VANADINITE: MYSTERY MINERAL OF THE BLACK HILLS

                                     Colorful autumn

A yellow tree exploded

surrounded by rocks  

I am starting this post with a question thinking that someone may have the answer! What happened to a four-to-five-ton mass of vanadinite mined in the Black Hills of South Dakota in the late 1800s?  My answer:  I don’t have the slightest idea but would like to find out!

OK, I will start at the beginning.  I have a specimen (shown below) with hundreds of very tiny, prismatic crystals of vanadinite with an older label stating: Vanadinite, Richmond Mine, South Dakota.

Thousands of tiny prismatic vanadinite crystals are embedded in this specimen along of gray manganese a colorless lead mineral, perhaps cerussite. A USA dollar coin is used for scale and the maximum width of the specimen is ~8.3 cm.

 

Photomicrographs of mass of vanadinite crystals. Crystal length is on the order of ~1 mm or less.

Manganese oxide and vanadinite.

Vanadinite and unknown patch near the center.  The yellow material in lower left may be mimitite. 

Now most rockhounds have a specimen, or 20, of vanadinite in their collection. The mineral is a lead chlorvanadate [Pb₅(VO₄)₃Cl] with hexagonal crystals, various color hues of red to orange to brown, less than adamantine in luster, and soft at ~2.5-3.0 in hardness (Mohs).   It forms a solid solution with pyromorphite (lead chlorophosphate) and mimitite (lead chloroaresnate). MinDat notes vanadinite is a secondary mineral found in the “oxidation zone of lead deposits in arid climates resulting from the alteration of vanadiferous sulphides and silicates of the gangue and wall rocks.”  Due to color and crystal shape, vanadinite is a very collectable mineral.

So, readers now have a new little chore. Use a web browser to locate specimens, MinDat is ok, of vanadinite from say Arizona. You will find there are too many localities and photos to count. Now browse for vanadinite in South Dakota and what do you find?  I count 1 photo and 5 localities, and a couple of those may be suspicious. So, what happened to such a large hunk of vanadinite mined in the 1880s?

This story all started with Lt. Col. George Custer, on July 2, 1974, “marching” out from Fort Abraham Lincoln (located across the Missouri River from Bismarck, North Dakota) with somewhere close to 1200 men.  Besides members of 10 companies of his 7^th Calvary (including a 16 piece band), the group included ~110 wagons and accompanying teamsters, about 300 head of cattle for food in case the hunters could not produce game, a medical staff, several newspaper correspondents, the experienced miners Horatio Ross and William McKay (perhaps disguised as teamsters), several Native American Scouts, at least two of Custer’s staghounds, extra horses and mules, Chief Engineer Captain William Ludlow and his assistant (who produced wonderful maps), and Scientist George Bird Grinnell, a graduate student at Yale who later became a famous anthropologist, naturalist and writer, assigned to describe the flora and fauna.  Grinnell had three assistants: 1) Newton H. Winchell later became the Director of the Minnesota State Geological Survey and authored the six volume treatise entitled The Geology of Minnesota; 2) Luther North, a jack-of-all-trades best remembered for leading a group of Pawnee Scouts, along with his brother Frank, helping protect the Union Pacific Railroad and later business partners with William (Buffalo Bill) Cody; and 3) A.B. Donaldson, a botanist and newspaper “man” from Minnesota.  William Illingworth, the Expedition’s photographer, evidently was hired by Ludlow to provide photos for the U.S. Army.  The Expedition also included  at least one woman; a former slave known as Aunt Sally who cooked for Sulter John Smith.

The official record for the trip was a “military reconnaissance of the Black Hills of the Dakota Territory.”  Unofficially, the military wanted to: 1) find ways to subdue the remaining Native Americans in the Black Hills and Powder River Basin; and 2) locate gold so that an unstoppable stampede of miners would head to the Black Hills (see #1). The military and President Grant succeeded although George Custer was less successful personally.

Minor amounts of gold were found in the area along French Creek in the southern part of the Hills (near the current town of Custer).  Just a few flakes, along with the newspaper press, were enough to bring the masses. However, gold mining in the Custer area was never really very successful although many cubic yards of soil and gravel were turned over and panned or sluiced for the metal.  In time the early miners, as well as new immigrants, spread throughout the Hills looking for a miracle of yellow gold.

