Show coal resources of wasatch plateau in order to obtain information for use in the proper a apportionment p portion ment of government lands into leasing units under tinder the terms of the leasing act of 1920 a party of the united states geological survey under the direction of E ad M spieker made a detailed study last summer of the thickness and distribution of the coal beds and the quality of the coal in the wasatch plateau utah the party included H I 1 smith and G J salmon mining T engineers of the united states bureau of mines who studied the en engineering b 6 problems bearing in on the mining of the coal NV P upton jr G F harley and F av W downey topographic engineers and E M spieker IV IV boyer and R H haseltine b geologists 6 most of this coal field is on the wasatch asarch T plateau between and feet above sea level and between and feet above castle valley to the east the area most thoroughly I 1 h ay studied and in mapped appedu lies in the eastern part of the between wildcat canyon in T 13 S R 8 E and the mouth of huntington canyon in in T 17 S R 7 E the wasatch plateau is for the most part a broad upland whose surface shows smooth gentle tn slopes but whose eastern front is marked by steep sandstone cliffs which rise 1000 to 2000 feet above the adjacent castle valley these cliffs are in places breached by the deep canyons of streams which extend back asfar as far as 35 miles from the front of the cliffs the coal bearing strata which belong to the Mesa verde formation crop out in in a sinuous sinuous line alon along the bold escarpment at elevations ranging 6 b generally from to 1200 feet above the bordering lowland lowlan d the difficulty of bringing 6 the coal down from its outcrop in the steep headlands that mark the outer line of cliffs has generally discouraged development and consequently all the mines along the escarpment are in canyons whose 6 gradient is not very very steep at such places the mining camps of castle gate mohrland hiawatha AVI wattis attis and the towns of spring canyon and pleasant valley have been established but even at these places it has been necessary to construct long and expensive tramways tram ways to reach most of the mines on the east escarpment of the plateau there are few places on the escarpment at which the coal beds outcrop at tipple height on a possible railroad grade but in some of the small canyons tributary to huntington canyon it will be possible to reach the outcrop of the lowest coal by railroad fields development only just begun the development of the field has merely be betin begun tin even some of the older mines such as those at castlegate castle Cast legate ate and clear creek which have been operating for more than thirty years have reserves before them sufficient to exceed their past output and the possibilities of certain undeveloped areas such as huntington canyon are barely suggested by the present output of the field the workable coal beds of the wasatch plateau occur in the Mesa verde formation which is from 1300 to 2000 feet thick and which consists of sandstone shale and coal the lower part of the Mesa verde contains no coal and the examination made last summer showed that it is singularly free from carbonaceous matter of any kind its base is marked by a massive resistant sandstone 50 to feet thick which middle member to feet thick containing the workable coal bed either rests directly upon this sandstone or lies in roughly equal proportions its lower limit is normally marked by a white sandstone from 5 to 60 feet thick an unusually clear and persistent key bed which can be as easily traced as the basal sandstone wherever it is exposed the lowest coal bed either rests directly upon this sandstone or lies a few feet above it the overlying sandstone and shale contain a large number of coal beds some of which maintain workable thickness over considerable areas and at least one of which is commercially valuable nearly everywhere in the field directly above the middle lies the thick cliff making sandstone that forms the castle gate in price river canyon an object whose scenic attraction has long been appreciated I 1 k by tourists structural features of the field throughout most of the field the beds lie very nearly horizontal or dip at low angles in its northern part between castlegate Cast legate and the north fork of gordon creek they dip to the northeast at low angles Z to the west in pleasant valley they dip to the north and northwest in bob wright b cany canyon 0 n 15 miles due west of price they are nearly horizontal to the south in the east escarpment between star point in T 15 13 S R 8 E and the mouth of huntington Z canyon in T 16 S R 8 E they dip southwestward at very low angles and in huntin huntinton huntington ton canyon they dip southward at an angle somewhat less than the 6 gradient of huntington creek in short shor t the northern part of the wasatch plateau coal field is structurally a broad low half balf dome with its center in the northern part of bob wright canyon the rocks in certain parts of the field are