The McKenzie Pass Wagon Road 1862 to the Present.................................. pg 6 The Certified Federal Surveyor (CFEDS) Program........................................ pg 9 The Oregon July/August 2023 A publication of the Professional Land Surveyors of Oregon
Editorials From the PLSO Chair, by Tim Fassbender, PLS, PLSO Board Chair 2 From the PLSO Office, by Aimee McAuliffe, PLSO Executive Secretary 4 Featured Articles The McKenzie Pass Wagon Road 1862 to the Present, by Dick Bryant, PLS 6 The Certified Federal Surveyor (CFEDS) Program, by Glen Thurow, New Mexico PS, CFedS 9 Columns Member Spotlight, by Vanessa Salvia 10 Surveyors In The News, by Pat Gaylord, PLS 14 The Lost Surveyor, by Pat Gaylord, PLS 16 On the Cover The pipe is the center 1/4 of Section 25 in T. 37 S., R. 5 W. set by Norman Price (RLS #33) in 1954. It’s located in the Applegate Valley of Josephine County. Photo was taken by Dane Mead on January 27, 2022. The Oregon Surveyor is a publication of the Professional Land Surveyors of Oregon (PLSO). It is provided as a medium for the expression of individual opinions concerning topics relating to the Land Surveying profession. Address changes & business All notifications for changes of address, membership inquiries, and PLSO business correspondence should be directed to Aimee McAuliffe, PO Box 230548, Tigard, OR 97281; 503-303-1472; [email protected]. Editorial matters & contributions of material The Oregon Surveyor welcomes your articles, comments, and photos for publication. PLSO assumes no responsibility for statements expressed in this publication. Editorial matters should be directed to Vanessa Salvia, [email protected]. Advertising policy Advertising content and materials are subject to approval of the PLSO Board and LLM Publications. The publisher reserves the right to reject any advertising that simulates copy; material must be clearly marked as “Advertisement.” For advertising, contact: Ronnie Jacko, [email protected]; 503-445-2234, 800-647-1511 x2234. A publication of the Professional Land Surveyors of Oregon Executive Secretary Aimee McAuliffe PO Box 230548 Tigard, OR 97281 503-303-1472 Toll-free: 844-284-5496 [email protected] www.plso.org Published by LLM Publications 503-445-2220 • 800-647-1511 www.llmpubs.com Advertising Ronnie Jacko, [email protected] Design Hope Sudol © 2023 LLM Publications Editor Vanessa Salvia Publications Committee Tim Kent, Interim Chair Pat Gaylord Contents Professional Land Surveyors of Oregon Professional Land Surveyors of Oregon @ORLandSurveyors The Oregon Vol. 46, No. 4 July/August 2023 How to Send Us Your Work Please email the editor Vanessa Salvia with submissions. [email protected] Your submission should be in .doc format. Please send images separately (not embedded in the document) and at the highest file size available (MB size range versus KB size range—larger sizes are encouraged). Please include the author’s name and email address or phone number for contact.
2 The Oregon Surveyor | Vol. 46, No. 4 From the PLSO Chair MESSAGE FROM THE CHAIR Summer-like weather is finally upon us, and so are all the summer activities we look forward to. I hope you and your family will have plenty of opportunities to get out and enjoy all that is available to enjoy. This time of year is also the busier time for us surveyors. People are probably calling to get their boundaries found for their DIY projects (new fence, landscaping, etc.). The call normally starts with, “When can you get out here?” and then “Why does it take so long? I just need the line found for my fence.” All of us have heard this call so many times we can almost repeat it word for word before the caller even starts the conversation. I bring all of this up because in the past few articles I have written along with other materials in The Oregon Surveyor magazine, we have been discussing the matter of needing more people to enter our profession. There will be more interaction with the public during your fieldwork this time of year, and this presents the opportunity to engage, because there will always be those who ask, “What is it you’re doing?” Have you given some thought about how you would answer this question? Some of you probably have heard of the “elevator speech.” This is a short one-minute rehearsed response to the question of “what is it you do?” It’s a way to prepare a to-thepoint and descriptive, engaging answer that you would give to someone if all you had was one minute in an elevator with them. It is also an opportunity to engage the people and market our profession Tim Fassbender, PLS PLSO Board Chair There will be more interaction with the public during your fieldwork this time of year, and this presents the opportunity to engage, because there will always be those who ask, “What is it you’re doing?” and make them aware of the job opportunities we have. I have had many parents stop me when I was out in the field and ask how their kids might learn more about surveying and what it takes to become a land surveyor. I have also had people thinking about changing their professions and asking if it is possible to do so without going back to school or if they can take classes online. The elevator speech is a great way to begin a conversation, and if they show interest in getting more information, be