Several early mining communities started to spring up in the northern Black Hills with the most famous being those mines located near Deadwood and Lead. Several other mining districts were located south and southeast of Spearfish, and I described the Maitland Mining District (Garden District) along False Bottom Creek (posting on October 22, 2016.  The earliest mining activity at Maitland started in the 1880s; however, the major production of gold and silver commenced in 1902 with the opening of the principal Maitland Mine.  In 1942 the Maitland was closed (due to the country’s effort in WWII) but had produced at least 176,000 ounces of gold.  The mineralization is a replacement gold deposit in the quartzite and dolomite units of the Deadwood Formation (Cambrian-Ordovician) with mineralizing fluids associated with nearby Tertiary intrusions. 

Today there is a small cluster of homes (not the originals) located in the Maitland community. There is also a side road, named either the Carbonate Road or the False Bottom Creek Road, trending west to the old mining area of Carbonate Camp.  The name comes from ore mineralization in the middle Paleozoic Pahasapa Limestone rather than from the Deadwood Formation.

In the Carbonate District, the Pahasapa was also intruded extensively by Tertiary sills and dikes. Wimorat and Patterson (2007) noted two different types of ore bodies at Carbonate: 1) fissure veins with gold-bearing iron gouge in the center and lead-silver rich (galena, cerussite, and cerargyrite) mineralized jasperoids (silica) along the margins; and 2) solution cavity-filling ores that are usually closer to igneous intrusions, are less siliceous than jasperoid, and are rich in lead and silver with minor gold.

The major minerals produced at Carbonate were silver, lead and minor gold with the best production for less than 20 years from ~1880-1900 (peak years 1885-1891). In 1885 the Iron Hill Mine, the largest of the Carbonate mines, began to produce gold, silver and lead, and a smelter was constructed. By 1891 the mine had produced $667,000 worth of ore (I presume by 1891 prices). However, Shapiro and Gries (1970) stated that “incomplete records indicate a production of more than $1 million in silver, gold, and lead [from 1881 to 1891].” Other smaller mines in the area included the Adelphi (the largest Carbonate Mine before 1890), Seabury-Calkins, Cleopatra, Pocahontas, Union Hill, Spanish R, and Richmond Hill. But by 1892-93 the town was about played out. Declining silver prices was the big killer; however, a massive degradation of the roads to “civilization” struck a big blow. Today historians remember that in the late 1880s Carbonate Camp was a booming town with hundreds of residents, numerous businesses, including banks, newspapers, stores, mills, smelters, saloons, the Black Hills Hotel, the largest hotel in the Dakota Territory, was three stories high and housed a saloon and banquet room.

The mines at Carbonate kept plugging away and tried, several times, to “make a go of it.”  Irving (1904) stated that “within the last year [actually 1887 according to Parker and Lambert, 1974)] a small 85-ton cyanide plant has been erected to treat the tailings from the old smelter.” A short lived second cyanide mill (I think) was built in 1900-01 and named the Cleopatra Mine Mill (Bureau of Mines staff, 1954).

After the turn of the century some off and on exploration and mining continued at Carbonate Camp, especially at the Iron Hill Mine where the dumps were reworked from 1901-1910.  However, around 1920 exploration hit a snag when the mine flooded and projects were stopped.  Like a Phoenix, Carbonate Camp arose from the ashes and was ready to try again when in 1937 Carbonate Consolidated Mining Company, Inc. acquired the mine; however, I could no longer locate production figures (Bureau of Mines staff, 1954) so the old bird must have bitten the dust (The Phoenix is an immortal bird associated with Greek mythology, with analogs in many cultures, that cyclically regenerates or is otherwise born again. Associated with the sun, a Phoenix obtains new life by arising from the ashes of its predecessor [Wikipedia accessed 19 October 21]).

The Cleopatra Mine never did produce much and Bureau Mines (1954) reported mineral values of ~$200,000—some time prior  to 1910. The host rock at Cleopatra was different from that at Iron Hill since replacement was in the Cambrian Deadwood Formation (as at Maitland).

The Adelphi Mine, of which I have no production figures or history, had ferruginous jasperoid, manganese oxide, galena, and argentiferous cerussite replacing the Pahasapa Limestone. Some of the crevices and fractures associated with the ore had “high gold values” (Bureau of Mines staff, 1954).

The Seabury-Calkins Mine and the Segregated Iron Hill Mine are close to the Adelphi Mine, and with the Spanish R, were also acquired in 1937 by the Carbonate Consolidated Mining Company, Inc.  No production figures are available for the first three, but the Spanish R had $50,000 of production before 1904 (Bureau of Mines, 1954).

It is hard to find production figures for the total mines at Carbonate Camp; however, Shapiro and Gries (1970) stated that in the peak six years the various mines produced 83 ounces of gold [Carbonate Camp was not a major gold producer],18,511 ounces of silver, and 83,191 pounds of lead. 

