Shamrocker
Sheik Yerbouti
Our company was contacted by an out-of-province surveying firm looking to have some legal survey work performed in Manitoba. During the course of the surveys, we discovered a number of survey monuments missing from the sections. Long story short, I had to travel 4 miles away to find the nearest relevant survey monument so I could begin retracing the steps of the original surveyor from back in 1800's.
I ended up digging a massive trench (12' x 3' and about 2' deep) with my assistant looking for any traces of evidence that a survey monument was placed there, either traces of rust from an iron post, or traces of wood from a wood post. Surprisingly enough, about 6" away from my calculated coordinate and about 1' below grade I discovered an almost perfect 2" x 2" square of brown-orange rotten wood in the clay under the topsoil.
The survey instructions given by the Surveyor General of Canada for surveys done in 1881 indicated that the north-east corner of sections in prairie land were to be monumented with 2" square wood posts, in a square mound, surrounded by 4 square pits. I was fortunate enough to be probably the first person to discover this evidence in maybe 100 years. I've got to say, sometimes my profession can drive me up the wall... digging holes for evidence that may not exist, dealing with clients that can be idiots, and a boss that sometimes flies off the handle for no apparent reason. Moments like these make all the difference, getting to be white-collar in the academic sense, blue-collar in the manual labour and outdoorsy sense, archaeologist, and historian all in one package.
If anyone wants to know more about what I do, feel free to ask. I enjoy educating people about my lesser known career.
I ended up digging a massive trench (12' x 3' and about 2' deep) with my assistant looking for any traces of evidence that a survey monument was placed there, either traces of rust from an iron post, or traces of wood from a wood post. Surprisingly enough, about 6" away from my calculated coordinate and about 1' below grade I discovered an almost perfect 2" x 2" square of brown-orange rotten wood in the clay under the topsoil.
The survey instructions given by the Surveyor General of Canada for surveys done in 1881 indicated that the north-east corner of sections in prairie land were to be monumented with 2" square wood posts, in a square mound, surrounded by 4 square pits. I was fortunate enough to be probably the first person to discover this evidence in maybe 100 years. I've got to say, sometimes my profession can drive me up the wall... digging holes for evidence that may not exist, dealing with clients that can be idiots, and a boss that sometimes flies off the handle for no apparent reason. Moments like these make all the difference, getting to be white-collar in the academic sense, blue-collar in the manual labour and outdoorsy sense, archaeologist, and historian all in one package.
If anyone wants to know more about what I do, feel free to ask. I enjoy educating people about my lesser known career.
