Page 99 - Early Naturalists of the Black Range

Here we discuss Springer’s passion. He wished to be financially independent so that he could pursue his study of crinoids. He wrote several books, monographs, and taxonomic papers on crinoids and eventually gave his crinoid collection to the Smithsonian, the National Museum of Natural History. The Springer Echinoderm Collection is the largest crinoid collection in the world. “Most of the Museum of Natural History’s fossil echinoderm collection, and the large library associated with it, were donated by Frank Springer in 1911.” (website link above) The taxonomic classification of crinoids was the source of vigorous debate between Springer (and his associate Charles Wachsmuth) and Francis Arthur Bather at the end of the 1800’s. Bather and Springer remained the primary authorities in this field until about 1925, Wachsmuth having died before the turn of the century. The rivalry was far from civil: each man’s critiques of the other’s work included words like “ridiculous”.
In a letter to Louis Agassiz (February 15, 1888) Springer described his relationship with Wachsmuth, writing, “our work is the result of an undertaking in which Wachsmuth furnishes the brains and I the money, and both, I think, a fair equivalent of enthusiasm.”
In 1884, Springer published “On the occurrence of the Lower Burlington Limestone in New Mexico”, American Journal of Science, Vol. XXVIII, No. 158, February 1884, pp. 97-103. In that article Springer described his observations, in 1882, of what is now known as the Lake Valley Limestone Formation.
Kues (see below) notes that “Excluding Pennsylvanian and
Frank Springer
Cretaceous fossils only the diverse Early Mississippian faunas near Lake Valley had received modest attention. Frank Springer
(1884), a noted territorial lawyer and paleontologist (see Caffey 2006), discussed many taxa, though without illustrating them, and a few of the Lake Valley Limestone’s famous crinoids were included in Wachsmuth and Springer’s (1897) monograph.” (Celebrating New Mexico’s Centennial - The Geology of New Mexico as Understood in 1912: An Essay for the Centennial of New Mexico Statehood, Part 2, Barry S. Kues, University of New Mexico, p. 40).
Greger reported that he had received specimens from Springer in 1900, from Lake Valley, but that the “exact horizon of the specimens was not known”. (“Synonymy of Ptyehospira Sexplicata”, American Geologist, Vol. XXV, May 1900, pp. 266-267, Greger.)
The New Mexico School of Mines

The university in Socorro opened in the fall of 1893. Its role was enhanced in 1927 when the New Mexico Bureau of Mines and Mineral Resources (now NM Bureau of Geology and Mineral Resources) was added to the institution.
Studies performed by the Bureau and the University have added significantly to our knowledge of the geology of the Black Range.
The school’s name was changed to New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology in 1951.
Edward Lee Greene

Greene is credited with naming or redescrbiing over 4,400 plant species in the western United States. The photograph on the following page was taken shortly before his death.
Greene spent much time in New Mexico. In March 1878 he published “Rambles of a Botanist in New Mexico” in the American Naturalist. Speaking of his time in the vicinity of the Santa Rita Copper Mines he noted, “It is an interesting region, the natural history of which has not been looked into except by the few scientists who have accompanied one or two government surveying expeditions in passing through it. Aglow with the ardor of a botanist in a new field of study, I entered this remote corner of New Mexico from the westward early in April. The broad expanse of plains through which runs the boundary line between this territory and Arizona was already decked with a profusion of flowers. The number of species was not great, but each species was represented by myriads of individuals, so that the whole prairie landscape seemed painted in lively colors.” (p. 172) This describes part of a trip made by Greene from San Diego to Santa Fe via our area, on foot, in 1877.
By 1880 he was back in Silver City and collecting in the Black Range. Four specimen sheets from this period are included on the page 100, three of which were originally described by Greene in the Botanical Gazette issue of January 1881 (Vol. VI,
98