Geological Survey Bulletin 611 Guidebook of the Western United States: Part A

North of Umptanum Creek lies Manastash Ridge, which, like the others already crossed, is an arch in structure; but the fold is much flatter than those down the river, and its shape is not apparent from the train. The layers of basalt rise gradually northward from the mouth of Umptanum Creek, and they appear to be nearly horizontal in the great Beavertail Bend between mileposts 115 and 118. The axis of the fold is more than a mile north of this bend and not far from milepost 120, where the railway again crosses to the east side of Yakima River. From this crossing the layers of rock descend rapidly northward, and the great sheets of basalt that form the walls of the canyon for more than 20 miles dip below water level and the train emerges upon another broad flat that seems to be even more extensive than the one at North Yakima. This also is mostly under cultivation, and the view on the right as the train leaves the canyon is particularly charming, as one looks off to the distant mountains across a wide stretch of fertile fields and orchards, crossed here and there by lines of tall trees planted as windbreaks.

SHEET No. 26. (click on image for an enlargement in a new window)

Although much hard rock is exposed in the Yakima Valley stone suitable for building material is very scarce. The basalt is a lasting material, but its dark color renders it unsuitable for buildings and it is used only for foundations and for road metal. For the latter use it is admirably adapted. On the north slope of Manastash Ridge, about 2 miles east of Thrall, the sandstone of the Ellensburg formation has been hardened by the pressure that arched and overturned the basalt so as to make it a very good building stone, and it has been utilized in some of the business blocks of Ellensburg.

Ellensburg is the end of a division and a prosperous town in the broad Kittitas Valley, which stretches far to the east along Manastash Ridge. It is served not only by the Northern Pacific but also by the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railway, which gives it an advantage over most of the other towns of the Yakima Valley. Owing to the altitude, the land is much better suited to the raising of hay and to dairying than that of the lower valley.

A little north of Ellensburg Mount Stuart, far to the north, stands up as a narrow, jagged crest carrying much snow. This view is not so imposing as that of Mount Adams seen from a point farther down the valley, but the summits here are much narrower than that of Mount Adams and the mountain has a more rugged outline. The railway is bordered by broad meadows of timothy or clover and by fields of oats or wheat that roll in great billows under the strong wind that at times sweeps down the valley from the mountains. About a mile from the station the St. Paul Railway is visible on the right, having crossed Columbia River by a route leading directly west from Connell.

The bluff on the right near milepost 4 is composed of the Ellensburg formation, which overlies the great flows of basalt and is composed of white clay (in most places volcanic ash), sand, and gravel. This material is only partly consolidated, but it stands in steep bluffs, as can be seen on the right. The material is so soft and the slope so steep that in carrying water along the bluff to irrigate lands lower down the valley a timber flume had to be built along the entire face of the bluff a distance of more than 2 miles. This gives an idea of the elaborate and expensive work that must be done in many localities in order to obtain the necessary water for irrigation. Not only is the first cost of such a flume great, but the maintenance is a considerable item of expense which must be met every year.

Just after passing milepost 7 the train crosses Yakima River, here a small stream but beautifully clear and pure, and then it follows the river bottom, in some places on the bank of the stream and in others back at the foot of the bluff as the river swings from side to side of its flood plain. Near milepost 10 the railway again crosses the river, and the St. Paul road is on the other side under a high bluff, in which is exposed a prominent band of white volcanic ash. At the first sharp curve north of the river crossing the basalt is at track level, but it rises up the stream with the soft, stratified beds of the Ellensburg formation which rest upon it and which rise in the same direction and at the same rate.

The canyons south of this place have been cut by Yakima River through low rolls or folds in the basalt, but none of these folds have been of sufficient magnitude for the river to reach the base of the lava sheets; but north of Ellensburg the whole series of rock formations has been turned up like the rim of a basin, and the canyon which begins at Dudley, 10 miles above Ellensburg, is the cut made by Yakima River through the basalt of this rim. Figure 37 shows the gradual rise of the basalt northward and its final disappearance in the hilltops far above river level.

FIGURE 37.—Section showing structure of Yakima basalt north of Ellensburg, Wash. The basalt rises from a level below Yakima River near Dudley and is far above track level at Teanaway.

In some parts the canyon is bounded by rugged walls of basalt which makes it somewhat picturesque, but in general there is little to attract attention except the interesting geologic section that is exposed here. In places the canyon opens out and the sides are covered with scattered pine trees that are but the fringe of the great mantle of forest that covers all of the Cascade Range except the highest summits and that once extended unbroken to the shores of the Pacific Ocean. The basalt rises steadily and near milepost 18 the whitish sandstone and clay of the underlying older formation makes its appearance in cuts along the St. Paul road, on the opposite shore of the stream.

