Abstract ref. 2008:
Buildups in the Lodgepole Formation were deposited throughout the Kinderhookian to Osagean Williston Basin. The Williston Basin was tectonically active at this
time as the depositional axis of the basin was shifting from a northerly connection to the ocean through the Elk Point Basin in Alberta to a westerly connection through
the Central Montana Trough. This structural setting provided a range of depositional sites for buildups to develop on shelves, ramps, intrabasinal blocks and around
intrashelf basins. 
     A textural, compositional and geometric range of buildups record a spectrum of depositional processes from hydrodynamically deposited grainstone shoals to
organically mediated reefs and mud-dominated mounds. Geometries range from lens-shaped shoals and banks to mounds. Lensoidal buildups are associated with
coarser grainstone and packstone textures as well as other shallow water indicators such as ooids and, or, photoautotrophic corals. Mound-shaped geometries
generally are dominated by muddier textures and are associated with deeper-water indicators such as filter feeding organisms with delicate skeletons. 
     A textural spectrum of buildups ranges from mud-dominated with few bryozoans and crinoids, to crinoid, bryozoan grainstones with, and without, coral
framestones or ooids. Mud dominated buildups are best exemplified by mud mound outcrops in two locations in the Bridger Range in Montana. The coarsest
buildups are exemplified by coral, crinoid, bryozoan reefs at two outcrops in the Little Belt Mountains in Montana, and by crinoid, ooid grainstones in the subsurface
of  Manitoba (Canada), and along the Cedar Creek Anticline in North Dakota and Montana. Mound complexes comprised of a broad mixture of textures from
grainstones and organically mediated wackestones and mudstones are known from three outcrops in the Big Snowy Mountains in Montana, and drill cores from
Saskatchewan (Canada), and Montana and North Dakota. 
     Buildup textures, compositions and depositional styles vary according to paleodepositional location in the Lodgepole sea as a response to hydrodynamic
variations, trophic requirements and water qualities. The occurrence of organically mediated buildups is widely distributed: 1) on, or around, intrabasinal blocks and
basins, 2) on the basin floor, 3) at the base of, or across the slope/ramp, or 4) near the top of the slope/ramp. Grainstone shoals and sheet sands were deposited on
the Lodgepole shelf near the break in shelf slope or high on the ramp. The spectrum of buildups reflects the wide range in environmental variables and the diversity of
settings for buildups to develop in the Lodgepole sea. 