Geology Reference
In-Depth Information
as a University of Oregon Bulletin. This short account
of 42 pages takes
"an inventory of our knowledge"
of
Oregon geology presented in a fairly technical manner.
Most of the text deals with stratigraphy, although there
is a short section on the geologic history and econom-
ics of the state. Smith, serving as chairman of the
Geology Department some time after Thomas Condon,
received numerous requests for copies of the publica-
tion, which was not distributed commercially but which
he sent out without charge.
Classic papers by Ira Williams, "The Columbia
River Gorge; its Geologic History", with its outstanding
photographs, appeared in 1916 as did J. Harlan Bretz's
controversial papers, "The Channeled Scablands of the
Columbia Plateau" (1923) and "The Spokane Flood
beyond the Channeled Scablands" (1925). Geologists
dismissed Bretz's ideas and were slow to accept the
notion of large-scale floods.
Following Decades
Several geologic steps forward in the state took
place in the 1930's. The first of these occurred with the
beginning of the school year in 1932, when a new
department of science at State College in Corvallis
began to train students in geology. A shy, well-known
paleontologist, Earl L. Packard, was the reluctant dean
of the new science school. Prior to this time, geology
classes had been taught at Corvallis by the School of
Mines. In 1932 the school of geology along with other
science departments was transferred from the Universi-
ty of Oregon at Eugene to Corvallis where all science
programs were combined. The purpose of the reorgani-
zation was to reduce duplication in class offerings
during times of financial stress. The decision was based
on recommendations made after a survey of Oregon
higher education had been conducted. In the sciences
the major argument soon emerged over the issue of
which school should offer "pure" science as opposed to
"applied" science.
As a result of this arrangement, 86 sets of
science journals were moved from the University of
Oregon to the library at Corvallis. These topics were
never fully processed at State College, and the transfer
of topics ceased in 1933 when the University of Oregon
librarian, O.F Stafford, Dean Packard's official repre-
sentative at the University of Oregon, refused to allow
Beilstein's
Handbook of Organic Chemistry
to be moved
from the Eugene campus. After a decade of unhappi-
ness, protest, and conflict, the State Board of Higher
Education restored the natural sciences to Eugene in
1942.
Ficus,
Berberis
.
Platanus
,
and
Quercus
drawn by John Newberry, 1898.
Some years earlier, in 1911, the State Legislature had
created a state Department of Geology, nearly 40 years
after Thomas Condon's appointment as the State
Geologist. This Oregon Bureau of Mines and Geology
was first incorporated into the Oregon Agricultural
College at Corvallis, but, when beset with financial and
bureaucratic problems, the Bureau disbanded in 1923.
In spite of these troubles the Bureau had contributed
significantly to the geologic literature by issuing
bulletins, short papers, maps, and miscellaneous
publications.
In an attempt to rectify the situation, the
Legislature created the present Department of Geology
and Mineral Industries in 1937 with a biennial operat-
ing budget of $60,000 and an additional $40,000 to
Yet another geologic milestone was marked in
1937 with the initiation of a state geology department.