The traveler should be prepared to see Mount Stuart on the right (north) as the train emerges from the canyon, for the view, if the weather is clear, is superb and lasts for only a few minutes.¹

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¹Mount Stuart is the culminating peak of a spur which extends eastward from the main crest of the Cascade Range. The summit of the peak rises to an altitude of 9,470 feet, or 7,600 feet above the railway at Teanaway station. This granite peak, with its deeply carved spires and crags, more or less covered with snow throughout the summer, is the most striking feature in the varied scenery of the region; but its wildest and grandest scenery lies hidden within its own fastnesses.

The southern face of the mountain is a precipitous slope, rising 5,000 feet or more above the creek which flows at its foot. The lower part of this wall can be scaled at several points, but by only one route has the highest peak been attained by the mountain climber. This peak is so acute that the greater part of the available space is taken by the United States Geological Survey triangulation monument which crowns its summit.

On the north side of Mount Stuart are broad and deep amphitheaters, in which lie small glaciers and glacial lakes, draining northward into Icicle Creek. The glaciers immediately below the main peak are mere remnants, some of them only a few hundred yards across; yet these exhibit most of the characteristic features of larger ice streams.

It is apparent that Mount Stuart is different from Mount Adams, which, as seen from a point near Toppenish, consists essentially of a gigantic cone resting upon the broad platform of the Cascade Range. Mount Stuart, as can be seen from Teanaway, is rugged in the extreme. and consists of a serrate ridge with one high point. The difference in the form of the two peaks is due to differences in materials and in mode of formation.

Mount Stuart consists of a great mass of granite which long ago was forced up through the rocks from below but probably never reached the surface. Before Tertiary time this great mass, together with the surrounding sedimentary and igneous rocks, was deformed by earth movements and possibly was uncovered and carved into mountains, though the record is not complete enough to determine that with certainty. The surface of the country was finally reduced to a low land, except the granite mass, which owing to its hardness was left projecting about 1,000 feet above the plain. Late in Tertiary time the Cascade Range was formed by a great uplift of the rocks, and then the streams began their present work of cutting it away. Great canyons were eroded in the uplifted mass, and the pinnacles and towers of the jagged crest of Mount Stuart have been formed merely by the removal of adjacent material.

Thus while Mount Adams is a mountain of construction, Mount Stuart is a mountain of erosion. No better representatives of the types could be found than these two peaks of the Cascade Range.

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The white sandstone of the Roslyn formation is visible in a low bank on the right near the old station of Teanaway. It rises toward the north, like the formations observed in the canyon, and it forms the southward-facing slope of the great ridge on the right. The red rocks on the mountain side on the left are the Teanaway basalt, which underlies the Roslyn formation and is of Eocene age. The layers of basalt in this mountain are not horizontal but are turned up on edge, so that the relation of the Teanaway to the Roslyn is not apparent.

The valley here was formerly covered with dense forest, in striking contrast to the valley lower down, where there were few trees of any kind until the country was settled.

Near Clealum a heavy-bedded white sandstone, underlying some coal beds, dips to the south with the same slope as the side of the valley, and consequently it covers the entire hillside. Three coal tipples are in sight from the train. Some coal is produced here, but most of it comes from mines farther from the main line of the railway. From Clealum a branch line leads to the right to Roslyn, where are situated the mines of the Northern Pacific and also of companies that are mining coal for sale. The Roslyn coal field is one of the most valuable in the State. It has made its reputation largely because of the cleanness of the coal and its good quality for steam raising and for domestic use. The Northern Pacific Co. uses the coal mined here for all its locomotives and stationary engines between the Stampede tunnel on the west and Butte and Helena on the east. Clealum has also been the supply point for the three principal gold-mining districts in central Washington.¹

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¹The coal-bearing rocks of the Roslyn field lie in an open trough or syncline, the axis of which extends in a northwesterly direction parallel with the main valleys of the region. The Roslyn formation, which contains the coal beds, is about 3,000 feet thick, but the coal occurs in the upper part alone, and for this reason the coal beds are much less extensive than the formation which carries them. So far as known they are restricted to an area about 7 miles long by 3-1/2 miles wide, extending from a point just a little east of Clealum northwestward nearly to Clealum Lake. Along the northeastern limb of the syncline the coal beds are well known, as the principal bed has been mined out throughout most of that area, but on the southwest side the rocks are badly covered, and although considerable drilling has been done the extent of the workable coal is somewhat problematic.

