1. Clarence Rivers King was an American geologist, mountaineer, and author.
49 Facts About Clarence King
1. 2.
Clarence King was the first director of the United States Geological Survey from 1879 to 1881.
3.
Clarence King was born on January 6,1842, the son of James Rivers King and Florence Little King.
4.
Clarence's father was part of a family firm engaged in trade with China, which kept him away from home a great deal, and he died in 1848, so Clarence was brought up primarily by his mother.
5.
Clarence King developed an early interest in outdoor exploration and natural history, which was encouraged by his mother and by Reverend Dr Roswell Park, head of the Christ Church Hall school in Pomfret, Connecticut, that Clarence King attended until he was ten.
6.
Clarence King then attended schools in Boston and New Haven and, at age thirteen, was accepted to the prestigious Hartford High School.
7.
Clarence King was a good student and a versatile athlete, of short stature but unusually strong.
8.
Clarence King's mother received an income from the King family business until it met with a series of problems and dissolved in 1857.
9.
At Yale, Clarence King specialized in "applied chemistry" and studied physics and geology.
10.
At Yale, Clarence King enjoyed many sports, as he was a skilled athlete, but rowing was his main passion.
11.
Clarence King joined the rowing team at the university, and eventually became its captain.
12.
In October 1862, on a visit to the home of his former professor, George Jarvis Brush, Clarence King heard Brush read aloud a letter he had received from William Henry Brewer telling of an ascent of Mount Shasta in California, then believed to be the tallest mountain in the United States.
13.
Clarence King began to read more about geology, attended a lecture by Louis Agassiz, and soon wrote to Brush that he had "pretty much made up my mind to be a geologist if I can get work in that direction".
14.
Clarence King was fascinated by descriptions of the Alps by John Tyndall and John Ruskin.
15.
In late 1862 or early 1863, Clarence King moved to New York City to share an apartment with James Terry Gardiner, a close friend from high school and college.
16.
In February 1863, King became one of the founders, along with John William Hill, Clarence Cook and others, of the Ruskinian Association for the Advancement of Truth in Art, an American group similar to the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, and was elected its first secretary.
17.
The Speers, grateful for Clarence King's help with entertaining their children, invited Clarence King, Gardiner, and Hyde to join their wagon party.
18.
Near Fort Kearny, 200 miles into their journey, Clarence King tried hunting buffalo, but he did not succeed and ended up with a wounded leg and a dead horse.
19.
Little did Clarence King know at the time but joining the California Geological Survey was a good choice because it ended up being the first step in Clarence King's career.
20.
Once Gardner and Clarence King arrived at the California Geological Society's office, they met the director of the survey Josiah Whitney.
21.
In 1863, with the permission of Whitney, Clarence King was asked by Brewer to accompany him on his exploration of the northern part of the Sierra Nevada Mountain range.
22.
On this trip with Brewer and Clarence King was a mule packer named John Hoesch.
23.
Near Lassen Peak in northern California, Brewer and Clarence King investigated hot springs and other thermal features.
24.
Clarence King upon hearing what Hoffmann and Brewer saw begged to be allowed to backpack up Mount Whitney with Cotter.
25.
Clarence King did not end up making it to the top on this expedition, which greatly disappointed him.
26.
On his way to the meeting point, Clarence King ran into some trouble with bandits but his new horse was able to outrun them saving his life.
27.
Clarence King made it to the rendezvous point on time, but the rest of the group ran into trouble and was three weeks late.
28.
Clarence King suffered from several bouts of malaria in the spring and summer of 1865 while Whitney, in the East, worked on securing funding for further survey projects.
29.
Clarence King returned to Yosemite in the summer of 1866 to make more field notes for Whitney.
30.
When Clarence King heard of the death of his stepfather, he and Gardiner resigned from the Whitney survey and sailed to New York.
31.
Clarence King was elected to the American Philosophical Society in 1871.
32.
Clarence King made a persuasive argument for how his research would help develop the West.
33.
Clarence King received federal funding and was named US Geologist of the Geological Exploration of the Fortieth Parallel, commonly known as the Fortieth Parallel Survey, in 1867.
34.
Clarence King persuaded Gardiner to be his second in command and they assembled a team that included, among others, Samuel Franklin Emmons, Arnold Hague, AD Wilson, the photographer Timothy H O'Sullivan, James D Hauge, and guest artist Gilbert Munger.
35.
Clarence King became an international celebrity through exposing the hoax.
36.
In 1878, Clarence King published Systematic Geology, numbered Volume 1 of the Report of the Geological Exploration of the Fortieth Parallel, although it appeared later than all but one of the other seven volumes.
37.
Clarence King took the position with the understanding that it would be temporary and he resigned after twenty months, having overseen the organization of the new agency with an emphasis on mining geology.
38.
Clarence King had a busy social life, with close friendships including Henry Brooks Adams and John Hay, who admired him tremendously.
39.
Clarence King grew up in the North and his grandmother, Sophia Little, influenced his views on slavery.
40.
Clarence King aligned with the militant anti-slavery advocate Wendell Phillips.
41.
Clarence King even considered joining the war efforts to fight for his beliefs.
42.
Clarence King decided that he would help the nation by exploring and mapping the West for his fellow Americans to later live.
43.
Clarence King was known to be an avid thinker and daydreamer.
44.
Clarence King couldn't ever decide if he was an artist or scientist, because he thought geology had both art and science involved with it.
45.
Clarence King seemed to embrace that the two were intertwined and learned about the art of science and the science of art.
46.
Clarence King wanted people to admire the beauty of his findings of the land in the West.
47.
Clarence King respected nature very much and thought it to be the key to science and art.
48.
Clarence King spent his last thirteen years leading a double life.
49.
Clarence King died on December 24,1901, of tuberculosis in Phoenix, Arizona.