Mapping the Frontier

A Memoir of Discovery from Coastal Maine to the Alaskan Rim

Rufus Harvey Sargent - Edited by Jan Cigliano Hartman

Alaska in 1900 was unexplored frontier, a land where risk, danger, and ultimate adventure made teamwork essential. Maine native R. Harvey Sargent led the U. S. Geological Survey in Alaska for over three decades, 1901-1936, charting the vast expanses of this remarkably beautiful and treacherous land. A pioneer of modern mapping, Sargent introduced 20^th-century “firsts”: photogrammetry and aerial surveys in Alaska, and the first professional surveys of China’s mountainous interior.
Mapping the Frontier: A Memoir of Discovery from Coastal Maine to the Alaskan Rim publishes for the first time Harvey Sargent’s diary of his explorations in the world’s outer edges, from China to Mexico, Utah, Arizona, Montana, and Alaska. He was the son of a sea captain, born with exploration and adventure in his veins. Grounded in the foundations of his childhood home of Sedgwick, Maine, to his family residence for a half-century with USGS in Washington, D. C., Sargent’s lively narrative is beautifully illustrated with period maps and photographs. The reader will experience the breathtaking majesty of the Grand Canyon; the deadly harsh winters of Utah’s dessert; misty fjords and dramatic icebergs of Glacier Bay National Park; and Sargent’s discovery of Alaska’s Aniakshak crater, today the country’s most remote National Monument and Preserve.

Down East Books

Pages: 256 • Trim: 9 x 10

978-1-60893-460-7 • Paperback • October 2015 • $40.00 • (£30.00)

978-1-60893-461-4 • eBook • October 2015 • $38.00 • (£30.00)

Subjects: Science / Earth Sciences / Geography, Biography & Autobiography / Adventurers & Explorers, History / Expeditions & Discoveries

Mapping the Frontier

A Memoir of Discovery from Coastal Maine to the Alaskan Rim

Paperback

eBook

Summary

Alaska in 1900 was unexplored frontier, a land where risk, danger, and ultimate adventure made teamwork essential. Maine native R. Harvey Sargent led the U. S. Geological Survey in Alaska for over three decades, 1901-1936, charting the vast expanses of this remarkably beautiful and treacherous land. A pioneer of modern mapping, Sargent introduced 20^th-century “firsts”: photogrammetry and aerial surveys in Alaska, and the first professional surveys of China’s mountainous interior.
Mapping the Frontier: A Memoir of Discovery from Coastal Maine to the Alaskan Rim publishes for the first time Harvey Sargent’s diary of his explorations in the world’s outer edges, from China to Mexico, Utah, Arizona, Montana, and Alaska. He was the son of a sea captain, born with exploration and adventure in his veins. Grounded in the foundations of his childhood home of Sedgwick, Maine, to his family residence for a half-century with USGS in Washington, D. C., Sargent’s lively narrative is beautifully illustrated with period maps and photographs. The reader will experience the breathtaking majesty of the Grand Canyon; the deadly harsh winters of Utah’s dessert; misty fjords and dramatic icebergs of Glacier Bay National Park; and Sargent’s discovery of Alaska’s Aniakshak crater, today the country’s most remote National Monument and Preserve.

Details

Down East Books

Pages: 256 • Trim: 9 x 10

978-1-60893-460-7 • Paperback • October 2015 • $40.00 • (£30.00)

978-1-60893-461-4 • eBook • October 2015 • $38.00 • (£30.00)

Subjects: Science / Earth Sciences / Geography, Biography & Autobiography / Adventurers & Explorers, History / Expeditions & Discoveries

Author

Rufus Harvey Sargent was born in Sedgewick, Maine, in 1875, but his life and workwith the U.S. Geological Survey took him far from his home town on the coast. He explored and mapped some of the most remote parts of the world, including sections of Alaska and China that no one had ever set foot in. He completed the first aerial survey of Alaska in 1925-26, and in 1947 the Department of the Interior awarded Sargent its Medal for Distinguished Service. He died in 1951, in Washington, D.C.

Table of Contents

Foreword by Blue Hill Public Library
Prologue by Robert M. Sargent
1 Childhood in Sedgwick, 1875–1889
2 A Passion for Exploration, 1890–1895
3 The National Zoo, Washington, D.C., 1895–1898
4 Joining the Survey: South Dakota, Texas, Wyoming, Montana, Arizona, 1898–1901
5 First Chief of Party: Glacier National Park, Montana, 1901–1903
6 The China Expedition, 1903–1904
7 Mapping and Marriage: Arizona, Utah, New Mexico, 1904–1906
8 Distant Journeys: Alaska, Mexico, 1906–1907
9 Alaskan Summers, Washington Winters, 1907–1909
10Topographer in Charge of the Alaskan Branch: Matanuska Valley and Kenai Peninsula, 1908–1911
11Alaska’s Matanuska Valley and Iliamna Bay, 1913–1914
Epilogue, 1915–1951
Alaska Today
Glossary & Bibliography
INDEX