| Summary: | This report describes the geography, geology, and ground-water resources of Sherman County in northwestern Kansas. The county has an area of 1,055 square miles and in 1950 had a population of 7,373. Sherman County lies entirely within the High Plains section of the Great Plains physiographic province and consists of nearly flat to gently rolling upland plains dissected in several areas by relatively shallow valleys. The climate is semiarid, the average annual precipitation being about 18 inches. Farming and livestock raising are the principal occupations in the area. A small amount of irrigation is practiced in the county. The outcropping rocks in Sherman County are sedimentary, ranging in age from late Cretaceous to Recent. Most of the county is underlain by deposits of Tertiary Ogallala formation, which in most places is covered by wind-blown silts of the Sanborn formation of Pleistocene age. The Pierre shale of late Cretaceous age has been exposed by erosion in a few localities in southern Sherman County. Deposits of Recent alluvium are along most of the stream valleys. The report contains a map showing the areal distribution of outcropping rocks; subsurface relations are shown in cross sections. The Ogallala formation is the principal water-bearing formation in Sherman County, and in places large yields can be obtained from wells in permeable water-bearing beds in this formation. Alluvial deposits along parts of Beaver Creek and the North Fork Smoky Hill River yield water to wells in places where the deposits are below the water table. The report contains a map of the county showing the locations of wells for which records were obtained and showing by means of shading the depths to water level. The water table ranges in depth from less than 10 feet in some stream valleys to more than 200 feet in one area in the southeastern part of the county. The depth to water level in most of the upland areas is more than 100 feet. Included in the report is a contour map showing the shape and slope of the water table. ...
|
|---|