ready to take a few moments and explain our profession and the avenues available to them to enter our profession. I strongly encourage you to talk with your field crew people and office staff, and take some time yourself to come up with your own elevator speech. It doesn’t need to be detailed—keeping it short is important. I know taking time to chat with people when you are trying to get the job done is difficult, but I bet two things will happen if you take the time to chat with them. One, you may make a friend and learn something from them that will help you with your project. Two, you might find a person wanting to enter our profession and just needing a few minutes of your time to learn how to do it. You can explain to them that there are two basic avenues to becoming a land surveyor: a college degree in an ABET-accredited degree in land surveying (which is not required in all cases), or on-the-job training. Both avenues are worthy paths and lead to a career in our profession. With the shortage of help we are experiencing, we all need to become marketing people and educate the public on our profession and the career opportunities we have. Many of us probably choose to become land surveyors or at least work for land surveyors because we enjoyed many aspects of our profession. Where else can you work where you are not going to the same work site every day, where you get to work all over the state, or at least all around your part of the state? For those who wish to work in all types of weather or stay in the office on those terrible weather days and be out in the sun, they even pay us to do that. What about all those tools we get to use that weren’t around just a few years ago? How many of you still carry a plumb bob because you feel lost if it isn’t on your hip? Yes, there are parts of our profession we don’t really care about, but the positive aspects far outweigh the negatives. This is the message you need to convey to those who you talk to about our profession. Think about your elevator speech and be ready when the chance comes up to use it. Keep a smile on your face when approached (at least you will make them wonder why you are smiling). You might be the person who persuaded someone to enter into our profession, and you might even gain an individual who will someday take over your business when you want to go fishing.
3 Professional Land Surveyors of Oregon | www.plso.org ADVERTISING RATES STARTING AT $330! Advertise in The Oregon Surveyor! The Oregon Surveyor is the official magazine for the Professional Land Surveyors of Oregon. It reaches every member of the association and offers a great opportunity to target surveyors with your marketing efforts.
4 The Oregon Surveyor | Vol. 46, No. 4 From the PLSO Office Aimee McAuliffe, PLSO Exec. Secretary Aimee Sits Down with AI for an Exclusive Interview Arecent online article posted on Fortune.com (“These are the 4 jobs that are set to disappear in a decade, and the ones that will take over,” May 6, 2023) reported on the World Economic Forum’s (WEF) “2023 Future of Jobs Report.” The article summarized that the WEF projects that by 2027 nearly 70 million new jobs will be created worldwide and 83 million will be eliminated. That works out to be a loss of 14 million jobs, or 2% of the global workforce. Guess what? Land surveying doesn’t appear to be among eliminated jobs. Not that any of you were terribly worried. Nearly all of you continue to be busier than ever. It is an interesting discussion on how future technology, and regulatory and environmental concerns may affect the profession. According to that same article, a global movement toward renewable energy means that architects and surveyors, renewable energy engineers, and solar energy installation and system engineers will be high-growth roles. The article states, “These findings dovetail with WEF’s assertion that the top three skills that will become most important over the next five years are creative thinking, analytical thinking, and technological literacy—none of which can be automated. And employers’ desire for these skills shows the continual importance of complex problem-solving, WEF wrote.” The major point of the article was to highlight the impact of artificial intelligence. On a whim, I decided it might be interesting to go to the source. So I went to ChatGPT and asked it to tell me how it thought it could influence land surveying in the future. Below was its answer. You’ll have to email me at execdirector@plso. org and tell me what you think. I’d love to print your replies in the next issue. The Future Influence of AI on Land Surveying Artificial Intelligence (AI) is transforming various industries, and land surveying is no exception. With its ability to analyze vast amounts of data, learn patterns, and automate processes, AI holds great potential for revolutionizing the field of land surveying. In this article, we will explore how AI can influence land surveying in the future, leading to more accurate measurements, increased efficiency, and enhanced decision-making. One of the primary areas where AI can make a significant impact on land Guess what? Land surveying doesn’t appear to be among eliminated jobs. Not that any of you were terribly worried. Nearly all of you continue to be busier than ever.
