U.S. Geological Survey Bibliography of Wyoming Water Resources

Since the late 19th Century, long before the first U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) office was opened in Wyoming, USGS scientists have been investigating the geology and water resources of the State and publishing their findings. The main product of all USGS work in Wyoming comprises the published reports of those investigations—mostly maps and book reports of the USGS, but also articles in scientific journals, guidebooks, conference proceedings, and publications of Wyoming State agencies.

Criteria for Inclusion.— In this bibliography we have attempted to include all reports that contain information about water in Wyoming and for which at least one author was a USGS employee during the reported investigation. A report published by USGS but written by an author who was not a USGS employee also would be included. One such report is Water-Supply Paper 23, by Elwood Mead, the first Wyoming State Engineer.

Reports of investigations that are regional (multi-State) in scope may contain new data or conclusions specific to Wyoming, or estimating procedures applicable to Wyoming—a method for estimating the magnitude of floods at ungaged sites, for example. Such reports are included in this bibliography. Reports of regional studies that contain analysis of previously published data for Wyoming but no conclusions specific to Wyoming generally are excluded, with the benefit of the doubt given to inclusion.

Organization.— The reports are listed two ways: geographically and by report series. In the geographic lists, the reports are listed in standard USGS reference format, alphabetically by author, for each of four areas. The areas are delineated by the boundaries of major river basins (see adjacent index map). Southeastern Wyoming, for example, is defined as the Wyoming part of the Platte River basin. The other areas are Northeastern Wyoming, Northwestern Wyoming, and Southwestern Wyoming. This organization works well for both surface-water reports and ground-water reports, because generally, the mountain ranges that control the boundaries of the major river basins in Wyoming also control the boundaries of the major aquifer systems. Reports of areas that include all or parts of two of the four major areas are listed under both areas and are cross-referenced. Reports of areas that include all or parts of three or all four major areas are listed under the category, Wyoming Statewide. Thus, users of this bibliography are reminded to include the Statewide listing in their search for reports for a specific area.

The reports also are listed by report series in USGS catalog format (as used in the catalogs, "Publications of the U.S. Geological Survey"). Reports in numbered series, such as USGS Water-Supply Papers or Hydrologic Investigations Atlases, are listed numerically. Reports not numbered, such as articles in scientific journals, are listed alphabetically by author.

Reports of hydrologic data (records of streamflow, water quality, and ground-water levels) are listed separately and chronologically by report type. Flood-prone area maps are listed separately by river basin for each of the four geographic areas shown on the map. For the user's convenience, reports about floods in Wyoming (specific floods that have occurred and hydrology of Wyoming floods) are listed in a separate compilation, in addition to the geographic and series listings.

View Reports Online.— Most USGS book reports and some map reports published since about 1997 are available on the World Wide Web as html or pdf files for viewing and downloading. Links to the online versions of those reports (112 reports listed in this bibliography to date) are included in this listing.

In addition, the Survey's Cartography and Publishing Program, Office of Water Information, together with the Geographic Information Office, have begun a large project to scan paper copies of all numbered-series reports not currently available for viewing online. The names of those files have the suffix .djvu. To date, approximately 800 reports listed in this bibliography have been scanned, converted to DjVu ® files, and served online—mainly Professional Papers, Water-Supply Papers, Circulars, Water-Resources Investigations Reports, Open-File Reports, and water-resources data reports published as Water-Supply Papers. Links to the online files are provided with the listings. A few of the 112 reports served as html files also are served as DjVu ® files.

As additional reports are scanned and made available online, links will be added in this bibliography. In order to view DjVu ® files, a free Windows plug-in by Lizardtech is required. Click here to download the free Lizardtech plugin.

Availability of Listed Reports.— Most USGS map and book reports published during the last 25 years or so, as well as many older reports, are available for purchase from USGS Branch of Information Services, Box 25286, Denver Federal Center, Lakewood CO 80225 (phone 1-888-ASK-USGS; on the Web at http://mapping.usgs.gov/esic/to_order.html). Availability of reprints of journal articles and other outside publications should be determined by contacting the publisher.

As of 2004, there is a new way to search for bibliographic citations of USGS reports and to obtain USGS report products. USGS Publications Warehouse at http://pubs.usgs.gov contains bibliographic citations of more than 60,000 numbered-series reports published since the 1800s.

Many of the reports are available for loan from the Wyoming State Library system. On the Web at http://wyldweb.state.wy.us

General information about availability of all reports listed, including loan copies, may be obtained by contacting the USGS Wyoming Water Science Center at 2617 East Lincolnway, Suite B, Cheyenne WY 82001 (307-778-2931).
e-mail: Wyoming State Representative

BIBLIOGRAPHY OF REPORTS BY U.S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY AUTHORS ABOUT THE WATER RESOURCES OF WYOMING

Listed by Major Area of Wyoming and by Report Series

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