Part of the Ford Model T's popularity back then was its ability to drive on many roads that other cars couldn't. Higher ground clearance, tractor-like gearing.
I'm particularly fond of the next to the last pic with a team of mules taking care of business.
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On a related note; I happened onto a county motor patrol the other day.?ÿ Chatting with the operator about all the recent bad weather, he was voicing his frustration with the district's recent restrictions on the number of hours he and his motor grader spent cleaning up the roads.
Seems as though they spent all their budget on new accounting software and radios and don't have any money until June for keeping the roads in shape.?ÿ A sad state of affairs that is all too common in task oriented organizations.?ÿ All the money is spent staying organized and there's no money available for what was their actual initial purpose.
Reminds me of my local Walgreen's.?ÿ Their staff has the organizational integrity of a soup sandwich.?ÿ When I finally made it to the register the manager apologized for the long (and very common) wait.
I told him it seemed as though he was so busy running the store that he didn't have any time to sell anything..
He didn't reply.
My favorite theory as to why we seem to be missing many of our (stone set, 4"x14"x28") original section corner monuments.?ÿ Imagine hitting one while attempting to drive in such muddy conditions.?ÿ What do you suppose the driver's first thought was about that &*^&%#$^%#^& stone in the middle of that road? Get it gone!!!!!!!!!!!!?ÿ The average citizen would not understand the significance of the stone.
We had a county commissioner who wanted to spend huge money for additional software to go on each new road grader purchased.?ÿ The resulting data would tell you the engine speed, ground speed, etc. etc. at any given moment between start up and shut down.?ÿ He hesitated when I asked him exactly who was going to study all of those million points of data for eight machines and exactly how was that going to result in operational modifications such that a net reduction in expenses would occur.?ÿ He was an attorney.?ÿ He was accustomed to using data to sway a judgement to condemn someone.?ÿ He had no practical knowledge whatsoever.?ÿ Noting that operated G had stopped forward movement for a period of 8.42 minutes one day does not correlate to a lack of productivity when he did that because the commissioner stopped him to tell him which special friend's driveway needed some grading as a favor.
Lots of great old photos in the NOAA Coast and Geodetic Survey collection. This subsection is titled "Getting There"
https://photolib.noaa.gov/Collections/Coast-Geodetic-Survey/Geodesy/Getting-There
Back when I had multiple crews there was a persistent salesman that wanted to sell me GPS tracking and software for all my field vehicles.?ÿ The software was apparently geared to also suggest 'trip optimization' to limit mileage and redundant routing.
All I could think of was what that software would do when it saw the vehicle running back and forth along a section line 15 times during the day.?ÿ In all actuality it could be check shots, digging up corners, back sights or whatever.?ÿ The software probably would have overheated the CPU.
Besides, I really didn't want to know what the truck was doing.?ÿ I just had employees I trusted.
I'm sure after about 1925 there were thousands of corners that met their demise because of the "traveling public".?ÿ A model T axle was not built to withstand a buried rock. And after road equipment became diesel powered a few years later I'm sure it got much worse.
Whoever the first county surveyor was that drove a reference nail in a corner post...we salute you.?ÿ
@flga-2-2
Yeah there's a few.?ÿ I live by a park and all the old guys wear them when they walk their chihuahuas.?ÿ A lot of them wear the "onesy" old man playsuits too...?ÿ
I've got one myself hanging on my hat collection hooks...but that doesn't mean I wear it.?ÿ It's black leather and has the HD logo on it.?ÿ I've got a cowboy hat there too, probably unworn...and a very expensive hand made fox fur mountain man hat.?ÿ I wore it while shoveling snow at 10 below.?ÿ Lots of hats.?ÿ In the field I wear a camo 'Leica' ball cap that is threadbare around the bill.?ÿ It's my fav.
Those tweed ivy league hats like in the photo are really popular with the little sorority girls around campus here.?ÿ They poke them down all over their face and hair.?ÿ Reminds me of a kid that got into a closet to play dress-up.?ÿ 😉
When I??m out cutting the grass with a pair of cuticle scissors I have a cool cowboy hat with a solar fan in it. Soon as a cloud floats over it quits. Just received a new box of Estes ?ÿrocket engines for use in keeping all those 6 year old off my lawn. ?????ÿ
A fews years back I read/listen to a book about the history and creation of the US highway system. It is a great book, particularly when one is driving say from St. Louis, MO to Great Bend, KS, then on to Wichita and then back home. Love the original pics in the OP!
Those pictures of the old cars stuck on the road years ago reminded me of a story I heard about a farmer with a team of mules that would pull people out of the muddy road that crossed a nearby creek bottom and up the hill to dry ground but he charged for his services.
One customer commented, "I bet you make pretty good money pulling people up this hill day and night during the wet months." The farmer replied "I only pull people up the hill during the daytime. I spend half the night hauling in more water."
a sad state of affairs that is all too common in a bureaucracy....
There, I fixed it for you...
He who gets job done, is never at the mercy of he who just sits.?ÿ
An older surveyor interviewing a Me-llinnial. ?????ÿ
