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Fortieth Parallel Survey


kayakbird

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It's our impression, based partly on imperfect recall of Richard Bartlett's Great Surveys of the American West, that King's work did not include setting marks that would become part of any permanent record. Doubtless there were many temporary marks placed in the process of setting up plane tables etc., but we don't think King's job involved triangulation or very accurate leveling runs.

 

Cheers,

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I found an

ATLAS ACOMPANYING THE REPORT OF THE GEOLOGICAL EXPLORATION OF THE FORTIETH PARALLEL dated 1876

at the David Rumsey Historical Map Collection. (found it by searching Clarence King in the site search bar)

 

Took a quick look at a couple of the topographic maps and found some triangles on peaks:

Rocky Mountains map

NAVESINK Pk - approx N40 55 W107 26.6 (datum??)

SEPERATION Pk - approx N41 37.5 W107 22.5

Nevada Basin Map

PAH-RUM Pk - approx N40 23 W119 35

 

There is a 1912 USGS mark on Seperation peak, MP0685

There is a 1963 USGS mark on Pah-Rum peak, LS0673

 

Maybe a little luck here, huh?

 

The Index says that there is an appendix specifying the topographic and geodetic methods but it doesn't seem to be in the collection. There is a wonderful sketch of the Cordilleras of the Western United States.

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billwallace,

 

Thanks for doing that research. I need to work on learning how to get to some of that good stuff.

 

Read the DATASHEETS and this really caught my eye:

 

LS0673'STATION IS 1.07 FT N. OF 3/4-INCH STEEL BOLT DRIVEN IN

LS0673'BEDROCK WHICH IS POSSIBLY CENTER OF PAH RUM PEAK CAIRN DESCRIBED

LS0673'BY NGS IN DESCRIPTION LIST 40 119 2, STATION 1003.

LS0673

 

Can you work your magic on that NGS description list? MEL

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Again thanks to billwallace for the great link to the Fortieth Parallel Survey maps! They used up several hours this evening. In addition to MP0628 SEPARATION, I located three other mapped triangles in Carbon County, Wyo that have PID's with a hint in the description that there was already a monument there. They are: MP0599 STEELE 2, MP0585 ELK MTN and MP0546 MEDICINE BOW.

 

Is it possible that that some where there is a DESCRIPTION that might read like this.

 

ZZ9876 FOUND THREE FOOT HIGH ROCK CAIRN BUILT OVER A DRILL HOLE IN SMOOTH EXPOSED GRANITE ZZ9876 ON THE HIGHEST POINT OF CAN'T GET THERE FROM HERE MOUNTAIN, AS DESCRIBED IN THE ZZ9876 UNPUBLISHED FIELD NOTES OF THE FORTIETH PARALLEL SURVEY, 4 JULY 1868. CAIRN WAS ZZ9876 DISMANTLED AND REBUILT 2 METERS DUE NORTH OF THE DRILL HOLE. STATION IS A SIX INCH ZZ9876 LENGTH OF 3/4 INCH IRON ROD LEADED INTO THE EXISTING DRILL HOLE WITH ONE INCH ZZ9876 PROTRUDING.

 

I'll bet that it happened, but give the parochialism of all the surveying agencies around the turn of the century, we may never see it in writing. MEL

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I mentioned above that the Index page of the Atlas says that there is an appendix to Volume I specifying the topographic and geodetic methods. That appendix, if it can be found, might have location descriptions.

 

The "Report of the Geological Exploration of the Fortieth Parallel" is seven volumes. I haven't found an on-line resource yet for volume I, Univ of Mich has volumes II-VII - there are actually seven entries but it looks like they scanned volume IV twice.

 

Each volume's first page says: Professional papers of the engineer's department, U.S.army, no. 18;

 

Volumes....

I.(1878) Systematic geology, by Clarence King.--

II.(1877) Descriptive geology, by Arnold Hague and S.F.Emmons.--

III.(1870) Mining industry, by James D.Hague, with geological contributions by Clarence King.--

IV.(1877) pt.I. Palaeontology, by F.B.Meek. pt.II. Palaeontology, by James Hall and R.P.Whitfield. pt.III. Ornithology, by Robert Ridgway.--

V.(1871) Botany. By Sereno Watson, aided by Prof. Daniel C.Eaton, and others.--

VI.(1876) Microscopical petrography, by Ferdinand Zirkel.--

VII.(1880) Odonthornithes:a monograph on the extinct toothed birds of North America ...by Othniel Charles Marsh.

