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Clarence King the newly established Sheffield Scientific School. He excelled in geology under Professors George Brush and James D. Dana and was graduated in 1862 in the first Sheffield class. During the winter following his graduation, he attended lectures in glaciology by Louis Agassiz at Harvard. King also socialized in Rock Stars the New York City art community, which spawned an interest in art and elegant living. Clarence King In 1863, Josiah Whitney’s geological exploration of California and the accounts of Mount Shasta by William Brewer, Whitney’s chief assistant, called King west. He trav- (1842–1901): eled via wagon train and on horseback, visiting rip-roar- ing mining towns and experiencing harrowing encounters with unsavory miners. These experiences are recalled in Pioneering King’s Mountaineering in the Sierra Nevada, regarded by S.F. Emmons in 1902 (p. 236) “... as far the best book of its kind that had ever been written.” Once in California, King Geologist convinced Whitney to allow him to serve as a volunteer on the new California Geological Survey. During three years with Whitney, he made many Sierran first ascents and named of the summits such as “Dana,” “Brewer,” “Lyell,” and “Whitney,” as well as “King.” Although they did not always agree, Whitney considered King a competent employee. While in California, West King conceived of organizing a more extensive survey of the American West, which would connect Whitney’s survey with the Hayden survey 800 miles to the east, along the route of the transcontinental railroad. Fortieth Parallel Survey Though young, King convinced Congress to fund geologic mapping of some 100,000 square miles of desert, with King in charge. His success derived in part from endorsements by Brewer, Dana, and Agassiz directed toward the powerful bu- reaucrat, Secretary of War Edwin Stanton; from King’s prior by K.R. Aalto, Department of Geology, Humboldt State naming of a Sierran peak in honor of California’s statesman University, Arcata, CA 95521, [email protected] John Conness; as well as from King’s skill in social settings. Moreover, he adroitly stressed the potential economic benefit of the survey for the discovery of more precious metals de- Introduction posits like Nevada’s fabulous Comstock Lode. Clarence King is well known for his organization of one King’s proposed survey required preparation of suitable of the principal post–Civil War geological surveys of the topographic base maps at a scale of 4 miles to the inch and a American West, the Geological Exploration of the Fortieth contour interval of 300 feet. The Hayden, Powell, Wheeler, Parallel. The fact that, at the age of 25, he was given com- and later surveys adopted his example in making topographi- plete command of a five-year mapping project from the Sierra cal maps the basis for portraying geology. Despite bouts of ill- Nevada across the Rocky Mountains attests to a remark- ness, which affected the entire survey party, and the need to ably charismatic personality. His survey volume, Systematic replace some of his staff, the survey field work, begun in Geology, ranks as one of the great scientific works of the late 1867, was completed in 1872. Throughout, King demonstrated nineteenth century. a gift for buoying flagging morale. Survey results were pub- lished in seven volumes as the Geological Exploration of the Young Clarence King Fortieth Parallel, with two accompanying atlases. King ar- Clarence King was born in 1842 to a prosperous and reli- ranged that Mining Industry (v. 3, 1870) appear first in order gious Rhode Island family. In spite of the untimely death of to demonstrate the utility of his survey. Descriptive Geology his father in 1848 and economic adversity, King’s mother de- (v. 2, 1877) and King’s own Systematic Geology (v. 1, 1878) voted herself to his education, initially emphasizing literature, appeared shortly thereafter. A major coup was to persuade the art, and music. She relocated first to New Haven and then world leader in the new petrographic study of rocks, to Hartford to assure good schooling. Later, she encouraged Ferdinand Zirkel, to prepare Microscopical Petrography (v. 6, Clarence’s interests in natural history, reading to him from 1876). Other volumes reviewed aspects of paleontology, bot- Hitchcock’s Geology after he expressed an interest in fossils. any, and ornithology. Of Systematic Geology, G.K. Gilbert Following his mother’s remarriage, King’s stepfather financed stated, “Few American geologists have undertaken as wide an undergraduate education at Yale, where King enrolled in a range of theoretic and economic studies and none have ac- 18 FEBRUARY 2004, GSA TODAY quitted themselves with greater credit” his contemporaries...” (Adams, 1918, lakes Lahontan (which he named) and (Wilkins, 1988, p. 227). p. 388). Bonneville. To recuperate from one of his ever King was convinced that Lyellian uni- Later Career more frequent bouts of illness and a formitarianism, a theory of gradualism King led efforts