King, Clarence Rivers

Clarence Rivers King (1842–1901) was the brilliant geologist and explorer whose reputation rests above all on the United Sta...

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Clarence Rivers King (1842–1901) was the brilliant geologist and explorer whose reputation rests above all on the United States Geological Exploration of the Fortieth Parallel. Educated at Yale and trained on the California Geological Survey, King was only twenty-five when, in 1867, he was placed in charge of this ambitious federal survey of the mountain belt adjoining the Union and Central Pacific railroads, from California across Nevada, Utah and Wyoming. Its reports and atlases brought together geology, mining intelligence, railroad-era topography and some of the finest scientific cartography of the American West. David Rumsey aptly describes the atlas as “Magnificent”, while Carl Wheat called its maps “pioneer survey maps”. King later became the first director of the U.S. Geological Survey, but the Fortieth Parallel Survey remains his monument.

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Clarence Rivers King (1842–1901) was the brilliant geologist and explorer whose reputation rests above all on the United States Geological Exploration of the Fortieth Parallel. Educated at Yale and trained on the California Geological Survey, King was only twenty-five when, in 1867, he was placed in charge of this ambitious federal survey of the mountain belt adjoining the Union and Central Pacific railroads, from California across Nevada, Utah and Wyoming. Its reports and atlases brought together geology, mining intelligence, railroad-era topography and some of the finest scientific cartography of the American West. David Rumsey aptly describes the atlas as “Magnificent”, while Carl Wheat called its maps “pioneer survey maps”. King later became the first director of the U.S. Geological Survey, but the Fortieth Parallel Survey remains his monument.

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