The Path to the Proper Summit of the Rockies
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More than 12,000 feet up, the summit team gathers on the Continental Divide. L-R: Dog “Ella”, Warren Ward, Chris Trevillion, Justin Abrahamson, JB Guyton, Doyle Abrahamson, and Heather Robinson. According to Ward, Ella, a 12-year-old Australian Shepherd, has made about 20 trips to the top of the divide specifically for surveying in her career. Displayed with permission • The American Surveyor • July/August • Copyright 2007 Cheves Media • www.TheAmericanSurveyor.com nce in a lifetime an opportunity may present itself to retrace the footsteps of the original surveyors of a line so significant that it shaped the course of our country’s growth. >> John B. Guyton, LS Displayed with permission • The American Surveyor • July/August • Copyright 2007 Cheves Media • www.TheAmericanSurveyor.com The 40th parallel, surveyed in the Zack Gowan gets a GNSS position on the 1867 stone west of the summit. Just above mid-1800s as the line that defines the him, JB Guyton points to the stump of one of the bearing trees that proved the location. border between the Nebraska and Kansas territories, was an important Second Guide Meridian (west of the 6th Eight years later it was discovered that reference line for early surveyors. It was Principal Meridian) running westerly and this cross at the “Summit of the Rockies” the basis of the United States Public ending at the “Summit of the Rockies,” was one ridge line east of the actual Land Survey system used throughout as stipulated by their contract. This Continental Divide. The intersection much of the middle and western states, East-West Base Line would be used to of the Base Line with the Continental defining those neatly laid out squares establish the sections, townships and Divide was monumented in 1867 by that are clearly visible to modern day air ranges across much of the midsection United States Deputy Surveyor George travelers. The first mapping of this line of the United States and more than 70 Hill, who diplomatically declared it the across the plains became much more percent of the State of Colorado. Land “Proper Summit of the Rocky Mountains.” difficult when survey teams came upon descriptions today for much of the West The act of “pushing” a straight line a formidable obstacle, the Continental are tied to this early survey. through rough terrain is a difficult Divide in the Rocky Mountains. Baseline In 1859, U.S. Deputy Surveyors task. The original surveyors who were Road in Boulder, Colorado is aligned Jarrett Todd and James Withrow reached charged with monumenting this line with the 40th parallel, where the high what is now Colorado and continued must have perceived the task as nearly plains and the foothills of the Rocky into the rugged, remote wilderness of impossible once they reached what is Mountains meet. The 40th parallel the high Rockies until they reached now known as Colorado’s Front Range, intersects the Divide approximately 20 the point where they thought the 40th yet they persevered. Somehow the early linear miles (as the crow flies) west of parallel crossed the summit of the Rocky teams traversed up or around mountain Boulder on a razor-edge ridge of loose Mountains. They inscribed a cross on a peaks, valleys and sheer cliffs to set each rocks between Mt. Jasper and Mt. Neva. rock face at the top of the steep ridge, as section and quarter corner. They would Back in the 1850s, United States described in their field notes, declaring have had to take readings on Polaris Deputy Surveyors placed landmarks it the “Summit of the Rockies,” chiseling on every clear night in order to stay on for the 40th parallel, beginning at the “Utah” on the west face. the Base Line, camping out for weeks Displayed with permission • The American Surveyor • July/August • Copyright 2007 Cheves Media • www.TheAmericanSurveyor.com Quad map indicates respective locations of various reference points. In July of 2006, Jerry Penry led a team of surveyors from Nebraska, Kansas and Colorado, along with a geologist from the U.S. Geological Survey, to successfully find the lichen-covered cross inscribed in a stone face, marking the most westerly monument set on September 10, 1859 by Todd and Withrow (See Jerry Penry’s article “Rocky Mountain High,” in the December 2006 issue). In late July I was part of another team – made up of current and past presidents of the Professional Land Surveyors of Colorado, a member of the State Board of Licensure, and several county surveyors – that made the arduous climb to search for the point on the Divide set by Hill in 1867. Using modern handheld Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) devices, the team was able to approximate “Proper Summit” reference marker the location of Hill’s monument on a treacherous ridgeline. Climbing above the at a time and carrying