Irving (1904) described the mining geology and minerals in the Carbonate Camp as follows: The country rock that carries the ore in the Iron Hill mine (more on this later) is the gray Carboniferous limestone (Pahasapa Formation) in which sills, dikes, and irregular masses of  porphyry have been intruded.  The ore bodies are of two kinds: large irregular bodies of lead carbonate, which pass in places into more or less unaltered galena, generally in close contact with the porphyry masses: and partially filled crevices which resemble in a general way the verticals of Ragged Top (a nearby mining district).

[At the Iron Hill Mine] the ore was a large mass of argentiferous lead carbonate (cerussite with silver) which extended down for 800 feet on the east side of a thick dike of fine-grained porphyry.  Much galena was also found with the carbonates, and after the ore was worked out a seam or vertical was detected downward from the main mass.  Other pockets of ore were also found at different points, and in one place a pocket of vanadinite containing 4 or 5 tons was encountered. [Minerals identified from the Mine] included galena, cerussite, cerargyrite, matlockite, wulfenite, pyromorphite, plattnerite, atacamite, and vanadinite.”

But what about vanadium value?  One would think that a 4-5-ton mass of vanadinite would be processed, and production numbers and monetary value would appear--somewhere?  Or would it be?

The element vanadium was first discovered in 1801, rediscovered in 1831, and isolated and produced in 1867.  I don’t know what happened after that date but the first widespread industrial use for vanadium was to harden steel for use in cars, including the early Model T Fords, in the first decade of the 20^th Century. Today, besides the steel alloys, vanadium is used as a catalyst for the chemical industry, in the making of ceramics, glasses, and pigments, and perhaps in the most exciting new use- in vanadium redox-flow batteries for large-scale storage of electricity.  Would the country need vanadium in the ~1890s?  Was it even being produced/processed? I don’t really know as the earliest production figures I can locate were from 1901 when the U.S. produced a whooping 6.8 tons of vanadium and imported “nothing.”  I remain uncertain as to the use of vanadium ~1900.

VANADIUM STATISTICS
U.S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY
[All values in metric tons (t) vanadium content unless otherwise noted]
Last modification: November 20, 2019
Year	Production	Imports	Exports	Stocks	Apparent consumption	Unit value ($/t)	Unit value (98$/t)	World production
1901	6.80	NA	NA	NA	6.8	NA	NA	NA

 

So perhaps the 4-5-ton hunk of vanadinite was stuck in a stamp mill and then processed for a more useful economic mineral like silver?  This is one of life’s little mysteries that continue to nibble away at inquiring mines.  I do know that specimens of vanadinite from South Dakota are quite rare and this little factoid is what spurred me on to spend tens of hours reviewing what literature I located.

Vanadinite is rarely mentioned in the literature describing South Dakota minerals, or in the big picture where vanadinite is described on a world-wide basis. Campbell and Roberts (1985) noted that the dumps at the Iron Hills Mine yielded the endlichite variety of vanadinite occur[ing] as pale brown, slender prismatic crystals up to 1 cm long, in attractive groups. Thick yellow to orange-yellow botryoidal crusts of mimetite are often associated with vanadinite. Smith and Fritzsch (2000) stated the Carbonate Consolidated Mines (would be the group consolidated in 1937) produced specimen(s) of vanadinite. But again, I could not locate photographs. The same goes for Baldwin (1904) reporting vanadinite from the Spanish R, a point no other website nor research paper noted (except a single statement in Shapiro and Gries {2000} simply quoting Baldwin). The best description of Carbonate Camp vanadinite is from Roberts and Rapp (1965): Vanadinite is a secondary mineral found in the oxidized zone of lead deposits in the Black Hills…A large mass of vanadinite, weighing between four and five tons…was mined from the Iron Hill Mine, Carbonate, during the silver mining operations in the late 1880’s. The vanadinite occurred in small and slender prismatic crystals (SDSM&T-3326), often hair-like in fineness, of a light brown color and up to ½ inch in length. The Geology Museum at South Dakota School of Mines was kind enough to send me photos of that particular specimen and those answer one of my questions about any additional specimens.  I am convinced that most later authors mentioning the Iron Hill vanadinite did not have newly discovered specimens but were simply noting the Museum specimen; however, I could be wrong.

South Dakota Mines Museum of Geology vanadinite specimen SDSM&T-3326.

As best that I can tell, there is at least one vanadinite specimen from the Richmond-Sitting Bull Mine in the Galena District since a photo is shown on MinDat (by Stephen Fritz). However, Smith and Fritzsch (2000) noted vanadinite from the Queen Mine at Galena rather than the Richmond-Sitting Bull Mine as did Roberts and Rapp (1965) who were evidently following an earlier paper by Connolly and O’Harra (1929). This latter paper was unavailable to me. I should also point out that the Richmond-Sitting Bull Mine (Galena District) is not the Richmond Hill Mine at Carbonate Camp.  

