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Knocking Round the Rockies by Ernest Ingersoll


sjkimmel99

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I searched but didn't find other references to this so hopefully it's not a repost.

 

Here is a book people might enjoy. The tale of one of the participants in the 1870's Geological Surveys of the western territories (Colorado, Wyoming, etc..) There are occasional references to making topographical surveys but most of the prose is about the journey, companions, events, landscape, weather, animals, etc.. They don't appear to be making actual geodesic readings as he doesn't mention measuring the leg distances so don't know if it's just for map making or what and the triangulation is aimed only at the tops of mountains, not at lights or other man-made signals. In any case it gives a good picture of the circumstances, hardships & challenges of early day survey parties. This is a quote from the beginning of the third section of the book which is available in it's entirety on Google Books in on-line form and as a pdf.

 

XVII

Time was when a traveller must begin his tale by an account at the very least of the parting with his lachrymose relatives at the farmhouse and then continue through several chapters with the small incidents of his journey however long or well travelled. Readers now won't stand such dallying. Behold me, therefore, at Rawlins, Wyoming, a station on the Union Pacific Railway half way between the terrors of Cheyenne and the horrors of Ogden. This was in 1877, when I was attached to the division of the United States Geological Survey for Primary Triangulation, in charge of Mr AD Wilson - may the fates be kind to him.

Rawlins stands upon the edge of the infamous Bitter Root country -- a spot without a rival for miserableness until you come to Death Valley or the Sand Hills of Idaho. Nevertheless here is where we rendezvoused for an excursion up into the almost wholly unknown region lying south of the Sweetwater river. The less said concerning Rawlins the better. I need not describe the outfit of a camping party, with a pack train of mules; and so we are quickly ready to mount and be off to where (we hope) sage brush will be less abundant and rattlesnakes farther between.

 

http://books.google.com/books?id=5-QUAAAAY...wn9zCDA#PPP1,M1

Edited by sjkimmel99
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I actually managed to locate a copy of this book and attempted to read it. It is a very descriptive travel narrative about the west, but has next to zero triangulation information in it. He prattles on about the areas he visits, the weather, wildlife, birds, and stories from an old mountain man who killed a lot of "b'ars" and such. At any rate, if anyone wants it, just PM me and I will send it your way. It is currently on Paperbackswap.com, so if you are a member there just search for it and request it that way.

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I would pay a considerable amount of money for a published reference concerning that era/area that would read something like this:

 

"---a bolt was pounded into a crack in the native stone on such & such a peak and angles were taken to the stone cairns on Peaks 1 thru 5, or so. While this was being done, Matt, Ken and I gathered up enough loose rocks to built a four foot diameter, five foot high cairn over the mark when the instrument man was finished. Tomorrow we will have the pleasure of doing the same on Peak 99 after measurements are taken back to here."

 

If the USLS was placing metal in rocks in 1870,

 

DETOUR RM0781

 

f77ab839-4d71-4c91-a815-8a212ee6795a.jpg

 

why not the Western Surveys? kayakbird

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I would pay a considerable amount of money for a published reference concerning that era/area that would read something like this:

 

"---a bolt was pounded into a crack in the native stone on such & such a peak and angles were taken to the stone cairns on Peaks 1 thru 5, or so. While this was being done, Matt, Ken and I gathered up enough loose rocks to built a four foot diameter, five foot high cairn over the mark when the instrument man was finished. Tomorrow we will have the pleasure of doing the same on Peak 99 after measurements are taken back to here."

 

If the USLS was placing metal in rocks in 1870,

 

DETOUR RM0781

 

f77ab839-4d71-4c91-a815-8a212ee6795a.jpg

 

why not the Western Surveys? kayakbird

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