Survey Notes - RootsWeb



Survey Notes – Establishing the Baseline

Baseline Through Ranges 16,17,18,19,20,21,22,23,25, &25 East of the Principal Meridian in the Territory of Montana as surveyed by Dumas L. McFarland, deputy surveyor under his subcontract No. 79 leaving date the 5th day of March 1878. Survey commenced April 4th, 1878, Completed April 12th, 1878.

Names and dates of assistants:

Joseph Smith, Chainman

John L. Carmony, Chainman

John W. Short, Axeman

Fred C. Ristig, Axeman

“Set a sandstone 13x7x6in 8 in’s in the ground for stand & corner to Sections 35 and 36 marked SC (south corner) with 1 notch in the E and 5 on the N edges. Dug a pit 18x18x12 in crosswise on each line N, E and W of stone 5 ½ feet. Desert land, level, soil 1st rate, no timber.”

“Set a post facing cardinal points 4 ½ feet long 4” square with a sandstone 6x5x2 in marked with a cross (x) 12 in(ches) in the ground for stand and corner to township No. 1 North Ranges No 25 and 26 East; Marked S.E. with ‘T.1.N.R.26E.S.31’ on E face. ‘T.1. N.R.25.S.36” on N face, and 6 notches on the N, E and W faces. Dug a pit 24x12x12 in crosswise on each line N, E & W of point 6 feet dish and raised a mound of earth 2 ½ feet high 5 feet base around post.” “[This corner is about 3 miles westerly from McAdow’s Mill on the Yellowstone River] Land level; soil 1st and 2nd rate. No timber.” April 12, 1878

Survey Notes – Exterior Boundaries Township 2S, Range 20 East.

Surveyed by Walter W. de Lacy Under Contract #82 dated July 30, 1878. Survey commenced August 19, 1878, completed August 20, 1878.

Cedric Sherwood, Compassman

Charles M. Clavy, Chainman

Harmon West, Chainman

Thomas O’Donnell, Chainman

Edward McHale, Axeman

Arthur F. Fowler, Axeman

[No field notes recorded]

Survey by Walter W. de Lacy October 1, 1878. T1S, R25E Boundary Line.

“That part of the township which borders on the Yellowstone River has excellent soil, much of it is fine meadows. There are several settlers on or near the River who raise vegetables of fine quality and other grains. The middle and timber part is also good soil, and will produce when irrigated, which can be done from the Yellowstone River and Canyon Creek, which flows through the S.W. part of the township. The only timber consists of Cottonwoods along the river and on the islands.”

Survey of Baseline Extension Through Range 26 East. October 17, 1878.

“This line passes over the East end of Clarke’s Fork Bottom, south of the town of Coulson. Supposed to be the head of navigation on the Yellowstone. The soil is of first-rate quality and there are several settlers in the Townships South. It should therefore be subdivided. The Township North of this line embraces the town of Coulson and serve good land and should be subdivided.”

Survey of Subdivisions and Meander lines in Township 1 South, Range 26 East. October 18-22, 1878.

“As this township is bounded on the South and East by the Yellowstone River and has surveyed boundaries, except North and West. I subsequently go to the West boundary to Corner to sections 19, 24, 25 and 30. whence I run East on a new line between sections 19 and 30. (18° 30’ E).

“___ O’Connell’s house bears N 45° W about 9.00 chains dist(ant.). At 5.5 chains East enter dry slough, curves North, at 8.00 chains leave slough. At 14.82 chains left bank of Yellowstone River. 15x10x6” sandstone set in ground to mark meander point (MC marked on stone). A Cottonwood 12 “ dia bears S.87 W. 110 links distant. Marked ‘T.1.S.R.26.E.S.30.M.C.B.L’, from the corner. Ran a base line South 4.00 chains to a point from which the object on right bank of river bears N 73 ½° E, which gives for a distance across river 13.50 chains. Land level meadow, soil 1st rate, timber, scattering Cottonwood.”

Walter de Lacy Survey Township 1S, 26East (October 18-22, 1878)

“Corner Sections 2, 3, 10, 11, land level; soil 1st rate, no timber. North on line between Sect’s 2 and 3, dry slough 150 links wide at 4.00 chains. Marked ¼ section. Corner of section 2 and 3, soil level and 1st rate, no timber. Then to corner sec’s 10, 11, 14, & 15. Ran line east between sec’s 11 and 14. At 23.58 chains, Clarke’s house bears N 26° 30’E. At 24.00 chains enter Cottonwood timber. At 29.54 chains 12” dia Cottonwood tree. At 32.80 chains, left bank or river.(set marker). Rapids in river [Ramsey’s Rapids] bears S 46° E. River is 16.87 chains wide. Land level, soil 1st rate, Timber.”

