CONTENTS Early Explorations and Surveys of the Public Domain: Geographical and Geological Surveys: 1867-1879 Establishment of the U. S. Geological Survey, 1879 Extension of Operations to the Country at Large . Examination Under Act of March 1, 1911, of Land Pro- posed to be Purchased by the Government for Protec- Investigation of the Character and Value of Public Lands 59 74 75 THE U. S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY: ITS HISTORY, ACTIVITIES AND ORGANIZATION CHAPTER I HISTORY The United States Geological Survey, a bureau of the Department of the Interior, is engaged chiefly in surveying the geology, topography, and related features of the United States and in publishing the results of its surveys and investigations. Early Explorations and Surveys of the Public Domain: 1804-1865. Previous to the establishment of the Geological Survey, the surveys conducted by the national government were chiefly exploratory in character, and were, therefore, confined almost wholly to the western country. Numerous surveys were made at an early date, most of them by the Army, partly for military use and partly to extend geographical knowledge. The most important was the Lewis and Clark Expedition of 1804-1806, which ascended the Missouri to its sources and then descended the Columbia to the Pacific. The expeditions of Pike in 1805 and 1807 to the sources of the Mississippi and the Arkansas were also of prime importance. In 1820 an important expedition in Upper Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota was conducted by General Cass, then Superintendent of Indian Affairs; and in 1832 an expedition to one of the sources of the Mississippi was made by Schoolcraft, the famous student of Indian life, while traveling in behalf of the Bureau of Indian Affairs. While as early as 1820 General Cass had taken a mineralogist with him, it was not until 1834 that Congress made a specific appropriation for geological surveys. The act of June 28, 1834, appropriated $5,000 "to be applied to geological and mineralogical survey and researches." This appropriation was used in making a geological survey of the country between the Missouri River and the Red River, and the resulting report contained, in addition to an account of the geology and mineralogy of the areas covered, a geologic section of the country from the New Jersey coast to the Red River in Texas. In the period from 1835 to 1850 the surveys and explorations made in the western country under Army auspices rapidly increased in number. Of these perhaps the most noteworthy were those of Captain, later General Fremont. Of the civilian surveys of the period, those made by David Dale Owen, beginning in 1839, under the auspices of the General Land Office, were of great importance, embracing as they did the geology of the region now included in the states of Illinois, Iowa, Wisconsin and Minnesota. During 1853-1861 the War Department, under authority of the act of March 3, 1853 (10 Stat. L., 219) and supplementary acts, made surveys for a railroad from the Mississippi River to the Pacific Ocean, geologists accompanying each of the field parties. The investigations made were reported in thirteen quarto volumes, published in 1855-1860 under the title, "Reports of explorations and surveys to ascertain the most practicable and economical route for a railroad from the Mississippi River to the Pacific Ocean." During the Civil War and for a year or more thereafter no government survey of note appears to have been undertaken. Geographical and Geological Surveys: 1867-1879. With the close of the war the work of surveying and mapping the western country was renewed with increased vigor. Between 1867 and 1869 four surveying expeditions were put in the field, two by the War Department and two by the Department of the Interior, as follows: 1. Geological Exploration of the Fortieth Parallel. The act of March 2, 1867 (14 Stat. L., 457) provided for "a geological and topographical exploration of the territory between the Rocky Mountains and the Sierra Nevada Mountains, including the route or routes of the Pacific Railroad." This survey was made under the jurisdiction of the War Department but its director, Clarence King, was a civilian, as were also all his scientific assistants. The territory surveyed comprised a belt 105 miles in width extending from longitude 104° 30′ to longitude 120°,—that is, from Cheyenne, Wyoming, to the eastern boundary of California. The survey was primarily geological in character but included also the topography of the region. The results of the survey were published in 1870-1880 in seven volumes and an atlas. The total cost of the survey and its publications was $383,711. 2. Geological and Geographical Survey of the Territories. The act of March 2, 1867 (14 Stat. L., 471, sec. 2) called for "a geological survey of Nebraska, said survey to be prosecuted under the direction of the Commissioner of the General Land Office." F. V. Hayden was assigned to this work and was subsequently designated United States geologist for the territories of Colorado and New Mexico. As the work progressed, its scope was by authority of Congress extended over all the territories and work was done in Wyoming, Idaho, Montana, New Mexico and Colorado, the total area embraced in systematic surveys reaching about 100,000 square miles. This survey was primarily geological, but its activities included work on topography, geology, paleontology, ethnology, philology, botany and kindred sciences. The results were published in a series of volumes which were issued from 1867 to 1883.1 1 The titles of the reports for 1867-1872 do not contain the word "geographical;" those for 1873-1878 do contain that word. The titles of the bulletins read: Bulletin of the United States Geological and Geographical Survey of the Territories. |