The Black Hills union and western stock review. [volume] (Rapid City, S.D.) 1904-19??, 1909-02-12
ALTITUDE OF PIXIES PEAK.
Work of Surveyors in Fixing Eleva
<innr

Work of Surveyors in Fixing Eleva.
lions.
The various federal surveys of the
country are carefully determining
all the high points, the elevations OF
we'll known mountains and those OF
other important places, and are In
many instances SCATTERING prior no.
tons of the heights of prominent
land marks.
Perhaps 1t has not occurred to ev-
cry one how these accurate eleva-
tiops are secured, how, for instance,
is found the exact altitude above the
sea level of some high peaks in the
Blue Ridge, or in the White noun
tains, of Pixies peak, or Mt. Shasta,
or Mt. Whitney, he highest peak in
the United States. 1t is done by a
simple system of leveling. practically
the method used by the first crude
| surveyors using spirit levels. of
course the instruments for sighting
and determining an elevation to a
hairs breadth are vastly different
from those used a thousand years
ago, but the principle is the same.
In other words all surveyors, to
determine elevations or attitudes, be.
gin at the seashore, If accuracy is
desired. From there a sight is made
through a telescope to rod placed
a few hundred feet inland, then from
that rod to another rod, and so on
M nd
until the point desired or the other
ocean is reached. but it requires a
great many sights and very wonder.
full accuracy to get as far from the
Atlantic or Pacific as Pixies peak,
and be able to say that the apex of
that famous mountain is so many
feet and so many inches above mean
sea level. This, however, is what the
geological survey has done the past
season, correcting the formerly es-
tablished attitudes, the first of which
was shown to be in error by more
than hundred feet. This does not
mean that the surveyors have run
line of levels during single sea-
son all the way from the ocean to
Pixies peak. They simply started
from some established point and car
ried the work up to the summit of
the mountain. All of the federal
surveyors are constantly establish
ing points of exact elevation. Thus
if any of the surveyor organizations
have accurately fixed the altitude of
Colorado Springs, for instance, it
would require the work of only a
week or so for a party starting at
Colorado Springs to carry its lines
of levels up to the summit of Pixies
peak.
The need of establishing various
points for latitude, longitude and al
tude is evident. They become start
ing points for any special surveys
desired, whether by the public or
private interests. In the topograph-
ic surveys which the United States
geological survey is making of the
United States each sheet of the big
atlas map, representing in the ma,
jority of cases, about ESQ square
miles, contains from ten to twenty
permanent metal or concrete bench
marks, the elevations of which are
stamped thereon. These can be used
for all time as authentic data for the
basis of any additional work, and the
value of their permanence was rec
ognized in a special act of congress
requiring that the geological survey
should, in its topographic mapping
establish permanent bench marks,
at least one to township. While
1T is of course a nice thing to know
the attitudes of important mountain
peaks, the determination of the more
lowly points of pass and valley is
the feature of real economic work.
The elevation Of Pixies peak was
determined by Parry some time pri-
or to 1884, barometrically, as A.
PIG feet. Later the elevation was
determined by the signal service as
14,147 feet, and more recently the
coast survey determination gave the
elevation as 14,10S feet and the
weather bureau as 14.111 feet.
In 1907 level party in charge
of Charles Hartman, of the United
States Geological survey, started
from survey bench mark in Mani
tou, near the foot of the famous
Pixies peak cog road, and ran a level
to the line summit and then across
down to point on the railroad. The
cogs in the center of the railroad
track furnished excellent turning
points, and the work progressed rap
idly until the summit was neared,
when bad weather very much de-
layed matters, and the surveyors suf-
fered severely from exposure. To
handle rod and leveling instru-
ment with the thermometer down to
zero and stiff wind blowing is no
child's play, and the weather con-
ditions are most uncertain in these
high attitudes. Before Mr.. Hartman
had completed his line he was caught
IN snow storm and had to run the
last eight miles of levels through
snow from eight to fourteen inch es
deep.
To convey an idea of the sudden
changes which may occur in the
mountains in summer time, it may
be interesting to describe the con-
ditions on the day, last September,
that the tablet marking the exact ell
elevation of summit of Pixies peak,
which is 14,109 feet was set.
When the summit Of the peak
was reached" said c. E. Barnard, the