So far only one bed, the Roslyn, has been worked; another bed of workable thickness underlies the Roslyn, but its extent and value have never been determined. The Roslyn bed is remarkably regular in thickness and composition throughout the district, but the quality of the coal improves regularly from Clealum westward toward the mountains. The average thickness ranges from 4 feet 4 inches to 4 feet 9 inches. The bed is not all clear coal but contains a number of partings of bony coal. Government analyses show that the heating value of the coal ranges from 11,950 to 12,980 British thermal units.

The Roslyn district contains some of the largest mines west of Mississippi River, and the field as a whole is the most productive in the State. Its output for the year 1913 was 1,334,155 short tons, or more than one-third of the coal produced by the entire State.

The gold-mining districts in central Washington are the Swauk, Peshastin, and Negro Creek, and lie from 18 to 24 miles northeast of Clealum. Placer gold has been found in all these districts, but the Swauk is particularly noted for the coarseness of the gold. Large nuggets have been found here, one being worth $1,100. Gold was discovered in this region in 1860, and at least $2,000,000 worth has been produced.

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West of Clealum the railway follows the north bank of the river under the cut bank of an extensive terrace of gravel, which is doubtless the outwash from the glacier that once occupied Clealum Valley. The road then bends sharply to the south around a narrow point of the terrace that has been protected from erosion by a projecting boss of the Teanaway basalt. In the early days of railroading in the Yakima Valley this was known as Deadman's Curve, from the number of fatal accidents that occurred here, but now with the use of block signals the danger has been removed.

About a mile west of this curve the railway crosses Clealum River, which drains a large valley heading far to the north and containing Clealum Lake, a body of water 4 miles long and nearly a mile wide. At the outlet of this lake the Reclamation Service has constructed a low dam to raise the level of the lake and make a storage reservoir. It is proposed to increase the height of this dam and thus impound a much larger volume of water for use in the lower valley. As the railway rounds the next point of the terrace and crosses the river a corresponding point is seen on the left, as if at one time there had been a continuous ridge across the valley at this place. This ridge has many of the characteristics of a terminal moraine, including a steep face upstream against which the ice front may have rested, a hummocky surface in that part lying to the left (south) of the track, and bowlder clay at the bottom of the cut near the railway. These features, together with the flat, smooth floor of the valley above, indicate that at a certain stage of the glaciation of this region a large body of ice came down the tributary valley now occupied by Kachess Lake and extended. down Yakima Valley to this point. Here it rested for a while, pushing out in front the clay and rock fragments that it had ground off the rocky bed over which it had moved, and then the water flowing from the ice carried sand and gravel and spread them in a somewhat irregular sheet above the till.

Besides the moraine just described, one lies at the lower end of Kachess (ka-chess') Lake and another just below Keechelus (kee'che-lus) Lake. These show that the glacier, after retreating several miles up the branching valley, came to a halt and probably readvanced a little, piling up the rocky material in each valley as a terminal moraine. Kachess Lake, the largest lake in the region, is a beautiful sheet of water nearly 6 miles long and a mile wide. A wagon road extends to the lower end of the lake, but the upper part is still encircled by unbroken forest, which covers the inclosing mountain slopes to a height of 3,200 feet above the lake. The deep basin in which the lake lies was scoured out by the glacier that once occupied this valley. The outlet of the lake has been dammed by the Reclamation Service and the level of the water raised several feet, thereby increasing the amount of stored water available for irrigation.

The mountain side on the left (south), which can be seen to good advantage in the journey up the broad valley above the moraine, consists of schist (the Easton schist), which is the oldest geologic formation that will be seen in the Cascade Mountains. Its exact age has not been determined, but it is supposed to be Carboniferous or older. It is a part of the great foundation upon which the Tertiary sediments and lavas were laid down. The rocks on the right (north) are the Teanaway basalt, which covers large areas east of the summit of the range. Near milepost 36 the sheets of lava that make up this formation are well exposed in the high mountain summit just north of Silver Creek. The sheets of lava here dip away from the valley and they make a rugged mountain front, the steepness of which has been greatly accentuated by the scouring that the old glacier has done along the bottom of the slope.

