Wingate Sandstone ✨

My GF and I are going to Red Rocks in a few days and we love learning about the geology as we climb in different places. I got baked last night on the devil's lettuce and wrote this ad-hoc treatise on Wingate sandstone. Let me be the first to say that this whole write-up is ironic because Red Rocks is Aztec sandstone and the closest Wingate sandstone is hours away. That being said, let us begin. 

As previously mentioned, Aztec sandstone - of which we'll be climbing on in Red Rocks - was deposited at the same time as Kayenta sandstone in the Early Jurassic but whereas Kayenta was mostly fluvial in deposition, made up of shallow marine habitats, Aztec sandstone was aeolian, composed of huge ancient dune fields. Here is a chart from F.A Barnes' book on the geological timeline of Moab & Indian Creek sandstone. Remember that in the Creek we climb on Wingate which is OLDER in age than Kayenta/Aztec.

 So with much ado, here's everything you ever wanted to know about the history of the name of Wingate sandstone.

Our tale begins about 160 years ago in the southwest of the United States. The US acquired over half a million square miles from Spain via the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in 1848. Soon after, the US Army set out to establish forts and posts in their new land. After a few unsuccessful incarnations in various New Mexico locations, an Army fort was established and named Fort Wingate. Fort Wingate stood as an active US Army fort in New Mexico from 1862 to 1993. It's kinda close to Gallup, NM. Here's some photos of it. Gaze intently upon the mountains in the last photo to see the hero of our story, Wingate Sandstone!

Ahah and Hark! The place name-sake of where this sandstone was first classified! Allow me to beg the mercy of the reader to remind them that geologic formations are named after the closest place in which they were first classified. 

I can literally almost hear your next question: "So why on earth was the fort even named, Fort Wingate?"

Thus, our saga continues! Enter stage - one Major Benjamin Wingate. This dude had died before just Fort Wingate was constructed. He was said to have died at the Battle of Valverde in 1862 and once can infer that he was much belove'd by his countrymen. So much so, they chose to name the fort after him. He was a bro. In the Civil War, this dude fought for the Union, against the Confederates. When his life was cut short, he was leading about 500 troops in battle and is said to have fought so courageously and died so heroically that his other bros decided to build a new fort and name it after him - Fort Wingate!

Concurrently...

... the Wingate family crest! I'm making an interpretive leap here but I think that with a family name like Benjamin 'Wingate' your forefathers were almost certainly from a tribe or place called Wingate. So where is this fabled land of Wingate? You will certainly find it interesting that our beloved Army officer, Mr. Ben Wingate, can have his genealogy traced to what one can presume to be his ancestral land of Wingate in Northumberland, Scotland. << HERE >> is a link to a candid photo from Google Maps of an image in Wingate in the UK. Surely, Ben's forefathers rode down this very bridleway!  An aside: The motto on the family crest of Wingate 'Suum Cuique" translates from Latin as "Give to everyone." Kinda sweet.

Finally, in the year 1145, there was the first mention of someone ACTUALLY NAMED Wingate. His name was Aldret de Wingate. Another inference: This probs means that there was a PLACE Wingate before a person to be named after that place. Wingate may be in fact very ancient. Anywho, the language spoken in England in the day of Aldret was Old English. In that ancient tongue, Wikipedia quoted Wingate to mean "the Place of the Wind" but I found an Old English << online translator >> and got literally Wine Goat (Win-Gate)  

That's as far as I got ... for now.

In conclusion! The bullet hard sandstone that we know and love is actually named after the subtropical land of the United Kingdom. 
Funny how things are sometimes.

I enjoyed this read. Thank you.  

This is the content I didn't know I needed.

This is fun, it reminds me of watching the show "Connections" with James Burke when I was a kid. 

Yea… but your going to RR.

What about Dolomite?

How do mt ranges get turned over?

Guy Keesee wrote:

Yea… but your going to RR.

What about Dolomite?

How do mt ranges get turned over?

My Guy, the story of the dolomite upheavals and unconformities in RR is for another episode of “get baked and research Obscure climbing stuff”

I heartily and sincerely approve this message.

PM'd about the lettuce.

Amazing! Now you should do one about the red rock sandstone, Aztec, you said?

Wait.  You can be this productive with lettuce?  

This is great. Keep communing with the hallowed jazz cabbage.

Lived in Gallup for five years, spent a lot of time driving around and past Fort Wingate. Funny enough, all that rock in those pictures is choss. There's something special about the Wingate in Moab, and I'd love to know what it is...

For the last few decades, the primary purpose of Fort Wingate was to test missiles that were designed to intercept other ballistic missiles. A few times during the years I lived there, a missile would launch suddenly out of the ground there. But that's pretty much over--the base is being decommissioned and divided among the several tribes in the area. 

I was a public defender in Gallup, and I had a lot of fun whenever someone got pulled over for DUI on the mile-long stretch of I-40 along the military base--it's technically federal land, and is being transferred to the BIA to be held in trust for the tribes, but it's not quite complete yet, and so essentially nobody has jurisdiction over it. It's a complete mess. The cops don't seem to know what to do about it.

Some of the best mountain biking in the southwest is up in the hills to the south of Fort Wingate in a place called McGaffey. There's also some sick bouldering (not choss)--PM me if you're interested.

Just a fun way to remember those rock layers. Most Every Naked Kid Wanders Canyons Merrily. 

Greg R wrote:

Just a fun way to remember those rock layers. Most Every Naked Kid Wanders Canyons Merrily. 

You've triggered flash backs to my sed strat class with this...

The Traddest Dad wrote:

This is fun, it reminds me of watching the show "Connections" with James Burke when I was a kid. 

Exactly, I loved that show.  Such a great way to learn or remember history.  Thanks to the OP for such a fun read. Good stuff!

Alec O wrote:

Funny enough, all that rock in those pictures is choss. There's something special about the Wingate in Moab, and I'd love to know what it is...

The Wingate that gets climbed around Moab has a capstone on it, in this case Kayenta rock. Next time you're there look at the condition of the Wingate that still has capstone versus that which doesn't. Wingate is actually a very soft sandstone, erodes easily. Once the Kayenta is gone it starts to erode and crumble pretty fast. Have a peek at towers that no longer have a cap etc...

Looking at the above picture of Fort Wingate it doesn't look like there's any capstone left on top of the Wingate sandstone.

Jordan Dubs wrote:

The Wingate that gets climbed around Moab has a capstone on it, in this case Kayenta rock. Next time you're there look at the condition of the Wingate that still has capstone versus that which doesn't. Wingate is actually a very soft sandstone, erodes easily. Once the Kayenta is gone it starts to erode and crumble pretty fast. Have a peek at towers that no longer have a cap etc...

Looking at the above picture of Fort Wingate it doesn't look like there's any capstone left on top of the Wingate sandstone.

Interesting! Definitely no capstone on the wingate around Fort Wingate. Why does the capstone make the rock harder?

Alec O wrote:

Interesting! Definitely no capstone on the wingate around Fort Wingate. Why does the capstone make the rock harder?

Based on what I know it's not actually making it "harder" per se, but the Kayenta itself is a harder stone. As a cap it helps prevent the elements from eroding into the Wingate below, and likely helps kind of "glue" everything below it in place by capping it off.