures can be traced with but little interruption, around Mount Carbon, to the mines of domestic coal at Baldwin, and thence westward to Mount Gunnison, where, on Coal Creek, large seams of semi-coking coal are exposed. From Mount Gunnison the outcrop con- tinues westward across the North Fork of the Gunnison River and
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HISTORY OF COLORADO.
around Grand Mesa to Hogback Cañon on Grand River, about sixteen miles above Grand Junction. From Hogback Cañon to the Utah line the outcrop conforms to the trend of the Little Book Cliffs, along which the measures are traceable to Green River ; and extending beyond, prob- ably underlie a large part of the country east of the Wahsatch Range.
Along the opposite margin of the field the outcropping coal-seams are also readily traceable. Sweeping westerly from Crested Butte they skirt the western slope of the Anthracite Range, the southern base of the Ragged Mountains, and appearing for a short distance on Crystal River, again trend westward into Coal Basin. From Coal Basin north- westerly, the measures outcrop along the Huntsman's Hills, through Jerome Park, and on to Piñon Basin and Newcastle. At this point the Laramie exposures following the course of the Great Hogback, cross to the north of Grand River, and pursuing a northwesterly-and then a northerly-course, continue uninterruptedly to White River, where the coal-seams are well exposed a few miles below Meeker. From there the outcrop trends, in a great elliptical curve, northward in the direction of the Yampa, and continuing the curve, again appears on White River a few miles below the mouth of the Pi-ce-ance. Thence it follows the course of the Uinta fold across the State line into Utah, and on to Green River. This is substantially the outline of what is the largest and most important of known Rocky Mountain coal fields, or rather the boundaries of the Colorado portion of it. Regarding the Utah extension of this field little is known beyond the existence of workable coal at a number of points between Green River and the Wahsatch Mountains ; indicating the probable continuance of large areas of accessible measures as far west as that range.
The coals of the Grand River field show a wide variation in char- acter and composition, although throughout they are found to be of very superior quality. , The Anthracite Range and Ragged Mountain coal, as also part of what is contained in the limited area on Crystal River, and on Slate River near Crested Butte, is anthracite and semi-anthracite of excellent quality, but variable in thickness and contained in beds much
46
HISTORY OF COLORADO.
broken and fractured, so that but a small part of the total anthracite acreage can be profitably worked in the regular way. So far as known, the total area of available anthracite and semi-anthracite, will not exceed 3,000 acres, unless further exploration in the Elk Head Mountains and Grand Mesa, should develop a larger area than these localities now show. In Coal Basin and northward along the eastern border of the Huntsman's Hills, also in Jerome Park, the coal is an excellent coking variety, and the seams that are of workable size and accessible, aggregate as much as thirty feet of clean coal. From the southern extremity of Coal Basin to the northern end of Jerome Park, a distance of nearly twenty miles, the seams furnish only coking-coal. To what distance back of the outcrop the coal will continue to be of this character can hardly be conjectured ; nor is it yet clear to what cause the alteration of the coal in this district is directly attributable beyond the probability that it was induced by the intrusion of the dykes, and large masses of eruptive rock, which occur in that neighborhood. For economic purposes it is unnecessary to specu- late on the distance to which the coking-coal extends beyond the working limit, and there can hardly exist a doubt of its retaining its character to that extent.
In Coal Basin the seams have an inclination of from 9° to 15°, and can be mined, in places, a long distance back of the outcrop. North from Coal Basin the seams soon become highly inclined, having a dip of about 40° in Jerome Park, so that there the limit of profitable working will be sooner reached than in Coal Basin. Altogether, the total area of available coking-coal in this district may reach thirty-five square miles. In the Crested Butte district the area of coking-coal is quite small, the seams graduating into dry domestic coal on one side and into semi- anthracite on the other.
From Jerome Park, along the Great Hogback, to the head of the Pi-ce-ance, there is a noticeable increase in the inclination of the meas- ures. At South Canon, Piñon Basin, Newcastle, and Dry Gap, the dip is about 57°, while at Rifle Creek Gap it is not less than 80°. From there the dip gradually diminishes until it is about 30° at the upper
47
HISTORY OF COLORADO.
exposures on White River. The inclination of overlying conformable strata, everywhere indicates that the dip of the coal measures decreases rapidly after leaving the outcrop, a fact which explains the absence of high inclination in Coal Basin where the beds have been eroded to a distance of several miles back of the general line of the exposures.
