Minnesota Geological Survey papers

The Minnesota Geological and Natural History Survey (MGNHS) was established by an act of the Minnesota state legislature on May 1, 1872 under the auspices of the University of Minnesota Board of Regents. Newton Horace Winchell, field geologist and contributor to the Michigan and Ohio surveys, was hired as the State Geologist and director of the survey in June of 1872. Winchell began his work, which was to record all geological, botanical, and zoological phenomena in the state, in September of 1872.

Winchell directed both the geological and natural history division of the survey up until the botanical and zoological divisions were formally separated from the geological survey in 1888 and 1890, respectively. Winchell continued to direct the geological survey until 1900, when the six-volume Final Report of the MGNHS was published. At that time, the Board of Regents declared the geological survey complete and relieved Winchell of his duties. The botanical and zoological divisions continued under the direction of the State Botanist, Conway MacMillan, and State Zoologist, Henry Nachtrieb, respectively.

Though the geological survey was deemed concluded in 1900, Christopher Webber Hall, who became chair of the department of geology after Winchell, and other faculty, conducted fieldwork and produced reports on the state water supply at the request of the U.S. Geological Survey in the Lake Superior region throughout the first decade of the 20th century. Hall retired from the University in 1911.

In 1911, the Board of Regents recommended to the state legislature that appropriations be made for the establishment of a State Geological Survey aligned with the Department of Geology at the University. The survey was not to be a continuation of the original MGNHS, but rather a separate formalized examination of the rock, clay, ores, and other valuable natural materials of the state. In April of 1911 the state legislature allocated $6,500 to fund the survey. William Harvey Emmons of the U.S. Geology Survey was hired as the chair of the geology department and director of the Minnesota Geological Survey (MGS). Emmons served in that role from December 15, 1911 until his retirement on June 30, 1944.

List of Directors:

The survey was removed administratively from the Department of Geology and organized as a separate University department in 1961 and became part of the School of Earth Science in the Institute of Technology in 1962. Today, the Minnesota Geological Survey is a department in the University’s Newton Horace Winchell School of Earth Sciences.