Ashland tidings. [volume] (Ashland, Or.) 1876-1919, 1913-08-18
THE WORK
OF BUREAU
COMMISSIONER LAWRIE TELLS
WHAT is BEING DONE.
AN EXHAUSTIVE SURVEY IS MADE
Work of Oregon Bureau of Mines
and Geology OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES and
Bulletins to Be Issued BY Next
Summer is Promise.


your request for a brief statement
concerning my visit to Ashland,
have prepared in haste the following
summary which l hope will meet
your approval:
The bill creating the Oregon Bu-
reau of Mines and Geology went into
effect June 8, 1913. The commits
sion, in advance of this date, had
outlined the work so that no time
would be lost in starting the field
parties to work. By this timely ac-
tion the commission was also enabled
to secure the most efficient of tech
nically trained men to enter its SER
vice. Had there been a delay until
after the law went into effect these
men would have been engaged in
other states in similar pursuits and
Oregon would have been forced to
either postpone its field work of re-
search until next summer, which de-
lay would have been most detrimen-
tai to the acquisition of results for
the advancement of the mining in
dustry, or it would have been obliged
to make shift with men of secondary
professional standing.
Preparations were also made in ad-
vance by the director of the bureau,
Professor H. M. Parks, and DR.. Alex
ander Winchell, one of the foremost
seOlOgists of the United States, in
charge of a party to take the field
of southern Oregon as soon as the
bill went into effect. From my own
experience in Oregon mineral re-
sources this field offered some of
the most intricate problems of eco
nomic geology. DR.. Winchell's par
ty, under the guidance of so capable
a man as G. B. Watson, who knows
the locality so thoroughly by years
of personal contact and study, has
made extraordinarily good progress.
Some may feel as though information
concerning the observations should
he forthcoming in the near future for
public guidance. A word of explain
alton will suffice to show that such
conclusions on his part would be pre-
mature. With regard to the metal
mining resources, the problem of the
ore Genesis is the crucial issue. In
order TO correlate observations lead
ing TO final conclusions in this re-
gard, samples of the ores and wall
rocks must be taken, not only from
the active but from the inactive
properties which have been produc-
ers at one time. These samples have
to be shipped away and microscopic
thin sections made of them, which.
when DR.. Winchell returns to Wis
consin in the fall, after his field work
rs concluded in Oregon, will be exam
1ned accurately determined, regional
metamorphism and secondary en-
REGIMENTS noted, conclusions drawn
and accompanied by notes and ex-
plantations and maps published in a
bulletin on this section. This re-
search under the stamp of approval
OF the Oregon Bureau of Mines and
Geology will be given circulation, and
we may be sure that the high grade
OF DR.. Winchell's work will insure
this section of the closest attention
by the mining capital outside of Ore
gon as well as that in the state,
which will lead to investments along
rational lines, terminating. where the
management is sound, in success.
Or Winchell has examined other
ahan metal deposits. The available
rock formations suitable for road
material have been noted, a pre-
requisite of unparalleled Importance
10 the construction of GOOD roads of
a permanent nature. This informa-
tion will also be published, when
won, comprehensively for the state
{and all our six parties are making
like inyestigations) in bulletin or
pamphlet form, and will be of great
service to the county and highway
engineers.
Another branch of the work this
bureau is carrying on is the accumu-
)ation of data preparatory to making
a relief map of Oregon. This work
is in charge of DR.. Solon Shedd, a
specialist in geology and topography
work. He was the author of such
a map for Washington and his work
is unexcelled. Without such a relief
may ! can see no way for the state
90 lay out comprehensive road sys.
tem-one that will give adequate
service for the least money expend
ed, either by the county or state
Regardless of the source from which
the money for the road development
comes, whatever road is built SHOULD
be a unit of comprehensive system
and permanently constructed.
OF course this relief may is abso
Iutely indispensable for the presenta