“East on new line between sections 2 and 11. At 57 chains entered Cottonwood timber. . At 64.37 chains, river bank. Gravel bar and worthless island there. River is 14.26 chains wide. Ramsey’s Rapids is opposite corner of sections 2 and 11, and along right bank of river. Land level, soil 1st rate, timber.”

Meanders of the left bank of the Yellowstone River through the township.

“Begin at corner to sections 2 and 34 on the north boundary of the township – Baseline –and on the left and S.E. bank of the river, and thence up stream with the meanders of the left bank of said river. The east end of McAdow’s Desert Land Claim S 11 ½ W 13.00 chains same object bears S 87 E. 13.00 chains to the corner of fractional sections 2 and 11. Land level, soil 1st rate, timber, scattering Cottonwood.”

Survey Notes Walter deLacy October 18, 1878. Rn26E, Section 34 Township 1 North

“Set corner sections 33 & 34 then east on new line chained to south boundary of section 34. At 4.90 chains (dry slough) McAdow’s sawmill at Coulson bears 44 ¼° E. House at Coulson bears 38 3/4° E. At 25.42 chains sawmill bears N 11 1/2°. 24.10 chains to river.” [Note: this places the sawmill approximately 10 chains south of the center of section 34 on Alderson’s land, and located on the left river bank.]

Survey Notes Walter de Lacy October 22, 1878, Rn 26 E, Tp 1South

“This fractional township is situated at the eastern end of the Clarke’s Fork Bottom. It is boarded on the South and East by the Yellowstone River which has been navigated by a steamer in 1877 to a point within this township and a little above the town of Coulson. The land is partly bench and partly bottom land. All of which is 1st rate land on which have been grown vegetables of all kinds. There are several settlers in the township who are opening farms. [Also a La__ Mill, Stage Station and Post Office at the small town of Coulson, near the bank of the river – In Tp 1N] The only timber in this township is Cottonwood along the banks of the River and on the Islands _______. The lands are agricultural.”

“River meanders south 54 3/4°, west 9.70 chains (from 1/16 section Lot #2 eastern edge). At 6.60 chains Cochran’s fence. Tree marked by steamer “Josephine” bears N 50 links distant (above the 9.70 chain mark). The highest point ascended to by steamboats. Cochran’s house lies North of tree 4.00 chains.”

Survey Notes Henry B Davis 8 November 1904, Tp 1S, R 25E etc (pgs 7-9)

On a true line between Secs 1 and 2, ascend river bluff 150 ft at 8 chains, then bear NW and SE; ascend 450 ft over broken SW slope. At 22 chains on top of ridge. Descend 600 ft over broken NE slope. At 40 chains set a sandstone 15x10x4”, 10” in ground for ¼ section corner marker. Raised mound of stone (cairn) 2 ft base, 1 ½ ft high W of corner.

At 70.5 chains, Sharpe’s house bears S 68° 30’ west. At 75.20 chains top of spur. Sharpe’s house bears S 40° west.

At 80.20 chains intersect Baseline, 13.85 chains west of standard corner of sections 34 and 35, T1N, R 26E. Stone 10x804” above ground.

Between Sections 34 & 35 on south boundary of the Tp go north 0°02’W between Sections 34 & 35 ascend 200 ft over south slope. At 25.50 chains at top of ridge. Descend 125 ft over NW slope. Fence line at 38.60 chains. At 39.00 chains gulch, and ascend 250 ft over SE slope through timber. At 40 chains set stone 12x10x5” 8” in ground for ¼ section. At 80 chains set a wash boulder, 12x10x5” 8” in ground. Raised pile of stone 2ft base, 1 ½ ft high west of corner.

Going North between sections 22 and 23 descend 75 ft over N slope. At 40 chains set slate stone 14x12x6” 9” in ground for ¼ section. Raised stone mound 2 ft base, 1 ½ ft high West of corner.

Yellowstone River meander old corner marker between sections 10 and 11 could not be located. Distance across river is 21.44 chains. Same for marker for sections 11 & 14. On true line between sections 2 and 11 over SW slope at 2.00 chains Right Bank of River. Set sandstone 20x11x6” 15 “ in ground for meander corner of sections 2 and 11. Raised stone mound 2ft base and 1 ½ ft high east of the corner.

On a true line between sections 33 & 34 descend 130 ft over NW slope. At 12.53 chains fence line bearing E & W, and a gulch pointing NE. Ascend 140 ft over SE slope. At 40 chains set sandstone 12x10x5” 8” in ground for ¼ section. Raised stone mound 2 ft base, 1 ½ ft high W of corner. Huntington’s house at 54 chains bears S 72°. At 73.75 chains road bears NW and SE, enter creek bottom. At 74.62 chains fence, bears NW and SE. At 80 chains set sandstone 18x10x6” 12” in ground for corner marker of sections 27,28,33 & 34. Dug pits 18x18x12 in each section 5 ½ ft distant, and raised mound of earth 4ft base, 2 ft high west of corner.