MinDat also noted the presence of vanadinite (sparingly) from the upper part of the Spokane Lead Mine in Custer County (Ziegler, 1914), but again additional information or photos were not provided.

In addition, the Rainbow #4 Mine in Custer County (one of my favorite sites) was listed in MinDat as reporting the presence of vanadinite.  However, Smith and Fretzsch (2000), and Lincoln Page (1953) who described the locality, did not mention the mineral.

So, that is about the story I have on vanadinite occurrences in South Dakota: 1) vanadinite is rarely found in mines of the Black Hills; 2) a four to five ton mass of vanadinite was mined in the late 1880s from the Iron Hill Mine in the Carbonate Mining District; 3) I don’t have specific information on the fate of this large mass; 4) a vanadinite specimen displayed in the Geology Museum of the South Dakota School of Mines may have come from this mass; 5) the Richmond Hill Mine is part of, or next door to, the Iron Hill Mine; 6) Tom Loomis of Dakota Matrix was able to identify my specimen as coming from the Iron Hill Mine; 7) it seems reasonable to believe that my specimen of vanadinite may have part of that large mass, perhaps not; 8) photos of vanadinite specimens from South Dakota are essentially nonexistent; 9) the Black Hills are home to several mines that have produced the lead minerals cerussite and/or galena—could these mines contain vanadinite; 10) writing this posting has been like composing a mystery novel!

But wait, there is more.  Remember that the Carbonate District and especially the Iron Hill/Richmond Hill Mine “died” a century ago, or did it?  Remember the Phoenix coming back to life?  In 1988 the State of South Dakota gave a permit to LAC Minerals to operate a surface gold mine on 400 acres associated with the Richmond Hill Mine.  LAC evidently had taken an interest in the area and decided a Tertiary breccia pipe that had intruded into Precambrian rocks contained mineable amounts of gold.  Yep, gold--the old Carbonate District was notorious for giving up miniscule amounts of gold and now LAC was going after the metal in a big way.  Geologists were interested in the gold bearing sulfide minerals and therefore needed a large open production pit (most early Carbonate mines were underground) and heap-leach pits to extract the commodity.  In order to satisfy State requirements about acid mine drainage in a rugged area LAC built the processing facility (the crusher and pits) about a mile and a half from the main production pit. And away they went producing 172,000 ounces of gold in four years.  Not bad.

And then the Phoenix came crashing down in1992 when a 3.5-million-ton waste pile started leaking acidic waters (~3.5 pH), along with heavy metals, into a natural waterway.  It seems as if the waste rock contained a high percentage of marcasite that, when exposed after mining, oxidized quite rapidly.  These chemical reactions are exothermic and heat in the piles was generated (up to 180 degrees F).

All of this action in the waste pile created a flurry of activity within LAC and the State Board of Minerals and Environment with immediate short-term remediation leading to long term stability, mine closure, and post-closure monitoring and land uses. Today remediation activities continue on as-needed and monitoring is still active. Will the Phoenix arise at some time in the future a carbonate Camp?

Above information on the LAC mine was derived from Durkin (1995).

I owe a great deal of thanks to Tom Loomis of DakotaMatrix.com for his advice and identification on my specimen of vanadinite, and to Emily Berry, Assistant Director, Museum of Geology South Dakota Mines, for sharing photographs of the Museum’s specimen of vanadinite.

REFERENCES CITED

Baldwin, G. P., 1904, Black Hills illustrated: Black Hills Mining Men's Association, Publisher unknown.

Bureau of Mines staff, Region V,1954, Black Hills mineral atlas, South Dakota: Part 1: Information Circular 7688.

Campbell, T.J. and W.L. Roberts, 1985, Mineral localities in the Black Hills of South Dakota: Rocks & Minerals, v. 60, no. 3.

Connolly, J. P., 1927, The Tertiary mineralization of the northern Black Hills South Dakota School of Mines Bull. 15.

Durkin, T.V., 1995, Acid mine drainage: reclamation at the Richmond Hill and Gilt Edge Mines, South Dakota: www.envirominecom/case-hist/richmondhill/chl.html.

Page, L. R., and others, 1953, Pegmatite investigations 1942-45, Black Hills, South Dakota: U.S. Geol. Survey Prof. Paper 247.

Parker, Watson and H.K. Lambert, 1974, Black Hills ghost towns: Chicago, The Swallow Press.

Sinclair, Kelesy, 2018. Exploring Black Hill’s hidden ghost towns: Carbonate: BHVisitor.

