Memorial to Charles Laurence Baker1887-1979KEITH YOUNG

D epartm ent o f Geological Sciences, University o f Texas, Austin, Texas 78712

Charles Laurence Baker is one of few who can becalled a premier field geologist. He ranks with A. C.Veatch, N. H. Darton, Emil Bose, and a few others, the best of reconnaissance geologists of North America. His experience was broad, consisting of both mineral and petroleum exploration, academia, state survey, and a short term with the United States Geological Survey.

Charles Laurence Baker was born in Coe Town­ship, Rock Island County, Illinois, on October 10, 1887. He died on April 7, 1979. at Cordova, Illinois, on the family farmstead where he had been reared. He is survived by three children, Virginia Alice Baker Cook of C ordova , Illinois; Rollin H aro ld Baker, retired professor of zoology and director of the Museum at Michigan State University, now living in Texas; and Norvil Arnold Baker of Nitro, West Virginia.

Baker’s early education was at Port Byron Academy near Cordova, Illinois, and M onm outh College where he took the bachelor’s degree at the age of 18. He went on to g raduate work at Oberlin College and then at the University of Chicago, where hecompleted all his doctorate work except a thesis, which he never finished.

A list of positions held by Baker, compiled from various sources including notes by Emil Bose and W. S. Adkins in the archives of the Barker History Center and the Latin American Institute, University of Texas at Austin, emphasizes his wide experience.1908-1910 United S ta te s Geological Survey (d u r in g s u m m ers while in college).1911- Ins t ruc to r , Univers ity o f Cal i fo rn ia .1912-1913 G eologis t , S o u th e rn Pacif ic Rai l road .1914- G eologis t , Brit ish Syndicate .1914-1917 G eologis t . B ureau of E c o n o m ic Geology . Texas.1917-1918 Geologis t , S o u th e rn Pacif ic Rai l road .1919-1921 G eologist with p r iva te conce rns engaged in e x p lo ra t io n fo r p e t ro le u m in Cal iforn ia .1921-1922 G eologis t . S t a n d a r d Oil o f C al i fo rn ia , m u ch o f the time in M ex ic o with Emile Bose.1922- Geologis t , B ureau of E c o n o m ic G eology , Texas.1923- Geologis t (in Brazil with a pr iva te c o n ce rn an d w ith Ind ian T e r r i to ry I l lum i­

n a t in g Co.).1924-1926 C h ie f geologis t. East C o a s t Oil C o m p a n y o f M ex ico and S o u th e rn Pacif ic R ai l road

o f M exico.1926-1931 C h ie f geologis t, R io B ravo Oil C o m p a n y ( the ex p lo ra t io n su b s id ia ry o f the S o u th e rn

Pacif ic Rai l road) .1931-1935 Geologis t . Bureau o f E c o n o m ic G eology . Texas.1935-1944 C h a i rm a n . D e p a r tm e n t o f Geo logy . T ex as A & M College.1944-1945 Geologis t . T idew a te r Assoc ia ted Oil C o m p a n y .1945-1953 Geologis t . S ta te G eological Survey o f S o u th D a k o ta .

In addition, he sometimes lectured at the University of Texas at Austin. North­western University, and South Dakota University. There are overlaps of dates in some years because when he changed positions during a year, that year is included with both positions.

The most obvious feature of Baker’s varied career is that he never seems to have left

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a position because of incompetency or the dissatisfaction of his employer. Organizations were obviously delighted to have him return; witness his many associations with the Bureau of Economic Geology and the Southern Pacific Railroad.

Charles Laurence Baker was an honest and moral man. In the early 1920s, the directors of a bank in a Texas border-town asked Baker and Emil Böse to report on the geology of some leases the bank had obtained on the advice o f another “geologist.” They soon discovered that the so-called geologist had misinterpreted cross-bedding in the Carrizo Form ation for true dip; therefore, the bank held leases on a tremendous, nonexistent anticline. When Baker gave the report to the directors of the bank, they in turn suggested that he keep the information quiet until the bank could unload its leases on some “unsuspecting victims.” This request made Baker so furious that he sacrificed the consulting fee by advertising the nefarious scheme to the entire community.

