Marvin Mangus
Encyclopedia
Marvin Dale Mangus was an American
geologist
and landscape painter.
. His father, Alfred Ross Mangus (1889–1974), initially worked for the Pennsylvania Railroad
in Altoona, but later started Mangus Express Company, a small trucking company based in Altoona. Marvin Mangus was the youngest of three siblings.
In high school, Mangus was interested at pursuing an art career, but as the Depression lingered on, he studied ceramic
science in the Mineral Science Department at Penn State University. After the US military decided that there it had a shortage of geologists Mangus was asked by the Dean to switch his major to geology. He later completed his Masters of Science in Geology in 1946.
At Penn State, he was also a member of the men's gymnastics team, medaling in the 1945 AAU Gymnastics Championship in rope climbing
.
from after Memorial Day
to before Labor Day
, because collection of rock samples was best accomplished when the ground was free of snow. Mangus co-authored several USGS Publications detailing the team's findings in Alaska.
Starting in 1958, Mangus worked with the Atlantic Refining Company. His wife Jane, and sons Alfred and Donald, resided in Guatemala City
in 1958-59, and moved to Calgary
in 1960-61. In spring 1962 the family moved again, this time to Anchorage, Alaska
, where Mangus and three other employees served as the Alaskan staff of Atlantic.
As a field geologist, he traveled to Guatemala
, Bolivia
, Yukon
, and the Northwest Territories
of Canada
, before finally settling in Anchorage, Alaska in 1962. Mangus mapped the entire Arctic North Slope from the Brooks Range, starting at Cape Lisburne, over to the 141st meridian.
In 1968, Mangus was with a twelve-man ARCO team that discovered the giant Kavik natural gas
field. The Richfield Oil Company of California also owned the right to drill on "oil leases" for Prudhoe Bay Discovery Well. After a merger with Atlantic, and the creation of ARCO
, Mangus and his colleagues were able to convince the company leadership in Dallas, including CEO Robert Orville Anderson, to drill an exploratory well at Prudhoe Bay. Mangus, as an ARCO geologist, then staked the landmark drilling sites for the discovery and confirmation wells of the Prudhoe Bay Oil Field
.
Leaving ARCO after this big oil find, Mangus co-founded a private consultanting firm, Fackler, Calderwood, and Mangus (later Calderwood and Mangus, after Fackler took a state job). After the death of his partner, Keith Calderwood, Mangus continued his consulting work solo. Calderwood had served as President of the Petroleum Club of Anchorage, and Mangus maintained his professional affiliations until his own death. His 50-year pin for AAPG membership was received at his home only a few days after his death.
In the late 1940s to early 1950s Mangus began his art career with still life
and landscape painting in Washington D.C., as a member of the Washington Landscape Club, later renamed the Washington Society of Landscape Painters, Inc. He quickly improved his impressionistic painting techniques thanks to lessons and workshops from artists Eliot O'Hara, Roger Ritasse, and William F. Walter. Landscape painting combined his passionate interests in art, geology, history, and his love of the out-of-doors.
Mangus was a Plein Air painter, and whenever possible, he carried hid painting supplies into the field to record what he saw and experienced. Mangus completed paintings of most places that he lived or visited, and worked in the media of oils, cassein, acrylics, and watercolor. Although he is best known for his Alaskan images, he often painted scenes from many other locales, especially in the East Coast/Pennsylvania areas. He also painted scenes recording the contributions by previous generations of Alaskan geologists. He sometimes gave painting demonstrations to Anchorage school children.
Mangus' artwork has been exhibited in numerous venues, including the Corcoran Gallery of Washington D.C., the Smithsonian Museum Area Show, the Arts Club of Washington, the Baltimore Watercolor Society, All-Alaska Juried shows, and the Centennial Traveling Art Exhibition. Several of his paintings are part of the permanent collection of the Anchorage Fine Arts Museum.
P8", was made for PBS
Anchorage, Alaska Channel 6 as a fund raiser, and depicts a salmon-drying rack. The third was a print of the USS Nimitz Aircraft Carrier
sailing into Cook Inlet
, Alaska, created in the mid-nineties to commemorate a special 4 July weekend shore leave. These prints were given away to US Navy crew members and Anchorage VFW
Post friends.
, collapsible boats, bush planes, and C-Ration
s were used by Mangus and his colleagues, Robert "Bob" L. Detterman, William P. Brosge, and others. Mangus liked to perform the cache
operations himself.
