Winchell Memorial 87 



the two great geologic series. Notwithstanding the drift which 

 covers the outcrops at many places. Prof. Winchell seems to have 

 recognized the essential features of the structure long before 

 exploration began. From the beginning his statements concern- 

 ing the value of the ore bodies and the future of the industry 

 were optimistic. They were doubtless a source of encouragement 

 to prospectors and operators throughout the early years when 

 the value of the deposits must have appeared at times problemat- 

 ical. 



Summarizing Prof. Winchell's contributions to the develop- 

 ment of the iron industry of Minnesota, his greatest services 

 were ( 1 ) repeatedly calling attention to the presence of the ores 

 and ore formations in the period before the ranges were brought 

 to a producing stage, and (2) delineating the geologic boundaries 

 of the ore formations so that they could be intelligently pros- 

 pected for concentrations of iron. 



I quote from John Birkenbine, statistician of the United 

 States Geological Survey, in a report of 1896, the following: 

 "The Geological Survey of Minnesota is to be congratulated 

 upon having pointed to the region now known as the Mesabi 

 Range as a probable iron producing district prior to active ex- 

 ploration and the limits in which workable bodies of commercial 

 ore have been found correspond closely with conclusions arrived 

 at by the geologists as to the probable existence of this material." 

 (Seventeenth Annual Report, U. S. Geol. Survey, Pt. Ill, p. 33.) 



Prof. Winchell was a man of tireless energy and methodical 

 habits of study. To both these qualities, or rather to their com- 

 bination, is due his great productiveness as a scholar, extended 

 over a long term of years. The geological museum which \va> 

 built up by Prof. Winchell and his associates, contains collec- 

 tions of Minnesota fossils, minerals, and rocks, determined and 

 labeled with minute attention to details. Among its other valu- 

 able collections will be found one of the best collections of 

 meteorites in the world. As founder and editor of the American 

 Geologist, and as a frequent contributor to it, Prof. Winchell 

 stimulated the study of geology throughout the world. For many 

 years this was the only publication exclusively devoted to geology 

 in the United States, and today its successor, Economic Geology, 

 is the world's leading exponent of applied geology. 



