General statement on the Cedar Creek slide, Montrose, Colorado

The Cedar Creek slide is located about ten miles east of Montrose in southwestern Colorado, along the Denver Rio Grande and Western Railroad. It occupies an area about 1,000 feet square and has a maximum height above the railroad grade of more than 300 feet. The slide occurred on the north edge of a large undulated mesa composed of massive to thin-layered Mancos shale capped by 15 to 25 feet of coarse boulder gravels.