Birth of the Department Of the Interior Geological Survey

During the closing hours of the 45th Congress, during the administration of President Rutherford Hayes, a bill was introduced for a new agency to be responsible for "classification of public lands, and examination of the geological structure, mineral resources, and products of the national domain." The legislation stemmed from a 1878 recommendation by the National Academy of Sciences that a series of systematic surveys be undertaken in the American West by civilian scientists. Prior to this mandate, land mapping was under the auspices of a civilian Geographer but carried out by the Army, and coastal mapping was under the auspices of the Treasury and carried out by the Navy. Government geologists were generally associated with the General Land Office, which classified properties and granted titles. Three major surveys were recommended by the NAS: a geological and geographical survey of the Territories (to be done by Ferdinand V. Hayden), a geological and geographical survey of the Rockies (to be done by John W. Powell), and a geological exploration of the 14th parallel (to be done by Clarence King). The NAS recommended that the "Coast and Geodetic Survey" be transferred out of the Treasury and into the new "Department of the Interior" and that geologic and topographic mapping be carried out by a civilian corp of scientists in a "U.S. Geological Survey" group. When the final bill was passed March 3, 1879 the Coast and Geodetic Survey transfer was dropped, but the "U.S. Geological Survey" was officially created. As not to supersede or interfere with Genera1 Land Office, Clarence King (appointed by President Hayes to be the first USGS general director) planned a series of land maps to provide information useful to farmers, miners, engineers, timbermen, and political economists. The surveyors would be headquartered in Washington D.C., but King didn't like working in the Capitol region, and he soon resigned from the post. Newly inaugurated James Garfield appointed John Wesley Powell as King's successor. USGS Geologists continued to work out of Washington D.C. for the next half-century. To consolidate geologists working in the expanse of the west, however, the USGS would eventually seek pieces of California and Colorado ranches for permanent western field centers.

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