Corner for sections 15, 16, 21 and 22 falls on steep slope, Impracticable to establish corner. On a random south line between sections 15 & 22 and at 80 chains intersect N & S line 12 links S of corner of sections 14, 15, 22 & 23. Going west on a true line between sections 15 & 22 descend 250 ft over SW slope. At 15 chains De Long’s house bears south 2.50 chains distant. At 17.31 chains road bears NW and SE.

On a true line between sections 28 & 33 over creek bottom at 1.81 chains is fence, bears NW and SE. At 2.00 chains is road. At 40.01 chains set sandstone 18x12x3” 12” in ground. Raised stone mound 2 ft base and 1 ½ ft high for ¼ section, placed north of corner.

Arkansas Democrat Gazette

Sunday, May 16, 1993 ()

BLACKTON - A Plain stone monument in a black-water swamp near this tiny Monroe County community marks the origin of every township boundary, subdivision and property line in all or part of 15 American states. It was from that spot, now a tiny, isolated park, that a doughty band of bush bureaucrats led by Prospect K. Robbins and Joseph C. Brown set out in 1815 to survey the vast wilderness that had been obtained from France 12 years before in the transaction history knows as the Louisiana Purchase. The two parties did not meet at the point of intersection; that would have been a coincidence of epic proportions. Each passed the intersection point sometime in November, and each party then backtracked until they found each other some time between the dates of November 4 and November 24, 1815.

The two groups then determined the point of intersection and hacked blaze marks in two gum trees to mark it.

From that point, the survey of the Louisiana Purchase lands began, with the two imaginary lines extending as far as the land itself. (Base Line Road in Little Rock is so named because it follows the original base line laid down by Joseph Brown.)

All township boundaries were drawn from lines that originated there, and from those, subdivisions and even city lots were drawn. Before they were done, Robbins and Brown and their crews had surveyed land in the future states of Louisiana, Arkansas, Missouri, North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska and Oklahoma - and most of five more - Kansas, Colorado, Wyoming, Montana and Minnesota.

The initial survey point lay forgotten for 126 years, which is a pretty long time unless you're in a black-water swamp.

Then, in 1921, there was a dispute between Lee and Phillips counties over their common boundary line, which happened to have been laid along the original base line of Robbins and Brown. Two surveyors, E.P. Douglass and Tom Jacks, were hired to run a survey of the line and clear up the controversy.

They did that, and they did something else, too: They rediscovered the two gum trees slashed by Robbins and Brown in 1815.

Douglass, in a later interview with John Fleming, recalled Jacks' exact words upon making the discovery: "By all the odds of probability, this has to be the original point for the Louisiana Purchase survey." The L'Anguille chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution seized upon the rediscovery of the survey point as a historical cause, and in 1926 they met at a temporarily dry site to dedicate a stone monument.

|Two GLO survey crews, led by Prospect K. Robbins and Joseph C. Brown, began their journey at separate points on the Mississippi. |

|Brown’s crew traveled west while Robbins’ crew traveled north. They met at what is now the junction of Lee, Phillips, and Monroe |

|counties and established that mark as the base point for the entire Louisiana Purchase survey. |

|The base point marker is commemorated with a granite monument, which sits in the middle of one of Arkansas’ few remaining |

|headwater swamps. |

|Now located in a state park, the marker is significant because it is the survey origin of all lands included in Louisiana |

|Purchase. A boardwalk meanders out to the monument, allowing visitors to carefully make their way across the swamp and enjoy the |

|shade of beautiful tupelo trees. |

|[pic] |

The DAR had also obtained deeds from landowners dedicating enough land for a small park at the site. They presented the deeds to U.S. Senator Joe T. Robinson, who then began to deliver a speech. Unfortunately, the late Senator Robinson also began to stuff the deeds in his coat pocket, and they were never heard from again. The loss of the deeds clouded the state's ownership of the property for years. It was finally cleared up through legislative acts, and the land was made a state park in 1961.

Mason-Dixon Line



Yet the very stones that mark this infamous boundary are weathering, damaged, vandalized or missing altogether. For the last ten years, two surveyors, Todd Babcock and Dilwyn Knott, armed with a passion for American history and a Global Positioning System (GPS) are locating and documenting each and every stone laid by Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon more than 200 years ago.

"We're losing (the stones) at an increasing rate so it's very important that we obtain the precise location of each stone so we can go back and repair damaged stones and replace lost ones," says Todd Babcock, president of the Mason-Dixon Line Preservation Partnership (MDLPP).

