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Full Description
Winner of the 2021 Minnesota Book Award for Minnesota Nonfiction
The story of the scientist who first mapped Minnesota's geology, set against the backdrop of early scientific inquiry in the state
At twenty, Newton Horace Winchell declared, "I know nothing about rocks." At twenty-five, he decided to make them his life's work. As a young geologist tasked with heading the Minnesota Geological and Natural History Survey, Winchell (1839-1914) charted the prehistory of the region, its era of inland seas, its volcanic activity, and its several ice ages - laying the foundation for the monumental five-volume Geology of Minnesota. Tracing Winchell's remarkable path from impoverished fifteen-year-old schoolteacher to a leading light of an emerging scientific field, Minnesota's Geologist also recreates the heady early days of scientific inquiry in Minnesota, a time when one man's determination and passion for learning could unlock the secrets of the state's distant past and present landscape.
Traveling by horse and cart, by sailboat and birchbark canoe, Winchell and his group surveyed rock outcrops, river valleys, basalt formations on Lake Superior, and the vast Red River Valley. He studied petrology at the Sorbonne in Paris, bringing cutting-edge knowledge to bear on the volcanic rocks of the Arrowhead region. As a founder of the American Geological Society and founding editor of American Geologist, the first journal for professional geologists, Winchell was the driving force behind scientific endeavor in early state history, serving as mentor to many young scientists and presiding over a household - the Winchell House, located on the University of Minnesota's present-day mall - that was a nexus of intellectual ferment. His life story, told here for the first time, draws an intimate picture of this influential scientist, set against a backdrop of Minnesota's geological complexity and splendor.
Contents
Contents
Acknowledgments
Introduction
1. Finding a Footing
2. A Solid Foundation
3. Metamorphosis
4. Working Geologist
5. Settling In
6. Fracture
7. Bedrock and Rivers
8. The Winchells Broaden their Reach
9. Rocks of Fire: The North Shore
10. Portages: The Boundary Waters and Iron Ranges
11. Back to the North Shore
12. The Boom
13. Field Work, Politics, Feminism, Romance
14. Shaping a Science
15. The American Geologist
16. Terminal Moraine
17. Americans in Paris
18. Glacial Retreat
19. The Archaeologist
20. The Antiquity of Man
Epilogue
Men of the Minnesota Geological Survey
Notes
Index
