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> SURVEY AND SURVEYORS
OF THE PUBLIC DOMAIN
1783 - 1875
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For sale by the Superintoefn Ddoceumnentts , U.S. Government
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STOCK NUMBER 024-01 1-0008.3-6
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SURVEYS AND SURVEYORS
OF THE PUBLIC DOMAIN
1785-1975
by
Lola Cazier
DEDICATION
Over the years since 1785 there have been perhaps a few thousand public land
surveyors—each one worthy of his own story. The names of many of them appear in these
pages. Yet, the story of all those who are not mentioned is here too, for it took all of them—
the many unnamed no less than those written about—to mark the lines and corners of the
public lands. They are the people who have done, and are still doing, the work upon which
rests the title to the public lands.
SN
CONTENTS
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13.
FOREWORD
Cadastral surveys are performed to create, mark, and define, or to retrace the
boundaries between abutting land owners, and, more particularly, between land of the
Federal Government and private owners or local governments. As referred to here,
cadastral surveys were performed only by the General Land Office during its existence and
by the Bureau of Land Management. The Bureau of Land Management is the only agency
that is currently authorized to determine the boundaries of the public lands of the United
States.
Proper understanding of the basis for performance of cadastral surveys includes an
understanding of the history of the public land surveys. An understanding of that history
requires some consideration of the people who performed these surveys and of the people
whose land was affected by them.
These chapters were written to be used as an aid in training cadastral surveyors in the
application of surveying principles. The learner is expected to gain from the factual material
on survey laws and their formation, as well as from a study of the people who performed the
surveys. Many of the men who had an important role in the history of cadastral surveying are
still living, but only those who have retired are included in the present document.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The assistance of many persons was necessary to the completion of this book. Itw ould
be impossible to thank them all, but | wouid like to express my gratitude to at least a few of
those who generoushellpyed me in this project.
Without James A. Simpson, leader of the Cadastral Survey Training Staff, BLMit ,wou ld
not have been started, much less finished. Thomas A. Tiliman, civil engineer, BLM (retired),
contributed valuable assistance, criticism, and suggeResneet Muinozo inmprsove.d t he
manuscript by her thoughtful and constructive editing. Line drawings and illustrations
were done by Kasper Schaff, Herman E. Weiss, Diane Colcord, and Sharon Foster. F.
Mason, Teledyne Gurley, Troy, N.Y., loaned me a photograph of Arthur D. Kidder and
Joseph Thoma. W. R. (Roy) Bandy, now deceased, permi*ted me to use many photographs
taken during his long career as a cadastral surveyor. Theodore VanderMeer, John S.
Knowles, and Roger Wilson, now deceased, all long-time cadastral engineers, also shared
their personal photographs and reminiscences with me as did C. Albert White, supervisory
land survBLeM (ryetioredr), ,and P. T. Reilly, who worked on various Cadastral survey crews
durtihen 19g30' s. David Nelson, cadastral surveyor, Alaska State Office, BLM, and Hobart
Hyatt, cadastral surveyor, Alaska State Office, BLM (retired), also permitted me to use their
personal photographs. Ciark Gumm, chief, Division of Cadastral Surveys, BLM (retired),
permitted me to use photographs taken by many surveyors in many places that he had
gatherec and preserved over a period of years. Last, and most important, special thanks to
my husband, Dell Cazier, who kept me “on line.”
Chapter1
ANCIENT SURVEYS
When the first individual felt the desire to
possess land, the need for the work of a cadastral
Long before the reign of Caesar, the first five
surveyor—to define boundaries and property
books of the Old Testament were written. These
lineisnevi—tablbe. eThis coccaurremnce eis i ost
five books, the Pentateuch, at one time consisted of
in antiquity, as is the moment man first perceived
four major documents that were combined into a
the principle of the wheel, but it is also noteworthy.
single literary unit about 400 B.C.*' Many times
Before there was recorded history, cave dwellers
within the Pentateuch and in the rest of the Bible,
Claimed their homes and hunting grounds by right
refearre maede nto claned ssurve y:
of occupancy and/or weapon (the club). Disputes
And as for the western border, ye shall even
politics, and taxes, awakened people's hidden
have the great sea for a border: this shall be your
passions. Thus, to the surveyor must go the credit
west border.
for the lessening of disagreeovmere pnrotpesrt y
Numbers3 4: 6
lines.
