"Your Surveying Days......are OVERRRRR!!!!"

I believe I am far enough removed from this incident to relate it in its entirety.  So...in the interest of full disclosure....

Back in the summer, I was working in Winona, MO, in a city subdivision, on a side street.  I had just got in my truck, after tying in a couple of survey markers, had the air conditioner cranked and was working on my computer doing some calculations.  I had pulled the truck off of the street, under a shade tree that was on my client's property.

I had been in the truck a couple of minutes when a full-size, four-door truck pulled up in the street to my left.  I really didn't pay any attention until a young man came and stood at the back of the truck, with his arms out from his body like he was the Hulk (muscle bound.....He wasn't) and was just staring at me.  I rolled down my window and his first words were "You a surveyor?"  I affirmed that I was.  He walked down off the street toward me and when he got about five feet from my truck, he read the business name on my truck door and said "You're from West Plains...."  I slowly said "Yeess...I am." "You're a Riggs?" Again, slowly, "Yeess...I am."

 And then things got real interesting......

He immediately started to back away from my truck and began to take his tee-shirt off.  When he got it off he stared at me and said "Get Out Of That Truck Right Now!  You Gonna Get A Whoopin'!"

My response?..."What?"

Him: "I Said Get Out Of That Truck Right Now!  You Gonna Get A Whoopin'!"

Me: "I ain't gettin' out of this truck"

He pulls his cell phone out of his carpenter shorts pocket and throws it in the back of his truck.  He takes his keys out of his other shorts pocket and throws them in the back of his truck.  About this time I ask him; "Who are you?"
His response?

"It Doesn't Make Any Difference Who I Am....Your Surveying Days, In Shannon County, Are OVERRRRR!!!!!!!" (The last word was said in a high-pitched scream)

Wow!  What do you do?  I did the sensible thing and beat a hasty retreat!

I rolled up my window, dropped'er down in Drive and started off up the field.  Would you believe it?!  This Loser ran down off the street, started chasing my truck and hit the side of the bed with his FIST!....and put a dent in the side of my truck!!  I was some kind of shook up so I pulled up on the street and called 911.  I could see he was getting in his truck so to avoid him trying to ram me or further harass me, I left the area.

I went to the Winona PD and filed a report and the Chief said he wanted to be with me when I went back to get my GPS base.  When we went to where the base was set up at the end of the street, it was knocked over and you could see tire tracks where "Hulkie Boy" had rammed it with his truck.  The Chief interviewed the people across the street that had stood and watched the whole thing.  "They hadn't seen anything".....Nobody in the neighborhood recognized the truck...It was a mystery person.  Yeah Right!!!

A few weeks later, I found out it was a relative of my client!  He is a meth head and nobody wanted to rat on him.  I decided to just let it go.  Yes, I have a dent in my truck, the GPS is OK but I am more prepared

now................hehehe(diabolical laugh)!

It's A Jungle Out There!!

My work takes me down lots of roads and they are usually "...the one less traveled by,..."  As I was leaving Greenfield, Missouri the other day, I passed the house below.  The fleeting glance I got at sixty miles per made me turn around and go back.  There were goats on the porch roof!  My first thought was "these are some kind of statue that someone has put up there for a joke."  There were two of them, standing perfectly still, facing out, at each corner of the porch!  While I was watching them, another one wandered up and looked out of the upstairs window!  Go(at) figure!

This brought to mind an incident that happened years ago, near Nance, in Taney County Missouri.

I was working on a US Forest Service project and needed to ask permission to cross a private landowners property.  The house was set up where you walked up a sidewalk straight toward the house, turned left up the steps to the porch and turned right into the door to the house.  As I started up the sidewalk, I could see that the door was wide open.  These are important details...

