HOW IT BEGAN - THE REMAPPING THE ALABAMA PIEDMONT

The geologic map of Alabama (1926) showed the crystalline area of east central Alabama as a simplistic configuration of very generalized geologic units. This map had been put together through the reconnaissance work of George I. Adams, Henry McCalley and W. F. Prouty in the late 1800's and early 1900's. Relationship of mineral deposits to the geology was unknown and sparsely understood. Numerous mineral publications had been prepared during the early 1900's and World War II minerals resources was. These reports focused on the mineral occurrence, not the geology that encompassed the deposits.

In the late 1960's I was charged with the responsibility to investigate and map the mineral resources of east-central Alabama. In the fall of 1968, a special effort began to undertake a reconnaissance mapping effort of the entire crystalline area of Alabama to support an understanding of the relationship of mineral deposits to their host geology. Beginning in two areas - Lee County on the south and Coosa County on the north, a three to five year effort was initiated to re-map the region. All previous geologic map data, no matter how apparently insignificant it appeared was collected from various geologic publications, files of the Geological Survey of Alabama, the U. S. Bureau of Mines and the U. S. Geological Survey and plotted on county highway maps.

As field investigations continued, it became apparent that the geologic units exposed in the Alabama Piedmont expressed significant stratigraphic and structural features related to the entire Appalachian system. During this period several graduate students and various faculty members from different schools began to contribute to the basic geologic understanding of the area and its tectonic history. Over the course of 4 years a new geologic emerged. This new map was included in the new 1988 Geologic Map of Alabama, 1:250,000.