I spent Thursday down in Utah with a County Surveyor (his Deputy) and most of the Senior folks of the Utah BLM Cadastral Staff. We had a pretty good time looking at OLD maps, notes, plats, mounds of stone, fence lines, dressed granite monuments, and rusty old pipes!
After the BLM left, the Deputy County Surveyor and I did a recon of the NEXT can of worms to be opened, and while we were at it, we stopped by the City Hall of the little burg (pop.~400) to pick up a book that they sell that outlines the history of the town and some of the surrounding area. The museum was closed, but they let us in anyway to poke around and see if there was anything of interest for our research.
BINGO!!!!
There loose on a table was what is PROBABLY the ORIGINAL Plat of the town (est. 1864ish). It was a quill-pen & ink (Iron Gall I think), on heavy Animal Skin Parchment (probably sheep), measuring about 12 ins. X 24 ins. and in fair to middl'in shape. Although missing a little bit of the lower right corner (where the DATE probably was), all of the other data was readable and complete (though fading in spots).
This is a VERY BIG find for us, we have several “versions” of the Town Plat, and NONE of them agree “exactly.” In fact, there are basically TWO significantly different versions. The first “set” (there are several different COPIES) appear to range from 1864 to 1902/05, the second “set” from 1943 forward. There is about 300 Feet of DIFFERENCE between exterior boundaries between the two Sets (based on the PLSS data and the original 1871 Patent). We are dealing with TWO Approved GLO surveys of the Section, and the original town was based on the 1856 survey PRIOR to the 1886 survey.
Now all we have to do is figure out how to get a GOOD copy without damaging the original document (we took digital photos while we were there, but that isn't going to cut it). We also need to get the museum curator to take somewhat more protective measures to preserve this document.
Loyal
> I spent Thursday down in Utah with a County Surveyor (his Deputy) and most of the Senior folks of the Utah BLM Cadastral Staff. We had a pretty good time looking at OLD maps, notes, plats, mounds of stone, fence lines, dressed granite monuments, and rusty old pipes!
>
> After the BLM left, the Deputy County Surveyor and I did a recon of the NEXT can of worms to be opened, and while we were at it, we stopped by the City Hall of the little burg (pop.~400) to pick up a book that they sell that outlines the history of the town and some of the surrounding area. The museum was closed, but they let us in anyway to poke around and see if there was anything of interest for our research.
>
> BINGO!!!!
>
> There loose on a table was what is PROBABLY the ORIGINAL Plat of the town (est. 1864ish). It was a quill-pen & ink (Iron Gall I think), on heavy Animal Skin Parchment (probably sheep), measuring about 12 ins. X 24 ins. and in fair to middl'in shape. Although missing a little bit of the lower right corner (where the DATE probably was), all of the other data was readable and complete (though fading in spots).
>
> This is a VERY BIG find for us, we have several “versions” of the Town Plat, and NONE of them agree “exactly.” In fact, there are basically TWO significantly different versions. The first “set” (there are several different COPIES) appear to range from 1864 to 1902/05, the second “set” from 1943 forward. There is about 300 Feet of DIFFERENCE between exterior boundaries between the two Sets (based on the PLSS data and the original 1871 Patent). We are dealing with TWO Approved GLO surveys of the Section, and the original town was based on the 1856 survey PRIOR to the 1886 survey.
>
> Now all we have to do is figure out how to get a GOOD copy without damaging the original document (we took digital photos while we were there, but that isn't going to cut it). We also need to get the museum curator to take somewhat more protective measures to preserve this document.
>
> Loyal
Buy and then cut a sheet of clear mylar that equals the width and is twice the length of the plat. Put the original inside the mylar sandwich and run it through a large scanner.
My fee is a posting of the image of the plat on this site. 🙂
I'll pass that suggestion along, thanks.
Loyal
If the original is too fragile to be rolled in mylar then you could sandwich it between sheets of plexiglass. To get a good copy you're going to need a flatbed scanner. Small ones are available from TigerDirect or Nextag. For a large format version you could check government agencies, or larger engineering companies who need to scan their old plans and maps into digital files.
we have done kinda the same thing at the county to scan fragile and delapidated road maps as Mr. newtonsapple suggested except that we used some semi-thick clear plastic
Would the bright light from a copier/scanner be a concern? Perhaps a larger museum or the Library of Congress would have some information on how to go about it. As a last resort I might suggest infrared photography, but it may take several images of different sections and lots of trial and error to even get close to a proper scale.
One of the best sources I ever found for reproducing oversize or delicate prints was a newspaper office. They have very large high quality cameras that are able to take a photo of the plat and provide a film positive or film negative of the print. Many can provide a digital copy as well and the last I had made was very economical.
I recently saw a program on natgeo or discovery where they were talking about the Library of Congress and their efforts to scan old books and maps. They showed a few shots of how they do things like that. But, I imagine the equipment they use is VERY expensive.
I think one option is to take a high resolution digital camera, and take a bunch of pictures of it, zoomed in. There is software that can merge the images together almost seamlessly.
