Geological Survey Bulletin 613 Guidebook of the Western United States: Part C. The Santa Fe Route

Southwest of Thatcher the railway passes from the Dakota sandstone across the Graneros shale, the bench of Greenhorn limestone, and the slope of Carlile shale, reaching the summit of the plateau of Timpas limestone a short distance beyond Simpson siding. (See sheet 10, p. 62.) The smooth surface of this plateau extends for 10 miles or more southwestward along the railway, rising gradually. From its summit are visible far to the west the Spanish Peaks (Pl. VII, A), two symmetrical cones rising in front of the main range of the Rocky Mountains, which are conspicuous in the background. During much of the year the higher summits of all these peaks and mountains show considerable snow.

SHEET No. 10 (click on image for an enlargement in a new window)

PLATE VII.—A (top), WEST SPANISH PEAK, COLO., FROM THE NORTHEAST. Dikes of igneous rock in foreground. Flat-lying Tertiary rocks in middle slope of the mountain. B (bottom), DIKE OF IGNEOUS ROCK FORMING NARROW WALL, SPANISH PEAKS, COLO.

The Spanish Peaks consist of large masses of igneous rocks which were intruded in molten condition into the sandstones and shales at the foot of the Rocky Mountains. (See fig. 8, p. 54.). The east peak is 12,708 feet high and the west peak 13,623 feet. They were called Wahatoya by the Indians and Los Dos Hermanos (the two brothers) by the Spanish. It is to be regretted that the distinctive Indian name has not been retained, especially as there are other Spanish Peaks in the West. A remarkable feature of this intrusion is the large number of narrow dikes of the igneous rocks, mostly branching from the large masses through cracks in the sedimentary strata and extending out in every direction for many miles from the foot of the peaks. Owing to their hardness they stand above the surface as narrow walls in many places. One of these is shown in Plate VII, B. The sandstones and shales adjoining the larger igneous masses are baked and otherwise altered by the heat of the intrusion and are considerably upturned.

FIGURE 8—Section through Spanish Peaks, west of Tyrone, Colo., looking north. Underground relations largely hypothetical.

Half a mile north of Tyrone a granite marker just east of the track indicates the location of the old Santa Fe Trail. Behind the Spanish Peaks rise the main Rocky Mountains, here called Sangre de Cristo Range (sahn'gray day cris'to, Spanish for blood of Christ). Fishers Peak, east of Trinidad, is also visible from the plateau about Tyrone, but is almost straight ahead of the line of railway. Five miles beyond Tyrone the train enters a wide area of shale (Apishapa) lying nearly level and extending to Hoehne siding. The shale includes limy layers, some of them of light color and many of them weathering to a light-yellow tint. One of the best exposures is in a ditch north of the track, near milepost 620, where the unweathered shale is black. The water of this ditch is brought from Purgatoire River, some distance to the southwest, and serves to irrigate a small area about the new village of Poso, which is at milepost 615.

Beyond Earl the route crosses a low ridge of Apishapa shale and thence southwestward descends into the valley of Purgatoire River, the west side of which is followed to Trinidad. This stream, which was passed farther east at Las Animas, brings considerable water from the mountains west of Trinidad and is especially subject to freshets, some of which cause great damage along the lower part of the valley. The greatest known flood, in 1904, had a volume of 45,000 second-feet. In 1912 nearly 36,000 acres of land was irrigated by water from this stream, most of it in the region between Trinidad and Las Animas.

At Hoehne a broad area of the Pierre shale¹ is entered. It extends to the base of the cliffs of Trinidad sandstone, 10 to 15 miles west and south of Hoehne. A short distance beyond milepost 627 is a narrow dike of igneous rock, probably an extension of one of those connected with the intrusion of the igneous mass in the Spanish Peaks. On account of the hardness of the rock, this dike makes a low but conspicuous ridge a short distance west of the railway.

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¹The Pierre shale is about 1,200 feet thick. It consists of a remarkably uniform succession of thin layers of compact dark-gray to black clay, representing a large part of the later Cretaceous succession in a wide area of the central Great Plains. It was deposited while this broad area continued to be occupied by the sea, the limy sediments of the Apishapa being succeeded by the almost pure clay of which the Pierre shale consists. As the material was a sediment from muddy waters, it was undoubtedly deposited slowly, and therefore a long time was required for the accumulation of so thick a body of it. Its marine origin is indicated by numerous remains of shells of many kinds which lived only in sea water. The Pierre shale is not well exposed along the Santa Fe route, for, owing to its softness, it has been washed down into gentle slopes, mostly covered with sod.