Easton, which lies at the foot of the steep climb up to the Stampede tunnel, is mainly a place for helper engines to wait until their services are needed in pushing up the grade. The broad valley which the railway has been following for some distance continues directly ahead to Kachess Lake, but just beyond Easton the road swerves to the left and appears to plunge directly into the hillside. From the bottom of the valley the reason for this change of route is not apparent, but from any commanding summit in the neighborhood it may be seen that Easton is situated at the junction of two valleys, each of which has a width of nearly 2 miles. The chief difference in the valleys is that they are not at the same level. The Kachess Valley has an altitude of 2,150 feet, whereas the old floor of the Yakima Valley, represented by the tops of the hills above Easton, is 350 feet higher. It is clearly evident that for some reason the Kachess Valley has been deepened below that of Yakima River, and that the latter is now cutting a narrow trench in its old valley bottom in order to reduce its grade to that of the stream which it joins near Easton. These changes seem to be connected in some way with the occupation of the valleys by glacial ice, but the manner in which it has been accomplished has not been worked out.

Both the Northern Pacific and St. Paul roads follow the river through the narrow gorge above Easton, where the stream boils and tumbles over the rocky ledges toward the open valley below. The sand and gravel carried down by the stream are constantly grinding away the hard rocks, but it is a slow process, and many generations will pass before the obstruction is removed. The narrow gorge is short, and beyond it the railway enters the relatively open valley above.

As the Northern Pacific crosses the summit of the range near Stampede Pass, about 9 miles from Easton, it climbs at a steep grade. The St. Paul road, which is here on the right, crosses at Snoqualmie Pass, 11 miles farther north. A short distance beyond Easton the railway enters the great mass of andesitic lava flows and tuffs that in this region make up the great bulk of the Cascade Range.

From a scenic point of view the climb to the pass is not striking, for the traveler sees only rounded mountain slopes thickly covered with timber and the broad valley equally well protected by a tangle of dense vegetation. It is reported that bowlders of granite and similar rocks have been found perched on the mountain sides from 1,200 to 1,700 feet above the bottoms of the valleys. These indicate that at some early stage of the glacial epoch the glaciers were much more extensive than they were at a later stage when the moraines previously described were formed.

One of the most striking features of the valley is the low pass on the right, leading to the upper end of Kachess Lake. This pass has an altitude of about 2,500 feet and doubtless was an outlet for either the drainage of the upper Yakima Valley or that of Kachess Valley, on the east. Its cutting and abandonment are doubtless connected with the trenching of the old valley of the Yakima above Easton, but the conditions which resulted in these changes have not been determined.

This valley, like the two next east, is occupied by a lake (Keechelus Lake) which doubtless had its origin in the erosive action of the glacier that evidently lay for some time in the lake basin and built the moraines around its lower end. Many beautiful views of Keechelus Lake may be obtained, either from the wagon road that follows the eastern bank or from the St. Paul Railway, which overlooks it on the west. (See Pl. XXV, p. 175.)

PLATE XXV.—BEAUTIFUL LAKE KEECHELUS, WASH. The heavy forest covers the mountain slopes down to the water's edge.

After a long climb the railway reaches Martin, the last station on the east side of the range, and a short distance beyond turns sharply to the left and faces the east portal of the Stampede tunnel. At this point there are visible on the right remnants of the old line, which wound up to the top of the mountain before the tunnel was built.

The Stampede tunnel is nearly 2 miles long. So many trains pass through it that great difficulty has been experienced in keeping it free from smoke and gas, but now an enormous fan has been installed at the west end, in a building which the westbound traveler will see on his right as the train emerges from the tunnel. It is expected that this fan will free the tunnel of smoke and gas in a very short time.

Stampede Pass has an elevation above sea level of about 3,600 feet, but the long tunnel enables the railway to cross the range at a much lower level. In order to maintain a regular grade down the west side of the range, the track winds in and out and around spurs in a most confusing manner to one who is endeavoring to keep directions or to see the mountains. From Stampede two lines of rails are visible far below on the left, which seem to belong to another road, but later it appears that they are parts of a large loop which the Northern Pacific is forced to make in order to get down the mountain side.

The mountain slopes are generally smooth and round, and the thick mantle of trees and brush covers all except here and there a lava cliff or an old scar that marks the passage of some forest fire.¹ The outlook is confined generally to the valley of Green River, which the railway descends, but at one place, if the weather is favorable, a fleeting glimpse may be caught of the towering white cone of Mount Rainier. This view may be had on the right while rounding the extreme point of the loop about 2 miles west of Stampede. The mountain is in view only for a moment and then is hidden by the nearer slopes.

