A History of Surveying Introduction: Purpose Varied Career Outdoors Technical Dealing with people Legal Artistic Varied Employment Private Practice Industry – Resources - Construction Government Education Public Service Most images have been provided by Ken Allred, ALS, CLS and Patrick Ringwood, BCLS, CLS

From Eratosthenes to GPD Presentation will deal with the progression of the surveying profession over the past 10,000 years. We’ll talk about: Purpose of Cadastral Surveying Touch on key technological developments Exploration and the development of the New World Role of Surveyors in Development Eratosthenes 276 B.C.

3800 BC The oldest known topographic map on a clay tablet of a northern part of Mesopotamia

Cadastral Plan - Mesopatamia - 1700 BC

Zechariah 2:1 I lifted up mine eyes again, and looked, and behold a man with a measuring line in his hand.

The Rope Stretchers Fresco in the Tomb of Menna – Thebes, Egypt 2000 BC

Early Egyptian Civilization The Pyramids Pythagoras Flooding of the Nile Early cadastral records to 3400 BC 3/4/5 triangle 6th Century BC

Ancient Boundary Stone -and boundary monuments 1550 BC

Compass developed 1st Century – 11th Century Chinese invention - south pointing spoon (lodestone) Used as a divining tool in the practice of feng shui Magnetized needles used as direction pointers in the 8th century AD in China Ca. 850 and 1050 common as marine navigational aids Compass was not initially used to tell direction until the 9th century Compasses were used as survey instruments on this continent until the mid 19th century. Even in the last century they were used for rough measurements.

Gerard Mercator – c. 1550 Survey and Mapping developments in the 16th Century expanded the horizons of European settlement. Was largely led by men skilled in navigation – early surveyors.

Leonard Digges Invented the Theodolite - England 1571 Leonard Digges Invented the Theodolite - England

The Sextant - 1730

Early Explorers Samuel de Champlain Peter Fidler David Thompson Captain James Cook Sextant, chronometer, compass – mostly used astronomical observations

Samuel de Champlain Samuel de Champlain 1608 Champlain and his astrolabe – Nepean Point - Ottawa

Philip Turnor & Peter Fidler Peter Fidler – Canada’s Forgotten Surveyor – James MacGregor Lake Athabasca - 1791 From the book: Canada’s Forgotten Surveyor by Peter Fidler

David Thompson Columbia River 1806 David Thompson and Peter Fidler were cohorts with the HBC but Thomson grew impatient with the HBC lack of interest in accurate charting. DT joined the NW Company – His chats were the most comprehensive and most accurate maps of Western Canada and the NW US until the late 1800’s Natives called David Thompson “koo-koo-sint” The man who looks at the stars!

Peter Fidler Elk Point, Alberta From the ALS News Magazine

Surveyors and Statesmen George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln – all were surveyors in their early careers. Mount Rushmore: Three Surveyors and another guy!

George Washington Surveyor 1747-1752

Surveying Essential for settlement Early land information system In the book “North-west of Sixteen” James MacGregor tells of his father in 1904, when seeking out his homestead north of Edmonton, finding the “stake” that marked the southwest corner of his quarter section. Sculpture sits on the main floor of the Provincial Museum in Edmonton From an ALSA Brochure

Technological Revolution 1950 Geodimeter Tellurometer 1970 Desk Top Computer Total Stations 1990 Geographic Information Systems Satellite Positioning Systems 2000 High Resolution Imagery

Selective availability turned off in 2000 Global Positioning Systems Selective availability turned off in 2000