"I think Mason and Dixon are lost in the history. Something that we hope to do, is to tell people a little bit about Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon," Babcock says. "They weren't some senators who debated slavery on the House floor. They were surveyors and astronomers."

Mason was an astronomer employed by The Royal Society in Greenwich, England. He spent his time observing the stars and the moon, and establishing lunar tables that could be used to determine longitude.

Dixon was a surveyor from Cockfield in Durham County in England, and was educated by John Bird, a renowned maker of high precision astronomical instruments.

In 1763, Mason and Dixon landed the monumental task of resolving an 80-year property dispute between the Calvert family of Maryland and Penn family of Pennsylvania, and were asked to lay stone markers indicating the boundary.

The boundary began at 15 miles south of the southern most tip of the city of Philadelphia and followed a constant latitude west to a point between western Pennsylvania and what we now call West Virginia. GPS measurements taken by Babcock and Knott, a member of MDLPP, reveal that the line was off the mark by as little as one inch in some places and never more than 800 feet.

Mason and Dixon used the stars to calculate this path through the wilderness and mark out the 233-mile-long boundary line between Pennsylvania and Maryland, and the 83 miles long north-south boundary between Maryland and Delaware; the effort took five years.

The stones—huge blocks of limestone between 3.5 and 5 feet long and weighing between 300 and 600 pounds—were quarried in Southern Great Britain and shipped to America.

Carried by wagon to their final resting place on the line, the stones were placed at one-mile intervals. Mile markers were decorated with vertical fluting and a P on the north face and M on the southern face; every fifth mile along the line the stones were engraved with the Penn coat of arms on the Pennsylvania side and the Calvert coat of arms on the other.

Towards the end of the line the terrain got more hilly so Mason and Dixon did not lay markers, but erected large rock groupings or cairns instead. Later, additional surveys done by the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey in 1901 and 1903 replaced the cairns with leftover markers.

Since the last inventory in 1980, several stones have been destroyed or damaged by vehicles. "I took a picture of one stone in October and three months later in January of 1996 a snowplow hit it, broke it and pushed it down into the farmer's field," Babcock says. "It had been on the line for over 200 years. Now it sits in a farmer's barn."

Some damage is due to vandalism. "A lot of times we've seen places where people actually shoot (the stones) with a rifle. You can see marks on the side where they shoot it with a gun," Babcock says.

Oregon Survey Notes Surveying the Land



Until a few years ago, hidden away in a small Oregon State Park on Skyline Boulevard in Portland's West Hills there was a short concrete obelisk on a point overlooking the Tualatin Valley. On two sides were engraved the words BASE LINE, and on the other two sides were the somewhat more cryptic letters WILL. MER. This was the Willamette Stone, the common reference point for all surveys of the Oregon Country.

Before 1785, there were two systems of surveying land and assigning right of ownership in common use in the United States. The New England township plan called for a survey first and then permitted claims only on contiguous properties. Claims were smaller and the close cooperation of neighbors was a necessity, but there were no conflicts and no wasted land.

The Virginia practice allowed people to claim up to 400 acres with an option of 1000 more before even having the property surveyed. Used widely outside New England, this system was chaotic and confusing, and sorting out conflicting claims required considerable administration and expense.

Thomas Jefferson witnessed this confusion and recognized the need for a new system in the Old Northwest Territory (the upper Midwest). He was on the committee that authored the Land Ordinance of 1785. Resembling the New England township system, it established a rectangular system of survey. The basic units of measurement were the section, one square mile, and the township, 6 miles square. The 36-square-mile townships enclosed 36 sections of 640 acres each, numbered by surveyors from 1 to 36. A portion of the township's mineral resources was reserved for the government, and section 16 was reserved for schools. A provision for support of religious institutions through the sale of public lands was stricken before final adoption.

This was all well and good, but there were settlers in Oregon before it became part of the United States. Thus, settlers did not have surveyed lines to block off their claims, and in any event, the rugged terrain of Oregon didn't lend itself to the grid pattern that the Land Ordinance of 1785 gave rise to in the Midwest. The early Oregonians resorted to a modified Virginia practice -- surveying land that had already been claimed -- since Oregon's first constitution had permitted claims of up to 640 acres, the same limit permitted by the 1785 Ordinance.

Land claims prior to the first surveys were laid out by metes and bounds -- that is, literally walking off boundaries and counting paces. These unsophisticated surveys later had to be translated into townships, ranges, and sections that were defined by proper surveys based on the Willamette Stone. A good example of this is the Trullinger claim near Molalla: parts of the claim are in sections 20, 21, 22, 27, and 28 of Township 4 South, Range 2 East. Trullinger's claim was found to enclose 646.70 acres, slightly more than the 640 acres he was entitled to have. Early settlers apparently got a "bye" on such discrepancies, as there is no record of anyone having overages stripped from their claims.

