Page 78 - Early Naturalists of the Black Range

Arthur Carl Victor Schott
Schott was a collector, surveyor, and artist who participated in the Survey. Schott had worked with John Torrey, and it was Torrey who recommended him for employment with the Survey.
His official role was assistant surveyor and topographical artist. He traveled west with Emory when Emory was appointed the Chief Astronomer, replacing Andrew Belcher Gray (something Gray was very upset about).
Schott’s drawings of the boundary markers were consider legal documents by the Commission. His drawings were not restricted
to this type of documentation and were wide ranging, however. He also collected numerous biological specimens, several of which had not been previously described. Some of these species were named in his honor. Two reptilian species are also named in his honor. One, the Ornate Tree Lizard, Urosaurus ornatus schottii, is found in the Black Range. This subspecies is shown on the following page in a photograph taken in Hillsboro.
Schott was also active in Texas. See “A Civilian Surveyor on the United States-Mexico Boundary: The Case of Arthur Schott”, Paula Rebert, Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, Bol. 155, No. 4, December 2011, pp 433-462.
James Hall/J. Peter Lesley’s “Map Illustrating the General Geological Features of the Country West of the Mississippi River: Compiled from the Surveys of W. H. Emory and from the Pacific Railroad Surveys and Other Sources” appeared in print copies of Volume 1 of the survey report. Much of the information which went into the southwestern portion of the map was based on work performed by Arthur Carl Victor Schott. Emory had all of the field notes and maps burned when the final map of the boundary was produced. His argument was that such notes might confuse matters; of course the opposite is true as well. Emory was not prone to share the credit. The burning of that material fit nicely with his overall perception of his importance to the endeavor.
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