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**Mike Irwin** · February 4, 2013, 09:29 AM

"I read some years back that "surveyors" between Colonial times and the Civil War paced off parcels of land by foot, even in mountainous areas, and today checked out with GPS units, were mere inches off true measurements, even with thousand acre parcels of land."

My Father was a civil engineer and registered land surveyor in Pennsylvania. I did a lot of field work with him over the years. He was EXCELLENT at estimating distances.

As often as not he was accurate to within a yard or two at distances as great as a half mile.

I helped him survey many areas of Central Pennsylvania which had originally been surveyed in the early 1700s. Some of the surveys were extremely accurate, others were not so much.

We surveyed one farm area that hadn't been surveyed since it had originally been laid out in the 1740s (same family was still on the land). All of the traditional boundaries were still there, stack stone fences, creeks, etc....

And all had been missurveyed 250 years before and were WILDLY off.

That one took a long time and some court work for the owners to sort out.

February 4, 2013, 09:29 AM	#24
Mike Irwin Staff Join Date: April 13, 2000 Location: Northern Virginia Posts: 41,381	"I read some years back that "surveyors" between Colonial times and the Civil War paced off parcels of land by foot, even in mountainous areas, and today checked out with GPS units, were mere inches off true measurements, even with thousand acre parcels of land." My Father was a civil engineer and registered land surveyor in Pennsylvania. I did a lot of field work with him over the years. He was EXCELLENT at estimating distances. As often as not he was accurate to within a yard or two at distances as great as a half mile. I helped him survey many areas of Central Pennsylvania which had originally been surveyed in the early 1700s. Some of the surveys were extremely accurate, others were not so much. We surveyed one farm area that hadn't been surveyed since it had originally been laid out in the 1740s (same family was still on the land). All of the traditional boundaries were still there, stack stone fences, creeks, etc.... And all had been missurveyed 250 years before and were WILDLY off. That one took a long time and some court work for the owners to sort out. __________________ "The gift which I am sending you is called a dog, and is in fact the most precious and valuable possession of mankind" -Theodorus Gaza Baby Jesus cries when the fat redneck doesn't have military-grade firepower.