Samuel Franklin Emmons

(1841-1911)

President of the Colorado Scientific Society – 1883

Founding member, President 1883, Honorary member 1902

• Geologist
• Graduate: Harvard College 1861, Ecole des Mines, Paris, Bargakademie, Freiberg, Germany
• Member of the scientific corps of Clarence King’s Geological Exploration of the Fortieth Parallel
• Geologist in charge of the Rocky Mountain Division, U.S. Geological Survey
• Author of classic reports on the Comstock Lode, Virginia City, Nevada and the Leadville District, Colorado
• Three fossils are named for Emmons

Short Biography

by Beth Simmons, Colorado Scientific Society Historian

Samuel Franklin Emmons (March 29, 1841 – March 28, 1911) was one of the founders of the Colorado Scientific Society. An eminent American geologist, head of the Rocky Mountain Division of the USGS, he and his able field assistant, Whitman Cross, decided that western scientists warranted their own organization. So, while stationed here in Denver, they called for the first meeting in the spring of 1882. The rest is our CSS history.

Born in Boston, Massachusetts, Emmons graduated from Dixwell’s Latin School, then from Harvard University in 1861 and studied at the Ecole des Mines in Paris, France, during the American Civil War from 1862 to 1864, and at the Bergakademie (mining school) in Freiberg (Saxony) in 1865.

Returning to the United States, in 1867, thanks to intervention from his friend from Freiberg, Arnold Hague, Emmons was appointed assistant geologist under Clarence King on the American geological exploration of the fortieth parallel. The group was required to survey an area 100 miles wide that stretched from the Great Plains of Wyoming and Colorado westward to California’s eastern border. Always included in their survey was the proposed route of the first Transcontinental Railroad. The field work was finally completed in 1872. Emmons’ great contribution to this exploration in his and Arnold Hague’s report, Descriptive Geology, published in 1877.

In 1870 he made a survey with A. D. Wilson, of Mount Rainier, the highest and most inaccessible peak in the Cascade Range. The largest glacier in the contiguous United States, Emmons Glacier, is named after Samuel Franklin Emmons.

During 1871, Emmons served as the General Secretary of Congres Geologique Internationale which was held in Washington, D.C. During the autumn of 1872, with Clarence King, Emmons aided in the discovery of the locality of the supposed diamond fields in Colorado and actively exposed the fraud. In 1874, he became a Fellow of Geological Society of London and King sent him to Germany to study microscopic minerals with the famed mineralogist, Zirkel.

In July of 1879 King appointed Emmons as the director of the Rocky Mountain Division of the fledgling United States Geological Survey. His initial assignment was to prepare a comprehensive study of the Leadville Mining District. Published in 1886, “no single publication of the Geological Survey has since exerted a more beneficial influence and stimulated more discussion. The volume became a model for all geologists: both young and old” says Emmons’ biography at the National Mining Hall of Fame in Leadville, Colorado.
Emmons co-founded the Geological Society of America in 1888 and was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 1892. Harvard and Columbia Universities both awarded him honorary doctorates. In 1991 he was nominated to the National Mining Hall of Fame in Leadville, CO.

After his job forced him to move to Washington, Emmons served as president of the Geological Society of America in 1903. In 1907 he and John Irving reexamined the Leadville District and published “The Downtown District of Leadville.”

Emmons was in poor health the last years of his life, and although still working on publications, he died at the age of 70 on March 28, 1911 in Washington, D.C.

Emmons gave his name to the mineral Emmonsite, Mount Emmons in Colorado, and Mount Emmons in Utah, Emmons Glacier in Washington and a fossil plant from Denver that was originally named for him – Cornus emmonsi.

For a more detailed biography see
Samuel Franklin Emmons, a biographical memoir by Arnold Hague (PDF)
Hague, Arnold, 1912, Biographical Memoir of Samuel Franklin Emmons 1841-1911: National Academy of Science Biographical Memoirs, part of Volume VII, p. 309-334, 1 fig.
Downloaded from National Academy of Sciences, Biographical Memoir of Samuel Franklin Emmons

Many publications bear Emmons name:

1870, Geology of Toyabe Range. U. S. Geol. Expl. 40th Parallel, vol. 3, Mining Industry, chap, vi, sec. ii, pp. 330-348, with colored geological map.

1870, Geology of Philadelphia or Silver Bend region. U. S. Geol. Expl. 40th Parallel, vol. 3, chap, vi, sec. ii, pp. 393-396.

