Geology Reference
In-Depth Information
A view of the Cascade Range by E.D. Cope, 1888.
grubstake loans of $50.00 a year to any prospector who
applied and met the requirements. The Department's
first bulletin in 1937 contained federal placer mining
regulations. Clyde P. Ross' "The Geology of Part of the
Wallowa Mountains," in 1938, sold for $.50, and Henry
C. Dake's "The Gem Minerals of Oregon", for $.10 in
the same year. During 1938 the Department issued the
"Press Bulletin" monthly to be replaced a year later by
the "Ore.-Bin", sent free to libraries, universities,
colleges, and legislators. Earl K. Nixon, first Director
of the Department, stated the purpose of the publica-
tion was to
"advise the public of the work of the Depart-
ment and of new and interesting developments in mining,
metallurgy, and geology".
In 1979 the "Ore-Bin" became
"Oregon Geology", the title reflecting a change in
emphasis in the geology of the state in more recent
years.
number of sources. His first edition written in a non
technical manner,
"is concerned mainly with the histori-
cal geology of Oregon...".
The initial edition of Baldwin's
topic was issued and distributed by the University of
Oregon bookstore selling for $2.25 each.
Beginning in the late 1960 s and continuing to
the present, the theories of continental drift and plate
tectonics had the greatest impact on geologic research
and literature in Oregon. Gaining acceptance only after
years of controversy, continental drift theory was
synthesized in 1960 by Harry Hess of Princeton Univer-
sity who compiled facts about the creation and move-
ment of the sea floor in a hypothesis that he called
"geopoetry".
From that point foreward, the concept of plate
tectonics took almost 10 years to cross the continent to
the West Coast where it was ushered in with Robert
Dott's, 1969, "Implications for Sea Floor Spreading".
Dott briefly reported on the
"widely acclaimed hypothe-
sis of sea floor spreading and especially its latest refine-
ment, the lithosphere plate hypothesis..."
touching briefly
on its impact in Oregon. He felt, rightly enough, that
these
"rare simplifying generalizations of knowledge (will)
provide powerful new bases for formulating and rapidly
testing questions about the earth".
In 1970 Tanya Atwat-
er's paper "Implications of Plate Tectonics for the
Cenozoic Evolution of Western North America", an
extensive treatment, appeared. As knowledge of tecton-
ics expanded, the theory that much of the western
margin of North America was made up of accreted
terranes was supported by David L. Jones, N. J. Silber-
During this period, Howel Williams' "The
Ancient Volcanoes of Oregon" (1948) and Ralph
Chaney's "The Ancient Forests of Oregon" (1956) were
the culmination of many years of work in Oregon. A
significant force in Oregon paleobotany for decades,
Chaney wrote and published extensively in the state
until his death in 1971 at the age of 81 years.
Ewart Baldwin, a professor of geology at the
University of Oregon, was another geologist who
worked and published extensively in the state. His first
edition of the
Geology of Oregon
appeared in 1959, just
57 years after Condon's synthesis of Oregon geology.
As with Condon, Baldwin had lived in Oregon for a
number of years and was faced with the task of gather-
ing and compiling information from an overwhelming