 

Here is a link to a WorldCat search for the report. You can specify your location and it will list libraries "near" you that have it. Looks like several University libraries near me have it.

 

From the About WorldCat page:

What is WorldCat?
WorldCat is the world's largest network of library content and services. WorldCat libraries are dedicated to providing access to their resources on the Web, where most people start their search for information.

What am I searching?
WorldCat.org lets you search the collections of libraries in your community and thousands more around the world. WorldCat grows every day thanks to the efforts of librarians and other information professionals.
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Volume one of the Report has been scanned and is in the Internet Archives. The Appendix on Geodetical and Topographical Methods, while interesting, doesn't contain a list of the coordinates for locations used in the triangulation. Looks like the only thing they left behind were stone cairns on the principal points - there is a table of at least some (all?) of the principals and their lattitudes. The illustrious Coast Survey gets a mention for work of "the utmost precision".
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Bill,

 

Thanks for updating this thread. Don't know if I will make it back to Carbon Co, Wyo this summer to check out the suspicious ones that I paper scouted earlier - [in addition to MP0628 SEPARATION, I located three other mapped triangles in Carbon County, Wyo that have PID's with a hint in the description that there was already a monument there. They are: MP0599 STEELE 2, MP0585 ELK MTN and MP0546 MEDICINE BOW.] Gotta think that they are, or are at least very close to, the King monuments.

 

kayakbird

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Thanks for updating this thread. Don't know if I will make it back to Carbon Co, Wyo this summer to check out the suspicious ones that I paper scouted earlier - [in addition to MP0628 SEPARATION, I located three other mapped triangles in Carbon County, Wyo that have PID's with a hint in the description that there was already a monument there. They are: MP0599 STEELE 2, MP0585 ELK MTN and MP0546 MEDICINE BOW.] Gotta think that they are, or are at least very close to, the King monuments.

If it is any help to your project, I georeferenced the King survey maps, and plotted the positions of all the triangulation points I could find (I found 75 of them). Then I did a search against the NGS database for any NGS station within 2 km of a King station. The result follows. The report shows the King triangulation point and my estimated coordinates. Underneath, there is a list of the NGS PIDs that were within 2 km, the coordinates, the distance in meters from the estimated King position, the monumentation date, and the station name.

Pilot Peak                     -114.082100  41.018130
   MT0738 -114.077392 41.021123     517 1889 PILOT PEAK

Star Peak                      -118.173100  40.520250
   LS0554 -118.170768 40.522420     312 1953 STAR PEAK RESET

Tarogqua Peak                  -118.231600  39.582980

Wadsworth                      -119.282600  39.623880

Peavine Mountain (Verdi) *     -119.927500  39.589110
   KR1795 -119.932099 39.586888     466 1893 PEAVINE
   KR1787 -119.928643 39.589467     106 1942 PEAVINE EAST CAIRN

Signal Peak                    -117.617700  40.854350
   LR0852 -117.607099 40.860543    1128 1934 SONOMA

Sue's Peak                     -117.140700  40.672170
   LR0816 -117.132498 40.675033     763 1934 BATTLE

Pah-Rum Peak                   -119.574800  40.389680
   LS0636 -119.575222 40.390449      93 1940 PAH RUM PEAK CAIRN FLAGPOLE
   LS0673 -119.575226 40.390455      93 1963 PAH RUM

Kumiva Peak                    -119.265700  40.407420

Granite Mountain               -117.822300  40.279110
   LR0850 -117.817073 40.280306     464 1958 GRANITE
   LR0851 -117.816955 40.280263     472 1958 GRANITE CAIRN

Mount Moses                    -117.423700  40.145890
   LR0839 -117.415389 40.147170     722 1958 MOSES

Buffalo Peak                   -118.130900  40.219550
   LS0573 -118.129278 40.222663     372 1958 BUFFALO

Tohakum Peak                   -119.454700  40.177880

State Line Peak                -119.979400  40.028340
   LS0637 -119.979329 40.029859     169 1931 STATE LINE
   LS0638 -119.978909 40.029832     171 1931 STATE LINE CAIRN

Ormsby Peak                    -119.459800  39.754670

Nache Peak                     -119.238800  39.995610

Tebog Peak                     -118.645900  39.903230

Chataya Peak                   -118.034600  39.973560
   KR1473 -118.032515 39.974076     187 1958 COTTON
   KR1474 -118.032510 39.974102     188 1958 COTTON CAIRN