much faulted and at some localities the faults affect seriously the disposition and mining of the coal beds all the larger faults were located and measured and it is believed also that practically all the many determinable smaller faults are known they are all of the normal type t pe that is they are breaks in the strata caused by tension or stretching as opposed to thrusting or compression and they involve the simple dropping 6 of the beds on one side of the break with reference to those on the other in the drainage basin of the north fork of gordon creek the faults are somewhat complex one large fault which is is just east of coal canyon in sees 16 and 21 T 13 S R 8 E and which trends very nearly due north brings the coal down from its high elevation in atheridge the ridge east of coal canyon to an easily attainable height in the north fork of gordon creek numerous smaller faults which trend in diverse directions cluster about the major fault so that very detailed geological study of the central and western parts of T 1 13 3 S R 8 E should be made before actual mining is started A few faults 1 occur in the drainage basin of th the e south fork of gordon creek and some have caused displacements of as much as 00 feet or more in the long strip of territory between pleasant valley and the mouth of huntington canyon there are at least three faults that have a displacement of more than 1000 feet as well as a host of smaller ones pleasant valley lies along the most notable northward trending fault by which the beds on the east have dropped at least 1000 feet until the lowest coal led bed is only a few feet above creek level on the east side of the valley at the town of clear creek whereas on the west side it is high up tip in the hills A faulted zone accompanies the major fault throughout the strip mentioned and the adjacent reg region 1111 smaller faults that have the sa sanie me 11 parallel to it is broken by general direction near the mouth of huntington C canyon on is a zone in which minor faults are numerous these faults as a well as all the major faults in the field trend very nearly northward the faults affect mining operations considerably for they break the continuity of the beds and thus they either mak in ake necessary expensive slopes or shafts to reach the coal bey tid or they make it economically impossible to continue t the he mi beyond the fault they are thus of particular consequence undeveloped areas and they have therefore received special consideration by the geologists Z in the work of providing b adequate data for the distribution of the land into leasing units coal is of excellent the coal of this region is of excellent quality and is highly esteemed by the users of western fuels it is hard black and lustrous withstands weathering and transportation well and is otherwise physically well adapted to meet the needs of the trade it has a high calorific value a moderate percentage of ash and a very low percentage b of sulphur the resu results it s of many analyses made by the united states bureau of mines show that it maintains its high hicell b quality th rought 6 the large b areas most of it is a hi highly baly Y satisfactory domestic fuel largely because of its cleanness and perilla permanence nence in lump form and small mines have for many years supplied it to consumers throughout the field many of the large mines now in operation were begun baaun at the sites of old wagon mines the number of beds more than 5 feet thick ran ranges ranes es from one to four in different parts of the field localities in in which there is not at least one bed 5 feet or more thick are exceedingly rare at many places the total number of beds is large a complete section of the coal bearing member in corner canyon in sec 12 T 15 S R 7 E shows twenty coal beds but only five of them are over 2 feet thick and only three are 5 feezor feet or more thick the maximum thickness attained by any known bed i in n this field is 30 feet this huge bed lies at the base of the coal measures in pleasant valley in the immediate vicinity of scofield I 1 where it is mined by the union pacific coal co the lower bed is 28 feet thick at places in the mohrland Al mine of the united states fuel co and in excess of 20 feet are common in the vicinity of hiawatha and mohrland ordinarily however the workable beds range between 6 and 12 feet in thickness the investigations have yielded a large amount of information as to the number extent and thickness of the workable beds of coal their location with reference to surface features their accessibility for mining b and the quantity and character of the available water timber and other supplies needed in the coal mining b industry one of the most valuable results of the work is the topographic map by which the region may be studied and mining operations may be planned with a degree of accuracy not otherwise possible the publication li of all this material and the map will afford the public a larger amount of needful information concerning the field eld than has hitherto been available |