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"It is a mighty poor line at least as far as the dimensions of the pits and the size of the mounds were concerned. Some of the mounds consisted of a spadeful of sod taken from each pit and no more."
As the deputy surveyors of the public lands progressed westward across the territory of Nebraska, they were faced with limited options to use for monumentation. For a guide, they would have been adhering to the Manual of Surveying Instructions dated either 1864 or 1871, which were virtually the same in content. In regard to monumentation, the Manual stated the monuments were to be either posts in earth mounds or stones. The parallels, meridians and township lines near the eastern edge of the Sandhills region were established by the mid-1860’s, and the subdivisions soon followed. The stones that were once available for monumentation in the eastern part of the state were now nonexistent, and timber that was once available for posts had become very scarce.
The futility of setting posts in mounds of sand in the Sandhills region quickly became widely known, but the Surveyor General’s office could offer no immediate solution. Finally in early 1871 the issue reached political status when John Taffe, a member of Congress from Nebraska, wrote to Willis Drummond, the Commissioner of the General Land Office, regarding the need for a more suitable and durable monument for use in the western areas of the public land surveys. Taffe informed Drummond that a man named Carl C. P. Meyer, of Yankton, Dakota Territory, had invented and patented a permanent "Surveyor’s Mark" in December of 1869 (see sketch). Meyer had arrived in northeastern Nebraska as early as 1858 and was working as a surveyor and civil engineer, laying out new towns in the area. His monument was specifically designed to be used in the western public land surveys where the land was destitute of stone and timber. Taffe reasoned that iron markers were already being used on state boundaries and other special situations, but had never been used in general practice in monumenting the public land surveys. Taffe further stated that many of the government corners in the Sandhills region were disappearing almost before the surveyor got out of sight, so the argument for a durable monument was a sound idea.
Drummond replied to Taffe on March 13, 1871, stating that his office would not change the monumentation as prescribed in the Manual of Surveying Instructions. His reasoning was on the basis of cost, procurement, freight, and that the monuments would be a burden to the survey crews. Drummond and the Government Land Office (GLO), however, were not totally to blame for not issuing the iron markers, since such a change would have first needed Congressional approval for funding. The expense would be enormous since each township required 133 corners. Almost all previous monuments had been acquired through very little expense to the GLO since the deputy surveyors were using stones, posts or earth mounds which were acquired at no added expense in the field. A few other inventors offered their suggestions to the GLO in the ensuing years, but were met with the same response.
The failure to implement a permanent and lasting monument would soon come back to haunt the General Land Office. A letter written to Surveyor General E.E. Cunningham on May 29, 1873, by Nebraska deputy surveyor Robert Harvey, stated he could not find many of the government corners that were supposed to have been established the previous season by other deputy surveyors along the adjacent township lines of his own contracts. Harvey further stated that, of those corners he was able to actually locate, most were very substandard.
"It is a mighty poor line at least as far as the dimensions of the pits and the size of the mounds were concerned. Some of the mounds consisted of a spadeful of sod taken from each pit and no more."
The lack of a permanent monument and the easy excuse that the elements had destroyed their work caused many deputy surveyors to short-cut their work or not do it at all while compiling fictitious notes. They were working in an area where future settlement was inconceivable to many of those doing the work, and it seemed like more of a formality than anything of real substance that would ever have future use. Timber for houses was virtually nonexistent, the soil was unsuitable for farming, and traveling to permanent settlements for supplies could take several days.
The political atmosphere surrounding the GLO indicated they were probably more concerned with quickly selling the public lands than the problem of having the government corners being constructed in a permanent nature. In defense of the G LO, some in higher positions were still recognizing the need for iron markers. Commissioner James A. Williamson in his 1879 Annual Report requested that iron markers be used at least at alternate section corners where stones were not available. Prohibitive costs remained the central issue, and so the debate continued.
Williamson’s successor, Noah C. McFarland, was reportedly successful in using "Bausman’s U.S. Survey Land Monuments" in late 1881 in the Oklahoma Panhandle area (Cimarron Meridian surveys). Iron monuments were slowly making their way into the Public Land surveys, but only in limited or special use areas instead of general practice. Unfortunately in the vast majority of the areas where they should have been used, the surveys had already been completed.
Commissioner S. M. Stockslager offered these words pertaining to the situation that had been created in Nebraska in his 1888 Report:
"Reports continue to come into this office regarding the inaccuracy and altogether unreliable character of the public land surveys in various parts of the state. In many cases I have, upon request of the parties interest, visited the localities in question. Standard, township, section and other corners are reported as found all the way from a few chains to 20 or more chains away from their proper sites, and in many instances no corners nor a sign of any can be found."
Settlement did eventually come to the Nebraska Sandhills. Ranchers found they could buy cheap land in abundance to raise enormous herds of cattle on the open range. The Kinkaid Act of 1904 was specifically targeted to entice settlement in the central and western portions of Nebraska. This act allowed 640-acre homesteads instead of the normal 160-acre homesteads that were prescribed in the Homestead Act of 1862. The homesteaders built sod houses and competed with the ranchers who had already been illegally occupying government land, since they thought no one else would come. Without the monuments to clearly define who actually owned what, many disputes arose. Some disputes became deadly.
The failure of the GLO and Congress to properly act upon the situation when it was first presented caused the government to have to resurvey more than 300 townships (some seven million acres) in the Nebraska Sandhills from 1895 to 1920.
Some of the first resurveys of entire townships in the 1890’s still called for posts in mounds to be set for the new corners in the absence of stone. The Act of August 9, 1894, 28 Stat. 275, appropriated only $16,000 to resurvey all of Grant and Hooker Counties in Nebraska. The 1894 Manual of Surveying Instructions still listed pits and mounds as viable corner monuments, which is precisely what was used in these resurveys.
The 1902 Manual of Surveying Instructions finally added the use of "an
iron monument, rod, or pipe" to the list of corner monuments. The pits and mounds were listed as being the least durable, and were relegated to the accessories category. The Civil Appropriations Act of May 27, 1908, 35 Stat. 317, finally provided $25,000 for the purchase of iron posts with brass caps affixed to them as monuments for the public land surveys. Most of the homesteaders finally retreated after they unsuccessfully tried to make a living at farming in the sand. Today a major portion of this area contains only the large cattle ranches run by the descendants of the ranchers who were determined to stay.
The hard lessons that were learned by the GLO in regard to establishing permanent monuments that were designed to last should continue to be important to the surveyors today who establish permanent section corners.
Jerry Penry is employed by Lancaster County Engineering in Lincoln, Nebraska. He has been a licensed surveyor since 1994 specializing in section corner monumentation and GPS surveying, and has written numerous surveying articles for the magazine.
Sidebar:
"Reports continue to come into this office regarding the inaccuracy and altogether unreliable character of the public land surveys in various parts of the state. In many cases I have, upon request of the parties interest, visited the localities in question. Standard, township, section and other corners are reported as found all the way from a few chains to 20 or more chains away from their proper sites, and in many instances no corners nor a sign of any can be found."
A 1.106Mb PDF of this article as it appeared in the magazine—complete with images—is available by clicking HERE