Trips were planned in advance so as to use a river flowing downstream for transportation, and then the collapsible boats would be dropped by bush plane. Mangus would push out 55 gallon drums from inside the bush plane. These drums were then filled with C-Rations and resealed to protect their food contents from marauding bears.
The geologists lived in white canvas tents and would often go three months in the remote wilderness without a shower or radio. They would climb to a site, select rock samples, and carry them back to their boats or amphibious M29 Weasel. Records were kept on where samples were taken for the official USGS reports, and the samples were then shipped back to Washington.
In 1961, Mangus was in a helicopter that hit a tree in remote Canada, and fell about 40 to 50 feet. The occupants hiked for three days to the nearest native settlement. As a result of the crash, he had back surgery in Canada and the long-term effects of a fused spine bothered him for the remainder of his life.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
geologist
Geologist
A geologist is a scientist who studies the solid and liquid matter that constitutes the Earth as well as the processes and history that has shaped it. Geologists usually engage in studying geology. Geologists, studying more of an applied science than a theoretical one, must approach Geology using...
and landscape painter.
Early life
Marvin Mangus was born in Altoona, PennsylvaniaAltoona, Pennsylvania
-History:A major railroad town, Altoona was founded by the Pennsylvania Railroad in 1849 as the site for a shop complex. Altoona was incorporated as a borough on February 6, 1854, and as a city under legislation approved on April 3, 1867, and February 8, 1868...
. His father, Alfred Ross Mangus (1889–1974), initially worked for the Pennsylvania Railroad
Pennsylvania Railroad
The Pennsylvania Railroad was an American Class I railroad, founded in 1846. Commonly referred to as the "Pennsy", the PRR was headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania....
in Altoona, but later started Mangus Express Company, a small trucking company based in Altoona. Marvin Mangus was the youngest of three siblings.
In high school, Mangus was interested at pursuing an art career, but as the Depression lingered on, he studied ceramic
Ceramic
A ceramic is an inorganic, nonmetallic solid prepared by the action of heat and subsequent cooling. Ceramic materials may have a crystalline or partly crystalline structure, or may be amorphous...
science in the Mineral Science Department at Penn State University. After the US military decided that there it had a shortage of geologists Mangus was asked by the Dean to switch his major to geology. He later completed his Masters of Science in Geology in 1946.
At Penn State, he was also a member of the men's gymnastics team, medaling in the 1945 AAU Gymnastics Championship in rope climbing
Rope climbing
Rope climbing is a sport in which competitors, usually men, attempt to climb up a suspended vertical rope using only their hands. Rope climbing is practised regularly at the World Police and Fire Games, and is enjoying a resurgence in France, where competitions are held in shopping centres...
.
Career
Mangus was hired by the USGS Alaska Branch based in Washington DC in 1946. His typical work year consisted of field geology in the Brooks RangeBrooks Range
The Brooks Range is a mountain range in far northern North America. It stretches from west to east across northern Alaska and into Canada's Yukon Territory, a total distance of about 1100 km . The mountains top out at over 2,700 m . The range is believed to be approximately 126 million years old...
from after Memorial Day
Memorial Day
Memorial Day is a United States federal holiday observed on the last Monday of May. Formerly known as Decoration Day, it originated after the American Civil War to commemorate the fallen Union soldiers of the Civil War...
to before Labor Day
Labor Day
Labor Day is a United States federal holiday observed on the first Monday in September that celebrates the economic and social contributions of workers.-History:...
, because collection of rock samples was best accomplished when the ground was free of snow. Mangus co-authored several USGS Publications detailing the team's findings in Alaska.
Starting in 1958, Mangus worked with the Atlantic Refining Company. His wife Jane, and sons Alfred and Donald, resided in Guatemala City
Guatemala City
Guatemala City , is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Guatemala and Central America...
in 1958-59, and moved to Calgary
Calgary
Calgary is a city in the Province of Alberta, Canada. It is located in the south of the province, in an area of foothills and prairie, approximately east of the front ranges of the Canadian Rockies...
in 1960-61. In spring 1962 the family moved again, this time to Anchorage, Alaska
Anchorage, Alaska
Anchorage is a unified home rule municipality in the southcentral part of the U.S. state of Alaska. It is the northernmost major city in the United States...
, where Mangus and three other employees served as the Alaskan staff of Atlantic.
