U.S. Geological Survey

The u.s. geological survey was established on March 3, 1879, during the last minutes before the close of the final session of the 45th Congress, when President Rutherford B. Hayes signed the bill appropriating money for the Survey. The inclusive bill included a brief section establishing the new agency, the U.S. Geological Survey. Under the Department of the Interior, it was created to oversee the “classification of the public lands, and examination of the geological structure, mineral resources, and products of the national domain.” The legislation to create the Survey developed from an 1878 report of the National Academy of Sciences, which had been requested by Congress to provide a plan for surveying the American Western Territories.

By 1867, America's emerging industries were making huge demands ...