Detrital zircon geochronology establishes a maximum age for the formation of 1726 million years (Mya), in the Statherian period of the Precambrian.

The formation is typical of quartzites deposited around 1650 million years ago in the southwestern part of Laurentia, the ancient core of the North American continent.

[1] The White Ledges Formation is thought to be sediments deposited in a nearshore tidal and fluvial environment.

Together with other formations in the region, it records a long-lived tectonic margin along southern Laurentia through much of the Proterozoic (1800 to 1000 million years ago.)

Livingston in 1969 in his doctoral dissertation and named for the White Ledges, a set of quartzite ridges along the Salt River canyon north of Globe, Arizona.