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ROCK STARS
J Harlen Bretz (1882–1981):

Outrageous Geological Hypothesizer

Victor R. Baker, Dept. of Hydrology and Atmospheric Sciences, The University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona 85721-0011, USA

After graduating from Albion in 1905, Bretz taught biology for
a brief period in Flint, Michigan. In 1907, he and his wife, Fanny,
moved to Seattle, Washington, where he taught science at three dif-
ferent high schools over the next several years. During the long
summer breaks, he explored the local glacial geology. His mapping
of Pleistocene surficial deposits eventually covered the entire Puget
Sound region from Centralia and Chehalis to the Canadian border.
Bretz used these extensive field studies as the basis of a Ph.D.
dissertation in geology from the University of Chicago in 1913.
The “J Harlen” name arose during this period. Bretz’s biogra-
pher John Soennichsen quotes Bretz’s daughter, Rhoda: “He
invented the Harlen thing, just as he had invented the J in front of
his name—made the whole thing up. Harley Bretz was his given
name, but it just didn’t ring a bell for him; maybe he didn’t think it
sounded professional enough.” In reviewing the submitted Ph.D.
dissertation, Rollin D. Salisbury (1858–1922), Bretz’s Ph.D. super-
visor at Chicago, asked him to spell out the first name on the
J Harlen Bretz. author line. When Bretz responded that “J” was his entire first
name, Salisbury admonished, “Then never put or allow a typist or
Experienced geologists know well that their field counts among printer to use a period after that J.”
its most able and stellar practitioners a strong-willed array of Upon receiving his Ph.D., Bretz spent a year as an assistant
“characters.” Outstanding from this pantheon is J (editors take professor of geology at the University of Washington, but in 1914
note: insert no period after this one-letter first name!) Harlen Salisbury recruited him to return to the University of Chicago, first
Bretz (1882–1981). In his studies of the origin of the Channeled as instructor in geology (1914–1915), then as assistant professor
Scabland landscape in eastern Washington, beginning in the early (1915–1921). His responsibilities at Chicago emphasized teaching in
1920s, J Harlen Bretz provided a type example for what William the field. Perhaps influenced by his own largely self-taught path to
Morris Davis (1850–1934) subsequently defined as an “outrageous geological understanding, and reinforced by his Chicago mentors,
geological hypothesis.” Bretz became a lifelong advocate of geological education in the
As a science, geology is as much characterized by its methodol- field. He wrote in his unpublished memoirs, “My ideal was to teach
ogy as it is by its down-to-earth subject matter. That methodology, geology from the field as much as possible.” He instinctively
so ably described by Thomas Chowder Chamberlin (1843–1928), rejected, “...text book and lecture methods without field work.”
one of the professors for Bretz’s Ph.D. studies, is focused on At Chicago, Bretz became renowned as a teacher. Starting in
hypotheses. Geological hypotheses, unlike those in physics, are 1915, he was responsible for the field course held each summer in
not merely parsimonious conjectures formulated as propositions the Devil’s Lake region near Baraboo, Wisconsin. Over the next
to be tested or falsified. Geological hypotheses are “working” thirty years or so, “Doc” Bretz served as mentor to hundreds of
and even “regenerative” (Chamberlin’s terminology) in that they budding geologists, emerging from their tents near the lake each
are meant to be fruitful for further inquiry. Moreover, geological day, generally during the month of September, just before the start
hypotheses can occasionally be outrageous, though such outrage of classes. His teaching method was Socratic. It was the students
must never be imposed upon what nature presents to the geologist. who made all the discoveries, but they were ultimately guided in
An outrageous geological hypothesis can only be fruitful if it illu- their geological hypothesizing by Doc’s questioning. As Bretz
minates the inadequacy of prevailing theories and points toward wrote in his unpublished memoirs, “I never would tell. I always
more productive lines of inquiry. made them work out their own salvation.”
This outrageous geological hypothesizer was born Harley Bretz In 1916, Bretz initiated an advanced field course during the
(the “J Harlen” came later) on 2 September 1882 in the small farm- early summer, in which he took small numbers of University of
ing town of Saranac, Michigan, USA. Though young Harley had Chicago students to the northwestern U.S. In the summer of 1922,
interests in many aspects of natural science, his overriding passion this advanced course moved to the Columbia Plateau region of
was for astronomy. Unfortunately, as an undergraduate at Albion eastern Washington. Thomas Large, a teacher at Lewis and Clark
College, he did poorly in mathematics, a failing that he later High School in Spokane, Washington (and one of the founders of
ascribed to falling out of bed as a toddler and hitting a part of his the Northwest Scientific Society), aided with local logistical
head—the part that does mathematics. His interests then turned to arrangements. In the course of work during the summers of 1922
biology and geology. and 1923, Bretz and his students documented an amazing

50 GSA TODAY | May 2022