Geology and Structure of Cheyenne Bottoms, Barton County, Kansas

Abstract

Cheyenne Bottoms, in east-central Barton County, Kansas, is a basin-like feature, elliptical in shape, the origin of which has not been satisfactorily explained. Several hypotheses have been presented to explain the origin of the feature. Haworth (1897) was the first to write on the origin of Cheyenne Bottoms and attributed the feature to stream erosion. Johnson (1901) advanced the theory that Cheyenne Bottoms was a basin of subsidence caused by removal of soluble masses of salt within the underlying rock. He noted that the gap in the rock wall on the southeast side of the basin did not favor this theory of origin. Bass (1926) prepared a map of salt thickness in western Kansas that shows thinning of the salt beds beneath Cheyenne Bottoms. He (Bass, 1926) believed that this tended to confirm Johnson's theory of salt solution as the cause of the basin-like feature. Latta (1950) indicated that salt solution and subsidence may have been in part responsible for the feature, but also indicated that stream erosion during the Pleistocene played an important part in its origin and present configuration.