Geological Survey Bulletin 612 Guidebook of the Western United States: Part B

Wyoming is a State of large resources, whose development has only begun. Within its 97,594 square miles lie the most extensive coal fields and the most productive known oil fields of the Rocky Mountain region, thousands of acres of irrigated and dry-farming lands, and extensive areas of splendid stock range; moreover, some of the finest hunting and fishing in the United States can be found within its borders. Although the precipitation averages only 12-1/2 inches a year, the many irrigated areas are highly productive, and the success which dry farming has here and there attained seems to indicate that a still larger area may be brought under that kind of cultivation. An index of the crops that may be raised is the fact that irrigated oats running 45 pounds to the bushel are by no means uncommon. (The average weight of a bushel of oats is 32 pounds.) The value of the State's agricultural crops for 1914 is roughly estimated by the Department of Agriculture at $22,000,000.

Noted in the early days as the range of the "cattle king," Wyoming has in recent years become even better known as the home of the "sheep baron." It has attained first rank among the United States in the sheep industry, the number of sheep in the State on January 1, 1915, being estimated by the Department of Agriculture at 4,427,000, valued at $20,807,000. It should not be understood, however, that the cattle industry has vanished, for the State still ranks high as a cattle producer.

Among the mineral products of the State coal is preeminent. Its coal fields cover about 41,500 square miles (42 per cent of the State's area), and contained originally about 670,723,100,000 tons. Of this quantity only 178,000,000 tons (about one-fortieth of 1 per cent) has been exhausted, so that there remains in the ground the enormous amount of 670,545,100,000 tons. The production in 1913 was 7,393,066 tons, valued at $11,510,045.

The second in value of production among the mineral resources is oil, of which 2,406,522 barrels, valued at $1,187,232, was produced in 1913. The production in 1914 amounted to about 4,600,000 barrels, equal to more than 60 per cent of the production of Pennsylvania for the same year, and places Wyoming, whose oil fields are newly discovered and only partly developed, in the ninth place among the oil-producing States of the Union.

Other minerals, including gold, copper, iron, gypsum, limestone, sandstone, marble, brick clay, and mineral waters, brought the value of the State's mineral production in 1913 up to $13,682,091. Among the undeveloped resources are bituminous shale, volcanic ash, graphite, asphaltum, manganese ores, bentonite, tin, salt, bismuth, and, perhaps most important, phosphate rock, on which the future of American agriculture may largely depend. It is estimated that more than 1,250,000 acres in Wyoming are underlain by workable phosphate deposits, a phosphate area greater than that of any other State.

Finally, the scenic resources of Wyoming must not be forgotten, the grandeur of the Bighorn and Wind River mountains and the Tetons being excelled only by the wonders of Yellowstone Park. Thus the State of Wyoming is of interest in its agriculture, stock growing, mining, hunting, fishing, and natural beauty.

The town of Pine Bluffs takes its name from the prominent bluffs of "mortar beds" near by, on which grow a few stunted pine trees. A tree is so rare on these sun-parched plains that these pines seem to have been thought worthy of commemoration in naming the ridge. The bluffs may be seen for a long distance north and south of the road and mark the western edge of the Ogalalla formation.

The Arikaree formation¹ underlies the Ogalalla formation near Pine Bluffs and extends thence westward to Granite Canyon, a distance of 62 miles. It consists mainly of sand loosely cemented into a soft sandstone that contains limestone concretions. These are due to the growth of calcite crystals and usually occur in layers connected to form irregular sheets.

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¹The Arikaree formation underlies a large part of western Nebraska and eastern Wyoming and is widely distributed in neighboring regions. These deposits appear to have been spread out by streams over the low-lying plains. No place in North America now exhibits the physical conditions supposed to have existed in Nebraska and Wyoming when these sediments were being deposited, but similar conditions have been reported as prevailing now in central South America, where every year a plain of some 60,000 square miles is converted during the rainy season into a labyrinth of lakes, ponds, swamps, channels, and islands. On these islands the animals gather and great numbers of them perish. Large quantities of fossil bones are found in small areas in the White River beds. These areas have been called "fossil graveyards" and are supposed to represent "concentration camps" of Tertiary time similar to the isles of refuge of the present day in South America.

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Between Pine Bluffs and Hillsdale are the stations Tracy, Egbert, and Burns.

Near Hillsdale station the traveler gets his first glimpse of the Rocky Mountains. To the west may be seen the dark summits of the Laramie Range—formerly called the Black Hills—and farther south, 60 miles away, is visible in ordinarily clear weather the snow-covered top of Longs Peak (altitude 14,255 feet) and other high mountains of the Front Range of the Rockies.

Durham and Archer are stations between Hillsdale and Cheyenne.