The Anaconda-Deer Lodge County plate. Relief from Copernicus GLO-30; rivers and lakes from USGS NHD; watersheds from the USGS Watershed Boundary Dataset; roads and city limits from Census TIGER 2024.
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Anaconda-Deer Lodge County’s center stands about 8,840 ft above sea level. Within three miles the land runs from 6,920 ft to 10,150 ft, a difference of 3,230 ft: mountain country. The highest named summit within 15 miles is Mount Evans, about 10,580 ft, 4 miles southwest.
Under the town center the state geologic map shows Piegan Group: Helena and Wallace Formations (quartzite, metasiltstone, argillite), from the Mesoproterozoic, 1 to 1.6 billion years old.
The section below crosses 12 rock units mapped at the surface.
Heights every 0.1 mile from the Copernicus GLO-90 surface model; vertical exaggeration about 4×. The colored band under the surface is the rock the state geologic map shows at the surface, not a picture of what lies beneath.
Granitic. Age: Tertiary, 2.6 to 66 million years old. About 9 mi of the line.
Quartzite, metasiltstone, argillite. Age: Mesoproterozoic, 1 to 1.6 billion years old. About 4 mi of the line.
Metasiltstone, argillite. Age: Mesoproterozoic, 1 to 1.6 billion years old. About 3 mi of the line.
Limestone, mudstone, sandstone. Age: Middle Jurassic to Early Cretaceous, 129 to 172 million years old. About 1 mi of the line.
Age: Pleistocene to Holocene, less than 1.8 million years old. About 1 mi of the line.
Age: Late Miocene to Holocene, less than 7.2 million years old. About 1 mi of the line.
From the USGS State Geologic Map Compilation (Horton and others, 2017), the states’ geologic maps joined at a common scale. 6 smaller units along the line are not listed.
Heights from Copernicus GLO-90 (a surface model: it includes buildings and tree canopy); summits from USGS GNIS; rivers from USGS NHDPlus HR; rock from the USGS State Geologic Map Compilation.
A raindrop that lands in Anaconda-Deer Lodge County reaches the Pacific Ocean by way of Barker Creek, Warm Springs Creek, the Clark Fork, the Pend Oreille and the Columbia: about 1,220 river miles.
Lakes on the way: Lake Pend Oreille, Lake Umatilla and Noxon Rapids Reservoir.
460 miles of the trip are on the Columbia.
Traced down the USGS NHDPlus V2.1 river network from the Census center point of Anaconda-Deer Lodge County; river miles along the main stem, rounded.
