Old information that's young in geologic time . . . .

By Dave Frank

For 125 years, work by USGS scientists has provided information crucial to the creation of sound public policies that ensure future supplies of mineral resources while protecting the health of our Nation's citizens. The Outreach and Technology Exchange project (see http://minerals.usgs.gov/west/projects/teer.shtml) helps to manage three historic archives of USGS minerals-related information, dating from 1898 to the present. The archives are the Alaska Technical Data Unit (Anchorage, AK), the Defense Minerals Exploration Administration records (Spokane, WA), and the Latin American Archive (Tucson, AZ). These archives house geologic and minerals related material, gathered by the USGS over its lifetime. A fact-sheet describing these Archives is available online at http://geopubs.wr.usgs.gov/fact-sheet/fs099-00/

Alaska Technical Data Unit

In 1896, three men discovered gold on the Klondike River in the Yukon Territory of Canada. When news of the discovery reached the outside world in the summer of 1897, thousands of men and women began a great rush to the Yukon Territory and Alaska. In January 1898, Congress appropriated funds for the USGS to make geologic and topographic surveys in Alaska. As geologists made plans for fieldwork, a young Walter C. Mendenhall wrote in a letter to Alfred H. Brooks:

Interest here among a good many of the younger men is centered in the Alaskan plans which Mr. Willis and the Director are considering at present. The bill appropriating $20,000 was signed by the president a week or more ago. This with the unexpended appropriation of $5,000 made last year gives them a good working sum. The plan being considered at present involves the sending in of four or five different parties, each in charge of a geologist and accompanied by a topographer and several camp hands. The tendency seems to be to choose pretty big men to put in charge of these parties. Spurr, of course, will have charge of one. Keith has been offered another, and will probably take it if he can agree with the Director upon the time of starting. He thinks that he cannot be ready before the first of May, while the parties are expected to start at least a month earlier. Eldridge has been mentioned for another, but I believe that the matter has not been broached to him yet, unless it was brought up yesterday. It was hoped at one time that I.C. Russell might be willing to take a command, but I don't know whether he has been communicated with or not. Schrader rather put himself out of the game earlier, when he thought there would be nothing open to him but an assistantship, by expressing a preference for work in the States. I think that if an independent party were offered him under the new plans, he would take it, and I should not wonder if one were offered him. I am sorry that Hayes is not here, for there is no doubt that he would be given an opportunity to carry out some of his cherished plans for exploration there. Your own application is being considered, but I do not know what your chances are. I think, though, that the chances of the younger men depend in some measure upon the attitude of the more experienced geologists. Several of these latter will be offered parties first; if they don't want them, the boys may be given a chance. I applied some time since for a transfer to the West and took the occasion to mention that I was in a receptive mood so far as Alaska was concerned. B.W. [Bailey Willis?] called me up the other day and told me confidentially that he didn't think that I had a ghost of a show to get an Alaskan assignment, since something would be required there besides a superabundance of W.Va. experience. I told him that that was all right but I should like to have some assurance that the W.Va. dose was not to be unnecessarily prolonged. He made me happy by saying that I should be sent West this summer, perhaps with Smith in northern Washington. Other plans will not be touched, of course, until the Alaskan assignments are settled, but Tom Reed and some others have set their faces toward an early adjournment of congress, hence there seems to be some ground for hope that the regular appropriation will not drag along until long after July 1st, as it usually does with a new congress.

As it turned out, both Brooks and Mendenhall realized their ambitions that year, each leading a field party to Alaska, along with the aforementioned Spurr, Eldridge, and Schrader. Brooks continued to work in Alaska and served as head of Alaskan operations from 1903 until his death in 1924. Mendenhall returned for three more field seasons (1900-02) and eventually served as Director of the U.S. Geological Survey from 1930 until 1943.

Mendenhall's letter is just one of the historical records preserved in the Alaska Technical Data Unit (ATDU) in Anchorage, AK. ATDU is the archive of original geologic field notes, maps, correspondence, and unpublished reports that document the history of USGS work in Alaska. The two major categories of reference materials are the Project History files and the Geologic Subject files.

The Project History files encompass much of the raw data from which the Federal geologic maps of Alaska have been compiled. These files include

• Geologic notebooks containing the original field observations, descriptions, and sketches by USGS geologists working in Alaska since 1891. More than 3,700 notebooks are arranged in numerical order and are indexed in a computerized database. Microfilms of these notebooks are also available for onsite use at the USGS in Menlo Park, California.
  
  
• Map files containing more than 850 sets of original field sheets and sketch maps, map compilations, cross sections, diagrams, and annotated aerial photographs. These materials are arranged by quadrangle and are also indexed in a computerized database.
  
  
• Paleontological notebooks containing fossil identifications made at various localities in Alaska since 1898. These notebooks are arranged by year of collection, and there is no index for this record group.
  
  
• Petrographic thin sections made from rock samples collected in the field for analysis and description. More than 30,000 sections are indexed by year and collector.
  