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At Elmoro are extensive ovens in which the coal of the Trinidad field is made into coke,² for use in blast furnaces and smelters. Many Mexicans reside in the vicinity of Elmoro and Trinidad. Some of them belong to the order of "Penitentes," who from intense religious zeal suffer flagellation and other forms of bodily punishment, even to crucifixion. Many Mexicans in southern and central New Mexico belong to this order.

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²Coke is the product obtained by the distillation or partial combustion of certain grades of bituminous coal in retorts, or ovens, at high temperatures. When the process is one of partial combustion, as in ovens, it is accomplished by the admission of a limited supply of air into the combustion chamber, the oxygen thus supplied being sufficient for the combustion of the volatile matter in the coal only. In retorts the heat is applied through flues on the outside of the retort by the combustion of the gases distilled from the coal. By either process the coal is changed into the cellular, silvery product known as "coke." In the Trinidad region the former method is the only one employed.

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Trinidad is a railway division point where all trains stop, some of them for meals at the Hotel Cárdenas (car'day-nas), built in the mission style. The hotel is named in honor of Garcia López de Cárdenas, who accompanied Coronado's expedition and was sent by him to find the great river of which the Indians spoke. This was the Colorado in the Grand Canyon, and Cárdenas was the first white man to see it.

Trinidad owes much of its importance to the coal mining in the surrounding hills. It is also a railway center, and there are many ranches in the adjoining region which bring considerable trade. It is the terminus of a branch of the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad and is on the line of the Colorado & Southern Railroad from Denver to Texas.

At Trinidad the plains give place to the high, rugged foothills of the Rocky Mountains. This change is due to the fact that here the Pierre shale is overlain by the Trinidad sandstone, which is surmounted by 2,000 feet of shales and sandstones that are resistant to erosion. The shales and sandstones above the Trinidad sandstone contain valuable deposits of coal. These coal-bearing rocks extend along the foot of the mountains for many miles in southern Colorado and southward for some distance in New Mexico. They are nearly horizontal in the vicinity of Trinidad. The prominent mountain mass southeast of Trinidad consists of coal measures and overlying strata capped by a thick sheet of black lava (basalt), constituting an extensive plateau with nearly flat top, known as Raton Mesa. One spur of this mesa projecting northward for some distance is named Fishers Peak after a German artillery officer who commanded a battery in the Army of the West that camped at its foot in 1846.

Its altitude is 9,586 feet, or more than 3,600 feet higher than Trinidad, so that it is a conspicuous object for many miles north and east. It is shown in Plate VIII. The mesa or plateau, which extends south from this peak, has a relatively level top about 20 square miles in area and is the remnant of a widespread lava flow that was poured out over the surface prior to the excavation of the valleys that are now so far below the mesa level. A portion of the same mesa, extending far to the southeastward at nearly the same altitude (8,511 feet), is known as Bartlett Mesa. A section from Trinidad southeastward to Fishers Peak and through Raton Mesa is given in figure 9. It is evident that many years have elapsed since the outflow of the lava sheet capping these mesas, because an enormous mass of material has been removed from the surrounding country, especially in the lower region to the north and east. However, the lava is geologically of relatively recent age, being considerably later than the middle of Tertiary time.

FIGURE 9.—Section through Trinidad, Colo., showing relations of rocks, looking southwest. a, Vermejo formation with coal bed; b, Trinidad sandstone.

PLATE VIII.—FISHERS PEAK, NEAR TRINIDAD, COLO. View eastward. The peak and mesa, a projection of Raton Mesa, consist of a thick bed of lava which lies on nearly horizontal beds of coal measures of the Raton formation. Santa Fe Railway in shale valley in foreground.

In the western part of Trinidad is a high ridge known as Simpsons Rest. Upon it stands an obelisk marking the grave of George Simpson, a noted mountaineer and trapper.

