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Home » The Quintessential Surveyor
The
Quintessential Surveyor
Students examine the work of Henry David Thoreau, writer and surveyor.
Surveyors are often found tucked away in the quiet corners of history. Many
figures that loom larger than life today once claimed surveying as a
profession. The art of measurement, when practiced correctly, is as much
philosophy as science in my view. A.C. Mulford, in his classic treatise
“Boundaries and Landmarks”1 described the attributes of a true surveyor: “Yet it
seems to me that to a man of active mind and high ideals the profession is
singularly suited… It is a profession for men who believe that a man is
measured by his work, not by his purse…”
Writer, philosopher and
surveyor Henry David Thoreau was such a man. To say Thoreau’s mind was active
would be an understatement. His interests were broad and he spoke with
authority on many subjects. Thoreau was never satisfied with the status quo; he
was the type of person who refused to take “yes” for an answer. Thoreau’s view
of the role played by one’s occupation was simple. “Do not hire a man who does
your work for money, but him who does it for love of it…”2
Thoreau is best known for his literary works such as
“Walden” and “Civil Disobedience.” His contemporaries often judged him as
eccentric and a recluse. Although Thoreau’s literary work wasn’t fully
appreciated until the early 20th century, his work as a surveyor was well
thought of during his lifetime. Soon after Thoreau’s death in 1862, his friend
and mentor, Ralph Waldo Emerson, another acclaimed author of the time, wrote a
biographical essay in which he stated: “He [Thoreau] had a natural skill for
mensuration, growing out of his mathematical knowledge… his accuracy and skill
in this work [surveying] were readily appreciated, and he found all the
employment he wanted.”6 History and surveying go hand in hand. The profession
requires each surveyor to “follow in the footsteps” of those who have gone
before. It is for this very reason the study of our predecessors, which is
often neglected, is so important.
In the Footsteps of Thoreau
On May
6, 2002, some of my surveying students from Cleveland State Community College
and East Tennessee State University and I traveled to Concord, Mass., to study
Thoreau and his surveys. To prepare for the trip, the students focused on the
survey Thoreau did for Emerson during the winter of 1848. This is the property
where Thoreau lived while writing much of “Walden.” Thoreau’s cabin and pond
are on the south end of the property and the bean field, as described in
“Walden” is to the north. The cabin is gone now and the bean field is wooded.
The cabin was last seen as part of a hog pen for a local farmer.3
The students also
studied Thoreau’s field notes as published in “Transcendental Climate” by
Kenneth W. Cameron in 1963. The three-volume set contains facsimiles of the
journals and notes of well-known writers during the transcendental movement of
the 1800s. Reviewing Thoreau’s notes gave some insight as to why his work was
so highly regarded. Thoreau was a Harvard graduate and was an excellent
mathematician. He often conducted coordinate geometry, sans calculator, in the
margins of his field notes. Thoreau also thoroughly documented his research,
stating the source and date of the original survey. He took great care in
determining the magnetic declination for his surveys. It appeared he often
checked his declination using Polaris at elongation several times during the
course of many of his surveys. A handbill he distributed stated his surveys
were easily retraced due to his careful determination of magnetic declination.
Thoreau carefully described each corner he set in his field notes. It’s obvious
he understood the importance of preserving evidence. In R.B. Buckers book “Land
Surveyors Review Manual”4 he described the importance of preserving evidence this
way:
“One of the highest levels of professional responsibility
of a licensed land surveyor is demonstrated by his or her willingness to take
measures to preserve and perpetuate evidence of corner locations. That, in
fact, may be the primary reflection of professionalism.”
Instructor
Barry Savage (center) talks with Bradley Dean , PhD (right) by Walden Pond
while student Dave Sheely is hard at work. Thoreau's Cove can be seen in the
background.
On the
morning of May 10 we loaded the van and headed north. We arrived at the Thoreau
Institute around 1 a.m. on May 12. The following morning I let the guys sleep
in while I walked the site with Bradley Dean, PhD. Dean is a Thoreau scholar at
the Thoreau Institute at Walden Woods. I had contacted the institute in the
fall of 2001 for information regarding Thoreau’s surveys for a series of
lectures I was writing. One thing led to another and Dean invited us to the
institute. Our reason for going was twofold. It was a rare opportunity for my
students and Dean was to use the surveys in his writings and research. Visiting
the site with Dean was a unique experience. He knows Thoreau’s life and writings
very well so he pointed out subtle details I would have otherwise missed. Later
when I pointed out these tidbits to the students, I stressed the
often-overlooked responsibility of a surveyor to carefully measure, document
and describe such detail for future generations. Mulford put it this way: “…in
the hands of the Surveyor, to an exceptional degree, lie the honor of
generations past and the welfare of the generations to come; in his keeping is
the Doomsday Book of his community…”5 Following my initial site visit I decided to split the
students into two crews. One crew was to concentrate on the pond and cabin
site, the other crew focused on the bean field.
