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

Spearville and Wright (see sheet 6, p. 40) are on the plain, which reaches an altitude of 2,570 feet in the summit a short distance west of Wright. Beyond this point there is a downgrade into the valley of the Arkansas, and the train passes through extensive cuts, beginning near milepost 347. Brown loams and fine sands of Tertiary age are exposed in these cuts, in some places to a depth of 10 feet. South of the railway, at a point half a mile beyond milepost 349, there are scattered exposures of a bed of white limestone a few feet thick, which underlies the Tertiary deposits in a wide area in this vicinity. The river deposits in the valley of the Arkansas abut against the lower portion of this limestone at milepost 349 and for some distance west.¹

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¹In the descent into Duck Creek, a branch of Sawlog Creek, 7 miles northeast of Dodge, there are very instructive exposures of this basal limestone, 10 to 15 feet thick, pebbly at the base, lying on 20 feet of Greenhorn limestone. The two (b, c in fig. 5) form a white cliff that rims the valley to the north. The Greenhorn limestone includes beds of chalky limestone as much as 6 inches thick, and some layers of it are filled with impressions of a fossil shell (Inoceramus labiatus) characteristic of this formation. The relations of the rocks here are shown in figure 5.

FIGURE 5.—Section of rocks in Sawlog Valley, northeast of Dodge, Kans.

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SHEET No. 6 (click on image for an enlargement in a new window)

In approaching Dodge the railway again comes near the Arkansas River, the north bank of which is followed from Dodge westward. The wide bottom lands near the river are occupied by fields of grain and orchards. In this vicinity Coronado in 1541 reached this river, which he called the River of St. Peter and St. Paul. On the river, 5 miles east of Dodge, is old Fort Dodge, now a soldiers' home, but formerly an important frontier garrison on the Santa Fe Trail. Some of the old buildings remaining were headquarters of Gen. Custer and Gen. Miles in the days when Col. W. F. Cody (Buffalo Bill) and other famous scouts were aiding the United States Army to protect travelers and to subdue the Indians. The Indians were troublesome in this part of the West for some years after the Civil War was over, and there were massacres in western Kansas as late as 1874.

Dodge, formerly known as Dodge City, was named for Gen. Henry Dodge, governor of Wisconsin Territory. It is now a commercial center for a wide adjacent region containing numerous farms and cattle ranches. This was a famous frontier town, the center of important lines of freighting, and headquarters of the cattle business, which attained its maximum in 1884, when herds aggregating 800,000 cattle, in charge of 3,000 men, passed through Dodge from Texas on the way north. Much hunting was done in this region, for there were immense herds of buffaloes² and other game throughout central Kansas. (See P1. IV, B, p. 28.)

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²Large circular pits, called buffalo wallows, are common on the plains and are puzzling to the average traveler. They were started by buffaloes either in wet spots or at places where there is salt or alkali, which the animals lick. The tramping of the hoofs of the heavy animals wears the sod thin, and then the wind soon blows out a cavity, or if water collects in it the mud is carried out in large amounts in the shaggy coats of the buffaloes, who delight to wade or roll in a water hole. For years during the decline of the buffaloes, and after they had gone, their bones were a source of revenue for many persons, who collected them on the prairie and shipped them east to manufacturers of fertilizers. At some stations near Dodge the shipments averaged a carload a day in 1875. Gen. Sheridan estimated that originally the buffaloes between Fort Dodge and Camp Supply, in northwestern Oklahoma, aggregated 100,000,000 head, and in many of the great hunts some parties killed as many as 250 a day. After the Santa Fe Railway reached Dodge over 200,000 buffalo hides, 200 cars of hindquarters, and 2 cars of buffalo tongues were shipped the first winter. Buffaloes were so numerous even after the railway had been built, that when they were crossing the track trains had to wait many hours until the herd had passed. Their slaughter by the whites was a cause of bitter dissatisfaction to the Indians and occasioned many conflicts. Their practical extermination was effected in about 20 years. Many were shot wantonly by passengers on the trains, and thousands were hunted for the sake of boasting of a great kill. Usually the white hunter took only the hide or a small part of the meat (hump or tongue), while the Indian utilized every part, including the intestines. The Indians despised the white man's methods, for the Indians killed by hunting on horseback with arrows or long spears, so that the number slain was small and probably never in excess of the natural increase. The Indians knew that when the buffaloes were gone their most important resource for food and clothing would cease to be available. The last buffalo in Kansas is said to have been sold at Kingman in 1888.

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Just across the river from Dodge was, until 1835, the northeast corner of Mexico, and between 1835 and 1845 the corner of the Republic of Texas, the boundary of which extended from that point along the south side of Arkansas River to the Rocky Mountains. An account of the famous frontier characters formerly known around Dodge is out of place here, but they figure in many narratives and romances of earlier days, when it was widely known as the "wickedest town in the country." Now it is a model of peacefulness and tranquillity.

