Memorial and Biographical History of Dallas County, Texas. Page: 134 of 1,110
vii, 9-1011 p. incl. ill., ports. : ports. ; 28 cm.View a full description of this book.
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HISTORY OF DALLAS COUNTY.
of the interior cities of Texas are located, including
Paris, Sherman, McKinney, Dallas,
Waxahachie, Waco, Austin, New Braunfels
and San Antonio, all of which are dependent
upon the agricultural products of the adjacent
prairies.
West of the "'white rock" or chalky division,
and generally at a slightly lower altitude,
occupying a valley across the State, is a
second narrow strip of black clayey land of a
nature similar to that of the-main black waxy
area, and likewise accompanied by hog-wallows.
This is the country east of Denton and
Whitesboro, in the Mountain creek district of
Dallas county, and along the line of the Missouri
Pacific railway from Alvarado to
Waco.
The Lower Cross Timbers-a narrow belt
of forest country entending from the Red to
the Brazos rivers-represent the westernmost
strip of the Black Prairie region, and belong
to it geographically, as will presently be
shown.
Let us now consider the substructure of
the Black Prairie region in five divisions,
commencing with the lowest, namely, the
Upper Arenaceous, or Glauconitic; the main
Black Prairie, the surface of the marine clays,
called the Ponderosa marls, the white-rock
division, which is the outcrop of the AustinDallas
chalk, aggregating about 600 feet in
thickness; the minor Black Prairie, also composed
of clays like those of the main division,
and consequently having a similar topography;
and the Lower Cross Timbers. All
the foregoing rock sheets, between which
there is no stratigraphic break, represent thesediment deposited in the oceanic waters during
a long continued subsidence, geologically
known as the Upper Cretaceous period, for
which collectively we have chosen the name
of Black Prairie series. This Upper Cretaceous
series has five conspicuous stratigraphic
and lithologic divisions, which approximately
correspond with the topographic
divisions of the Black Prarie above mentioned.
1.-THE LOWER CROSS TIMBER SANDS.
From the Brazos river northward to Red
river the base of the upper series is composed
of a brown, more or less ferruginous, predominantly
sandy littoral deposit, resting unconformably
upon various horizons of the
semi-chalky beds of the Washita division, or
top of the Comanche series. These sandy
deposits present an infinite variety of conditions
of cross-bedding, clay intercalations,
lignitic patches, and variation in fineness of
size and angularity of the uncemented particles,
characteristic of typical littoral deposits,
while occasionally there are found fossiliferous
horizons.
In the vicininity of Denison these sands
are covered by a post-Tertiary sand, which
confuses their identity there.
The Lower Cross Timber region abounds
in rich sandy soils, which support a vigorous
timber growth, this structure being especially
for deep-rooted plants, and are specially
adapted to fruit-growing, as seen near Denison
and Paris. There is also considerable
lignite and iron in the beds of this region.
The lignite is frequently discovered and mis-
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Lewis Publishing Company. Memorial and Biographical History of Dallas County, Texas., book, 1892; Chicago, Illinois. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth20932/m1/134/: accessed April 26, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Dallas Public Library.