Almost immediately after Oregon became a US Territory, Congress passed the 1850 Donation Land Claim Act. It called for surveys on the ground to establish boundaries of existing claims, and it established the office of Surveyor General and created a Federal Court and Land Office at Oregon City, the first such institutions west of the Missouri River.

The survey of Oregon began on June 4, 1851, with the placing of the Willamette Stone. The base line was drawn from the Pacific Ocean to the Snake River. The Willamette Meridian was drawn from the Columbia River to California. It's easy today to look at a map and think that they simply drew in these lines, but it wasn't that simple in the mid-Nineteenth Century: they had to actually create the maps, following the imaginary meridian and base lines over hill and over dale, leaving stone markers as they went. Difficulties included rugged terrain, dense vegetation, cloudy or rainy weather, and the temptation for surveyors to take off to the gold mines to the south and east.

To fill in the maps, surveyors walked section lines and took field notes. They noted what they crossed and what they saw. At a later date, sometimes weeks later, a cartographer would make a township map from the field notes. These maps were often quite densely packed with information, showing section corners, subdivisions, types of terrain, vegetation, and artificial features such as roads, trails, houses, and areas of cultivation.

The original survey of Oregon City (T2S, R2E) was conducted by Joseph Hunt and was registered on June 30, 1852. The tail end of the Barlow Road, the last overland link in the Oregon Trail, is labeled simply, "Oregon City to Foster's." The road ends at George Abernethy's claim.

Wadsworth Trail Map – Nevada



... The interest in the map was not due to research on the CPRR itself, but

its relationship to the Old Emigrant Road, as clearly shown on the map.

The trail historically is always shown as going through the Truckee River

Canyon itself, and yet by mid-century wagon trains were more often than

not using a route north of the river through the Pah Rah Range.  The

northern route has been disputed by historians for years, but a friend of

mine who is a serious "Rut Nut" found some old diaries that seemingly

proved its existence.  In May of this year, my wife and I actually found

physical evidence of the trail from Wadsworth to Sparks.  When the Gold

Rush Wagon Train came through the area last month, it was decided to take

it over the northern route, as opposed to driving down the freeway.  I

served as a guide and scout over the route, a two day trip from Fernely

to Reno.  Familiar with the area, I agreed to stay on through Dog Valley

and into Truckee.  To make another long story short, I was then drafted

into service as a "Mule Skinner", and drove a team through to Coloma.

I have only lived in the Reno area for two years, and my interest in John

Hunter came about by accident.  We live about two miles from what used to

known as "Hunter's Bridge", "Hunter's Crossing", "Hunter's Station",

"Hunter's", etc.  I found out that a post office operated there for about

two years.  As an emigrant trail marker is near the site, and as I am a

new member of the group that erects and maintains about 500 markers along

numerous trails, I was obviously interested.  One thing let to another,

and each answer found to any question, only leads to more questions!

I decided that Hunter had been ignored historically.  Hunter had been

around the Virginia City area long before there was such a place,

returned to the Nevada City area for about 10 years, then returning to

Nevada, where he became associated with a John Stout, who had built a

bridge across the Truckee, five miles west of what is now downtown Reno.

Stout drowned in the flood of 1861, and Hunter took over the operation,

purchasing the bridge and the surrounding 521+ acres from a "Marsten" in

1863.  In time the bridge would sit directly on the Henness Pass Turnpike

Road.  By 1869, Lake's Crossing actually was Reno.  Stone and Gates

Crossing, (Glendale), soon suffered the same fate.  An old document from

the 1870's noted that if the bridge at Lakes Crossing were to wash out,

the only way to get south of the Truckee from Reno would be to go west to

Hunter's Crossing, five miles away.

Prior to rail reaching what would be Reno, I understand that the stage

lines from Virginia City would go to Hunter's Crossing to pick up

passengers from what was then the end of track.  As some point after

1893, Hunter sold the property to a James Mayberry, and this area of west

Reno is now known as Mayberry's Landing.  It is of course all developed,

and no trace of Hunter's Crossing remains.  Hunter associated with John

Stone of Stone and Gates Crossing as evidenced by some mining claims they

held together.

I know little of John M. Hunter the man.  I did find some deeds in the

Recorder's office, and found the name of his wife to be "Emily".  I have

no pictures of him, his wife, the bridge, the hotel, post office, store,

etc.  I understand that he raised alfalfa on the site, and of course held

the franchise for the bridge with the Henness Pass Toll Road Co.  I do

know that in the early 1860's he was surveyor of sorts, operating under

the name of "Hunter and Company".  In an old book on the History of

Nevada, "Hunter's" was listed as a major settlement in the Truckee

Meadows.  A history published in 1893, notes that John Hunter had by then

moved to Santa Barbara County, California.  I know nothing at all of him

after that.