Smith, A.E. and E. Fritzsch, 2000, South Dakota: Rocks and Minerals, v. 75, no. 3.

Wimorat, M. and C.J. Paterson, 2007, Carbonate-hosted Au-Ag-Pb deposits, northern Black Hills in Paterson, C.J. and A.L. Lisenbee, Metallogeny of gold in the Black Hills, South Dakota (T.B. Thompson, Ed.): Society of Economic Geologists Guidebook Series Volume 7.

Ziegler, V., 1914, The minerals of the Black Hills: South Dakota: School of Mines Bull. 10.

BLACK HILLS: FUN AT FAIRBURN AND TEEPEE CANYON AGATE BEDS

 

It is that time of year when I present my yearly report on Fairburn Agate hunting in South Dakota!  Well, almost yearly since I missed the fall of 2020 due to a Covid scare.  This year I was rarin’ to go since I had three vaxs in my body. The first two were pretty easy while the booster gave me some minor “flu” symptoms.  However, I viewed that a small price to pay for some excellent protection from a very nasty virus.  In addition, we certainly were avid mask wearers when heading into town (Custer).  But, in fact, we rarely entered any establishment where people congregated---I like to think that my momma didn’t raise no fools.  We were camped at Custer State Park (Legion Lake) and I had plenty to do visiting with friends and relatives stopping by, driving the country roads looking at outcrops, having black coffee (prefer a French Press) while perched in my lawn chair enjoying the early morning sun, and enjoying a frosty IPA in the early evening coolness that was a harbinger of Fall.  In addition, the Harvest Full Moon made a beautiful appearance about the same time as the Fall Equinox.  And to top it off the planet Venus was in full bright bloom.  For an ole outdoor guy life was good.

LIFE IS GOOD SINCE I

DECIDED TO MAKE IT THAT WAY

I have noted in several other Blog Postings that Fairburn Agates from South Dakota are valued for their colorful fortification patterns with an abundance of reds (iron oxide), oranges (iron oxide) and blacks (manganese oxides).  The derivation of their name comes from the small community of Fairburn, located south along SD 79, ~25 miles south of Rapid City (north of Buffalo Gap described in the previous Post).  The “Fairburn beds” are also perhaps the easiest for collectors to locate.  Agate hunters should travel east from Fairburn along French Creek Road (good gravel road) for about 12 miles to a sign locating the original collecting area managed by the Buffalo Gap National Grasslands.  Although known to collectors for decades, these Fairburn beds still yield an occasional agate, and as many colorful specimens of jasper, quartz, and chalcedony as can be carried out in your collecting bag.  The beds were quite busy the day I visited, and the small primitive campground had seven sites filled.  A couple of the camp sites appeared to have been occupied for several days/weeks by hardcore agate hunters.

The agate beds seem to go on forever at the Fairburn site.

The red or reddish orange unit is the Interior Zone (zones of ancient soils) that developed on late Cretaceous to late Paleocene rock units although an upper red zone may be part of the Chamberlain Pass Formation, the lower stratigraphic unit of the Eocene White River Group.  Above the Chamberlain Pass Formation id the Chadron Formation that forms the "gray mound" topography.  The White River Group is the major unit forming the "Big Badlands."  The agate beds seem related the Chadron and Chamberlain Pass Formations.   

One could haul sack loads of semi polished quartz and microcrystalline quartz pebbles and cobbles from the beds.

This gentleman was tired of walking so pulled a chair and a book from his vehicle and was having a little read.

My knees simply do not allow for much hill climbing on the pebble and cobble size accumulation of quartz/microcrystalline quartz.  One a person starts skidding down hill there is little stopping!  At any rate, I sort of hobbled around and was able to collect a small agate right on the road.  I sort of laughed when I wondered how many hunters had walked and driven over this specimen.  Yep, life is good.

 

The small Fairburn Agate on a piece of polished jasper. Maximum width of the agate section ~1cm.

Since I was on my agate kick that day, it was time to grab my crack hammer and visit the source beds for the water-worn Fairburns found out on the plains surrounding the Black Hills. Teepee Canyon is located approximately18 miles west of Custer, South Dakota, about 2 miles west of Jewel Cave National Monument off U. S. 16.  As soon as travelers leave the Monument they should look to the west, up slope, to spot piles of broken rocks.  Sawmill Spring Road, FS 456, leads off to the west and about a mile further West Teepee Canyon Road takes off.  My best advice is to follow one of these roads/tracks and look for quarries where past prospectors have tried their luck.  The land is managed by the U.S. Forest Service and there are mining claims---I think.  It is best if rockhounds stop in the USFS office in Custer and discuss your plans with one of the friendly employees. 

