05-Public Lands System Flashcards
- The first surveys of public lands in the US. were conducted under the provisions of which of
the following laws?
(A) The Greenville Treaty
(B) The Act of February 11, 1805
(C) The Virginia Charter
(D) The Land Ordinance Act
(D) The Land Ordinance Act
Solution: Passed by Congress under the Articles of_Confederation in 1785, the Land Ordinance Act established many elements of the Public Land Surveying System that remain virtually unchanged today. The Act created 640-ac sections ( which were called lots) and 6-mile townships, and required that public lands be surveyed before they were sold.
- Which of the following authorities supervised the first surveys of public land?
(A) The General Land Office
(B) The Department of the Interior
(C) The Bureau of Land Management
(D) The Geographer of the U.S.
(D) The Geographer of the U.S.
Solution: The General Land Office was proposed by Alexander Hamilton as early as 1790, but was not actually created until 1812. The office of the Surveyor General was first mentioned in the Act of 1796; the Bureau of Land did not begin until 1946. The office of the Geographer of the U.S. was, created in the Land Ordinance Act of 1785. Thomas Hutchins was the first and only person to hold the office, and he conducted the first survey of the public lands in the U.S.
- Rufus Putnam, the Surveyor General in 1797, established the contract system, which continued until 1910. Which statement best characterizes this system?
(A) The contract system provided for credit purchases of public lands by the highest bidders.
(B) The contract system allowed those wishing to purchase land within a township to make a deposit with the government to cover the surveying costs.
(C) The contract system abolished the credit system of purchase of public lands. Under the contract system, buyers were required to pay with hard currency.
(D) The contract system allowed the Surveyors General to arrange contracts with deputy surveyors for the execution of public land surveys.
(D) The contract system allowed the Surveyors General to arrange contracts with deputy surveyors for the execution of public land surveys.
Solution: From 1797 to 1910, public land surveys and the preparation of field notes were done by surveyors under contract with the General Land Office. These private contractors were generally paid per mile of line surveyed. The contract system was replaced by the direct system, which required that the surveys and resurveys be performed by government employees.
- Thomas Hutchins was the surveyor in charge of the work now known as the Seven Ranges in Ohio) the first public land surveys done under the auspices of the Land Ordinance Act of 1785. He personally ran the line extending east and west from the Ohio River that is known as the Geographer’s Line. Lines that serve the same function as the Geographer’s Line are now found throughout the Public Land Surveying System. What are such lines called?
(A) sectional guide meridians
(B) guide meridians
(C) sectional correction lines
(D) baselines
(D) Baselines
Solution: The baseline in the PLSS are lines that follow a parallel of latitude from an initial point.
- In 18071 Surveyor General Jared Mansfield ordered that another baseline be established 24 mi from the first in the Vincennes District to compensate for distortions in the survey. In 1818 the same idea was used to compensate for the effect of convergence. Which of the following terms is currently used to refer to such lines?
(A) correction lines
(B) guide meridians
(C) standard parallels ·
(D) both A and C
(D) Both A and C
Solution: From the beginning, the contradictory rules that townships be both 6-mi square and bounded by cardinal lines plagued the public land surveys. Compensation for convergence of meridians finally was
addressed under instructions from Edward Tiffin for the survey in Indiana. The standard parallel or correction line, was used.
- In 1849, the General Land Office became part of the Department of the Interior. What
department of government had jurisdiction over public land surveys before then’!
(A) the Department of Commerce
(B) the Department of the Treasury
(C) the Department of Agriculture
(D) the Department of Defense
(B) The Department of the Treasury
Solution: One of the initial purposes of the sale of public lands was to raise revenue. After the Revolutionary War the US. had a great deal of land but little money. The sale of public lands provided a method for paying the huge foreign debt, among other things. Therefore, it was natural that the Department of the Treasury was in charge of the early public land surveys.
- The Act of May 10, 1872, sometimes called the Mining Act, established the legal size of a lode claim in the public lands. Which of the following sizes correctly represents this provision of the Mining Act?
(A) 200.00 sq ft
(B) 1320ft by 600ft
(C) 40 chains by 40 chains
(D) 600ft by 1500ft
(D) 600ft by 1500ft
Solution: Under the 1872 :Mining Act, a patented lode claim is 300 ft on each side of the vein for a maximum length of 1500 ft.