1870, Geology of Egan Canon District. U. S. Geol. Expl. 40th Parallel, vol. 3, chap, vi, sec. vi, pp. 345-449.

1871, Glaciers of Mount Rainier. American Journ. Sci., 3d ser., vol. 1, pp. 161-165.

1877, The volcanoes of the U. S. Pacific coast. Address delivered at Chickering Hall, N. Y., February 6, 1877. Journ. American Geogr. Soc, vol. 9, 1876-77, pp. 44-65.

Fortieth Parallel – Descriptive Geology (cover)1877, Descriptive Geology of the 40th Parallel. (With Arnold Hague.), U. S. Geol. Expl. 40th Parallel, vol. 2, 40, 850 pp., with 26 plates and atlas of 11 maps and 2 section sheets, colored geologically. Includes:
Emmons, S. F., 1877, Valleys of the upper Yampa and Little Snake Rivers, in Hague, Arnold, and Emmons, S. F., U. S. geological exploration of the fortieth parallel (King): Prof, papers, Eng. Dept., U. S. Army, no. 18, v. 2, p. 184-187.

1882, Abstract of a report upon the Geology and Mining Industry of Leadville, Colo. Second Ann. Report U. S. Geol. Survey, pp. 203-290 with geological colored map and sections.

1882, The mining work of the U. S. Geological Survey. Trans. American Inst. Min. Eng., vol. 10, pp. 412-425.

1883, Geological sketch of Buffalo Peaks. Bull. U. S. Geol. Survey No. I, pp. 11-17.

1883-84, Opportunities for scientific research in Colorado. Presidential address. Proc. Colorado Sci. Soc, vol. I, pp. 1-12 and 57-61.

1883, Ore deposition by replacement. Proc. Phil. Soc. Washington, vol. 6, p. 32.

1884, What is a glacier? Proc. Phil. Soc. Washington, vol. 7, p. 37.

1885, Statistics and technology of the precious metals. • (With G. F. Becker.) Tenth Census Reports, vol. 13, 541 pp.

Geology and Mining Industry of Leadville, Colorado1886, Geology and mining industry of Leadville, Colorado. Monogr. U. S. Geol. Survey, vol. 12, 779 pages and 45 plates, with atlas of 35sheets of maps and sections colored.

1886, The genesis of certain ore deposits. Trans. American Inst. Min. Eng., vol. 15.

1886, Notes on some Colorado ore deposits. Proc. Colorado Sci. Soc, vol. 2, pp. 85-105.

1886, On the origin of fissure veins., Proc. Colorado Sci. Soc, vol. 2, pp. 187-202.

1886, On glaciers in the Rocky Mountains. Proc. Colorado Sci. Soc, vol. 2, pp. 211-227.

1886, Preliminary notes on Aspen, Colorado. Proc. Colorado Sci. Soc, vol. 2, pp. 251-277.

1887, Submerged trees of the Columbia River. Science, vol. 20, pp. I56-I57

Notes on the geology of Butte, Montana. Trans. American Inst. Min. Eng., vol. 26, pp. 49-62.

Structural relations of ore deposits. Trans. American Inst. Min. Eng., vol. 26, pp. 804-839.

1890, Same translated into French by R. A. Bergier. Révue Universelle des Mines, Tome 10, 3me ser., 34me ann. p. 130, Liege et Paris, 1890.

On geological nomenclature. Rept. American Comm. Intern. Congr. Geol., pp. 58-61.

1889, Orographic movements in the Rocky Mountains. Bull. Geol. Soc. America, vol. 1, pp. 245-286.

1890, Age of beds in the Boise River Basin, Idaho. Proc. Boston Soc. Nat. Hist., vol. 24, pp. 429-434.

1890, Notes on gold deposits of Montgomery County, Maryland. Trans. American Inst. Min. Eng., vol. 18, pp. 391-411.

1892, Fluorspar deposits of southern Illinois., Trans. American Inst. Min. Eng., vol. 21, pp. 31-53.

1892, Faulting in veins. Eng. and Min. Journ., vol. 53, pp. 548-549.

Compte Rendu de la 5me Session du Congres Geologique Internationale (editor). Gov’t Printing Office, 529 pages, 22 plates, 39 figures.

1893, Geological distribution of the useful metals in the United States. Trans. American Inst. Min. Eng., vol. 22, pp. 53-95.

1893, Genesis of ore deposits (discussion)., Trans. American Inst. Min. Eng., vol. 23, pp. 597-602.

1893, 1902, Progress of the precious metal industry in the United States. Mineral Resources, U. S. Geol. Survey, pp. 46-94; also in Report of the Director of the Mint, pp. 117-141.

