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BLO

AND SURVEYORS

OF THE PUBLIC DOMAIN

1185 - 1915
FRONTISPIECE

In 1914, surveyors called this "typical mountain work in the West." The mountains arein Washington State. The

instrument, a solar compass with telescopic attachment, is being used by Jerry Campbell.
SURVEYS AND SURVEYORS

OF THE PUBLIC DOMAIN

1785-1975

by

Lola Cazier
DEDICATION

Over the years since 1785 there have been perhaps a few thousand public land

surveyorseach one worthy of his own story. The names of many of them appear in these

pages. Yet, the story of all those who are not mentioned is here too, for it took all of them

the many unnamed no less than those written aboutto mark the lines and corners of the

public lands. They are the people who have done, and are still doing, the work upon which

rests the title to the public lands.
CONTENTS

Foreword

Acknowledgments

Page

Ancient Surveys 1

Colonial America 5

The Beginning of the Rectangular Surveys 13

The Ellicotts and Benjamin Banneker 21

The Proving Ground 25

Congressional Authority for Management of the Public Lands 35

The Refinement of the Rectangular Survey System 47

Pioneer Surveyors 53

The Far West 65

In the Vanguard 87

The Direct System 97

About Cadastral Surveys 107

Alaska 145

The Early Years of the Direct System 153

Modernization of the System 195

News, Notes, and Anecdotes 205

The Bureau of Land Management 213

References 219

Index 223
FOREWORD

Cadastral surveys are performed to create, mark, and define, or to retrace the

boundaries between abutting land owners, and, more particularly, between land of the

Federal Government and private owners or local governments. As referred to here,

cadastral surveys were performed only by the General Land Office during its existence and

by the Bureau of Land Management. The Bureau of Land Management is the only agency

that is currently authorized to determine the boundaries of the public lands of the United

States.

Proper understanding of the basis for performance of cadastral surveys includes an

understanding of the history of the public land surveys. An understanding of that history

requires some consideration of the people who performed these surveys and of the people

whose land was affected by them.

These chapters were written to be used as an aid in training cadastral surveyors in the

application of surveying principles. The learner is expected to gain from the factual material

on survey laws and their formation, as well as from a study of the people who performed the

surveys. Many of the men who had an important role in the history of cadastral surveying are

still living, but only those who have retired are included in the present document.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The assistance of many persons was necessary to the completion of this book. It would

be impossible to thank them all, but I would like to express my gratitude to at least a few of

those who generously helped me in this project.

Without James A. Simpson, leader of the Cadastral Survey Training Staff, BLM, it would

not have been started, much less finished. Thomas A. Tiliman, civil engineer, BLM (retired),

contributed valuable assistance, criticism, and suggestions. Renee Munoz improved the

manuscript by her thoughtful and constructive editing. Line drawings and illustrations

were done by Kasper Schaff, Herman E. Weiss, Diane Colcord, and Sharon Foster. F.

Mason, Teledyne Gurley, Troy, N.Y., loaned me a photograph of Arthur D. Kidder and

Joseph Thoma. W. R. (Roy) Bandy, now deceased, permitted me to use many photographs

taken during his long career as a cadastral surveyor. Theodore VanderMeer, John S.

Knowles, and Roger Wilson, now deceased, all long-time cadastral engineers, also shared

their personal photographs and reminiscences with me as did C. Albert White, supervisory

land surveyor, BLM (retired), and P. T. Reilly, who worked on various cadastral survey crews

during the 1930's. David Nelson, cadastral surveyor, Alaska State Office, BLM,and Hobart

Hyatt, cadastral surveyor, Alaska State Office, BLM (retired), also permitted me to usetheir

personal photographs. Clark Gumm, chief, Division of Cadastral Surveys, BLM (retired),

permitted me to use photographs taken by many surveyors in many places that he had

gathered and preserved over a period of years. Last, and most important, special thanks to

my husband, Dell Cazier, who kept me "on line."
When the first individual felt the desire to

possess land, the need for the work of a cadastral

surveyorto define boundaries and property

linesbecame inevitable. This occurrence is lost

in antiquity, as is the moment man first perceived

the principle of the wheel, but it is also noteworthy.

Before there was recorded history, cave dwellers

claimed their homes and hunting grounds by right

of occupancy and/or weapon (the club). Disputes

over boundaries have always, along with religion,

politics, and taxes, awakened people's hidden

passions. Thus, to the surveyor must go the credit

for the lessening of disagreements over property

lines.

Surveying itself has no "point of beginning." We

know that an ancient Assyrian clay tablet exists. It

was found at Nuzi, near Kirkuk, and dates from the

dynasty of Sargon of Akkad, well over 5,000 years

ago. Scratched into its surface is a map that shows

a surveyed part of what is now Iran (northern

Mesopotamia) 32

NILE VALLEY

Under the Pharaohs, the Egyptians devised

extremely precise methods of measurement. The

Great Pyramid of Giza (Khufu or Cheops) is the

most famous example. Its base is oriented in the

cardinal directions. The four sides (9,068.8 inches)

have an average of just one-sixteenth of an inch in

length and 12 seconds in angle from a perfect

square. It was constructed about 4700 B.C.114 No

record exists today of the methods the Egyptians

used, nor of their equipment; we do know,

however, that they were concerned with the survey

of land lines for purposes of taxation. The land in

the Nile Valley had to be surveyed repeatedly

because of the river's annual flooding.

Three or four thousand years ago, the

Babylonians took surveying seriously. There are in

existence today a few of the boundary stones set

during that period. One of them has much carving

upon it, most of which has been translated. It refers

to the size of the land, five gur of cornland,

measured by the great cubit. The stone gives the

district, the province, and the location. The name of

the surveyor is also noted, along with the fact that it

was an official survey and established the land as

the property of Gula-Eresh. The translation also

gives, at great length, numerous curses to befall

anyone so foolish as to move the stone.117

Chapter 1

ANCIENT SURVEYS

BIBLICAL MEASUREMENT

Long before the reign of Caesar, the first five

books of the Old Testament were written. These

five books, the Pentateuch, at one time consisted of

four major documents that were combined into a

single literary unit about 400 B.C.31 Many times

within the Pentateuch and in the rest of the Bible,

references are made to land survey:

And as for the western border, ye shall even

have the great sea for a border; this shall be your

west border.

Numbers 34: 6

And the border shall go down to Jordan, and the

goings out of it shall be at the salt sea: this shall

be your land with the coasts thereof round

about.

Numbers 34: 12

Then said I, Whither goest thou? And he said

unto me, To measure Jerusalem, to see what is

the breadth thereof, and what is the length

thereof.

Zechariah 2: 2

And the city lieth foursquare, and the length is

as large as the breadth: and he measured the

city with the reed, twelve thousand furlongs.

The length and the breadth and the height of it

are equal.

Revelation 21: 16

And he measured the wall thereof, an hundred

and forty and four cubits, according to the

measure of a man, that is, of the angel.

Revelation 21: 17

And there are more: I Samuel 14: 14 describes

half an acre of land, Isaiah 5: 10 discusses the yield

from 10 acres of vineyard, and both Ezekiel 40: 5

and 44: 13 described the long cubita cubit and a

hand breadth.

Biblical units of measure were simple and rather

inexact. For the most part they consisted of

approximates arrived at by the use of one's body.

The cubit was the length of a man's arm from his

elbow to his extended finger tipabout 18 inches.

A span was the reach of a man's outstretched hand,

from fingertip to fingertip, or about9 inches. (Two

spans equalled 1 cubit.) A palm was alifourfingers,

or about 3 inches, and a finger was about threefourths of an inch.
In Ezekiel 40: 5 and 43: 13, a long cubit is

mentioned, comparing it to a cubit and a handbreadth. Fathoms are mentioned in Acts 27: 28.

This was the length of a man's outstretched arms,

or about 6 feet.

The Bible contains many other references to the

instruments used by land surveyors in ancient

times:

I lifted up mine eyes again, and looked, and

behold a man with a measuring line in his hand.

Zechariah 2: 1 When he prepared the heavens, I was there:

when he set a compass upon the face of the

depth.

Proverbs 8: 27

Thus he showed me: and, behold, the Lord

stood upon a wall made by a plumbline, with a

plumbline in his hand.

And he brought me thither, and, behold, there

was a man, whose appearance was like the

appearance of brass, with a line of flax in his

hand, and measuring reed; and he stood in the

gate:

Ezekiel 40: 3

He measured the east side with the measuring

reed, five hundred reeds, with the measuring

reed round about.

Ezekiel 42: 16

He measured the north side, five hundred reeds,

with the measuring reed round about.

Ezekiel 42: 17

He measured the south side, five hundred reeds,

with the measuring reed.

Ezekiel 42: 18

He turned about to the west side, and measured

five hundred reeds with the measuring reed.

Ezekiel 42: 19

The reed was an instrument used in measuring,

and, according to Ezekiel 40: 5, it was 6 cubits

long. In the first book of Samuel 14: 14, the

measurement of land was related to the area a team

of oxen could plow in a day. In some places, an acre

was the part of afield that could be seeded in barley

in a day. In Mesopotamia the meaning of acres, as

used in Isaiah 5: 10, was about two-fifths of our

present acre.31

THE GROMA

A surveying instrument called a groma was

found in the ruins of Pompeii. It was of the type

used by the Romans in dividing land to be

distributed to veterans. The groma had four arms,

2

set at 90 degrees to one another, with which the

corners of rectangular plots were established. The

Roman system of land subdivision was called agro

centuriatoland divided into hundreds.32 Julius

Caesar ruled Rome when agro centuriato was

introduced. He died 44 years before the birth of

Christ, but the subdivision pattern created by

different land uses under this survey system is still

visible from the air.33

ERATOSTHENES

About 500 years before the birth of Christ, the

Greek philosopher and mathematician Pythagoras

suggested that the Earth might be spherical rather

than flat. Eratosthenes of Cyrene, who lived from

276 until 196 B.C., believed Pythagoras was

correct. Erathosthenes was a learned man who

became the head of the Alexandrian Library. His

intellectual curiosity was aroused when he discovered that, at the peak of the summer solstice,

the sun illuminated a deep vertical well in Syene.

At noon, on the longest day of the year,

Eratosthenes measured the angle of the shadow

cast by a vertical wall in Alexandria. It was equal to

one-fiftieth of a circle. He thought that Alexandria

and Syene were on a direct north-south line, and he

knew the accepted distance between the two cities.

Based upon his observations, his theory was that

the distance between the cities was equal to onefiftieth of the circumference of the Earth.

Eratosthenes came very close. He used units of

length called stadia, and, because of compensating errors, arrived at a distance of 24,662 miles.

Since the Earth is not a perfect sphere, and since

Syene and Alexandria are not exactly the distance

apart that he used, nor are they on a perfect northsouth line, he was a little off in his estimationthe

precise figure is 24,899 miles.32

This was the first attempt to find the circumference of the Earth by measuring the arc of a

meridian. It was quite a feat in the advancement of

surveying. The only thing wrong was that people

could not believe that the Earth was that large. Until

the close of the 15th century, geographers would

not accept the findings of Eratosthenes. Instead,

they used the calculations of Poseidonius (130 to

51 B.C.) and came up with a circumference of

18,000 miles.32

During the Middle Ages, the church used the

18,000-mile figure to help convince people that

Jerusalem was the center of the world. The maps of

that period are narrow in concept. They are often

called 'T in 0" maps, due to their stylized depiction

of what the church wanted the world to look like.27
DOMESDAY BOOK

When William the Conqueror invaded England in

1066, he changed the existing manorial land tenure

system to the feudalism of France.118 Under this

new system, the lords of the manors paid a fixed

sum to the king.

About 20 years later, William ordered a survey of

the lands of England so that there might be a more

accurate assessment of the sum he was to receive.

The survey was completed and its results were

published as the "Domesday Book." It was, in fact,

a cadastral surveya description of the land, with

the names of the owners and the extent, nature,

and value of their holdings.12

3

Parc//el

II

Sun Rays

Eratosthenes' application of basic geometry in determining the

circumference of the Earth.

THE INCAS

During the 11th to 14th centuries, while

European Crusaders tried to free the Holy Land

from the Muslims, the Incas in South America were

surveying land and constructing cities, pyramids,

bridges, and an extensive system of roads.

Using methods unknown to us, they developed

terraces on the hillsides for cultivation and built

tremendous irrigation works. Though they had no

iron or steel tools, there are canals they built that

can still be traced for miles. At Cajamarca, a canal

that was cut in solid rock extended for more than a

mile. At one place they cut the canal in a zig-zag

pattern; apparently, this was one of their methods
Facsimile of aT in 0 map showing the usual depiction of the world in

the Middle Ages. Jerusalem was shown at the center of the world,

and the Asian location of Paradise gave us the phrase "to orient a

map."

of controlling the flow of water. At Huandoval, the

Incas built two canals that met and crossed, one

above the other. There was once even a third canal

below the other two.23

The ancient Inca fortress city of Machu Picchu,

situated at 7,000 feet above sea level, near a

mountain top, was built of huge blocks of stone. No

cement was used in its construction, but the stones

were so carefully fitted that some of the walls and

stairs are still intact and are plainly visible in aerial

photographs.18

PORTUGUESE EXPLORATION

The real beginning of European exploration took

place in the 15th century during the time of Prince

4

Henry the Navigator (A.D. 1394-1460). Through

Prince Henry's farsighted effort, Portugal began

exploring the seas at least 50 years before the rest

of Europe.

One of the major factors in Portugal's expansion

of travel to the unknown was the discovery of the

Azores and the growth of the Portuguese settlement there. Christopher Columbus lived therewith

his wife's family, where his father-in-law taught him

to use navigational and surveying instruments.

Undoubtedly, it was in the Azores that Columbus

first dreamed of sailing farther than man had sailed

before.32
THE NEW WORLD

Shortly after Columbus' famous voyage, an

Italian navigator in the service of England, John

Cabot (Giovanni Caboto), discovered the coast of

North America in 1497. Soon after, Juan Ponce de

Leon explored Florida and claimed it for Spain. In

1519 Hernando Cortez began to explore and

conquer Mexico, also on behalf of Spain. One year

later, Ferdinand Magellan sailed through the strait

that bears his name and thus confirmed the theory

that the world was round.

During the next 20 years or so, Lower California

and the Gulf of California were found and explored.

Coronado explored a large area north of the Rio

Grande and claimed it for Spain. The Grand

Canyon was discovered by Don Garcia Lopez de

Gardenas, and Hernando de Soto began to explore

the Mississippi River.

On the evening of November 16, 1532, the last

Inca king of Peru, Atahualpa, was ambushed and

taken prisoner by Francisco Pizarro. The Inca army

was overwhelmed and scattered. In3or4hours the

strength of the most powerful empire in the New

World was broken. The riches of Peru went to

Spain, and a civilizationrecognized as

remarkable even by those who destroyed itwas

ended.23

At about this same time, a 21-year-old publisher

named Gemma Frisius issued the first edition of

"Cosmographia," written by Peter Apian. The

second edition, published in 1533, detailed a

surveying method Frisius claimed was completely

new. It was a way of surveying a large area without

direct measurement. The idea was that if all angles

and the length of one side were known, the lengths

of the other two sides of a triangle could be

determined on paper.

TRIANGULATION

Although the ancient Greeks probably

originated the idea of triangulation, Frisius was the

first to publish it. Some 80 years later, the formula

was finally put to actual use. In 1615, a Dutch

mathematician named Willebrord Snell, a professor at Leyden University, measured a base

line and used triangulation to determine the arc of a

meridian.32

Most land surveyors in the early 17th century did

not have the training and background in

Chapter 2

COLONIAL AMERICA

mathematics that Snell had. It was to compensate

for the fact that the geometrical devices used in

triangulation were beyond their grasp that the

plane table became popular. Surveyors of that time

also possessed the compass, chain, astrolabe,

telescope, and a forerunner of the theodolite.32

AMERICAN COLONIES

About 20 years after the first Spanish colony in

America was founded at St. Augustine, Florida, in

1565, Sir Walter Raleigh asked the famous

mathematician and surveyor Thomas Harriot to

accompany British naval commander Sir Richard

Greynville to America. The voyage was successful

and Harriot surveyed parts of what was to become

the State of Virginia.125

Jamestown, the first permanent English colony

in America, was founded by the Virginia Company

in 1607. About the time the Dutchman Snell

determined a meridional arc by triangulation, the

headright system of land tenure was adopted in

Virginia. Under this system, each person who paid

his own or someone else's transportation to

America from England was granted 50 acres of

land.1

In 1620 EIder William Brewster brought several

books to America with him on the Mayflower.

Among them was a work on surveying. Although

there is no record of which book it was, Aaron

Rathbone's "The Surveyor," which had been

published in London in 1616, was well thought of at

the time,125 and could possibly have been the book

Brewster brought to the New World.

New England settlers were granted tracts of 10 to

100 acres by the general courts. The English

officials who made these "generous" grants could,

on occasion, be even more lavish: they voted

themselves tracts of from 1,000 to 9,000 acres.1 The

surveying of all these new tracts of land was vitally

important to the colonists.

COLONIAL SURVEYORS

Nathaniel Foote was one of the first American

colonial surveyors. He surveyed in Massachusetts

but left there in 1634, going by way of the

Connecticut River, to settle Wethersfield, Connecticut. Foote laid out the town common and home

lots. Later, he established the HartfordWethersfield boundary line.


Benjan:in Baunaker's

PENNSYLVANIA, DELAWARE, MARYLAND, AND VIRGINIA ALMANAC,

FOR THE

YEAR of our LORD '795; Being the Third after Leap-Year.

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0000 aa 000 Cooc cow wco 'o C. q 4J Cno 0000 CC0 c: 0000 000) 4.* .a £0000000

PRINTED FOR4 And Sold by JOHN FIS1IR, sWatoc;:cr.

BALTJMOR:

8

In 1715, John Chandler surveyed more than

10,000 acres of land, "adjoining to the said

Township of Hadley on the North, on Connecticott

[sic] river Westerly and on Springfield Southerly.

The Lines are run by the needle of my instrument,

allowing no variationProtracted by a scale of 200 perch to an inch......133

Fifteen years later, during the summer of 1730,

Timothy Dwight completed the survey of a plot of

land containing 200 acres, "adjoining to the South Side of Chickabey River on both sides of

p

Portrait of Benjamin Bannaker on the cover of his 1795 almanac.

Chickabey brook by order of the Great and General

Court or Assembly of the Province of the

Massachusetts Bay Begun and Held at Salem

August 28, 1729......133

During the colonial period, Augustine Herrman

surveyed and made maps of Maryland and Virginia,

Andries Hudde surveyed and mapped New

Amsterdam, and Solomon Saffrey and Nathaniel

Woodward ran the boundary between Rhode

Island and Massachusetts. Even though the

instruments they used were rough and crude by
9

subject of surveys and land lines was of great

importance in the everyday life of the colonists.

One of the people most admired in a colonial

community was the land surveyor, or the

boundsgoer. Young boys often trailed along as

the surveyors ran their lines. Many of them learned

the fundamentals of the skill as they walked beside

present standards, these men did a creditable job

of surveying, as did Daniel Leeds, surveyor general

of West Jersey Province (New Jersey), and Quaker

Surveyor General Edward Penington of Pennsylvania.125

In colonial times, many schoolmasters taught

evening classes so that those who could not attend

school during the day could receive an education.

Surveying and navigation were said to be the most

popular mathematical subjects taught. This may

have been due to the fact that the bounds of a vast

new land were in the process of being marked. And,

A portrait of Andrew Ellicott

because the land grants were often unclear, the

the boundsgoer.6

John Jenkins, Sr. (1728-85) and his son John,

Jr. (1751-1827) worked as a survey team. In

between fighting the Indians, they surveyed the
area in northeastern Pennsylvania known as the

Wyoming Valley.126 This rich anthracite region was

claimed by both Pennsylvania and Connecticut.

The Susquehanna Company was formed in 1753,

in Connecticut, to develop and settle the valley.

This settlement resulted in the Pennamite Wars.

The military leader of the Connecticut settlers was

Zebulon Butler. In 1778, during the American

Revolution, Loyalist Commander John Butler and

some Indian allies massacred the Connecticut

settlers. Perhaps this is why the land claim conflict

was finally decided in favor of Pennsylvania.

An engraved portrait of David Rittenhouse

10

Abraham Clark (1726-94) of New Jersey was a

surveyor, but he is better remembered as a signer

of the Declaration of Independence. Roger Sherman (1721-93), also a signer, was a county

surveyor in Connecticut from 1745 to 1758. He was

the only person who signed all four of the

documents used in founding the United States of

America: the Articles of Association (1774), the

Declaration of Independence (1776), the Articles of

Confederation (1781), and the Constitution

(1787) 126
'I.

t - v

,_L' /Yl/d

c

Township 5, first range, Old Seven Ranges. Surveyed by Absalom Martin of New Jersey in 1786.

Joshua Fry, another colonial surveyor was born

in England and attended Oxford University. In

about 1720, he emigrated to Virginia, and surveyed

along the Carolina border with the deputy surveyor

of Virginia's Albemarle County, Peter Jefferson,

Thomas Jefferson's father. (The Jeffersons included many men who were surveyors besides Peter.

Peter's grandfather had also been a surveyor, and

Thomas Jefferson himself later became the surveyor of Albemarle County.32)

When Fry was professor of mathematics at

William and Mary College, he approved George

Washington's registration as the surveyor of newly

11

created Culpepper County. George Washington

was just 17 years old when the registration was

approved, but he was already an experienced

surveyor. When only 16, he crossed the Blue

Mountains with veteran surveyor James Genn,

surveying land for Lord Fairfax in 1747 and 1748.121

In the early 1750's, then-Colonel Joshua Fry led

the Virginia militia against the French. He grew ill

with fever and died in May 1754. Lieutenant

Colonel George Washington was named his

successor. It was Washington's leadership during

this campaign that made his name well known in

the Colonies.125
THE MASON-DIXON LINE

The Mason-Dixon Line became the boundary

representing the division between the Blue and the

Gray armies during the Civil War. Because it is the

east-west line separating Maryland and Pennsylvania, with a part extending south and east to

divide Maryland and Delaware, it is unclear why it

was given this place in history, for all three States

fought on the Union side.116

The Conflict

Its real place in history goes back much further.

In the middle of the 17th century, the rich land of

the peninsula between the Chesapeake and

Delaware Bays was claimed by both the Calvert

family of Maryland and the Government of the

Netherlands. When the Dutch were compelled to

leave, the dispute was carried on by William Penn.

The charters of Penn and Lord Baltimore were

open to interpretation because of the vagueness of

the documents. This caused quarrels so bitter that

the disagreement continued for decades.

The Decision

After years of dispute, a compromise decision by

England's Court of Chancery awarded Maryland

most of the peninsula. Pennsylvania was to keep

the northeastern part, which later became

Delaware. The agreement was signed and the work

of marking the boundaries was begun by local

surveyors in 1760.116

Although the entire episode lasted for more than

a hundred years, Penn and Lord Baltimore were

suddenly anxious to settle it. When the work did not

go quickly enough to suit them, they decided to

hire Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon to get on

with it.29

Mason and Dixon

Mason was 35 years old and held the post of

assistant astronomer at Greenwich Observatory in

England. Dixon, an astronomer, mathematician,

and surveyor, was 30.116 The two men reached

Philadelphia in the middle of November 1763 and

met with the commissioners of Maryland and

Pennsylvania.29

In checking the work already completed, they

found it accurate, so in January 1764, they

established their headquarters at the Harlan Farm.

When the weather improved in the spring, the

12

surveyors went south from the Harlan Farm along a

meridian. Distance measurements were taken as

they went along, by chain on level ground and by

levels on slopes. They set a post in a field on the

farm of Alexander Bryan and marked it "West ' It

marked the latitude 15 miles south of the south

point of Philadelphia. That post was the reference

point for the parallel of latitude separating Pennsylvania from Maryland.29

The large survey party set heavy boundary

markers at 5-mile intervals. These stones had the

Penn coat of arms on one side and the Calvert coat

of arms on the other. Smaller stones, marked 'P'

on one side and "M" on the opposite side, were also

set along the line.116 The West Line, as Mason and

Dixon called the parallel between Pennsylvania

and Maryland, extended from Delaware to the

summit of the Allegheny Mountains by the time

that the winter of 1766-67 grew cold.29

There was only Indian country west of the

Alleghenies. Thus, the following spring, the

surveyors had to wait until an escort could be

obtained from the Indians of the Six Nations to

safely carry on their work. All that spring and

summer they continued the survey By the end of

September, the West Line reached the

Monongahela River.

Because the Shawnee and Delaware Indians

held the land beyond the Monongahela, 26 of

Mason and Dixon's men quit the day the surveyors

crossed the river. Nonetheless, the surveyors went

on until they had crossed a "war path" and reached

the top of a great dividing ridge. The termination

point was noted in Mason's diary on October 18,

1767: "See on top of very lofty ridge ... at 233

miles 17 chains 48 links from the Post marked West

in Mr. Bryan's field, we set up a Post marked W on

the West side and heaped around it earth and

stone......29 Mason and his quiet Quaker coworker Dixon handed the completed boundary

map to the commissioners on January 29, 1768.

The Result

The survey project had lasted 4 years and was

the largest surveying accomplishment in Colonial

America. The Mason-Dixon Line is probably the

best known boundary in this country, even if for the

wrong reason. The survey cost just $75,000 and

was amazingly accurate. An elaborate resurvey

just a few years ago showed a difference in latitude

of only 2.3 seconds.116
THE TRANSITION

Some of the early American surveyors do not

really fit into either the colonial period or the period

following the Revolutionary War. The Ritten house

brothers, for example, were surveyors during both

times.

The Rittenhouse Brothers

To David arid Benjamin Rittenhouse must go a

large share of the credit for elevating the colonial

art of surveying to the far more scientific art it

became as the United States emerged as a nation 126

David Rittenhouse was born at Paper Mill Run,

near Germantown outside Philadelphia, in April

1732.29 Pictures of him, such as the portrait by

Charles Willson Peale, show him as an adult with

long hair, a thoughtful face, deep-set eyes, and

wearing the garb of an 18th-century Philadelphia

gentleman. In his earlier years, however, he was an

obscure young country Quaker. He grew up on his

father's farm and became a farmer himself. Later,

he made clocks and surveying instruments that he

used in his jobs as a local surveyor. David

Rittenhouse taught himself how to do these useful

things; he had always been a brilliant and curiousminded person who, in spite of the limited

schooling available to Pennsylvania farm boys of

his time, mastered astronomy, mathematics, and

Newton's "Principia." Rittenhouse was the

designer and maker of the first magnetic declination arc for a surveyor's compass, and he was the

first American to put a spider web, for cross hairs,

atthefocus of a telescope. He calculated the transit

of Venus in 1769 and observed it with instruments

he had designed and built. When his observations

were reported, David Rittenhouse became an

internationally famous astronomer. Soon he moved to Philadelphia.

His first surveying job of any note was a

boundary survey for William Penn. He laid out the

12-mile radius around Newcastle, Delaware, which

formed the part of the boundary that Mason and

Dixon found so accurate that they incorporated it

into their own survey.29 This work was done with

instruments Rittenhouse had made for himself,

several years before he achieved a reputation.6

Over a period of years, David Rittenhouse surveyed

Chapter 3

THE BEGINNING OF

THE RECTANGULAR SURVEYS

13

boundaries for more than half of the Thirteen

Original States. His younger brother Benjamin was

also a surveyora very fine one. Both David and

Benjamin were known for making the finest of

surveying instruments.126

In 1796, by order of Congress, Benjamin

Rittenhouse made a surveyor's chain. Afterward,

this chain was used as the standard of the United

States Land Office.29 The respect accorded the

Rittenhouse brothers was evidenced by the 1815

"Instructions for Deputy Surveyors," issued by

Surveyor General Edward Tiff in. These instructions required both "a good compass of

Rittenhouse construction," and the adjustment "by

the standard chain," of "a two pole chain of 50

links." Several of the surveying instruments made

by the Rittenhouse brothers today are part of

valuable museum collections. Among them are two

surveyor's compasses made for George

Washington.

In 1792, Washington appointed David

Rittenhouse as first director of the Mint. Although

David Rittenhouse died in 1796, streets, a city

square, a social club, parks, a school, and a

scientific body all bear his name, and the clocks

made by him probably are still keeping accurate

time.

Andrew Porter

Andrew Porter, a soldier in the Revolutionary

Army, was also a surveyor noted for his precise and

excellent work. Both he and David Rittenhouse

served as commissioners on the survey of the

Virginia-Pennsylvania boundary in 1784-85. In

1800, Andrew Porter was sent to do the survey to

settle the Wyoming Valley conflict. He became the

surveyor general of Pennsylvania 9 years later.126

Robert Erskine

Robert Erskine was born in Scotland and

educated there as a surveyor and engineer. He

lived in England until about 1771. Then Erskine was

made manager of the holdings of the American

Iron Company in the northern part of New Jersey.

He was about 36 years old when he arrived in

America.

A few years later when the 13 Colonies declared

their independence from England, Erskine not only
remained in America, he joined the militia. When

George Washington heard about Erskine's surveying background, he asked him to serve as

geographer of the Continental Army. Erskine

accepted the job, subsequently surveying and

making topographic maps of the HudsonHighlands region. These maps were used in the

successful American campaign to keep New

England from being cut off from the other Colonies

and to defend the area and keep the Americans in

control. Unfortunately, Robert Erskine did not live

to see the new republic established that he had

helped to bring into being.

Simeon De Witt

In 1778 General James Clinton recommended his nephew, Simeon De Witt, to George Washington because of the young man's exceptional ability as a surveyor and cartographer. De Witt soon became the assistant to Washington's

chief geographer, Colonel Robert Erskine, whom

he succeeded in 1780. De Witt was attached to

Washington's headquarters and served in the

campaigns that led to the surrender of Cornwallis

at Yorktown in 1781.

In May 1784, De Witt was named surveyor general of New Yorka position he held for the

following 50 years.

LAND BOUNTIES

About 1 month after the Declaration of Independence was signed, the Continental Congress

offered deserters from the British Army, including

the Hessian mercenaries, American citizenship and 50 acres of public land. A little over a month

after that, an act was passed that promised land

bounties for naval and military services during the Revolutionary War. Though there was no "Public

Domain" and the very existence of the United

States was still at issue when the bounties were

offered, land warrants were later issued to

veterans. More than 2.5 million acres of public land

in the old Northwest Territory (Ohio) was reserved

as a "military district."1

STATE LAND CLAIMS

The Thirteen Original States, including land that

is now the States of Maine, Vermont, Tennessee,

West Virginia, and Kentucky, were never a part of the Public Domain of the United States. Kentucky

and Tennessee were formed out of territory once

claimed by Virginia and North Carolina, respec14

tively. Maine was part of Massachusetts until 1820,

and Vermont was the subject of conflicting claims

of its neighboring States until it became a State in

1791.34 West Virginia was separated from Virginia

and became a State in 1863, by act of Congress. All

of these States kept title to the unappropriated,

vacant lands inside their borders.34

Even before the preliminary peace treaty was

signed at the close of the Revolutionary War, the

Congress was faced with debts, expenses, conflicting colonial claims to western lands, no money,

and the duty of providing a financial policy and a

plan for settlement. All of these matters had to be

resolved if this new country was to survive.

Seven of the Colonies claimed jurisdiction over

portions of the vast, unoccupied, somewhat

nebulous area called "the western lands." No one

was able to state, with any conviction, just where

the colonial boundaries lay. The six Colonies that

had no charter claim to this land felt that, as it had

been won by common effort, it should be held in

common. The new National Government, looking

upon the lands as revenue-producing assets,

agreed.

STATE CESSIONS

New York unconditionally ceded all of her

western land claimsto Congress in 1780. Following

this, Virginia and Connecticut gave up control over

Ohio, but Congress permitted them to retain title to

certain areas. Massachusetts preceded Connecticut in giving up her claim. South Carolina

relinquished her claims in 1787, North Carolina in

1790. Georgia held out the longest. In reading the

conditions of her cession,19 it is apparent that her

inability to cope with the Indians and settle the land

without the aid of the Federal Government was

largely responsible for Georgia finally granting

deed of cession in 1802.

The most complicated of the State claims was

disposed of with Virginia's cession. This put the

new Government in the awkward position of being

much too poor to maintain a capital, but in charge

of a vast Public Domain. Congress had agreed that

the land should be disposed of for the common

benefit of the United States.9 Benefit could be

derived in either of two ways: (1) the landas

much of it as possiblecould be sold for the

highest possible price; or (2) it could be surveyed,

and pioneers could be encouraged to buy and

settle the land, making it possible to hold it against

foreign claims and Indians.
JEFFERSON'S REPORT

This was the situation in the spring of 1784, when

the Continental Congress appointed a committee

to develop a plan for locating and selling the

western lands. Thomas Jefferson was the chairman of the committee, and the report delivered to

Congress that year is in his handwriting.28

Nearly a year went by before anything more was

done. Jefferson's report was read and reread.

Another committee was appointed, this time with a

member from each State. Jefferson had gone to

Europe, so William Grayson took his place as the

representative from Virginia. This committee

amended the first report; notably, township size

was reduced from 10 miles square to 7 miles

square.9

Congress, at that point, did some amending of its

own. It reduced township size to 6 miles square.

The portion of Jefferson's report calling for surveys

before sales, and for the lines of these surveys to be

run and marked due north and south with other

lines crossing these at right angles, was retained.

1785 LAND ORDINANCE

The first land ordinance, the 1785 Land Ordinance, which was approved by the Continental

Congress on May 20, incorporated these

provisions. It also included the remarkable provision that, in each township, section 16 would beset

aside for the maintenance of public schools. Under

the terms of this ordinance, the plats of the

townships were to be subdivided into lots 1 mile

square "in the same direction as the external lines,

and numbered from 1 to 36; always beginning the

succeeding range of lots with the number next to

that with which the preceding one concluded......

In the surveys executed under the 1785 Land

Ordinance, and in some other areas in Ohio,

sections are numbered from ito 36, with section 1

in the southeast corner of each township. In these

areas, the numbers run from south to north in each

range of sections. In 1796, the system of numbering sections was changed to the system now used,

with section number 1 in the northeast corner of

the township.

The Canadian system of land subdivision is in

some ways patterned upon that of the United

States, but section number 1 is in the southeast

corner of their townships.11 Both American and

Canadian section numbers run in opposite direc15

The chain is the unit of linear measurement for the

survey of the public lands as prescribed by law. All

returns of measurement in the rectangular system are

made in the true horizontal distance in links, chains,

and miles. The only exceptions to this rule are special

requirements for measurement in feet in mineral

surveys and townsite surveys.

Linear Measurement

1 Chain = 100 links or 66 feet

1 Mile = 80 chains or 5,280 feet

Area Measurement

1 Acre = 10 square chains or

43,560 square feet

1 Square Mile = 640 acres

tions in alternate lines. The Greeks have a wordboustrophedoflicfor this style of writing. Its

literal translation is "turning like oxen in plowing."

THE GEOGRAPHER

Under the terms of the 1785 Land Ordinance,

Congress was to appoint surveyors, one from each

State, to serve under the direction of the

geographer of the United States. The geographer

was empowered to give oaths to the surveyors

appointed to serve under his instructions. They

were to swear to do their duty faithfully. The

chainmen on the survey crews took a similaroath.

Under the 1785 Ordinance the surveyors were

instructed to measure their lines with a chain, mark

them "with chaps on the trees," describe them

exactly upon a plat upon which they were to note

"at their proper distances, all mines, salt springs,

salt licks, mill seats, that shall come to his

knowledge; and all water courses, mountains, and

other remarkable and permanent things over or

near which lines shall pass, and also the quality of

the land."

Thomas Hutchins, named as geographer of the

United States in July 1781, was chosen to direct the

surveys under the Land Ordinance of 1785.

Hutchins was born in Monmouth County, New

Jersey. When he was little more than a boy, he went
y

(

Areas in Ohio where Lots were numbered

in accordance with the Ordinance of 1785

to the frontierthe "western country," serving at

times with the Pennsylvania Colonial Troops. It

was during these years that he acquired an

education in surveying and engineering.

Hutchins was Colonei Henry Bouquet's assistant

in 1764, when Bouquet directed the course of a

military expedition against the Indians. An account

of the conflict, the "Historical Account of Bouquet's Expedition Against the Ohio Indians in

1764," contains a plan for frontier settlement. The

16

25

I

L

plan very closely resembles the system of land

subdivision adopted by the United States. Unfortunately, no author is given credit for the plan, as it

is not in the main text of the account.11

Some authorities give Bouquet credit for the

plan. He was a Swiss who had served in Holland

and in Sardinia. Because there was, during the 17th

century, a limited system of rectangular survey in

Holland,33 this is held as evidence that he was the

author.3° Other authorities are equally certain that

0 50 100

SCALE 1t4 MILES
THE RECTANGULAR SURVEY SYSTEM

The U.S. rectangular system of surveys isa marvel of simplicity. Because of the system and the cadastral surveyors who

transferred it from a plan on paper to regular lines upon the land, the swift and orderly settlement of a vast public domain

became a reality.

Separate large pieces of the Public Domain are, in themselves, huge survey areas. There are 31 principal meridiansand

base lines In the contiguous United States and 5 in Alaska. At the intersection of these two lines Is the initial point of each

of the survey areas. Some of the principal meridians are numbered and the rest have proper names. The numbered ones

go only to the Sixth Principal Meridan. Most of the other (named) meridians give a clue as to the area they govern: for

example, the Boise Meridian, the New Mexico Principal Meridian, and the Humboldt Meridian. Townships are numbered

north or south of the base line. A line or column of townships Is called a range, and they are numbered east or west of the

principal meridian.

At the beginning of the use of the rectangular system, no provision was made for the convergence of meridians or the

iimitation of accumulated error. At a later time standard parallels and guide meridians were included in the plan. Between

the standard parallels the excess or deficiency of measurement caused by convergency and accumulated error in each

township is placed in the sections lyIng against the north and west township boundaries. Each of the other sections

theoreticaiiy contains 640 acres.

Each 6-mile-square township Is divided into 1-mile-square sections numbered from ito 36. The section numbers run in

opposite directions In alternate lines, beginning with section number 1 In the northeast corner of the township. These

numbered sections may be further divided into aliquot parts, and thus described and identlf led. The southeast quarter of

the southeast quarter of the southeast quarter of sectIon 5, Township 2 North, Range 3 West, of the Boise Meridian,

describes just one parcel of land. The description even tells the initiated how many acres are being described. The familiar

BLM abbreviation for this particular 10 acres is SE1⁄4SE1⁄4SE1/4 sec. 5, T. 2 N., R. 3 W., Boise Mer., Idaho.

Land, and the hope of sharing in its ownership, provided an attraction strong enough to bring millions of people to this

country. The straightforward system of cadastral surveying and land identification added to the attraction. By its adoption

the United States, for the most part, avoided the disputes, litigation, and bloodshed inherent in a metes and bounds

system.

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Thomas Hutchins was the originator of the plan.11

They cite the fact that he was in the habit of keeping

records of his travels and his work, and that he had

been employed to lay out plans for a number of

military posts. Military establishments had long

been laid out in a rectangular manner.

Hutchins served as a British officer at Fort Pitt.

He made exploratory journeys from there north to

Lake Erie and overland to Lake Michigan and the

upper Wabash Valley. His expeditions also took

him down the Ohio River and to the Mississippi.

Hutchins compiled a general map of the West as a

result of these travels, which established him as a

authority on the area.

By the time the Revolutionary War was declared,

Hutchins had attained the rank of captain of the

60th Foot or Royal American Regiment of the

British Army. He was in London atthe beginning of

the war, and the British, quite naturally, planned to

put his experience to their use. After all, he was the

British Army's leading expert on the American

frontier.

The British, however, had forgotten one very

important fact: Hutchins was an American.

Because he refused to fight against other

Americans, he was imprisoned in August 1779.

When he was released in February 1780, Hutchins

contacted Benjamin Franklin, who was in France at

the time. Through Franklin, arrangements were

made for Hutchins to travel to South Carolina

where he joined the American forces under

Nathanael Greene. In May 1781, Congress appointed him geographer of the southern army and

the following July he was given the title of

geographer of the United States.

Two years later, Hutchins was commissioned by

the State of Pennsylvania to extend the survey from

the western end of the Mason-Dixon Line to the

point that was to be the southwest corner of the

State, and from there to survey the west boundary

of Pennsylvania north to the Ohio River. The line

was to be the boundary between Pennsylvaniaand

Virginia, so Virginia also appointed surveyors

Andrew Ellicott and Joseph Neville.82 There were,

in fact, three men from each State on this particular

19

survey. The two others from Pennsylvania were

David Rittenhouse and Andrew Porter.13°

Point of Beginning

The survey marking the southern boundary of

Pennsylvania was completed in 1784. Before the

survey of the western boundary began the following year, Hutchins was told his services as

geographer would be needed. Thus, the 1785 Land

Ordinance was passed. It called for the survey of

the public lands to begin". . . on the River Ohio at

a point that should be found to be due north from

the western terminus of a line which has been run

as the southern boundary of the State of Pennsylvania."

Four boundary surveyorsDavid Rittenhouse

and Andrew Porter, who had been commissioned

by Pennsylvania, and Andrew Ellicott and Joseph

Neville, who surveyed for Virginiaestablished

this point on August 20, 1785.26 Following their

arrival on the south bank of the Ohio, near the

mouth of Mill Creek, Andrew Porter noted the

event:130

This morning continued the Vista over the hill on

the south side of the River and set a stake on it by

the signals, about two miles in front of the

Instrument, brought the Instrument forward and

fixed it on a high post, opened the Vista down to

the River, and set a stake on the flat, the north

side of the River.

The Geographer's Line

Hutchins, as geographer of the United States,

was to "personally attend to the running of" a line

westward from the newly established "point of

beginning." This line extends the width of the

Seven Ranges-42 milesand is known as the

Geographer's Line. Later surveys show it to be

about 1,500 feet south of its intended position at

the western end.13° Even so, it was the first line

surveyed under the rectangular system of the

United States. It was the start of the most

magnificent cadastral survey project in history.
THE CAPITAL

On the last day of April 1789, George

Washington became President of the United States

under the new constitution. This was just 2 days

after the death of Thomas Hutchins, the man

responsible for the survey that had undoubtedly

been the most significant project under the

Confederation. Now, however, there was another

project to think about. This Nation was, at last, to

have a Constitutional Capitalthe City of

Washington.

Jefferson and Hamilton made a political agreement to move the capital to Philadelphia from New

York in 1790, where it was to remain for 10 years.

Following that, the capital was to be situated in the

10-mile-square tract of Federal land nearthe place

where the Anacostia River joins the Potomac River.

THE ELLICOTTS

In February 1791, Secretary of State Jefferson, at

President Washington's suggestion, asked Andrew

Ellicott to go "by the first stage to the Federal

Territory on the Potomac for the purpose of

making a survey of it."124 It is not surprising that

Andrew Ellicott was the surveyor designated to do

this important work. At the time he was perhaps the

most highly regarded surveyor in the United

States. Moreover, he and his brothers had lived not

far from the chosen site for almost 20 years. in

1770, Ellicott's father and two uncles had settled on

the Patapsco River, some 10 miles east of

Baltimore, and had built Ellicott's Mills. The town

that grew up around that mill is today called

Ellicott City.

Andrew was only 16 years old, Joseph, Jr., was

10, and Benjamin just 5 when they left Bucks

County, Pennsylvania, where they were born.

These Quaker boys were exceptionally good at

mathematics, and all three of them became

surveyors. They knew and admired the Rittenhouse brothers, and Andrew had studied under a

highly respected Irish mathematics professor,

Robert Patterson, in Pennsylvania.127 In spite of a

boyhood filled with gentle Quaker teaching, tall,

large-framed Andrew joined the Elk Ridge Battalion of the militia and fought with it through the

Revolutionary War. He attained the rank of major, a

title by which he was recognized the rest of his life.

Chapter 4

THE ELLICOTTS AND BENJAMIN BANNEKER

Soon after the war, he was appointed by Virginia

as a member of the survey to continue the

westward Mason-Dixon Line, survey of which had

been stopped by unfriendly Indians in 1767. In the

following years he surveyed other boundary lines,6

including the meridian northward from the point

of beginning on the north bank of the Ohio River.

This Ohio-Pennsylvania boundary is called

Ellicott's Line.30 The line along the 31st parallel,

which will be discussed later, is called Ellicott'S

Line of Demarcation.

As Major Ellicott worked on the survey of the

Federal Territory, Jefferson contacted the

tempestuous, fiery-tempered Frenchman and

American Revolutionary War veteran, Pierre

Charles L'Enfant, ". . . to have drawings of the

particular grounds most likely to be approved for

the site of the Federal Town and

buildings . .

. connecting the whole with certain

fixed points on the map Mr. Eliicott is preparing."124

BENJAMIN BANNEKER

Benjamin Banneker, a brilliant surveyorastronomer, was also hired to work on the

preliminary survey of the capital site. Banneker, a

black man, was a friend of the Ellicott brothers and

their cousin, George Ellicott. His mother Mary was

the oldest daughter of a white indentured servant

named Molly Welsh and a Negro slave named

Banneker (or Bannaker) whom she purchased,

freed, and married. Ban neker's father Robert was

from Guinea, and he, too, had been a slave.5

Benjamin Banneker was born free, because the law

said he was to follow the status of his mulatto

mother instead of that of his freedman father.

Perhaps this law is the reason that Robert had

taken Mary's name when they were married.

Even when Benjamin Banneker was very young,

people were impressed by his many interests and

by the speed and ease with which he learned. For

example, he was able to read by the time he was 4

years old.22 When Banneker was 6, probably in the

late 1730's, his father bought a large farm about 10

miles from Baltimore, Maryland. Banneker attended the school of a Quaker farmer, along with the

other young people in the area. He soon surpassed

the other students in mathematics, and amazed

those who knew him with his unusual gifts. A trader

gave him a watch, and from drawings made from it,

21
Banneker actually constructed a clock. Its frame

and movements were made entirely of wood. It was

the first instrument of its type ever made in

America.22 Even though his clock was the wonder

of the community, Banneker remained a farmer

until he was well past 50 years old.5

When the Ellicotts moved to Maryland, Ban neker

helped in the construction of their mills. The

wonderful wooden clock came to their attention,

and they were pleased to help Banneker acquire

the knowledge for which he hungered. The

Ellicotts loaned him books, tools, and instruments.6 More than that, they gave him their

friendship. All of them, but George perhaps most of

all, encouraged Banneker to pursue his studies.

Banneker learned surveying and developed a

dedicated interest in astronomy. He spent many

nights studying the stars and their courses, and he

became adept with his borrowed instruments. He

learned to calculate ephemerides and finished

computing data for his first almanac in the spring of

1790. Banneker, then nearly 60 years old, was

disappointed because it was not published immediately. Due to the Ellicotts' interest, the

almanac came to the attention of the Pennsylvania

Society for the Abolition of Slavery, and, eventually

this led to its publication.5

According to an account by Silvio A. Bedini in

"Early American Scientific Instruments and Their

Makers,"6 Benjamin Banneker, while assisting

Ellicott in surveying the City of Washington,

"completed his almanac and gave it to George

Ellicott, Andrew's cousin, as a subject of possible

interest. Apparently George Ellicott turned it over

to the Honorable James McHenry of Baltimore,

who in turned [sic] submitted it to the firm of

Goddard & Angell, who published it......

According to another account, also by Silvio A.

Bedini, titled "Benjamin Banneker and the Survey

of the District of Columbia, 1791,"5 after Banneker

completed his work as scientific assistant to Major

Ellicott during the preliminary survey of the

Federal Territory, he returned home. Hethensetto

work finishing his calculations for 1792. Banneker

had begun collecting dataforthis almanac while he

was still working on the survey of the City of

Washington, but he finished it in Baltimore County.

In June 1791, Elias Ellicott, George's brother, sent

word to James Pemberton in Philadelphia that

Banneker's ephemeris was ready to be printed.

Banneker's place in history is firmly secured by

the fact that he made the observations and

calculations needed in the survey of the 10-mile

square in which our Nation's capital is situated.

Adding to his stature is the fact that six of the

22

ephemerides calculated by this largely self-taught

black farmer were published, over a period of

years, in nearly 30 different editions.5

L'ENFANT'S PLAN

The L'Enfant-El-Iicott team made rapid headway

on the survey and plans for the capital. Joseph and

Benjamin Ellicott joined their brother on the

project in late spring in 1791. Under L'Enfant,

broad avenues took graceful shape, and the plans

began to show a more and more beautiful city.

When L'Enfant submitted his plans for approval by

Congress, however, they were, mainly because of

his demands, refused. L'Enfant then resigned and

would not allow the plans to be used at all.124

In March 1792, Andrew Ellicott was placed in

charge of finishing the capital survey. He revised

and redrew L'Enfant's plan for the city. It was

accepted by Congress, and the final minor points

of the project were completed by Major Ellicott's

assistants.

In 1793, Pennsylvania commissioned Andrew

Ellicott, already gray-haired at the age of 39, to

locate a road and lay out the towns of Erie, Warren,

and Franklin. It was a large and difficult task, but

the major finished it by the fall of 1796. At about

this time, Joseph Ellicott was working on surveys

for the Holland Land Company in the western part

of New York. These surveys were of subsequent

value when people started talking about building

the Erie Canal. Joseph also laid out a city he called

New Amsterdam, which is now Buffalo, New

York. 127

ELLICOTT'S LINE OF DEMARCATION

President George Washington personally appointed Major Ellicott to work with the Spanish

surveyors in running and marking the boundary

line between the Mississippi Territory and Spanish

Florida, which was determined by the treaty dated

October 27, 1 7956 The boundary was to be latitude

31° N. A marker was set where the 31st parallel of

north latitude intersected the Mississippi River, in

what is now Mobile County, Alabama.

Ellicott's Stone, as it is called, is sandstone and

measures some 2 feet wide. It is about 8 inches

thick and stands 2 feet abovethe ground. "U.S. Lat.

31, 1799" is cut deeply into its north side; the south

side reads, "Domino de SM. Carlos IV, Lat. 31,

1799."115 Even though the stone was placed as a

part of a boundary survey, it was also the basis for

many other surveys in the southern part of

Alabama. Some of the distance measurements

were, later, found long,77 but as shown by the U.S.
Coast and Geodetic Survey marker set in Ellicott's

Stone at a later time, the survey was reasonably

accurate. The U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey

values on it read: Lat. 300 59' 51.463" and Long. 88°

01' 21.076".115

OTHER BOUNDARY SURVEYS

The Georgia-North Carolina boundary was a

controversial one. The dispute over it was settled in

1810, when Major Ellicott determined the 35th

degree of north latitude.29 Georgia had hired him to

do the survey, and, using either Rittenhouse

instruments or those made by himself or his

23

brothers, he did his usual fine and accurate job,

with the result that his survey added land to North

Carolina. This was not at all the information that

Georgia wanted, so, consequently, Ellicott was

never paid for his work.127

Andrew Ellicott's last surveying project was the

long-disputed international boundary along the

45th parallel. In 1817, he was asked to locate a

portion of this U.S.-Canadian boundary in accordance with article 5 of the Treaty of Ghent. In order

to do so, he was granted leave from the United

States Military Academy at West Point to which

President Madison had appointed him professor of

mathematics in 1815. Major Ellicott held this

professorial post until his death in 1820.6
LAND SUBDIVISION IN OHIO

Ohio has oftenand accuratelybeen called

the proving ground of the rectangular system. The

public land surveys there were affected by several

different factors, all of which make the relative

location of Ohio townships difficult to determine.

First, there were two large tracts of land in Ohio

to which the United States had no claimVirginia's

Military Reserve and Connecticut's Western

Reserve and Firelands. These two tracts were

surveyed according to the laws of the States that

claimed them. Two other sizeable tracts of Ohio

land were sold to large companies of speculators

shortly after the rectangular system was adopted.

These tracts were surveyed by the companies that

had purchased them, sometimes according to their

own rules.

AN UNPERFECTED SYSTEM

Most important, the rectangular system itself had

not yet been perfected. No basic framework existed

so that the relative location of townships could be

ascertained with ease. No plan had been formulated for the eventual expansion of the surverys.

Also, there was no provision for eliminating the

basic conflict brought about by the law, which

called for the surveys to be both rectangular and

have sides running in the cardinal directions. This

was, obviously, an impossible requirement on a

planet where meridians converge as they near the

poles. These basic imperfections in the Land

Ordinance of 1785 were not resolved when the

Land Act of 1796 was passed. In addition, whereas

both the Land Ordinance of 1785 and the Land Act

of 1796 assumed that townships and ranges would

be numbered, neither of them provided a plan for

that numbering. For some unknown reason,

however, the system of numbering sections

adopted under the Ordinance of 1785 was changed

by the Land Act of 1796.

SURVEYS WITH NO INITIAL POINT

FOR TOWNSHIP IDENTIFICATION

The west boundary of Pennsylvania served as

the first reference meridian for the public land

surveys and the Ohio River as the base from which

townships were numbered. A number of other

reference meridians and bases were also used in

Chapter 5

THE PROVING GROUND

25

Ohio to govern certain areas for the purpose of the

disposal of the land. As a result, there are eight

public land surveysseven in Ohio and one in

Indianathat have no initial point as an origin of

both township and range numbers.137

THE OHIO RIVER SURVEY AREA

The survey of the Seven Ranges began in 1785.

There, townships are numbered northward from

the Ohio River, and ranges are numbered westward

from the Ohio-Pennsylvania boundary. Sections

are numbered progressively northward in

successive tiers starting at the southeast corner of

each township. The lands west of the Seven

Ranges, east of the Scioto River, and south of the

U.S. Military Tract, were surveyed in a somewhat

uncoordinated manner, but nevertheless in more

or less the same way as the Seven Ranges; that is,

townships are numbered northward from the Ohio

River and ranges are numbered westward from the

west boundary of Pennsylvania in continuation of

the numbering within the Seven Ranges. Because

this area was surveyed in 1798 and 1799, however,

sections are numbered according to the plan set

TOLJNSI.1Ip 5UBD)VI5IOP'J AIJD COJPS

MONUMEI'JTED UlJDE1 TWE LA,3D ACT O 1736

S S S S S 6 5 4 3 2 I S 5 0

7 8 9 (0 II I2

5 0 ft 0 5

(8 (7 (6

:

I- -S S +- ao 21 22.

1

24

30 29 2.8 27 26 25

.. -. L __ 4

31 32 35 34. 55 56

- S S S S
Numbering of Sections

26

System used under

Ordinance of May 20, 1785

Act of May 18, 1796

System used in Canad&s

Dominion, or public, lands.

The dimensions of Canadian

townships usually differ from

those of the United States

due fo their provision for

roadways between or within

sections.

36 30 24 18 12 6

35 2923 17 II 5

34 28 22 16 10 4

33 27 21 15 9 3

32 26 20 14 8 2

31 25 19 13 7 I 654321

7 8 9 10 II 12

18 17 16 15 14 13

19 20 21 22 23 24

30 29 28 27 26 25

31 32 33 34 35 36

31 32 33 34 35 36

30 29 28 27 26 25

19 20 21 22 23 24

18 17 16 15 14 13

7 8 9 10 II 12 654321
position for the State boundary as claimed by

Michigan. When the State boundary was finally

established the public land surveys were closed

upon that boundary. The lands originally surveyed

under the Michigan Meridian and situated south of

forth by the Land Act of 1796. The lands north of

the Seven Ranges and the U.S. Military Tract and

south of Connecticut's Western Reserve were

surveyed during 1799 in the same manner as those

west of the Seven Ranges. All of this area, including

the Seven Ranges, is called the Ohio River Survey

area.

THE U.S. MILITARY SURVEY

Under the provisions of a Congressional act

passed on June 1, 1796, the United States Military

Tract was surveyed into 5-mile-square townships.

The ranges in this survey area are designated by

progressive numbers west from the west boundary

of the Seven Ranges. Townships are numbered

northward from the south boundary of the military

tract. According to the terms of the Act of March 1,

1800, 50 quarter townships of land that still

remained unclaimed at that time, together with

unclaimed fractional quarter townships, were

subdivided into lots of 100 acres each and reserved

to satisfy military warrants. The remainder of the

lands in this survey area was surveyed into sections

of 640 acres each and offered for sale on the same

basis as other public lands. Each of these

townships, however, contains only 25 sections.

These sections are numbered according to the

present plan.

WEST OF THE GREAT MIAMI RIVER

In 1798, the survey of the public lands lying west

of the Great Miami River in Ohio was begun. In it

townships are numbered northward from the Great

Miami River, and ranges are numbered eastward

from the meridian surveyed north from the mouth

of the Great Miami, now the Ohio-Indiana boundary. In this area, which is bounded on the north by

the Greeneville Treaty Line, sections are numbered

according to the revised plan.

OHIO RIVER BASEINDIANA

The Ohio River Base survey area in Indiana is the

only one outside of Ohio that has no initial point as

an origin of numbering both townships and ranges.

In this areaknown as the Gore of Indiana

townships are numbered north from the Ohio River

and ranges are numbered west from the OhioIndiana boundary and its projection south. The

survey of this area was started in 1799 and in it

sections are numbered according to the revised

plan.

27

SCIOTO RIVER BASE

The Scioto River Base survey in Ohio was also

surveyed in 1799. Townships in this area are

numbered north from the Scioto River and ranges

are numbered west from west boundary of Pennsylvania.

MUSKINGUM RIVER SURVEY

The Muskingum River Survey area was surveyed

in 1800. Its range is numbered 10 and its townships

are numbered 1 and 2.

BETWEEN THE MIAMI RIVERS,

NORTH OF SYMMES PURCHASE

The public land area known as Between the

Miami Rivers, north of Symmes Purchase, was

surveyed beginning in 1802 in continuation of the

plan adopted by Symmes in the survey of his tract.

In this area, contrary to all other public land

surveys, townships are numbered east from the

Great Miami River and ranges are numbered north

from the Ohio River, in continuation of Symmes'

numbering. The sections are numbered according

to the same plan as those in the Seven Ranges.

TWELVE-MILE SQUARE RESERVE

The last public land survey area to have no initial

point as a basis for township identification was

surveyed in 1805. It is the Twelve-Mile-Square

Reserve and it has no range number. Its townships

are simply numbered 1 through 4137

NORTHWESTERN OHIO

The intersection of a base line with the First

Principal Meridian was adopted in 1819 as the

initial point for public land surveys in northwestern

Ohio. Public land surveys in this part of Ohio were

executed along the lines of the present plan.

CONFLICT WITH MICHIGAN

As if all this were notenough, Michigan and Ohio

could not agree on the position of their common

boundary. The question was not resolved until

Michigan was admitted as a State in 1837. Long

before that time, the surveys in the southern

portion of the area governed by the Michigan

Meridian had been executed and extended to the
4j.

- -k. --

OG A N

SHELA__

aC A IcI MIAMI1tt i:aiii 19 CLAR&

M ONTG OM EjIJr

d6 I GREENE 'II,, It

W'RR

dEIJ

N

/ND/4N

L AKE

HAM IL

BUTLER

0

28

The private survey of the Symmes Purchase

(shaded area) was the basis of a unique Ohio

public land survey. In the "Between the Miami

Rivers" survey area, townships are numbered

eastward from the Great Miami River and

ranges are numbered northward.
Bctse Ltne,1819

Connect icut bJetern Reserve

be Lin

1199

TweLve -MiLeSc4Uore, 1805

__-

'?(Symrn.e\.

PurcloBe _\_

Vir9inio flULi+cn'y

Reserve.

the State line continue to be governed by the

Michigan Meridian although they are administered

within the State of Ohio.138

THE SEVEN RANGES

1785

In the summer of 1785 the first United States

Government survey party, under the direction of

Thomas Hutchins, met at Pittsburgh where

teamsters, horses, and supplies had been

gathered. Although there were to have been 13

surveyorsone from each Stateonly 8 actually

began the survey. They were Edward Dowse of

New Hampshire, Benjamin Tupper of

Massachusetts, Isaac Sherman of Connecticut,

Absalom Martin of New Jersey, William W. Morris

of New York, Alexander Parker of Virginia, James

I

29

.Point of Begiflfl&flg

of the RectanguLar

Sjstem of Surveys,

; 1785

0

&

50

SCALE N MILES

oi.Iuo LAtJD5 SUBDI'JI5IOIJ

Simpson of Maryland, and Robert Johnston of

Georgia.