their food or Colorado. The notes taken in the field tree line to more than eleven thousand hunting for it (ll this while doing precise by the original surveyors in 1859 and feet in elevation, the team was in search mathematical calculations and staying 1867, obtained from the Bureau of Land of controlling evidence of the Hill monu- on line). And now, 150 years later, teams Management in Denver, were used to ment, which was described as a granite of modern surveyors retraced a few of locate the original points. stone, 22” by 10” by 5”, in a mound of their footsteps to search for these historic The first team of surveyors included stones. If, as expected, they had recovered monuments. Doyle and Justin Abrahamson and this monument marking the southeast Throughout 2006, trudging through Geoff Stephenson, who made several corner of Section 32, Township 1 North, spring snow pack, summer thunder- preliminary climbs in the spring to locate Range 74 West of the 6th Principal storms and early fall blizzards, two teams monuments along the 40th parallel on Meridian, they would have drafted a of surveyors began by making multiple both the east and west sides of the divide. monument record to memorialize and climbs to retrace and remonument the These locations were necessary to lay complete the parallel of latitude at the original Base Line dividing the Kansas the groundwork for the discovery of the “Proper Summit of the Rockies.” But it and Nebraska territories in what is now “Summit of the Rockies” cross set in 1859. was not to be. Displayed with permission • The American Surveyor • July/August • Copyright 2007 Cheves Media • www.TheAmericanSurveyor.com The early surveyors used natural features where available as reference points and built cairns (rocks piled up as a landmark) to mark points that were then described in their field notes and survey reports. It is a generally accepted legal principle that an undisturbed, original monument takes precedence over other location techniques, including GNSS calculations, which is why the locations of Hill’s cairns were so impor- tant. But the cairn on the Continental Divide was nowhere to be found. Perhaps it had been thrown by hikers over the steep easterly face of the divide into an unnamed lake below. So, the group was determined to use the original field notes and the traditional methods of measurement and topographic calls to locate other monuments to the west that were described and to remonument Hill’s View from the summit ridge looking east toward the ridge where original “Proper Summit of the Rockies.” the original 1859 cross was set. In early August, my daughter Heather Robinson and I were part of a team of surveyors that included Doyle Abrahamson, Zack Gowan, Warren Ward, Sam Knight and Chris Trevillian. We began our quest for the nearest monument on the Base Line immedi- ately west of the lost Hill position. If it was still extant, it would be found on an impossibly steep mountain slope of stony, dry earth over 800 vertical feet directly below the divide, where each step requires extra effort to keep from sliding and falling. After repeated readings of the original notes and descriptions from the 1867 survey, with special attention to calls and references in the notes to topographic features and bearing trees, our search group was eventually able to solve the puzzle and successfully locate the original quarter- section corner monument. We began by trying to find a vertically set stone etched as described in the field notes. Finding this vertically set stone, indistinguishable from the countless other rocks on the slope, required careful atten- tion to the historic rules and procedures of the land surveyor. Beginning well before sunrise, we hiked up a narrow game trail following a stream bed through upland forest. After several hours of hiking, our hand-held GNSS units indicated that we had arrived in the general vicinity of the quarter section corner. Fanning out, we began a thorough inspection of the side of the mountain, moving steadily uphill on the steep talus slopes while scanning for likely-looking JB and Doyle set one of the reference markers for the vertical stones. “Proper Summit of the Rocky Mountains”. Displayed with permission • The American Surveyor • July/August • Copyright 2007 Cheves Media • www.TheAmericanSurveyor.com Most of the day passed with no sign examination, the stone appeared that it tree and ending at a sheer cliff 20 to 30 of the corner. Doyle calculated both a might have been set upright by the use of feet high, it also seemed like an unlikely line and two possible positions for the four small supporting stones. The team location for a large tree. We moved the corner, one based on measured distances was excited by the possibility that the surface debris and found another huge, from the 1867 notes, and one based on original stone had been found.