Rogers Birnie

Rogers Birnie(1851-1939) was an American army officer and explorer of Death Valley Birnie grew up in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, and could hear from his house the guns during the Battle of Gettysburg during the American Civil War. He graduated from West Point in 1872, and immediately went out west, to Fort douglas near Salt Lake City. In 1874 he joined the Wheeler Survey. During the survey Birnie found some Anasazi ruins, which in the 20th century where made a UNESCO world heritage site. In 1875 Birnie led an expedition from Los Angeles, over the San Gabriel Mountains, and through the Mojave Desert. During that same expedition he did the first scientific exploration of Death Valley before climbing Mt. Whitney. In 1888 he was one of the co-founders of the National Geographic Society, where he served as the first manager of the board of directors. He was an ordanance officer in Cuba during the Spanish-American War, and was a civilian consultant to the army in world War I. He died in Washington on September 25, 1939.