Hosta

(group of five images) Deb Shiefelbein was doing some historical renovation work in the old Sansarc School in Ft. Pierre, SD, when she came across a soil survey map of western South Dakota from 1909. Deb salvaged the document and brought it to the USDA office. The map is in fantastic condition and the colors are terrific! Thank you, Deb, for recovering and sharing this amazing piece of history!

The text below is from the inside of the front cover.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture publication is titled “Reconnaissance Soil Survey of Western South Dakota” and was issued February 25, 1911 by the Bureau of Soils – Milton Whitney, Chief. in cooperation with the South Dakota Agricultural Experiment Station, James W. Wilson, Director; Clifford Willis, Agronomist.

The map was initiated in 1905 and produced by the Field Operations of the United States Bureau of Soils in 1909 by George N. Coffey and Party, Washington: Government Printing Office. 1911.

Public Resolution – No. 9. JOINT RESOLUTION amending public resolution numbered eight, Fifty-sixth Congress, second session, approved February twenty-third, nineteen hundred and one, “providing for the printing annually of the report on field operations of the Division of Soils, Department of Agriculture.”

Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That public resolution numbered eight, Fifty-sixth Congress, second session, approved February twenty-third, nineteen hundred and one, be is amended by striking out all after the resolving clause and inserting in lieu thereof the following:

That there shall be printed ten thousand five hundred copies of the report on field operations of the Divisions of Soils, Department of Agriculture, of which one thousand five hundred copies shall be for the use of the Senate, three thousand copies for the use of the House of Representatives, and six thousand copies for the use of the Department of Agriculture: Provided, That in addition to the number of copies above the provided for there shall be printed, as soon as the manuscript can be prepared, with the necessary maps and illustrations ot accompany it, a report on each area surveyed, in the form of advance sheets, bound in paper covers, of which five hundred copies shall be for the use of each Senator from the State, two thousand copies for the use of each Representative for the Congressional district or districts in which the survey is made, and one thousand copies for the use of the Department of Agriculture.

Approved March 14, 1904. [On July 1, 1901, the Division of Soils was reorganized as the Bureau of Soils.]

Pictured are Gaylord Norman (left) who has has 30+ years in as a conservation district supervisor; Lowell Noeske (center) District Conservationist (retired) who served Hughes and Stanley Counties and Deb Schiefelbein (right) of Pierre, SD, who brought in the map.

Submitted by April Boltjes, Soil Conservationist, USDA NRCS, Pierre, SD.

The 1911 Reconnaissance Soil Survey of Western South Dakota is now available online at www.nrcs.usda.gov/wps/portal/nrcs/surveylist/soils/survey....

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