The Survey at 75
For its 75th year, beginning July 1, 1954, the Survey had 7,000
employees, appropriated funds of $27,750,000, and total funds,
including those from other Federal agencies and the States, of nearly
$48.5 million. Its methods of work had changed markedly in the decade
since the end of World War II. The Survey had been given responsibility
by the Bureau of the Budget for the National Topographic Map Series of
the United States and for exercising governmentwide leadership in
coordinated planning and execution of mapping activities of the Federal
Government. Although only 33 percent of the topographic mapping of the
Nation met modern standards, the use of aerial photographs and
photogrammetric methods for production of most topographic maps, the
continuing development of more accurate instruments and methods, and
the use of helicopters to transport topographic engineers to
mountaintops and other remote spots to obtain survey control
measurements resulted in a significant increase in the amount of
mapping accomplished each year. Data on streamflow were being obtained
at some 6,400 gaging stations, about 500 ground
water investigations were in progress, and the chemical quality of more
than 85,000 samples of water was being determined in Survey
laboratories. In addition, studies of the water requirements of
industry, of flood frequency and low flow, of sedimentation, and of
flow in open channels and through constrictions were underway. Geologic
mapping and mineral-resources investigations were still being carried
on, but geologists were adapting photogrammetric methods to their
mapping, making use of physics and chemistry in their studies, and
applying modern statistical methods to problems of field geology.
Geophysicists were keeping two aircraft busy making airborne magnetic
and radioactivity surveys, chemists were devising faster and more
accurate analytical methods, and the Survey acquired an electron
microscope, a mass spectrometer, and an electronic computer. The Survey
had responsibility for supervising more than 100,000 lessee operations
on mining or oil-and-gas properties on public, acquired, or Indian
lands and, since 1953, of oil-and-gas lease operations on the Outer
Continental Shelf. Rent and royalty income from supervised operations
was $73.5 million.
Figure 37. A helicopter landing topographic engineers and equipment for triangulation, 1953.
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