Baker was also more interested in geology than in living conveniences or a full stomach. In 1949, while waiting for other participants in a field trip to finish their lunch, I had a discussion with an old prospector in Sierra Blanca, Trans-Pecos Texas, who remembered Baker when he was exploring that area. He said Baker would arrive in Sierra Blanca by train, most often “riding the rods” because there were no funds for travel in those days. He would leave Sierra Blanca on foot, wearing sneakers, and would be gone into the desert for a minimum of perhaps two weeks. Sierra Blancans had no idea how he lived. Apparently he could obtain food, water, and other sustenance much as had the earlier Apaches.

G. K. Eifler tells that one of his colleagues was an assistant to Baker. They were some tens of miles south of Alpine, Texas, when their car suddenly stopped running. Baker told his assistant that he. Baker, knew nothing about cars and that he would walk over to that mountain, pointing in a direction, while the assistant repaired the car. There was little wrong with the car, and it was soon repaired. But then an unhappy and often even panicky assistant waited at the car for two nights; on the third day, somewhat after noon, the assistant saw a lone figure returning from the direction of the mountain. When Baker arrived, he climbed into the passsenger’s seat with no explanation other than, “ Well, let’s go, that mountain was a little farther away than I thought.”

Charles Laurence Baker also made loyal and long-lasting friendships. During World W ar I, Emil Böse, who had been educated in Germany and according to F. L. Whitney held a reserve colonelcy in the German Army, had been working for the Bureau of Economic Geology. Early in 1918 he decided to go to Mexico to visit his family, then living in Monterrey. The authorities arrested him as an enemy alien and put him in a detention camp in San Antonio. As soon as Baker heard of this he rushed to the aid of his friend, just as he went to the aid of the same friend in 1927 when Böse was fatally injured in an automobile wreck and taken to a hospital in San Antonio.

By 1913 Baker was working for the Southern Pacific Railroad in east Texas. This experience resulted in his being invited to share with Udden and Böse the authorship of “ Review of the Geology of Texas” (University of Texas Bulletin 44), with which the first geological map of Texas was distributed. Among other im portant contributions of Baker were “ Exploratory Geology of a Part of Southwestern Trans-Pecos Texas” (University of Texas Bulletin 2745) and, especially, “ Major Features of Trans-Pecos Texas” in the geological bible of Texas, The Geology o f Texas, Volume II, S tructural and Economic Geology (University of Texas Bulletin 3401). His wide range of interests is illustrated by publications on such varied subjects as microscopic characteristics of Pennsylvanian limestones, caves, geomorphology, glaciology, soils in relation to geology, and many papers on economic geology and mineral resources.

Still, the publications of C. L. Baker do not reflect all o f his extensive geologic

MEMORIAL TO CHARLES LAURENCE BAKER 3

explorations. They do not show his extensive exploration for hydrocarbons in California. Fossils in the Adkins Collection, Texas Memorial Museum, indicate a thorough explora­tion of the Sierra del Carmen and the Valley de Encantada in northwestern Coahuila. At the same time he probably transversed the Serrania del Burro. In the early 1920s he and Emil Böse explored the Sierra Madre Oriental from Saltillo, Coahuila. Mexico, to as far south as Tula, San Luis Potosi, and perhaps even to Ciudad de Mais, San Luis Potosi, Mexico. Although some of these data appear in the 1921 manuscript published 50 years later as Special Paper 82 by the Geological Society of America, this exploration is also testified to by the fossils from this area collected by C. L. Baker and deposited in the Adkins Collection, Texas Memorial Museum. In the Adkins Collection, Barker History Center, University of Texas at Austin, there is a partial section of rocks measured by the English geologist F. E. Wellings. On this section is a note in W. S. Adkins’ handwriting to the effect that Baker thinks these rocks are Paleozoic. This is the first mention of Paleozoic to my knowledge in the area of Placer de Guadalupe, Chihuahua, and it is doubtful if Baker would have made such a statement had he not been there.

But in addition, in his correspondence he encouraged others to enter into problems. In 1939 Hal P. Bybee had written Baker concerning a student of Baker’s who had applied to graduate school at the University of Texas. Baker wrote back that the student was a good boy. This brief recommendation was followed by a full page of typed, single-spaced discussion of the problems of the Tesnus Formation.

In 1934 in a letter to Paul Waitz the geographer. Baker discussed the origins of the canyons of the Rio Grande River between Trans-Pecos Texas and Chihuahua as (1) outlets of former lakes, (2) a superposed course across once-covered resistant rocks, and (3) collapse of underground solution cavities and channels. He came up with over­whelming evidence for superposition.

