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

Just beyond Buffalo the traveler can obtain on the left the first extended view across the prairies and lowlands of the valley of Sheyenne River. This broad stretch of country is well farmed, and the fields of grain are a sure indication of its prosperity.

SHEET 5. (click on image for an enlargement in a new window)

Near Tower City (see sheet 5, p. 44) the railway is located in a broad flat that is only imperfectly drained by the headwaters of Maple River, as described on page 43; and then begins the long, steady ascent to the summit of Alta Ridge, which can be seen in the distance from Oriska. This ridge, one of the most pronounced topographic features that will be seen between the Red River valley and Missouri River, is capped by drift which represents the Fergus Falls moraine. Its summit, which is crossed by the railway near milepost 59, attains an altitude of 1,454 feet, or 528 feet higher than Fargo on the east and 209 feet higher than Valley City on the west. On the west there is a sharp descent from Alta Ridge down to a broad plain formed by the outwash of material from the glacier when it lay just east of the ridge. It is supposed that at the time the moraine was formed Sheyenne River was flowing at the same level as this plain and that the present valley of that stream had not been cut.

West of Alta Ridge the old line of the railway turned slightly to the south and descended into the valley of Sheyenne River, crossing the stream but little above the general level of the valley bottom. Recently a new "high line" has been carried across the valley on a steel trestle 150 feet high. From this trestle a fine view of Valley City and the river can be had. (See Pl. III, p. 11.) Here the rock underlying the glacial drift is exposed, and it is the first exposure of this kind that can be seen from the train west of the Mississippi Valley. Soft dark shale may be seen in either bluff from the "high line" or in the sides of the coulee² as the train descends by the "low line" to the bottom of the valley. This shale contains fossil shells, which are similar to those of animals living in the ocean of to-day; hence it is believed that it was deposited when this part of the country was beneath the waters of a sea.³

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¹This is the altitude at the old station, which is near river level. The new station is about 150 feet higher.

²The term "coulee" is generally applied throughout the northern tier of States to any steep-sided gulch or water channel and at times even to a stream valley of considerable length. The term was doubtless derived from the French verb couler, signifying to flow. This meaning of "coulee" should not be confused with the geologic meaning of the word, which signifies a solidified stream or sheet of lava.

³During the later half of the Cretaceous period the sea covered what is now the region of the Great Plains and the Rocky Mountains as far west as the Wasatch Range in Utah and extended from the Gulf of Mexico to the Arctic Ocean. The incursion of the sea over this area was due to the relative sinking of the land. As the land sank the waters advanced, and the waves and currents washed and sorted the sediments brought down by the streams. The coarser sand and gravel were left near the shore, but the finer silt was widely distributed over the sea bottom. As the sea gradually deepened and the shore line advanced the silt covered up the sand; the sand was cemented together as sandstone and the silt was compacted into shale. Varying conditions caused more or less commingling and interbedding of sand and silt, so that numerous beds of sandstone and of sandy shale are now encountered in drilling into the ancient deposits. The long duration of the period in which these beds were laid down is indicated by the great thickness of fine sediment which then accumulated.

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At Valley City the Northern Pacific is crossed by the branch of the Soo Line that connects Moose Jaw, on the main line of the Canadian Pacific Railway, with St. Paul.

West of Valley City the surface is more or less irregular and hummocky, but no definite moraine has been recognized along the line of the railway. In this part of North Dakota many of the glacial features are not clear and distinct. It is supposed that this is due to the fact that the older ice sheets had left pronounced features that were only slightly modified by the Wisconsin glacier, and the result to-day is that one system of moraines is superimposed on others having different patterns, the features being therefore very much confused.

In the vicinity of Sanborn there are a number of lakes which can be seen from the train, but they are not so attractive as the lakes of Minnesota, for they are shallow and highly charged with alkali, which in seasons of drought is deposited around their margins as a white powder. This powder is composed largely of such substances as baking soda, washing soda, and other materials having similar properties. The water of these lakes is unsuitable for drinking but is not too strongly alkaline to be used for watering stock. The lakes are generally long and narrow, occupying depressions that resemble stream valleys, but the mode of formation of these depressions has not been determined. At Sanborn a branch line turns to the right, leading northward to Cooperstown and McHenry.