The character of the coal along the Hogback varies considerably in the different seams, though it all belongs to the class known to the trade as "domestic," being similar to the European varieties, "splint," and " cherry," the best adapted of all soft coals for domestic uses. As a rule, the upper measures furnish the cleanest and dryest coal, while the lower, owing to greater thickness, are capable of producing the largest quantity. The dry coals of the Cañon City and Piñon Basin type, which coke but slightly or not at all, are usually less sooty than semi-coking coals, and these in turn than coking-coals, which form too much soot to use as a domestic fuel. Hence the importance of the Garfield County product, which is well suited to meet the requirements of the growing demand from the prairie States.
The total thickness of available coal along the Great Hogback exceeds what has been observed elsewhere in the Colorado fields, the measurements made at a number of points indicating about fifty feet as the average aggregate thickness, for while in places it is greater, the added amount will usually include more or less impure and unmar- ketable material.
North and west from Meeker, in fact, so far as regards all the country north of White River, the measures are generally but slightly inclined, or of medium inclination, becoming highly inclined near the Utah line, under the influence of the Uinta fold. The coal possesses the same characters observed in the seams of Garfield County, being exclu- sively of the domestic kind. This part of the field has been but little explored and in no place has the entire series of seams been opened up ; consequently, in assigning an average workable thickness of coal, the true thickness cannot be given. It may be assumed, however, that the minimum thickness of twelve feet, the least anywhere observed where
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HISTORY OF COLORADO.
openings have been made, will not exceed the true amount, and it is highly probable that future explorations will prove the latter to be much greater.
The slightly inclined or nearly horizontal measures of the south- western margin of the field includes the entire outcrop between Mount Gunnison and a point about five miles west of Hogback Cañon cn Grand River, with the addition of limited areas near Baldwin and Crested Butte. Along the Little Book Cliffs, north of Grand Junction, the inclination reaches, in places, 18°, which is the maximum dip observed in that part of the field. With the exception of the limited area in the Crested Butte district, which contains coking-coal and anthra- cite, and possibly a small section of country near Mount Gunnison, the whole of the coal of the southwestern border is of the semi-coking kind, and of good quality for domestic requirements.
The thickness of available coal, assigned to this portion of the measures, is partly based on measurements, and partly assumed. On the North Fork of the Gunnison the aggregate thickness of workable beds is known to be as much as fifty feet; but around the western extremity of Grand Mesa only an aggregate of fifteen feet has been discovered. Taking into account the possible existence of unworkable areas around the comparatively unexplored Grand Mesa outcrop, which is to some extent troubled by a great eruptive overflow, an aggregate available thickness of twenty feet is thought to be a conservative estimate. With the central part of the field we need not concern ourselves, since it is buried under from 5,000 to 10,000 feet of later sedimentary accumu- lations, and is therefore practically inaccessible.
YAMPA FIELD.
This field contains a total area of about 950 square miles, and is situated altogether on the drainage of the Yampa River. Though separated from the Grand River field by an area of erosion, it was probably at one time continuous with it, and also with the Southern Wyoming field, with which it may still be connected beneath the
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HISTORY OF COLORADO.
eruptive overflow of the Elk Head Mountains. Including a fractional part of the Wyoming field, which extends southward into Colorado, the total area will approximate 1, 100 square miles.
At present writing not a single productive mine has been opened in this field, and beyond the few shallow openings from which farmers and blacksmiths are supplied with fuel, the explorations are superficial and unimportant. Natural exposures showing a workable thickness of coal are quite common around the margin of the measures, and also in localities where they have been deeply eroded by water-courses. On the north side of the Flat-Top Mountains there are four workable seams exposed in a vertical distance of less than 100 feet. In the region of the Elk Head Mountains the coal has, in a few places, been altered to anthracite, and semi-anthracite, by the intrusion of thick sheets of eruptive rock into the adjacent strata during a former period of eruptive activity. On the head of the Dry Branch of Elk Head Creek the out- crop of a seam of anthracite, from seven to eight feet thick, has been drifted into at several points in a distance of about 1,500 feet, showing a very good article of fuel; to which, however, little value can be attached, until the existence of a large available area has been demonstrated, owing to the uncertainty of anthracite occurrences depending on the proximity of lava intrusions, and the necessity of a certain assured quantity to justify railway extension to so remote a point. Other, but smaller, seams of anthracite are exposed, about fifteen miles distant, on Elk Head Creek, but are of doubtful economic importance, as the coal soon changes into a bituminous variety.
The soft coal of this field is essentially of the same character and composition as that of the Grand River field, being a slightly-coking domestic coal of excellent quality.
The average thickness of available coal assigned to this field is thought to be justified by the known thickness exposed at various points around the outcrop. It should be noted, however, that a very careful survey will be required to determine, even approximately, the total quantity of available coal, principally owing to the presence of numerous 4 II.
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HISTORY OF COLORADO.
flexures, and consequent irregularities of dip, which bring to the surface and make available, considerable areas in the central part of the field.
LA PLATA FIELD.