Although hardcore agate hunters like to use pry bars and other large utensils to excavate layers of limestone and crack them open, older gentlemen like me prefer  to crack on the large “hunks” (basketball size or so) left behind by the previous diggers. There are literally thousands and thousands of “hunks” in major piles that are scattered over a large amount of real estate.  My suggestions: wear heavy boots, long pants, a long sleeve shirt, leather gloves, and eye protection.  The limestone is quite dense and the siliceous nodules very hard and chips fly when meeting a crack hammer.  Also, don’t try to trim out an agate in the field—take it home to work on the nodule.

No need to dig at Teepee Canyon.Just grab a hunk and crack!

The agates are encased in chert nodules housed within the lower Minnelusa Formation (Paleozoic: Pennsylvanian).  I suppose these nodules are the result of silica-rich meteoric waters circulating through the unit with resulting diagenesis producing the chert.  Why some nodules are agatized—I don’t have the slightest idea.  Just as I am uncertain how/why agates really form! What is clear, at least to me, is that the similarity of the Teepee Canyon agates encased in chert seem identical to the water transported Fairburns found on the plains.

Section of chert nodule from Teepee Canyon with nice display of agate.  Width of FOV ~3.1 cm. 

Small, interesting agate from Teepee Canyon (reverse of limestone matrix). Width FOV of lower photomicrograph 1.5 cm. 

Small, interesting agate from Teepee Canyon (obverse of limestone matrix). Width FOV of lower photomicrograph ~1.5 cm. 

However, my best Teepee Canyon agate collected this year came not from banging on a nodule but by paying $5 at the recent CSMS rock and mineral show.  Someone had evidently donated a sawed nodule with a gorgeous agate exposed and the club had it for sale on the silent auction table.  I put in a bid and kept a close watch to see if other bidders were interested.  None were and I scooped up a real bargain without a single blow of the hammer.  I suspect that not many people realized the source and significance of the slab.

The Teepee Canyon agate purchased from the Silent Auction table at the 2021 CSMS Show in October 2021.  The width (longest) of the paper is ~1 cm.

So, the agate hunting was “OK” this year, not spectacular but anytime you find an agate, big or small, is a good and successful day.  

My mission in life is not merely to survive, but to thrive; and, to do so with some passion, some compassion, some humor, and some style.  Maya Angelou

 

HAPPY NATIONAL FOSSIL DAY: OCTOBER 13

 

Having fun with fossil Musk Oxen (Bootherium bombifrons; formally Symbos cavifrons). Collected in shoreline gravels of Pleistocene Lake Bonneville. Nelson, M.E., and J.H. Madsen, Jr., 1987, A review of Lake Bonneville faunas (Late Pleistocene) of northern Utah in Cenozoic Geology of Western Utah--Sites for Precious Metal and Hydrocarbon Accumulations, Utah Geological Association Publication 16.

 

 

 

 

BLACK HILLS: FUN AT BUFFALO GAP W/ UNKPAPA SANDSTOME

 

Author unknown.

In spring 1965 I made a critical decision or two—what to do with my life after college graduation (BS Geology).  I had pretty much decided during the fall semester that I wanted to continue my geology education; there was much to learn, and I was excited to explore the opportunities. So, I applied for admittance to several graduate schools with the knowledge that I could not continue my education without financial scholarship/fellowship assistance.  Much to my surprise I received some positive replies.  These offers came from a variety of institutions ranging from giant NCAA Division 1 institutions down to smaller state and private colleges.  That led to my critical decision in spring 1965—to attend the University of South Dakota in Vermillion (a college town that I really had never heard of)! So, it was off to the north land (at least north of my home in Kansas).

 Getting ready for the Homecoming parade on the main street of Vermillion, SD ca. mid 1960s.  Photo courtesy of southdakotamagazine.com

The decision to attend USD was one of those that was a “good one.”  Absolutely no regrets.  I was a small-town kid who attended a smaller state undergraduate college and USD was situated in a small town and was full of small-town kids and a small graduate program—I think there were five of us.  Students  got much attention from the faculty.

 

Back in the olden days, that would be late 1960s, the Charcoal Lounge (AKA Char Bar) was one of the anchors in downtown Vermilion (as seen in this 2017 photo--it looked the same in 1965).  The Char Bar was a 21 establishment since it served "hard liquor."  That meant the underclassmen were relegated to the "beer bars" such as the Varsity.

