The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 64, July 1960 - April, 1961 Page: 141
574 p. : ill. (some col.), maps, ports. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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Texas Collection
One of his articles, which made a distinct contribution to Ameri-
can geography, identified the descriptive topographic terms given to
the Southwest by Spanish cartographers and geographers. The article
was published by the National Geographic Magazine in September,
1896.
Hill led the first scientific exploration of the canyons of the Rio
Grande in 1899. The only account of the journey is a delightful
article which appeared in the January, 1901, issue of Century
Magazine.
A founder-member of the National Geographic Society, he was a
member of the Society's expedition to Martinique to study the
volcanic eruption of Mont Pelde in May, 1901.
He acted as a consulting geologist for oil and artesian water in
Texas, mining in Mexico and Nevada, and water and earthquakes
in California. He was largely responsible for the development of
the present water system of the city of Los Angeles.
Hill's greatest contribution to science was his gift of nomenclature.
As the recognized authority on the Texas Cretaceous system, he
personally named many of the Cretaceous features of the state-the
Comanche and Gulf series, their formations, the Balcones fault
zone, and the like. His terminology is taught in geology courses
throughout the world.
The studies of the Cretaceous system by Hill laid the geological
basis for the Texas oil industry and many artesian water supplies
for the state-Dallas, Fort Worth, and El Paso among them. He wrote
extensively on the Cretaceous area, and his reports include: the
Physical Geography of the Texas Region-the 1 -page basic work
on Texas physiography; the Austin folio; the Edwards Plateau re-
port; the Cross Timbers article; and his most important work, the
666-page Black and Grand Prairies of Texas report. This classic
monograph on the Black and Grand prairies is fundamental to the
geologic understanding of Texas' most important economic region.
A prolific writer, Hill penned over three hundred scientific articles
and about five hundred popular articles for magazines and news-
papers. For ten years, he served as a feature writer for the Dallas
Morning News, and the mass of material for the News was prepared
under great physical handicap-dimming eyesight, defective hearing,
and recurrent heart attacks. His first articles for the newspaper were
concerned primarily with oil and oil geology at a time when the
East Texas Oil Field activity had caught the public fancy. Gradually
the subjects broadened into the various fields of Hill's multiple in-
terests-geography, archaeology, habitats of prehistoric peoples, In-
dian life and lore, biology, sociology and penology, history, explora-
tions, old frontier forts, current events, and personal reminiscences.
A series of articles on Spanish explorations in the Southwest in-
terpreted a new route for Cabeza de Vaca based on the identification141
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 64, July 1960 - April, 1961, periodical, 1961; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101190/m1/165/: accessed May 6, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.