Two more miles takes us to Anticline Overlook for the most sublime views
in this part of the area. To the north (fig. 30) we look across the
northeast flank of the Cane Creek anticline, an upfold of the rocks
(figs. 13, 14). Hurrah Pass straddles the narrow wall separating the
Colorado River and its canyon at the left from Kane Springs Canyon on
the right. The Colorado River appears again in the right background,
where it leaves Moab Valley. The Kings Bottom syncline, or downfold
(fig. 26), seen in the middle distance between the Cane Creek anticline
and the Moab anticline, exposes a wide area of the Navajo Sandstone. The
ridge on the right skyline, composed of the Entrada Sandstone, is The
Windows Section of Arches National Park, and the left skyline shows
faintly the distant Book Cliffs.
On the east wall of Kane Springs Canyon just to the right of figure 30
is the Atomic King mine in the Cutler Formation, from which uranium ore
has been mined at intervals during the last 2 or 3 years.
[Illustration: LOOKING NORTH FROM ANTICLINE OVERLOOK, across axis of
Cane Creek anticline. Unimproved road crosses Hurrah Pass in
foreground. Colorado River at left is near Potash and in right
background is at Moab. For description of strata, see caption for
figure 31. (Fig. 30)]
[Illustration: CANE CREEK ANTICLINE, looking northwest from
Anticline Overlook. Colorado River is cutting into limestone of
unnamed upper member of Hermosa Formation in lower bench at crest of
fold; Rico Formation, with bluish-white Shafer limestone at top,
forms upper curved bench; remainder of formations are as given in
caption for figure 29. Potash mine (right) and evaporation ponds
(left) are operated by Texas Gulf, Inc. Merrimac and Monitor Buttes
on right skyline are shown in figure 12. (Fig. 31)]
To the northwest (fig. 31; see also fig. 13) is a textbook example of a
rock fold—the Cane Creek anticline—laid bare by the Colorado River
cutting directly across its crest (fig. 1). Anticlines are noted as
sources of or at least hunting grounds for oil and gas, and this one is
no exception, although production has been relatively small and was
stopped altogether in about 1963. Some oil and gas was produced also
from wells on the north flank of Shafer dome, just beneath Dead Horse
Point (figs. 1, 15), but other favorable-looking structures farther
south that were tested, such as Lockhart anticline, Rustler dome, and
Gibson dome (fig. 1), failed to yield commercial amounts (Baker, 1933,
p. 80-84). Some of the colorful events in the early days of wildcatting
are noted on page 100.
Exploration for oil and gas led to the discovery of potash beneath
several anticlines in eastern Utah and western Colorado. According to
Hite (1968, p. 325), the Cane Creek anticline is underlain by about
5,200 feet of salt-bearing rocks in the Paradox Member of the Hermosa
Formation (fig. 9), of which about 84 percent is halite (common salt,
sodium chloride) and associated potash salts (sylvite, potassium
chloride). The potash mine of Texas Gulf, Inc., is shown at the right in
figure 31. The white area to the left of the mine is waste common salt,
which is recovered with the potash salts, and the white area with dark
stripes at the left is a small part of more than 400 acres of
evaporation ponds built to separate the salts. These ponds also can be
seen from Dead Horse Point. The dark stripes are the visible parts of
plastic membranes lining the ponds. Mining of an 11-foot bed of ore
began by usual underground methods from the bottom of a shaft 2,788 feet
deep but became too difficult because of intense and intricate folding
of the salt beds. Now the salts are being extracted by a method
involving solution, wherein river water is introduced into the former
workings and allowed to stand long enough to dissolve the salts, then
the brine is pumped out to evaporation ponds, and the valuable potash
salts are separated from the sodium salts. Closeup views of the mine and
evaporation ponds are seen in figures 70 and 71.
As noted earlier, most of the readily recognizable thin beds, such as
the White Rim Sandstone, pinch out south of here, and figure 31 marks
the northeasternmost exposure of the Shafer limestone at the top of the
Rico Formation. Northeast from here the Rico and overlying Cutler
Formation are not readily separable and are included in the so-called
Cutler Formation undifferentiated. This land-laid unit of red sandstone,
siltstone, and shale is as much as 8,000 feet thick just southwest of
the ancient Uncompahgre highland (present Uncompahgre Plateau, in
western Colorado and eastern Utah), from which it was derived by erosion
during the Permian Period (fig. 80).