- In 1847, Richard Young1 commissioner of the General Land Office, instructed Charles Morse in the sectional subdivision of a township that had a particularly crooked eastern boundary. Young’s solution was unpopular with Morse, but it limited the alignment problem to only one row of sections by the use of a procedure still used in similar circumstances. What is the procedure?
(A) the establishment of a sectional guide meridian
(B) the establishment of a sectional correction line
( C) subdivision by protraction
(D) a completion survey
(A) the establishment of a sectional guide meridian
Solution: When the alignment of the governing east boundary of a township is irregular, the first meridional line west from the defective boundary is extended north to its intersection with the north boundary of the township. This line is called a sectional guide meridian. It allows the subdivision of the sections to its west in accordance with standard practice. East of the sectional guide mcridian1 fractional portions of the latitudinal section lines are placed in the east half-mile.
- The chain has been the standard unit of length in the Public Land Surveying System since its
beginning and is .still the standard prescribed by law. One of the reasons for its durability is its convenient relationship with the description of land in acres. Which of the following equations correctly describes this relationship?
(A) 1 sq chain = 1 ac
(B) 80 ,sq chains = 40 ac
( C) 10 sq chains = 1 ac
(D) 100 sq chains = 1 ac
(C) 10 sq chains = 1 ac
Solution: One of the reasons for the eventual rejection of Thomas Jefferson’s proposal that the
nautical mile be used in the public land surveys was that it was not evenly divisible into chains. The statute mile, equal to 80 chains, was preferred. Under this system, 10 sq chains is equal to 1 ac.
- Which of the following lengths is equal to 0.28 chains?
(A) 19.50 ft
(B) 3 links
(C) 12.00 ft
(D) 28 links
(D) 28 links
Solution: Gunter’s chain is composed of 100 links. One hundredths of a chain is 1 link.
- Early field notes from public land surveys sometimes refer to a two-pole chain. What is a two-pole chain?
(A) A two-pole chain is a chain that is equipped with two long wooden handles.
(B) The phrase two-pole chain is simply another term used to describe a standard-length Gunter’s
chain.
(C) A two-pole chain is 132.00 ft long.
(D) A two-pole chain is one-half of a standard Gunter’s chain, or 33.00 ft long.
(D) A two-pole chain is one-half of a standard Gunter’s chain, or 33.00 ft long.
Solution: A pole, also known as a rod or perch, has a length of 16.5ft. Therefore, a two-pole chain is a chain that is 33.00ft in length.
- Gunter’s chain was invented by Thomas Gunter in eighteenth century England. The instrument
was used in public land surveys throughout the nineteenth century. These chains tended to increase
in length with extended use. Why?
(A) the constant repair required by frequent breaks
(B) the elasticity of the materials from which the chains were made
(C) the wearing down of the links and the rings that joined them together
(D) all of the above
(C) the wearing down of the links and the rings that joined them together
Solution: The earliest Gunter’s chains were constructed of iron (later, steel) links joined together by
rings. The deterioration of the metal-on-metal joints caused the chains to gradually increase in length.
- Which of the following lengths is equivalent to 79.52 chains?
(A) 1600.00 meters
(B) 5248.32 ft
(C) 320.00 rods
(D) 1920.41 varas
(B) 5248.32 ft
Solution: A chain is 66.00 feet
(78.52 chains)*(66.00feet) = 5248.32 feet
- William Burt invented his True Meridian Finding Instrument in 1833. Which of the following statements about Burt’s invention is correct?
(A) Burt found that the iron ore deposits in Michigan made surveying with a magnetic needle nearly impossible. This led him to invent a solar compass
(B) Burt’s invention provided an instant mechanical solution of the astronomic triangle for the establishment of direction.
(C) Using Burt’s invention, the magnetic declination of a compass can be determined.
(D) A, B, and C are true.
(D) A, B and C are true
Solution: In 1844, the townships of Saginaw Bay were resurveyed under special appropriations from Congress, and the solar compass, was the instrument specified for the work. The instrument’s faculty for avoiding the hazards of local magnetic attraction made it a valuable tool in areas with high concentrations of mineral deposits.
The 1890 Manual outlawed the use of the magnetic needle except in subdivision and meandering; the 1894 Manual required that all lines refer to the true meridian.
- The Manual of Surveying Instructions for public lands has been published in profoundly different versions periodically since 1855. Which of the following dates corresponds to the version of the Manual now in force?
(A) 1947
(B) 1972
(C) 1930
(D) 1973
(D) 1973
Solution: The current Manual was published in 1973 by the Bureau of Land Management. The previous manual was published in 1947.