Ravenswood Peak                -117.192600  39.826970
   KQ0419 -117.172100 39.823175    1805 1954 BOONE CAIRN
   KQ0418 -117.172098 39.823208    1804 1958 ZENO

<unnamed>                      -117.485900  39.651050
   KQ0430 -117.483589 39.647544     437 1954 NEW PASS CAIRN
   KQ0429 -117.483648 39.647544     435 1958 NEW PASS

Crescent Peak                  -117.805100  39.686510
   KQ0484 -117.806871 39.685340     200 1954 MT GRANT CAIRN

Tu-Tib Peak                    -119.168200  39.711790
   KR1880 -119.170542 39.712579     219 1956 TWO TIPS

Spanish Peak                   -119.579900  39.646940
   KR1878 -119.578671 39.649041     256 1956 SPANISH SPRS PK

Parkeah Peak                   -118.822800  40.515740

<unnamed>                      -118.482800  40.302000
   LS0593 -118.492630 40.287182    1845 1957 NIG
   LS0594 -118.492673 40.287172    1848 1958 NIG CAIRN

Rose Mountain                  -116.810000  41.287490

Mount Neva                     -116.372100  41.327640

Mount Bonpland                 -115.128000  40.948570

Upriver Peak                   -115.633600  40.892770
   LQ0738 -115.630184 40.894401     340 1929 LGS

Maggie Peak                    -116.057300  40.935210

Lookout Peak                   -114.299600  40.498380
   LQ0645 -114.295512 40.499466     367 1944 GOSHUTE

Spruce Mountain                -114.824500  40.551640

Ravens Nest                    -116.012500  40.500380

Shosone Peak                   -116.866400  40.403340
   LR0905 -116.861473 40.403414     418 1934 MT LEWIS

White Cloud Peak               -115.494100  40.402770

Tenabo Peak                    -116.586600  40.162940

<unnamed>                      -115.388800  40.730380

Logan Peak                     -111.722600  41.699110

Medicine Butte                 -110.914200  41.341780

Willard Peak                   -111.960100  41.357040

Benada Peak                    -112.505200  41.483530
   MS0726 -112.508281 41.490231     787 1892 NORTH PROMONTORY CAIRN

Tangent Peak                   -113.179100  41.477010

<unnamed>                      -111.889000  41.190570
   MR0714 -111.882034 41.199914    1191 1888 OGDEN PEAK

Chalk Peak                     -111.106000  41.011330
   MR0680 -111.110437 41.018159     845 1938 PORCUPINE

LaMotte Peak                   -110.755700  40.769220
   LO1138 -110.751998 40.773803     597 1897 LA MOTTE PEAK

Connor Peak                    -112.190400  40.609040

Tabernacle                     -111.894300  40.764630

Twin Peak                      -111.723400  40.590600

Lone Peak                      -111.759000  40.524750

Tooelle Peak                   -112.216300  40.447590

Bonneville Peak                -112.624400  40.457400
   LP0457 -112.626321 40.459514     286 1892 DESERET

<unnamed>                      -112.281400  41.022670

Pilot Butte                    -109.352100  41.637800

Black Butte                    -108.799600  41.552940

Church Buttes                  -110.131300  41.488960

Twin Buttes                    -109.704800  41.176090

Diamond Peak                   -108.877300  40.945880

Marshs Peak                    -109.829900  40.707900
   LN0686 -109.828634 40.710972     358 1961 MARSH PEAK

Gilbert Peak                   -110.342500  40.823760

Yampa Peak                     -108.028300  40.441790

<unnamed>                      -109.163200  41.089210

Separation Peak                -107.385800  41.635080
   MP0685 -107.395738 41.637737     879 1912 SEPARATION
   MP0628 -107.395755 41.637746     881 1933 SEPARATION

Mount Steele                   -106.985100  41.831490
   MP0599 -106.997688 41.837768    1257 1951 STEELE 2

Arrow Peak                     -105.478800  41.537260

Elk Mountain                   -106.511800  41.627740
   MP0586 -106.526190 41.633124    1340 1916 ELK

Medicine Peak                  -106.304200  41.357570
   MP0546 -106.317600 41.360285    1161 1948 MEDICINE BOW

Sheep Mountain                 -105.966100  41.091020

Encampment Mountain            -107.037600  41.188740

Navesink Peak                  -107.448800  40.923220

Pelham Peak                    -106.672500  41.031910

Signal Peak                    -105.268000  41.035310

<unnamed>                      -105.191300  40.737280

Hantz Peak                     -106.917900  40.847640

Clarks Peak                    -105.918500  40.603560
   LL1388 -105.929969 40.606821    1036 1949 CLARK

<unnamed>                      -106.051200  41.149540

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... I georeferenced the King survey maps, and plotted the positions of all the triangulation points I could find (I found 75 of them)....

