Kansas 19th Century Geologic Maps

Abstract

A series of maps depicting the geology of Kansas from 1809 to 1896 are discussed in relation to the changing ideas on distribution of stratigraphic units in the State. The 1809 US map by William Maclure uses A. G. Werner's classification and extends to southeastern Kansas. The series of geologic maps goes through a sequence of Wernerian, Lyellian, The Great Reconnaissance, The Western Surveys, Kansas' Own, and U.S. Geological Survey maps, to the map of Erasmus Haworth in 1896, which may be considered the first modern representation and the basis for the 20th century maps. The maps represent all or parts of Kansas depending on the original intent of the map and availability of information. The earliest maps are handcolored; later ones are color printed. Rock units recognized in the different compilations include the Lower Carboniferous (=Mississippian), Coal Measures (=Desmoinesian), Upper Carboniferous (=Missourian and Virgilian), Permian, Cretaceous, Tertiary, and Alluvial deposits. The first geological survey of Kansas of B. E Mudge in 1864 and the second of G. C. Swallow in 1865 did not result in published maps, but Mudge later published the first map of the State in color in 1875. With establishment of a permanent geological survey in 1889, the state survey has published a series of revised and improved maps, the latest edition being that of 1991.