Once at the site we
divided into crews. Both crews used a Topcon GTS-223 total station (Topcon, Pleasanton,
Calif.) and HP48 data collectors (Hewlett Packard, Palo Alto, Calif.) with TDS
Survey Pro software (Tripod Data Systems, Corvallis, Ore.). The first crew
started at the south end of the Emerson lot. The second crew went to the north
end, in the area Dean believes to be the bean field described in “Walden.” The
southern crew began by locating two split stones supposedly set as markers by
Thoreau. His plat of 1848 shows 552.54' between the stones. The crew found the
distance to be 552.70', a little less than a quarter of a link. The crew used
this line as a base to calculate the likely positions of other markers.
Although no more monumentation was found, Thoreau’s drawings did show many
natural features, especially near the pond he so dearly loved. The distance
from the split stone to the water’s edge was 303.7' according to Thoreau’s
drawing. When the south crew got to the pond and did a stakeout to look for the
corner near the pond, the position fell exactly at the water’s edge, just as
Thoreau’s 1848 plat shows.
Students
(left to right): Nick Roberts, Tyson Olinger, Seth Klien, Dave Sheely, Zac
Morgan, Josh Morgan and instructor Barry Savage, PLS, on the shore of Walden
Pond.
The
crew to the north found Thoreau’s survey to be quite accurate as well. Thoreau
carefully describes the bean field in “Walden” by giving several measurements.
The bean rows were all described as being 15 rods in length. Judging from the
topography of the area it would appear this is an accurate measurement. There
were so many rows that if placed end to end they would total seven miles. Based
on writings in Thoreau’s journals the rows were placed three feet apart. It was
in Thoreau’s very nature to begin describing any place he wrote about by giving
dimensions first. Emerson once wrote that Thoreau had a “habit of ascertaining
the measures and distances of objects which interested him, the size of trees,
the depth and extent of ponds and rivers, the height of mountains, and the
air-line distance of his favorite summits…”6
The dimensions of the
bean field were just as Thoreau described, with only one discrepancy. The
dimensions for the field placed a small portion across the current roadway.
During our short trip, we didn’t have time to research the location of the road
as it existed in Thoreau’s day. The northern crew also located two sites known
as the “Zilpha cellar” and the “Whelan cellar.” Zilpha was a runaway slave who
lived near the bean field in the early 19th century. During the war of 1812
British troops burnt her home. Upon returning from work and finding her home
gone, she wandered off in despair and was never seen again. The Whelan site was
an area near the middle of the bean field. The Whelan family moved Thoreau’s
cabin to this site after he left the pond. They lived there until one night
during a snowstorm. Mr. Whelan had too much to drink and left his family, never
to return. The last known residents of the cabin were pigs, after parts of the
structure were used to construct a pen.
Surveying Truth
I wanted
the students to learn more than the mechanics of Thoreau’s work. I wanted them
to understand the vital roles integrity, truth and thought play in becoming a
surveyor. Emerson once described Thoreau as “a speaker and actor of the
truth&mdas;born such—and was ever running into dramatic situations from
this cause.” In Thoreau’s work “Life Without Principle” he writes: “As far as
my own business, even that kind of surveying which I do with most satisfaction
my employers do not want... When I observe there are different ways of
surveying, my employer commonly asks which way will give him the most land, not
which is most correct.” This is a dilemma every surveyor has faced. It is only
a dilemma when a surveyor forgets his or her primary role to tell the truth,
the entire truth; even if it’s not the truth our clients want to hear. Emerson
was correct when he described Thoreau’s dedication to truth as a catalyst for
confrontation. To a surveyor, always telling the truth has two universal
outcomes. One is a good night’s sleep; the other is the guarantee that half the
people he/she encounters will dislike the surveyor and his/her work.
It’s no secret that
over the past 75 years surveying has lost much of its former status as a
profession. Any surveying magazine you pick up today will most likely have an
article or two on how to improve our image in the public eye. I believe it is
important to study and understand those surveyors who came before us and had a
positive impact on society. Thoreau isn’t remembered for his surveying. He is
remembered as a person of thought and integrity. This might be a good place for
all of us to start.
References
1 Mulford, A.C. 1912. Boundaries and Landmarks New York: D.
Van Nostrand Company, 89.
2 Thoreau, Henry David. 1863. Life without principle. The
Atlantic Monthly (October).
3 Thoreau’s plat of this survey can be viewed at the
website for the Concord Free Public Library, www.concordnet.org/library and is
survey number 31a.
4 Buckner, R.B. 1991. Land Surveyors Review Manual. Rancho
Cordova: Landmark Enterprises, 325.
5 Mulford, Boundaries and Landmarks, 89.
6 Emerson, Ralph Waldo. 1862. Thoreau – Part 1: A
biographical essay. The Atlantic Monthly (August).