...  Everyday, history is eaten up by progress.  As the

physical evidence disappears, nothing is left unless someone has

pictures, documents, manuscripts, etc.  I believe that preserving the

past helps us all to understand the future.  Finding a document, map or

picture that has escaped the pages of history is exciting.  Finding a

missing segment of trail or rail, settlement, etc., is right up there

also.

"DID YOU KNOW" by David Clapsaddle



The Daughters of the American Revolution Santa Fe Trail markers placed in the early part of the century give the dates of the trail as 1822-1872. There remains a dispute as to the trail's date of origin. Some contend the date of 1821 should be used as that year William Becknell, setting out to trade with the Indians of the Southwest, ultimately disposed of his trade goods in Santa Fe. Others contend that 1822 is the more appropriate date because in that year Becknell intentionally set out to trade in Santa Fe. There is argument on both sides of the issue. However, the last year of 1872 is not plausible as the trail finally ended its 59 year tenure in 1880 when the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway constructed a 15 mile spur from its Mainline northward into Santa Fe. The choice of the 1872 date is unfortunate regardless of the unusual logic that in 1872 the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway reached the Colorado line. Such has no significant relation to the closing of the Santa Fe Trail even in Kansas. In the summer of 1868, the Union Pacific Railway, Eastern Division reached Sheridan, Kansas and the little city in present Logan County became the eastern terminus of the Santa Fe Trail dispatching merchandise, mail and passengers down a newly developed road to Fort Lyon. Thus, overland traffic on the Santa Fe Trail east of Fort Lyon ceased. Regardless, the 1822-1872 dating is still retained and used (or should one say misused) Time and time again even the official road map of Kansas sports these dates not to mention countless markers, many of which have been placed in recent years. Please join me in pressing for the historical accuracy of the most basic parameters of the Santa Fe Trail.

|Public Land Survey System |

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|Kansas was originally surveyed using a system developed by Thomas Jefferson called the Public Land Survey System. The Public Land |

|Survey System (PLSS) is a legal reference system designed to ease the description, inventory and transfer of real property. The |

|PLSS surveys in Kansas were conducted between 1854 and 1876. Today, a great majority of land transactions in the 30 western-most |

|states are described with this section, township, and range system. |

|The Kansas-Nebraska Act of May 30, 1854 defined the boundaries of the Territories of Kansas and Nebraska and caused the |

|Commissioner of the General Land Office to appoint a Surveyor General for the two territories. The Surveyors General Office |

|consisted of a Chief Clerk, Chief Draftsman, Draftsmen, copyists, clerks, accountants and messengers. |

|Deputy Surveyors (the surveyors who conducted the actual surveying) were paid by the mile of surveying at the rate of $12.00 for |

|standard lines (Standard Parallels and Guide Meridians); $7.00 for exterior lines of Townships and $5.00 for interior of |

|subdivisions. |

|All surveys must have a reference point or Point of Beginning. For Kansas, this point is known as the Initial Point for the Sixth |

|Principal Meridian. This point was established by U. S. Surveyor Charles A. Manners on June 11, 1856 and is near the present town |

|of Mahaska, Kansas. |

|Manners had been ordered by John Calhoun, Surveyor General for the Kansas and Nebraska Territories (appointed August 26, 1854), to|

|proceed west on the 40th parallel of latitude north (now the Kansas-Nebraska border) for 108 miles, from the point of beginning on|

|the west bank of the Missouri River, to reach this point. Why 108 miles? a surveyor can survey a line for nine miles before having|

|to resort to using spherical geometry and trigonometry to correct for the earth's curvature. After nine miles, the surveyors could|

|stop and make corrections from astronomical observations, then continue on. The number 108 is divisible by nine, thence the number|

|was chosen. |

|It was from this point that the survey of the public lands in Kansas and Nebraska, most of Colorado and Wyoming and a part of |

|South Dakota began. The selection of this particular point has determined the shape of much of the American West as we know it |

|today. |

Defining Idaho at the Turn of the Century Library Receives Carpenter Boundary Surveys

Winter 2000 Issue

By virtue of a generous gift from Nellie and Frederick Widel, the University of Idaho Library recently added the surveyor's notes from the 1904-1906 survey of the Idaho-Montana state line to its collection of primary sources documenting Idaho's history. Mr. and Mrs. Widel brought the three leather-bound volumes from their home in Priest River, Idaho, and presented them to Ron Force, Dean of Library Services. Nellie Widel's grandfather was Howard Brady Carpenter, the government surveyor. She explained that there were four copies of the notes compiled, one each for the states of Montana and Idaho, one for the federal government, and one set for the surveyor. It was the latter that she and her husband presented to the library in memory of John T. Carpenter, '31, Mrs. Widel's father.

