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for licensure. One would think that such an event would surely get
all Nevada surveyors to muster on the village green with our ver-
bal weaponry and a ‘Don’t Tread on Me’ flag. While our mustering
at the Board workshop on March 27 and the virtual board meeting
on April 13 was in fact pretty impressive (30+ and 50+, respec-
tively), it was still a very small percentage of NALS’ membership.
Why was that?

For the most part, our organizations typically consist of a majority
of shrinking violets. Not you and not me, of course, but the other
folks (you know who I’m talking about…) who pay their dues, prob-
ably out of guilt or just plain inertia, and maybe attend a meeting
now and again. But this majority doesn’t get riled up by relevant
issues, doesn’t speak up for a cause, pen an editorial, or think much
about what they could do to help their profession through challeng- Beautiful Alta Toquima Wilderness
ing times. How strange. I guess it boils down to whether a person
sees being a professional land surveyor as a calling or just a job.
And one last question - what about public outreach and the
recruiting it can generate? We are so massively overshadowed
in the STEM wars that surveying isn’t even an afterthought. We
cast a very slim shadow in the public arena. Is there anything
surveyors can do to help bring positive public attention to our
profession? Sometimes it seems like we are destined to do all
our fine work in the shadows.
In 2023 NALS has a golden (or silver, if you prefer) opportunity
with the 50 -anniversary plan to establish a real (and accurate)
th
monument at the geographic center of the Silver State. Such an
effort absolutely requires a requisite amount of publicity and out-
reach! Are we up to the challenge? Even this grand gesture is un-
likely to change the minds of the Libertarians who think we have a Diana’s Punchbowl
license just to keep our little domain to ourselves and Joe Citizen,
who thinks he can find his property lines all by himself with noth-
ing but his iPhone. Nevertheless, establishing the geographic
center of the state and explaining the difficulties in doing it is an
excellent way to get some positive publicity. Let’s contact Nevada
magazine, Triple A magazine, all the big Nevada newspapers, the
Wild Nevada TV program, local NPR and PBS outlets, and anyone
else who will listen and tell our story. Let’s make this monument a
fun destination for folks who want to take a day trip down Moni-
tor Valley. With the ghost town of Belmont at the south end, the
Northumberland limestone cave, The Toquima Cave with its Native
American pictographs, the beautiful Alta Toquima Wilderness with
several peaks above 11,000 feet, Diana’s Punchbowl and petro-
glyphs in the middle, and now this newly proposed monument at
the north end, Monitor Valley is the place to be!
Northumberland Cave

Historic Belmont Courthouse Toquima Cave and Pictographs
The Nevada Traverse Vol.50, No.2, 2023 21