Instead of walking all the way up on the porch, I just went up a couple of steps where I could reach the door frame and rapped on it a couple three times.  The reaction was sudden and raucous!  The noise from inside the house sounded like someone just opened the gate to the dog pound!  Well...I knew I couldn't and shouldn't run so I just flattened myself against the wall of the house.  In about a split nano second, three big dogs ran out the front door, down the steps, across the yard and started barking at my truck.  They didn't even notice me!!  While I am standing on the steps, pondering my good fortune, a turkey wanders out the front door and down the steps past me!  While I am trying to process this, another turkey makes it's way out the door and down the steps into the yard!

By this time, I am laughing and thinking "What else is there in this zoo?!!"  I was not disappointed.  In a couple of seconds, two peacocks come strutting out the door, down the steps, across the yard to my truck!  You talk about a welcoming committee!

I just keep standing on the steps, afraid to break the spell, when the lady of the house comes walking out the door.  This made me very happy because I was beginning to wonder if there were any humans on the place!  We stepped into the yard and I explained to her what I needed.  After answering a few pertinent questions she gave the permission to cross her land.

While we were talking though, I happened to look around toward my truck.  Would you believe it?  One of the peacocks was up on top of the cab of my truck!!  The lady saw it about the the same time I did and started hollering (in her very British accent) "Joe! Joe!...You get your (bohunkus) off of there!!"  "Joe the Peacock" didn't listen too well so I just shooed him off when I got in the truck to leave.

This little story just confirms the old truism..."It's a jungle out there!"

"Remove not the ancient landmark"

In October of 2002, I was really hard up for help so I employed a couple of preachers....Actually I was so convincing on how much fun I had digging holes and setting survey monuments that they just had to get in on it!

Rev. David Brimm was holding us a revival at the Junction Hill Pentecostal Church.  He is the brother-in-law of our pastor, Rev. Dwain Galiher.  I had visited with Dwain and David about my work and they were interested in seeing an "ancient landmark" as mentioned  Deut. 19:14, Deut. 27:17 and Prov. 22:28.  I was going to perpetuate an old corner I had found in previous work with an aluminum pipe monument, so I asked them if they would like to "go along for the ride".  They readily accepted and on a Saturday morning, after a hearty breakfast at McD's, they were rarin' to get to work!

Dwain Galiher and David Brimm

The corner was in Texas County, on the south side of Highway Y, just east of the intersection of Highway 137.  For you survey savvy folks...the corner common to Sections 9,10,15,16 (J-13), T28N, R8W.  This corner was unique because County Surveyor Sutton, who had set the corner based on original General Land Office evidence, had placed "memorials" below the stone.  He said in his notes "Some pieces of brown glass in bottom and pieces of charcoal under stone."  When we started digging out the hole to set the aluminum monument, we found shards of brown glass and also small pieces of charcoal about the size of pencil erasers.  When I found the corner originally, the stone was loose in the ground so I dug below it and found the broken neck of a whiskey bottle.

While digging the hole for the monument, we hit bedrock at about a foot and a half.  I tried to break it up with the spud bar but it was not budging.  So...We rammed the monument in with rocks and earth and built a substantial cairn of stones around it.  I think Dwain and David were just happy to get it in the ground!!

One of the original General Land Office witness trees from 1848 was still standing and alive.  In the background picture above and in the picture below is the 29" diameter White Oak witness tree with an open blaze scar.  In 1848, this tree was 10" in diameter.

We blazed new witness trees, much in the same manner as the 1848 surveyor and attached a "Witness Tree" sign to prevent (hopefully) anyone from cutting the tree down.

The blaze is cut with an ax past the bark and cambium layer to the wood part of the tree.  The cambium is the part of the tree that is living and the wood is basically dead (this is the reason you can have living hollow trees.)  A "WT" is cut into the wood with a scribe and over the years the tree will scar over the blaze and grow into the "WT".  It has been by experience that most of the time the wood will rot away, leaving a "mirror" image of the WT (TW) in the scar.

Below is the Certified Land Corner Document that I filed for this corner.