 

My roommate at USD for all two years was a small-town kid from nearby Minnesota.  After graduation from a doctoral program, he had a very successful career with South Dakota School of Mines and Technology.  During my recent trip to the Black Hills of South Dakota my mind drifted back to our grad school days as I drove through Buffalo Gap in the southern part of the Hills near Hot Springs.  My current journey to that part of the Hills was three-fold: 1) to relive, at least in my mind, some of the field work associated with my thesis; 2) to see if the Unkpapa Sandstone quarry was still open in Calico Canyon near the mouth of the Gap; and 3) to observe some nice roadside pegmatite exposures near Wind Cave National Park.

 

Google Earth© image of the start of Buffalo Gap with Custer County 101 following Beaver Creek westward.  The major highway is SD 79 coming north from Rapid City and heading south toward Hot Springs.  Calico Canyon, home of the Unkpapa Quarry, is the first major canyon coming off CC 101.

 

Unfortunately, the quarry had closed several years ago, and current landowners may not be interested in reopening.  Fortunately, I had visited the quarry back in the 1960s and have a few sandstone specimens stuck on my rock shelf.  What is so special about this sandstone?  For starters, who could resist looking at rocks named the Unkpapa?  The name was assigned to the stratigraphic unit by the famous geologist N.H. Darton as he studied and mapped the Hills in the early 1900s.  “The type locality is in the ridges east and south of Hot Springs, Fall River Co, SD, on the Chadron arch in the southern Black Hills, where it reaches a thickness of more than 250 ft. The name is from Unkpapa Peak, sec 23, T6S, R6E, Custer County, SD near Buffalo Gap.” (Darton and others, 1909).  Actually, the word Unkpapa is a misrepresentation of  Hunkpapa (Lakota: Húŋkpapȟa), one of the seven members of the Lakota tribe. The name Húŋkpapȟa is a Lakota word, meaning "Head of the Circle.  By tradition, the Húŋkpapȟa set up their lodges at the entryway to the circle of the Great Council when the Sioux met in convocation. They speak Lakȟóta, one of the three dialects of the Sioux language. (Access Genealogy, 2021). Sitting Bull (Tȟatȟáŋka Íyotake) and Gall (Phizí) were two well-known members of the Hunkpapa.

Second, the Calico Quarry has produced  some fantastic specimens of banded sandstone described by Joe Hartman (1975) as “argillaceous, very fine-grained, massive quartz wacke sandstone; moderately indurated but friable, permeable, no indication of cement. Colors range from pale yellowish orange to grayish orange to pale red purple to pinkish gray. Color banding common, planar, curved, and Liesegang.” The emphasis is mine as the rock produces slices commonly known as picture sandstone and at one time specimens were sold in virtually every rock shop and curio shop in the Black Hills and beyond (now replaced by picture sandstone from Utah).  The better specimens were lavender in color and the banding often was displaced by numerous small faults.

 

Unkpapa Sandstone cropping out in Calico Canyon, Black Hills, South Dakota.  Photo courtesy, and with permission, of Geodil and Joseph Hartman P00857 (Hartman Locality L96).

 

Unkpapa Sandstone from Calico Canyon showing several microfaults. Photo courtesy, and with permission, of Geodil and Joseph Hartman P00855 (Hartman Locality L96).

I also note that my ole roommate from USD, Jim Fox, helped pen one of the definitive papers on the Unkpapa in the Black Hills.  In 1981 Szigeti and Fox assigned the Unkpapa to the Morrison Formation (Late Jurassic) as its basal member and interpreted its depositional environment as eolian (by wind). Outcrops of the Unkpapa are restricted to part of Cretaceous hogback between Sturgis, SD, and Edgemont, SD, a distance of about 100 miles. The unit conformably overlies the Sundance Formation and underlies either the main part of Morrison or the Lakota Formations, both with gradational or disconformable contacts. The Unkpapa is thickest around southern end of Black Hills, where in outcrop it ranges up to 267 ft near Hot Springs but decreases slowly northward until it pinches out near Sturgis.

 

These hand-size samples were collected in summer 1966.  The top two specimens had one side slabbed off.

Szigeti and Fox (1981), and Blakey and others (1988), believed the Unkpapa Sandstone was correlative with sandstone beds at the base of the Morrison Formation cropping out on the western flanks of the Black Hills uplift in South Dakota and eastern Wyoming. The Unkpapa dune field apparently was surrounded by lacustrine environments represented by mudstone layers in the Morrison Formation. As the region subsided, the dune field was inundated and eventually covered by lacustrine deposits.

