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<br />o <br />C".' <br />N <br />C}t <br />(jJ <br />~ <br /> <br />The area is drained by two major streams, the North Canadian <br />(Beaver) River and the Cimarron River, both of which are tributaries <br />to the Arkansas River. The total drainage area within these coun- <br />ties is 6,700 square miles with runoff of 10,400 acre-feet pee year. <br /> <br />The Ogallala formation of the tertirary age consists of a <br />heterogenous mixture of sand, gravel, silt, clay, caliche, and <br />local beds cemented with calcium carbonate. It is the principal <br />source of water in the Oklahoma Panhandle. This formation was <br />deposited over the entire Oklahoma Panhandle, but has been re- <br />moved locally by stream erosion and has been truncated completely <br />by erosion, a short distance east of Beaver County. <br /> <br />The maximum thickness of the Ogallala is about 650 feet, but <br />it thins along major drainageways and over bedrock highs. Sand <br />and gravel of the Ogallala Formation arc the principal 60urces of <br />water. Well yields range from a few gallons per minute to more <br />than 2,000 gallons ver minute. Wells yielding less than 300 gpm <br />aTe usually not completed for irrigation wells. <br /> <br />Water from the Ogallala is generally chemically suitable for <br />,"ost purposes. Total hardnes6 is usually more than 180 mg/l with <br />some wells in the lower zones of the Ogallala containing dis~olved <br />solids in excess of 5,000 mg/l. <br /> <br />The average groundwater gradient is eastward at 14 feet"per <br />mile.. Because of this eastern"gradient, no large volumes of <br />wat"er enter or leave' the area from Kansas or Texas Bnd only small <br />quantities are entering from New Mexico border beCIJ8Se the Ogallala <br />is above the water table except in the extreme southwestern c?rner <br />()f Cimarron COllnty. <br /> <br />The Panhandle region of Oklahoma was called No Man's Lend <br />until 1890 when it became Oklahoma's seventh county. Development <br />to this point had been slow and was further retarded by the Dust <br />!lowl Era. <br /> <br />l~e 1970 povulation totsled 26,779 with vrojected vopulation <br />"f 33,200 in 2020. Employment records of the total labor 'orce <br />flhuW' ]1"/0 in agriculture and the remaining 69a/o in domestic services, <br />st.'lf-t.'TIll-'loycd and unpaid family works, manufacturing, wholesale <br />and retail trade, government, construction, mining, finance, in- <br />suranct-~, real estate and other services. Municipalities in the <br />area with populatinns over 1,000 in 1970 are: <br /> <br />City <br />Beaver <br />Boise City <br />Goodwell <br />Guymon <br />Hooker <br /> <br />1<)70 Population <br />1,853 <br />1,993 <br />1,467 <br />7,640 <br />1,615 <br /> <br />109 <br />