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This book is similar in format to Wilson's prior publication, Interpreting Land Records. Both books are largely compilations of court cases and other authoritative statements (in this case, some made by real persons, such as Dr. Henry C. Lee, the writer of the Foreword to the book, others by fictional characters, such as Sherlock Holmes, Wilson's idol if not alter ego). Both books are addressed to boundary surveyors, title searchers and attorneys (this one more than the other to surveyors). And both focus on procedures, this book on the procedures of fact-finding, but it includes rules and principles when they are pertinent (though the frequent citation of rulings, which are principles in the form of precedents, actually overshadows the elaboration of procedures).

The books are also companion pieces topically. Land records and field data must be collected in order to be interpreted. Inasmuch as they must be collected before they can be interpreted, this book is, in effect, the prequel to the other.

Not unexpectedly, there is at least some apparent overlap between the two books. Forensic Procedures contains several chapters, the titles of which come straight out of Interpreting Land Records: "Interpreting the Evidence" (Ch. 7), "Land Records" (Ch. 8), and "Dealing with Words, Punctuation and Numbers" (Ch. 9). But their objective is different. Chapter 7 deals with the interpretive value of information that is gathered, instead of its meaning; Chapter 8 deals with the less commonly consulted sources of land records, rather than the most important; and Chapter 9 deals with the effectiveness of the use of words, punctuation, and numbers, not their possible ambiguity.

As educators specializing in geospatial technologies, we are usually the biggest geo-champions on the block and the first persons to stand up and shout, "Geospatial technologies can be applied anywhere for any kind of activity imaginable!" So when a Middle-Eastern business gentleman from Dubai (UAE) got hold of us in autumn 2003 and inquired if we would be willing to tackle a GIS project for the Ministry of Tourism of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), Sulaimaniyah, Iraq, we were suddenly faced with having to live up to our boasting.

After a number of false starts and unsuccessful trips, our consortium partners and we finally obtained a written contract to begin a Tourism Master Plan project in July 2005. As anyone who has ever undertaken overseas contract work for a developing country will undoubtedly tell you, international work can have its challenges. The traditional tenets of success for business in a Western world context—completing work on budget, on time, within resources—is quite simply irrelevant when it comes to dealings with an emerging nation from within the world's most ancient civilizations. What was originally intended to be a three-month contract was repeatedly extended. Final substantive completion was just approved this past January 2008.

What Was That Again?

You might ask how exactly geo-technologies fit in with a tourism master plan, and who in their right mind cares about tourism in a war zone? Glad you asked… GIS, one of the geotechnologies we use, is quite simply a spatial analysis tool, and in fact readily put to work by planners in a multitude of disciplines, not least of which can be tourism. From an abstract perspective, tourism planning revolves around identifying activities in physical (geographic) space that are anticipated to draw or attract participants from varying levels of demographic, socio-ethnic, and socio-economic markets; in many ways, this is classic geo-oriented thinking.

Last summer I was invited to Bent's Old Fort in Southeastern Colorado to participate in their Living History Encampment. This experience will be remembered and treasured as one of the highlights of my life. Let me start with a little background history.

What is Bent's Old Fort?

Bent's Fort was built in 1833 by William and Charles Bent—sons of Silas Bent, a postmaster, lawyer and judge who in 1806 was appointed surveyor-general of the Louisiana Territory headquartered in Saint Louis—and Ceran St. Vrain—born in Missouri to a French noble family who were dispossessed during the French Revolution. Bent's Fort was the largest of all trading posts in the mountain-plains region of Colorado.

This massive adobe and timber structure was located on the Mountain Branch of the Santa Fe Trail along the northern bank of the Arkansas River near present day La Junta, Colorado. This fort was an important point of commerce and brought traffic from the Trappers Trail between Santa Fe and Fort Laramie; Taos trade commerce between Santa Fe and Saint Louis; and from several American Indian tribes such as the Mountain Ute, Kiowa, Arapaho, Pawnee, and Cheyenne.

Although it was not built for the purpose of being a military fort, Bent's Old Fort was very important to the military during the Mexican War and was used as a staging ground, hospital, and government supply depot between 1846 and 1847 by General Stephen W. Kearny's Army of the West.

I recently finished a project with a lot of new road blocks for me—it was one of those projects that's extremely frustrating yet, in the end, teaches you the most and makes you better at what you do.

