A Brief History Of The

The Mississippi Geological Society was founded on November 28, 1939 by 38 of the 57 petroleum geologists then employed in Jackson, Mississippi. The state had just emerged as a significant oil and gas province following the discovery of large (200+ MMBO) oil reserves in Tinsley Field earlier in the year. The Society was organized with the stated purpose of "the stimulation of interest in geology and related sciences..., the encouragement of scientific research among members..., and the discussion and dissemination of geological information".

A complete listing of the Founding Members is shown in the box at right.

From its inception, the Society has pursued the attainment of its goals and stated purpose through the continued sponsorship of field trips, technical presentations, publications, and involvement in community affairs.

Throughout the years, the Society has sponsored twenty field trips, each with an accompanying guidebook. Copies of several of the more popular field trip guidebooks are available via the Society's Publications department. Some of the more recent field trips have been undertaken in conjunction with a seminar covering the subject of the trip.

In April 1941, the Society became affiliated with the American Association Of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG). Ten years later (1951), the Society joined the Gulf Coast Association Of Geological Societies (GCAGS). MGS hosted the AAPG sectional conventions in 1946 and 1949, and GCAGS/GCS-SEPM conventions in 1955, 1960, 1968, 1975, 1983, and 1992.

Involvement in research and technical projects has always been a hallmark of the Society. In 1945, MGS was instrumental in the oversight and assembly of data for the new and revised Geological Map of Mississippi. Similarly, the Society also established the MGS Library in 1945 in order to assist geologists and students in the pursuit of their research. The Student Award Program was instituted by the Society in 1947 to recognize outstanding geologic papers originated by students majoring in geologic disciplines at the state's colleges and universities.

In 1954, the Society embarked upon the first of many financial assistance programs with the establishment of its Student Loan Program, which was designed to provide support to selected college students majoring in geology throughout the state. This was followed in 1955 with the Society's awarding of scholarships to deserving high school winners in the Science Fair that was sponsored by the Mississippi Academy Of Science. More recently, the Lawrence Boland Memorial Scholarship Fund, established by the Society in 1980, has celebrated over twenty years of annual scholarship awards to one student from each of the four colleges and universities in the state that support a significant geology curriculum. Finally, the MGS Student Award Program and the MGS Student Assistance Program continue to recognize and provide assistance to outstanding students in the field of geology throughout the state's educational system.

From the early days of the Society to the present, publications have played a major role in the attainment of the purpose of the Society as set forth in its Constitution. Besides the field trip guidebooks already mentioned, other MGS publications include a number of composite and basin type logs, correlation sections, and structural / stratigraphic cross-sections. More importantly, the Society has published a series of field studies since 1952, when it first released a compendium of Wilcox oil fields, including field maps, reservoir information, and production data. The Society followed its Wilcox volume with the release of its original "Redbook" - focusing on producing fields throughout the rest of the state - in 1957. Since that time, the Society has updated its Wilcox volume and released eight successive updates to the popular Redbook, with the last having been released in 1995. In addition, MGS publishes a monthly Bulletin that is distributed to all members during the Society's active months. Finally, this website has been created in order to enable the Society to utilize the internet in distributing relevant news, geologic articles, and other materials of interest to its members and the public at large.

Technical programs and seminars have been sponsored by the Society since its inception. Recent seminars have focused on the Cambro-Ordovician Knox Gas Play in the Black Warrior Basin of Northeast Mississippi, salt tectonics, local sequence stratigraphy and relationship to outcrops, and the Cotton Valley Gas Play within the Mississippi Interior Salt Basin. MGS also hosts monthly luncheon meetings, held from September through May of each year, where a variety of speakers give technical presentations on topics and issues of interest to the Society's members.

Currently, the Society's membership is approximately 250-300. During the late 1970's and early 1980's, when oil and gas exploration and production peaked in the state, membership rose to its highest level with approximately 500 members. The Society has made a special effort in recent years to encourage membership and participation by non-petroleum geologists, and currently counts a significant number of environmental, hydrological, and governmental professionals among its members. Emphasis on water quality and sensitive environmental issues, as well as the preservation of subsurface data throughout the state, have been and will continue to be important focus issues for the Society.

In the summer of 1985, the Society sponsored a field trip of historical significance when Fred Mellen led a group of MGS members on foot to traverse the very hillsides of Yazoo County that he had mapped 47 years previously in his discovery of the large surface anticline that later became the giant Tinsley Field. Four years later, the Society and other petroleum-related organizations in Mississippi sponsored a celebration of the 50-year anniversary of the discovery of Tinsley  - the state's first commercial oil field - and the subsequent founding of the Society. Sadly, Fred Mellen is no longer with us, but his legacy - like that of so many other prominent MGS members - will endure.

Today, despite the cyclical nature of the oil and gas business and the continuing evolution of the other equally important geologic professions within the state of Mississippi, the same purpose and vision that originated the Society continues to propel it into the future, due to the strong foundation of a committed membership and adaptation to changing conditions in a remarkably diverse geological field.

- Stanley King, MGS Historian, with contributions from Steve Walkinshaw