Hutchins and the rest of the party moved

downstream from Pittsburgh and set up camp at

the mouth of Beaver Creek, near the point of

beginning.113 On the last day of September,

starting at the initial point, Hutchins personally

supervised the start of the first east-west linethe

Geographer's Line. Yet on October 8, 1785, after

surveying just 4 miles of the Geographer's Line,

Hutchins stopped work for the season. He reported

that the work had been halted due to "disagreeable

intelligence concerning the Indians."131

1786

Apparently the intelligence concerning the

Indians was more agreeable by the following

spring, because Major Winthrop Sargent tried to

25 0
SEVENTH

R%AN 6E

Geojraper's Line

3

2.

3 2

3

.3

2

.3

VIRGINIA

WE5I VIRGIMtPr

THE 3EVEN RANGES

30

FiR1 RANGE

Swvcyed by

4bsa/orn Ma,tin

PEN NSYLVAN IA

L_
get an appointment as a surveyor at that time.

Sargent was from Massachusetts and had been a

distinguished artillery officer in the Revolutionary

War. He, along with many other soldiers, had

suffered financial reverses while he had been in the

service of his country. Some of these veterans

joined together in organizing the Ohio Company of

Associates, which planned settlement in the

western country. Sargent was elected secretary of

the group.102

General Henry Knox, then Secretary of War, was

an old army friend of his, so Sargent went to him

about securing the appointment. Knox told him

that the appointments had been made, but that

they might need more surveyors. Knox and

Hutchins agreed that Sargent would be a good man

to have along. Hutchins had heard that the

surveyor for North Carolina might not be able to

accept. He advised Sargent to try for the vacancy,

should it occur.

By June 11, 1786, Knox was sure there would be at

least one vacancy and wrote to Sargent suggesting

that a man already in the area would have the best

chance of getting the job. Sargent took the hint and

started west toward Fort Mcintosh. While he was

on his way to the fort, he was elected by Congress

as the surveyor from New Hampshire, to replace

Edward Dowse, who had resigned.

Sargent's Diary

For the next few months, Sargent kept a diary. He

began it on June 18, as he left Boston, and he

ended it upon his return from the field, just before

Christmas 1786. John Mathews, later to become

Sargent's assistant, also kept a log. They were

unusual in this respect because few of the

surveyors there or on later surveys took the time to

keep a record other than their field notes.

On his trip west, Sargent stopped in Philadelphia

long enough to visit and dine with Benjamin

Franklin. Though he enjoyed this social encounter,

he did not seem to be too happy with the rest of

Pennsylvania. In Pittsburgh, which was then a town

of about 80 long huts, he stayed "at Smith's Tavern

which tho' as good as any Place is bad enough and

very extravagant."

Beyond Pittsburgh, Sargent traveled with Major

John F. Hamtramck, commander of Fort McIntosh.

The day after their arrival, Sargent crossed the river

and reached the surveyor's camp opposite the

mouth of Little Beaver Creek,102 where all of the

other surveyors were assembled. They drew lots to

see who would survey which range. In August

1786, 6 miles due west of the point of beginning,

31

Absalom Martin of NewJersey started south on the

survey of the first range.101 He had drawn lot

number one and thereby gained a small measure of

fame. Sargent drew number five.102

Danger from Indian attack was discussed, and the

other surveyors were not as optimistic as Hutchins.

They requested troops to protect them. Hutchins

arranged for military escort from Fort Harmar

because he did not want another time like his first

attempt.

Sargent was detained in camp because his

supplies had not arrived on schedule. While he

waited, three of his Revolutionary War friends

stopped to visit. They were on their way down river

to Fort Harmar, but they spent the evening sitting

around the campfire talking over old adventures

and speculating about the future. One of their

topics of conversation was their hope of finding

peace and justice in their new homes in the western

country and their desire that, in these homes, "the

veteran soldier and honest man should find a

Retreat from ingratitude......

These words expressed some of the bitterness

Sargent and other Revolutionary War veterans felt

because of the reverses they had suffered during

the war and the neglect with which they and their

problems had been treated in the Eastern States

after the war was over.

Because his supplies had not yet arrived and it

appeared that there would be several days before

work could begin, Sargent went with his friends on

their trip to Fort Harmar. They went by river. The

weather was fine and the land they saw along their

way was rich and level, yet not wet nor too low.

Sargent's diary tells that he could picture cattle

grazing in the luxuriant meadows. The trees along

the banks of the river were majestic oaks and

walnuts. Hickory and maple trees of huge proportions were also noted. During the time (July 23 to

August 2) that he spent at Fort Harmar, Sargent

made several excursions into the surrounding

area. His diary indicates his appreciation of the

country.

On his trip from Fort Harmar back to his own

camp, Sargent noted the farms of several squatters

on the north shore of the river. He resented their

presence in an area he would have liked for the

Ohio Company settlement and referred to them as

"lawless banditti." Later, Sargent was to find that

this attitude was one the squatters did not find

particularly endearing as they considered

themselves adventurous pioneers.

Sargent's days of rest, with time for exploring the

country, came to an end when the chainmen,

packers, and horses reached camp. The pay forthe
packers was a "half Joe" each per month and 30

shillings per head for the horses. (A half Joe was a

Portuguese gold coin which was equivalent to

about $8.)

The survey work actually began on September 2,

1786. Dense swamps and thick undergrowth made

progress slow. In many places the only way to get

through was to cut a line every rod of the distance.

There were not enough men and their instruments

lacked modern refinement. These first surveys did

have inaccuracies but, considering the odds the

men worked against, they were very well done

indeed.

In reaching his own rangethe fifthSargent

spoke of the others. The first range was "tolerably

good but a little broken"; the next was "fine lands,

by no means high, but level"; for the third, "extreme

bad-broken and some very high hills." The fourth

range he called "good lands." His range lay beyond

these others and was covered with thick underbrush.

At times no more than 2 miles a day could be made

with the surveying. For this work the surveyor

received, including all expenses, $2 per mile. When

Sargent had run the east-west line of his range, he

was asked to run Simpson's on the sixth range.

Sargent completed it and returned to work on the

fifth range.

About this time a rumor of the presence of a large

band of Shawnee Indians was being circulated.

The report caused Hutchins and the surveyors with

him to return to camp. Sargent did not believe the

report; he had not seen any Indians, and even if

there were any, he could not see that he should

behave any differently than when he was in the

army and exposed to danger every day. He and his

crew stayed on the job, and he wrote a letter to

Hamtramck asking if there were any truth to the

whole thing. The last line of the letter tells of his

plan to go West until he received and answer.

Fortunately the rumor, this time, was false.

Before the end of September, the rumors of Indian

hostilities were becoming alarming. Sargent and

his crew returned to the camp at the mouth of Little

Beaver Creek. Hutchins called all the men

together there to consult with them about the work.

Sargent was of the opinion that, since they had not

been attacked, they should not have stopped their

work. He was certain it would be taken as a sign of

weakness by the Indians.

Hutchins told the assembled survey crews that he

thought four ranges should be completed. Work

beyond/that range he left up to a vote of the

surveyors. They voted that it was too dangerous to

32

go beyond the fourth range. Sargent did not agree.

He also did not agree with the manner in which

Hutchins had handled the situation. His diary entry

on September 28 shows his annoyance.

For my part, I would prefer to receive and obey

order, rather than decide for myself and I am

sorry to find Mr. Hutchins, who is our principal

so fond of council and so wanting in decision.

He is good character, a worthy man, but stands

in need of confidence in himselfwhich we

surveyors have all very sensibly felt, and which

has sometimes involved us in disagreeable

altercations and disputes about modes and

forms and the more essential of our duties.

Isaac Sherman, third range surveyor, and

Ebenezer Sproat, fourth range surveyor, had the

option of returning to their work. Sargent asked for

a similar privilege. Hutchins refused to order him to

resume surveying but agreed to let him continue if

he chose to do so. Sargent requested a military

escort and went back to the field. The men were

becoming worried, but Sargent was not to be

turned aside. He wanted to finish the south line to

the river and take the meanders of the Ohio. This

would allow the sale of one range more than

Hutchins had planned.

To accomplish his goal, Sargent hired more men.

One of them was John Mathews, a well-educated

New England schoolteacher who had not been

able to find a teaching job. As was true of many of

the men on early survey crews, he was attracted by

the idea of adventure on the frontier. He became a

chainman in a party now numbering 36 men. The

march from camp back to the survey area was a

slow one, but by the middle of October they were

again at work.

Sometimes Sargent found the escort of troopers

more trouble than it was worth. The men were not

well equipped for the work and lacked proper

clothing. Sargent sympathized with them and

would have dismissed them except for the fact that

his hunter became convinced that Indians were

nearby.

When all the horses, except one sick one, were

stolen, it became apparent that the hunter was

right. Without the horses the work became far more

exhausting. Then the weather turned bad and the

men began hinting that they had done all the

surveying they wanted to do for one season. Even

Sargent started to feel apprehensive. So he

completed the seventh township in range 5 in early

November and returned to the surveyors' camp.

Hutchins then wanted Sargent to finish the range.

This made Sargent even more critical of Hutchins.
Survey Halted

Before Sargent could return to the field,

however, General Richard Butler, superintendent

of Indian Affairs, sent word that the Indians had

demanded that the surveyors halt their work. As the

bad weather would have made the survey extremely expensive even if there had been no Indian

threat, Hutchins decided to comply with the

Indians' wishes. On November14, 1786, the survey

was stopped for the year. Hutchins reported to

Congress that four ranges and seven townships in

the fifth range had been completed. About 800,000

acres had been surveyed and were ready for sale as

a result of the work that season.

The surveyors, including Sargent, sent a memo

to Congress asking for a provision to pay them for

their expenses in the past and to increase their pay

in the future. They said that they would take a part

of this in land. Sargent's actual expenses were

$250, and his pay, at $2 per mile, was only $120.

33

Although Sargent had felt that his efforts were

not appreciated by Hutchins, a comment Hutchins

wrote showed quite the opposite. In it he spoke of

the fact that Sargent had exerted himself to the best

of his abilities for the "Public Good" and that he

had lamented being unable to finish his range.

When Sargent wrote to Hutchins the following

year, offering his services to complete the fifth

range, there were enough surveyors already at

work and it was not necessary for him to cross the

mountains to finish his work.

After the Ordinance 011787 encouraging mass

settlement was passed, Sargent was elected

secretary of the territory northwest of the Ohio

River. He was acting governor much of the time

during the 10 years he served in this office. He left

the old Northwest Territory in 1798 after accepting

an appointment as governor of the just-organized

Mississippi Territory.102
CONGRESSIONAL AUTHORITY FOR

MANAGEMENT OF THE PUBLIC LANDS

Inevitably, in a new democracy, questions do

arise concerning who has proper authoritythe

local, State, or National Government. As

background for these conflicts, recall that the

American colonists developed town and county

governments based predominately on a shared

English heritage and their needs as a frontier

people. However, as time passed, conflicts arose

between the Colonies and England. In 1774, in

order to establish unity of action in regard to their

common grievances against English colonial

policy, the colonists convened the First Continental Congress.

COLONIAL INDEPENDENCE

This first step toward the creation of the Union

was followed by the Declaration of Independence.

Signed on July 4, 1776, this document made the

Thirteen Colonies the Thirteen Original States.

However, each State remained completely

sovereign until the need for unified action during

the Revolutionary War led to the adoption of the

Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union. In

1777, these were submitted to the States for

ratification, which was completed in 1781, forming

the United States of America.

Although a semblance of National Government

existed at that point, there were weaknesses in the

arrangement. Foremost was the fact that there was

no national executive branch or judiciary. The

Confederation had no power to regulate interstate

and foreign commerce, and this lack soon led to

serious economic conflicts between the States. To

remedy these inherent weaknesses, a constitutional convention met in 1787 for the purpose

of forming "a more perfect Union." Congress

submitted the Constitution to the States for

ratification on September 28, 1787, and, on March

4, 1789, it became legally operative as the "Constitution of the United States."

Authority for congressional disposition and

management of the public lands and resources is

derived from Article IV, Section 3, Clause 2 of the

U.S. Constitution. The clause states that Congress

shall have the power "to dispose of and make all

needful rules and regulations respecting the

territory or other property belonging to the United

States. . . ." This congressional power has been

held to be without limitation.

During the first year of the new constitutional

form of government, Congress allowed the Land

Chapter 6

35

Ordinance of 1785 to expire, although it reenacted

(with some modification) the Northwest Ordinance

of 1787.

LAND LAW UNDER THE CONSTITUTION

The Land Act of 1796, entitled 'An Act providing

for the Sale of the lands of the United States, in the

territory north-west of the river Ohio and above the

mouth of the Kentucky river," was the first new land

law to take effect under the Constitution. Surveying, as authorized under the law, was confined to

three areasnorth of the Seven Ranges, west of

the Seven Ranges, and west of the Symmes

Purchase. Yet, in spite of these limitations, the

Land Act of 1796 became the legal basis of all

subsequent United States public land surveys.

Although it restated the basic principles of the

Land Ordinance of 1785frequently in terms very

much like those of the earlier ordinancethe Land

Act of 1796 did make some changes. Under the new

law, the geographer, who had died in 1789, was to

be replaced by a surveyor general who was to

"engage a sufficient number of skillful surveyors,"

without reference to States, and proceed with the

surveying.

Of particular interest to surveyors were the halfdozen words in the new law that called for northsouth lines to be "run according to the true

meridian." These few words restored an important

provision of the Land Ordinance of 1785, which

had been repealed as a convenience to the

surveyors of the Seven Ranges.

The new law set the surveyor general's salary at

$2,000 per year and raised the pay of deputy

surveyors for their labors from $2 to $3 per mile of

line surveyed. The system of numbering sections

was changed to the present system. Alternate

section lines were to be traced in the field in

alternate townships, thus forming 2-mile squares

on the ground. Corners were to be set 1 mile apart

on these lines, giving each section three corners

that were actually set in the field. Under the Land

Ordinance of 1785, the corners had been established by the surveyors along the township lines only,

and the section (lot) lines were added on paper in

the office.

Five-Mile Townships

On June 1, 1796, Congress approved "An Act

regulating the grants of land appropriated for
Military services, and for the Society of the United

Brethren for propagating the Gospel among the

Heathen?' This act provided for a special surveythat

did not conform with the general principles set

forth in the Land Act. Under its provisions, the

surveyor general was to "cause the said tracts to be

divided into townships five-miles square, by

running, marking, and numbering the exterior lines

of the said townships, and marking corners in the

said lines, at the distance of two and one half miles

from each other, in the manner directed......This

act applied to the lands in the United States Military

District, although the State of Connecticut used

the same plan in its Western Reserve.

Appointment of the Surveyor General

The appointment of a surveyor general was the

first priority under the 1796 land law. President

Washington selected Simeon De Witt, who had

shared Thomas Hutchins' title of geographer to the

United States during the Revoluntionary War. De

Witt, who was satisfied in his post as the surveyor

general of New York State, declined the appointment. Thus, on October 1, 1796, Washington

appointed Rufus Putnam as the first surveyor

general of the United States.

It was a good choice. Putnam had been among

those championing the settlement of the Ohio

country for years. Only a short while before he

became surveyor general, he had been named

superintendent of the survey of Zane's Trace. This

roadway, opened through the forest by Ebenezer

Zane in 1796, was the only important road in the

Ohio country of that time.26

Putnam had also served as superintendent of

surveys for the Ohio Company. He had supervised,

on behalf of the Federal Government, thesurveyof

lots at Gallipolis for the poor French farmers who

had been induced by the Scioto Company to leave

their homes and settle in Ohioonly to find, when

they reached Ohio, that the Scioto Company had

failed and there were no lands for them.

THE CONTRACT SYSTEM

Rufus Putnam's most enduring contribution to

the public land surveys, lasting for more than a

century, was the establishment of the terms under

which deputy surveyors were to be employed. The

idea of placing the responsibility upon the deputy

surveyor for "the wages of chain carriers, markers

and every other expense of executing the surveys,"

was spelled out in the Land Ordinance of 1785, but

it required no binding contract calling for the

completion of a specific assignment. The Land Act

36

of 1796 did not even specify that deputy surveyors

were to assume the responsibility for the expenses

of the surveys; it provided only that 'the President

of the United States may fix the compensation of

the assistant surveyors, chain carriers and axemen," and that the total amount paid for the

surveying was not to exceed $3 per mile.

Putnam's instructions from the Secretary of the

Treasury, at that time the highest official directly

concerned with the surveys, asked that Putnam be

governed by considerations of economy, the

natural course of settlement, the comparative

fertility of the various tracts, and the probability of

quick sale. The matter of the terms under which the

surveyors were to be hired was left completely in

Putnam's hands. Putnam chose to continue a

practice with which he had become familiar as the

superintendent of surveysforthe Ohio Company

that of drawing up contracts binding the surveyors

to the performance of specific surveying

assignments, while allowing them to hire their own

surveying crews.26

In 1797, Absalom Martin, who had surveyed the

first of the Seven Ranges, along with Zaccheus

Biggs, received the first two surveying contracts

issued by Putnam. They wereforthe subdivision of

part of the U.S. Military District.26 Under these

surveying contracts, Putnam assigned a specific

tract of land to each contract holder. The terms of

the contracts limited the claims of the contract

holders against the Federal Government to a set

compensation for each mile of line surveyed, and

made the contract holder accountable for rectifying any errors in the survey. The deputies hired

their own surveying parties, and the men of the

crews were required, as were the deputies, to swear

to perform their duties faithfully. This contract

system, inaugurated by Putnam, remained in effect

until 1910.

THE ACTS OF MARCH 1 AND MAY 10, 1800

While Rufus Putnam was still surveyor general,

two other congressional acts of great importance

to surveyors were passed. The Act of March 1, 1800

(2 Stat. 14), set a precedent in the United States

involving a surveying principle, mention of which

can be found in the Bible. The act refers specifically to the 5-mile townships surveyed to reward

military services and for the Society of the United

Brethren. In effect, what it says is that a corner set

under regulations by a surveyor in the field is a true

corner, whether interior lines extended from it are

parallel to the exterior lines or not. It is a true corner

even if later surveys indicate that it was placed

incorrectly.
cucL in Louiic.nc*

Under the Act of May 10, 1800, excess or deficiency of measurement was placed in

the north tier of sections and in the west tier of half sections. All section lines were

run, and half corners (later known as quarter corners) were set on East-West lines. In

early Louisiana surveys the excess or deficiency was divided equally in the last mile.

Half sections were the smallest parcels of land sold. Dots indicate corners set in the

field.

This vitally important principle of cadastral

surveying was reinforced and applied to all public

land surveys by the Act of February 11, 1805

(2 Stat. 313). Under its second section, this act

provided that 'All the corners marked in the

surveys . . shall be established as the proper

corners of sections, or subdivisions of sections,

which they were intended to designate......

The Act of May 10, 1800(2 Stat. 73) provided for

the subdivision of townships into half sections of

320 acres each. It also made provision for placing

all excess or deficiency of measurement in the

north mile and the west half mile in each township.

Originc11y catted Vz corners

37

ISRAEL LUDLOW AND THE SURVEY

OF THE GREENEVILLE TREATY LINE

Rufus Putnam apparently relied heavily upon the

surveying services of Israel Ludlow, who had been

another applicant for the post of surveyor

general.26 Ludlow had worked on both the survey

of the Seven Ranges and the subdivisions of the

Symmes Purchase under the Land Ordinance of

1785. At Putnam's request, Ludlow surveyed the

Greeneville Treaty Line. This line was based on the

treaty signed on August 3, 1795, which guaranteed

that the American settlement in the Northwest

Territory was secure from Indian attack as far west

5ec±ton corr,ers

6 5

S S

S

2

S S

+1E

7 8 9 10 .

II

S

12

S

18 17 16 15 14 13

19 20 21 22 23 24

30 29 28 27 26 25

31 32 33 34 35 36
Even In Biblical times, the corners established by

surveyors in the field were intended to be permanent

markers of the land:

Thou shalt not remove thy neighbor's landmark which they of old times have set in thine

inheritance which thou shalt Inherit in the

land that the Lord thy God giveth thee to

possess it.

Deuteronomy 19: 14

Cursed be he that removeth his neighbor's

landmark. And all the people shall say, Amen.

Deuteronomy 27: 17

Remove not the ancient landmark, which thy

fathers have set.

Proverbs 22: 28

Remove not the old landmark; and enter not

into the fields of the fatherless.

Proverbs 23: 10

The Bible offers a good description of a surveying

party:

Give out from among you three men for each

tribe and I will send them, and they shall rise,

and go through the land, and describe It

according to the inheritance of them: and

they shall come again to me.

Joshua 18: 4

It also tells of the field notes returned by the

surveying party after they had completed their work:

And the men went and passed through the

land, and described it by cities into seven

parts in a book, and came again to Joshua to

the host at Shiioh.

Joshua 18: 9

as a line that met the Ohio River at a point opposite

the mouth of the Kentucky River. This was the land,

other than that already patented, to which the Land

Act of 1796 specifically applied.

Ludlow began the survey of the Greeneville

Treaty Line at what the treaty called "the crossing

place above Fort Lawrence." Putnam himself

journeyed north to mark the beginning pointa

crossing place over the Tuscarawas branch of the

Muskingum River a mile or so upstream from Fort

Laurens.26 During the 1797 survey season, Ludlow

surveyed the line in a southwest direction for a

38

distance of 150 miles to Loramies Store on the

upper waters of the Great Miami River.26 Ludlow

finished running the treaty line in 1799 by first

surveying the line from Loramies Store to Fort

Recovery and then southwest to a point opposite

the mouth of the Kentucky River, as specified in the

treaty.

The Indians had requested that a wide corridor

be cut through the forest all along the line so that it

would be impossible for white settlers to overlook it

in their search for land to live on. However, since

there were no funds available with which to hire

extra axemen for this work, the treaty line was

marked in the same manner as other survey lines

by stakes and marked trees.26 Since the time Israel

Ludlow first used them, two hacks (or notches) on

line trees have been required under approved

surveying practice.7

Public Land Eligible for Survey in 1796

The lands eligible to be surveyed as public lands

under the Land Act of 1796 were largely bounded

by the Greeneville Treaty Line. This treaty line,

which was to permanently separate white

settlements from Indian villages and hunting

grounds, turned out to be only the first of many

such boundaries. All were set forth in solemnly

sworn treaties, yet each boundary, in its turn, gave

way as new treaties with wider boundaries were

signed. In this way, American settlement moved

relentlessly westward toward the Pacific.

Nevertheless, in 1796 the United States Public

Domain included only the land north of the Seven

Ranges, east of the Tuscarawas River, and south of

the 41st parallel (which had been designated as the

south boundary of Connecticut's Western

Reserve), and the public lands west of the Seven

Ranges. It did not include the Virginia Military

Reserve, the Ohio Company's Purchase, the

Symmes Purchase, nor the area set aside by

Congress as the United States Military District,

even though that land also had to be surveyed.

Subdivision of the U.S. Military District

Ludlow stopped work on the treaty line in 1798

and went to the United States Military District.

Putnam had divided the Military District into five

areas for surveying purposes, and had assigned

Ludlow to one of them. Other surveyors of the

Military District included Zaccheus Biggs, Absalom Martin, John Jackson, and John Mathews.26

All of the returns on the subdivision of the Military

District were in Putnam's hands before the end of

November 1798.26 This included the returns for the
ff. Wayne

COMIJ

t.JESTERN

w;iNuU1UIi liuuulUil au.ilu... u_U....

TIC T

SERVE

three small tracts of land within the Military District

that had been set aside for the Society of the United

Brethren. These small tracts, which had been

surveyed in 1797, were actually the first surveying

assignment to be completed under Putnam's

direction.

Ludlow's Meridian

In the autumn of 1798, after he had finished his

field work in the United States Military District, but

before he completed the survey of the Greeneville

Treaty Line, Israel Ludlow began a public land

survey in an area far removed from other public

land surveysthe area west of the Symmes

Purchase. This was the first public land survey

initiated without reference to another survey since

Thomas Hutchins started the Geographer's Line in

1785. Under Rufus Putnam's direction, Ludlow

surveyed the line north from the mouth of the Great

Miami River. Using this line as a reference

meridian, he then began the subdivision of the

public land area west of the Symmes Purchase.

R'. Q.

'N ke

-

39

C0)

C

C

FI5T TWR AREAS SURVED UPJDP TIlE LAJ4D ACT or 1796

EARLY SURVEYS IN INDIANA

The line Ludlow surveyed north from the mouth

of the Great Miami was later named the First

Principal Meridian. It divides Ohio and Indiana and

governs Indiana public land surveys east of the

Greeneville Treaty Line. This area, known as "the

Gore," was given to Indiana by the Ohio Enabling

Act of April 30, 1802.104 The range line that begins

at the confluence of the Ohio and Little Blue Rivers

and runs to the northern boundary of Indiana is the

Second Principal Meridian. It governs alithe public

land surveys in Indiana with the exception of those

within "the Gore." Other surveys were made in

Indiana before Indian title was extinguished, but,

as title passed to the United States, the rectangular

system of surveys was established.

The Vincennes Tract

In 1742, long before the United States surveys

began, the Indians gave the French a tract of land

lying at right angles to the course of the Wabash

Fort

ecovery Iiu U U.S. MILITA1'?

1E5EIV C

L Lauren . pft8 bur9

SteLLbe vjUe

Wheettng Fort reenvitt - Lud

.....a

....,

E VIRGINIA IUiiiLiliiU jii..ii. %ilUUiU IL I TAY

Merictiart TH 5EVEP*3 RAI'JGE.5 DISTR%CT

0.I 10 'duIi. Cjjttcete C0MAP4Y rt.

,Va.rietta I.. lla.rmar / Cincinnati / LAI)DS a.' / 41111i U

/ 'U.'... .... Townships Surveyed be+ween 1796 and 800 U...

, uiiii - - - SctLe boundary

Reserve for !'toravian missionary communy ,, I..... vii..

Limestone O.1to

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*

Distric.+ Land office
River at Vincennes. In 1763, the English took it

away from the French, and, in 1779, General

George Rogers Clark took it from the English. The

Vincennes Tract contains about 1.6 million acres.

The western part is in Illinois, but by far the largest

part is in Indiana.

If a line were drawn on a map of Indiana from

Point Coupee on the Wabash near Merom in

Sullivan County to Orleans in Orange County, it

would show the approximate north boundary of the

tract. It terminates at the point called "Freeman's

Corner," which lies due east of Vincennes. Further,

if the line were drawn from there to the southeast

corner of Dubois County, that would show the

approximate east boundary of the tract. If the line

were continued northwest from there to the mouth

of the White River on the Wabash, it would provide

a reasonable outline of the part of the Vincennes

Tract that lies in Indiana. Before the rectangular

surveys could be extended to this tract, the outline

of it had to be surveyed.

Freeman's Survey Party

On May 1, 1802, Congress provided for the

survey of land in the vicinity of Vincennes. Thomas

Freeman began the survey of the lines and corners

of the Vincennes Tract in late summer of that year.

It is not known how many men were with Freeman;

his field notes termed it a "little party." We do know

there were chainmen, axemen, a flagman, at least

one cook, a packer, and teamsters.

There were also hunters with the party. The

weapons they used were of fairly soft metal, f lintlock, smooth-bore Kentucky or Tennessee long

rifles. Hunters for hire on the frontier of the time

enjoyed contests to test their skill, and often

perfected their craft to a point where they could hit

either eye of a target as small as a squirrel. This was

no small matter, as the meat supply as well as the

safety of the party depended upon these men.

The clothing worn by Freeman's menand

Buckingham's, two years laterwas the same sort

worn by other men on the post-Revolutionary War

frontier. Buckskin pants and shirts, boots (or

moccasins and leggings) and raccoon-skin caps

were the usual attire, although sometimes the

flagman wore a red flannel shirt so that he might be

seen more easily.

Matches were not invented until a quarter of a

century after the survey of the Vincennes Tract, so

flint and steel gave these men their fires. The fires

provided heat for cooking, warmth on cold nights,

and fuel to heat the metal to be ladled into the bullet

mold. The molding of bullets took a steady hand

40

and a good eye. The amount of molten metal

poured into the mold had to be exactly right or the

result was a ball lacking the necessary perfection.

The fire also provided light for copying out the field

notes for the day.

Freeman's Notes

The field notebooks of Freeman's time are

usually about 3 by 6 inches. They are handmade

from old-fashioned paper called foolscap. Most of

them were stitched together with all the neatness

that a surveyor working by firelight in the wilds of

1802 Indiana could muster; some of them were not

stitched at all, they were simply tied together with

very thin strips of buckskin.

As he worked, Freeman carried all the small

items he needed to have with him. He probably

used a buckskin pouch suspended from his

shoulder by a strap. This was a common practice as

it left the surveyor's hands free. Among the items

usually considered necessities in those days were

such things as several wild goose feathers, an ink

horn, and a sand horn. The goose feathers were

sharpened into quill pens as needed, the ink horn

held ink brewed from forest bark; the sand in the

other horn was used to dry the ink. In fact, grains of

sand can still be found between the pages of these

old notebooks.

And, as faded as they are, Freeman's field notes

reflect his care as a surveyor. He noted such things

as Indian trails, very large springs, and other

features. When he crossed the Yellow Banks Indian

Trail in his survey, he recorded itas3l milesand4l chains from the mouth of the White River.

Occasionally, Freeman's men split a sapling and

pushed a limb through the trunk. These smalltrees

that became large, enduring, oddly formed

markers of a survey line, were called "peacetrees,"

as they marked a treaty line.

Apparently, when Freeman was nearly finished

with the survey, the United States went back to

before the French title and bought the land from

the true original ownersthe Indians. At the time

of the treaty (June 7, 1803), Fort Wayne was really a

fort, and the document used to describe the

boundary was Freeman's survey. Because of this

method, any doubt about the title was cleared

away.

Surveyocs were sent to survey the Vincennes

Tract into townships and ranges soon afterthe Fort

Wayne Treaty was signed. The Second Principal

Meridian passes very near "Freeman's Corner."

The base line runs east and west near the center of

the tract. Contracts held by deputy surveyors
SAPLING

"PEACE TREE"

called for the tract to be surveyed, in ranges 6 miles

wide, north and south from Freeman line to

Freeman line.

Other Freeman Surveys

This was not the first time Thomas Freeman had

been given a large and difficult job of surveying,

nor was it the last. On October 27, 1795, a treaty

defined the boundaries between the United States

and the Spanish Colonies of East and West Florida.

The treaty was ratified March 3, 1796, and on May

24, 1796, Thomas Freeman was appointed surveyor for the United States for the purpose of

running the international boundary line as called

for in the treaty.104

The boundary line between Alabama and

Tennessee is the 35th parallel of north latitude.

41

' MATURE TREE

Thomas Freeman made sextant observations for

latitude in October 1807. He marked a point

estimated as the 35th parallel, which was the

northern boundary of Mississippi Territory in those

days, and ran the line between the Elk River and the

old Cherokee line.34 This is the base line of the

Huntsville Meridian.74 The part of the AlabamaMississippi boundary from the mouth of Bear

Creek on the Tennessee River to the northwest

corner of what was then Washington County,

Alabama, was surveyed in 1820, by John W. Exum,

deputy surveyor under the directiqn of Thomas

Freeman and John Coffee.74

Thomas Freeman, then, was clearly a surveyor

with extensive experience long before he reached

Indianaa surveyor who had earned the trust of

his country. That he continued to merit this respect

is evidenced by the fact that, from 1820 until his
death in November 1821, he was surveyor general

of the Public Domain south of the State of

Tennessee.104 Although this office was a political

one, experience did count in this instance.

French Claims

Within the Vincennes Tract were claims of early

French settlers. The United States honored these

claims and used the French system in surveying

them. Usually, they consisted of 400 acres, lying in

long, narrow lots at right angles to the rivers. The

deputy surveyors who contracted to subdivide the

Vincennes Tract closed upon these French boundaries.

Settlers started for Vincennes as soon as the

treaty was in effect. Shortly after Buckingham set

his first section corner, a land office was established and the new land was opened for settlement.

Many people came from Kentucky; because there

was no rectangular system there, many of Kentucky's pioneers had losttheir land simply because

there had been no survey. Many titles were in

doubt, including those of Thomas Lincoln and

Daniel Boone. Hundreds of families came to

Indiana by way of the old trails across Indian land.

To ensure the safety of the pioneers, the purchase

of the land crossed by these trails was necessary.

The Buffalo Trace

The most notable early land route in the area

entered Indiana at the Falls of the Ohio and

followed a generally northwest course to

Vincennes. It was called the "Buffalo Trace," for

buffalo had made it and used it in uncounted

numbers. It was the most prominent of the several

buffalo trails in the Indiana of that era, and it had

been the most important trail as long as Indian

memory before that. It was significant enough, in

fact, to be used as a means of determining a treaty

line.104

The Vincennes Treaty

The Vincennes Treaty was negotiated between

General William Henry Harrison and the Indians in

1804. The treaty called for all of the Buffalo Trace to

be within the tract ceded to the United States, and

for the boundary in that part to be a straight line,

parallel to the "road" from the eastern boundary of

the Vincennes Tract (granted to the Americans in

the Fort Wayne Treaty) to Clark's Grant. The line

was to be no more than a half mile from the

northernmost bend in the road.

The location of the "straight line" was established by first surveying the Buffalo Trace by chain and

42

compass. This was done by a surveyor named

William Rector, who became surveyor general of

Illinois, Missouri, and Arkansas in 1814. Beginning

on July 11, 1805, trees were marked each mile

along the trail with the distance from Clark's Grant.

The Vincennes Treaty permitted settlers to enter

Indiana across land owned by the United States.

THE SECOND PRINCIPAL MERIDIAN

The Vincennes Treaty and the land between the

Ohio River and the Vincennes Tract covered by it

are probably the reason for the location of the

Second Principal Meridian. The base line was

surveyed in 1804 by Ebenezer Bucking ham, Jr. The

line began at a point on the Freeman line on the

south side of the Vincennes Tract in Illinois and ran

east. Buckingham marked trees along his line, kept

his notes, and set mile and half-mile posts. He did

not set any corners, he merely ran a line east for a

distance for 671/2 miles.

It was autumn when Buckingham began surveying at Thomas Freeman's southeast corner of the

Vincennes Tract and ran a line due north (now the

Dubois-Orange County line) until he reached his

base line. After intersecting the baseline, ata point

3.60 chains east of hispreviouslyset671/2-mile post,

he went east on the base line, marking section

corners, half-section corners, and witness trees.

He recorded them as he went along until he met the

Freeman line on the east end of the Vincennes

Tract. Beyond that lay Indian land, so Buckingham

returned to the intersection point on the present

county line. He then went west along his base line,

marking his corners and witness trees, and

probably resetting all his mile and half-mile posts

3.60 chains east, until he was again in lllinoisatthe

south Freeman line.104

When Buckingham began recording section

corners, he recorded two beech trees as witness

(bearing) trees. These are very special trees. Both

are north of the base line; one is in Dubois County,

the other in Orange County. They are the "witness"

trees for the corner of four townships, and they are

the first ones on record, in reference to a township

corner, in all the surveys controlled by this base

line and the Second Principal Meridian.104

In September 1805, Ebenezer Buckingham

extended his base line east to a point 12 miles from

the Dubois-Orange County line. He then ran the

line north to the north line of the Vincennes Treaty

line (not the Vincennes Tract linethe treaty line

surveyed by William Rector). This Buckingham

north-south line is the Second Principal Meridian.

The location makes sense when the facts as they

existed at the time of the survey are considered: it is
there because it isl2 miles (two ranges) east of the

southeast corner of the Vincennes Tract. The

northeast corner of the tract could not have been

used as a basis for establishing a principal

meridian at the time surveyor Buckingham contracted to do the work, because one step north or

south of that corner would have put him on Indian

land.

THE TEN O'CLOCK LINE

Clashes with Indians were fairly common

occurrences, but Deputy Surveyor John McDonald

had more than the expected amount of interference from them when he undertook the

survey of the northeast linethe "Ten O'Clock

Line"of the Harrison Purchase. This line begins

where Raccoon Creek enters the Wabash River and

runs southeast to a point 30 miles from the

northeast "Freeman Corner."104

By 1809, the Indians had seen the results of

several treaties. They were becoming aware of the

loss of their land. They saw numbers of white men

in the area south of where once only Indians had

been. The deputy surveyors, who arrived as soon

as the treaties were signed, had begun to symbolize the wave of settlement that so swiftly

followed them. By this time some 250,000 trees had

been marked by surveyors. To the Indians, these

hacks, blazes, and other cryptic symbols were sure

signs of an advancing alien culturesigns that

their lands were slipping from them. By the time of

the Harrison Purchase, the total amount of land

ceded to the United States undertreaties signed by

Harrison was close to 30 million acres.

There is a tale that the "Ten O'Clock Line" got its

name from the Indians' suspicion of the surveyor's

instruments. They wanted to mark the line by the

shadow cast by the sun and an upright stake at 10

o'clock in the morning, because the surveyor could

not manage the sun as he did the compass.104

Indian Conflict

The Indian leader Tecumseh was suspicious

not only of the instruments, he was also dissatisfied

with the sale of the land south of the Ten O'Clock

Line. He insisted that all the Indians held all the

land in common and that no tribe could sell any of

the land because it belonged to all Indians.

Harrison, of course, believed that Indians had a

right to dispose of the land that they occupied, that

it was theirs by right of occupancy. The discontent

Tecumseh and some of the warriors felt about the

treaty and the surveys continued to grow. In 1811, it

led to the Battle of Tippecanoe.

43

In November 1819, the conditions were still less

than ideal, as noted by a surveyor near the Indian

town called Mississinewa:

. the Indians held another council on the

6th . . . which was much against me. My

provisions were much wasted here, as we had to

accompany their chiefs to the town, where the

Indians made free with my bread. On the

seventh they added another chief to my survey

party, which I had to support with bread and

meat.

The situation rapidly grew worse. A later entry in

the field notes reads:

Here the Indians, in an imperious manner told

me I was going wrong, and said I should go no

farther that way, saying that I was going to go to

their town and if I would not go 10 miles east of

the town they would not let me go on. I saw by

their looks and the way they behaved that I was

unsafe, so I stopped. They would scarcely

permit me to make a mark and appeared

displeased. We left the line and started for Fort

Recovery [Ohio] where we arrived on the 29th of

the month [November 29, 1819].

This entry is signed, "J.S. Allen, D.S." The next

paragraph in the field notes begins "March 18,

1820. Began where the Indians stopped me on the

25th of November, 1819," Deputy surveyor Allen

persevered: he began this survey on November 3,

1818, and completed it on March 20, 1820.104

Other Problems

Northwestern Indiana presented its own forms of

difficulty. Deputy Surveyor Uriah Biggs reported in

January 1835 that Township 33 North, Range 6

West, had only a small part which could be

cultivated. He found the Kankakee River a

"sluggish stream, its banks very low and lined on

each side with a heavy growth of timber, mostly

ash . . . undergrown with swamp alder and wild

rose, etc. . . . covered with water during the

season." Surveyor Biggs described the soil in "this

forest or swamp" as loose yellow sand and

mentioned that he could approach the river only

when the swamp was frozen.

Jeremiah Smith, working 12 miles east of Uriah

Biggs, did not find things much better. He could

not see his line at all. It was in the "expanded water

of Yellow River." Of the next township north,

Township 34, he had this comment: "There is but

little room left for general remarks in this township.

There is such an endless sameness of

marsh . . . that there is nothing upon which to

digress from the monotony of lamentation."
0

C"

Salt Springs

Sometimes the deputy surveyors made rare

finds. Edward W. Tupper and Augustus Stone,

surveying in Township 1 North, Range 2 West,

Second Principal Meridian, made note of a

prominent salt spring. The surveyors estimated the

quantity of water to be "sufficient to form a sheet of

water two feet wide and one inch deep." About four

chains southeast they found another salt spring

with more than twice the amount of water afforded

by the first spring. The two springs joined a fresh

water spring located between them, and formed a

creek from 12 to 20 feet wide. Salt springs

occasionally could be seen boiling up through the

stream. Several springs, both salt and fresh, united

INDIANA

44

Treaty at Vinenn5

LOCATION OF THE CtTEN 0' CLOCK LINE"

OHIO

to form a creek about 8 inches deep, which seemed

to stay very salty. The field notes indicate that the

two surveyors made special note of both section 3,

Township 1 North, Range 2 West, and section 34,

Township 2 North, Range 2 West, because of the

salt discovery. The surveyors did not give these

springs the names they are now called; French Lick

and West Baden were just "Salt Springs on Salt

Creek," on the 1804 survey plat.104

Ziba Foote

Two years after the discovery of these salt

springs, Ziba Foote became one of the adventurous young Indiana surveyors. Born in 1785, he

was a bright Connecticut Yankee who had
graduated from Yale with high honors at the age of

20. He began surveying under the direction of

William Rector, deputy surveyor to Surveyor

General Mansfield of Cincinnati, soon after his

graduation.

One of Foote's first assignments was the survey

of a pond in Township 3 South, Range 13 West,

Second Principal Meridian. The pond was about 20

chains across and nearly a mile long. It appeared to

be quite shallow, and he started through it with his

compass and his Jacob's staff fastened to his belt.

A little way out he found himself over his depth and

too weighted down to regain his footing. He

drowned before anyone could reach him. The men

recovered his body and prepared a bark coffin.

They buried him on a knoll near the pond, which

they named "Foote's Grave Pond."104

David Sandlord

Surveyor David Sandford was born in Newtown,

Connecticut. Sandford, like Foote, also went to

Yale, graduating in 1804. In 1805, he subdivided

45

Range 5 of the Vincennes Tract. He obtained a

contract to survey four townships on the Maumee

River, but became ill and died at Fort Wayne,

October 11, 1805, at the age of about 25. George R.

Wilson, one-time county surveyor of Dubois County where young Sandford worked,

resurveyed a number of his lines in Range 5, and

bore witness to Sandford's efficiency. In his field

notes David Sandford mentioned a "remarkable

ledge of rocks on the north bank [of White River]

That ledge is still readily indentifiable because

Sandford did exactly what most young men would

have done: he cut his initialsD. S.into the rock.

Some of the words and phrasesfound in thefield

notes written by deputy surveyors during the early

1800's sound strange now. They mention "middling soil," "sorry land," "gladly land," and "wavely

land." They rose [went up] a hill, or found a

"handsome spot." No matter how strange their

expressions sound now, however, these men

executed the most creditable surveys that had

been done up to that time.104
THE LOUISIANA PURCHASE

Thomas Jefferson became President of the

United States in 1801 and learned, almost immediately, that Spain had given Louisiana to

France under a secret treaty. In order to rid this

country of the possibility of any colonial ambitions

that Napoleon might have, Jefferson asked him to

consider selling his holdings in America. While he

awaited an answer, the President quietly planned

to send an expedition across the continent. In

preparation for the journey, Jefferson sent young

Meriwether Lewis to Philadelphia, where Robert

Patterson and Andrew Eflicott instructed him in

mathematics and surveying.20 Meanwhile, in April

1803, Napoleon agreed to sell Louisiana to the U.S.

The deal was completed and the United States

thereby more than doubled its territory.

When Captain Meriwether Lewis and his coleader Lieutenant William Clark started their

historic expedition in the late spring of 1804, they

were able to travel from the mouth of the Missouri

River all the way to the Rocky Mountains on land

owned by the United States.

JARED MANSFIELD

The year 1803 also marked an advance in the

development of the rectangular surveys. Jared

Mansfield, who was Thomas Jefferson's personal

choice for the office, replaced Rufus Putnam as

surveyor general.

Mansfield, in his mid-40's, was a brilliant and

technically able man. He had been acting professor

of mathematics at the U.S. Military Academy at

West Point prior to his appointment as surveyor

general. It was he who recognized the need for

establishing base lines and principal meridians as a

system of control for the rectangular surveys.

When Mansfield anticipated the survey of the

Vincennes Tract in Indiana, hefound himself faced

with some perplexing problems. For one, the

Vincennes Tract lay in the interior of the territory

and was completely unconnected to any other

public land. It would have been impractical to carry

the old plan of numbering townships and ranges

into such an area. In addition, there were no natural

or permanent boundaries from which to begin the

surveys. Also, the acquisition of Indian lands

separating the Vincennes Tract from older

Chapter 7

THE REFINEMENT OF THE

RECTANGULAR SURVEY SYSTEM

47

cessions was being considered and there was no

point in carrying existing confusionwhich experience in Ohio had by this time been shown to be

considerableinto areas not yet acquired. A plan

of survey was necessary and, fortunately, Surveyor

General Mansfield was able to develop one.

The Plan

The segments of Mansfield's plan existed before

1800, but no one had seen them as a basis for a

system for organizing the rectangular surveys.

Ellicott's Line was a meridian and the

Geographer's Line was a base line, but Hutchins

did not use their intersection as a basis for

township identification. The south boundary of the

United States Military Tract was a base line from

which Putnam numbered townships northward,

but elsewhere he continued to use the Ohio River

as a basis for the numbering of townships. In the

area west of the Symmes Purchase, Ludlow

established a reference meridian from which he

numbered ranges both east and west, but he did

not survey a base line.

Mansfield saw these scattered segments as the

basis of a unified plan. When Ludlow's Meridian

was renamed the First Principal Meridian, and the

positions of the Indiana base line and the Second

Principal Meridian were established by

astronomical observation, the pieces became a

system of rectangular coordinates. Mansfield's

plan of intersecting meridians and base lines,

introduced in 1804, immediately provided a convenient basis for township identification. Later, it

was also used as the basis for the compromise

necessary in the execution of rectangular surveys

of the surface of a spheroidal planet.

Legislative Changes

About this same time, changes in the land system

were also brought about through legislation. On

March 3, 1803, Congress amended the Land Act of

1800 and created the office of surveyor of the lands

south of Tennessee. The duties of this officer were

not unlike those of the surveyor general of the

lands northwest of the Ohio River and above the

mouth of the Kentucky River. The appointment of

Isaac Briggs to this office marked the beginning of

the era in which the number of surveyors general,
Virtce flnes

o.

01234

MILES

Base Line

(Surveyed. by Buckingotm)

Ill II I i I U IN

MAPJS FIELD's pLAtJ OF TUE pRIIJCIAL

MER1DIAM AP4D BASE LI1JE,I8O4

and their influence, was to increase as the surveys

stretched across the continent.

The Act of March 26,1804(2 Stat. 277) extended

the authority of the surveyor general over "all of the

public lands of the United States to which the

Indian title has or shall hereafter be extinguished,

north of the river Ohio, and east of the river

Mississippi......This act also provided that:

whenever any of the public lands shall have

been surveyed in the manner directed by law,

they shall be divided by the Secretary of the

Treasury into convenient surveying districts;

48

Second principal ft\eridian

(Surveyed by Buckin9hQm)

Clark's rant

and a deputy shall . . . be appointed by the

surveyor general for each district . . . whose

duty it shall be to run and mark such lines as may

be necessary for subdividing the lands surveyed

as aforesaid, into sections, half sections, or

quarter sections.

The Act of February 11, 1805 (2 Stat. 313)

contains the last really important statutory amendment to the original Land Ordinance of 1785. Since

its original enactment, this law has had particular

significance for surveyors. Among other things, it

provided for the completion of surveys previously

2222

I III

I I I I 2222
made by running alternate mile lines under the

Land Act of 1796 and for the partial subdivision into

quarter sections of lands "purchased previous to

the first day of July last......Its provision for the

subdivision of new public lands was reenacted

under the Revised Statutes in 1874 (Sec. 2396, Rev.

Stat.) and is still in effect.

THE GENERAL LAND OFFICE

Josiah Meigs, who had worked under Thomas

Hutchins on the survey of the Seven Ranges,1 was

appointed surveyor general of all the public lands

east of the Mississippi River when Mansfield

resigned the office.

Meanwhile, half a dozen clerks of the Treasury

Department had been keeping land records in

addition to their other work. By 1812, the work load

had increased to a point where this was no longer

possible. The guardianship of the public lands

demanded a more effective national office to

handle the administration of this country's Public

Domain.

Thus, by the Act of April 25, 1812 (2 Stat. 717),

Congress established the General Land Office asa

bureau of the U.S. Treasury Department. The chief

officer of the GLO was a commissioner whose

duties were "to superintend, execute, and perform

all such acts and things touching or respecting the

public lands of the United States . . . as have

heretofore been directed by law to be done or

performed in the office of the Secretary of State, of

the Secretary and Register of the Treasury, and of

the Secretary of War."

Under provisions of this act, all officers or

employees of the General Land Office were

forbidden to "directly or indirectly be concerned in

the purchase of any right, title, or interest, in any

public land. . . ." The post of surveyor general,

however, remained independent of the GLO, a

circumstance that created problems for several

years to come.

Edward Tiffin

Edward Tiff in, an Ohio statesman and former

surveyor, was chosen as the first commissioner of

the General Land Office. Tiffin immediately set

about planning and developing a more efficient

system of land management. At that time, the

records, surveys, maps, and reports regarding the

public lands were found in various places in all the

branches of the Government, particularly the State

and War Departments. Under Tiff in's direction, this

information was brought together and arranged in

49

useful order, permitting, for the first time, the

efficient administration of public land matters.

1812 Land Bounties

The creation of the General Land Office took

place on the eve of an impending struggle with

Great Britain. It was not a popular conflict, so the

Government again resorted to the offer of bounty

lands to encourage military enlistments. Some 6

months before the war began, Congress authorized the creation of three new military districts. One

of them was in an unspecified part of Michigan

Territory, one between the Illinois and Mississippi

Rivers in Illinois Territory, and the other between

the St. Francis and Arkansas Rivers in Louisiana

(later Arkansas Territory). Military warrants were

to be issued and 6 million acres were to be

surveyed. After surveying these areas were to be

opened for entry by the holders of the military

warrants.

Townsites

On June13, 1812, Congress granted public lands

for townsites and confirmed the boundaries of

some towns that already existed in Missouri. This

act, as it was later amended, became the basis for

the survey and use of public lands for new

townsites and town holdings in unreserved areas of

the Public Domain. Five days after the passage of

this act, Congress declared war against Great

Britainand thus began the War of 1812.

Business as Usual

Near the end of 1812, Commissioner Tiffin

submitted a report to the 13th Congress regarding

the accomplishments of the first year of the new

system of Federal land management. The report

featured an exhibit compiled with the help of the

surveyors general, especially Josiah Meigs of

Ohio. For the first time the exhibit showed the

location and quantities of the public lands,

together with data regarding such specifics as

mineral deposits, military land bounty tracts, and

large stands of timber.

By that time there were 16 district land offices

operating as part of the new system headed by

Tiffin. The State land offices in Ohio were at

Steubenville, Marietta, Chillicothe, Cincinnati,

Zanesville, and Canton. In Louisiana the offices

were at New Orleans, Opelousas, and Ouachita.

Territorial land offices were at Detroit, Michigan;

Vincennes and Jeffersonville, Indiana; Kaskaskia,

Illinois; Washington, Mississippi; and St. Stephens

and Huntsville, Alabama.1
THE WAR OF 1812

In June 1814, General Andrew Jackson succeeded General William Henry Harrison as commander

of the 7th Military District, composed of

Tennessee, Louisiana, and the Mississippi

Territory.

Robert A. Butler, who had served as a captain

under Harrison during the Indian Wars, transferred

to Jackson's command as adjutant general.129 In

1814, Col. Butler was commissioned by Jackson to

leave Mobile and return to Tennessee to raise a

force of mounted volunteers for the command of

General John Coffee.129

In late August 1814, near the end of the War of

1812, British troops marched into Washington and

set fire to several government buildings. Among

those burned was the two-story frame building that

housed both the State and Treasury Departments.

The building was a total loss and the records of the

General Land Office were destroyed.2

Treaty of Ghent

On Christmas Eve of 1814, a treaty of peace was

signed at Ghent, Belgium, between Great Britain

and the United States, which also settled some of

the disputed land boundaries. Because news

traveled slowly in those days, however, the famous

Battle of New Orleans actually took place several

days after the end of the war. Robert Butler was

with Jackson during that fight and, at the close of

the battle, he and two other officers went out to

meet the flag of truce brought forward by the

British 129

THE SURVEY PLAN PERFECTED

Meanwhile, in 1814, in a very neat exchange of

jobs, Josiah Meigs became the second commissioner of the General Land Office and Edward

Tiff in became the surveyor general of territories

east of the Mississippi, a position he held for the

following 15 years.

With great administrative energy, and without

adding to his staff of 10 clerks, Meigs managed to

improve clerical procedures and enlarge facilities

to better cope with various types of land transactions. He planned that the functions of the GLO

would include collections of various scientific data.

Meigs was particularly interested in meteorology

and hoped to have the registers of the various local

land offices return meteorological observations

along with their regular reports.2

Although Congress did not adopt his plan, Meigs

did not give up his idea. On April 12,1817, hesenta

50

circular to the registers of the local land offices

asking for their voluntary assistance in making

certain regular weather and other scientific observations.73

As surveyor general, Edward Tiffin was responsible for the solution to the problem that had

perplexed surveyors from the beginning of the

rectangular systemthe paradoxical requirement

that townships were to have sides running in the

cardinal directions and that they were to be

rectangular.

Surveyors knew from the outset that fulfilling

that requirement would be made impossible by the

fact that the Earth is spheroidal. There had even

been discussions before the Continental Congress

about the problem, but nothing was done about it

until Tiffin devised a plan of correction lines and

offered it as a solution.

GUIDE MERIDIANS AND

STANDARD PARALLELS

When Jared Mansfield was surveyor general, the

Indians still held central and northern Indiana. As a

result, the surveys completed under his leadership

did not extend far from the base line. Gradually, as

Indian title was extinguished, the surveys began to

reach farther north, and it soon became apparent

that additional controlling lines were necessary.

In submitting a plan for extending the surveys in

Indiana, Tiffin first proposed, on March 20, 1819,

that a "line of correction" be run between

Townships 16 and 17 north of the Second Principal

Meridian. If this was not done, he wrote, the ranges

would be diminished to a point that the townships

would no longer be 6 miles square. Tiffin's plan of

guide meridians and standard parallels, as it was

used and refined, became one of the most

important parts of the public land survey system.

The spacing of guide meridians and standard

parallels has not always been the same. From the

time Surveyor General Edward Tiff in first

suggested "lines of correction" until 1851, surveyors general were instructed that correction

lines were to be run at "stated distances" north or

south of the base line. The distances were then

stated in the correspondence or instructions that

accompanied the surveying contract in each case.

The instructions to the surveyor general of

Oregon, issued in 1851, stated that standard

parallels were to be run at distances of four

townships north of the Columbia River and five

townships south of the Columbia. These distances

were repeated in 1855, when the General Land

Office published the first "Manual of Surveying

Instructions."
The 1881 Manual altered the 1855 Manual and

required that the public lands be divided into

"bodies of land 24 miles square, as near as may be."

Standard lines and "auxiliary meridians" were to be

at 24-mile intervals. The 1890 Manual referred to

"guide meridians" rather than "auxiliary"

meridans. The 1930 Manual retained the previous

requirements and added a provision for intermediate auxiliary standard parallels or guide

meridians. Some original lines had been run at

intervals of more than 24 miles, therefore, it was

51

necessary to limit the errors of the old surveys or to

add additional lines for the control of new ones.

These intermediate lines were, and still are, run

exactly like regular standard parallels or regular

guide meridians, since their purpose, as stated in

the 1930 Manual, is the establishment of controlling lines "at intervals sufficiently near each

other to maintain a practical workable adherence

to the legal definition of the primary unit, the

township 6 miles square......
As has previously been mentioned, Congress

offered bounty lands to men as an inducement to

serve in the War of 1812in Michigan Territory,

between the Illinois and Mississippi Rivers in

Illinois Territory, and between the St. Francis and

Arkansas Rivers in the part of Louisiana Territory

that later became Arkansas. Six million acres were

to be surveyed and opened for entry by warrant

holders who were allowed to choose the area in

which they wanted their land located. Other than

that, location was to be by lottery.

1815 MICHIGAN REPORT

In 1815, Edward Tiffin, who was in charge of the

survey of the military tract in Michigan, made a

report on the land his men had surveyed there. The

highly unfavorable report described low wet land,

numerous marshes and swamps, scrubby oaks,

and barren soil, where not even one acre in a

hundred was worth cultivating.

Tiffin's report was enough to cause Congress to

abandon the Michigan tract. To make up for it,

500,000 acres in the Missouri Territory were added

to the Iflinois tract. There were, however, a few

hardy souls who read Tiff in's report and proceeded

bravely to the frontier in spite of it. Some others

failed to read it at all, for one reason or another, and

thus ventured forth, unaware of the conditions that

awaited them.

HERVEY PARKE

On March 21, 1821, Captain Hervey Parke left

Camden, New York, on his way to the wilds of

Michigan Territory. Parke had not seen Tiffin's

1815 report; he knew only that the public land

surveys were under way there, and he had made up

his mind to become a government land surveyor.

Fortunately, Parke later wrote his memoirs from

which we know the following about his adventu res.101

Parke was not quite 31 years old when he walked

the 500 miles from his home in New York, through

part of Canada, to his destination in Michigan. He

carried a knapsack heavily weighted with surveying equipment, and it took him "sixteen days

faithful travel through mud and water, often knee

deep" before he reached the Detroit River and

crossed over it in a rowboat to the small city of

Detroit.

Chapter 8

PIONEER SURVEYORS

53

From there Parke went "through the wilderness

to the interior." He reached the village of Pontiac

on June 1, 1821, and soon afterward met Horatio

Ball, who had a contract for subdividing 10

townships of land between the Flint and Cass

Rivers. Parke accompanied Ball on this survey.

They arrived at Flint River to find that heavy rains

had so swollen the river that it was impossible to

cross. They solved this problem by going up river

where they "felled a suitable pine." After they had

removed about 16 feet of it from the main body of

the tree they shaped it into a crude canoe "digging

out the same, so far as could be done with axes, and

floated it down river and landed it on the north side

where the city of Flint is now located." At that time,

however, there was no city; there was but one log

house, which belonged to Jack Smith, an Indian

trader.

Joseph Wampler, the surveyor who had the

contract to run the township lines, met Ball and

Parke at Smith's trading house and furnished them

with the necessary field notes. Almost immediately, Ball and Parke began their work "in town [ship]

seven north, of range seven east." One week later

the two surveying parties again met at Smith's

trading house. Wampler's men had refused to

continue the survey "on account of the suffering

they had endured from the mosquitoes, both men

and horses being weak from loss of blood and want

of rest." Ball and Parke had to discontinue their

work too, since the township lines had not been

completed.

Early in the autumn, however, Wampler returned

to finish his work. This also enabled Ball to

complete his contract. It took two months, and, due

to Ball's inexperience and the fact that the weather

was not as warm as it had been when they first

started their work in June, they had a hard time of it.

Parke described it this way:101

We suffered both from hunger and cold. We had

no tents, only an old second-hand tarpaulin,

which had been laid aside as useless for

hatchway service. In the absence of a kneeding

trough, our cook made use of this piece of

canvas to mix his bread. This was unfortunate,

for on our first visit to the trading-house, some

swine, attracted by the adhering dough, nearly

devoured and entirely destroyed it, and we had

now no cover besides our blankets. Our

provisions were inadequate; we were frequently

reduced to a short allowance of only buggy
peas, and at one time, when weak from want of

food, we found a wigwam where a squaw was

cooking succotash, which she kindly divided

with us. This occurred on the last day of our

survey, while meandering the river. Closing our

work on the line of the reserve at sunset and

following up the river, forcing our way through

thick beds of rushes knee high, at about nine

o'clock we reached Smith's trading-house, so

hungry from several days short allowance, that

we took the potatoes from the kettle half boiled.

