Henry Gannett: The unknown father of American timberline research

Although Henry Gannett is best known as “the father of American map-making,” he made noteworthy contributions to timberline research in the late 1800s. Gannett’s studies attempted to identify a standard isotherm for alpine timberline in the USA, explained the mass elevation effect on timberline altitude in the Rocky Mountains, and recognized the importance of geology and geomorphology as controlling factors. Despite these contributions, Gannett’s timberline work remains in obscurity. As technology enhances our ability to find and cite older literature, the contributions of Gannett, and other unknown scholars, may provide us with insight and useful data that have lain dormant for decades or centuries