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<br />feed barley, and shelled corn, form the major econom1C base of the area, <br /> <br />Other activities important to the local economy are mining, lumbering, <br /> <br />tourism, and various forms of recreation, <br /> <br />Physiography <br />The Uncompahgre River tributaries, as they extend in a northerly <br /> <br />direction toward the river, have carved a series of nearly level stream <br /> <br />terraces west of the river. These terraces or mesas are from one to <br /> <br />seven miles wide, of varying elevations, and are separated by small <br /> <br />valleys. The lands west of the river are predominantly stream deposits <br /> <br />of varying ages and are remnants of a once large, flat, eroded land <br /> <br />surface which has since been reworked and redeposited by stream erosion. <br /> <br />East of the river some smaller terraces are found; however, most of this <br /> <br />area is typified by undulating to rolling landforms which conform to the <br /> <br />irregular erosion surface of the underlying formation of soft, marine <br /> <br />Mancos Shale. <br /> <br />The Mancos Formation, from 1,200 to 2,000 feet thick, rests on the <br /> <br />Dakota sandstone and consists of dark, calcareous shales that weather <br /> <br />rapidly into gray to dark gray clay loam to silty clay soils. Soils <br /> <br /> <br />derived from this source are relatively high in gypsum and other salts <br /> <br /> <br />because the shale of the Mancos Formation is of marine origin. Adjacent <br /> <br /> <br />to the Uncompahgre River is a relatively narrow floodplain of recently <br />deposited alluvium. <br /> <br />Soils 001018 <br /> <br />Soils within the area are generally of two types. With a few <br /> <br />minor exceptions, the soils on the east side of the Uncompahgre Valley <br /> <br />are derived principally from the Mancos Shale formation and are heavy <br /> <br />8 <br />