Geological guidebook for an excursion to the Rocky Mountains. John Wiley & Sons, New York.

1894, Geology of Lower California. (With G. P. Merrill.) Bull. Geol. Soc. America, vol. 5, pp. 489-514

1894, Geology and mineral resources of the Elk Mountains, Colorado, Anthracite-Crested Butte Folio No. 9, U. S. Geol. Survey, 1894, explanatory text.

1895, Geology of the Mercur Mining District, Utah. Sixteenth Ann. Rept., U. S. Geol. Survey, pp. 349-369.

1896, Geological literature of the South African Republic. Journ. Geol., vol. 4, pp. 1-22.

1896, Some mines of Rosita and Silver Cliff, Colorado. Trans. American Inst. Min. Eng., vol. 26, pp. 773-823.

1896, The mines of Custer County, Colorado. Seventeenth Ann. Rept. U. S. Geol. Survey, part 2, 1896, pp. 411-472.

1896, Geology of the Denver Basin in Colorado. (With W. Cross and G. E. Eldridge.) Monogr. U. S. Geol. Survey, vol. 27, 526 pages, with 31 plates, 102 figures.

1897, The geology of government explorations (presidential address before the Geological Society of Washington, December 1896). Science, new ser., vol. 5, pp. 1-15 and 42-51.

1897, Economic geology of the Butte District, Montana. Butte Special Folio No. 38, U. S. Geol. Survey, explanatory text.

1897, Physiography of the west coast of Peru, South America. Science, new ser., vol. 5, p. 889.

1897, The origin of Green River, Science, new ser., vol. 6, pp. 19-21.

1898, Geology of the Ten-mile District, Colorado. Ten-mile District Special Folio No. 48, U. S. Geol. Survey, explanatory text.

1898, Map of Alaska: Its geography and geology. U. S. Geol. Survey, 44 pages and geological maps. Special report to the Fifty-fifth Congress, 2nd session.

1898, Geology of the Aspen Mining District, Colorado. Monogr. U. S. Geol. Survey, vol. 31, pp. xvii-xxxii, introduction.

1898, Dr. Don’s paper on the genesis of certain auriferous lodes (discussion). Trans. American Inst. Min. Eng., vol. 27, p. 993.

1898, A century of geography in the United States. Science, new ser., vol. 7, p. 677.

1898, Geological excursion through southern Russia. Trans. American Inst. Min. Eng., vol. 28, pp. 3-23.

1899, Plutonic plugs and subtuberant mountains. Science, new ser., vol. 10, pp. 24-25,

1900, Geology of the Tintic Special District, Utah. (With George Otis Smith and George Warren Tower.) Tintic Special Folio No. 65, U. S. Geol. Survey.

1900, Secondary enrichment of ore deposits. Trans. American Inst. Min. Eng., vol. 30, pp. 177-217.

1900, Review of Kemp’s Ore Deposits of the United States. Science, new ser., vol. 11, pp. 503-505.

1901, The Delamar and Horn silver mines. Two types of ore deposits in the deserts of Nevada and Utah. Trans. American Inst. Min. Eng., vol. 31, pp. 658-683.

The Sierra Mojada, Coahuila, Mexico, and its ore deposits (discussion).
Trans. American Inst. Min. Eng., pp. 953-959. Mexican vol. 32, pp. 566-567.

1901, Clarence King—A memorial. Eng. and Min. Journ., vol. 73, 1901, pp. 3-5. December 28, 1901
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1902, Genesis of ore deposits Trans. American Inst. Min. Eng., vol. 30, pp. 199-204, 433-473, 756-762.

1902, Biography of Clarence King. American Journ. Sci., 4th ser., vol. 13, pp. 224-237.

1902, The U. S. Geol. Survey in its relation to the practical miner. Eng. and Min. Journ., vol. 74, p. 43.

1902, Sulphidische Lagerstatten vom Cap Garonne. Zeitsch. F. Prak. Geol., vol.10, p. 126.

1908, On the secondary enrichment of ore deposits (discussion). Trans. American Inst. Min. Eng., vol. 33, p. 1058.

1902, On the hydrostatic level attained by the ore-depositing solutions in certain mining districts of the Great Salt Lake Basin (discussion). Trans. American Inst. Min. Eng., vol. 33, p. 1062.

1902, Reminiscences of Clarence King. Trans. American Inst. Min. Eng., vol. 33, pp. 633-634, 636-638, 643.