One of my questions about the Unkpapa was answered by Szigeti and Fox:  what was the source of the sand in the unit?  They noted that as the Sundance Sea (marine, Middle to Upper Jurassic in age) withdrew from the Black Hills region, the climate became arid to semiarid. Lacustrine and fluvial depositional systems were established on low-relief topography on which sediment of the Morrison Formation was deposited. At the same time, the Sundance Sandstone in an area of northwestern Nebraska, was being eroded and fine sand was being supplied to an eolian dune field which extended northward into low relief topography. These dune sands comprise the Unkpapa Sandstone, which overlies the Sundance Formation in the southeastern part of the Black Hills area. So, the Unkpapa sandstone is reworked Sundance Formation.

The Unkpapa often attracts attention due to its color banding commonly referred to as Liesegang Bands. These Bands are colored bands of cement, often containing authigenic minerals, that are secondary structures since they cut across normal bedding.  Little is known about the mechanism creating these bands.  

In the summer of 1966, I was working for the South Dakota Geological Survey and stationed in Chamberlain, a community on the Missouri River (now the location if I-90 crossing the River).  During weekends I traveled to the plains/badlands immediately east of the southern Hills chasing “old river beds” (high level terrace gravels that had their source in the Black Hills).  I often wondered if one of these ancient (late Tertiary) streams had come through Buffalo Gap.

Truckin' on.  South Dakota plains and badlands. Summer 1966.

The community of Buffalo Gap lies on the plains just to the east of The community of Buffalo Gap lies on the plains just to the east of the Hills.   One author calls it a semi ghost town with a 100+ population.  It first came into existence during the 1875-1876 Black Hills gold rush when a stage stop along the Sidney, Nebraska to Deadwood line was created.  Ten years later the Fremont, Elkhorn, and Missouri Valley Railroad reached, and moved through, the stage stop, and a railroad station was bult and christened Buffalo Gap.  The Elkhorn, as the railroad was known, was a railroad established in 1869 running from Omaha, Nebraska, west to Chadron (the Cowboy Line) and a decade later had established a branch line from Chadron north through Buffalo Gap, Rapid City, and on to Belle Foursch at the northern end of the Hills.

At one time huge herds of buffalo (American Bison) grazed on the grasslands of western South Dakota.

The name, Buffalo Gap came from a nearby (west) water gap where a small stream (Beaver Creek) flows through a valley where the Cretaceous hogback (upturned rocks dipping east that front the Black Hills on the east side).  The Creek is an underfit stream and indicates the presence of a much larger stream in the geologic past.  Early travelers noted that buffalo (Bison) used the gap to travel back and forth to the interior of the uplands, and for shelter in the winter.  Today a gravel road traverses the gap and is a nifty drive over to the grasslands of Wind Cave National Park.

 

 A drive through Buffalo Gap will rocks from the bright red Permian-Triassic Spearfish Formation up through the Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceous.

 At any rate, Buffalo Gap, the town, flourished in the late 1800s as a cattle shipping point for the nearby ranches.  Population jumped up to 1200 persons.  But like all good things the boom came to an end with drought, blizzards, overgrazing, dropping cattle prices, and closing railroads.  The final kill came with the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl in the 1930s.  Today the name lives on in the community, but mostly in the vast expanse of Buffalo Gap National Grassland. 

REFERENCES CITED

Access Genealogy, October 2021: https://accessgenealogy.com/north-dakota/hunkpapa-sioux-tribe.htm

Blakey, R.C., F. Peterson and G. Kocurek, 1988, Synthesis of late Paleozoic and Mesozoic eolian deposits of the Western Interior of the United States: Sedimentary Geology, 56 (1988) 3-125 3 Elsevier Science Publishers B.V., Amsterdam.

Darton, N.H., and C.C. O'Harra, 1909, Description of the Belle Fourche Quadrangle, South Dakota: U.S. Geological Survey Geologic Atlas of the United States Folio, Belle Fourche Folio, no. 164.

Szigeti, G.J., and J.E. Fox, 1981, Unkpapa Sandstone (Jurassic), Black Hills, South Dakota; an eolian facies of the Morrison Formation, in Ethridge, F.G., and Flores, R.M., eds., Recent and ancient nonmarine depositional environments; models for exploration: Society of Economic Paleontologists and Mineralogists Special Publication, Symposium, Casper, WY, June 3-7, 1979, no. 31, p. 331-349.

HAPPY NATIONAL FOSSIL DAY: OCTOBER 13

 

Having fun with fossils (Giant Short-Faced Bear femur, Arctodus compared with femur of modern Black Bear, Ursus. Collected in shoreline gravels of Pleistocene Lake Bonneville, Utah. ca. 1984. Nelson, M.E., and J.H. Madsen, Jr., A giant short-faced bear (Arctodus simus) from the Pleistocene of northern Utah: Transactions Kansas Academy Sciences, v. 86, no.1.