The La Plata field has been but little explored, being remotely situated with reference to trunk lines of railway, either present or pros- pective. As defined on the accompanying map it includes all the known Laramie exposures lying north of the New Mexico line, and is really the Colorado portion of a larger field extending beyond the State boundary southward. The area of the La Plata field in Colorado is estimated at 1,250 square miles.
The greater part of the outcropping measures are but slightly inclined, especially in the Rio Mancos and Rio San Juan regions. On the Rio La Plata the inclination of the beds is generally less than 10°. East of the Rio Las Animas the dip increases, and on the Rio Florida the measures are highly inclined. Openings, exposing a work- able thickness of coal, have been made on the Florida, Animas, La Plata, on Cherry Creek, and at a number of points in the vicinity of the Man- cos; while natural exposures of thick coal are frequently met with, and are quite noticeable on the San Juan.
The general character of La Plata coal remains to be investigated. The sample tested by the War Department-by a method which is open to serious objections, since all fuels are subjected to the same treatment without regard to character or composition-indicated the evaporating power to be near that of Trinidad coal, which is considered by the trade to be above the average as a steam fuel. In all probability the most of the coal from this field will be of the semi-coking kind, owing to distance from centers of eruption, the exception being that which occurs in the neighborhood of the La Plata Mountains, and which at Durango is a true coking coal. It may be stated here that the result of observation on Rocky Mountain coals proves, beyond question, that the several varieties owe their origin to different degrees of alteration, produced in common lignite by the direct, or indirect, influence of neighboring
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HISTORY OF COLORADO.
eruptive masses, and that the amount of alteration is greater the nearer the measures are situated to eruptive centers.
Until the La Plata field shall be more thoroughly explored, it will be impossible to estimate the thickness of available coal with any degree of certainty. The so-called "Mammoth" vein at Durango, which is of extraordinary thickness, is really an aggregation of small seams sepa- rated from one another by bands of shale, on the whole capable of pro- ducing large quantities of coal. Other seams of workable size, but higher in the measures, have also been exposed in the vicinity. So far as known, the Mammoth coal beds, except in a contracted form, are not continuous through the entire field, but are confined to the region about Durango; hence, the total thickness available in that district, is phe- nomenal, and ought not to figure in an estimate of the total available coal. At the best, any estimate that can be given will be little more than a guess, and such it must be candidly admitted is the nature of the one presented beyond, which is therefore merely intended as a substitute for the more accurate figures which future surveys may be expected to furnish.
RATON FIELD.
The Colorado portion of the Raton field has been more thoroughly explored than any other coal-containing area of corresponding size in the State, consequently the statements here presented are thought to approach very closely the actual facts.
In calculating the total area of available and unavailable measures in this field, all that portion lying north of the Cuchara River, and west of the meridian of La Veta, has been rejected as not coal-bearing to a workable extent. So also the extensive area of Laramie beds lying east of the 104th meridian, which are represented by Hayden as coal bearing, but which up to the present time have not been shown to contain seams of workable thickness. The propriety of including such large areas of barren measures in the coal land of the State is open to question. No useful purpose is served thereby. As well might we include the whole of the Dakota Cretaceous, because it contains workable coal in South-
52
HISTORY OF COLORADO.
western Colorado. Wherever a workable thickness of coal can with reason be supposed to exist, that portion of the measures should cer- tainly be included as coal land, no matter what limit we may, for the time being, assign to the available coal; for we know not but the requirements of coming ages, aided by vastly improved methods of mining, may indefinitely extend this limit. Excluding, also, about thirty square miles for the eruptive areas of the Spanish Peaks and Raton Mountains, the entire field in Colorado will embrace a total of 1,300 square miles. East of Gray's Creek the margin of the measures has not been carefully outlined, so that the above figures may be in error to the extent of a few square miles; a contingency that will not materially affect the available tonnage, since the coal in that part of the field is thin, and the calculations are affected more by length of accessible out- crop, irrespective of smaller meanderings, than by width of area. Throughout the remainder of the field the margin has been located, with a fair approach to accuracy, by reference to established section corners, -- a work for which the State is indebted to the enterprise of the Colo- rado Fuel Company.
