Traversing The Law: Remember, Surveyors, You Have A Job
The retracing surveyor’s societal role in the United States is that of steward of the nation’s property boundaries.
View ArticleTraversing the Law: Regulatory Overreach
I never have been a big proponent of regulation, but I have recognized for a long time that regulation of the surveying profession is probably a good thing.
View ArticleEditor's Points: Today's Surveying Would Please Founding Father
The organizers of SPAR 3D no doubt were unaware their event fell on Thomas Jefferson’s birthday.
View ArticleEditor's Points: Surveying Provides Tangible Reality
I’ve been reading the revised edition of “Drawing the Line,” by Edwin Danson. It’s about the survey that led to what we know as the Mason-Dixon Line.
View ArticleGuest Column: Commemorating the Louisiana Purchase Survey
It began with an “oath of values,” a common practice in 1815 when the field crews for the survey of the Louisiana Purchase were sworn in and began the rigorous work of defining the Initial Point for...
View ArticleUnmistakable Marks: Swamp and Circumstance
Throughout its development, applications of real property law in this country have been shaped by geographic features and variations in climate.
View ArticleGuest Column: Man Behind Ultimate Surveyor’s Guide
In 1978, the late Dr. R. Ben Buckner, with his partner in Carben Surveying Reprints, Carlisle Madson, published the reprint of “The Surveyor’s Guide and Pocket Table-Book,” by Benjamin Franklin Dorr.
View ArticleUnmistakable Marks: Extinguishing an Unopened Easement of Record in Land...
To extinguish an easement by adverse use, there must be an actual interruption of the easement use by the adverse claimant. It is difficult to prove the interruption of a so-called “paper easement”...
View ArticleGuest Column: Surveyors Aid Tri-State Remonumentation
During the Utah Council of Land Surveyors (UCLS) 2016 Convention, Daniel W. Webb, chief cadastral surveyor in the Utah State Office of the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), approached several UCLS board...
View ArticleEditor's Points: Summer Reading for Surveyors
After you read Elaine Ball’s Business Side column on marketing, summer may not be your only busy season.
View ArticleReader Feedback: A Trip through Surveying History
One day, I went to the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors headquarters at 12 Great George Street on Parliament Square in London.
View ArticleSurveyor's Footsteps: Value Those Survey Relics
Every land surveying company that has been around for 20 years or more has survey relics.
View ArticleGeospatial professionals remember MAPPS and look to its future
MAPPS celebrated its 35th Anniversary by recalling some of its achievements and reflecting on the challenges met by its leaders.
View ArticleEditor's Points: Professional Survey Groups Adapt to Change
The goal of an organization should be to outlive its original purpose. But in doing so, it should evolve and embrace a new purpose and redouble its efforts to outlive that purpose in turn.
View ArticleTraversing the Law: Surveying in the Days of Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln left some substantial footsteps for Illinois surveyors to follow.
View ArticleInside Pennslyvania's Controversial 1737 Land Transfer
In the nearly three centuries since Pennsylvania’s 1737 “Walking Purchase,” the events have become shrouded in myth and legend until it is difficult to separate fact from fiction.
View ArticleSurveyor Follows Historic India Mapping Survey
Most land surveyors at some point in their career wind up researching historic field notes, land records or plats from some earlier era.
View ArticleSurveyor Follows Everest’s India Survey
In part one of Alan Volbrecht’s story, he became intrigued by the story of the survey of India and decided, as any good surveyor might, to follow the footsteps of those surveyors. We resume the...
View ArticleUnderground Laser Scans Preserve WWI Tunnel Heritage
Dr. Pascal Sirguey had waited two years for this day and he was taking a few final minutes to savor the moment.
View ArticleVietnam Vet Recalls Battlefield Surveying Experience
It was the 1960s, and I was probably no different than the average American male, both then and now, in trying to find my path as a young adult.
View ArticleViolence Preceded Famous Mason-Dixon Survey
When a boundary dispute arises, the problem can either be resolved amicably or by adjudication, depending on the relationship between the adjoiners. In some instances, as in the case of the boundary...
View ArticleSolo Notes: A Surveyor’s Place in History
History is a deep-rooted concept in surveying. In fact, surveying has played a role in human environments and development since the beginning.
View ArticleSurveyor's Collection Links to a William Penn Property Grant
If you are a collector, the intersection of history and collecting can take you down many exciting new roads.
View ArticleGround Penetrating Radar Uncovers Black History at Oakwood Cemetery
A new land survey, funded by a grant from the North Carolina State Historic Preservation Office, hopes to identify unmarked graves in the cemetery's historically Black section.
View ArticleNSPS President: As Land Surveying Changes, So Must Surveyor Associations
Tim Burch, president-elect of the National Society of Professional Surveyors, calls for a change in how surveyors think about the future of the profession.
View ArticleLand Surveyors in Missouri Celebrate History, Tradition
The establishment of the Fifth Principal Meridian's "Initial Point" is one of Missouri's most celebrated land surveying projects.
View ArticleThe Adventures of Land Surveyor and Mountaineer William P. 'Bill' House
William P. House scaled K2, Canada's Mount Waddington, Wyoming's Devils Tower and became a legend in the land surveying community in the process.
View ArticleThe First Lady of Land Surveying, Alice Fletcher
Native American tribes came to know Alice Fletcher as the “Measuring Woman.”
View ArticleAntique Land Surveyors Transit to Hit Auction
An antique land surveyor's transit was found in a storage unite in Tacoma, Washington, and now the new owner is looking for more information about its worth and origin.
View ArticleRomans: Masters of All They Surveyed
Surveyors have been doing their job for millennia, and the ingenuity (and accuracy) of ancient instruments is mind-boggling.
View Article