Parke Meets Tiff in

The surveyors finished their work on the last of

December and went to Chillicothe, Ohio, to make

their reports to the surveyor general. Parke had

letters of recommendation from Governors Cass of

Michigan and Clinton of New York, as well as one

from Judge Wright, chief engineer of the Erie

Canal. He presented these letters to Surveyor

General Edward Tiffin and was promised future

work as a government surveyor.

On the strength of Tiffin's promise of work, Parke

returned to New York, gathered up his wife and

daughter and, in May 1822, again set out for

Michigan. He and his wife disposed of all their

furniture and belongings except the few

possessions they considered indispensable, including Parke's surveying equipment.

Return to Michigan

At that time, Hervey Parke was 32 years old. His

worldly goods consisted of a borrowed cabin, a

hand-hewn table and chairs, several trunks, the

personal and household items he had brought with

his family from New York, his surveying equipment, and $8.50 in cash.101

For a time Parke worked at small surveying jobs

and at teaching school. Then, in February 1823, he

and John Mullett, a surveyor who lived in Detroit,

decided to travel together to Chillicothe to arrange

for surveying contracts. Between them they had

two blankets, one pony, and one saddle.

They made a crude box sled out of a crockery

crate and padded the inside of it with straw. Parke

and Mullett then hitched the pony to the sled,

climbed in and glided over the ice from Detroit to

Sandusky, Ohio. There they abandoned the

homemade sled and continued their journey on

foot and horseback. Since there was only one pony

and saddle, Parke and Mullett took turns riding.

One of them rode a certain distance, dismounted,

tied the pony to a convenient tree and proceeded

on foot. The other man walked to the place where

the pony was tied and mounted it. After a time he

54

passed his companion, rode on to the proper place

and dismounted. He then took his turn at walking.

They continued this ride-and-tie arrangement until

they reached the surveyor general's office in

Chillicothe.

Parke Appointed Deputy Surveyor

Surveyor General Edward Tiff in kept his word.

He administered the oath of office to both Parke

and Mullett and each received a contract. They

were among the first surveyors appointed from

Michigan. Always in the vanguard of civilization,

they were true pioneers, as were their fellow

surveyors Lucius Lyon and his brother Orson, plus

Sylvester Sibley, Clark 0. Risden, and Judge

William Burt, among others.

When Parke began his public land surveying

career, James Monroe was President of the United

States, which had a population of fewer than 10

million people.l By the time he finished his last

contract, John Tyler was President and the

population had grown to more than 17 million.1

During these years Parke surveyed in Iowa and

Wisconsin, as well as throughout large areas of

Michigan. He surveyed through blizzards, a

cholera epidemic, and the Black Hawk War. He

faced swamps, Indians, high prices, short rations,

and bitter cold. And he rarely complained,

although once, after a protracted snow storm left

drifts up to 20 feet deep, he did mention that he

found surveying in prairie country discouraging

under those conditions. Parke, who was born in

April 1790, lived to be nearly 90 years old. He died

in Pontiac, Michigan, on October 3, 1879.101

A Battle and a Name

In 1825, or 1826, John Mullett and his crew were

working near the banks of a nameless creek in a

part of Michigan still inhabited by Indians. The

Indians did not trust the surveyors and went to

some effort to hinder them in their work.

Finally, one day, Edwin Baldwin, the packer, and

Taylor, the cook, were alone in camp when

suddenly two Indians appeared. One of them

grabbed a camp kettle. The cook grabbed him and

tried to get it back. The second Indian went to the

aid of the first one, so the packer struck at him with

a big handspike that was used as a fire poker. The

battle grew hotter and one Indian fired his rifle. The

shot missed, but the powder scorched Baldwin's

clothing.

Soon Baldwin knocked his opponent out and

rushed to help the cook, who was a small man with

a crippled hand. He found Taylor knocked on the
ground with the Indian on top of him. The packer

soon quieted that Indian, too.

When Mullett's party returned to camp, they

found one Indian securely bound and the other

unconscious. They decided it would not be wise to

stay there and, the following morning, they turned

the Indians loose, broke camp, and headed for

home.

When they reached Parke's survey camp some

20 miles to the east, they told him what had

happened. Fortunately, Parke continued his survey

unmolested, and finished it in about 3 weeks.

Mullett returned to his survey area a few weeks

later. To commemorate the small but fierce battle

that had taken place between the packer, the cook,

and the two Indians, the surveyors henceforth

called the creek near their camp "Battle Creek."

And that, so the story goes, is how Battle Creek,

Michigan, got its name.101

SURVEYS SOUTH OF TENNESSEE

In 1816, General Andrew Jackson wrote to

President James Monroe to recommend the

appointment of General John Coffee to the

position of surveyor of the northern part of the

lands south of the State of Tennessee. Following

this, Coffee received the apointment as surveyor of

all the public lands that are now included in

Alabama.129

Florida Cession

In 1819, Spain ceded both East and West Florida

to the United States. Under the terms of the treaty,

conflicting claims were settled, and the boundary

between the two countries was defined as the line

made by following the west bank of the Sabine

River to the 32nd parallel, then north to the Red

River, and along its course to longitude 1000 W. of

London. (The treaty also specifies this position as

longitude 23° W. of Washington, so there was some

uncertainty to this boundary location. The position

was recognized aslongitudeloo° W.of Greenwich

in separate acts of September 9, 1850, and June 5,

1858.) The boundary then ran due north to the

Arkansas River and along its southern bank to the

42nd parallel, then along that parallel to the

Pacific.34 This Spanish cession and the various

boundary adjustments involved added more than

46 million acres to the Public Domain.

Jackson Recommends Butler

In 1824, Colonel Robert A. Butler was appointed

as surveyor of the public lands of Florida. The

55

appointment was made by President James

Monroe at the request of General Andrew Jackson,

Butler's commanding officer during the War of

1812. As surveyor general of Florida, Butler was to

have "the same power and authority as by law

appertained to the Surveyor South of the State of

Tennessee."129

Initial Point for Florida Surveys

One of Butler's first tasks was the selection of the

initial point for the Florida public land surveys.

Walton, Florida's lieutenant governor, asked that

consideration be given the fact that the Federal

Government had granted the Territory of Florida

the southeast quarter of section 36, Township 1

North, Range 1 West, as a seat of government.

Walton wanted to be sure the capitol building

would be in the approximate center of that quarter

section when the initial point was chosen. Butler

complied with his wishes. The initial point for the

Tallahassee Meridian and Base Line was about a

quarter of a mile south and a quarter of a mile east

of the site of the capitol. It was situated in a low area

near the place where two streams joined.129

Florida Public Land Surveys Begin

Benjamin Clements, a deputy surveyor, surveyed the principal meridian north to the northern

boundary of the territory and south to the Gulf of

Mexico. C. C. Stone established the base line

eastward to the Atlantic.

Butler was instructed to appoint "one of your

most skilful [sic] surveyors" to run the

Tallahassee Base Line west to the Perdido River.

Benjamin Clements and James Exum did this, and

well. In the places where it has not been destroyed

by man, more than a century and a half later, it can

still be successfully recovered. This base line was

extended west from the initial point to the west

boundary of Range 18 West; from there it was offset

north 6 miles and extended west from that point in

order to avoid Choctawhatchee Bay and other bays

and inlets of the Gulf of Mexico.129

Early surveys based upon the Tallahassee

Meridian were closed upon the St. Stephens Base

Line as there was some doubt as to the position of

the Florida-Alabama boundary. The state line, as

originally surveyed by Andrew Ellicott in 1798, was

later resurveyed and the public land surveys were

closed against it. This resulted in some lands

governed by the Tallahassee Meridian being

administered in the State of Alabama.138

The General Land Office in Washington instructed Robert Butler to survey 20 public land
townships in the vicinity of Tallahassee as soon as

possible. Settlers were arriving and clearing land,

and the emphasis in both Alabama and Florida was

placed upon surveying and subdividing townships

as quickly as possible in order to keep pace with

the demand.

Butler's Term of Office

Butler served as surveyor general of Florida from

1824 until 1842, when President John Tyler

appointed Valentine Conway to the position. At

that time the office was relocated from Tallahassee

to St. Augustine. When in 1845 Florida became a

State, Robert Butler was again appointed surveyor

general of Florida, serving until 1849, when

Zachary Taylor became President.129

Early Florida surveys proceeded well, in spite of

the complications inherent in the surveying of such

an area. Perhaps this was so because Butler chose

his deputy surveyors with care; among them were

Benjamin Clements, James W. Exum, and, particularly, Henry Washington.

Washington executed a number of surveys in

Florida, including those of complex private claims.

He also worked in Louisiana, and later in California. Everywhere that surveyors have retraced his

lines, whether in Florida swamp or California

desert, their conclusions have been unanimous:

Henry Washington was one of the best.

Half-Mile Posts

Procedures developed in the States of Florida

and Alabama were markedly similarand markedly different from those in other public land areas.

Both States share the unique existence of half-mile

posts. These were established on exterior section

lines and may or may not coincide with quarter

corners used in the proper subdivision of the

sections.138

EAST FLORIDA DONATION ACT

Certain settlement laws were designed to attract

population to the farthest flung territories of the

United States. In order to encourage settlement in

East Florida, which was desirable, especially from

the standpoint of national defense, Congress

passed the Act of August 4, 1842 (5 Stat. 502),

which provided that any person who was the head

of a household or any single man over the age of 18

years who had settled, orwould settlewithin 1 year,

on the land and live on it and improve it for 5

consecutive years would be entitled to 160 acres of

public land.

56

SWAMP ACTS

During this same era, attention was also directed

to the millions of acres of lands in the Mississippi

Valley, which had been bypassed by settlers

because of the danger of flooding. In the period

prior to the Civil War, voices began to be raised in

the interest of flood control on the Mississippi

River. The ultimate result was the introduction of

Federal aid for reclamation.

In 1848 the Land Commissioner recommended

that swamplands along the Mississippi and in

Florida be ceded to the States in which they were

situated, on condition that the proceeds be applied

to the reclamation of the lands. The economic

benefits of such an action were pointed out, and

the Federal Government responded by the passage

of the Act of March 2, 1849 (9 Stat. 352), which

granted to the State of Louisiana all its swamp and

overflowed lands for the purpose of aiding in their

reclamation. The Act of September 28, 1850(9 Stat.

519), extended the grant to other public land States

then part of the Union. The grant was extended to

Oregon and Minnesota by the Act of March 12,

1860 (12 Stat. 3).

The swampland grants applied to all swamp and

overflowed lands unappropriated at the dates of

the granting acts, whose character at the time of

the act would bring them within the provisions of

the grant. These lands were surveyed as public

lands and subject to classification at that time. One

exception to the swampland laws is in the Arkansas

Compromise Act of April 29, 1898 (30 Stat. 367; 43

U.S.C. 991). Under the terms of this act all right,

title, and interest to the remaining unappropriated

swamp and overflowed lands reverted to the

Federal Government.

To bring land within the definition of the several

swampland granting acts, the greater part of any

quarter-quarter section or any lot must have been

so swampy or subject to overflow during the

planting, growing or harvesting season, in the

majority of years at or near the date of the grant, as

to be unfit for cultivation in any staple crop of the

region in which it is located unless some artificial

means of reclamation were provided. Surveys

covering or relating to swamp and overflowed

lands required a knowledge of the provisions of the

swampland granting acts. The grants of swamplands within the borders of each State had

reference only to the public land States then

existing, and no State subsequently admitted

acquired any rights under it.

The swampland grants took effect on the date of

the passage of the act. However, the State's title to
Acts States

-_ L - - - _;2 - - - - -:. / )

-

the lands was inchoate until the lands were

identified and title issued as provided by the act.

The following table shows the acts and the date of

their passage. It also shows the public land States

that received grants under the terms of each act.

Louisiana Swamp Land Act of Louisiana

March 2, 1849 (9 Stat. 352)

Swamp Lands Act of September Alabama

28, 1850 (9 Stat. 519) Arkansas*

California

Florida

Illinois

Indiana

Iowa

Michigan

Mississippi

Missouri

Ohio

Wisconsin

Swamp Lands Act of March 12, Minnesota

1860 (12 Stat. 3) Oregon

Under the terms of the Act of April 29, 1898 (the Arkansas

Swamp Lands Compromise Act), Arkansas relinquished all

right, title, and interest to the remaining unappropriated

swamp and overflowed lands within its boundaries (43 U.S.C.,

sec. 987).

57

THE RED RIVER OF THE NORTH

In 1818, while Tiff in was still surveyor general, a

boundary settlement with Great Britain gave a rich

portion of the Red River Valley south of the 49th

parallel to the United States.'5 Early settlers along the

Red River north of the parallel surveyed land using the

Indian measurement of 2 mIles for the depth of a lot.

They had found that the distance bounded by a

horizontal line of sight made under the belly of a horse

measured somewhere near 2 miles, if the land was

level.32

The States were allowed optional methods of

preparing lists of the subdivisions to be identified

within the meaning of the acts granting swamp

lands. In Alabama, Indiana, Louisiana, Michigan,

Minnesota (except lands within Indian reservations), Mississippi, Ohio, and Wisconsin, the

swampland lists are based on the survey field note

record. In California, the swampland lists are based

upon the representations of the survey plat. In

Florida, Illinois, Iowa, Missouri, and Oregon, and

within the Indian reservations in Minnesota, the

swampland lists are based upon investigations and

reports by representatives of the State and of the
Bureau of Land Management. These representatives utilize survey information in preparing their

reports.138

The fifteen public land States that did not receive

swamp and overflowed lands under the acts

granting such lands are: Alaska, Arizona,

Colorado, Idaho, Kansas, Montana, Nebraska,

Nevada, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma,

South Dakota, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming.

LUCIUS LYON

When he was about 21, Lucius Lyon became one

of Michigan's rugged pioneer surveyors. Seven

years later, on July 4, 1828, this soft-spoken

bachelor from Vermont was aboard a steamer, on

his way from Detroit to Green Bay. He had a

contract to make the first official public land survey

in what would soon be Wisconsin Territory.132

Lyon hired a canoe and paddlers at Green Bay and

went to the Fox-Wisconsin portage. There, on July

19, he surveyed the 648-acre wedge-shaped parcel

of land claimed by Augustine Grignon.

Two days later, Lyon began the survey of Prairie

du Chien. In that area the French land claims were

held by descendants of voyageurs and fur traders.

Although the United States had granted deeds to

these claims in the early 1820's, it was Lyon's

surveys that established the official boundaries of

the first privately owned land in Wisconsin. From

Prairie du Chien, Lyon went to Galena, the heart of

the lead mine region. He and Morgan L. Martin, a

frontier lawyer, speculator, and politician, conducted a quick and unofficial survey that resulted

in a (surprisingly accurate) map of the WisconsinIllinois lead country.

Although Lyon soon went back to Detroit, he

returned to the lead country in 1830 to survey the

Indian land ceded to the United States under the

terms of the 1829 Treaty of Prairie du Chien. Other

than fort locations, this land was the first Wisconsin

land acquired by the United States.

Lucius Lyon and his brother Orson started the

survey 10 miles north of the village of Chicago.

They surveyed northwest to the blue mounds, east

to Lake Mendota, northeast to the southernmost

bay of Lake Puckaway, and north to Portage.

Wisconsin SurveysInitial Point

In 1831 Lucius Lyon was appointed United

States commissioner on the survey of the north

boundary of the State of Illinois. He set a post and

erected a mound of earth 6 feet square at the point

where this boundary intersected the Fourth

Principal Meridian. The Wisconsin public land

58

surveys were started from this point in 1831. Lyon

surveyed 16 townships in southwestern Wisconsin

during 1832 and 1833, thus opening what later

became Wisconsin Territory to settlement.

When Lyon had completed the 16 townships

called for in his contract, he left the field to learn

that he had been chosen as the Democratic Party's

candidate for congressional delegate from

Michigan Territory. He was elected in July by the

territorial legislature and left the lead country in the

middle of June 1833. Although Lucius Lyon never

returned to the lead country, his brother Orson

remained a deputy surveyor and acted as agent for

Lucius in the purchase of several thousand acres of

land, including large holdings in Madison,

Milwaukee, and Cassville.

Senator Lyon

In 1835 Lucius Lyon became one of Michigan's

first two U.S. Senators. Four years later, he

returned to Michigan to oversee his large

investmentsexperimental sugar-beet farming, a

salt well, a canal, and steamboats on the Grand

Riverand all failed. In the early 1840's, Lyon's

mortgages came due at a time when land prices

had dropped drastically. Lyon lost everything. He

set about to return to his former job as a surveyor.

Before he had found such work, however, he was

elected to the U.S. House of Representatives.

Surveyor General Lyon

After that political duty, Lyon finally returned to

his first job; he was appointed surveyor general for

Indiana, Ohio, and Michigan. He accompanied

survey crews into upper Michigan in 1846 to search

for gold. Although they did not find gold, they did

find what was, at that time, the largest known

deposit of iron ore in America. Lyon's fortunes

were on the upswing when he suddenly died in

1851 132

As is true of most pioneer public land surveyors,

there is little to commemorate Lucius Lyonat

least in the way of conventional commemoration.

There are only his field books describing the

distances he measured and the directions of his

lines, the stakes he set, and the trees he blazed. His

field books record accurate descriptions of the

frontier of his day, and his work helped give the

settlers who followed him security in the possession of their land.

CONGRESSIONAL ATTITUDE CHANGES

During the early 1800's, the attitude of Congress

toward settlers on the public lands began to
undergo a subtle change. The importance of

money from the sale of the land was giving way to

an interest in encouraging settlement.2 During

these years a migration of optimistic, restless

people began. They moved westward with

everything they owned. The magnet that drew

them was land. They searched for good farms and

for the adventure and success that might be theirs

on the American frontier.

The laws governing the sale of the public lands

called for survey prior to settlement, butsurveyors'

lines sometimes ran through fields already being

tilled. At first the people who took up land ahead of

the surveys were looked upon as trespassers.

Unauthorized settlers on the land of the Public

Domain stopped being a big problem when

Congress began to view them as brave pioneers

rather than "squatters."

As a result of this change in attitude, the survey

and sale of half-quarter sections was permitted, for

the first time, under the Act of April 24, 1820. This

allowed people of limited means to buy land at the

minimum cash price of $1.25 per acre. By the time

this act was passed by Congress, about half of the

Public Domain land in Alabama, Indiana, and Ohio

was surveyed. The surveys had started in Arkansas, Louisiana, and Mississippi, and about a

quarter of Missouri and Illinois had been surveyed.30

Ten years later, the passage of the Act of May 29,

1830, made it illegal to obstruct the survey of the

public lands, and called for the protection of the

surveyors in the discharge of their official duties.

ABRAHAM LINCOLN

When Abraham Lincoln left Indiana on his way to

Illinois in 1830, he followed the heavily traveled

Buffalo Trace, and crossed White River on a ferry

owned by a man named Harlan.104 Lincoln served

as captain in the Illinois Militia during the Black

Hawk Indian Wars1 and came home to New Salem

and to a period of hard times in 1832. He was

friendly and well liked, but there just were not many

jobs available. He accepted the position of postmaster, even though the pay was meager. He made

more friends, but he had had to resort to odd jobs to

meet his expenses by the time he became

acquainted with John Calhoun, the surveyor of

Sangamon County.122

Sangamon County was a large county in those

years, and settlers created a need for surveys.

Calhoun offered Lincoln a job, even though at that

time Lincoln had no experience as a surveyor.

Lincoln took the job and began studying with

59

single-minded purpose. Perhaps he recalled that

his father had lost his family home in Kentucky

because of uncertain land lines, and he realized the

importance of the work.

Lincoln's Surveys

Lincoln was ready to begin surveying on his own

by the end of 1833. The secondhand surveyor's

compass he bought was one made by Rittenhouse

and Company. It had two opposed leveling vials

and an improved vernier. The Gunter's chain he

used was only 33 feet long, perhaps because he

was working in an area of heavy undergrowth.

The first record of a survey by Abraham Lincoln

is dated January 6, 1834, just over a month before

his 25th birthday. The work was done for Reason

Shipley, who owned eight 80-acre parcels in

Township 19 North, Range 7 West, Third Principal

Meridian (now in Menard County, then in

Sangamon County).

In the latter part of 1822, Deputy Surveyors D.

Miller and A. Monday had surveyed the subdivisional lines of the township, placing stakes set

in mounds at the section and quarter-section

corners. Abe Lincoln probably used their field

notes extensively in located their original points.

Later, Lincoln surveyed another section for

Shipley, making a total of about 1,280 acres.

The majority of Lincoln's surveys were in the

same general area. For his work he was paid the

rate set by law; he received $2 for each half-quarter

section he established. The records indicate that

he did about 30 surveys, the last one in 1836

shortly after he had been admitted to the Illinois

bar. Some of Lincoln's later work as a lawyer came

to him as a direct result of his experience in

surveying. For example, on January 6, 1859, a

group of Illinois surveyors hired him to formulate a

legal opinion for the correct method of dividing a

section into quarters.

Lincoln's position as a surveyor also helped him

to solve his financial problems and make a modest

living. He proved himself to be an energetic,

capable man by working hard and becoming a

good surveyor. For more than 2 years, while he was

in his 20's, Lincoln practiced not only the

mathematics of surveying, but also the investigation and observation, the skillful examination of

evidence, and the knowledge of land law required

by this profession. Perhaps these characteristics

influenced the people who set Lincoln on his

political career by electing him to the Illinois

General Assembly in 1836.122
( "A LAND-OFFICE BUSINESS"

In 1812, on the eve of war with Great Britain, the General Land Office was created. With Its inauguration, administrative

machinery that was to manage about a billion and a halfacres that were stretched across the public land States came into

being. This administrative machinery, headed by a commissioner, was eventually to handle the transfer (through sales and grants of various types to individuals, companies, states, and railroads) of two-thirds of this enormous area.

The commissioner, his assistant, the surveyors general (15 of them by 1889), the registers and receivers (52 of each by

1911), superintendents of public sales, an ever increasing number of clerks, deputy surveyors, and later, investigating

agents, made the machinery run. For many years the people of the public land States were in much closer touch with the

General Land Office than with any other Federal office of the United States. It was during this era of rapid and extensive business that a new phrase, a "land-office business," became a part of the American language. And everyone knew \ectly what it meant.

K

7' Protection for surveyors in the execution of their duties was afforded by the Act of March 3, 1925 (R.S. 2413; 43 Stat. 1144; 43 U.S.C. 774).

Whenever the President Is satisfied that forcible opposition has been offered, or Is likely to be offered, to any

surveyor or deputy surveyor In the discharge of his duties in surveying the public lands, it may be lawful for the President to order the marshal of the State or district, by himself or deputy, to attend such surveyor or deputy

surveyor with sufficient force to protect such officer in the execution of hisduty, and to remove force should any be offered.

Section 57 of the Criminal Code of 1909 restated theancient Biblical admonishment against the removal of landmarks. On June 25, 1948 (Ch. 645, 62 Stat. 789; 18 U.S.C. 1858), the wording was modified to read:

Whoever willfully destroys, defaces, changes, or removes to another place any section corner, quarter-section

corner, or meander post, on any Government line of survey, or willfully cuts down any witness tree or any tree blazed to mark the line of a Government survey, or willfully defaces, changes, or removes any monument or

bench mark of any Government survey, shall be fined not more than $250 or imprisoned not more than six months, or both.

Lincoln Survey Retraced

In 1834, Abraham Lincoln had laid out the

original 15 blocks of a small Mississippi River town

called New Boston, Illinois. In later years, the town

grew into a disordered puzzle of streets meeting

the original streets at unorthodox curves and

angles. For many years people speculated about

the "crooked" original survey. John B. Freund, a

registered professional engineer and land surveyor

from Illinois, and William Gordon, a survey party

chief, also speculated about it. So, some 130 years

after Lincoln completed his survey, they decided to.

retrace Lincon's steps to see why he surveyed itthe

way he did.72

They discovered that Lincoln had used perfectly

acceptable surveying practices, and that it was

only subsequent events that caused his streets

to appear to be crooked. Lincoln used the

Mississippi River as a boundary line, a common

practice in the early 1830's. His lines, if retraced

60

from the river, are quite straight and true, considering his lack of modern equipment. As the area

around the town was surveyed into townships and

ranges using the cardinal directions instead of the

curve of the river, however, the resulting roads and

streets were connected to the old streets of the

town in such a way that Lincoln's surveyed lines

appear crooked and angular.72

IRA COOK

In the late summer of 1849, Colonel John Evans

received a contract to subdivide 10 townships in

Iowa. He sold a half interest in the contract to Ira

Cook, and they made plans to begin the survey.100

Even though there were thousands of settlers in

Iowa several years before that,2 their contract lay

far beyond the populated area. They knew the

survey would take quite some time, so they

planned accordingly.

2
In relating his experiences nearly 50 years later,

Ira Cook described the outfit they assembled as

being a tent, ". . . the simplest necessities of food

and clothing. A barrel or two of salt pork, flour in

barrels, navy beans, with sugar, coffee, salt and

pepper. . .

. For bedding we had rubber

blankets, buffalo robes, and heavy woolen

blankets. With these we could keep both warm and

dry."10° Their survey party consisted of 11 men,

because they used two instruments. In addition to

the instrument men there were four chainmen, two

axemen or mound builders, two teamsters who

also acted as flag men, and a cook.

It took them 2 weeks to reach the land they were

to survey. The 'numerous branches of the Grand

and Missouri Platte" slowed them up considerably.

Occasionally, they found two large cottonwood

trees on opposite banks of the streams. They cut

them down in such a way that they met and

overlapped to form a foot bridge. They then

unloaded the wagon, carried everything across,

swam the horses over, fastened the axles and

wheels of the wagon to the box so they would float,

and floated the wagon to the other side. When the

wagon reached the other side, they hitched the

horses to the wagon tongue. As the men lifted and

the horses pulled, the wagon was pulled onto the

river bank. Then they set the axles and wheels for

land travel, reloaded the wagon, and started out

again.

If it was late by the time they completed one of

these crossings, they ate cold food, drank hot

coffee, grabbed their blankets, and hunted a soft

place on the ground to spend the night. When they

reached their contract area, they started work each

morning as soon as they could see. They often

worked until dark and then hiked back to camp.

End of the Contract

Ira Cook and his crew finished the contract in

January 1850. Because there were people living

along the Missouri, they went south so that they

might sooner reach some settlement. By the time

they reached the Platte River, they were accustomed to cold weather and were not surprised

when they found the ground so frozen they could

not drive the tent stakes. There was no timber for

shelter, and few scattered trees to use for firewood.

They used the wagon for a windbreak and slept

with their bedrolls pulled closeto thefire. They had

no idea of the actual temperature until they

reached a settlement in Gentry County, Missouri,

the next day. They were told that the thermometer

had registered 31° below zero the night before.

61

Solar Compass

For several months in 1851, Cook and his party

surveyed in the swamps and heavy timber between

the Wisconsin and Wolf Rivers, on the divide

between the Mississippi River and the Great Lakes.

Because Cook wrote of their inability to see the sun

in some places, we know they must have been

using a solar compass. The survey soon took them

into places that were impassable for the wagon.

They packed the camp equipment on the horses,

and traveled that way as far as they could. When the

horsed could not go any farther, the men carried

what they could on their backs. The farther they

went, the lighter their load grew, as their rations of

food shrank. Finally, for a day and a half, they

subsisted on salt pork and coffee.

1852-53 Survey

From September 1852 until just after the New

Year, 1853, Cook's 11-man survey party subdivided

10 townships in a part of Iowa that lay well beyond

the limits of white settlements. During those 4

months they had not one word from the world

outside their camp. They did not even know who

had been elected President of the United States in

November.

Snowstorm

On their way back to civilization, Cook's party

carried provisions for 3 days. It should have been

enough; it should not have taken that long to reach

the squatter's cabin where they had cached some

of their food. However, a snowstorm changed

everything. By 9 a.m. on the 2nd day, it was

snowing so hard that they could not see their way,

so they pulled down into some timber, made camp,

and agreed to ration what was left of the food. Two

days later they dug themselves out of the snow and

crossed the river on the ice. The men formed lines

and broke a trail for the horses and wagon through

the knee-deep snow. It was slow, exhausting travel.

On the morning of the 7th day they left the wagon

behind in order to save the horses. That day the sun

finally came out. It served to warm their spirits as it

melted some of the snow. At 4 a.m. on the 8th day,

. the cook made a pot of strong coffee and

distributed the very last of our food, which

consisted of one small biscuit (then five days

old) and one very small spoonful of cold boiled

beans to each, and long before daylight we were

tramping over the prairie by moonlight, breaking the frozen crust of the snow. . .
Later that morning Ira Cook and his men saw the

cabin in the distance. Although the men suffered

no ill effects, Cook must have decided to quit while

he was ahead; it was his last contract as a deputy

surveyor.lOO

HAPPY AND UNHAPPY ENDINGS

Alex Anderson's Field Notes

Not all of the men on early surveys ended their careers on such a happy note. The abrupt termination of employment of one of the men on

Alex Anderson's survey crewwas duly recorded in

the field notes. The survey line was near Sioux

City, and the 1852 field notes read: "Ivy Johnson, one of my men, was accidentally shot yesterday and died almost instantly." The field note record

continues with bearings and distances and includes a "tie" to Ivy Johnson's grave.14

Daniel G. Major's Field Notes

Then there was Daniel G. Major's survey party, which worked westward on the survey of the

Oregon-California boundary in 1869. Major used

many descriptive words about the brush his party

encountered. In his field notes some of it is called

"thick," "dense," "tangled," and "difficult"; some of

it is termed "heavy," "matted," 'troublesome," and

"impassable." When they had surveyed about 168

miles through the brushland, he noted that they had to descend the "fearfully brushy" side of a

mountain and cross the Steamboat Branch of

Applegate Creek. As the ill-tempered survey party

rested beside the stream, the men noticed "excellent gold indications." Forgetting about the

brush, they successfully panned gold for an hour

or so. And, when they continued on theirway, their

spirits were lighter and their pockets were heavy with gold.

Nathan Butler's Reminiscences

Nathan Butler had vivid memories of his public

land surveys in Minnesota. Among the strongest of his recollections were those of some things that

almost happened, but somehow did not.98 Butler's

first experience in public land surveying occurred

in 1861 when he "assisted J. W. Meyers in running

the township lines between the first and second

standard parallels and the fifth and sixth guide meridians, in the area that is now Murray and Pipestone Counties." Because, at that time the

62

population around Lake Shetek, which was near

the head of the DesMoines River, consisted of

about half a dozen settlers and many Indians, the

surveyors were somewhat concerned for their safety.

The Indians did not bother the surveyors, however; they just sat on the hills and watched

them all day, "evidently anxious to see what we

were doing; and we would sit up nights and watch

them, just as anxious to know what they were doing or wanted to do," noted Butler.

Later that year, in the same area, the Indians did

not steal the surveryors' horses, although they

tried. The surveyors were careful; they hauled the

wagon close to the front of the tent and tied the

horses fast to the wagon and "to make the thing

doubly safe, we tied a picket rope to each horse's

forefoot and the other end of the rope to the

teamster lying in the tent. Within ten minutes of the

time when we extinguished the light, one of the

horses started and hauled the teamster out of his

blankets." The halter rope had been untied, but the

picket rope had save the horse from Indian capture. The next year, 1862, Butler worked with George

B. Wright and Isaac A. Banker. Although they were

not attacked by Indians, there were rumors of

trouble, so the surveyors stayed at Fort Ripley.

Once, a "false alarm about midnight turned out

everyone in the fort. Men, women, and children

could be seen running from one building to

another in their night clothes. Had the Indians

made an attack they might have killed the greater part of us, for we could not dare to shoot on

account of the danger of killing our own people." One of Butler's most interesting comments

about his work reads:98

In the winter of 1872-3, I was surveying

township 57 [northJ, range 23 [west]. On the

east line of that township the local attraction

was so great that the magnetic needle was of no

use. I had to use the solar compass. There were

millions of dollars of the best kind of iron ore

under my feet, and I did not know it. I thought it

was drift that had come down from the Mesabi

Range.

WILLIAM A. BURT

William Austin Burt was born in Massachusetts

on June 13, 1792. He grew up in New York State,

where he spent much time studying such subjects

as geometry, navigation, and surveying. Although

his formal schooling was limited to only a few
IREMOVE NOT THE ANCIENT LANDMARK

During the early summer of 1931 some Montana State Highway Department employees were clearing a highway right of

way when they noticed a slab of rock about 14 by 24 inches in size. It was firmly imbedded in the ground and bore the

markings:

2 HES

98

The workmen pondered about the possible meaning of the cryptic inscription. Finally, they decided that it was a grave

stone marking the burial place of two men ("hes") who had died in 1898.

Then they notified the proper authorities that it would be necessary to remove the remains from the right of way. In due

time, the coroner, a deputy sheriff, and a Highway Department official proceeded to the burial site andbegan to dig.

When several hours of hard labor failed to reveal the remains of the two dead men, It was decided that the earth had

somehow slipped and the unfound remains must be further up on the hillside and thus out of the right of Way.

About this time the matter came to the attention of a more knowledgeable official. He sent a copy of a memorandum

about it to J. Scott Harrison, assistant supervisor of surveys for Montana, so that he might know how Corner No. 2 of

Homestead Entry Survey No. 98 came to be destroyed. (Memorandum from A. A. Abbott to J. Scott Harrison,June 22, \11)

weeks, these subjects along with mechanics

fascinated him.99

Before Burt became a United States deputy

surveyor, he had been a district and county

surveyor in Michigan and had held awide variety of

other jobs: soldier in the War of 1812, businessman,

mill builder, justice of the peace, school inspector,

postmaster, and Michigan Territory legislature

member. It was because he was also an associate

district judge that "Judge" is the title by which he

was known during his years as a deputy surveyor.30

Burt, who received his first public land surveying

contract in 1833,29 taught surveying to allfive of his

sons. BLM records show that the Burt clan

surveyed enormous areas of land in the upper

peninsula of Michigan, and also in Wisconsin and

Iowa. These surveys cover about 25 yearsfrom

the early 1830's until about 1858.

The Solar Compass

While William Burt surveyed public lands in

northern Michigan, he found he had great difficulty

because of the deviation of the needle of the

magnetic compass. Because he discovered what

was causing its erratic behavior, he has been

credited with the discovery of iron ore in the

region.99 Yet knowing what caused the problem did

not solve it, however. Burt fretted about the

wandering needle until he came up with an idea

that evolved into the solar compass. Burt constructed a model of his invention in 1835 in order to

test its principles, and laterthatyear he had William

J. Young, an instrument maker in Philadelphia,

make the first working solar compass. Burt

received the patent for it in 1836. In recognition of

63

its enormous value, he was awarded a premium of

all of $20 and a Scots' Legacy medal by the

scientific committee of the Franklin Institute of

Philadelphia.

The Test

For a time after the invention of the solar

compass, it was primarily used as an auxiliary to

the ordinary compass. Gradually, however, it came

into more widespread use. Because deputy surveyors of those days made no notes of the

instruments they used, it is impossible to know

exactly when and where the solar compass was

first used in public land surveys, but it was

probably soon after it was patented.

On March 3, 1849, Congress passed the bill that

authorized the survey of the Iowa-Minnesota

boundary. Over a period of time, more than $30,000

was appropriated to defray the expenses of this

survey, which was made by Captain Andrew

Talcott of the Topographical Bureau in 1852. In

order to test the practicality of his solar compass as

the primary instrument of such a survey, Judge

Burt sent Captain James M. Marsh of Dubuque,

Iowa, to run this line with a solarcompass ahead of

the government party. Marsh's line proved to be

perfectly correcta fact that led to much discussion afterward since the survey would have cost

about $6,500 had it been done by Marsh, using the

solar compass, under a regular government survey

contract at $25 per mile.98

Burt's Recommendations

The publication of a book in the 1850's added

authorship to Judge Burt's credits. It was entitled
"A Keyto Solar Compass, and Surveyor's Companion," and it included a list of tents and othercamp

equipment, clothing, bedding, provisions, pack

animals and gear, and surveying instruments that

Burt had found were needed by a six-man

surveying party for a 4-month survey of the public

lands. Experience apparently had taught Burt that

things did not always go well, because he listed as

requirements such things as "4 papers of 3 oz.

tacks for nailing boots," and ". . . needles, awls,

thread, twine, small cord, & c.' He also made a

point of mentioning that the 2 dozen boxes of

matches were to be of the "best kind," and that the

camp kettles should be riveted ". . . where they

would be likely to separate when exposed to the

f ire."8

Survey Examinations

William Burt was not only a gifted man; he was an

honest one. In 1849, the same year that the Interior

Department was created, Judge Burt was named

examiner for some of the surveys in Michigan. Two

of his sons had surveyed in the area, and he knew

all the surveyors. When Burt found several of the

surveys erroneous or fraudulent, including one for

which he had signed as security, he reported the

fraud at substantial cost to himself. He later made

good on the contract by surveying it.12

MAGNETIC COMPASS PROHIBITED

Burt's solar compass was officially recom mended as early as 1850, but it was not required by

regulations until 1890. The "Manual of Surveying

Instructions" issued that year prohibited the use of

the magnetic needle except in subdividing and

meandering, and then only if the locality was

known to be free of local magnetic attraction. The

manual issued 4 years later required that all

surveys of the public lands of the United States,

embracing all classes of lines, be made with

reference to the true meridian, independent of the

magnetic needle. The 1902 Manual was even

stronger in denouncing the use of the magnetic

compass. In 1919, a booklet was issued to

surveyors. It contained the first part of the manual

that was published in its entirety in 1930. This 1919

publication unqualifiedly prohibited the use of the

64

needle compass as a means of determining the

direction of lines of the public land surveys.138

Nathan Butler, who surveyed the public lands in

Minnesota for 30 years (from 1861 until the winter

of 1890-91), wrote this about the solar compass:98

The solar corn pass, invented by William A. Burt

of Detroit, Mich., is the most convenient and

efficient instrument ever used in surveying

government lands. It can only be used when the

sun shines, but it can be set up, and the course

can be determined with it, without reference to

any back-sights or other surrounding object,

and in spite of any local magnetic attraction.

When kept in perfect adjustment and properly

manipulated, it will do perfect work; but if it gets

a little out of adjustment, it will throw a line out of

course worse than any other instrument. It

consists of a common railroad compass with a

full vernier. To the vernier plate is attached the

latitude arc, with a limb or radius of five or six

inches in length, according to the size of the

compass. In the center, at a right angle to this

limb, is a socket an inch and a half long and

three eights in diameter, to receive the polar axis

of the instrument. On this polar axis is another

limb, bearing the declination arc, on which is

turned off the declination of the sun.

Butler explained exactly how the solar compass

works and concluded by stating:98

The solar compass has the reputation, among a

certain class of men, of being imperfect and

unreliable. It has done poor work, no doubt, but

that was not the fault of the compass--rather of

the man who was using it.

THE SOLAR ATTACHMENT

In 1880, in Colorado, another deputy United

States surveyor, Benjamin H. Smith, developed the

telescopic solar attachment for an engineer's

transit. It was the prototype of the modern solar

attachment. The instrument now in use owes much

to the dedicated efforts of Arthur D. Kidder, who

was for many years the associate supervisor of

surveys in the General Land Office. In cooperation

with respected instrument makers, Kidder conducted studies that resulted in improvements in the

solar transit.
THE RIVER OF THE WEST

As early as 10 years prior to the Revolutionary

War, Major Robert Rogers, commander of an upper

Mississippi Valley English post, requested permission from King George Ill to send an exploration

party to the Pacific Ocean by way of a river "called

by the Indians Ouragon."3 No such party was ever

sent. The river called "Ouragon," "Origan,"

"Oregan," or "Oregon" remained a legendthe

mysterious "River of the West"until an American,

Captain Robert Gray, sailed into its mouth on May

11, 1792. Although the journal kept by Captain

Gray has been lost, the one kept by John Boit, his

fifth officer, has been preserved. It tells of the

discovery of the river and that it was named

"Columbia" in honor of Gray's ship.

When Lewis and Clark reached the mouth of the

Columbia River on a bleak November day in 1805,

they proved that travel overland from the East was

possible. They spent the winter about 6 miles

southwest of the point where John Astor's party

later set up a fur trading post in 1811.

As a result of the War of 1812, the British took

command of Astor's Post (Astoria) and held it until

1818, when it was returned to the United States.

However, it remained under the domination of the

British Hudson's Bay Company, whose headquarters was moved up river to Fort Vancouver

(Washington) in 1824.

In 1831, the first permanent Indian reservation,

called Indian Territory, was established on public

lands west of Iowa, Missouri, and Arkansasand

the survey of Louisiana was begun.1 It was many

years before the Indians left much of the vast area

of the Louisiana Purchase and the Floridas, years

before these lands were surveyed and settled, yet

Americans pushed on, always searching for new

land. Millions of rich acres in Minnesota, Iowa, and

the other Prairie States remained unsettled. And, in

the South, the most productive cotton land in the

world went begging while restless Americans

followed the trail tramped out bythe mountain men

and used by the missionariesthe trail to Oregon.

DREAMS OF EMPIRE

Men other than Americans also dreamed of

empires. In 1834, Johann August Sutter left his

native Switzerland (as well as his wife and children

and his unpaid debts), and sailed aboard the

Chapter 9

THE FAR WEST

square-rigged Esperance when it left Havre,

France, on its maiden voyage to New York.1° In

1838, about the time the surveys in Iowa and

Wisconsin were started, Sutter followed the

Oregon Train to Fort Vancouver, on the Columbia

River, and from there he sailed to Honolulu.

While there, Sutter arranged for a group of

Hawaiian workmen to be sent to meet him at San

Francisco Bay when he sailed back to California.

These "Kanakas" were part of his plan to build a

grand and powerful place for himself to live.

Mexican Governor Alvarado conferred Mexican

citizenship on Sutter and gave him 11 square

leagues of land wherever he chose to establish his

colony. Sutter chose the Sacramento Valley, near

the mouth of the American River.

Soon, houses, a tannery, a gristmill, and awinery

were built. Sutter's men drained and cultivated

land. Crops and vines were planted; Sutter

acquired cattle and horses. Before long, Governor

Alvardo's successor, Michel Torena, granted

Sutter enough land to increase his holdings to 33

square leagues. Within a few years Sutter had built

a large fort and purchased the Russian claim to

land in northern California.17 All this was to be

doomed, a few years later, by an event that might

have meant still greater riches.

65

THE GREAT EMIGRATION

In 1842, the East Florida Donation Act was

passed. It granted a quarter section of public land

in eastern Florida to any man who settled in the part

of the state occupied by hostile Indians. That same

year, Dr. John McLoughlin, chief factor of the

Columbia River Department of the Hudson's Bay

Company, gave the name "Oregon City" to the

small village at "the falls of the Wilhamet." He had

the town platted by an American recently arrived

with the first large group of settlers. The man was

Sidney Walter Moss, a stone cutter,21 who was

chosen to do the survey for a very simple reason:

Moss owned a pocket compass.3

The settlers who reached the Willamette Valley

the following year, 1843, made up the body known

as the Great Emigration. It was called that not only

because of its size, which was without precedent,

but also because of the number of its members who

were unusually able, and who became leaders

among the Americans in the Oregon country.17 The

wagons of the Great Emigration assembled near
In 1860, Abraham Lincoln received a patent for 160 acres of public land for his services In the Black Hawk Indian War, In

November of that year he was elected President of the United States. Shortly afterward, three new surveying districts were

established, and surveys began in Colorado, the Dakotas, and Nevada.

On April25, 1862, the 50th anniversary of the founding of the General Land Officewas celebrated. Less than one month

later, on May 20, 1862, Congress passed the Homestead Act, which went into effect on the same day President Lincoln

issued his Emancipation ProclamationJanuary 1, 1863.

The Homestead Act fairly shone with generous western spirit. To acquire a patent to 160 acres of public land, only

residence, cultivation, and some improvement upon it was required. After 5 consecutive years, the homesteader could

apply for and receive a patent to the land for the cost of the $15 filing fee. If he preferred, the homesteader could, after 6

months, purchase the land at the rate under which it was held, $1.25 or $2.50 per acre. Homesteading was open toanyone

who was the head of a household or 21 years of age, and who was or intended to become a citizen.

Homesteading was not permitted on unsurveyed lands. In spite of previous preemption laws, and the lack of a positive

prohibition of it, homesteading on land that had not been surveyed was not legal until 1880.

Independence, Missouri, in early May, and the

wagon train set out for Oregon at the end of the

month. Peter H. Burnett, later to become the first

governor of California, was chosen captain and

James W. Nesmith, later a U.S. Senator from

Oregon, was the orderly sergeant.

Soon the company divided into two factions

those who had cattle and those who did not. Those

without cattle did not want to move so slowly and to

have to stand guard over the livestock. Unable to

resolve the problem, Peter Burnett resigned his

post. Those pioneers without cattle chose William

Martin as their captain and moved on.

Those pioneers with livestock eventually chose

Jesse Applegate as their leader. This group formed

itself into what became known as the "cow

column," and fell in behind.17

Jesse Applegate

Jesse Applegate, the leader of the cow column,

was born in July 1811 in Kentucky. He and his older

brothers, Charles and Lindsey, left there with their

parents in 1820. They settled on a farm in the Osage

Valley, not far from St. Louis, Missouri. When

adults, Charles and Lindsey each had families with

6 children. Jesse chose to work as a clerk in the

office of the surveyor general of Missouri at St.

Louis, eventually becoming a deputy surveyor

there. Later, he too, married and had 13 children.

All three Applegate brothers and their families

were part of the Great Emigration as it crossed the

Great Plains; they all settled first in an area later

known as Polk County. Then, in 1849, they moved

to the southwestern Oregon area they called

Yoncalla. Although the brothers were prominent

66

early Oregonians, it was Jesse who became a

noted pioneer politician.

In 1844, Jesse Applegate did what was probably

the first of his many survey jobs in Oregon. He was

given the task of replatting Oregon City, and

making it larger than the first, or Moss, survey.

Because he did not have a regularsurveyor's chain

at the time, he used a rope 4 rods long. The length

of the rope varied due to the dampness often

encountered in the Willamette Valley, which

accounts for the none-too-regular size of Oregon

City lots.3 Upon completion of the Applegate

survey, the legislature of the newly formed

provisional government granted Oregon City a

charter, making it the first town west of the

Missouri River to be incorporated. It was still the

only seat of American government on the Pacific

Coast in 1850, when San Francisco was platted.

Because of this, the original plat of the City of San

Francisco is filed in the office of the Clackamas

County clerk in Oregon City.3

The Oregon Compromise

In 1846 Jesse and Lindsey Applegate went with

Levi Scott and 12 other men on an expedition to

locate and blaze a trail that would provide access to

western Oregon by way of a southern route. The

trail they opened was called the Scott-Applegate

Trail.

Some of the emigrants who started for the

contested Oregon country the year the ScottApplegate Trail was opened found, upon their

arrival, that a treaty making Oregon part of the

United States had been signed. The compromise

boundary line followed the 49th parallel to the Gulf

I THE HOMESTEAD ACT
67

of Georgia, continued through the Strait of Juan de

Fuca, and allowed Vancouver Island to remain a

British possession. It was the peaceful end to the

1844 Democratic Party's warlike political slogan,

"Fifty-four forty54° 40'J or fight."17

THE SOUTHWEST

Also in 1846, the frictions that existed between

the United States and Mexico grew into the

Mexican War. One of the frictions was that Mexico

was angered when Texas, having asked to join the

Union, was annexed at the end of 1845 and became

the 28th U.S. state. The war actually ended late in

1847, but the treaty establishing the Texas-Mexico

boundary at the Rio Grande was not signed until

1848.144

Josiah Meigs, appointed surveyor genera! of a!! pub!ic lands east

of the Mississippi River in 1810, exchanged positions with Edward

Tiffin in 1814.

Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo

Under the terms of the treaty, the Treaty of

Guadalupe Hidalgo, Mexico ceded a vast territory

in the Southwest, and the United States gained

more than 334 million acres in public lands. This

included the present states of California, Nevada,

and Utah, as well as parts of Arizona, New Mexico,

Colorado, and Wyoming.

Texas Purchase

The State of Texas, which retained title to its

unoccupied land, was not a public land state. In

1850, however, a large area north and west of the

present Texas boundary was purchased from

Texas by the United States. This purchase, which
added more than 78 million acres to the public

lands, included parts of New Mexico, Colorado,

Wyoming, Kansas, and Oklahoma.15

Edward Tiffin was the first commissioner of

the General Land Office. In 1814 he became

the surveyor general of the public lands east

of the Mississippi River, and Josiah Meigs

became the second commissioner of the

GLO.

Gadsden Purchase

In 1853, the Gadsden Purchase added another 18

million acres of public land to the United States.

The area became the extreme southwest part of New Mexico and the southern part of Arizona. This part of the United States-Mexico boundary line was

run and marked in 1855.34

The Mormon Trail

Just before the final battles of the Mexican War

were fought, the Mormonswho had suffered

much persecution in Illinois and Missourimadea

68

long westward trek in search of a new Zion where

they hoped to find religious freedom. When they

reached the Salt Lake Valley, Brigham Young told

his followers that they had found "The Place."

Afterward, the route of the Pioneers, as they called

themselves, was known as the Mormon Trail, and

was traveled by thousands of other emigrants.

About 3 months after the Pioneers began their

journey, another group of about 2,000 Mormons

left their winter quarters on the west bank of the

Missouri. This caravan consisted of 566 wagons and large herds of livestock. With its arrival in

September 1847, a colony of nearly 3,000 people

had settled at Salt Lake.17

Gold Rush to Sutter's Mill

In that same winter, 1847, Johann August Sutter

needed lumber so he decided to build a sawmill.

One of his employees was James W. Marshall, a

carpenter, wheelwright, and general handyman. It

was Marshall who chose the site for the mill, which

was built about 45 miles east of Sacramento, at a

point called Coloma. It was a good mill, but a gravel

bar caused water to back up behind the wheel and

stop it from turning. The tailrace had to be

deepened and, as this was being done, in January

1848, Marshall looked down into thewater and saw

a glittering rock in the gravel at his feet. That

glittering golden nugget spelled ruin for landthirsty Sutter,17 who, at the end of the Mexican War,

claimed more land than any other one person in the

Union. 10

By the time the treaty with Mexico was signed,

Sutter's estate was being invaded and destroyed by

people flocking to California in the wake of the

discovery of gold. At onetime, Sutter even claimed

the land upon which San Francisco was builtall

but a strip along the sea, which belonged to the

Franciscan Mission. He also claimed the land upon which many other towns, including Sacramento,

were built. He had paid the Russians for their vast claim and that land, too, was subsequently

occupied by others.

The value of the gold taken from land Sutter

claimed he owned was incalculable. When his

roads, bridges, ditches, and watering places were

taken over and used bythe public, he felt heshould

be reimbursed forall thesethings. The difficulty lay

in deciding just who should pay, and how much. It

was a question of not one, but many thousands of

lawsuits against many thousands of individuals

and hundreds of towns and cities, as well as the

State of California. Sutter thought that he also

might sue the United States. There simply was no

way to obtain judgments against all the people and

governments Sutter believed owed him money.

A California judge named Thompson was able to

obtain a life pension of $3,000 a year from the State

of California for Sutterthe man who, for a while,

had thought of himself as the richest man in

America. Even so, most of Sutter's pension went to

unscrupulous people who said they would help

him with "his case." Beginning in the 1860's, Sutter

made various petitions to the United States.

Congress did not act on his case and he died 2

decades later, on June 17, 1880, a penniless,

demented old man.1°

MINING FRONTIERS

The discovery of gold in California changed the

course of settlement in the United States, and, with

the tide of settlement, came the need for surveys.

Miners from all over the world found their way into

the California mining area almost overnight. The

Abraham Lincoln, surveyor.

70

hordes of people who made up the Gold Rush of

1849 were, collectively and individually,

trespassers on the public lands of the United

States. All they thought of was the gold, and they

considered it to be theirs for the taking.

Because of this prevalent attitude, the

settlements based upon mining were not at all like

the more orderly westward movement of trappers

and farmers. The mining frontier followed a series

of new finds, each of which set the miners off in a

new direction to another remote area. For many of

them, first came the rush, and then disillusionment.

If there was enough precious metalsilver or gold

or whatevera roaring mining town grew and

prospered. At least the gamblers and saloons

prospered. Then, as happened in California in the

late 1850's, the mines gave out. About the time a

town realized it must rid itself of the outlaw element

that seemed to follow the miners, it was on its way

to becoming a ghost town, unless its residents
A

k

knew the real treasure, which was, more often than

not, the land.

As the easiest mining ended in California, tales of

precious minerals in Colorado lured the miners

there. Or to Nevada. Or to parts of Oregon and

Idaho. Later, Montana and the Black Hills of South

Dakota beckoned. Later still was the rush to the

Yukon.

71

CREATION OF THE DEPARTMENT OF

THE INTERIOR

In 1849, in the face of this, the General Land

Oftice was transferred from the jurisdiction of the

Treasury Department to the Department of the

Interior, which had just been created. Therewas no

major change in the responsibility of the GLO,

, ft, -4' 4-

47

fri ,2-t-. %-

Me I, fr

,v ..-, /

A facsimile of the legal opinion formulated by Abraham Lincoln concerning subdivision of sections
S ARK

THIS TRAil LEAPS Ti. HE WILJ.Ai4LTTE STONE. THE SURVt# ' MONUMENT AT [ THE INTERSECTION £ WII1M4TTC I BASE LINE

' AND TU ILLAM?Y1 ME R$PIAN.AUTPIE or OREGON WERE SECTIONIZEE) FROM 1St GUIDZ)j.INES. THE MARK WAS UTAJLISP.DWJUNE 4. 1831, BY JOHN R. PRESTON. flUT SURvEY-

, OR GLNER.1L OF MENt OF IHIS OREOOLTHLJflBLISHTHE SE1N1NTON&WS THE START OF

ON THE NOR1 0, TUE PU DOMAIN

PACIVIC-004ST AND THE MONUMLN1 ISOF

TO ALL SURVEYORSPA'44TVVtA* iNTEREST

'AND ABSTRATORS, ITS GEOGRAPHIC

LATITUDE ANfl l2244' POSITION 4$3l' IO.83I1N

LONGITUDE.

a

I

however. It continued to be organized accordingto

functions. Of its nine main organizational functions, the foremost were public lands, surveys, and

private land claims.1

PRIVATE CLAIMS

As the surveys extended into lands that had

recently come under American control, the GLO

and the Federal courts, as well as the surveyors,

had to face the problem presented by grants of land

made by the previous governments of the areas

gained from Great Britain, France, Spain, and

Mexico.

These grants extended in size from city lots in

such places as Detroit and New Orleans, to grants

of a few thousand acres, to Louisiana colonization

grants of 200,000 to 700,000 acres, to the enormous

Forbes grant of nearly 1.5 million acres in Florida.15

Systems of Measurement

The land laws and the systems of measuring the

grants of the French, Spanish, and Mexican

governments were very different from those of

England. The land grants of the French crown

usually were described in terms of the "arpent,"

and Spanish and Mexican land distances were

expressed in terms of the "vara."138

This sign, beside Skyline Boulevard in Portland, Oregon,

marks the trail to Willamette Stone State Park

72

The Chain. The United States adopted the

chain unit of linear measurement. It was the 17thcentury invention of Edmund Gunter, an English

astronomer. Gunter's chain was 66 feet long and

was divided into 100 links. In its early construction

it was made of iron; later, heavy steel wire was

used. This wire was in short pieces that were bent

at the ends so that they formed rings. Three extra

rings were fitted in between the pieces, so that each

assembly made up one whole link, or 7.92 inches

(66/1 00 foot). Handles, which were adjustable and

had swivels, were located at the extreme ends,

giving flexibility to the whole chain.

Obviously, there were a lot of surfaces to wear,

about six times as many as the number of links.

There were also many places for dirt, brush, twigs,

and muck to get into, causing delays while the

chain was cleaned. The chain required almost daily

testing to make certain its length was correct. In

spite of this, it was not replaced in general practice

by the steel ribbon tape until about 1900.

In the Colonies of the English-speaking people

in America, the land boundaries were measured by

the chain unit, the most convenient unit for the

computation of areas in acres. One acre is equal to

10 square chains. The 20.00- and 40.00-chain

public land fractions for quarter and half mile

distances make the subdivision of sections into
aliquot parts (called quarter-quarter and quarter

sections) fairly simple. In units of area, these are,

respectively, 40 and 160 acres. Ten chains along

the section boundary gives the side of a quarterquarter-quarter unit, or a 10-acre subdivision.

The Arpent. The French arpent was not used as

a direct linear measure, but tracts of land were

described in length and breadth in terms of

arpents, the unit meaning the length of the side of

1 square arpent. In Louisiana, Mississippi,

Alabama, and the northwestern part of Florida, 1

arpent was very nearly 0.84625 acres. The side of a

square arpent equalled 2,909 chains.138

The Vara. The vara was a unit of linear measure

in both the Spanish and Mexican land grants. In the

Public Domain of the southwestern United States,

it equalled 4.1658 links. One hundred varas were

4.1658 chains, or 274.943 feet.141

The solar compass pictured above is the type of

instrument used in the original surveys of the

Willamette Meridian and Base Line. The picture was

taken in Willamette Stone State Park.

As if this were not complex enough, the values

accorded the arpent and the vara differed in

different areas. In Arkansas and Missouri an arpent

was 0.8507 acres, and the side of a square arpent

was 2.91667 chains, or 192.500 feet. In Florida, 100

varas equalled 4.2136 chains, or 278.100 feet.138

Doubtful Claims

Adding to the problem was the fact that, from the

beginning of American control, there was ample

reason for the court to have doubts about the

authenticity of many of the grants. In Louisiana

Territory, for example, Silas Bent, a government

surveyor, reported that the records of his office

had:

undergone a revolution, there has been Leaves

cut out of the Books and others pasted in with

Large Plats of Surveys on them. . . . the dates
have been evidently altered in a large proportion

of the certificates, Plats have been altered from

smaller to Larger, Names erased and other

incerted and striking difference in collour of the

ink etc.

Although the writing was imperfect, his message

was clear.15

In 1812, the State of Louisiana, formerly the

Territory of Orleans, was admitted to the Union. At

that time, the Territory of Louisiana was made the

Territory of Missouri. When the Board of Land

Commissioners for Missouri Territory made its

report that year, it was found that all of the really

large claims had been rejected. The aristocrats of

the vast fur trading empire, such as the Chouteau

family, then exerted their (considerable) influence

to have the requirements for confirmation of their

claims relaxed. Eventually, large grants were

confirmed to members of the wealthy fur trading

families, but they were only a small part of the land

they had once claimed. All of this made more work

for the surveyors, because, as grants once confirmed and surveyed were enlarged, they had to be

surveyed again. In some cases, due to litigation

and legislation, a third survey was required.

Private ClaimsBefore and After 1846

In the territory acquired prior to 1846, there were

18,643 private claims confirmed in 12 states. The

total area was 10,253.671 acres.15

When the treaty with Great Britain ending joint

occupancy of the Oregon country was signed,143

and land from Mexico was acquired under the

Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo, the private claim

problem once again presented problems.

Article 8 of the treaty with Mexicol44 said:

Mexicans now established in territories

previously belonging to Mexico, and which

remain for the future within the limits of the

United States, as defined by the present treaty,

shall be free to continue where they now reside,

orto remove at any time to the Mexican republic,

retaining the property which they possess in the

said territories, or disposing thereof, and

removing the proceeds wherever they please,

without their being subjected, on this account,

to any contribution, tax, or charge whatever.

Those who shall prefer to remain in the said

territories, may either retain the title and rights

of Mexican citizens, or acquire those of citizens

of the United States. But they shall be under the

obligation to make their election within one year

from the date of the exchange of ratifications of

74

this treaty; and those who shall remain in the

said territories after the expiration of that year,

without having declared their intention to retain

the character of Mexicans, shall be considered

to have elected to become citizens of the United

States.