Wow , thats cool. Seems like a lot of work. If you don't mind would you briefly explain how you georeferenced the maps? did you use your own software? I've tried that with snapshots of USGS quads (geo PDFs) and Google Earth and it seemed fairly reasonable - but you can't bend or shape the overlays beyond changing the length or width. Anyway, thnx.

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Wow , thats cool. Seems like a lot of work. If you don't mind would you briefly explain how you georeferenced the maps? did you use your own software? I've tried that with snapshots of USGS quads (geo PDFs) and Google Earth and it seemed fairly reasonable - but you can't bend or shape the overlays beyond changing the length or width. Anyway, thnx.

I assumed that the maps were as accurate as they could make them in 1870's, and that the lat/lon lines were accurately plotted using a Polyconic projection with the Bessel 1841 ellipsoid.

 

I have a GIS called Manifold, which I used. I simply created a reference map with that projection and ellipsoid and inserted points at the exact lat/lon coordinates of a few of the graticule line intersections in the images. I then added control points to the image at those intersections, and let Manifold georeference the image to the control map using an affine transformation. Finally, I reprojected the images to NAD83 and plotted all the triangulation stations I could find.

 

The accuracy seemed to be a few hundred meters on average. The map images show signs of distortion at the folds, so overall accuracy varies across the map.

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---They are: MP0599 STEELE 2, MP0585 ELK MTN and MP0546 MEDICINE BOW.] Gotta think that they are, or are at least very close to, the King monuments.

 

---found 75 of them).--- distance in meters from the estimated King position, the monumentation date, and the station name.

[/xml]

 

holograph,

 

Thanks for pulling those 40th Tri points out of the fuzzy maps. Got distracted with a snowbird birding trip with a sister and her husband, so am just getting around to playing with them. After getting them all lined up in Excel columns I did a bit of DeLorme and Google "ground truth" at paired points along the Wyo line. Looks like it will take a bit of peak bagging to come up with a definitive answer to whether or not any of the King points were appropriated by later surveys.

 

40th points with the bearing and distance to what looks like the closest logical point

for a triangulation station - generally very close to a PID:

 

NAME LOGICAL BRG/DIST

Marshs Peak "001D, 1000FT"

LaMotte Peak "030D, 1978FT"

Mount Steele "276D, 1950FT"

Elk Mountain "277D, 3800FT"

Clarks Peak "280D, 3418FT"

Separation Peak "286D, 1200FT"

Medicine Peak "287D, 3711FT"

Chalk Peak "333D, 2769FT"

 

Again, don't know if or when I'll get down that way. If anyone would like a copy of my Excel file,

which includes DDDMMSS & DDDMMSS.ss columns contact me off forum.

 

kayakbird

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... After getting them all lined up in Excel columns I did a bit of DeLorme and Google "ground truth" at paired points along the Wyo line. Looks like it will take a bit of peak bagging to come up with a definitive answer to whether or not any of the King points were appropriated by later surveys.

 

40th points with the bearing and distance to what looks like the closest logical point

for a triangulation station - generally very close to a PID:

...

I wouldn't think many (or any) King survey points became NGS stations. The King survey was using triangulation, but they weren't striving for more accuracy than they needed for mapping at 4 miles to the inch. A pencil line at that scale is about 400 feet wide, so that was their goal in terms of accuracy -- be within 400 feet. From the description in Vol 1, it sounds like they marked the stations with cairns, but when sighting on the peaks, they only sighted on the highest point of the peak. That wouldn't have achieved the accuracy demanded by the NGS.

 

A lot of the peaks were later occupied by later surveys; some of them became NGS stations, some of them were USGS stations. But those stations aren't the King stations, and they didn't seem to make any effort to find or re-use the King stations, at least no mention is made in the NGS datasheets, although a handful mention a "peak cairn" as a reference mark.

 

Finally, King had the disadvantage of being first, and there wasn't much that he could tie his network into. At the time of his survey, the only precisely surveyed station in almost the entire West was the Salt Lake City astronomical pier, which had been established in 1869 by George Dean of the Coast Survey. At that time, the longitude of the pier was calculated to be 111° 53' 47.06" and the latitude 40° 46' 3.76". Although that pier (near PID AE4738) isn't a NGS horizontal control station, the hand-held coordinates of AE4738 are 111° 53' 27.65", 40° 46' 10.26", meaning the King survey used a datum with an offset of about 500 meters (1,600 feet) from the NAD83 datum.

