The Path to the Proper Summit of the Rockies

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

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 important. 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 attention 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. However, rotted stump exactly where the notes topographic calls. Somewhere between to prove it we needed to find additional said it would be! There could now be no these two possible positions is where we evidence, such as the bearing trees called doubt that the team had found George believed would be the best area to search out in the original 1867 notes. The notes Hill’s 1867 stone, set in its original, for the stone. called for a 25” diameter spruce tree and undisturbed position. The irrefutable Heading back down to the creek in the a 30” diameter spruce tree. There were evidence, after more than a century of middle of the valley, Doyle flagged an no such trees anywhere. None of the trees avalanches, possible fires and violent inter-visible line at several points along was bigger than a few inches in diameter. weather, was revealed . . . a handshake the Base Line. Returning up the slope, Could there have been such massive trees with the past. he identified one possible location, and 140 years ago at this elevation near the Our team then had to set new refer- we began to search every stone and tree bottom of the barren moraine? There was ence ties, get GNSS coordinates on the and stump in the vicinity. We attempted no particular evidence of logging. Was stone and the stumps, write up and sign to visualize where the two bearing trees the climate so different then that trees that the field notes, and take some pictures. called out in the original notes could have large could have grown on such a steep For the first time we took a moment to been. As the day grew short, and facing a slope? There was no way to know for appreciate the setting, standing on a steep five-mile hike back to the trucks, the other sure. slope perhaps 500 feet above the valley team members began to set reference We got out the compass and cloth tape floor. The original surveyor, George Hill, markers that might be of use later, in and took a bearing from that small pile actually traversed this impossible slope case we came up empty on this climb. As of rocks, then traversed South 20 degrees and set these corners 140 years ago. The GNSS data was collected, Doyle headed West a distance of 33 links (22’) where miraculous discovery of this monument toward another alternate position. That’s the described tree should have been. was the last piece required to accurately when we heard the words, “Gentlemen, I There was nothing but brush, patches of reestablish the historic “Proper Summit of think you may be in the wrong place…” tundra plants and loose rubble. Then we the Rockies.” Doyle, who had been with the group reached down and moved some debris So in September of 2006, using the of surveyors that earlier discovered the from the spot where the notes called for a positions of the cross and the vertical inscribed cross from the 1859 survey to bearing tree, and there was a large rotted stone, our team made the arduous climb the east, had now discovered a pile of stump! The excitement of our exhausted to the Continental Divide once more to stones that had possibly been erected by team was growing. reestablish the point described in the origi- humans. On the top of the center stone Then we sighted North 35 degrees nal notes as the “Proper Summit of the was an etching like a cross, or possibly East and measured 94 links (62’) per the Rocky Mountains.” Several 3½” brass cap even a “4” cut into the surface. Upon original notes. Measuring through a small reference monuments were set in rocks near the summit point as accessories to the corner, permanently cemented in place with concrete. Then the actual summit point was similarly set and stamped, “The Professional Land Surveyors of the State of Colorado, Inc.”, and thus memorialized for at least the next 140 years. The teams believe that surveyors of the past would have been pleased that their traditions and calculations were honored in the modern-day recovery of these positions. These positions that were so important to the establishment of the western territories remain critical points of reference for modern mapping. Somewhere, George Hill must be smiling.

John Guyton is the principal surveyor and majority owner of Flatirons, Inc. in Boulder, Colorado, and has been in the surveying profession since 1969. He is the current President of the Professional Land Surveyors of Colorado, and is a Colorado Representative in the Western Federation of Professional Surveyors. The summit crew on the Continental Divide points eastward to the ridge where the He is licensed in Colorado, Wyoming, original 1859 cross was set. Arizona, California and Nevada.