Surveying itself has no “point of beginning.” We And the border shali go down to Jordan, and the
know that an ancient Assyrian clay tablet exists. It gorngs out of it shall be at the salt sea this shal!
be your land with the coasts thereof round
was found at Nuzi, near Kirkuk, and dates from the
about.
dynasty of Sargon of Akkad, well over 5,000 years
Nurnbers34 . 12
ago. Scratched into its surface is a map that shows
@ surveyed part of what is now iran (northern Then said |, Whither goest thou? Anhed sa id
Mesopotamia) unto me, To measure Jerusalem, to see what is
the breadth thereof, and what is the length
NILE VALLEY thereof.
Zechariah2 : 2
Under the Pharaohs, the Egyptians devised
And the city lieth foursquare, and the length is
extremely precise methods of measurementT.h e
as large as the Oreadth and he measured the
Great Pyramid of Giza (Khufu or Cheops) is the
most famous example. its base is oriented in the
The length and the breadth and the height of it
cardinal directions. The four sides (9,068.8 inches)
are equal
have an average of just one-sixtoef aenn intchh i n
Revelatio2n1 . 16
length and 12 seconds in angle from a perfect
square. It was constructed about 4700 B.C.''* No And he measured the wall thereof, an hundred
and forty and four cubits, according to the
record exists today of the methods the Egyptians
measure of a man, that is, of the ange’.
used, nor of their equipment; we do know,
however, that they were concerned with the survey Revelation21 . 17
of land lines for purposes of taxation. The land in
ee en ee re And there are more: | Samuel 14: 14 describes
half an acre of land, Isaiah 5: 10 discusthse eyisel d
from 10 acres of vineyard, and both Ezekiel 40: 5
and 44: 13 described the long cubit—a cubit and a
handbreadth.
during that period. One of them has much carving Biblical units of measure were simple and rather
upon it, most of which has been transiated. It refers inexact. For the most part they consisted of
to the size of the land, five gur of corniand, apprarorivexd ati by mthe auset of eone'ss bo dy.
measured by the great cubit. The stone gives the The cubit was the length of & man’s arm from his
district, the province, and the location. The name of elbow to his extended finger tip—about 18 inches.
the surveyor is also noted, along with the fact that it A span was the reach of a man’s outstretched hand,
from finger tip to finger tip. or about 9 inches. (Two
spans equalled | cubit.) A palm was all four fingers.
gives, at great length, numecurrseos uto sbefa ll or about 3 inches. and a finger was about three-
anyone so foolish as to move the stone.''’ fouroft ahn sinc h
In Ezek40:i 5e anld 4 3: 13, a long cubiti s set at 90 degrees to one another, with which the
mentioned, Comparing it to a cubit and a hand- corners of rectangular plots were established. The
breadth. Fathoms are mentioned in Acts 27: 28. Roman system of land subdivision was called agro
This was the length of a man's outstretched arms centuriato—iand divided into hundreds. Julius
or abo6u fteet . Caesar ruled Rome when agro centuriato was
The Bible contains many other references to the introduced. He died 44 years before the birth of
instruments used by land surveyors in ancient Christ, but the subdivision pattern created by
times: different land uses under this survey system is stil!
visfiromb thle eair .
| lifted up mine eyes again, and looked, and
behold a man with a measuring line in his hand.
Zecharia2:h 1
When he prepared the heavens. | was there
About 500 years before the birth of Christ, the
when he set @ compass upon the face of the
depth.
suggested that the Earth might be spherical rather
Proverbs6 27
than flat. Eratoofs Cytrenhe, ewhon lieveds fr om
Thus he showed me: and, behold, the Lord 276 until 196 B.C., believed Pythagoras was
stood upon a wall made by a piumbiine, with a correct. Erathosthewnaess a learmnane dwh o
plumbiin hiisn heand .
became the head of the Alexandrian Library. His
And he brought me thither, and, behold, there inteilectual Curiosity was aroused when he dis-
wa@s ma n, whose appearwaas nlickee t he covered that, at the peak of the summer solstice.