In the said territories, property of every kind,

now belonging to Mexicans not established

there, shall be inviolably respected. The present

owners, the heirs of these, and all Mexicans who

may hereafter acquire said property by contract,

shall enjoy with respect to its guaranties equally

ample as if the same belonged to citizens of the

United States.

When the American government took over

control in California, about 813 private land claims

had to be decided. Some grants were small garden

plots near the missions, but the majority of them

were from 1 to 11 square leagues (a square league

was 4,426 acres). Most of the grants had been

intended for grazing livestock and were not under

cultivation. None were fenced, and most of them

lacked identifiable boundaries. New Mexico,

Arizona, and parts of Colorado also had tangled

claims remaining from the period when Mexico

ruled the area.

The United States government had the responsibility of translating the Spanish-Mexican puzzle

of incomplete, conditional, unlocated, and unsurveyed land grants into a vastly different land

system: one that recognized only fee simple titles or the type of conditional rights that had

obligations to be fulfilled before title could be

issued.15

New Mexico

In July 1890, the surveyor general of New Mexico

explained a part of the reason behind the problems

of private claims in that territory. The problem had

its beginnings at about the time of the discovery of

New Mexico, when Emperor Charles V of Germany

(who was also the King of Spain) decreed:

If in that which is already discovered in the

Indies there should be any places and districts

so good that it may be proper to found

settlements, and any person should make

application to settle and reside in them, in order

that with a greater will and profit they may do so,

the viceroys and presidents may give them in

our name lands, house lots, and water in

conformity with the disposition of the land.
Aluminum Young and Son solar compass no. 8510. Records show it was in Colorado in 1911 and 1912. it came to

the Olympia, Washington, GLO in 1913 and was used by Andrew Nelson that year. Herbert Raymond used it in

1914, and George R. Campbell used it from 1915 through 1918. The instrument is still in good adjustment and is still

in use.

Further, the surveyor general reported,

This plan was pursued until the annexation of

the territory by the United States. Under the

Republic of Mexico the colonization laws and

regulations became a . . . complete

system . . . adapted to the . . . people .

and to the . . . country to be occupied.

After explaining the differences between that

system and the rectangular survey system used by

the United States, the surveyor general commented that the remedy for the problems would be

surveys, because "certain title to the land is the

75

foundation of all values. Enterprise in this Territory

is greatly retarded because that foundation is so

often found lacking."135

Surveying these claims was also made difficult

by the necessity of reconciling them with the

American system of townships and ranges. Finally,

the rectangular surveys were fitted around the

older grants, no matter what their origin, shape, or

size, or in what direction they lay. Many odd

corners were produced by the closing of the

rectangular surveys against the lines of these

claims.
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wanted to establish a claim. The 1848 Organic Act creating Oregon Territory, which voided "All laws

heretofore passed in the said Territory of Oregon making grants of land or otherwise affecting or encumbering the title to lands .....was,

therefore, most upsetting to Oregonians.

Their distress must have reached Congress, because in September 1850, another Donation

Land Law was passed. It was "An Act to Create the

office of Surveyor-General of the public lands in

Oregon, and to provide for the survey, and to make

donations to settlers of the said public lands." This

law granted 320 acres to every male settler,

including American half-breeds, over the age of 18

who was a citizen or who had declared his intention

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A small portion of deputy surveyor John W. Garretson's field notes of his 1855 survey of the New Mexico Principal Meridian.

(Courtesy of Duane Olsen.)

OREGON DONATION LAW

The settlers in Oregon had passed an act that

created a provisional government 3 years before

the signing of the treaty that set the northern

boundary at the 49th parallel. Under that law, any

man was permitted to hold 640 acres wherever he

76

of becoming one before December 1, 1851, and

who had lived in Oregon Territory and cultivated

the land for 4 consecutive years prior to December

1, 1850. Further, if he married by December 1, 1851,

his wife was entitled to a grant of a like amount of

land to hold in her own right!(At that time, it was a

very uncommon privilege for a wife to be allowed to

have real property in her own name.) White male

citizens or intended citizens who emigrated to

Oregon Territory between December 1, 1850, and

December 1, 1853, and who had met the other

obligations required by the act, were to have 160

acres.15

The Donation Land Law did not clarify titles

immediately. It applied to unsurveyed lands not

offered for public sale. The purpose of the law was

to protect the bona-fide settlers until they had filed

claims and received patents. After this was

accomplished, the remaining lands, once they had

been surveyed, came under the regular laws

dealing with the sale of the public lands.2°
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77

The field notes of the 1879 survey of the Wyoming-Montana boundary include this early case of trespass on the

public lands.

Under the law, if the land was 'deemed unfit for

cultivation," only township lines were to be run. In

other cases, only "necessary" lines were to be

surveyed. A settler's request for a survey, in the

case of individual land claims, made those surveys

"necessary," as that was the only way to acquire

clear title, or patent, to the land.

The Willamette Meridian and Base Line were

established, and the survey of townships and

ranges in Oregon's most heavily populated areas

was begun in 1851. Even so, because the law had

provided no required time for the donation-land

claimants to complete their titles, often they were

in no hurry to do so. In 1857, the Secretary of the
Interior stated in his report that "not having been

empowered to hasten the surveys of private land

claims . . . surveying in many townships goes on

tardily, because settlers still withhold their requests for surveys." Because of this, much of the

settled land was held under incomplete rights. As

always, surveys were necessary before the sale of

public lands, so no public lands were offered for

sale in Oregon until 1862.20

In other areas, particularly in the Southwest U.S.,

private land claims delayed the extension of

surveys into surrounding land and thereby kept

those lands from being entered and settled. Often,

when the claims were not valid and were not

confirmed, the most desirable lands were affected.

The fact that they were held back from survey and

settlement sometimes retarded the development of

a whole area.

The English-European heritage of the American

Government made it extremely aware of property

rights, and all claimants were given every opportunity to prove the validity of their claim to land. In

all, 34 million acres of land in 19 States were

confirmed to the holders of private claims.15

OREGON SURVEYS

John B. Preston, surveyor general for Oregon,

chose a point in the hills just west of Portland as the

initial point for the Oregon public land surveys.

William Ives, who held Oregon Public Land Survey

Contract Number 2, marked the point with a cedar

stake on a day in early June 1851. This initial point,

the intersection of the Willamette Meridian and its

base line, is now well inside Portland's city limits.

The cedar stake has long since been replaced with

a concrete monument, and a small area around it

has been set aside as Willamette Stone State Park.

In choosing the initial point, Preston followed the

instructions given to him by Justin Butterfield,

commissioner of the General Land Office. He used

great care in selecting the place from which

original surveys were extended for over 100 million

northwest acres. Farms, fields, and forests from the

California boundary to the Canadian border are

described as east or west of the Willamette

Meridian, and north or south of its base line.

In a letter Preston wrote to the commissioner of

the General Land Office on June 14, 1851, he

explained why he designated what now appears to

be an obscure spot in Portland's west hills as the

point of beginning for the surveys of the public

lands of Oregon Territory:

78

Surveyor General's Office

Oregon City, June 14, 1851.

Hon. J. Butterfield, Commissioner,

General Land Office.

Sir: I have had the honor to transmit herewith a

contract made with James E. Freeman, Esq., for

surveying the Willamette meridian from the base line

south to the Umpqua valley, and a copy of the special

instructions given him. I also transmit a contract made

with William Ives, Esq., for the survey of the Willamette

meridian north of the base line to Pugets Sound and

the base line from the Pacific Coast to the summit of

the Cascade mountains, and a copy of the special

instructions given him.

Previous to making these contracts I organized a party

and visited the Columbia river and found it necessary

to go as far east as the Cascade mountains in order to

determine the point to start the base line so as to

"avoid its southerly bend." After determining this I

made a partial examination of the country near the

mouth of the Willamette to find a proper point to cross

with the meridian line. In the examination, I found that

there was one small lake that would interfere but

considered this much less of an obstacle than the

broken country the line would have to pass over if

thrown west of the lower mouth of the Willamette near

St. Helens. Also believing that if the line was changed

to the east there would be greater danger in running

into the broken country at the foot of the Cascade

mountains, I determined to locate the line on the point

designated in the map accompanying your instructions. The point of intersection of the base and

meridian line is 31/2 miles west of Portland. The base

line will run through Portland on the Willamette and

Hillsboro in Tualatin plains, 151/2 miles west of

Portland. The meridian will run about five miles west of

Oregon City. If the deputy surveyors find difficulty in

getting men to assist them, the farmers are now

offering $5 and $6 per day for men to assist in

harvesting.

In order to advance the surveys, it will be necessary to

give out some contracts for surveying township lines

before the surveys of the base and meridian lines are

completed. I have therefore desired the deputies on

those lines to return their notes after they have

surveyed 75 miles each. After these notes have been

approved will get out contracts for surveying 25

township lines.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

JNO. B. PRESTON,

Surveyor General.

In his letter, Preston makes a rather casual

mention of "visiting" various areas in his examination of the country to determine the site of the

initial point. It would be well to remember,

however, that, except for the emigrant trails and a

few settled areas in the valleys, there were no roads
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Between Columbia River

and slopes of Mt. Hood

Crossing Columbia River

at an island chain

Crossing Willamelfe River

on east-west crossing

PRESTON'S CONSIDERATIONS

IN LOCATING AN INITIAL POINT IN OREGON

0 0 20 30 40 50 00 SCALE IN MILES
in Oregon Territory in 1851. At that time, rivers

were the main highways of the Oregon country.

The men who accompanied Preston to Oregon

Territory were all men whose work had recommended them. James E. Freeman had been a

deputy surveyor in Wisconsin and Iowa.35 He held

public land survey contracts in Keokuk and Van

Buren counties in Iowa in the early 1840's.14

Freeman's Survey Party

James E. Freeman's party surveyed the

Willamette Meridian from the initial point south "to

the Canyon Mountains."21 According to surveyors

who have retraced his lines, James Freeman was

one of the best of the early surveyors. His work is

considered excellent even by modern standards,

as is the work done by William Ives, who initiated

the survey of the Willamette Base Line in 1851 160

When James E. Freeman started south on the

initial survey of the Willamette Meridian, a young

man named Zenas Ferry Moody was a member of

his survey party. Moody, born in Granby,

Massachusetts, was 18 years old when he traveled

to Oregon by way of Panama. He arrived in Oregon

City in April 1851. Just after his 19th birthday,

Moody went to work as a chainman on one of the

first United States surveys in Oregon Territory.21

On June 10, 1851, another adventurous young

man arrived in Oregon City. His name was Kimball

Webster. Webster had had less than unqualified

success in seeking his fortune in the 1849

California gold rush, so in 1851 he started north.35

When he arrived in Oregon City, Webster was

disappointed to learn that the survey parties were

already at work and had left the area. Later that

year, Kimball Webster went south to join the

Freeman party.

Zenas Moody was still one of the chainmen, and

Kimball Webster became the axeman. He was

doing a good job as axeman when Freeman

discovered that Webster was well versed in

trigonometry. It was Webster's good fortune that

he had joined James Freeman's party, for Freeman

was so dedicated to his job that he encouraged the

men on his surveys to learn and assist him, and

thus advance their own careers.

When Webster first joined the Freeman party,

George Hyde was assisting Freeman in making

calculations. After Hyde's departure, Freeman

asked Webster to assist in making calculations. As

soon as Freeman knew he could count on

Webster's work, the job of making calculations

became Kimball Webster's job.35

If one reads the field notes of Freeman's Oregon

public land surveys, a record of the progress of the

80

men of the survey party becomes clear. The field

notes tell of both Zenas Moody's and Kimball

Webster's education in the survey of the public

lands. They were axeman, flagmen, markers,

assistants, and instrument men. Over a period of

time, they held all the jobs that would help them

understand cadastral surveying. They were ambitious young men, but the opportunities to use

what they had learned were opened to them by

Freeman. It is to his credit that both Moody and

Webster became competent surveyors and soon

held survey contracts in their own names.

In March 1852, Kimball Webster was employed

on a contract held by Robert Elder. Elder was the

chief clerk in Surveyor General Preston's office

when Webster first met him, shortly after his arrival

in Oregon City. By the time Kimball Webster

received his first appointment as a United States

deputy surveyor on April 25, 1852, he had his own

solar compass. It cost him $350.35 In June 1852, a

survey contract was issued to Elder and Webster.

Under this contract the two men operated a joint

party. Kimball Webster received something over

$100 per month for his work. Webster's first

contract in his own name was issued in December

1852.

Zenas Moody stayed with the Freeman survey

party until 1853, and he became a deputy surveyor

in Oregon in 1855. In 1856, he was appointed

inspector of the United States surveys in California. After completing his job in California, Moody

went to Illinois as the surveyor of Morgan County.

In 1862, he returned to Oregon.21

In 1880, Zenas F. Moody became an Oregon

state representative, and in 1882 became the

seventh governor of the State of Oregon. His term

was the longest single term of any Oregon

governor. Moody was a popular governor, and his

term of office was a smooth one. He died in Salem

in 1917.

SURVEYS TO 1865

Information compiled by the General Land

Office in 1865 indicated that, up to that time, no

cadastral surveys had been executed in Arizona,

Idaho, Montana, North Dakota, Oklahoma, or

Wyoming. The surveys that had been done in

Colorado were in the vicinity of Denver and

Colorado Springs, as a result of the discovery of

gold in that area.111 Surveys in Nevada had been

started,1 and a few surveys had been executed in

the Salt Lake City area of Utah because of the

Mormon settlement. The settlers who lived along

the Rio Grande prior to the annexation of Texas

had required surveys, and that was the only area in

New Mexico that had been surveyed.111
81

THE STRANGE CASE OF THE SAN BERNARDINO INITIAL POINTS

Due to an extraordinary series of events that occurred over a period of years, there are three initial points for the San

Bernardino Meridian and Base Line. These points and the surveys that established them were resurveyed by employees of

the San Bernardino County Road Department as commissioned by the San Bernardino County Museum In 1966.

The story of the three Initial points began in November 1852 when Henry Wshington, a highly respected deputy

surveyor, established the initial point for the San Bernardino Meridian and Base Line in southern California. The problems

he encountered, including the lack of sufficient funds and the height and ruggedness of San Bernardino Mountain, are

amply described in a report he sent to Samuel D. King, the surveyor general of California, the following month.128

Washington did not survey the meridian and base line from the point he had established. His fleid notes do not Indicate

what method he used in surveying away from his Initial point, but he did survey the west and south boundaries of

Township 1 South, Range 2 West, and the west, south, and a portion of the east boundaries of Township 2 South, Range I

West.

In 1876, Deputy Surveyor Albert Ruxton surveyed in the same area. He established monuments on the San Bernardino

during a partial survey of Township 1 North, Range 1 East. Although Ruxton did not survey to the initial point, one of his

monuments was established only 2 miles from it.

Deputy Surveyor John C. Rice completed the survey of the San Bernardino Meridian from the north, probably along

Ruxton's lIne. He intersected the base line ate point he showed as being 13.45 chains east of Washington's initial point.

Rice established a second Initial point at that location. (The distance of this point from the first initial point was measured

by the resurvey expedition as 14.04 chains.)

In 1907 George W. Pearson, deputy surveyor, set a third initial poInt when he completed the survey of the San

Bernardino Meridian from the south. Pearson reached the base line at a point he said was 4.20 chaIns west of Rice's

monument.

in 1917, Frank W. Chapin, a cadastral engineer, surveyed a part of Township 1 South, Range 1 West. Since surveys in the

area were tied to them, Chapiin accepted both Rice's and Pearson's points. He reset them with brass-capped regulation

iron posts. These points have been measured as being 4.44 chains apart.

in 1927, Dupree Reed Averlil, a UnIted States surveyor, set a brass-capped regulation iron post beside the original 1907

marker set by Pearson. He also set the corner between Range 1 East and Range 2 East next to Pearson's marker of the

same point.

The San Bernardino Meridian is offset 4.44 chains at the baseline. Henry Washington's initial point would have put the

meridian 9.40 chains west of the 1907 Pearson monument. Washington's point also lies 6 links south of the present San

Bernardino Base Line according to later measurements.128

T. I N., R. I W. T. IN ,R.I E.

Sec. 36 Sec 31

Woshinghn,'s

-6 Initial Point

T. I S , R. I W.

Sec. Sec. 6

Initial Points of the San Bernardino Meridian and Base Line as

determined by the Washington Initial Point Resurvey Expedition.
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Much of California had been surveyed because

of the gold found at Sutter's mill, and also because

of the settlementof California's agricultural land by

people from the east. They had not found gold, but

they did recognize the value of the land. There had

also been a demand for surveys by the people who

were living in California before the signing of the

Guadalupe-Hidalgo Treaty of 1848.

Only a small portion of the southeastern part of

South Dakota had been surveyed by 1865. The

western parts of both Kansas and Nebraska were

still completely unsurveyed at the end of the Civil

War, even though settlements along the rivers and

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Montana, U.S. Surveyor-General's office clerks, about 1890.

82

in the timbered areas of Western Oregon and

Washington had created the need for surveys

there.1 11

U.S.-CANADIAN BOUNDARY SURVEY

During the early years of the 1870's, surveys that

had been delayed by the Civil War were being

executed in many areas all across the United

States. While the regular work of the cadastral

surveyors continued, British and American surveyors were also at work marking the United

States-Canada boundary. The line along the 49th

parallel westward from the Red River occupied the
boundary commission during the 1873-74 survey

season. It is probable that the first people who

benefited from the fact that the international

boundary line had been surveyed and marked in

that area were Sitting Bull and his warriors. They

fled across it after the Battle of the Little Big Horn,

in 1877, to escape the pursuing American Army.24

BLACK HILLS GOLD RUSH

At about this same time, geologists accompanied General Custer's expedition into the Black

Hills in South Dakota. News leaked out of their

reports that those hills were full of gold. The United

States started negotiations to purchase the land

meanwhile attempting to keep out gold seekers

and settlers. Prospectors managed to evade the

army's efforts to keep them away from the Sioux

lands and, in 1875, Deadwood Gulch was the scene

of an incredibly rich gold strike. By the beginning

of 1876, there was another gold rush.24

MORE OREGON SURVEYS

William H. Odell, who became surveyor general

of Oregon in 1871, was born on December 25,1830.

When he was 21 years old he crossed the Great

Plains with his father and spent 3 years helping his

family become established on a donation land

claim near Dayton, Oregon. Odell then entered the

Oregon Institute (Willamette University) where he

studied mathematics and surveying and became a

chainman on a government survey party in 1854.16

He was a deputy surveyor in Oregon from 1864

until 1871, when he became the surveyor general.

83

In his 1872 report to the Commissioner of the

General Land Office, Odell stated that no one but

the men who had surveyed west of the Cascade

Mountains could know what the work entailed. He

noted that "the interminable undergrowth and

immense fallen trees make it exceedingly difficult

to progress." In spite of this, he also recommended

the swift extension of the surveys, due to the value

of the timber and agricultural lands in the area.

People were beginning to settle the land and had

already gone ahead of the surveys in some

areas.14°

By the latter years of the 1870's, the surveys in

Oregon had long since finished with the Willamette

Valley. By that time, the valleys in western Oregon

were considered an "old" part of the United States.

As early as 1871, a newspaper editorial stated that

many newcomers to western Oregon expecting to

find a new country were disappointed to find that it

was as old as Kansas or Minnesota.25

As the surveys were extended over more of

Oregon, other deputy surveyors were hired.

Among them were the Fitzhugh brothers, John and

George, who worked in Curry County.

In 1879, John Fitzhugh, wrote a wry comment

about the solar compass:

The solar compass is a fine instrument in the

hands of an astronomer and mathematician.

When in perfect order its results are quick and

reliable, but under the control of an "ignoramus"

it is the wildest "machine" that ever was used to

trace a line.
Nc / f a9O0j, r. n (I p .- " AL 1: 0 _IIII, -1° 

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A portion of a p/at approved in 1849 The survey was done by William A and Austin Burt and Willi

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85
Early surveyors, like other pioneers, accepted

hardship and dangeras part of their job. Field notes

sometimes give small glimpses of the everyday life

of the surveyors, or scanty, unembellished accounts of high adventure. Records of surveyors'

experiences are usually short and disconnected.

They tell of such diverse tribulations as camp life,

rough country, storms, prairie fires, swamps, or

hostile Indians.

WISCONSIN-1847

Deputy Surveyor Harry A. Wiltse once wrote a

first-hand description of life on an 1847 Wisconsin

survey. The survey lines ran through many miles of

insect-infested swamp. In order to do their work,

the surveyors had to carry all their food and

equipment on their backs as they waded through

high water and climbed over fallen trees. For four

long weeks they endured attacks by clouds of

mosquitoes. Their clothing was wet both day and

night. Finally, they ran out of food and had to make

a forced march in search of provisions. Wearing

clothes that were nearly rotted away, they

struggled for 3 days to reach a place where they

could find food. During that 3 days there was

nothing at all to eat. Little wonder Wiltse closed his

written account of this survey by stating that he

"would not again, after a lifetime of experience in

the field, and a great fondness for camp life, enter

upon the same, or a similar survey, at any price

whatever."30

SURVEYS PROGRESS

By the middle 1850's, the active period of public

land surveys had ended in Ohio, Alabama, Arkansas, Illinois, Indiana, and Missouri. Iowa public

land surveys were three-quarters finished, as were

those in Michigan and Mississippi. The surveys in

Florida, Louisiana, and Wisconsin were about half

finished, and those in Minnesota, California,

Kansas, Nebraska, New Mexico, Oregon,

Washington, and Utah had been started.3°

The survey of the Nebraska-Kansas boundary,

which is the base line of the Sixth Principal

Meridian, was started in 1854. The line was run and

marked, mainly with small wooden posts, for 108

miles westward from the initial point (52.55 chains

west of the right bank of the Missouri River, on the

40th parallel). The cast-iron monument for the

Chapter 10

IN THE VANGUARD

87

initial point was set in 1855. It is

marked: "NEBRASKA" on the north, "1854" on

the east, "40° N LAT" on the west, and "KANSAS"

on the south. When the line was resurveyed and

remonumented during 1855-56, the former

markers were destroyed. The line was extended

from the 108th mile westward to the Rocky

Mountains in 1858-59, as a base line of the surveys

of the public lands.34

Kansas Problems

Field note records of some original surveys

executed in Kansas yield interesting insights into

surveyconditions. Considerthisexampleofagood

explanation for a delay in completing a survey

contract:1 11

we would state that on or about the 1st of

August, 1854, we repaired to the field of

operations preparatory to executing the contract. On arriving in the field we found our work

was immediately in the vicinity of headquarters

of the hostile Indians and after skirmishing with

us 2 days, they fired the prairies, completely

demolishing everything for our cattle to subsist

on for many miles, in fact the whole country

lying between the Solomon and Republic

Rivers, and we were forced to abandon our

work.

Here is another:111

At this place a party of Indians fired on me and

my men. Their design was to kill me; they had

previously threatened to shoot me and my men

If I did not quit surveying there. A shell struck a

tree against which I was leaning at that time,

while my compass needle was setting [settling]

not 6 inches from me.

Nebraska Troubles

Deputy M. McManus, from Sangamon County,

Illinois, had a contract to survey in Nebraska

Territory in 1855. He wrote a letter that December

to the Surveyor General John Calhoun. In the

letter, McManus wrote that one of his mules had

broken its neck. He went on to lament about the

troubles he had experienced on the survey and

noted that it was surely not the same matter as

retracing old lines in Sangamon County.13
Michigan Hazards

In 1855 the surveyor general of Michigan filed a

report dealing with the swamps and the weather:3°

a considerable portion of thesurfaceof the

country is low and swampy. . . In consequence of frequent rains the country has been

rendered unhealthy, and nearly every party has

suffered by sickness, and in one instance, by

death. The duties have been so laborious that

men have in some cases become refractory and

left the field, making it necessary for the

deputies to abandon their work for a time to

engage new assistants.

Oregon Annoyances

In 1855, in Oregon, Deputy Surveyor Harvey

Gordon reported that he had run into unexpected

problems.83 He had been "obliged to carry my

camp equipment on men's shoulders . . . over the

coast mountains, which are inaccessible to

horses." He continued, saying that, after that hike,

the men ". . . were unable to continue the work. I

accordingly suspended operations to form a new

party, but before I could do so the entire laboring

portion of the community was seized with the gold

panic......Wages climbed from $52 to $100 per

month, and still Gordon could not find good men,

even at that inflated wage.

Additional Survey Hazards and Difficulties

In Nebraska and Kansas that same year, 1855,

the trouble was Indians. The surveyor general

reported:

The progress of the surveys under my charge

has been suspended . . . on account of the

positive refusal of the Pawnee Indians to allow

us to proceed. . . . Some Indians

(chiefs) . . . ordered us to leave . . . and

backed their orders with repeated threat that

every man who did not leave the survey before

the sun should arrive at meridian should be

shot. . . . They then pulled up all the posts set

on the north side of the river, told us they would

destroy all of the landmarks made in the vicinity,

and that we must and should leave.

There was an Indian war in what is now the State

of Washington in 1857. The surveyor general's

report stated:3°

The paralysis caused by the Indian war, the

scarcity of men and general impoverishment of

the inhabitants, including the few land surveyors of the country, together with the exceeding topographical difficulty of the country,

88

has made it impossible to find deputies willing to

contract for any work other than that reported.

In 1856, John S. Zieber, surveyor general of

Oregon, called attention to the rugged scenery:83

The public lands which remain to be surveyed in

Oregon are probably rougher than any that have

been sectionized in the Territories of the United

States. Scarcely an unsurveyed township of

land can be found without canyons, ravines, or

precipitous hills; and most of the unsurveyed

territory abounds in heavy timber (often standing and fallen), dense tangled undergrowth of

bushes, briars, ferns, and grass, in many places

covering a rocky surface almost impassable.

While all these events were occurring,

homesteading was coming into its own and the

surveyors were kept busy executing needed

surveys and overcoming hardships. During the

latter part of the 19th century, the fires that

sometimes swept over the prairie land were often a

hazard. In Nebraska in 1872, a surveyor named W.

E. Harvey suffered a great loss from such a fire.

One day in July, when his cook went to the river for

water, the prairie grass caught fire and burned all

their clothing, bedding, and most of their

provisions. Surveyor Harvey counted himself lucky

because he was able to save the field notes.13

Water was also a problem. Moses K. Armstrong,

on a survey of the south line of Dakota, had too

much. He wrote that he was "quite sick with a cold

from wading so much in mud and water." At other

times, the problem was too little water. Occasionally surveying parties had to haul water many miles.

Deputy surveyor W. A. Richards once wrote: "Old

Jim (a mule) tipped over on a side hill but did

nothing worse than smash a water pailwhich is

bad enough in this country."13

One terse entry in the field notes of an early-day

deputy surveyor in the southwest states, "The point

for the corner fell on top of a bluff occupied by

hostile Indians. I set a witness corner."157

A Surveyor's Journal

W. A. Richards kept a journal on a survey of the

southern boundary of Wyoming. The contract for

the survey was held by Alonzo V. Richards; W. A.

Richards was a member of the survey party.14° The

September 16, 1873, entry describes an evening in

a survey camp:13

The camp was in a wooded area and consisted

of a temporary shelter of boughs. There was a

blazing, pine-log fire burning and the mules had

been tied at one side of the bivouac for the night.
The surveyors packs were stacked at the other

side of the camp and a nearby tree was

"decorated" with a dressed-out deer.

He said that the men were sitting by the campfire

playing their nightly game of euchre [a card

gameJ. In his journal, Richards also mentioned

having copies of "Harpers Weekly" with him, and

he noted that he had also read "Martin Chuzzlewit,"

"Tom's Vindication," and "Nicholas Nickelby"

during that summer survey season.13

Frontiersmen by Choice

While many early surveyors became expert

woodsmen, plainsmen, and mountaineers, they

were not really like most of the trappers and

cowboys who lived a similar frontier life. The

surveyors were, for the most part, not born to

primitive conditions. They were often among the

best educated men of their time.

Some of them were accustomed to luxury, and

many of them had known the pleasures of a wellordered, comfortable existence. The two-sided

world to which they adapted was of their own

choosing. They chose an exhausting and exciting

life of adventure in the marking of America's

frontier lands, even though a number of them were

as familiar with good food and service in elegant

surroundings as they were with tin plates of salt

pork and beans in a survey camp.

Buck's Tragedy

With all their problems, most surveyors fared

better than did Deputy Surveyor Nelson Buck.

Buck had been a surveyor for more than 30 years

when he made application, in 1867, to survey the

area from Red Willow and Frontier Counties in

Nebraska westward to the Colorado line.13 His

application was refused because of the hostility of

the Indians in the area.96 Buck reapplied in early

1868 and explained that he would have a large,

well-armed survey party. He felt sure they would be

able to protect themselves. He also mentioned his

long and successful career as a frontier surveyor.

The officials relented, and on June 29, 1869, an

item in the Plattsmouth, Nebraska, newspaper

stated that Buck had received the surveying

contract. This became locally known when Buck

arrived in Plattsmouth, and hired two teamsters,

bought provisions, arranged for wagons and

teams, and started out for Fort Kearney.

Buck wrote a letter on July21, 1869, and mailed it

from Fort Kearney. In it he mentioned that he had

not obtained the arms and ammunition at the fort

89

that he had wished to take with his party. He also

wrote that reports of more trouble with the Indians

had caused some of his men to "take other

employment."

That letter was the last communication anyone

ever received from Nelson Buck or the men who

were with him when he started his survey. In

October it was found that no corners had been set.

No evidence of any survey work could be located,

nor could the survey party. Later, a place where the

survey party camped was found, silent witness to

what must have taken place. The camping equipment was there, as were tripods, part of a wagon,

canned goods, and even an engraved silver spoon.

The campsite was less than 40 chains north of the

Kansas Line, about 4 miles southwest of Danbury.96

Allason's Tribulations

In November 1869 another Nebraska deputy

surveyor, W. J. Allason, reported that he had

encountered several difficulties and found himself

face to face with ruin. He felt that the surveyor

general was not sympathetic, and told him so in a

letter:13

Cl cannot] see what satisfaction you [the

surveyor general] can reap by taking advantage

of the misfortunes of one who has nearly all he is

worth in this one contract. I had to correct a

mistake in my line and was hindered on account

of high water and to cap the climax I was burnt

out. And now you are so I learn trying to get the

Commissioner to claim the forfeit of my

bondsmen and annul my work altogether. God

knows I never did you any harm byword or deed

and if you cause my ruin by what may be your

legal power may your future happiness and

prosperity be in accordance with its justice.

ARIZONA INITIAL POINT

In 1863, a surveyor general was appointed for the

newly created Territory of Arizona. He started for

Arizona, but the Report of the Commissionerof the

General Land Office for that year stated that "no

report has been received from him since his

departure." Apparently they never did hear from

him, so finally, the job of selecting the initial point

for the Arizona surveys fell to the surveyor general

of New Mexico, John A. Clark.

On May 24, 1865, Clark made the following

report:1 12

Immediately opposite the mouth of the Salado

on the south side of the Gila, there is a conical
GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF T. 24 N., R. 108 W., SIXTH

PRINCIPAL MERIDIAN, WYOMING (1900)

On page 62 of the "Manual of Surveying Instructions, 1894," there appeared the following requirement:

"Besides the ordinary notes taken on line (and which will always be written down on the spot, leaving nothing to be

supplied by memory), the deputy will subjoin, at the conclusion of his book, such further description or information

touching any matter or thing connected with the township (or other) survey which he may be able to afford, and may deem

useful or necessary to be knownwith a general description of the township in the aggregate, as respects the face of the

country, its soil and geological features, timber, minerals, waters, etc."

On May 3, 1900, Edward F. Stahle, U.S. deputy surveyor, penned a general description of a township (T. 24 N., R. 108W.,

6th P.M., located about 10 mIles southwest of Farson, Wyoming) he had lust surveyed. In it he follows the above manual

requirement to the letterand a bit beyond:

"The land in this township may have, at one time, been covered with a luxurlent growth of grass, but at the present

writing, that is the scarcest product of the soil.

"Both the nobie red man and the magnificent bison doubtless had many an exciting chase over its billowy stretches,

owing to the number of arrowheads used by the former, and the horns of the latter, scattered over it. But there are none

here now.

"It was doubtless covered with water at one time, as is demonstrated by the vast number of fossils found upon it, but I

regret to say, that there is no water here now. Our parched lips and swoilen tongues emphasized this condition too often

for comfort.

"There were a large number of trees growing on it, during the grassy, watery days of yore as we found a number of

petrified stumps, but there are no trees here now. Our frugal noonday repast could not be partaken of under the shade of

a petrified stump and we were compelled to expose our handsome, bewhiskered, sun-browned visages to the scorching

rays of the meridian sun.

"As we did not find any banana peelings, coconut bark, peanut shells or corn husks, It Is fair to assume that the soil never

was fruitful or productive. In fact, it is not now.

"Indications point strongiy to the fact, that It was adapted to neither horticulture or fioricuiture. We found no signs of

carnations, roses, or honeysuckies. We occasionally stumble over a protruding root but doubt that they ever belonged to

the grape vine.

"This may have been a paradise for birds and bees; not that we found any vestiges of antiquated aviaries or apiaries or

any other signs of bird or bee life, but they may have winged their filght across the township. However, there are none here

now. "A meadow iark did warble his lay on a twig of rabbit brush, and then disappeared. That Is the lark; the rabbit brush

remains as proof of my story. While animal and bird life seems to have become extinct here, we are not entirely void of live

companionship. Horned toads, scorpions, centipedes and many other like charming bed fellows, are quite plentiful.

"Nature has, at the present time, been niggardly In distributing shade trees and shrubbery, but while there are no sweet

peas, gladlolas or lemon verbena, the beautiful white and sweet sage and prairie cactus abound.

"If perchance we failed to notice the latter in perambulating about, and our foot came In contact with it, we have heard

other names applied to it than beautiful. As one pursuing sedentary habits would avoid a tack on a chair, so we, whose

habits are of a peripatetic nature are cautious of the sharp needled points of the cactus.

"Taking it all in all, however, for some unaccountable reason sheep manage to exist herein the winter time and that is all

there is of It, excepting a few scattered agates and topaz."

Edward F. Stahie

U.S. Deputy Surveyor

hill about one hundred and fifty feet in height,

upon the pinacle of which Mr. Bartlett, in making

the survey of the boundary line under the treaty

with Mexico of Guadalupe Hidalgo, established

a corner "to mark the mouth of Salt River." I

visited this monument and found it compactly

built of stone, circular, about eight feet diameter

at the base, four feet at the top, and eight feet

high, with a post four inches in diameter

projecting from the center of the top about six

feet, upon which is marked: "United States and

90

Mexican Boundary Survey, 1851.This monument erected in 1851 to mark the junction of the

Gila and Salt River.-A.H. Gray, U.S. Surveyor."

The hill upon which the monument is erected

is . . . a remarkable landmark: and

being . . . opposite the mouth of the Salado or

Salt Riverthe geographical position of which

has been determinedand, with respect to the

arabie land of Arizona, being very central, I have

selected it as the initial point for the Meridian of

that Territory.
The "conical hill" isa short distance southwest of

Phoenix. It is named Monument Butte. It was from

the monument selected by Clark that the Arizona

cadastral survey grid was extended. On January

19, 1867, William H. Pierce and a party of four men

began the survey of the Gila and Salt River Base

Line. They surveyed eastward, and in 4 days they

had completed 36 miles along the route of presentday Baseline Road. In 1911, surveyor Guy P.

Harrington made surveys from this initial point. He

took photographs of the hill and the monument,

and for many years afterward the monument

remained intact.

In 1945, a cadastral engineer named Ty White

made the tie from a nearby triangulation station to

a point that he identified as the initial point. A

photograph was taken then, too. Rocks from the

mound described by Surveyor General Clark 80

years before were shown scattered about, instead

of piled neatly as they were formerly for so long.112

On April 25, 1962, the 150th anniversary of the

founding of the General Land Office, a historical

monument marking the point of beginning for the

cadastral survey of the public lands of Arizona was

dedicated. It is not a grand heap of rocks, as was

that first monument. Instead, it is a regulation

brass-capped iron survey post, set in a short,

slightly tapering concrete pillar. On one side of the

small obelisk is a granite plaque that tells the

nature of the marker and lists the important dates

concerning its history.119

RAILROAD GRANTS

During the Civil War, before John A. Clark chose

the initial point for the Arizona surveys, the need

for a connecting link between the isolated Pacific

coast and the eastern part of the Nation became

evident. Out of this need came the grants, in the

latter half of the 19th century, of extensive portions

of the public lands to aid the construction of a

transcontinental railroad and telegraph system.

The grants were for the rights of way, plus alternate

sections of land. Some of the land granted to the

railroads was sold to settlers. Other people settled

on the alternate sections of public land along the

route of the railroads.

The Act of July 2, 1864, under which land was

granted to the Northern Pacific Railroad, provided

"That the President of the United States shall cause

the lands to be surveyed for forty miles in width on

both sides of the said road, after the general route

shall be fixed, and as fast as may be required by the

construction of said railroad. . . . The route for

the railroad was selected by railroad surveyors, but

91

the railroad land grant surveys were public land

surveys. They were executed by United States

deputy surveyors.75

O&C Lands

Certain odd-numbered sections of the Public

Domain in western Oregon were granted to the

Oregon and California Railroad Company in 1866.

The terms of the grant were violated, so Congress,

in 1916, ordered the remaining unsold part of the

grant returned to public ownership. The checkerboard pattern of the O&C revested lands, along

with the reconveyed Coos Bay Wagon Road grant

lands, include more than 2.5 million acres of some

of the most valuable and productive timber lands in

the United States.106

Golden Spike

The Union Pacific and the Central Pacific

Railroads were the first to receive land grants.

When they met at Promontory Point, Utah, on May

10, 1869, a golden spike was driven. At the same

time, an iron one was to be driven, and it was

attached to the telegraph system in such a way that

the contact of the hammer's blow, as the spike was

driven to join the two sets of rails, sent a signal

across the nation from the Atlantic to the Pacific.13

In the latter half of the 19th century, Congress

passed several acts that authorized grants of public

land for various purposes. The Homestead Act and

the Act of July 1, 1862, which granted public lands

for railroad rights of way, and the Morril I Act, which

authorized public land grants to aid in the

establishment of certain state colleges, were all

passed in 1862. The Homestead Act was liberalized

several times in the following years. This was in

accordance with the idea that homesteaders would

become permanent settlers.

In 1869, the first extensive geological and

geographical surveys were authorized. These

surveys were of potential mineral lands, particularly within the Rocky Mountain region. They were

executed by United States deputy surveyors who

held private contracts under the supervision of the

General Land Office. Geographical and geological

surveys continued in this way for 10 years. At that

time the Geological Survey was established as a

separate office of the Department of the Interior.2

Mining, Timber, and Railroad Interests

The Mining Law of 1872 opened the valuable

mineral deposits in the lands belonging to the

United States to further prospecting and development. One of the requirements for obtaining a
WESTERN TRAVELBEFORE THE RAILROADS

Something of western travel conditions In the early 1860's may be learned from an account written by Benjamin Randall

who left Boston, to take care of business In Colorado, during the summer of 1862.103

Randall was 20 years old, and enthusiastic about his adventure as he traveled by rail as far as Atchison, Kansas. There

was no railroad across the prairie west of the Missouri River, so he was interested to learn that the Butterfield Overland

Dispatch Route had just sent a stagecoach from Atchison to Denver. He was on the next one when It left on September

29th.103

The Stagecoach

It was a Concord coach, the most popular typeof stagecoach In the West. Its name came from its place of manufacture

Concord, New Hampshire. It was said to be the most comfortable vehicle of its era for travel over unpredictable roads. Its

swaying, ship-at-sea motion was caused by the fact that the coach body was suspended on heavy leather straps attached

to rocker springs.13

Inside the coach were two seats, one facing frontward, the other backward. A removable third seat was often placed

between the other two. With three seats in place, It was considered a 9-passenger vehicle. The driver sat In front of the

coach, feet forward against the footboard. On the floor in this section were carried tools, a water pail, a buffalo robe, and

the strong box. The baggage section projected from the rear of the coach and was covered with heavy canvas or leather.

Extra baggage and mail sacks were carried on top of the coach. They were held there by a railing around the roof.13 The

Concord coach that carried young Randall had three seats, and was pulled by four good horses. There was a new road

across the rolling prairie, so they reached Topeka at 10 o'clock that night.'°3

They ate supper and started out again. That night Randall traveled through his first Indian country, the Potawatami

Indian Reserve, so he did not sleep much. The travelers changed horses at St. Mary's Stage Station at 4 a.m.

The Last House on the Plains

They reached Sauna, "the last house on the plains," at 3 o'clock the following morning. For the next 400 miles there was

nothing but open country and the huts where the herders for the stage teams stayed. Randall described the first of these

huts as being "two forked sticks five feet long stuck In the ground and a stick laid from one to the other so that when he (the

herder) threw his blanket over the cross stick it made an 'A' tent."

Surveyers Noted

As the teams were being changed, the station herder told them there had been no return stage.The herder was sure the

Indians had "inspected" it. At this point, Randall noted that a party of U.S. Government surveyors had killed some

rattlesnakes nearby. The stagecoach continued on. Later they came across the missing stage passengers and driver, who

had taken refuge with a wagon train. The stage had, indeed, been "inspected" by the Indians at Monument Rocks Stage

Station.

In order to have help sent to the wagon train and its unexpected guests, Randall's stage started back toward Atchison.

Along the way they saw "Immense herds of buffalo." They reached Rushton Stage Station at 6 o'clock in the evening, and

met a Government survey party. This time the surveyors had a cavalry escort. The stage driver and his passengers were

hungry, so the surveyors treated them to a meal of buffalo steaks.

The people on the stage took a different route and had no more trouble on their way to Denver. One assumes that the

survey party, still surrounded by hostile Indians out on the remote, rattlesnake-infested 1862 Kansas prairie, went right on

with its surveying.103

patent to a mining claim was a boundary survey.

The survey was to be paid for by the claimant.

The Timber Culture Act of 1873 granted tracts of

the public lands to settlers who planted trees on the

plains. The Timber Cutting Act of 1878 permitted

settlers in Colorado, Nevada, the Territories of

Idaho, Montana, Dakota, Wyoming, Utah, and New

Mexico to cut timber for agricultural, mining, or

domestic purposes on lands that were not subject

to entry except for mining.15

92

All of these acts, along with the Forest Management Act of 1897, with its Forest Lieu Section, and

the Preemption and liberalized Homestead Acts,

were passed to help settlers. Many of the people

who backed some of these laws, such as Senator

Henry Moore Teller of Colorado, did so in good

faith. Unfortunately, by the time the laws were

actually passed, they were so full of loopholes that

they almost invited fraud.16 Fraudulent use,

speculative abuse, and the exploitation of vast
natural resources on the public lands for private

gain was the ultimate result.

The first National Forest Reserve, called the

Yellowstone Park Timberland Reserve, was established under the Act of June 4, 1897. It was to be

surveyed, protected, and managed by the General

Land Office.1 The GLO was really prepared to

handle only one part of the jobthe surveys.

Binger Hermann, then commissioner of the GLO,

apparently realized the limitations caused by this

fact. And from the beginning, many persons

including Hermann were disturbed by the forest

lieu portion of the Forest Management Act. Under

this provision, any owner or claimant to land within

the reserves was allowed to give up that tract and

select an equal area of vacant land in its place.

The lieu provision was intended to help settlers

who feared that their land would not be permitted

access roads if it was enclosed by forest reserves,

or that churches and schools would be kept out

and that their land would thus be made less

valuable. Regardless of the good intent, however, it

was soon apparent that the lieu provision was

being taken advantage of by speculators who

bought State or railroad land that had little value or

from which the timber had already been cut. These

lands were then exchanged for choice timberlands

outside the reserves.15

The major beneficiaries of this Act were the

Santa Fe, the Northern Pacific, and the Southern

Pacific Railroads. Through the purchase of lieu

scrip from the railroads, the timber companies also

acquired valuable lands. The railroads frequently

exchanged lands fit only for grazing for lieu scrip,

which they then sold to the timber companies. The

huge timber companies then exchanged the scrip

for extremely valuable timber holdings.

In October 1898, Binger Hermann warned that

the forest lieu land selections were being misused.

He was afraid that the open exchange of grazing

land or land that had already been logged for

valuable timber land would lead to pressure from

the people who were actually making money from

this law, for the creation of more land reserves with

more lieu land scrip. Six months after he had

expressed this fear, Mount Rainier National Park

was created, and the Northern Pacific Railroad was

given the right to exchange its worthless rock and

brush land on the side of the mountain for surveyed

and unsurveyed lands outside the Mount Rainier

National Park.15

Transfer of Forest Reserves

During the next few years, as the General Land

Office made little headway in the administration of

93

the forest reserves, Gifford Pinchot mounted a

large-scale campaign to transfer the forest

reserves to the Department of Agriculture so that

they would come under his direction. Meantime,

Binger Hermann fell into difficulty with corrupt

elements in Oregon who were using the very

loopholes he had once warned against. Prior to his

dismissal, I-lermann destroyed incriminating

evidencean act for which he was later indicted.

The ensuing scandal (which involved various

officials including a U.S. Congressman and a

Senator) fairly well discredited the General Land

Office's administration of the forest reserves.

By the Act of February 1, 1905 (33 Stat., Part 1, p.

628), Congress, with the approval of W. A.

Richards, Hermann's successor in 1903,

transferred the forest reserves to the Department of

Agriculture. The General Land Office retained

responsibility for surveys and for the administration of the mining and land laws within the National

Forests.l

Wasson's Report

Commissioner Hermann was not the first person

to inform Congress of the inequities and abuses

inherent in the various public land laws. In his 1880

report to the commissioner of the General Land

Office, John Wasson, the surveyor general of

Arizona, seconded the conservation and resource

management ideas of the Public Land Commission, which had been authorized by Congress in

1879. The Land Commission had collected information and made recommendations to be used in

disposing of the public lands in the western part of

the United States to actual settlers. Wasson's

report stated:136

It is mere bosh to orate about our vast unsettled

and uncultivated domain which cannot be

populated to any great extent under present

legislation; and it is a cruel wrong to the poor to

induce them to go upon . . . [nonirrigable land

vaivable only in large tracts for pasturage] to

make homes. . . . [I recommend] all the

irrigable agricultural . . . lands

be . . . immediately surveyed into townships

and offered for sale in large tracts . . . with the

imperative condition of providing water . . . as

the case may require. . . Apparently there were enough surveyors

available to help prevent claim disputes and abuses

of the mining laws in some States. Albert Johnson,

the surveyor general of Colorado, commented in

1880 that the part of his report giving the names of

the deputy surveyors was of interest
"chiefly ... from the fact that there are so many

of them." The vast majority of them were mineral

surveyors, so he went on to say that, "claimants can

make no just complaint of the scarcity of surveyors,

as there are large numbers in every mining

camp. . . . It seems as if surveyors especially had

heeded the admonition of the . . . sage [Horace

Greeley], whose advice was, 'Go West, young

man.' "136

Reservation of Public Lands

The reservation of public lands was a highminded effort to preserve certain areas for the

people of the United States. In the early years of the

westward migration, the land of the United States

seemed so vast as to be almost limitless. That is

why the provision, under the Ordinance of May 20,

1785, which set aside land in each township forthe

support of public schools was so remarkable.

It also required great foresight, during the early

1800's, to reserve townships in Indiana that

contained salt springs, as did the action by which

four sections surrounding the Hot Springs in

Arkansas Territory were "reserved for the future

disposal of the United States" by section 3 of the

Act of April20, 1832. The survey of the public lands

did not reach the area of the Hot Springs until early

in 1838. At that time, the south half of both sections

28 and 29, all of both sections 32 and 33 in

Township 2 South, Range 19 West, and the north

half of both sections 4 and 5, in Township 3 South,

Range 19 West, were reserved.136

Gradually, other public lands that were of great

natural beauty, or that were in some way unique,

were set aside. In 1864, the "Gorge" and

headwaters of the Merced River "known as the YoSemite Valley" and the "Mariposa Big Tree Grove"

of giant sequoias were given to the State of

California to be held for all time for "public use,

resort, and recreation."15

In 1872, some 2 million acres on the Upper

Yellowstone River, near the junction of the

boundaries of Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming, were

set aside and dedicated "as a public park or

pleasuring ground for the benefit and enjoyment of

the people." In 1890, legislation set aside lands in

California that became Sequoia, General Grant

(later part of Kings Canyon), and Yosemite

National Parks. Prior to 1900, as an outgrowth of

this legislation, Mount Rainier National Park in

Washington was also created.

The State Park in Yosemite Valley was eventually

ceded back to the United States. It became a part of

Yosemite National Park in 1906.15 As years passed,

94

other tracts of public land were withdrawn and

dedicated as National Parks, National Monuments,

Wildlife Sanctuaries, and National Forest

Reserves. The boundaries of these areas were run

and marked by cadastral surveyors.

More of the speculation and fraud possible under

certain laws was pointed out by the commissioner

of the General Land Office in his 1890 report:135

The Act of June 3, 1878, providing forthe sale of

[timber and stone] lands in California, Oregon,

Nevada, and Washington should be repealed. I

have found . .

. that while it provides for

entries of not more than 160 acres in all, for the

sole use and benefit of the entryman . .

. it has

been made the vehicle of speculative and

fraudulent appropriation from the beginfling . . . and has caused thedestruction of the

forests where most needed [to protect the

watersheds].

This actthe 1878 Timber and Stone Act

eventually was repealed, as was suggested in 1890.

However, such things apparently take time; it was

not repealed until 1955.1

Fraudulent Surveys

In the 1800's, General Land Office examiners of

surveys discovered evidence of both faudulent

entry upon the public lands and fraudulent surveys

of those lands. A large-scale investigation followed. The annual reports of the GLO for the years of

those investigations showthatthefraudseventually involved persons in positions of trust. Unfortunately, this included afew deputy surveyors who

were unable to resist the temptations offered to

them.

Of those cases that involved fraudulent surveys,

the California frauds were the worst. Of them, the

Benson Syndicate cases stand out as the most

infamous. Among them were cases of fictitious

holders of surveying contracts, false witnesses,

faked field notes, false oaths, and fraudulent

payment of drafts on the United States Treasury.

Those involved in the Benson Syndicate activities

included employees in the office of the surveyor

general as well as deputy surveyors, well-known

bankers, and John A. Benson himself. The syndicate operated in California and other Western

States primarily in the 1870's and 1880's. Several

surveying contracts and a few hundred thousand

dollars were ultimately involvedin all, a very

small percentage of the number of surveys

executed during those years. This regrettable era

ended in 1898 when the last of the Benson fraud

cases was closed.30
Business as Usual

During the era of fraudulent surveys, the

ordinary, honest surveys proceded as usual. In

1880, the surveyor general of Utah reported that

there had been a good bit of trouble in Utah

Territory because of the loss or destruction of the

public survey corners established in certain

localities during the 1850's. He wrote that, according to his information, the principal reason behind

the destruction of the markers was the fact that the

Mormons, having been instructed by their church

to do so, plowed up and destroyed all the corners

and had their land run off into 5- and 10-acre

lots.136

Public land in the central part of Indian Territory

(Oklahoma) was opened to homesteaders on April

22, 1889.1 Thousands of settlers took part in a

thundering stampede for choice land in the new

95

area. In the years that followed, other well-known

"runs" occurred, as treaties were negotiated, and

Indians took allotments for their reservations. Less

well known is the fact that all these areas had been

fully surveyed before they were opened for settlement.

With all the usual difficulties, including illness

and injuries, early surveyors also had their share of

red tape to untangle. On March 19, 1889, Deputy

Surveyor Thomas S. Wilkes wrote to Douglas W.

Taylor, then surveyor general of Oregon, about his

field notes. Wilkes wrote Taylor that he possessed

patience76

. . of vast extent, and I'll keep sticking on my

autograph as long as it lasts and . . hope to

get the notes written up inside of the period of

my natural life so that they suit the

fastidiousness of the General Land Office and

fill all their red tape requirements.
F. V. HAYDEN

During the 1850's, the Sioux of the northern

plains grew accustomed to seeing a slim, bearded

young man with a bag over his shoulder and a small

pick in his right hand. They thought him mad

because all he did was hurry from place to place,

gathering rocks. They gave him an Indian name

that was said to mean"man-who-picks-up-stonesrunning," and left him alone. His real name was

Ferdinand Vandiveer Hayden,4 and he was not

mad; he was an unusual young man who had found

a career in geology at atime when it was not really a

respectable thing to do.

Hayden had become a teacher at the age of 16

and two years later entered Oberlin College in

Ohio. When he graduated from Oberlin in 1850 he

was considered an impractical, dreamy young

man. Nevertheless, Hayden entered medical

school, studying geology and paleontology while

he earned his degree in medicine. Immediately

after receiving his M.D., he accepted an opportunity to spend a season in the Nebraska Territory (now

South Dakota), collecting Tertiary and Cretaceous

fossils of the White River Badlands.4 This was the

beginning of Hayden's remarkable career as a

geologist and explorer-surveyor.

During the following 10 years, Hayden served his

apprenticeship as a scientific explorer. He decided

that he wanted to explore the headwaters of the

Yellowstone River, for he had heard fantastic tales

of it. And he also wanted to explore the central

Rocky Mountain region. He had the germ of an idea

for a Government-financed geological survey that

might serve to introduce the great natural

resources of the country to the people of the East.

In the comparatively peaceful period that followed the agony of the Civil War, the American people

focused their interest on the West. By 1867,

Andrew Johnson was President of the United

States. The rails of the Union Pacific were being

extended westward while those of the Central

Pacific already reached east to the High Sierras.

Cattle were being raised in Texas, and soon they

would be driven north to feed upon the Great Plains

where as yet only buffalo grazed. The time was

right for experienced scientists to take advantage

of the situation. A handful did, and one of them was

F. V. Hayden.

Chapter 11

THE DIRECT SYSTEM

97

Hayden's Surveys

Hayden's opportunity to have his own survey

came about when Nebraska became a State on

March 1, 1867. Money had been appropriated to

defray the expenses of the Nebraska Territorial

Legislature and some of it was unspent. Congress

granted this unused sum "for the purpose of

procuring a geological survey of Nebraska, said

survey to be prosecuted under the direction of the

Commissioner of the General Land Office" (14

Stat. 470).

Hayden was appointed the geologist in charge of

the Geological Survey of Nebraska. The following

year, he was authorized to conduct another survey.

By 1869, the transcontinental railroad was completed and Hayden's appropriation had grown to

$10,000double that of the first two years. The

Geological Survey was removed from the administration of the commissioner of the General

Land Office and put directly under the authority of

the Secretary of the Interior. It was also given a new

namethe United States Geological Survey of the

Territories (15 Stat. 306).

Yellowstone-Teton Region

In the next few years, large, well-outfitted parties

under Hayden's leadership explored and mapped

the legendary Yellowstone area and the splendid

Teton Mountains. The Indians called this region,

which now includes Yellowstone National Park and

Grand Teton National Park, "the top of the world."

Mountain men knew this magnificent land existed,

but fur-bearing animals were plentiful in more

accessible areas, so they did not go there.

Travelers on the Oregon Trail bypassed it because

the few passes that exist are snowfilled for 9

months or so of each year. And the miners who had

found gold in Montana, Colorado, and the Dakotas

had no reason to go there. So, until 1871, when

Hayden led the first Government expedition into

the area, it was virtually an unknown land. Without

a doubt, the Hayden survey helped make the

American people aware of the grandeur of the area

and fanned their interest in its preservation.

Central Rockies

The Ute Indians were removed from much of the

central Rocky Mountain mining area by the San
Juan Cession of 1873. It was an area that was about

to feel the pressure of westward expansion and,

suddenly, the fact that no reliable maps of the

region had ever been produced became a matter of

importance. In his "Annual Report of the United

States Geological and Geographical Survey of the

Territories, Embracing Colorado, Being a Report

of Progress of the Exploration for the Year 1873,"

Hayden stated that". . . The prospect of its rapid

development within the next five years, by some of

the most important railroads in the West, renders it

very desirable that its resources be made known to

the world at as early a date as possible." It was

Hayden's seventh annual report and the first year

that "Geographical" was a part of the title.4 By this

time, Hayden occupied a well-established position

both in the West and in Washington. His work was

his passion and he had become adept at getting

Congress to see things his way.

Washington Visits

During the time Hayden spent in Washington he

was a frequent visitor at the home of his friend

Robert Marshall Johnson, the president of the

Metropolitan Iron Works. Hayden enjoyed his visits

with the Johnson family, and so, especially, did one

of Johnson's sons, Frank.

Frank Minitree Johnson, born on November 4,

1872, was fascinated by Hayden's experiences.

From the time he was a small boy, Frank listened

avidly to Dr. Hayden's adventures. He asked

endless questions about the work and never

seemed to tire of hearing of the days of danger and

discovery that were part of Hayden's life. He was

equally impressed with the explorer-surveyor's

commitment to his work. His talks with Hayden

instilled in young Johnson an interest in the

exacting but exciting work of surveying. Hayden's

historic exploration of the Yellowstone, his rides

through Colorado's San Luis Valley, and his

pictures of such things as the ancient cliff

dwellings along the Mancos River were certainly

fuel for a boy's imagination, but beyond that there

was the inspiration of this visionary man of science

whose intellect and drive had made him one of the

giants of his time.

Geological Survey

In the 11 years from 1867 until the various

geological surveys were consolidated by the

creation of the United States Geological Survey in

1879, Hayden's survey accomplished the popularization of the Great West. It gave easterners a

new, vital, and more accurate picture of the

98

western scene while fulfilling its basic function of

mapping the West and providing the foundation for

a good deal of our knowledge of the natural history

and topography of the region. Hayden, who was

appointed geologist of the Montana division of the

new U.S. Geological Survey, remained active until

1886 when illness forced him to resign. When Dr.

Hayden died in 1887, Frank Johnson was 15 years

old. All his life he would remember not only

Hayden's tales of adventure, but his dedication and

his pride in his work.

THE OPENING OF THE WEST

Until after the Civil War, the High Plains country

was looked upon as the Great American Desert.

With the advent of the railroads and homesteaders,

it was presumed that the area would soon be

settled, but the main result was conflict. As the

railroads reached the plains, cattlemen moved

their herds northward from Texas to meet the rails.

"Nesters," who wanted to fence and farm the land,

were in conflict with the cowboys who wanted the

whole area from Texas to Canada to be declared

open range. Both were in conflict with a third groupthe Indians. An enormous part of this

region was Indian land and, therefore, was not

available to either the cattlemen or the

homesteaders.

Dawes General Allotment Act

By 1887, pressure to open more land to survey

and for settlement had resulted in passage of the

Dawes General Allotment Act (Act of Feb. 8, 1887,

24 Stat. 388). Under this act, individual Indians

were granted allotments (which they could sell

once they had clear title), and the "surplus" Indian

land could be purchased by the United States. The

land could then be surveyed and disposed of in the

same manner as other public land. As portions of

the ceded land were surveyed and opened to

settlement, a series of land 'runs" took place in

1889, 1891, 1892, 1893, 1895, and 1901.

During these years there was speculation about

the merit of combining scientific and public land

surveys, and, in 1895, the U.S. Geological Survey

began the surveysboth topographic and

cadastralof the recently ceded lands of the Five

Civilized Tribes in Indian Territory.

Field Examinations of Surveys

The various surveyors general were responsible

for examining surveys in the field in their respective

districts until July 1881, when a system calling for
the examination of plats and field notes in the office

of the commissioner was inaugurated. Under the

new system, each surveyor general still approved

the surveys in his own district, even though he no

longer examined surveys in the field. The approval

consisted of little more than a comparison of field

notes and plats so that any discrepancies could be

corrected. This was because, no matter how

diligently the field notes and plats were checked in

the office, there was no way to tell whether or not

the actual lines surveyed and monuments established on the ground were as represented in the

survey returns.

In his report of October 25, 1881, the commissioner urged that funds for the field examination of surveys be disbursed by his office. He

recommended that the system be changed so a

deputy surveyor would no longer be expected to

examine the surveys of other deputies who would,

in turn, examine his work, as had been true in the

past. Instead, under the recommended system,

experienced surveyors would be employed as

examiners of surveys and would be directly

responsible to the General Land Office, not to a

surveyor general.

