William Barton Rogers and the First Geological Survey of Virginia, 1835 - 1841

Virginia was the fifth state in the United States to establish a geological survey. Support for this bold venture to develop the state's mineral wealth came from the Geological Society of Pennsylvania, several prominent Virginia citizens, and county legislators. On March 6, 1835 the General Assembly passed an act to authorize a geological reconnaissance. Shortly thereafter William Barton Rogers was appointed to direct the survey, as well as being elected to the chair of natural philosophy at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville. Within a nine-month period he prepared a report on limestones, sandstones, granites, slates, soapstones, coal, ores of iron, copper, gold, and other materials having economic potential. This report influenced the legislature to give financial support to the survey through April 1842. He prepared six annual reports and numerous papers and in 1853 left Charlottesville for Boston, Massachusetts, where he founded the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Rogers identified several rock units using stratigraphic names correlative with those in Pennsylvania and New York. His works were among the first to deal with igneous and metamorphic rocks in the state. He and his brother, Henry Darwin Rogers, made the first major structural synthesis of the Appalachian chain, recognizing inverted folds and reverse faults. Rogers' works were used as a basis of the development of Virginia geology and mineral resources beyond his demise in 1882. Emma Rogers, his wife, compiled his papers and reports, a vital legacy published in 1884.

William and Henry were in constant contact with one another and many other geologists during their years of study in the Appalachian mountains. Indeed, they relied heavily upon Conrad and Hall of New York for detailed paleontologic and stratigraphic work, which they applied to their own areas in Virginia and Pennsylvania.