Bailey Willis was born on a country estate at Idlewild-on-Hudson, New York on May 31, 1857. He was schooled in England and Germany before returning to the U.S. to attend Columbia University where he received degrees in mechanical and civil engineering. He worked for the Northern Pacific Railroad (before it went bankrupt in 1884) surveying and making estimations on deposits of coal and iron ore in the Appalachian Mountains, Minnesota, Montana, and particularly Washington. From 1896 until 1902, he was the Chief Geologist for the U.S. Geological Survey. While not busy in Washington D.C., he conducted extensive field work in the Puget Sound region and the Cascade Range in Washington State. His primary objectives were the study of coal beds, the physiographic history of the region, and Pleistocene glacial deposits. He interpreted the area as one which had been reduced to a lowland by erosion, had afterward been gently warped and then carved by stream and glacial erosion into its present detailed forms. In later years he applied the same theory to other areas in California, China and elsewhere. In 1915 he accepted an offer to become the head of the Department of Geology at Stanford University, a position he held until his retirement in 1922. At this time, he turned his attention to the study of the geology of California, seismography, and the inner earth. Throughout his career, Willis traveled the world extensively, notably leading a geological expedition to China in 1903 and organizing a geological survey on behalf of the Argentine government from 1910-1914. He provided geologic expertise to the U.S. government in both WWI and WWII. He died on February 19, 1949.
Photographs made by geologist Bailey Wills most likely taken for the U.S. Geological Survey of the Cascade Range, Cascade Pass, Basin Peak, Stehekin Valley, Lake Chelan & surrounding area.
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Source: Michael Maslan, October 9, 2016.
Processed by Molly Bishop, April 2017.
Written on front: Columbia Valley, Washington, southeast of Lake Chelan; looking northeast across the river to the terraces of Pleistocene age and the high plateau of Miocene basalt.
Written on front: Navarre Coulee, Lake Chelan, Washington. Torrent wash due to a cloud burst on granite slopes in arid climate.
Written on front: Lake Chelan, Washington; exhibiting the canyonlike gorge which the lack occupies.
Written on front: Lake Chelan, Washington. View northward across eastern end of Lake, showing terraces produced during glacial occupation of the Lake basin in lakelets between the ice and land.
Written on front: East end of Lake Chelan, Washington. Detailed view of drift dam, showing cross stratified sandy clays covered by till, gravel, wash and turf in ascending succession. Between the till and the cross stratified sands are pockets of coarse gravels and bowlders, which probably correspond to stream channels.
Written on front: Lake Chelan, Washington, and outlet. General view of the drift dam and the site of Chelan.
Written on front: Lake Chelan,Washington. Looking down lake showing Round Mountain and hanging valley of Railroad Creek.
Written on front: Lake Chelan, Washington, looking south across the eastern end of the lake to Lakeside and Chelan Butte. A glacial terrace and post-glacial ravine are conspicuous in the front of the butte.
Written on front: Columbia River, Washington, east of Lake Chelan. View down the valley from terrace to 3 miles north of outlet of the lake. Terracing on the east bank of the river is due to the occupation of the valley by a lobe of the Okanagan glacier.
Written on front: Gravel terraces of steam origin in the delta of Chelan River, at its junction with the Columbia.
Written on front: Columbia River, east of Lake Chelan, Washington, showing sand dunes resulting from floods and sediment of the Chelan River.
Written on front: Chelan Falls, Columbia River, Washington, looking south from near the outlet of Lake Chelan. The valley and foreground were occupied by a lobe of the Oganagan [sic] glacier which extended down stream to the even topped terrace. The terrace is 600 feet above the Columbia, and represents a filling during the Glacial epoch which has subsequently been in large part removed.
Written on front: Stehekin Valley [ . . . ] -ast of Cascade Pass, Cascade Range. Showing the profile du- [ . . . ] -osion followed by glaciation.
Written on front: Cascade Pass, Cascade Range, Washington. Basin at the head of Stehakin east of the pass, showing the character of the glacial ampitheatres and the remnants of glaciers still lingering among the heights.
Written on front: Cascade Pass, Cascade Range, Washington. View from the summit of the pass, 5,3000 feet, southwestward to the headwaters of Cascade River. The high peaks rise to about 8,8000 feet.
Written on front: Cascade Pass, Cascade Range, Washington, Cliffs of hornblendic gneiss immediately south of the pass, about 3,000 feet in height, exhibiting vertical jointing.
Written on front: Basin Peak, Cascade Range, Washington, north of Cascade Pass. View of Doubtful lake and slope of the mountain, showing joing systems which are commonly mineralized.
Written on front: Cascade Pass, Cascade Range, Washington. Typical glacier of the Northern Cascade Range, showing a neve and the incipient ice stream with crevasses.
Written on front: Detail of No. 71, [item 20] showing stratification of the ice and structure of the glacier. Taken from the same point as No. 71 [item 20], with long focus lens.
Written on front: Cascade Pass, Cascade Range, Washington. View from an elevation of about 7,500 feet southeastward down the Stehekin Valley. The mountain summits fall into a general plane, which was a lowland of late Pliocene time and is now elevated 8,000 feet above sea and profoundly dissected.
Written on front: Cascade Pass, Cascade Range, Washington. A typical glacier of the high Cascades, showing the character of crevassing and terminal moraines.