There are numerous coal mines in all the high hills adjoining Trinidad. The principal centers are at Gray Creek and Engleville, to the east; Starkville, Sopris, Cokedale, and Primero, to the southwest; and Berwin, Hastings, Delagua, and other camps, to the north. The coal field occupies a long, narrow basin of about 2,000 square miles along the foot of the Rocky Mountains. This region contains the largest and best deposits of bituminous coal west of Missouri River.¹

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¹The coal-bearing rocks occur in two formations. The lower one, known as the Vermejo formation, is generally from 200 to 400 feet thick, and the upper one, the Raton formation, is nearly 2,000 feet thick. Both formations contain large numbers of the remains of plants, those of the Vermejo being of Cretaceous age and those of the Raton of Tertiary age. There was an interval of time between the deposition of the Vermejo and that of the Raton, with slight uplift and considerable erosion, during which the lower coal was removed over a considerable area.

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The most extensive coal bed lies just above the Trinidad sandstone, which crops out prominently in the bluffs about Trinidad. This coal averages 6 feet in thickness but varies from place to place. In some localities there are several other beds within a short vertical distance. Most of the coal is of high rank and cokes satisfactorily. The coke is shipped to the smelters at Pueblo and to other places. Here and there in this coal field igneous rocks have been injected between the beds, and where coal is near by it has been altered to "natural coke." The yearly output from the general Trinidad region is given at about 6,000,000 tons of coal and 1,000,000 tons of coke. Numerous coal beds also occur at intervals in the rocks above the Trinidad sandstone, but they appear to be less widespread than the lower coal beds. The coal in this field was discovered in 1851 by the exploring expedition under Stephen H. Long, but it was not developed extensively until the Santa Fe Railway was built through and coal was required for use in the locomotives. This region was the scene of the long strike of coal miners in 1914, when serious conflicts occurred between the strikers and the State troops and strike breakers.

At Trinidad two extra locomotives, a helper and a pusher, are attached to the heavier trains to haul them up the steep grade to the Raton Pass, 10 miles south of Trinidad. The rise is 1,636 feet and the maximum grade 3-1/2 per cent. The valley of the Purgatoire is followed for the first 2 miles to Jansen, where the line turns up the valley of North Raton Creek to begin the mountain climb. To the east, south, and west are cliffs or steep slopes (see Pl. IX) and a few miles to the southeast is Fishers Peak. In the valley occur scattered outcrops of the black upper shales of the Pierre formation, surmounted by cliffs of the massive gray Trinidad sandstone, about 100 feet thick, which underlies the coal measures. About 1-1/4 miles west of Jansen this sandstone crosses the valley, causing a cascade in the creek just east of the railway. A mile farther along the sandstone is quarried on the east side of the track.

PLATE IX.—WALL OF DAKOTA SANDSTONE WEST OF TRINIDAD, COLO. Outcropping edge of sandstone upturned on east slope of Rocky Mountain uplift. Soft overlying shales to the left of the ridge and red beds to the right.

There are coal mines at intervals in the slopes, especially to the south, in the vicinity of Starkville, where there are several large mines and numerous coke ovens. The principal mine here is one of the largest and oldest in the field. The main opening is in a gulch east of the railway and the mine entries extend eastward under the slopes of Fishers Peak, emerging at Engleville, on the north side of the mountain, 3-1/2 miles to the northeast. The coal has been removed from a large area beneath the mountain. The coke ovens on the east (left) side of the railway present a brilliant spectacle at night, for usually 30 or 40 of them are in operation. At a point a mile beyond Starkville there is a specially good view of Fishers Peak, the summit of which is about 3 miles east of the railway. Half a mile farther south the northern boundary of the Maxwell land grant, originally the Beaubien and Miranda grant,¹ is passed. This boundary line is marked by a sign east of the railway.

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¹This grant was one of the many large concessions made by the Spanish Government to some of the early settlers in what are now New Mexico and southern Colorado. In the treaty with Mexico it was provided that the United States should recognize these grants, but as the boundaries were loosely defined and in some grants were misrepresented by claimants, there have been many contests over them. The question of the validity of this grant was in the courts for many years, but title was finally established. It includes about 1,750,000 acres, lying mostly in New Mexico, and it extends for 62 miles along the Santa Fe Railway. The grant came to Maxwell through his wife, the daughter of Beaubien, one of the original holders. Maxwell was a famous figure in the annals of the Southwest. For a while he was a trapper, but later as a scout with Frémont and others he was the hero of daring episodes. He will perhaps be remembered longest as the host of "Maxwell's ranch," at Cimarron, where he lived in considerable luxury and entertained many of the passers-by on the Santa Fe Trail.