In summary, Charles Laurence Baker was a reconnaissance geologist of outstanding ability, a man who made close and loyal friends, a man who encouraged his colleagues and his students in their work, and a geologist who contributed perhaps more than his share to the publication of knowledge.

P U B L IC A T IO N S O F C. L. B A K ER1911 Notes on the later Cenozoic history of the Mojave Desert region in southeastern

California: California University Department of Geology Bulletin, v. 6, p. 333-383.1912 Physiography and structure of the Western El Paso Range and the southern Sierra

Nevada: California University Department of Geology Bulletin, v. 7, p. 117-142.____ Notes on the Cenozoic history of central Wyoming [abs.]: Geological Society of

America Bulletin, v. 23, p. 73-74.1913 The nature of the later deformations in certain ranges of the Great Basin: Journal

of Geology, v. 21, p. 273-278.1915 Geology and underground waters of the northern Llano Estacado: University of

Texas Bulletin 57, 225 p.1916 (with Udden, J. A., and Böse, Emil) Review of the geology of Texas: University of

Texas Bulletin 44, 164 p.____ Origin of Texas red beds: University of Texas bulletin 29, 8 p.1918 (with Bowman, W. F.) Geologic exploration of the southeastern front range of

trans-Pecos Texas: University of Texas Bulletin 1753, p. 61-172.1920 Contributions to the stratigraphy of eastern New Mexico: American Journal of

Science, v. 49, p. 99-126.____ Brooks County, in Stone, R. W., and others, Gypsum deposits of the United States:

U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin 697, p. 259-260.

MEMORIAL TO CHARLES LAURENCE BAKER 5

____ Gold in Texas: University of Texas Bureau of Economic Geology Mineral ResearchCircular 5, 6 p.

____ Fuller’s earth and bentonite in Texas: University of Texas Bureau of EconomicGeology Mineral Research Circular 3, 7 p.

1933 Memorial of Johan August Udden (1859-1932): Geological Society of America Bulletin, v. 44, p. 402-413.

____ Disseminated galena in the Upper Cambrian of the Central Mineral Region, Texas:Economic Geology, v. 28, p. 163-170.

____ Reynosa problem of south Texas and the origin of calcite (discussion): AmericanAssociation of Petroleum Geologists Bulletin, v. 17, p. 1534.

____ Rotational stress as possible cause of fundamental crustal deformation: Pan-AmericanGeologist, v. 59, p. 19-32.

____ Foreword to Reed, Lyman C., and Longnecker, O. M., Jr .. Geology of HemphillCounty, Texas: University of Texas Bulletin 3231.

1934 A genetic classification and description of the natural regions of Mexico [abs.]: Texas Academy of Science Proceedings, v. 18, p. 20-21.

1935 Major structural features of Trans-Pecos Texas, in Sellards. E. H., and Baker, C. L., The geology of Texas, Volume II, Structural and economic geology: University of Texas Bulletin 3401, p. 137-214.

------ Sulphur in Texas: University of Texas Bureau of Economic Geology Mineral ResearchCircular 6, 4 p.

____ Construction materials, mineral, stone, and clay products, coal, lignite, and watersupplies, in Sellards, E. H., and Baker, C. L., The geology of Texas, Volume II, Structural and economic geology: University of Texas Bulletin 3401, p. 223-402.

------ Metallic and non-metallic minerals and ores, in Sellards, E. H., and Baker, C. L..The geology of Texas, Volume II, Structural and economic geology: University of Texas Bulletin 3401, p. 402-482, 503-558, 568-573, 608-640.

1936 Pre-Cambrian unconformities in the trans-Pecos region: University of Texas Bulletin 3501, p. 113-114.

------ (Review of) Historical geology of the Antillean-Caribbean region, or the lands border­ing the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea by Charles Schuchert: American Association of Petroleum Geologists Bulletin, v. 20, p. 496-504.

1938 Physiographic development of Wind River Mountains, Wy. [abs.]: Geological Society of America Bulletin, v. 49, p. 1864-1865.

____ Westward overthrusting in Wind River Mountains, Wy. [abs.]: Geological Societyof America Bulletin, v. 49, p. 1865.

1940 Probable Lower Mississippian age of the Caballos Navaculite: Geological Society of America Bulletin, v. 51, p. 1679-1681.

