Pardee's Lens

If you've worked as a Geologist in the West, its a fairly safe bet J.T. Pardee visited your field area decades before you arrived. Pardee, a Field Geologist for the U.S. Geological Survey, ranged as widely as his interests and his little Ford Model T would take him. From hard rock mines in the High Rockies to oil prospects in the swamps of Florida to recent fault scarps in the Basin and Range to pioneering work in the bleak, desolate Channeled Scablands, the government man spent years traveling lonesome roads, walking ridges, and sleeping in the open. He weathered the rough Western landscape with remarkable style and grace. Always a collar and jacket. Always working. Continually circling back to learn something new and refine his interpretations. Between 1910 and 1940, Pardee seemed to be everywhere, working intensely for a season or two on a specific project before moving on. Fellow Geologists with whom he visited were gifted his thoughts, his notes, his maps. He seems to have freely handed over what he had to those showing interest and a penchant for fieldwork. Several of these associates met along the way would go on to build careers from Pardee's tips and encouragement. He was a Montanan and one of the greatest field men this country has produced. And while his writing, generosity, and influence is well known, his photography is not. With this post, I seek to change that a bit. Please enjoy a selection of images by Joseph Thomas Pardee, Photographer.

1918 - Stonehouse Quadrangle near Golconda, NV. The original Daniel Plainview.

1917 - Osoyoos Lake, WA

1917 - Steamboat Rock and Upper Grand Coulee, WA

1921 - Rathdrum Prairie, WA

1918 - Haystack boulders on the Waterville Plateau near Mansfield, WA

1922 - Pilot Rock erratic northwest of Coulee City in Upper Grand Coulee, WA

1922 - Outburst flood gravels at Ewan, WA interpreted by Pardee as pre-Wisconsin drift

Anaconda Quadrangle, MT

1921 - Drainage divide between the Jocko River and Clark Fork River at Evaro, MT

1921 - Flathead River Valley at Perma, MT

1917 - Pogue Flat at Omak, WA

1937 - Clark Fork River at White Pine, MT

1918 - Bitterroot Mountains and irrigation canal off Skalkaho Creek near Hamilton, MT

1921 - Field assistant in a university sweater atop a quartzite boulder at Butler Creek near Missoula, MT

1918 - Blackfoot Valley at Helmville, MT

1909 - Dixon Bench on the Flathead Indian Reservation, MT

1917 - North Cascades above the Cascade River Valley, WA

1909 - Tuscor Hill near Trout Creek, MT

1918 - Brick furnace near Bonner, MT

1921 - "Durkin for Gin", Sunset Highway west of Spokane, WA

1921 - Rogers Pass, MT

1935 - Windy Hill, MT

1921 - Mission Range near Ronan, MT

1921 - Flathead River near Dixon, MT

1918 - Contorted bedding in glacial sediments at Lake Cushman, WA

1923 - Sunset Highway west of Spokane, WA

1918 - Hood Canal at Hoodsport, WA

1909 - Gravel lenses interfinger with Glacial Lake Missoula lakebeds here at DeSmet, MT and also near Drummond, MT

1921 - Buffalo Rapids on the Lower Flathead River, MT

1921 - Great Northern Railway near Libby, MT

1917 - Diatomite mining by American Mineral Products Company a few miles south of Quincy, WA

1921 - Alden and Pardee in Cascade County, MT

1917 - Potholes Coulee, WA

1921 - Outside of Deer Lodge, MT

1918 - Stillwater River Valley, MT

1918 - Field assistant and weathered erratic near Deer Lodge, MT

1909 - Hellgate Coal Company's incline and coal bunkers at Missoula, MT

1921 - Snowy summits of Mt. Calowahcan (9065') and McDonald Peak (9820') in the Mission Range seen from near Ronan, MT

1926 - Continental Divide at Priest Pass west of Helena, MT

1918 - North Fork hydraulic mining for gold near Sumpter, OR

1924 - Drillers in swamp east of Monticello, FL

1934 - Charles B. Johnson's one-man gold mill near Rozzelle Bridge, NC

1918 - Rainier Quicksilver Mine in the Meadows District, OR

1921 - Eastern front of the Rocky Mountains at Glacier Park Station, MT

1918 - University of Montana campus in Missoula

1937 - Missoula Valley, MT

1918 - Cooke City, MT

Pardee with plane table in Montana

1940 - Glacial Lake Missoula shorelines above Camas Prairie, MT

1936 - Fault scarp in young alluvium at Lima, MT

1936 - Zortman, MT is a remote outpost in the Little Rocky Mountains

1938 - Dredge spoils of the Pioneer Mining Company in the Gold Creek Valley, MT

1390 - Markel Pass, MT

1936 - Town of Grand Coulee and dam site along the upper Columbia River, WA

1929 - Beacon Rock(?) in the Columbia Gorge, WA/OR

1935 - Gold processing works, Powell County, MT

1938 - Fishing fleet and Indian village at Neah Bay, WA

1938 - Bluffs of glacial till (Flathead Lobe) and varved silts (Glacial Lake Missoula) along Flathead River at Sloan's Bridge, MT

1937 - Morainal deposits and haystack rocks at Del Rio west of Grand Coulee, WA

1937 - Little Bitterroot Valley west of Hotsprings, MT

1936 - Town of Metaline Falls in the Pend Oreille Valley, WA

1939 - Perched bar ("gulch fill") along the Flathead River southeast of Paradise, MT

1938 - Boulder toppled from Ribbon Cliff near Entiat, WA

1938 - Volcanic ash exposed in roadcut south of Entiat, WA

1940 - Flathead River near Perma, MT

1940 - Markel Pass area, MT

1936 - Earth flow failure in an enormous spoils pile of Nespelem Silt excavated at Grand Coulee, WA

1926 - Ferry over the Skagit River, WA

1918 - Black Bear Claim near Green River, UT

Joseph T. Pardee, Field Geologist

I selected the photos above from 8 digital photo albums archived by the USGS/ScienceBase. I've cropped, sharpened, and adjusted the contrast on each. Frankly, I've tried to make Pardee's photos look more like Ansel Adams'.