1903, Drainage of the Valley of Mexico. Science, new ser., vol.17, p.309.

1903, Little Cottonwood granite body of the Wasatch Mountains. American Journ. Sci., 4th ser., vol. 16, pp. 139-147.

1903, Contributions to economic geology, 1902 (introduction). Bull. U. S. Geol. Survey No. 213, pp. 15-30, 94-98.

1904, Theories of ore deposition, historically considered. Bull. Geol. Soc. America (presidential address), vol. 15, pp. 1-28; also Eng. and Min. Journ., vol. 77, pp. 117, 157, 199, 237; also Smithsonian Report for 1904.

1904, Contributions to economic geology, 1903. Metalliferous ores. Bull. U. S. Geol. Survey No. 225, pp. 18-24.

1904, Economic resources of the Northern Black Hills, by J. D. Irving, with contributions by S. F. Emmons and T. A. Jaggar, Jr., Prof. Paper U. S. Geol. Survey N. 26, 222 pp.

Clarence King, geologist. [In The Century Association, New York. King Memorial Committee. Clarence King memoirs. The Helmet of Mambrino. N. Y. and London.]

1904, Occurrence of copper ores in Carboniferous limestone in the region of the Grand Canon of the Colorado. Abstract: Science, new ser., vol.20, pp. 760-761.

1904, The Virginius mine. Eng. and Min. Journ., vol. 77, p. 311.

1905, Investigation of metalliferous ores. Bull. U. S. Geol. Survey No. 260, pp. 19-27.

1905, Copper in the Red Beds of the Colorado Plateau region. Bull. U. S. Geol. Survey No. 260, pp.221-232.

1905, The Cactus copper mine, Utah. Bull. U. S. Geol. Survey No. 260, pp. 242-248.

1905, Contributions to economic geology, 1904. In Bull. U. S. Geol. Survey No. 260.

1905, Economic geology of the Bingham mining district, Utah, by J. M. Boutwell; with a section on areal geology by Arthur Keith, and an introduction on general geology by S. F. Emmons. Prof. Rep. U. S. Geol. Survey No. 38, 413 pp.

1906, What is a fissure vein? Econ. Geol., vol. 1, No. 4, pp. 385-387.

1906, A map and a cross-section of the downtown district of Leadville, Colorado. Abstract: Science, new ser., vol. 23, pp. 816-817.

1906, Useful definitions. Min. and Sci. Press, vol. 93, pp. 355-356.

1906, Proper use of mining terms. Min. World, vol. 25, No. 24, p. 715.

1906, Los Pilares mine, Nacozari, Mexico. Econ. Geol., vol. 1, No. 7, 1906, pp. 629-643; Abstract: Eng. and Min. Journ., vol. 82, pp. 1066-1067.

1906, Contributions to economic geology, 1905; Investigation of metalliferous ores. Bull. U. S. Geol. Survey No. 285, pp. 14-19.

1907, Bibliographical notice of George H. Eldridge. Trans. American Inst. Min. Eng., vol. 37, pp- 339-34.

1907, Uinta Mountains. Bull. Geol. Soc. America, vol. 18, pp. 287-302.

1907, The downtown district of Leadville, Colorado, by S. P. Emmons and J. D. Irving. Bull. U. S. Geol. Survey No. 320, 75 pp.

1907, Geological structure of the Uinta Mountains. Abstract: Science, new ser., vol. 25, pp. 767-768.

1907, Investigations of metalliferous ores. Bull. U. S. Geol. Survey No. 315, pp. 14-19.

1907, Suggestions for field observations of ore deposits. Min. and Sci. Press, vol. 95, pp. 18-20.

1907, Biographical memoir of Clarence King, 1842-1901. Read before the Nat. Acad. Sci., April 23, 1903. Biog. Mem. Nat. Acad. Sci., vol. 6, pp. 25-55.

1909, Development of modern theories of ore deposition, Min. and Sci. Press, vol. 99, pp. 400-403.

1909, Economic geology in the United States. Mining World, vol. 30, pp. 1209-1211, June 26, 1909; Canadian Min. Inst. Journ., vol. 12, pp. 89-101.

1910, Cananea Mining district of Sonora, Mexico. Econ. Geol., vol. 5, No. 4, pp. 312-366. Abstract: Eng. and Min. Journ., vol. 90, pp. 402-404.

1910, The Cobalt Mining district of Ontario. Abstract: Science, new ser., vol. 31, p. 517.

1910, Criteria of downward sulphide enrichment (discussion). Econ. Geol., vol. 5, No. 5, pp. 477-479.