Benjamin F. Mudge, the State Geological Surveys, and Fossil Collecting in Kansas, 1864-1870

B. F. Mudge (1817-79), appointed the first Kansas State Geologist in 1864, served for only one year. Inexperienced, and with no chance of fulfilling the requirements of an expansive law, he was succeeded in 1865 by G. C. Swallow (1817-99). Aided by F. Hawn and the other former members of Mudge's survey, Swallow, who received a larger budget and an open-ended appointment with no specified duties, produced a more impressive report, although he was not funded in 1866. Mudge went to Kansas State Agricultural College, Manhattan, where he became the preeminent Kansas geologist during the years 1866-70. Although better known for his fossil vertebrate collections in the Cretaceous of Western Kansas in the 1870's, Mudge made significant invertebrate collections from the Cretaceous. Building on the foundation laid by F. V. Hayden and F. B. Meek, he was able, with considerable input from Meek, to make a major contribution toward elucidating the stratigraphy of the Kansas Cretaceous.