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¹The traveler from the train can get only a very imperfect idea of the character of the country, for he is looking at it from a position below the level of the mountain tops and hence can not see its upper surface. Although it is not possible to see much of the Cascade Range, a study of the contours on sheets 26 and 27 will show that the mountain summits on both sides of the railway are at nearly the same elevation, ranging from 4,000 to 6,000 feet above sea level. It will show also that the range is not sharp crested, like those in the vicinity of Helena and Butte, but a broad plateau which has been so cut into by the streams that its originally regular surface has disappeared, leaving only a labyrinth of narrow branching valleys and steep-sided hills.

Sheet 26 also shows the location, about 12 miles south of the Stampede tunnel, of Naches Pass (altitude 4,923 feet) and the old Naches trail, which was the first road to be opened across the Cascade Range north of Columbia River. The early explorers learned of this route from the Indians and utilized it in their wanderings around the headwaters of Yakima River. It was not, however, used to any great extent until the rush of homeseekers about 1850 made it desirable to find a shorter route to the Puget Sound ports than that by way of Fort Vancouver, on Columbia River. Accordingly in 1853 the Naches trail was made passable for wagons, though probably a pretty rough road, and many settlers found their way to the Sound by this route.

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The rocks in the valley of Green River are the same as those seen on the east side. They consist of lava flows and beds of volcanic tuff that have been tilted in various directions. These rocks are known as the Keechelus andesitic series and most of them are of Miocene age. They represent the great floods of lava and fragmental material that were poured out before the Cascades were formed. They now form part of the broad platform upon which the great volcanic cones of Mount Rainier, Mount Adams, and Mount St. Helens are reared.

The train runs down the mountain slope on the left side of Sunday Creek to the junction of that stream with Green River, which comes from the south. At present the road makes a long loop up Green River, but a new line is being constructed that will cut off this loop. The valley of Green River, as well as that of Sunday Creek, is broad and rounded and shows clearly that it has been cleared and modified by a glacier. The development, maximum extension, and retreat of the glaciers of this region are described below by Bailey Willis.¹

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¹Glacial development began in the high mountains. The climate, at one time milder than that now existing, gradually though not continuously increased in severity. As cold seasons grew longer and warm ones shorter, snow banks in the shadows of high peaks increased in volume and drifts accumulated in hollows less protected from the sun. As they grew, the snow banks consolidated to ice, and, flowing downward, became glaciers. Each canyon received an onward-moving ice stream proportionate in size to the tributary area above it. The air was chilled, precipitation increased, and glaciers extended, and thus the effect of climatic change was accelerated. The mountains became mantled with white, except over sharp, wind-swept peaks and ridges. Issuing from the foothills, the glaciers spread and adjacent ones coalesced, forming broad piedmont glaciers. A piedmont glacier (that is, a glacier at the foot of the mountain) is related to the mountain or alpine glaciers which feed it as a lake is related to its tributary streams.

Three great piedmont glaciers met in the Puget Sound basin. One was fed from the Olympic Mountains, on the west; a larger one gathered along the base of the Cascade Range, on the east; the largest flowed south from the area between Vancouver Island and the mainland of British Columbia and poured a great mass of ice westward into the Strait of Juan de Fuca and another into Puget Sound. Tongues of these piedmont glaciers advanced along the valleys until opposing ice streams met and coalesced. Then the ice mass deepened, as water may deepen in a lake. Land divides became peninsulas and isolated hills stood as islands. Hills of the Puget Sound basin were finally submerged, the ice reaching a thickness of 2,500 feet or more in the present site of Admiralty Inlet, the main channel leading to Puget Sound, and the southern extremity of the ice sheet spread beyond Tacoma and Olympia on the south and west.

Finally the glaciers ceased to increase in the mountains and to deepen in the valleys as the climate changed either to milder seasons or to less precipitation, or both, a change due to ultimate causes, which, like those that brought on glaciation, are not understood. Then followed an epoch during which the ice melted earlier and more rapidly in the lowlands, later and lingeringly in the canyons of the ranges. The piedmont glaciers shrunk till they parted, and each mantled the foothills of its parent range. The margins of the glaciers consisted of masses of stagnant ice buried beneath accumulations of gravel, sand, and loam, and hardy vegetation may have flourished in soil upon the ice. Rivers flowed on the glaciers, through tunnels in them, and from beneath them. Ice-bound lakes were formed in embayments of the hills. Changes succeeded one another frequently, and each phase of ice and stream and lake left a meager record of its existence in deposits of detritus.

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