Lithostratigraphic correlation of the Eocene Queen City Formation in Anderson, Cherokee, and Upshur Counties reveals three distinct facies indicative of a clastic shoreline environment: (1) flood-tidal delta, (2) lower shoreface and shelf, and (3) coastal barrier-island complex. These facies were identified on the basis of diagnostic physical structures.

The Eocene flood-tidal delta in Cherokee County is dominated by landward-dipping (northwest) foreset beds. This delta probably formed at the mouth of a microtidal estuary and was affected by storm processes and tidal currents. Lower Queen City shoreface and shelf structures are found in northern Cherokee County revealing the enigmatic feature of hummocky cross-stratification. These undulating sets of low-angle cross-beds are commonly affected by storm-wave processes and indicate a fairly shallow fairweather wave base during their Eocene deposition. Exposures of the Eocene coastal barrier-island complex in Upshur County reveal a regressive sequence with a back-barrier coastal marsh at the base. Successively overlying the coastal marsh are lagoon, coastal mud flat, tidal channel, and ba head-delta facies. Preservation of the vertical succession of these facies beneath the transgressive Weches formation implies continued subsidence and sedimentation.

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