An excellent presentation on Saturday afternoon was a team effort. Sort of like dueling banjos, but the subject was the history of the original surveys in both States. One speaker would talk about a bit of how it was started in his State, then let the other follow suit with his State's procedure. Then they would move along to the next step in the sequence of events. This continued for nearly four hours, finally arriving at the completion of the work in each State.
Both speakers had really done their homework on the subject. Actually, they both have been doing that homework for many years.
I found this to be both educational and entertaining. Educational on the State where I work and entertaining discovering far more about how it was done next door. The contrast between the two was quite large. Missouri kicked off their work about 1815. Kansas got started about 1855 or 40 years later. Missouri wrapped up about 1865. Kansas had about three-quarters of the State yet to go in 1865 and was using different instructions than those used prior to the big war between the North and the South. Missouri had to start out working around French and Spanish land grants, some over 250 years old at the time of the Louisiana Purchase. Kansas had become the "new" home to a number of native tribes so work progressed as agreements were made to find a "newer" home for them somewhere else. I learned one thing for certain. I am too old to get started working next door because it would take too many years to grasp all of the 847 different practices used between the start and the finish.