Howard B. Carpenter was born in 1848 in Illinois of Quaker antecedents. He taught school for a few years in New York before learning civil engineering and surveying, on-the-job, from a cousin. In 1874, he headed west to San Francisco where he went to work with the city, laying out roads, water supply lines, ferry terminals, and cable car routes. Subsequently, he practiced mining engineering in Colorado and land surveying in Wyoming. In the latter place, he struck up a friendship with the Surveyor General of Wyoming, and later Governor, William A. Richards. Richards soon became Commissioner of the General Land Office in Washington, DC. In this capacity, he hired Carpenter as U.S. Deputy Surveyor to sub-divide the Shoshoni Wind River Reservation. This was followed by the job of resurveying the boundary between Colorado and New Mexico, and then that of the Bitterroot Range between Montana and Idaho. Retiring to a fruit ranch at Meridian, Idaho, in 1908, Carpenter and his wife settled into a less strenuous life. Eventually, they sold the ranch and moved into Meridian proper. As director of the Nampa and Meridian Irrigation District, director of the Meridian's First National Bank, trustee of the Methodist Episcopal Church, member of the school board, and founder of the Building and Loan Association; Carpenter played an active part in the community. He died of typhoid at age 69 in 1918.

Charged to survey the watershed divide at the crest of the Bitterroot Mountains between Idaho and Montana, Carpenter marked and noted each mile of the survey. Idaho history is plagued by stories of supposedly drunken surveyors taking a wrong turn and mistakenly following the crest of the Bitterroots instead of the Continental Divide, thereby shrinking Idaho's boundary. However, University of Idaho history professor Dr. Carlos A. Schwantes has established that the surveyors, led by Carpenter, correctly marked the boundary set by Congress in 1864, charting a route from north to south that would have made "taking a wrong turn" impossible.

Carpenter's notes include brief comments on the landscape, the geology, and the vegetation. The latter were particularly important because his crew of 21 men (with a pack train of 44 horses) blazed the trees along the survey line and built markers of brass caps on iron pipes or raised mounds of earth or rock approximately every quarter mile. Depending on the terrain and the weather they could make about 1.5 miles to 2 miles per day, usually working seven days a week. A typical entry on June 9, 1904 notes that the marker "falls on a point where it is impracticable to establish a corner. I continue this course on next mile. Land mountainous. Soil, rocky, 3rd rate. Formation, sandstone. Vegetation, pine and fir timber, dense snow brush." On June 10 and 11 he writes, "No line was run on account of storm, rain and snow." In addition to the surveying equipment, he brought along a photography outfit. Each volume contains over 30 photographs of particular locales as well as camp scenes. The working season in the mountains was the four summer months of June, July, August, and September; accordingly the project took three summers from 1904 through 1906.

The Yellowstone Backcountry Page - Explorers

... was the first man to survey the western border of Wyoming. His ... conical mound of earth

and stone 4 ft high, 7 ft ... WYOMING BORDER MARKERS Not only did AV

6 History of Surveying



Man has been surveying since the beginning of civilization. Ancient stone survey

markers have been found dating back to the Sumerian empire in modern day

Iraq. In Ancient Egypt, surveyors used knotted ropes to measure fields for

planting after the annual flooding of the Nile. Ancient Egyptian surveyors also

helped to align the mighty pyramids of Giza in a true North-South direction.

Roman surveyors were responsible for laying out the miles of roads and canals

across Europe, some that are still in use today! In the 15th through 18th centuries, surveyors were mathematicians who computed directions and distances and drew accurate (and thus valuable) maps while accompanying exploration parties from England, Spain, France, Portugal, and the Netherlands. Early surveyors in the United States laid out large tracts of land so that settlers could come in and know where their farms and fields were located.

Modern surveying began in the 19th century with the adaptation of optical instruments for survey measurements. In the 1840s, the Society for Charted Surveyors was founded in England. In 1895, California became the first state to require that surveyors prove their competency and become registered with the state. New Mexico followed suit in 1917, becoming the 4th state to require licensure for surveyors.

Presettlement Wildlife and Habitat of Montana: An Overview

Preface

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This bibliography of literature and papers, pertaining to pre-settlement habitat, wildlife (including fish), and changing landscapes of Montana and adjacent areas, is divided into four sections. The first section contains a brief summary of the major expeditions or individuals to traverse Montana during the 1800s. After each summary, references are listed that provide information on the expedition and/or individual. Some of these references are original journals or a later synthesis of an original work. Frequently, these later works are easier to obtain, include useful footnotes, and/or are an abridgement of the original document in a more readable form. We have also included maps of the approximate routes taken by many of the expeditions for a quick graphic display of the areas traversed.