Such field examinations were put into effect

about 1882 and, beginning shortly after the

establishment of a career Civil Service in 1883, all

examiners of surveys were hired directly by the

GLO under Civil Service regulations.

FRANK M. JOHNSON

Johnson's Early Career

In September 1895, Frank M. Johnson, finallyout

of school, reported for work as an axeman for a

field party working north of the South Canadian

River not far from present-day Calvin, Oklahoma.

Johnson arrived in the West when painted and

feathered Indians could still be seen strolling about

in their blankets, beads, and buckskins. However, it

was a time of unbelievably swift change. Oklahoma

City was only 6 years old, but in that short time it

had grown from a handful of tents and shacks into a

bustling metropolis of frame houses, stone banks,

and multi-storied business buildings. By 1910,

Oklahoma and Indian Territories had populations

of 790,301 and 107,658, respectively.15

Johnson was well prepared when he applied for

temporary work with the Geological Survey. He

had attended the prestigious Corcoran Scientific

School of Columbian (later George Washington)

University, where he had excelled in mathematics

and was active in athletics. Johnson was notonlya

99

good student and a zealous athlete, he was also a

mathematics instructor for two years, and he had

the foresight to work for various engineering firms

during the early 1890's, while he watched for a

chance to go West.

His training, experience, and enthusiasm for

hard work impressed his superiors in the U.S.

Geological Survey. Soon he was advanced to the

position of assistant topographer, then to transit

work, and, within a few short months, he had

become a surveyor in charge of field parties

making public land surveys. During the next few

years, Frank M. Johnson surveyed in nearly all of

the "Five Nations."

When the field work ended, Johnson completed

the necessary office computations and, on

November 30, 1898, he resigned from the

Geological Survey. His experience in public land

surveying prompted him to take the regular Civil

Service examination for examiners of surveys and

he thus began his career with the General Land

Office the following March.

Arthur D. Kidder

When the field season in Colorado and New

Mexico ended in 1900, Johnson returned to

Washington. There he met a young scientist and

engineer named Arthur Dale Kidder. Kidder, born

on March 26, 1876, had graduated with honors

from a course in civil engineering at the Rose

Polytechnic School in Terre Haute, Indiana, the

previous year. He was a serious and scholarly

young man with a great interest in astronomy and

surveying. Kidder had been appointed to a position

in the General Land Office in July 1900, so he had

been there only a short time when he and Frank

Johnson first met.

In April 1901, Johnson took charge of the

completion of the subdivisional surveys in the

Indian Territory, including those in the Wichita

Mountain Area (now the Wichita National Forest

and Game Preserve in southwestern Oklahoma).

Arthur Kidder was his associate on that survey and,

later, on the survey of three townsites in what was

then the Kiowa and Commanche Indian Reservation, prior to the opening of that land to homestead

settlement. During the execution of these surveys,

Johnson and Kidder became close friends.

Although they were very different in temperament

and personality, they found they worked well

together. They were both dedicated young men

and they learned to have great respect for each

other. It was the beginning of an association they

both were to value for the rest of their lives.
Johnson's Diversified Experience

During his 6 years as an examiner of surveys,

Johnson had worked mostly in the Rocky Mountain area. He surveyed, examined surveys, made

engineering investigations, and compiled special

reports. In his travels, Johnson met a lot of the "oldtimers" who had been instrumental in shaping the

history of the region, and, in the process, he

developed a life-long interest in the history of the

American West. The regions where Johnson

worked were extremely diversifiedbroad valleys,

level plains, high plateaus, rugged mountains, and

deep canyonsand the types of cadastral surveys

were just as varied. It was work that enabled him to

gain an unusually good understanding of the

surveying practice of the General Land Office. He

also gained an understanding of the legal phases of

the work, the need for a general improvement, and

the practical limitations that were always to be

confronted.

Usually, Johnson's winter months were devoted

to administrative assignments in the Washington

office where he met several influential men. At that

time there was a great demand for surveys, so it

became a period of increased direct contact

between the administrative branches of the GLO

and those engaged in field operations.

In 1904, word came that the Shoshone Indian

lands in Wyoming were to be subdivided before

they were opened for settlement. This work was to

be done by private surveyors under contract

according to the system that had been in effect

since the beginning of the public land surveys. It

was a large project and, in April 1905, Johnson

resigned from the GLO and opened his own

engineering office in Cheyenne Wyoming. As a

U.S. deputy surveyor, Johnson contracted to make

the subdivisions of the Shoshone lands. When that

work was finished, he contracted to resurvey lands

within the Union Pacific Land Grant. He also made

subdivisional resurveys and determinations of the

boundaries of lands which had been patented to

private owners. He continued to survey in Wyoming until 1910.

During these years when he was busy with both

private and public land surveys, Johnson gained

valuable surveying experience. He also gained a

reputation for being able to settle differences about

the limiting boundaries of the land held by

stockmen and settlers. Some of these longstanding disputes were potentially violent, and

their settlement required more than familiarity with

surveying problems; it required the ability to

understand people. Johnson possessed the talent

100

of being able to instill confidence in the soundness

and impartiality of his decisions.

CONTRACT SYSTEM ENDS

During these early years of the 20th century,

public land survey work moved gradually into more

mountainous, rugged, and less accessible country.

At the outset, the contract system had worked well,

considering the instruments used and the fact that

the surveys were always on the farthest edge of the

developed land. Now, however, it became increasingly difficult to get contractors to survey in

the roughest areas. In such areas, many conscientious surveyors found that they could make no

profit when they surveyed according to the law and

their own high standards. Some of them went

broke trying. Others simply refused to contract for

such surveys.

A few contract surveyors found the only way they

could survive and pay their men was to take an

occasional shortcut. For example, in subdivisional

work the basic requirement is that all lines must be

within both rectangular and cardinal limits. A

knowledge of the condition of the previously

surveyed township boundaries is thus required.

This information can be obtained in only one way:

the surveyor must retrace the previously surveyed

lines. Deputy surveyors were not paid for such

retracements so, in rough and mountainous areas,

some of them were merely cursory. The result was

an occasional survey that was not executed strictly

according to regulations. When evidence of such

shortcuts, or of poorly made or erroneous surveys,

was found, it became apparent that the contract

system had outlived its usefulness.

THE BEGINNING OF

THE DIRECT SYSTEM

Prior to 1910 there were several knowledgeable

and active proponents of a system under which

public lands surveys would be made by surveyors

hired directly by the Federal Government. Charles

L. DuBois, Norman B. Sweitzer, Arthur D. Kidder,

and Frank M. Johnson were among those who were

most outspoken about the many advantages and

efficiences to be gained by the adoption of such a

system.

On June 25, 1910, Congress passed the 1911

Appropriations Act, authorizing the inauguration

of the direct system of surveys effective July 1,

1910. Thus, Frank Johnson, who was appointed

U.S. supervisor of surveys, and Kidder, who acted
as U.S. surveyor and supervisor,36 were given the

chance to prove their point. They were to supervise

the new cadastral surveying organization.

First Direct System Survey

On July 14, 1910, Special Instructions for Group

No. 1, Colorado, were approved. Assignment

Instructions to execute the retracement of certain

exterior lines and the subdivision of fractional

Township 14 South, Range 100 West, Sixth

Principal Meridian, were then issued to Albert C.

Horton, Jr., a former examiner of surveys. Horton

immediately went to the field, near White Water,

Colorado, and began official work on the survey.

The returns were filed in short order, and the

survey was approved by Timothy O'Conner,

surveyor general for Colorado, on September 30,

1910.

Later, Johnson frequently told cadastral surveyors about this survey. He always insisted that

the extraordinary efficiency and speed shown by

the survey crew under Horton was responsible for

the overwhelmingly favorable reaction to the direct

system from the Department of the Interior, the

Congress, and the public. All newly appointed U.S.

surveyors and transitmen were encouraged to

emulate the efficiency of Horton's crew.159

When the survey of Township 14 South, Range

100 West, was completed in 1937 under Group No.

297, Colorado, all the Horton corners were found.

The first survey completed and approved underthe

direct system was found to be acceptable in its

entirety.159

The Idea Behind the Direct System

The idea of the direct system was not a new one;

on December 23, 1894, in his second annual

message to Congress, President Cleveland

stated :94

The suggestion that a change be made in the

manner of securing surveys of the public lands

is especially worthy of consideration. I am

satisfied that these surveys should be made by a

corps of competent surveyors under the immediate control and direction of the Commissioner of the General Land Office.

Even though this suggestion did not become law

until 16 years later, no guidelines had ever been

established for organizing the scattered, highly

independent men who were experienced in executing public land surveys into a cohesive

surveying corps with uniformly high standards.

101

Early Problems

In fact, Johnson and Kidder quickly discovered

that in 1910 there was not even a permanent survey

office in Denver. It was only after some time and

some discussion that they were permitted to hire a

part-time "typewriter," as typists were called in

those days.15°

Johnson and Kidder also discovered that there

was an expanding need for surveys to accommodate the swift settlement of the land then taking

place. And then there were all the complicated,

isolated, fragmentary surveys upon which no

qualified surveyor had dared to stake his reputation under the contract system waiting to be done.

Meanwhile, the need for resurveysparticularly in

Colorado, Wyoming, and Nebraskawas rapidly

becoming urgent.

Under the new system, all surveys and resurveys

pertaining to the public lands were to be made by

surveyors who were employed directly by the GLO

under Civil Service regulations. The roll of U.S.

surveyors who were eligible under Civil Service

regulations was formed from the former list of U.S.

examiners of surveys. One or two of these men

were already in the field examining current

contract surveyswork that had to be done.

Several well-qualified contract surveyors who

might have passed Civil Service examinations were

already busy executing surveys under contracts

that had been signed prior to the creation of the

direct system. This meant that there were only 10 or

12 U.S. surveyors actually available in July1910 to

meet the immediate and enormous need for

surveys and resurveys.

It is to the credit of both Johnson and Kidder that

they did not allow these pressures to force them

into following the sketchy plan that originally had

been contemplated. That idea, apparently, had two

supervisors in the field organizing survey parties

while simultaneously trying to promote field work

uniformity and efficiency.

One Supervisor of Surveys

Even though the law (36 Stat. 1416) provided for

two supervisors of surveys, both Johnson and

Kidder realized that neither economy of operation

nor efficiency of service to the public would be

served under divided authority. Both were too wise

in the ways of double survey parties to allow the

new organization to stumble into the pitfall of

confused responsibility. (In a double party there

are two surveyors; each runs a surveying crew.

However, in order to ensure a well-coordinated
/ Surveyors occasionally had problems reconciling the directives of the General Accounting Office with the realities of

their unusual line of work. For example, in 1922 the GAO sent out a statement to the effect that the purchase of drinking

water was not permitted without a certificate from the local board of health, or a reliable anaiysis stating that the water was

Impure or unwholesome.

A. C. Horton took exception to the directive. Out In the desert where his men were working it was not a matter of impure

water; It was a matter of no water at all. As he put it, "Occasionally during the progress of our cadastral work we encounter,

on the desert, cattle holes and other stagnant pools, which we are only too glad to find and the water from which we use

without cost. However, in most instances we are obliged to buy the water."58

surveying operation and keep the lines of authority

from becoming blurred, only one is designated

party chief; the other is his associate.)

Almost from the beginning of the directsystem it

was clear that, of the two men, Frank Johnson was

the stronger organizer and administrator. Along

with a superior technical knowledge, he had an

unusual capacity for dealing with the public, the

authorities in Washington, and the personnel of a

growing staff.

Kidder, much more the scientist, freely gave

Johnson credit for the success of the organization

of the surveying service under the new system. In

turn, Johnson was openly appreciative of Kidder's

particular talents and contributions. The roles they

adopted were complementary rather than competitive. Kidder, acknowledging Johnson's greater

administrative capabilities, acted as his associate.

Virtually from the start, then, Johnson was the U.S.

supervisor of surveys.

Johnson brought a certain flair and zest to the

role. He knew Washington politics, cadastral

surveying, and surveyors. He was at his best in

dealing with the large scope of his new responsibilities. Aside from that, he had a thorough grasp

of the legal basis of the public land surveys. All his

energies were dedicated to the improvement of

those surveys under the direct system. He approached the task with a view to creating a

surveying service that would be both technically

excellent and administratively sound.

Johnson was highly esteemed by officials and by

the men of the surveying service. It was Johnson's

personality and drive that molded the character of

the cadastral surveying service, and for nearly 34

years he gave it both form and direction. Under his

careful guidance and due in large measure to his

knowledge, understanding, and encouragement,

the surveying service kept pace with advances in

the art and science of surveying.

Kidder's Role

Johnson and Kidder agreed at the outset that the

work was to be carried out in accordance with the

102

highest technical and scientific standards; and, in

so doing, Kidder gained wide public recognition

through his knowledge of the theory, construction,

and use of surveying instruments, and his work on

various publications, including both the 1930 and

1947 Manuals. His surveys and resurveys in the

Eastern and Southern States were intricate in

character and frequently involved considerations

such as mineral or riparian rights. Kidder spent

much of his career as a boundary commissioner

and surveyor. Over the years his surveys settled

disputes that involved land worth many millions of

dollars. He contributed a great deal to the science

and art of surveying, and in so doing he achieved

an enviable reputation as a scientist and surveyor.

The academic world took note, and his services as

a speaker were frequently in demand.

In the matter of surveying, Kidder's standards

were as high as Johnson's. It was Kidder who

revised the earlier tables used by the U.S. Government in observing the position of the Sun, the

North Star, and other selected stars. These

computations were then arranged in the form of the

present statistical tables technically called the

ephemeris. Though it was first published in 1910 to

meet the needs of the new surveying service,

Kidder continued to prepare the ephemeris annually until 1944. Still published annually, the

ephemeris aids surveyors in establishing

astronomical bearings for the determination of the

directions of their survey lines.

Kidder also calculated and compiled the "Standard Field Tables and Trigonometric Formulas,"

which was also published in 1910 as an aid to

surveyors under the new direct system. It proved its

usefulness and is currently in its eighth edition.

Cadastral surveyors have become so familiar with

the small maroon-bound volume that they almost

never use its long, impressive title; they refer to it

simply as "The Red Book."

The New Organization

Johnson, quick to recognize and acknowledge

merit in others, rapidly gathered around him a
corps of competent surveyors. A number of men

hired under the new organization were drawn from

the ranks of contracting deputy surveyors who had

been engaged in western surveys prior to 1910.

There were a few who had specialized in public

land surveys but there had been, for the most part,

no continuity of employment. Initially, surveyors

were detailed to whatever area in which surveys

had to be made, and were furloughed without pay

after their field notes were written.160 Obviously, if

good surveyors were to be retained, this system

had to be changed.

The size of the area under his jurisdiction (Alaska

to Florida, inclusive) prompted Johnson's first

major moveto divide the country into surveying

districts. Men who had been examiners of surveys

formed the nucleus of a supervisory corps. They

were assigned to the various districts as assistant

supervisors of surveys. Each assistant supervisor

was permanently assigned a group of surveyors to

take care of the surveys within his district, though,

when needed elsewhere, they were detailed to

other districts or to the headquarters office. Kidder,

as Johnson's associate, was placed in charge of the

Eastern States district on much the same footing as

the assistant supervisors.

In the early years of the direct system, the

assistant supervisors of field surveying districts

were as follows:

District No. 1, Montana: J. Scott Harrison

District No. 2, Wyoming and Colorado: Herman Jaeckel

District No. 3, Nebraska and South Dakota:

N. B. Sweitzer

District No. 4, New Mexico: A. E. Compton

District No. 5, Arizona and California: A. C.

Horton, Jr.

District No. 6, Utah and Nevada: Geo. D. D.

Kirkpatrick

District No. 7, Idaho: Frank S. Spofford

District No. 8, Oregon and Washington:

Ernest P. Rands

District No. 9, Alaska: John P. Walker

Indian Land Surveys

At the beginning of the direct system, all surveys

on Indian lands were executed under the direction

of F. A. Dunnington, topographer in charge of

Indian surveys. In 1916, however, Dunnington was

transferred to a clerical position in the GLO and the

commissioner directed that all Indian land surveys

were to be done under the general surveying

organization of the GLO. The surveyors and

transitmen of Dunnington's group were detailed to

103

work under the direction of the assistant supervisor

of surveys of the district in which they were

currently working. It was assumed that they would

continue to work on Indian land surveys when

necessary, as they were experienced in that type of

work.

The camping and transportation equipment

used by Dunnington was also to be transferred to

the district in which it was situated at the time the

transfer actually took effect. It was expected that

Dunnington's surveyors would be busy on office

work concerning surveys that were already underway until about July 1, 1916. In the meantime,

Indian land surveys were to be scheduled and

worked on by cadastral surveyors along with

regular public land surveys.24

Results

Surveyors, almost by definition, are independent

individuals. Under Johnson they worked with a will

toward a common goalthe success of the new

surveying corps. As supervisor of surveys, Johnson was required to spend some time in

Washington each year, and he was well respected

there. He also made it a point to keep in touch with

the surveying districts and their varying conditions. The assistant supervisors welcomed his

visits, as indicated in the following letter:49

DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

GENERAL LAND OFFICE

Portland, Oregon,

March 10, 1912.

Mr. Frank M. Johnson,

Supervisor of Surveys,

Denver, Colorado.

My dear Mr. Johnson:

I have your note of the 8th inst., advising that you may

reach here about the 26th inst., which is indeed good

news. There are a good many things I would like to

take up with you in connection with survey matters.

Now as to when the rainy season ends will say that it

was here when I arrived in Oregon forty-three years

ago and hasn't ended yet. However, we still have

hopes.

Yours very sincerely,

E. P. Rands,

Asst. Supervisor of Surveys
REGULATION IRON POSTS

Under the Act 01May27, 1908(35 Stat. 347), a regulation

iron post was adopted for monumenting the public land

surveys. Until then, the identifying cornersthe vitally

important markers which made up the physical ground

record of the surveys of the public landswere made of

whatever materials were at hand. Often these materials

were wood posts, or sod or stone mounds. The wood was

subject to deterioration and the sod could flatten. Stones, if

well marked, were extremely durable, but unfortunately not

everyone recognized a marked stone as a corner of a public

land survey. Settlers sometimes destroyed them without

knowing their value.

In the Land Office Report 011880, the surveyor general of

California, Theodore Wagner, stated that it was a "matter of

surprise" to him that action had not been taken long before,

toward a "system of monumentation calculated to

perpetuate the corners of the public surveys." He noted

that many of the corners that had been established a

comparatively short time before were already obliterated.

He made strong recommendation that "iron

monuments. . . be used to mark the corners of the public

surveys. . . at as early a date as possible."l

With his recommendation he sent a detailed description

and a drawing of a design for a metal marker. He estimated

that in San Francisco it would cost $6.25, including the

township, range, and section plates, and the screws to

attach them. The marker was to be 41/3 inches in diameter

and 44 inches long, with a heavy extended base, of metal

three-eights of an inch thick. Wagner estimated it would

weigh about 80 pounds.l36

Even though Wagner was right about the need for a

standard metal marker, surveyors agree that It is a good

thing a less cumbersome one was finally accepted. More

than 20 years passed before the General Land Office finally

asked that a metal marker be devised, It had to be of a size

that could be carried, easy to install, and economical to

manufacture. Most important, it had to last.

After experimentation, the marker finally evolved into the

regulation iron post now in use. It Is a 30-inch long,

wrought-iron, zinc-galvanized pipe. Its inside measurement is 2 inches, and its base is flanged so it can be firmly

THIS DESIGN APPEARED IN THE 1880

GENERAL LAND OFFICE REPORT

(levAr/ON

Surface of Qround

81/2"

anchored. Regulation posts weigh about 12 pounds and

have a brass cap securely fastened to the top. These brass

caps are inscribed with Information identifying the corners

they mark.

It is thought that brothers John and Scott Stewart set the

first of the many thousands of these posts that now mark

the surveys of the public lands. Their survey area was near

Green River, Wyoming.

The assistant supervisors of surveys had fairly

frequent contact with Johnson and the authorities

in the Washington office. They understood the

aims of the organization and the importance of the

surveys.

Johnson's faith in the superiority of the direct

system over the contract system was justified even

in the first year of its existence. The best surveyors

available had been hired "solely upon their past

record for efficient services." Most of the new force

was composed of men who had been employed

before by contract surveyors "whose work had

104

been passed upon and found correct byexaminers

of surveys." The surveys of this first year resulted in

a savings of $5 per mile, and the work was above

reproach.134 In early 1913, in recognition of theway

the organization was already operating, the

commissioner of the General Land Office officially

designated Frank M. Johnson as chief supervisor

of surveys and Arthur D. Kidder as associate

supervisor of surveys.43

Johnson counted on his men and he was

straightforward in his dealings with them. They

responded with hard work, respect, and admira-
tion. He rarely gave orders as one would to

employees. Still, his pleasant manner was seldom

misunderstood; the surveyors knew he would

brook no slipshod surveying practice or shirking of

their jobs. By the same token, they also knew that

he would back them up if they were right, or that if

an honest error occurred, they would be assisted in

correcting it. Gradually, surveyors who did not

measure up to the high standards set by Johnson

were weeded out of the service. By 1915 the

surveying force had been built up to 160 chiefs of

field parties.

105

By then, most of the surveyors were young men

who had gained their skills under the direct system.

The fact that several of them had become effective

party chiefs was a particular source of satisfaction

to the supervisor of surveys. The high morale and

the wholesome friendly rivalry between districts

and between survey parties also pleased Johnson.

In 1916 he wrote (with pardonable pride) that he

knew of ". . . no field service of the Government or

anywhere else where more effective hard work is

done than in ours."43

(
THE BASIS OF CADASTRAL SURVEYS

Cadastral surveys deal with one of the oldest and

most fundamental facets of human society

ownership of land. They are the surveys that

create, mark, define, retrace, or reestablish the

boundaries and subdivisions of the public lands of

the United States. They are not at all like scientific

surveys of an informative character, which may be

amended due to the availability of additional

information or because of changes in conditions or

standards of accuracy. Although cadastral surveys

employ scientific methods and precise measurement, they are not based upon science, they are

based upon law. Cadastral surveys cannot be

repudiated, altered, ignored, or corrected; the

boundaries created or reestablished by them are

unchangeable so long as they control rights vested

in the lands affected.

The official record of the field work of a cadastral

survey ordinarily consists of a plat and the field

notes, both of which must be approved by proper

authority. A plat, as used technically by the BLM, is

a drawing that represents the particular area

included in a survey (such as a township, private

land claim, or mineral claim) and the lines

surveyed, established, retraced, or resurveyed. It

shows the direction and length of each of the

surveyed lines; the relationship to the adjoining

official surveys; the boundaries, descriptions, and

area of each parcel of land subdivided; and, insofar

as is practicable, the relief and improvements

within the limits of the survey. Field notes are the

official written record of the survey, certified by the

field surveyor. Originally transcribed by hand, they

are now typewritten.

In general, cadastral surveys are based upon the

intent of the 1785 Land Ordinance, which established the rectangular system of surveys. Much

information concerning the various subsequent

amendatory statutes, the regulations and instructions required by the laws, and the various

applicable court decisions may be found in volume

43 of "United States Code Annotated."

All cadastral surveys (including resurveys or

other officially approved actions that result in

modifying or changing the record of the original

survey) contain three basic elements:

1. The initiating documents, including:

a. A written request with proper justification

Chapter 12

ABOUT CADASTRAL SURVEYS

107

The Special Instructions

The Assignment Instructions

The actual field survey and the preparation of

the official records of the field work

The official approval process, including:

The required filing

Any required publication

Years after a survey has been officially accepted

and approved, the initiating documents of the

survey often prove to be a critically important part

of the survey. The written request for survey is the

basis for determining the validity of the survey and

whether or not the survey is authorized by law; it

initiates a chain of official action.

The Special Instructions cite the pertinent

authority, the appropriation or other funding, the

nature of the work to be performed, and specific

instructions for the survey that may not be covered

in the current "Manual of Surveying Instructions."

Assignment of a group number is also included

in the Special Instructions. Since the beginning of

the direct system of surveys in 1910, cadastral

survey projects authorized under a single set of

instructions have been referred to by their group

number, for example, Group No. 1, Colorado.

Assignment Instructions authorize the responsible

employee or employees to execute the work cited

in the Special Instructions.

Thus, cadastral surveys are far more than the

measurement of lines and angles and the establishment of corners in the fi.eld. The results of cadastral

surveys are quasi-legal documents that can be

obtained only by a series of events in which all

these elements are present in their proper order. In

the case of Cragin v. Powell (128 U.S. 691,696), the

Supreme Court held:

It is a well settled principle that when lands are

granted according to an official plat of the

survey of such lands, the plat itself, with all its

notes, lines, descriptions and landmarks,

becomes as much a part of the grant or deed by

which they are conveyed, and controls so far as

limits are concerned, as if such descriptive

features were written out upon the face of the

deed or the grant itself.

Cadastral surveys are, in fact, the foundation upon

which rests title to all land that is now, or was once,

part of the Public Domain of the United States.
SOME PUBLIC LAND STATISTICS

The public lands of the United States date from

the time of the formation of the Union. Atthattime,

and soon afterward, seven of the Thirteen Original

States ceded to the Federal Government more than

233 million acres of land. Thereafter, through

treaties and purchases, the United States acquired

another billion acres of Public Domain land. The

last of these public land acquisitions was the

purchase of Alaska from Russia in 1867. In all,

nearly 2 billion acres of land in 32 Statesfourfifths of the 2.3-billion-acre gross area of the

Nationhave been a part of the Public Domain at

one time or another.139

At first these lands were sold for the revenue they

could produce but, as hardy pioneers moved

westward, the revenue-raising policy was changed

to one emphasizing the settlement and development of the land. Over the years, title to about 1.1

billion acres of Public Domain land has been

transferred to individual citizens, businesses, and

non-Federal governmental organizations under

the Federal legal authority known as the "Public

Land Laws." The Homestead Laws alone accounted for the transfer from Foderal ownership of

approximately 278 million acres.

Many more millions of acres were transferred to

private ownership through military, railroad, and

other land grants, including various grants to the

States. However, some 715 million acres of the

original Public Domain lands remain in Federal

ownership-364 million acres in Alaska alone. To

this must also be added the 52 million acres

acquired over the years for various purposes, thus

bringing the amount of Federally owned lands to

approximately 770 million acres: roughly one-third

of the entire land area of the United States.139

Some of these lands have been reserved as

National Parks, National Forests, or for other

specific purposes, but more than half make up the

"vacant and unappropriated" Public Domain. This

areasome 450 million acrescomprises the

lands under the exclusive jurisdiction of the

Bureau of Land Management.139

At its maximum extent, the original Public

Domain consisted of about 1.8 billion acres

approximately 78 percent of all the land area of the

continental United States. Since its beginning in

1785, the rectangular system of surveys has been

extended over some 1.4 billion acres of this

immense area. At the close of fiscal year 1973,

there were more than 440 million acres of public

land that had not yet been surveyed. Nearly 80

percent of this total is in Alaska. The remaining

108

unsurveyed land is situated exclusively in the 11

Western Statesalmost 4 percent of the total is in

Nevada alone.139

Many of the surveys of these government lands

were executed a century or more ago and the

materials used to mark themwood posts, earth

mounds, and the likesometimes proved to be less

than permanent. Time, humans, and the elements

have obliterated many of these old survey markers,

thus creating an urgent need for the resurvey of

more than 50 million acres of land so that the

boundaries of the public lands might be properly

marked. Resurveys made up nearly 48 percent of

the 3.5 million acres of the cadastral surveys that

were officially accepted during fiscal year 1973.139

RESURVEYS

According to the provisions of law, original

corners established during the process of a

cadastral survey remain fixed in position, even

disregarding technical errors that may have passed

undetected before the survey was accepted.

The courts have attached major importance to

evidence relating to the original position of the

corner, granting it much greater weight than the

record relating to bearings and lengths of lines.

The corner monument is direct evidence of the

position of the corner. Although they are

sometimes used as if they were interchangeable,

the terms 'corner" and "monument" are not

synonymous. A "corner" is a point determined by

the surveying process; a "monument" is the object

or the physical structure that marks the corner

point.)

The ground rules for identifying an approved

official survey are not exactly the same as those

rules under which the survey was originally made.

The purpose of a dependent resurvey is not to

"correct" the original survey by finding out where a

new, or even a possibly more exact, running of the

line would locate a certain corner. Rather, the

purpose is to determine where the corner was

established originally.

Legislation Regarding Resurveys

Resurveys have been made since the early days

of the public land surveys. In the beginning, they

were made as corrective surveys under the general

surveying appropriations when gross errors were

discovered. Certain resurveys were later authorized by special acts of Congress. The enactment of

general legislation providing for resurveys came

about when it became apparent that the lines and
corners of many older surveys were becoming so

obliterated or distorted that their identification was

in doubt.

The Act of March 3, 1909 (35 Stat. 845) as

amended June 25,1910(36 Stat. 884; 43 U.S.C. sec.

772) authorized extensive resurveys of the public

lands in order that they might be properly marked.

This 1909 Act, the Act of September 21, 1918 (40

Stat. 965; 43 U.S.C. 733), and the Act of July 14,

1960 (43 U.S. C. 1364) provide the authority for the

execution of resurveys of the public lands. The law

makes very clear the fact that no resurvey may be

executed in such a way that it could impair the

rights of the claimants of the lands affected.

The Challenge

Following the passage of general legislation

providing for resurveys, surveyors have, from time

to time, been assigned the challenging job of

retracing lines established by the men who

surveyed before them. In all resurveys, the application of legal principles and statutory acts regarding

the location of surveyed lines are important and

perplexing considerations. The bewilderment and

frustration caused by the gradual changes in the

execution of the survey system are well known to

109

THE 0RIGIJAL TI.1IRTEEM STAIES

1790 PJORIU CAROLIMA CESS$0P4

1781-1802 STATE CESSI03S

1803 L0OISIAMA ucWASE

1818 RED RIVER O TI4E t4ORTI1

1819 TREATY 1,)1T14 SPAIIJ

1845 AtsJl'JEXED TEXAS

1846 OPEGOI.3 coNpR0MISE

184$ AkEXICAJ CESSIOP4

1850 puRcHASED rRoM TEXAS

© 1853 GADSDN pLJRcI.IASE

ai pURCMASED RUSSIA

1898 AIJIUEXED g1AWAII

anyone who has attempted to 'follow in the

footsteps" of someone who surveyed more than a

hundred years ago, within boundary lines that are

not the same as they once were, according to laws

and instructions that have changed, and under

conditions that no longer exist.

Erroneous Subdivision Rule

Mistaken ideas about correct procedure have

also been held by surveyors from time to time. In

1856, for example, even though there was much

accurate information available, Thomas A. Hendricks, then commissioner of the GLO, gave the

following inaccurate rule for locating the center of

a section: "Run a true line from the quarter-section

corner on the east boundary, to that in the west

boundary, and at the equidistance between them

establish the corner for the center of the section."14

This same erroneous opinion was given earlier

by the surveyor general of Missouri and Illinois.

The courts did not agree, nor did the GLO in any of

its rulings, sofaras can be determined. In 1868, this

incorrect rule was explicitly set aside by the

Secretary of the Interior, but not before it had been

followed by a number of deputy surveyors in both

Illinois and Missouri.14

ACQUlSlTiOP.3 or TE tQRITOIY Of TIlE UtITED STATES
Other Resurvey Considerations

A surveyor must consider several factors when

he tackles the job of retracing an old surveysuch

as the weather, the equipment in use at the time of

the original survey, and the mood and disposition

the local Indian tribes which may have had a direct

bearing upon how a survey was done.

DEPENDENT RESURVEYS

As the need for resurveys grew, so did the

realization that the measuring of land is one of the

simpler parts of a cadastral surveyor's duty. Often

his hardest work is finding the land to be measured.

In the past, public lands were often marked with

short-lasting monuments. Parcels were sometimes

carelessly conveyed. Fences were not always built

"on line." At times, corners were inadvertently (and

sometimes purposely) destroyed or moved. Time,

weather, and the advancing tide of settlement

occasionally brought about obliteration of the

most carefully established survey monuments.

As a result, cadastral surveyors must consistently perform two related tasks. First, they must define

clearly the boundaries of the land they are to

measure, and then they must make the

measurements. Although the latter requires

technical skill and training, it is the former that

presents by far the greater challenge.

No two resurvey problems involve exactly the

same complications, so there can be no inflexible

rules of procedure. Somehow, by experience,

training, or instinctor possibly a combination of

all threecadastral surveyors acquire a certain

amount of clear and reliable information about the

relative importance of various kinds of evidence,

both circumstantial and direct. Frequently they

formulate their own methods of finding the line to

be measured. Still, their methods are often similar

to a marked degree, because, even though they

have had differing experiences, the conclusion

they all inevitably reach is that the protection of

rights in the ownership of land depends not only

upon the accuracy of measurement, but also on the

reliability of the location of the line. After all, a

measurementno matter how accurate or

preciseis of no value whatever if it is in the wrong

place.

N. B. Sweitzer

N. B. Sweitzer did much to formulate presentday resurvey procedures. Some of his proposals

were foreign to the thinking of his day, but they

have become more acceptable as the accuracy and

110

infallibility of resurveys gained ascendance over

matters of volume and speed.159

During the early years of the direct system of

surveys, Sweitzer, as assistant supervisor of

surveys for District 3, was faced with some of the

early, complicated resurveys in the Nebraska

sandhills and the Missouri River flood plain. The

main difficulty in the sandhills was the changing

contour of the land and the obliteration of survey

monuments. The flood plain resurveys had those

problems tooand with them other problems that

accompany riparian rights and questions of

acqretion or avulsion.

In a dependent resurvey, the surveyor must

restore, in its original position, the original survey

by which the lands were patented. But there is

more involved in matters of riparian rights. Various

maps must be constructed that show the dates of

the various movements of the river, and a composite map of all these changes must be made.

These movements must be studied so it may be

determined whether they were influenced by

accretion or avulsion. This is important for the

simple reason that avulsion does not change a

boundary; boundaries are changed by accretion.

But in some of the cases resurveyed under

Sweitzer there was still another questionthat of

the submersion and emersion of land. Each of the

cases had to be decided on its own merit, as such

cases still must be. Much of the present practice of

the recovery of evidence of original corners is the

result of Sweitzer's research and the procedures he

proposed.

From his hard-won knowledge in such matters,

Sweitzer once explained that a surveyor was not

really competent to handle resurveys until he

had:5°

at least three years of field experience, as it

requires that time for a man to be in a position to

authoritatively pronounce whether a corner lost

for forty to fifty years in the sandy soil in

Nebraska has been found and to understand the

technical part of finished resurveys. . Everglades Resurveys

Nebraska sandhi us are not the only places where

dependent resurveys are difficult. Problems of

terrain may differ in various areas, but they are no

less problems. The original surveys of the strange

and beautiful Florida Everglades were, forthe most

part, executed in the 1870's and 1880's. Recently,

part of this wilderness was resurveyed, and it was

found that some conditions had not changed

materially in nearly 100 years. The dense un-
dergrowth and cypress trees described by the

original surveyors were still in evidence. The muck

and water, the scorpions and insects, and the

cottonmouth (water moccasin) snakes were also

much as the old field notes described them.97 Haste

in completing a survey might be understood in

some of the circumstances encountered by those

early surveyors. In one instance, a surveyor named

Solee concluded the field note record of his survey

in this way: "Water 30 inches deep, insects fierce,

snakes all around. Twenty to 30 alligators ahead of

me. End of survey."97

Independent Resurveys

Independent resurveys are not the same as

dependent resurveys. Before an independent

resurvey can be run, however, the outboundaries,

or limiting boundaries, must be dependently

resurveyed. After this has been done, the area

within can be independently resurveyed, creating

new township or section lines; that is, provided

however that all alienated land and bona-fide

rights within the area are protected as required by

law. These areas are protected by the surveyor who

locates them by the best available evidence. This

may consist of the land itself as occupied by the

claimant or it may be evidence of the original

survey.

During the early 1900's, W. R. Bandy executed

some independent resurveys in Wyoming in

accordance with special instructions issued or

approved by W. T. Paine, chief of Division E of the

GLO. During the course of these independent

resurveys, an entirely new set of section lines was

run over land originally surveyed in the 1880's,

because some of the earlier surveys had proven to

be either erroneous or fraudulent. Private land and

valid claims were run out in accordance with

corners of the original survey as far as possible

that is, where the corners could be found. The

private land and valid claims were given tract

numbers beginning with number 37 in each

township. Closing corners were set on the independent resurvey lines where they entered and

left private lands. Any of the old corners of the

former survey that were found, but that did not

affect private land, were destroyed.145

This was done because, as is true in the case of

original surveys, the records of resurveys must

form a lasting basis for the security of the title to all

lands acquired thereunder. If not destroyed, old

corners of a cancelled survey remain on the ground

and cause confusion. The surveyor therefore had

to exercise great care in his field work and in the

preparation of the record so that the independent

111

resurvey would take care of the existing problems

without creating new ones.

THE EVOLUTION OF THE

"MANUAL OF SURVEYING INSTRUCTIONS"

Various regions of the United States have been

surveyed under amended or differing instructions

from the passage of the 1785 Land Ordinance to

the present. That ordinance gave fairly explicit

cadastral surveying instructions, which were to be

carried out under the personal supervision of the

geographer of the United States, Thomas

Hutchins.

His successor, Rufus Putnam, was given the title

of "Surveyor General of the Northwest Territory"

under the terms of the Land Act of May18, 1796. By

then, the surveys were becoming more complex;

half the townships were to be subdivided into 2-

mile blocks, and the section numbering system

was changed to the one now in use.

Gradually, other laws were passed that called for

further subdivision, and the system of rectangular

surveys was refined. During these early years

general instructions and advice were given to the

surveyor general by the Secretary of the Treasury,

who was then the highest official directly concerned with the survey and disposal of the public lands.

Later this became the duty of the commissioner of

the General Land Office. Instructions to the various

deputy surveyors were issued by the surveyor

generaleither in letters or as a part of the

instructions accompanying the contract for the

survey involved.

A surveyor for the lands south of the State of

Tennessee was appointed in 1803. His duties were

much the same as those of the surveyor general.

Over a period of time, as more land was acquired by

the United States, a surveyor general was appointed for each of the public land States and

Territories. Each of these officers had a fairly free

hand in issuing instructions to the deputies each

employed.

There is good evidence that Jared Mansfield,

Putnam's successor, issued fairly detailed instructions to his deputies in 1804 when he contemplated

the survey of the Vincennes Tract in Indiana.

Unfortunately, Mansfield did not sign or date the

instructions. The sole proof that he issued them

consists of the content of the instructions and the

fact that a careful comparison of letters signed by

Mansfield and the handwritten, undated instructions shows the handwriting to be nearly identical

in all respects.16°

In 1815 Edward Tiff in, who succeeded Josiah

Meigs as surveyor general of the Territories east of
the Mississippi, issued the first signed and dated

general instructions for the guidance of deputy

surveyors, although they were undoubtedly based

partially on the instructions issued earlier by

Mansfield.

Other printed circulars followed, and in 1831 the

commissioner of the General Land Office, Elijah

Hayward, issued detailed instructions to the

surveyors general concerning surveys and plats.

The applicable parts were issued by the individual

surveyors general in bound volumes of instructions suitable for use by the deputies in the field.

In 1849, the GLO was transferred from the

Treasury Department to the newly created Department of the Interior. However, of much greater

importance as far as the surveys were concerned

was the Act of July 4, 1836, to reorganize the

General Land Office. This act, which placed the

responsibility for surveying the public lands in the

hands of the commissioner of the GLO, ended the

continuing conflict with the various surveyors

general.

Under the terms of this act, the overall direction

of the public land surveys was placed under the

principal clerk of surveys in the General Land

Office. The man who held this office for many

years, John M. Moore, prepared the immediate

forerunner of the present manual series in 1851. It

was entitled 'Instructions to the Surveyor General

of Oregon; Being a Manual for Field Operations."

The use of this 1851 Manual was immediately

extended to California, Minnesota, Kansas,

Nebraska, and New Mexico.

Later, Commissioner Thomas A. Hendricks

asked John M. Moore to prepare a slightly revised

edition of the Oregon manual. This new edition was

issued in 1855 as "A Manual of Surveying Instructions, to Regulate the Field Operations of Deputy

Surveyors."

The Congressional Act passed on May 30, 1862

(12 Stat. 409), provided:

That the printed manual of instructions relating

to the public surveys, prepared at the General

Land Office . . . the instructions of the Commissioner of the General Land Office, and the

special instructions of the surveyor general,

when not in conflict with said printed manual, or

the instructions of said Commissioner, shall be

taken and deemed to be a part of every contract

for surveying the public lands of the United

States.

Revisions of the 1855 Manual have appeared

from time to time, as the need has arisen. The 1871

Manual was a reprint of the 1855 edition, followed

in 1881 and 1890 by other revisions.

112

The 1894 Manual was written under the direction

of Commissioner Silas Lamoreaux by one man,

Major Shinn. It was, in Frank M. Johnson's opinion,

"a high-class technical work," while the 1902

Manual, written by A. W. Barber, was "a passable

rehash of the 1894 Manual" that "served its

purpose."61 This was the manual in use at the

beginning of the direct system. However, the

appropriation act approved by Congress on June

25, 1910 (36 Stat. 775-997), included $3,000 to be

used toward the preparation and publication of a

new revision of the manual. This appropriation was

made in recognition of the fact that the problems

faced, and the methods used in solving them under

the direct system, had not been contemplated in

the 1902 Manual.

The new manual was prepared under the

direction of the commissioner by a board of

experts, one of whom was Arthur D. Kidder. The

press of business was such, however, that only the

advance sheets of the first six chapters were ready

for publication by 1919. This portion of the revised

manual was issued to surveyors in pamphlet form

in mid-June of that year. Meanwhile, work continued on the remainder of the material to be

included in the new manual.

A manuscript edition of the ninth chapter of the

revision was issued and became effective on March

1, 1928. The first complete and fully revised

instructions for the survey of the public lands

under the direct system was finally published as

the "Manual of Surveying Instructions, 1930." (This

was the first manual to include instructions for

mineral surveys. Prior to that time, separate

instructions to U.S. Deputy Mineral Surveyors had

been issued in 1879, 1889, 1890, 1893, 1895, 1897,

and 1909.)

The "Manual of Surveying Instructions, 1947"

was published by the General Land Office's

successor agency, the Bureau of Land Management, which had been created in 1946. Again,

Arthur D. Kidder was instrumental in its preparation.

In 1964, Thomas A. Tillman was selected as one

of a four-man team to rewrite and update the 1947

Manual. In the letter officially detailing Tillman to

do this work, the director of the BLM stated, "In

reviewing the capabilities of the field force for this

work, Tom Tillman stands out as one specifically

qualified." It was soon apparent that what had been

contemplated asan updating project would require

a complete revision, along with a revision of the

manual supplement, "Restoration of Lost or

Obliterated Corners."
Meanwhile, the Washington office was faced

with retirements that left it grossly understaffed in

the face of ever-increasing demands by other

executive departments. Tillman was asked to

transfer to Washington to fill this void. In requesting this transfer, C. E. Remington, chief,

Division of Engineering, said of Tom Tillman, "He

is an avid reader of cadastral history and is the best

qualified in cadastral law of anyone in the field."

Although Tillman's primary duty in Washington

was the rewriting of the manual, his expertise in

questions of cadastral law and surveying techniques interrupted his work on the manual for

considerable periods of time while he prepared

legal support papers and appeared as an expert

witness as requested by the Department of Justice.

In rewriting the manual, Tillman achieved one

other long-desired result. In 1915, Frank M.

Johnson had expressed the hope that the manual

then in preparation might be written with simplicity

and directness.41 "The Manual of Surveying

Instructions, 1973" meets all the requirements

brought about by the many aspects of the

interrelationship of technology and law in the

execution of cadastral surveys, and it does so in a

well-organized and most readable manner.

The manual has been accorded the force and

effect of law in many court decisions and is cited in

the laws of most public land States as mandatory in

the execution of retracement, resurvey, and

subdivision survey of patented public land by

private surveyors, even though it is issued primarily

for the guidance of cadastral surveyors in the

execution of public land surveys.

MANUAL SUPPLEMENTS

There are three supplements to the "Manual of

Surveying Instructions, 1973." They are:

"Standard Field Tables and Trigonometric

Formulas." This supplement was first published in

1910; its eighth edition, in 1956. The tables and data

it contains are designed for use by cadastral

surveyors in the field and office.

"The Ephemeris of the Sun, Polaris and other

Selected Stars with Companion Data and Tables."

This supplement has been published annually in

advance since 1910.

"Restoration of Lost or Obliterated Corners

and Subdivision of Sections: A Guide for Surveyors." The subject matter presented in this

supplement first appeared in the decisions of the

Department of the Interior. There have been

several revisions and extensions of this work, the

latest in 1974. It provides an introduction to the

rectangular system of public land surveying and

resurveying, along with a compendium of basic

laws relating to the system. It answers many

questions arising in practical surveying work, and

although primarily intended for surveyors outside

the Bureau of Land Management, it is also of

interest to attorneys and others who have

professional interests in former or present public

lands.
,' Our Gi/mon 4....4fcry Th ifr.hn H ,&Aard 'oche C/ark àrrest m,th ZJohn a Sc/es 6. char/eq Wi/son 3. Q. tiaret EMoore /7 os,M

scThayer /8.1.. CYonH

tt.E jqj fl//veiS. To

ank Cone 20. George Poore . .__Zi. Edward .Jes

kF/s/c an-i P Ho/rn an/909 Pc/ph DeC

Wfr,c/,es/er D

$ Joel /0 /ra /2 F- /4- /5. Jcc /6 1-V/I/i Montana, U S Surveyor-General's office clerks, 1909T/ioni /ohn 22. Frcn* E. Co
Around the campfire in 1902, Yellowstone National Park. Frank

M. Johnson, examiner of surveys, is standing at the left.

Richard E. (Elmer) Bandy, who joined the Brunt survey party in

the early 1900's.

115
Standing left to right: Grant

Dawson, Col. Samuel W. Brunt,

and Arthur Brunt. Seated left to

right: young Sam Dawson on

Mrs. Dawson's lap, Mrs. Brunt,

and Mrs Arthur Brunt and son

Bill. (Mrs. Dawson was Sam

Brunt's daughter.) Photo was

taken near Meeteetsee, Wyoming.

116

Col. Samuel VI. Brunt in camp in the

McCullough Peaks, east of Cody, Wyoming, in 1905.
117

b

Surveyors pause for lunch on moving day. Note moss-box and Sibley stoves on wagon, and horse (at extreme left) eating

from nosebag. Man at left is Sam Hutton: fourth and fifth from loft are Elmer Bandy and his wife. Lula; socond from right is

Arthur Brunt. Photograph taken in Sunlight Basin. Wyoming. in 1907.
Hopi Indian Reservation, Arizona, 1910. Left to right: Ty and Van White The

instrument is a Gurley with a Burt solar attachment.

Survey camp, Garland, Wyoming, June 1905 Standing left to right: Luther

Glasgow, "Kentuck" Friday, W. R (Roy) Bandy, Miss Jones, Wi/ford Utterback

(party chief), unidentified, Ernest Strong. Peeking at left: Troy Troutman. Seated

left to right: Miss Huber, Sam Hutton, and Rhoda Huber (camp cook).

118
119

Roy Bandy's survey camp on the move, Montana, 1921. Note two motor vehicles at

extreme right, as well as mule teams and wagons.

Glenn F. Sawyer's survey crew, Missouri River Breaks. Note

pack horse at left carrying tools and iron posts.
Guy P. Harringfons outfit shown hauling water to a side camp during

Dunnington survey which was begun November 8. 1911. T. 4 N.. R. 20W.,

Gila and Salt River Meridian, Arizona.

120
121

lnez (Roy's wife) Bandy holding a 3-foot

rattlesnake she killed. Wyoming, 1911.

Glenn Sawyer, Missouri River Breaks south of the

Bear Paw Mountains, 1918.
Survey camp on the move. Note lanterns tied on the side of wagon, tub lashed to back of rig, benches

(packed one up and one down), and what appear to be army-style leggings worn by the man on right.

Early day cadastral survey camp in the Black Hills of South Dakota.
123
William E. H/ester's survey party, August 1927; 1/4 corner between sections 8 and 9,

T 41 N., R. 3 W., Mt Diablo Meridian, California.

"Breakfast in the Big Horns." Photograph from an oil painting by Montana

artist Shorty Shope. It was painted from a photograph taken on an August

morning in 1912. Left to right: Willis Bandy, Roy Bandy, lnez Bandy, and

chainmen George Homer and Howard Pitt.

124
125

Noon-hour rest for some General Land Office surveyors near Sebring, Florida, in

1918 Hal 0 Craig is under the transit.

Suppertime in a 1917 survey camp in the mountains of Washington State. C. W.

Blocker is on the right; Quint/n Campbell is third from right.
Wash day on a Sunday in

September 1914. The survey

camp is in Fergus County,

Montana

The year, place, and surveyors are unidentified, but the

situation is familiar.

126
127
Setting up camp in the desert. Arizona, 1916.

Chainmen on line. Group No. 33, Oregon, in 1917. L. V. Hoffman, head chainman, at right; H. S.

Werschkul, rear chainman, at left.
Missouri River Breaks. 1918. Art St ens/and at the transit

129

I-!. S Werschku/, rear chainman, Group

No. 33, Oregon, 1917.
Roy Bandy's survey camp in the Missouri River Breaks south of the Bear Paw Mountains, 1918. Note homemade water tank (center)they had to haul the water 15 miles. Also note use of both wagons and motor

vehicles.

Interior of cook tent, GLO survey camp, near Wilson, Arkansas, November 1915. Note kerosene lamp

providing the light, and William I-hester (at extreme left) eating a big piece of pie the cook has Just served him.

130

A survey party at work in heavy timber in the area near

Gypsum, Colorado, in the early 1920's. Roger Wilson is at the

extreme left standing next to Emil Voigt. Hans Voigt is fifth

from left

132
Moving camp in 1914, FIatwil/ow Creek, Fergus County, Montana.

United States cadastral surveyors in southern Wyoming. The year is not known, but is probably in the late

1920's or early 1930's The horse was used for carrying iron posts, tools, and lunches.

133
134
A beautiful site for a survey camp: T 24 N., R. 13 or 14 E., Willamette Meridian, Washington State, 1914. ltis probably Cathedral

Rock in the background.

Left to right: Ernest Rands, assistant supervisor of surveys for Oregon; Clay

Ta//man, commissioner of the General Land Office; and Frank M. Johnson,

supervisor of surveys, circa 1914.

135
Four feet of snow, September 1912, in the Big Horn Mountains, Wyoming Second

from left is lnez Bandy, standing beside the square "office tent."

Moving camp in "the good old days." January 1915, Group No. 41, Arizona.

136
'

137

Rare 3-mule wagon outfit moving camp. T. 5 N., R. 7 E., San Bernardino Meridian, California, March 1920.

Group No. 62. Quintin Campbell, U.S. Surveyor.

When trucks or mules could not pack in the equipment and

supplies, the men had to fashion water transportation. This photo

was taken about 1923.
A portion of the double survey party on Belly-Ache Mountain,

near Eagle, Colorado, in 1920. The man who is second from

the right in the photo is John S. Knowles; to his right is Hans

Voight. Kneeling on the ground (first from left) is Roger

(Shrimp) Wilson; this was his second season with Knowles'

party.

Bernard (Benny) Lange (on the

left) and John Dixon (on the

right) on the job in the Smith

River area in 1932.

138

On a weekend morning, surveyors often adjusted the In a photo taken in 1912, N. Price is

solar attachments on the meridian. The date of this shown with E. Strickler.

photo is 1925.
These two early surveyors are T. 0.

Johnson (left), and Ted

VanderMeer (right), in early 1917.

Free time in camp in the Cascades in 1923. Bud Kent is the man on

the right in the photo; note some of his carvings in the middle

background of the photo.

139
This truck was used by the government at a job in the Smith River

area in 1932. The driver is Harvey Russell.

When not near a barber, the surveyors improvised Here, John

English is getting a trim from a friend.

The camp is near Amboy, California;

the time is 1919.

140

Jo

Morris

This picture shows those attending the Denver Conference of the Cadastral Engineering Service, held July 10-14, 1923.

Alonzo E. Compton, J. 0. Naret, H. R. M. Atkinson, Judge William H. Lewis, W. H. Clark, Thomas Mathias,A. C. Horton, Jr.,

McCord, Frank S. Spofford, Frank A. Lewis, Ralph W. Nelson, George F. Naden, Guy P. Harrington, Raymond C

Goodale, and Ernest P. Rands.

142
because so many men pictured are important figures in the history of the Cadastral Survey. Left to right, they are:

John W. Rowland, Russell K. Allen, Herman Jaecke!, G. 0. D. Kirkpatrick, Norman L. King, J. Scott Harrison. Alan A.

T. Paine, N. B. Swe,tzer, William Spry, Frank M. Johnson, John P. Walker, Arthur D. Kidder, T. C. Have!!, Samuel W.

143
Alaska was the last acquisition adding public

land to the United States. Although Hawaii later

became the 50th State, it had been first a monarchy

and then a republic; its formal annexation in 1898

added no vacant, unappropriated public land. In

contrast, nearly all of Alaska's 580,000 square miles

was Public Domain. There were a few surveyed

town lots in Sitka, title to which had been granted

by Russia, but most of Alaska was unexplored and

unsurveyed upon its entry to the Union.

Alaska reaches northward 1,170 miles through

18 degrees of latitude. It extends from 130° W., past

the 180° line and on to 1721/20 E. (571/2 degrees of

longitude). The difference in time (3 hours and 50

minutes) from one of these extremes to the other is

greater than that between New York and San

Francisco. Alaska actually has four time zones

Pacific, Yukon, Alaska, and Bering. It is the only

state that crosses the International Date Line.

Alaska's Point Barrow is the northernmost point in

the United States; the westernmost point (172°27'

E.) is at Cape Wrangell, Attu Island.

Alaska has several high mountains, including

North America's highest peakMt. McKinley. It

has innumerable lakes and nearly 34,000 miles of

coastline. The Yukon, Kuskokwim, Copper, and

Susitna Rivers, among others, empty some 800

million acre feet of water into the sea each year

about 40 percent of all the fresh water available

under the United States flag.

EARLY HISTORY

Alaskan NativesEskimos, Aleuts, and

Indiansapparently had their own methods of

measuring distance and direction and their own

ways of allocating area, but more modern surveying arrived in Alaska with the "civilized" men led by

Vitus Bering. Alaska's recorded history began in

1741 when Vitus Bering, a Danish navigator in the

service of Russia, sailed east from Siberia and

landed in Alaska. Bering made preliminary explorations of the southwestern coast of Alaska, the

Alaskan peninsula, and the Aleutian Islands.

Though the reports of Bering's expedition

contained information that should have been

greeted as a great contribution to man's knowledge

of the geography of the region, they were scarcely

used. One fact obscured all the restBering's

expedition had discovered the valuable fur of the

sea otter.

Chapter 13

ALASKA

145

EARLY EXPLORATION

In 1778 Captain James Cook, an Englishman,

sailed through Bering Strait and up the Cook Inlet.

His voyage, the first scientific navigation in the

area, resulted in some fairly accurate charts.

Then, during the summers of 1792 and 1794,

Captain George Vancouver, another Englishman,

explored and surveyed the coast of Alaska. For

many years Vancouver's charts were the accepted

standard. The 1825 Southeast Alaska boundary

treaty separating Russian Alaska from English

Canada probably was based on Vancouver's surveys.

The English, the Spanish (who had explored

Southeast Alaska), and the French (who had

explored Lituya Bay) had all voiced claims to

various parts of Alaska by the time Vancouver's

charts were published. The Russians, who had

"discovered" the region and established

settlements there, took a dim view of these claims.

ALASKA PURCHASE

When Alaska was purchased from Russia by the

United States in 1867, Congress and the press

reacted violently to the news that a treaty between

Russia and the United States had been signed and

that $7.2 million in gold had been agreed upon as

the selling price. Many persons considered Alaska

a vast, frozen wasteland and its purchase a foolish

expenditure. Others believed Alaska to be an

immense storehouse of natural resources and

thought it was a wise investment.

Coast Survey Report

When the Senate approved the purchase treaty

with only one vote to spare, the administration

realized that more information about Alaska was

needed. An expedition to supply it was organized

under the guidance of the Smithsonian Institution

and the Treasury Department, which was in charge

of the activities of both the Coast Survey and the

Revenue Service. George Davidson of the Coast

Survey was chosen to head the small group

charged with making a geographical survey of the

controversial new territory. By the time he was

selected to take charge of the preliminary

geographic survey of the new territory, Davidson

had gained a wide reputation as a civil engineer,

geographer, hyd rographer, and geodesist.
In the Congressional debates prior to the

passage of the Alaska appropriation bill, many

references were made to George Davidson and the

Coast Survey Report. The report was apparently

successful in influencing at least a few Congressmen to decide that Alaska was worth the

purchase price of nearly 2 cents per acre.

1867-1 880

The Alaska appropriation bill finally passed

nearly a year after the flag of the United States was

first raised at Sitka on October 18, 1867. After

making Alaska a Customs district, Congress

seemed to forget about the new territory. No plans

were made for its development; no means were

provided for the filing of claims or the acquisition of

land. There were no means of setting up local

governments, nor was there a Civil or a criminal

code. Military law was nonexistent; soldiers

stationed at Sitka had no authority other than that

of defending Alaska against attack by foreigners or

hostile Indians.

During the next few years the Coast Survey made

a few sporadic coastal surveys; but by 1877, when

the soldiers left Sitka to fight the Nez Perce Indians

in Idaho, there were still no public land surveys. For

that matter, there was still no public land law. No

Alaskan settler could clear land or build a cabin

with any assurar,ce of owning it. No prospector

could stake a mining claim with any security. Land

could not be deeded or transferred. Wills were not

valid. lnjured parties could secure redress for

grievances only by their own acts. In the matter of

crime, gun law prevailed.

Gold and Civil Government

This state of affairs lasted until Joe Juneau and

Richard Harris found gold in Southeast Alaska in

1880. This event seemed to awaken Congress to

the problems, and, in 1884, by passage of the

Organic Act of May 17 (23 Stat. 24), the laws of

Oregon were extended to Alaska, as far as was

practicable, and a civil governor was appointed.

There was still no law governing settlement or

public land surveys, but the mining laws of the

United States were extended to Alaska. A Federal

judicial district was formed with a judge and other

law enforcement authorities. One of them, the U.S.

Marshal, was also to act as ex officio surveyor

general. The following letter explains the duties of

that double office:5

146

October 5, 1887 Sitka, Alaska

To the

Secretary of the Interior

Sir:

I respectfully represent that since assuming the

duties of Marshal of this district, no business appertaming to my twin office, that of Surveyor General, has

until quite recently, been presented, but each mail

now brings its full quota of applications for surveys

and patents for mineral lands, principally from

Juneau, Douglas Island and the Berners Bay District.

I have not, as yet, received a department communication concerning the office of Surveyor

General, no instructions in connection therewith, have

no blanks, no books of record, and there is none to be

had within one thousand miles of my office, and

without money to buy them were they at hand. With

the duties of the office I have no experience, and what

is more serious, the office itself has no emoluments

other than the cursing I get for insisting that the land

laws shall be strictly complied with in every instance.

The duties of the Marshal of this district are

multifarious and rapidly assuming large proportions. I

am custodian of the Territorial prison, crowded with

culprits two of whom are likely to require hanging in

the near future. I have the care of fifteen prize

schooners together with fifteen thousand fur seal

skinsto keep from spoiling until they can otherwise

be disposed of. At present I am inflicted with an order

of the Court to proceed to San Francisco on urgent

public business, with the moral certainty that my

salary will be confiscated by the Treasury Department

should I absent myself from home without consent of

the Department of Justice, while public interest does

not admit of the delay necessary to procure such

consenttwo months or more. I am not allowed a

clerk at either of my headquarters-180 miles apart; at

which places I am often required to be simultaneous.