The project was a boundary retracement survey that we in the office lovingly called "The 67 Acres." We started it in September of 2007, and in the process our client sold the property, which meant the project had to be put on hold until a new contract was written and signed. Once that was finished, hunting season rolled around, and the client preferred that we wait until hunting season was finished to proceed with the rest of the survey. The next in a long line of problems was that the property was extremely wooded, and the client gave us permission to wait until all of the leaves had fallen from the trees. So, after hunting season, the falling of the leaves, the holidays, and some bad weather, we were finally able to sink our teeth into collecting data in January 2008.

Back in September, I had plotted all of the current record descriptions for the subject property and adjoiners, and the majority of the research had been done. But when we restarted, that had been several months back, so I had to refresh my memory with the project by once again going through the deeds of record and the little bit of data that had been collected at the site.

One of the unique challenges that poked its head out with this boundary retracement survey in the beginning had to do with the record description of the subject property. The description was fairly old and written in poles, and I have found that most descriptions written in poles do not typically close mathematically but are retraceable based on the controlling calls. The mathematical misclosure of this particular description was approximately 700 feet, and it was difficult to ascertain if there was a particular call within the record description that was wrong but all the others agreed, or some other problem like that.

We all know that some prognostications eventually come true. To illustrate, the rapidly growing popularity of GPS MAC (machine automation control) technology, as it is being applied in the construction industry, inevitably will become a household word. Why? Consider the main reason many contractors are taking on this technology in their projects. Simply, by using GPS MAC technology on their grading and excavation projects, they have experienced increased profits. And leading contractors employing this technology say they see a return on their GPS equipment investment within the first year.

The term "leading contractors" does not necessarily mean the biggest or fastest-growing companies. It encompasses contractors who lead the construction industry in implementing new technologies in their businesses as they become available. While these leaders certainly evaluate the profit potential before investing in a new technology, they also are careful to ensure that it will not compromise the quality of their work. They find that, to the contrary, applying GPS technology affords them improved machine production efficiency with greater precision-grading results hitherto impossible.

One such contractor who fits the leading-contractor description is James R Ientile, Inc. (JRi) of Marlboro, New Jersey. The company started using laser technology in 1970, and by 2001, it had fully embraced GPS technology by investing in a 2D system. By 2006, the company had graduated to the latest 3D GPS technology.

James Ientile, president of JRi, says the efficient and cost-effective machine performance the company enjoys since adopting the new 3D GPS equipment continues to convince him that profitability often can be accomplished by working smarter (i.e., using new technology), not harder. "Sure, there is always a risk when taking on a new technology, but I find using GPS technology a relatively low-risk endeavor. Certainly, it requires learning how to apply the technology for effective results, but that is an acceptable trade-off for the improved machine efficiency experienced."

During January and February, there were approximately 25 state conferences throughout the country. From coast to coast, surveyors are migrating to the chosen site in their state to meet. Some go cheerfully and some with great disdain. Some will stay for the entire conference or turn it into a mini-vacation by adding a few extra days. Others will come for one day or the minimum amount necessary.

The "necessary" portion of the conference has evolved from the creation of continued competency requirements in many of the states. I will save the lengthy discussion on the merits of continued competency for a future article.

Many of the states offer speakers from all over the nation to expound on a great variety of topics. Be it surveying procedures, mathematics, the application of law to surveying, business practices, or project planning, you are likely to find a course of your liking at the conference. This provides an opportunity to experience "outside the box" topics that normally aren't discussed in the everyday work environment but are important to the expansion of our knowledge.

The double-rodded level circuit is a time-saving leveling technique that Carl Parsons, a party chief from West Virginia, described to me many years ago. Since that time, I have been in many suitable situations to use the technique and am now happy to describe it to other surveyors for their benefit.

In doing research for this article, I have found the best text book reference to this technique in a surveying book entitled Surveying Theory and Practice, by John Clayton Tracy Ph.D., C.E. (1947 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.). In his description of the procedure Mr. Tracy provides an alternate name, "Double-Line Leveling," which is a more accurate description of the technique because the procedure does not employ two rods as the more common name, the one that I have heard, implies. Mr. Tracey also provides two note forms for taking notes with the technique that are different than what I am showing in this article; the note form in this article appears to be the simplest to use and understand.

Basically, this leveling procedure involves running two separate level circuits between two points and keeping notes for both simultaneously. This involves setting two sets of turning points in pairs. There must be a minimum vertical distance of one foot (or meter) between each pair. In Figure A the pairs of turning points are shown horizontally separated for clarity, when in reality in the field they would be set very close together horizontally while maintaining a minimum vertical separation.