 

It would still be extremely interesting to know if King's cairns survive in some form, which I assume is the main goal of your project.

Edited by holograph
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Any one doing a road trip to the Evanston Wyo area this hunting season? Looks like CBM roads would get you right to PORCUPINE/Chalk Butte. The cairns 600 ft north and 20 ft west can be seen on GE. Maybe CSI could date a shaving from the copper bolt that I am guessing was already there when USGS placed the RM's & AZ in 1938.

 

MR0680'SURFACE MARK IS A COPPER BOLT IN A BOULDER.

MR0680'REFERENCE MARKS ARE STANDARD BRONZE DISKS SET IN BOULDERS.

MR0680'AZIMUTH MARK IS A STANDARD BRONZE

MR0680'DISK IN BEDROCK.

 

MR0680'THERE IS A LARGE ROCK CAIRN ON THE N PART OF THE HILL ABOUT

MR0680'600 FEET N OF THE STATION AND ANOTHER LARGE CAIRN 20 FEET

MR0680'WEST OF THE STATION.

 

This is the best one out of a dozen that give a hint of a previous monument.

 

PORCUPINE

 

kayakbird

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Clarence King - from the USGS museum:)

575110-Clarence_King.jpg

 

Great stuff billwallace! I scrolled down to "Heritage Assets" and enjoyed reading about the Ford Model A purchased by the NGS in 1930 and used by several NGS employees through the years up until 1974. Turns out that it was used by Levi Noble to map the Mojave desert. I'm guessing that he worked the area that I live in the Antelope Valley and would bet that I have found some of the Marks that he may have set. Thanks!

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Still working on map scouting & pinning on GE the 75 points that holograph identified for me on King's maps; but this one seemed interesting enough to add to this thread right now.

 

K's WADSWORTH - SPRR BOLT

8b2c1c16-d329-4f33-996b-e868048942b2.jpg

 

20 JUN 2006 PHOTO BY nvsrvyr

d2e2b110-b3ed-4f2b-a5b6-5929250363e3.jpg

 

Don't know if King placed this, but wouldn't they have used a nice permanent hard point if it was available? MEL

 

Unless you have evidence to the contrary, I doubt that the railroad used much concrete when it was first built or when the King surveyors would have been in the area. Railroads tended to be built on the following principles: do grading, and lay rails as quickly as possible, often with widely spaced, unballasted ties laid directly on the grade. The bridges tended to be timber trestles, which were later either filled with rock to form embankments, or which were later replaced with iron or steel bridges.

 

American railroads were built fast and shoddy, in order to get revenue as quickly as possible, and were then upgraded later.

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Over the weekend I was reading one of his reports to see if I could discover how the King triangulation was done, when there were virtually no reference points available. I was interested to read that they started at the westernmost end with a 64-mile "base line" that was measured by finding the astronomic latitudes of two peaks nearly lying north-south of each other, and computing the base line distance based on their latitudes and azimuths. Hardly a precision method!

 

Here are a few snippets from the Geodetic Appendix to the first volume of the King report, pp 763-769:

 

The Union and Central Pacific railroads, which now traverse this section, were not built when the Fortieth Parallel Exploration was begun, and no maps of the mountain ranges existed upon which even the roughest geological work could be based.

 

Stone cairns were placed on the peaks selected for stations, and were the only signals used; but these being invisible, except on shorter lines, exactly the highest points of the mountains were usually observed. These culminating points of Cordilleran summits can generally, by a practised eye, be determined within a very few feet.

 

It really is amazing that they accomplished what they did.

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Another year and another trip across Wyoming to get to Moab with just a single target - the NOT FOUND last year MR0823 MEDICINE BUTTE just north of Evanston.

 

NO SNOW DRIFTS THIS YEAR

a3deee5a-dddd-4714-be93-e15000b78065.jpg

 

The one inch copper bolt appears to be the same vintage as this one southwest of Evanston.

 

PORCUPINE - FND 2011

eb14aed0-193c-4084-92e5-b3577b36779b.jpg

 

I would like to make a case that both are much older than their published date [1962 & 1938}. In fact I tend to believe that maybe the King party did leave permanent markers. If the USLS was using leaded in brass at about the same time, why not King?

 

kayakbird

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