In surveying then-remote areas of Michigan, Parke and his crew often camped outdoors during their travels, sometimes carrying packs of blankets and provisions into swampy areas where horses were unable to go. In the prairie country we occasionally carried poles from two to three inches in diameter, from which to cut posts to set in mounds every half mile, when raised in the spring. I have occasionally entered a prairie with three poles, equal to nine posts, with compass and staff in hand. Techniques used by surveyors working in Indiana before 1850 were not determined. John Tipton's letters frequently mentioned various surveys in which he was engaged, but provided no details on them.
Money appears to have been a problem for many surveyors.
The surveyors often advanced money to their deputies, whose accounts were settled with funds placed to their credit by the government, and paid by the surveyors general. In 1844 the government agreed to pay the surveyors directly. His ad was repeated in the next issue, along with another ad offering a surveying compass and chains for sale. Stretcher is the only professional surveyor in Marion County about whom even this much information is available. The major surveying projects in Hamilton County during the 1830s involved the laying out of roads.