5 Professional Land Surveyors of Oregon | www.plso.org From the PLSO Office surveying is in data analysis. Traditionally, surveyors have had to manually process and interpret survey data, which can be time-consuming and prone to human error. AI algorithms, however, can quickly and accurately analyze large datasets, identifying patterns, anomalies, and correlations that may not be immediately apparent to human surveyors. This ability to extract valuable insights from data can greatly enhance the efficiency and accuracy of land surveying operations. AI-powered image recognition and object detection techniques can also transform the way land surveyors capture and analyze data. Drones equipped with high-resolution cameras can capture aerial imagery of vast areas of land. By utilizing AI algorithms, these images can be automatically processed and analyzed to identify and map various land features such as buildings, vegetation, water bodies, and infrastructure. This automated analysis not only speeds up the mapping process but also ensures consistent and standardized results across different surveying projects. Furthermore, AI can play a significant role in automating the process of feature extraction from survey data. For example, LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) technology, which uses lasers to measure distances and create detailed 3D maps, generates massive amounts of point cloud data. AI algorithms can analyze these point clouds to automatically detect and extract features such as building outlines, tree canopy heights, and terrain contours. This automation can save surveyors substantial time and effort, allowing them to focus on more complex analysis and decision-making tasks. The integration of AI with Global Positioning System (GPS) technology and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) can also bring numerous benefits to land surveying. AI algorithms can assist in real-time positioning and navigation, enabling surveyors to precisely locate themselves and their equipment on the field. This not only improves accuracy but also enhances safety by reducing the risk of accidental encroachments or damage to existing infrastructure. AI can also contribute to the development of intelligent decision support systems for land surveyors. By analyzing historical survey data, topographic information, and environmental factors, AI algorithms can provide recommendations and simulations to guide land surveyors in making informed decisions. For example, AI can help in determining the optimal location for infrastructure projects, taking into account factors such as terrain, soil stability, environmental impacts, and cost considerations. These AI-driven decision support systems can significantly improve the efficiency and effectiveness of land surveying projects. Moreover, AI-powered predictive analytics can assist in identifying potential risks and hazards in land surveying. By analyzing historical data and environmental factors, AI algorithms can help identify areas prone to landslides, flooding, or other natural disasters. This information can enable surveyors to take preventive measures and design appropriate mitigation strategies, ensuring the safety of both surveyors and the surrounding communities. While AI brings numerous opportunities for the future of land surveying, it is essential to address potential challenges and ethical considerations. Data privacy and security are of utmost importance when using AI in land surveying, as sensitive information about landowners and property boundaries is involved. Safeguards must be in place to protect the privacy and integrity of survey data, and strict adherence to data governance frameworks is crucial. Furthermore, it is important to recognize that AI is a tool that complements human expertise rather than replacing it entirely. The role of surveyors will evolve to focus more on data interpretation, quality control, and making informed decisions. Ronnie Jacko [email protected] | 503-445-2234
6 The Oregon Surveyor | Vol. 46, No. 4 Featured Article Our company began doing the surveying work for Sunriver Properties in the early 1970s. My family moved to Bend at that time. Since living here, I have learned a lot about the history of the area. This includes prehistory about the Indigenous people that occupied the land prior to the arrival of non natives. Fur trappers were probably the first white men here after the Hudson’s Bay Company set up their operation in Fort Vancouver in 1825. John C. Fremont came through Central Oregon on his second exploration in 1843–44. In 1845, Stephen Meek led his ill-fated wagon train across the high desert in order to find a shorter route to the upper Willamette Valley and to avoid the perilous trip down the Columbia River which started at The Dalles. The Cascade Mountains ended that attempt and the train had to turn north, and still ended up in The Dalles. There is some question as to whether it was Meek’s intent to cross the mountains or simply to find a shorter route to The Dalles. In 1853, roughly 200 wagons and 1,000 people followed the old Meek trail to the Deschutes. The leader, Elijah Elliot, thought they would find a newly constructed wagon road over the Cascades to the upper Valley. The route had been scouted and blazed earlier and would take them just north of Diamond Peak, then down the Middle Fork of the Willamette River to Eugene. When they got to the intended Cascade route in the fall, they found blazes but no road. They were forced to clear their own way through heavy timber. The emigrants nearly encountered the same fate as the Donner party trying to cross into California in 1846–47. As people began to drift into the high desert, they could see the potential of Eastern Oregon becoming a major cattle and sheep grazing area. Settlers started moving in and occupying the land. Gold was found in the John Day country in the early 1860s which brought more people in and through Central Oregon. Prineville became a hub, and was incorporated in 1870. Public land surveyors came through here in the 1870s to subdivide the land for future homesteading. Because of the influx of people, it became necessary to develop transportation routes in order to move livestock, people, and to bring in supplies. THE MCKENZIE PASS WAGON ROAD 1862 TO THE PRESENT By Dick Bryant, PLS An early wagon train. Photo courtesy of the Deschutes County Historical Museum. The John Craig memorial. Approach to toll road at east end.