The least important part of the measures outcrop just east of the base of the Sangre de Cristo Range, and extend from the northern line of New Mexico, west of the Spanish Peaks, to a point a short distance south of Veta Mountain, beyond which the seams cease to afford a workable thickness of coal, or at least such has yet to be found. Along the northern extent of this outcrop the inclination ranges from 40° to 80°, and at present coal is only mined for local con- sumption on Middle and Indian Creeks. West of the Spanish Peaks, for a distance of nine miles, intrusive sheets of lava have transformed the coal into natural coke, too poor in quality and irregular to be of any economic value. About a mile north of Coal Creek the eruptive intrusions terminate, and from there southward the seams are of work- able size, but inclined, in places, as much as 25°,-a dip less desir- able in mine workings than one much greater. A large number of
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HISTORY OF COLORADO.
superficial openings demonstrate fairly well the continuity of the coal and its semi-coking or domestic character. ·
Along the eastern margin of the field, which is now the scene of extensive mining operations, we find the workable coal thinning out a few miles south of Badito. In the next township east the coal has a persistent thickness of about five feet and an inclination of 14°. The inclination diminishes rapidly going southward, rarely exceeding 7º along the next fifteen miles of continuous and well defined outcrop, which extends through Townships 28 and 29, in Range 66.
This part of the measures includes the important mines of Rouse, Walsenburg and Pictou. At the two last mentioned localities there are three productive coal beds, aggregating about fifteen feet in thickness, known respectively as the Cameron, Walsen and Robinson seams. Of these the Cameron seam, the lowest in the measures, affords the best quality of coal. This seam, which is only thirty-nine inches thick at Walsenburg, expands to six feet at Rouse, where it is the only coal mined, and in fact the only workable seam, the others being transformed into coke by lava intrusions. At Santa Clara, and beyond nearly to Cañon Salada, it is still of workable size, aggregating, with the Walsen seam, thirty-five feet above, about ten feet of coal.
Between Cañon Salada and the Apishapa the outcrop has been scorched by intrusions of lava, and probably not to exceed an average of three and one-half feet of coal will be extracted from it. In the Apishapa Valley there are two seams exposed, aggregating about eleven feet of coal.
All the coal in the above districts is of the slightly-coking domestic kind, varying in quality with the different seams, the lower or Rouse- Cameron seam affording the best coal for domestic purposes, mined in this field. The Apishapa Valley coal cokes more strongly than the Rouse and Walsenburg coal, and will be found more sooty, but it is nevertheless a good quality of coal.
In the district south of the Apishapa, embracing the Cañon de Agua, Stock Cañon and Road Cañon mines, there is an upper as well as
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HISTORY OF COLORADO.
a lower series of workable seams. The former contains the best quality of coal, of about six and one-half feet in thickness, while the latter series aggregates about twelve feet. South of the Apishapa the coking char- acter of the coal becomes more pronounced, improving its value some- what for steam purposes, but rendering the product less desirable as a domestic fuel. Such is the character of the most of the coal from the district just mentioned. There is also considerable true coking-coal of fair quality, but drier if anything, than Engleville or Sopris coal. Be- tween Road Cañon and the Purgatoire River,-a district which includes the Chicosa, or Tingly Canon mines,-the measures usually afford a workable thickness of coal, strongly-coking in character, but yet too dry to make beehive coke.
Where the outcrop crosses the Apishapa the inclination is about 17°, but decreases rapidly westward or away from the outcrop. In the districts south of the Apishapa the inclination in no place exceeds 7°.
In the Trinidad district there are usually two workable seams present, occasionally three, belonging to the lower series ; and always one and often two belonging to the upper Cañon de Agua series, out- cropping from 800 to 1,000 feet higher in the measures. None of these seams maintain a continuous workable thickness over large areas, but as there are quite a number in the section, at least twenty-seven being known, one or more in a given locality will be found of workable size, though not corresponding to the thick coal developed in the adjoining ground. The present workings clearly indicate the variability in thick- ness. At Engleville the coal is won from the lowest bed in the measures, while at the Starkville, Sopris and Valley mines, it is some one of the higher seams of the lower series that has the greatest productive capacity. Up to the present time nearly all the coal extracted from the mines of this district has been taken from seams ranging from six to nine feet in thickness, usually about five and one-half to seven feet of this amount being available. Trinidad coal produces a hard, extremely dense coke, and is much used as fuel for locomotives.
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HISTORY OF COLORADO.
Adjoining the Trinidad district on the west, is the Purgatoire River district, in which the lower series of seams does not outcrop. This district may be defined as a strip about twenty miles long, of varying width, extending up the valley of the Purgatoire and including several of its lateral branches. Here, the nearly horizontal measures have been deeply eroded, so that both from the valley itself and the principal side cañons the lower series of seams can be easily reached through shafts, while the upper series can be mined directly from the outcrop. By this means a large area of land, probably as much as 135 square miles, will eventually be made available.
The varieties of coal contained in the Raton field, although probably of contemporaneous origin with the lignite-coals of Northern Colorado, show a much higher degree of alteration, evidently due to the influence of numerous dykes and intrusions, which are everywhere met with, the greatest alteration being noted at Trinidad, where the great overflow of the Chicorica Mesa seems to have played an important part in the process.
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