The second section is a tabular summary of major explorers and expeditions. It is intended to provide for cross referencing explorers or expeditions with dates of surveys, areas surveyed, and quality of natural history notes. We have also included a table alphabetically listing 19th Century forts and trading posts and their approximate location as an aid when reading original journal notes.

The third section is a roster of individuals who recorded natural history observations and/or made plant and animal collections in Montana during the 1800s or early 1900s. We relied heavily upon Ewan (1950) and Ewan and Ewan (1981) to assemble this roster.

The fourth section consists of an alphabetical listing of books, papers, and documents we found pertinent to pre-settlement habitat and wildlife in Montana and adjacent areas. This listing includes many additional references not found in Section One.

The impact of exploration and settlement in Montana by people of European descent occurred in distinct phases, with the first phase actually preceding their arrival in the west. The earliest reports of Indians in Montana showed that they were well supplied with horses and firearms. Notes recorded around 1740, by la Verendrye, showed that horses were already in the Northern Plains (Burpee 1927) and in 1805, LaRocque noted over 200 guns in the Crow camp with which he traveled (Hazlitt 1934). Although many of Montana's Indian tribes were nomadic, with the aid of horse and gun they were capable of influencing wildlife abundance and distribution - a fact noted by many journalists (note especially Work's journal - Lewis and Phillips (1923) and Maximilian's narrative - Thomas and Ronnefeldt (1982)). In addition, they probably altered habitat through fire; there are numerous accounts of Indians using wildfires as methods for communication, warfare, and driving bison.

The first two decades of the 1800s saw brief penetrations of white men into the Montana wilderness to assess its potential for the fur trade. Although some fur trading occurred with the Indians, it wasn't until the 1820s and 1830s that large numbers of trappers (estimated 1,000 in Montana) and Indians were engaged in the fur trade. Following the decline in beaver in the late 1830s, bison skins became the primary commodity exported from Montana. During the 1840s and 1850s, Indians were the principal supplier of bison hides to the fur traders. It was also during this period that the American government first began a systematic reconnaissance of Montana.

The 1860s brought a new wave of white immigration seeking gold, bison hides, and land settlement. During the 1860s and 1870s, it is estimated that 5,000 hunters were on the Montana prairies shooting bison. During this period, there were railroad surveys, road surveys, military campaigns, and inventories of streams for gold and navigation potential. Conflicts between white settlers and Indians increased dramatically as bison numbers diminished and traditional Indian lands were taken over by settlers. Large ranches were already present in Montana by the early 1870s. The Northern Pacific Railroad Surveys, in the early 1880s, marked the last of the large expedition type general surveys in Montana. Around 1910, Montana's Federal land on the eastern prairies was opened up for homesteading, signifying the beginning of a new phase of development.

Although there were literally thousands of people living, working, and traveling through Montana during the 1800s, relatively few recorded their observations. Of those who did, natural history observations were usually not their primary objective. Frequently, the main goal was to map, trap furbearers, subdue Indians, sport hunt, or search for gold. Surviving journals are full of accounts of dealing with Indians, personality conflicts among coworkers, and the day's weather, but little attention was paid to wildlife even in a general sense. Even some of the professionally trained biologists often recorded surprisingly little. For example, the Garfield University expedition of 1889 had four people in Montana for nearly one month and produced only a short list of collected plants.

One aspect which most journals were very consistent in reporting was the quantity of grass available for transportation livestock and the amount of timber available for camps, boats, and construction. (Bison and grizzly bears also tended to attract the attention of many journalists.) On these points, it is possible to reconstruct trends over the years for a certain locality in the decline of bison and grizzly bears, or loss of timber due to steamboat traffic. In some cases, it is even possible to obtain a comparative view of grass condition between two areas at the same time and establish the impact of bison on annual vegetative growth.

This bibliography is primarily a guide to people desiring to learn more of what wildlife and habitats might have been in Montana at the time of white exploration and settlement. Before pursuing serious research on this subject, we would recommend reading Wedel's (1975) paper on perspective of the historic observer in influencing their recording of observations. This paper compares Spanish explorers' notes on their first encounter with the eastern Colorado prairies to the observations of Stephen Long and Zebulon Pike. The Spanish view of the prairie was that it equaled the best of Spain and already was populated by a cattle (bison) more docile than their own and in far greater numbers. The American explorers, coming from eastern deciduous forests, labeled the Colorado prairies "the great American desert". This latter view definitely altered the settlement of the Great Plains.

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