7 Professional Land Surveyors of Oregon | www.plso.org Featured Article I will share a brief history of transportation routes beginning with the Santiam wagon road that led from the Lebanon/ Sweet Home area, up the South Santiam River, over Santiam Pass, and on to Camp Polk near Sisters. This road operated from 1865 to 1939. Huntington Road, which brought supplies from The Dalles to Fort Klamath, was opened in 1867. A portion of the road between La Pine and Sunriver is now a county road and still retains the name. The Columbia Southern Railroad operated from Biggs to Shaniko in the early 1900s, so the wagon, and passenger traffic into Central Oregon, came from that railhead. In the late 1800s, an attempt was made to extend a railroad over Santiam Pass from Corvallis to Bend and on to Boise, but it was never completed. In late 1911, the railroad was completed up the Deschutes Canyon to Bend. This opened up the pine forests for exploitation and diminished the need for the wagon roads. When the automobile arrived, the wagon roads were either abandoned completely or turned into public roads. The remainder of this article will elaborate on another, lesser known wagon road that operated over the McKenzie Pass beginning in 1862. Last summer my wife and I decided a short hike into Hand Lake was in order. The small lake is about a half mile north of the McKenzie Highway and 4.5 miles west of the summit. We got our directions into and about the lake environs from William Sullivan’s book “100 Hikes in the Central Oregon Cascades.” In his description of this hike, he points out that there is a short abandoned section of the old McKenzie Pass Toll Road near the lake. I had never heard of a wagon road crossing the McKenzie Pass. With little effort, I was able to find the section of road he described. This prompted me to do some further research. Queries to the Willamette NF and McKenzie River RD archeologists have been fruitless, so the information I gathered came off the internet. The toll road was first started by Felix Scott Jr. in 1862 with a crew of 50 men. His name is connected with several landmarks in the area: Scott Lake, Scott Mountain, Scott Trail, and Scott Pass. His route pretty much followed an old Indian trail. A large obstacle to Scott’s route was the huge Belknap lava field at the crest. Scott didn’t want to traverse this field, so he took his road about three miles south of the present highway and close to the north flank of the North Sister. This meant his road was almost 1,000 feet higher than if he crossed through the lava field. One of his crew members, John Templeton Craig, tried to talk him into taking the lava field route, but Scott refused. It quickly became apparent his road was not efficient because of the short season due to the time it took the snow to melt in the spring. The road was a bust and it was abandoned. In 1871, John Craig formed a new company and re-routed the road. This included taking it through the lava field as he had first proposed. His company opened the toll road for business in 1872. The rates were 10 cents for a head of cattle, a nickel for a head of sheep, $2.00 for a wagon, and $1.00 for a horse and rider. The road operated as a toll road until 1898, at which time it became public. During this time, around $18,000 was collected in tolls. Based on the average value of the dollar at that time, the revenue would round out to about $539,000 in today’s dollars. The two-mile portion of the road that crosses the lava field is very much as it was when it was operating as a wagon road, and later when it began carrying some automobile traffic. My wife, a friend, and I hiked part of the east end of the road late last summer. At some time a telephone or telegraph line was placed along the road. They used split cedar for poles, and most are still there but either standing or fallen down. No wire though. For some reason the forest service seems to keep this interesting 150-year-old artifact a secret. There are no signs or information directing people to the start of the road. There is limited parking where the Pacific Crest Trail crosses the highway just west of the summit. From there one goes northwest, following the toe of the lava flow. After about 300 yards the road begins by ramping up onto the top of the lava. From here it extends southwesterly for about two miles, at which time it merges back into the highway. continues Portion of road with Black Crater in the distance.
