Land surveying is an ancient practice that dates back at least to 1,400 B.C., when the ancient Egyptians used land surveying for the taxation of land plots.
The Sainte Genevieve Museum Learning Center will feature Gerald “Duck” Bader of Bader Land Surveying, whose presentation, “History of Ste. Genevieve Surveying 1790-1850“ will be held on March 29th at 7 pm. His fascinating talk will focus on how surveying played and continues to play an integral role in land development.
Bader will present the program as Prospect K. Robbins, a land surveyor from the 1800s who eventually settled in Ste. Genevieve. He and Joseph C. Brown started the original survey work of the Louisiana Purchase in 1815. He will also show how surveying shaped the Louisiana Purchase and even our own county of Ste. Genevieve using what would be considered by today’s standards, pretty primitive tools.
“From colonial times, though the 1800’s, surveying in this country was performed using a crude transit or a compass and a chain” said Bader. “I’ll have on display some of the early tools of the trade and explain how surveyors mapped the country—sometimes only 33 feet at a time—the common length of a chain.”
Bader will take you back to the days when surveyors used trees and natural landmarks to help map the area.
“Sometimes, they had to go through some pretty rough territory to look for evidence of previous boundaries, Bader said. “The also made notes of vegetation and trees so when the government sold property they would have an idea of what was there and assign a value. One set of old notes I read said, this land is not fit for man or beast.’”
Bader also said that early surveyors when they marked a corner, they would often scribe a tree. He’ll bring the remains of a tree and see if it was true to the surveyor’s notes.
Bader’s presentation is part of the museum’s speaker series and is sponsored by Dave Weber and Ste. Genevieve County Abstract. All programs in the lecture series are free to museum members. Otherwise, museum admission will apply.
For more information on the speaker series, call the Sainte Genevieve Museum Learning Center at 573-883-DINO.