Charles Eno Corner

 On November 17th of 1909, County Surveyor Charles Eno dug a hole on the south edge of a ridge top in southern Howell County.  He placed a 16"x5"x3" Sandstone in the hole and then tamped it in with dirt, leaving about a third of the stone exposed.  He proceeded to mark a Post Oak witness tree northwest of the stone, 6½ feet.  This stone marked the Quarter Corner common to Sections 19 & 30, Township 22 North, Range 7 West of the 5th Principal Meridian.  Per Surveyor Eno's notes, no evidence of the General Land Office corner, set in 1821, could be found in this location.

On September 18th of 2014, almost 105 years later, I visited the area of the corner set by Surveyor Eno.  By calculating from another corner set by Surveyor Eno (which had been located by LS1454 in 1994) I was sure I was within 15'-20' of Eno's corner.  After searching for about twenty minutes, I located the sandstone shown in the picture below by the pocket tape.

 It was setting cardinal (North-South-East-West) and leaning slightly to the east.  You can't read the tape because of the bad focus but the dimensions of the part sticking out of the ground were 5"x3".  Since it was already leaning, I went ahead and removed the stone and it measured 16" long.  I then replaced the stone.

 The compass bearing to the post oak witness tree was North 69° West at a distance of 6½ feet.  I used my hand compass for the bearing and my pocket tape for the distance and the picture below was what I found.

 The piece of wood lying diagonal in center picture is part of the post oak witness tree.  You can't tell it from the picture but below the piece of wood is a large stumphole, evidenced by small lateral root cavities and a large tap root cavity (typical of post oak).

 The picture above is taken looking across the sandstone, toward the post oak witness tree evidence.

I then utilized my GPS receiver to collect the position of the corner for the purpose of my survey (State Plane Coordinates.)  I really believe I was the first person to visit this corner since Mr. Eno set it.  You ask why?  It was 300'+ south of the fenceline that was generally accepted as being on the section line...in other words, everybody thought that this corner should be 300' north of where I found it.

Whooboy!!!

In spite of the potential problems it may cause; I was extremely happy to find this old corner!

So......I just went ahead and did my little
CORNER HAPPY DANCE!! (To see me dance...Click HERE)

Geodesy Presentation

I was honored recently to be asked to give a presentation to the Senior Science Class at Ava High School.  Mrs. Amber (Hendrix) Gieber is the teacher and the first portion of their class this year was about Geology.  Now if you are one of the thousands of followers of this blog, you should recognize the Hendrix name.  Amber's Father is David Hendrix, my first cousin on the Riggs side.  Which makes Amber my second cousin (second cousin once removed if you want to get technical about it!)

Let me first state, I know very little about Geology, which according to Wikipedia is "the study of solid earth."  So "what in the cat hair" am I doing trying to teach about it!?!

Well...I do know quite a bit about a branch of the discipline of Geology called Geodesy.

Geodesy - a branch of applied mathematics concerned with the determination of the size and shape of the earth and the exact positions of points on its surface and with the description of variations of its gravity field

Almost everyday, I use instruments that measure distances along the earth's surface and measure the height of land "above sea level".  This is what I presented to the Science Class.

I set up all my equipment at the Militia Springs Park in Ava, which is near the High School Campus.

 The equipment Left to Right:  An old Sears-Roebuck builders level, A Trimble Robotic Total Station, A Nikkon Total Station, A Topcon GR3 RTK GPS system (Rover and Base) and far right against the fence-the controller for the Robotic Total Station

I asked for a volunteer to be the official photographer and I spent the next thirty minutes explaining how we use(d) the above instruments in our work.

Nikkon Total Station

Robotic Total Station

Controller for Robotic

Controller for Robotic

Topcon GR3 RTK GPS Rover (Base in background left)

 

Hands on training!

 The students seemed to really like the "hands-on" so next time...less talk/more walk

Mrs. "G" and "Jim the Official Photographer" (who says you can't take a selfie with an old-fashioned digital camera?!!)

The class was spellbound by my presentation....

In case you haven't noticed...I use my hands a lot!

Jim and "The Hulk" with another selfie.....