Biographical Memoirs Volume 46 (1975) / Chapter Skim
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11. Walter Curran Mendenhall
11. Walter Curran Mendenhall
Pages 310-329
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From page 311... ...
His father, William King Mendenhall, was a descendent of William Mendenhall who emigrated from England with William Penn. The Mendenhalls lived in Pennsylvania as farmers until the middle of the nineteenth century, when the paternal grandfather, Robert, moved to the farming community near Alliance, Ohio.
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From page 312... ...
There he lived for several years with the family of his mother's brother, Samuel Parker Garrigues, whom he characterized as "merchant, kindly, good business man." He then returned to Ohio and taught school for a short time before entering Ohio Normal University (now Ohio Northern University)
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From page 313... ...
On the first of these, in the summer of 1898, he was attached to a military expedition; however, on succeeding trips in 1900, 1901, and 1902, the projects were under Survey auspices without direct military support. Except for the field season of 1899, when he was an assistant to George Otis Smith in a mapping project in the central
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From page 314... ...
3 was a reconnaissance from Resurrection Bay to the Tanana River. The discoveries of gold in the Klondike in 1896-1897 generated a demand for knowledge of possible routes to the mineralized areas in interior Alaska, and this expedition of 1898 was directed to seek information on possible wagon or railroad routes inland from the coast.
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From page 315... ...
In 1903, Mendenhall was asked to undertake a studier of the groundwater resources of southern California. He continued work there until 1908, and during these five years produced a series of reports on the supplies of water available both in the California coastal plain areas southward from Los Angeles and in the San Joaquin Valley.
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From page 316... ...
a temporary increase in industrial activity." This early recognition of the need for conservation, which preceded by several years the 1908 White House Conference, was expanded in later reports: "A strong public sentiment, therefore, should be created, which will under all circumstances oppose the careless use of artesian wells," and an even more present day expression of concern, "The promoting and speculative spirit, the desire to get rich overnight, to control large holdings, and to avoid personal labor, will have to be superseded by a willingness to be satisfied with sure but moderate returns, to be content with small farm units, and to attain personal independence through individual efforts." This concern for the public interest characteristically was accompanied by a recognition of the practical aspects of irrigation farming.
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From page 317... ...
He introduced quantitative elements into his discussions of the available supplies, as well as emphasis on the geologic factors. Some of the earliest estimates of "safe yield" from the groundwater reservoirs were presented, as well as such modern concepts as the possibility of constructing check dams as a mechanism for recharging the underground aquifers.
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From page 318... ...
He had begun his career in the Geologic Branch; his Alaskan work was under the direction of what was to become the Alaskan Division; his California assignment was in the hydrology unit that became the Water Resources Division; and he chaired the Land Classification Branch, the predecessor of the Conservation Division. Only the Topographic Branch had been omitted from this broad range of experience, although the Alaskan exploratory trips had in fact involved essentially as much topographic, as geologic, mapping.
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From page 319... ...
The years following World War I were times of considerable stress. Funding was low in the aftermath of the war, and the applied work of the Survey during the War, together with the great expansion of the petroleum industry, resulted in a large number of resignations by the more experienced Survey geologists to enter industry.
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From page 320... ...
. 1 · ~ ~ c' - ~u~ 1111~1~;1~1 `;onslralnts During the years of the Great Depression not only put an end to this enlarged program, but resulted in progressively decreased appropriations that required curtailment of staff and fieldwork, as well as other drastic economies.
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From page 321... ...
In my own experience I have known no man in whom personal ambition was so completely subordinated to devotion to the public welfare or in whom sound judgment, fairness, complete honesty and kindliness were so combined with technical knowledge and administrative capacity of the highest order." In addition to this very personal problem, the depression seriously affected planning for the Sixteenth International Geological Congress. Mendenhall had been selected to serve as General Secretary of the Congress, which was originally planned to be held in Washington in 1932, and which was to be preceded and followed by an extensive series of excursions to all parts of the country.
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From page 322... ...
For the more than fourteen years after retirement Mendenhall lived quietly at his home in Chevy Chase, Maryland, near the Chevy Chase Club where he enjoyed golf games with his old friends. A major disappointment during this time was caused by a fire in his home that destroyed material he had accumulated on the history of the early exploratory surveys of the West.
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From page 323... ...
Boutell Mendenhall, whom he married on September 20, 1915, and two daughters, Margaret Boutell Smith and Alice Curran Mendenhall. I have drawn extensively on two memorials prepared by contemporaries of Mendenhall, which were written shortly after his death.
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From page 324... ...
M Leighton (Bulletin of the American Association of Petroleum Geologists, vol.
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From page 325... ...
Am. Bull.—Geological Society of America Bulletin Natl.
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From page 326... ...
138, 162 pp., maps. Development of underground waters in the Western Coastal Plain Region of Southern California.
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From page 327... ...
In: The Classification of the Public Lands, by George Otis Smith, pp.
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From page 328... ...
Pennsylvania Department of Internal Affairs; Monthly Bulletin, 2( 1 )
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