The Waconia moraine, crossed by the Northern Pacific Railway west of Eckelson (see p. 41), constitutes the divide between the Hudson Bay and Mississippi River drainage basins.¹

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¹This divide illustrates the poorly drained character of the glaciated prairies and the delicate balance between the drainage systems. Although Sheyenne and James rivers, the two principal streams of this region, flow in nearly parallel courses for 180 miles, and the relief of the land between them is generally not more than 20 feet, yet the Sheyenne ultimately discharges into Hudson Bay and the James into the Gulf of Mexico. These rivers are very small in proportion to the valleys in which they flow, there being barely sufficient water to maintain them as running streams during the summer season.

The drainage area of the Sheyenne embraces approximately 10,000 square miles, yet the volume of water it discharges into Red River is estimated to be less than that which flows through Valley City, nearly 150 miles upstream. The loss is due to evaporation and absorption as the stream meanders sluggishly over the broad, flat bottom of its valley.

Several broad and deep coulees enter the valley of the Sheyenne from the west, but they are occupied only by intermittent streams, insignificant in size even in times of heavy rain; and the only land that is really drained is that comprised in short, deep gorges which broaden out rapidly toward the Sheyenne as they deploy upon its flood plain.

The drainage basin of James River is much larger than that of the Sheyenne, but a gaging station established by the United States Geological Survey on the James a few miles south of the railway was abandoned because there was not, for a part of the year, sufficient current to turn a water meter.

In periods of heavy rains and melting snows a system of ancient channels is occupied by Maple River and its tributaries; but although these constitute the drainage system for an area of more than 1,000 square miles, ordinarily the run-off is insufficient to maintain a permanent stream.

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Between the Waconia moraine and Spiritwood there are no marked features. From Spiritwood westward for a distance of 48 miles no distinctly morainic ridges are visible from the train, but it is believed that the various ridges constituting the Antelope moraine are present in this region, for they have been identified in the country north and south of the railway.

Jamestown is a district terminal, and here a branch turns to the right to Pingree and Devils Lake, and another to the left down the valley of James River to La Moure and Oakes. The country is so thoroughly covered with glacial drift that the underlying rocks are not visible along the railway, but deep drilling for water showed that in general on the upland the drift is merely sufficient to conceal the rocks below, and in some of the larger stream valleys it is more than 100 feet deep. This indicates that the valleys of such streams as James River were in existence before the glacial epoch, that during the occupation of this region by the ice they were deeply filled with glacial material, and that since then the streams have succeeded only in partly clearing them of this material.

A deep well at the North Dakota Insane Hospital, in the southern part of Jamestown, passed through 118 feet of glacial drift, 1,330 feet of Cretaceous shale, and about 200 feet of sandstone that is supposed to be the Dakota sandstone, at the base of the Upper Cretaceous. The top of this sandstone is about at sea level, and rises eastward at the rate of about 8-1/2 feet to the mile.

The chief occupation in the country around Jamestown is agriculture, the crops being wheat, oats, flax, barley, and vegetables.

West of Jamestown the railway follows the valley of Pipestem Creek as far as milepost 94.¹ At this point the main valley followed by the branch road leading to Pingree and Devils Lake comes in from the north, but the main railway line keeps directly ahead up a small ravine and reaches the upland near Berner, about 2 miles farther on. In this ravine there are many cuts, which afford excellent opportunities to study the composition of the drift or till, beneath which in some of the cuts a few feet of Cretaceous shale may be seen. In this vicinity the railway is supposed to cross parts of the Antelope moraine, but nothing resembling a definite ridge is in sight.

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¹The mileposts about Jamestown are confusing, as the last one to be seen as the train enters the yards, nearly a mile east of the depot, is 99, and the one mentioned above, where the branch leaves the main line and turns up Pipestem Creek, is 94. Evidently about 7 miles has been dropped out of the count, but the figures given for each town in the side notes in this bulletin represent the distances from St. Paul that are given in the Northern Pacific Railway folder for 1915.

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