[Author’s Name]
[Institution’s Name]
Essay on George Montague Wheeler
George Montague Wheeler, soldier, born in Grafton, Massachusetts, 9 October 1842. He was graduated at the United States military academy in 1866, and assigned to the corps of engineers. From October 1866, till September 1868, he was assistant engineer on the survey of Point Lobos and vicinity, and in the construction of the defenses of Fort Point, San Francisco harbor, California.
He was promoted 1st lieutenant on 7 March, 1867, and in September, 1868, became engineer on the staff of the commanding general of the Department of California. In 1869 he was sent to make a geographical reconnaissance in central Nevada, and in 1871 he took the field with a force of surveyors and scientists. His organization assumed the title of the "Geographical survey of the territory of the United States west of the 100th meridian," (Goetzmann, 1994) of which he became superintending engineer.
Money was annually granted by congress for the continuance of his work, and a largo force was regularly employed. This survey had for its primary object the making of geographic maps, but it gave a prominent place to geology, and gathered valuable material in the departments of zoology and ethnology. Lieutenant Wheeler continued this work until March 1879, when the survey was abolished and the United States geological survey was organized.
Wheeler was a surveyor in the Southwest until 1871 when he was put in charge of his own expedition. In 1872 his survey expanded in an effort to produce a useable overall map of the West. He led several field surveys until 1879 when his appropriations were discontinued. Although he published numerous reports, his big map remained unfinished.
Since that time he has been engaged in the preparation of the material that has been gathered, much of which has been published in his annual reports....