As a field geologist, he traveled to Guatemala
Guatemala
Guatemala is a country in Central America bordered by Mexico to the north and west, the Pacific Ocean to the southwest, Belize to the northeast, the Caribbean to the east, and Honduras and El Salvador to the southeast...
, Bolivia
Bolivia
Bolivia officially known as Plurinational State of Bolivia , is a landlocked country in central South America. It is the poorest country in South America...
, Yukon
Yukon
Yukon is the westernmost and smallest of Canada's three federal territories. It was named after the Yukon River. The word Yukon means "Great River" in Gwich’in....
, and the Northwest Territories
Northwest Territories
The Northwest Territories is a federal territory of Canada.Located in northern Canada, the territory borders Canada's two other territories, Yukon to the west and Nunavut to the east, and three provinces: British Columbia to the southwest, and Alberta and Saskatchewan to the south...
of Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
, before finally settling in Anchorage, Alaska in 1962. Mangus mapped the entire Arctic North Slope from the Brooks Range, starting at Cape Lisburne, over to the 141st meridian.
In 1968, Mangus was with a twelve-man ARCO team that discovered the giant Kavik natural gas
Natural gas
Natural gas is a naturally occurring gas mixture consisting primarily of methane, typically with 0–20% higher hydrocarbons . It is found associated with other hydrocarbon fuel, in coal beds, as methane clathrates, and is an important fuel source and a major feedstock for fertilizers.Most natural...
field. The Richfield Oil Company of California also owned the right to drill on "oil leases" for Prudhoe Bay Discovery Well. After a merger with Atlantic, and the creation of ARCO
ARCO
Atlantic Richfield Company is an oil company with operations in the United States as well as in Indonesia, the North Sea, and the South China Sea. It has more than 1,300 gas stations in the western part of the United States. ARCO was originally formed by the merger of East Coast-based Atlantic...
, Mangus and his colleagues were able to convince the company leadership in Dallas, including CEO Robert Orville Anderson, to drill an exploratory well at Prudhoe Bay. Mangus, as an ARCO geologist, then staked the landmark drilling sites for the discovery and confirmation wells of the Prudhoe Bay Oil Field
Prudhoe Bay oil field
Prudhoe Bay Oil Field is a large oil field on Alaska's North Slope. It is the largest oil field in both the United States and in North America, covering and originally containing approximately of oil.. BP. August 2006...
.
Leaving ARCO after this big oil find, Mangus co-founded a private consultanting firm, Fackler, Calderwood, and Mangus (later Calderwood and Mangus, after Fackler took a state job). After the death of his partner, Keith Calderwood, Mangus continued his consulting work solo. Calderwood had served as President of the Petroleum Club of Anchorage, and Mangus maintained his professional affiliations until his own death. His 50-year pin for AAPG membership was received at his home only a few days after his death.
In the late 1940s to early 1950s Mangus began his art career with still life
Still life
A still life is a work of art depicting mostly inanimate subject matter, typically commonplace objects which may be either natural or man-made...
and landscape painting in Washington D.C., as a member of the Washington Landscape Club, later renamed the Washington Society of Landscape Painters, Inc. He quickly improved his impressionistic painting techniques thanks to lessons and workshops from artists Eliot O'Hara, Roger Ritasse, and William F. Walter. Landscape painting combined his passionate interests in art, geology, history, and his love of the out-of-doors.
Mangus was a Plein Air painter, and whenever possible, he carried hid painting supplies into the field to record what he saw and experienced. Mangus completed paintings of most places that he lived or visited, and worked in the media of oils, cassein, acrylics, and watercolor. Although he is best known for his Alaskan images, he often painted scenes from many other locales, especially in the East Coast/Pennsylvania areas. He also painted scenes recording the contributions by previous generations of Alaskan geologists. He sometimes gave painting demonstrations to Anchorage school children.
Mangus' artwork has been exhibited in numerous venues, including the Corcoran Gallery of Washington D.C., the Smithsonian Museum Area Show, the Arts Club of Washington, the Baltimore Watercolor Society, All-Alaska Juried shows, and the Centennial Traveling Art Exhibition. Several of his paintings are part of the permanent collection of the Anchorage Fine Arts Museum.
