Oil & Gas - LSI, Gillette, WY

SURVEYING HISTORY

Wyoming’s history is fascinating, filled with tales of the wide open land and the dangers it presented for the settlers. For the surveyors during the early years it was not any easier.

The weather, Indian raids on the survey parties and difficult landscape left behind many a challenge for modern day surveyors.

The Bureau of Land Management, previously the Government Land Office has links to some of the written history of our early surveyors.

Brass caps replaced the original stone monuments set in the late 1800’s. These modern markers make relocating the position of the property corners considerably easier. The BLM Cadastral division has been resurveying and replacing the original stone monuments in Wyoming for the past several years.

Wyoming Map 1885

Wyoming Map 2008

Interactive Map

Did you know??

1 link = 7.92 inches

1 rod = 16 1/2 feet = 5 1/2 yards = 25 links

1 chain = 66 feet = 100 links = 4 rods

1 furlong = 40 rods = 660 feet

1 mile = 80 chains = 5280 feet = 320 rods

4 rod road = 66 feet wide

3 rod road = 49 1/2 feet wide

1 acre = 43,560 sq. feet = 160 sq. rods =
10 sq. chains

1 acre is about 208 3/4 feet square and is
about 8 rods wide by 20 rods longs

1 township = 36 square miles

tThat to correctly survey a 40 acre tract such as the
NW 1/4 of the SE 1/4 (see Figure 1) requires a survey
of almost the entire section?

Consider the minimum steps that are necessary:

a. Recover original government corners 1, 2, 4, 6, and 8
(these corners set by federal government surveyors in
the early 1800's).

b. Establish the center of the section (point A) which is
the intersection of a straight line between points 4
and 8, and 6 and 2.

c. Establish 1/16 corners B. C, D. and E.

d. Establish SE 1/16 corner (point F) which is the
intersection of straight lines between point B and D, and
C and E.

Land Surveying Inc. - Gillette, WY

Updated 9/18/2009