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As the train climbs the slope toward Raton Pass, the landscape changes greatly, for the high slopes present sandstone cliffs and clumps of pines grow along many of the ledges. Some of the cliffs are more than 100 feet high, notably in the vicinity of Gallinas siding.

At Morley a slight upward arching of the beds brings the top of the Trinidad sandstone and also the Pierre shale to view in the bottom of the valley, and the coal bed in the overlying Vermejo formation appears at the surface. There is one large mine just east of the railway. The coal bed crops out a short distance beyond, on the west side of the tracks, and also in the south portal of the tunnel just beyond Wootton siding. Other higher beds crop out at intervals in the next 2 miles.

The rocks a few hundred feet north of Wootton have yielded large numbers of fossil plants including remains of magnolias and palms. These indicate that when the formation was laid down the land surfaces which existed from time to time were covered by a semitropical vegetation very different from the pines, junipers, oaks, and other northern species which grow on the hillsides of this region to-day.

At Wootton was the home of "Uncle Dick" Wootton, one of the famous scouts of the early days when emigrants were passing through the country and Indians were a source of great danger. The Raton Mountains were also a favorite hold-up place for highwaymen. Wootton was an associate of Kit Carson, and guided some of the military exploring parties. The portion of the wagon road passing over the Raton Pass was constructed by Wootton under charter from the legislatures of Colorado and New Mexico, and for many years he collected toll from those who traveled over it. Originally there was only a mountain trail through the pass, and considerable labor and expense were required to fit it for the passage of heavy wagons. In the ascent on the north side of the pass it crossed Raton Creek 53 times. In 1846, when Gen. Kearney and the Army of the West crossed these mountains on the way to take Santa Fe, it was necessary to draw the wagons up and let them down by ropes. The soldiers at this time were on half and third rations. The remains of Wootton's substantial adobe house, built somewhat like a southern plantation home, are visible on the wagon road west of the track. A short distance beyond Wootton the train crosses the State line between Colorado and New Mexico. It was the intention that this line should follow the thirty-seventh parallel of latitude, but late surveys have shown that the line located on the ground was somewhat south of that parallel.

New Mexico is one of our newest States, having been admitted to the Union January 6, 1912. It is less developed along industrial lines than its neighbors to the east and north. The main line of the Santa Fe Railway runs though it for 430 miles. The area of the State is 122,634 square miles, or slightly more than that of Colorado. It includes the south end of the Rocky Mountains and many outlying ranges of that system, together with wide plateau areas, in large part higher than 5,000 feet above sea level. Part of it was included in the Republic of Texas and part in Mexico. It was organized as a separate Territory of the United States in 1850, and its area was reduced to its present limits in 1863. In 1910 its population was 327,301, and the density of population was 2.7 to the square mile, having more than doubled since 1890. More than half the population are Mexicans, a people consisting partly of descendants of Mexican settlers of long ago and partly of descendants of local Indians with whom the Mexicans and others have intermarried. Spanish is the language of a large proportion of the population, and in many sections it greatly preponderates over English. A large number of Indians live in the several reservations in the State.

Of the 78,485,760 acres of New Mexico, nearly half is public land, 14,000,000 acres State land, 12,000,000 acres in ranches, 12,000,000 acres in private grants and Indian reservations, and 9,000,000 acres in national forests. Somewhat less than 2,000,000 acres is cultivated, and less than 600,000 acres is irrigated. Of the irrigated area 200,000 acres belongs to individuals or partnerships, 50,000 acres to commercial organizations, 300,000 acres to cooperative or community organizations, and 30,000 acres to Indians. The remainder is irrigated under Government reclamation, and the area so served will be considerably increased when the lands below the Elephant Butte Dam are utilized.

