C. D. Walcott – definitely a Rocky Mountain geologist

Profile of Rocky Mountain Geologist – a continuing series Charles Doolittle Walcott (1850–1927) (Fig. 1), was a great geologist, along with being a great paleontologist. Anyone who reads nothing more about him than his list of publications (Darton, 1928; Yochelson, 1967) ought to be impressed; providing references to papers resulting from Walcott's field efforts mentioned below would greatly exceed the word limit. His 1910 discovery of the Middle Cambrian Burgess Shale biota in eastern British Columbia certainly qualifies him as a Rocky Mountain geologist. For those who would view a paleontologist as not-quite a true geologist, Walcott's early years with the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) show his mettle in the field, if the title may be expanded geographically to include the Colorado Plateau and Basin and Range province. Figure 1. Charles Doolittle Walcott, shortly after he was appointed third director of the U.S. Geological Survey; this picture is undated but was probably taken in 1894 or 1895. From Smithsonian Institution Archives number 82-3145. Employee number 20 entered duty with the USGS on July 21, 1879 (Yochelson, 1998). Before Walcott had time to reconsider career choice, he was borne by passenger train, freight train, stagecoach and mule, to Kanab in southwest Utah. His assignment was more or less straightforward, namely to measure a standard section of the regional rock column and collect fossils from the various stratigraphic units. With a couple of mules, and a camp hand/cook/ mule skinner, he set out for the fresh-water Tertiary strata of the Pink Cliffs, not far from present-day Bryce Canyon National Park. He began measuring downward until he reached the Colorado River, ending at the Cambrian sandstone. This was more than 13,000 feet of section! It was mid-November before Walcott returned to Washington. Only the Paleozoic strata were described and only in the most preliminary …