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The Oregon Surveyor
|
Vol. 40, No. 2
Lost & Found,
continued
sighted the lone remaining 1860 BT and found the
bearing to be 7 ½ degrees different from both the
1860 record and the 1965 remon record. This resulted
in the 1965 BLM brass cap being misplaced by about
3.5 feet. The 1965 accessories were likewise off in
distance and bearing. However, similar inspections at
most other 1965 monuments checked very well.
LaFayette Cartee, who first surveyed this range line,
was born in Tioga County, New York in 1823. He
graduated from St. Johns College and later became
the Chairman of the Mathematics Department
there. He spent some time thereafter in California
before moving to Oregon City in 1849 and opening a
surveying and engineering office. In 1853, he became
a member of the Oregon Territorial Legislature
and in 1854 was elected Speaker of the House. He
started working as a Deputy Surveyor not long after
arriving in the Territory. His early work was on
Donation Claim surveys and later, he started
Township surveys, such as the one we
were retracing here. In examining
his original 1860 marks in several
of those prior corner visits, I
noticed that Cartee had a
distinctive way of scribing the
“BT” letters on the lower blaze.
He scribed the “B” upside down with the convex
curved segments facing up. He made the straight
line segment of the “B” horizontal and used it as the
“top” of his “T” by then making a single short, straight
line running downward at an angle.
At the east quarter of Section
24, established by LaFayette
Cartee on Thursday October
18, 1860, the BLM had
set a brass cap after
they determined
Cartee’s
The author in front of 48” Fir line tree marked in 1894 within the
Willamette National Forest.
The “curly” wood fragment.
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