Change is made here from Central time to Mountain time, one hour earlier.

A short distance northwest of the station at Dodge are low cliffs of coarse sandstone and conglomerate of an older river channel of Tertiary age, lying on fine buff loam which extends down to the valley level. The formations underlying Dodge have been explored by a boring 1,100 feet deep which yielded nothing of value except some water from the Dakota sandstone that did not have pressure sufficient to flow.

From Dodge westward to La Junta, Colo., the Santa Fe Railway follows the Arkansas Valley, continuing along the north side of the river, in most places within a mile of it. A branch line crosses the river there and goes southwestward to Elkhart, near the Oklahoma State line. The Arkansas Valley in this vicinity is from 2 to 3 miles wide in greater part and is bordered by moderately steep slopes or bluffs on the north side of the river and by a wide zone of sand hills on the south side. For many miles the surface is made up of sand and loose sandstone or conglomerate of Tertiary age. The valley has been cut by the river to a depth of 250 feet below the adjoining great plateau, but it is partly filled with about 100 feet of sand and clay (alluvium) deposited by the stream, and these materials are still in course of deposition. In places the valley is cut through the Tertiary deposits into underlying shale and limestone of Upper Cretaceous age, but these do not appear at the surface until they rise in the valley slopes near Hartland. In ascending the valley the railway skirts slopes that rise 100 feet or more above the river flat to a plain of remarkable smoothness which ascends gradually westward at about the same rate as the upgrade of the valley. In these slopes are widely scattered outcrops of the Tertiary deposits—loam and sand with interbedded hard layers of coarse sandstone or conglomerate of gray color or of white "grit" consisting of sand and gravel cemented with calcium carbonate.

At a point halfway between mileposts 358 and 359, 6 miles west of Dodge, a small exposure of conglomerate is visible from the train. A granite marker at this place indicates the former course of the Santa Fe Trail, which extended up the north or American bank of the river very near the course of the present railway line from Dodge to Bents Fort, Colo.

Several small ledges of conglomerate appear for a short distance on the north side of the track at Howell and again just beyond milepost 363, a mile and a half west of Howell. At milepost 365 the sand hills on the south side of the valley are visible, and they extend almost continuously along that side of the river into Colorado.

In places high on the slopes to the north may be seen an irrigation canal intended to carry water from the river to the high plain north of Dodge and thence to Wright and Spearville. The intake of this canal is a short distance west of Ingalls, and by following a grade somewhat less than that of the fall of the river, the canal finally reaches the level of the plains at a point 3 miles northwest of Dodge. The Arkansas is a stream of large annual flow, but as much of its water is carried at times of freshet and as the volume at other times is exceedingly variable, there is often considerable difficulty in maintaining a regular supply in the canal during the growing season. In the future, no doubt, the freshet waters of this river, as well as of most other large streams in the United States, will not be allowed to escape but will be held in suitable storage reservoirs to maintain a flow.

It will be noted that west of Dodge the valley contains fewer trees than it does to the east and that still farther west in the region of more arid climate the trees along the valley diminish greatly in number. There are also fewer cultivated fields, although some alfalfa and wheat are grown. Pastures are much more extensive, for the raising of cattle increases in importance as the cultivation of the land becomes more difficult.

The village of Cimarron (sim-ar-rohn') derived its name which is Spanish for wild or unruly, from Cimarron Crossing, a ford some distance to the west, where the short cut or Cimarron branch of the Santa Fe Trail crossed Arkansas River. This branch passed through the sand hills, crossed the plains to Cimarron River, and went southwest to Wagon Mound and Fort Union. Cimarron was an important place in the time of the Santa Fe Trail. In the early days it was headquarters for many hunters, for buffaloes and other plains game were especially abundant in this vicinity. Later it was an important cattle center, but in recent years agriculture by dry farming and irrigation has become the principal industry, although there are still many cattle in the region. A large amount of wheat is raised, but the climate is too arid to assure good crops every year without the aid of irrigation.

At points 2 and 3 miles west of Cimarron the railway is on the river bank and passes through cuts showing buff loams of the deposits of Tertiary age that form the Great Plains.

A mile west of Ingalls are railway cuts exposing hard layers of conglomerate, which also crop out in banks extending down to the river. This conglomerate consists of sand and gravel that have been cemented by calcium carbonate, which was in solution in waters percolating through the deposits. It marks the course of river channels that crossed the region in late Tertiary time and deposited the materials of the Great Plains. There are other exposures of this conglomerate at intervals farther west nearly to Garden City.

A prominent ledge of this rock that crops out close to the railway 2 miles west of Pierceville is known as Point of Rocks. At this place there were several Indian fights..