PLSO Oregon Surveyor Vol. 40 No. 6

Professional Land Surveyors of Oregon | www.plso.org 13 Surveying History By Marie Barlett Surveyors of the Old West risked their lives to shape land and history. Walking the Line continues T T hey were more than the sum of their parts, 19th-century surveyors, the unheralded vanguards of the Old West who established original geographical boundaries and retraced and identified existing borders in accordance with legal de- scriptions. Part-astronomers, part-geologists, part-engineers, these mapmakers were also arbitrators when land lines were in dispute. Wars have been fought and people killed over bound- ary disputes in which the surveyor was often the common denominator. Yet only a handful of surveyor names remain familiar: George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, Meriwether Lewis, William Clark, and Daniel Boone. But many more risked their lives in the line of duty to map what ultimately became the passes, railroads, towns, dams, and other structures that helped form the backbone of the West. The face and persona of our Westward Expansion, surveyors shaped Western history through their endurance, sense of ad- venture and knowledge of precision tools and mathematical principles. Jacks of All Trades “The early surveyors required the skills of a woodsman to blaze trails, and agronomist or mineralogist skills to document the soil structure or important minerals (and) knowledge of botany to document the species of trees and determine the difference between plants that were edible and those that would kill them. “Good marksmanship was needed to obtain fresh food on site, and to defend against hostile Indians,” wrote Nebraska survey- or Jerry Penry, in The American Surveyor , a national trade journal for his profession. “Perhaps no other occupation in history has required the work- er to encompass so many different areas of expertise as the American surveyor,” he theorized. The job was hard; the perils many. One of the earliest accounts of surveyors killed took place in 1838, just two years after the Battle of San Jacinto, when Texians defeated Mexican Gen. Antonio López de Santa Anna. On the Guadalupe River, north of San Antonio, Indians attacked a survey party and killed nine of the crew, including one surveyor who managed to carve his name, “Beatty,” on a tree before he died. At least seven more survey parties were attacked that spring and summer, from the Rio Frio to the Red River. Henry P. Mayo, a third-generation Texas surveyor, is a mem- ber of the Surveyors Historical Society. He helped research and compile A Marylander and Texian: H.G. Catlett’s Quest for Fortune in Early Texas , in which noted Texas surveyor H.G. Catlett tells his story of early surveys through central Texas, as well as his exploits as a Texas Ranger. Rangers often conducted land sur- veys during the early years of Texas settlement. “Despite attempts to prevent surveys on Indian hunting grounds, the incursions continued,” Mayo says. “In March 1838, a deputy surveyor planned surveys on the headwaters of the Navasota River. Kickapoo Indians attacked his group, killing three men. “As a modern-day surveyor, I often relate to these pioneer sur- veyors. Fortunately, today, we don’t have to fight Indians, only local citizens who protest the end of their quiet country living.” Building the Railroad Arguably, the most important role that surveyors played in developing the West took place during the building of the 1,776-mile-long Transcontinental Railroad, completed on May 10, 1869. In his acclaimed book, Nothing Like It in the World: The Men Who Built the Transcontinental Railroad, 1863-1869 , Stephen E. Ambrose called pioneer surveyors the true “…mountain men, adventur- ous, capable of taking care of themselves, ready for whatever the wilderness threw at them…. Nothing could be done until they had laid out and marked the line.” Though some were self-employed contractors who surveyed in temporary positions—unregulated and unlicensed—others were hired by the government. Route surveyors established align- ments for railroads and roads. Those who worked for the General Land Office (now known as the Bureau of Land Management) stayed in confined areas as they divided up townships and in- dividual tracts of land. Construction surveyors determined the best locations and elevations on which to build. The business typically consisted of a lead surveyor, “chainmen” (a chain was a measuring device, with 100 links, totaling 66 feet in length), a flagman and cornermen (they marked the end of section lines), plus a teamster to handle the wagons and horses, These chainmen of the United States Geological Survey measure a baseline near Fort Wingate, New Mexico, in 1883. The chain was comprised of 100 links that totaled 66 feet in length. Courtesy Library of Congress