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I worked on platting an area in 1968 when I was a lowly chainman. I remember the engineer set a quarter corner at 2640′ because, well that’s what engineers did back then before there were licensed surveyors in OK. Chaining with him was a pain. I’d go home at night with cramps on the inside of my forearm.
Anyway, fast forward to last week and I had to dig up both ends of that line. Measured distance = 2640.02′.
I smiled a little.
This is a follow up on a previous post. The dates provided indicate when licensure was officially launched for each profession. This suggests there were many trained and experienced individuals who could follow the lead of their unlicensed mentors who set a great number of the monuments from which we make our boundary decisions today. Suggesting that a bar lacking a cap or tag is somehow automatically worthless is futile. There was professional level work being done prior to the creation of licensure opportunity or the numerous requirements that have been added since that date.
History of Licensing
Licensing has been in existence in the State of Kansas since the Registration Board for Professional Engineers with its first meeting in July of 1931. It was comprised of five individuals, including the Deans of Engineering at Kansas State University and University of Kansas, a County Engineer, a Consulting Engineer and an Engineer with a structural steel fabrication company. All were appointed by then Governor Harry Woodring on July 2, 1931. Professional Engineer license #1 was issued to R. J. Paulette.
The Architectural Registration Board held its first meeting in June 1949, after two years of legislative debate before final approval of statutes allowed the creation of the Board. The Board was comprised of five individuals who were in private practice; however, the first temporary Chairman was Charles Marshall, who was the State Architect. Architect License #1 was issued to Charles W. Shaver.
The Board for Landscape Architects was established in 1968 and our records for its initial start are not available. It is known that Ralph Ricklefs of Salina was Chairman of the Board and instrumental in getting the Board established. Landscape Architect license #1 was issued to Robert P. Ealy on July 21, 1968.
The Land Surveyors were incorporated into the Engineer??s Board and information about a separate board is not available at the Board office. The first Land Surveyor license was issued to Truman Schlup on January 1, 1969.
On January 29, 1999, the first Geology License was issued to Lee Gerhard.
Re “looking up”- A decade or so ago, when I was working for a local firm that did a lot of work for Xcel Energy, we were requested to meet one of their Landmen on site to mark a potential route for an electric transmission line near Leadville Colorado in early spring (probably late March or early April of a year that had a lot of spring snow). We met with the Landman (Al Morganfield PLS, who some of you on here knew) and spent a great day walking through the high country in snow shoes with Al putting flagging on trees to mark the potential route, and talking land surveying, mining claims and whatnot. Later that year, Al called to give us the go ahead to start surveying the route, so we get a calc package together for the field crew, and off the 3 of them go into the high country. Later in the day the Party Chief calls, and he’s scratching he’s head since he cannot find any of the flagging in the trees. I checked his Lat/Long and knew he should be close, so my only response was “look up”- sure enough the Leadville area had about 20+ feet of snow that spring, and way up in the trees was the flagging… love surveying in Colorado.
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