8 The Oregon Surveyor | Vol. 46, No. 4 Featured Article Besides building a toll road, John Craig also carried the mail from McKenzie Bridge to the Sisters area. He carried it by horseback in the summer and on his back with cross country skis in the winter. In 1877 he was carrying the Christmas mail east when he was caught in a serious snow storm. He had a small cabin just west of the summit which he used to wait out the storm. Something happened and he died while he was there. They were not able to get to him until the following spring. His grave site is located where he perished. Only a small pond alongside the highway has his name attached to it according to MacArthur’s Sixth addition to Oregon Geographic Names. In 1930, 400 Oregon rural mail carriers erected a memorial at his gravesite in his honor. The Oregon Nordic Club sponsored an annual cross country ski race over the summit in his memory prior to Covid. I am not sure if that tradition will continue. It would be my hope that with all of the effort put into these projects that there would have been some surveying involved. Obviously the Deschutes Canyon railroads come to mind. In any event I thought it would be interesting to reflect back on some of our pioneers, and how they contributed to the development of this beautiful part of the state. Dick Bryant was featured as our Member Spotlight in the November / December 2021 Oregon Surveyor. He celebrated 50 (+1) years of licensure on September 22, 2021. Dick was licensed as Oregon Registered Professional Land Surveyor #920 in July 1970. He was voted PLSO Surveyor of the Year and was awarded Life Membership in 2004. In 1967, he and Tom McCullough formed McCullough, Bryant and Associates. References • “100 Hikes in the Oregon Cascades” by William Sullivan. • “Oregon Geographic Names,” Sixth Edition, Lewis McArthur. • William Sullivan, Salem Statesman Journal, 1853 Wagon Train, 6/2/16 article. • Oregon Nordic Club, “John Craig Story”. • Brooks Greer Ragen, “The Meek Cutoff”. continued A portion of road near Hand Lake. Scott Lake, where the toll road would surely have passed by.
9 Professional Land Surveyors of Oregon | www.plso.org Featured Article The Certified Federal Surveyor (CFedS) program is an intensive course designed to equip licensed surveyors with an unsurpassed Public Land Survey System (PLSS) knowledge base. Created in 2005 by the Bureau of Land Management, CFedS has become the hallmark program for surveyors wishing to provide cadastral services on federal trust lands while deepening their understanding of working within the PLSS. The non-PLSS surveyor can also benefit from the program by becoming more wellrounded in the many intricacies of our profession. The CFedS Program was initiated in 2005 under the direction of the Bureau of Land Management and the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Its pilot group of applicants tested in February 2007 with 69 graduates. Mr. Tyler B. Parsons from Corvallis, Oregon, received the highest passing score of that first class. The program trains surveyors to deal with the unique problems found on Native American lands. While not replacing Federal Authority Surveys, CFedS provides an expedited and economical method to address certain types of survey-related issues. For example, many essential records are found only within the Bureau of Indian Affairs offices, so special procedures have been developed for Indian lands, and there are cultural and jurisdictional considerations that surveyors working on Native American land must be aware of. Other essential aspects of the courses include instruction on special survey rules and procedures, historical records investigation, and proper documentation and recording. THE CERTIFIED FEDERAL SURVEYOR (CFEDS) PROGRAM By Glen Thurow, New Mexico PS, CFedS Cadastral Surveying for the Public Lands of the United States is a specialized profession. Concerning federal lands, CFedS receive specific training to do the following: • Provide a consistent, timely, ef cient, and economic assessment of the need for boundary evidence relative to Indian trust assets • Permit expeditious processing of Indian trust asset transactions • Provide managers with a “cost-and- time-saving” tool that assists them in making appropriate determinations for solutions to Indian trust asset boundary issues • Protect and preserve Indian trust assets from boundary con icts, trespass, unauthorized use, and ambiguous land descriptions • Properly discharge the Secretary of the Interior’s trust responsibilities as to Indian trust assets with a high degree of pro ciency, integrity, and care • The survey of sites proposed for renewable energy leases involving significant investment and capital improvements • Surveying of high-value resources such as timber and minerals • The survey of high resource value treasured landscapes In early 2022, we embarked on a mission to modernize the CFedS offering, bringing the program online for the first time. While this was no small undertaking, I’m proud that the core seven-course training series is being delivered via www.cfeds. org. Close to 75 individuals are working through the material as of this writing, with another 514+ active professionals in 40 states among our ranks. In addition, continuing education courses are now online, with more being developed. Periodic enhancements to the website continue. Realizing the importance of a return on investment for existing CFedS and new registrants, a new emphasis on marketing the CFedS program to all potential stakeholders, with outreach to tribal, federal, and state entities, is contemplated. If you’re ready to join us, go to https:// cfeds.org/plans/cfeds-registration-options. For more detailed information about the CFedS program, visit the website https:// cfeds.org/resources or contact me directly by email at [email protected], or by phone at (505) 274-8571. Glen Thurow has been a licensed surveyor in New Mexico since 1991. Glen also is a Certified Federal Surveyor and currently serves as the CFedS Training Coordinator. He owns Land Links Consulting Service, a survey/GIS educational development firm in Albuquerque, New Mexico. He was appointed to the New Mexico Board of Licensure for Professional Engineers and Professional Surveyors in 2013. Glen served on the NCEES Examination Professional Surveying Committee and is a past member of the NCEES Law Enforcement and Education Committees. He is currently an Emeritus Member of the New Mexico Board of Licensure.
