May June 2018

13 Professional Land Surveyors of Oregon | www.plso.org History & Travel W hat is the oldest property mon- ument you have found? In the western United States, some of the oldest monuments were set ap- proximately 150–200 years ago under the authority of the General Land Of- fice (GLO), an independent agency of the federal government. If you are like me, when you happen to find one of these monuments that hasn’t been seen practically since it was set, you do a lit- tle dance and praise the GLO gods for leading you to the location. You might even go so far as to write an article with pictures in a survey magazine like The Oregon Surveyor, so all your surveyor friends can shower you with praise and adoration. Well what kind of dance would you do if you found a monument that was in the neighborhood of 1500 years old? I can’t claim to have such an honor but on a recent trip to Ireland I have observed several of these monuments, which were called Ogham Stones. These stones were not exclusively property markers but that was often the case. They apparent- ly were placed to perpetuate something of significance using the old Celtic form of communication, namely a series of grouped lines. My first observation of the stones was on a guided archeological tour around the Dingle peninsula. Six of the stones had been gathered from various locations and displayed beside a private drive. continues T 1