  

The Geologic Subject files incorporate more than 6,500 files containing unpublished reports, speeches and lectures, correspondence, reprints, photographs, and historical materials relating to USGS activities in Alaska. Also included are some reports by the Alaska Power Authority and the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission, handwritten translations of Russian geologic texts, and a small collection of Alaskan military terrain studies and highway reports. These files are indexed under 31 subject headings in a computerized database.

The Economic Mineral files are a subset of the Geologic Subject files that pertain to mineral resources, mineral commodities, and mining activities in Alaska. These files contain news clippings, company reports, mine histories and production summaries, and USGS evaluations of "strategic mineral" properties for the Defense Minerals Administration and its successors. On-line indexes are available at: http://alaskaminerals.wr.usgs.gov/atdu/aktkdata.htm

For further information, write to: Jill Schneider, Technical Data Unit E-mail: jschnidr@usgs.gov

Property Files from Federal Government Exploration-Assistance Programs 1950-74

In the 1950s, the Korean War created another opportunity for the USGS. With little mineral exploration being done by mining companies during the Depression of the 1930s and during World War II, most company activity was directed at mineral production. At the onset of the Korean War, the Nation's mineral-resource base was at a low. To help correct that situation, in 1950, Congress enacted the Defense Production Act, which authorized the President to make provision for the encouragement of exploration, development, and mining of critical and strategic minerals, metals, and materials. The President delegated his authority to the Department of the Interior, among other agencies, and the Secretary of the Interior established the Defense Minerals Administration (DMA). One of the purposes of this program was to provide Government support for exploration of unknown or undeveloped mineral deposits. A program was established to provide funds for projects that sought or developed sources of strategic or critical metals and minerals. When this program was terminated in November 1951, the Department of the Interior formed the Defense Minerals Exploration Administration (DMEA) and continued it until June 1958. In August of that year, Congress enacted a law that authorized the Secretary of the Interior to provide financial assistance, which would promote exploration for domestic mineral reserves, and the Secretary formed the Office of Minerals Exploration (OME). In 1965, this program was transferred to the USGS, where it remained until Congress terminated funding in 1974. Contracts with these agencies provided financial assistance for exploration on a joint-participation basis.

These contracts are documented in over 5,000 property files (called "dockets") generated by the DMA-DMEA-OME exploration-assistance programs. The first item in most dockets is the property owner's program application, which would contain information concerning the property's location, commodity to be pursued, and funds requested. This should be followed by a site evaluation and recommendation. Additional reports might detail the status of the application, specifics of any financial contract awarded, results of exploration, production summaries, payback schedules, interim evaluations, and contract-completion data.

The dockets reflect program activities carried out in 44 States; only Delaware, Indiana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, and Rhode Island are not represented.

Until 1996, these dockets were stored at several locations throughout the United States. In the spring of that year, they were consolidated into the Spokane Archive, located in the USGS Spokane Field Office. The integrated collection occupies approximately 480 cubic feet and has been indexed in a Microsoft Access database. Information on how to get copies, a description of the materials and programs, and an index to the dockets are available online at http://geopubs.wr.usgs.gov/open-file/of03-94/

For further information about the exploration-assistance files and other archival materials at the USGS Field Office in Spokane, write to: Dave Frank dfrank@usgs.gov

Latin American Archive

From 1989 until 1995, the USGS operated the Center for Inter-American Mineral Resource Investigations (CIMRI) in Tucson, Arizona. This center served as a focal point for the development and exchange of minerals information between public mineral-resources agencies and the mining industry in the Americas. The USGS, through CIMRI, actively sought to develop cooperative working relationships among governments, organizations, and individuals interested in the mineral resources of Latin America and the Caribbean region. CIMRI undertook four basic interrelated activities to accomplish its mission: (1) development and exchange of minerals information, (2) cooperative mineral-resource investigations, (3) technology transfer and training, and (4) research.

CIMRI collected and disseminated published and unpublished information on the mineral resources of Latin America. Much of this information was archived for public inspection. This archive includes maps, files, reports, bibliographies, computerized databases, and many related materials.

CIMRI was abolished in 1995, but the archive remains. This eclectic, multilingual collection is organized by country and consists largely of "gray literature," unpublished or difficult-to-obtain reports that would not be easily available in most libraries. The archive is open to the public from 8:00 a.m. until 4:00 p.m., Monday through Friday, and is used by researchers from around the world who are interested in the mineral resources of Latin America.

The Latin American archive, located in the Environment and Natural Resources Building on the University of Arizona campus, currently consists of approximately 55 linear feet of materials housed in file cabinets, an additional 61 feet on shelves, and 39 drawers of maps. It includes such materials as The Mineral Deposits of Peru, an unpublished 1,715-page manuscript and more than 300 accompanying maps by former USGS geologist Frank Simons, who worked in Peru; and the Latin American portion of the field notes and correspondence of V.F. Hollister, a consultant who worked throughout the Americas.

For further information about the Latin American archive, write to: Karen Sue Bolm, E-mail: kbolm@usgs.gov