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monument in 1863 in order to retreat to his camp and avoid interaction with local Paiute Indians; five years later, Major built a seven
foot-high stone mound topped with a scribed post and stone, with calls for three blazed bearing trees, two “large rocks,” and the top of
Bidwell Mountain; and in 1872, Von Schmidt erected a similarly enormous monument of stones and a post with calls to bearing trees
and the far-off sight of the same mountain top.

It is worthwhile to examine the instructions under which each worked, i.e. the Manual, in order to frame the variety of ways in which
each surveyor set his own monument. In terms of establishing corner boundaries, the Manual explained that

… the faithful execution of this portion of a surveyor’s duty is a matter of the utmost importance. After a true coursing, and most exact
measurements, the corner boundary is the consummation of the work, for which all the previous pains and expenditures have been
incurred. If, therefore, the corner boundary be not perpetuated in a permanent and workmanlike manner, the great aim of the surveying
service will not have been attained. (1855, p. 5)
For areas “where stone abounds the corner boundary will be a small monument of stones along side [sic] of a single marked stone for a
township corner, and a single stone for all other corners” (1855, p. 6). It makes sense that the monument to the corner of three States
would be significantly more pronounced than this “small monument of stones.” More specific instructions for monumentation with
stones include the following:

Where it is deemed best to use STONES for boundaries, in lieu of posts, you may, at any corner, insert endwise into the ground, to the
depth of 7 or 8 inches, a stone, the number of cubic inches in which shall not be less than the number contained in a stone 14 inches
long, 12 inches wide, and 3 inches thick – equal to 504 cubic inches – the edges of which must be set north and south, on north and
south lines, and east and west, on east and west lines; the dimensions of each stone to be given in the field notes at the time of estab-
lishing the corner. The kind of stone should also be stated (1855, p. 9).
The 1864 and 1871 versions of the Manual amended the size specifications for corner monuments. Rather than “14 inches long, 12
inches wide, and 3 inches thick” (1855), “corner stones fourteen inches long, or more, and less than eighteen inches in length…should
be set two-thirds of their length into the ground” (1871, p. 8). This broadening of specifications will explain some of the discrepancies
among the monuments that were discovered in this investigation.

The Manual also included instructions for choosing and marking bearing trees, which both Major and Von Schmidt note in their field
notes, but which Kidder did not mention in his report to the California Surveyor-General in 1863. Bearing trees would serve as evidence
marking the position of corner monuments:
From such post or tree the courses must be taken and the distances measured to two or more adjacent trees in opposite directions, as nearly as
may be, and these are called ‘bearing trees’… At all township corners, and at all section corners, on range or township lines, four bearing trees are
to be … distinguished by a smooth blaze, with a notch at its lower end, facing the corner, and in the blaze to be marked the number of the range,
township, and section….The letters B. T. (bearing tree) are also to be marked upon a smaller blaze directly under the large one, and as near the
ground as practicable (1855, 8).
The best account of the earliest corner monumentation is found in the annual report to the California Surveyor-General in 1863 by John
Kidder, the engineer in charge of the crew jointly commissioned by California’s Surveyor-General J.H. Houghton and the Nevada Terri-
tory’s counterpart Butler Ives to execute this survey. The main objective of this project was simply to identify the 120 meridian west from
th
Greenwich and then the oblique line southeast from the angle point in Lake Tahoe to the Colorado River. While no field notes or plat were
available as primary sources, Houghton’s and Kidder’s reports narrate this party’s instructions, procedures, and experiences in marking
the eastern boundary of California (Houghton 1863; Kidder 1863). I also relied on articles by James Hulse, Gregory Reed, and John Wilusz
detailing this early survey, as well as Francois Uzes’s descriptions of the procedural considerations of all three corner surveys.
While the 1863 Kidder boundary survey would have relied on 1855 Instructions, the later surveys that I consider in this project would
have looked to the supplements published in 1864 (Major in 1868 and Partridge in 1870) and 1871 (Von Schmidt in 1872 and Minto in
1879). The 1864 reprint of the Manual reaffirmed that the 1855 reference, as well as any special instructions from the Surveyor General
of the United States, “shall be taken and deemed a part of every contract for surveying the public lands of the United States” in light
of the 1862 Act of Congress meant “’to reduce the expenses of the survey and sale of the public lands in the United States,’” (1864, 3).
By the 1864 reprint, it had become a widespread practice for deputy surveyors to “take contracts for more surveying than they could
perform in person, and then employ one or more compassmen with their auxiliaries to do the work” (1871, 4) prompting the following
castigation by the U.S. GLO Commissioner:
“That there be no misunderstanding upon this point, you are hereby instructed not to enter into a contract with any one deputy for a
greater amount of surveying than it may be reasonably expected he will execute in one season, under his own immediate and personal
direction, with one surveying party only” (1871, 3).

The amended Manual also attempted to remedy the human resources issue of surveyors getting their crews started before Congress
had allocated the funds for their projects:
“The practice of anticipating the appropriations is deemed unwise and contrary to the spirit of the law. The surveys should not be com-
menced in advance of the year for which the means is provided by Congress and no moneys can be used to pay for work done before
they were appropriated. … The object of this restriction is to keep back the surveying operations to the
legitimate period of time contemplated in the appropriations…” (1871, 4) CONTINUED ON NEXT PAGE u
The Nevada Traverse Vol.50, No.4, 2023 9