Therefore Resolved: That a competent clerk is an

actual requirement in the office of the U.S. MarshalEx-officio Surveyor General, of the Territory of

Alaska.

Very respectfully,

Your obd't Serv't

Barton Atkins

U.S. Marshal and

Ex Officio Surveyor General

Hon. L. Q. C. Lamar

Secretary of the Interior,

Washington, D.C.

Surveys Needed

The activities of the Coast Survey, renamed the

Coast and Geodetic Survey by the Act of June 20,

1878 (20 Stat. 206, 215), were also spurred by

Juneau's discovery of gold. The field work for the

triangulation of Southwest Alaska was started in

1882. The U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey was
responsible for the establishment of geodetic

positions that were, and still are, of great value for

determining precise positions on thesurfaceofthe

Earth.

The discovery of another rich gold lode caused a

rush to the Klondike region of the Canadian Yukon

in 1896. It and the gold rush to Nome, Alaska, two

years later, helped to swell Alaska's population and

call attention to the need for surveys. Even

Congress paid heed, and by the Act of March 3,

1899 (30 Stat. 1098; 48 U.S.C. 351), the principal

public land laws, including the rectangular system

of surveys, were extended to Alaska.

The rush to the Klondike, adjacent to Alaska,

also drew attention to the fact that the location of

the boundary between Alaska and Canada had not

yet been permanently decided. There had been

discussions about it from the time Alaska was first

purchased by this country, but it was not until 1904

that both Canada and the United States sent

surveyors to mark the boundary line as it had been

fixed by a six-man joint commission.

PUBLIC LAND SURVEYS

In 1904 the first contract for an Alaskan public

land survey was let. It was for the survey of 12

Mission sites, one of which was in lat. 700 N.90

The following year the initial point for the Copper

River Meridian system of surveys was established.

Its latitude and longitude were determined by

reference to the Coast and Geodetic Survey

triangulation net. From this initial point, A. B.

Lewis, a U.S. deputy surveyor, surveyed 12 miles of

the Copper River Base Line, 72 miles of the

Principal Meridian, 72 miles of the Third Standard

Parallel North, and 36 miles of the First Guide

Meridian East. The first township subdivision

survey in Alaska was executed in 1910 by Thomas

A. Haigh, a 38-year-old U.S. deputy surveyor from

Michigan.9°

USGS Experiment, 1910

About the same time the direct system of surveys

went into effect, the U.S. Coast and Geodetic

Survey determined the geodetic position for the

initial point of the Fairbanks Meridian and Base

Line. For some reason, the first survey from this

position was not executed by GLO surveyors.

Instead, the U.S. Geological Survey ran the first 18

miles of the base line, 24 miles of the Principal

Meridian, and several township exteriors.90

However, instead of surveying lines directly from

astronomic observations, they used geodetic

control data to establish and adjust the rectangular

system.

147

Tenana Valley, 1911.

The unsuccessful experiment was short-lived,

and in 1911, a double party of GLO surveyors under

W. H. Thorn, U.S. surveyor, connected subdivisional lines to the exterior township corners

thus established, first replacing wood post

monuments with iron posts wherever necessary.9°

It took a dedicated man to handle surveys such

as those near Fairbanks in the Tenana Valley in

1911. There were problems to overcome in tying to

the Geological Survey markers and extending the

rectangular surveys. In fact, just getting to the area

presented problems, as Thorn explained in a letter

to Frank M. Johnson:38

I am getting along slowly. Had a hard time

getting in. Mushed over the ice on Lake La

Barge. The boat I was on struck a rock and sunk

thirty miles below Lake La Barge May 21st. Then

we were picked up by the Steamer Pauline and it

nearly sunk twice before we got to Dawson. Had

a good trip from Dawson to Fairbanks.

My! we had a hard trip over the ice. Laid out

without shelter three nights, and the lake ice, in

places, was just like walking on a blanket. Pulled

our stuff across on sleds. Could not get dogs to

haul the baggage. I certainly was all in when I

got to Lower La Barge. There were about two

hundred came in on the ice. It certainly was a

dangerous trip. From White Horse we floated

down to the lake in a barge. It cost me $17.00

extra to get over the Lake or get down to it. If I had waited for navigation, it would have been

much later, for the ice did not go out until the

8th. I got in here nineteen days ahead of the first

through boat. . . . I was just a month on the

way from Seattle to Fairbanks.

Seward Meridian

The same season that Thorn worked in the

Tenana Valley, a similar double party under J.

Frank Warner extended the surveys governed by

the Copper River Meridian and Base Line and a

third double party, under John P. Walker, inaugurated the system of surveys under the newly

adopted Seward Meridian and Base Line. Walker's

party was not troubled by snow and ice; they had a

different set of problems, according to a letter

Walker wrote:38

The mosquitoes and bugs of all classes have

fully come up to expectations this summer and

are the curse of this country.

I met a big brown bear on line Aug. 2nd with a

rather pugnacious disposition and we had

rather a close call, but by the aid of a few small

threes and a little brisk climbing we managed to
come out unharmed. I claim the record though

for setting up an instrument in minimum time, as

I had the instrument on my shoulder when I met

the lady on a dead run for me and only about 100

feet away and to set up an instrument on all

three legs, drop the plumb bob without pulling

the instrument over and climb a tree in one

second less than it takes a bear to run 100 feet is

going some.

Coal Fields

In 1914, the leasing of coal lands in Alaska was

authorized for the first time (38 Stat. 471). This

created a sudden demand for a survey of the coal

fields, and a special appropriation was made for

that purpose. In 1915 John P. Walker was named

assistant supervisor of surveys for Alaska, and the

survey of the Nenana, Bering River, and Matanuska

coal fields became his responsibility.42 The only

problem in this was that he was expected to

complete all three surveys in one short survey

season.

In order to get the survey under way, Frank M.

Johnson accompanied Walker to Alaska. For two

months they worked together, organizing and

placing the necessary 15 surveying parties in the

field. When this was done, Johnson returned to

Denver. Although it was an enormous task and the

new assistant supervisor was under considerable

pressure, he was able to report before the end of

the season that both rectangular and topographic

surveys of all three areas had been completed. The

plats and field notes were finished during the

winter and the coal lands were offered for lease on

schedule the following spring.90

George A. Parks

George A. Parks, then chief of the Field Division

of the General Land Office in Alaska, assumed

Walker's duties as assistant supervisor of surveys

when Walker was transferred to Idaho following

Frank Spofford's death in 1924. When Parks took

charge, the surveying of public lands in Alaska had

reached a stage where the work was more complex

than it had been at the beginning of the direct

system. By then it involved the survey of such

things as townsites, isolated homesteads, National

Park boundaries, forest reserve boundaries, naval

and military reservations, and Indian allotments, as

well as retracement of the boundaries of old

surveys, examination of nonmineral surveys, and

extension of the rectangular surveys.

In his first report to the supervisor of surveys,

Parks speculated about the future:64

148

It is almost impossible to estimate the cost of

work during the coming year, but from the

information available I believe we should have at

least 40,000.00 alloted to Alaska. Much of our

work will be scattered and transportation costs

are high. If it becomes necessary to make

additional surveys in the oil fields we would

probably need more than that amount but I assume that we could be given an additional

allotment of five or ten thousand if absolutely

necessary.

One year later, Parks became governor of Alaska

Territory. A new assistant supervisor of surveys for

Alaska was not named. Martin George, office

cadastral engineer, toQk over Parks' duties when

Parks resigned. (In 1925 the offices of the surveyors general were abolished. In the ensuing

reorganization, the chief clerks of the surveyors

general's offices become office cadastral

engineers and assistant supervisors became

district cadastral engineers.) When Martin George

died on December 27, 1925, Eckley C. Guerin was

named engineer in charge of Alaska Surveys.64 He

held this position until Parks returned to the

General Land Office as district cadastral engineer

after his term as governor expired in 1933.

Matanuska Project

By then, the United States was in the depths of

the Great Depression. The Roosevelt administration took steps to assist stricken farm families by

establishing a Government-sponsored colony in

the Matanuska Valley, northeast of Anchorage.

Before the colonists arrived, the most desirable

sections of the valley were surveyed into 40-acre

tracts-200 of them.

The colonization of the Matanuska Valley was

not an unqualified success; 40 acres proved to be

too small a holding on which to make a living at that

time, so many of the settlers gave up and left

Alaska. The settlers who remained gradually

enlarged their holdings, and Matanuska Valley

farms were eventually numbered among the finest

in Alaska.

George Parks retired from the Bureau of Land

Management in 194 after devoting some 40 years

of his life to Govenment service in Alaska. In

March of that year, as he contemplated retirement,

Parks wrote:64

Insofar as the Public Survey Office work is

concerned there need be no apprehension. For

more than a year Mr. Ross has been working

with me on all phases of the work and he is

familiar with the procedures and details in the
office and field. Mr. Berlin has had wide

experience in the field and knows Alaska. These

men have remained with the organization in

Alaska notwithstanding other attractive offers of

employment and it is my feeling that they have

earned, and are entitled to, first consideration

for advancement. In fact I do not know of

anyone else who is qualified to carry on the

work.

Mt. Mckinley National Park

The boundaries of Mt. Mckinley National Park

were run and marked by cadastral surveyors. The

need for the surveys came about following

information that 2 million acres, surrounding the

highest mountain peak in North America, had been

set aside as a National Park in 1917, by order of

President Woodrow Wilson. The southern boundary of Mt. Mckinley National Park was surveyed

by a large party, including Leonard M. Berlin and

Floyd Betts, during a summer season in about

1933. In 1936, the boundaries on the north and west

had to be undertaken, but they presented quite a

different challenge. The tundra, muskeg flats, and

swift-flowing, unbridged rivers along those

borders made winter ice a necessity for overland

travel. No matter; to the men who had been on the

earlier survey, the ice sounded infinitely preferable

to the mosquitos.107

The Men. Alaska survey veterans Berlin and

Betts volunteered for the job. In choosing the rest

of the party, veterans of prior North-country

surveys, they sought men who were able to take

care of both themselves and emergencies. There

were no budget provisions for a cook, medic, or

even a camp roustabout. The other men chosen

were ken Nelson, Larry Dauphiny, Herbert C.

Torgerson, W. C. Conover, and Grant Pearson.

At that time, Floyd Betts was considered the

"dean of Alaska surveyors." He had been surveying

longer than any of the others.107 Berlin gave him

credit for teaching them more of the practical side

of surveying in the Far North than they could ever

have learned from books. Berlin put it all to good

use later as a member of Admiral Byrd's 1939

expedition to Antarctica. Later still, Berlin became

area cadastral engineer in Portland, Oregon, and

state engineering officer in California.164

Supplies and Equipment. All of the supplies and

gear these seven men took with them had to be

transported by dog sled. The concrete-filled iron

posts that were used for markers on the survey

weighed over three-quarters of a ton, which alone

149

limited the remainder of the supplies they were

able to carry. Each man took one change of

clothes, the best and warmest available. The

snowshoes were also the best ones made, in spite

of a limited mid-1930's budget, for obvious

reasons. Food was another matter: they had

planned that there would be plenty of game for

meat, but in all the timetheywere out on thesurvey

they did not see even one rabbit. Their dinner

menus were therefore limited to beans, dehydrated

potatoes, dried apples, rice pudding, coffee,

cocoa, and baking powder biscuits.

The Work. The surveyors developed a system

that worked fairly well for getting the work done,

but it did not allow time for enjoying the spectacular views of the mountains, lakes, and Northern

Lights. They had a 7-day work week, and were, by

turns, scouts, solar observers, chainmen, and posthole diggers.

That last-named duty was a rough one. Each

post weighed 16 pounds, and each had to be buried

28 inches into the frozen ground. Of course the

snow had to be cleared away before the ground

could be reached, and this gave rise to the

invention of altogether new invectives.

The men had to snowshoe across open spaces,

set posts every mile, slash a 10-foot passage

through tall trees when the line crossed timbered

country, and pile up rock cairns nearly 6 feet high

on all the high points of the barren areas. Thus the

surveyors felt a justifiable pride when they looked

back over their line and saw the miles they had

marked through the icy land. To celebrate the

distance covered, they put up a sign, "National

Park Boundary." One of the men added another

line, "If you've come this far, Brother, you may as

well go on in."

On the last day of the survey Leonard Berlin was

operating the instrument, with two men about a

mile ahead of him, who had the only rifle in the

party. Berlin could see them, but they were too far

away to be of any help to him when he heard wild

and threatening noises close to his position. Berlin

had cut enough timber that season so that he felt

pretty secure with a double-bitted ax in his hands.

Soon four wolves lay dead at his feet. Because

there was a bounty on wolves at that time, Berlin

earned 80 depression dollars (almost a whole

month's pay) from a few minutes with his ax.107

Results. The surveyors completed the boundary

work 5 days ahead of schedule, at the cost that had

been estimated, and went on to Fairbanks. Once

there, they rented rooms in a hotel and one of the
men announced, "I've rented this bathroom, I'm

going to get my money's worth." The other men

swore that he took seven baths that one day.

SURVEYS FOLLOWING STATEHOOD

Leonard Berlin was named regional cadastral

engineer when George Parks retired. Shortly after

that, Alaskans raised a forceful cry against their

status as "second-class citizens." In 1956, with a

view to impending statehood, the Kateel and Umiat

Initial Points were established by designating

USC&GS triangulation stations as initial points for

the rectangular system. Thus, at least in theory, the

entire State was covered by the rectangular system

at about the time Alaska was admitted to the Union

in 1959.

At the time of that historic event, however, less

than 2 percent of Alaska had been surveyed. Under

the terms of the legislation establishing Alaska as

the 49th State, roughly 105 million acres of the

Public Domain was to be turned over to Alaska. The

land was in locations to be selected by the State of

Alaska, and the BLM was directed to survey the

boundaries of the State selections.

Because less than 3 million acres had been

surveyed in the preceding92years, itwasapparent

that the immensity of such a surveying undertaking, coupled with the difficulty of the terrain,

demanded surveying methods not contemplated in

the 1947 Manual. Ultimate responsibility for

developing and implementing such new methods

fell upon Donald B. Clement, chief of cadastral

surveys in Washington, D.C., and his successor, C.

E. Remington, chief engineer, who was assisted by

Clark L. Gumm, chief of cadastral surveys.162

About this time, Berlin transferred to Oregon and

Wendell G. Hall, a civil engineer and veteran

second-generation cadastral surveyor, was

transferred from New Mexico to Anchorage. It was

Hall who developed the necessary office

organizations to implement the new methods. In

1961, after Hall had developed the new techniques

and procedures, D. R. W. Wager-Smith replaced

Hall.

The Hall System

With less than 2 percent of Alaska surveyed, it

was usually many miles from any monumented

corner of the rectangular system to almost any

block of State-selected land. Therefore it was

necessary to relate new surveys to the established

rectangular system by means of related geodetic

coordinates.

150

Under Hall's leadership, a system of protracted

surveys, or plan of surveys, was developed for

nearly all of Alaska's vast land and water area. The

protracted surveys were all based upon existing

coordinate systems. Protraction diagrams were

prepared, each containing 16 townships, or a 24-

mile "square," at a scale of about 2 inches per mile.

The recomputed geographical coordinates for

each township corner were shown on these

diagrams. BLM field parties then extended the

existing USC&GS triangulation net as the actual

field surveys were executed. Since 1959, this

system, which requires the processing of enormous amounts of data, has involved the use of

electronic computers.162

Photogrammetry

In order to place topography and culture on the

protraction diagrams, the BLM contracted for

aerial photography of areas to be surveyed. The

BLM's photogrammetric branch in Anchorage had

its own plotter and coordinatograph. Later it

acquired its own airplane and aerial camera. By

reversing this process, the lines of the rectangular

system could be plotted directly on the aerial

photographs, and the ground location of proposed

State-selection boundary monuments could be

chosen. Such monuments were not placed at all

section corners, but only at intervals of about 2

miles along the township boundaries.

In order to set a monument by this method, field

parties equipped with theodolites and electronic

distance measuring equipment occupied intervisible points with known geodetic coordinates. By

hand-held radios they talked a visible third field

party to the point where the new monument was to

be set, or as close to it as visibility would permit.

Often in wooded areas where the monumentation

party was obscured by trees much of the time, they

would be talked onto a point as close as possible to

the intended monument. The geodetic position of

this alternate point would then be determined, and

a traverse would be calulated and run to the point

for the monument. Radio communication with the

mathematics section in Anchorage was often used

to facilitate such comp4ltations.162

Photogrammetric support helped to make possible the execution of more than a million acres of

State-selection surveys in the decade following

statehood. It has also been extremely valuable in

planning surveys of existing Native townsites and

in the surveying of Alaska's myriad water boundaries.
Airborne Electronic Survey System

The chief difficulty encountered in using the new

system was the frequent lack of a direct line of sight

from the theodolite parties to the monumentation

party, necessitating the calculation and running of

the traverse. It was the classic surveyor's problem:

the range pole just was not long enough. Jerry R.

Harris, supervisor of theodolite field parties, who

adapted the airborne control system to BLM

surveys, helped improve the situation. He learned

through some of his former associates with the

Geological Survey that they had developed a

device which they called the Hover Sight. This

device enabled a helicopter pilot to see a spot on

the ground directly beneath aflashing target on top

of his hovering helicopter. At last the surveyor had

a range pole that was high enough. The theodolite

parties used radios to talk the flashing target to a

point directly over the precomputed position for

the monument. The pilot or his assistant then

dropped an iron pipe monument draped with

colored flagging directly onto the point to be

monumented, or very close to it. Later a monumentation party set the monument, hoping that a

playful bear had not carried it off before they got to

it.162

Meanwhile, in Fairbanks, Don Harding

developed another variation of the theodolite-EDM

method by using "smoke jumper" tactics. He and

his men parachuted into wooded areas with power

saws to clear heliports so theodolite crews could

be landed.

The Hall/Wager-Smith/Harding Period

The early years of surveys after statehood, which

might properly be called the Hall/WagnerSmith/Harding period, saw the development of the

system that permitted the survey of some 1.5

million acres a yearacres that could not have

been surveyed in 20 years at the same cost using

conventional ground methods. Those early years

were not without their anxious moments, however.

Field parties who were inexperienced in the new

methods were constantly exposed to all manner of

hazards and discomforts, including bears and

mosquitoes, downed aircraft, glaciers and icy

raging rivers, sudden blizzards and earthquakes.

Yet, even though there were a few close calls, not a

man was lost nor a critical injury suffered.

Much of the risk arose from the field parties'

almost complete dependence on aircraft to get

151

them into and out of the most remote and

precarious locations. Greatcredit is dueto John W.

McCormick, chief pilot of the BLM fleet of aircraft,

who kept the planes flying safely, and Brannon C.

Caster, electronics engineer, who kept the field

parties in constant communication with

Anchorage and Fairbanks headquarters by a

highly sophisticated radio network that covered

much of the state.162

SPECIAL SURVEYS

Cadastral surveys that involve unusual

applications of, or departures from, the rectangular

system are called special surveys. These surveys

frequently carry out the provisions of particular

legislative acts and include such work as smalltract surveys; townsite surveys; island and omitted

land surveys; homesite, homestead, and trade and

manufacturing site surveys; mineral segregation

surveys; and various metes and bounds surveys.

Metes and bounds surveys are required to define

the boundaries of irregular tracts that do not

conform to legal subdivisions. Ordinarily this

involves the establishment of the boundaries of

claims, grants, or reservations, such as Indian

reservations, small-holding claims, forest-entry

claims, National Parks, and National Monuments.

Due to their very nature, certain types of special

surveys occasionally involve a bit more adventure

than might be expected during the course of some

of the regulation surveys, as was true of the 1936

Mt. McKinley National Park boundary survey.

Prior to statehood there were vast areas of

Alaska into which it was not feasible to extend the

rectangular net. The coming of statehood did not

alter the situation; this condition still prevails

except for the protraction diagrams previously

described. Yet the demand for official U.S. surveys

of homestead entries (HES) or small claims has

persisted. This has brought about the execution of

great numbers of metes and bounds surveys not

tied directly to the rectangular net. These Alaskan

'special surveys" which include townsites as well

as isolated settlement claims, are scattered from

Ketch ikan to Point Barrow and from the Canadian

border to the western Aleutian Islands, and all of

them are tied to natural features or previously set

monuments. They are also tied to the rectangular

system on diagrams and thus to the monuments of

State selections.162
Chapter 14

THE EARLY YEARS OF THE DIRECT SYSTEM

As authority and responsibility for retracements

and resurveys expanded, the work of surveying the

public lands became increasingly specialized.

Rising land values helped make the public aware of

the importance of the surveyor's work. A few

people were even beginning to understand that

one of their oldest and most fundamental rights

the right to own and inherit landwas dependent

upon the work of the U.S. surveyors.

The pride and esprit de corps of the surveyors

grew as the men became more experienced. All this

combined to fire the imagination of many young

men who clamored for places on the survey

crewsboys who longed to savor the prestige and

adventure of life in the survey camps. On June 3,

1914, Frank M. Johnson wrote a letter to C. L.

DuBois, chief of the Division of Surveys of the

General Land Office, in which he discussed the

trials that accompanied the employment of these

adventure-hungry youths from the East:39

. I am rapidly reaching the conclusion that

the fewer young men we secure from the East

who have no conception of the work the better. I

am receiving letters from mothers and fathers

and sisters and aunts who seem to hold me

personally responsible for every little incident in

the surveying lives of their boys. The following

incident is typical. A young man from the East

was recently assigned to a surveying party in

Montana on which there was working a teamster

by the name of George and a mule by the name

of Dynamite. One Sunday morning George

endeavored to remove a cactus thorn from the

instep of Dynamite's hind foot. After they had

swept up George and reassembled him, he gave

vent in the expressive and picturesque language

of the plains to an opinion of mules in general

and of Dynamite in particular. The young man

from the East was horrified and of course

immediately wrote home, describing the incident with, I suppose, such embellishments as

would make good reading matter. I am now in

receipt of a letter from his aunt intimating very

strongly that I am personally responsible for

George's vocabulary and for the weaknesses to

which mule flesh is heir. This is just one case.

There are many others. I think we can do better

with Western boys who understand the customs

of the country and the cussedness of mules.

153

TRANSITIONS

And other things were changing, too.

Supplementary publications to assist the surveyors had been published, a new manual of

surveying instruction was being prepared, and

surveying instruments were being improved. Also,

the traditional mode of field transportationmules

or horses and wagonswas giving way to more

modern means of travel. The packer and teamster

slowly began to disappear, along with the

stagecoach driver and other colorful characters of

the Old West.

Though they may have nostalgically mourned

the passing of the old ways, the surveyors were

quick to perceive the advantages of such modern

vehicles as trucks and motorcycles. In some areas,

trucks proved their worth in the first few days of

their use, but in remote and rugged places the old

ways died hard. Remarked N. B. Sweitzer, "The

crews all more than like the new trucks. However,

occasionally one heaves a sigh for one of the old

favorite mules, who, like Gunga Din, had many

friends among the crews."5°

SOME OF THE MEN

John S. Knowles

John S. Knowles, who was to later serve as

office engineer of Montana and Colorado, as well

as area cadastral engineer for Area 3, went to work

on a Colorado survey crew in 1912 when he was 16

years old.

In those days, physical ability and the ability to

get along with both men and mules counted almost

as much. as technical proficiency. Knowles himself

has said, 'In those days if the field engineer let you

off on Sunday, you thought he had gone soft." At

the beginning of his long and distinguished career,

Knowles, as one of the younger surveyors, was

assigned the field completion of several jobs in the

rugged Elk and San Juan Mountains in Colorado.

On those jobs all iron posts, groceries, and feed for

the mules were packed in by mule. After camp was

set up, the mules could rest; the equipment for

each day's work was packed by the men.

Once, in complaining about the lack of corners

to an old contract surveyor who had done original
DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

GENERAL LAND OFFICE

Office of Assistant Supervisor of Surveys

250 Federal Building, Phoenix, Arizona

May 6, 1919

Mr. Frank M. Johnson

Supervisor of Surveys

Denver, Colorado

Dear Sir:

in view of your description of the 1st., Mr. Francis F. Joy, U.S. Cadastral Engineer, would be a very welcome addition

indeed to the field forces in California, but my smile faded when I came to the last paragraph of your letter wherein it is

proposed to exchange for Mr. Joy, Mr. Arthur W. Brown, U.S. Cadastral Engineer. I am glad you are giving me the

opportunity to voice my views on the subject, which are as follows:

Since Mr. Brown came to California, many times have I thought with satisfaction of the healthy atmosphere he has

created among the surveyors In that state. As you know, he has plenty of jazz and the way he has hopped over the

pinnacles and double timed across the deserts has kept the other surveyors up on their toes in an attempt to snap into it as

quickly as Brown. . . . California needed new, young blood, It got it. Naturally I am loath to lose it.

While It is true that the number of resurveys in California Is insignificant compared to Colorado resurveys, yet

California has its complicated resurveys and Brown is the only surveyor I have who has the knowledge, judgment and

experience to bring them to a successful conclusion. . . . I need one good, bang-up resurveyor and Brown is one.

I understand that Mr. Brown has made extensive family arrangements in California. Of course he is the sort who would

go anywhere he is sent without complaint, but If I am not mistaken a move to Colorado would cause him considerable

annoyance and expense.

I have always had the feeling, possibly a mistaken one, that Brown belonged to me. As you remember, he started out

on our surveys as my axeman and later became the most satisfactory chainman I ever had. I know him and his ways

intimately. He knows me and my ideas, It is a source of great satisfaction to me to have him in my district.

If the reasons for his transfer to Colorado outweigh those given above, I shall be reconciled to the change.

Very respecfully,

A. C. Horton

Asst. Supervisor of Surveys

The reply to this was a telegram from Frank M. Johnson dated May 9, 1919:

"Joy will be transferred to California. Brown may also remain there. Send district eight surveyors north at earliest possible

date or whole Oregon and Washington program will fail."

154
surveys in the area, Knowles told the surveyor (who

was "about 94 years old at the time") that they

could find almost no evidence of some of the

corners. The old surveyor sympathized, telling

Knowles that sometimes it was difficult to find

those corners two days after they had been set.

They had used wood stakes at that time, and the

Indians often removed them to use for firewood in

that treeless prairie land. Resurveying in that area,

Knowles found, meant that the surveyors had to

look for "any physical evidence we could find

buried charcoal, axe marks, a stack of buffalo

horns, mounded sodanything the original surveyors might have used to mark or witness their

corners."152

Glenn R. Haste

Glenn R. Haste began his Government service in

1913 as a cornerman with a cadastral surveying

crew in New Mexico. He later became area

engineering officer at Denver, a position he still

held at thetime of his retirement in 1961. During the

intervening years he gained a reputation for speed

and quantity of work, as well as for excellence in

the performance of his duties. As early as 1919,

Alonzo Compton, then assistant supervisor of

surveys in New Mexico, wrote of him: "In my

opinion Mr. Haste is a valuable man to hold in the

surveys, and will soon rise to the top as an

engineer, Incidentally Mr. Haste was the principal

assistant who chained 21 miles of township

exteriors in one day."46

Dupree R. (Herk) Averill

Another surveyor who started his career about

the same time as Haste and Knowles was Dupree A.

(Herk) Averill. He was born shortly before 1900,

and started surveying in about 1914.

One of his early survey assignments was in a

then-remote part of the Kofa Mountains in Arizona.

Averill was flagman, and he decided to give the

instrument man a point he could not occupy with

the instrument. He found his opportunity when a

tall chimneylike pinnacle fell on the line. Somehow

he climbed it. The instrument man refused to play

Averill's game and simply ran an offset line around

the pinnacle.164 It was at that point that Averill

found that he could not get off the pinnacle. The

obscure hand- and footholds he had used climbing

up were not visible as he looked downward. The

survey party left him there overnight to teach him a

lesson.

Dupree R. (for Reed) Averill's name might not be

recognized by his peers or surveyors who came

155

after him, because he was always called "Herk."7° It

was the name given to him by men who were trying

to unload some water barrels from the bed of a rig

they were using on their survey. When it became

evident that they had no idea how to do the job,

Averill snorted in disgust and said that he would

show them how to unload a water barrel.

There is a trick to dealing with something of that

sort. Men on the survey crews learned to let the

weight and motion of such objects work for them.

Averill just quickly tipped the barrel up on its rim

and, as its momentum helped him, he used his knee

for leverage and lowered the 400-pound barrel to

the ground. From that time on, he was known as

"Herk" because of the men's admiration of his

"Herculean" strength.164

The Harringtons

Guy P. and Earl G. Harrington were both with the

General Land Office and the Bureau of Land

Management for many years. Guy P. Harrington

was appointed assistant supervisor of surveys for

New Mexico on March 17, 1922, upon the resignation of Alonzo E. Corn pton.

In 1908, when he was about 18 years old, EarIG.

Harrington, Guy's younger brother, became a field

assistant on a General Land Office survey party in

Minnesota, his home State. It was the beginning of

a long career in cadastral surveying.

In 1928-29, Earl G. F-Iarrington, then a cadastral

engineer, resurveyed a part of the MichiganWisconsin line, under the direction of commissioners representing the two States. The line he

reestablished was originally surveyed by William

Austin Burt in 1847.32 Earl Harrington located the

stumps of two of the original bearing trees and a

small circular mound of stone about 6 inches below

the ground surface. These marked thewestern end

of Burt's line. The east end of the line was reestablished from what Harrington believed to be

the first bearing tree Burt had marked on this line.

Burt's name, the date, and the initial mile number

were found incribed on the tree.

Harrington found nearly three-quarters of the

original mile and half-mile corners. In a few places,

stone monuments were found. In most cases where

one of Burt's corners was found, the location of at

least one of the original bearing trees enabled

Harrington to find the corner. Sometimes the outer

chip removed from an old bearing tree showed the

mirror-image of the markings as plainly as the

original markings appeared on the tree itself.

Harrington reported that the line surveyed by

William Austin Burt varied only slightly from its
intended bearings and distances. He credited it

with being one of the best of the early surveys.30

Earl G. Harrington was cadastral engineering

staff officer of the Bureau of Land Management

when he retired in 1959. His career in cadastral

surveying had lasted for more than 50 years.

Following his retirement, he remained interested in

surveying and served as consultant for the

Louisiana Land and Exploration Company. He died

in June 1966.

Donald B. Clement

Donald B. Clement became cadastral survey

staff officer of the Bureau of Land Management

following Earl Harrington's retirement. At the time

he accepted this position he had been involved in

cadastral surveying for almost 50 years.

Clement, like the Harringtons, was from

Minnesota. On August 20, 1910, he joined a survey

party in eastern Montana. He was about 18 years

old, and his job was digging holes and planting

corner posts. In 1914, Clement went to

Washington, D.C., and, with the exception of 2

years with the Iowa State Highway Commission, he

worked there the rest of his life.

In later years, Donald Clement earned a reputation as an expert in solving riparian rights

problems. Clement retired from the Bureau of Land

Management in the early 1960's and died in late

November 1965.

Andy Nelson

Minnesota was the State where still another

long-time cadastral surveyor got his start. His

name was Andrew Nelson. He was first employed

in the survey of the public lands in 1904, when he

was 16 years old. Young Andy Nelson was

assigned to work with an examiner checking

surveys near the Minnesota-Canada boundary that

first winter. He and the examiner worked through

temperatures of 50° below zero. They traveled by

canoe or snowshoes, and the main part of their diet

was moose meat.

Nelson was given a temporary appointment in

1910, when the contract system was discarded in

favor of the system that allowed the General Land

Office to form its own group of competent

surveyors. In 1917, after taking a Civil Service

examination, Andy Nelson accepted a permanent

appointment as a cadastral engineer. His career

took him to a dozen States and over some of the

wildest, most rugged terrain on the globe, including the deeply carved, perpendicular scenery

of Bryce and Zion Canyons.11°

156

Andy Nelson liked to tell of his survey of the

southern part of the Salt Lake Meridian. It had been

run south from Salt Lake City to a mountainous

area, but not all the way to the Utah-Arizona

boundary. Nelson was given the task of establishing the southern end of the meridian so that

surveys could begin in the southern part of the

State. He and another surveyor spent several days

making longitude observations, and completed

their task. In later years, both ends of the Salt Lake

Meridian were finally joined. The two ends missed

an exact connection by less than a quarter of a

mile, which is still considered quite accurate for

longitude.151

During the course of a 1926 survey, Andy Nelson

looked through his transit and saw a part of a

wagon wheel. That barely visible wheel led him to

what was left of three wagons that had been

abandoned by the unfortunate Donner party as

they crossed the Great Salt Lake Desert in 1846. On

this same survey, Andy Nelson found more

evidence of preservation in this desert. Nelson had

to tie his survey to one done nearly 30 years earlier,

and it turned out to be so easy he could scarcely

believe it. He found the tracks of the previous

survey party still clearly marked in the salt. He

literally followed the footsteps to the corner he

sought.11°

For more than 50 years, Andy Nelson was a

cadastral surveyor. He often told people that he

enjoyed his rugged life. Perhaps that is why, even

when he was past the age of 70, he remained as

strong and lean as a whip.158 After he retired, he

returned to the BLM to execute some special

surveys in Utah. Until shortly before his death in

the middle 1960's, Nelson'sstepstillhadaspringto

it, and his hair was without a streak of gray.

While he was still an active surveyor, Andy

Nelson became almost a legend. It was said that he

had surveyed more miles than any other cadastral

surveyor. It was also said that he made it a practice

to supervise the marking of each corner on his

surveys. Men who have retraced his lines have

found they could depend upon the accuracy of

surveys done by Andy Nelson.158

Roger F. Wilson

Roger F. Wilson, California's most prolific

surveyor, retired in 1963 with a record that put him

in the same league with Andy Nelson. At his

retirement, Wilson was given a "diploma," which

indicated that he had signed his name under 36,000

miles of various types of surveys during his career

as a cadastral surveyorb to 40 miles each week
for 6 months or more each year for more than 42

years add up to many miles.

A bad ear had kept Roger Wilson out of World

War I, and at the beginning of 1919, he had, in his

own words, "a cushy job that netted more than 300

[dollars] a month . . . and no worries." Then one

day, an old high school friend, Johnny Knowles,

came by. Johnny was home from the war and

bursting with excitement. He had passed the Civil

Service examination for U.S. transitman before he

went away, and now, at last, he was preparing to

leave with his first field party.163

John Knowles must have made cadastral surveying sound like the good life, because on May 13,

1919, Roger Wilsonwhose background in surveying consisted of a good foundation in

mathematics and a genuine liking for

trigonometryboarded a train with Hans Voigt and

was off to the canyon of the Grand River. Wilson's

pay consisted of plenty of fresh air and $60 a

month, though he did work all the way up to $75 a

month that season. His first assignment was as

notekeeper (rear chainman) for John Knowles.

That summer, Roger Wilson's education in the

survey of the public lands began. He credits Hans

Voigt with being one of the best instructors the

GLO ever had. Hans Voigt arranged his instructions so that the men had to become involved with

the problems. This was accomplished so smoothly

that they did not even realize until later that they

were being taught. Forexample, Roger Wilson said

that he was required to get up at 3 a.m. to take an

observation on Polaris, at elongation, to "check"

the hour angle Hans Voigt had taken at a more

convenient twilight hour. He learned to keep notes by being sent out with an experienced drag

chainman, to rechain a mile of line that "didn't

close," and to write down the topography as it was

called off to him. From the following day, Roger

Wilson was on his own, having learned exactly

what Hans Voigt planned for him to learn. Soon

John Knowles had Wilson preparing the daily solar

declination chart and course and distance

diagrams. He learned to close his own sections

within half the allowable limits and also to close

elevations within 50 feet using vertical angles and

distancesa far from easy matter.

On November 13, 1919, Wilson returned to

Denver, but was back with the survey party again in

May 1920, when they finished the work begun the

year before in the beautiful but rugged Colorado

Rockies. By that time, John Knowles had Roger

Wilson "checking his transit all day Sundays on the

camp meridian and reading the 'Bible' [the Manual

of Instructions] in . . . [his] spare time."

157

On February 9, 1921, Wilson took the Civil Service examination for U.S. transitman and the

next day he was on a train headed for another job.

Joe Davis had a survey party in the northwestern

corner of Arizona, and he needed a notekeeper.

Wilson spent 3 months there, and for that 3 months

work he received $225, which was about what his

train fare and expenses had cost him. He was back

in Denver in time to go to southeastern Colorado

with John Knowles early in June. That area is

prairie land, and they timed themselves once at 1/2

mile in 9 minutes. They dragged the tape out all 5

chains and gave it a flip. The rear chainman held

5.00 next to the pin on the ground, and the front

chain man stuck the pin at 0.00. When he had used

his 8th pin, they got lined in for the corner point.

John Knowles kept up with the chainmen in a

Model T converted flatbed truck.

Wilson went back to Denver in December. He had

passed the examination and accepted a temporary

appointment in California. He left for California on

February 13, 1922. The train dropped him at Goff,

which is situated some miles west of Needles,

California, and "some miles in any direction from

any place else fit to be inhabited." He was picked

up by the truck driver and they drove for miles

along dirt tracks to the survey camp.

After several assignments in California, Wilson

had his own field parties except for a part of 3 or 4

years in the 1920's when he worked with Carl

Seibecker and with Herk Averill. Tom Winkler was

one of his principal field assistants for some 25

years, which was about the length of time J. D.

Dukes served as the cook for Wilson's survey

crews.

For most of his long career, Wilson surveyed in

California, Nevada, and Arizona. In the mid-i 930's,

however, he was assigned to a job near Spartanburg, South Carolina. Some of the lines that he

resurveyed there were property lines that had been

originally surveyed by George Washington 163

Roger Wilson always took pride in the surveys he

executed. He advised the men on his survey crews

to pretend, as he did, that the land they were

surveying was worth a thousand dollars a foot

instead of the less than nothing it sometimes

appeared to be. It was a good guess, because some

of those surveys are used to describe oil-producing

lands now valued at very nearly that amount.

WORLD WAR I

The effect of World War I on the surveying

service was well described in a letter Frank M.
Johnson received from N. B. Sweitzer, assistant

supervisor of surveys in Omaha. It stated, in part:5°

to thoroughly understand the conditions

involved as regards the resurveys, I beg to state

that at the declaration of war practically the

entire field and office force in the Third

Surveying District volunteered. All that remains

of as an efficient an organization as the General

Land Office ever had are some who could not

get into the army.

And, of course, some of the surveyors who went off

to the Great War did not come back.

NEW MANUAL

In 1918, the work was resumed on the new

manual of surveying instructions that had been in

process of preparation for some time. Chapters I

EPISODE AT THE MEXICAN BORDER-1916

Although by 1916, Frank M. Johnson was well pleased with the way the surveys were progressing, occasionally there

were incidents that affected them adversely. And sometimes those things had no relationship whatever to the surveys

themselves. For example, in March 1916, Pancho Villa raided a small American army town in New Mexico.44

Mexico's leader, Carranza, agreed to allow American troops to pursue Villa into Mexico, but apparently he had not

envisioned General John J. Pershing's 7,000-man army, which plunged some 300 miles into Mexican territory. The

Mexican people felt they had been invaded and demanded that the troops be pulled back. Meanwhile, many Americans

insisted that only a military invasion could bring peace to the strife-torn border country.

While this was taking place, a survey under Group No. 36, California, was under way, a fact that involved Wilford

Utterback and his crew in "an unpleasant and provoking difficulty with the Mexican Customs Officials at Tecate,

Mexico......Apparently, on May 20, 1916, Utterback, who was busy with computations and paper work, sent three of his

assistants "to make search for and destroy the old corners set by Deputy Surveyor S. W. Brunt, along the International

Boundary in 1878."

Assistants Adams, Valentine, and Webb drove a team to the boundary line. There they found the road had been washed

to a deep rut on the north side of the fence defining the northern boundary of the 60-foot-wide neutral strip on the

American side of the boundary line. The surveying assistants did not want to block the road, so they drove through the

fence and pulled the wagon off the road to allow the passage of other teams. They then went of f to work.

The three men finished their assigned task and returned to thewagon at 6 p.m. They were immediately "accosted by

three armed Mexican border guards." The guards ordered the men to measure the distance from the fence to the team.

They did so and discovered that the forefeet of the mules were on Mexican territory.

At gun point, Adams, Webb, and Valentine were forced to pick up their transit and other equipment and accompany the

guards to Tecate, Mexico, where they were placed in custody by Mexican soldiers.

By 8 p.m., when the survey party had not returned to camp, Utterbackgrew uneasy and rode to the boundary. He found

the place where the men had planned to leave the team and discovered that they had driven south into Mexico.

Utterback (along with a Campo, California, U.S. customs officer named Osborne and a U.S. immigration inspector

named Webb) drove to Tecate, Mexico, where they, with the help of an interpreter, were able to effect the release of the

men. However, they were not able to get the team and equipment back without a hearing.

Problems between the local customs officers and the officer in charge of the soldiers at Tecate caused some delay, but

late Monday evening a message came from Governor Cantu of Mexicali, Mexico, suggesting a three-man commission be

taken to the scene of the arrest, If conditions were found to beas represented by Utterback, Cantu directed the mules and

other confiscated property would be released.

Utterback telephoned to Campo for an automobile. When It arrived, he and the officials selected by Governor Cantu

started for the border. When they reached the place, they found that conditionswere as Utterback had described them.

They went back to Tecate where the mules, wagon, and other equipmentwere cleared by the customs officer. Utterback

gathered up the confiscated property and was back at his survey camp by noon on May 24. The following day he wrote a

report of the incident to A. C. Horton, Jr., assistant supervisor of surveys for District No. 5 (California and Arizona). It

included the following statement of expenses incurred:

through V treating Regulations Imposed by Law,

Instruments and Methods, System of Rectangular

Surveys, Corner Monuments, and Restoration of

Lost and Obliterated Corners, respectively, were

finished and had received the formal approval of

the board overseeing the project. Chapter VI,

which dealt with the complex and farreaching

subject of resurveys, was being revised because of

the difficulty encountered in treating such an

important and intricate subject in a comprehensive

manner in the space allotted for it. Chapter VII on

Special Surveys and Instructions, chapter VIII on

Field Notes, and chapter IX on Plats were all being

written.88

One of the minor changes in chapter VIII showed

a definite trend toward modernization. Originally,

field notes were transcribed by hand in ink but

beginning in 1894, either handwritten or

158
May 24, room and breakfast at J. Thing's residence

feed mules overnight

May 24, hire of automobile to drive Mexican Commissioners from Tecate, Mexico to scene of arrest

May 20a, hire of automobile to haul me to Tecate, Mexico, from Campo May 20

May 21b, hire of automobile to transport assistants from Tecate, California to Campo

(items a and b not yet settled but will be about $15.00)

May 22, telegram sent by Immigration Inspector Webb to Governor Cantu at Mexicali explaining arrest of

party, and asking immediate release

(The above made at my request, as Mr. Webb has personal acquaintance with Governor Cantu.)

\\(ol. 90Report from Wilford Utterback to A. C. Horton, May 25, 1916)

typewritten field notes were acceptable. Following

a 1910 directive (confirmed by the "Manual of

Surveying Instructions, 1930"), all final field notes

have been typewritten on regulation field note

paper.37

The original plan for this sixth manual of

surveying instructions had called for only nine

chapters, but a tenth, dealing the Mineral Surveys,

was eventually added.

DIRECTING THE CADASTRAL SURVEY

In 1919, Clay Tallman, then commissioner of the

GLO, inquired about the high cost of surveys in

Washington State. Frank Johnson, who had

recently returned from a visit to the Northwest,

replied in part:52

the cost of field work anywhere is regulated

largely and often entirely by physical

characteristics of the country under survey

[topography and vegetation], weather conditions and location with respect to supply

stations. This is particularly true of surveys in

Washington where we are surveying the State

exchange lands. These lands lie along the

watersheds of the Cascades and Olympic

Mountains in some of the roughest and

DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

GENERAL LAND OFFICE

STATEMENT OF EXPENSES INCURRED IN LIBERATING TEAM AND MEN APPREHENDED BY MEXICAN OFFICERS

ON THE INTERNATIONAL BOUNDARY LINE, MAY 20, 1916.

May 23, feed two mules May 21 and 22, at 50C per head $2.00

May 23, board and lodging self and assistants at Tecate, Cal. store, May 21, 22, and 23, and incidental

expenses 6.70

159

brushiest and wettest country in the United

States or Alaska, and are so remotely situated

with respect to the beaten paths of travel and the

bases of supplies that it is often necessary for

the entire surveying crew to cut and build trails

before they can manpack their outfits to the field

of operation. The almost daily rains and fogs,

the trail cutting, and the natural difficulties of

progress on the line on account of the roughness of the surface and the density of the

vegetation, when it is possible to work on the

line, bring up the cost of the work to a high figure

if we measure it on a mileage basis . .

. but I

believe it is commensurate with the work in

hand. It could not have been done at all under

the old system.

As the surveys progressed, it became clear that

Frank Johnson could be stern. He could and did

give orders in a blunt, no-nonsense manner if he

had to, as indicated by the following letter:53

June 23, 1920

Dear Mr. Kidder:

I have your telegram this morning quoting

telegram from [name], U.S. transitman, in which he

says "Transfer to Denver office not accepted without

1.10

1.00

.50

10.00
increased compensation one fifty [$150] month

including bonus unless office work very limited."

I have sent the following telegram to [the transitman]:

'Referring your telegram to Kidder comply

immediately with official orders issued you. Further

instructions will be given you from time to time as the

situation warrants and as the good of the service might

dictate."

As you know I have little patience with men in this

service who threaten to quit unless certain con- cessions are granted them. Such men may quit and

unless they are very careful they will be asked to quit;

nor am I gven to debating the question of assignment

or salary with surveyors and transitmen.

Mr. []can either comply with these orders

and take his chances of promotion along with the rest

of the men, or he can send in his resignation.

It is probable that after assisting Mr. Brown for

awhile on some office work here, I shall send him to

the field.

Very Sincerely,

Frank M. Johnson

Supervisor of Surveys

Johnson could also follow ordersas was

necessary when his forwardlooki ng, innovative

methods were not entirely appreciated by his

superiors:66

October 27, 1925

Mr. Frank M. Johnson,

Supervisor of Surveys

Denver, Colorado.

Sirs:

You are hereby directed to discontinue at once

the use of the radio as a communication service.

Hereafter, whenever a more expeditious means of

communication than is afforded by the mails is

necessary, the telegraph will be used exclusively.

Very respectfully,

William Spry

Commissioner

USGS TAKEOVER ATTEMPT

Beginning with the passage of the first land

ordinance in 1785, surveyors were required to note

mines, salt springs, salt licks, mill sites, water

courses, mountains, and other remarkable and

permanent things over and near which their lines

passed, as well as the quality of the land. From time

to time, surveyors general issued instructions that

160

enlarged the list of items the surveyors were to

note.

Because of the fact that the surveyor usually was

the first scientific-minded observer in each new

area, it was considered natural that he should cover

several fields. By the mid-1800's, full-scale

geological surveys were being made in Iowa and

Wisconsin in conjunction with the public land

surveys. In fact, most agencies concerned with

Federal public lands trace their beginnings, at least

in part, to the General Land Office. During the early

years of the GLO, deputy surveyors were expected

to deal with things far beyond the normal concept

of their duties for a simple reasonfor the most

part, the surveyors were the only ones there. For

nearly a hundred years, no agency other than the

GLO was much concerned with the public lands.

Following its creation in 1879, the U.S.

Geological Survey made several attempts to take

over the rectangular surveys. All of these moves

were unsuccessful, including the major campaign

launched in 1920 to have the cadastral surveys

placed under the topographic branch of the

Geological Survey. Successful resistance to this

move was probably due to Frank Johnson's wide

acquaintance with Western Senators and Congressmen, his own excellent reputation, his past

experience, and his ability to communicate his

well-founded objections to the proposal.

At the start of his career, Johnson had worked on

a combined cadastral and topographic survey

project on the lands of the Cherokee, Choctaw,

Chickasaw, Seminole, and Creek Indians in Indian

Country (Oklahoma). He had first-hand knowledge

of the difficulties brought about by the differences

in purpose behind topographic and cadastral

surveys. While Johnson agreed that it might be

theoretically expedient to consolidate similar

surveys under one agency, he also pointed out that

there is no similarity between topographic surveys

and cadastral surveys. Topographic surveys are

made for informative purposes; cadastral surveys

are based upon, interwoven with, and regulated by

the law; they thus permit the fundamental national

land policy of managing and disposing of the

public lands under proper guarantee of title to be

carried out.

Scientific surveys made for informative purposes

can be changed as more information is made

available, as conditions change, or as better

equipment becomes available. By way of contrast,

cadastral surveys mark the lines and corners of the

public lands according to specific law, and for all

time.
SURVEYORS GENERAL UNDER

THE DIRECT SYSTEM

For many years, a surveyor general was a

political appointee for each state and territory on

which public land surveys were being executed.

They then made contracts with deputy surveyors

for the surveys in their respective districts. This

general scheme was still in effect when Congress

abolished the contract system in 1910, and deputy

surveyors ceased to exist as such. However, the

offices of the surveyors general, which were a basic

part of the contract system, were not abolished at

the same time. This made the surveyors general

something of an anachronism; their offices were

organized to handle a situation that no longer

existed.

The surveyors general still had considerable

political influence, even though their powers were

greatly reduced. Because their offices still existed,

they were utilized as well as possible under the new

system--a circumstance that created an unwieldy

division of duties that was neither satisfactory nor

economically sound.

The work of surveying the public lands is a single

process completed in a series of related steps.

Technical instructions are issued and the surveys

are executed in the field, including the preparation

of the records thereof. Then the field notes are

transcribed for the permanent record and the

official plats are prepared. After that, there is a

technical review prior to acceptance of the survey.

During the first 15 years of the direct system of

surveys, the U.S. surveyors were detailed to

whatever area in which surveys had to be made.

They worked under assistant supervisors who were

directly responsible to Frank M. Johnson. Johnson

was directly responsible to the commissioner of

the General Land Office. The Special Instructions

for the surveys were, however, issued by the

surveyors general. And in 11 Western States and

Alaska, the work of transcribing the field notes and

the preparation of the official plats was done by

transcribers and draftsmen under the various

surveyors general. Because of this, there was no

real standardization in the making of official plats.

Each office engaged in constructing official plats

of surveys complied with the general technical

requirements on base plats, but each relied mainly

on its own conception of artistic value in showing

topography and cultural features.

The surveyors general also handled the disbursing of funds for their own offices, and, after the

beginning of the direct system, for the field as well,

except in Alaska. The surveyors general were not

161

accountants, however, so financial clerks were

hired to do the work.62

The returns of surveys were sent to Washington

for final examination prior to their acceptance by

the commissioner. Thus the surveys were executed

by the surveying service, approved by the surveyors general, and accepted by the commissioner.

The retention of the offices of the surveyors

general, along with the awkward division of

surveying responsibility, was recognized as a

costly carry-over from the contract system.

Nevertheless, it continued until Congress, by the

Act of March 3, 1925, abolished the offices of the

surveyors general. Two of the offices which had

existed under the surveyors general since 1800

those of register and receiverwere consolidated,

and all references to "receiver" were dropped.

Under the terms of this act, all references to

surveyors general were changed to "supervisor of

surveys."

The news that the supervisor of surveys was to

take over the administrative duties of the surveyors

general was widely approved. In early April 1925,

Frank M. Johnson received a letter that apparently

expressed not only the writer's view, but also that of

many other people. It stated, in part:67

The abolition of the offices of Surveyors

General, while a foregone conclusion, carried

with it the problem of subsequent administration, and your selection for this duty was an

exceedingly happy solution. Indeed, I doubt

very much whether the Supervisor of Surveys

would have been the legislative successor of the

Surveyors General if he had not been Frank M.

Johnson.

THE CONSOLIDATED SURVEYING SERVICE

As soon as the abolition of the offices of

surveyors general was announced, Frank M.

Johnson began to set in motion a plan to

streamline the consolidated surveying service.

Frank L. Lewis became chief clerk and senior

accountant and auditor,66 and the titles of the

following assistant supervisors of surveys were

changed to district cadastral engineer: Guy P.

Harrington, J. Scott Harrison, Albert C. Horton, Jr.,

Herman Jaeckel, George D. D. Kirkpatrick, Ernest

P. Rands, Nelson B. Sweitzer, and John P. Walker.

The titles of the following chief clerks of offices

of surveyors general were changed to office

cadastral engineer: Martin George, John D.

Adams, James M. Wasson, Alan R. McCord, Ralph
W. Nelson, Norman L. King, John W. Rowland,

George F. Nader, and Joel 0. Naret.

Thomas F. Mathias, chief draftsman of the office

of surveyor general at Helena, Montana, was also

named office cadastral engineer, as was S. W.

Goodale, acting chief clerk in the Salt Lake City office of the surveyor general. George A. Parks

resigned his position as assistant supervisor of surveys and public lands for Alaska when he

became Governor of the Territory on June 15,

1925. Martin George, in his capacity as office

cadastral engineer, was authorized to perform the

routine duties that had been performed by Parks. At the time there were only three cadastral

engineers in Alaskaall experienced menso it

was not deemed necessary to replace Parks at that

time.66

Johnson found that there had been a proliferation of the title of "draftsman" within the offices of

the surveyors general. Transcribers of field notes,

accountants, clerk-stenographers, and even

messengers had been given that designation. Yet,

"Whyte of the Denver office is listed as a copyistdraftsman, but actually makes and has made for

many years the most difficult of plats, those of

resurveys." Others with no particular distinction in

the kind of work they were doing were called

"clerk-draftsmen," "topographic draftsmen," and

"draftsmen." Johnson recommended that, in the

interest of proper administration, everyone be

given proper titles.66

Russell K. Allen

Russell K. Allen, former chief clerk in the office of

the surveyor general in Denver, was appointed as

"administrative cadastral engineer." Highly esteemed by Johnson, Allen was widely recognized

162

as one of the best informed men on cadastral

surveys and cadastral survey procedures in the

GLO, or, for that matter, in the private sector. For a

number of years he edited, and in effect approved,

every set of Special Instructions issued by the

supervisor of surveys.159

Until his retirement, virtually every controversial

survey or resurvey problem resolved in the GLO

was reviewed by "R.K.A." Over the years, those

initials on a regulation or decision became a

hallmark of technical excellence, giving to such

documents unquestioned authority. Allen's

knowledge of mineral surveys and the problems

related to them qualified him as an expert in the

field. He was, in large measure, responsible for the

basic content of chapter X of the 1930 and 1947

Manuals, as well as for a great many other decisive

directives that form the body of the mineral survey

and resurvey procedure that is still in use.159

Nebraska Office Abolished

During the years immediately following the

consolidation of the surveying service, the need for

surveys in Nebraska gradually declined and there

was talk of abolishing the surveying office there.

Frank M. Johnson opposed the move because he

considered N. B. Sweitzer's experience on both

surveys and resurveys too valuable to lose.

Nevertheless, in 1929 the office was consolidated

with the Denver office under the direction of

Herman Jaeckel. Although this news must have

been a blow to Sweitzer, it was nothing compared

to the crash of the stock market with which it

almost coincided. N. B. Sweitzer retired in

December 1929, and the United States plunged

headlong into the Great Depression of the 1930's.


A. C. Horton, assistant supervisor of surveys, on left, and his packer are shown catching up on their reading. The

camp is under the bamboos during the lndio Desert survey investigations. The photograph was taken during the

winter of 1915-1 6. The place was T. 5 S., R. 6 E., San Bernardino Meridian, California.

Unidentified cadastral surveyor in

camp adjusting what appears to be

a Young and Son transit. Photo

probably prior to 1920.

165
A camp in southern Idaho, faIl 1919 The men in the photo are not identified.

Blackfoot Indian Reservation on Milk River, Montana, 1922 Divide Peak in Glacier National Park forms the

background for the camp of surveyors Roy Bandy, Ernest Parker, and D. W. Eaton.

166
Humphrey Mountain on the east boundary of

Yellowstone Park, 1931 The men at the top of the peak

are building a corner. There is another corner on the

rock under Roy Bandys transit

167
July 1940, survey of islands in the vicinity of Point

Lobos, California. The surveyor, Elmer D. Calvin, is

using a pipe as a walkway.

Typical Nevada desert survey, 1949 The instrument/s a

Gurley transit

168
Survey of the north boundary of Yellowstone National Park, at the head of

Pebble Creek. The corner is on the top of the peak; the photo was taken in the

early 1930's.

169
Roy Bandy's crew, 1931. Left to right: Roy Bandy, Tin gley, Jack Morris, Ariel Barney,

Don Thompson, Marvin Thompson, and Frank Mont bilier. The men are carrying survey

equipment, blankets, food, tools, and corner posts, Their destination, 2,000 feet uptothe

top of the ridge at the foot of Cody Peak, is too rough for pack mules.

Two surveyors, at the top of the photo, view the

place where the survey line crosses the Gunnison

River in Colorado. The river is 2,500 feet below them.

Group No. 333, 1940.

170
United States cadastral survey office. Helena. Montana, April Harris; J. Scott Harrison, assistant supervisor of surveys; G Standing left to right: Ernest Parker, Ranney V. Lyman; Phi/lip Dan P. Mumbrue; George F. Tyrrell, draftsman; Melvin J. Da Thomas, clerk, Seated loft to right: Guy H. Richar

Rigby; H. B or A. H. Hibbard, m

ude F. Warner; W. R. (Roy) Bandy; 

clerk; H. J. (Jim) Goodal/, of tice e

14, 1930. eorge F. Inch; CIa vis, chief
i

m

William B. Kimmel in camp in

Wyoming; year unknown. He is

holding a young wildcat.

172

Anthony (AC.) Kimmell was

called "Tony." It is believed that

this photograph was taken in

Arkansas, but the year is unknown.
A. N. Kimmell and party on the roof of the Federal Building in Anniston, Alabama, May

1916. Left to right: unidentified, Hal D. Craig, Frank Constantine, unidentified, A. N.

Kimmell, Thomas E. Hiester, Jim Quigley (2), and Arthur C. Buttrick.

Near Cimarron, Colorado. The year is not known, but the man on the left in the wagon is

Everett H. Kimmell. A. N. Kimmell, fifth from left in the above photo, was Everett's father.

William B. Kimmel and A. C. Kimmell were Everett's uncles. Keith K. Kimmell (not

pictured) was his cousin.

173
Chainman Sam Roberts took this picture of Roy Bandy (lower right-hand corner) in 1937 during a survey (retracemen

boundary line. The boundary line runs east and west through the boulder-filled canyon in front of the surveyors.
A mountain stream for General Land Office surveyors Guy R Veal (with steel tape) and Hugh Crawford (at tr
Looking for a pack trail route to the isolated eastern part of Yellowstone National Park in 1932. Left

to right: Ariel Barney, Roy Bandy, and Ed Wilson.

Shown descending Notch Mountain on the eastern

boundary of Yellowstone Park in 1932 are Jack

Morris (above) and Oliver Tin gley (below).
177

Guy P. Harrington, GLO district

cadastral engineer, March 1941.

Near the base of Mt McKinley in 1936. The crew is pictured

resting on its trek back to the railroad after completion of its

assignment. Both men and dogs were used to backpack all

the equipment used.

179

A cook tent in some rugged countrya spike camp, section 14, T. 37 N., R. 109 W.,

Sixth Principal Meridian, Wyoming, 1935. Pictured are Arnold Bigler and friend.

Wyoming, 1935. Left to right: Lester Stoll, Charles Hansen, Dave Todd, Dick Simmers, Bill

Anderson, Leo Peterson (party chief and later, area cadastral engineer, Area 2), Willis Brown,

Elmer Lenhart, and Victor Stalick.
Roy Bandy's pack train moving along the eastern boundary of Yellowstone National Park at the top of the

Pack train halts for packer to check the loads. The survey party is moving along the eastern boundary of

Yellowstone National Park in 1932
In camp during the 1936 survey of Mt McKinley National Park boundary, in Alaska. Left to right:

Herbert C. Torgerson, Leonard M. Berlin, Kenneth M. Nelson, and Grant Pearson.