to found a national nervous breakdown, King went to Cuba and constancy of processes, could not geological survey to oversee explora- in 1894, where he reveled in both geol- explain the geologic evolution of the re- tion of the West, and, in 1879, with ogy and interaction with the natives. gion surveyed, especially late Cenozoic endorsements from the foremost geolo- (Adams [1919] reflected on his love of effusive volcanism and the magnitude gists of the day, he was appointed first exotic culture and the adventurous as- of glacial drainages. These views led director of the U.S. Geological Survey pect of consorting with Cuban rebels King to be classed as a catastrophist. (USGS). He set the highest standards intent on overthrowing Spanish colonial However, he was in good company and focused survey endeavors on min- rule.) King’s long-term common-law with most late nineteenth century geolo- eral exploration, mapping, and experi- marriage in 1888 to an uneducated gists in calling for greater variations of mental petrology. He also established black woman, Ada, 20 years his junior, both rates and intensities of processes a physical laboratory to investigate the was known only to Adams and Hay, than Charles Lyell preached. King also effects of pressure and temperature who upon King’s death provided a sti- believed that evolution did not proceed upon the melting point of rocks. King pend for support of Ada and their five at a steady pace. Blending catastrophe had accepted the directorship with the children. Clarence King died of tubercu- and “adaptivity,” he proposed that the understanding that he would serve only losis in Arizona on December 24, 1901, former was an integral part of the cause to launch the USGS. In 1881, having at the age of 59. of change. Destruction of biological placed the organization on a firm foot- equilibrium engendered by catastrophic ing, he arranged transfer of the director- King’s Geology in the Context of change contributed to rapid morpho- ship to his handpicked successor, John his Era logical change among what he termed Wesley Powell. When viewed in the context of his “plastic species” (King, 1877, p. 468– With extravagant interests in art col- times, the interpretations that King pre- 469). King in essence proposed a blend- lecting, literature, travel, and elegant sented in Systematic Geology and later ing of Darwin’s ideas on natural selec- living, King now hoped to use his papers reflect superb critical thinking. tion with the variable rate of change of geological talents to acquire a fortune By recognizing several unconformity- geological processes. Employing data in mining. He traveled throughout the bound depositional sequences, he on rock fusion gathered at the USGS continent but met with little success. In established a framework for orogenic Physical Laboratory, King (1893) at- 1872, King’s exposure of a major dia- history that has remained largely un- tempted to advance to new precision mond fraud made him a sought-after changed. In evaluating King’s geology, Kelvin’s estimate of Earth’s age deduced expert witness in mining disputes, pro- one should realize that conventional from terrestrial refrigeration, determin- viding him with supplemental income. wisdom of the time held all coarsely ing a maximum age of 24 Ma. Given this However, a worldwide economic de- crystalline rocks to be Archean and that young age, insufficient time remained to pression, technical difficulties associated Archean topography greatly influenced construct a Lyellian geologic record of with several promising mining pros- Phanerozoic structural development of the Fortieth Parallel area. pects, and lack of ready capital forced a region; Archean faults and mountain Under King’s sound leadership, the King to borrow heavily from friends. His ranges were lines of weakness where USGS became a successful govern- health began to fail due to recurrent spi- later orographic movements would ex- ment agency, and by personal ex- nal inflammation, and he suffered bouts press themselves. These ideas reflected ample, he put an end to internecine of depression. He largely withdrew from the influential teachings of his Yale warfare among geologists mapping the the scientific world and concentrated mentor, Dana. American West. He demonstrated the on mineral exploration and his life as a King clearly described the effects of utility of allying science, government, clubman in New York City. As a scien- terminal Paleozoic orogenesis, based and industry, perhaps his greatest con- tist, aesthete, and highly regarded racon- in part upon the appearance of west- tribution to our science. teur, King moved in the highest social ern-derived siliciclastic sediments, and circles of New York and Washington. correctly delineated major structural References Cited & Further Reading His reputation was such that King was effects of both the Sevier and Laramide Adams, H., 1918, The education of Henry Adams: an auto- received at Court in England on a tri- orogenies.
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