January February 2018

Professional Land Surveyors of Oregon | www.plso.org 19 A Survey Remembered A Survey Remembered Part II R eturning to Oregon in the spring of 1970, I must have impressed the powers that be at the Forest Service, be- cause they sent me a letter hoping that I could return as soon as possible. This coast to coast journey was in my recent- ly purchased 1962 VW Karman Ghia. Needless to say, there were some adventures along the way. Hitchhikers that I picked during the trip were flabbergasted we hardly ever stopped for gas. The Ghia didn’t go very fast, but it got real close to 40 mpg all the time. Leaving New York in March, it must not have been very cold because I thought not having a working heater was no big deal. By the time I got to Wyoming, I was tired of driving wrapped in blankets. I remember it being a beautiful sunny day but only about 20°, the sun was melting the snow on the pavement and people passing me would throw up a big wall of slush, which would instantly freeze on the windshield, blinding me. I would have to pull over and scrape a small opening so I could continue driving. I can’t remember how long and how far I had to endure this, but I lived to tell the story. As I crested the Sierras and the Sacramento Valley came into view, I spied lush green in the distance, thanking my lucky stars that I had finally returned to the warmth of the West. Upon reaching the west coast, the projects were many and the order in which they were done is somewhat lost in time. Some that come to mind are surveying the Lost Lake Campground and topographic mapping the Herman Creek Road for im- provements. We worked on a road project somewhere up in the woods out of Dufur. Most of the time during these road im- provement surveys, control was pretty minimal, so we would take a bearing on the first course and that was pretty much it. If we happened upon a section or quarter-section corner, we would tie it into the traverse, but we never made any special searches. There must’ve been something extraordinary about this road near Dufur, because we went to the trouble of mak- ing a sun shot at both ends of the project. I had advanced to working as an instrument person, so I got to chase the sun with a solar prism that somehow ended up in our tool kit. It was the only time in my entire career that I got to use one. You must remember that recording the time of day of the shot was relegated to an ordinary wristwatch. We re- corded many readings as we knew the inconsistencies of this method. It was truly amazing to see how fast the earth is spin- ning and to get the crosshairs just right and say “mark” at the same time. I can’t remember ever hearing about how we did with our solar observations and why we had to do that on this project. The 2017 solar eclipse caused these prisms to be res- urrected. Checking some of the survey forums before and after the eclipse, I discovered that at least a few of these antiques were pressed into service once again. On the lighter side, during this project we got to stay in The Dalles and observe eastern Columbia River Gorge small town antics, like the kids cruising the main drag. To spice things up a bit we attended pro wrestling at The Dalles Armory (Portland Wrestling stars) where it was standing room only. Standard practice for this job meant I was laid off sometime in the late fall/ early winter. Seems I hooked up with Aerial Mapping Company about then. Tamas (Tom) Kalotay and his father were the principals. They had a contract to do mapping from the Garden Home area of SW Portland all the way to Bull Mountain in Tigard. The party chief was quite a bit older than me and an avid golfer. It didn’t matter where we were going to work, we always had coffee at the Rose City Golf Course in Northeast Portland off Halsey Street, so the chief could visit with his golf buddies every day. Kind of nuts! I can remember trying to set a railroad spike for a control point along Garden Home Road, unfortunately I didn’t hit it square on one swing and it popped out of the pavement and hit a passing car in the tire, bouncing back and landing pretty much at my feet. The driv- er never knew what happened, but I could hear the air coming out of the slit as he continued on his way. Getting back to the party chief, we were someplace in the Tigard area with the instrument set up in front of someone’s home. The woman of the house came out and talked with the chief and though I couldn’t hear what they were talking about, when it was over he came back with a big grin on his face. Uttering a half-hearted comment led me to believe something more than surveying was being discussed. Interesting work laying out con- trol and traversing all winter.  x By Paul Landau, PLS Ret. As I crested the Sierras and the Sacramento Valley came into view, I spied lush green in the distance, thanking my lucky stars that I had finally returned to the warmth of the West.