181

Herman Jaeckel, district cadastral

engineer, in his office at the U.S.

Customs House, Denver, Colorado,

April 7, 1941.
Leonard M. Berlin setting up a

transit north of Sitka, Alaska, in

the spring of 1947. His attire is

not that of a surveyor working in

the field; Berlin was just about to

make a trip into town.

182

Elliott Pearson at camp at Gila

Bend, Arizona, 1947. The instruA two-man mosquito tent in camp near ment is a Hellgate model Gurley

Campbell Creek, south of Anchorage, transit.

Alaska, 1950.
Dupree R. Averill at Cuyama Valley, California, during the

winter of 1948-49.

A. C (Tony) Kimmell in May1938. The camp is in the desert

south of Wamsufter, Wyoming.

183
184

Emil Voigt in his 1949 survey camp at Porter

Springs west of the Seven Troughs Mountains in

Nevada.

Group No. 312, Survey camp near Pikes Peak,

T. 15 S., R. 68 W., Sixth Principal Meridian,

Colorado, 1938. Thomas W. Crawford's party.
August 26, 1948, on the Utah-Wyoming State

line near mile post 37. The survey party is

under the direction of F. Wayne Forrest. The

man in the foreground (kneeling) is stamping

the section number into the brass cap of a

survey monument.

185

Surveyor C A/bert White on

rocky pinnacle in the Seven

Troughs Mountains, west of

Love/ock, Nevada c/rca 1948
Thomas W. Crawford.

Year and place not known.

Herk Averill in the southwestern

part of Arizona during the winter

survey season of 1946-47.
Ct

A 1/4-section corner In T. 29 N., R. 27 E.,

Mt. Diablo Meridian, west of the Seven

Troughs Mountains in Nevada. There

are thousands of similar corners in the

United States.

187

Nelson, Shown sighting through a

Gurley transit.
a

1,

August 26, 1948. F. Wayne Forrest at a Buff solar

transit. The two young men with Forrest are

Robert C. Mountloy and James M. Smith. The

iron post under the transit is the l/4-section

corner between sections 19 and 30, T. 18 N.,

R. 120 W., Sixth Principal Meridian, near the

Colorado-Wyoming boundary. It was established in 1909.

188

P. T. Reilly shown scribing a bearing

tree in the San Bernardino Mountains,

1937.

A dividend of working in the wilds

fresh fish for dinner. This photo shows

two members of Ted VanderMeer's

party in Covelo, California, Eel River,

1937.
It's dry enough to hold us," Roger Wilson predicted before their

truck became stuck in a wash after a cloudburst. The men are in

the Borrego Valley in April 1938.

189

P. T. Reilly throwing a poke stick (dooley stick) at Mt.

Pass, California in 1939.

A survey party including Roger Wilson and P. T. Reilly Pictured discussing their plans are, from left to right, Ty White, P. T.

shown setting a temp in the Borrego Valley in 1938. Reilly, and Elmer Vick. They are at T. 3 S., R. 2 E., San Bernardino

Meridian, in March 1937.
a,' .it :'

At the North Fork of the Feather

River in 1940, P. T. Reilly is

shown at work, directing the

flagman. Roger Wilson was the

party chief.

Modern-day (1960) surveying

methods: Jerry Harris on a

tellurometer station on a point

above Minto Flats, Alaska.

Tom Tillman, in the summer of 1952, at camp on the

North Fork of the Smith River, Willamette Meridian,

Oregon.

Hobart B. Hyatt's

survey camp near

Anchorage, Alaska,

adopted "Sissie," a

pet bear. The time is

August 1950.

Helicopters aid the surveying of Alaska. Shown is Don

Harding, chief of cadastral surveys for the Fairbanks

District, in 1960.

190
191

Frank M. 1910, a


William Teller, long time second-generation cadastral surveyor.

At the time of his retirement (1976), Teller was chief, Cadastral

Surveys, Denver Service Cente,.

Emil Voigt and Marion Clawson in Nevada, 1949. Clawson was BLM director

from March 1948 until April 1953.

194
THE DEPRESSION YEARS

The cadastral survey program was expanded to

help promote employment during the dark depression days. At that time the GLO had a huge backlog

of jobs and many public land lines were surveyed

and marked by the men who found work under this

employment program. Cadastral engineers, surveyors, and transitmen were regular Civil Service

employees. Others who had cadastral survey

experience were granted temporary appointments,

but many of the young men on the field crews were

there by virtue of the sponsorship of some U.S.

Senator or Representative.

Under the expanded survey program, Guy P.

Harrington, district cadastral engineer at Santa Fe,

divided New Mexico into two areas. Fred L.

Cumming, Ernest Parker, Claude (Hefty) Warner,

Roy Romberg, and Roy Bandy were sent to the

west area to run survey parties during the 1933-34

winter. Glenn R. Haste, who had begun surveying

when he was still in his teens, was put in charge of

the east area. Roy Bandy was the man in charge of

the west area. The survey projects included regular

cadastral surveys as well as the boundaries of

National Forest Reserves and National

Monuments.

In 1936, P. T. Reilly was one of the young men

who found employment in California under the

expanded cadastral survey program. During the

time he was with the GLO (4 years), he worked on

several different surveys and with several different

surveyors. In 1940, as it was becoming obvious that

the war in Europe was worsening, Reilly left the

GLO to work in the aircraft industry.156

One of the men Reilly worked under was Ted

VanderMeer ("Van"). He had begun his career in

1913 as an axeman on a survey party in northern

Idaho. The attraction of a job that took him "to a

new place every day and a new residence every

week or so" was too good to pass up. Van was to

work with such men as Ray D. Armstrong, I. W.

Stoddard, Al Kimmell, Theodore 0. Johnston, H.

Raymond, Phil Inch, and Herk Averill. Van received

his appointment as a U.S. transitman during the

1920's and retired from the BLM in 1952.161

Arthur Brown was another surveyor of the day

who taught young men like P. T. Reilly their

vocation. He became a U.S. transitman in 1913 and

was a U.S. surveyor by 1915. Brown was highly

rated by both his superiors and the men on his

Chapter 15

MODERNIZATION OF THE SYSTEM

195

survey crews. He retired in the mid-1950's, but

returned to the BLM to work on difficult and

controversial surveys in the area of the Great Salt

Lake.

SURVEYING FAMILIES

Down through the years there has been the

repeated incidence of boys who admired older

members of their families who were surveyors so

much that they followed them in their vocation.

Everett Kimmell and his cousin Keith were among

those who followed such a family tradition.

Everett's father, A. N. Kimmell, was a surveyor, as

were his brothers Anthony C. Kimmell and William

B. Kimmel. Records show that the original spelling

of the name was Kimmel. The addition of the final

"I" was an innovation not adopted by William B.

Kimmel,159 a circumstance that proved to be

confusing to those employed on surveys by various

members of the family because all three brothers

worked in Idaho.

Ernest Parker did much surveying in Montana.

His brother, Horace, worked mainly in Utah.

Kansas-born Tom and Hugh Crawford were also

brothers. At one time, Hugh drove a stagecoach

that carried mail in Colorado.159 He later invented

an aluminum scribe for marking trees. The

Crawford brothers surveyed in several Western

States, and Hugh also worked in various Eastern

States for about 15 years. Tom Crawford became

the office engineer in Montana in the early 1950's.

Wendell V. Hall was born in Indiana and entered

the surveying service in 1912 as a temporary

transitman. He received his appointment as a U.S.

surveyor one month later. For many years he

worked in New Mexico. His son, Wendell G. Hall,

was born in 1906, and signed on in 1932 with the

GLO as a cadastral surveyor. He spent his entire

career with the GLO and its successor agency, the

Bureau of Land Management. His skill and

professional integrity were unquestioned. Wendell

G. Hall was responsible for the surveys in the new

State of Alaska during the 1950's. In recognition of

his accomplishments, he received both the bronze

and silver medals for meritorious service from the

Department of the Interior. Wendell Hall died in

Santa Fe in 1974.

Lewellyn D., Ranny Y., and Edward 0. Lyman

were brothers and all three were surveyors. Edward

0. Lyman was born in 1883 in Dakota Territory; his

older brothers were both born in Ohio. Charles M.
Pidgeon was born in late 1862 in Clarke County,

Virginia; his surveyor son was C. Chandlee

Pidgeon. Fred and Frank S. Spofford were

brothers. Fred's first surveying job was as second

assistant with his brother when Frank was an

examiner of surveys.

Brothers Van and Ty White worked in Arizona

about 1910. Ty also worked in California. Later,

Wendell G. Hall and Ty White both worked in the

Dakotas as did William Teller, son of Addison R.

Teller who was an examiner of surveys along with

Frank M. Johnson. Bill Teller was just a boy when

he first worked on his father's survey crew. Later,

his knowledge and years of experience, along with

his amazing memory with regard to public land

surveying matters, made him a popular speaker.

Teller was named chief of cadastral surveys in the

Denver Service Center in 1965. He still held that

position at the time of his recent retirement. Teller

was actively involved in public land surveying for

nearly half a century.

The Saxons were a family surveying team, as

were William Hiester and his younger brother,

Tom, who worked mainly in southern Utah and

Arizona. Hans Voigt and his younger brother, Emil,

were of German extraction. They both were

surveyors for many years. Emil worked for several

years in Nevada, while Hans surveyed mainly in

Colorado. Two more pairs of surveyor brothers

were Fred L. and James A. Cumming and Lester L.

and Donald B. Clement. Richard E. (Elmer), W. R.

(Roy), and Willis W. Bandy were all born in

Missouri. Elmer was born on Lincoln's birthday,

1880; Roy, exactly 5 years later; and Willis, in

August 1890.

Elmer taught school in Routt County, Colorado,

for a couple of years, and in April of 1904, he joined

the public land survey crews of Colonel Samuel W.

Brunt and his son Arthur H. Brunt. Arthur was a

well-known engineer and surveyor, and both of the

Brunts were, atthattime, contractsurveyorsforthe

General Land Office in the Big Horn Basin of

northwestern Wyoming.

Colonel Brunt was a gray-bearded veteran who

had held survey contracts in California as early as

1879.136 Colonel Brunt asked Elmer if he had any

brothers back in Missouri that they could use, so, in

June 1905 Roy Bandy joined the Brunt survey party

at Garland, Wyoming.145

One of Roy Bandy's first public land survey jobs

was as chainman on Arthur Brunt's contract for the

survey of part of the Twelfth Standard Parallel

North in Wyoming. The line ran westward from a

point 15 miles north of Worland, Wyoming, across

196

a rough 60 miles to Carter Mountain, west of

Meeteetse. The first 40 miles of the survey line were

through desolate, arid, rock-covered badland

country.12°

Early in July, the nine-man crew left Cody,

Wyoming. Their two wagons were loaded with

surveying equipment, tents, beds, and cooking

equipment. The men rode atop the loaded wagons.

They traveled in this manner for about a hundred

miles, until they reached a log house on the west

side of the Big Horn River. That log house was

Worland, Wyoming.

Breakfast was at 6 a.m. and supper was at 6

p.m.which meant a 12-hour work day. The men

hiked to and from the work area. They carried their

lunch in a handkerchief or a piece of flagging tied

to their belts. The quart canteen of water they

packed with them had to last all day.

The survey line was run with a solar compass or a

solar transit. A one-chain steel tape was used, and

the tape was leveled. (The modern clinometer had

not yet been invented.) The chainmen kept track of

the distance by the time-honored method of

counting the tally pins, one pin for every chain. If

the ground slope was steep and it was necessary to

take less than a chain, a mark was made, and the

pin stuck in the ground when the full hundred links

were reached.

The chainmen, in this instance, Arthur Brunt and

Roy Bandy, took turns going ahead with the chain.

They changed every ten chains. The same man

always started out from a corner and went ten

chains. The front chainman had ten pins, and when

the last of them was stuck into the ground, he

would call out, "Tally one." The rear chainman then

walked up counting his pins. If the count was ten

pins, he would say, "Tally one, ten pins." In this

manner it was known immediately if either one had

lost a pin, If one was missing, they went back, also

in the time-honored manner, and chained it over, in

order to be sure of the distance. The rear chainman

took the lead for the second ten chains. One man

always had all the even-numbered tallys and the

other man had all the odd-numbered tallys.

On this survey, where they were running a

straight line all the way, camp was moved about

every 2 days. For 2 months they surveyed the line

and set stone corners. At the end of the 60 miles,

they went on to another jobthat of subdividing a

township on the east slope of Carter Mountain.

During that entire 4-month survey season they saw

only one townMeeteetse, Wyomingwhich, in

1905 consisted of one general store and three

saloons.120
In 1906 Alpheus P. Hanson, surveyor general of

Wyoming, appointed Roy Bandy a U.S. deputy

surveyor. Bandy and Arthur Brunt were awarded a

contract for the survey of six townships in the Big

Horn Basin, so Roy Bandy, at the age of 21, became

the youngest deputy surveyor to hold a contract

that year. That contract was completed the

following summer.

Elmer Bandy surveyed with the BruntS until

shortly before the beginning of the direct system.

Frank M. Johnson hired him in 1910 and assigned

him to work under J. Scott Harrison, assistant

supervisor of surveys for Montana. He stayed with

the GLO and surveyed in Montana, California, and

Arizona until he grew ill in late 1915. He died two

months later, on January 15, 1916.56

Wilford Utterback and Roy Bandy, who had both

run survey crews for the Brunts, were employed in

1911 as cadastral surveyors working out of the

Cheyenne, Wyoming, office. Charles M. Pidgeon

and his son, C. Chandlee Pidgeon, and Mark Kelly,

Herman Jaeckel, Homer and Wesley C. Saxon, and

Hans and Emil Voigt also worked out of the

Wyoming office at that time.145

In 1914, Roy Bandy was transferred to Helena,

Montana, under J. Scott Harrison. One of his first

assignments was to work with Guy R. Veal and

Glenn Sawyer on the survey of the breaks along the

Missouri River. The Missouri River Breaks, south of

the Bear Paw and Little Rocky Mountains, is an area

of spectacularly fractured land. It is badlands

country with strange, abrupt upward thrusts of

sandstone, and canyons that plunge downward for

hundreds of feet. It is a rugged, tortured land, and

the few scrub pine and cedar trees that try to grow

there are gnarled and twisted like the rest of the

landscape.

While Roy surveyed in Montana, Willis Bandy

also worked on the public land surveys. He was a

field assistant several summers and went on to

become a surveyor. Willis Bandy was promoted to

the position of party chief in the 1920's, and, from

all accounts, he was a good one. At about this time,

Glenn Sawyer, Ernest Parker, David Eaton, A.

Parker Warner, Phillip Inch, and Charley Seeley all

ran survey crews under Roy Bandy on the survey of

the Crow Indian Reservation.

In 1928, J. Scott Harrison characterized Roy

Bandy as "the finest executive I have in the

service."69

Roy Bandy completed a law degree while he was

a working cadastral surveyor. It must have been

difficult, but he knew it would give him a better

understanding of land laws, and he hoped that

would make him a better surveyor. After 4 long

197

years and much dedication, he received his degree

in law. Bandy put in many hard years of work with

the Bureau of Land Management, and finally

retired in the midl95O's.

EL DORADO SPRINGS

Before the Hiesters, Kimmells, Crawfords, and

other families of surveyors had all retired, another

name began to appear on the roster of cadastral

surveyors. It was not a family name, but a town,and

it occurred so often that people began to wonder

about itEl Dorado Springs, Missouri. Roy Bandy

finally explained what made this small Missouri

town so well known in cadastral surveying circles.

It began with Eddie Wilson, who had worked on

Bandy's survey party for a time. Eventually, Wilson

went back to Missouri, and settled down in El

Dorado Springs. Because his wife was related to

Bandy's wife he and Bandy kept in touch. Once,

when Bandy needed some new recruits for his

survey party, he let Ed Wilson know about it.

Wilson, who was well acquainted with the people in

his area, knew Bandy believed that bright, hardworking farm boys sometimes made the best

surveyors. Wilson talked to some of the young

men, and one of them joined Bandy's survey party.

Over a period of time, Wilson encouraged several

young men to become cadastral surveyors, and a

number of them are still with the Bureau of Land

Management.145

YELLOWSTONE PARK BOUNDARY

1n1931 Frank M.Johnson asked J. ScottHarrison

to assign Roy Bandy to the survey of the revised

east and north boundaries of Yellowstone National

Park. The revision of the boundary lines changed

them from straight lines that crossed mountains

and drainages to lines following the divides that

separated the watersheds. The new east boundary

was high atop the divide between the waters

flowing into the Yellowstone system and those

flowing into the Shoshone River.

The change in boundary was made to ease the

work of the rangers employed by the National Park

and National Forest Services. It did not, however,

ease the work of the men sent to survey the new

lines. The surveyors had to run a broken line along

the crest of the mountain ranges, keeping always to

the sinuosities of the divide. This meant that the

surveyors were required to climb the highest peaks

and set corners on them.

It took three summers to complete the survey

that established this park boundary. The surveyors

climbed upward to the top of 11,360-foot Eagle
Peak, the highest point in the park, before their job

was finished.145

MISSOURI RIVER BASIN PROJECT

During the next few years as Congressional

appropriations for cadastral surveys were shrinking, the need for resurveys within the areas

administered by the Bureau of Reclamation was

growing. Roy Bandy was convinced that the

cadastral surveyors employed by the GLO were the

people who were best trained and equipped to do

the work. In 1939, he talked about this to Fred

Munro, who was a project engineer for the Bureau

of Reclamation. Munro took the idea to his

superiors, and funds were allotted for a survey

needed in connection with a plan for the resettlement of homesteaders on the Yellowstone River.145

That survey was the start of the vast reimbursable

cadastral resurvey project in the Missouri River

Basin.

At the beginning of 1946, A. C. Horton, then

supervisor of surveys, and Herman Jaeckel, the

assistant supervisor of surveys for Montana,

Wyoming, and Colorado, visited the Helena office.

They announced that the Bureau of Reclamation

had requested that all the cadastral surveys in the

Missouri River Basin States be executed by the

GLO. This area included Montana, North Dakota,

South Dakota, Wyoming, Colorado, Nebraska,

Kansas, Missouri, and Iowa.

Roy Bandy was directed to take charge of the

immense project. He was to make preparations to

begin the surveys in April, so he obtained

authorization from Horton to call up as many

experienced cadastral surveyors as he needed.

Funds were made available to him for the purchase

of the vehicles and equipment that would be

needed. On schedule, in April 1946, Roy Bandy

opened an office in Fort Peck, on the Missouri River

in Montana. George F. Rigby, who had been

recalled from retirement, was his helper. Glenn R.

Haste, acting as Bandy's assistant, opened an

office in Flaxton, North Dakota.

In one month there were 18 survey parties in the

field. The party chiefs were all experienced

cadastral surveyors: R. Y. Lyman, Ernest Parker,

Andy Nelson, Arthur Brown, Lloyd Toland, Emil

Voigt, Russell McDonald, Willis Bandy, Tom

Crawford, Hugh Crawford, John S. Knowles, Leo

Peterson, Lyle F. Jones, William Teller, Wendell G.

Hall, Ty White, Quintin (Jerry) Campbell, and

Claude (Hefty) Warner.145

Wendell Hall and his survey party werestationed

at Crosby, North Dakota. Ty White's crewexecuted

198

surveys at Mellette, South Dakota. Later in the

summer, they surveyed in the area near Mcintosh.

Lloyd Toland's survey party was working in the

same area along the Grand River. Both crews were

working on the survey for the Shady Hills Flood

Control project.

CAMP COOKS

Cooks in the survey camps were often interesting types. One cook was called "Whispering

Willie." He had been a fighter and his vocal cords

had been damaged in the ring.148 Another, Gus

Ritter, was characterized as "an ornery old goat

who could destroy a case of beer (24 cans) in one

night by opening one can after another from his

cot."156 Sometimes the wife of the party chief

became camp cook, but this was rarely more than a

temporary occurrence. Generally, camp cooks

were men who understood their importance in the

scheme of things and were proud of their line of

work. Some of them were friendly and some

grouchy, some were clean, and some were

careless. The menu often depended, to some

extent, on the cook's background. if the cook,

whatever his origins or interests, understood that

men who work hard in the open care little for fancy

food but have a great need for good, wholesome,

and nutritious food, the crew could count itself a

lucky one. Many culinary sins could be forgiven if a

hot cup of coffee was always on hand and there

was an occasional piece of pie to go with it.

Keeping fresh meats, milk, and vegetables on

hand was difficult in some areas, so some

ingenious methods were devised to handle the

problem. One fairly common sort of cooler

consisted of three or four frames about 20 inches

square with screen bottoms, and wet gunny sacks

hung from the sides. These were hung one above

the other by knotted ropes at the corners, and the

unit was then suspended from a tree. If there was

no tree, the cooler could be placed on a stand in

whatever shade was available. Frequently, in the

old days that was the shade afforded by the wagon

or the tents. Later, trucks provided the shade.

These evaporative coolers worked well, especially

in the desert.

Camp cooks also had to deal with stoves that

were not the sort found in the average kitchen. The

Kimmel camp stove was a favorite. William Kimmel

invented it. A particularly good feature of the stove

was that it could be telescoped for packing. Being

both sturdy and portable, it met most of the

requirements for camp cooking.
Ai! in 'rnr t'tr

a.g aJ J1JQ

INVENTED BY WM. B. KIMMEL

U. S. SURVEYOR

a man \vh Ins Iifc lii survcv c: aii knovs

liard..liip.. and (lsC11 toru the (r(ij;\ -flect -tceI camp

'ihis stove is the reuit f 'years of stud': vercome in;m

ct the i11conveuc1ccs a;id discomfort canp flrepoor

cooking, burned bread, cold food, chopping small wood, stoves

burning up and fires going out.

PROBLEM SOLVED AT LAST

SEVENTEEN REASONS

WHY THIS STOVE

IS THE BEST

You can hake bread with a red hot fire while doing

vout other cooking. This is impcssible with an other sheet

stccl camp Stove made.

This is the only sheet steel camp stove made upon which it is possible to prepare a complete hot neal. \Vith

other stoves you have hot bread and a cold meal or a hot meal

and cold bread. Oven top is used for a warming closet.

Our Xo. 1 stove has the largest oven of any sheet steel camp stove in use. Oven is iS inches deep. 22 inches wide. 74 inches high.

Oven protected by asbestos board and dead air space, reinforced with steel, making oven ever-lasting and prevents

burning of bread and meats while baking.

Fire box vill lat for years. No backs or bottoms to

burn outno lids to lose. Don't have lids.

Our No. 1 'ye has c'tra larc irchox male of heavy

steel, size ot fire box 1:x1'x!S inches with 9x13 inch feed

door, lop has channel steel strips on under side to prevent sagging from heat and weight.

199
7. '.O fl)Or c'r: r,i \VOOil r h ;t

\uu can l,urii 1 i ae hrushthus eliiiiinatint half of tIic

(lrudgerv 01 caiiqJ luc.

. Ihi stove viii 11 Id fire over nu1it .as it is absolutely

air tight.

\ou can take thk stve (l:\vil r set it U P1 OI1C Ilililtite

on any kud CO ground. No tools required.

\ou can .cook for six to fifteen men on ur regular No. 1 stove, which has tirree times the capacity in cooking

surface of any ether sheet steel camp St ye made.

Three joints of pipe packed in the oven : the legs fold

and arc held firntiv in place: the even tcie-cepcs inside of extra havv fire box, making a package of our No. 1 13x1x2S

inches and veigliing .51.1 potmds. lade ot heavy steel.

TIns stove i exccptionaflv handy to pack and carr on

pack animal. It cait be used for side pack in regular alforjas.

1:3. A LEG BRACEIn connection with the folding leg we have attached a folding leg brace winch securely locks the

leg. Stove absolutely rigid now when set up. Held iii place.

set up or knocked down, by same fastener.

DETACHABLE COLLARSCollar on the firebox

anti oven are now removable and packed in oven. These collard simply drive into place and securely held there.

Xot necessary to crate stove in shipping; the package

is smooth on all sides. This saves ten pounds in weight on

the crate, and a big advantage in packing on pack animal.

Un all door fasteners we arc now using large steel key.

rings. Besides folding out of the way, they give the user a

secure hold in operating the handles.

\Vc have also quit using (lraft slide in the fee(l (lOoN. for the reason that all doors burn out first at this point in

ever camp stove. :S Our firehox sets on the ground I see

cut) all that is required for draft is to dig a small hole under edge of firebox: the size of the opening regulates the drait 4simpIc solutionh lv covering this opening completely the

stove is made airtight and vill hold fire for forty-eight hours or more. Tops of fireboxes and ovens are now reinforced with Channel Iron to pre-ent sagging from heat and weight of utensils.

In using stove to prolong its life do not build a bonfire in

fire box, because it is large. Make a small fire and place green-back logs if possible on each side. This protects the

firebox.

200
IN ADDITION TO OUR NO. 1 LARGE SIZE TELESCOPE CAMP STOVE WE ARE NOW MAKING

A NO 2 SMALL SIZE, INTENDED FOR

SMALL CAMPING PARTIES OF

TWO TO FOUR MZN.

Size of firchox No. 2 stove. 2:Yxfl iiiJes 1w inches

11Ih, which is alsj ti'e outidc mcaurefl1ents when telescooed. Oven 12 inches deep by ] inches wide and i

inches high. \eight 33 pounds. made oi No. 24 gauge steeL All oven doors have new oven (loor supports with patent clips that do not bind.

OUR STOVES ARE ESPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR SURVEYORS, FOREST SERVICE MEN, SHEEP MEN,

PROSPECTORS. CAMPERS. HOMESTEADERS, MINERS AND AUTOMOBILE TOURISTS.

Thi stove has been used cctensveiv a1 ver thy \vest br

the last four years by Forest Service men and U. S. Stirvevors.

The following letter speaks for itself (received last earj

Department of the interior.

General Land Office.

Office of Assistant Supervisor oi Surveys. Boise. Idaho. March 23-14.

;1'elescope Camp Stove Co., floise, Idaho. Gentlemen :-

Please quote inc prices of 2.5 of our new improved Kimmel Pat. Camp Stoves No. 1, Large Size, as per Sampk sub- nutted, to be delivered at our warehouse. I believe with your new method of protecting the oven with extra sheet steel and 1⁄2-inch dead air space. together with asbestos board, that you

have the most ideal oven ever put in a camp stove. \Ve have been using your Kinincl Camp Stove in Cuiorado. New Mexico and Montana for 4 ears and consider theni the

best Camp Stove ma(le. Mv department has purchased about

50 during this time. Yours truly, FRANK S. SPOFFORD,

Assistant Supervisor of Sur'evs.

PRICES F. 0. B. BOISE

No. 1Large size. 13 x18'x28. wt. 50 lbs. - $10.00

No. 2Small size. 12"x1311x23.wt. 35 lbs. - 8.00

1505 NORTH TWELFTH ST., BOISE, IDAHO

201

te1escop Camp Stouc Company
THE FOUR CORNERS

The State boundaries of most States west of the

Mississippi River, plus a number of the central and

southern States, were surveyed under the direction

of the General Land Office. Many resurveys or

retracemerits of parts of these State boundary lines

have been made in the course of the regular

cadastral surveys of the public lands. Sometimes,

several surveyors, over a period of years, had a part

in establishing or marking these boundaries. One

such case, albeit an unusual one, began with the

survey of the southern boundary of Colorado from

the southeast corner of the State westward to the

103rd Meridian. It was surveyed by Macomb, in

1858-59. The same portion of the south boundary

of Colorado was resurveyed by John G. Major, a

deputy surveyor.

The New Mexico-Colorado boundary from the

103rd Meridian westward was surveyed by United

States Surveyor E. N. Darling. He was instructed to

survey along the 37th parallel, but later, investigation showed gross errors in the line in the area near

Edith, Colorado.

In 1902-3, H. B. Carpenter resurveyed the entire

line dividing the State of Colorado from the

Territories of New Mexico and Oklahoma. His line

differed from Darling's and resulted in a boundary

dispute. The United States Supreme Court, in an

opinion dated January 26, 1925, stated that

Darling's line was the correct one in spite of its

errors and regardless of the temporary General

Land Office use of Carpenter's line. The Carpenter

line was not used after that time for public land

surveys. In 1917, the portion of Darling's line

between mileposts 202 and 241 had been rerun by

W. C. Perkins of the General Land Office. Perkins'

line was monumented with iron posts, and it was

accepted by the court.

The court appointed Arthur Kidder as commissioner to resurvey Darling's line. The field work

was done under his supervision, but the execution

of the survey was slow, due to delays in the receipt

of funds from the States involved. After Kidder's

death in 1958, Joseph C. Thoma was appointed as

the new commissioner. It was he who prepared the

final report that was approved by the Supreme

Court on October 24, 1960.

Monuments set in 1859 by Macomb and in 1900

by Levi S. Preston in a resurvey of Major's line 21/2

miles eastward to the northeast corner of New

Mexico were to be the controlling points in the

survey, according to instructions of the court.

Kidder's survey began at the Macomb monument, which he replaced with a concrete post

202

bearing a bronze tablet. The line then ran east to

the Preston monument; then west, reestablishing

Darling's survey. This resurvey was controlled by

the monuments established by Darling that were

recovered. Bronze-tableted concrete mileposts

were set on the line between the original mileposts.

Perkins' iron posts were reset in concrete in their

original positions. The Carpenter monuments that

were known to have been used as points of

reference for local surveys were preserved, but the

boundary marker identification was removed from

them. All the other Carpenter monuments were

destroyed

The closing point on the west end of the line was

a point set by Deputy Surveyor C. Robbins as he

surveyed the Arizona-New Mexico line in 1875.

This line is on a meridian determined by reference

to a landmark peak called "The Needles" by the

Wheeler survey of 1874. Robbins called it "the

southwest needle point of Wilson's Peak." The

boundary line was run west and north to the point

where the 32nd Meridian west of Washington

intersects the south boundary of Colorado. The

point established by Robbins was 1 mile 45 chains

east of the mark that had been established by

Darling, in 1868, as the southwest corner of

Colorado. Robbins' point was accepted, and thus

became the only monument in the United States

marking the common corner of four StatesUtah,

Colorado, New Mexico, and Arizona. From this

point the west boundary of Colorado was surveyed

in 1879. The Utah-Arizona boundary, which

intersected Robbins' point, was run in 1901.

In 1899, the original sandstone marker was found

damaged. It was replaced that year by Page and

Lutz. In 1931, Everett H. Kimmell replaced the Page

and Lutz stone with the present concrete monument. Subsequently, the Department of the Interior

placed a 28-foot-square concrete paving block

around the monument in 1962. It is oriented in the

cardinal directions, with the names and seals of

four States appearing in their correct quadrants.35

WORLD WAR II

Frank M. Johnson was still supervisor of surveys

when the bombing of Pearl Harbor plunged the

United States into World War II. By then he had

served under six administrations (Taft was President when the direct system was inaugurated). He

guided the surveying service through several major

crises including World War I, the 1929 stock market

crash, and the Great Depression that followed it.

But Johnson did not live to see the end of World

War II. He died on March 27, 1944. Johnson was 71
years old and had been employed by the Department of the Interior for nearly 49 years. For more

than 33 of those years he had been the head of the

cadastral surveying service.

Johnson had always been a forward-looking

manone who was very aware of the fact that

change is one of the few certainties of life.

Although his half century of service saw much of

the Public Domain transferred to private citizens or

to business or non-Federal Governmental

organizations under various land laws, it was also

an era characterized in large measure by programs

aimed toward the ultimate conservation of the

203

Public Domain. This was true in spite of the longheld public'attitudè that management of the public

lands was a temporary measure, to be used only

until the lands could be transferred to other

ownership or assigned to special use reservations

as they had been in the past.

About the time of Johnson's death, this attitude

began to undergo a profound change. The value of

administering some of the Public Domain for

multiple uses and reserving it for future

generations began to gain recognition. The era of

the transfer of the public lands, with its emphasis

on private interests, was definitely on the wane.

LAND SERVICE BULLETIN

Beginning in 1917 and continuing into the

1930's, a monthly "Land Service Bulletin" was

printed by the General Land Office. Composed of

news notes from all the offices, the Bulletin was

edited by Judge S. V. Proudf it of the GLO. News

about the surveying service was gathered from the

assistant supervisors by Frank M. Johnson, who

selected items and prepared them for the Bulletin.

During its first few years, the Bulletin was filled with

interesting happenings and personalities, but later

the administration issued an edict stating that the

Bulletin should be more formal intone. Thus, for its

remaining years, the Bulletin contained material

not unlike that which now appears in the "Federal

Register."

The following item appeared in the August 1917

Bulletin:86

The newly appointed transitmen in the Field

Surveying Service were assigned to the field as

follows: Thomas Walter Bates, Willis J. Millrick,

Barney M. Pellum and Courtenay Q. Wheeler,

District No.7; Roy 1. Campbell, J. Pierce Dunn,

Herman F. Mader and Chester W. Pecore,

District No. 8; Glenn ft Haste, District No. 4;

Marvin J. Lytle, District No. 2; Charles F.

Moore, District No. 1; and Andrew Nelson,

District No. 6.

Barney Pellum was lucky to make that list. Two

years earlier, he had been chainman on Wilford

Utterback's crew (Group No. 61, Idaho) and had

slept outside the tent one warm September

evening. At about 1 a.m. he was attacked by a rabid

coyote and bitten on the forehead. Fortunately, the

party chief got Pellum to Boise where he received

the Pasteur treatment for rabies, and thus survived.40

RED RIVER

Meander of Red River in Oklahoma

The General Land Office will undertake next

summer the remeandering of the north bank of

Red River in Oklahoma west of the 98th

meridian in order to admit of the proper

disposition of lands in the former Kiowa and

Comanche Reservations which border on the

river. The boundary lines of lots formed by the

subdivisional surveys of 40 years ago have been

materially changed by erosion, and in some

cases purchasers of land from the Government

have not been able to find any land

remaining 84

Chapter 16

NEWS, NOTES, AND ANECDOTES

205

A Boundary Survey

The discovery of oil in the Red River Valley in

Texas caused land prices to skyrocket. Suddenly,

the location of the state boundary became vitally

important. The Oklahoma-Texas line along the

Red River was at one time a part of the boundary

between the United States and Spanish holdings in

the Southwest. Any rights to the bed or to the banks

of the river were dependent upon the wording of

the Treaty of 1819. One hundred years after the

treaty was signed, Oklahoma brought suit against

Texas, and the United States intervened to protect

the rights of the Kiowa and Comanche Indians. The

amount in question was in excess of $100 million.

As a result of these suits, Supreme Court

proceedings fill more than 5,000 pages in nine

separate volumes. More than 5 years passed before

the case was settled, and more than 400 witnesses

were questioned about the 539-mile-long river

boundary. A new and unprecedented principle of

law for the establishment of river boundaries came

into being when the U.S. Supreme Court declared

that the boundary between Oklahoma and Texas

was to be determined by the "medial line" between

gradient lines on each bank of Red River. Prior

authority for such a ruling did not exist. Boundary

Commissioners Arthur D. Kidder and Arthur A.

Stiles were largely responsible for the proper

location of the lines as decreed by the court.

In 1919, General Land Office surveyors were

working on a survey and examination on behalf of

the Indian allottees along the north bank of Red

River within the Red River oil field. The situation

was touchy because the question of jurisdiction

with respect to the boundary between Texas and

Oklahoma was as yet unsettled where the boundary survey had not yet been completed.

Armed guards were employed at some of the oil

claims, and the situation hovered on the brink of

open warfare on the morning of October 18, 1919,

when an unsuspecting survey party went out to

work as usual. The crew was in an Indian Agency

automobile plainly marked "U.S." when it crossed

the Red River over the Grandfield Bridge to the

south side. After parking at a fence that enclosed a

guarded claim within the bed of Red River, the

survey party beqan to assemble the instruments for

the day's work, which was in the area just beyond

the enclosure.
The men were still beside the vehicle when a

guard approached on horseback and gave them

orders not to cross the enclosure. He threatened to

kill anyone who went any farther. The guard then

rode away and came back shortly with a second

guard. Both were armed with rifles. Assistant W. 0.

Tarr, who was in charge of the survey party for the

day, explained the survey party's presence. His

explanation apparently did not satisfy the guards,

one of whom clubbed Tarr with the barrel of his

rifle. The guards tossed Tarr's instrument over the

fence and ordered the survey party to leave, adding

that Tarr would be killed if he came back.

When the incident was reported to the

authorities, criminal action against the guards and

their employer was recommended. It was a

reasonable idea, but, as Arthur Kidder pointed out,

until the surveyors completed the boundary

survey, then underway, there was no way of

knowing whether Oklahoma or Texas courts would

have jurisdiction in the matter.53

ALL ABOUT SURVEYORS

Not Surveyor Material

Further evidence that the work of the Field

Surveying Service is highly specialized is found

in the fact that the Civil Service examination for

Surveyors and Transitmen held on March 26th

and 27th[1919], failed to establish any appreciable eligible list from which appointments

to these positions may be made. A second

examination was held on April23 and 24, but the

results of this examination are not yet known.

The Supervisor of Surveys has recommended

the appointment of a limited number of Temporary Transitmen in order that the work of the

Surveying Service may not fall behind.92

Early in 1918, Frank M. Johnson offered a young

man a job on William H. Thorn's crew in Arizona.

The young man replied by telegram: "Considering

salary and expense season in Arizona desert no

inducement."

In a subsequent letter to Thomas Havell,

Johnson managed to be quite philosophical about

the young man's refusal:45

Everything, however, seems to always turn

out for the best. . . . His telegram convinces

me he is hardly the man for our work. I am this

day sending to Thorn a young man whose

telegram reads:'Anywhere, the rougher the

better." Somehow I can't help but warm up to the

man who is willing and anxious to take his

chances and rely on his own brains, nerve and

energy to get ahead.

206

In 1920, G. D. D. Kirkpatrick penned this

postscript on a letter to Frank M. Johnson: "Just

got a wire from Voigt that his only experienced man

quit. $70 & 75 in Nevada will get onlyayoung kid."5

Frank M. Johnson once wrote in a letter,61

I have lost the friendship of many fathers who in

a vague way hold me responsible for the

shortcomings of their sons on the surveying

parties. But this is quite natural. Fathers,

however, should remember that failure in one

line, especially in such an unusual line as this,

does not mean failure in other walks of life, and

is no reflection on their son's intelligence or

ability. One of the poorest field assistants we

ever had some years ago is one of the foremost

playwrights in the country, and there are many

other similar cases.

Greener Pastures

May 27, 1920

Mr. N. B. Sweitzer

Asst. Supervisor of Surveys

Neligh, Nebraska

Dear Sir:

Referring to yours of the 20th instant, wherewith you

enclose a letter from Mr. Wills, I would suggest that

you let me know regarding Kippell just as soon as you

hear from him.

What Wills says in the last paragraph of his letter is

undoubtedly true. Some of our surveyors have left and

are with oil companies in the new fields in Wyoming.

They were promised big salaries, which they will

undoubtedly get if the fields turn out as expected. I

don't blame the boys for going; in fact, lam very much

inclined to think that if I were in their position I would

go too unless my sober judgement got the better of

me. It is just as well to remember that the country is in a

bad way and it is not improbable that we are on the

verge of a panic. You know what the banks are doing in

regard to making loans and curtailing credit. Corporations are having a hard time making any headway,

and undoubtedly many of the oil companies and other

companies on this order will have to suspend

operations. In this event the boys who have left for the

big salaries will be out of a job and it is also well to

remember that nothing weathers a financial panic like

a Government job. I am mentioning these things,

which of course you know yourself, simply to indicate

that the Government job has some advantages which

other jobs may not, in view of the situation, continue to

enjoy.

I return herewith Wills' letter.

Very respectfully,

Frank M. Johnson

Supervisor of Surveys50
Characteristics of Ideal Types of Surveyors

On September 23, 1926, John P. Walker, then

assistant supervisor for District No. 7 (Oregon and

Washington), sent Frank M. Johnson a description

of the sort of man required for survey work in

Alaska: "The ideal man in my estimation would be

one of five or six years of experience, young,

husky, not afraid of work, resourceful......68

That year a surveyor meeting those re- quirements, Floyd G. Betts, transferred from

Olympia, Washington, to Juneau, Alaska.

In 1918, William B. Douglass was among those

surveyors recommended for promotion by Alonzo

Compton:46

Mr. William B. Douglass has been in the service

about 15 years, and was in the Geological

service about 8 years previous to that. Mr.

Douglass is a surveyor worthy of the highest

respect from the stand point of industry,

sincerity, absolute honesty and dependability,

loyalty and faithfulness to the Service. Mr.

Douglass is a hard worker and is improving in

the quantity of work he turns out. He has labored

under an almost painful exactness in monu mentation, blazing, instrumental adjustment, etc., in

his surveys. Mr. Kirkpatrick remarked to me

when he left the New Mexico district that "if he

wanted the absolute facts in an examination,

without fear or favor, he would get them when he

sent Douglass."

Promotion Recommendations

When the assistant supervisors of survey made

recommendations for promotion or transfer, they

were sometimes painfully blunt in their appraisals.

One man who was recommended for an increase in

salary was characterized as: "A hard, fast worker;

not very intelligent but pounds out a lot of work."47

Another deserved a promotion because, even

though he made a mistake now and then, he had

"done a lot of mean, thankless fragmentary work in

California."47

When surveyor Fred Mench was being

recommended for a temporary detail to the

Washington, D.C., office, his supervisor wrote:49

I do not think you have ever met Mr. Mench and

probably have him pictured as the rough,

uncouth mountaineer he has been described.

However true this may be when he is in the field,

when he is in the office, while not a stylish

dresser, he is always well and neatly dressed. He

is a very quiet man but when he opens his mouth

to say anything it is well worth your while to

listen. I would rather trust his judgment on

surveys than any of the other surveyors working

in this district.

207

Once a Surveyor, Always a Surveyor

During the summer of 1921, Frank S. Spofford

described the areas then being surveyed in

Washington State as "probably the most difficult to

survey of all the work being done in the country

today. The townships being surveyed are located

on or near the summit of the Cascade Range which

extends North and South through the state. These

mountains are grand from a picturesque point of

view but from the surveyors' standpoint they are a

hard proposition."6°

In spite of such difficulties, however, some

surveyors loved their work so much that they never

thought of retiring. Frank Johnson once wrote to a

colleague: "By the way, I heard the other day that

old man Brunt is hale and hearty, and hoping that

some day he will get back on the work. It seems to

me he must be about 90 years of age at this time."71

EDWARD T. BEST

Edward T. Best, U.S. transitman of District No.3,

resigned from the surveying service and was sent

to France, where he took part in the Battles of St.

Mihiel and the Argonne Forest. Later, Best was

designated acting sergeant in the Battalion Intelligence Section of the 355th Infantry at

Beauclair, France. On November 4, 1918, the

section was ordered to leave the house in which

they were stationed. Best stepped into the street

just as a shell exploded. Four men were killed and

several were wounded, including Best, who Iostthe

sight of one eye. Seven days laterNovember 11,

1918armistice was declared.50

In June of the following year, 1919, District 3

reported:5°

Nebraska has had six weeks of nearly

continuous rains, which reminds one of dear

old Oregon. Transitman Leo Peterson, who is

on an island survey, reports the Niobrara River

in that state as "looking like the Pacific Ocean."

First Lieutenant Fetz and Sergeant Best, lately

of France, now U.S. Surveyors again . . . are

gearing up the trucks and adjusting transits for

sand hill resurveys.

A. PARKER WARNER

The following members of the Field Surveying

Service are now on detail at Washington in the

Surveying Division of the General Land Office:

David W. Eaton, A. Parker Warner, Joseph C.

Thoma, Roy E. Chase, Robert W. Livingston,

Elmer F. Strickler, William H. Richards, Jr.,

Alonzo H. Adams, Francis W. DuBois and Earl

G. HarringtorL89
Surveyors were (and are) often detailed to

various areas. There is a persistent story about an

incident said to have happened in May 1922, when

A. Parker Warner was detailed to Utah for a season.

Surveyors who knew both Warner and George D.

D. Kirkpatrick believed the story, although now it

cannot be entirely verified. It has been handed

down by several oldtimers and goes something like

this:

A. Parker Warner, a Montana party chief, was

detailed to Utah for the survey season and was to

report to Kirkpatrick, the assistant supervisor of

surveys. He reported as directed, and someone

pointed out Kirkpatrick's office.Warner stood in the

doorway for several minutes and cleared his throat,

but Kirkpatrick, who apparently could be arrogant

and pugnacious on occasion, would not look up.

Kirkpatrick continued to ignore Warner. Finally,

Kirkpatrick looked up with a frown and asked,

"Who the hell are you and what do you want?"

Warner, whose patience was gone by that time,

answered, "I'm A. Parker Warner and I don't want a

goddam thing." With that, he turned on his heel and

walked out, anddepending on the teller of the

talehe could not befound for 2 hours, 2 days, or 2

weeks.16°

(When Kirkpatrick made the customary report

showing the names of surveyors who were at work

in the field in his district on May 15, 1922, A. Parker

Warner's name was on the list for Utah.)59

W000BURY ABBEY

Woodbury Abbey, Cadastral Engineer, and E.

C. Guerin, Transitman, are engaged in sectionizing the Chilkat Valley in the vicinity of

Haines, Alaska. The U.S. Coast and Geodetic

Survey triangulation system, which has so often

served as a basis for the computation of position

of segregated groups of surveys under the three

primary systems in Alaska, has again been

called into service. The position of the initial

point of the Chilkat Valley surveys was determined from the Coast Survey monuments in the

vicinity of Haines and referred to the Copper

River Base and Meridian. The extension of the

rectangular net to this section of the country will

not only take care of the homesteaders already

there, about fifty in number, but will undoubtedly stimulate settlement and contribute

to the general knowledge of the country.93

Earlier, Woodbury Abbey had a very close call.

The steamship Sophia sank in the Lynn Canal, in

Southeastern Alaska. Among those lost were three

field assistants who had worked for Abbey in the

Alaskan Interior and were on their way home at the

end of the season. Only the fact that the Sophia, a

208

British ship, was not allowed to carry passengers

between Alaskan ports saved Abbey from the same

fate. He was waiting in Skagway for a ship to take

him to Alaska's capital, Juneau.51

GUERIN AND THE

HAZARDS OF THE AUTOMOBILE

By 1930, Eckley C. Guerin (then cadastral

engineer in charge at Juneau, Alaska) had been

driving automobiles for several years without an

accident, as had his oldest daughter.

One day, however, a woman in Juneau smashed

into the Guerin carhit and run. As the damage

was not great and no one was injured, Guerin had

the car repaired and said no more about it.

Soon afterward the same woman drove "across

the street intersection where the City Ordinance

requires cars to stop before crossing," and again

hit the Guerin car, "mashing two running boards,

one fender, one door and handle and burying a

telephone pole in the top of the car......Instead

of stopping to see if anyone was hurt, she drove to

the Guerin home and told Mrs. Guerin that she had

run into her daughter. The Guerin car was in the

shop for 6 weeks waiting for replacement parts

from Seattle. Because Guerin had no wish to

offend the lady's husband, a long-time friend of his,

he again paid the costs of the repairsthough he

did mention the incident to his friend. The man

admitted that his wife had bumped his own car "so

much that [I] had to get a new one."

Not long after the car was repaired, Guerin

rounded a curve on the highway and met a car

coming "from the opposite direction . . . ata high

rate of speed and on the wrong side of the

road......He took to the ditch "to avoid a head on

collision which would no doubt have killed the

occupants in both cars . . . she could very easily

have avoided hitting me as the road is about thirty

feet wide on this curve, but instead she turned

toward my car, striking my rear wheel, tearing off

the end of my rear fender and guard rail; she went

right on down the road and I had to call several

times to get her to stop; I had no idea who had hit

me until she stopped, got out of her car and called

back and asked me 'what is the matter' in a tone of

voice that would rile the patience of Jobe [sic]."

Guerin admitted that he lost his temper that time,

but he also said that he could not understand why

the woman's husbandhis long-time friendhad

written to Frank Johnson to lodge a complaint

against him for swearing at the man's wife when he

merely was trying to avoid having his family

maimed or killed, "as three time is enough in one

season......70
SURVEY INSTRUMENTS

Solar Transit No. 8484

Young and Sons solar transit No. 8484, which

has been used in this Service since the inauguration of the Direct System of surveys in

1910, has come in for repairs for the first time

[1919J. This instrument was used up to 1914 in

Idaho, was sent to Arizona in January, 1915, was

returned to Idaho in June, 1915, again sent to

Arizona in November, 1915, and sent to Montana in June, 1916, where it has since been used.

The care that has been given this instrument

both while in use in the field and in transit from

one district to another reflects great credit on

those to whom it has been assigned.91

Blout's Solar Transit

Good care was not always sufficient to protect an

instrument. The very nature of public land surveys

meant that equipment would sometimes be lost or

damaged. For example, Sidney E. Blout, then a

young U.S. surveyor working in Arizona, was

proud of his Buff and Buff solar transit and took

good care of it. However, on the evening of May31,

1916, the singletree on the line wagon in which he

was riding became detached from the doubletree

and dropped down, hitting one of the mules on the

leg. When the frightened mule started to run, this

jerked the lines from the driver's hands, and the

wagon went careening downhill behind a team of

driverless mules.

Blout grabbed his instrument and jumped.

Unfortunately, he did not land, as he put it, "in the

most graceful style," and the eyepiece of the solar

attachment and the guard on the latitude arc struck

the ground with enough force to "disarrange the

solar parts" to such an extent that Blout was not

able to make the adjustments in the field.44

Miller's Clinometer

Frederic C. Miller lost his clinometer during a

"mix-up" that occurred when he, Osterhoudt, and

three assistants were on their way back to camp

one Sunday. They were in a mule-drawn wagon

and were about halfway home when the wagon

crashed through a bridge "about 30 ft. high and

about as long." They fell straight to the bottom and

the wagon landed upside down. All but one of the

men were thrown clear. Although pinned in the

wreckage and in considerable pain, luckily the man

was not seriously hurt.5°

209

Wilson's Solar Transit

During a 1924 California survey, Buff and Buff

solar transit no. 9221 slipped out of transitman

Roger Wilson's hands, and, unfortunately, into the

Klamath River. Although Wilson was "known to be

an expert swimmer and diver," the instrument was

not recovered.63

TWO CONTRASTING SURVEYOR

REPORTS ON THE LAND

Alaska

A recent report of the survey of a farmhomestead, within seventy miles of the Arctic

circle, situated between snowy peaks of the

Crazy Mountains and saw-tooth heights of

Dolomite range, shows how cruel nature

sometimes smiles upon the adventurous settler,

as evidence of what she can do when she will.

Six generous hot springs well forth in a cluster

from the bedrock, in a gulch at the foot of a

treeless mountain, yielding a copious rivulet of

pure healthful mountain water, which first

comes from the volcanic caves below bearing a

temperature of 138° F. to warm the rich alluvial

soil, where the homesteader has been building,

irrigating, draining, planting, sowing, reaping,

and selling valuable food-stuff for years

past. . The following abstract is taken from a surveyor's

field notes:

The quantity and variety of produce from this

claim are both surprising and excellent in

quality. During my stay there (five days in

August, 1917), the following vegetables were

served, all of which were grown on the tract:

Beets, carrots, cauliflower, celery,

cucumbers, endive, horseradish, lettuce,

onions, parsley, parsnips, peas, potatoes,

rhubarb, rutabagas, tomatoes, and turnips; also

cranberries, raspberries, service berries and

wonder berries.

The following were also growing on the land

at the same time: asparagus, barley, celery,

corn, garlic, kale, kohl-rabi, leeks, mint, oats,

radishes, sage, spinach and tobacco; all of

which mature in the open air.

The output for 1916 was stated to me by the

claimant to consist of the produce of the land, to

supply all the neighboring mining camps up to

thirty miles away, and even some of the river

steamers on the Yukon, forty miles away. 87
Utah

Andy Nelson was not fond of paper work,

especially the required reports of conditions in his

survey area that tended to be dull and repetitious.

He once received word from his superiors asking

why no report on the agricultural and livestockraising possibilities of his survey area had been

received. Nelson's reply was short and to the point:

"When I have surveyed enough land to support a

cow," he wrote them, "I'll let you know."148

SURVEYORS' TRANSPORTATION

Wagons

Wagon No. 1 was used on Group 43 Nevada

this season, and is now in the bottom of

Jarbidge Caui'on, in the extreme northern part of

Nevada. . . . I recommend that it be left where

it is and dropped from the property list. . 48

Trucks

Motor trucks have more than justified

themselves. One truck is more effective than a

wagon and 4 horses and also more economical.

It is hard to tell what we could have done without

them during the changes of the last three

years . . . the motor truck has come to stay

for surveys, both for economy and efficiency.5°

Mules

Perhaps there are few memories of the old

days so cherished by the field man as those

associated with the faithful, ornery, lovable old

survey mule; and indeed there are few incidents

of surveying history before the days of the motor

truck, in which he did not figure and play a

heroic part. The luster of the deeds of Kit and

Belle, Buck and Daisy and Punch and Judy has

not been dimmed by the passing years. They

and others of their kind generally rose to the

occasion no matter what it was and won the

admiration and gratitude of those dependent

upon them.55

LEGENDS ABOUT SURVEY COOKS

Shortly after he was named assistant supervisor

of surveys for New Mexico, Guy P. Harrington

began a district-wide monthly distribution of a

series of "Service Letters." One contained this

comment:

The position of assistant on our survey parties

is almost a trade in itself and is so regarded by

many of our assistants who are staying with our

work. The oldest assistant in point of service is

210

Mah Ion L. (Doc) Mishler, who first came on our

parties in 1914 as a cook and is still holding

down his job. "Doc" maintains that cooking is

the most important job on a survey party for he

says that a transitman or a chainman can be

picked up on short notice at any time, but that

good camp cooks are scarce. . . . There is not

a man in this district with whom he has not

worked at some time or other.57

The Bear That Was a Stove

There is a tale about another cook in a survey

camp in Montana or Wyoming. This particular man

had complained long and often about the battered

old stove he had to use for cooking. Finally he

convinced the party chief (reported to have been

one of the Bandy brothers) that a new stove was

necessary. When camp was set up in the mountains

that season, a new cook stove occupied one corner

of the cook tent. The men started work on the line

they were running, and, during the first day or two,

they saw signs of a bear in the area. One of the

surveyors asked the cook what he would do if a

bear wandered into camp when the surveyors were

away. The cook showed him a gun he had tucked

away and told the surveyor that he was not worried

about bears or any other wild animals.

Early one morning, before daylight, however, a

bear came into camp. Naturally, there was a lot of

yelling. The cook jumped out of bed, grabbed his

gun, and shot at the hulking black shadow looming

inside the cook tent. At the sound of the shots, the

surveyors rushed to see if the cook was all right. He

was fine, but his brand-new stove was full of

holes.153

The Cook Who Was No Cook

In marked contrast to men like Mishler, some

cooks did not last long. Wrote Kirkpatrick to

Johnson, "[] has been out on our parties and is

not worth a damn. . . . He claims to be a cook, but

is a joke."54

DISCOVERIESREAL AND NOT-SO-REAL

Rainbow Bridge National Monument

In the early autumn of 1908, Deputy Surveyor

William Boone Douglass, then 44 years old, started

to survey the White Canyon Natural Bridges in the

southeastern part of Utah. A Paiute Indian then

called "Mike's Boy," but later known as Jim, was

working as axeman on Douglass' survey party.

Mike's Boy told Douglass of a great rainbowarched natural bridge that was located "near the
Navajo Mountain." This was reported to the

General Land Office on October 7, 1908. About 2

weeks later, the commissioner of the GLO instructed Douglass to investigate the reported

bridge. If he found it worthy, he was to segregate it.

The snow that fell during the winter of 1908-9

made it impossible to carry outthe commissioner's

instructions immediately. While he waited for

better weather, Douglass made more inquiries but

learned nothing more of the bridge. Later that year

Douglass was again instructed to seek out the

reported bridge, and to segregate it if he thought it

to be of sufficient interest to become a National

Monument.

Douglass left Bluff, Utah, in early August1909, to

continue his search for the bridge. His party

consisted of John R. English and Jean F, Rogerson, chainmen; Daniel Perkins, flagman and

packer; and John Keenan, flagman. Jim (or Mike's

Boy) was their guide. When the survey party

reached Oljato, Utah, they met other bridge

huntersa professor and three students. The two

parties continued together. Later, another guide,

Masja Begay, was hired. Also a Paiute Indian, he

was more familiar with the area than Jim was.

He took them along crude Indian trails. Soon the

horses could not continue on the narrow trails with

full packs, and the survey party was forced to leave

behind all but a bare minimum of provisions.

They sighted the bridge on the morning of

August 14, 1909. Douglass, the chainman, and the

flagman were the only ones in the combined party

who actually reached the top of the graceful

natural bridge that arches, rainbow-like, across a

211

span of 278 feet. It stands 309 feet above the little

stream that winds through the deep and jagged

gorge beneath it. Rainbow Bridgeis only 33 feet

wide, and the arch is just 42 feet thick. It is located 4

miles northwest of the towering Navajo Mountain.

It is N. 60° 25' W., 7 mIles, 65,87 chains from

milepost 179 of the Utah-Arizona boundary line.

Due to the perseverance in their quest, Rainbow

Bridge was preserved as a National Monument.109

Craters of the Moon

In 1924, Murray D. Badgley, a technical assistant

in Boise, Idaho, took particular exception to an

article entitled "First Expedition through the

Craters of the Moon," which appeared in the March

issue of the "National Geographic."

When Badgley read the article, he immediately

fired off an angry letterto the editor. In Ithe pointed

out that the author of the article was not the first

person through the region. Some 50 years before,

in 1873, AlIen M. Thompson, a U,S. deputy

surveyor, had surveyed the Boise Base Line across

the area containing the craters. Badgley also

pointed out that monuments set by Thompson at

that time were still "in excellent preservation and

easily found." Further, the author of the article was

well aware that Government surveyors had preceded him, although he gave them no credit. In

fact, he had stopped at GLO's surveying headquarters in Boise and obtained copies of the

"official maps showing the boundaries of the lava

beds, roads, trails, water holes, and some of the

craters . . ." before he started Out on his trip of

"discovery."
GLO ORGANIZATION

During the early years of the direct system of

surveys the General Land Office was made up of

the following six units: the Washington Headquarters Office, the Offices of the Surveyors

General, the District Land Offices, the Field

Service, the Surveying Service, and the Logging

Service. The commissioner, the assistant commissioner, the recorder, the surveyors general, and

the registers and receivers of district land offices

were all appointed by the President of the U.S.

As organized at that time, a division in the

headquarters office had general control of all

cadastral surveys on public lands, no matter what

the managing agency was. The surveying service,

under the leadership of the supervisor of surveys,

executed cadastral surveys in the various surveying districts into which the country had been

divided. All instructions for surveys issued in the

field were examined in the Division of Public

Surveys. In the early days of the direct system, the

division chief was Charles L. DuBois. W. T. Paine

was the assistant chief, and the commissioner of

the General Land Office was Fred Den nett. Fred W.

Johnson became the last commissioner of the

General Land Office on May 20, 1933.

The Bureau of Land Management

In the summer of 1934, the Taylor Grazing Act

was passed, and the Division of Grazing was

formed within the Department of the Interior. It was

renamed in 1939, and became the Grazing Service.

Under the Taylor Grazing Act, all the remaining

unappropriated and unreserved public lands, with

the exception of those in Alaska, were closed to

unrestrained settlement and use. Mining claims

could still be staked upon the public lands, and

they remained open to outdoor recreation.