Probably the principal mineral resource of New Mexico is coal, which occurs in the large fields west of Raton, near Cerrillos about Gallup, and in several minor areas. There are also mines of gold, copper, silver, lead, zinc, and a great variety of other minerals, clays, and building stones. The State contains also abundant supplies of underground water.

New Mexico contains many ruins of settlements of aborigines, some of them of great antiquity. There were large villages at many places long before the coming of the Spaniards, and irrigation was extensively practiced.

Just beyond the State line the train enters a tunnel half a mile long which extends under Raton Pass, at an altitude of 7,608 feet. For 30 years there was only one tunnel at this place, but a few years ago a second one was built. This pass is on the divide between the drainage basins of Arkansas River on the north and Canadian River on the south. The old Santa Fe Trail passed up the same canyon as the one followed by the railway and crossed through Raton Pass on the way south.

The mountain which is crossed at Raton Pass is not part of the main range of the Rocky Mountains, but is a lateral spur which extends eastward for 30 miles. Its height is due largely to the thick cap of lava which covers the high mesas east of the railway. This rock is so hard that it has resisted erosion and so maintained the high ridge. Doubtless the lava-covered mesa was originally much more extensive than it is at present, for the removal of the underlying sandstone and shales undermines the lava sheet, large blocks of which occasionally fall from the cliffs to the talus slopes below. The high mesa disappears about 35 miles east of Raton Pass, and the question is often asked, "Why doesn't the railway build around this high summit rather than go over it?" The principal reason is that the line was built to Trinidad to get the local coal, which does not extend far east of that place, and from Trinidad there is no feasible course other than that across the mountain. Another line is being built farther south, leaving the main line at Dodge, Kans., and 180 miles farther south is the Belen cut-off.

As the train emerges from the south portal of the Raton tunnel an extensive vista is presented. To the east stands the lava-capped Bartlett Mesa, and farther south are rolling plains lying far below the point of view and extending to the horizon. Toward the west is a mesa made up of the coal-bearing rocks, behind which rise the high peaks of the Culebra (coo-lay'bra) Range, a portion of the Rocky Mountains, with many lofty summits on which snow remains the greater part of the year. In the downgrade south to Raton the train passes rapidly across the coal-bearing rocks, then through a short gorge in the Trinidad sandstone, and finally out into the plain of Pierre shale on which the town of Raton is located. Good views of the lava-capped Bartlett Mesa to the east are presented at mileposts 654 and 655, the latter showing the great blocks of lava lying in a talus at the foot of the cliffs. Near milepost 654 there is an outcrop of coal on the east side of the track.

A short distance beyond milepost 658 the Pierre shale appears under a prominent cliff of the heavy Trinidad sandstone extending far to the east as well as to the southwest. Near milepost 659 there are extensive exposures of the Pierre shale west of the track, a fine view of Bartlett Mesa to the northeast, and a more distant view of the extensive Johnson Mesa, capped by lava, to the east.

Raton, the county seat of Colfax County, N. Mex., is the center of the mining industry of the coal field on the south side of the Raton Mountains, although no large mines are located in the immediate vicinity. There are several other industries in the region, especially stock raising and the production of wool. In the southern edge of the town brick and other clay products are manufactured from the Pierre shale. The Santa Fe Trail passed through Raton, then known as Willow Springs. The name Raton (Spanish pronunciation rah-tone', locally pronounced rat-toon') is Spanish for mouse. Goat Hill, which rises precipitously in the western edge of Raton, consists of Trinidad sandstone. About 6 miles due east is Johnson Mesa, a lava-capped table-land that rises to an altitude of about 8,000 feet and is similar to the Raton Mesa in structure. It is occupied by many ranches, for, owing to the high altitude, there is more rain and snow on this mesa than in the adjoining lowlands, and good crops are usually obtained.

Branch railways connect Raton with Yankee and Sugarite, two mining towns to the east, where coal is mined from beds lying a short distance above the top of the Trinidad sandstone. The mines of Colfax County produce about three-fourths of the coal output of New Mexico, which amounts to more than 3,700,000 tons a year, valued at nearly $5,000,000. The St. Louis, Rocky Mountain & Pacific Railway, a part of the Santa Fe system, has a branch running to Raton from Clifton House, a few miles to the south, parallel to the Santa Fe main line.