398 BEGINNINGS OF ECONOMIC GEOLOGY 
was soon engaged for the Union Pacific Company, and made half 
a dozen rather elaborate reports. This unique personage was a 
Fortieth Parallel Survey unto himself. These reports of his on 
the coal deposits of the Green River Basin, the Bear River Valley, 
and the headwaters of the Weber River, were especially full and 
lucid, and they would do credit to present day investigation. 
Presently, in 1869, Clarence King came along to make in¬ 
quiries concerning the railroad’s coal lands soon to be exploited. 
It was presumed that he was really endeavoring to get charge, if 
possible, of the economic and mining work of the road. Dodge 
told him of Van Lennep’s great efforts and fine results; and gave 
him copies of the latter’s reports. In the subsequent Fortieth 
Parallel Survey publications King’s chapter on the Green River 
Coal Basin contains nothing of consequence that is not given in 
full in the Van Lennep’s notes. The value of the latter is indi¬ 
cated by the fact that King was so willing to put them into print 
without material changes in contents except as to the slight ad¬ 
ditions relating to some general geological observations. 
Although entirely unknown to the geologists of this generation 
Van Lennep’s geological work for the Union Pacific Railroad 
Company marks an initial epoch in the history of economic geology 
in this country. His reports are sufficiently comprehensive to 
have been well worth publishing at the time; and they doubtless 
would have been had the investigations been made under Govern¬ 
mental auspices. That they were not printed was strictly in ac¬ 
cordance with private business policy of that day which rigidly 
prevails to this day. But this work for private interests was so 
great, so unusual as divorced from Governmental surveys, so 
meritorious per se, that it deserves notice and formal record even 
at this late date, as an important beginning in Applied Geology in 
America. The Van Lennep manuscripts repose in the archives of 
the Iowa State Historical Department. As a pioneer of pioneers 
in this field David Van Lennep’s name should not be permitted 
to pass into oblivion. 