appearance of brass, with a line of flax in his the sun illuminated a deep vertical well in Syene.
hand, and measuring reed, and he stood in the At noon, on the longest day of the year,
gate Eratmoeasusred ttheh anegle nof ethe sshad ow
Ezekiel40 : 3
cast by a vertical wall in Alexandria. !t was equalt o
He measured the east side with the measuring one-fiftofi ae ctirchle . He thotuhatg Alhexatndr ia
reed, five hundred reeds, with the measuring and Syene were on a direct north-soultihne , and he
reed round about. knew the accepted distance between the iwo cities.
Ezekiel42 : 16 Based upon his observahist tiheoory nwsas ,th at
the cistance between the cities was equal to one-
He measured the north side, five hundred reeds.
fiftieth of the circumfeorf ethne cEareth .
with the measrueedr riounnd agbou t.
Eratcoame sverty chlosee. Hne useed usnits of
Ezekiel42 : 17
length called stadia, and, because of compen-
He measured the south side, five hundred reeds. sating errors, arrived at a distance of 24,662 miles.
with the measurirneged .
Since the Earth is not a perfect sphere, and since
Ezekiel42 : 16
Syene and Alexandria are not exactly the distance
He turned about to the west side, and measured apart that he used, nor are they on a perfect north-
five hundred reeds with the measuring reed. south line, he was a little off in his estimation—the
Ezekiel42 : 19 precise figure is 24,899 miles 22
This was the first attempt to find the cir-
The reed was an instrument used in measuring,
cumference of the Earth by measuring the arc of a
and, accortod Eizekniegl 4 0: 5, it was 6 cubits
meridian. It was quite a feat in the advancement of
jong. in the first book of Samuel 14: 14, the
surveying. The only thing wrong was that people
measof luand rwas erelatmed teo then areta a t eam
could not believe that the Earth was that large. Until
of oxen could plow in a day. In some places, an acre
the close of the 15th century, geographers would
was the part of a field that could be seeded in bariey
not accept the findings of Eratosthenes. instead,
in a day. In Mesopotamia the meaning of acres, as
they used the calculations of Poseidonius (130 to
usine Isdaiah 5: 10, was about two-fifotfh osu r
51 B.C.) and came up with a circumferenceof
present acre.>'
18,000 miles .*?
During the Middle Ages, the church used the
18,000-mile figure to help convince people that
A surveying instrument calla egrdom a was Jerusalem was the center of the worid. The maps of
found in the ruins of Pompeii. it was of th.w type that period are narrow in concept. They are often
used by the Romans ir dividing land to be called “T in O” maps, due to their stylized depiction
distributed to veterans. The groma had four arms, of what the church wanted the world to look like.’
TM LY OPN Amusntyy y
LTA TAUA VATAR LATTUQT ATTTTCU
ij Ba ii} iie/ Sun Roys| || |
} : Pee RUTHER
WHE | | ii
TNIEEE ah} ty
Ht
Hi re iili t
WIL
Eratosthenes' application of basic geometry in determining the
circumfeorf ethen Ecareth .
DOMESDAY BOOK
When William the Conqueror invaded England in During the 11th to 14th centuries, while
1066, he changed the existing manoriel land tenure European Crusaders tried to free the Holy Land
system to the feudalism of France.'’* Under this from the Muslims, the Incas in South America were
new systemt,h e lords of the manors paid a fixed surveying land and constructing cities, pyramids,
sum to the king. bridges, and an extensive system of roads.
About 20 years later, William ordered a survey of Using methods unknown to us, they developed
the lands of England so that there might be a more terraces on the hilisides for cultivation and built
accurate assessment of the sum he was io receive. tremendous irrigation works. Though they had no
The survey was completed and its results were iron or steel tools, there are canals they built that
published as the “Domesday Book.” It was, in fact, can still be traced for miles. At Cajamarca, a canal
a cadastral survey—c description of the land, with that was cut in solid rock extended for more than a
the names of the ownerasnd the extent, nature, mile. At one place they cut the canal in a zig-zag
and value of their holdings.' ? pattern; apparently, this was one of their methods
