Memories of a Geologist - The 1960's

About the Book

This book is not intended to be about geology or mineral exploration but rather about the way things were done in the somewhat wild 60's with geology and mineral exploration as a background. Compared to the present day, the regulatory realm was practically non-existent in the 60's. People made their own rules according to their conscience, and, in some cases, the conscience was practically non-existent. Another major difference, compared to present day, was the casual use of alcohol. Not drunkenness, but rather, it was common practice to have a drink or two, (or maybe three) whenever two or more men met to discuss business or the state of the world. And, of course, it was unheard of for women to be involved in field exploration work.

These practices are illustrated as the author plunges, with little or no supervision, into his chosen field. During a six-year period, he follows an ever changing path of his own choosing to adventures and learning experiences. He unintentionally get involved in some scams along the way, one of which was a major scam of the decade stretching from Nevada to the Dominican Republic.

About the Author

Brian Krogseng was born in 1935 and raised in the northwoods of Minnesota sixty miles south of the Canadian border. After graduating from Kelliher High School he worked for several months for the US Forest Service in Idaho and then joined the army where most of his time was served in Fort Knox, Kentucky. Upon learning that he was entitled to the GI Bill he got an early release from the Army and went to college in Minnesota in 1962.

He was hired by Standard Oil of California and spent a few months riding offshore geophysical boats along the California and Oregon coast. Then, for the next eight months, he found himself poring over twenty-five-year-old seismic records in an office in Bakersfield, California. This was not to his liking so he landed a job as a research geophysicist for North American Aviation in Downey, California. Here, he found an escape from hum-drum office work and got involved in mineral exploration. After five years with North American he went independent, first with some partners and then on his own as a free-lance geologist/geophysicist. In 1971, he went back to Minnesota, settled down, and worked for Twin City Testing in St. Paul for fifteen years doing engineering geology and geophysics, spending a large share of his time in the field. In 1986, he gave in to his yearn for independence and became an independent consultant. He currently lives in his forty acre patch of woods in western Wisconsin with his second wife, Debbie, and still practices consulting in the field of geology and geophysics.