PLSO The Oregon Surveyor January/February 2020

23 A boundary dispute settled, but does controversy still linger on the Canadian border? Professional Land Surveyors of Oregon | www.plso.org The Lost Surveyor Question Continues on page 24 T M ore on that later. The new year brought with it the first road trip of 2020 for this Lost Surveyor. This adventure quickly became filled with more survey history than can be covered in this one article. Nonetheless, January 1st it was off to Victoria, B.C. to visit the Christmas lights at Butchart Gardens and to explore the city. The first morning on Vancou- ver Island found us touring the parliament building which is a beautiful building inside and out. The exterior roofline of the building which houses the library contains 14 figures of Cana- dian (and Oregon) history. Most notable for us Oregonians and Surveyors are George Vancouver, Captain of the survey ship HMS Discovery and explorer who mapped the Oregon Coast; John McLoughlin, known as the Father of Oregon, was Chief Factor of the Hudson Bay Company and resident of Oregon City, Oregon; Colonel R.C. Moody, the first Lieutenant Governor of British Columbia who was also a British Royal Engineer who served with the Ordinance Survey in Ireland; and finally David Thompson, a British-Canadian fur trader and prolific Surveyor and Cartographer. All of these figures made great contributions to the history of the Northwest. The contributions to surveying by David Thompson alone would fill volumes of this magazine. Throughout his career it is said he traveled nearly 56,000 miles and has been called “the greatest land geographer who ever lived.” In fact, in 2011, many members of PLSO and LSAW re-enacted his canoe journey down the Columbia River to Astoria. Thompson made many contribu- tions to surveying here in the northwest and is memorialized by his place on the parliament building (below) . Canadian parliament building at night on New Year’s Day