Rock formations in this region often posed formidable obstacles to early settlers, but they also provided useful natural resources through the Dakota Formation, whose bottommost layer is visible atop the Entrada sandstone cliffs. Formed from the remains of lush coastal swamps that covered this region more than 80 million years ago, it yielded coal and bentonite clay. Thin coal seams in upper Bryce Valley supported a handful of small mining operations that supplied heating fuel to area residents during the 1900s. In the mid-1900s, bentonite clay was mined about a mile east of here, and in the late 1930’s a Henrieville mine produced thousands of tons from these hills. Because bentonite can absorb many times its volume in water, it found uses ranging from water storage and well drilling to cat litter and medicines, and much of the bentonite was trucked to the Glen Canyon Dam site for use in a coffer dam that diverted the river so the main dam could be built. To aid transport, local men donated time and machinery to complete the Cottonwood Road from Cannonville to Route 89. In the early 1900s, a small coal mine opened about two miles from here where local residents bought hand-dug coal for their stoves, and during the 1940’s the Shakespear mine near Tropic blasted coal seams with dynamite and hauled out coal with horse-drawn trailers.