 The ideal garden soil is a nice dark brown, but we all know that isn't a typical Wyoming soil. Instead, nature has provided us with a beautiful rainbow of soil colors. The most stunning display of soil colors can be seen in Badlands areas. Millions of years of soil deposition from different sources, along with erosion, have created a soil profile with distinct layers. They're easy to see because of the sparse vegetation in Badlands. The dark brown color, in what we think of as an ideal garden soil, comes from high organic matter content. Since Wyoming soil has very low organic matter content, native soils are rarely dark brown. The contributing factors to soil color besides organic matter are mineralogy and presence of iron. Mineralogy is the middle makeup of the rock that the soil weathered from. Some soils can be white, black, or even green. The presence of iron can also influence soil color. Red soils result from high levels of oxidized iron, which we call rust. Yellow soils contain hydrated iron, and a chemical reaction of iron due to the lack of oxygen makes wetland soils gray. All the colors of the rainbow aren't just in the sky. They can be under your feet as well. Maybe if you do a little digging, you'll find the pot of gold. From the University of Wyoming Extension, I'm Mae Smith, Exploring the Nature of Wyoming.