10 Header The Oregon Surveyor | Vol. 46, No. 4 Member Spotlight When she would stumble across an anomaly, it gave her the opportunity to research the correct information. But, she also occasionally had to get help from a colleague named Dave. When Dave would give her a solution for a problem, she could repeat that solution for similar problems. But when she found a new problem, she would have to go to him for a new solution. Then, about a decade later, Dave saw Edith at a PLSO convention and they struck up a conversation. “He said to me, ‘Yeah, by the end of the summer, when I saw you coming back to By Vanessa Salvia Edith Forkner got started as a surveyor because she had gotten a math degree but didn’t know what to do with it. “Willamette University had a computer program where you could input various things about you, like your major, and it would spit out possible professions you might like to go into,” she says. Following a couple of statistician and actuarial jobs, number four on the list was always land surveying. Even though she liked geometry better than trigonometry, she thought they were pretty close and both at least a little fun. “I figured, I would be outside, I would be looking at historical documents, doing research, and so on, and I thought that sounded like fun,” so she went back to school and got herself another degree in surveying. For Edith, math skills were something that came naturally to her—she says she found it “very easy.” She did know what land surveying was before she saw it in the No. 4 position on her college’s list of professions, but only in “a vague sense.” “But it wasn’t something I’d ever thought about doing,” she says. Pretty much as soon as Edith decided to enter the world of surveying, she had the realization that it was something she would be happy to do as a career. “I knew right away that this worked for me,” she says. “I really enjoyed what I was doing and looked forward to making a career out of it. And there was nothing else that ever happened to change my mind about it.” Aside from the school projects she worked on, Edith got a summer job with Marion County. During her first summer there, they put her to work on their database, sorting out plats that were filed under large and small into a “medium” category and updating the database. “It was actually kind of fun, because I was also able to do some cleanup of the database during the process,” she says. “I would occasionally find two obviously different plats with the same number. Or I’d be looking at a plat and it wouldn’t appear to be in the database, because there was a typo in the number, or maybe there wasn’t a number at all, or something like that.” Edith Forkner, PLS North Bend, Oregon, BLM Coos Head (T. 26 S., R. 14 W., secs. 2 and 3). View of Coos Head (South Jetty) from the local S1/16.
11 Header Professional Land Surveyors of Oregon | www.plso.org Member Spotlight me with a new plat, I knew it was going to be a doozy!” she says with a laugh. Edith is a surveyor with the BLM in the North Bend area, but she grew up in Salem, Oregon, where she got her first survey tech job with the Salem BLM. Coos Bay happened to have a job opening as a full surveyor, and Edith got that job in 2001 and has been there ever since. Much as she knew right away she enjoyed surveying, she also knew early on that she wanted to work for the BLM. “I knew I wanted to work in the woods, not in the city, and the class I had on the PLSS about the long history of the GLO (eventually becoming BLM) as well as the PLSS itself really appealed to me,” she says. “The weirdest coincidences involving an OIT professor and a member of the cross-country ski club I belonged to got me a 5:00 a.m. call from the Salem Lead Cadastral Surveyor to go apply as a survey tech for the coming summer.” Twenty-five years later, here she is. Work in the Coos Bay District is primarily timber surveys, which Edith worked on as a field surveyor for 15 years. She says that when she first arrived in North Bend, she would joke to her cousin that she didn’t know if she was doing surveying to get in shape for hiking and cross country skiing on the weekends or if she was hiking and cross country skiing to get in shape for working out in the field. In 2016, they took her out of the field and she became an “office jockey,” mostly doing research and writing reports. At first, she says she wasn’t too happy about it but has settled in and accepted it, and actually appreciates being able to write reports which are intended for a non-surveyor audience. “I seem to have a knack for explaining survey stuff to non surveyors in a way they can understand and being able to figure out how much they need to know and how much is too much information,” she says. Edith loves the work for its emphasis on researching and history. She likes the problem-solving aspect, such as when there are two corners and you have to make a choice about which corner to use and why. “Or should I throw them both out and do something else?” she remarks. “I like the discussion behind coming up with reasons for the decisions you make.” She says she reads court cases for fun even though she is not a protest and appeal specialist. But she does enjoy going through court cases and looking at the questions and answers behind them and looking at the additional pieces of information that they may come up with and if that changes the outcomes. “When you first start, you have a fairly simplistic idea of, well, if we’ve got situation X then obviously the answer is Y,” she says. “Then a more experienced surveyor says, ‘Well, actually, the answer is Q because of something you didn’t even consider.’ I love that learning piece.” One of Edith’s most memorable surveys was Coos Head, in which the Navy had a withdrawal back in the 1800s and decided that they didn’t need the property. Most of it was reverting back to the BLM. As a timber surveyor, Edith was accustomed to having four or five adjoiners and maybe at the most a dozen surveys from the county if she needed to subdivide two sections. “Along with maybe one metes and bounds line. What made Coos Head interesting was that I had over 100 surveys to analyze starting way back with the 1800s, just from the county, not the BLM ones,” she says. “I had another dozen or so from the Navy from when they had disposed of parts of it.” Ownership was not just BLM and a small parcel the Navy was keeping. Some of the Navy land was going to the Confederated Tribes of Coos, Lower Umpqua and Siuslaw Indians. The Army Corps of Engineers had a jetty. The Coast Guard was leasing a small parcel on the tip of Coos Head. The county owned part of the accretions to the beach. The City of Charleston was in one of the two sections they had to subdivide, and the Port of Charleston owned some property around one of her controlling corners. The University of Oregon acquired some property from the Navy. “And then of course, there were a zillion private owners who were adjoining either the property that the BLM was getting, or the controlling corners,” she says. “Juggling all that was really, really interesting. And I’m glad I only had to do it the one time, to tell you the truth!” She says she’s grateful that the project commenced over winter so that she was able to do the research and analysis in the slow season. “There’s no way I could have waded through all those surveys if I was also doing field work,” she says. “It didn’t help that some of This photo of Edith was used for the cover of the BLM publication Specifications for Descriptions of Land in 2017. That’s the corner of secs. 1, 2, 11, and 12, T. 21 S., R. 9 W., down at the bottom of the hole. There’s an overgrown road about 100 feet uphill. Edith says if you use your imagination, you can see it in the background running from about the backpack through her vest pocket. When the team was in there the first time, clearing the road and doing general reconnaissance, they hopped off the ATV and found four obvious BTs and a lot of fill. When they went in to survey they made sure to throw a metal detector, shovel, and range rod into the ATV. Thank goodness for the BTs! Edith notes also, if anyone’s wondering, the Nomad isn’t plugged in because she’s still turning in the BTs (the southwest one, at the time the picture was taken). Turning in the northerly BTs meant standing on her tiptoes and trying not to fall over without leaning on the tripod. Not the most challenging setup she’s ever had, but up in the top 20 or so. Interestingly, it is also a public domain photo that shows up on the Wikipedia entry for surveying, and Edith says It’s not hard to figure out how Wikipedia got the photo, but she doesn’t know how the government printing office got it. continues
12 Header The Oregon Surveyor | Vol. 46, No. 4 Member Spotlight them were from even before our state recordation act. And even some of the first ones early in the recordation act had a lot of information missing that would be common on a current one. So I’d see that they found a corner and would have to deeply analyze where the corner came from and go back through the other surveys of the same line to find the survey that established that corner. It was pretty deep. Took me a while.” In keeping with Edith’s characteristic understated and somewhat dry humor, when the BLM asked her to do a presentation at the Oregon and Washington cadastral convention that year, she titled the presentation “But Wait, There’s More!” Edith joined PLSO as a student member and has been a member ever since. She says that since she went right to work with the BLM, being a member hasn’t helped her career so much through the common methods of networking or job seeking. But she says it has helped her get to know the local surveyors in her area and that has helped her understand how the challenges of private surveyors differ from working for the government. “Those relationships help me keep grounded as to what private surveyors are dealing with,” she says. “And I think it also helps a lot to have an existing relationship with someone you can call up and talk to when you find a monument with their PLS number on it and there’s nothing filed with the county, or something like that. It works both ways because they can call me and say, ‘Hey, we found this BLM 1/16 corner 50 feet out of position; are we supposed to accept this?’ And I can say, ‘No, actually, that sounds like a problem.’” She would “absolutely” recommend that people join PLSO as members. Not only does it help to get your PDH done, but it helps you develop a network of people you can ask questions of, since many private surveyors are working alone. “It helps to have as big a network to talk to as possible, including BLM-ers, but also to have a network of people who deal with stuff that BLM doesn’t deal with, like private parcels inside a city,” she says. “I don’t have a lot of experience with that but other people in PLSO do, so when you’re connected with those people, they can provide advice to you on how to deal with whatever issues you may be facing.” Coos Head (T. 26 S., R. 14 W., secs. 2 and 3). Cor. of secs. 2, 3, 10, and 11, looking at a 1957 BT (Another set-up in the top 20.) Coos Head (T. 26 S., R. 14 W., secs. 2 and 3). Jason Blum with the rock drill setting a WP, taken from South Jetty facing SE’ly. (Edith says, yes, the best access is through that tunnel.) continued
