PLSO The Oregon Surveyor March April 2021

26 The Oregon Surveyor | Vol. 44, No. 2 Surveyors in the News Surveyors were much in the news during the development of Oregon. Through the archives of the University of Oregon Library, this column revisits and celebrates some of those stories of our profession. Surveyors in the News By Pat Gaylord, PLS Apparently low surveying rates are nothing new. In 1889 surveyors on the coast and others got a big raise! The Daily Astorian April 18, 1889 THE SURVEY ORDERED SOME NEW TOWNSHIPS IN THE MARKET Some time ago, Surveyor General Douglas Taylor took up the request of a good many in this and other counties to have sundry townships of fine land surveyed and put in the market, the chief difficulty being that the government price allowed for surveying wouldn’t touch one side of it, especially where it is rough coun- try and hard to get through, except where one strikes an elk trail. An effort has been made to secure an allowance of increased rates. This has been successful, and the secre- tary of the interior has notified the state officials that such augmented rates will be allowed for surveying public land in this and other coun- ties not heretofore thrown open. The land to be so surveyed compris- es in Clatsop County, townships 5 north, 8 west, 6 north, 8 west, 117 miles; township 4 north, range 7 west, township 4 north, range 8 west, 96 miles; and township 4 north, range 9 west, 53 miles; ranging from Misha- waka and Saddle Mountain to Onion Peak on the Nehalem and compris- ing a large area of fine land. The augmented rates are $13 per mile for meridian and meander lines, $11 for township lines, and $7 for section lines, being a raise from $9, $7, and $5, respectively, these rates being only allowed where the lines pass over heavily timbered or moun- tainous lands. Surveyor General Taylor has ad- vertised for bids to do the work. x