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The United States Geological Survey was established on March 3, 1879, when President Rutherford B. Hayes signed the sundry civil expenses bill.  This bill included a brief section appropriating funds for establishing a new agency, the United States Geological Survey, placing it in the Department of the Interior, and charging it with a unique combination of responsibilities: "classification of the public lands, and examination of the geological structure, mineral resources, and products of the national domain.  In 1979, the Survey was one of only a very few Federal agencies to survive for 100 years with its original name and mission unchanged.

Now several years into its second century, the Geological Survey continues to fulfill its original mission by conducting research with reference to economic and other issues of national concern, and by developing and applying innovative means of solving problems in resource management (from https://pubs.usgs.gov/circ/c1050/intro.htm ).