13 Professional Land Surveyors of Oregon | www.plso.org Renew your membership at plso.org to keep receiving The Oregon Surveyor and other member benefits. The 2023–2024 Membership Year Started July 1! plso.org Ronnie Jacko [email protected] | 503-445-2234
14 The Oregon Surveyor | Vol. 46, No. 4 By Pat Gaylord, PLS Surveyors in the News Do you look at maps and records in pawn shops, garage sales, and other places? Surveyors can be pretty big packrats when it comes to history and records, so you never know what old records you might have laying around that are significant or our history. Surveyors were much in the news during development in the Pacific Northwest. Through the archives of the University of Oregon Library, this column revisits and celebrates some of those stories of our profession. When John B. Preston became surveyor general for Oregon Territory he authorized this survey of the mid-Willamette valley established upon base and meridian lines fixed June 4, 1851. Then, Eola was Cincinnati, and the vanished hamlets of Santiam and Syracuse were ferry landings on opposite banks of the Santiam River. The Capital Journal, Salem, Oregon July 6, 1954 By Ben Maxwell Old Documents Add to Data About Survey Base A recent Capital Journal story about establishment of base and meridian lines for Oregon territory by John B. Preston, surveyor general, June 4, 1851, has been further amplified by documents supplied by A. D. Graham, Marion County surveyor. Miss Loretta Fisher, daughter of Hugh G. Fisher, late county surveyor, has deposited maps of territorial Oregon surveyed by Preston and correspondence relating to his early surveys with Surveyor Graham. Tuesday, July 6, 195 THE CAPITAL' JOITWAL, Salem, Oregon Page K SECTION III PRESTON'S MAP OF 1851, EARLIEST TERRITORIAL SURVEY Old Documents Add to DataAbout Survey Base county. Later the river the channel of the Rickreall near Eola and Brown's island, or what remains of it, is now in Marion county. Also shown on Preston's map are iiie liuir.lcU of Santiam and Syracuse, ferry landings on oppo lom nceuoies nearly twice as much "Burt's" improved solar compass. Contract price for these surveys ranged from $10 to $24 a mile tor a crew of eight men: two chain-metwo axemen and four assistants. ' Preston s map ol the Willamette valley is dated October 21, 1852. It is the earliest official survey of the region known to exist. Sa- - miles west of the meridian post. H thnn nhanrtnneH the Westward line toward the Pacific as impractical. Considerable local attraction was found to exist thrjughout the country, so much so thai the magnetic needle could not be depended upon in making surveys. This deficiency necessitated the use of black area on this map of 102 Cincinnati, later years ago as doca to become Eola. Then Cincinnati was ,on Rickreall creek and the stream debouched into Willamette near the western boundary nf what is now West Salem. The Willamette in those times flowed to the south of Brown's island, then in site sides of the Santiam river in the 1850s. Both of these pioneer villages disappeared decaues ago due to floods and channel changes in the Santiam river. By BEN MAXWELL A recent Capital Juuruai tui about establishment of base and meridian lines for Oregon territory by John B. Preston, surveyor general, June 4, 1H31, has been further amplified by documents supplied by A. D. Graham, Marion County surveyor. Miss Loretta Fisher, daughter of Hugh G. Fisher, late county surveyor, has deposited maps of territorial Oregon surveyed by Preston and correspondence 7 latiiw to bit early surveys with Phone 155 No. liberty Surveyor Graham. In a letter addressed to ! periors, October 20. 1851, Preston states that little was known about the topoeraphy of the Northwest between the Pacific ocean and the summit of the Cascades. He con tinues to say that after exploring the country north of the Columbia he determined to commence his It's Fix-Up Time at Wards f?( : FpFip 4lp!vji-- i - J ' "' survey of the meridian at the "upper mouth" of the Willamette and the base line miles south in order to avoid the Columbia river. Preston contracted with William KB.'. I ' " - t'Vf I Ives to survey the base lines and Willamette meridian north of the j. ' i 7TlM base line. A contract for survey ing south of the base line to the Umpciua country was awarded to James E. Freeman. West of Tuality plains the coun try became so exceedingly rough and heavily forested mat tves was i Ll able to carry his survey but 37 c nit sm. When John B. Preston became surveyor general for Oregon territory be authorized this survey of the valley established upon base and meridian lines fixed June 4, 1851. Then Ecla was Cincinnati and the vanished hamlet of Sanliim and Syracuse were ferry landings on opposite banks of the Santiam river. 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