Surveyors - Atlas Obscura
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Surveyors

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Osgood, Indiana

Bilby Tower

The last example of an innovative piece of surveying equipment now stands in its inventor's hometown.
exploration

The Long History of the Quest to Find a Peak Taller Than Everest

Ain't no mountain high enough.
Katie Ives October 7, 2021
geology

Nepal's Mounting an Expedition to Discover if Everest Has Shrunk

The long history of measuring the world’s highest point.
Jonathan Carey April 9, 2019
victorian

Inside a Victorian Photo Shoot at Stonehenge

Early images of people enjoying and surveying the monument were recently released to the public for the first time.
Cara Giaimo July 9, 2018
maps

How Arrow-Wielding Men Mapped Britain in the 1940s

Recently unearthed photos show beleaguered surveyors in suits holding pointy wooden markers.
Cara Giaimo March 27, 2018
Washington, D.C.

District of Columbia Center Point

A little marble compass above George Washington's (empty) tomb in the Capitol marks where D.C.'s four quadrants intersect.
Corner Brook, Newfoundland and Labrador

Captain James Cook National Historic Site

A statue of the early navigator stands overlooking the land he first surveyed.
maps

In 1859, the United States and Britain Almost Went to War Over a Pig

Hundreds of soldiers and sailors faced off over one tiny island in the Pacific Northwest.
Sarah Laskow September 13, 2017
maps

Why Modern Cartographers Are So Impressed With This 16th-Century Map

A mariner's take on a town in "New Spain" was notably accurate for its time.
Sarah Laskow September 11, 2017
Council Bluffs, Iowa

Lincoln Monument of Council Bluffs

An obelisk commemorating Lincoln's role in connecting the coasts.
maps

Britain's Futile Attempt to Keep American Colonists From Taking Tribal Land

British surveyors and Native American leaders drew a border along the Appalachians. Then the Revolutionary War happened.
Sarah Laskow June 27, 2017
Delmar, Maryland

Transpeninsular Midpoint Marker

The stone marker that Mason and Dixon placed at the eastern end of the famous north-south border they surveyed.
Perry, Maine

The Oldest 45th Parallel Marker in the U.S.

A roadside park in eastern Maine first marked the halfway point between the equator and North Pole with a brass pin in 1896.
Washington, D.C.

Jefferson Pier Marker

A tiny monument to the unsuccessful attempt by Thomas Jefferson to place the prime meridian in Washington.
Antarctica

Marie Byrd Land

The largest piece of no man's land left on Earth.
maps

Utah's First Federal Surveyor Fled the Territory Fearing for His Life

And helped start a war between James Buchanan and Brigham Young.
Sarah Laskow April 7, 2017
military history

One Sloppy Land Surveyor Almost Caused a War Between Missouri and Iowa

In 1839, the outcome of the "Honey War" hinged on the exact location of the Missouri-Iowa border.
Sarah Laskow March 24, 2017