the Arid Region of the United States. . . . "203 

 To adf^ to the multiplicity of surveys of the West, 

 the demonstrably efficient and scientific Coast 

 Survey became the Coast and Geodetic Survey in 



1878.204 



USGS— Early History 



The U. S. Geological Survey (USGS) was es- 

 tablished on March 3, 1879, when legislation, 

 based on the recommendations of the National 

 Academy of Sciences and passed by the House 

 but not by the Senate, was transferred from a bill 

 that was stalled because of civil rights legislation 

 to another bill which was passed in the closing 

 hours of the 45th Congress. Surveys previously 

 conducted under the War Department by Wheeler 

 and under the Interior Department by Hayden and 

 Powell were discontinued (but provision was 

 made for the continuation of Powell's work in 

 ethnology under the Smithsonian Institution). 205 

 Clarence King became the first director of the 

 Geological Survey and planned a program empha- 

 sizing research in mineral deposits. In 1881, he 

 was succeeded by Powell, who continued his eth- 

 nologic work for the Smithsonian from his Geo- 

 logical Survey office. Powell expanded the level 

 of activity of the Survey by bringing in excellent 

 scientists and allowing them to plan their own 

 research. He employed college professors for part 

 of the year and persuaded O. C. Marsh to become 

 the Survey's vertebrate paleontologist with per- 

 mission to work out of Yale. A very important 

 series of monographs on vertebrate paleontology 

 resulted. Powell also set up a chemical laboratory 

 in the Survey's Washington quarters following a 

 precedent established in Denver and San Francis- 

 co under King. 206 



In 1888, Congress mandated the Department of 

 the Interior to examine areas requiring irrigation 

 for agriculture; they provided funds for investigat- 

 ing the extent to which the arid regions could be 

 redeemed by irrigation, the segregation of irriga- 

 ble lands, and the selection of sites for reservoirs 

 and other hydraulic works. To prevent specula- 

 tors from obtaining the land, a proviso was added 

 that all lands designated for reservoirs, etc., be 

 reserved and not subject to entry or settlement 

 unless the President opened them to settlement 

 under the Homestead Law. The exact meaning of 

 the reservation clause became an issue, and the 



Attorney General ruled that all lands that might 

 possibly come under the 1888 law were reserved; 

 in fact, the entire arid region was closed to entry. 

 A storm of protest arose and the entire irrigation 

 survey was wiped out in 1890. Two years later, 

 basic research was attacked in the House and a 

 coalition of Senators led by those who felt Pow- 

 ell's approach to the irrigation problem was wrong 

 voted to severely cut Survey funds. Powell re- 

 signed as Director in 1894, but continued his eth- 

 nologic work for the Smithsonian, and C. D. Wal- 

 cott, the Survey's first paleontologist, became 

 Director. 207 



Under Walcott, there was a gradual restoration 

 of the research program in economic geology. One 

 of the first accomplishments of the Walcott regime 

 was authorization for the Survey to gauge streams 

 and determine the water supply of the United 

 States, thus providing for research in water re- 

 sources. Skillful management of this program aid- 

 ed in the passage of the Reclamation Law in 1902 

 and resulted in the assignment of the reclamation 

 program to the Survey. In 1907, the Reclamation 

 Service became an iridependent agency, but the 

 Survey continued the research in water re- 

 sources. 208 (Responsibility for water resources is 

 now shared by the Survey and the Oflice of Water 

 Research and Technology, established in the Sec- 

 retary's Office in 1964.) 



In 1904, the Survey began a program of deter- 

 mining the physical and chemical properties of 

 coal, and in 1905, of the properties of structural 

 materials. In 1908, the Survey began research re- 

 lating to mine safety, and in 1910, the Bureau of 

 Mines was established to continue the work of 

 mine safety and fuel testing; the testing of struc- 

 tural materials was transferred to the National 

 Bureau of Standards. By the beginning of the 20th 

 century, the Survey had attained such an excel- 

 lent reputation that its scientists were called on to 

 aid other countries in developing their mineral and 

 water resources and mapping programs. The Phil- 

 ippines and some Caribbean countries were given 

 assistance of this kind immediately after the 

 Spanish-American War. In 1907, Walcott's last 

 year as Director, the Survey's total funds were 

 $1.9 million; $1.8 million was directly appropria- 

 ted, of which $350,000 was for fuel and structural 

 materials testing, $350,000 for topographic map- 

 ping, $365,000 for geologic and mineral resources 

 programs, $150,000 for water resources, and 

 $20,000 for chemistry and physics.209 



-OMbid., pp. 199-200; Ameriai 2<X). Dp. cit., p. 79. 



-iMDupree, pp. 202-2(0. 



^'•The U.S. Geological Survey: lis History, Activities, and 

 Organ izut ion. Service Monograph No. I (Institute for Govern- 

 ment Research: New York, 1918), pp. 6-9; Dupree, pp. 204, 209. 



-*'USGS communication to NSB staff, [December 1977. 



346 COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS AND HISTORICAL TRENDS 



207Rabbitl. M.C., A Brief History of the U.S. Geological 

 Survey (GPO: Washington, D.C., 1974). pp. 9-11. 



2<»lbid..pp. 11-14. 



2*1/. 5. Geological Survey 2Sth Annual Report. Fiscal Year 

 1907. 



