LAND STATE BOARD MINERAL INVENTORY
Summary of Resources
5 4 Rating 3 2 1 0
Oil & Gas Coal Metallic Industrial Minerals Minerals
Resource Category
TRACT IDENTIFIER: 063-87 COUNTY: Kit Carson LOCATION: The Kit Carson County #87 State Land Tract is located in the southwest quadrant of Kit Carson County approximately 11.0 miles south-southwest of the town of Seibert. Interstate 70 and the Rock Island and Pacific Railroad lie 9.5 miles to the north. LEGAL DESCRIPTION: Location: T. 10 S., R. 51 W. Sections: 16, 18 Approximate total acreage: 800 QUADRANGLE NAME(S): East of Sevenmile Ranch, South of Flagler
OVERVIEW OF GEOLOGY: Surfical deposits mapped on the Kit Carson County #87 State Land Tract include the following (Sharps, 1980): Qa - Alluvium (Holocene) This unit is comprised of silt, sand, and gravel deposits of two ages in modern day stream channels and floodplains and generally ranges from 0 to 43 feet thick. The oldest deposit is the Piney Creek Alluvium, it consists of dark-yellowish-brown or grayish-orange, clayey to fine sandy, wellstratified silt exceeding 30 feet in thickness. The younger deposit is the PostPiney Creek Alluvium; it consists of five feet of loose, stratified, yellowish-gray, sand that is underlain by sandy gravel generally free of silt and clay; grain size averages 0.25 inches and reaches a maximum of 4 inches in diameter. Clasts are composed of quartz, feldspar, granite, gneiss, pegmatite, and chert. Thickness is locally up to 200 feet in the channel of the South Platte River approximately 55 miles northwest of the countys northwest corner. Quaternary alluvium in Kit Carson County appears to be of resource quality in the South Fork of the Republican, River, the Airikaree River, and Sand Creek but is of dubious value in smaller drainages due to the low volume of clasts and high clay and silt content. Qe - Eolian Deposits (Holocene and Pleistocene) This unit is comprised of yellowishbrown, silty, loose, wind-blown, sand and occurs in sheets and dunes up to 100 feet thick/high. The bedrock geology of the Kit Carson #87 State Land Tract consists of the following (Sharps, 1980): To Ogallala Formation (Miocene) Although the various components comprising the Ogallala Formation over Kit Carson County are constant, their mixture is variable and dependent on geography. In the countys northwestern corner the formation consists of approximately 42 per cent fine gravel and conglomerate, calcareous in part, and minor limestone, marl, and clay. Subsequently, it grades southeastward towards the east-central part of the county near Burlington to 80 per cent sand and calcareous sandstone, 13 per cent fine gravel, calcareous in part, and minor limestone and clay. As in Yuma County to the north, mortar beds characterize the unit and are comprised of grayish-orange-pink, pebbly, sand and silt firmly cemented by calcium carbonate or locally opal. Non-consolidated fine gravel composed of rounded granitic, sedimentary, and volcanic clasts is abundant and has resource value as road metal. Beds of silver-gray, biotite-rich, volcanic ash and semi-consolidated ashy sand and silt beds observed elsewhere may also be present. Thickness of the formation in Kit Carson County ranges from approximately 17 to 350 feet. Kp Pierre Shale (Upper Cretaceous) The Pierre Shale in Kit Carson County consists mostly of brownish-gray to dark-gray silty and sandy shale inter-bedded white, with buff, or brown fine- to medium-grained sandstone in its upper 400 feet. Subsequently, the formation grades successively downward into shale of
similar character containing decreasing amounts of sandstone and thence to that containing only silty to sandy yellow-weathering calcareous concretions. Total thickness in Kit Carson County may be up to 4,200 feet. OIL AND GAS RESOURCES: No exploratory oil and gas wells have been drilled on this tract. Anschutz Corporation drilled the Smith #16 in section 20, the closest well to this tract, to a depth of 7,069 feet in 1992 to test Mississippian St. Lewis carbonates in search of oil. The well was a dry hole. That same year Anschutz drilled a second well, the Myrick #16, near the Smith well in the same section. The well was drilled to a depth of 6,020 feet to test shelf carbonates in the Mississippian Spergen. No oil was found in the Spergen, but a possible show of gas was observed on the geophysical logs in the Pennsylvanian Topeka formation. A drill stem test was conducted over the interval, 4,830-80 feet. Only a trace of gas cut mud was collected from the sample chamber. The well was also plugged and abandoned. The essential elements for oil and gas do exist in the area, but geological control is insufficient to determine a local trap. COAL RESOURCES: This tract contains no coal resources. METALLIC MINERAL RESOURCES: This tract contains no metallic mineral resources. INDUSTRIAL MINERALS AND CONSTRUCTION MATERIALS RESOURCES: Two sand and gravel pits are located within a 5.0 mile radius of the Kit Carson County #87 State Land Tract. The closest of these lies 3.0 miles to the east-southeast of the property (see figure); the host is the Tertiary Ogallala Formation. Identified Sand and Gravel Resources: Sand (Qe) covers approximately 380 acres of tract # 63-087. Assuming a mineable thickness of 15 feet, this represents 13.8 million tons (9.2 million cubic yards) of potentially useable resource. The quality of the resource has not been determined. Bedrock gravel (...