1941 Upper Jurassic deposits and structures of the Monterrey-Saltillo area: South Texas Geological Society Guidebook, 13th Annual Meeting, Monterrey, Mexico, 4 p.

------ Brief notes on the higher Cretaceous (Monterrey-Saltillo area. Mex.): South TexasGeological Society Guidebook. 13th Annual Meeting, Monterrey. Mexico. I p.

____ Rim Rock country of Texas: Pan-American Geologist, v. 75. p. 81-90.1942 Major features and problems of southwestern geology: Pan-American Geologist.

v. 77. p. 161-168; (abstract in Geological Society of America Bulletin, v. 52. p. 1994).1944 Possible mineral resources of Trans-Pecos Texas: Texas Academy of Science

Proceedings and Transactions, v. 27, p. 204-207.____ Geology, climate and soils of Texas: Texas Academy of Science Proceedings

and Transactions, v. 27, p. 181-187.

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1946 Geology of the northwestern Wind River Mountains, Wyoming: Geological Society of America Bulletin, v. 57, p. 565-596 (reprinted as Wyoming Geological Survey Bulletin 35).

1947 Paleozoic rocks of the Dakota Basin in South Dakota: South Dakota Academy of Science Proceedings (1946-1947), v. 26, p. 39-42.

____ The making of mountains and continents: South Dakota Academy of ScienceProceedings (1946-1947), v. 26, p. 124-126.

____ Deep borings of western South Dakota: South Dakota Geological Survey Reportof Investigations, v. 57, iii+112 p.

1948 The Pennington-Haakon County central boundary area (So. Dak.) with general discussion of its surroundings: South Dakota Geological Survey Report of Investigations, v. 64, 28 p.

____ (Supplemental report) to deep borings of western South Dakota: South DakotaGeological Survey Report of Investigations, v. 61, iv+40 p.

____ Prospects for finding great caves: National Speleological Society Bulletin, v. 10, p. 64-681950 Role of bentonite in Great Plains and Rockies: American Association of Petroleum

Geologists Bulletin, v. 34, p. 1897-1899.1951 (with Prunty, Raymond Joseph) Areal geology of the Dixon Quadrangle: South

Dakota Geological Survey Map, scale 1/62,500.____ Pediment broadening in South Dakota badlands [abs.]: Geological Society of

America Bulletin, v. 62, p. 1531.____ Yardangs in South Dakota badlands [abs.]: Geological Society of America Bulletin,

v. 62, p. 1532.____ (and others) Areal geology of the Lucas quadrangle: South Dakota Geological

Survey Map, scale 1/62,000.____ Well borings in South Dakota, 1948-1950: South Dakota Geological Survey

Report of Investigations, v. 67, 67 p.___ Development of Dakota Basin in South D akota [abs.]: Geological Society of

America Bulletin, v. 62, p. 1531.____ How the South Dakota Badlands formation was made: South Dakota Academy of

Science Proceedings, v. 30, p. 124-129.____ Pleistocene in western South Dakota [abs.]: Geological Society of America

Bulletin, v. 62, p. 1531.1952 Geology of Harding County: South Dakota Geological Survey Report of Investi­

gations, v. 68, 39 p.____ (with Carlson, Carl A., Jr .) Areal geology of the Alaska quadrangle: South Dakota

Geological Survey Map, scale 1/62,500.____ (with Carlson, Carl A., Jr.) Areal Geology of the Mobridge quadrangle: South

D akota Geological Survey Map, scale 1/62,500.____ (with others) Areal geology of the Herrick quadrangle: South Dakota Geological

Survey Map, scale 1/62,500.____ (with others) Areal geology of the Iona quadrangle: South Dakota Geological

Survey Map, scale 1/62,500.1953 Geology of southern Jackson County and vicinity: South Dakota Geological

Survey Report of Investigations, v. 73, 14 p.1956 Test wells of northwest Sublette County, Wyoming (summary): Wyoming Geo­

logical Association Guidebook, 11th Annual Field Conference, p. 201.1963 Radiolaria in the Tesnus Formation. Marathon Basin, Trans-Pecos Texas: Journal

of Paleontology, v. 37, p. 502.1971 Geologic reconnaissance in the Eastern Cordillera of Mexico: Geological Society

of America Special Paper 131, 83 p.P r in te d in U .S .A . I / 85