Pre-Cambrian Geology of the Medicine Bow Mountains

Abstract

Introduction The Medicine Bow Mountains lie south of the Union Pacific Railroad and about 40 miles west of the city of Laramie, in southeastern Wyoming. They extend southward into Colorado. A short alpine ridge, known as the Snowy Range, rising to an elevation of 12,000 feet, surmounts a broad plateau which varies from 9,000 to 10,000 feet in elevation and is intrenched by canyons. The plateau, partly margined by fault-line scarps, is nearly surrounded by a broad, terraced plain that has been eroded from outcrops of Cretaceous shales by streams and wind. In spite of its ready accessibility, this interesting range has been strangely neglected by geologists until the last decade. In 1868 Hague 2 made a reconnaissance, noted the general character and distribution of the rocks, and offered a tentative interpretation of the internal structure. Van Hise 3 crossed the range on horseback in three days in 1889 and thereby added . . .