Prints
Since he was not an enthusiast of photo-offset prints, only three were issued during his lifetime. "Breakup, Matanuska Valley, Alaska," was made as a fund raiser for The United Methodist Church, and features a lake with ice melting in the spring. The second, titled "Point Lay, AlaskaPoint Lay, Alaska
Point Lay is a census-designated place in North Slope Borough, Alaska, United States. At the 2000 census the population was 247.-Geography:Point Lay is located at on the shores of the Chukchi Sea....
P8", was made for PBS
Public Broadcasting Service
The Public Broadcasting Service is an American non-profit public broadcasting television network with 354 member TV stations in the United States which hold collective ownership. Its headquarters is in Arlington, Virginia....
Anchorage, Alaska Channel 6 as a fund raiser, and depicts a salmon-drying rack. The third was a print of the USS Nimitz Aircraft Carrier
Aircraft carrier
An aircraft carrier is a warship designed with a primary mission of deploying and recovering aircraft, acting as a seagoing airbase. Aircraft carriers thus allow a naval force to project air power worldwide without having to depend on local bases for staging aircraft operations...
sailing into Cook Inlet
Cook Inlet
Cook Inlet stretches from the Gulf of Alaska to Anchorage in south-central Alaska. Cook Inlet branches into the Knik Arm and Turnagain Arm at its northern end, almost surrounding Anchorage....
, Alaska, created in the mid-nineties to commemorate a special 4 July weekend shore leave. These prints were given away to US Navy crew members and Anchorage VFW
VFW
VFW may refer to:*Vereinigte Flugtechnische Werke*Veterans of Foreign Wars*Veterans of Future Wars*Video for Windows*VFW Parkway...
Post friends.
Field geology details
After World War Two, surplus amphibious M29 WeaselM29 Weasel
The M29 Weasel was a World War II tracked vehicle, built by Studebaker, designed for operation in snow.-Design and development:The idea for the Weasel came from the work of British inventor Geoffrey Pyke in support of his proposals to attack Axis forces and industrial installations in Norway...
, collapsible boats, bush planes, and C-Ration
C-ration
The C-Ration, or Type C ration, was an individual canned, pre-cooked, or prepared wet ration intended to be issued to U.S. military land forces when fresh food or packaged unprepared food prepared in mess halls or field kitchens was impractical or not available, and when a survival ration was...
s were used by Mangus and his colleagues, Robert "Bob" L. Detterman, William P. Brosge, and others. Mangus liked to perform the cache
Cache
In computer engineering, a cache is a component that transparently stores data so that future requests for that data can be served faster. The data that is stored within a cache might be values that have been computed earlier or duplicates of original values that are stored elsewhere...
operations himself.
Trips were planned in advance so as to use a river flowing downstream for transportation, and then the collapsible boats would be dropped by bush plane. Mangus would push out 55 gallon drums from inside the bush plane. These drums were then filled with C-Rations and resealed to protect their food contents from marauding bears.
The geologists lived in white canvas tents and would often go three months in the remote wilderness without a shower or radio. They would climb to a site, select rock samples, and carry them back to their boats or amphibious M29 Weasel. Records were kept on where samples were taken for the official USGS reports, and the samples were then shipped back to Washington.
In 1961, Mangus was in a helicopter that hit a tree in remote Canada, and fell about 40 to 50 feet. The occupants hiked for three days to the nearest native settlement. As a result of the crash, he had back surgery in Canada and the long-term effects of a fused spine bothered him for the remainder of his life.
Awards
- 1993 GEOSC from The College of Earth And Mineral Sciences of The Pennsylvania State University Alumni Award
- Arts in the Parks "Top 100" United States Park Service.
External links
- King Island (1970) Anchorage Museum at Rasmuson Center
- Rabbit Creek (1980) Anchorage Museum at Rasmuson Center
- Russian Mission (19??) Ask Art
- title unknown - cabin scene (19??) http://www.ahgupuk.com/images/Mangus%20Herbert%20alaskan%20scene%2003%2008.JPG
- Dalzell Gorge (2004) The University of Alaska Museum of the North
- Point Lay - signed Print for PBS Station KAKM Anchorage, Alaska (date unknown) http://flickr.com/photos/11622101%40N05/2215042889
- ship in ocean - artist title unknown (date unknown) frame made by Marvin Mangus http://www.naalive.com/cataloglistingitem.aspx?lotid=1529177
- Point Lay - signed Print for PBS Station KAKM Anchorage, Alaska (date unknown) http://flickr.com/photos/11622101%40N05/3219619028