Farrington R. Carpenter was the first director of

the Division of Grazing. One of his first responsibilities was the classification of the lands, which

were mainly in 10 Western States. This presented

something of a problem, because neither

Carpenter nor anyone else seemed to know just

where the public lands were located or how much

public land there was. Carpenter found that there

was only one place where this vital information was

obtainable. The township plats of the GLO showed

Chapter 17

THE BUREAU OF LAND MANAGEMENT

213

the surveys and the private lands had been marked

off on the tracts in the local land off ices.11°

In 1946, the Grazing Service and the General

Land Office were consolidated to form the Bureau

of Land Management. The director of the new

bureau was granted authority, under the direction

of the Secretary of the Interior, to perform all

executive duties respecting the public lands,

including the public land surveys. Fred W. Johnson, the last commissioner of the General Land

Office, was named as the first director of the

Bureau of Land Management.

Surveying Districts

In the years since the passage of the Land

Ordinance of 1785, many changes in the arrangement of surveying districts have been required.

Generally, these changes have reflected the

enlargement of the Public Domain, the progress of

settlement, or the major surveying activities of the

period in which they existed.

At the beginning of the Bureau of Land Management, the major surveying activities were centered

in the Western States and Alaska. This active area

was divided into seven field regions. The direction

of the public land surveys was conducted by the

regional branches of Engineering and Construction. These branches were under the administrative supervision of a regional administrator. The authority over field operations

exercised by each regional branch was limited by

the regulations and instructions issued by the

director to the various regional administrators.

Now, in the mid-1970's, public land surveys are

conducted by cadastral survey branches of the

Bureau of Land Management's Service Center at

Denver, Colorado, 11 state offices, and the Eastern

States office at Silver Spring, Maryland. Authority

over field operations is limited by instructions

issued by the director of the Bureau of Land

Management to the directors of the various field

offices.

The Last Supervisor of Surveys

Albert C. Horton, Jr., who had executed the first

survey approved under the direct system of

surveys, succeeded Frank M. Johnson as United

States supervisor of surveys. He was thus the third

and last person to hold that title. For, on July 16,
1946, President Truman issued executive

Reorganization Plan No. 3 and the office of

supervisor of surveys ceased to exist. The plan

also abolished the offices of commissioner,

assistant commissioner, and registers of the

General Land Office, along with those of the

director and assistant director of the Grazing

Service. Functions of the 134-year-old General

Land Office were combined with those of the 12-

year-old Grazing Service to form the Bureau of

Land Management.

Though his duties and responsibilities remained

unchanged, A. C. Horton became acting chief

cadastral engineer. Earl G. Harrington was named

acting assistant chief cadastral engineer. In 1946

the Public Domain consisted of the 480 million

acres that remained after 150 years of transfer

policy, of being held in trust, opened to settlement,

and used mainly at the behest of individuals. The

reorganization plan that assigned responsibilities

to the Bureau of Land Management for "the major

portions of the multiple-use federally owned lands

now held by the Department of the Interior" made it

clear that, under the new agency, the public lands

were to be administered with an emphasis on

multiple uses and public, rather than private,

interests. A new era was dawning.

Even so, for cadastral surveyors, many of the

problems remained the same as those faced at the

beginning of the rectangular system.

GETTING THERE

The rectangular survey system extends across

the land in huge networks of lines. These are not

imaginary lines; they are real lines that have been

surveyed by many men. They cross open prairies,

swamps, canyons, and mountains. They are blazed

through forests and cut narrowly through nearly

impenetrable brush. They are marked by stakes,

pits, mounds, marked stones, or iron posts. They

were marked by men who followed straight lines

because the system provided for in the Land

Ordinance of 1785 required that the public land be

divided into "townships six miles square, by lines

running due north and south, and others crossing

these are right angles." There was no mention in

the ordinance of just how they were to travel those

straight lines, nor was there any mention of how

they were to get to the survey area to begin their

work. "Getting there" has been a problem since the

beginning.

Distance

The field of surveying operations was (and is)

214

sometimes hundreds of miles from the office

issuing the surveyor's instructions. Distance is one

of the facts of life with which public land surveyors

have always had to deal, whether they were deputy

surveyors working under a surveyor general, or

U.S. surveyors or cadastral engineers working

under an assistant supervisor of surveys, or U.S.

land surveyors receiving instructions from a

cadastral survey branch chief.

Supplies

Even in the earliest days of the rectangular

system, the surveyor, his assistants, the equipment

and suppliessometimes enough to last for

several monthshad to be transported to the

survey area. In the early years, flour and pork were

bought by the barrel. Bushels of beans and dried

apples were purchased, along with pounds of

coffee or tea, salt, pepper, sugar, rice, oatmeal, and

saleratus. Seventy pounds of coffee and 10 pounds

of saleratus were enough to last a six-man party 4

months.8

As early as June 1797, there were written

complaints. Israel Ludlow had trouble getting

supplies in Ohio, so he planned to drive "two or

three small cattle to furnish ourselves with

provisions......95 On occasion, supplies were

augmented by wild game and/or fish. If the

surveyors were lucky, they could find wild honey.

By and large, however, deputy surveyors had to

transport themselves, all their supplies, their

instruments, plus the camp and other equipment.

The means of doing so varied according to the

circumstances and the times.

In 1821, when Hervey Parke first went to

Michigan to become a deputy surveyor, he used

the classic, time-honored method of getting

therehe walked. Sometimes the men were able to

make use of waterways, traveling by boat orcanoe.

More often, since the surveyor's path is a straight

one, the waterways were in the way. Horses and

wagons were suitable for some areas, but their use

was not always beneficial. Even in reasonably level

open country, sand and bogs and rivers that had

escaped their banks were factors that had to be

taken into account.

In the early days, packmen used a "portage

strap." It was made of leather and was usually

about 10 or 12 feet long. The strap consisted of

three sectionsthe middle one of which rested on

the packman's forehead or chest. The middle

section was about 2 feet long and 3 inches wide in

the center, tapering toward both ends. Leather

thongs were fastened to the ends of the center

section, which were tied around the pack.
A packman using a portage strap could usually

carry between 75 and 125 pounds.98 There were,

however, some exceptions to the rule. In 1875,

when Nathan Bulter ran the east boundary of the

Red Lake Indian Reservation in Minnesota, he

employed as packer "one Jack Bonga, of Red

Lake......Bonga regularly carried two sacks of

flour (100 pounds each) "rather than make two

trips for the same baggage." The regular pack for

a horse in similar country was 200 pounds.98

As the surveys extended westward and the

country became more open, saddle horses and

pack animals carried the men and their surveying

and camping gear. Years later, when there were

sufficient roads and trails, the surveyors used

wagons and buckboards.

A CHANGING WAY OF LIFE

Transportation was one of the things that was

profoundly changed by World War I. In 1918, N. B.

Sweitzer wrote:5°

There is no question in my mind but that the

truck will do any work that horses or mules will

do, in this district, with the addition of a greater

radius of action and for less cost per mile. They

are cheaper and far more convenient at practically every angle. This is going to be emphasized more and more every year as the cost of hay

and grain advances as well as the cost of labor

and maintenance in work connected with mules.

In 1919, George Kirkpatrick reported that he was

"having great trouble getting wagons repaired and

mules shod, and are paying great prices for what

we do get. The automobile is driving out the

country blacksmithor at least he is becoming an

automobile repair man."48

Later that year, another assistant supervisor of

surveys wrote:55

The distance covered by these heavily loaded

trucks [two light capacity Dodge motor trucks]

was about 322 miles and the time consumed in

going from the field in Wyoming to Denver,

including all stops for sleep, meals, and official

business, was about 31 hours. Besides the

saving of time, which is the very essence of

efficiency in this Service, the saving in direct

cost over the old way is considerable; the saving

in ultimate cost is enormous.

All these factors seemed to bear out Sweitzer's

opinion that, "The motor truck has cometo stayfor

the field surveying service and has justified the

215

recommendation and claims made by those in

authority, both as to practicability and economy."5°

During the 191 8-19 winter, topographic

engineers, in cooperation with the Air Squadron at

Fort Sill, Oklahoma, successfully produced an

aerial mosaic of an extensive area in that vicinity.

The section lines of the cadastral surveys, along

which roads had been built, served as control,

since they were clearly visible from the air. The end

result of this mapping experiment was a composite

map showing in great detail and with unusual

clarity the culture and topography of the areaall

related to the cadastral survey.55

Not that transportation difficulties had really

been solved. Near the end of 1921, George

Kirkpatrick reported that there had been some

complications in his district during what he

characterized as having been, on the whole, a good

season:59

We have suspended work on the Lake Shore

investigations and still have more work to do in

the field. It has not proved a bigger job than we

anticipatedso far as technical procedure is

concernedbut is proving more expensive. The

trouble is getting around. The country is

afflicted with the same trouble as the Mississippi, according to our friend Mark Twain, the

country is not thick enough for agriculture but

too thick for boating. The result is that we can

neither walk, ride, or boat around. In some

localities where the mud is just right it will take

an able bodied man an hour to walk a mile.

Even where it was still being used, wagon travel

was not without its hazards. In November 1921,

Alonzo E. Compton reported:57

this transit should go to the factory . . . for a general overhauling and repair

of damages received from a fall. In fact it fell

from the top of a load of loose hay when the

team ran away, pitching the assistant who was

carrying the transit to the ground. .

Communications

Communication methods were also being improved. In 1925, Frank M. Johnson wrote:63

As soon as you have been advised of the

assignment of space for your offices under

consolidation effective July 1, you will be

authorized to enter into contract for telephone

service, without waiting to take actual possession of the offices. Please submit your
recommendations in this matter as soon as you

are in position to do so.

In arranging for telephone service it will of

course be understood that no provision should

be made for any branches [extensions] not

absolutely necessary for the proper conduct of

public business. No branches should be installed in the drafting and the engineers' rooms.

Airborne Surveys

That same year, George A. Parks planned to

furnish cadastral survey information to be used in

establishing control for a proposed aerial survey of

the islands in Southeastern Alaska. According to

the proposal, three large planes were to be

operated from bases established along the Inside

Passage.64

Often, even now, the men themselves must carry

their own supplies and equipment for some

distance. This was, and is, especially true where

rugged terrain or swamps render other forms of

transportation impossible to use. For example, no

wheeled vehiclewagon or truck or even fourwheel drivecan make it through some of the

really rugged and remote canyon land that

surveyors must traverse.

Finally, surveyors and officials began to discuss

the feasibility of using helicopters to move the

surveying crews and their equipment across

terrain so broken and upended that crossing it

seemed all but impossible. In 1956, a limited

helicopter operations test was made with results so

encouraging that a substantially enlarged

cadastral surveying program was undertaken

during the 1957 field season. The experiment was

more successful than anyone had anticipated it

would be.

In the deep, steep, rugged, and remote parts of

Utah where this method was Vrst used, conventional surveys had cost about $155 for each mile of

line surveyed, with each crew covering an average

of 1.2 miles per day. With helicopters, the cost of

each surveyed mile was reduced to about $125,

with the crew averaging about 2.6 miles per daya

20 percent saving in cost, with the surveying output

more than doubled. These results clearly indicated

the practicalityof the use of aerial transport in areas

where large-scale surveys had to be made over

terrain too rough for trucks and jeeps.148

216

CONTINUING LEADERSHIP

Clark Gumm

Much of the credit for the success of the

cadastral surveying program in the Bureau of Land

Management rests with men who began their

careers before the BLM came into being. William

Teller, retired chief of cadastral surveys for the

Denver Service Center, is one such man. Another,

Clark Gumm, became a field assistant on a

cadastral survey crew in New Mexico in 1933. In

1936, after he had passed a written Civil Service

examination, he was appointed a public land

surveyor. Gumm, who attended the Colorado

School of Mines, demonstrated both an unusual

interest in the work and a high degree of

aggressiveness in his study of prescribed and

improved methods and procedures regarding all

types of cadastral surveys. Because of this, he was

given progressively more complicated field

assignments. He handled difficult survey projects

such as the 1949 underground survey of a bat cave

above the Colorado River in the Grand Canyon, a

location accessible only by water.

In 1950, Gumm was assigned the responsibility

of investigating conditions and executing a survey

of the unal lotted Choctaw-Chickasaw Indian tribal

lands along the Red River in Oklahoma. The

Bureau of Indian Affairs had requested the survey

of these landssome 60 isolated tracts of irregular

description extending through 25 townships and

along both the Texas and Oklahoma sides of the

Red River west from the Arkansas State line for

about 175 miles. The manner in which Gumm

handled this unusual survey brought approval from

the Indian bureau and credit to the BLM.

During the early 1950's, Gumm was assigned to

the International Cooperation Administration in

Iraq as advisor to the Iraq Government on cadastral

surveys and related land reform matters. When he

returned to the U.S. in October 1954, he was

assigned to the Area Cadastral Survey office in

Denver. During 1957 he was in charge of a double

survey party working on important resurveys in

New Mexico when he was selected to fill a vacancy

in the Cadastral Engineering Unit in Washington,

D.C. In 1961, he was named chief of the Branch of

Cadastral Engineering (under C. E. Remington,

who was chief of the Division of Engineering).
When the Division of Cadastral Survey was formed

by a reorganization in late 1968, Gumm became the

chief of the Division of Cadastral Survey.

Clark Gumm's wide and diversified experience

made him one of the most knowledgeable and

highly respected surveyors in this country. In 1974

he was named assistant to the assistant director of

Technical Services, BLM, a position he held until

his retirement later that year.

Thomas A. Tiliman

Another man who deserves much credit for his

accomplishments in the BLM isThomas A. Tillman.

He, too, began his cadastral surveying career in a

time-honored manner: on June 8, 1936, he went to

work as an axeman on an GLO survey party.

Tiliman was 18 years old and had just graduated at

the top of his high school class in Pendleton,

Oregon.

Tiliman worked hard and learned quickly. By the

1938 season, he had been promoted to the position

of principal assistant. When that survey season

ended, he began his studies at the University of

Washington. Tillman followed this routine for the

next few years. His routine was interrupted by

World War II. When Tillman returned from military

service in 1945, he, with admirable singlemindedness, resumed his duties as principal

assistant with cadastral survey crews during the

field season and his formal education during the

rest of the year, receiving his degree in civil

engineering in 1948.

That same year, Tiliman was given a permanent

appointment as a cadastral engineer, and began

advancing rapidly to positions of increasing

responsibility. In 1955 he became assistant to the

area cadastral engineer and in 1961 he was named

217

chief of the branch of cadastral engineering for the

States of Oregon and Washington.

In 1964 Tillman was selected as one of a fourman team to update the "1947 Manual of Surveying

Instructions." It was soon apparent that what had

first appeared to be a fairly minor updating project

was going to be, of necessity, a complete revision.

At about the same time, the Washington office

was going to be understaffed because of

retirements and the growing demands of other

departments. Again, Tillman was the choice to fill

the void. He was transferred to Washington, D.C.

Several times, Tillman's interest in cadastral

history, along with his superb knowledge of

cadastral law, created a demand for his expert

testimony.

Even though Tillman's contribution in rewriting

and updating the 1947 Manual and the manual

supplement, "Restoration of Lost or Obliterated

Corners," cannot be overstated, the intangible

benefits initiated by him in training and influencing

surveyors will have even more far-reaching effects.

Although many cadastral surveyors over the

years have been forward-looking individuals, it is

unlikely that anyone was able to foresee one

dramatic effect of the cadastral surveys of the

public lands. It was an effect certainly not

anticipated by the men who were there at the

beginning of the rectangular surveys, even though

a similar effect had been brought about by the land

use pattern under the ancient Roman system of

subdivision. During the mid-1960's, as part of the

NASA Gemini space program, Gemini V took

photographs of Earth from a distance of about 100

miles up. In the photo that showed the Imperial

Valley of California and the northern part of

Mexico, there was only one visible man-made

featurethe rectangular land use pattern created

by the United States cadastral survey system.
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Brown, Curtis M. 1969. Boundary Control and Legal

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REFERENCES

219

Johnson, Dorothy 0. 1967. Empire of the Columbia.

2nd ed. New York and London: Harper and Row, pp.

73-74, 232, 237.

Lang, H. 0., ed. 1885. History of the Willamette

Valley. Portland, Ore.: Himes and Lang, pp. 610,

740-741.

Lindenmeyer, Otto. 1970. Black History: Lost, Stolen

or Strayed. New York: Discus Books, Avon, pp. 42-43.

Metraux, Alfred. 1969. The History of the Incas.

Translated from the French by George Ordish. New

York: Pantheon Books, pp. 2-3, 67-68, 200.

Monaghan, Jay, ed-in-chief. 1963. The Book of the

American West. New York: Julian Messner, Inc., pp.

156-1 57, 232-233, 238.

O'Callaghan, Jerry. 1960. The Disposition of the

Public Domain in Oregon. Washington, D.C.: U.S.

Government Printing Office, p. 13.

Pattison, William D. 1957. Beginnings of the

American Rectangular Land Survey System, 1784-1800.

Univ. Chicago Dept. Geography Research Paper 50.

Raisz, Erwin. 1962. Principles of Cartography. New

York: McGraw-Hill Book Co., Inc., p. 5.

Robbins, Roy M. 1962. Our Landed HeritageThe

Public Domain, 1776-1 936. Lincoln, Neb.: Univ.

Nebraska Press, p. 7.

Smart, Charles E. 1962. The Makers of Surveying

Instruments in America since 1700. Troy, N.Y.: Regal

Art Press, pp. xx, xxi, 23, 42, 136, 138-1 39.

Stewart, Lowell 0. 1935. Public Land Surveys

History, Instructions, Methods. Ames, Ia.: Collegiate

Press, Inc., pp. 5, 38-39, 44, 57-58, 66, 72-73, 84-86.

Tenney, Merrill C., gen. ed., 1963. Zondervan Pictorial Bible Dictionary. Grand Rapids, Mich.: Zondervan

Publishing House, pp. 633-634, 890-891.

Thomson, Don W. 1966, 1967. Men and Meridians.

Vol 1, Prior to 1867; Vol.2, 1867 to 1917. Ottawa, Canada:

Queen's Printer and Controller of Stationery, Vol 1: pp.1,

4, 8, 15-16, 21, 24, 84, 313; Vol. 2: pp. iv, 20 (footnote),

171, 175.

Thrower, Norman J. W. 1966. Original Surveys and

Land Subdivision. Chicago: Rand McNally & Co., p. 8.

Van Zandt, Franklin. 1966. Boundaries of the United

States and the Several States. U.S. GeoI. Survey Bull.

1212: 1-2, 42-43,46,93, 174-175, 224,229-231,238,251,

255-256, 260.

Webster, kimball. 1917. The Gold Seekers of '49.

Manchester, N.H.: Standard Book Co., pp. 189-190,

193-194, 196-201, 222, 230.

Correspondence Files of the Supervisor of Surveys, 1910-1946:

(In National Archives, Regional Office, Denver,

Colorado)

Vol. 7. Letter from T. O'Conner, Surveyor General for

Colorado, Dec. 7, 1910.

Vol. 17. General Instructions to A. D. Kidder from the

Surveyor General's Office, Boise, Idaho, and Denver,

Colorado, Dec. 7, 1910.

Vol. 19. Letter from W. Thorn to F.M. Johnson, July17,

1911. Letter from J. P. Walker to Johnson, Aug.30, 1911.
39) Vol.50. Letterfrom F.M. Johnson to C. L. DuBois, June

3, 1914.

40) Vol. 71. Letter from F. Spofford to F. M. Johnson, Sept.

14, 1915.

41) Vol. 73. Letter from F. M. Johnson toW. T. Paine, May

1, 1915.

42) Vol. 76. Letter from Commissioner C. Tallman to J. P.

Walker, Apr. 21, 1915.

43) Vol. 84. Letter from the Commissioner of the GLO to F.

M. Johnson, Feb. 24, 1913. Letter recommending

promotions from Johnson to the Commissioner, June6,

1916.

44) Vol.90. Letter from S. Blout to F. M. Johnson, June 10,

1916. Letter from W. Utterback to A. C. Horton, May 25,

1916.

45) Vol. 114. Letter from F. M. Johnson to T. Havell, Mar.

23, 1918.

46) Vol. 121. Letter from A. Compton to F. M. Johnson,

May 17, 1919. Letter from Compton to Johnson, April11,

1918.

47) Vol. 122. Letter from A. C. Horton to F. M. Johnson,

May 6, 1919.

48) Vol. 123. Letter from G. D. D. Kirkpatrick to F. M.

Johnson, Jan. 28, 1919. Letter from Kirkpatrick to

Johnson, May 16, 1919.

49) Vol. 124. Letter from F. M. Johnson to E. P. Rands, Mar.

16, 1916. Letter from Rands to Johnson, Dec. 8, 1920.

Letter from Rands to Johnson, Mar. 10, 1921.

50) Vol. 125. Letter from F. C. Miller to F. A. Lewis, Sept. 8,

1917. Letter from N. B. Sweitzer to F.M. Johnson, Oct. 8,

1918. Letter from Sweitzer to Johnson, Dec. 20, 1918.

Notes for the Bulletin, Sweitzer to Johnson, Feb. 19,

1919, and June 12, 1919. Letter from Sweitzer to

Johnson, Oct. 3, 1919. Letter from Johnson to Sweitzer,

May 27, 1920.

51) Vol. 127. Survey Notes, May 23, 1919.

52) Vol.131. Letter from F.M. Johnson to C. Tallman, Aug.

9, 1919.

53) Vol. 132. Letter from F. M. Johnson to A. D. Kidder,

June 23, 1920. Letter from Kidder to Johnson, Mar. 22,

1920.

54) Vol. 138. Letter and postscript from G. D. D. Kirkpatrick

to F. M. Johnson, June 30, 1920.

55) Vol. 144. Survey Notes, Sept. 24, 1919; Oct. 24, 1919;

Apr. 24, 1920.

56) Vol. 147. Letter from F. A. Lewis to the Commissioner

of the GLO, Apr. 15, 1921.

57) Vol. 157. Letter from A. Compton to F. M. Johnson,

Nov. 10, 1921. Service letter, District No. 4, Guy P.

Harrington, May 1, 1922.

58) Vol. 158. Letter from A. C. Horton to J. Plover, U.S.

Surveyor General, California, Apr. 19, 1922.

59) Vol. 160. Letter from G. D. D. Kirkpatrick to F. M.

Johnson, Dec. 14, 1921. Report from Kirkpatrick to

Johnson, May 15, 1922.

60) Vol. 161. Letter from F. Spofford to F.M. Johnson, Aug.

2, 1921.

61) Vol. 175. Letter from F. M. Johnson to F. Bond, Sept.

14, 1923. Letter from Johnson to Bond, Nov. 3, 1923.

62) Vol. 183. Letter from F. M. Johnson to the Commissioner of the GLO, Aug. 14, 1924.

63) Vol. 188. Letter from A. C. Horton to F. M. Johnson,

Sept. 23, 1924. Letter from Johnson to Horton, May 28,

1925.

64) Vol. 190. Letter from G. A. Parks to F.M. Johnson, June

26, 1924. Telegrams, 12/27 and 12/28, 1925. Letter from

Parks to Johnson, June 13, 1925.

220

Vol. 194. Letter from M. D. Badgley to Gilbert

Grosvenor, editor, National Geographic Society, Mar. 7,

1924.

Vol. 196. Letter from F. M. Johnson to the Commissioner of the GLO, May 29, 1925. Letter from W. Spry

to Johnson, June 10, 1925. Letter from the Commissioner to Johnson, Oct. 27, 1925.

Vol. 207. Letter from Judge Proudf it to F. M. Johnson,

Apr. 3, 1925.

Vol. 225. Letter from J. P. Walker to F. M. Johnson,

Sept. 23, 1926.

Vol. 226. Letter recommending promotions from J. S.

Harrison to F. M. Johnson, May 12, 1928.

Vol. 229. Letter from E. C. Guerin to F. M. Johnson,

Sept. 17, 1930.

Vol. 232. Letter from F. M. Johnson to H. B. Patten,

Sept. 2, 1926.

Files, Clippings, and Collections:

Arpy, Jim. 1960. Davenport Times-Democrat. New

Boston, Illinois.

Circular from Josiah Meigs to the Registers of the

General Land Offices of the United States, Apr. 12, 1817.

Huntsville Meridian and Base Line (1807). From Card

Index of Initial Points, Bur. Land Management,

Washington, D.C.

Letter to Mr. James Turner from Clark L. Gumm, chief,

Division of Cadastral Survey, Bur. Land Management.

Washington, D.C., Nov. 17, 1971.

Letter Book No. 3, Letter #204, Mar. 19, 1889, from

Thomas S. Wilkes, and Letter #320, Nov. 1889, from

William Thiel. Bur. Land Management Archives, Seattle,

Washington.

Letter by Isaac Briggs, Dec. 12, 1803. General Land

Office, Vol. 52, National Archives, Washington, D.C.

Note on Mrs. Jeremiah H. Doherty. Oregon Historical

Society Collection, Portland, Oregon.

Note on Mrs. Mary Moody. Oregon Historical Society

Collection, Portland, Oregon.

The Oregonian, Feb. 7, 1959. Oregon Historical Society

Collection. Portland, Oregon.

The Oregonian, Oct. 17, 1948. Oregon State Office, Bur.

Land Management, Portland, Oregon.

Preliminary Statement, Group 1, Ohio, Reestablishment

of the Point of Beginning. Bur. Land Management,

Washington, D.C.

Prosch, Thomas W. n.d. Notes from a Government

Document on Oregon Conditions in the Fifties. Muttnomah County Central Library Collection, Portland,

Oregon, pp. 196-198.

Land Service Bulletin, General Land Office:

Vol. 1, No. 2, p. 12. Apr. 1, 1917.

Vol. 1, No.3, p.3. May 1, 1917.

Vol.1,No.6,p.9.Aug.1,1917.

Vol.1,No.11,p.20.Jan.1,1918.

88) Vol. 1, No. 12, p. 7. Feb. 1, 1918.

Vol. 2, No. 2, p. 8. Apr. 1, 1919.

Vol. 2, No. 11, pp. 4-6. Jan. 1, 1919.

Vol.2, No. 12, p.7. Feb. 1, 1919.

Vol. 3, No.3, p.5. May 1, 1919.

Vol. 3, No.4, pp. 16-17. June 1, 1919.

Vol. 4, No. 5, pp. 7-8. July 1, 1920.
Magazines and Periodicals:

Agnew, Dwight L. Mississippi Valley Historical Review,

Vol. 28, p. 371.

Anonymous. 1967. "Nelson Buck's Surveying Party."

Frontier Times 41(4):41.

Brownell, EdwinR. 1971. "RetracementintheFlorida

Everglades." Papers from the 1971 ASP-ACSM Fall

Convention, pp. 37, 39-40.

Butler, Nathan. 1907. "Boundaries and Public Land

Surveys of Minnesota." Minnesota Historical Society

12:650, 659-660, 666-668.

Cannon, George H. 1884. "The Life and Times of

William A. Burt, of Mt. Vernon, Michigan." Michigan

Pioneer and Historical Society 5:115-123.

Cook, Ira. 1897. "Government Surveying in Early

Iowa." Annals of Iowa 2(8):603-613.

Parke, Hervey. 1880. "HerveyParke Reminiscences."

Michigan Pioneer & Historic Society 3:572-591.

Pershing, B.H. 1937. "A Surveyor on the Seven

Ranges." Ohio State Archaelogical and Historical

Quarterly 46(3):258-270.

Randall, Benjamin. 1967. "Three Hundred Miles from

Nowhere." Frontier Times 41(1):22-23, 52.

Wilson, George R. 1919. "Early Indiana Trails and

Surveys." Indiana Historical Society Publications

6(3):364-365, 388, 404, 409-415, 417-420, 423, 425,

427-428, 433, 435, 442-443, 447-449, 452-453, 456.

Anonymous. 1959. Our Public Lands 9(1):12.

1953. "Land Users 0. and A. Corner."

Our Public Lands 3(2):12.

Berlin, Leonard M. 1959. "Adventuresatoenali."Our

Public Lands 8(3):4-5, 12-14.

Carpenter, Farrington R. 1963. "Beginnings of the

Division of Grazing, Part II." Our Public Lands 13(1):14.

Douglass, William B. 1955. "The Discovery of Rainbow Natural Bridge." Our Public Lands 5(2):8-9, 14-15.

Halliday, Robert 5. 1956. "Trail of the Transit." Our

Public Lands 6(1):12-13, 15.

Harrington, Earl G. 1955. "Surveys Spur Settlements." Our Public Lands 5(1):7.

Haste, Glen R. 1952. "Early Cadastral Surveys." Our

Public Lands 2(1):19.

O'Callaghan, J.A. 1965. "Beginning of Public Land

Surveys." Our Public Lands 14(4):19.

Teller, William. 1958. "Measuring Distance at 669,-

600,000 Miles an Hour." Our Public Lands 8(2):8.

Anonymous. 1969. "Ellicott's Stone-Historical

Landmark." Surveying & Mapping 29(1):120.

1967. "Young Mason and Dixon Traced Their Famous Line for $75,000." Surveying &

Mapping 27(4):679-680.

1966. "Kudurru of Gula-Eresh." Surveying & Mapping 26(2):287.

1966. "Right to Own Land Dates to

Antiquity." Surveying & Mapping 26(2):309.

1962. "Historical Marker Dedicated by

BLM." Surveying & Mapping 22(3):502.

Bandy, W. R. 1966. "Early Day Surveying Methods."

Surveying & Mapping 26(4):698-699.

Berns, Thomas B. 1969. "Surveying and American

History." Surveying & Mapping 29(1):111-113.

1968. "Abe Lincoln, Surveyor." Surveying & Mapping 28(3):497-498, 500.

Clement, Donald B. 1960. "Point of Beginning." Surveying & Mapping 20(4)477.

221

Fitzsimons, Neal. 1968. "The First Surveyors under

the Constitution." Surveying & Mapping 28(1 ):1 12-113.

1967. "Colonial American Surveyors."

Surveying & Mapping 27(3):476.

1967. "Early Surveyors of the New

Republic. Surveying & Mapping 27(4):677-678.

1967. "The Ellicott Brothers."

Surveying & Mapping 27(1) :78.

Laurie, Bill D. 1967. "Washington Monument

Resurvey Expedition." Surveying & Mapping

27(2):302-304, 310.

Merkel, Donald E. 1974. "Colonel Butler and the

Public Land Survey of Florida (1824-1849)." Surveying &

Mapping 34(4) :331-336.

O'Callaghan, Jerry. 1967. "Point of Beginning

Dedicated." Surveying & Mapping 27(1):81-82.

Popp, Robert. 1966. "Landmark Dedication Slated

for Area's Survey Monument." Surveying & Mapping

26(3) :478.

Schmiedeke, J. M. 1972. "With Chain and Compass."

Surveying & Mapping 32(1) :63-67.

Solander, A. A. 1967. "Pre-Revolutionary Surveyors." Surveying & Mapping 27(4):685.

Manuals, Reports, and Treaties:

Annual Report of the Commissioner of the General Land

Office, Fiscal Year Ending June 30, 1911. 1911.

Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, p.

28.

Annual Report of the Commissionerof the General Land

Office, Fiscal Year Ending June 30, 1890. 1890.

Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, pp.

86, 432, 434-435.

Annual Report on the Commissioner of the General

Land Office, Fiscal Year Ending June 30, 1880. 1881.

Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, pp.

90,279,288,294,521,681; drawing on unnumbered page

following 288.

Bureau of Land Management. 1973. Manual of Instructions for the Survey of the Public Lands of the

United States, 1973. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, Table, p. 61.

1947. Manual of Instructions for the

Survey of the Public Lands of the United States, 1947.

Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, pp.

4, 40, 167, 171, 380; Appendix II, pp.464-466; Appendix

V, p. 512.

Public Land Statistics, 1973. Dept. of the Interior, Bureau

of Land Management. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, pp. 1, 2, 10 (Table 7), 140.

Report of the Commissioner of the General Land Office.

1872. Washington, ftC.: U.S. Government Printing

Office, pp. 18, 108, 110, 169, 226, 229.

Standard Field Tables and Trigonometric Formulas. 1956. 8th ed. Washington, D.C.: Bur. Land

Management, p. 226.

"Surveying in Alaska." 1970. Bur. Land Management,

Alaska State Office, p. 2, mimeographed.

Treaty with Great Britain, June 15, 1846. 1851. In

United States Statutes at Large, Vol. 9. Boston: Little,

Brown, pp. 869-870.

Treaty with the Republic of Mexico, February 2,

1848. 1851. In United States Statutes at Large, Vol. 9.

Boston: Little, Brown, pp. 929-930.
Personal Communications, Conversations, and/or

Letters:

Bandy, W. R. (Roy). Bur. Land Management, area

cadastral engineer, Billings, Montana (Deceased.)

Photographs and/or negatives.

Barron, Roger T. Bur. Land Management, Div. Cadastral

Survey, Washington, D.C. Plat and note.

Berns, Thomas B. Lincoln legal opinion, plat of New

Boston (received in letter).

Cazier, Dell. Bur. Land Management, cadastral surveyor,

Cadastral Training Unit, Denver Service Center, Denver,

Colorado.

Glenn, William W. Bur. Land Management, chief, Branch

of Cadastral Survey, Oregon State Office, Portland,

Oregon. Photographs.

Gumm, Clark. Bur. Land Management, chief, Division of

Cadastral Survey, Washington, D.C. (Retired.)

Harding, Donald E. Bur. Land Management, cadastral

surveyor, Portland Service Center, Portland, Oregon.

(Retired.) Photographs.

Knowles, John S. Bur. Land Management, engineer,

Denver, Colorado. (Retired.)

Minnie, James. Bur. Land Management, chief,Branch of

Cadastral Surveys, Montana State Office, Billings,

Montana.

Oakes, Richard. Bur. Land Management, chief, Branch

of Cadastral Surveys, Wyoming State Office, Cheyenne,

Wyoming.

222

Pittman, Gerald F. (Jerry). Bur. Land Management,

cadastral surveyor, Lake States Project Office, Duluth,

Minnesota. Plats and photographs.

Reilly, P. T. Bur. Land Management, former field

assistant. Sun City, Arizona. (Retired.)

Simpson, James A. Bur. Land Management, chief,

Cadastral Training Unit, Denver Service Center, Denver,

Colorado.

Sylvester, Woodrow. Bur. Land Management, chief,

Branch of Cadastral Surveys, Utah State Office, Salt

Lake City, Utah. Photograph.

Teller, William. Bur. Land Management, chief, Branch of

Cadastral Surveys, Denver Service Center, Denver,

Colorado. (Retired.)

Tillman, Thomas A. Bur. Land Management, civil

engineer, Division of Cadastral Survey, Washington,

D.C. (Retired.)

VanderMeer, Theodore. Bur. Land Management,

cadastral surveyor. (Retired.)

Wager-Smith, D. A. W. Bur. Land Management, chief,

Cadastral Surveys, Alaska. (Retired.)

Wilson, Roger F. Bur. Land Management, cadastral

surveyor, Sacramento, California. (Deceased.)

White, C. Albert. Bur. Land Management, supervisory

cadastral surveyor, Portland Service Center, Portland,

Oregon. (Retired.) Photographs.
Abbey, Woodbury, 208

acts, Congressional

1800, March 1, 36

1800, May 10, 36, 37

1802, April 30 (Ohio Enabling Act), 39

1804, March 26, 48

1805, February 11, 37, 48-49 1820, April 24, 59

1830, May 29, 59

1836, July4, 112

1842, August 4, 56

1849, March 2, 56-58

1850, September 28, 56-58

1860, March 12, 56-58

1862, May 30, 112

1864, July 2, 91

1884, May 17 (Alaska Organic Act), 146

1887, February 8 (Dawes General Allotment Act), 98

1897, June 4, 93

1898, April 29 (Arkansas Compromise Act), 56, 57

1899, March 3, 147

1905, February 1,93

1909, March 3, 109

1918, September21, 109

1925, March 3, 60

1960, July 14, 109

Adams, Alonzo H., 207

Adams, John D., 161

aerial photography, 150, 151, 215, 217

agro centuriato, 2

airborne surveys, 151, 216

Alaska

produce, 209-210

purchase, 145-146

state selection surveys, 150, 151

statistics and early history, 145

survey camp, 190 (photos)

survey party, 181-1 82 (photos)

Allason, W. J., 89

Allen, J. 5., 43

Allen, Russell K., 162

Anderson, Alex, 62

Apian, Peter, 5

Applegate, Jesse, 66

Arizona Initial Point, 89-91

Arizona survey camp (1916), 128 (photo)

Arkansas survey camp (1915), 130 (photo)

Armstrong, Moses K., 88

Armstrong, Ray D., 195

arpent, 73

assignment instructions, 107

assistant supervisors of surveys, 103

astrolabe, 5

Atkins, Barton, 146

auxiliary guide meridians, 51

auxiliary standard parallels, 51

Averill, Dupree Reed (Herk), 81, 155, 157, 183 (photo), (photo), 195

INDEX

A B

Badgley, Murray D., 211

Ball, Horatio, 53

Bandy, lnez, 121 (photo)

Bandy, Richard E. (Elmer), 115 (photo), 196, 197

Bandy, W. R. (Roy), 111, 174 (photo), 178 (photo), 195,196-198

Bandy, Willis W., 196, 198

Bandy survey camps and crews

Big Horn Mountains (1912), 136 (photo); (1914), 124 (painting)

Missouri River Breaks (1918), 130 (photo)

Montana (1914), 133 (photo); (1921), 119 (photo)

Yellowstone Park boundary (1931-1932), 167, 169, 170, 176,

180 (photos)

Bandy-Parker-Eaton survey camp, Montana (1922), 166 (photo)

Banker, Isaac A., 62

Banneker, Benjamin, 8 (illus.), 21-22

Barber, A. W., 112

Bates, Thomas Walter, 205

Battle Creek, Michigan, 54-55

Benson, John A., 94

Benson Syndicate, 94

Bering River coal field, 148

Bering, Vitus, 145

Berlin, Leonard M., 149, 150

Best, Edward T., 207

Betts, Floyd G., 149, 207

Between the Miami Rivers North of Symmes Purchase, 27, 28

biblical references

corners, 38

land measurement, 1, 2

surveying party, 38

Biggs, Uriah, 43

Biggs, Zaccheus, 36, 38

Black Hills

gold rush, 83

photos, 122, 123

Blout, Sidney E., 209

Boone, Daniel, 42

boundary surveys

Ellicott's Line, 21

Ellicott's Line of Demarcation, 22

Florida-Alabama, 55-56

Four Corners, 202

Georgia-North Carolina, 23

Illinois, 58

Oklahoma-Texas, 205-206

U.S.-Canadian, 23, 82-83

Wyoming, 88-89

Bouquet, Col. Henry, 16

Briggs, Isaac, 47

Brown, Arthur W., 154, 195, 198

Brunt, Arthur H., 196, 197

Brunt, Col. Samuel W., 116 (photo), 158, 196; survey party

(Meeteetsee, Wyo.), 116 (photo); survey party (Sunlight

Basin, Wyo., 1907), 117 (photo), 207

186 Buck, Nelson, 89

Buckingham, Ebenezer, 42-43

223
Buffalo Trace, 42

Bureau of Land Management (BLM)

continuing leadership, 216-217

inaugurationof, 213

Burt, William A., 54, 62-64, 155-156

Butler, Nathan, 62, 64

Butler, Robert A., 50, 55, 56

C

Cabot, John (Caboto, Giovanni), 5

Cadastral Engineering Service Conference, Denver (1923),

142-1 43 (photo)

cadastral surveys, basisof, 107

Calhoun, John, 59

Calvin, Elmer D., 168 (photo)

Campbell, Quintin (Jerry), 134 (photo), 163 (photo), 198; survey

camp (Wash., 1917), 125 (photo)

Campbell, Roy, 205

Canada-U.S. boundary, 82-83

Carpenter, Farrington R., 213

Carpenter, H. B., 202

cessions, state

Florida, 55

Thirteen Original States, 14

chain, 5, 15, 72-73

chaining, 196

Chandler, John, 8

Chapin, Frank W., 81

Chase, Roy E., 207

Clark, Abraham, 10

Clark, Gen. George Rogers, 40

Clark, John A., 89-90, 91

Clark, Lt. William, 47, 65

Clawson, Marion, 194 (photo)

Clement, Donald B., 150, 156, 196

Clement, Lester L., 196

Clements, Benjamin, 55, 56

coal fields, Alaska, 148

Coast and Geodetic Survey, 145, 146-147

Coffee, John, 41, 50, 55

Colorado survey party (1925), 132 (photo)

Columbus, Christopher, 4

Compton, Alonzo E., 103, 207, 215

Conover, W. C., 149

Continental Congress, 35

contract system, 36, 100

convergency, effects of, 18

Conway, Valentine, 56

Cook, Ira, 60-62

Cook, Capt. James, 145

cooks, 198, 210

Copper River Meridian, 147

correction lines, 50

Cortez, Hernando, 5

"Cosmographia," 5

Cragin v. Powell, 107

Craters of the Moon, 211

Crawford, Hugh, 175 (photo), 195, 198

Crawford, Thomas W., 186 (photo), 195, 198

cubit, 1-2

Gumming, Fred L., 195, 196

Gumming, James R., 196

D

Darling, E. N., 202

Dauphiny, Larry, 149

224

Davidson, George, 145

Dennett, Fred, 213

Depression, 195

De Soto, Hernando, 5

De Witt, Simeon, 14, 36

direct system, 100-101, 153-161

Dixon, Jeremiah, 12

"Domesday Book," 3

Douglass, William B., 207, 211

Dowse, Edward, 29, 31

draftsmen, 162

DuBois, Charles L., 100, 153, 213

DuBois, Francis W., 207

Dukes, J. D., 157

Dunn, J. Pierce, 205

Dunnington, F. A., 103

Dwight, Timothy, 8

E

Earth, circumference of, 2, 3

Eaton, David W., 207

Elder, Robert, 80

Ellicott, Andrew, 9 (illus.), 19-23, 47; see also Ellicott's Line,

Ellicott's Line of Demarcation, and Ellicott's Stone

Ellicott, Benjamin, 21

Ellicott City, 21

Ellicott, Elias, 22

Ellicott, George, 21-22

Ellicott, Joseph, Jr., 21-22

Ellicott's Line, 21, 47

EIIicott's Line of Demarcation, 21-23

Ellicott's Stone, 22

English, John, 140 (photo)

"Ephemeris of the Sun, Polaris and Other Selected Stars with

Companion Data and Tables," 113

Eratosthenes, 2, 3

Erskine, Robert, 13-14

Evans, Col. John, 60

Exum, John W., 41, 55, 56

F

Fairbanks Meridian, 147

"Federal Register," 205

field examination of surveys, 98-99

field notes, typewritten, 158-159

first direct system survey, 101

First Principal Meridian (Ludlow's), 39, 47

Five Civilized Tribes (Cherokee, Choctaw, Chickasaw,

Seminole, and Greek Indians), 98, 160

Five Nations, 99

five-mile townships, 27, 35-36

Fitzhugh, George, 83

Fitzhugh, John, 83

Florida

cession, 55

Donation Act, 56, 65

Everglades, 110-111

survey crew (1918), 125 (photo)

Foote, Nathaniel, 5

Foote, Ziba, 44-45

Forest Management Act of 1897, 92-93

Forrest, F. Wayne, 188 (photo); survey party (Utah-WyO. state

line, 1948), 185 (photo)

Four Corners, 202

Fourth Principal Meridian, 58
Freeman, James E., 78, 80

Freeman, Thomas, 40-42

Freeman's Corner," 40

Freund, John B., 60

Frisius, Gemma, 5

Fry, Joshua, 11

G

Gadsden Purchase, 68

General Land Office (GLO)

consolidation with Grazing Service, 213

establishment, 49

first commissioner, 49

organization, 213

Genn, James, 11

Geographer, 15

Geographer's Line, 19, 29, 39

George, Martin, 148, 161-1 62

Gold Rush of 1849, 70

Goodale, S. W., 162

Gordon, Harvey, 88

Gordon, William, 60

Gore, The" (Indiana), 39

Grazing Service, 213, 214

Great Pyramid, 1

Greeneville Treaty Line, 37, 38, 39

Greynville, Sir Richard, 5

groma, 2

group numbers, 107

Groups Nos.

1, Colorado (1910), 101

33, Oregon (1917), 128, 129 (photos)

41, Arizona (1915), 136 (photo)

62, California (1920), 137 (photo)

312, Colorado, 184 (photo)

333, Colorado, 170 (photo)

Guadalupe-Hidalgo, Treaty of, 67, 74

Guerin, Eckley C., 148, 208

guide meridian, 50

Gumm, Clark L., 150, 192 (photo), 216-217

Gurley transit, 168 (photo)

H

Haigh, Thomas A., 147

Hall, Wendell G., 150, 151, 195, 196, 198

Hall, Wendell V., 195

Hall system, 150

Harding, Donald E., 151, 190 (photo)

Harrington, Earl G., 155-156, 207, 214

Harrington, Guy P., 91, 155, 161, 177 (photo), 195, 210

Harriot, Thomas, 5

Harris, Jerry, 190 (photo)

Harrison, J. Scott, 161, 197

Harrison Purchase, 43

Harvey, W. E., 88

Haste, Glenn R., 155, 195, 198, 205

Havell, Thomas, 206

Hayden, Ferdinand Vandiveer (F.V.), 97-98

Hayward, Elijah, 112

Hendricks, Thomas A., 109, 112

Hermann, Binger, 93

Herrman, Augustine, 8

Hiester, Tom, 196

Hiester, William E., survey parties 124, 164 (photos), 196

Homestead Act, 66

225

Homestead Entry Survey, 63

Horton, Albert C., Jr., 101, 102, 103, 154, 158-159, 161, 165

(photo), 198, 213-214

Hover sight, 151

Hudde, Andries, 8

Huntsville Meridian, 41

Hutchins, Thomas, 15-16, 19, 29, 31, 32, 33, 49, 111

Hyatt, Hobart B., 190 (photo)

Hyde, George, 80

Idaho

Priest Lake (1911), 131 (photo)

survey camp (1919), 166 (photo)

Incas, 3-4

Inch, Philip, 195

Indian land surveys, 103

Indian Territory (OkIa.), 99

Indian tribes

Alaskan, 145

Choctaw-Chickasaw, 216

Comanche, 99, 205

Crow, 197

Five Civilized Tribes, 98, 160

Five Nations, 99

Kiowa, 99, 205

Potawatami, 92

Shoshone, 100

Sioux, 83, 97

Ute, 97-98

initial point, public land surveys without, 25-28

initiating documents, 107

Instructions to U.S. Deputy Mineral Surveyors, 112

Interior, Department of the, 71, 72

iron post, regulation, 104

J

Jackson, John, 38

Jaeckel, Herman, 103, 161, 181 (photo), 198

Jenkins, John, Jr., 9

Jenkins, John, Sr., 9

Jefferson, Peter, 11

Jefferson, Thomas, 11, 15,47

Johnson, Albert, 93

Johnson, Frank M., 98, 99, 100-105, 115 (photo), 135 (photo),

148, 153, 154,157-160, 161-162, 191 (photo), 197,202-203,

205, 206, 207, 213, 215-216

Johnson, Fred W., 213

Johnston, Theodore 0., 139 (photo), 195

Jones, Lyle F., 192 (photo), 198

Joy, Francis F., 154

K

Kidder, Arthur D., 64, 99, 100-101, 102, 112, 159-160, 193

(photo), 202. 205-206

Kimmel stove, 198-201

Kimmel, William B., 172 (photo), 195

Kimmell, Albinus N. (A.N.), 195; survey party (Ala., 1918), 173

(photo)

Kimmell, Anthony C. (Tony), 172 (photo), 183 (photo), 195

Kimmell, Everett H., 195, 202; survey party (Cob., n.d.), 173

(photo)

Kimmell, Keith, 195
King, Norman L., 162

King, Samuel D., 81

Kirkpatrick, George D. 0. (G. D. D.), 103,161,206,207,208,210,

215

Klondike gold rush, 147

Knowles, John S., 138 (photo), 153, 155, 157, 198

L

Lamoraux, Silas, 112

land bounties

1812 land bounties, 49

Revolutionary War, 14

land grants

colonial, 5

New England, 5

railroad, 91

"Land Office Business," 60

"Land Service Bulletin," 205

Lange, Bernard (Benny), 138 (photo)

Leeds, Daniel, 9

L'Enfant, Pierre Charles, 21-22

Lewis, A. B., 147

Lewis, Frank L., 161

Lewis, Capt. Meriwether, 47, 65

Lincoln, Abraham, 59-60, 70 (illus.), 71 (facsimile doc.)

Lincoln, Thomas, 42

Little Big Horn, Battle of, 83

Livingston, Robert W., 207

Lopez de Gardenas, Don Garcia, 5

Ludlow, Israel, 37, 38, 39, 214

Ludlow's Meridian, 39, 47

Lyman, Edward 0., 195-196

Lyman, Lewellyn D., 195

Lyman, Ranny V., 195-196, 198

Lyon, Lucius, 54, 58

Lyon, Orson, 54, 58

Lytle, Marvin J., 205

M

Mader, Herman F., 205

Magellan, Ferdinand, 5

magnetic compass, 5, 64

Major, Daniel G., 62

Major, John G. 202

Mansfield, Jared, 47, 48, 111

Instructions, 111

"Manual of Surveying Instructions"

Booklet(1919), 64, 158-159

Evolution of, 111-113

Manuals

1855, 50, 51

1881,51

1890, 51, 63

1894, 63

1902, 63

1930, 51, 158-159

1947, 217

1973, 113

Supplements, 113, 217

Marsh, Capt. James M., 63

Martin, Absalom, 29, 31, 36, 38

Mason, Charles, 12

Mason-Dixon Line, 12, 21

226

Matanuska

coal field, 148

Valley Project, 148

Mathews, John, 31, 32, 38

Mathias, Thomas F., 162

McCord, Alan R., 161

McDonald, John, 43

McDonald, Russell, 198

McManus, M.. 87

medial line, 205

Meigs, Josiah, 49, 50, 67 (illus.), 111-112

Mench, Fred, 207

Mexican border incident, 158-1 59

Meyers, J. W., 62

Michigan Report (1815), 53

Mike's Boy (Jim), 210-211

Miller, D., 59

Miller, Frederic C., 209

Millrick, Willis J., 205

mineral surveyors, 94

Mining Law of 1872, 91-92

Mishler, Mahlon L. (Doc), 210

Missouri River Basin Project, 198

Missouri River Breaks survey (Mont., 1918), 129 (photo)

Monday, A., 59

Montana survey crew (1914), 126 (photo)

Moody, Zenas Ferry, 80

Moore, Charles F., 205

Moore, John M., 112

Morris, William, 29

Mt. Mckinley National Park

boundary survey, 149-1 50

boundary survey party (1936), 177, 181 -182 (photos)

mules, 153, 158-159, 210, 215

Mullett, John, 54

Munro, Fred, 198

Muskingum River survey, 27

N

Nader, George F., 162

Naret, Joel Q., 162

"National Geographic," 211

Nelson, Andrew (Andy), 156, 187 (photo), 198, 205, 210

Nelson, Ken, 149

Nelson, Ralph W., 161

Nenana coal field, 148

Neville, Joseph, 19

New Boston, 69 (plat)

New Mexico Principal Meridian, 76 (photo of field notes)

Nile Valley, 1

Northwest Territory (Ohio), 14, 33

0

Odell, William H., 83

Ohio

conflict with Michigan, 27

land subdivision, 25, 27, 29

Northwestern, 27

Seven Ranges, 29-33

Ohio River Base, Indiana, 27

Ohio River survey area, 25, 27

Oregon

Compromise, 66-67

Donation Law, 76-78

Manual (1851), 50, 112

Territory, 65, 78-80
Paine, Walter T., 111, 213

Parke, Hervey, 53-55, 214

Parker, Alexander, 29

Parker, Ernest, 195, 198

Parker, Horace, 195

Parks, George A., 148-149, 162, 216

Patterson, Robert, 21, 47

peace tree 40, 41 (illus.)

Pearson, Elliott, 182 (photo)

Pearson, George W., 81

Pearson, Grant, 149

Pecore, Chester W., 205

Pellum, Barney M., 205

Penington, Edward, 9

Perkins, W. C., 202

Peterson, Leo, 198; survey party (Wyo., 1935), 179 (photo)

photogrammetry (Alaska), 150-151

Pidgeon, C. Chandlee, 196

Pidgeon, Charles M., 196

Pierce, William H., 91

Pizarro, Francisco, 5

Point Lobos survey, California (1940), 168 (photo)

point of beginning, 19

Ponce de Leon, Juan, 5

Porter, Andrew, 13, 19

Portugese exploration, 4

Preston, John B., 78-80

Preston, Levi S., 202

Price, N., 138 (photo)

Proudfit, Judge S. V., 205

private claims, 72, 73-75

Putnam, Rufus, 36, 37, 38, 39, 111

A

Rainbow Bridge National Monument, 210-211

Randall, Benjamin, 92

Rands, Ernest P., 103, 135 (photo)

Raymond, H., 195

rectangular survey system, 17

Rector, William, 42

Red River of the North, 57

Red River (OkIa.), 205-206, 216

Reilly, P. T., 188-189 (photos), 195

Remington, C. E., 150, 216

Restoration of Lost or Obliterated Corners," 112, 113

resurveys, 108-111

Richards, W. A., 88-89, 93

Richards, William H., Jr. 207

Rigby, George F., 198

Risden, Clark 0., 54

Rittenhouse, Benjamin, 13

Rittenhouse, David, 10 (illus.), 13, 19

Ritter, Gus, 198

Robbins, C., 202

Romberg, Roy, 195

Rowland, John W., 162

Ruxton, Albert, 81

$

Saffrey, Solomon, 8

San Bernardino Initial Point, 81

Sargent, Maj. Winthrop, 29, 31-33

227

Sawyer, Glenn F., 121 (photo); survey crew (Missouri River

Breaks, Mont.), 119 (photo)

Saxon, Homer, 196-197

Saxon, Wesley C., 196-1 97

Scioto River Base, 27

Second Principal Meridian, 39, 40, 47, 48

sections (numbering of), 25, 26

Seeley, Charley, 197

Seibecker, Carl, 157

Seven Ranges, 19, 25, 27, 29-33, 36, 37

Seward Meridian, 147-148

Sherman, Isaac, 29, 32

Sherman, Roger, 7 (illus.), 10

Shinn, Major, 112

Sibley, Sylvester, 54

Simpson, James, 29

Sitting Bull, 83

Sixth Principal Meridian, 87

Smith, Benjamin H., 64

Smith, Jeremiah, 43

Snell, Willebrord, 5

solar attachment, 64

solar compass, 63-64, 73 (photo), 75 (photo), 83

solar transit, 209

special surveys (Alaska), 151

Special Instructions, 107

Spofford, Frank S., 103, 196, 207

Spofford, Fred, 196

Sproat, Ebenezer, 32

St. Stephens Meridian and Base Line, 55

"Standard Field Tables and Trigonometric Formulas," 102,113

standard parallels, 50

state boundaries, surveyed by GLO, 202

statistics, public land, 108

Stiles, Arthur A., 205

Stoddard, I. W., 195

Stone, Augustus, 44

Stone, C. C. 55

Strickler, Elmer F., 138 (photo), 207

subdivision rule (erroneous), 109

survey markers, destruction of, 60

surveying districts, 103, 213

"Surveyor, The," 5

Surveyor General of the Northwest Territory, 111

Surveyor of the Lands South of Tennessee, 47, 55, 111

surveyors general

appointment of, 36

office abolished, 161-162

under the direct system, 161

Sutter, Johann August, 65, 68, 70

Swamplands

acts, 56-58

grants, 56-58

Sweitzer, Norman B. (N. B.), 100, 103, 110, 153, 158, 161, 162,

206,215

Symmes Purchase, 28, 37

T

"T in 0" map, 2,4 (illus.)

Talcott, Capt. Andrew, 63

Tallahassee Meridian, 55

Tallman, Clay, 135 (photo), 159

Taylor, Douglas W., 95

Taylor Grazing Act, 213

Tarr, W. 0., 206
Tecumseh, 43

Teller, Addison R., 196

Teller, William, 194 (photo), 196, 198, 216

Ten O'Clock Line, 43, 44 (illus.)

Tenana Valley, 147

Texas Purchase, 67-68

Texas-Oklahoma boundary, 205

Third Principal Meridan, 59

Thirteen Original States

cessions, 14

governmental authority, 35

land claims, 14

Thoma, Joseph C., 193 (photo), 202, 207

Thompson, Allen M., 211

Thorn, William H., 147, 206

Tiff in, Edward

career, 49, 50, 54, 111-112

illustration, 68

Instructions for Deputy Surveyors (1815), 13

Michigan report (1815), 53

Tiliman, Thomas A., 112-113, 190 (photo), 217

Timber Culture Act of 1873, 92

Timber Cutting Act of 1878, 92

Timber and Stone Act of 1878, 94

Tippicanoe, Battle of, 43

Toland, Lloyd, 198

Torgerson, Herbert C., 149

Township 5, First Range, 11 (plat)

townsites, 49

transportation, means of

airborne, 214-216

foot, 214

horses, 214, 215

mules, 210, 215

trucks, 210, 215

wagons, 210, 214, 215

triangulation, 5

Tupper, Benjamin, 29

Tupper, Edward W., 44

Twelve-Mile Square Reserve, 27

U

U.S. Cadastral Survey Office, Montana, 193tJ171 (photo)

U.S. Civil Service, 99

U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey, 145, 146-147

U.S. Constitution 35

U.S. Department of the Interior, 112

U.S. Geological Survey

cadastral survey experiment, 147

establishment or, 91, 98

public-land surveys, Indian Land (OkIa.), 99

takeover attempt, 160

under the GLO, 91, 97, 98

U.S. Military District, 36, 38-39

U.S. Military Survey, 27, 35-36

U.S. supervisor of surveys, 100-102

U.S. Surveyor General's Office, Montana

staff, 1890 (photo), 82

staff, 1909 (photo), 114

U.S. Treasury Department, 112

Utterback, Wilford, 158-159, 197, 205; survey party (Garland,

Wyo., 1905), 118 (photo)

228

V

VanderMeer, Theodore (Van), 139 (photo), 195

vara, 73

Vincennes Tract, 39-40, 42, 43, 44 (illus.), 47, 111

Vincennes Treaty, 42

Voigt, Emil, 184, (photo), 194 (photo), 196, 198

Voigt, Hans, 132 (photo), 138 (photo), 157, 196

w

Wager-Smith, D. A. W., 150, 151

Walker, John P., 103, 141 (photo), 147-148, 161, 207

Wampler, Joseph, 53

Warner, A. Parker, 207-208

Warner, Claude (Hefty), 195, 198

Washington, D.C., 21-22

Washington, George, 6 (illus.), 11, 21, 36

Washington, Henry, 56, 81

Washington, state of

frontispiece

survey camp (1914), 127 (photo), 135 (photo)

survey costs, 159

Wasson, James M., 161

Wasson, John 93

Webster, Kimball, 80

West Line (Mason-Dixon Line), 12

West of the Great Miami River, 27

Wheeler, Courtenay 0., 205

Wheeler Survey, 1874, 202

Whispering Willie, 198

White, C. Albert, 185 (photo)

White, Ty, 91, 118 (photo), 196, 198; survey (Calif., 1937), 189

(photo)

White, Van, 118 (photo), 196

Wilkes, Thomes S., 95

Willamette Meridian, 77-78, 80

Willamette Stone State Park, 72 (marker-photo)

William the Conqueror, 3

Wilson, Roger F., 132 (photo), 138 (photo), 156-157, 209; survey

party (Calif., 1938), 189 (photos),survey party (Calif., 1940),

190 (photo)

Wiltse, Harry A., 87

Winkler, Tom, 157

Wisconsin plat

aerial photo, 1950, 85

1849 plat (copy), 84

Woodward, Nathaniel, 8

World War I, 157-158

World War II, 202

Wright, George B., 62

Wyoming Valley, 10, 13

Wyoming-Montana boundary, 77 (field notes, photo)

V

Yellowstone Park boundary, 197-198

Yellowstone-Tetofl region, 97

z

Ziber, John S., 88

U. S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE: 1978 275-685/649