Surveying is marking the boundaries of land, and some form of surveying has been used for property divisions for centuries. Essentially, you are making accurate measurements of the surface of the earth, which is also used in mapping. All of the United States and most countries’ cities, towns, and villages were laid out using surveying. Today, before any building project can begin, a survey has to be completed in order to understand property lines.
SITECH Rocky Mountain offers the best in rental surveying equipment. We’ve partnered with Trimble to offer you the best and most complete equipment with the latest technology that offers precision and ease of use. Below, we’ll take a look at some famous surveyors throughout history who you should know. Contact us to get started with surveying equipment construction technology, and site positioning systems today!
FAMOUS SURVEYORS
George Washington
Many people know that George Washington, the first President of the United States, was a land surveyor. He was one of the earliest surveyors in America, beginning his surveying career at the age of 17 in 1749. He was so skilled that he was quickly promoted to Surveyor General for the Commonwealth of Virginia. When the expansion westward in America began, the land had to be surveyed first, and Washington was one of the first to do so.
Daniel Boone
Known for his coon hat (although he preferred beaver hats) and conquering the West, Daniel Boone was an early surveyor, opening the West for settlements in Kentucky, Tennessee, and Virginia and helping to make the Cumberland Gap a route West. He spent his life hunting, tracking, and trailblazing, always moving further West as it suited him. He also was a surveyor after the American Revolution.
Thomas Jefferson
Another President of the United States spent some time as a land surveyor as well. President Thomas Jefferson was a staunch believer in surveying land for settlers. He was the Albemarle County surveyor in Virginia in 1773. Plus, one of the major impetus for Lewis and Clark’s expedition was to survey the land in order to know the landforms and just how big the Louisiana Purchase was. His father was a surveyor and cartographer and probably taught Jefferson all that he knew.
William Clark and Meriwether Lewis
Speaking of Lewis and Clark, they were hired by President Jefferson to survey the newly-acquired Louisiana Territory in 1803. Lewis was Jefferson’s secretary and was an accomplished surveyor already. With 827,000 acres to survey, he had a daunting task in front of him. The surveying tools at the time were nothing primitive compared to modern surveying tools. Some of these included: a compass, a quadrant, a sextant, a chronometer, and plotting instruments. Clark, on the other hand, drew most of the maps of what they saw on their journey west.
Abraham Lincoln
A third President who began an early career as a surveyor was Abraham Lincoln. While studying law, Abraham Lincoln also worked as a surveyor in Illinois. In 1833, he was the deputy surveyor of Sangamon County, Illinois, and mapped many areas, from roads to farmlands and even performed surveying to settle property disputes. Lincoln taught himself the skills of surveying, using primarily a compass and a chain.
PARTNER WITH SITECH ROCKY MOUNTAIN TODAY
It’s safe to say that without surveying, the Wild West would have been a lot more wild than it is known for. Surveys help to keep order to the layout of towns and cities and helps to prevent boundary disputes when buying, transferring, dividing, and even renovating properties. Today, surveys perform the same basic functions. It helps to ensure homes and commercial buildings are built on the right plot of land. Surveyors have the best technology to assist them, including Trimble technology.
The technique of surveying and the desired outcome of marking boundaries for the use of property demarcation have remained relatively the same since early times in America. What has changed is the sophistication of the surveying tools. SITECH Rocky Mountain in Aurora believes in offering our customers the best in all types of technology in order to help them serve their customers better. We offer Trimble survey equipment for purchase and for rent, construction management software, and many other types of systems for your heavy equipment fleet. We serve Colorado, New Mexico, and far west Texas.
Our team offers training, service, and support, so you can rest assured you’ll have the expertise you need, when you need it. By investing in grade control systems, you can improve your efficiency in grading. Our site positioning systems help you keep track of your heavy equipment, and you can feed this information into construction management software to improve productivity across your job site. If you are interested in learning more about all that SITECH Rocky Mountain has to offer, get in touch today.